Study Reinforces the Benefits of Breastfeeding, Especially in the First Few Days After Birth.

The Telegraph reports on a study that suggests that newborn babies who are breast fed are better protected against damage to their stomachs than those given formula milk.

Extract from the report: "Professor Ray Playford, who led the study, said: "This study is important because it shows that a component of breast milk protects and repairs the babies delicate intestines in readiness for the onslaught of all the food and drink that are to come.""

Widespread Misrepresentation of Drug Research Findings by Drug Companies Tarnishes Pharmaceutical Industry

Stuart Laidlow of the Toronto Star writes that "From the creation of fake academic journals, to bogus stories submitted to real journals, to falsified results in some of academia's most respected publications – the pharmaceutical industry has been rocked by allegations that the world's biggest drug companies put public relations above public safety."

Some of the drug companies involved include Merck, Eli Lilly and Pfizer.

Put not your trust in drug companies. They clearly care about their profits, rather than the health of the innocent people who get damaged by their products.

Do you have Cushing Features/Cushing's Syndrome and wonder if there is anything you can do about it?

Do you have Cushing Features/Cushing's Syndrome and wonder if there is anything you can do about it? - There is!

You cannot cure the Cushing problems, but you can certainly reduce them. If you seriously cut down on salt and salty food - permanently - and if you also try to eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables, and if you completely abandon dieting and going hungry and counting calories, you can reduce those Cushing features, lose some of your excess weight, look more like your old self and have lots more energy.

I'm editing this post to make clear that I am not talking about Cushing's Disease, that is why I did not use the term Cushing's Disease in the title of this blog entry. Cushing's Disease is not caused by prescription drugs.

I should have made clear that I am talking only about Drug-induced Cushing's Syndrome, best known of which is Steroid-induced Cushing's Syndrome. i.e. a syndrome caused by taking drugs such as inappropriately-prescribed corticosteroids or certain other classes of prescription drugs. I myself developed Steroid-induced Cushing's many years ago.

People who become morbidly obese in this way, with a host of associated health problems like high blood pressure, thin skin, moonface, enlarged heart, etc. are often described as 'steroid victims'. There are millions of them the world over, wherever these pharmaceutical drugs are prescribed.

Two of the many side-effects of the medication are sodium and water retention and these lead on directly to many of the other problems, for example, the high blood pressure.

I had been on the steroids for nearly ten years unfortunately before I found out by chance about the role of salt in Drug-induced Cushing's. I lost 51 pounds weight by strict sodium reduction, and the other side-effects of the drugs were similarly reduced. For example the high blood pressure returned to normal.

I created my website and my blog to save other people from needless suffering. See my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Drug-induced Cushing's sufferers lose weight easily by following my sodium reduction advice, e.g. Tara and 'Dee'. See Tara and her problems with prednisolone
and see 'Dee' and her massive weight gain and stretch marks from being prescribed prednisolone in too high dosage

My apologies to people who have actual Cushing's Disease, which is much more complicated than Drug-induced Cushing's Syndrome. I was not writing about Cushing's Disease.

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.

And see Sodium in foods

prescribed steroids and HRT

amitriptyline

Women in Yorkshire seeking IVF treatment on the NHS have been told they only qualify if they are between 39.5 and 40-years of age

The Telegraph reports that health service managers in Yorkshire have introduced restrictions such that "Women seeking IVF treatment on the NHS have been told they only qualify if they are between 39.5 and 40 years of age." - Surely they can't be serious!

Here is a bit of information that may help some infertile women who are reading this. - If you are infertile because of being overweight or obese, then an easy, safe, sure way to lose some excess weight and improve your fertility is to avoid eating salt and salty food.

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

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

and FAT RETENTION

New cleansing development to help fight superbugs

The Telegraph reports that in "the biggest trial of its kind the newly developed cleansing agent Byotrol has cut levels of MRSA on wards by one third compared with the NHS gold standard bleach."

A development to reduce MRSA significantly must be welcomed since "300,000 patients – one in 12 – contracts an infection in English hospitals every year."

Note: you can boost your immune system by eating healthy meals and avoiding salt and salty food.

If you suffer from fluid retention, you should limit your salt/sodium intake, not your fluid intake.

