Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website
Wilde About Steroids

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Read my Mensa article on Cruelty, Negligence and the Abuse of Power in the NHS: Fighting the System

Read about the cruel treatment I suffered at the Sheffield Dental Hospital: Long In The Toothache

You can contact me by email from my website. The site does not sell anything and has no banners, sponsors or adverts - just helpful information about how salt can cause obesity.


This blog has been exported to a new URL so that readers can leave Comments again. If you want to leave a Comment, please visit my 'new' blog, which has Comments enabled. The 'new' blog is Wilde About Obesity.

Monday, July 31, 2006

Do You Bruise Easily?

Do You Bruise Easily?

Your blood vessels have weakened. They may also be overstretched. Maybe you have been 'dieting' and have lost some of the firm tissue from your body. If you cut down on the amount of salt you eat, it will help your weak veins because they will become less distended. Have a look at some of the pages of http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and find out more. (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or ads - just helpful info.)

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Tony Blair has a cheek! (Referring to his recent speech, urging people to take personal responsibility for their health)

I must say Tony Blair has a cheek! - His government has only demonstrated concern about salt intake and, very importantly, the provision of information about sodium content on food labels in the last few years - at a guess, I'd say since about 2003. Both Labour and Tory administrations allowed the food companies free rein year after year to ladle more and more salt into their products, thus damaging irrevocably the health of innocent salt-sensitive purchasers.

I wonder again why The Chief Medical Officer in the early 90s apparently did nothing to implement an authoritative recommendation at that time of a maximum of 4g of salt a day, and apparently gave greater consideration to the desires of industry than to the health of the nation, and I wonder how many deaths and how much terrible suffering he was, therefore, personally responsible for? And I wonder why his successors in the post were so tardy in taking effective steps to give warnings about salt consumption? Political considerations? I consider the failure to put pressure on food manufacturers and caterers to reduce the sodium content of foods and meals until recent times to be a dereliction of duty of successive political administrations and health departments. - I remember buying McCance and Widdowson's 'Composition of Foods' in the late 90s, at considerable cost, in order to discover how much sodium there was in food. There was no way consumers could find it out from the pack. - The people of this country have been very ill-served in this matter yet Tony Blair seeks to blame the innocent victims!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Prescribed Steroids: - Potential for Grave Harm. Poor prescribing practices.

It was reported yesterday (19 July 2006) in Britain's "Daily Telegraph" that the British Pharmacological Society has drawn attention to the widespread poor prescribing practices among doctors. See Overdosing doctors - Extracts:

"An alarming warning was issued yesterday by the British Pharmacological Society about the quality of training given to British doctors in the prescribing of drugs. Perversely, as the sophistication and variety of modern medicines have increased, so the amount of time devoted to prescribing skills in the medical curriculum has decreased.

At a briefing to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the society, a number of senior pharmacologists, including Mike Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, and David Webb, his Scottish counterpart, described what they clearly regarded as a significant failing in medical education.

Some patients, they said, were undoubtedly dying as a direct result of incorrect prescribing, and many others were having their conditions worsened or were suffering unnecessary complications. It was estimated that between five and 10 per cent of hospital admissions were a result of adverse drug reactions - most of which were avoidable. "

"A doctor who is poorly trained in pharmacology is likely to be more susceptible to heavily advertised and aggressively promoted drugs, and to fashions in prescribing that suit the interests of drug manufacturers more than individual patients. "


I was glad to see this report, especially following on as it does, the Sunday Telegraph's report 'Sleaze in the Medical Profession' of July 9th. Doctors who take drug firm 'freebies' face being struck off -

Extract:

"Last month, a report by Consumers International, a campaign group, said that doctors were continuing to accept kickbacks, gifts, free samples and consulting agreements in exchange for prescribing or promoting drugs. It said that such inducements accounted for a substantial part of the £33 billion spent on product promotion by the industry worldwide each year. In February, it emerged that a senior manager at Abbott Laboratories, the drug company, had taken a hospital doctor to a lap dancing club.

Abbott also admitted providing senior hospital consultants with Wimbledon tickets and taking 63 doctors to a greyhound race meeting in Manchester.

The junkets came to light when a "concerned member of the industry" alerted the authorities. Abbott was later suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, but none of the doctors was disciplined."

As a steroid victim myself, damaged and made morbidly obese by being inappropriately prescribed HRT (without hormone levels being tested first) and by inadequate monitoring and testing thereafter, I feel peculiarly well-placed to add my 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. And I have sent hundreds of letters since then. To date I have 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 beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the multitude of of serious health problems attendant on these - high blood pressure, osteoporosis, most types of cancer, stroke, high cholesterol and other degenerative diseases.


If you have gained a lot of weight and become obese because of taking prescribed steroids or HRT (or any other prescription drug) then I have very good news for you! - You have gained weight because of excess water stored in your body - mainly in the veins. You are suffering from what is called hypervolaemia - that is, abnormally high blood volume - and it is easy to reduce this abnormally high blood volume by losing some of the excess water. Another name for the problem is sodium retention. - This is the name that often appears in the reference books doctors have, that they use to look up correct doses of drugs they prescribe and side-effects that can result from taking the drugs.

To prevent or reduce the weight gained, you need to cut down on salt and salty food, because the sodium retention has made you sensitive to salt.


I invite you to visit my website - www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk -

and in particular How to lose a lot of the weight gained because of prescribed steroids

and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Pharmaceuticals 'need clinical trial regulation'

Pharmaceuticals 'need clinical trial regulation'

Never was there a truer statement!

See this report:

Pharmaceuticals 'need clinical trial regulation'

See also Sleaze in the Medical Profession - an earlier entry in this Blog.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Past recommendations made about daily salt intake

The Department of Health's Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA) was disbanded in March 2000.

The following information was taken on July 11th 2006 from
http://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/recommendations.htm

Recommendations made about salt

COMA

1 Nutritional Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease 1994
This COMA report considered the evidence for a causal relationship between the consumption of sodium and both the level of blood pressure and the rise in blood pressure with age. A statement in the report said it recommended:
"A reduction in the average intake of common salt (sodium chloride) by the adult population from the current level of about 9g/day to about 6g/day.
There needs to be a gradual reduction in the amount of sodium from salt added to processed food and food manufacturers, caterers, and individuals should explore and grasp the opportunity for reducing the sodium content of foods and meals."
The Chief Medical Officer at that time, accepted all the recommendations in this COMA report except for the recommendation to reduce salt. The reason for this is not clear but is believed to be pressure from industry.
Department of Health (1994), "Nutritional Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease", HMSO, London.

(Note by Willow: - The Chief Medical Officer at that time appears to have been Kenneth Calman. - I wonder why he gave greater consideration to the desires of industry than to the health of the nation, and I wonder how many deaths and how much terrible suffering he was, therefore, personally responsible for? In 1996 he became a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. I myself would not have awarded him an honour like this, in view of his failure to accept that recommendation about salt. - Would you? - I consider the failure at that time to put pressure on food manufacturers and caterers to reduce the sodium content of foods and meals to be a dereliction of his duty in that job.)

2 Dietary Reference Values 1991
This COMA report considered that:
"Current sodium intakes are needlessly high and we caution against any trend towards increased intakes".
It set its recommended intake for salt, as with all the other recommended intakes for nutrients, on the basis of the balance of risks and benefits, which might practically be expected to occur. The RNI for a particular population group is defined as the amount of the nutrient that is enough or more than enough for about 97% of the people in this group.
The Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI) for sodium for adults was set at 1600 mg/day. This is equivalent to approximately 4g of salt, if all the sodium was present in the diet as sodium chloride. This is considerably less than the present intake of 9-12g.
Department of Health (1991), "Dietary Reference values for food, energy and nutrients for the United Kingdom", HMSO, London.

Comment from Willow:

The official/s who KNEW all those years ago that high intake of salt causes many serious and disabling illnesses and early deaths, and had the power all those years ago to take measures to ensure lower levels of salt in processed foods and to get information about sodium/salt levels in food onto the packaging of food, and to inform the general population about the harm high salt intake was causing to many people, and decided to do none of this - were they fit to hold their high office? - And was there no-one in the vast Department of Health or in Parliament who took an interest in these matters or checked on whether the public was being well served by its highly paid officials? - What use are professional qualifications when such indefensible decisions are made?

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Sleaze in the Medical Profession

In the British newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, last Sunday 9th July 2006, I read an report in the online edition, and it was headed: "Sleaze in the Medical Profession" and it began:

Doctors who take drug firm 'freebies' face being struck off
By Michael Day
(Filed: 09/07/2006)

Doctors who accept gifts or hospitality from drugs companies could be struck off.
Under revised rules, due to be published later this year, the General Medical Council (GMC) will warn doctors who take "freebies" from pharmaceutical companies that they may be putting their registration at risk. The GMC will also encourage doctors to blow the whistle on colleagues who are taking bribes from drug companies.


The report ends:

Dr Richard Nicholson, the editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics, said: "I'm afraid there is an awful lot of sleaze going on in the medical profession.
"If doctors are at risk of being disciplined, or even struck off, they are more likely to think twice about accepting money or gifts."


That there is widespread sleaze in the medical profession was not news to me, the writer of this blog. - I have been aware of it for many years...)o: - Many other damaged patients are all too aware that doctors care far more about money than about the well-being of their patients...)o:

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Breathlessness.

Do you suffer from breathlessness? - Read on!

There are many many causes of breathlessness, including asthma, COPD, TB, panic attack, etc.

Anyway, here is one cause - hypervolemia - and it is very easy to reduce this cause. Any form of breathlessness would benefit from following the advice for this cause. - Hypervolemia is blood volume higher than normal. When the blood volume is higher than normal it puts a strain on the heart and the heart becomes enlarged and takes up more of the thoracic (chest) cavity, leaving less room for the lungs to expand, so breaths have to be shallower and more frequent - ie breathlessness.

The blood volume becomes higher than normal when a person suffers from sodium and water retention/fluid retention. - You can read about this on http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or ads - just helpful info.)

To lower the blood volume, all that is necessary is to eat less salt/sodium. As well as being less breathless, you will then also lose some excess water from your body/bloodstream and therefore lose weight and be less likely to have a stroke. - Some of the many many health problems which will be remedied or become less severe by reducing salt intake are listed on this webpage: http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Should Governments ban/regulate transfats in manufactured food?

Should Governments ban/regulate transfats in manufactured food?

If you'd like to see info/evidence about transfats, have a look at http://www.tfx.org.uk/ and http://www.bantransfats.com/abouttransfat.html

Friday, July 07, 2006

Are you pregnant - and concerned in case you end up fatter after the baby is born?

Are you pregnant - and concerned in case you end up fatter after the baby is born?

On this page - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/pregnant_mothers.html - you will find advice on how to avoid this.(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or ads - just helpful information.)

Essentially, all you have to do to avoid gaining undue weight is to reduce the amount of salt you eat. If you eat as little salt/sodium as possible you will avoid unhealthy weight gain and also protect yourself from high blood pressure and will lower the risk of pre-eclampsia. You will suffer less tiredness during the pregnancy. You will also be giving your baby a healthier start in life.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

British School Dinners and Jamie Oliver

Three Cheers for Jamie Oliver! - for drawing attention to the scandalously poor quality of so many school dinners in Britain - containing loads of salt (main cause of obesity in children) and low-grade fat, lots of sugar (damages teeth) and very lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables. He shamed the politicians and others into taking action to improve the meals and to spend more time and money on them. The changes he brought about will have immeasurably improved the health, behaviour and school performance of all the children who are now eating real food at dinnertime, instead of junk like 'turkey twizzlers'...

Three boos for all the dinosaurs who are still churning out the advice that obese people should simply eat less and exercise more! - After decades of this advice, the incidence of obesity is still rising, even though most obese folk are restricting their food intake most of the time. - You'd think the 'experts' would realise by now that the advice simply does not work...

Think about it: - it's only fat people who get told that they are over-eating and should eat less. - Do the slim people who eat massive amounts, often of high calorie food, ever get told they are eating too much and should eat less? - No they don't!

Obesity is not caused by over-eating and cannot be 'cured' by under-eating.

Obesity is not caused by eating too much. - It is caused/initiated by fluid retention. - Dieting is potentially harmful.
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.)

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Obesity and the Salt Connection

If you have tried many times to lose weight by dieting, and have ended up even heavier than before, why not try taking the advice on http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
and forget about dieting and calories.


See Obesity and the Salt Connection

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

No dieting! - No hunger! - No drugs! - No adverse side-effects! - No cost! - No exercise! - Surely you could give it a try...