In one of its leading articles today, The Sunday Telegraph critically reviews ten years' political control of the NHS

Ten years of the wrong medicine

Extract:

"Take the issue of waiting times, of which the Government has made so much. Liam Halligan, our economics editor, reports today that his research has established that almost half of all hospital trusts admit to operating minimum waiting times for surgical procedures. Those minimum waiting times often turn out to be close to six months, the maximum the Government has said we will wait for in-patient treatment.

The minimum waiting times are not the result of a lack of capacity within the NHS. Surgeons are available to perform the procedures; nurses to help them and to provide post-operative care; and there are operating theatres on standby. Why then are patients in pain being kept waiting for six months for the procedures they need? Purely, it seems, for political reasons. The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has said she will resign if the NHS does not show a surplus by April 1, the end of the financial year. In the last quarter, the NHS ran up a deficit of £1.3 billion. In order to get the NHS into surplus and to keep Ms Hewitt in her post, surgeons and nurses are being kept idle and operating theatres left empty."

I agree completely with the argument and the tenor of this article, but I believe that there is a more fundamental problem at the heart of dealing with ill-health in this country - namely negligent prescribing practices by health professionals, and wrong assumptions and advice about the causes and treatment of obesity.

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 - diabetes, hypertension, osteopenia, etc. and are still failing to warn patients to avoid eating salt while taking the medication.

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 British Medical Journal article 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.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of corticosteroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, 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.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
Visit my website for the FACTS about obesity - www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.).

In particular, read my page about the politics and vested interests involved in the obesity epidemic