I am not myself in favour of the usual sort of animal research that is done "to make medical progress".

I was interested in this letter, which appears on the Letters Page of the online Telegraph today. I hope it is OK to reproduce it here.

Animal research

Sir - You quoted me saying that Oxford University will be glad if and when animal research becomes unnecessary. This is true. However, as I went on to explain, that day has not yet arrived. There is scientific consensus worldwide that some animal research is needed to make medical progress.

Those who believe scientists are unwilling to move away from animal use because of inertia or lazy thinking are misguided. There is every incentive - legal, moral and financial - to find other ways to answer research questions.

Animals are used only where no other research technique is possible.

Professor Rodney Phillips, University of Oxford

I am not myself in favour of the usual sort of animal research that is done "to make medical progress", especially when the "medical progress" is for the supposed benefit of people, rather than animals themselves, and often entails a lot of suffering for the hapless animals that are the subjects of the research. I believe this suffering cannot be morally justified. And there have been plenty of instances of drug companies suppressing evidence they don't want us to know. - Have a look at some of the evidence:

The news that antidepressants in actual fact don't work better than sugar pills and increase the risk of suicide has filled major media during the past year. Psychiatrists, Big Pharma and medical agencies, responsible for distorting the facts for many years, are now working hard to save profits and careers, says Swedish independent investigator and reporter Janne Larsson.
Read article on Sepp Hasslberger's Health Supreme website

Tricyclic antidepressants, e.g. amitriptyline, also known as Elavil, Tryptanol, Endep, Elatrol, Tryptizol, Trepiline, Laroxyl, also cause weight gain/fluid retention and are therefore a common cause of obesity, a very serious illness. Likewise several steroids and HRT - See prescribed steroids and HRT and amitriptyline

Glaxo 'downplayed' warning on heart-attack risk from Aids drug

GlaxoSmithKline and one of its key executives are facing possible manslaughter charges re. side-effects of an anti-Hepatitis "B" vaccine

US VACCINE MAKER TARGET OF HOMOCIDE INVESTIGATION
In a criminal case guaranteed to send shockwaves throughout the international pharmaceutical industry, French authorities are targeting a US-based drug company and its executives in a homicide investigation. The multi-billion dollar corporation GlaxoSmithKline and one of its key executives are facing possible manslaughter charges stemming from allegations that the company failed to fully disclose side effects from an anti-Hepatitis "B" vaccine distributed between 1994 and 1998. Also being investigated is the French-based drug company Sanofi Pasteur, which also sold doses of the Hepatitis "B" vaccine, according to French news sources
Read article at newswithviews.com

Drugs 'of no benefit' to hyperactive children

Scale of pharma payments to med schools revealed

It seems to me that the research is not actually done to benefit the health of people who are ill, but to benefit the profits of the drug companies, because most animal research seems to be testing new drugs or drug variations, and there is a lot of evidence that the drug companies cannot be trusted about the truthfulness of the research findings they disclose, e.g. Read article at pharmalot.com

It was reported on 19 July 2006 in Britain's "Daily Telegraph" that the British Pharmacological Society has drawn attention to the widespread poor prescribing practices among doctors.

I was glad to see this, especially following on as it does, the Sunday Telegraph's report 'Sleaze in the Medical Profession' of July 9th 2006. As a steroid victim myself, damaged and made morbidly obese by being inappropriately prescribed HRT (without testing hormone levels first) and by inadequate monitoring and testing thereafter, I feel peculiarly well-placed to make critical comments.

We are not just badly served by our extremely highly paid doctors, we are ill-served by our politicians and by the Department of Health and by the Parliamentary Select Committees and many other individuals and agencies and professional bodies who should be monitoring these matters. - I wrote well over 30 letters to MPs and Select Committees, medics, scientists, media people and others in 2001 about the dire consequences of inappropriate prescribing - often in high dose - of certain steroids and of HRT and of amitriptyline, an antidepressant drug. Following those I received only one helpful reply - from Professor Sir Richard Doll, agreeing with what I had written about the obesity problems caused by poor prescribing and indicating that these could be lessened by diuretics and/or eating less salt/sodium, a fact I had already deduced. He wrote that all doctors should know this. - Mine didn't - and furthermore, mine CATEGORICALLY refused me diuretics when I asked to try them!

It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is both incredible and deplorable that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity, cancer and type 2 diabetes, heart disease, blindness and the many other serious health problems attendant on these... - That this is the case MUST be largely the responsibility of the researchers working for the drug companies, and the drug companies themselves, who MUST have known the facts because of their research on animals.

Animal research doesn't seem to have saved much suffering in the case of the many millions of victims of drug-induced morbid obesity, does it, since the findings of the animal research have been so well concealed from the people who most needed to know the truth? Nor, of course, was there justification for the deaths and suffering of the animals sacrificed in this research.

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

Warning (from Mr Edward Leigh, British MP, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee) of obesity risks to entire generation

Warning of obesity risks to entire generation

Extract:

"An entire generation of children now at primary school is heading towards increased rates of serious health problems, an influential committee of MPs says today.

It criticises the departments of Health and Education and Skills for doing too little to stem the "alarming" obesity epidemic. At least one primary school child in seven is now classed as obese."

I started writing about the increase in the incidence of obesity, and in particular about child obesity, to MPs - scores of them (all three major parties), and to journalists, broadcasters, scientists, medics, appropriate agencies, nutritionists, etc - in the summer of 2001, and explaining that the assumption that obesity is caused by overeating is incorrect and that obesity cannot, therefore, be remedied by undereating. I also wrote to Mr Edward Leigh, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, the initiator of this news item, and to other appropriate parliamentary select committees. - Unfortunately my evidence and my argument were, and continue to be, disregarded. People fail to realise that there has never been any scientific evidence to support the overeating theory of obesity. Nor has there ever been any scientific evidence to support the theory that obesity is lessened by calorie reduction. Both of these theories are mere assumptions, and both are false.

I explained to them that obesity results from sodium retention and water retention in people who are vulnerable to salt. These days I often refer to these vulnerable people, of whom I am one, as sensitive to salt.

The 'Obesity Epidemic' would best be reduced by giving the correct advice about how to prevent/lessen obesity. Obesity is NOT caused by eating too much! - It is caused by fluid retention, usually in people who are sensitive to salt.

The most severe obesity - morbid obesity, as it is usually called these days - is mainly caused by the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, often in far too high a dose, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the many other serious health problems attendant on these...

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article about Leeds University research for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.
Another possible factor in the increasing incidence of obesity is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

If overweight/obese people seriously and genuinely reduce their salt/sodium intake, they all lose weight fast - and even faster if they also make sure they are eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, because these high potassium foods help to remove excess sodium from the bodies of salt-sensitives.

Eating less and counting calories hinders, rather than helps with the problem of obesity, as it usually increases salt sensitivity. - That is why, as countless unfortunate 'slimmers' have found, 'dieting makes you fatter.'

Read my 'political' page The 'Obesity Epidemic' - I ACCUSE! and my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection and my page about child obesity http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)