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.

Saturday 28 February 2009

Parents will be told not to give most cough and cold remedies to their children amid safety fears and evidence that dozens of products do not work.

Parents told not to give cough and cold remedies to children
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"More than 60 popular over-the-counter medicines, some specifically labelled for children, will be marked with warnings that they must not be given to children under six and are not recommended for under-12s.

In an unprecedented move, Government safety regulators will advise that the dangers posed by the remedies outweigh any benefits.

Several children have died from overdoses of the medicines, while others have suffered hallucinations, allergic reactions and other side effects.

The alert centres on 15 ingredients found in most cough and cold medicines, many of which have been used by drug companies for years.

The deaths of at least five children under two have been linked to the remedies and more than 100 serious cases of suspected adverse reactions have been reported, with children requiring hospital treatment.

Five products aimed at children younger than two have already been withdrawn.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said last night that a review of 69 cough and cold remedies for children had "found no robust evidence that these medicines work" and gave warning that "they can cause side effects, such as allergic reactions, effects on sleep or hallucinations". There has been growing concern about cold remedies for children, particularly when parents miscalculate the dose, give additional doses or combine products containing similar ingredients."

"Reports submitted to regulators show that, when cases involving people of all ages are considered, dozens have died after taking medication containing the ingredients and more than 3,000 people have reported "adverse reactions". Diphenhydramine, which is used in Benylin Children's Coughs and Colds, was mentioned in reports of 27 deaths, while chlorphenamine, an ingredient in Tixylix Cough and Cold, was mentioned in reports of 11 deaths."

"Dr Hermione Lyall, a consultant paediatrician at St Mary's Hospital in London, said: "These drugs carry a number of risks; they can affect the heart, speeding it up or down, and they can even affect the central nervous system, leading to convulsions.

"Coughs and colds will run their course and if you are going to use any medication it is much better to rely on paracetamol or ibuprofen to reduce a child's temperature."

The ingredients involved are: the nasal decongestants pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, phenylephrine, oxymetazoline and xylometazoline; the antihistamines diphenhydramine, chlorphenamine, bromopheniramine, promethazine, triprolidine and doxylamine; the cough suppressants dextromethorphan and pholcodine, and the expectorants guaifenesin and ipecacuanha."

The MHRA has been lamentably slow to take action on this...)o: - 'Lamentably slow' seems to be their usual speed...)o:

Since these drugs don't work and can and do cause grave side-effects, including death, surely they should be withdrawn from sale immediately?

Message for Stephen Nolan of BBC Radio 5: you will easily lose excess weight if you cut down on salt and salty food.

I listened to a bit of the Stephen Nolan Show last night on BBC Radio 5. It was discussion about obesity again and what to do about it. Unfortunately the 'expert' advice yet again consisted of pushing the calorie myth, i.e. that eating more calories than your body expends in energy will cause weight gain, and eating fewer than this will result in obesity reduction...)o: - But this advice is based on false premisses. Stephen will not become less obese by cutting calories or by going to a gym and doing exercises. He will lose weight if he reduces his intake of sodium.

Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Poor Stephen Nolan! - He says he weighs 20 stone and is morbidly obese. I have heard him say on other occasions, however, that he likes salty food and eats a lot of it. - If he were to avoid salt and salty food he would easily and rapidly lose a lot of his excess weight because it is the sodium in the salt he eats that is holding excess water (fluid retention) in his body and making him obese. - If you see Stephen, tell 'im!

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Leading scientists publicly denounce unethical use of children in GM experiments

A formal letter of protest relating to a severe breach of medical ethics has been sent by 22 senior scientists from around the world to the Tufts University School of Medicine, together with a call for these GM feeding experiments to be terminated immediately.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Charity guide criticised for not declaring GM interests

Sense About Science pamphlet failed to list contributors' links with industry. Zoë Corbyn reports
A charity has come under fire for failing to declare all industry affiliations of the experts it enlisted to compile a booklet explaining genetic modification to the public. The pamphlet was produced by Sense About Science (SAS), a charity that claims to promote scientific reasoning in public discussions. According to anti-genetic modification campaigners and academics, it failed to mention links between some of the experts who wrote the booklet and GM firms. For example, the guide's biography of Vivian Moses, emeritus professor of microbiology at Queen Mary, University of London, and visiting professor of biotechnology at King's College London, does not mention that he is also chairman of CropGen, a GM lobby group that receives funding from the biotechnology industry.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: In addition to its links with the GM industry, Sense About Science also has links with the pharmaceutical industry. In the past year, it has received financial contributions from AstraZeneca plc, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and a number of large medical charities who themselves have received financial contributions from drug companies.

