Obesity and the Salt Connection and Other Stuff

and FAT RETENTION

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

Monday, 30 March 2009

Doctors who prescribe statins do not always warn patients of the adverse side-effects they may suffer.

Dr James LeFanu gives a further warning against the potential harm from taking statin medication.

Adverse side-effects from pharmaceutical drugs are very common. If, for instance, you gain a lot of weight after starting to take a pharmaceutical drug, it is most likely that it is the result of taking the drug, and the weight gain would be reduced by reducing salt intake, since the weight that is gained is mainly salt and water. My website explains all about this.

And see Sodium in foods

Sunday, 29 March 2009

Prof Peter Weissberg is again wanting statins to be prescribed more widely.

This Telegraph article reports that Prof Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, is suggesting that prescribing statins should be considered, in order to protect against blood clots in the veins of the legs and in the lungs. This guy does an awful lot of suggesting that statins be taken. - Forgive me for being cynical and asking, is there something in it for him?

I wish that as medical director of the British Heart Foundation, he would be as ardent to advise people to avoid salt and salty food - the simplest and most effective way to lower cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, and reduce the risk of heart disease and heart attacks - as he is to suggest prescribing drugs with many adverse side-effects to people who are not ill, in the questionable expectation that the drugs may possibly prevent illness.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, 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!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Saturday, 28 March 2009

Birth brain defect - hydrocephalus - could be treated with vitamin supplement

Research suggests that a vitamin supplement taken during pregnancy could prevent hydrocephalus - one of the common forms of birth brain defect. Scientists at The University of Manchester and Lancaster University say laboratory tests have shown that administering a combination of vitamins (tetrahydrofolate and folinic acid), dramatically reduces the risk of hydrocephalus.
Read article at physorg.com

Friday, 27 March 2009

Drinking tea that is too hot is linked to increased risk of throat cancer.

Telegraph article

In this article we read that a study has found that drinking very hot tea was linked to an eightfold increased risk of cancer of the oesophagus, i.e. cancer of the throat. Sadly I can well believe this. My father died of this cancer and he liked his tea very hot and without milk. I always suspected that the very hot tea had contributed to his illness.

To lower your risk of most cancers and to benefit your immune system in general it is a good idea to reduce your salt/sodium intake.

And see Sodium in foods

Thursday, 26 March 2009

A letter containing harmful advice remains in my memory from when I first saw it years ago in a women's magazine.

I remember years ago reading one of those women's magazines that gives dieting advice and on the Letters Page seeing a letter containing what I now realise was very dangerous advice, though it was innocently given. The advice registered in my memory because it was expressed in a highly original way.

The letter said words to the effect that when you are dieting by reducing calories and you inevitably experience a feeling of emptiness, you must not think of it as your body's way of telling you that you are hungry. You must think of it instead as your body's way of telling you that you are getting slimmer!

How wrong that letter was! - I wonder how many readers were damaged by that very foolish, though well-intentioned advice.

A feeling of emptiness in your stomach is your body's way of telling you that you are hungry and that you need to eat!

There is a safe, sure way to lose excess weight:

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Daniel Hannan on Youtube. - What an excellent speaker he is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs

And I agree with what he says.

More and more pets are becoming seriously overweight/obese.

This article draws attention to the alarming rise in overweight dogs, cats and rabbits.

The reason these domestic pets become obese is NOT that they are overfed; it is that too often they are given food that is unsuitable and unhealthy for them. - Sometimes a pet owner will give their pet the leftovers of a takeaway meal or a ready meal they cooked in the microwave. - This sort of food is bad for pets, mainly because it contains a lot of salt and salt is very bad for domestic pets.

If your pet is having to take medication prescribed by the vet - such as steroids - then it is even more important - VITALLY IMPORTANT - that you do not give your pet salty food.

When your pets eat salt-laden food, the salt gives them a huge problem of fluid retention/morbid obesity. This causes them great discomfort and suffering and it hastens their death.

They will quickly and easily lose weight if you carefully avoid giving them the salty food. They will shed a lot of the excess fluid by excreting it in the urine.

Don't get them to take exercise to lower their weight. It won't help at all because it has no effect on fluid retention. Exercise is good for your dog, but wait until he or she has lost weight and is feeling better and more energetic, then it will be enjoyable and not too tiring.

