One of the many people I have helped with information about sodium retention was Dame Muriel Spark, who died in April 2006.

Even she, as famous as she was, had not been warned not to eat salt while taking steroid medication and so had gained a lot of weight because of fluid retention. She had also been taking some effervescent analgesic tablets which were high in sodium, but she discontinued these when she learned from me that they were contributing to the excess weight.

See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

You can read about the causes of obesity on my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk (the site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information) and in particular about child obesity on this page - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

If you are overweight/obese and want to lose weight, you can do it easily and safely. - Read these pages to see how:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, arthritis, 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!

Further example of Steroid Victims in the UK - the carer who came to help me this morning.

I developed radial nerve damage and lymphoedema in my right arm and hand last year because after I had broken my arm and it needed an operation to fix it, but at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield I was left for almost a fortnight in a splint, despite my explaining countless times that I am a steroid victim and therefore should not have had the pressure of a splint on my arm because of my skin being so thin and delicate and my veins also being so delicate.

In consequence I have to have carers to come and help me to get washed and dressed. - The one who came this morning was new to me - a relief worker. - She is very, very fat and it must be very tiring and difficult for her to get about at all, let alone work! - I guessed she must be a steroid victim (almost all extremely obese adults have become obese because of taking drugs prescribed for them by doctors who are not properly aware of their salt and water retention side-effects) and so I eventually asked her if she had ever been prescribed steroids and taken them. - Yes, she said, and they had made her put on a lot of weight...

Like every other steroid victim she had been given no warning that the drugs would make her sensitive to salt and would cause sodium and water retention if she were to eat salt while taking the steroids. - Her overweight is caused by this, not by overeating. I explained to her that it is not necessary, or even safe, to diet to lose weight. - She just needs to avoid eating salt and salty food. And she needs to eat plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables and to get plenty of dairy calcium from milk and yoghurt, because salt sensitivity depletes the body of calcium.

She was very interested in this. I am sure that if she ever comes to help me again, she will be able to tell me she has followed my advice and is feeling much better for having lost a lot of weight - easily...(o:

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.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

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

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 5 - Dr Mo Mowlam

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 5 - Dr Mo Mowlam

Mo Mowlam was an extremely popular British MP and served in Tony Blair's government. She died in 2005, aged 55, and here is one of the obituaries to her - Mo Mowlam's political obituary

The article refers to her "steroids-induced weight gain" - but although the steroids she took because of a brain tumour certainly resulted in the massive weight gain that visually changed a beautiful woman into a fat caricature of her former self, this disfiguring weight gain could have been avoided/lessened by a very low salt/sodium diet, because it is not steroids per se which cause the weight gain, it is steroids PLUS SODIUM. - Steroids plus sodium/salt resulted in massive fluid retention. - If only she had been warned not to eat salt or food containing salt while taking the steroid medication she would not have become obese as she did, and would not have suffered the many problems that the obesity entailed. - I did write to her on the matter but I fear my letter and my later email may never have been read by her, government ministers being such busy people.

For further information see http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

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/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 4 - Jerry Lewis

Examples of Steroid Victims - Example Number 4 - Jerry Lewis

Comedian Has Stopped Taking Steroids That Added To His Weight

It's weird, isn't it? - and shocking - that even famous people like Jerry Lewis are not told that when taking prednisolone (prescribed to Jerry Lewis for pulmonary fibrosis) it is dangerous to eat salt or food containing salt. - This is because prednisolone, and many other drugs, cause sodium retention and water retention, and therefore weight gain and often morbid obesity, because of massive fluid retention.

The mechanism for this is that the muscles in the walls of the blood vessels are 'relaxed' by the drugs. - Sodium from ingested salt goes into the blood stream, along with the water it attracts to itself. - Normally any excess sodium and water then leave the bloodstream via the kidneys and the bladder and are excreted in the urine. - But when the blood vessels are relaxed they cannot withstand the incursions of any excess sodium. So the sodium and its accompanying water dilate the blood vessels, which become weakened and overstretched and the walls become thinner. - The blood becomes diluted by the added salt and water. - And the person becomes heavier - obviously. - Water is heavy...)o:

Now that I have explained this, you can see that the obesity caused cannot be addressed or lessened by eating fewer calories or taking vigorous exercise. - The problem is sodium and water, not fat. - How then to reduce the overweight?

Well, reducing the dose of the drugs can lessen the relaxation of the blood vessel walls and so they become less dilated and some of the excess fluid leaves the blood stream and is excreted. - This is obviously the main reason Jerry Lewis was able to lose 58 pounds of the weight gain. And the changes he has made to his diet may very well have included reducing his salt/sodium intake and this also would result in some of the excess water being shed from his bloodstream.

But the blood vessels almost certainly will have been permanently weakened by having been overstretched for so long. And his skin also will have been weakened and overstretched, probably permanently, by the excess water he has been carrying in his body since starting to take the steroids. ~It is unlikely that whatever he does now he will ever return to his former weight. He will always be overweight and carrying excess water in his bloodstream, and he also really needs to minimise his sodium intake for the rest of his life. He will always now be what is called 'sensitive to salt'.

All of this steroid-induced obesity and its attendant ill-health like hypertension and breathlessness could have been AVOIDED ENTIRELY if, when he was given the prescription, he had been told that the drugs cause sodium retention and consequent water retention and that therefore while taking the drugs he needed to avoid eating any salt or food containing any salt at all - because his kidneys would not excrete it as formerly they had.

I suspect that Elvis Presley probably had the same misfortune - drug prescriptions of powerful steroid-type drugs without the vital warning not to eat salt or food containing salt while taking the medication.

You can look up the side-effects in medical reference books and see for yourself that prednisolone causes sodium and water retention. - Why don't doctors bother to do this? - Why don't they get struck off for not doing it? - Why are they allowed to prescribe dangerous drugs without giving necessary information and warnings?

You can read more about obesity and the salt connection on my website. - Try my Mensa article!

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/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 3.

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 3.

'Jay' had always been slim and smart. He went with pain and other symptoms to his GP in 2000. The GP recognised the seriousness of the signs and symptoms and arranged a prompt appointment with a specialist, who confirmed that it was cancer of the colon. 'Jay' was treated with both radiotherapy and chemotherapy and also had a resection. The excellent treatment he received must, I suppose, have saved his life. He is still alive and the cancer is in remission.

During one of his spells in hospital I was speaking to him on his mobile phone and he told me he had been put onto steroids. Agitatedly I implored him not to eat salt while he was taking the steroids. Anyone who has any dealings at all with me becomes well versed in my views about salt and so he assured me he was not eating salt. - What he meant was that he was not sprinkling salt onto his food. I was unable, sadly, to persuade him not to eat bacon, etc. while he was taking the steroids. I believe things would have been even worse if he had not known from me about salt and steroids, because then he might have been adding sprinkled salt as well to what he ate. As it is, although he took steroids for only about 7 weeks, his weight went from 12 stone to 14 and a half stone - a gain of 35 pounds in 7 weeks! a lot of the added weight being on his abdomen. Of course the response to his weight gain has been for people to point out to him that he is not getting enough exercise!

He now restricts his salt intake but this only ensures that he gains no more weight. He has not been able to lose more than between half a stone and a stone by sodium restriction because he does not follow, and does not feel able to follow, as strict a regimen as I do.

So you see how quickly sodium and fluid retention can cause weight gain! - Only 7 weeks in this case.

'Jay's cancer was expertly dealt with, but what a shame that while he was in hospital - taking prescribed steroids - he was not protected from the sodium and water retention. - If only he had been served low sodium meals for those 7 weeks! - He would then not have gained the weight. - The weight gain now seems intractable because the blood vessel walls have obviously been permanently compromised/weakened/overstretched. - He has also developed the serious complication that sodium and water retention often cause, namely, diabetes...)o:

Many drugs carry warnings not to drive or operate machinery while taking them. Some warn against mixing them with alcohol. I recommend that packs of steroids and packs of HRT and certain other drugs which cause fluid retention/weight gain, be labelled WARNING: DO NOT EAT SALT, OR FOODS WHICH CONTAIN SALT, WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION. Without this warning, morbid obesity and its associated health problems - diabetes, high blood pressure, etc, etc, will be the frequent consequence...)o:

Read more on my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 2.

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 2.

A young woman, 'Dee', was brought to see me in 2000 by Marion, a friend of mine, who recognised Dee’s weight gain as similar to what mine had been.

'Dee' is less than 5 feet tall and she had always weighed 7 and a half stone (105 pounds). She told me that on Feb 1st 1999 a professor in the eye dept at one of our local teaching hospitals had put her on to 22x5mg prednisolone tablets a day for an eye problem. (Prednisolone is one of the steroids that cause sodium and water retention and it should not be prescribed without a warning about this, and the advice to minimise sodium intake while taking the medication. 'Dee' had not been given this information ot advice.) Such a high initial dose beggars belief! After 3 months on this daily dose her weight had increased by 3 stone – 40% of her body weight!!! – and like me she had stretch marks because of so rapid an increase in weight. She had been reduced to eating only one meal a day in an effort - unsuccessful - to lose weight.

When she told the professor of the weight gain and of the pain she was experiencing, his response was to look away and say something like, ‘It’s funny how women are always complaining of pain.’ - It’s not funny, actually...)o: - It’s disgraceful that women patients are treated in this way... - It is a typical example of medical sexism, to which I have referred in a previous entry in this blog. - Medical sexism is extremely damaging to women patients and it is extremely common in Britain...

After that first 3 months the tablets she had been prescribed were gradually reduced in number to one a day, which she was taking when I met her. But the reduction had not brought about any loss of weight. - The damage had been done. Fortunately Marion and I were able to tell her about salt sensitivity. - We spent 2 hours telling her. We had also to overcome the idea that fat/calories have to be reduced in order to lose weight.

Some months later 'Dee' rang me to tell me delightedly that she had lost a lot of weight by following my advice about reducing salt/sodium intake. In clothes, at any rate, she looked normal again. But of course the terrible stretch marks remain, and so does the pain, though it is less.

If you too are a steroid victim, have a look at my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and then look at some of the other pages, especially the steroids page.

You will find that the best, the safest, the fastest, the most reliable way to lose weight is to eat less salt and forget about reducing calories or struggling to do exercise when you are too fat to be comfortable doing it. - You will feel SO MUCH BETTER! - Overeating and lack of exercise are NOT what caused your obesity.

Good luck!

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 1

Examples of Steroid Victims in the UK - Example Number 1

Michael had had damaged kidneys and had patiently lived on a very low salt diet for years while waiting for a new kidney. Then he was overjoyed at last to receive a new kidney. The doctors in the hospital told him it would now be OK for him to eat an ordinary diet, not salt-restricted. And so while still in the hospital he was given an ordinary diet. At the same time they put him onto steroids. The consequences have been dire. He put on a lot of weight and his new kidney now has impaired function. He said to me that he would never go to a doctor again in his life - that he would rather die than have any further contact with doctors.

I believe that there are many damaged people who would rather die than have further contact with doctors...)o:

For details of the harm done by eating salty food while taking steroids visit http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and click on the steroids link on the left of the page.

Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs.

Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs. - Here is a report I read the other day: Doctors 'failing patients' over prescriptions from Netdoctor.co.uk
and here are extracts from it:

"The study's authors, from the University of California, Los Angeles (Ucla), say that taking prescriptions as they are intended is "essential in ensuring their effectiveness".

If individual drug specifications are not followed then the patient in question could suffer from a worsening of the disease, a failure of treatment, a range of adverse side-effects and a potential overdose, the research team write.

...only one-third discussed potential side effects and about half explained how many doses should be taken and how often."

This, of course, is an American report. I live in England. I doubt that research such as this would be conducted in England, where the cover-up culture with regard to poor medical practice has a long and ignoble tradition. But I am confident that the medical negligence that fails to give, along with the prescription for a drug, necessary information about the drug and how it should be taken and what its possible side-effects are, is at least as prevalent in Britain as in the States. - And to the best of my knowledge - and that is informed knowledge, because I write as a steroid victim - doctors in Britain never warn their patients that when taking prescribed steroids like prednisone or HRT, or prescribed antidepressants like amitriptyline, or quite a lot of other drugs, they should not eat salt or food containing salt, because these drugs potentially cause severe sodium retention and consequent water retention, followed by massive obesity.

An example of a patient damaged in this way is Jerry Lewis, who became severely obese because of taking prednisone. - He clearly was not warned of the harm that eating salty food while taking the prednisone would cause him. I read today that he has lost a lot of the weight he gained because he has come off the prednisone. - He would not have gained the weight if he had avoided sodium while taking he drug. - If even famous, wealthy people like Jerry Lewis are not told of the dangers of combining prescribed steroids and salty food intake, then it is highly unlikely that 'ordinary' people ever get the necessary warning. - I regard this as criminal negligence on the part of medical practitioners. - If this failure to inform were to be punished with severe sanctions doctors would give the information. - Though goodness knows they should give it anyway! - What good does it do to turn patients into steroid victims, with a host of attendant morbidity and unhappiness and a shortened lifespan?

See helpful advice and information for steroid victims.