Pregnant women are urged not to use perfume or scented cream after research suggests they could cause unborn boys infertility or cancer in later life.

Pregnant women advised to stop wearing perfumes for sake of babies' health
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Research has found the reproductive system of male foetuses could be damaged by chemicals as early as eight weeks' gestation by chemicals including those found in cosmetics.

Such damage could lead to infertility or testicular cancer, according to the research carried out on rats by Professor Richard Sharpe, principal investigator at the Medical Research Council's Human Sciences Unit.

The scientist said he had discovered a "time window" of eight to 12 weeks' gestation, when certain hormones in the foetus are activated and the male reproductive system comes into being.

Prof Sharpe said future problems of male fertility, including undescended testicles, low sperm count and the risk of testicular cancer could be determined at this time if these hormones, such as testosterone, do no work properly."

Low salt intake is also good for pregnant women. See advice for pregnant mothers

A once-a-day capsule of fish oils could reduce the risk of death in patients with heart failure by up to 14 per cent, a study has found.

Daily fish oil capsule can reduce risk of death in heart failure patients by 14%
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"Almost one million people in the UK are thought to have heart failure, a condition in which the heart muscle is weakened and does not pump efficiently.

A research study has found that patients who took omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid capsules were less likely to die or be admitted to hospital with heart problems than those who took a dummy pill.

The capsules contained 1 gram of omega 3, which is known to be good for the heart as it helps improve the elasticity of the blood vessels, reduce inflammation and promotes a good rhythm.

Omega 3 is present in cod liver oil and is found naturally in fish such as salmon and mackerel.

Across the whole group of almost 7,000 participants there was a 9 per cent reduced risk of death in those on fish oils.

But when the researchers looked at 5,000 patients who followed the once-daily regime more closely, the effect was bigger and the risk of deaths was reduced by 14 per cent."

"Prof Luigi Tavazzi from the research centre of the of the Italian Association of Hospital Cardiologists based in Florence, said: "Our study shows that the long-term administration of 1g per day of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid was effective in reducing both all-cause mortality and admissions to hospital for cardiovascular reasons.

"This is the first study of omega 3 in patients with heart failure, an area which is not rich in new drugs."

This is a modest effect but it is on top of recommended therapies. It's safe, simple and cheap.""

I welcome this report. I have been taking omega 3 capsules for years and feel sure they do me good.

But the most important measure to take to improve heart health and avoid heart failure is to avoid salt and salty food.

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

Associated health conditions

Doctors in Colombia are trying to determine how an 11-month-old baby is already the weight of an average eight-year-old.

Eleven-month-old Colombian baby is the weight of an eight-year-old
Article in the Telegraph - Do have a look at the article and see the photo/video of the baby!

Extracts:

"The child's mother, Milena Orosco de Agudelo, said her son's unusual growth spurt began when he was just two months old.

He has had several medical examinations carried out which suggest he may have a problem with his endocrine system.

Miss Orosco de Agudelo said: "He had some tests done and the results show that he has a thyroid malfunction."

"Doctor David Dias, of the Barranquilla Pediatric Hospital, said more examinations need to be carried out to discover why the child has become so large."

My personal opinion is that thyroid problems could not cause obesity on this massive scale. - Since the baby was OK until he was 2 months old, I reckon the likelihood is that for some reason or other doctors prescribed medication for him that caused him to become extremely sensitive to salt and therefore to have huge volume of fluid retention. Unwisely prescribed medications are the main cause of morbid obesity. I believe that as a matter of urgency the baby should be put onto diuretic medication to see if it helps. - I am sure that it will. - Other than that, I believe that the baby's food should be kept very strictly low in sodium.

Otherwise I believe his life will be short and full of pain/problems. Poor little soul...)o:

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Dr Max Pemberton reflects on the disrespect towards old people which he says is endemic in our society

Finger on the pulse
Article by Dr Max Pemberton in the Telegraph

Extract:

"If Age Concern objects to the semiotics of a hunched back and walking stick to depict residents of care homes, presumably they would rather an image that more accurately reflects older people in institutions.

Should the signs depict an elderly demented woman tied to a chair while staff ignore her? Or an elderly man in bed, slowly starving as his food tray is placed slightly out of reach day after day? Or people going blind because primary care trusts won't fund the medication to save their sight?