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

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Six vulnerable patients died because of uncaring NHS

Health Service and Local Government Ombudsmen reports found that patients with learning difficulties were treated less favourably than others (surely they mean appallingly) and this resulted in "prolonged suffering and inappropriate care". Relatives who complained were effectively ignored.

Mencap, the respected learning disability charity, complained on behalf of the families of six vulnerable people who died in NHS or local authority care between 2003 and 2005, and an investigation was launched.

The Healthcare Commission itself was also criticised.

Mencap wrote about "Death By Indifference"

and here is today's article on the subject in the Telegraph

The extravagances of this junket were shameful.

The Telegraph today draws attention to the embarrassing fact that the Department for International Development, the government's Anti-poverty department spent more than £500,000 on a single conference

The article contains a breakdown of how the money was spent and should make uncomfortable reading for those involved. The money spent could have done much more good if it had been spent on directly helping people in poverty.

Monday, 23 March 2009

A high salt intake is a major cause of renal stones and also of osteoporosis/osteopenia in humans.

When bones are weakened by osteoporosis/osteopenia we tend to think of calcium and of drugs to help with the problem, but what about cutting down on salt? This also helps with renal stones.

See this extremely interesting information: World Action on Salt and Health (WASH)

Look at this amazing quotation from the website:

"It was calculated that a modest reduction in salt intake from 10g to 5g would have the same effect on hip bone density as an increase in calcium intake of 1000mg, a difficult amount to achieve without resorting to supplements."

And this:

"Diuretics, through a reduction in extra cellular volume, reduce calcium excretion leading to a positive calcium balance, increase bone density and reduce bone fractures."

Hypertension may be lowered by a protein in yellow peas.

The Telegraph has an article about the discovery of a protein in peas - a protein that lowers high blood pressure and is of especial benefit when high blood pressure accompanies kidney disease.

In fact all vegetables and fruits, because of their high potassium content, help to lower high blood pressure, though this report about a protein in peas must mean that there is an additional benefit conferred by peas. The reason potassium lowers high blood pressure is that potassium displaces sodium in the body. The fastest way to reduce high blood pressure is to eat less salt/sodium and salty food, so make sure your peas and your other vegetables are not salted.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Sunday, 22 March 2009

Alliance for Natural Health online petition on unfair EU restrictions on vitamins and minerals

The ANH has launched the first of its Online Petitions via the ANH homepage. The first petition aims to positively influence the approach the European Commission is taking in its efforts to limit the maximum available dosages of vitamin and mineral food supplements across the 27 Member States of Europe.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

Four times current vitamin D doses needed for winter levels:

Maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D during winter months requires a daily dose of 20 micrograms, four times the current recommended dose, says a new study. The study, led by Susan Sullivan from the University of Maine, has important implications for ongoing consultations on vitamin D recommendations, with the current level of five micrograms (200 International Units) seen by many as insufficient.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

Low vitamin D levels associated with metabolic syndrome in teenagers

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and metabolic syndrome in teenagers, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
Read article at physorg.com

In the wake of the Stafford Hospital scandal, The Sunday Telegraph is launching a campaign to avoid any repeat of such a crisis

Overview of the Stafford Hospital Scandal and suggested measures to prevent its happening again
article in the Sunday Telegraph

You may also like to visit

The Patients Association

If you are interested in Patients' Rights you may like to consider signing a petition, which can be found here:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/patientrights/

And you may be interested to look at the list of current petitions to Number 10 Downing Street in the "Health, well-being and care" category. They are here:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/list/open?cat=557

Saturday, 21 March 2009

Read about Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa's ongoing investigation

Read The Boston Globe's article about Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa's investigation into whether Harvard child psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman's association with pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson influenced his research findings about their psychotropic drugs, and therefore harmed children.

It's great that the spotlight of publicity is being beamed onto possible abuse of trust and honesty in the medical profession. The powerless need to be protected from the abuse of power. Sleaze in the medical profession is especially reprehensible, and the drug companies have a poor record for transparency in their research findings.

Nursing mothers who breastfeed for longer are helping to prevent their baby from becoming obese.

Breastfeeding for longer helps to protect your baby from obesity

The main reason for this is that human breast milk is low in salt/sodium. Sodium is more harmful to children than to adults because of their small size, and it is particularly harmful to babies.

See Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Celebrities should not endorse junk food.

