'Afternoon Tea' doesn't HAVE to be a Carbfest.

 'Afternoon Tea' doesn't HAVE to be a Carbfest. - I was invited out for 'Afternoon Tea' one day last week by friends who know that because of iatrogenically-induced food sensitivities I have to be very careful what I eat. -  So K reassured me beforehand that she had looked on the internet for suggestions of 'paleo' snacks. Very thoughtful of her. - I'll bet you're wondering what was on the table and what I had to eat and drink? - Well what I ate consisted of delicious, dainty, crisp-sized omelettes (organic free range egg) onto which K spooned tiny helpings of chopped ripe avocado, and I also ate some Yeo Valley natural unsweetened full fat yoghurt. There were some tiny pieces of chopped apple too, but I didn't have those. And I drank tap water and 2 cups of tea. - A bit of an unusual afternoon tea, perhaps, but much healthier than salt-laden/carb-laden ham sandwiches and sweet scones spread with jam.

Dr LeFanu talks sense about the effects of advertising antidepressants

Read Dr LeFanu's article in the Telegraph. You will see that brand advertising techniques have been the main driver in increasing the prescribing of antidepressants. I remind you that antidepressants work no better than dummy pills but unlike dummy pills, antidepressants can and do cause many harmful side-effects, including weight gain and breast tenderness. It shocks me that bearing all these facts in mind doctors still prescribe this pharmaceutical junk and, indeed, that they are allowed still to prescribe antidepressants. The health service could save a lot of money by no longer prescribing these pills and by no longer having the consequent adverse side-effects on health to have to deal with. More importantly, if these harmful pills were no longer prescribed it would save a lot of avoidable illness and suffering.

MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as being helpful in lifting depression. I personally would also recommend avoiding salt and salty food and optimising nutrition. And very importantly, if you are dieting by eating less food than your body requires, I urge you to give it up! - Dieting is harmful to your health. It is a frequent cause of depression and does not reduce obesity.

Children's health is being damaged and their lives shortened because they are eating too much salt and salty food

Children's health is being damaged and their lives shortened because they are eating too much salt and salty food. See Children are vulnerable to salt. It is important to protect children from processed foods/salty snacks/ready meals and the like. Children are more at risk from their salt intake than adults are.

Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

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

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

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating dairy yogurt (but avoid non-dairy yogurt and low-fat yogurt and the sort of yogurt that has added sugar or sweeteners, colours or other synthetic chemical additives).

Get rid of Water Weight by becoming a Salt Shunner!

Yes, that's right: shun the salt! If you are carrying a lot of excess water in your body - feeling heavy, fat, bloated, clumsy and uncomfortable because of fluid retention, you can reduce this problem dramatically by avoiding salt and salty food. You are sensitive to salt/sodium. - It's the sodium that is holding the extra water in your body.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

So have you given up something for Lent?

Did you give up smoking? - That is excellent.

Did you give up sugar in your tea and coffee? - That's great. - Give up cakes and biscuits as well...(o:

Did you give up eating salt and salty food? - No? - It would improve your health in many ways and you would have more energy to do your work, pursue your interests, help other people... I hope you will consider cutting out, or at any rate, cutting down on, salt and salty food. That mainly means giving up processed food, ready meals and takeaways.

Did you give up dieting? - Unlikely, I guess. - And yet, dieting really isn't good for you. - If you've actually started to diet as a Lenten task, I hope you will consider swapping that resolve, and consider giving up sugar and salt instead. - Doing that swap would achieve the weight loss you wish for, without damaging your health as dieting does.

Breast Cancer: useful information

I welcome Dr Mercola's comprehensive article today on how to prevent Breast Cancer and how to limit its spread. As usual, his main emphasis is on nutritional factors and dietary advice, and he gives links so that you can check out research findings for yourself. I would myself add that avoiding salt and salty food is particularly beneficial to keeping the breasts free from pain and other avoidable harm.

Ambulance bosses are spending big money buying bariatric ambulances and equipment to accommodate bigger patients

Ambulance bosses are spending big money buying bariatric ambulances and equipment to accommodate bigger patients, as reported by BBC News. Clearly this is necessary. Ambulance bosses are not in a position to correct the misinformation and professional negligence that destroy so many people's health and happiness. On the BBC webpage carrying the report, there is a short video about Eileen Forde's painful and humiliating experience travelling in a standard ambulance when she weighed 34 stone (476 pounds). If you put that lady's name into your search engine I'm sure you will find, as I did, many vituperative, insulting personal comments about Ms Forde, though I think you'd have a long search to find any of these bullies with the courage to comment using their real name. Mostly Eileen is accused and found 'guilty' of being greedy and eating too much - guilty, Dear Reader, with neither evidence nor proof to support the unjust verdict.

I feel great sympathy for anyone like Eileen, subjected to the jeers of fools - and indeed I am brought close to tears sometimes, like today, at such examples of cruelty and unmerited criticism. Instead of blaming morbidly obese people for eating too many 'pies' and the like, the bullies would be nearer the truth if they blamed the pharmaceutical drugs that are a major cause of morbid obesity. You can read about some of these drugs here and here. The bullies would also be nearer the mark if they heaped blame on the highly-paid doctors who prescribed the drugs despite being so ill-informed about their side-effects that they didn't know they would result in obesity because of weakened blood vessels and massive fluid retention. And they didn't know that these side-effects could be avoided by stressing to their patients/victims the need to avoid added salt/sodium and salty food while taking the potentially harmful medication.

If you're going to hurl abuse, choose the right targets: ill-informed healthcare professionals, uncaring drug manufacturers, food scientists who cram salt and sugar and other harmful additives into the junk 'food' that weighs down the shelves of the supermarkets and weighs down the bodies of their customers.

The many health benefits of avoiding salt and salty food

The many health benefits of avoiding salt and salty food include lowering high blood pressure, lowering your risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, type 2 diabetes, most cancers and dementia. It helps with asthma and other breathing problems, inadequate sleep, tiredness, depression, chronic pain, osteoporosis, varicose veins, arthritis, red face, failing memory, inability to concentrate - and so many more! - And that's apart from the benefit I usually write about, namely losing excess weight.

The thing is, pretty well every overweight or obese person loses weight very quickly when they seriously cut down on salt and salty food, and I did believe that it was every one of them. - But last night I heard from a guy in America who was very grateful to me for the advice on my website and blogs and has cut down on salt as a result of taking that advice. - I can't properly remember how long since he started avoiding salt, but I think it's something like a couple of weeks. He says he feels much more mentally alert and is feeling soooooo much better - just like I say will happen - but he hasn't lost any weight yet. So it seems that it's not correct that all overweight people lose weight rapidly, though I assure you that of the people who contact me about cutting down on salt, most of them are eager to tell me straight away that they are losing weight so easily and so fast, as well as all the other benefits, and the compliments they are receiving because they are looking so much better and their work performance has improved so much. Anyway, maybe with some people they get the other benefits first, and the weight loss takes more time.

If you are feeling better because of cutting down on salt but you are not yet losing weight, maybe you have a problem with sugar and other carbs. Not living in America I've not encountered the phenomenon of most food there containing not just salt, but loads of HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and other alien pretend-food, manufactured in laboratories and factories, loads of genetically modified crops/products, loads of hormone-contaminated and pesticide-contaminated frankenfood. Maybe all that 'food' that is so unsuitable for our species that lived for about 2.4 million years on plain, natural animal meat and its fat, plus some plants, and water (not coke! - and not diet coke!) does even more harm to Americans' body chemistry than the UK processed food does to us in the UK. Watch The Bitter Truth when you have 90 minutes to spare. And of course, Americans take even more pharmaceutical drugs than people in the UK, and these drugs do very, very great harm to your body's chemistry and physiology. See Amitriptyline and other drugs. See Prescribed Steroids, HRT and other drugs.

So as well as avoiding added salt/sodium, try low carb, high fat to help you with losing excess weight. - But make sure the fats you eat are good fats - fat from the meat of pastured animals, not from animals that have been fed on grain and hormones and pesticides and anti-biotics. Make sure the butter you eat is made from the milk of pastured cows. Don't ever eat margarine, or low-fat perversions of food. Don't eat oils like corn-oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, 'vegetable oil', etc. You want food that is as natural and unprocessed as possible: so cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil is good. - And don't diet or eat 'diet-foods' or 'slimming foods'. Just eat good, natural, nutritious food. - You will feel sooo much better!

Are you unsteady on your feet? A bit wobbly? Prone to falling?

Are you unsteady on your feet? A bit wobbly? Prone to falling? - It may well be, that like me, upping your vitamin D intake would bring about a great improvement.

Here is news of recent studies that have found that for older people, taking exercise and taking vitamin D supplements is associated with reduced risk of falls. This was certainly my own experience, coupled with much greater muscle strength that makes it easier to rise from a chair, and much more confident walking. If you decide to take vitamin D supplements, then be aware that Vitamin D3 is the more effective version of this vitamin supplement. You could be saving yourself from a fall and a consequent broken bone or two. - Well worth taking the tablets...(o:

Vitamin D is one of the vitamins that are soluble in fat, so the best way to take Vitamin D supplements is with or after a meal that contains some fat.

It's also vital to improve your dietary intake, of course. - Healthy, natural, unsalted food, raw or cooked from scratch, is more likely to reward you with a healthy body than feeding it processed, highly-salted, sugar-laden, chemical-drenched, nutrient-low, denatured junk, isn't it? - Take care of your body! It's the only one you've got. - Saving money by choosing to eat cheap, processed rubbish instead of real food, preferably organic, is the most costly economy measure you could take, because it could cost you your health.

Dangers for elderly patients who regularly take opioid painkillers

It is often the arthritis sufferers among elderly patients who most regularly take painkillers, because their pain tends to be chronic. Adverse side-effects are not uncommon, especially with the opioid painkillers, which include codeine, morphine, methadone and brand names such as Demerol, Percocet, Percodan, Darvon, , Vicodin, and Lomotil. The side-effects can be very serious, even dangerous, e.g. more fractured bones. Read this report on MedicalNewsToday.

Yet there is a completely safe and very effective way to reduce the pain/severity of osteo-arthritis, and it does not involve taking pharmaceutical drugs. - You just need to avoid salt and salty food as much as you can. - The less salt you eat, the less pain you will experience from your arthritis...(o: And, since you will also lose some excess water weight from your body which salt has been holding there, there will be less wear and tear on your joints, not having to carry so much water around. - So give salt the elbow, and say goodbye both to so much pain and to dangerous drugs. - See salt/sodium in foods.

Be amazed at how quickly your health improves when you stop eating salt and salty food

You really will be astonished at how quickly your health improves when you stop eating salt and salty food. - Within just a few days you will feel better, have more energy and be more mentally alert. If you are obese or overweight you will have lost some of that excess weight without dieting or counting calories. If you have high blood pressure it will be lower. If you worry about your high cholesterol that also will be lower. And you may well be having people comment on how well you are looking...
See Lose weight by eating less salt! and Sodium in Foods.

Zoe has some good ideas about reducing obesity

This Daily Mail article informs us that Zoe Harcombe has written a book which attributes the increasing incidence of obesity on a radical change in government dietary advice a few decades ago, and the promulgation of myths about what is healthy food and how to reduce obesity. I tend to agree with her and I believe that people who follow her advice are likely to be successful in losing some of their excess weight and in improving their health. I especially agree with her in her criticism of the involvement of the food and drink industry in public health advice.

The article does not, however, mention salt intake or salt sensitivity, or that people who are sensitive or vulnerable to salt gain weight because of salt intake, which for them results in fluid retention leading to obesity. Salt and salty food is indeed the main cause of child obesity. Protecting toddlers and small children from high salt intake protects them from many health problems in addition to protecting them from the main factor in children becoming obese.

The other very important omission from the article is the role of pharmaceutical drugs in causing obesity. Prescribed drugs are a major cause of obesity, since many, possibly most, prescription drugs cause fluid retention/obesity when they are taken for an extended period of time. Drugs that routinely tend to cause overweight/obesity include many steroids, HRT, most anti-depressants, anti-epileptics, anti-psychotics, etc. See steroids and HRT and amitriptyline and other anti-depressants.

See Sodium in Foods and my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection. You may also like to read my political page about salt, pharmaceuticals and medical misinformation leading to obesity and a host of avoidable ill-health and suffering.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Unsubstantiated claim that lower British death rates are 'due to rise in statins use'

This really is a preposterous claim. Read Dr Briffa's blogpost about it. And click on the 'statins' label beneath this post to see my previous posts about statins.

To reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes and to lower cholesterol it is not necessary to take statins (expensive and have adverse side-effects). The safe, sure, swift, drug-free way to reduce all heart problems, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, is to avoid/reduce intake of salt and salty food. This brings a host of other health benefits too and it makes you feel better and have more energy. Read how lowering salt/sodium helped Ray Hayden.

Linus Pauling: Great Nobel Prize Winner of the 20th Century

We are hearing a lot about Nobel prize winners just now. - That two-dimensional Graphene material sounds very interesting, doesn't it? - But it is the Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling (1901 to 1994) who has always particularly excited my admiration. He won two Nobel Prizes: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) and Nobel Peace Prize (1962).

His interests and contribution to the sum of knowledge and the benefit of our world were many and varied. Read this Wikipedia page about him and be amazed at the list of Honors and Awards he accrued.

As I read that page last night I was interested to see that, "In 1941, at age 40, Pauling was diagnosed with Bright's disease, a renal disease. Following the recommendations of Thomas Addis, Pauling was able to control the disease with Addis' then unusual, low protein, salt-free diet and vitamin supplements.^[54]"

So one of the greatest thinkers of all time lived and worked for decades on a salt-free diet with vitamin supplements. That seems excellent anecdotal evidence of the safety and merit both of a salt-free diet and of vitamin supplements...(o:

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.

Sodium foods increase fluid retention; potassium foods decrease fluid retention

So if you are overweight or obese you need to avoid salt/sodium and salty food, and eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables because these are naturally rich in potassium. You will then safely and easily lose excess water weight and you will have much more energy because of not having to carry that extra fluid around with you all the time.

Sodium and Potassium in foods

If you REALLY want to lose weight you need to cut out the salty stuff.

Lose weight!

Guide to salty foods

I listened to Carrie Grant presenting the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease

I listened this afternoon to Carrie Grant presenting the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of the charity National Association for Colitis & Crohn's Disease. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sf7hj As a sufferer herself, Ms Grant has personal experience of inflammatory bowel diseases which can have a devastating impact on education, work, social and family life. And it is good that there is a charity - The National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease (NACC) - that helps people suffering from these illnesses. Ms Grant explained that part of what the charity does is give monetary grants to people who need them, for example, a grant to buy a washing machine to make the work of constantly having to wash soiled bedding less of a chore. She said that another grant was for 'Adam', for new clothes. She explained that Adam had become a lonely, isolated teenager because he had gained such a lot of weight as a result of taking the medication for his illness and that he had needed new clothes because the weight gain made his old clothes too small for him. Well that's a good practical way to help Adam and his mother, and a good way to use money donated to the charity.

But I have another suggestion to make. - It would be great if the NACC would inform sufferers and their families about how the weight gain can be avoided or minimised in the first place. - This is easy. Explain to people that the drugs that cause weight gain do so because they cause sodium retention/fluid retention and that this fluid retention/weight gain/water weight can be avoided or reduced by avoiding salt and salty food. - Even now it is not too late for Adam to reduce the excess weight he has gained. If, from now on, he reduces his intake of salt and salty food he will lose some of the excess weight easily, safely and fast.

I read on this page that one of the drug types used for Crohn's Disease is Corticosteroids and that "Steroids have an anti-inflammatory effect and can treat symptoms quickly. There are varying types, and so can target specific affected areas of the gut. A high dose is often required initially to reduce inflammation rapidly, which can be an issue as side-effects are often dose related. It is common for patients on steroids to gain weight quickly and teenagers can suffer acne breakouts as a result of such treatment. Long term usage can also result in poor growth development in children."

As well as reducing the problem of sudden weight gain on steroids, my advice about avoiding salt/sodium and salty food would also reduce or avoid the acne that teenagers aften suffer as a result of the steroid medication.

Having experienced massive weight gain and acne myself as a consequence of taking prescribed steroids I would like to help people like Adam, and other people who take prescribed steroids, to avoid unnecessary suffering. I have written a webpage with the necessary information and advice. I hope you will visit it.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

AstraZenica, its drug, Seroquel, its illegal marketing of antipsychotic drugs,

and its misleading of doctors and patients, and the serious harm Seroquel does to the unfortunate patients/victims who take or have taken it, reported here by the New York Times.

I urge you to read the article in full. It contains a resumé of other pharmaceutical companies who have similarly poisoned the people who have taken their dangerous antipsychotic and painkiller junk. Some of the damaged people are children, their lives and health now permanently blighted by massive weight gain, diabetes and other attendant ill-health. Some victims have actually died from the adverse effects.

Yes, the evil pharmaceutical industry pays out huge sums of money in a sort of system of fines, though these huge sums are insignificant set against their colossal profits, but they don't seem to go to prison for these crimes against humanity, including what many would regard as torture and murder, do they? Why? Why don't they go to prison? They knowingly lie about the results of drug trials. They knowingly supply products they know will do grave harm. - Why does the judicial system not protect the citizens? Should the members of the judiciary be held to account? Should they themselves go to prison?

In a fierce and deadly irony, I see that on the same webpage as the report to which I refer, there is an advertisement to recruit volunteers to take part in drug trials! - Not me, guv!

If you, or anyone you know - maybe one of those poor, damaged children - gained weight from taking any of these ghastly drugs, or gained weight from taking any other prescription drugs, please be aware that that weight gain can be reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. - It makes a great difference, believe me. Please tell these victims. Do not have it on your conscience that you failed to tell them about this safe, fast, effective way to lose excess weight and improve their health and happiness. Don't pass by on the other side and leave them to suffer needlessly.

See Sodium in foods.

Lose weight

vulnerable groups

Fat Retention

Firefighters had to knock down bungalow wall to free fat woman to get her to hospital

See the report in the Telegraph. This is so horrifying. Poor Joanne Ettienne is only 45, but has not been able, because of her obesity (she weighs almost 40 stone) to leave her bedroom for 3 years. And this is all because of the dangerously incorrect obesity misinformation that continues to be churned out.

Her skin is vastly overstretched and delicate because of the huge mass it contains, and this, of course, makes it vulnerable to infections and tears and other damage. Yet it is extremely unlikely that the hospital she is in will provide her with the food she needs in order to lose weight, fast, easily and safely. She needs to eat food that, as far as is humanly possible, contains NO ADDED SALT WHATEVER. She would lose several stones in weight rapidly, and would feel so much better and so much more comfortable. Simple diuretics should also be considered.

I do hope they do not put the poor woman onto a saline drip for any length of time for some reason or other. That would probably be the last straw for her poor fragile skin and blood vessels.

She does NOT need to diet. - I expect she's spent/wasted years of her life dieting. But diets don't work.

Obesity is NOT caused by eating too many calories/too much fat and/or taking too little exercise. – No matter how many doctors and other ‘experts’ claim that it is, and that it can be reduced by eating fewer calories and taking more exercise, they are wrong and it is still NOT true. – The hypothesis has never been put to the test scientifically and there is certainly not a shred of valid evidence to back it up.

There is, however, a wealth of evidence to show that it is NOT true. – Millions upon millions of innocent overweight people have tried over decades to reduce their excess weight by eating fewer calories and taking more exercise. – Overwhelmingly they fail to lose weight this way. – They get tired; they feel cold and ill and hungry. – But they do not lose weight (or if they do it is only temporary). – The ‘experts’ then tell them that they have done it wrong; they haven’t tried hard enough or long enough; they are lying; they are mistaken, etc. – The ‘experts’ cannot get their heads around the fact that it is THEY who are wrong; THEY who are lying; THEY who are mistaken…

Obesity is usually caused by fluid retention in people who are sensitive to salt. – It is as simple, and as profoundly complex, as that.

Now – what really causes the fluid retention/salt sensitivity/obesity? – Here are the main causes:

1. Prescription drugs such as tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline.

Amitriptyline is also known as Elavil, Tryptanol, Endep, Elatrol, Tryptizol, Trepiline, Laroxyl, and is present in some combination drugs, e.g. Limbitrol is a drug which combines amitriptyline and chlordiazepoxide.

Weight gain is also widely reported by people taking Lexapro, Prozac, Fontex, Celexa and Paxil. These are not tricyclic antidepressants; they are SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors). As with the tricyclic antidepressants, the weight gain is because of sodium retention and fluid/water retention, and can be avoided/reduced by avoiding eating salt and salty food.

2. Other prescription drugs such as steroids including prednisolone (also sold as Pediapred®), prednisone (also sold as Deltasone®, Meticorten, Orasone and SK-Prednisone), cortisone, hydrocortisone, dexamethasone, betamethasone, beclomethasone, fludrocortisone, triamsinolone, desonide, fluprednidene, clobetasone, alclomethasone, momethasone, desoxymethasone, fluosinonide, budesonide, fluosinolone, triamcinolone (trade names Kenalog, Aristocort, Nasacort, Tri-Nasal, Triderm, Azmacort, Trilone, Volon A, Tristoject, Fougera, Tricortone, Triesence) and other corticosteroids, Advair – a combination drug that contains Fluticasone, a corticosteroid, HRT and other medications containing oestrogen – like some birth control medication (contraceptives) – amitriptyline and some other anti-depressants, some anti-psychotic drugs, including Zyprexa (aka olanzapine) and other psychotropic drugs, and some anti-epileptic/anticonvulsant drugs, notably valproate (trade name Epilim).

If you have been inappropriately prescribed or over-dosed with corticosteroids or HRT or the many other drugs that cause weight gain, then you may well have developed drug-induced Cushing’s Syndrome, a very serious illness, frequently far more serious than the health problem for which the drugs were prescribed. It is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely preventable illness if doctors conform to the protocols for prescribing these drugs and if they monitor patients’ progress on the drugs, and if they warn patients about salt. It is VITALLY important that it be realised that weight gain resulting from these drugs is from sodium and water retention, so patients taking these drugs should be warned not to eat salt, or foods containing salt, while taking the medication. They should also be informed that any weight gained in this way can easily and swiftly be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, and they should be warned not to try to lose weight by eating less food or restricting calories because this will not help them to lose weight and is 
harmful.

If you gain weight suddenly and unexpectedly when you start to take prescribed medication that I have not mentioned on this page, it is highly likely that the weight gain is caused by the drug. You may like to consider whether you really need to take that drug, or whether the dose could be lowered. At any rate if you continue with the drug, try to reduce your salt intake in order to reduce the weight gain. Doctors seldom, if ever, warn about the drugs that cause salt sensitivity and the need very strictly to avoid salt and salty food while on the drugs, and many do not observe the drug protocols and very few properly monitor the patient’s progress on the drugs. Obviously if doctors did do all these things, there would be no steroid victims, no patients with drug-induced obesity, etc. whereas there are many millions of them worldwide, victims of medical negligence and ignorance.

3. If, as a baby or small child, you ate salt and salty food, you were highly likely to have developed sensitivity to salt and you therefore became fat or overweight.

4. Pregnancy can cause fluid retention/salt sensitivity because of hormonal changes during pregnancy. It is important to avoid salt and salty food during pregnancy.

These are the main causes of obesity. Dieting/calorie counting makes obesity worse and should be avoided.

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, boost your lung function 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

Sodium in foods

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