The Food Programme suggests that snacking may lead to high levels of diabetes

The Food Programme (BBC Radio 4) today suggests that snacking/grazing and convenient, bite-sized 'food on the go' may be causing increased weight and obesity, and may lead eventually to unsustainable levels of diabetes.

What's the difference between Winifred Robinson, presenter on You and Yours, and David Behan, new CEO of the CQC (Care Quality Commission)?

Well when I listened to Radio 4's You and Yours today, I found the most pertinent difference was one of language. Winifred Robinson is an excellent presenter who always seeks clarity and is really good at winkling it out of her interviewees. The big problem with the interview with David Behan was that she spoke in English, the language of most of her listeners, I guess, and he persisted in speaking in gobbledygook, aka management-speak/jargon, despite all her efforts to get him to engage in a meaningful exchange. It doesn't augur well. When the next ghastly incidences of cruelty and incompetence inevitably occur in a care home or similar place of torture/care of the vulnerable, the relatives and others concerned about the welfare of the innocent victims will all be complaining, writing, speaking or weeping in English, and will be bewildered by his agency's bureaucratic lingo. Except that I'm sure they'll recognise that it's bugger-all to do with Care, in any sense of the word. - Judge for yourself. - You can 'Listen now' from this page.

On Inside Health on Radio 4 this week: some people are being misdiagnosed as having exercise-induced asthma

On Inside Health this week: some people are being misdiagnosed as having exercise-induced asthma. So if you or someone you know has had this diagnosis, and especially if you are an athlete, more especially if medication has been prescribed, and even more especially if that is steroid medication, then I suggest you visit this BBC webpage. Rather than exercise-induced asthma, the problem may be vocal cord dysfunction, and this problem does not respond to inhalers. I suggest you also have a look at my recent blogpost about asthma.

Stephen Cave on Sunday Radio 4 Easter Day

I listened to the Sunday programme on Radio 4 today as I often do, and was particularly interested in what Stephen Cave had to say in a discussion about resurrection and immortality. The four routes to immortality he speaks of are routes that have perhaps occurred to all of us during our lives and we may hold firm beliefs in the matter. On this Easter Day, when I like to think that we can all renew our efforts to transform our lives for the good, Stephen Cave's look at Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How it Drives Civilization may be a book to consider putting onto our reading lists.

Law in Action asks: Legal aid changes: long overdue reform or denial of justice?

Radio 4's Law in Action asks: Legal aid changes: long overdue reform or denial of justice? I listened to this programme today. There isn't an iPlayer version available unfortunately, but the programme will be repeated on Thu 23 Feb at 20.00 on BBC Radio 4. ""The single biggest attack on access to justice since the legal aid system was introduced". That's the view of the Law Society on the government's controversial proposals to reform the civil justice system. But the government argue that the legal aid system has become unaffordable and along with no win no fee has helped create a litigious society. They say the current system is a boon for lawyers, while draining resources from organisations like the NHS and leaving many small businesses in fear of legal action." It is clear that the intended changes to the legal aid system will have a disproportionately harsh effect on medical negligence victims and their families, who are already abysmally and inhumanly treated by the NHS and their scandalously futile Complaints System. I constantly wonder why Kenneth Clarke (Justice Secretary) is so astonishingly hard on medical negligence victims. I remember he was of the same mind when he was Health Secretary over 20 years ago. His bluff, faux-reasonable style cuts no ice with me.

Why does it never occur to anyone in government that the best way - incomparably the best way - to reduce the costs of medical negligence, both the financial costs to the victims and their families and to taxpayer funds, and the terrible cost in pain and suffering to the damaged victims, is to reduce the ever-increasing incidence of clinical negligence? - And the best way - incomparably the best way - to accomplish that is make health professionals ACCOUNTABLE for their negligence.