Here's a Telegraph article criticising celebrities who advertise junk food. - Celebrities should not endorse junk food

I certainly agree with the sentiments of the article and I welcome the actress Emma Thompson's assurance that she would not endorse junk food.

I've often wondered how much harm Gary Lineker has indirectly caused to how many hundreds of thousands of children by his participation in the highly popular adverts for Walker's crisps. - The salt those crisps contain can be extremely injurious to children.

Shame on the celebrities who harm children and others in order to swell their bank balances!

See Children and Obesity

Do you believe you have layers of fat and are you wanting to reduce them? - Cutting down on salt helps with this problem.

It's true! - Cutting down on salt helps reduce fat retention. - And it has lots of other health benefits too. - Eating less salt and salty food is completely safe and involves no drugs or surgery.

Read about this in more detail here - FAT RETENTION

In my personal opinion it is neither necessary nor desirable to adopt a low fat diet. Low fat intake can be harmful, especially for small children.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Friday, 20 March 2009

Cervical cancer jab has caused severe reactions.

MORE than 1300 schoolgirls have experienced adverse reactions to the controversial cervical cancer jab. Doctors have reported girls aged just 12 and 13 have suffered paralysis, convulsions and sight problems after being given the vaccine. Dozens were described as having pain "in extremity" while others suffered from nausea, muscle weakness, fever, dizziness and numbness.
Read article in the Melbourne Herald Sun (Australia)

Overweight children as young as 3 are showing signs of cardiovascular disease risk factors

Toddlers are overweight at 3 years old and showing signs of heart problems
article on Medicine.Net.com

It is important to protect small children from the bad effects of a salty diet because salt does much more harm to children than to adults and also because if they develop a taste for salty food early in life it will be harder for them to lower their salt intake as they get older.

Childhood obesity associated with heart disease results from a diet too high in salt.

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.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body. Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health.

Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating yogurt (but avoid the sort of yogurt that has lots of chemical additives).

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

See Children and Obesity

Concerns over drug companies’ political donations

Consumer Watchdog (CS) has revealed that politicians in Washington have received multimillion dollar donations from drug and health insurance companies. According to CS, a nonpartisan and non-profit organization, the health industry contributed more than $5 million to the top 10 recipients in Congress during the last two election campaigns. The organization’s breakdown shows that those recipients received $2.2 million from health insurers and $3.3 million from drug manufacturers. Altogether, health insurers and drug manufacturers have contributed more than $24 million to the current members of the Senate and House of Representatives since 2005.
Read article at personalliberty.com (USA)

Thursday, 19 March 2009

Doctor accused of faking studies

A widely known Massachusetts anesthesiologist whose research has influenced how doctors treat surgery patients for pain has been accused of fabricating results in at least 21 published studies and, in some cases, even inventing patients. Physicians and journal editors said the allegations, if proven, could constitute one of the largest and longest-running cases ever of medical research fraud.
Read article in The Boston Globe (USA)

Read this and weep!

Mary Riddell's article in the Telegraph about the horrors of Stafford Hospital and the NHS

As well as Mary Riddell's frank article, be sure to read the comments below it. No-one should comfort themselves that the Stafford Hospital scandal is a one-off. - It very clearly is not.

In the wake of the Staffordshire Hospital scandal...

Who will be sacked in the wake of the Staffordshire Hospital scandal?
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The scale of the failure at Staffordshire General Hospital almost defies belief. Dehydrated patients forced to drink water from flower vases, accident victims left untended for hours, clinical judgements being made by receptionists. To call this Third World treatment is an insult to the Third World.

This appalling, incompetent management has exacted a terrible price. Anything from 400 to 1200 patients may have died unnecessarily as a result of the neglect. Not since Harold Shipman was still in general practice have NHS patients been so dreadfully betrayed.

The independent Healthcare Commission was alerted to the scandal by the high mortality rates in what it calls an "early warning system". That was in March last year, three years after the hospital had descended into chaos and a month after it won foundation status. Some early warning system."

When NHS care goes badly wrong as in this dreadful case, there is always a cover-up; there are always lies told by those in charge and/or by health professionals protecting colleagues in the profession. When, years ago, I tried desperately, but unsuccessfully, to obtain urgent treatment that was being denied me purely to avoid having to admit the severity and the length of time of the negligence and agonising pain I had suffered and was suffering, I found to my cost that no-one in management gives a toss for the suffering of patients, and that for the overwhelming majority of health professionals their priorities are money, power, status and reputation, and that management and health professionals combine in closing ranks against the common enemy, viz. the patients they have harmed and the families of those patients. It was nonetheless a bit of a shock when I discovered that the NHS itself and the Department of Health and so many other agencies and ministers and MPs and other individuals all join in with the lies and evasions and there is literally no-one in the entire edifice of the Health Service to whom one can turn and be assured of getting help.

