NICE has issued draft guidance that broken hips should be operated on on the day of admission or the day after, as reported by the Telegraph, in order to reduce complications. The report states that "in some hospitals around half of patients wait longer than 48-hours for surgery even though evidence shows it doubles the risk of major complications and death."
Surely this is a no-brainer! If delay "doubles the risk of major complications and death," what on earth are surgeons thinking of? - How can they routinely be doubling the risk of their hip fracture patients (who are mainly elderly, and many of whom are frail and ill) suffering major complications and death? This is disgraceful. Is it an example of covert age discrimination?
The longer the delay, the more pain the patients will suffer, the more physiotherapy and other rehabilitation they will need, the longer stay in hospital, the more support/care at home. - All avoidable extra suffering, all avoidable extra expense.
I've never had a hip fracture, thankfully, but I've had a very complicated fracture of the humerus, which needed an operation. If I had had the operation within a few days, as I was promised on admission to the Northern General Hospital, I would have been back at home again within a week, I am sure, little the worse from the fracture. But because my agonising pain from the splint was discounted and it was almost a fortnight before the arm was operated on, there was massive damage to my right hand - mainly radial nerve palsy and ulna nerve injury - and my stay in hospital lasted a month instead of the few days it would have been with prompt treatment. My (dominant) right hand was completely unusable and intensely painful for months. No one in the system ever apologised or even expressed regret.
I needed many months of physiotherapy and occupational therapy before I could move the hand at all. - It takes you a few seconds to read that sentence. - Just think of having to cope with that yourself: months with a swollen hand, totally unusable and exquisitely tender to the slightest touch. And I have had to have carers to help me since then, though I previously had managed without. Are these inexcusable delays attributable to callousness, ignorance, incompetence or what? - They are certainly unnecessary and they benefit no-one.
Showing posts with label NICE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NICE. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Overweight pregnant women have been targeted with unhelpful advice from Professor Mike Kelly, NICE public health director.
This BBC News article explains that "if a woman is obese during pregnancy, she has an increased risk of developing serious complications like pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, miscarriage and stillbirth. She is also more likely to have a Caesarean section. NICE says women with a body mass index of more than 30 should be encouraged to lose weight before they become pregnant. During pregnancy, losing weight can be harmful to the unborn child, so women are advised to eat healthily and to do gentle exercise."
Unfortunately, in the audio clip from this morning's Radio 4 Today programme, Professor Kelly gives two unhelpful pieces of advice. I'm with him when he says to avoid sugary drinks and drink plenty of water, but when he says that 'healthy eating' for everyone should be based on starchy food and avoiding fatty food I disagree. I believe a healthy diet is logically one that approximates to a Stone Age ('Paleo') diet, and is low in carbohydrates. But the most important advice of all for pregnant women is to avoid salt and salty food. This is the safe way to avoid fluid retention and excess weight gain. And it does not entail going hungry or counting calories.
During pregnancy, because of the hormone changes it brings, a woman is vulnerable to salt/sodium. If during this vulnerable time she eats salty food, her blood volume will rise more than it would if she were not eating salty food. This is because high oestrogen in the blood stream causes the muscles in the walls of the blood vessels to relax and so the blood vessels allow in more sodium and the water it attracts to itself. The veins become swollen.
When the baby is born the hormone levels change again and the oestrogen level goes down. The muscles in the walls of the blood vessels tighten up again and some of the excess salt and water in the blood is excreted. But if the veins were badly overstretched and weakened during the pregnancy, the woman will not return to her former weight. With each succeeding pregnancy, the problem will worsen; the veins will become weaker and more swollen; the blood volume will rise further; she will become more overweight.
See Pregnancy Advice about Salt.
How to lose weight.
Vulnerable Groups.
Unfortunately, in the audio clip from this morning's Radio 4 Today programme, Professor Kelly gives two unhelpful pieces of advice. I'm with him when he says to avoid sugary drinks and drink plenty of water, but when he says that 'healthy eating' for everyone should be based on starchy food and avoiding fatty food I disagree. I believe a healthy diet is logically one that approximates to a Stone Age ('Paleo') diet, and is low in carbohydrates. But the most important advice of all for pregnant women is to avoid salt and salty food. This is the safe way to avoid fluid retention and excess weight gain. And it does not entail going hungry or counting calories.