This is the plight of the elderly in hospitals and homes up and down Britain, and it's this that Age Concern should be concentrating on. I'm not sure how you'd capture these images in a sign that was easily readable at 30 miles an hour, but if you could, they would certainly make you slow down and think."

To stay as healthy and fit as possible as you get older, you need to minimise your intake of salt and salty food.

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

More people than ever are seeking help for painful and crippling foot problems as they puts on weight because of misinformation from doctors.

Obesity crisis 'causing painful foot problems'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Doctors warn that more people than ever are seeking help for painful and crippling foot problems as the country puts on weight.

Too much weight on the foot and ankle can cause tendon damage and even lead to bone problems such as osteoarthritis, they warn.

A spokesman for the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists said that anecdotal evidence suggested that there were around twice as many patients with serious foot problems as 10 years ago.

Mike O'Neill, a consultant podiatric surgeon, said: "It is becoming a really serious problem – people who are bigger put more pressure on their ankles, knees and hips as well as feet.

"This can lead to a range of very serious foot problems, not helped by the fact that obese people often struggle to reach their feet and tend to wear shoes with little support, such as low flat slip ons or flip flops.""

It's the fault of the doctors that their patients are putting on weight and getting these painful foot problems. - They keep giving misinformation about the causes of obesity and what to do to reduce it. - Obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading to fluid retention when salt or salty food is eaten. Obesity is easily and swiftly reduced by avoiding salt and salty food. - It's not calories that need to be reduced; it's salt intake.

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

Associated health conditions

Free flights, meals and match tickets given to doctors by drug companies can damage patient care, say critics

Drug giants accused over doctors' perks
Article from the Guardian

Extracts:

"Drug companies are spending millions of pounds every year on all-expenses-paid trips to conferences around the world for doctors and other hospital staff, in what critics say is a massive marketing exercise dressed up as medical education.

The Guardian can reveal the scale of pharmaceutical company sponsorship following an examination of the registers of gifts and donations to doctors that all hospitals are required to keep. They show considerable largesse - from drug companies regularly picking up hefty bills for travel to international conferences in Europe, Asia and America, to specialist nurses' salaries, and weekly sandwich lunches for hospital staff training sessions.

All-expenses-paid trips to conferences in the US, Vietnam or Hungary are a regular feature of the registers, costing the companies up to £5,000 per doctor. Many of the declarations by doctors do not put a price on the trip. The total amounts received by staff at individual hospital trusts with complete registers are substantial - Sheffield's staff received funding of more than £105,000 from pharmaceutical and medical devices companies in the 12 months to last June.

Examples of the firms' hospitality include:

· Astra Zeneca paid £2,500 for a doctor at the Royal Bournemouth trust and £1,500 for a doctor at Sheffield teaching hospital to attend a cancer conference in Texas

· Sanofi-Aventis, the world's fourth biggest pharmaceutical company, paid for doctors at the Countess of Chester trust to go to conferences in Cape Town, New Orleans and Barcelona. At Gateshead trust, their reps gave a breakfast for 30 staff "to discuss drugs for the treatment of breast cancer". The trust's register records that "the donor was seeking to secure business".

· Roche spent £2,000 for an oncology consultant at Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge to go to a conference in May last year.

· GSK, the biggest British pharmaceutical company, paid £1,200 for a consultant at Sheffield teaching hospital to attend the 11th international congress of Parkinson's disease and movement disorders in Turkey last June."

"Joe Collier, the recently retired professor of medicines policy at St George's hospital, London, a former member of the Medicines Commission and an adviser to the select committee, said: "Through its orchestrated campaigns affecting all those involved in the use of medicines, the pharmaceutical industry enormously influences what patients are prescribed. On the whole these influences are detrimental to best practice."

Payments to doctors are far from transparent. The Department of Health requires NHS trusts to compile registers of their medical staff's and directors' possible conflicts of interest and to make them available to the public. Only a minority do so. The Guardian requested the registers for 90 hospital trusts under freedom of information legislation. Only around a quarter returned data that included the names of the doctors and the sponsoring companies and the amounts of money received. Some refused to give any information at all.

Collier said this was unacceptable. "Declarations of interest are a key way to help break the pharmaceutical industry's stranglehold. It is not a trivial issue. Public declarations by doctors are essential if prescribing is to be sensible and appropriate and according to patients' needs.""