This sorry debacle was not discovered or winkled out by the Healthcare Commission. It is because of the monumental efforts and persistence of relatives of patients who suffered/died in this Hell of a hospital that the general public has come to know about it. There is, in practice, no protection from this sort of ghastly treatment. The routine of lies, obfuscation and whitewash ensures this, and even if some sort of action is eventually taken it is only after inordinate delay.

Those most responsible for the horrors endured by patients at this hospital should, in my opinion, be tried in the criminal court and sent to prison. This would encourage others in positions of power to have some care for the patients' welfare and treatment. - But as it is - and as it sadly will remain - instead of prison, the 'guilty' will most likely move on to other similar posts and yet again there will have been no appropriate sanctions against these crimes against humanity.

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Many older people are being prescribed medications unnecessarily and without sufficient consideration of adverse side-effects.

Elderly people are being turned into patients by GPs blindly following guidelines to hand out pills for high blood pressure and cholesterol, a professor has said. The ‘paternalistic society’ and medicine by ‘tick box’ has overtaken personal advice, Michael Oliver, emeritus professor of cardiology at Edinburgh University wrote in the British Medical Journal online. He said many of the drugs including those for high blood pressure and statins for raised cholesterol have side effects which many elderly people find debilitating.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Pros and cons of prostate screening

Debate about Prostate Screening
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Doctors are divided over the benefits of offering widespread screening for prostate cancer, with many believing it could leave thousands of men at no real danger of dying from the disease with erection problems and incontinence."

It's good that the downside of screening is being considered. Too often, screening is advocated as though it is always a good thing.

I suppose the comparable screening for women is mammograms for breast cancer detection. As well as sometimes detecting cancer that needs to be treated, it sometimes results in false positives, leading to the stress and anxiety, and sometimes to surgery for cancers that were not really sufficiently large/serious to warrant surgery.

Reducing salt intake reduces the likelihood of developing breast cancer and some other cancers.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Calcium and vitamin D may protect against diabetes

Increased intakes of calcium and vitamin D may improve insulin levels, and offer protection against diabetes, independent of dairy intake, suggests a new study. Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, Tianying Wu, Walter C. Willett, and Edward Giovannucci from Harvard School of Public Health report that women with high intakes of calcium had 20 per cent lower levels of C-peptide, a marker of insulin levels, while men with high vitamin D levels had similarly lower levels of the marker. “The results suggest that calcium intake or systemic vitamin D status, after adjustment for intake of dairy products, is associated with decreased insulin secretion,” they wrote.
Read article at nutraingredients-usa.com

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

Fat folk who live on benefits because of their weight

Family of fatties lives on benefits.
Read article in the Telegraph

Extract:

In the Telegraph we read that "The Chawners, haven't worked in 11 years, claim their weight is a hereditary condition and the money they receive is insufficient to live on.

Mr Chawner said: "What we get barely covers the bills and puts food on the table. It's not our fault we can't work. We deserve more.""

Well you may be surprised to learn that I agree with Mr Chawner that it is not their fault that they are so fat that they can't work. The fact is that fat people are given the wrong information about what causes obesity and given the wrong advice about how to reduce their obesity.

Reducing calories does not reduce obesity and there has never been any evidence to support the calorie theory of obesity. Whereas if you put suitable words into your searchhbox you will immediately find on the internet a mass of information and evidence about how eating less salt/sodium results in loss of water/fluid from the body, i.e. loss of weight.

Overweight people are suffering from fluid retention, not from eating too much. - If the cause of obesity were eating too many calories then Heinz Asthoff would be obese. - See German eats 12000 calories a day but does not put on weight

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 fluid retention is maintained by salt intake that can be reduced easily by giving up dieting and instead concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food.

The Chawner family eats meals that contain a lot of salt/sodium: "cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner." They need to be advised to cut down on salty, convenience meals and to cook meals using fresh food with no added salt. They also need to eat plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables. They would then lose weight easily and swiftly and have much more energy. They would feel so much better and their health would improve in so many ways that I am sure that one or more of them would then feel well enough to go to work!

