Inferior healthcare for older citizens, obesity, chronic illnesses, frailty and a way forward.

Read this candid World Net Daily article on widespread government practice that gives inferior healthcare to older citizens. Essentially the message is that it is a matter of cost.

But quite apart from the human suffering, unfairness, hypocrisy and lies that result from giving inferior healthcare to older people, I invite you to consider a better, more moral, and, amazingly, much cheaper alternative...(o:

Tell people the truth about prescription drugs, obesity and the salt connection.

Chronic illness and frailty are the main reasons that old people's healthcare costs tend to be higher than younger people's. Obesity is the main underlying cause of most chronic illness and a lot of frailty. It is therefore increasingly desirable to reduce the incidence and severity of obesity because this would reduce chronic illness, frailty and human suffering to a small fraction of what it is now. But this CANNOT be achieved by continuing to give the wrong information about the causes of obesity and about how best to reduce obesity.

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 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 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 damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods and

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

and FAT RETENTION

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

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

Leading British retailers such as Boots and Tesco will be invited to bid to open GPs' surgeries in their stores.

Fruit, veg and a trip to the GP as stores are asked to open surgeries

Extract:

"Leading retailers such as Boots and Tesco will be invited to bid to open GPs' surgeries in their stores in areas with too few doctors under an initiative to be announced by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, today.

Advertisements calling for "experienced healthcare providers" to apply for four contracts initially worth £30m over five years will be placed in the national and local press this month.

Entrepreneurial GPs, social enterprises and companies in the FTSE 100 will be asked to apply. But supermarkets will have to team up with existing GP groups before they can be considered. The expectation is that supermarkets would provide the space for GPs to open surgeries within their stores, an idea in which several have expressed interest.

The initiative, first mooted in the 2006 health white paper, is designed to increase the number of GPs in deprived areas that have the fewest doctors.

The first four primary care trust areas to benefit will be Hartlepool, County Durham, Mansfield and Great Yarmouth, all areas that have significantly fewer GPs than the national average of 57.9 for every 100,000 people. Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT has 48.5; Hartlepool PCT 47.5; County Durham PCT 46.5; and Nottinghamshire county teaching PCT 43.6.

All four areas will have their centres set up by the end of the coming year, and 26 further areas are expected to join the programme in the coming months.

As services will be offered by private providers, the initiative means GPs will not be covered by the controversial GPs' contract - which allowed GPs to opt out of providing 24-hour cover - and so can offer "breakfast", evening and Saturday morning surgeries. Last week the Commons public accounts committee condemned the government's handling of this contract as "shambolic"."

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - 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.)

Deaths caused by two superbugs soar as health inspectorate accuses UK government

Deaths caused by two superbugs soar as health inspectorate accuses government

Extract:

"The number of deaths caused by two superbugs soared in 2005, raising new concerns over the standard of hygiene at hospitals across the country. According to government statistics, the number of deaths linked to MRSA rose by 39% in 2005 and deaths linked to a second superbug, Clostridium difficile, increased by 69%.

The head of the health inspectorate accused the government yesterday of failing to give enough priority to patient safety while Age Concern accused it of shirking responsibility for cleaning hospitals.

Levin Wheller of the Office for National Statistics said cases of superbugs had increased dramatically since MRSA emerged in the 1990s. C. difficile is now recorded as the cause or a factor in more than twice as many deaths as MRSA: 1,629 people died after contracting MRSA and 3,807 after C. difficile in 2005.

The new figures show that C. difficile-related deaths now outnumber deaths on UK roads. In 2005, 3,201 people were killed in road accidents, a 1% fall on 2004.

Men are twice as likely to contract MRSA as women. Mr Wheller suggested one reason could be personal hygiene; other factors might include the type of operations they are having. The vast majority of deaths were among the over-75s."

See Thousands of hospital staff fail to wash hands correctly

Dirty Hands, Dirty Health Service (UK) - The reason we have MRSA and C Diff on hospital wards?

Sex and Power - Women remain seriously under-represented in senior positions

Sex and power

Extract from the report:

"A "sex and power" survey of women in senior positions across the public and private sector in Britain says that 30 years after the Sex and Discrimination Act, women should be sharing power more equally."

Well I've got a good idea to help with this problem: We need sexist attitudes to be eradicated from healthcare provision, ideally by meticulously thought-out legislation, banning medical sexist discrimination by statute. If women were to be treated with the same care and concern as men are by doctors and their retinues, then their health would be much better and that would remove one unnecessary obstacle to their advancement in the workplace.

In the '90s, Sheena McDonald presented television programmes about this, and The Times national newspaper carried detailed and serious articles highlighting with statistics and with personal testimonies the demeaning attitudes encountered by women patients consulting doctors, in contrast to male patients consulting them with the same symptoms. Men were much more likely to be taken seriously and to be examined and sent for tests; women were more likely to be considered to be exaggerating their symptoms or imagining them, and to be offered 'reassurance' or worse, and sent away, possibly with anti-depressants. There were, of course, grave consequences to this medical malpractice.

How we laughed - ruefully - when a typical greeting was parodied! - To a male patient: "Good morning. And what is the matter?" - To a woman patient: "Good morning. And what seems to be the matter?" - But the parody is still all too close to the truth, and the humour is all too black and all too many women are harmed by this nonsense...)o:

And if you think that sex discrimination in medical services is within the remit of the Equal Opportunities Commission, amazingly, you are wrong! - I brought up the matter with them in Manchester years ago and was told that although they do hear from women who know themselves to have received poor treatment from health professionals because of what I could these days call institutional sex prejudice, they cannot assist because medical services are outside their terms of reference.