What has the phlogiston theory to do with the belief that the only cause of becoming overweight is eating too many calories and taking too little exercise?

What has the phlogiston theory to do with the belief that the only cause of becoming overweight is eating too many calories and taking too little exercise? - Well both theories are out of date.

In the 18th century the phlogiston theory of explaining combustion and breathing held sway until the 1780s when Lavoisier discovered oxygen and explained its role in burning and rusting, etc. The calories in/calories out theory for excess weight presently held by most of the orthodox medical world is an oversimplistic explanation for the excess weight. Essentially it says that overweight people eat too many calories and take too little exercise, ie they are greedy and lazy. The glaring omission is the fact that a great deal of excess weight has nothing to do with calories at all! - That is because it is water - and there are no calories in water!

Professor Sir Richard Doll wrote in a personal letter to me in August 2001, "I was interested to hear about your experience of being overweight and losing so much weight when you reduced the amount of salt in your food. That a high salt diet combined with certain drugs (of which steroids are an example) will lead to water retention is - or ought to be - well known and, of course, the contrary follows that reducing the salt will lead to the loss of water."

There are so many prescription drugs and classes of prescription drugs, and doctors are constantly being exhorted to prescribe more and more drugs, especially antidepressants, many of which cause water retention and its attendant health problems, notably stroke, high blood pressure and heart conditions, that I would contend that the ever-increasing numbers of prescription drugs being taken must certainly be the cause of a high proportion of obese people being overweight. An additional danger is that so many prescribed drugs are addictive, especially painkillers. So I hope that the theory that the only cause of becoming overweight is eating too many calories and taking too little exercise will soon, like the phlogiston theory of combustion, be consigned to the dustbin of history, and people can be saved from all the ill-health that so many prescribed drugs cause.

Get twinkling those toes!

If you've got poor circulation - maybe related to mobility problems - get twinkling those toes! - By which I mean - Twiddle 'em! - Wriggle 'em! - That'll help! - And you could let your fingers dance too!  - And squeeze a soft toy! - You could be a Twinkling Star! - Good luck!

Struggling to carry on

Sometimes it's a struggle to carry on and you are in the position of choosing between options as to what's best to do at the time. And sometimes additional problems present themselves. And understandingly you may sometimes choose what is not really the best option.

I wrote in February about meds which cause dehydration and how drinking plain water is what you need to do. - Extract - "By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. And you may unwittingly increase the problem by drinking, say, coffee, which is widely considered to have diuretic properties. Alcohol too is a diuretic. If you are thirsty, you would be much better slaking your thirst with plain water. Salty drinks are clearly inadvisable, and sugary drinks also tend to increase thirst. You are not in need of vague 'liquid'; you are specifically in need of PLAIN WATER." - I had found this so helpful myself and I kept rigidly to my own advice. - But in the last month I have drunk two cups of extremely weak coffee and one cup of weak tea. - In my constant struggle with increasing pain and insufficient sleep, I did this in the hope that these drinks would 'wake me up a bit' from my great tiredness. I hadn't chosen a good option.

When we struggle, especially with very great difficulties, and we make a mistake, there may be the temptation to give up altogether. - Before that, I'd like to suggest asking for help, if you can. There are a lot of kind people in the world. Obviously I don't mean approaching anyone who is going to label your problems and difficulties with the catch-all daft label of 'depression' and want you to take anti-depressants. - You do NOT need even more problems to deal with! - Drink a glass or two of plain water and continue each day to drink plain water and avoid coffee and alcohol. This will help you in many ways and clear your head. If you think you need my input, then email me from my website and I'll do my best to get back to you.

Do you know that a high salt diet can lead to cataracts?

Developing cataracts is one if the lesser-known possible consequences of eating a high salt diet. - See http://www.saltmatters.org/site/uploads/PDFs/SRHP%2025+table.pdf - See also http://wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

(read more)

There is evidence that Salt-Related Health Problems include calcium urinary stones

Evidence that Salt-Related Health Problems include calcium urinary stones, as you can read on this pdf. - www.saltmatters.org/site/uploads/PDFs/SRHP%2025+table.pdf - This is one of the less well-known health benefits that can be experienced by reducing intake of salt and salty food. - See also Associated Health Problems.