Monday, 16 March 2009

New research based on flawed assumptions claims to explain why some people do not get flabby.

The research reported in this article in the Daily Telegraph Fat enzyme explains why some people don't get flabby is based on the usual false assumptions for which there is no supporting evidence, namely that obesity is caused by high calorie intake and that retention of excess fat is caused by excessive fat intake. These assumptions are not true so any conclusions based on them must be flawed and are likely to be irrelevant.

Obesity is caused by sodium retention/fluid retention/salt sensitivity, not by eating too much food. It can be easily reduced by cutting down on salt/sodium and salty food. The calorie explanation for obesity (eating too many calories and not taking much exercise – i.e. greed plus laziness) is clearly wrong because many – probably most – people can eat as much as they like and not become overweight, even if they take very little exercise. – They are what I call on my website ‘the lucky people’. – They are the slim people. – They are the people who have healthy veins and kidneys and are not sensitive to salt. They simply excrete in the urine any excess salt and its attendant water, so they do not gain weight by fluid retention.

The reason they do not put on excess weight when they overeat is that they simply excrete any excess fat/calories they eat. (Faeces tend to contain a lot of fat/calories, which is why animal dung is used as fuel in many countries.)

A few years ago BBC2 showed a series of programmes called “The Truth About Food” and I learnt about some Danish research which throws light on this. – See http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/calcium.shtml where you will read: "a high calcium intake increases the excretion of fat in the faeces". – There is the necessary information! – In fact, the researchers found that twice as much fat was excreted on a high calcium intake as on a low calcium intake – and this was independent of calorie intake. – They also found that dairy calcium (they suggest low fat yoghurt) is a particularly good source for this extra calcium.

Even the frequent claim that fat deposits in the bodies of fat people are there to be drawn upon 'in leaner times' is a pure guess and is not correct. - The fat deposits are caused by the altered body chemistry (depletion of calcium and other essential minerals in the body) resulting from excess blood volume/fluid retention/salt sensitivity.

So to reduce fat retention, if it is present, the most important thing is to alter the diet to reduce the fluid retention which is the initiating cause of excess weight and the primary reason for fat people being short of calcium and for fat people ‘dieting’. That means reducing sodium intake and ensuring plenty of fruit and vegetables in the diet (because their high potassium content helps to displace sodium from the body).

And specifically it also means having a higher intake of calcium, especially, if possible, from a dairy source like low fat yoghurt. – It is also necessary to ensure sufficient vitamin D intake, as this is needed to metabolise the calcium. There is increasing research evidence that vitamin D deficiency is associated with being overweight - and insufficiency of vitamin D is quite common, as is widely reported, e.g. here - http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

In my personal opinion it is neither necessary nor desirable to adopt a low fat diet. Low fat intake can be harmful, especially for small children.

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

and FAT RETENTION

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

Sunday, 15 March 2009

Here's an article that may make you give serious consideration to cutting down on your salt intake

but as usual it doesn't explain that this would reduce excess weight...)o:

However, it does mention that quite a lot of the diseases associated with obesity would be reduced by cutting down on salt.

See Eating a Bit Less Salt Can Be a Big Health Boon
article in Time magazine

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Suspicious deaths of ten elderly patients in Gosport War Memorial Hospital in 1998 are at last going to be examined by the Coroner.

Gosport hospital deaths: Who's to blame?
Read the Independent on Sunday's investigative article.

Extract:

"An unprecedented inquest will this week begin to examine the suspicious deaths of 10 elderly patients who died unexpectedly after being given high doses of powerful painkillers and sedative drugs at a hospital in Hampshire.

"The hearing, granted last year by the Justice Secretary Jack Straw, despite the fact that seven of the people concerned have already been cremated, highlights nearly 100 other cases at Gosport War Memorial Hospital which may be related.

Relatives of at least 92 patients involved in the case have fought for the past 10 years to have the matter investigated thoroughly. They believe the deaths have never been properly explained and want those involved to be held to account. They want to know whether their relatives died as a result of accidents, incompetence or what some fear might be something more sinister. They believe that there was a culture of treating patients with palliative care – as though they were dying – rather than rehabilitating them.

They point out that this week's jury hearing at Portsmouth Combined Court comes seven years after a damning report by the NHS watchdog which identified systemic failings in medication prescribing.