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

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

Pregnant mothers may need to avoid certain products to protect their unborn babies from health problems

The Telegraph reports that pregnant mothers' exposure to certain chemicals in shampoos, hairspray, cosmetics, perfumes and other products is linked to low birth weight and other health problems in their babies.

The chemicals are called Phthalates. "In Europe, certain phthalates have been banned from hairsprays and other products since early 2005.

But they are still found in many cosmetics, including deodorants, perfumes, and nail varnish, as well as hairspray."

It appears that pregnant mothers should avoid using such products as far as possible during their pregnancy.

Increased fracture risk after obesity surgery

BBC News reports that US research suggests that obesity operations, such as gastric bypasses or banding, doubles the risk of suffering fractures. We read that "Chronic vitamin D deficiency and inadequate calcium intake are common with obesity, and bariatric surgery poses a risk owing to malabsorption and decreased oral intake."

If you are obese and considering bariatric surgery, please first consider trying the natural way to lose excess weight, i.e. by avoiding salt and salty food and by increasing your intake of calcium, magnesium, potassium and vitamin D.

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

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

Serious Surgical Blunder Compounded By Dismissive Attitude of Health Professionals Afterwards

The Telegraph reports that Lynn Main, 55, had a hysterectomy at Horton General Hospital in Banbury, Oxfordshire, in May. Two days later she was in very great pain but doctors and nurses did not take her seriously until her bowel burst, causing the life-threatening infection called peritonitis.

It was found that during the hysterectomy her bowel had been stitched closed.

The internal damage has now been repaired and a stoma fitted.

Miss Main and her partner have begun legal proceedings about the matter.

It is deplorable how often health professionals fail to take seriously a patient's reports of excruciating pain.

Many adults have unhappy memories of school PE lessons.

The Telegraph reports that of more than 1,250 adults questioned, almost a third (29.3 per cent) said PE lessons were their unhappiest experience of primary and secondary school, with women more likely to have bad memories that men.

Bullying, 'a scary teacher' and school dinners had bad memories for some, while many had fond memories of good teachers.

I've a suggestion as to part of the reason for the bad school PE memories. - For anyone who is overweight, PE and games can be very distressing, both because of embarrassment about how they look and because of the breathlessness and red face and other physical problems caused by strenuous exercise. - Here is how the overweight child can easily and safely lose weight and feel fitter and stronger: by eating less salt and salty food.

It is salt and salty food that causes child obesity, and along with the obesity a lot of other health problems.

Children and Obesity

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

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

Health Protection Agency and LACORS report poor egg handling practices in UK restaurants and takeaways

WorldPoultrynet article on poor hygiene in UK restaurants and takeaways when handling eggmixes, as revealed in new report from the Health Protection Agency and LACORS (Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services).

Ballroom dancing is very good for children's health and fitness.

The Telegraph reports that ballroom dancing is very good for children.

A dancing initiative backed by professionals from the TV programme Strictly Come Dancing had "more than 2,500 students aged five to 18 learn to cha-cha-cha, waltz and jive in 29 primary and secondary schools across England." It has been found to improve their behaviour and to boost low self-esteem and confidence, as well as improving their health and fitness and communication skills.

If You Are Interested in Maintaining Your Health

I urge you to watch this video:

Paul Anthony Taylor Speaking at the European Social Forum last September

Ed McMahon's Health Story from 2001 Gives Helpful Dietary Advice for Losing Weight and Lowering High Blood Pressure

This Health Story from USATODAY is from 8 years ago, but the dietary advice "decreasing sodium intake, increasing potassium-rich whole foods" is just as helpful today as then. By doing this, Ed McMahon lost 50 pounds weight, lowered his high blood pressure and found he was full of energy.

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

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.

Poor NHS Footcare led to Part Amputation of a Diabetes Patient's Foot

Poor NHS Footcare led to Part Amputation of Foot: One Woman's Experience detailed here on the BBC News website.

Anna Levis has type 1 diabetes. She says her foot problems were not taken seriously and she is convinced that if they had been dealt with by a diabetes specialist from the start she would not have had to have the part-amputation, which has resulted in great restrictions to her life.

Is it really correct to describe Swine Flu as a Pandemic?