New report on cancer but it still avoids telling the whole truth about obesity and cancer.

Thousands of cancer cases caused by diet, alcohol and obesity, experts warn
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Cancer is not 'an act of God' in most cases and individuals can take action to dramatically reduce their chances of developing the disease, worldwide experts said.

After smoking, obesity, diet and physical activity are major causes of cancer and 39 per cent of the top 12 cancers in the UK could be prevented, the World Cancer Research Fund report said.

This equates to around 79,000 cases that could be prevented each year in the UK out of a total of around 289,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

If nothing is done to reduce cancer rates then 'this tide will engulf us', Prof Sir Michael Marmot, chairman of the expert panel said."

The experts are still not telling the truth about obesity and cancer. The main reason that both of these and many other related illnesses are on the increase is the misinformation about the causes of obesity and how to reduce/prevent it.

All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Friday 27 February 2009

Calcium Associated With Lower Risk Of Cancer In Women

Women with higher intake of calcium appear to have a lower risk of cancer overall, and both men and women with high calcium intakes have lower risks of colorectal cancer and other cancers of the digestive system, according to a report in the February 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Read article at sciencedaily.com

Thursday 26 February 2009

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been found guilty in a Health and Safety case.

HSE warning follows hospital fall
News Distribution Service for Government and the Public Sector

Extract:

"The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is reminding hospitals and other care providers to ensure the safety of their patients, especially from the dangers of open windows.

The warning follows the prosecution by HSE of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after an incident at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, when a young man was severely injured after falling from a third floor window.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (formerly Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust) was fined £18,000 plus costs of £15,399.05 at Sheffield Magistrates' Court today, after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

On 28 May 2004 the young man, a patient on Ward Firth 6 at the Northern General Hospital, was found to have fallen almost 12 metres to the ground from a window that had been fitted with a device intended to limit its opening to no more than 10cm which, because it was poorly maintained, did not restrict the window adequately. The patient survived the fall but suffered a number of fractures and serious internal injuries."

It took a very long time to get to court, didn't it? - Over four and a half years! - Why?

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Britain's most-popular brands of bread could be banned from claiming health benefits of their very salty loaves, under draft EU regulations.

Bakers face ban on claiming salty breads are healthy
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Bakers would no longer be able to market their products as "high in fibre" or "wholesome" if they contain more than 1g of salt per 100g.

Research in 2007 indicated that nearly half of loaves on supermarket shelves in Britain were above this threshold, indicating that the proposed rule could affect millions of loaves sold each year.

Major producers including Warburtons and Hovis are among the worst offenders, tests have shown, with some breads marked multigrain, organic or "diet" containing higher than recommended levels of salt.

Bread is the largest single source of salt in our diet and health experts say that cutting the amount used in baking could save 7,000 lives a year by reducing rates of heart attacks and strokes.

The EU limit is lower than a 1.1g per 100g target set for 2010 by the Food Standards Agency."

"The British Federation of Bakers said that the salt content of loaves had fallen substantially in recent years, and said that the EU regulations may include exemptions for certain types of loaf – including wholemeal and brown – by the time they are finalised next month."

I regard it as disgraceful that bread manufacturers have been allowed to manufacture and sell these high salt breads when it is known that high salt intake can and does harm health.

You can easily make your own bread by using a breadmaker and ensure that it has a much lower sodium content, especially if you use a lower sodium salt substitute instead of ordinary table 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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Millions of workers are being put at greater risk of dementia by Britain's long working hours culture, research has found.

Long hours put workers at risk of dementia, according to research into damage to brain
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Extreme tiredness and stress could be as bad for the brain as smoking, according to the study.

The report, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found middle-aged workers clocking up more than 55 hours a week have poorer mental skills, including short-term memory and ability to recall words, than those working fewer than 41 hours.

The findings suggest the long-term damage to the brain caused by excessive time at work has been underestimated.

One in eight British workers puts in more than the supposed European maximum of 48 hours a week.

Researchers, led by Dr Marianna Virtanen from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, monitored 2,214 British civil servants from the 1980s."