The Government has so far rejected relatives' calls for a public inquiry into the deaths, despite stinging criticisms about the way they were handled by the police and the General Medical Council (GMC). Three police investigations have failed to shed light on why the patients died. The GMC, in particular, has been lambasted by the relatives for its failure to act promptly and decisively."

The GMC is notorious for protecting negligent doctors and doing little if anything for their innocent patient victims and their families. It should be abolished and the money that is wasted on it should be put to good use. The NHS, disgracefully, is also notorious for protecting negligent doctors and doing little if anything for their innocent patient victims and their families...)o: - It too should be scrapped. - Sadly that is unlikely to happen since the NHS is the biggest employer in the country and if any government had the courage and decency to scrap it, it would be, in effect, voting itself out of office.

I do hope the long-suffering relatives of the dead patients get an honest and satisfactory outcome from the inquest/s and that they get it without further long delays.

A new report claims that breast cancer is linked to the diet that women had when they were young.

Breast cancer is linked to poor diet and low exercise in the early years, says report
Read article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"An analysis of 1,146 girls from birth to age 13 linked obesity and lack of exercise to an increased risk of breast cancer.

The study, Nutrition in Children and Breast Cancer Childhood, was led by Professor Jaak Janssens, president of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation, in Hasselt, Belgium.

It said: "Breast cancer seems to originate almost entirely in childhood. The breast is most vulnerable at the very onset of development.""

Obesity in childhood is caused by 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.

The article also mentions gender-bending chemicals. A chemical in the news yesterday - bisphenol-A - as a constituent of some babies' feeder bottles - is suspected of being linked to obesity and its comorbidities. - Try putting 'bisphenol-A obesity' into your searchbox and you will see a great deal of research points this way. Prescribed pharmaceutical drugs are also a very common cause of obesity, cancer, etc.

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

and FAT RETENTION

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

Chief medical officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson would like alcohol prices to be raised.

Government's top doctor recommends price hike for alcohol
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Chief medical officer Professor Sir Liam Donaldson will tomorrow recommend state limits on the price of alcoholic drinks, meaning that none could be sold for less than 50 pence per unit of alcohol.

The proposal, from his annual report on the state of the nation's health, will say the stark measure is necessary to tackle the scourge of binge drinking among Britain's youth, and rising levels of alcoholism among older people."

I hope this recommendation will be implemented. High alcohol intake damages health, and by impairing judgment leads also to accidents and fights.

Saturday, 14 March 2009

If you have diabetes and you live in the UK I believe you would find this of interest:

Are the financial incentives given to UK doctors regarding diabetes doing more harm than good?
Blog entry on Dr John Briffa's blog.

Extracts:

"From April of this year, if GPs can get half of their type 2 diabetic patients to have a HbA1c level (this is a measure of blood sugar control over the preceding 3 months or so) of less than 7 per cent, then the practice gets an additional payment of £3000 ($4250). Prior to this, the target set by the government was 7.5 per cent. Clearly, the government feels that when it comes to HbA1c levels, lower is better."

"It seems that not only is the UK government’s recent move to lower the HbA1c targets for GPs not particularly evidence-based, there is a risk it might actually do more harm than good. The authors of the BMJ piece use some good old-fashioned plain-speak to conclude their piece by stating: “The change of target from 7.5% to 7% should be withdrawn before it wastes resources and possibly harms patients.”"

Increasingly it seems to me that the government favours more and more drug treatment for long-term health problems. This appears to be treating symptoms instead of attacking causes of ill-health. I favour improving diet rather than the ever-increasing prescribing of powerful drugs with all their potential for adverse side-effects.

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

and FAT RETENTION

Iffy chemical, Bisphenol A, still present in some babies' plastic feeding bottles in the UK.

Baby bottle chemical is removed
article on the BBC News website

Extract:

"The makers of babies' bottles in the US are to remove a controversial chemical from their products, amid growing concern over its possible effects.

The six manufacturers say they are reacting to consumer demand by removing Bisphenol A (BPA) from their bottles.

But they will continue selling bottles containing BPA in the UK, a decision which has angered campaigners.

The Food Standards Agency insists BPA in UK plastic products is "well below the levels considered harmful".

The chemical is widely used in plastic manufacture and is commonly found in food and drink containers.

Heated bottles

There has been growing concern about the possible effects of BPA leaching into babies' feed when bottles are heated.