 

Many prescribed meds cause dehydration

Many prescribed meds cause dehydration, and the sort of meds I'm thinking of are not the sort that cause increased urine output, such as diuretics. I'm thinking of the ones that increase thirst because they cause the body, principally in its  blood vessels, to retain too much salt/sodium, along with the water which sodium attracts to itself. Over time these meds impair the efficiency of the kidneys. Paradoxically, in fact, these meds reduce urine output, rather than increase it, and so, often, this problem may be misdiagnosed as urinary retention.

What are these meds? you may be wondering. - Well they are the drugs I frequently warn about on my website and in my blogs, namely most antidepressants, many prescribed steroids and HRT, anti-psychotics, anti-convulsants, NSAID painkillers and others.

By the time you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. And you may unwittingly increase the problem by drinking, say, coffee, which is widely considered to have diuretic properties. Alcohol too is a diuretic. If you are thirsty, you would be much better slaking your thirst with plain water. Salty drinks are clearly inadvisable, and sugary drinks also tend to increase thirst. You are not in need of vague 'liquid'; you are specifically in need of PLAIN WATER.

So a major, rather strange, consequence of taking these dangerous, over-prescribed drugs, is that while taking them you tend to be chronically thirsty (particularly if taking a high dose), and chronically in a state of dehydration, yet carrying around with you a lot of excess water, mainly in your blood vessels, particularly in your poor, over-stretched, weakened, increasingly painful veins. See my website for helpful information and suggestions relating to these problems.

It was a different kind of Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, in which contributors spoke Truth about the Abuse of Power

It was good to hear a different kind of Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, with much of its content selected and commissioned by PJ Harvey MBE, of whom I am ashamed to say I had never previously heard. I would very inadequately summarise it as an account of harm done by the lies, misinformation, and other abuses of power by many governments and rulers in the world, notably including our own. We learned, for instance, something of the way our arms industry, with the compliance of our Government and the assistance of members of the Royal Family(!), supplies weapons to dictators and the like, enabling them to subdue civil unrest. We heard of the legal word games that permit states, including our own, to torture people legally, by giving the torture a different name. 

We heard the media itself indicted in the global conspiracy of the powerful against the powerless masses of the poor. (Noam Chomsky and John Pilger and others have told us about this many times before.) We heard much about "War and the Pity of War". We heard from individuals who are suffering from the physical and psychological trauma and indignities inflicted on them as a result of Wars. We heard of the overwhelming greed associated with power.

I wasn't taking notes, and I missed much of the programme, so I do not know whether it included the malign power of the Drug Companies, the ghastly cruelty of much of the Farming Industry, the Food Industry's assaults on our health, and the corruption that put profits before truth in so much of what purports to be Science.
 

Were I to become a guest editor on the Today programme, I would seek to draw attention the word games devised for the NHS to abuse its power/unaccountability in order carry out profitable state torture and murder of many elderly and other vulnerable patients. - You remember, don't you, the so-called Liverpool Care Pathway? - I believe they are intending to continue using the LCP under a new name... 

I would seek to draw attention to the prevalence of pharmaceutical drugs which deplete the body's vitamins and minerals, food processing which adulterates and transforms healthy fats to unhealthy fats (see also http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/health/a-lifelong-fight-against-trans-fat.html?_r=5&), adds chemical toxins and minimises nutrients to produce processed pretendfood/crap/junk, instead of good, nourishing food; food processing that kills off good bacteria, distorts our body's mineral and fat metabolisms, interferes with our hormones and with our gut activity, and thus makes us chronically ill, as well as ill-informed. 

The programme would seek to explain how so much of the human race, and the animals and crops that feed us, are now become grotesque distortions of their healthier ancestors. - And who knows what horrors still await us when Genetically Modified Organisms have had longer in which to wreak their havoc?