"Labour MP Paul Flynn described as "codswallop" the companies' claim that their only intention was to help educate doctors. "It's not true. It's part of a huge marketing budget. It's all about maximising their profits, not helping people in life-threatening situations," he said. "The influence of these companies is enormous."

Doctors who receive funding believe they are not influenced by it. Robert Storey, a consultant cardiologist at Sheffield involved in drug trials, took four trips to conferences in the year to June 2007 courtesy of Astra Zeneca at a total cost of £12,000. However, he regards these as business trips because he is asked to disseminate research findings and are funded from the R&D budget. More junior doctors have their funding arranged through the drug rep and must fly economy class under Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) rules.

"If it is done through the local rep, who may expect some sort of favour in exchange for that sponsorship, there is more stringent regulation," said Dr Storey. "[Those doctors] are seeing reps on a regular basis and although it is explicitly stated in the ABPI rules that there shouldn't be any conflict or conditions [on the funding], it probably does influence doctors' behaviour because they are unsure whether they will get further sponsorship for going to further meetings, so it is useful to them to engender good relationships with different reps."

I personally regard most of these expenses-paid junkets as bribery.

A supermarket designed for older people may open in Britain after a similar model in Germany is proving to be a success.

Supermarket 'for older people' planned for Newcastle
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Tesco, which hopes to open the country's first pensioner-friendly store complete with wider shopping aisles and brighter lights, has sent a group over over-65s to the Kaiser supermarket in Berlin, the first of its kind in Germany.

The group will report back to Tesco before a decision is made on the proposed 60,000sq ft store in Newcastle, next door to Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health.

Professor Jim Edwardson, 67, founder of the Institute and one of those who travelled to Germany, said: "Almost everything about supermarket shopping in the UK is wrong for elderly customers, from shelving that is too high to reach or too low to get to.

"The Kaiser store was the first of its kind in Germany and is so impressive. The trolleys on their own are lighter and easier to move.""

Sounds an excellent idea to me.

Researchers Say Vitamin D Might Prevent Disorders, Including Multiple Sclerosis

Newark, NJ (AHN) - Researchers say that people who get plenty of the sunshine Vitamin D may end up preventing certain diseases. Having more of the vitamin that serves as the principal regulator of calcium in the body, may also protect against specific autoimmune disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS) according to Sylvia Christakos, PhD, of the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. In addition, having more Vitamin D in the body might prevent the production of malignant cells, such as breast and prostate cancer in their bodies, Christakos found.
Read article at allheadlinenews.com

The following paper by Oliver Gillie is also very well worth reading:

http://www.healthresearchforum.org.uk/reports/sunlightrobbery.pdf

Its worth considering upping your intake of vitamin D whether by sunshine, by what you eat or by taking supplements. There are clearly many groups of people and individuals who are not getting enough vitamin D and this is a major causative factor in many diseases and disabilities. - Falls and fractures in old age, for instance, would be far fewer if people took more vitamin D and calcium.

Also reduce your salt intake.

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

Associated health conditions

Eating dark chocolate every day could help guard against heart disease and stroke, new research has suggested.

Dark chocolate diet reduces risk of stroke and heart disease, study suggests
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Patients with raised blood pressure who treated themselves to one 100 gramme bar per day saw their health improve significantly over a two week trial period.

The study led by scientists in America and Italy looked at 19 patients with high blood pressure.

For two weeks, the patients were given 100 grammes of white chocolate, which is not rich in flavanols - a health-giving antioxidant found in dark chocolate.

Their blood pressure and cholesterol levels were then measured.

After the fortnight their diet was changed so that they were given dark chocolate instead of white chocolate. After two weeks of eating dark chocolate, their blood pressure readings showed an impressive reduction. On average, their blood pressures fell by three millimetres of mercury."

I personally favour chocolate because it very seldom contains much salt so it is not 'fattening' - despite the widespread misinformation that claims that it is fattening.

It's also good for you because it is rich in magnesium, which helps to counter fluid retention, the cause of obesity.

But as regards blood pressure and cholesterol levels, the very best course of action of all is to avoid salt and salty food. This lowers both significantly and makes you feel much better.

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

Associated health conditions

Disappearing or sporadic "flashes" of white in a child's eye could be a symptom of cancer, a leading charity, the Childhood Eye Cancer Tr ust, warns.

White flashes in child's eye may be cancer, charity warns
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The alert came after a mother from Manchester saved the life of a baby girl by spotting signs she could have the disease in a photograph.