You and Yours discussed organ donation and whether the system should be changed so that more organs would be available for donation

Radio 4's You and Yours discussed organ donation and whether the system should be changed so that more organs would be available for donation.They asked "Should everyone be forced to donate their organs?" Personally I'm not in favour of changing the opt-in system to an opt-out.

There were some moving contributions from listeners who had experiences both good and bad in the matter of organ donation. And there was mention of some donated organs being, in effect, wasted on recipients who, for example, continued drinking too much alcohol, like George Best, and damaged the donated organ.

There was no mention of the doctors who waste donated organs. Here is an example I blogged about in 2006: "Michael had had damaged kidneys and had patiently lived on a very low salt diet for years while waiting for a new kidney. Then he was overjoyed at last to receive a new kidney. The doctors in the hospital told him it would now be OK for him to eat an ordinary diet, not salt-restricted. And so while still in the hospital he was given an ordinary diet. At the same time they put him onto steroids. The consequences have been dire. He put on a lot of weight and his new kidney now has impaired function. He said to me that he would never go to a doctor again in his life - that he would rather die than have any further contact with doctors. I believe that there are many damaged people who would rather die than have further contact with doctors...)o:" For details of the harm done by eating salty food while taking steroids, see Steroids Cause Salt Sensitivity.

Should sugar be taxed to reduce health problems like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes?

Should sugar be taxed to reduce health problems like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes? BBC News reports today that "Sugar is as damaging and addictive as alcohol or tobacco and should be regulated, claim US health experts. According to a University of California team, new policies such as taxes are needed to control soaring consumption of sugar and sweeteners. Prof Robert Lustig argues in the journal Nature for major shifts in public policy." And this is countered by the Industry body the Food and Drink Federation saying that "demonising" any particular foods is unhelpful. - Well that's true inasmuch as it's unhelpful to the Food and Drink Federation and its profits!

The Food and Drink Federation like to sell addictive food and drink to their customers. Addicts return to buy again the products to which they are addicted - to buy them over and over and over again. - I heard the subject of whether sugar should be taxed - because its heavy consumption is causing widespread damage to people's health - being discussed in the last minutes of Radio 4's PM programme today. I think the interviewer was Eddie Mair.

There was Prof Robert Lustig on the phone from America, supplying the voice of reason, and suggesting a heavy tax on sugar stuffs in order to produce a really significant reduction in consumption. And there was a guy from the Food and Drink Federation spouting his ritual rhetoric about sugar not being the baddie - many factors are associated with non-infectious diseases, not just sugar. Think of insufficient exercise, sedentary life-styles, etc. - We need a balanced diet, more exercise, etc etc. - There's no evidence that sugar causes disease... Burble Burble. Burble Burble.

Actually I wondered whether this robotic guy was deaf? - Prof Lustig (Eddie Mair kept calling him Dr Lustig) was explaining that there is actually a great deal of evidence that sugar is definitely being consumed in too high quantities, that it is addictive, that it is actually toxic in that it causes serious metabolic changes to the body - fatty liver, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, etc. - Prof Lustig knows his sugary science (listen to his lecture The Bitter Truth) and he knows his sugary statistics, but his unheeding interlocutor continued burbling about no evidence to support the taxation of sugar, and repeating that it's a matter of a balanced diet, no new evidence, burble, burble, burble. - I think I can hazard his idea of a balanced diet - the sort of balanced diet the Food Industry might find profitable to supply the products for: a Sugar-crammed, intensely sweet cereal breakfast with additive-laden fruit drink, balanced by a salt-laden sandwich for lunch and an over-salted processed ready meal for tea, with snacks throughout the day of biscuits (high in sugar and salt), crisps and maybe a token apple (high in pesticides) added to impress the 'healthy food' brigade.

File on 4 investigates Deaths in Police Custody

Radio 4's excellent File on 4 has been investigating Deaths in Police Custody. The programme will be broadcast at 8 pm. It appears that a new putative disease has been invented in America and may be adopted here as a means of explaining away/excusing/covering up improper use of restraint techniques by police. The new 'diagnosis' is called Excited Delirium. File on 4 has also found that official figures understate the number of people who die in custody after being restrained by police."It discovered that anyone who dies following restraint without being formally arrested is excluded from death in custody figures. Campaigners want an inquiry into how the the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) collates its figures."

On Radio 4's Inside Health programme today one of the topics discussed was Tinnitus

On Radio 4's Inside Health programme today one of the topics discussed was Tinnitus. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that cutting salt intake was mentioned as helpful with this problem. Nonetheless if you type something like "tinnitus salt reduction" into your favourite search engine you will see that many people find that sodium reduction reduces the intensity of their tinnitus. I believe this is because there is a connection between tinnitus and fluid retention. - Anyway, since we are constantly advised these days to eat less salt to reduce heart disease and the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke, and it is manifestly good for health to reduce salt intake, why not take the plunge and seriously cut down on salt and salty food? This is a safe, cost-free and drug-free course of action. It may very well improve your tinnitus problem as well as benefiting your general health and longevity. - What's not to like?

Years ago I fell in love with Comic Sans

Years ago I fell in love with Comic Sans. A friend on the internet introduced us. Previously I had been an innocent user of Plain text, but here was my friend sending me emails in Comic Sans - and furthermore, they were in red! - And so, of course, I took to using the jolly font myself, and looking forward to receiving similarly engaging-looking messages. Since then I have grown up again and soberly use Times New Roman or Arial.

I remembered the Comic Sans interlude last week as I listened to Radio 4's Book of the Week by Simon Garfield. You can read about the book "Just My Type", on the BBC website, and as I write, there is still time to listen again to some of it. The book was excellently read and was so entertaining that I ordered a copy and now have some enjoyable light reading for a while instead of the more serious stuff I usually struggle to get to grips with.

Private Finance Initiative contracts: File on 4 investigation

They are not guiltless, the gulls who played their parts in setting up these PFI deals decades ago. I urge you to visit the BBC webpage about this and listen to the File on 4 programme using iPlayer. "The Treasury is failing to monitor the "excessive" profits being made by the sale of PFI equity in the so-called "secondary" market, the BBC is told." Were the guys at the Treasury too dimwitted to be trusted with taxpayers' money or were they suffering from those infamous 'conflicts of interest' that are as near as dammit to bribes? - I know what I think, and I expect it's what you think too.

Want to know more about infectious diseases? I recommend Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 programme

I recommend Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 programme "In Our Time" which I heard yesterday. Lord Bragg assembled experts: Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London, Sir Roy Anderson, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London and Mark Pallen, Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of Birmingham and led a fascinating and informative discussion on the origins, history and survival mechanisms of the microbes/bacteria/viruses, etc. that sometimes afflict us with infections. There is an iPlayer facility on the webpage to listen to the programme.

And if you would like to reduce your own risk of succumbing to respiratory diseases, I recommend Dr Briffa's recent article about Vitamin D.

Holly McNish: I loved her performance poem WOW

I loved Holly McNish's newly composed poem for Woman of the World which I heard her perform on Radio 4's Woman's Hour omnibus edition today. You could listen to it using a link from this page.

Desert Island Discs - Dame Anne Owers: I loved this programme

Desert Island Discs - Dame Anne Owers: I loved this programme. I heard it last Sunday. It will be repeated on Radio 4 on Friday March 4th at 9am. or you can listen to it using iPlayer or on a podcast. I have never enjoyed an edition of Desert Island Discs more than this one.

Dame Anne is best known as the the former Chief Inspector of Prisons. Her voice is warm, clear and beautiful. Her eventful life has been rich with happiness and achievement despite the early loss of her much-loved and gifted father, and then losing her mother on the day she married.

I was bowled over by her choice of records because her taste in music is so close to my own. She grew up in a very musical household, with a deep love of choral music and other vocal music, and this was illustrated in her choices. I was particularly moved by her third disc: the unaccompanied voice of June Tabor singing The Band played Waltzing Matilda.

On Radio 4's Thought for the Day this morning, the speaker was James Jones, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool. His talk was a paean of praise for the NHS.

On Radio 4's Thought For The Day this morning, the speaker was James Jones, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool. His talk was a paean of praise for the NHS.

I wonder how many hundreds of listeners were, like me, profoundly distressed by his message today. Bishop James praised the NHS and was especially commendatory of the fact that its services are 'free' - 'free' at the point of need. (They are not free, of course. They are extremely expensive, but are paid for out of taxation, rather than directly by the patients to the providers.) He roundly condemns the system in some other countries, of requiring the patient's credit card (to ensure payment) before providing treatment, but disregards the doctrinaire processes demanded by the NHS before NHS treatment is provided, e.g. here - or not provided, as is the sad experience, too often, of too many patients, including victims of medical negligence, and that includes me.

I challenge Bishop James to read of my long, cruel, shocking treatment at the hands of the NHS abusing its power and see if he finds that praiseworthy. How can he praise an NHS for providing 'free' treatment, when that free treatment includes the callous disregard that led to so much suffering and so many ghastly deaths at that Staffordshire Hospital? See here, here, here. How does a man of the cloth live with the treatment of hundreds of innocent children in NHS 'care' at the hands of Dr Andrew Holden? - See here and here. Why does Bishop James disregard the dark, evil side of the NHS? Why does he champion the powerful, rather than champion their victims? The NHS does not need his advocacy; its suffering victims do.

I have tried in past years to obtain the help of Bishops to bring about reform of the cruel system, and I have failed. - David Lunn, when he was Bishop of Sheffield, promised me that he would help, but he let me down shamefully. Similarly David Jenkins, when he was Bishop of Durham, said he would help, but did not. Other prominent, influential religious leaders I have approached have also passed by on the other side, allowing NHS cruelty and victimisation to continue unchallenged. Where are the Good Samaritans in the churches, with the courage and the compassion to do right by the NHS's victims and to work to reform a system that is rotten at its core?

I challenge Bishop James to come and spend some hours with me, that I can tell him more about the callous, careless NHS system that is my own experience, and that of thousands of his fellow citizens.

Only a snowball's chance in Hell remains for civil cases against pharmaceutical companies in England and Wales to obtain legal aid from the government

Only a snowball's chance in Hell remains for litigants in civil cases against pharmaceutical companies in England and Wales to obtain legal aid from the government in order to pursue a case of clinical negligence or personal injury, as investigated by Radio 4's File on Four this evening.

I cannot urge you strongly enough to AVOID taking prescribed pharmaceutical drugs if you possibly can! The drug companies have long histories of criminal negligence, corruption and giving misleading information about their drug products. They have teams of highly-paid corporate lawyers well-versed in all the technical dodges to secure a favourable outcome for their shady clients.

The programme will be repeated on Sun 23 Jan 2011 at 17:00 on BBC Radio 4.

JB Priestley: Radio 4 "Great Lives"

If you are interested in JB Priestley then I highly recommend this programme to you, which you can listen to using the iPlayer or catch the programme repeat on Fri 14 Jan 2011 at 23:00.
"Barry Cryer nods to his Yorkshire roots in choosing JB Priestley, the Bradford born author of The Good Companions and An Inspector Calls."

It was heart-warming to listen to Barry Cryer's affectionate recollections of his meetings with the great man, whom he so greatly admired. And "Martin Wainwright, northern editor of the Guardian, presenter of last year's radio documentary about the Postscripts, also brings to life a prolific writer nearly killed in World War One." Martin Wainwright is a superb broadcaster and it is a joy to listen to him speaking about this writer he holds in such high regard.

A five star programme in my opinion.

Slippery Statistics: there's something fishy about them!

I've been listening to Radio 4's More or Less programme first broadcast on Dec 31st 2010. If you go to this BBC webpage you too can listen to it using iPlayer. "Tim Harford and the More or Less team explore 2010 in numbers. Contributors include Ben Goldcare, Robert Peston, the National Statistician and the Swedish statistical guru Hans Rosling." - That should be Goldacre, btw, not Goldcare. It's a rare BBC typo...(o:

Anyway the programme includes Gordon Brown, when Prime Minister, being less than honest with statistics while speaking in the House of Commons. You will also hear of the wealth of misleading immigration figures that the British public was fed for years. And Robert Peston explains again about the crisis with the banks and their cash reserves. But the most important item in the programme in my opinion is the complaint by medical doctor and columnist, Ben Goldacre, that 74% of results of drug trials on Reboxetine, a so-called antidepressant drug manufactured by Pfizer, were not published in academic journals and were kept from doctors and patients. - Since the drug is "ineffective and worse than useless", but the actual published data claimed the opposite, Dr Goldacre describes this as "the greatest scandal of modern medicine."

You may, along with me, and along with Dr Goldacre, wonder why drug companies are allowed knowingly to mislead with fraudulent claims about their pharmaceutical junk, and why the medical journals are similarly allowed to skew the evidence by withholding trial results that show the drugs do more harm than good, and why nobody goes to prison for this fraud and for the harm that ensues to patients because of this fraud and for robbing the NHS purse and the British tax-payers by charging them for toxic trash. - The answer, as I'm sure you have worked out for yourself, is that Big Pharma's tainted profits make their way into the pockets of the venal.

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, follow the money: venal politicians, slick lawyers, publishers, share-dealers, drug reps, shady doctors, shady members of drug regulation panels, etc. Which of them join in the dance of of the dodgy drugs, and rake in their shares of the ill-gotten gains?

Justin Webb is turning me off the Today programme

I used to like Justin Webb's well-modulated voice and thoughtful contributions from America to the BBC News on television. I have a very different view of his work today.

He started off on the wrong foot by replacing Ed Stourton, a broadcaster of great intelligence and experience and unfailing courtesy to interviewees - a courtesy that accompanied mastery of complex material, and did not preclude rigorous inquisition when appropriate. I was sorry that the Today programme lost Stourton, though of course he is not lost to Radio 4 itself.

Webb has fairly recently fashioned himself into a boor with a posh voice, and his patently insincere and constantly repeated, "Sorry to interrupt you," coming as it does mere seconds into his interviewee's scarce-begun reply to a question asked by Webb, and in which you would think he had an interest, is turning me off Today. These ritual ill-mannered interruptions are not forensic questioning to get at the truth; they are an attempt by Webb to make a name for himself. - Unfortunately that name is Boring.

NHS provides poor care for elderly surgery patients

BBC News informs us that "Hospitals must improve their care of elderly patients undergoing surgery, an independent review has concluded. Pain management, nutrition and delays were all highlighted as problems by experts from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death. Overall, just over a third of patients were judged to have had good treatment."

I heard this discussed on Radio 4's Today programme the other day and was dismayed that the discussion was steered almost immediately into focussing on the need for better pain relief. - I may be in a minority, even a very small minority, here, but I believe the strong emphasis on pain relief is counterproductive. - What is far more necessary and far more beneficial is to work at pain prevention. - This means the surgeons should perform any necessary surgery ASAP instead of after considerable delays which increase the pain and emotional distress, compromise nutrition, extend the length of hospital stay, and result in more complications and greater need for rehabilitation and caring. - As far as I am concerned, stuff the pain relief and the dedicated pain teams and the multitude of pain-killers with their many harmful side-effects! Concentrate on getting the surgery done as a matter of urgency and compassion, and providing nutritious food and good nursing to promote a speedy recovery.