The current advice for parents is not to pour boiling liquid directly into bottles, not to microwave them or use scratched or worn ones.

Research carried out at Exeter University found that adults with high levels of BPA in their system were more prone to heart disease and diabetes

Dr Iain Lang, who led the study, said: "There is not enough to provide us with the evidence to say there is definitely a link, there is definitely something going on."

I reckon most parents would prefer to err on the side of caution where their baby's health is concerned.

Friday, 13 March 2009

The Telegraph reports that a fifth of patients in intensive care are subjected to errors with their medication, according to a study.

Patients in intensive care suffer frequent medicine errors, research finds
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The most frequent mistakes were giving medication at the wrong time, followed by missed doses and administering the wrong dose.

The research involved 113 intensive care units in 27 countries, including the UK.

The team examined errors made with medicines in a 24-hour snapshot.

Of the 1,328 patients in the study, 861 medicine errors affected 441 patients. Seven patients experienced permanent harm as a result of the errors while five died as a direct result.

However the authors warned that because the reports of errors was voluntary it is likely to reflect an underestimate of the real scale of the problem.

The data, published in the British Medical Journal online, showed that heavy workload, stress and general tiredness among staff contributed to a third of all errors."

I can't help thinking that if fewer drugs were prescribed there would be less risk of error.

Elderly patients are being harmed because doctors prescribe them too many drugs.

Doctors 'too reliant on prescribing drugs'
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Some patients are receiving too little advice about cutting down on smoking or reducing their weight as doctors increasingly reach for pills to treat them, according to the study, published in the Lancet medical journal.

The report comes just a week after a leading expert warned that millions of elderly patients were being prescribed drugs that they did not need, for conditions ranging from high blood pressure to high cholesterol or diabetes.

Professor Michael Oliver warned that a "tick-box culture" was leading to overtreatment and unnecessary anxiety for many older people."

I'm all in favour of cutting down on prescription drugs. They do far more harm than good.

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

Thursday, 12 March 2009

A misguided medic, Dr David Walker, claims that tax on chocolate will reduce obesity. - He's wrong.

Chocolate should be taxed to control obesity epidemic, doctors are told
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Dr Walker, a family GP who is also a trained food scientist and nutritionist, said: "Obesity is a mushrooming problem. We are heading the same way as the United States.

"There is an explosion of obesity and the related medical conditions, like type two diabetes. I see chocolate as a major player in this, and I think a tax on products containing chocolate could make a real difference."

The GP, from Airdrie, Lanarkshire presented the plan to delegates at the BMA's annual conference of Scottish Local Medical Committees in Glasgow."

Well despite Dr Walker's qualifications he's wrong in thinking that chocolate is a major cause of obesity. - It isn't even a minor cause of obesity! There's never been any evidence to support the assumption that obesity is caused by eating too many calories or too much fat; the assumption has never even been put to the test. It is not the case that eating less chocolate will reduce obesity.

A tax on table salt (sodium chloride) - now THAT might reduce salt consumption, and if it did, then THAT WOULD REDUCE OBESITY.

Here is the truth:

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

and FAT RETENTION

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

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Are Brits really eating themselves to death or is it misinformation that is the problem?

Eating ourselves to death: Britain's fat epidemic
article in the Independent on Sunday

The comments beneath the article are interesting. There are the usual sort whose writers blame fat people themselves for their obesity and there are more thoughtful contributions by people who have given the matter much more thought and realise the problem is multi-faceted. - Here are my own thoughts:

Dieting is a snare and a delusion, and the frequent exhortation thrown at fat people to 'just eat less and exercise more' has not a jot of evidence to support its efficacy. - It absolutely does not make obese people less obese. Dieting fosters malnutrition and dietary deficiencies.

Cutting down on salt and salty food reduces weight easily and safely by reducing the fluid retention which is part of all obesity. Increasing calcium intake reduces weight by increasing fat excretion in the faeces (details on the BBC's website in the BBC2 "Truth About Food" pages from a series a few years ago) and there is growing evidence that excess weight is associated with Vitamin D deficiency as well as with calcium deficiency.

Many prescription drugs cause massive fluid retention and therefore morbid obesity, including steroids like prednisone and prednisolone, HRT, tricyclic anti-depressants like amitriptyline, anti-psychotics, etc.

Obesity is a complex illness, ill-served by the simplistic 'solutions' of the uninformed.

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