In this Opinion Article in the Los Angeles Times, Michael Fumento questions the wisdom of the World Health Organisation in labelling the present swine flu illness a pandemic, when it has resulted in so few deaths (compared with pandemics of the past). The last words of his interesting article are: "For now, we'll pay in told and untold ways because the WHO has cried "havoc" and let slip the dogs of pandemic."

Will the Latest 'Scar-free Surgery' be Adopted by the NHS?

The Telegraph reports on the latest development in 'minimally invasive' surgery, also known as keyhole or laparoscopic surgery, in which the surgery is performed through the navel leaving no visible mark.

Why does the EFSA defend the use of the sweetener, Aspartame?

Why does the European Food Safety Authority defend the use of the sweetener, aspartame, when long-term studies on developing rats by a prestigious European research institute have shown that aspartame causes cancer?

Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) (UK)

I repeat: Why does the European Food Safety Authority defend the use of the sweetener, aspartame, when long-term studies on developing rats by a prestigious European research institute have shown that aspartame causes cancer?

What's in it for the EFSA?

Healthcare costs and the myth of prevention that involves multi-screening, multi-testing and high NNT drugs like statins

Healthcare costs and the myth of prevention that involves multi-screening, multi-testing and the high cost of medication like statins: the Wall Street Journal carries this thoughtful article.

See also www.slate.com article - It explains 'relative risk' and in particular considers whether the prescribing of statins as treatment for high cholesterol levels is justified. - A statistical tool you may never have heard of is NNT - the 'number needed to treat'.

True prevention of avoidable/chronic illness and avoidable disability entails good nutrition, along with drastic reduction of sodium intake, e.g. by cooking fresh food instead of microwaving convenience foods high in salt, and eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables. Above all, avoid dieting! - Dieting is unnecessary, ineffective, and, more often than not, harmful.

It's also a good idea to avoid prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary, because so often their side-effects include obesity/sodium retention/fluid retention/salt sensitivity and a host of attendant chronic illness.

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

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.

NHS is told to improve the care it provides for children

BBC News reports a high incidence of errors in its care of children, in particular mistakes made with medication, mainly attributable to the lack of availability of medicines in child doses.

My own feeling is that if child doses are not available, it may well be that data for that medication on children has not been approved and that it would be better not to provide that medication.

Restrictions on co-proxamol prescribing have resulted in a dramatic drop in number of suicides from self-poisoning.

BBC News reports that there has been a dramatic reduction in suicides from self-poisoning since restrictions were imposed on the prescribing of the painkiller co-proxamol. Well that is very good news.

A drug-free, completely safe way to reduce many types of pain, including pain from osteo-arthritis, is to avoid salt and salty food.

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.

Babygrow that changes colour if the child has a fever.

The Telegraph reports that a pub landlord has invented a babygrow that glows if the child has a fever.

This sounds a very useful invention.

Fat Retention compared to Fat Storage/Fat Reserves

As we know, some animals store fat for when they need it in the future. This BBC webpage, for instance, tells us that: "Common hibernators are bats, frogs (which hibernate at the bottom of streams or ponds where the water does not freeze), and snakes. Other animals such as badgers and squirrels go into temporary hibernation - staying inside their dens during the very cold days and surviving by living off body fat or a store of food."

So that's Fat Storage. - Fat Reserves, you could say. They are temporary. They are going to get used when the animal is not eating.

And that's certain animals: mainly animals that hibernate, i.e. conserve energy and go to sleep during the winter because there isn't much food around for them to eat in the winter.

Now there's a lot of obesity pundits telling us that obese people store fat in case there's a time in the future when they'll need it. - I believe that that is absolute nonsense. - And here is why:

1. Human beings do not hibernate.

2. The excess fat that humans accumulate is not the special 'brown fat' that hibernating animals store.

3. The excess fat that humans accumulate is not useful; it's a nuisance, a burden. - In fact, I don't think we'd be going far wrong to call it an anomaly - a deviation from what is usually the norm.

I think it's a categorical mistake to call it Fat Storage.

Storage implies purpose - like the purpose of providing a hibernating animal with food when it is unable to feed in the usual way.