During pregnancy, because of the hormone changes it brings, a woman is vulnerable to salt/sodium. If during this vulnerable time she eats salty food, her blood volume will rise more than it would if she were not eating salty food. This is because high oestrogen in the blood stream causes the muscles in the walls of the blood vessels to relax and so the blood vessels allow in more sodium and the water it attracts to itself. The veins become swollen.
When the baby is born the hormone levels change again and the oestrogen level goes down. The muscles in the walls of the blood vessels tighten up again and some of the excess salt and water in the blood is excreted. But if the veins were badly overstretched and weakened during the pregnancy, the woman will not return to her former weight. With each succeeding pregnancy, the problem will worsen; the veins will become weaker and more swollen; the blood volume will rise further; she will become more overweight.
See Pregnancy Advice about Salt.
How to lose weight.
Vulnerable Groups.
Thursday, 1 July 2010
Andrew Lansley is in the wrong job. He is putting the profits of the Food Industry above the health of UK citizens.
See this Daily Mail article in which you will read that although trans fats are believed to cause 7,000 premature deaths a year, Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, opposes a ban on their use as an additive in biscuits, etc - an additive that prolongs the shelf life of the product, but endangers the life of the person who eats it. And this, even though NICE recommends banning trans fats.
This is a Health Secretary who has gone over to the Dark Side. Let's have him out of the Government PDQ. And let's have that ban on trans fats ASAP. Read more about trans fats here: www.tfx.org.uk.
This is a Health Secretary who has gone over to the Dark Side. Let's have him out of the Government PDQ. And let's have that ban on trans fats ASAP. Read more about trans fats here: www.tfx.org.uk.
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
NICE is calling for a a ban on Trans-Fats in foods, and further reductions in Salt Content
See BBC News report. As well as a ban on trans-fats and further reduction in added salt, NICE is also pressing for reductions in saturated fat content, but here I part company with NICE.
Many consumers would welcome a ban on trans fats; they have been added to food products to benefit commercial interests, not because of any consumer demand. (See article.) And many consumers would also welcome a ban on adding salt to food products, but there is strong resistance by the food industry to make substantial cuts in the salt levels of their products. This is because the high levels of salt in processed foods have engineered a very strong taste for salt in a large number of their customers. Neither trans fats nor salt were present in other than very small quantities in the diets of our ancestors, stone age men and women, and the nearer our diets approximate today to those of our ancestors, the healthier for us, since it was on their diet that our species evolved and for which it is best suited.
Many consumers would welcome a ban on trans fats; they have been added to food products to benefit commercial interests, not because of any consumer demand. (See article.) And many consumers would also welcome a ban on adding salt to food products, but there is strong resistance by the food industry to make substantial cuts in the salt levels of their products. This is because the high levels of salt in processed foods have engineered a very strong taste for salt in a large number of their customers. Neither trans fats nor salt were present in other than very small quantities in the diets of our ancestors, stone age men and women, and the nearer our diets approximate today to those of our ancestors, the healthier for us, since it was on their diet that our species evolved and for which it is best suited.
But saturated fats are a different matter entirely. The hunter-gatherers ate saturated fat and our bodies evolved on it. Modern research studies indicate that saturated fats are not causing heart disease. It is a great pity that the people advising us to eat less saturated fat are not reading the up-to-date research findings on this matter. We do not need to cut down on saturated fats; they are good for us. See Dr Briffa's blogpost about this.
Monday, 10 August 2009
SSRI antidepressants taken in early pregnancy linked to birth defects in the babies
The Guardian reports that there is a link between women taking certain anti-depressants in the early weeks of pregnancy and birth defects in a small proportion of the babies born to the women.
These SSRI antidepressants include Prozac and Seroxat aka Paxil. Doctors have been warned against prescribing these drugs to pregnant women by the FDA, by the MHRA (UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) and by NICE, nonetheless British GPs have prescibed these pills to pregnant women and other women of childbearing age without warning of the potential dangers. (Seroxat is made by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company.)
I urge you to read the whole of the Guardian article. Clearly there have been grave faults by the doctors and by the drug companies. In my opinion, so many drugs are teratogenic (i.e. able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus) that drugs should be completely avoided during pregnancy unless there is a very good reason for them.
Actually there is no good reason to prescribe anti-depressants to anyone. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.
As far as depression goes, a major cause of 'depression' is inadequate nutrition or dieting. Many women attempt to diet, especially during pregnancy, as they fear gaining a lot of weight because of the pregnancy. Dieting by pregnant women should be actively discouraged. It is harmful for both the woman and for the unborn baby. Weight gain is not caused by eating too many calories or not taking enough exercise. It is caused by fluid retention/sodium retention/salt sensitivity and is preventable by minimising salt intake and avoiding 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 damage 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
See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity
Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.
These SSRI antidepressants include Prozac and Seroxat aka Paxil. Doctors have been warned against prescribing these drugs to pregnant women by the FDA, by the MHRA (UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority) and by NICE, nonetheless British GPs have prescibed these pills to pregnant women and other women of childbearing age without warning of the potential dangers. (Seroxat is made by GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug company.)
I urge you to read the whole of the Guardian article. Clearly there have been grave faults by the doctors and by the drug companies. In my opinion, so many drugs are teratogenic (i.e. able to disturb the growth and development of an embryo or fetus) that drugs should be completely avoided during pregnancy unless there is a very good reason for them.
Actually there is no good reason to prescribe anti-depressants to anyone. - See Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' about research by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by these harmful, useless drugs.
As far as depression goes, a major cause of 'depression' is inadequate nutrition or dieting. Many women attempt to diet, especially during pregnancy, as they fear gaining a lot of weight because of the pregnancy. Dieting by pregnant women should be actively discouraged. It is harmful for both the woman and for the unborn baby. Weight gain is not caused by eating too many calories or not taking enough exercise. It is caused by fluid retention/sodium retention/salt sensitivity and is preventable by minimising salt intake and avoiding 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 damage 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
See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity
Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
NICE is going to back acupuncture for back pain
BBC News reports that the NHS's NICE is going to back acupuncture for back pain. According to this article, "Low back pain is a very common problem affecting one in three adults in the UK each year, with an estimated 2.5 million people seeking help from their GP."
And "NICE says anyone whose pain persists for more than six weeks and up to a year should be given a choice of several treatments, because the evidence about which works best is uncertain.
And "NICE says anyone whose pain persists for more than six weeks and up to a year should be given a choice of several treatments, because the evidence about which works best is uncertain.
In addition to painkillers and regular advice to stay active and carry on with normal activities as much as possible, patients, together with their doctor, can decide to opt one of three complementary treatments.
This includes up to eight exercise sessions or 10 sessions of acupuncture over 12 weeks, or a course of manual therapy, which includes up to nine sessions of spinal manipulation, mobilisation or massage."
Personally, I've found acupuncture useless, but I have, for some problems, found manipulation by an osteopath helpful for backache. And remember - pain is not caused by aspirin deficiency!
But a cost-free, safe measure to take is to try cutting down on salt and salty food. This helps with headaches and migraines particularly, but also helps with arthritis and with back pain/backache and many other sorts of chronic pain. - Why not try it for your pain? - It may help, and it will certainly improve your health in many other ways - by lowering your high blood pressure and your excess weight, by giving you more energy, etc.
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.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations
See advice for pregnant mothers
and FAT RETENTIONSunday, 21 September 2008
Up to one in 11 children in Britain may suffer from an attention deficit disorder, government advisers will claim this week.
One in 11 children may have ADHD
Article in the Sunday Telegraph
Extracts:
"The guidance by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is expected to say that up to 9 per cent of children and 2 per cent of adults fall within broad definitions of ADHD. It will recommend that the stimulant Ritalin be prescribed to all children and adults with a severe form of the condition and to all moderate cases which do not respond to talking therapies or parenting classes.
Prof Philip Asherson, one of the experts who produced the guidance, due out on Wednesday, said they tried to avoid following the model of ADHD care in the United States, where medication is the norm and routinely used to tackle minor behavioural and educational problems.
Article in the Sunday Telegraph
Extracts:
"The guidance by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is expected to say that up to 9 per cent of children and 2 per cent of adults fall within broad definitions of ADHD. It will recommend that the stimulant Ritalin be prescribed to all children and adults with a severe form of the condition and to all moderate cases which do not respond to talking therapies or parenting classes.
Prof Philip Asherson, one of the experts who produced the guidance, due out on Wednesday, said they tried to avoid following the model of ADHD care in the United States, where medication is the norm and routinely used to tackle minor behavioural and educational problems.
He said: "We worked very hard to avoid the approach in the US, where one in 10 children are being treated with stimulants. The guidance makes it clear that medication is the right approach in some cases but that it should not be used for everyone and certainly not to tackle minor educational problems."
"Dr Sami Timimi, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in Lincolnshire, who does not believe ADHD is a valid diagnosis, said Nice had produced no evidence that the condition existed, or that medication worked, despite coming to conclusions supporting its use."
The psychologist Oliver James accused psychiatrists of medicalising a problem that was caused by upbringing. He said: "Psychiatrists invented this category to medicalise when in fact it is a social problem linked to low incomes and parenting difficulties." He said the best approach to children with ADHD-like symptoms was to give them more attention and affection."
"Latest figures show almost 500,000 prescriptions for stimulants for under-16s last year, more than double the 200,000 issued in 2003. The Department of Health said the figures reflected the number of prescriptions, which could include repeat orders for the same child."
I consider it irresponsible, reprehensible, unscientific and downright dangerous to be prescribing psychotropic drugs to children. If indeed it is reasonably considered that intervention is necessary to improve children's behaviour I would favour improving a child's nutrition, especially by the avoidance of fast food, ready meals, salty junk snacks and diet pretend 'food', and also Oliver James's suggestion of more attention and affection. - And I don't mean attention from medics! - Behaviour problems are categorically not caused by the brain being short of Ritalin!
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Drug companies would only be paid by the NHS if their treatments improve a patient's health, under radical plans unveiled by the Conservatives.
Tories 'would only pay drug companies if treatments work'
Article in the Telegraph
Extract:
"The Conservatives are pledging to overhaul the system if elected. Mr Lansley said: "Instead of the NHS denying access to drugs because they say it's not cost effective - as NICE has done recently with four kidney cancer drugs - we should encourage the NHS to use new medicines which are clinically effective, and agree subsequently to pay the drugs companies according to the therapeutic benefit.
I welcome that idea. Well done for that bright idea, Andrew Lansley! - That would be a start! - But since prescription drugs do far more harm than good, the drug companies should have to pay money to the NHS for all the adverse effects/harm the patients suffer as a result of taking Big Pharma's concoctions...
Article in the Telegraph
Extract:
"The Conservatives are pledging to overhaul the system if elected. Mr Lansley said: "Instead of the NHS denying access to drugs because they say it's not cost effective - as NICE has done recently with four kidney cancer drugs - we should encourage the NHS to use new medicines which are clinically effective, and agree subsequently to pay the drugs companies according to the therapeutic benefit.
"In other words, drugs companies should only be paid according to the benefits that a drug brings to patients. NICE should be involved in this process, working with drug companies to set fair prices for new medicines - rather than refusing new treatments which it deems too expensive."
Mr Lansley says there are already small-scale examples of drugs companies agreeing to be paid on results. For example, he draws attention to a constituent of his who needed a drug to treat bone marrow cancer. Johnson & Johnson, the drug's manufacturer, agreed with the Department of Health to only be paid for the drug for patients where it has been successful.
The shadow Health Secretary said: "At the moment, everyone loses out - patients don't get new and potentially life saving drugs, the NHS can't innovate and meet the needs of patients, and drugs companies don't get the opportunity to introduce their new therapies…Every time a patient dies having been denied a new drug which should be available to them it is a tragedy."
He added: "The Government should act swiftly now to reform the system before any more people's lives are tragically cut short."
The Conservative proposals, to be set out in a speech by Mr Lansley to the CBI today, are likely to be welcomed by patient groups and drug companies."I welcome that idea. Well done for that bright idea, Andrew Lansley! - That would be a start! - But since prescription drugs do far more harm than good, the drug companies should have to pay money to the NHS for all the adverse effects/harm the patients suffer as a result of taking Big Pharma's concoctions...
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
And see Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Cancer patients are to be denied drugs which could keep them alive after the NHS rationing watchdog ruled that they are too expensive.
Kidney patients denied 'too expensive' life-extending drugs
Article in the Telegraph
Extract:
"Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an "early death".
Article in the Telegraph
Extract:
"Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an "early death".
The four prohibited medicines include Sutent, which can prolong life in kidney cancer patients by up to two years. The draft guidance also rejects Avastin, Nexavar and Torisel.
Nice said the drugs were too expensive, at about £24,000 a year per patient, for the benefits they offered and would mean the health service was less able to afford more cost-effective drugs for other illnesses. However, the decision reignites the debate around how the NHS prioritises which drugs are approved for use."
Prevention is obviously better and cheaper than cure. - Two of the contributory factors that increase the likelihood of developing kidney cancer are obesity and high blood pressure. (They are contributory factors in the development of many other illnesses too.) Both of these factors are significantly reduced by eating less salt and salty food, so eating less salt and salty food will lower your chance of getting kidney cancer and all the suffering and difficulties entailed in having that disease.
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!
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
More than a million people will be put on statins on the NHS to lower their cholesterol level and prevent heart attacks, under NICE guidelines.
Statins to be given to a million more over-40s
Extract from the Telegraph:
"GPs are urged to trawl the records of patients aged 40 and over to find anyone with a one in five chance of having a heart attack or stroke and call them in for advice and drugs.
This is absolutely disgraceful. - There is no need at all for healthy people to be put on drugs - drugs with many adverse, unpleasant side-effects - for the rest of their lives in order to reduce their risk of heart disease. - The drug-free, cost-free, totally safe and extremely effective way to reduce heart disease and stroke and to reduce high cholesterol is to avoid eating salt and salty food. - People should be told the truth about the effects of salt sensitivity and decisions made about drug recommendations should not be made in order to bring profit to the iniquitous drug companies.
Children and Obesity
Extract from the Telegraph:
"GPs are urged to trawl the records of patients aged 40 and over to find anyone with a one in five chance of having a heart attack or stroke and call them in for advice and drugs.
Four million people already take statins, mostly after heart attacks. But the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) wants healthy people deemed at high risk of an attack or a stroke within 10 years to have preventive drugs as well.
That would put 1.5 million more on medication and should prevent an extra 15,000 heart attacks, strokes and new cases of angina each year.
It will cost £28 million to implement in the first year.
Nice recommends checking the records of everyone aged between 40 and 75 to flag up those at high risk and call them in for lifestyle advice and consider prescribing 40mg of simvastatin, which costs about 4p per person each day.
That will be controversial as it will put healthy people on medication and the drug has to be taken for the rest of a patient's life. Statins reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke by about a quarter."This is absolutely disgraceful. - There is no need at all for healthy people to be put on drugs - drugs with many adverse, unpleasant side-effects - for the rest of their lives in order to reduce their risk of heart disease. - The drug-free, cost-free, totally safe and extremely effective way to reduce heart disease and stroke and to reduce high cholesterol is to avoid eating salt and salty food. - People should be told the truth about the effects of salt sensitivity and decisions made about drug recommendations should not be made in order to bring profit to the iniquitous drug companies.
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 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.)
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt ConnectionChildren and Obesity
vulnerable groups
See Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Pharmaceutical companies are still getting away with concealing negative findings about their drugs.
Drug giants warned: Tell the truth on medicines
Article in the Independent
Experts criticised the stranglehold exerted by multinational companies over clinical trials, which has led to biased results, under-reporting of negative findings and selective publication driven by the market, which was worth £10.1bn in the UK in 2006, amounting to 11 per cent of total NHS costs.
Extract from the article:
"Peter Littlejohns, the clinical and public health director of Nice, said: "The regulatory authorities have access to everything. Obviously we have access to the published data and we do ask the industry for unpublished data, but it is up to the companies whether to deliver it or not. We have no power to demand it. The issue is that it relies on the good will of the industry."
So it's the EU that's blocking the mandatory registration of clinical trials in the UK?
Avoid prescription drugs if you possibly can. They do far more harm than good and clearly the information provided by the pharmaceutical companies cannot be trusted.
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions
Article in the Independent
Experts criticised the stranglehold exerted by multinational companies over clinical trials, which has led to biased results, under-reporting of negative findings and selective publication driven by the market, which was worth £10.1bn in the UK in 2006, amounting to 11 per cent of total NHS costs.
Extract from the article:
"Peter Littlejohns, the clinical and public health director of Nice, said: "The regulatory authorities have access to everything. Obviously we have access to the published data and we do ask the industry for unpublished data, but it is up to the companies whether to deliver it or not. We have no power to demand it. The issue is that it relies on the good will of the industry."
Professor Mike Clarke, the director of the UK Cochrane Centre, an international collaboration between researchers in 100 countries which has published more than 3,000 systematic reviews of published trials to establish best medical practice, said lack of co-operation from the drug industry was damaging medical care.
"When we ask for details of a trial the company might tell us nothing. We have even less power than Nice. Researchers trying to make sense of trials for decision-makers need to have access to this data. If we have only got access to half of the data, when we see evidence that a drug works we don't know whether to believe it or not.
"It makes us doubtful – that's the big worry. The companies are in the business of making profits – but they are also in the business of providing safe, effective health care."
Legislation to compel the drug industry to publish its results was included in Labour's manifesto at the 2005 election and last month the Commons Health Select Committee demanded that Nice be given unfettered access to all clinical trial results.
Yesterday, the Government said it had been told that compelling the industry to publish trial data would not be allowed and it was instead pursuing a voluntary approach, developing a "searchable register" of all trials that have taken place in the UK and pressing the EU to make its own confidential register public.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "The Government has consistently supported open access to information about research when the findings could affect decisions about treatment or health outcomes. We planned to support the principle of mandatory registration of clinical trials in the UK, but legal advice stated this would be illegal under EU law."So it's the EU that's blocking the mandatory registration of clinical trials in the UK?
Avoid prescription drugs if you possibly can. They do far more harm than good and clearly the information provided by the pharmaceutical companies cannot be trusted.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, 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 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.)
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.htmlRead my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
NHS wastes £1m a week on anti-obesity drugs when all that is needed for fat people to lose weight fast is to stop eating salt and salt and salty food.
Slimming pills cost NHS £1m a week - Telegraph
Extract:
"The NHS is spending almost £1 million a week on anti-obesity drugs as doctors fight to help patients to lose weight, official figures show.
In the first three months of this year, GPs issued 291,138 anti-obesity prescriptions at a cost of £12 million, according to data from the Prescription Pricing Authority.
This is set to reach £47.9 million by the end of the year, up 10.5 per cent on last year.
The drug Xenical, which inhibits fat absorption, and Reductil, an appetite suppressant, were recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2001."
These dangerous drugs are not at all necessary for obese people to lose weight. Nor is dieting necessary.
All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.
Obese people can lose weight very fast indeed - without pills, without hunger, without counting calories, completely safely - and without cost! All you have to do is give up 'slimming' and eat plenty of good food, including plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables, but DON'T EAT ANY SALT OR SALTY FOOD! - That's the important and necessary thing - because it reduces the fluid retention which is the cause of excess weight. (If overeating were the cause of obesity then dieting would work, but as most people know, dieting doesn't work. - Reducing salt/sodium intake DOES work!)
So save your money and safeguard your health by not buying or swallowing these pills, which are unnecessary to lose weight and do have adverse side-effects. - The only side-effects from avoiding salt are good effects...(o: - Your blood pressure will come down, you will have more energy and vitality, you will be more mentally alert, you will sleep better, you will be less likely to have a heart attack or stroke, less likely to develop diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!
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.)
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - wider implications
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions
I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.
Extract:
"The NHS is spending almost £1 million a week on anti-obesity drugs as doctors fight to help patients to lose weight, official figures show.
In the first three months of this year, GPs issued 291,138 anti-obesity prescriptions at a cost of £12 million, according to data from the Prescription Pricing Authority.
This is set to reach £47.9 million by the end of the year, up 10.5 per cent on last year.
The drug Xenical, which inhibits fat absorption, and Reductil, an appetite suppressant, were recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2001."
These dangerous drugs are not at all necessary for obese people to lose weight. Nor is dieting necessary.
All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.
Obese people can lose weight very fast indeed - without pills, without hunger, without counting calories, completely safely - and without cost! All you have to do is give up 'slimming' and eat plenty of good food, including plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables, but DON'T EAT ANY SALT OR SALTY FOOD! - That's the important and necessary thing - because it reduces the fluid retention which is the cause of excess weight. (If overeating were the cause of obesity then dieting would work, but as most people know, dieting doesn't work. - Reducing salt/sodium intake DOES work!)
So save your money and safeguard your health by not buying or swallowing these pills, which are unnecessary to lose weight and do have adverse side-effects. - The only side-effects from avoiding salt are good effects...(o: - Your blood pressure will come down, you will have more energy and vitality, you will be more mentally alert, you will sleep better, you will be less likely to have a heart attack or stroke, less likely to develop diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!
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.)
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - wider implications
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and
Associated health conditions
I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.
Friday, 27 July 2007
Diabetes drugs, Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone), are causing widespread heart failure.
Scientists link diabetes drugs to heart failure - Guardian
Extract:
"Two of the most commonly used drugs for diabetes, which were taken by hundreds of thousands of mostly overweight people in the UK last year, are causing widespread heart failure, scientists warn today.
Use of the drugs, prescribed by doctors for type II diabetes, has doubled in the past three years as a consequence of a growing obesity problem. Last year 1.8m prescriptions were written across the UK, which scientists say equates to several hundred thousand patients taking the drugs which are recommended for use across the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).
But researchers today call on Nice to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalised for heart failure.
The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected.
"This means that the diabetes drugs could have caused thousands of additional cases of heart failure, creating a substantial burden on hard-pressed NHS services," said Dr Yoon Loke, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of East Anglia who carried out the research with Wake Forest University in the US. "I think Nice should re-evaluate their decision to recommend these diabetes drugs."
Concerns about the safety of the drug were triggered in May when a leading US cardiologist published evidence of a link to heart attacks and death. The manufacturers strongly contested his study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But today's evidence will add urgency to a special meeting of the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which was already scheduled for Monday to discuss the safety of the drugs which are taken by 7 million people in the US.
Global sales of Avandia, made by the British company GlaxoSmithKline, have dropped by 22% in the US since the heart attack data was published in May, but are still worth £349m.
However, in Europe sales have continued to grow by 20% to £63m. Avandia is the company's second best-selling drug."
Most prescription drugs are harmful so only take them if it is really necessary, and always check what side-effects are listed for them. - But bear in mind that not all side-effects are listed...)o:
There is no need at all for overweight people ever to take 'slimming' drugs and dieting is ALWAYS harmful. - Obesity is caused by fluid retention not by overeating, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, so avoid eating salt and food containing salt.
You can lower your risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as many other illnesses, and lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!
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.)
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions
I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...
Extract:
"Two of the most commonly used drugs for diabetes, which were taken by hundreds of thousands of mostly overweight people in the UK last year, are causing widespread heart failure, scientists warn today.
Use of the drugs, prescribed by doctors for type II diabetes, has doubled in the past three years as a consequence of a growing obesity problem. Last year 1.8m prescriptions were written across the UK, which scientists say equates to several hundred thousand patients taking the drugs which are recommended for use across the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).
But researchers today call on Nice to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalised for heart failure.
The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected.
"This means that the diabetes drugs could have caused thousands of additional cases of heart failure, creating a substantial burden on hard-pressed NHS services," said Dr Yoon Loke, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of East Anglia who carried out the research with Wake Forest University in the US. "I think Nice should re-evaluate their decision to recommend these diabetes drugs."
Concerns about the safety of the drug were triggered in May when a leading US cardiologist published evidence of a link to heart attacks and death. The manufacturers strongly contested his study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But today's evidence will add urgency to a special meeting of the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which was already scheduled for Monday to discuss the safety of the drugs which are taken by 7 million people in the US.
Global sales of Avandia, made by the British company GlaxoSmithKline, have dropped by 22% in the US since the heart attack data was published in May, but are still worth £349m.
However, in Europe sales have continued to grow by 20% to £63m. Avandia is the company's second best-selling drug."
Most prescription drugs are harmful so only take them if it is really necessary, and always check what side-effects are listed for them. - But bear in mind that not all side-effects are listed...)o:
There is no need at all for overweight people ever to take 'slimming' drugs and dieting is ALWAYS harmful. - Obesity is caused by fluid retention not by overeating, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, so avoid eating salt and food containing salt.
You can lower your risk of heart attack and stroke, as well as many other illnesses, and lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!
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.)
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions
I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free...
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Aricept is to be available on the NHS
Alzheimer's drugs to be available on NHS - Telegraph
Extract:
"Victims of a mild form of Alzheimer's disease are to be given access to anti-dementia drugs on the NHS.
Campaigners yesterday hailed the "dramatic concession", which came after a five-day legal hearing.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) triggered a High Court action when it decided the drugs were not cost effective in relation to the benefits they offered to sufferers in the early stages of the disease.
Yesterday a QC for Nice, which is responsible for providing national guidance on treatments available on the NHS, clarified the official position of the watchdog.
Nigel Giffin QC said doctors did have discretion, in certain circumstances, to prescribe the drugs to patients with mild symptoms. The statement came after Mrs Justice Dobbs, sitting in London, had closely questioned Mr Giffin on the issue before she reserved judgment on the case.
Mr Giffin said there were circumstances in which doctors, provided they took into account the Nice guidance, could exercise clinical judgment and decide that an individual patient was entitled to the drugs."
Obesity is the biggest avoidable factor in developing Alzheimer's disease, and obesity is caused by fluid retention/salt sensitivity, so you can reduce your risk of developing Alzeimer's disease by eating less salt/sodium and salty food.
Lose weight and benefit your health in countless other ways by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! - How to Lose weight!
See my website http://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
See Sodium in foods
Extract:
"Victims of a mild form of Alzheimer's disease are to be given access to anti-dementia drugs on the NHS.
Campaigners yesterday hailed the "dramatic concession", which came after a five-day legal hearing.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) triggered a High Court action when it decided the drugs were not cost effective in relation to the benefits they offered to sufferers in the early stages of the disease.
Yesterday a QC for Nice, which is responsible for providing national guidance on treatments available on the NHS, clarified the official position of the watchdog.
Nigel Giffin QC said doctors did have discretion, in certain circumstances, to prescribe the drugs to patients with mild symptoms. The statement came after Mrs Justice Dobbs, sitting in London, had closely questioned Mr Giffin on the issue before she reserved judgment on the case.
Mr Giffin said there were circumstances in which doctors, provided they took into account the Nice guidance, could exercise clinical judgment and decide that an individual patient was entitled to the drugs."
Obesity is the biggest avoidable factor in developing Alzheimer's disease, and obesity is caused by fluid retention/salt sensitivity, so you can reduce your risk of developing Alzeimer's disease by eating less salt/sodium and salty food.
Lose weight and benefit your health in countless other ways by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! - How to Lose weight!
See my website http://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
See Sodium in foods
Sunday, 13 May 2007
Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company, and the National Institute for Clinical Health and Excellence will face each other in court next month.
Have a Nice day? Pfizer in court clash with British drug authority - Independent on Sunday
Extract:
"The world's largest pharmaceutical company will next month square off with Nice, the government drug-rationing body, in an unprecedented showdown in the High Court.
The case, lodged by American drugs giant Pfizer and marketing partner Eisai of Japan, marks the first time that the Government's National Institute for Clinical Health and Excellence, the entity that recommends whether drugs should be reimbursed by the NHS, has been put in the dock.
It is the clearest sign yet of a growing clash between the pharmaceutical industry and the Government over the latter's efforts to reduce the £11bn that it spends every year on medicines.
"You could look at this as a line in the sand," said a Pfizer spokesman. "This goes beyond a purely financial or commercial objective. This is about Nice itself and how they operate."
The row stems from an initial decision by Nice in 2005 to withdraw approval for the NHS to buy a class of four drugs used to treat patients with Alzheimer's disease. One of the four was Aricept, which was developed by Eisai and is co-marketed by Pfizer. The move sparked a storm of controversy, forcing Nice to reconsider its position. Last year, it gave its final appraisal, which largely stuck to the first ruling.
However, it said in its latest ruling that those in the moderate phase of the disease, rather than in the early or very late stages, would qualify. That left most of the 700,000 dementia and Alzheimer's sufferers in the UK ineligible for NHS-funded treatment.
Nice's argument was that the drugs simply were not effective enough to give good "value for money". "
You can reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by cutting down on salt and salty food. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html
Extract:
"The world's largest pharmaceutical company will next month square off with Nice, the government drug-rationing body, in an unprecedented showdown in the High Court.
The case, lodged by American drugs giant Pfizer and marketing partner Eisai of Japan, marks the first time that the Government's National Institute for Clinical Health and Excellence, the entity that recommends whether drugs should be reimbursed by the NHS, has been put in the dock.
It is the clearest sign yet of a growing clash between the pharmaceutical industry and the Government over the latter's efforts to reduce the £11bn that it spends every year on medicines.
"You could look at this as a line in the sand," said a Pfizer spokesman. "This goes beyond a purely financial or commercial objective. This is about Nice itself and how they operate."
The row stems from an initial decision by Nice in 2005 to withdraw approval for the NHS to buy a class of four drugs used to treat patients with Alzheimer's disease. One of the four was Aricept, which was developed by Eisai and is co-marketed by Pfizer. The move sparked a storm of controversy, forcing Nice to reconsider its position. Last year, it gave its final appraisal, which largely stuck to the first ruling.
However, it said in its latest ruling that those in the moderate phase of the disease, rather than in the early or very late stages, would qualify. That left most of the 700,000 dementia and Alzheimer's sufferers in the UK ineligible for NHS-funded treatment.
Nice's argument was that the drugs simply were not effective enough to give good "value for money". "
You can reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by cutting down on salt and salty food. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html
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