Minerals associated with lowering your blood pressure include potassium, magnesium and calcium

Minerals associated with lowering your blood pressure include potassium, magnesium and calcium. Sodium is the mineral associated with raised blood pressure and so intake of salt and salty food should be lowered if you suffer from hypertension/high blood pressure. - Helpful pages include Obesity and the Salt Connection and Minerals, Weight and Fluid/Fat Retention.

Parents too readily give children paracetamol and ibuprofen for mild fever

Parents too readily give children paracetamol and ibuprofen for mild fever, the Telegraph reports. There are problems with dosage and over-dosage for children, and with combining the use of each of these drugs in turn, and with the very decision to try to lower the fever anyway, since fever is one of the ways in which the body seeks to fight infection.

Personally I deplore giving these painkiller drugs to children at all. Children should be protected from pharmaceutical drugs and their many potential and actual adverse side-effects. But parents are assailed by frequent advertisements for painkillers, and doctors' training is laced with over-reliance on the prescribing of drugs, i.e. the treatment of illness rather than the promotion and maintenance of health. Painkillers for children were unheard of when I was a child and we were all the better for not being given them. I'm sure we are all better off without most drugs and without their harmful side-effects.

Making sure we eat nutritious meals and get sufficient vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin D and calcium, the vitamin and mineral most often deficient or depleted in people's diets, is the best protection from infection, and prevention is always far better than cure.

How to lose excess fat by eating more calcium

BBC2 showed a series of programmes called “The Truth About Food” and I learnt about some Danish research which throws light on this. – See http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/slim/calcium.shtml where you will read: "a high calcium intake increases the excretion of fat in the faeces". – In fact, the researchers found that twice as much fat was excreted on a high calcium intake as on a low calcium intake – and this was independent of calorie intake. – They also found that dairy calcium (they suggest low fat yoghurt) is a particularly good source for this extra calcium.

On one of the links - http://www.vitamins-nutrition.org/vitamins/calcium.html - from the BBC The Truth About Food site, it says: "Calcium is the mineral most likely to be deficient in the average diet. Let me repeat that. Calcium is the mineral most likely to be deficient in the average diet. Calcium deficiency is a condition in which we fail to receive or to metabolize an adequate supply of Calcium," and also: "Calcium helps keep the weight off. Research suggests that if you don't get enough calcium in your diet, you're likely to be overweight."

There are a number of reasons that overweight people in particular tend to be deficient in calcium. Overweight people suffer from sodium retention/salt sensitivity/fluid retention and sodium retention/salt sensitivity/fluid retention depletes the body of calcium and is the main reason for the calcium deficiency problem in overweight/obese people.

Here are two other very simple reasons:

1. Most fat people are ‘dieting’ most of the time – i.e. they are eating insufficient food for their body’s needs.

2. Fat people are routinely advised to limit their intake of dairy food like milk because their advisors (wrongly) believe that milk is ‘fattening’.

So to reduce fat retention, if it is present, the most important thing is to alter the diet to reduce the fluid retention which is the initiating cause of excess weight and the primary reason for fat people being short of calcium and for fat people ‘dieting’. That means reducing sodium intake and ensuring plenty of fruit and vegetables in the diet (because their high potassium content helps to displace sodium from the body).

And specifically it also means having a higher intake of calcium, especially, if possible, from dairy yoghurt. – It is also necessary to ensure sufficient vitamin D intake, as this is needed to metabolise the calcium. Insufficiency of vitamin D is quite common, as is widely reported, e.g. here - http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

The best source of vitamin D is summer sunshine round about midday. - Go out then if you can, bare-armed, and soak up some summer sunshine...(o: - As well as helping you to get rid of excess fat and therefore lose excess fat, it also strengthens our bones and your muscles and helps you to avoid catching colds and flu.

If you cannot get out into the sun and need to take vitamin D supplements, Vitamin D3 are the best sort to get.

See vulnerable groups and fat retention

Do not believe the lies of the Diet-Gurus who tell you that by eating fewer calories than your body requires you will 'burn off' excess fat.

You won't! Your body's calorie needs will have to be met somehow. You will lose some of your precious firm flesh: some of your skin will be sacrificed and over time you will notice its loss as the skin becomes thinner.

The healthy body has a natural way of ridding itself of excess fat: it is excreted in the faeces. In this matter, a healthy body means a body that is not deficient in calcium. If your body is retaining excess fat then it isn't a diet you need, it is more calcium.

If you are overweight/obese, your blood vessel walls have been weakened by salt sensitivity and excess fluid in the bloodstream. This salt problem results in the body being depleted of calcium as calcium is excreted in the urine. You can reduce the excess blood volume by eating less salt and salty food.

See Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Lose weight

vulnerable groups

FAT RETENTION

Consider this: if the Diet-Gurus were to tell you the truth about how to lose excess weight (i.e. by avoiding salt and salty food) they would no longer be able to peddle their dangerous nonsense; they would be out of a job and their source of income would dry up.

Diets don't work! Give up dieting! - Give it up forever! Diets lose you your looks and your health; they do not make you slim.

I watched the last of C4's My Big Fat Diet Show programmes this evening

In the last of the My Big Fat Diet Show programmes this evening we were given some more misinformation. Food scientist Richard Marshall said, "We're programmed to need salt." - That is certainly not true. Babies are not born with a taste for salt. Salt is an acquired taste, though unfortunately it is not difficult to acquire the taste for salt, so it is wise to provide low salt meals for your children and protect them from getting into the habit of eating salty snacks like crisps, Pringles, salted nuts and cheese, especially the extra highly-salted cheese junk like Cheese Strings. The taste for salt can be like an addiction - a dangerous addiction that can result in high blood pressure, early onset type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and the risk of stroke and heart attack.

The food scientist went on to say, "It goes back to our evolution, we were hunter gatherers, we needed lots of energy all the time, so all those things we needed." - Well that's a strange thing to say in connection with salt, because salt contains no calories at all and so cannot provide energy, nor did hunter gatherers eat salt as such; they ate only the very small amount of salt naturally present in food, i.e. they did not eat added salt.

Reducing salt intake is an excellent way to lower high blood pressure. A guy who contacted me just over a week ago from my website, wanting advice about lowering his high blood pressure, reduced his salt intake as I advised and in just a week this is what he wrote to me: "Just to let you know that after one week of severely restricting my daily sodium intake to around 1000mg, my blood pressure has gone from 152/86(average of previous three weekly readings) to 133/88(average of three readings today." - Impressive, isn't it? He also says he has a lot more energy now.

Early humans in fact had a low sodium, high potassium food intake which means that our bodies evolved on a low sodium and high potassium intake. The modern diet has reversed this to high sodium and low potassium. The intake of salt has massively increased in recent years - as has the incidence of obesity and of the degenerative diseases I have listed.

To lose excess weight it is necessary to reduce fluid retention and fat retention. Both of these are easily and safely reduced by eating less salt/sodium. The weight reduction is speeded up by eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are potassium-rich foods.

Some further important information these four programmes omitted to mention at all is that when you are overweight it is because you are sensitive to salt and so very prone to fluid retention. This problem with salt in turn depletes the body of the essential minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium and zinc, and the calcium loss in particular results in fat retention. - Fat retention is not caused by eating fatty foods. It is caused by insufficient essential minerals, especially calcium. So if you increase your calcium intake with milk or yoghurt say, you will be helping yourself to lose excess, unwanted fat, and lowering your risk of fragile bones and other problems that calcium deficiency causes. Dieting should be avoided, especially diets that restrict calories to fewer than the body requires. It is not necessary to diet to lose weight, and dieting is likely to make your body even more deficient in calcium and other essential nutrients.

Here is how to lose weight safely.

Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Don't Listen to the 'Just Eat Less, Do More' Misinformation.

You know it doesn't work!

The people who insist on giving this advice quite literally do not know what they are talking about. Any fat/overweight/obese person who has followed this advice knows that it doesn't work. - It will make you tired, cold, hungry, irritable, depressed, ill. - What it won't do it make you slim.

There has never been any evidence to support the 'Eat Less, Do More' fallacy. - The hypothesis has never even been scientifically put to the test! - It has just been an arrogant assumption made by people who have not appreciated that just because something appears obvious, then it must be a fact. These ill-informed people are the modern-day equivalent of the flat-earthers. - Remember them? - The superstitious people who believed that the earth was flat and that we shouldn't sail too far in case we sailed over the edge?

The fact is that obesity is caused by fluid retention, not by overeating. Almost everyone who is overweight is sensitive to salt and this means that for them, eating salt leads to some salt retention and thirst and a lot of the water in whatever they drink tends to get retained by the body. Slim people haven't got this salt sensitivity problem. Their bodies excrete any excess salt and excess water in the urine. This is why they remain slim. The overweight people have excess salt/sodium and water in their blood stream. If they substantially reduce their intake of salt and salty food they will lose weight fast and safely, without dieting or going hungry, and will feel much better and have more energy.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of fluid retention/obesity and especially of morbid obesity. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

Furthermore, the fluid retention problem often leads on to fat retention - which, surprisingly, is not caused by eating too much fat, but by mineral deficiencies, principally calcium deficiency. - Read on:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations.

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

FDA Warns Again of High Risk of Liver Damage from Acetaminophen

See U.S.News & World Report

Acetaminophen is a pain-killer. It's not the only pain-killer that can cause damage to the body.

Pain is not caused by painkiller deficiency.

It's shame that people have been led to believe that the best thing to do if you have a pain is to rush and take pain-killers. It isn't - and sometimes the pain-killers don't work anyway. And all pharmaceuticals have side-effects.

I must state that my experience of great and lasting harm from pharmaceutical drugs leads me to view them with disfavour. If you are like me and would prefer to avoid taking drugs if you possibly can, then you may like to try cutting down on salt and salty food. This does help with a lot of pains, particularly chronic pain , such as that from osteo-arthritis.

It's also helpful to consider your nutrition. Many people are short of calcium, and according to a great deal of recent research probably most of us are deficient in vitamin D. Remedying these deficiencies can help reduce chronic pain and improve sleep. - But don't go from one extreme to another and overdose on these nutrients.

"Calcium for strength." - That's what I always say. - And, "Avoid salt and salty food!" - What do you always say?...(o:

When bones are weak and fragile, we tend to think of calcium and of drugs to help with the problem, but what about cutting down on salt? - Salt can deplete your body of calcium and so make you weaker.

See this extremely interesting information: World Action on Salt and Health (WASH)

Look at this amazing quotation from the website:

"It was calculated that a modest reduction in salt intake from 10g to 5g would have the same effect on hip bone density as an increase in calcium intake of 1000mg, a difficult amount to achieve without resorting to supplements."

And this:

"Diuretics, through a reduction in extra cellular volume, reduce calcium excretion leading to a positive calcium balance, increase bone density and reduce bone fractures."

Don't forget to make sure you have enough vitamin D too, because you need vitamin D to metabolise the calcium.

You may be interested to read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

and FAT RETENTION

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

A high salt intake is a major cause of renal stones and also of osteoporosis/osteopenia in humans.

When bones are weakened by osteoporosis/osteopenia we tend to think of calcium and of drugs to help with the problem, but what about cutting down on salt? This also helps with renal stones.

See this extremely interesting information: World Action on Salt and Health (WASH)

Look at this amazing quotation from the website:

"It was calculated that a modest reduction in salt intake from 10g to 5g would have the same effect on hip bone density as an increase in calcium intake of 1000mg, a difficult amount to achieve without resorting to supplements."

And this:

"Diuretics, through a reduction in extra cellular volume, reduce calcium excretion leading to a positive calcium balance, increase bone density and reduce bone fractures."

Georgian seniors need nutrient supplementation, finds study

Researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) report that elderly people across the state are largely deficient in vitamin D, calcium and B12, and should consider dietary supplementation. The new study conducted by nutrition researchers at the university noted that nutrient deficiencies are making the elderly more vulnerable to chronic health problems such as osteoporosis, anemia and cognitive impairment.
Read article at nutraingredients-usa.com

Useful information regarding your choice of bottled water

Variation in the Mineral Content of Commercially Available Bottled Waters: Implications for Health and Disease

This is an interesting and informative webpage with content indicated by its title. Although the article is dated August 1998 the information is mostly of the 'timeless' kind, I'd say.

Extract:

"A wide variation exists in the mineral content of bottled waters that are commercially available in North America and Europe: magnesium content ranges from 0 to 126 mg per liter, sodium from 0 to 1,200 mg per liter, and calcium from 0 to 546 mg per liter. Evidence links magnesium deficiency to sudden death, excess sodium to hypertension, and calcium deficiency to osteoporosis. Drinking water that is high in magnesium and calcium and low in sodium will help individuals achieve the recommended daily allowances of these minerals. Because wide variations exist in the mineral contents of commercially available bottled waters, understanding the potential beneficial and harmful effects of these minerals will provide valuable information on which water to choose."

It's always a good idea to check the mineral levels by looking at the nutrition information on the label. And remember that for the body to utilise calcium effectively, it needs a sufficiency of vitamin D, some good sources of which are sunshine, oily fish, liver, cod liver oil and milk.

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, hunger 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

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Further foolish claims made about genes as causes of obesity.

Six new obesity genes discovered
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Scientists looked at the genes of more than 90,000 people and uncovered six genetic variants associated with an increased Body Mass Index (BMI), the standard measurement of obesity.

Of the six, five are active in the brain, and could affect behaviour around food, rather than how the body breaks down fat or uses up energy, according to the findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics.

"It might seem remarkable that it is the brain that is most commonly influenced by genetic variation in obesity, rather than fat tissue or digestive processes," says Dr Ines Barroso, a senior author on the study, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Until 2007, no genetic associations had been found for 'common obesity', but today almost all those we have uncovered are likely to influence brain function."

Scientists hope that by analysing the genes they can better understand how they work and develop ways to tackle the problem."

This is pernicious nonsense. Genetic changes in brain function are not what cause obesity.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention, often accompanied by fat retention.

Fluid retention is caused by salt sensitivity/weakened veins, often caused by prescription drugs.

Fluid retention tends to lead to deficiency in calcium, magnesium and potassium. Deficiency in these minerals, especially calcium, and in vitamin D, causes fat retention.

Reducing salt intake reduces fluid retention AND fat retention. Increasing intake of calcium and vitamin D, magnesium and potassium, further reduces fat retention.

Read the following webpages for fuller information.

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

Children and Obesity

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

Study Finds Postmenopausal Women Still at Risk for Calcium and Vitamin D Deficiency

Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the human body, contributing to muscle contraction, the secretion of hormones and enzymes, and colon cell health, helping control blood sugar and blood pressure and even helping recovery from thyroid surgery. However, the most well-known role for calcium is for bone health, since 99% of all the calcium in the body resides in the skeleton. But despite these known health benefits of calcium, particularly for bone health, a new study has found that most postmenopausal women are still at risk for both calcium and vitamin D deficiency.
Read article on the Natural Health Research Institute website (USA)