So that accumulated excess fat in obese people should more correctly be called
Fat Retention. - And by Fat Retention I mean that there is no biological purpose to it. - It's not going to 'come in useful' if there's a famine. - It's fat that been retained because the normal physiological mechanism the body uses to get rid of excess fat is not working. - And it's not working because sodium retention/fluid retention has depleted the body of the calcium it needs in order to excrete excess fat (by way of the faeces).

And it hasn't accumulated because the fat person ate a lot of fat. It has accumulated because the person is sensitive to salt.

You can read about Fat Retention here: FAT RETENTION

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.

Some UK schools are pressing teaching assistants to carry out medical procedures for which they have not been trained.

Too much is being asked of school teaching assistants by way of helping pupils with medical treatments, BBC News reports - for example, "administering drugs for heart problems, changing colostomy bags and testing blood sugar levels."

Surely these procedures would be better dealt with by schools employing school nurses? In my opinion, schools and/or local education authorities should not have to train up teaching assistants to do tasks well outside their normal remit. I feel sure it would be safer, and also more acceptable to pupils and their parents, and the teaching assistants themselves.

Susan Greenfield on Radio 5: Simon Mayo Programme

I've been listening this afternoon to Baroness Susan Greenfield, Oxford University professor, on Simon Mayo's Radio 5 programme. And that means I've just heard her give wrong information about what causes obesity. And that's a great shame, because she's known as a scientist and she's very influential.

I went to a talk she gave about ten years ago and I made a point of speaking to her afterwards and showed her photos of me from 1997: photos in which I was extremely fat as a consequence of taking prescribed HRT. She could see that I had lost a great deal of weight (51 pounds, in fact) since then and was surprised to learn that I had done this by drastically reducing my sodium intake, not by dieting.

She was in a bit of a rush and asked me to write to her as she was very interested. This I did, writing to her at the Royal Institution, in her capacity as Director there. I explained that blood volume increased markedly with obesity. We exchanged a few letters but the correspondence was disappointing to me, as I had hoped she would pursue the matter of sodium retention and water retention as causing obesity, rather than overeating, and sodium reduction for reducing excess weight, rather than eating fewer calories or less fat.

I gained from that correspondence the very strong impression that she was reluctant to consider prescription drugs and the medical profession and misinformation from them as blameworthy in regard to people becoming obese. I believe she was reluctant to criticise medics.

The statement of purpose of the Royal Institution when it started in 1799 was: "The application of science to the common purposes of life." As such, clearing up the misinformation and spreading the truth about obesity and how it can best be prevented/reduced would admirably accord with that purpose.

Sadly, Baroness Greenfield gave the same misinformation today that we commonly hear, as she spoke of eating too much being the cause of overweight. - It isn't, and there is no evidence to support her assertion. - I'm very surprised that ten years on from our letters she appears to have failed to investigate the connection between obesity and salt sensitivity.

Happily, when I wrote to Professor Sir Richard Doll, then Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, in 2001, he wrote back agreeing with what I had written about obesity problems caused by poor prescribing and indicating that these could be lessened by diuretics and/or eating less salt/sodium, a fact I had already deduced. He wrote that all doctors should know this.

Obesity is not caused by overeating; it is caused by salt sensitivity/fluid retention in vulnerable people. These include children. - See Vulnerable groups

When people whose blood vessels are weaker than the norm eat salt, the result is weight gain and obesity (because of excess sodium and water held in the blood vessels and elsewhere). This condition is also known as sodium retention, water retention, fluid retention, salt sensitivity or oedema. If these people reduce their salt intake they lose some of the excess sodium and water, and so lose weight, and if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables they lose weight faster, because the potassium in the fruit and vegetables displaces some of the excess sodium from the body.

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

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.

Do You Know Enough About the Food Industry?

Telegraph article about new film that exposes questionable practices in the Food Industry

The documentary is called Food, Inc. I wonder if we'll have the stomach for it...)o:

Sedatives and hypnotics are both associated with increased risk of suicide in the elderly

Read article at physorg.com

Whistleblowing Gastroenterologist Alleges Intimidation at Stafford Hospital

The Telegraph reports that a whistle-blowing consultant, Pradip Singh, has told the House of Commons all-party Health Committee about "the medical practices that may have led to hundreds of deaths at a scandal-hit NHS hospital."

Whistleblowers are not welcome in the NHS.

The Salt Has Lost Its Savour

The Salt Has Lost Its Savour: a Blessing has become a Bane.

