Obesity and the Salt Connection

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

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

More than a million people will be put on statins on the NHS to lower their cholesterol level and prevent heart attacks, under NICE guidelines.

Statins to be given to a million more over-40s

Extract from the Telegraph:

"GPs are urged to trawl the records of patients aged 40 and over to find anyone with a one in five chance of having a heart attack or stroke and call them in for advice and drugs.

Four million people already take statins, mostly after heart attacks. But the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) wants healthy people deemed at high risk of an attack or a stroke within 10 years to have preventive drugs as well.

That would put 1.5 million more on medication and should prevent an extra 15,000 heart attacks, strokes and new cases of angina each year.

It will cost £28 million to implement in the first year.

Nice recommends checking the records of everyone aged between 40 and 75 to flag up those at high risk and call them in for lifestyle advice and consider prescribing 40mg of simvastatin, which costs about 4p per person each day.

That will be controversial as it will put healthy people on medication and the drug has to be taken for the rest of a patient's life. Statins reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke by about a quarter."

This is absolutely disgraceful. - There is no need at all for healthy people to be put on drugs - drugs with many adverse, unpleasant side-effects - for the rest of their lives in order to reduce their risk of heart disease. - The drug-free, cost-free, totally safe and extremely effective way to reduce heart disease and stroke and to reduce high cholesterol is to avoid eating salt and salty food. - People should be told the truth about the effects of salt sensitivity and decisions made about drug recommendations should not be made in order to bring profit to the iniquitous drug companies.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

1,000 people are planning to sue High Street stores over toxic sofas which have been blamed for provoking dramatic allergic reactions and skin burns.

Argos to be sued after toxic sofas blamed for causing skin burns and allergies

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The problem with the sofas, which were mainly sold by Argos and Land of Leather, is believed to have been caused by a potent fungicide Di-methyl Fumarate (DMF).

DMF is stored in sachets inside the sofas to stop them going mouldy but has been blamed for a series of violent reactions in babies, adults and even household pets.

The sofas, made by Chinese firm Linkwise, were withdrawn when problems were first identified last year, but many people who bought them are still suffering.

For China, the sofa problems marks the latest in a long line of high-profile scandals surrounding the safety of its exports, including pet food, toothpaste and toys.

Law firm Russell Jones and Walker is representing injury claims for more than 500 people who say they were affected by the sofas and, together with other law firms, is planning a group action in the High Court on behalf of 1,000 people.

RJandW solicitor Christian Shotton believes the case will see sofa retailers forced to pay out up to £4 million in compensation, replacement furniture and legal fees.

"This is the biggest customer liability claim group action in the UK," he said. "Some people were left looking like they'd had scalding water poured over their back or really bad sunburn, some people have been left with permanent scars and some suffered depression from not knowing what was wrong with them for so long.""

"A spokesman for Argos said it had consulted a dermatologist, who confirmed the most likely cause of the skin irritation was the DMF.

The company stressed that DMF's potency deteriorates over time, so people who own Linkswise sofas and have not been affected are unlikely to experience problems now."

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Encouraging overweight children to exercise has no impact on weight loss and they should be encouraged instead to eat more healthily.

Exercise 'does not make obese children slim'
Telegraph article.

Well of course my blog and my website and my Mensa article have been giving this information for years. - Unfortunately, although the article rightly advises that it is better to concentrate on getting children eating healthily rather than giving them exercises to do, it is advising cutting down on eating fat and on eating chocolate. - Cutting down on fat and chocolate will not reduce obesity in children at all.

To reduce childhood obesity it is necessary to reduce not their fat intake, but their SALT intake.

Read about children and obesity here: - Children and Obesity and read my Mensa article here: - Obesity and the Salt Connection

A new pill is being developed. It is claimed it can help dieters lose an average of a 21 pounds over six months - but of course it isn't safe...)o:

Diet pill hailed an alternative to obesity surgery
Telegraph article

Extract:

"Tesofensine, which alters the brain chemicals controlling appetite making a patient feel full, has been hailed as a possible alternative to gastric banding, surgery or stomach stapling in the fight against obesity.

But there are some concerns about the drug, which could be on the market, in three years time. Side-effects include nausea, diarrhoea, constipation, insomnia and an increased heart-rate, which could cause problems for the obese, who are already at risk of cardiac disease.

Professor Arne Astrup, the International Association for the Study of Obesity president, said: “You could easily come up to 20 per cent weight loss which could offer an alternative to the surgical treatment of obesity which has become the only real cure or effective treatment that can provide a weight loss of that size.”

