Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website
Wilde About Steroids

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Read my Mensa article on Cruelty, Negligence and the Abuse of Power in the NHS: Fighting the System

Read about the cruel treatment I suffered at the Sheffield Dental Hospital: Long In The Toothache

You can contact me by email from my website. The site does not sell anything and has no banners, sponsors or adverts - just helpful information about how salt can cause obesity.

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Heinz and Mars have been drawn into China's tainted milk crisis, following Cadbury which had to withdraw 11 brands of chocolate from the Far East.

China tainted milk scandal: Heinz and Mars drawn in
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Heinz said it would stop using Chinese milk in its food processing operations in mainland China and Hong Kong after a batch of baby food was found to be contaminated with melamine.

Melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastic, has been blamed for killing at least four babies and making 53,000 other infants sick after being added to milk supplies in China.

Mars meanwhile challenged findings by the Indonesian government that suggested Chinese-made chocolates including Snickers bars and M&Ms were also tainted with melamine.

The government said it was recalling the chocolates from sale, but Mars issued a statement saying both its chocolates and its milk supplies had been cleared by separate tests in China and elsewhere."

"Heinz discovered at the end of last week that one batch of "Heinz Intelligence Many Many Vegetable Cereal" on sale in Hong Kong showed traces of melamine.

All other Heinz varieties were melamine-free, it said.

The decision to recall 270 cases of baby food, and switch to non-Chinese sources of milk, followed the announcement on Monday by Cadbury that it had found traces of melamine in some Chinese-made chocolates.

It is withdrawing all 11 brands from markets supplied by its China plant, including Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the pacific islands of Nauru and Christmas Island.

The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said 12 products distributed in the country had tested positive for melamine, including M&Ms, Snickers and Oreo biscuits.

Mars said it would comply with a government recall but said that all its products had been cleared by government tests in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia."

"Kraft foods, which makes Oreo biscuits, said it was also questioning the methodology of the Indonesian tests."

Monday 29 September 2008

Fat Underground Throws Weight Into Obesity War - cut and pasted from another website

I found a moving article on the internet today. It is clearly an account of deeply-felt true experience. - I just feel so very sorry that these people, and millions of other obese people today, have not discovered the facts about what really causes obesity and how it can easily be reduced, without dieting, without hunger, without extra exercise, without drugs or doctors - and without fail! - Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

I've cut and pasted the article from http://www.largesse.net/Archives/FU/LATimes.html because the webpage gives permission to do so, provided that the following statement is included:

Presented as a public service by Largesse, the Network for Size Esteem
http://www.largesse.net/
This document may be freely copied and distributed in its entirety for non-commercial use
in promoting size diversity empowerment, provided this statement is included.


Fat Underground
Throws Weight
Into Obesity War

BY JANE WILSON


"I just can't bear fat bodies. 1 think there should be fat catchers, like dog catchers, to go around and put big nets over fat people and take them all someplace and get them slimmed down. And then show them what really good eating is. Because what they're doing is advertising their unhappiness and their anger or frustration for everyone to see, and 1 don't want to see it."

--Cloris Leachman, quoted in the December issue of Family Circle


As a nation, we have an obsession with slimness. The prevailing aesthetic, which dictates an essentially adolescent body shape for everyone, makes millions miserable while fattening the weight-loss business into a multibillion-dollar industry. For the obese in America, for those who are not simply a little plumper than fashion requires, but who are 30, 40, 50 or more pounds above what doctor's weight charts say they should be, getting into socially acceptable shape is a desperate undertaking.

To be found "unbearable" by those who, like Cloris Leachman, weigh 110 pounds and like to go on periodic fasts is among the least of the burdens borne by the truly fat. They are in many ways outcasts, denied jobs, threatened with dire medical warnings about the results of their supposed gluttony, lectured for their own good by anyone of "normal" weight and ridiculed behind their backs and to their faces with cruel jokes and personal remarks. To be obese is to be unable, ever, to go to a show, a movie or a concert because you can't fit into the seats, and to stay away from all but the most spaciously arranged restaurants for the same reason. To be obese in our fiercely antifat culture is to be perpetually ashamed of your own body. Cloris Leachman is right in supposing that fat people are unhappy, angry and frustrated-but these feelings, many fat people contend, are much more often the socially induced result of being fat than its cause.

So why would anyone either become or stay fat in a society where every possible motive for thinness is provided? The answer, according to a group of women in Santa Monica who call themselves, uncompromisingly, The Fat Underground, is that they have no choice-unless an intestinal by-pass operation or having one's jaws wired together or living out one's life in perpetual gnawing hunger may be seen as any kind of acceptable alternative. The Fat Underground is an offshoot of the growing Fat Liberation movement, whose cry until now has simply been "Leave Us Alone!" Since an obvious reply to this appeal would be to say, "OK-if you want to kill yourselves," a basic concern of The Fat Underground has been to examine carefully the validity of medical evidence that a fat body is, necessarily, an unhealthy and shortlived one.

The underground has also done some investigation of the side effects of reducing diets, the generally prescribed "cure" for a large body. Underground members point out that it is a well-established,.if little publicized, fact that at least 95% of those who go on reducing diets of any kind will regain any weight lost within five years or less. Of these dieters, some 90% will regain more weight than they originally lost. Nevertheless, since it is so socially painful to be fat, very few obese people are likely to accept permanent fatness as their natural condition, so even if they know the odds they repeatedly diet in hopes of being among the metamorphosed 5%. Thus large numbers of fat people are fooled all the time and, after two and a half years, there are only 20 members of The Fat Underground, 20 women who have stopped dieting, stopped hoping to be thin, and started working to change public prejudices and ignorance about fatness. Having come to the hard conclusion that their own obesity is permanent, they need also to offer one another constant support in dealing with the pain involved in such acceptance.

All the members of the Fat Underground are radical feminists and many have also participated in a radical therapy group established in Santa Monica. They are therefore committed to changing society rather than adapting themselves to it, and they are habitually skeptical of received medical and psychiatric wisdoms. The group began when a few women in the radical therapy group became aware that they felt oppressed not simply as women but as fat people. As one of their members put it, "Fat was the crisis area, the area where our identification ran highest and where we felt most strongly persecuted."

A young woman who gave only her "radical name," which is Aldebaran, met with me first as a representative of the whole group. Since she has a background in graduate chemistry, it was she who had initiated most of the medical reading and source research undertaken by The Fat Underground, using as her principal tool the Index Medicus in the Bio-Medical Library at UCLA. "I discovered there, she said, "that what doctors tell the public about obesity, and what the public therefore believes, is somewhat different from what doctors tell each other in their research papers. The first thing I discovered is that the average fat person eats no more than the average thin person. Some eat more, and then again some thin people eat enormously without ever getting fat. But the average is the same. This finding is the result of more than 20 years of research by nutritionists, and is well documented. But the popular view, sponsored by the medical popularizers, is that fat people are all gluttons who sit around scarfing up cupcakes without restraint. Fat people are seen, so to speak, as thin people gone bad.

Dull Ache of Hunger

"There is a minority of fat people who have been so heavily oppressed around their eating habits that they have reacted by becoming gluttons. But the average fat person has enough self-control to lose the 10 to 20 pounds that affluent, sedentary life adds to many people in America. Beyond that, to lose 50 or 60 pounds, to get down to the doctor's weight chart figures and stay there requires intense, prolonged hunger and much, much more exercise than is necessary for the mildly overweight. You are going to have to eat much less than the average person, forever. And you never do get used to the dull ache of hunger on a 1,000-calorie diet. You never lose the anxiety that at any moment you may lose control and go on a starvation-induced eating binge. The best you can hope for is that you will remain sufficiently alienated from your feelings, sufficiently coerced by your dread of becoming fat again, with all the pain that that will entail, that you will be able to minimize and endure the hunger. But very few can endure it indefinitely.
"Some doctors and nutritionists, who do not have a vested interest in making a lot of money from weight loss programs, will admit the degree of hunger that must be borne by obese dieters. Yet psychiatrists and psychologists still insist that any eating beyond what is necessary to be slim is 'emotional.' The problems of a fat person on a diet around food are not emotional but physical-the physical pains of hunger."

Ballet Dancer

Aldebaran's weight since she stopped dieting has remained constant at 60 pounds more than the charts say it should be for a woman of her height and build. She says she eats moderately, has no more trouble with eating binges and her blood pressure, when she has it checked at work, is normal. When she has it checked by a doctor it is high--because, she says, she is then in a stress situation.

Aldebaran told about a community of 1,700 Italian immigrants, living in the town of Roseto in Pennsylvania, whom she had read about in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., and also in a book called "Fat Power" by Llewellyn Louderback. These Rosetans are notably fat as a group and cheerfully consume large quantities of high-calorie, high-cholesterol Italian foods. Yet they enjoy remarkably good general health, dying from heart disease at about one-third of the national toll, and being afflicted with diabetes at only a quarter of the rate of the population at large. Teams of researchers from the University of Oklahoma investigated the Rosetans three times, in 1962, 1964 and 1967, but could find no explanation for the low incidence of supposedly obesity-related disease among their number. One researcher did suggest that "contentment" might have something to do with it.

"It seems", commented Aldebaran, "that the Rosetans liked themselves a lot and thought it was pretty neat that they were so fat. They felt no anxiety or stress about it and didn't find it undesirable. But when the fat children of these fat parents went into the mainstream of American society, and went on diets, they began to suffer from obesity-related diseases at the same rate as the rest of the population."

"It does appear", she said, "that fat people are particularly susceptible to heart disease and strokes, that they tend to have high blood pressure and to suffer from kidney disorders and metabolic problems such as diabetes, together with a whole range of psychological ills ranging from depression to 'bad self-image'. I don't think it's necessary even to talk about the origins of the psychological problems. But the medical difficulties do bear a lot of examination. Statistics on the health of fat people are most often based on fat subjects found in medical settings, where it is unlikely that they will have avoided either subjection to dieting or feelings of intense anxiety about their health. Such fat patients, who have been sufficiently serious about weight loss to have consulted a doctor, are people under stress who may have gone on and off diets repeatedly, each time losing weight only to regain it again. The dangers of such a procedure have been known for more than a decade."

At this point Aldebaran produced a copy of a 1966 U.S. Public Health Services Report on "Obesity and Health" and read the following extract: "Repeatedly losing and gaining weight may be more harmful than maintenance of a steady weight at a high level. For example, it has been shown that serum cholesterol levels are elevated during periods of weight gain, thus increasing the risk of deposition. We have no evidence to show that once cholesterol has been deposited it can be removed by weight reduction. It is possible that a patient whose weight has fluctuated up and down a number of times has been subjected to more atherogenic stress than a patient with stable though excessive weight...If an animal has once been obese and then has been repeatedly reduced it will have a shorter life expectancy than an animal which has never been reduced.

"We feel", she went on, "that any doctor who knows this information about serum cholesterol levels--and he most certainly should know it--and who tells a fat person who has dieted many times before to make yet another. doomed attempt at reduction is, in effect, saying, 'Go kill yourself.' It simply has not been profitable for bariatricians to face up to the contradictions in their approach to obesity, to the stupidity, for example, of their mystified use of the term 'overeating.' Perhaps that's why they never put out more than the first edition of something called 'The Journal of Bariatrics'. They have refused to learn from their own failure rate, but just go on saying, 'Go on a diet' with the unspoken thought, 'Perhaps a miracle will happen for you.' On a purely practical level, the worst problem that a fat person can have with doctors is that any physician can say, 'This fat person is not healthy enough to work at such and such a job' and there is no appeal. We can be routinely denied a civil right because a doctor says we shouldn't have it until we reduce the size of our body. The doctors, you see, are backed by a multibillion-dollar industry, and by national prejudice."

The future of The Fat Underground does not include any large-scale plans to recruit. They have learned that it maybe a long and difficult process for a new member to come to terms emotionally with the idea that her own obesity is probably genetic in origin, and is permanent. "Most fat women's feelings about fat are so dreadful," said Aldebaran, "that they have really 'numbed out' in that area--they can accept incredible insults without reacting. But when they start to get in touch with the numbed feelings it is excruciatingly painful--so we have needed to have constant support groups to help us stop feeling wretched about ourselves, to stop feeling worthless and ugly."