I'm afraid that in these latter days of salt-laden processed ready meals masquerading as real food, and prescribed medication purporting to deliver health while all too often actually inflicting catastrophic damage on multitudes of innocent victims by causing salt sensitivity/oedema/fluid retention/water weight/morbid obesity and its co-morbidities - high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, cancer et al - humankind is in great danger.

In the grip of a corrupt multinational pharmaceutical industry, a rapacious food industry, an uninformed dieting industry, an ill-informed and sometimes collusive medical profession, and compliant, sometimes collusive politicians and governments, the health and happiness of humankind are being sacrificed to the avarice of the powerful.

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

Vulnerable groups

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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.

Thinking of having a face lift?

You may like to consider this safe, non-surgical, cost-free, natural face lift first.

This reduces jowls and double chin and general sag by removing some of the excess water held in the veins.

Psychiatric Drug Research is Compromised When Psychiatrists Have Financial Ties to Drug Industry.

Read article on the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP) website (USA)

Eli Lilly Urged Doctors to Prescribe Zyprexa Inappropriately

Bloomberg reports further on the Eli Lilly/Zyprexa scandal.

Doctors were urged to prescribe Zyprexa for elderly dementia patients, even though it was known that the drug would not help with that condition.

I urge you to read the Bloomberg article.

This is yet another horrifying example of deliberate wrongdoing by drug companies, with the result in this instance that "death rates among older dementia patients taking Zyprexa were “significantly greater” than those who didn’t get the medicine."

I believe that the only health in which drug companies are interested is the health of their own financial profits.

For your own health's sake it would be better to avoid taking pharmaceutical drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

More than 150 girls in Scotland have suffered adverse reactions to cervical cancer jab, Cervarix, made by Glaxo, introduced last autumn

Read article in The Scotsman (Scotland/UK)

If you are overweight or obese, you may have noticed that your veins have swollen. Here's some information and advice:

When people whose blood vessels are weaker than the norm eat salt, the result is weight gain and obesity (because of excess sodium and water held in the blood vessels and elsewhere). This condition is also known as sodium retention, water retention, fluid retention, salt sensitivity or oedema. If these people reduce their salt intake they lose some of the excess sodium and water, and so lose weight, and if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables they lose weight faster, because the potassium in the fruit and vegetables displaces some of the excess sodium from the body.

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

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.

D-Day Hero was not allowed to leave care home to go home to his wife.

The Daily Mail reports that a D-Day hero, age 93, was not allowed to leave a care home and return to his wife of 68 years because social services had said he was suffering from dementia, though it seems he was only mildly forgetful. He was waiting in the care home for months for a care package to be arranged for him and became very depressed about it. It appears that Mr Alfred Tonkin then went on hunger strike because of this refusal to let him go home. This hastened his death and he never did return home.

Surely social services should have been more responsive to the wishes of someone so old, who was depressed away from his wife and real home. They should have tried harder to get him home with minimum delay to spend the remainder of his life with his wife.

The NHS Will Have to Cut Down on Spending

The BBC News website reports that the NHS will experience severe financial cuts after 2011.

The NHS Confederation cites rising costs within the health service, and new treatments and the ageing population as two of the factors causing the inflation in the health service. They suggest a cap on the budget for new drugs and the possible exclusion of care such as IVF, homeopathy and elements of dentistry.

I have some further suggestions to make:

1. A complete ban on psychotropic prescription drugs for children under 18.
2. A complete ban on antidepressants, since they don't work. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'
3. Massive cuts on all prescription drug budgets to curb reckless, damaging over-prescribing.
4. An end to breast enlargements and gender re-assignment operations on the NHS.
5. Put strict legal limits on the amount of salt/sodium that food producers are allowed to add to their products and that food retailers are allowed to sell. This would improve most people's health very quickly indeed.
6. Make it a legal requirement that salt levels appear on the labels at the front of all processed foods and and sandwiches, etc.
7. Have all retail packs of table salt labelled with the information that added salt damages the health of most people, especially children, pregnant women and overweight/obese people.
8. Put a heavy tax on table salt.
9. Abolish higher awards/merit awards for hospital consultants, which, at the top, can double pay to nearly £200,000.