The professor is not telling the truth. - The most reliable, effective, easy, quick way to lose excess weight is to stop eating salt and salty food. - By giving up salt and salty food - and giving up dieting and counting calories - an obese person can EASILY AND SAFELY lose up to 14 pounds (a stone) in a month. One person, Joyce Barnard, easily lost 70 pounds (5 stones) in a year by giving up dieting and simply avoiding salt and salty food.

Read my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection

All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.

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.)

Fat people are sensitive to salt. This leads to fluid retention, and this fluid retention causes weight gain. They need to eat less salt.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

Sunday, May 25, 2008

More than 30,000 hospital beds have been lost in the decade since Labour came to power, with record cuts in NHS wards last year.

NHS hospitals lose 32,000 beds in a decade

Extract from the Telegraph:

"More than 40 per cent of maternity units turned away women in labour last year because they had no room.

Meanwhile, ambulances have been forced to queue outside overstretched hospitals, treating patients in car parks just yards from accident and emergency departments. The new statistics, revealed in response to a parliamentary question by Ed Vaizey, the Conservative MP, show that almost 32,000 NHS hospital beds went between 1997, when Labour took office, and 2007.

More than 8,400 beds were cut in the year ending March 2007, the largest fall in 14 years. One in six beds has been closed over the decade. There are now 167,019 beds in NHS wards, compared with 198,848 in 1997.

The figures emerged as health authorities are drawing up plans which will see the likely closure of dozens of district general hospitals. The East of England health authority has admitted that two accident and emergency departments and a maternity unit could close.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the Government's financial mismanagement had forced hospitals to make cuts which could risk lives. "These bed cuts were financially driven: the sharp rise in the numbers closed happened at a time when the health service was under desperate pressure to clear a massive deficit."

Katherine Murphy, from the Patients Association, said: "This is a national scandal. More than 30,000 beds have been lost at a time when demand is increasing."

In the same decade that the beds were cut, death rates from the infections MRSA and Clostridium difficile rose five-fold. Investigations into the biggest C. diff outbreak in Britain, which killed 90 patients at hospitals run by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust in 2005 and 2006, found that overcrowding amid pressure to meet hospital waiting targets was a factor behind the infection's spread.

More than 2,000 maternity beds have been lost since 1997. Research by the Conservatives found that last year, 42 per cent of maternity units had refused to accept women in labour on at least one occasion."

Saturday, May 24, 2008

A man goes to the doctor and the doctor says, "What's the problem then?"

A man goes to the doctor and the doctor says, "What's the problem then?"

A woman goes to the doctor and the doctor says, "And what seems to be the problem then?"

Yes, it's a joke about doctors and their stereotyping of their patients - but it's not far from the truth, is it?

Friday, May 23, 2008

If you are thinking of taking Fat Metaboliser tablets in order to lose weight, I suggest you think again.

I've been looking at a health food store's website and at the page about Fat Metaboliser tablets. - It states:

Fat Metaboliser is designed as an easy to use
lifestyle plan to help achieve weight loss when
combined with exercise and a low-fat diet
plan.

and

This product
can help weight control only as part of a calorie
controlled diet.

BUT

1. There is no evidence whatever that exercise and a low-fat intake result in weight loss for overweight people. And there is some evidence that low fat intake tends to cause depression. If you feel you need to get rid of excess fat, here is some helpful, factual advice: see FAT RETENTION

2. There is no evidence whatever that a calorie controlled diet results in weight loss for overweight people. - There is evidence, however, that when overweight people reduce calories they frequently GAIN weight... (This is because inadequate calorie intake increases fluid retention - the cause of obesity - in overweight people.) - And the small proportion who lose weight are greatly harmed by the dieting and die sooner than the overweight people who do NOT diet...

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 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 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 http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1515455,00.html 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.

Salty food causes fluid retention/weight gain/obesity in people who are sensitive to salt, so for overweight people to lose weight they need to avoid eating salt and salty food.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

If you are pregnant, there are 3 things you should cut down on for the health of the baby and yourself: alcohol, smoking and salt

Alcohol - See Half of women drink alcohol while pregnant - Telegraph article

Extract: "More than half of women drink alcohol while pregnant despite growing evidence that it can lead to low IQ, attention deficit disorders and more serious lifelong complications in children."

Smoking - See Ten reasons for pregnant women to quit smoking - Daily Mail article

Salt - See advice for pregnant mothers

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The number of people admitted to hospital because of their drinking has doubled in just over a decade to reach more than 200,000, new figures show.

Alcohol fuelled admissions to hospital double in a decade

Extract from the Telegraph:

"The figure includes 8,500 under 18s who ended up in hospital because they were drunk, injured themselves through drink or developed a secondary condition because of alcohol, according to data from the National Health Service."

Record numbers of patients are dying in hospitals and nursing homes after contracting superbugs, new figures show.

Superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile killing record numbers of patients

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"MRSA and Clostridium difficile were linked to more than 8,000 deaths in England and Wales in 2006, up from 5,300 the previous year.

The first ever breakdown of deaths from both infections by location released by the Office for National Statistics shows that the vast majority of patients died from the bugs in hospital.

The deadly infections also killed small numbers of patients in nursing homes and hospices."

"Worst ten hospitals for deaths from superbugs

Number of deaths from MRSA 2002 - 2006

Derriford Hospital, Plymouth 94

Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth 81

Maelor Hospital, Wrexham 79

Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton 77

Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton 75

General Infirmary, Leeds 70

Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge 68

Birmingham Heartlands Hospital 67

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital 65

General Hospital, Southampton 64

Number of deaths from C difficile 2002 - 2006

Royal United Hospital, Bath 268

George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton 235

Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry 233

Royal Infirmary, Leicester 203

General Hospital, Kettering 200

Birmingham Heartlands Hospital 177

General Hospital, Leicester 169

Frimley Park Hospital 164

Sunderland Royal Hospital 152

General Hospital, Southampton 149"

An investigation into the safety of MRI scanners is to be carried out amid health fears over the effects of the scans on staff who work the machinery.

MRI scanners to be examined for cancer link

Extract from the Telegraph:

"The scans, which provide detailed pictures of the inside of the body, use strong magnetic fields that experts fear can interrupt normal body functions.

The Health Protection Agency will set up a working group to investigate the long-term effects on those who operate MRI scanners.

Advisers have called for research into death rates and the number of cancer cases in staff who work with the machinery.

The babies of mothers who operated MRI machines while pregnant should also be studied, they claim. Particular attention should also be paid to whether exposure alters heart rhythms in those with cardiovascular disease or a pacemaker."

The Duchess of York in Hull TV programmes. Also the Slimfast advert during the commercial break.

I watched both of the programmes on ITV1 about the Duchess of York trying to help an overweight, disadvantaged family living on the Preston Road Estate in Hull. I must say my opinion of the duchess rose considerably as a result of seeing these programmes. She was kind, friendly, understanding and helpful. Unlike many diet gurus, her manner was not at all patronising or bullying, and I think the family will have pleasant memories of their contact with her and so will continue to benefit from her sensible advice and ideas.

I was struck by one of the adverts during one of the commercial breaks - that for Slimfast. - There was the usual note on the screen about the product only helping with slimming if it is taken as part of a calories controlled diet...)o: - This is RUBBISH! - It is UNTRUE! - Calorie control/restriction/reduction/counting does not IN ANY WAY assist with losing excess weight.

The ONLY way to reduce excess weight is to reduce fluid retention, which is the cause of excess weight. - This means in practice reducing salt/sodium intake and/or increasing intake of potassium-rich foods such as fruit and fresh vegetables.

I wrote to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) years ago about this calorie-controlled diet advice, which is so widespread. The ASA is supposed to ensure that adverts are "legal, decent, honest and truthful." - Well these calorie claims are not true; they are misleading and damaging. To lose excess weight, calorie reduction is unnecessary, counter-productive and harmful, and furthermore, there has never been a shred of evidence to support the claims made about calorie reduction, nor have the claims ever even been put to the test... - But the ASA has never done anything about these fraudulent claims... - So, in my opinion, the ASA is pretty useless...)o:

Salty food causes fluid retention/weight gain/obesity in people who are sensitive to salt, so for overweight people to lose weight they need to avoid eating salt and salty food.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

A nursing home manager who failed properly to feed a former soldier who later died in an "appalling" catalogue of neglect has been jailed for 6 months

Nursing home chief jailed over patient's death

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Kathleen Vitturini was supposed to be in charge of caring for Peter Giles, but instead she allowed the 57-year-old Parkinson's disease sufferer to lose two stone in just 10 days.

Mr Giles, who also had mental health problems, suffered a "rapid deterioration" and died from pneumonia and septicaemia contracted during his stay at the Abbeycroft Care Home in Bispham, Lancashire.

Vitturini, who ran the home, was arrested when a coroner who examined Mr Giles was so concerned about his appearance that he contacted police."

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Patients with life-threatening tumours that cannot be removed through conventional surgery are being offered hope by a "radiation knife".

Radio waves offer hope in tumour surgery

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Surgeons are able to operate on growths inside the head and neck with radio waves, using a machine called a gamma knife.

It has helped cancer patients who were told that their tumour could not be treated.

Others have had their sight or hearing saved after the operation relieved the pressure from tumours pressing on nerves inside their heads.

Yet, patients with non-cancerous tumours that are threatening vital blood vessels in the head and those with cancer that has spread to the brain are not being offered the technique when they should be.

Although the treatment cannot cure cancerous tumours in the brain, it can often prolong life. In those with dangerous but non-cancerous growths near blood vessels and glands, it can be a life-saver."

Richard Hammond (The Hamster), celery, luteolin and brain inflammation

Why Richard Hammond acquired a taste for celery after his crash

Extract from the Telegraph:

"The 36-year-old, who appears on the BBC show Top Gear, suffered a brain injury when he came off a runway in the vehicle at 280mph in 2006.

Assuring viewers that he had not suffered long-term brain damage, Hammond said: "The only difference between me now, and before the crash, is I like celery now."

An American team reports that brain inflammation of the kind he suffered is reduced by luteolin - a compound found in celery, green pepper, parsley and chamomile.

It belongs to a family of anti-inflammatory molecules called flavonoids, which have been shown to help counter the dementia caused by brain inflammation."

Monday, May 19, 2008

A skin cream which costs just £1.89 from Aldi, a budget supermarket, is just as good as one which costs more than £50, a survey claims.

Aldi skin cream 'as good as designer'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Women seeking the best beauty treatments are set to clear the shelves at Aldi after its Siana Skin Kind Nourishing Anti-Wrinkle Night Cream was voted the joint best skincare product, alongside Lancome's designer night cream, which costs £51 a pot.

In a study for the Channel 4 programme How To Look Good Naked, which is hosted by fashion consultant Gok Wan, 100 women were given a blind test of a selection of popular skin creams.

Based on smell, texture and hydration, Aldi's anti-wrinkle cream was voted just as popular as the Lancome night cream, which is 27 times as expensive."

"The cream contains a retinol complex to stimulate cell growth and chemicals such as co-enzyme Q10, which helps to regenerate Vitamin E in the skin.

Last year, BBC2's Horizon programme sparked a stampede of women buying Boots' No.7 Protect and Perfect Beauty Serum by claiming the cream could actually repair damaged skin."

You can prevent/reduce acne and rosacea (a reddening of the facial skin, caused by dilation of capillaries) by avoiding salt and salty food. - See Associated health conditions and Sodium in foods

Some vegetarian burgers and sausages are just as salty as their meat equivalents, research disclosed on Sunday.

Some veggie burgers 'have too much salt'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Consumers seeking "healthier" meat-free options need to choose carefully because some vegetarian products are even saltier than meat, the report by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) said.

The saltiest vegetarian sausage had more salt than five packets of crisps, while the saltiest vegetarian burger contained more salt than three packets of crisps, the study, published ahead of National Vegetarian Week, found.

Carrie Bolt, a nutritionist for Cash, said: "We would urge people to look carefully at the labelling to help make sure that they are buying lower salt products wherever they can.

"Two Cauldron Cumberland sausages contain two thirds of the maximum recommended daily salt intake for children aged four to six years, and that does not include the salt content of any ketchup, chips or baked beans that they may also have as part of the meal," she said."

Salty food causes weight gain/obesity in people who are sensitive to salt, so if you are overweight you would benefit from choosing food with less added salt.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

Rosehip could be more effective than painkillers at easing the pain of arthritis sufferers, scientists claim.

Rosehip 'better than painkillers' for arthritis

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The pain-relieving properties of rosehip, which has previously been linked to reduced inflammation in osteoarthritis, have been suggested for decades. Now scientists have found that powder made from a wild variety of rosehip, Rosa canina, is better at reducing pain in patients than paracetamol."

"A review of studies, published in the medical journal, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, looked at the effect of the powder on more than 300 patients who were given different pain-relieving medications for an average of three months.

They found that rosehip was almost three times more effective than standard paracetamol at relieving pain. It was also almost 40 per cent more effective than another common therapy, the drug glucosamine.

Rosehip powder also did not have the side-effects associated with other pain medications, including constipation and drowsiness.

The team which conducted the study, led by Dr Robin Christensen, of the Frederiksberg Hospital in Copenhagen, believes the powder works by also tackling the inflammation associated with osteoarthritis.

Dr Kaj Winther, an inflammation specialist at the Frederiksberg Hospital, said: "This is very exciting news for arthritis sufferers. Some of the main advantages of taking an alternative medication such as rosehip to reduce pain are that, firstly, it is readily available over the counter and, secondly, unlike traditional painkillers, it does not produce unpleasant side-effects.""

Many pains, including the pain of osteoarthritis, are reduced/relieved by avoiding salt/sodium and salty food. - See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

Using electroconvulsive therapy for depression remains controversial. Dr Max Pemberton examines the evidence.

ECT: Doctors don't know how it works, so why use it?

This is an article by Dr Max Pemberton. It gives a largely favourable view of ECT as currently practised. But in my opinion, the most important sentence is the last one. - It states:

"In a 2001 survey for the charity Mind, 36 per cent of people found it helpful in the short term. In the long term however, 63 per cent said it was damaging."

You will gather that my personal opinion is that the brain should not be interfered with in this potentially harmful way.

A safe and effective way to reduce feelings of depression is to optimise nutrition with good healthy meals, and to avoid salt/sodium and foods containing added salt. (Dieting is notorious for causing depression.) MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as a good, safe, non-medical way of lifting depression, more effective than antidepressant drugs, with all their adverse side-effects.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Warning: Using a mobile phone while pregnant can seriously damage your baby, according to research

Warning: Using a mobile phone while pregnant can seriously damage your baby

Extracts from the Independent on Sunday:

"Women who use mobile phones when pregnant are more likely to give birth to children with behavioural problems, according to authoritative research.

A giant study, which surveyed more than 13,000 children, found that using the handsets just two or three times a day was enough to raise the risk of their babies developing hyperactivity and difficulties with conduct, emotions and relationships by the time they reached school age. And it adds that the likelihood is even greater if the children themselves used the phones before the age of seven.

The results of the study, the first of its kind, have taken the top scientists who conducted it by surprise. But they follow warnings against both pregnant women and children using mobiles by the official Russian radiation watchdog body, which believes that the peril they pose "is not much lower than the risk to children's health from tobacco or alcohol".

The research – at the universities of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Aarhus, Denmark – is to be published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology and will carry particular weight because one of its authors has been sceptical that mobile phones pose a risk to health."

"Professor Sam Milham, of the blue-chip Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and the University of Washington School of Public Health – one of the pioneers of research in the field – said last week that he had no doubt that the results were real. He pointed out that recent Canadian research on pregnant rats exposed to similar radiation had found structural changes in their offspring's brains.

The Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection says that use of the phones by both pregnant women and children should be "limited". It concludes that children who talk on the handsets are likely to suffer from "disruption of memory, decline of attention, diminishing learning and cognitive abilities, increased irritability" in the short term, and that longer-term hazards include "depressive syndrome" and "degeneration of the nervous structures of the brain"."

The number of deaths in Britain linked to the potentially deadly superbug Clostridium difficile has quadrupled in just five years.

Deaths from hospital superbug Clostridium Difficile quadruple

Extract from the Sunday Telegraph:

"More than 6,000 people died in 2006 after becoming infected with the gut infection in hospitals across England and Wales - a more than four-fold rise compared with 2001 figures, the Office of National Statistics will say.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths linked to MRSA rose by more than one third, with the infection mentioned on almost 1,700 death certificates in 2006.

The figures, due to be published on Thursday, follow an admission by the Department of Health's most senior experts in infection control that the main reason for a 50-fold increase in cases of Clostridium difficile in less than two decades is the failure of hospitals to follow hygiene rules drawn up 14 years ago."

Saturday, May 17, 2008

As if they didn’t already have enough problems on their hands fat people are now being blamed for global warming.

Fat people blamed for global warming

Extract from the Telegraph:

"British scientists say they use up more fuel to transport them around and the amount of food they eat requires more energy to produce than that consumed by those on smaller diets.

According to a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine this adds to food shortages and higher energy prices.

Researchers Phil Edwards said: “We are all becoming heavier and it is a global responsibility. Obesity is a key part of the big picture.""

There are more and more fat people because they are given the wrong information about the causes of obesity and the safe, reliable way to reduce it. - Obesity is not caused by overeating; it is caused by salt sensitivity leading to fluid retention and thence to weight gain, and obesity is easily and swiftly reduced by eating less salt and salty food. - Slim people are not slim because they eat less than fat people (often they eat far, far more than fat people). They are slim because they are not sensitive to salt.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

Hospitals across the country are helping to fuel the rise of superbugs like MRSA and C Difficile by overprescribing antibiotics.

Hospital antibiotics 'fuelling superbugs'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"GPs are already being urged not to hand out the drugs for coughs and colds but many hospital doctors also overuse the medication, Prof Mark Wilcox, of Leeds University, said.

Prof Wilcox, an expert on the control of hospital acquired infections, will tell a conference on intensive care medicine in London next week that part of the problem is that the health service does not know what antibiotics hospitals prescribe."

A British team is to test a home "brain stimulation" method to short-circuit migraines before they become disabling.

DIY brain therapy could halt migraines

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Migraine is the most common neurological condition in the developed world. It affects over 15% of the UK population and is a more than just a headache; it can cause intense throbbing, visual disturbance and nausea and attacks can be so severe that sufferers have to take time off work.

Recently, a team at Ohio State University showed that zapping the brain with a magnetic field, using transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS, can abort attacks as they start to develop, when sufferers see an "aura" , a disturbing pattern of zig zags, stars or flashes.

But the coil has to be applied to precisely the right part of the brain to be effective and now a simpler method to achieve the same effect, using two electrodes, is to be tested on migraine sufferers around the country by Prof Vince Walsh of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square."

The simplest, most effective way to prevent most migraines and most other headaches from actually starting is to avoid eating salt/sodium and salty foods, and my personal experience of preventing the headache coming when the visual disturbance has started is to take two paracetamol ASAP.

An NHS hospital is selling placentas from new mothers for use in the development of anti-wrinkle skin creams and luxury shampoo.

NHS hospital sells placentas for cosmetic use
Telegraph article

Extracts:

"The practice made £5,000 for Poole Hospital in Dorset last year, but was today condemned by politicians and health experts.

The hospital has taken the placentas and passed them to Sigma-Aldrich, a nearby biochemical company, for five years.

Sigma-Aldrich extracts the placentas' valuable proteins, which it sells on to cosmetic scientists. Its customers include some of the world's biggest cosmetic companies."

"A spokesman said the mothers had signed a special consent form. However, the form states only that the placentas will be used for "research into...cancer, cystic fibrosis, Parkinson's disease and HIV/AIDS".

Their potential use in cosmetic research is not mentioned and mothers are not told that both the hospital and Sigma-Aldrich will profit from the trade."

Unethical and undesirable. A bit reminiscent of the Alder Hey organs scandal. - And I don't suppose anyone will get the sack for the misinformation/lies on the consent forms...)o: - You can never trust medical personnel in my opinion/experience.

Friday, May 16, 2008

'Primary school children could soon be undergoing stomach-stapling surgery as Britain's obesity epidemic worsens, a senior medical director has warned

Obesity crisis 'will lead to children having their stomachs stapled'

It is a crime and a sin, and above all a dreadful tragedy, that the 'experts' - the medical profession and the nutritionists - are STILL not telling the truth about how obesity is caused and how it is best prevented/reduced. - See my notes that appear after this extract from the Telegraph:

"Steve Ryan, of Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, said "significant numbers" of children aged two and three were being classed as obese. Conditions normally seen in middle age, such as Type 2 diabetes and sleep apnoea, were increasingly common among teenagers, he warned.

Mr Ryan said it is was "almost certain" that surgeons will have to staple children's stomachs within a few years.

At present, weight-loss surgery is only performed on adults when all other methods have failed. Although the procedure can lead to complications, Dr Ryan believes that for some children it will prove the best option."

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

A five-year-old boy, Fabio Nunes, died from a severe reaction to chickenpox after he was sent home from hospital.

Chickenpox kills boy sent home by doctors

Extract from the Telegraph:

"An investigation has been launched into the case of Fabio Nunes, who suffered multiple organ failure two weeks after he was seen by a doctor.

His parents, Ricardo and Anna, of Redhill, Surrey, claim that their son was not examined properly and should never have been allowed to leave East Surrey Hospital.

Mr Nunes, 35, said yesterday: "I strongly believe that if East Surrey Hospital had just checked him over properly he would be alive today.""

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A cancer patient returned home just two days after having his prostate removed thanks to pioneering surgery performed by a robot.

'Matilda the robot' performs prostate operation

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"The 'Robo Doc’ - or Matilda as the machine in more personally called by surgeons - carried out the procedure on 55-year-old surveyor David Roughly with greater precision than a human hand.

Mr Roughly was up and about within 24 hours after undergoing the operation at Manchester’s Christie Hospital thanks to the less invasive nature of the surgery.

Lower doses of anaesthetic are needed for the keyhole surgery under the robot’s steady hand, patients lose less blood and the chances of infection are lower."

"Surgeon Vijay Ramani said: “The robot is very sophisticated. With practice you can achieve the same or better levels or control as if you held the instrument yourself, rather than traditional keyhole surgery which is more like using chopsticks.

“This is the future of surgery because it radically reduces most of the risks associated with operations, but the technology enables us to see inside the body as well as performing an open operation and manipulate the instruments with high precision.

“David’s operation went well and his recovery was remarkable. As well as bringing benefits for patients, the machines will be cost effective because patients recover so much quicker - they can be discharged after one or two days and return to work after just a few weeks.”"

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

More than three million NHS patients are still being admitted to mixed-sex wards each year despite repeated promises by ministers to end this.

Mixed-sex NHS wards for 3m patients

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"A study published by the Healthcare Commission has also found that hospitals were getting dirtier, fewer staff were always washing their hands before touching patients and a fifth of people who needed help with meals were still not getting it.

Its survey of 76,000 inpatients in England – the largest of its kind – measured hospitals on factors that included quality of care, dignity and respect, privacy, waiting times, complaints and quality and availability of information."

"Last year, almost 13 million people stayed at least one night in hospitals in England, meaning that up to 3.2 million were admitted to a mixed-sex ward.

Nearly a third of patients also reported having to use a bathroom shared with members of the opposite sex.

Medway NHS Trust in Kent was the worst in the country for mixed-sex wards, with a score of 54.83. The Cardiothoracic Centre in Liverpool rated highest on 97.45.

Labour first promised to abolish mixed-sex wards in 2002 but after arguments over what constituted a ward or a sleeping area, Lord Darzi, the health minister and a practising surgeon, said single-sex wards were "an aspiration that cannot be met". "

At least 800,000 deaths worldwide have been caused by betablockers used to cut the risk of a heart attack after surgery, experts have claimed.

Betablockers 'have caused 800,000 deaths'

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Patients taking beta blockers, the cornerstone of treatment for heart disease since the 1970s, are a third more likely to die within a month of surgery and twice as likely to suffer a stroke, a study found.

Dr PJ Devereaux, a cardiologist and epidemiologist at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, who led the research, which was published in the Lancet, said the drugs had cost more lives than they had saved and their use in surgery patients was based on inadequate research.

Guidelines established in 1996 by the American College of Cardiology recommend that beta blockers be used in all operations, except those on the heart. The advice was adopted worldwide but Dr Devereaux claimed that the guidelines were based on the findings of two small studies.

He said: "On a conservative estimate, if 10 per cent of physicians acted on the guidelines in the last decade, it would suggest that 800,000 people died unnecessarily and half a million had major strokes."

Worldwide, about 100 million adults undergo non-cardiac surgery every year and one million suffer major complications.

The use of beta blockers in these circumstances in British hospitals is not thought to be widespread."

Avoiding salt and salty food reduces the risk of heart disease and strokes.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Desk-bound office workers at double DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) risk

Desk-bound workers at double DVT risk

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Office workers who sit at a desk for eight hours a day and spend more than three hours without stretching double their risk of developing deep vein thrombosis (DVT), scientists have warned.

A study has confirmed that sitting for long periods is as dangerous as flying for raising the risk of potentially fatal blood clots.

Researchers in Southampton and New Zealand questioned 200 patients who were admitted to hospital for either blood clots or heart problems and compared how long each group had remained sitting, both in total and in one period without getting up.

Prof Richard Beasley, from Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, said: "The risk of developing blood clots with prolonged seated immobility is largely unrecognised. However, this study has shown that it is at least as important a factor as long-distance air travel."

"He said more research should be carried out to establish how the workplace environment affects rates of deep vein thrombosis and whether chairs could be designed to encourage a healthy blood flow in the lower limbs.

It is estimated that about one in 2,000 people develop DVT each year in Britain.

Hospital patients who have recently had surgery are at greatest risk. Pregnancy and obesity also increases the risk."

Since obesity is a factor in developing DVT, you can reduce your risk of DVT by eating less salt and salty food because this reduces obesity.

Women can halve their chance of rheumatoid arthritis by breast-feeding their children for more than a year, researchers have said.

Breast is best to fight rheumatoid arthritis

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Scientists compared 136 women with rheumatoid arthritis with 544 of a similar age who were free from the disease. They found that those who breast-fed for 13 months or more were 54 per cent less likely to develop the condition as women who had not.

Even women who breast-fed for between one and 12 months were 26 per cent less likely to suffer the disease."

"The study was published on the day that the singer Charlotte Church backed a Welsh Assembly campaign to encourage young mothers to breast-feed. Miss Church, 21, who breast-fed her eight-month-old daughter Ruby for six months, said she enjoyed bonding with her baby.

"Everybody knows mother's milk is best," she said."

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

Monday, May 12, 2008

Gordon Brown today pledged fundamental reform to social care of the elderly and disabled in England

Brown pledges shake-up of social care

Extract from the Guardian

"Gordon Brown today pledged fundamental reform to social care of the elderly and disabled in England as the Government warned that the system is facing a £6bn funding gap within 20 years.

The Prime Minister said it was "essential" that those people who worked hard and saved for their retirement were treated fairly in the provision of social care but he warned there was "no easy solution" to the problem.

"Of course, helping relatives is a challenge that most families rise to - however difficult it becomes," he told a breakfast meeting of leaders in the social care field, held at the King's Fund in central London.

"But that doesn't make it any easier. Nor does it remove family worries about providing physical care that is needed - or take away people's concerns that at some point in the future they may have to sell a treasured home to pay for their own care.""

Gordon Brown is mistaken. - There IS an easy solution to the problem.

1) Tell the truth about obesity and the salt connection

2) Greatly reduce the amount of salt/sodium allowed in processed foods and allow NO SALT AT ALL in food intended for children.

4) Tax salt very, very heavily.

5) Impose strict curbs on doctors' prescribing. Ban prescriptions for antidepressants as these have caused such great harm to vast numbers of people. Ban so-called 'slimming drugs'. Allow only certain appointed doctors to prescribe steroids - and ensure that these doctors have thorough knowledge of the side-effects of these dangerous, powerful drugs and that they keep strictly to the prescribing protocols for these drugs and that they warn people not to eat salt or food containing salt while taking these drugs.

6) Criminalise and severely punish pharmaceutical companies that lie and conceal information about the harmful effects of their products. Imprison the personnel responsible for the lies and cover-ups, even if they are no longer in the company's employ.

7) Get the food companies to manufacture some convenience foods that contain no added salt at all for the benefit of steroid victims and others who need to avoid salt but are not well enough to do much cooking.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

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

Glaxo 'downplayed' warning on heart-attack risk from Aids drug. Can GSK be trusted?

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

Extract from The Independent

"The multinational drugs company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) downplayed an early warning about the rising number of people who have suffered heart attacks after using one of its drugs, abacavir. An anti-Aids medication, abacavir is taken by tens of thousands of people worldwide.

GSK was officially told of the possible risk in May 2005, three years before it issued a statement to its investors saying that the findings of an even stronger potential link between heart attacks and abacavir are "unexpected" and "unconfirmed". The company also said that it could find no association between abacavir use and heart attacks following a trawl through its internal data. However, it failed to mention that its own summary of product characteristics issued when the drug was launched in the late 1990s had described "mild myocardial degeneration" in mice and rats given the drug for two years.

Some scientists moni-toring the safety of Aids drugs are privately furious with GSK for downplaying the significance of one of the biggest safety trials of abacavir – one of several anti-virals taken by Aids patients in combined HIV therapy – when the findings were published last month.

"GSK was extraordinarily well prepared in terms of a statement that downplayed the significance of the findings," said a scientist close to the safety study. "As a consequence, people are confused. They think there is something wrong with the study because GSK said it cannot find evidence to support findings of a link with myocardial infarction [heart attack]."

Alastair Benbow, European medical director for GSK, said the company takes information about drug safety seriously but did not want to highlight what may be "spurious observations" about abacavir.

The first public sign that abacavir may be linked with increased heart attack risk emerged this April when The Lancet published the worldwide "DAD" study into adverse reactions to anti-HIV drugs after clinical observations of 33,347 Aids patients across Europe, Australia and the US.

The study found that the risk of having a heart attack in patients taking abacavir was almost double that of HIV patients who did not take the drug."

In fact there are MANY other prescription drugs that also increase the risk of heart attack: - all the drugs that cause weight gain, in fact. That is all tricyclic antidepressants, e.g. amitriptyline, most steroids, e.g. prednisone, prednisolone, HRT and some contraceptives, some anti-psychotics and many other drugs.

For your health's sake, you should avoid prescribed drugs if you possibly can.

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

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions