Dr Mercola today explains about the drug industry's widespread corruption of scientific research

Dr Mercola today explains the widespread corruption of science: that drug companies invent data, fabricate research, falsify results,cover up adverse effects...

Dr Iain Brownlee and Prof Jeff Pearson of Newcastle University believe that seaweed may prove significant in reducing obesity. I don't.

The suggestion made by these researchers is widely reported today. See this BBC News report and this Press Release Could seaweed reduce obesity by reducing fat absorption? for example.

Their claim is that the addition of dietary fibre from alginate, one of the world’s largest commercially-used seaweeds, could reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body by around 75%. Call me cynical, but my sceptical antennae are roused by the information that this seaweed is a highly commercial product. No doubt a number of food and drink companies are hoping to profit from this research.

Well, maybe alginate could significantly reduce the amount of fat absorbed by the body. I don't know. But whether it could or not is, I submit, largely irrelevant. Reducing fat intake does not reduce obesity, and low fat intake is not conducive to health.

Excess weight is caused by sensitivity to salt and NOT by overeating. - Sensitivity to salt leads to fluid retention and this sometimes leads on to fat retention. - Fluid retention (i.e. excess weight) is easily reduced by cutting down on intake of salt and salty food. Eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables makes the fluid loss even speedier. These measures also reduce fat retention. In addition, fat retention can be reduced by increasing intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium.

And WHEN is someone in Government going to inform people that the most extreme cases of obesity - morbid obesity - are the result of taking prescription drugs incautiously prescribed, often in high dose, by doctors inadequately informed about their side-effects? - If we could have a Government initiative to curb the massive over-prescribing by doctors, that would reduce obesity very effectively indeed!

Here is the correct information:

Lose weight safely, 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 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

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

Risk of brain damage from anti-cancer chemotherapy drug

'Brain damage risk' with chemotherapy drug

Extract from the Telegraph:

"A chemotherapy drug used to treat thousands of cancer patients could cause serious brain damage with effects that are felt for years, research suggests today.

The drug, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which is one of the most commonly prescribed anti-cancer medicines, is used for tumours of the breast, ovary, colon, stomach, skin, pancreas and bladder.

However, tests showed that it destroys brain cells and could be responsible for side effects known as "chemo brain", which include memory loss, poor concentration, and in more extreme cases, seizures, impaired vision and dementia. Most chemotherapy drugs are toxic to some degree, often noticeable because of hair loss and nausea. They can affect healthy as well as cancerous cells.

Doctors have urged patients not to abandon the drug as it is an effective weapon against cancer.

The findings, reported today in the Journal of Biology, could explain some of the neurological side effects associated with chemotherapy.

Eight out of 10 breast cancer patients reported some form of mental impairment after chemotherapy. Studies have found that up to a fifth had problems that lasted for years. The research, from the University of Rochester Medical Centre in New York state, showed that 5-FU attacks the cells in the brain that play a crucial role in the central nervous system.

They produce myelin, the fatty material that enables signals between cells to be transmitted rapidly and efficiently.

However, myelin deteriorates quickly and has to be constantly replenished.

Without a healthy population of these cells to renew it, normal communication between brain cells is disrupted. Scans of cancer patients with mental difficulties have shown evidence of loss of myelin leading to the loss of nerve fibres making up the "white matter" in the brain.

The researchers treated mice with doses of 5-FU comparable with those given to cancer patients and also exposed brain cells in dishes to the drug.

Months after exposure, the key cells both in the cell cultures and the brains of mice were undergoing extensive damage.

The disruption was so severe that after six months the cells had virtually disappeared from the mice.

Dr Mark Noble, of the medical centre, said: "It is clear that, in some patients, chemotherapy appears to trigger a degenerative condition in the central nervous system."

You can lower your risk of developing most cancers by avoiding salt and salty food.

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.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

Children and Obesity

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

Smoking while pregnant increases the likelihood of having a girl baby rather than a boy.

Smoking while pregnant raises the likelihood of having a girl - Independent

Extracts:

"Parents who are smokers when they conceive a child are far more likely to have girls than boys, an extensive study by paediatricians has found. The chance of having a male baby drops by almost half if both parents smoke during early pregnancy, amid fresh evidence that smoking could "kill" male foetuses in the womb.

Smoking not only reduces the chances of conceiving a male child, but could stop male embryos implanting in the womb and cause miscarriages.

While almost 52 per cent of all new-born babies are male in the western world, the proportion of female offspring rises dramatically among smokers. The study into 9,000 pregnancies in Liverpool found a startling imbalance in the number of girl babies among parents who smoke.

Mothers who smoked during pregnancy were one-third less likely to have male children than mothers who did not smoke. If the father also smoked, and if factors such as the health and age of the mother were accounted for, the chances of having a male child reduces by almost half.

The research by paediatricians at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has caused excitement in the international scientific community, which says it raises serious questions about the effect of smoking on population balance."

"The research, by a team of paediatricians led by Professor Bernard Brabin, found that substances contained in cigarettes, such as nicotine, inhibit sperm carrying male chromosomes from fertilising eggs."


If you are pregnant, reducing your salt intake is good for your own health and also that of your baby-to-be. - See pregnant mothers

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.)