You can reduce fatigue, improve memory and concentration, and lower your risk of developing dementia by avoiding 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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Women who choose fertility treatment after one year of trying for a baby naturally may do more harm than good, a leading fertility expert has warned.

Fertility expert warns 'don't rush into treatment'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Many young women would be better off improving fertility through simpler means such as cutting stress levels and losing weight, according to Dr Geeta Nargund.

Research shows those who opt for IVF after 12 months are only slightly more likely to conceive than those who let nature take its course. They are also more likely to have twins or triplets, raising the overall health risk.

Dr Nargund, head of reproductive medicine at St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London, told the Daily Mail: "We must offer lifestyle advice, early tests and simple approaches to promote natural conception. If a woman is younger and has no serious medical causes of infertility, she should consider improving her fertility naturally.

"IVF is safe but what we are saying is you don't want unnecessary medical treatment far too early.""

Overweight/obese women can improve their fertility by cutting down on salt and salty food - because this reduces the fluid retention which is the cause of excess weight.

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Visitor/s from the British Heart Foundation have been reading my blog and my webpages because of my critical blog entry about them yesterday.

I see I've had someone from the British Heart Foundation visiting the blogpost I made about them yesterday. They've also visited my website. They appear to have spent a lot of time reading my stuff.

Hopefully they will now consider altering the misinformation about obesity on their website.

I've also noticed they don't mention cutting down on salt/sodium in their advice about how to lower high cholesterol on this page http://www.bhf.org.uk/keeping_your_heart_healthy/preventing_heart_disease/cholesterol.aspx, and yet this is probably the most effective dietary adjustment you could make to lower your cholesterol level as it will simultaneously reduce high cholesterol, reduce excess weight, reduce high blood pressure and reduce any fat retention.

Yes, I know they mention lowering salt intake elsewhere on their website, but they do not give it the importance it merits. Indeed they've only been mentioning salt intake at all for a relatively few years, because I certainly remember some years ago visiting one of their charity shops and picking up one of their leaflets there which had no mention whatsoever of salt intake. I decided against donating anything to them as their advice was so flawed.

And this is their page about diabetes - http://www.bhf.org.uk/keeping_your_heart_healthy/preventing_heart_disease/diabetes.aspx - Here again, no mention is made of the importance of low salt intake in preventing type 2 diabetes and managing diabetes.

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

New cases of diabetes have risen by 74 % in just six years, increasing at a faster pace than in America as obesity takes its toll, researchers warn.

New cases of diabetes up by three quarters as obesity rises, researchers find
article in the telegraph

Extract:

"In the ten years up until 2005, 42,642 people were diagnosed with either Type 1 diabetes which affects younger people who are a healthy weight, or Type 2 diabetes which normally develops later due to being overweight or obese.

While new cases of Type 1 diabetes have remained constant there has been a 69 per cent increase in Type 2, the researchers from the Spanish Centre for Pharmoepidemiological Research (CIEFE), in Madrid, Spain found.

In 1996, 38 per cent of people newly diagnosed with Type 2 disease were overweight and 46 per cent were obese but in 2005, 32 per cent of people newly diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes were overweight and 56 per cent were obese, respectively.

The researchers writing online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health said the pace of the rise in diabetes cases has quickened in recent years increasing by 74 per cent between 1997 and 2003 alone.

Lead author Ms Elvira Massó González, said: "Our results suggest that, although the incidence of diabetes remains lower in the UK than in the USA or Canada, it appears to be increasing at a faster pace.""

Obesity will continue inexorably to increase unless and until people are told the truth, namely that it is a problem of fluid retention, not a problem of overeating, and that it can be reduced easily on an individual basis by giving up dieting and instead concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food. - It is vital for the general public however, as opposed to the individual patient, that doctors' monumentally high prescribing of drugs be curbed by law, in order to prevent the nation's health from going to Hell in an accelerating handcart!

I can't find an email address for Sir Michael Marmot, but if you are easily able to contact him, do, please, direct him to my website.

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. My website does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Fillings could be consigned to the dustbin of dental history after scientists identified the gene that produces tooth enamel.

Gene found that makes tooth enamel could revolutionise dental care
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Researchers believe the discovery of the gene could lead to the repair of damaged enamel and the restoration or even the production of replacement teeth.

The gene, called Ctip2, is already known to have several functions in developing the immune and nervous systems and the growing of skin. Scientists can now add tooth development to that list."

""Enamel is one of the hardest coatings found in nature, it evolved to give carnivores the tough and long-lasting teeth they needed for survival," said Professor Chrissa Kioussi, author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"A lot of work would still be needed to bring this to human applications, but it should work. It could be a whole new approach to dental health.""

Sounds great! - Let's hope something comes of it!

The British Heart Foundation (the BHF) is mainly giving the wrong information about the causes of overweight and how to reduce it.

I've been looking at their website today and on this page - http://www.bhf.org.uk/keeping_your_heart_healthy/healthy_eating/managing_your_weight.aspx - it says:

"Why do we gain weight?

By taking in more energy (calories) than your body is burning, you will gain weight. The extra calories that you’ve consumed will be stored as fat – too much of which results in weight gain. If you’re not physically active, you’re even more likely to gain weight.

Fatty foods, sweet foods and sugary drinks are all likely to cause excess weight gain""

I have quoted selectively, but not inaccurately. This is their main message about what causes weight gain, but the fact is that excess weight gain is caused by fluid retention, NOT by calorie excess or energy imbalance. The fluid retention is maintained by salt/sodium intake, and the excess fluid is mainly held in the blood vessels, so that if you are very overweight you may already be aware of distended and painful veins. Calorie reduction does not reduce fluid retention, nor does it reduce fat retention.

On the same page it also says:

"How can I lose weight?

The best way to lose weight is by reducing your calorie (energy) intake by cutting down on the fat and sugar in your diet and following a healthy balanced diet. Being physically active also plays an important part in losing weight as you burn up calories.

Try not to lose weight too quickly. Losing weight slowly and steady about one to two pounds (between half a kilo and one kilo) a week is healthier, and you are more likely to keep the weight off for good. Gradual weight loss is the safest and most effective long term way to lose weight."

None of this is true. There is no evidence to support what they claim about burning up calories to lose excess weight. - The best and safest way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt/sodium and salty food. - If you do this gradually you will lose weight gradually; if you do it more rapidly you will lose weight very fast indeed, especially if you make sure that you eat plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables as well, because fruit and veg are rich in potassium, and potassium displaces some of the sodium in your body, thus enabling you to excrete more of the excess fluid from your body. Reducing salt intake is safe and we are advised to eat less salt. Most of us eat too much salt. - It is DIETING - by which I mean eating fewer calories than your body requires - that is harmful. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fatter.

If you have fat retention as well as fluid retention, you will find that the fat retention is also reduced by cutting down on salt. - Fat retention is not caused by eating too much fat and is not cured by eating meals low in fat. - Read about fat retention here: FAT RETENTION

Here are the facts about obesity:

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. I am not a doctor or a dietician or a nutritionist. The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Monday 23 February 2009

Professor Sir Michael Marmot warns that the rise of obesity across the world will trigger huge rise in cancer.

Cancer deaths 'to double in next 40 years'
article by David Smith in the Observer

Extract:

Cancer cases are now rising at such a rate in Britain and the rest of the world that the disease poses a threat to humanity comparable to climate change, a leading scientist has warned.

The growing obesity epidemic in industrialised countries will be highlighted this week as a leading cause of cancer in a policy report led by Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London.

About seven million people die from cancer worldwide each year, according to the most recent estimate by the World Cancer Research Fund, expected to rise to more than 10 million by 2020. The estimated number of new cases annually is set to increase from 10 million now to 16 million by 2020. Overall the toll is predicted to double in the next 40 years.

"It's enormous, it's catastrophic," said Marmot, who said the crisis demanded urgent action. "The numbers are just frightening on a global scale. After cardiovascular disease, it's the next highest cause of death in this country."

Just as global warming requires a quick and concerted international response, so Marmot believes that cancer now requires intervention on a similar scale. "With the same sense of urgency that at long last we're now starting to address the climate change agenda, let's address the cancer agenda because we think a large proportion of those cancer deaths are preventable or could be delayed. It's urgent to be taking action now," he said.

Marmot chaired a panel of 23 experts from around the world to make recommendations for the World Cancer Research Fund's Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention report. A report by the same panel in 2007, the biggest undertaken into lifestyle and cancer, found that a third of cancers are caused by diet and lack of exercise. The experts urged people to stay slim and abstain from too much fast food, red meat and preserved meat, such as ham and bacon, as well as alcohol.

The new report, to be published on Thursday, will not dwell on the issue of smoking because the science is now so well established. Instead its focus is on weight gain and obesity, which leads to around 13,000 cancer cases in the UK every year. Marmot said: "When we look at what's happened to obesity levels in this country, it's growing at an alarming rate. Anybody looking at the evidence would say there must be social and economic causes of that. It can't be that 20 million people individually said, 'I'll think I'll get fat.'""

It's scarcely credible that this host of highly-paid 'experts' still haven't twigged or still will not acknowledge that obesity (along with its many attendant illnesses) has in the main been caused both directly and indirectly by misinformation churned out by doctors, nutritionists, government agencies, the dieting industry, et al, and by the reckless overprescribing of pharmaceutical drugs by ill-informed, arrogant, prejudiced doctors.

Obesity will continue inexorably to increase unless and until people are told the truth, namely that it is a problem of fluid retention, not a problem of overeating, and that it can be reduced easily on an individual basis by giving up dieting and instead concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food. - It is vital for the general public however, as opposed to the individual patient, that doctors' monumentally high prescribing of drugs be curbed by law, in order to prevent the nation's health from going to Hell in an accelerating handcart!

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free. The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Independent inquiry has condemned "procrastination" that led to thousands of patients being infected with HIV and Hepatitis C from contaminated blood.

Blood inquiry condemns 'procrastination' which led to thousands of patients being infected with HIV and Hepatitis C
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The inquiry, led by Labour Peer Lord Archer of Sandwell, said the infection of so many people was a "horrific human tragedy."

The authors of the report said they were "dismayed" at the time taken by the Government and scientific agencies to respond to the dangers of Hepatitis C and HIV infections.

The report noted there was "lethargic" progress towards national self-sufficiency in blood products in England and Wales, where it took 13 years compared to just five years in Ireland.

As a result the NHS bought blood from US suppliers who used what became known as "skid row" donors, such as prison inmates, who were more likely to have HIV and Hepatitis C.

The report said: "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that commercial interests took precedence over public health concerns."

It added: "Whether the lack of urgency over much of this period arose from over-hesitant scientific advice or from a sluggish response by Government is now difficult to assess."

Nearly 2,000 haemophiliacs have died as a result of exposure to the contaminated blood in what leading medical expert Lord Winston called "the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS"."

If you have wasted years of your life trying to lose weight by dieting and/or exercising and had no success, I urge you to try this:

Give up the dieting! - Diets don't work; they really DO NOT WORK.

Instead of limiting your food intake, limit your intake of salt/sodium. - By avoiding salt and salty food you will lose excess fluid from your body, because it is salt that is holding that excess fluid in your body. - Everyone who is overweight has some fluid retention and that is the problem that needs to be addressed. - You've wasted years being unsuccessful with your diets. - Surely you could spare a couple of weeks or a month trying the salt reduction way of losing weight? - You would not have to give it up because of hunger, or because you have no energy or feel cold. - These are problems associated with dieting, not with losing weight the way that I have suggested to you.

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Sunday 22 February 2009

Arab-American women need supplement to boost dangerously low vitamin D levels

The following post, plus the Comments that follow it, are copied and pasted from the Dr Rath Foundation's Newsletter.

Arab-American women living in southeast Detroit whose conservative dress limits their exposure to sun should be taking a vitamin D supplement to boost their dangerously low serum levels, according to a study published by Henry Ford Hospital researchers. Researchers found that all 87 women involved in a small study showed vitamin D levels averaging 8.5 ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter) for those who wore western dress to 4 ng/mL for those who wore the hijab, modest dress with a headscarf. A healthy vitamin D level is 30 ng/mL or higher.
Read article at physorg.com
Comment: There is good evidence that not only dress code but also many other factors such as age, sex, contraceptive use, race, geographical location, regular blood donation, medicinal drug use, genetic mutations and biochemical individuality can affect a person's nutrient needs and/or status, sometimes dramatically so.

Poem by Margaret Wilde

Dare you go exploring

Into the place of pain?
Among the ridges?
The sharpened edges?

Press the points?
Touch the throbbing masses?
Taste the tenderness?
Envelop the engorgement?
Skirt the swollen sores?

Engage with the deep, dark, hidden adversary?


Margaret Wilde © 2009

FAULTY GOODS - Poem by Margaret Wilde

Faulty Goods

If this were to be
The Real Life:
This moving, breathing being,
Which seems to be,
The Real Me;
Then would I think
As now I do:
“They must have given My Life
To someone else.
It isn’t here”?

Whom do I sue?

“Under the Trade Descriptions Act
This Life
Has proved unsuitable for its purpose.”


Margaret Wilde © 2009

Georgia bans GMOs

Georgia will be declared to be a GM-free country, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili has recently announced on local television. Mikhail Saakashvili has participated in the live broadcast "The Georgian president talks to the people", in which the people of Georgia were able to ask the President some questions, reports RIA Novosti. "Georgia does not have a major agricultural production. We hope that our production is ecologically pure and healthy. I will instruct the Government to ensure that genetically modified products are prohibited in Georgia as in some countries in Eastern Europe and within the CIS, "Mr. Saakashvili has said.
Read article at organic-market.info

Drug company freebies undermine patient trust in doctors

All 'gifts' should be banned, says a report from the Royal College of Physicians
Drug company handouts to doctors, in the shape of flights to conferences, hotel stays, meals and gifts, must end to re-establish patients' trust in prescribers, a high-level inquiry has urged. A report from a working group of the Royal College of Physicians, with members from the pharmaceutical industry as well as patient representation, found that there were widespread suspicions about the relationship between the drug companies and doctors. A picture of "relentless pressure on doctors exerted by pharmaceutical marketing, masquerading as education, is common," says the report.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

NHS trusts are sending "inadequately-trained" private ambulance crews to thousands of 999 calls amid a crisis in Britain's emergency services.

NHS bosses send 'ill-trained' private ambulance crews to 999 calls
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Senior medics and paramedics say lives are being put at risk by the use of commercial agencies to provide “blue-light” ambulances across swathes of Britain.

An investigation has revealed 11 counties where private firms have been given contracts to run front line emergency services as pressures on health services mount.

The College of Emergency Medicine has warned that patients’ safety is being put in jeopardy by the use of unregulated agencies, which it says use inexperienced or inadequately-trained staff, while paramedics said the practice was a “desperate” response to a crisis in emergency care.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that in 2008, a quarter of England’s 12 ambulance trusts, covering 11 counties, used private agencies to cover thousands of front line shifts.

Great Western Ambulance trust, which covers Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, filled 3,600 ambulance shifts with private agencies, while South Central Ambulance trust relied on 12 private ambulances to bolster services in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Hampshire. South Coast Ambulance trust, which covers Sussex, Surrey and parts of Hampshire, began using private ambulances in July and since when it has used them to fill 249 shifts, at a cost of £1,140 a day.

There are dozens of private ambulance firms in Britain, but the majority are used by the NHS as “patient transport” transferring non-emergency patients to different hospitals, or taking them home.

The firms are staffed by former NHS paramedics and ambulance technicians, “moonlighting” health service staff, and people who privately undergo training courses to reach technician level, which gives them more basic skills than a paramedic."

Patients should be given facts about pharmaceutical drugs

Pharmaceutical companies spend millions each year to market drugs to doctors and potential patients. That makes it all the more outrageous that AstraZeneca is asking an Orlando court to keep information about the performance of its lucrative antipsychotic drug Seroquel secret. The company is claiming public safety, saying it shouldn't be required to release information about the drug that could cause a panic among "a vulnerable patient population" that might stop taking the drug without a doctor's oversight. But the real public safety issue is one of public health and whether the company hid findings that Seroquel causes weight gain and diabetes. The legal system must put public health — and a patient's right to know — above a company's interest in secrecy.
Read editorial in the St. Petersburg Times (Florida/USA)

Lose weight, by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Saturday 21 February 2009

Big Brother is thriving in Britain, which is increasingly a surveillance state.

Already the most spied-upon people in the world, Britons risk forfeiting even more privacy unless new restrictions are put in place
New powers are needed to combat a culture of "pervasive" surveillance that has seen the UK become the most spied upon country in the world, the Lords have said. The UK is now watched by more about four million CCTV cameras and details of seven per cent of the population is held in the National DNA Database (NDNAD) – more than any other country, according to chairman of the House of Lords Constitution Committee Lord Goodlad. At the same time national databases designed to hold personal information on nearly every UK citizen are being set up across Whitehall, from the NHS Care Records Service to the ID cards National Identity Register, according to a report by the committee released today. Meanwhile businesses and banks are gathering data on the public from CCTV, web browsing behaviour, CRM systems and tracking the use of loyalty cards, the report says, adding that the government also wants access to this data. "Every time we make a telephone call, send an email, browse the internet, or even walk down our local high street, our actions may be monitored and recorded," the report said.
Read article at businessweek.com

Children as young as two need to be checked for signs of obesity to prevent future health problems, say Government advisers.

Two-year-olds should be checked for obesity, say health experts
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Health officials have asked experts to develop suitable tests for children as young as two determine if they are becoming overweight.

Advisers say that it is often too late by primary school to start addressing bad habits.

At a recent seminar hosted by the Westminster Health Forum, Dr Will Cavendish, from the Department of Health said: "The evidence is pretty horrible that one in four children are overweight or obese at reception and one in three at year six.

"Of course, we know that child obesity doesn't suddenly pop up at age four, five. We also know that we need to act on the early years, and indeed the pre-birth, family environment in order to get at this really effectively.""

All that is necessary, and, indeed, vital, is to give the facts about what causes obesity in children.

When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed 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, hunger 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

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Friday 20 February 2009

Many sweets and chocolates sold in the UK, especially children's sweets, contain harmful chemicals.

Never mind the sugar! Are our children being poisoned by their sweets?
article by Alex Renton in the Daily Mail

I've only just come across this interesting article, which was published on Jan 1st this year, but better late than never...(o:

I do hope you will read all of the original article because it contains such a lot of information important in safeguarding children's health. - Here is an extract:

"During my investigation, I found dangerous colourings and preservatives in famous names such as Cadbury Roses chocolates, Maynards, Wrigley's gum, Jawbreakers, Jelly Babies, Kiddies Mix, Refreshers, Lovehearts, Hubba Bubba bubble gum and Fizz Bombs, as well as a huge range of corner-shop sweets sold as Nisha's or Family Favourites.

Novelty sweets branded on Bratz dolls and cartoon character Scooby-Doo had them too. A build-it-yourself gingerbread house from the John Lewis toy department had more bad dyes than any other item I found.

If it's cheaply made and highly coloured, it seems, it's more likely than not to have an 'azo-dye' (a synthetic nitrogen-based compound dye) in it - and that includes all the children's favourites: the snakes, marshmallows and bootlaces sold loose in corner shops.

The chief villains - the ones everyone agrees are dangerous - are mainly colours derived from coal tar. These are known as the 'Dirty Six' and go under the names sunset yellow (or E number 110), carmoisine (E122), tartrazine (E102), ponceau 4R (E124), quinoline yellow (E104) and allura red (E129).

They're reds and yellows, and commonly found in sweets, jellies, ice lollies, fizzy drinks and many obviously coloured foods, such as icing on cakes. Three of them have been linked with asthma and other allergies. Many of them are banned in medicines, or must carry warnings.

All of them, government scientists now agree, can cause or exacerbate hyperactivity or attention disorder.

For my daughter - who's pretty busy, not hyperactive - the worry is what's known as the cocktail effect: these colourings combined with commonly used benzoate preservatives (which go under E numbers 210 to 219) may exacerbate other allergic conditions as well as hyperactivity.

The benzoates, according to the FSA, are thought to worsen symptoms of asthma and eczema in children who have these conditions - and they're banned in food products for the under-threes."

You may like also to visit http://www.actiononadditives.com/Home/

EU regulations: a major threat to our future health

The regulatory pressure pot that aims to stop 500 million Europeans accessing therapeutically useful natural health products is approaching bursting point. Within two months we should see what vitamin and mineral dosages the European Commission aims to set as maximums across the EU. January 2010 then signals the delayed ban of a host of vitamin and mineral forms that won't have been ‘proven’ safe or bioavailable.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

EU Food Authority has double standards

According to an article in Nutraingredients.com, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) expressed a positive opinion regarding calcium fluoride as a source of fluoride in food supplements. That same day, another fluoride compound was approved - sodium monofluorophosphate - but this one was not mentioned in the Nutraingredients report. These opinions appear to be in stark contrast with the over-cautious evaluation of vital nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in progress. A scientific dossier proving the safety of those nutrient sources is required before EFSA will consent to their use in supplements, and limiting dosages are being considered to make sure there is not a shadow of a possibility of an 'adverse effect'.
Read post by Sepp Hasslberger at healthfreedomnet.ning.com

Thursday 19 February 2009

A schoolgirl, Kirsty McRae, suffered first degree burns over most of her body after only 19 minutes in an unmanned tanning salon.

Schoolgirl suffers first degree burns after 19 minutes in tanning salon
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Kirsty McRae, 14, ended up on a drip in hospital after suffering 70 per cent burns.

She had put £1 into the coin-operated sunbed at the walk-in salon, but after four minutes Kirsty felt she wasn't getting tanned enough so paid £3 for another 15 minutes.

She left the salon in pain and was rushed into hospital four hours later suffering from the horrific burns.

Doctors put her on a drip and administered oxygen while they rehydrated her.

Environmental health officers were on Thursday carrying out an investigation at the Laxtan salon in Barry, South Wales.

Kirsty's mother, Jill McRae, 49, admitted her daughter should not have been in the salon because she is under 16, but said there is nothing to stop young people from using them."

Wednesday 18 February 2009

Insomnia can cause many health problems

Insomnia and other sleep problems 'can drive you mad'
article in the Telegraph

My own advice for improving sleep and reducing the problems of insomnia and sleep apnoea is to cut down on salt and salty food. This has many additional health benefits too, including lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol and reducing excess weight.

FIGHT THE FLAB FAST the safe, sure, simple way by avoiding salt and salty food! - Dieting is not necessary!

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, hunger 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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Government bans all use of mercury in Sweden

The Government today decided to introduce a blanket ban on mercury. The ban means that the use of dental amalgam in fillings will cease and that it will no longer be permitted to place products containing mercury on the Swedish market.
Read press release from the Swedish Ministry of the Environment

Fluoride: Now it can be added to our food! - I regard this as reprehensible.

Fluoride can now be added to foods manufactured and supplied in Europe. It’s been classified as a safe supplement, according to Europe’s highest authority on food standards. The decision means that food manufacturers can include sodium monofluorophosphate, the common form of fluoride found in toothpaste and mouth washes, to their products. The decision, by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has angered the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), the consumer pressure group, which is calling for an immediate enquiry.
Read article on the What Doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY) website (UK)

The Independent's leading article today draws attention to the harm done by toxic waste exported from Britain to Africa.

The Independent's leading article today Leading article: A dirty and illegal trade draws attention to their report Dumped in Africa: Britain’s toxic waste from which this is an extract:

"Tonnes of toxic waste collected from British municipal dumps is being sent illegally to Africa in flagrant breach of this country’s obligation to ensure its rapidly growing mountain of defunct televisions, computers and gadgets are disposed of safely.

Hundreds of thousands of discarded items, which under British law must be dismantled or recycled by specialist contractors, are being packaged into cargo containers and shipped to countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where they are stripped of their raw metals by young men and children working on poisoned waste dumps.

In a joint investigation by The Independent, Sky News, and Greenpeace, a television that had been broken beyond repair was tracked to an electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria, after being left at a civic amenity site in Basingstoke run by Hampshire Country Council. Under environmental protection laws it was classified as hazardous waste and should never have left the UK."

Tuesday 17 February 2009

US expert calls for ban on genetically modified food items

An American expert on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) has sought an immediate ban on GMOs as he has claimed that there was now irrefutable and overwhelming evidence found that GMOs are dangerous threats to human health.
Read article at webindia123.com

Government halts marketing of genetically modified food crop

New Delhi: With new scientific studies now finding genetically modified foods not fully safe for human consumption, the government has put a 'temporary halt' on the commercialisation of BT brinjal, the move prompted by the Supreme Court’s special representative at the Centre’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee.
Read article on the IBN Live website (India)

Hungary to defy European Commission call to scrap ban on GMO crops

Hungary will keep its ban on GMO (genetically modified organisms) maize imports and the planting of GMO seeds, Agriculture Ministry undersecretary Zoltán Gőgös announced. The European Commission recently called on Hungary to entirely lift its GMO ban.
Read article at realdeal.hu (Hungary)

Patients should not to ask their GPs for antibiotics to treat coughs and colds, a Government campaign warns.

Patients should not ask GPs for antibiotics for colds and flu
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Diseases are becoming more and more resistant to antibiotics and over-prescribing has been linked to the development of "superbugs" that fail to respond to treatment.

The Government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has launched a new campaign to drive down antibiotic use."

You can boost your immune system 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, hunger 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