At a recent weekly meeting of the Fat Underground there was some good cheer in that a feminist newspaper in Denver had written, out of the blue, to offer moral support and suggests that the Underground might help to produce a special issue of the paper on the oppression of fat women by society at large, with particular attention paid to the role of the medical profession. But then they heard that a woman author, whose new book contained several expressions of aesthetic disgust at fat bodies, had been unwittingly invited to speak to some members of their own feminist group. There was anger in the room.

Obese Americans are, some contend, the scapegoats of a guiltily well-fed nation. The Fat Underground is working to reestablish the lost distinction between gluttony as a sin of self-indulgence and fatness as a natural characterisic which, like unusual height or above-average intelligence, occurs in proportion of the population.

The underground has a motto--"Fat people of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose!"

Terry Pratchett considers that Alzheimer's disease is chronically under-funded compared with other conditions

Terry Pratchett condemns Government over Alzheimer's research funding
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"In a speech to Conservative Party Conference, Mr Pratchett, 60, will describe how he was diagnosed last year with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's and warn that the country faces a "tsunami" of dementia unless a cure is found.

While he himself donated £500,000 earlier this year, he will say that the disease is chronically under-funded compared with other conditions.

A patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, Mr Pratchett is not politically aligned, and once said he would like to: "kick a politician in the teeth" over the treatment of dementia patients.

In his speech, he will say: "I am appalled that research into Alzheimer's and related diseases, which affects 700,000 people in the UK, currently receives just three per cent of government medical research funding.

"Perhaps that is why, for example, I know three people who have successfully survived brain tumours but no-one who has beaten Alzheimer's."

Mr Pratchett has continued to write since being diagnosed in December, as well as campaigning for more help for dementia sufferers."

You can reduce your risk of developing vascular dementia by avoiding salt and salty food. This reduces your risk of most degenerative diseases.

Cadbury confirms melamine and police have arrested 22 people accused of being involved in China's tainted milk scandal.

China tainted milk scandal: Cadbury confirms melamine and 22 arrested
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The arrests came as Cadbury recalled Dairy Milk bars and other chocolates from across the Far East after traces of melamine were found in its Chinese made chocolates.

State media Xinhau reported that more than 480lb of the industrial chemical melamine was seized during raids.

The arrests took place in Hebei province and Chinese media reported that a police investigation showed that melamine had been produced in underground plants and then sold to farms and milk purchasers.

Cadbury had earlier said it was recalling 11 types of Chinese made products after tests found they contained melamine.

A Cadbury spokesman said it was too early to say how much of the chemical was in the chocolates."

Britain's drinking water supplies will be tested for safety amid fears that rivers are contaminated with prescription drugs.

British drinking water 'may be tainted with prescription drugs'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Cancer drugs are of particular concern because they dissolve easily in water.

The "cytotoxic" drugs, which are used in chemotherapy, are potentially dangerous because they are hard to break down through traditional water purification methods and remain potent in low concentrations.

About 50 of these drugs are prescribed to patients in Britain and researchers are concerned they could be very dangerous if one or more of the drugs mixed together in the water supplies. The drugs make their way into the water system when people prescribed the treatments use the toilet.

Although drinking water in the UK is monitored, none of the cytotoxic drugs are included in the list of contaminants."

Breast feeding significantly 'cuts cancer risk in mothers'

Breast feeding 'cuts cancer risk in mothers'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Whether they breastfeed two babies for six months each or one baby for a year, women can cut their risk of developing the disease significantly, said Dr Rachel Thompson, science programme manager for the World Cancer Research Fund.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, with 45,000 cases diagnosed in Britain each year.

The protective effects of breastfeeding over a long period of time have been well documented.

Studies have shown mothers who breastfeed past a child's second birthday are half as likely to develop the disease as those who stop at 12 months.

However, a recent survey for the WCRF found that three out of four women were unaware that breastfeeding could cut their risk of developing the disease.

Speaking at the start of breast cancer awareness month, Dr Thompson urged mothers to breastfeed for as long as they could. She said brestfeeding for a year could reduce the risk of developing breast cancer by 4.8 per cent

"We want to get across the message that breast-feeding is something positive that women can do to reduce their risk of breast cancer," she said.

"Because the evidence that breast-feeding reduces breast cancer risk is convincing, we recommend women should breast-feed exclusively for six months and then continue with complementary feeding after that.""

Reducing salt intake, especially during pregnancy, also reduces the risk of developing breast cancer and many other diseases, as well as reducing obesity. - It's good for the baby too.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Lung drugs 'can increase heart attack risk'

Drugs widely used to treat lung problems such as emphysema and bronchitis can significantly increase the chance of a heart attack, stroke or even death, a new study shows.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Genentech Warns Of Liver Damage From Tarceva

A letter went out alerting doctors about cases of liver damage among patients who took the cancer med in a post-approval study. One patient died from rapidly progressing liver failure and another died from a liver complication called hepatorenal syndrome, according to the letter sent by Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Sunday 28 September 2008

You won't lose excess weight by restricting calories or cutting down on fat. - You need to reduce your fluid retention by cutting down on salt .

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Not many people walk into a bar and walk out with a new £40,000 bionic leg! - A life-changing encounter for David Huckvale...

Man receives new leg after drink at his local pub
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"The father-of-two popped down to his local pub on the same day surgeon Alistair Gibson, who specialises in fitting the computer-controlled limb, was there for a pint.

When the two happened to meet Mr Gibson mentioned he had a spare leg and could fit Mr Huckvale for free.

Mr Huckvale had his leg amputated when he was 29 after a benign tumour was removed.

Before the chance encounter, he had been limping around in a false leg, which didn’t fit properly and walked with the help of crutches and was sometimes in a wheelchair."

Friday 26 September 2008

Hospital wards across the country are being filled to potentially dangerous levels, increasing the risk of infections like MRSA, it has been warned.

Hospital superbugs: Full hospitals wards 'increasing MRSA risk'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Official figures reveal that more than 95 per cent of beds at some hospitals across Britain were filled last year.

The national average, and recommended safe level, is 85 per cent.

Among the highest rates for Primary Care Trusts were at George Eliot Hospital Trust, in Warwickshire, where the bed occupancy rates was 97.8 per cent, and Bath and North East Somerset PCT, where it was 97.1 in the 12 months to April this year.

Experts warn that extra space is needed to deal with outbreaks of infection, such as the Norovirus, and that high levels of occupancy can lead to a rise in superbugs like MRSA."

Thursday 25 September 2008

I watched Ann Widdecombe present a programme criticising the Diet Industry on ITV1 tonight

There's more information about it here: http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/AnnWiddecombeVersustheDietIndustry/Ep1/default.html

Ann Widdecombe is a good presenter for this sort of programme. Her main message was that "Diets Don't Work!" I think and hope that it will do some good. It highlighted the harmful role that so many of the glossy magazines do with their emphasis on dieting and on celebrity tips for losing weight and on photos of celebrities with extremely slim bodies, very unlike most people.

I was particularly impressed by the success of a woman psychologist who worked with a small group of teenage girls to raise their confidence and self-esteem so that they no longer felt that they had to lose weight in order to be liked. Her work was very worthwhile and the girls were clearly happier and no longer obsessed with diet nonsense.

Ms Widdecombe's visit to America and to Hollywood showed people whose obsession to be ultra-slim was so great that many resort to hugely expensive, ridiculously extensive weight reduction surgery, which she herself was offered and sensibly refused, not being a gullible fool.

The experts on the programme were wisely against the daft and often dangerous diets. Sadly, not one of them gave the best advice of all for losing excess weight safely and reliably, namely avoiding salt and salty food. - And Ann Widdecombe own advice for losing weight: "the best way to shift the pounds and stay slim is to eat less and move more" is not correct. - Very, very few people lose weight by doing that, and are often harmed by trying it.

To lose weight safely and rapidly, you need to give up dieting and low calorie/low fat junk altogether! - You can eat more food, more calories and still lose excess weight provided that overall your salt/sodium intake is lower. And faster still if you eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables, i.e. potassium-rich food.

Yes, although it contains no calories, salt is fattening! - because it causes fluid retention - but only if you are sensitive to salt... - Read more:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

UK children who eat more than a bar of chocolate a day could be at risk of falling ill if the snack was made using contaminated Chinese milk powder

China milk scandal: Children warned of risk from contaminated products
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"For the average six-year-old child eating more than 42grams of chocolate or more than 44grams of biscuits with creamy filling a day would exceed safe levels if the product was heavily contaminated, The European Food Safety Agency experts have calculated.

They stressed there is no evidence that highly contaminated biscuits and confectionary made from the contaminated milk has been imported into EU countries.

But based on a 'worst case scenario' small children who eat a lot of toffee, fudge, biscuits and milk chocolate daily could be at risk of consuming more than three times the safe limit of melamine, a report warned.

In China the contaminated milk scandal has seen 53,000 babies in ill and killing four.

The European Union has moved to ban imports of dairy-based Chinese food products, including biscuits, sweets and chocolate, aimed at children or infants amid the growing global health scare.

New "precautionary" restrictions imposed by the European Commission will come into force on Friday along with tighter EU border checks on all Chinese food products entering Europe."

Wednesday 24 September 2008

Salt and salty food are bad for pregnant women. - Read more here:

See advice for pregnant mothers

and Sodium in foods

and children's health

Tesco has withdrawn a brand of Chinese children's sweets from sale over fears they contain a potentially deadly chemical.

China milk poisoning chemical found in Tesco sweets
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The supermarket recalled White Rabbit Creamy Candies after it was found they contained a substance called melamine that has harmed Chinese babies.

It is the same chemical that has contaminated formula milk in China, causing four babies to die and around 53,000 children to become ill.

Food testers in Hong Kong and Singapore raised the alarm after they found traces of melamine in the product.

The sweets are stocked in branches of Tesco which sell ethnic foods from around the world."

Yes, although it contains no calories, salt is fattening! - because it causes fluid retention - but only if you are sensitive to salt... - Read more:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Zoologist Desmond Morris admits that his latest study has left him in awe of the power and potential of the human infant.

Oh baby you're amazing
This is the link to read the article by Desmond Morris in the Telegraph. I found it very interesting indeed.

Drugs affect more drinking water

Testing prompted by an Associated Press story that revealed trace amounts of pharmaceuticals in drinking water supplies has shown that more Americans are affected by the problem than previously thought - at least 46 million.
Read article at physorg.com
Comment: The presence of pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water is becoming an growing problem worldwide. In the UK, for example, powerful cancer and psychiatric drugs have been found in tap water, leading doctors to express concern about exposing pregnant women to drugs that could harm an unborn child.

Most Cancer Treatment Studies Aren't Published, Study Finds

The following is from http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/Newsletter/archive/newsletter_2008_09_sep_23.html

Concern Raised about 'Cancer Publication Bias'
Less than 20 percent of registered clinical trials of cancer treatment are eventually published in medical journals, according to a study published online by the journal "The Oncologist."
Read article at marketwatch.com
Comment: The publication rate was particularly low for "industry-sponsored" studies, such as those funded by pharmaceutical companies -- just 5.9 percent, compared to 59 percent for studies sponsored by collaborative research networks. The researchers suspect that the rate of negative results is much higher in the studies that have gone unpublished.

Johnson & Johnson have reported anaemia drug, Eprex, linked to deaths in a study

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- A blockbuster drug, Eprex aka Epogen, aka Epoetin alfa, made by a Johnson & Johnson company has been linked to the deaths of some patients in an experiment testing whether it could help stroke patients.
Read Associated Press news report at yahoo.com

Paracetamol has been linked to three-fold increased risk of asthma in children

Giving young children Calpol or other paracetamol medicines increases the risk of them developing asthma, research has shown. Children aged six and seven who had paracetamol at least once a month were at three times the risk of having asthma than those who were never given it. Babies who were given the drug under the age of one were more likely to have asthma at six or seven but the greatest risk was amongst those who were receiving high doses, defined as once a month for 12 months.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Monday 22 September 2008

Potassium Chloride: why is it no longer available to buy and use as a salt substitute by people in the UK?

Years ago, it was possible for ordinary members of the public to buy potassium chloride in Britain. It was sold as a salt substitute under the name of Ruthmol. It's not manufactured any more and I don't think you can buy potassium chloride in any UK shops. - I wonder why? - Potassium chloride can be bought without any problem in the USA. - It can't be considered dangerous, surely? - LoSalt, which is freely on sale in Britain, is composed of 2 parts potassium chloride to 1 part sodium chloride. (Sodium chloride is the chemical name for ordinary table salt.)

Since it tastes very similar to table salt and can be used for cooking or for sprinkling as table salt is, it could be very helpful to steroid victims and others who need to keep their sodium intake to a minimum.
NOTE 1: I am not suggesting eating a lot of it. That would be unwise. - But used judiciously in place of its sodium counterpart, it would certainly reduce the excess weight and the suffering of steroid victims and other obese or morbidly obese people by reducing their fluid retention.
NOTE 2: Potassium displaces sodium in the body, thus removing some excess sodium and water from the body via the urine.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Nearly 53,000 children in China are now sick from milk powder contaminated by an industrial chemical, the government has said.

China milk scandal: 53,000 children fall ill from contaminated milk powder
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"A total of 52,857 children had been brought to hospitals after falling ill, a Health Ministry spokesman said. Most had "basically recovered" but 12,892 of them remained hospitalised, he added.

The ministry said the toll of children ill from milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine had risen dramatically from the previous figure of 6,244.

A further 39,965 children had "received clinical treatment and advice" before being sent home.

More than 80 per cent of the sick were aged under two. So far, four deaths have been blamed on the toxic milk powder, which causes kidney stones and other complications. Another 104 children are in a serious condition.

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier, visited hospitals in the capital of Beijing in an attempt to show the public that his government was taking action following the incident, which has once more shaken trust in Chinese products. Last year saw several scares over toxic and shoddy goods."

This afternoon this blog and my website had a visitor from the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust ...

I see that someone from the University College London Hospitals NHS Trust has been visiting this blog, obviously looking on the internet for reactions to the scandal of the death of Gary Foster in the drug trial that had been set up on UCLH's computer system. That person briefly looked at some other entries on my blog and then visited my website to look at (and, hopefully, READ) my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection.

Over the years many, many health professionals from all over the world have visited my website and my blog. I trust they will eventually have the courage to tell the truth about obesity and will stop harming their overweight patients by advising them to eat less and exercise more, instead of giving them the vital information that reducing sodium intake is the safe, effective, speedy way to reduce excess weight. Above all, I hope they will curb their profession's reckless over-prescribing of the many powerful drugs which cause obesity/morbid obesity by weakening the blood vessel walls and thereby causing massive fluid retention/sodium retention.

P.S. added 23rd September.
The visitor from University College London Hospitals NHS Trust has visited my blog again today. I do hope these visits will result in much less harm being done by health professionals to patients.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Sunday 21 September 2008

Confidential medical records of millions of NHS patients could be passed to private companies under controversial plans being drawn up by ministers.

Private companies could get access to millions of NHS medical records
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"
The Government is considering giving firms access to a massive computer database which will contain the records of almost every man, woman and child in England.

The information is a goldmine for private companies, who could use it for medical research or for helping them to sell products to the NHS.

But privacy campaigners say they are "horrified" by the proposals which could see patients' postcodes, medical conditions and treatments - and in some circumstances, their names - passed on to third parties without their consent.

The database, part of a long-delayed scheme to give NHS staff access to computerised medical records, will hold details of almost all visits by patients to hospitals and GPs.

The plans have been dogged by controversy. Last week. ministers gave in to pressure from privacy campaigners and agreed that medics will have to gain the consent of patients before opening their computer records. Yet patients will have almost no control over the same information being passed on to companies and other bodies outside the NHS.

The Department of Health says most records passed onto third parties would be made anonymous, but admits that identifiable data - which could include patient names - could also be handed on if it was deemed to be more useful."

"Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at Cambridge University, said: "We have had a lot of debate about patients being able to opt out of the national scheme for patient records, but meanwhile the Government have pulled a fast one. There are no limits set on the way this data can be used; this database will hoover up all the personal medical data on every person, and it can be used for whatever the Secretary of State says it can be used for."

Prof Anderson suggested the creation of one large database would also make it easier for different parts of the state to use confidential health data for other purposes, with social workers, courts and police able to access medical files more easily.

Helen Wilkinson, a former NHS manager who founded The Big Opt-Out, a campaign against the national care records scheme, said she was "horrified" by the latest development and planning a major publicity launch to warn people of the threat it posed to their privacy and security.

She said: "We are talking about a hugely valuable commodity which will be worth a fortune to the pharmaceutical industry, and to all the companies which make their profits from the health service."

Joyce Robins, from patient pressure group Patient Concern, said patients would be left "entirely at the mercy" of those operating the scheme."

Cui bono? - I wonder which ministers have reason to favour the interests of the pharmaceutical companies (GSK, anyone?...(o:) over the wishes and privacy of the vast majority of the electorate?

When maternal age and number of previous miscarriages were taken into account obese women were shown to have a higher chance of a further miscarriage

Obese women at greater risk of repeat miscarriages
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Researchers at St Mary's Hospital in London found that obese women who had suffered one miscarriage had a significantly increased risk of a further miscarriage compared to those who were of a normal weight.

The 11-year study investigated the effect of body mass index (BMI) on unexplained recurrent miscarriages. The women had their BMI measured and were placed into one of four categories: underweight; normal; overweight; and obese.

When maternal age and number of previous miscarriages were taken into account, those women who were obese were shown to have a 60 per cent higher chance of a further miscarriage compared to those with normal weight, although the precise reasons are not yet clear.

Winnie Lo, Clinical Nurse Specialist at St Mary's Hospital, said "Ours is the first study to look directly at the link between BMI and recurrent miscarriage. It shows that obese women who experience recurrent miscarriage are at greater risk of subsequent pregnancy loss."

It's such a shame that pregnant mothers aren't told the truth about how obesity comes about and how best to reduce it...)o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

See advice for pregnant mothers

Gary Foster was about to get married but he has died in a government-funded medical trial after receiving seven overdoses of drugs.

Man dies in government cancer drug trial
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"Gary Foster, 27, was repeatedly given twice the amount of chemotherapy drugs he should have been prescribed.

He was due to be married this month.

Reports have said his death was caused by an error in the setting up of the trial on the computer system at University College London Hospital (UCLH).

A second patient was affected by the same mistake, but survived.

When the MRC suspected patients had been given overdoses, instead of calling the hospital immediately it wrote a letter - which a nurse at UCLH failed to open until two days after Mr Foster had died."

"UCLH has been forced to suspend the trial, called TE23, which tests whether a combination of five drugs is better at treating testicular cancer than the standard treatment of three drugs.

It has, however, being continued at other UK hospitals.

Mr Foster, a graphic designer, had just been diagnosed with testicular cancer.

He was told he had a 60 per cent chance of survival."

"Mr Foster received the drugs during visits to UCLH between June and September 2007. On seven occasions, he received 30,000 units of bleomycin - of one of the five drugs - instead of 15,000.

A third patient died at a different hospital after receiving an overdose of the same drug due to an error by a nurse or doctor. However the Medical Research Council (MRC), the government body which ran the trial, said the drug was not the direct cause of his death.

An inquest heard Mr Foster began to show signs of deterioration after taking the drugs.

Eventually he developed a dry cough, a symptom of damage to his lungs that had been caused by the overdose of bleomycin. The lung damage was eventually fatal.

The inquest heard the cough should have been recognised by doctors and nurses as a warning sign. However, he was given a final dose."

Obviously there's a degree of medical negligence here that caused avoidable suffering and the sad death of Gary Foster. It was not just bad luck or mistakes. - But I'd be very surprised if any sanctions are taken against the negligent personnel responsible. - And therein lies the most common cause of medical negligence...

Up to one in 11 children in Britain may suffer from an attention deficit disorder, government advisers will claim this week.

One in 11 children may have ADHD
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"The guidance by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is expected to say that up to 9 per cent of children and 2 per cent of adults fall within broad definitions of ADHD. It will recommend that the stimulant Ritalin be prescribed to all children and adults with a severe form of the condition and to all moderate cases which do not respond to talking therapies or parenting classes.

Prof Philip Asherson, one of the experts who produced the guidance, due out on Wednesday, said they tried to avoid following the model of ADHD care in the United States, where medication is the norm and routinely used to tackle minor behavioural and educational problems.

He said: "We worked very hard to avoid the approach in the US, where one in 10 children are being treated with stimulants. The guidance makes it clear that medication is the right approach in some cases but that it should not be used for everyone and certainly not to tackle minor educational problems."

"Dr Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Lincolnshire, who does not believe ADHD is a valid diagnosis, said Nice had produced no evidence that the condition existed, or that medication worked, despite coming to conclusions supporting its use."

The psychologist Oliver James accused psychiatrists of medicalising a problem that was caused by upbringing. He said: "Psychiatrists invented this category to medicalise when in fact it is a social problem linked to low incomes and parenting difficulties." He said the best approach to children with ADHD-like symptoms was to give them more attention and affection."

"Latest figures show almost 500,000 prescriptions for stimulants for under-16s last year, more than double the 200,000 issued in 2003. The Department of Health said the figures reflected the number of prescriptions, which could include repeat orders for the same child."

I consider it irresponsible, reprehensible, unscientific and downright dangerous to be prescribing psychotropic drugs to children. If indeed it is reasonably considered that intervention is necessary to improve children's behaviour I would favour improving a child's nutrition, especially by the avoidance of fast food, ready meals, salty junk snacks and diet pretend 'food', and also Oliver James's suggestion of more attention and affection. - And I don't mean attention from medics! - Behaviour problems are categorically not caused by the brain being short of Ritalin!

Saturday 20 September 2008

Does your face go red when you eat curry or other highly seasoned food? - You've got a salt problem and would benefit from this information:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

vulnerable groups

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

How many years of your life have you wasted trying to lose weight by dieting? - Give it up! - Just eat less salt!

Reducing calories/fat/sugar will NOT reduce obesity, because obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading on to fluid retention/sodium retention/water retention and weight gain. - The safe, sure, fast way to reduce obesity is to avoid salt and salty food, because this reduces the fluid retention.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

vulnerable groups

Associated health conditions

See advice for pregnant mothers

and FAT RETENTION

Friday 19 September 2008

Three of China's best-known brands of liquid milk were tainted with melamine, the chemical at the centre of an expanding health scare

China's milk scandal spreads to Olympic brand
Article on the Telegraph

Extract:

"The government released the findings as it tried to play down the scandal, which began with baby milk but is rapidly spreading to wider distrust inside the country of "made in China" products.

Singapore on Friday suspended the import and sale of all milk and milk products from China after local tests found samples containing the potentially deadly industrial chemical melamine.

Some online commentators are expressing disgust that milk from one of the brands, an Olympic sponsor, was produced separately, tested and cleared for use in Olympic venues.

"Melamine for us, safety for our guests," said one wry comment.

The latest tests were carried out on supermarket milk from more than 400 suppliers, including foreign firms such as Nestle. The government said 24 batches of milk from 295 samples taken from three brands - Mengniu, Yili, and Guangming - were found to be tainted with melamine.

By Friday night, 300 of Starbucks’ 330 outlets in China were only serving soy milk in their coffees.

The chemical is alleged to have been added to watered down raw milk supplies by farmers and middlemen to boost its protein readings. It can cause kidney stones, and has been blamed for the deaths of four babies who drank milk made from formula from China's largest low-cost producer, Sanlu.

According to the latest figures, 6,244 babies have fallen sick and 158 are suffering acute kidney failure.

Mengniu, whose successful television sponsorships and reputation for quality have made it a darling of investors, is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange and is involved in joint ventures with European partners.

Yili was the sponsor, and milk supplier, for the Beijing Olympics, but a senior health official said that special measures had been taken.

"We applied special scanning management procedures for all Olympic products," the official, Li Changjiang, said. "All stages of food product supplies, including milk products, were strictly monitored step-by-step by us, with no loopholes in the process."

Mengniu and Yili are China's biggest dairy companies. Mengniu was sole supplier for Starbucks in China, until its involvement in the scandal was confirmed."

Mary Poppins advocated a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, and it seems the fictitious nanny may have had a point.

A spoonful of sugar does help the medicine go down
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"A paediatrician who has spent 16 years conducting research says that a few drops of sucrose on the tongue can ease the pain for babies undergoing injections.

The idea is used by many children's doctors but Dr Paul Heaton, 53, who works at Yeovil District Hospital, Somerset, is campaigning to see the practice extended beyond hospitals to clinics where children receive injections and blood tests.

He said: "The association of sweetness as making nasty things less nasty is a common practice in every day life.

"It did not start with Mary Poppins; historic texts refer to Jews being given honey before they were circumcised."

Dr Heaton said his research had found that once the babies tasted the solution, they cried less and recovered more quickly from the procedures.

"There is considerable evidence that young babies experience pain more easily and sharply than adults when they have commonly performed procedures, such as heel pricks and blood tests done to them.

"Their heart rate and blood pressure rise and very small babies can sometimes stop breathing."

Dr Heaton, who has addressed conferences in Iran, Australia and New Zealand and has had papers published worldwide, said: "About 10 years ago studies showed that sweet tasting substances reduce the response to pain in babies.

"They release natural substances which minimize the pain and enable quick and effective short-term relief. It has taken some time for this practice to be accepted in the medical community but it is now common practice in paediatric departments of hospitals both with inpatients and outpatients.

"However it is not common practice out in the community when babies have blood tests and immunizations.""

Let's hope this simple, safe, drug-free idea will soon be adopted more widely.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

The Chinese government has admitted that three infants have died and over 6,000 are sick as a crisis over contaminated baby milk spread nationwide.

Six thousand babies sick from tainted Chinese milk
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Almost 160 babies are now suffering from "acute kidney failure" as the scandal over the poisoned milk continues to grow.

More than one-fifth of China's powdered baby milk producers have been found to have been using melamine, an industrial chemical more commonly found in plastics and glues, to bulk up their milk.

Melamine makes milk appear richer in protein but causes kidney stones to form in infants. China has already been accused of covering up the crisis in order to save face during the Olympic Games after it emerged that officials had known about the problems eight weeks ago.

Although the government has insisted that "the milk powder produced by most companies is safe", panicky parents crowded hospitals, especially families using Sanlu, the most toxic brand.

At the Shanghai Children's Hospital in the central Jing'an district, a nurse said over 700 parents had brought their children in to be tested. It had only been half a day since news broke that the scandal was not confined to Hebei, Jiangsu and Gansu provinces, as originally thought.

Although wealthy Shanghainese parents rarely use Chinese milk powder, preferring more trustworthy foreign brands, the scandal had severely affected the city's migrant workers, who tend to be poorer and uneducated"

"The list of producers caught up in the scandal includes some of China's largest dairy groups, such as Yili, an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, and Mengniu, the country's largest milk company. Mengniu has started a recall of some of its lines. Powdered baby milk is now a Pounds1.8 billion industry in China."

"The scandal comes after the "big-headed babies" incident in Anhui in 2004, when 13 babies died after being fed milk with little nutritional value."

Disabled passengers are being let down by rail companies and left to fend for themselves, a consumer watchdog has found.

Disabled passengers getting a raw deal from rail companies
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The study by Passenger Focus tested the industry's Assisted Passenger Reservation Service (APRS) in a 'mystery shopper exercise' across the country.

It found that, despite help having been prebooked, station staff were unaware that they would be dealing with a disabled customer on two out of three occasions.

Fewer than half were given details of a meeting point at the station. Of those shoppers given an appointed meeting place, only 58% were actually met there by staff.

While in most cases they did try to help, in 15 per cent of occasions passengers were left to fend for themselves.

But on over half the bookings the staff failed to tell passengers that the stations did not have disabled access.

On nearly two out of three occasions call centre failed to tell the passenger whether the train had a toilet with disabled access.

At times mystery shoppers complained about the attitude of staff. "Not at all helpful, just felt like she couldn't get rid of me quick enough," said one wheelchair user."

Ricky Gervais says obese people should be greeted in the street as "fatty" to shame them into losing weight.

Ricky Gervais calls for more stigma around obesity
Article in the Telegraph

Gervais's suggestion of insulting fat people to help them lose weight, apart from being cruel and silly, would not help them to lose weight. They need the correct information in order to lose weight. - Here is some correct information:

Reducing calories/fat/sugar will NOT reduce obesity, because obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading on to fluid retention/sodium retention/water retention and weight gain. - The safe, sure, fast way to reduce obesity is to avoid salt and salty food, because this reduces the fluid retention.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

See advice for pregnant mothers

and FAT RETENTION

RoC Complete Lift promised to give middle-aged women younger-looking skin. But the ASA says the claim is misleading.

Anti-wrinkle cream advert banned for misleading public
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"RoC Complete Lift promised to give middle-aged women younger-looking skin. The claim was backed up by a two-month clinical study.

But an independent expert found the study by Johnson and Johnson was flawed because it lacked objective measures, records and corroborating photography.

"We concluded the advert was misleading, " said the ASA, which banned the avert and warned the pharmaceutical giant to consult the Committee of Advertising Practice before making any more commercials.

The skin cream, which costs £17.99 for a 50ml tub, claimed to have a patented ingredient which was "clinically proven" to work in eight weeks. But members of the public complained at the small print which stated the product did not give a "physical lift.""

You can reduce your risk of wrinkles by avoiding salt and salty food and avoiding DIETING! - Insufficient food causes skin-thinning, and thin skin is more likely to wrinkle than firm skin. - And there is no need to diet to lose weight. - You can easily, safely and swiftly lose excess weight by cutting down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

See advice for pregnant mothers

and FAT RETENTION

Clueless Nick Clegg all wrong on pensions. - Out of touch with older voters...

Nick Clegg 'out of touch' and all wrong on pensions
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Asked by a caller to a local news television programme whether he knew how much state pensioners received, he tried to dodge the question, before finally mumbling: "I think it's about £30 quid now, isn't it?"

In fact, the basic pension is £90.70 a week for a single person and £145.45 for a couple, with more available for those claiming tax credits.

Mr Clegg's error, during an interview with ITV Westcountry, threatens to overshadow his keynote speech which will close Liberal Democrat conference.

He was speaking in response to a question from viewer Wally Cotgrave, a retired blacksmith from Sidmouth, Devon, 69, who afterwards said he was unimpressed with Mr Clegg's answer.

Mr Cotgrave, who himself claims the state pension with his wife Maureen, 73, added: "People like him make the right noises and say the right things when they want your vote, but they don't actually know anything. They're all out of touch.

"He's been talking about pensions this week but he doesn't know the first thing about the subject.""

No-one as clueless as this about pensions should have the cheek to talk on the subject and isn't credible as a party leader. I'm one of his constituents and I'm in need of his help. I wrote to him many times and he eventually came to see me but he hadn't read any of my letters so didn't have any grasp of the matter. His office had printed out some of what I had written and he'd apparently walked from the car giving it a glance or two hoping to get the gist of it, and when I opened the door to him he explained that that's what he'd been doing. - I gathered that by smiling and being friendly and charming that was supposed to make up for not having a clue what I had written to him about...)o:

It was impossible for me to cover a complex subject in the half-hour I had and he was clearly anxious to get to his next appointment. - I said I needed to see him again but he hasn't been to see me again. (I am too disabled to go to see him.) - He went through the standard routine of writing a letter to the Secretary of State for Health.

Here are extracts from the email I sent to Nick Clegg on 8th September 2006:

"Thank you very much for your letter dated 09 August 2006 and for sending me a copy of the letter you sent to Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Health, and a copy of the reply you received from the Department of Health...

I was disturbed, but not surprised, at the complacent tone of the reply you received from Andy Burnham. - If you were to write to the Department of Transport about traffic signals not working, you would not expect a reply that stated that traffic signals should be working, nor would you find it a satisfactory response. - But you wrote about the need for patients taking steroids or certain other medicines to be warned not to eat salt while taking the drugs and the reply was, "Where appropriate, doctors and pharmacists should advise patients on the need for any modifications to their diet (including salt intake) and/or lifestyle when taking medicines." - Stripped of circumlocution and ambiguity, this reads, "Doctors and pharmacists should warn patients not to eat salt when taking these drugs." - This reply is arrant nonsense! - Patients are NOT being warned to avoid salt and salty food when taking steroids and HRT and other drugs that cause sodium and water retention and thereby initiate morbid obesity and a host of other grave and painful health problems for the innocent patients they are prescribing the drugs for! - If they were, there would not be the many thousands of steroid victims (people with steroid-induced Cushing's Syndrome) that there are! - Nor, to the best of my knowledge, is there any reference to the importance of avoiding salt and salty food while on the medication in the PIL (Patient Information Leaflet) which accompanies the medicine and which I take leave to guess Mr Burnham has not checked up on.

I didn't think much to the website www.medicines.org.uk. There appears to be no warning about salt/sodium re steroids there either, and for amitriptyline, they say, "Increased appetite and weight gain may be a side effect of the medicine or may be due to the relief of depression." - Whereas the cause is sodium and water retention...

This is a tragedy and a scandal similar to that perpetrated by the tobacco industry, which for decades lied/avoided telling the truth about its harmful products. People need to be told the truth about steroids and other medications, and doctors who are so ignorant about the ghastly and extremely common side-effects of the drugs they far too readily prescribe should not be ALLOWED to prescribe them. - The endocrinologist who was largely responsible for the harm done to me by the HRT I was inappropriately prescribed for nearly ten years confessed to me that she had never even HEARD of sodium retention until I showed it to her in a copy of the British National Formulary I had obtained!!!! - It is the most common side-effect of the HRT and is the direct cause of most of the other side-effects of HRT. - She'd never even bothered to look the HRT up in the BNF! - She wept on my shoulder and urged me to sue her for negligence, saying she was well insured, but I have almost as low an opinion of the Law as practised in this country as I have of medicine as practised in this country and did not want to waste my scant energy and money I needed to cope with all my disabilities by suing her."

And I drew Nick Clegg's attention to some of my blog entries about all this. I have not received a reply to my email and I have not heard from Nick Clegg that he is pursuing the subject, and despite my repeated requests for him to come to see me again so that I can better explain the matter to him, he does not appear to intend doing so. (I am too ill and disabled - because of sustained NHS negligence - to go to see him at his surgery.)

I voted for Nick Clegg but it was clearly a wasted vote.

Monday 15 September 2008

Latest embarrassing loss of data (NHS and Police) in leaky security UK

NHS: Personal details of 18,000 staff 'lost in the post'

Police lose top secret info on memory stick

Both these links are to articles in the Telegraph.

Women are buying bigger dress sizes as the nation's waistline expands.

Women's dresses are getting bigger
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Sales of sizes 18-22 have increased by a third in the past two years, according to a report.

The biggest women are in the Midlands and Lancashire, where more than 20 per cent are buying dresses larger than a size 18, but less women in the south and east are plus sizes since last year.

More young women are getting fatter as the under-25s made up five per cent of the oversize dress market, compared with three per cent last year, according to the Shape of Britain report by analysts TNS.

The average adult dress size among British women is 16. A size 18 woman typically has a 42in bust, a 34in waist and a 44in hip. Almost 25 per cent of women are obese up from 15 per cent in 1997."

Since the obesity 'experts' and doctors keep giving the wrong information about how to lose excess weight, these increases in size are pretty well inevitable...)o: - Reducing calories/fat/sugar will NOT reduce obesity, because obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading on to fluid retention/sodium retention/water retention and weight gain. - The safe, sure, fast way to reduce obesity is to avoid salt and salty food, because this reduces the fluid retention.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

See advice for pregnant mothers

and FAT RETENTION

A drastic lack of cardiac care is putting heart patients lives at risk, according to a new study, released today by the British Heart Foundation (BHF)

Lack of cardiac care 'putting heart patients lives at risk'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Only 40 per cent of patients receive rehabilitation after a heart attack or heart surgery, the research shows, despite a Government target to offer it to 85 per cent of them.

Staff shortages mean those who do receive the care get just one third of the recommended hours of physiotherapy.

The report, released today by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) failed to find a single cardiac rehabilitation programme in Britain with the minimum recommended number of staff.

Studies have shown that patients who do not receive cardiac rehabilitation are 26 per cent more likely than those who do to die within five years.

Mike Knapton, director of prevention and care at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Cardiac rehabilitation saves lives but the majority of patients don't get the service.""

You can lower your risk of heart attack and other heart problems by reducing your salt intake.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions