Cave Salem!

If my blog and I were transported back in time, and you, Dear Reader, were an Ancient Roman, then I might well say to you, "Cave salem!" thus giving you a bit of advice to improve your health. Though of course, as an Ancient Roman, you would not be particularly in need of that bit of advice...(o: 

 

But in our present-day culture, and speaking in English, I say, "Beware of salt!" and that is a very necessary warning for most people, because there is way too much added salt in our modern diets. The Food Industry ladles a great deal of salt into the ready meals and other processed food products it manufactures. - Excessive salt intake may well be contributing to your weight problem, or to your high blood pressure and breathlessness. It may well have been the main factor in the stroke or heart attack you had or any/all of the chronic ill-health you suffer. - Be that as it may, if you cut down on the amount of salt and salty food you eat, you will feel ever so much better, have more energy and think more clearly. Give it a try! - Read about salt in food.

If your skin is red and you're not a tomato

If your skin is red and you're not a tomato or a beetroot, it's very likely that you are sensitive to salt. I say this because salt sensitivity tends to cause skin-thinning and swollen veins. Then because of the thin skin the veins are effectively nearer to the skin's surface, and their red/purple/blue colour makes the skin appear flushed. 

 

I suggest that you try cutting down on salt and salty food. If you take up my suggestion, your high colour will be reduced and you will feel ever so much better! You will lose some excess weight/fluid retention, lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of stroke, heart attack, cancer and diabetes, increase your energy and pep up your mental alertness. - "Bring it on!" I hear you cry! - And here's an added inducement to desalinate your diet: read "The Fat Man with the Red Face."

Are you troubled by Brain Fog? Too 'foggy' and tired really even to think what to do?

Are you troubled by Brain Fog? Wish you could counter it but don't know what to do? Too 'foggy' and tired really even to try to think about what to do? Well I offer some simple  suggestions.

First off I'd recommend cutting down on salt and salty food. People who try this are commonly amazed at how much better they feel, and how much brighter, happier and more energetic. Even in just a few days.

Secondly, cut down on sugar and sugary food, and on bread/biscuits/wheat. These are notorious for causing fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which can lead on type 2 diabetes, with its attendant health problems of overweight, tiredness, vision damage/possible blindness, cognitive decline, impaired mobility, depression and many more, including premature death.

Improve your nutrition. - You're tired and you can't think straight and that makes processed ready meals/convenience foods a big temptation. Try hard to overcome this temptation because this sort of food is usually high in salt and sugar, the baddies I have already indicted, and very low in nutrients that your brain and body need. They are nutrient-poor and baddie-rich. Instead of taste, they offer addictive saltiness and sweetness, with the added harm of artificial colours, artificial toxic garbage like MSG (monosodium glutamate), synthetic transfats to lengthen 'shelf life', etc. (Note: if an ingredient lengthens the shelf life of a food product, it's a pound to a penny that it shortens the longevity of the person who eats the product!)

Vitamins that are especially helpful for brain fog are Vitamin B12 and Vitamin D. - If you click on the Vitamin D label beneath this blogpost you can read some of my earlier blogposts that go into more detail about this very important vitamin. See also this related page with more info about Vitamin D and other essential nutrients.) Similarly you can read further about Vitamin B12 by clicking on its label beneath this post.

Avoid taking anti-depressants, the ultimate in pharmaceutical junk! Tricyclics and any other drugs that have anticholinergic properties cause memory loss, cognitive impairment/decline and can lead eventually to dementia. You've only got one brain and one body. Don't damage them with pharmaceutical junk.

As you gradually improve your health in the ways - or at least some of the ways - I have mentioned - you will hopefully soon have the energy to do a bit more and take a bit more exercise than you can manage at present. Exercise will in turn add to the virtuous circle and reduce your brain fog and ill-health even further.

And here's a more authoritative and much more detailed webpage about clearing brain fog for when you can cope with reading more demanding reading material than my little effort.

You are wondering whether you would lose weight if you cut down on or give up the amitriptyline you take?

You are wondering whether you would lose weight if you cut down on or give up the amitriptyline you take? - Well the answer is that if you have gained weight as a side-effect of taking amitriptyline, you will almost certainly lose weight when you cut it down or gradually give it up. - But depending on how long you have been taking it and how high the dose, you may not be able to lose all the weight gained. - On the other hand, if you seriously reduce your intake of salt and salty food, it is actually possible to return to your previous weight or even lower! - Read about how amitriptyline causes weight gain, and about how to lose weight by eating less salt/sodium.

Have you found that saline drips make you thirsty and make your hands and feet swell?

Have you found that saline drips make you extremely thirsty and make your hands and feet swell? Then you've had the same experience that I've had. It may well mean that you too are sensitive to salt, and that you too would greatly benefit by restricting your intake of salt and salty food. And if you ever have to have a saline drip in the future, it could be a good idea for you and your medical team to consider using a drip that contains potassium as well as sodium, instead of the usual saline drip.

Is salt fattening? - Yes, salt is fattening for some people.

Is salt fattening? - Yes, it is fattening for some people. - Salt is fattening for people who suffer from excess fluid retention. You can read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt, and whose health and weight would be improved if they were to cut down on salt and salty food. They would also feel much better in themselves.

Why is adding salt to food more harmful than in former years?

Adding salt to food is more harmful than years ago because in our developed world, a greater proportion of people are now sensitive to salt than used to be the case. There is both a higher incidence of salt sensitivity and the salt sensitivity itself tends to be more severe. - One of the factors contributing to salt sensitivity is the fact that these days, in general, most children- even toddlers -eat a diet that is too high in salt. Salt is especially bad for children. High salt intake, such as from salty snacks like crisps and salted nuts and junk like Cheesestrings, is a major cause of child obesity. - See Children and Salt. And a taste for salt acquired in childhood is not very easy to 'unacquire'. So the habit of eating over-salted food literally feeds a growing number of related health problems including high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, stroke, heart disease, depression, dementia and so many more.

 

But at least as important a causative factor in salt sensitivity as high salt intake in childhood is the ever-growing ingestion of pharmaceutical drugs. Pharmaceutical drugs are being prescribed more and more in the UK (and even more still in United States) and other industrialised countries. Most of the prescriptions are for drugs that cause sodium and water/fluid retention and salt sensitivity. I don't mean that they are prescribed with the intention of causing sodium and water retention, but problems with salt are the most common undesirable side-effects of the most frequently prescribed rugs. These include antidepressants, anticonvulsants, antipsychotics, steroids, birth control medications and many more.

 

When you couple the over-prescribing of these dangerous salt-sensitising drugs with the highly-salted processed food that is the norm for a majority of consumers these days, it is assuredly a recipe for disaster both on a personal scale and in the wider social context. - I suggest that you try to avoid prescription drugs as far as you safely can and cut down on salt and salty food as much as you reasonably can. You'll lose some excess weight and improve your health and you'll feel sooo much better!

A reminder about the high levels of salt in bacon

A few days ago the Guardian reported that CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) has again warned about the high salt content of bacon, and has described it as "now the second-biggest source of salt in the UK diet after bread." - Me, I sometimes describe it as laden with salt. One of the reasons the food manufacturers make it so salty is so that they can get away with adding more water to it, because salt helps to hold water in a product. This enables salt water to be sold at the same price as the bacon which holds it, and accounts for that off-putting feature, when frying bacon, of seeing water vapour rising from it as some of the water content is driven out by the heat. 

 

If you have high blood pressure, or if you are overweight - particularly if you are overweight as a result of taking anti-depressants or prescribed steroids or anti-epileptics or anti-psychotics - then cutting down on salt-laden food like bacon would benefit your health immensely and you would feel sooo much better. - Go on! - Give it a try!

Are you taking blood pressure tablets unnecessarily?

See this recent article commenting on a BMJ article about the ineffectiveness of blood pressure tablets.

Here is a quote from Professor Jerome Hoffman of UCLA and an expert in critical appraisal of medical literature, from the BMJ piece:

"We’ve long known that almost all benefit from treating severe hypertension comes with lowering BP [blood pressure] just a little. On the other hand, efforts to lower BP to ‘normal,’ typically requiring multiple drugs, are not only usually unsuccessful but produce more harm than good, since adverse effects of intensive treatment outweigh the minimal marginal benefit of a little more BP ‘control.’ Drug treatment of mild hypertension….may be of great value to drug makers, but it was almost predictable that it would provide little or no benefit for patients."

And another quote:

"David Cundiff, one of the authors of the Cochrane review has said that he “believes that the analysis should lead to dramatic changes in the way doctors treat mild hypertension, allowing patients to throw away their blood pressure pills and focus instead on far more effective as well as evidence based approaches…"

On Inside Health on Radio 4 on 21st August they too were discussing the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of high blood pressure:

 

"Dr Mark Porter asks whether doctors can try too hard in the early detection of disease and investigates the overdiagnosis of hypertension. This week he discovers that as many as 3 million people who have been told they have high blood pressure may not actually have it - could you be one of them?"

 

The programme found that there is indeed a large and growing problem of overdiagnosis and over-treatment for blood pressure. The general opinion was that it is usually better to avoid prescribing the blood pressure drugs, which of course have adverse side-effects, and instead advise patients about life-style changes that reduce high blood pressure. My own very high blood pressure years ago was dramatically and safely lowered by seriously reducing my intake of salt and salty food.

You do not need to count calories or go hungry to lose weight

Dieting/counting calories/semi-starvation/constant hunger is not necessary to lose excess weight. You will lose weight fast and easily if you cut down on salt and salty food. - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

You can also lose weight easily without hunger by changing to a Low Carb/High Fat (LCHF) way of eating. - Watch this engaging little video about it.

For a new perspective on conflicts of interest with regard to the pharmaceutical industry and health campaigning charities

For a new perspective on conflicts of interest with regard to the pharmaceutical industry and health campaigning charities I invite you to put the name of one such charity and the words "pharmaceutical sponsors" into your favourite search engine's searchbox. - I typed

asthma.org.uk pharmaceutical sponsors

into my searchbox and I was led to a page about a publication by The Stationery Office, viz.

The Influence of the Pharmaceutical Industry: Fourth Report of Session 2004-05

By Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Health Committee, Health Committee Parliament Great Britain House of Commons.

Whoever the actual people were who wrote this publication, they were clearly aware that the drug industry's sponsorship of charities is not motivated by philanthropy, but by greed, in the hope and expectation of increasing the sales of their drugs, and thereby increasing their profits. You may draw your own conclusions from that, as I do mine. It leads me to conclude that the advice given on the websites and in the literature of some at least of the major health campaigning charities, such as AsthmaUK, DiabetesUK, British Heart Foundation and others, may not really be in the best interests of the patients/sufferers they ostensibly serve. I hold in mind that we are constantly assured that business companies must act in the interests of their share-holders. So if I wanted to help people suffering from asthma, I personally would advise them to cut down on salt and salty food as this would improve their health in many ways. It would reduce excess fluid retention and thereby reduce excess weight, one of the risk factors for asthma, It would reduce high blood pressure if they had high blood pressure. It would reduce breathing problems. - And very importantly, if they had gained a lot of weight from using prescribed steroids for their asthma symptoms, it would speedily reduce that weight gain and the other serious adverse effects of prescribed steroids.(See my webpage about prescribed steroids.) What I would definitely not do is donate to AsthmaUK... - I don't donate to drug company profits.

Sometimes 'just' just isn't 'le mot juste'

Sometimes 'just' just isn't 'le mot juste' (the right word). The most glaring instance of this, in my opinion, is when a member of that huge group - the Uninformed and Unthinking - intones that Big Untruth, namely that "Losing weight is easy. You just have to eat less and move more." - Just say NO to that nonsense. It isn't true. It doesn't work. - Here is a safe, easy way to lose excess weight: cut down on salt and salty food.

Woman's Hour: Why Diets Don't Work

The other day on Woman's Hour Jane Garvey was trying to obtain help for a listener who had written to the programme about being very fat and unable to lose weight, other than temporarily, by dieting. By clicking on "Chapter 3" on this page you can listen to the discussion.

"Diets don’t work – or do they? We’ve all known people who’ve had success losing pounds upon pounds following one diet or another. But what happens long term? Do they maintain their new weight for ever or do they slip back into old patterns, feeling out of control around food, putting the pounds back on, and starting yet another diet. Jane talks to a listener who has tried every diet under the sun and is still not happy with her weight. She is also joined by three people with radically different approaches to the question of dieting - Dr Susan Jebb Head of Diet and Population Health at the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research, Dr John Briffa, author of Escape the Diet Trap and Sue Thomason, a life coach specialising in body image and disordered eating."

The first adviser we heard from was Dr Susan Jebb. She spoke about how to stick to an eating plan and about utilising friends and family, and the importance of motivation and getting help from groups. But as Jane pointed out, her advice boiled down to going on a diet and joining groups, and the listener had tried all that many times and had no success. Jane was spot on there. This sort of advice won't help. We hear it all the time and it doesn't work. - If you keep on doing what you've done before, you can't expect to get different results, can you? I hadn't expected Dr Jebb's advice to be any use actually, because she is a member of the board of Change4Life, about which I have a very low opinion. - See my little blogpost.

The next adviser was Dr John Briffa, one of my faves because he gives advice that is based on proper scientific research and evidence, not opinion and dogma. He explained that generally diets don't work and he explained why they don't/can't work - because body mechanisms come into play and metabolism goes down when calories are restricted. He tried in a very short time to explain the significance of the hormone, insulin, and that to lose weight carbohydrates need to be restricted. He suggested basing diet on meat, fish, eggs, nuts, fruit, vegetables, and avoiding carbohydrates, and not going for a low fat intake.

The last adviser was Sue Thomason, a Life Coach. She said take the emphasis off losing weight. She talked quite a bit, but I couldn't make any sense of it, and I did listen pretty carefully. There was nothing practical there. I think I'd categorise her contribution as verbal garbage, and I'm not a fan of verbal garbage.

Frankly, Chapter 3 was altogether a bit too rushed, in my opinion. And unfortunately Sue, the listener who was wanting help to lose weight, didn't find any of the advice helpful. - Dr Briffa's advice would help her, I'm certain, but there was too little time for him properly to explain his points, and Sue firmly rejected the low carb idea, because she said the protein foods would be too expensive for her. - Well, there you go. - I don't honestly think it would cost her a lot more, and I'm sure any extra expense would be worth it...

Anyway, here's my twopenn'orth of advice for Sue: cut down on salt and salty food. It's not the only way to lose weight, but it's the fastest, the simplest, the cheapest and the safest. - It does work and it benefits your health in countless ways. I do hope she happens to read this and decides to have a go at cutting down on salt.

If your medication gives you a dry mouth or makes you thirsty

If your medication gives you a dry mouth or makes you thirsty, then it may be causing fluid retention, and fluid retention results in weight gain and sensitivity to salt (and many other unpleasant and undesirable side-effects). If you want to reduce the weight gain then the options are: reducing the dosage, gradually weaning yourself off the drug, changing the medication to another, and/or seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. The most commonly prescribed drugs that tend to have this effect are anti-depressants, especially amitriptyline.

Beware Tylenol!

See today's article about Tylenol by Dr Mercola. Many people tend to think of painkillers as pretty harmless, perhaps because they are so easy to obtain, both as prescribed medications and as OTC (over-the-counter) drugs. But they are by no means harmless in themselves and also many kinds of painkiller too often tend to cause addiction, and addiction can easily lead to overdose. So I'd say it's best to try to avoid taking painkillers regularly, and better still, to avoid taking them at all. If you would like to experience a safe, drug-free way to reduce pain, I suggest you try seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. This reduces most chronic (long-standing) pain, e.g. arthritis and back pain. Salt reduction also benefits your health in a great many other ways, including lowering high blood pressure and reducing excess weight. - Why not try it? - It costs nothing and is completely safe. - You have nothing to lose by trying it - nothing but some pain and risk and ill-health and excess weight...

Prescription pain and anxiety drugs now cause more deaths in USA than traffic accidents

The Los Angeles Times reports: "Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found. Drugs exceeded motor vehicle accidents as a cause of death in 2009, killing at least 37,485 people nationwide, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.""

A big part of the problem is that so many of these drugs are highly addictive. And of course when drugs are 'legal' drugs, and when it is legal to advertise them, people are more likely to think of them as 'safe'. But these powerful pharmaceutical drugs, which include OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma, are very clearly not safe. Pharmaceutical drugs have adverse effects/side-effects, one of which can be addiction, and another of which is premature death.

It is best to avoid prescription drugs as far as you can, and if you feel you must take them, then take them at the lowest effective dose and for the shortest necessary time. Always check out the possible side-effects and cautions and look out for these side-effects. Obesity and degenerative health conditions are often side-effects of prescription drugs: see HRT and other prescribed steroids and amitriptyline and other antidepressants.

A safe, drug-free way to reduce pain and anxiety is to optimise your nutrition and, as far as you reasonably can, cut down on salt and salty food. You will feel so much better. - Dieting is a frequent cause of ill-health, pain and depression, so avoid dieting. If you are overweight, lose excess weight the safe, easy way, without drugs or dieting.

Reducing salt intake is a global health priority say epidemiologists

The UN must make reducing salt intake a global health priority, say researchers, as reported here by BBC News. "Writing in the British Medical Journal they say a 15% cut in consumption could save 8.5 million lives around the world over the next decade. The report says practical steps to reduce consumption should be drawn up without delay. If voluntary measures do not work, the food industry should be compelled to cut salt levels, it says." (my emphasis)

Well you know, that's actually cheery, as I see it. - The message of these epidemiologists is clear, stark and honest; they're not temporising. They're not pretending that the food industry are doing any meaningful voluntary reducing of salt levels. - And if you look at that BMJ article itself I think you will be even more impressed by the unequivocal tone of their call to action.

And I'm impressed by the fact that they see the UN as the agency to address on this matter of the urgent need to reduce salt intake. Normally you'd assume that in a matter like this the World Health Organisation would be the agency approached. - Maybe these researchers have as low opinion of the WHO as I have, particularly when you cast your mind back to the scandalous shenanigans over the Swine Flu. See HERE, HERE, and HERE if you need reminders that health advisers we should be able to trust are far too often in the pockets of the pharmaceuticals industry. Bribery is the name of that game - or the euphemistic 'conflict of interest.'

As you must realise, I have for years been advising readers of my posts to eat less salt and salty food, and my advice is as clear and uncompromising and honest as the message of these researchers, so I welcome this report. And remember, when Morton Satin, a vice president at the industry body, the Salt Institute, rejects the report out of hand and says, "The salt reduction agenda has become an urban myth - far more based upon populist ideology than objective science," his words are dictated by his position as a spokesman/apologist for the Salt Industry.

A study suggests that mental problems may lead to people seeking unnecessary nose jobs/rhinoplasty

FoxNews reports on a study that suggests mental problems may lead to people seeking unnecessary nose jobs/rhinoplasty. It is suggested that some people requesting nose jobs are really suffering from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Personally, I tend to be somewhat sceptical about putative mental illnesses like body dysmorphic disorder.

If you are considering a nose job because your nose is too big/fat/bulbous and it has been suggested to you that you are obsessing about an imaginary problem and do not need such an operation, let me suggest a non-surgical, non-psychological therapy you may like to try.

If you seriously cut down on salt/sodium and salty food, your fat nose will become less fat. - Truly it will. - And less red and swollen. - This is because the blood vessels will become less dilated. (Cutting down on alcohol also helps with the problem.)

Reducing your sodium intake also reduces excess weight and lowers high blood pressure and has a multitude of other health benefits, including making you feel much better in every way. - Why not give it a try? - Go on! - Give yourself and your nose a real treat!...(o:

Meniere's Disease? Vertigo? Tinnitus? Feeling of pressure in the ear due to fluid build-up? You can reduce these problems by cutting down on salt.

Meniere's Disease? Vertigo (a form of dizziness where your surroundings appear to spin)? Tinnitus (an abnormal ringing noise inside the ear)? Feeling of pressure or fulness in the ear due to fluid build-up? Fluctuating hearing loss? These health problems are all caused or exacerbated by fluid retention, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. So here's what to do:

Obviously try to give up sprinkling salt on your food. But also, as far as you can, eat fresh food you cook yourself, instead of processed foods, ready meals and takeaways, because these convenience foods are usually very high in salt. See Foods High and Low in Salt/Sodium. Other health benefits you will experience from eating less salt are that you will lose some excess weight, reduce high blood pressure, have more energy, and feel much better. You will also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart attack, most cancers, dementia and many other degenerative illnesses and conditions that are also related to fluid retention and salt sensitivity.

Thinking of taking amitriptyline or other antidepressants? You may like to think again.

For a start, antidepressants don't work. - See Anti-depressants no better than dummy pills. For another thing, most antidepressants cause weight gain leading to overweight/obesity. And they have many other adverse common side-effects too. Have a read of my webpage about amitriptyline and other antidepressants. So, they don't work and they're harmful. It's a no brainer, isn't it? - A safe, drug-free way to feel less depressed is to cut down on salt and salty food. - Honestly. I'm not kidding. - Just try it! Go on!