Above all, however, health professionals need to tell the truth about obesity. The lies need to be admitted and the truth told. This would almost instantly improve the health and happiness of millions of users of the NHS and very greatly reduce chronic illness in particular. See
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

Obesity is mainly 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 – possibly 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 from fat retention when they overeat is that they simply excrete in their faeces 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 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 natural unsweetened 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.

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

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.

Smoking is a heavy burden on the NHS and is the cause of about 1 in 5 deaths.

The Telegraph reports that smoking costs the NHS more than 5 billion pounds a year and is the cause of 1 in 5 deaths in Britain. This "does not include indirect costs such as informal care, the costs of treating disease caused by passive smoking and the full range of conditions associated with smoking."

Speaking from my own experience, both of my parents smoked, and I had long spells in hospital and spent much of my childhood coughing...)o:

If you are a smoker, you do harm others by your smoking, even if you try not to believe this.

Further info about drug company financial inducements to doctors to prescribe statins

See http://www.healpain.net/articles/DoesDoctor.html

If you want a drug-free way to reduce cholesterol problems you just need to avoid salt and salty food. This will benefit your health in a host of other ways too.

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!

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

Sodium in foods

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

When the state is an uncaring, unloving parent, some children are further harmed with prescribed psychoactive junk that can drive them to suicide.

See Miami Herald article.

My personal opinion is that it should be deemed a criminal offence to prescribe psychotropic drugs to minors. Children in care or in foster care especially need love and attention, not pharmaceutical junk. Their existing emotional trauma should not be compounded by mind-altering drugs. Instead of a blind eye being turned on contraventions of the regulations/statutes, the people who are responsible for the children being prescribed these drugs should be struck off the medical register and should go for trial to a criminal court.

Doubts are being raised about the safety of Glaxo's Avandia drug

See Wall Street Journal article with news about this diabetes drug.

There is a completely safe, effective, drug-free way to reduce diabetes problems. - If you avoid salt and salty food you will lose some excess weight and lower your high blood pressure. It is also good for your heart to eat less salt/sodium and it will lower your cholesterol level.

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

See also FAT RETENTION

Harmful side-effects are associated with dementia drugs

Harmful side-effects are associated with several dementia drugs commonly prescribed for elderly people.
Read article at sciencedaily.com

Dr John Zeisel has a kinder, safer, drug-free alternative to offer for elderly people with dementia. See http://www.imstillhere.org/

A Dystopian Future EU Surveillance Society?

Guardian article on EU and the surveillance society

A chilling, Orwellian prospect.

If you are thinking of taking HRT, here's a bit more information for you to consider before you make your mind up.

See Dr Briffa's blog post about HRT

And see prescribed steroids and HRT

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

See also FAT RETENTION

Vulnerable groups

I welcome Dr John Zeisel's advocacy of non-pharmacological treatment for people with dementia.

The Telegraph reports that Dr John Zeisel, president of Hearthstone Alzheimer Care, an international provider of non-pharmacological treatment for people with dementia, is advocating a change of attitude and policy toward people suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. He states that his research and practice "has proved that non-pharmacological treatment of Alzheimer's, such as environmental design responsive to their capacities, caregiver education, and visits to museums with research-based selection of art works and specially trained guides, can be just as powerful as other medicinal treatments in reducing symptoms of dementia and the big four A's of Alzheimer's: agitation, anxiety, aggression, and apathy."

He is against dementia sufferers being confined to their homes, to hospitals or to care homes, and says they should be treated as and recognised as real people who are "still there".

This is surely the way to go, especially as so frequently in this country (the UK) psychotropic and other prescription drugs are often used for the convenience of the staff in old people's homes, rather than to be helpful to the residents. See the Telegraph articles: Half of nursing home residents wrongly drugged, study shows and One in five care homes lacks respect for elderly

You can reduce your risk of developing dementia by improving your nutrition and avoiding salt and salty food.

The Los Angeles Times reports that medical bills feature in 62% of bankruptsies.

The Los Angeles Times reports that medical bills feature in 62% of bankruptsies.

This is surely a dreadful state of affairs.

Here are my suggestions in no particular order:

1. Cut down drastically on salt and salty food. This will lower your risk of serious illness, e.g. diabetes and most cancers, and of disability, e.g. arthritis, and will reduce excess weight.
2. Avoid taking prescription drugs if you possibly can. This will save you from a lot of health problems caused by drug side-effects. And remember, pharmaceutical drugs are a major cause of weight gain.
3. Give up smoking if you have not already done so.
4. Cut down on alcohol.
5. Top up your vitamin D levels by going bare-armed into the sun for a few minutes each day if you can. This will help to keep your bones strong and protect you from hip fractures, etc. - And help to keep your weight down. - And give a boost to your immune system.
6. GIVE UP DIETING AND COUNTING CALORIES FOREVER! - DIETING IS UNNECESSARY, INEFFECTIVE AND HARMFUL. - DIETS DO NOT WORK! - FACT! - DO NOT WASTE ANY MORE OF YOUR LIFE, YOUR TIME AND YOUR MONEY ON THEM. THEY ARE AN EXPENSIVE WAY OF DAMAGING YOUR HEALTH.
7. If you feel depressed, go for a walk in the country or in a park, or speak to a friend. Do not reach for a drink or go to the doctor's for pills. Remember: Anti-depressants do not work!
   
8. Give up diet coke and other diet drinks. They've never made anyone any slimmer, ever.
9. Don't be an exercise junkie. It's not necessary.
10. Cook from fresh whenever you can. Give the processed meals and takeaways a miss.
11. Eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables.
12. Hunger is your body's way of telling you that you need food. If you are hungry, eat! - You wouldn't run your car on empty; don't try to run your body on empty!
    
13. Step up your calcium intake. And your magnesium.
    
14. Always eat and drink something for breakfast. - No more lies about not feeling hungry in a morning, thank you!
15. If you like chocolate, eat chocolate! - Just make sure it doesn't contain added salt. Chocolate is not fattening and it's not bad for you.
16. Do someone a kindness. Visit an elderly neighbour.
17. Think about buying a breadmaker so that you can make your own bread with much less salt in than the bread you buy in a shop. And yours won't contain all that chemical junk the bread manufacturers put in.
18. Wear comfortable shoes.
    
19. Visit my website! - See below:

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!

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

Sodium in foods

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

Ombudsman Orders Personal Apology From Welsh NHS Hospital Trust to Dead Patient's Relatives

BBC News Wales reports that the public services ombudsman "criticises the former North Glamorgan Trust saying staff actions resulted in the death of Myron Hall, 47.

The trust was asked to apologise personally but refused saying it would write to Mr Hall's parents instead."

Scotland's Methadone Policy Comes in for Some Stick

Scotland's methadone policy is severely criticised in this BBC News Item.

I agree with the criticism. To get heroin addicts to take methadone for periods of many years (an example in the article is of a man put onto methadone at age 16 and still taking it 18 years later) in the hope of curing their heroin addiction is clearly illogical. Methadone itself is highly addictive and so there is a strong chance of converting a heroin addict into a person addicted to both heroin AND methadone. I consider methadone an example of expensive pharmaceutical junk.

And according to the article "it costs about £2,800 to fund methadone provision for one addict for one year, and the programme could be costing about £56m in total each year."

This methadone policy is obviously of little benefit to the addicts' health and is a scandalous expense to the public purse. It appears to me to have been invented and to be manufactured expressly to fleece the taxpayer, since it benefits the drug companies and their shareholders, and no-one else.

I for one do not approve of this expensive, and in my view, immoral, exercise in futility.

The way to get people off drugs is to get them off drugs, not to get them onto other or additional drugs.

I used to know a woman who had been prescribed amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant with a host of unpleasant and harmful side-effects, for post-natal depression and was still being prescribed it 30 years later! - This is madness...

An active ingredient of green tea helps in treatment of leukaemia

An active ingredient of green tea has been found effective in treating leukaemia patients, say researchers. "The majority of individuals who entered the study with enlarged lymph nodes saw a 50 percent or greater decline in their lymph node size," said Dr Tait Shanafelt, Mayo Clinic haematologist and lead author of the study.
Read article on The Times of India website (India)

Vitamin D may retard lung function decline

Vitamin D may slow the progressive decline in the ability to breathe that can occur in people with asthma as a result of human airway smooth muscle (HASM) proliferation, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.
Read article at physorg.com