The flash from the camera bounced off the tumour in one-year-old Rowan Santos's eye, forming an unusual white shadow in the snap.

Madeleine Robb, 32, who has no medical training and who has never met the child but was sent pictures of her over the internet, spotted the marking.

After research on the web she emailed her friend Megan Santos, also 32, to advise her to take her daughter to the doctor, where she was diagnosed with the disease.

Although symptoms of the tumour can be visible as an odd-looking white pupil, The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust warned parents not to ignore occasional flashes of white or yellow in their children's eyes, and said that could be a sign of the same cancer.

In unnatural lighting the light can bounce off the tumour in much the same way as a camera flash, revealing its presence.

However, as the tumour, a rare type of cancer called retinoblastoma, could be quite small and children's heads move frequently, it is often spotted as just a flicker of discolouration.

The same effect would not be visible in daylight, the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust warned."

"Rowan is now having chemotherapy and doctors say that the quick action of her mother's friend could have saved her life, though she will lose an eye."

Elderly people are being "mistreated and abused" in hospitals and care homes, according to a new report by Age Concern

Elderly people abused in hospitals and care homes
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Age Concern criticises the lack of progress made a year on from a parliamentary report that recommended an "entire culture change" to tackle human rights abuses experienced by older people in the NHS and care system.

The new report includes examples of older people being left to sit in their own excrement or denied food and water because the staff are too busy, being left naked in front of other patients, or being heavily sedated so they are easier to care for."

"Norma Scott said her father died of renal failure after the way he was treated in a Yorkshire hospital.

She said: "We were told my father needed to be given extra fluids for his kidneys, but he wasn't given any help to drink water or to pass fluids. He couldn't use the water jug left by his bed as he couldn't sit up.

"After six days I spoke to a doctor. When a drip and catheter was fitted, two litres of urine were drained off. He died of renal failure.

"My father should not have been treated this way. It took months to get my complaint heard and I have been battling for many more months to get the hospital to implement the Action Plan. No one checks change has happened - it's all taken on trust.""

And British politicians have the cheek to criticise other countries about human rights! Our dreadful, uncaring, extremely expensive NHS system should be scrapped.

Patients who have "minor" heart attacks need more aggressive treatment as they are more likely to die within 6 months than those who had major attacks

Minor heart attack patients 'more likely to die'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Up to 50,000 people who suffer a minor heart attack each year should receive better treatment, they say.

A study looking at data from heart attack patients in 115 hospitals across 14 countries showed that patients who suffered a minor heart attack were more likely to die or have a second heart attack between two weeks and six months after being discharged from hospital than those who had a major attack.

Heart attacks are described as minor or incomplete where the blood flow to the heart muscle is partially blocked rather than cut off completely, as is the case in a major heart attack.

Currently complete heart attacks are aggressively treated with angioplasty to insert a balloon and metal stent to reopen the blood flow but generally less severe heart attacks do not receive the procedure.

However, they can still cause damage to the muscle and Prof Keith Fox, who led the study, says doctors may underestimate their seriousness.

"Clinicians and other physicians really need to be alerted to this," said Prof Fox, from the University of Edinburgh. "Some of these people may have been told, it is only a minor heart attack don't worry too much about it whereas actually it is a wake-up call and they need the best treatment in terms of unblocking the artery."

In the early days after a heart attack those who suffered a complete blockage are more likely to die or have a second attack than those who had an incomplete blockage. But after two weeks this is reversed and those who suffered an incomplete blockage are 15 per cent more likely to die or have a second attack."

You can significantly reduce your risk of a heart attack by eating less salt/sodium and salty food.

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

Associated health conditions

A "forgotten generation" of teenagers is suffering the catastrophic health effects of obesity, drugs, drink and casual sex, according to research.

Teenage health 'timebomb' threatens NHS
Article in the Telegraph:

Extract:

"Too much food, too much alcohol, too many drugs and too much sex has created a "timebomb" of health problems that will do lasting harm to a generation and place mounting pressure on the National Health Service, the Conservatives say.

They accused the Government of "neglect" over the issue and said Britain's "broken society" was to blame. Using official NHS and Department of Health figures, party researchers detailed the growing toll on teenage health of unhealthy and illegal behaviour including:

• The number of teenagers admitted to hospital for alcohol-related treatment in 2006-07 was 12,682 – up 51 per cent since 2000-01;

• Admissions relating to smoking tobacco rose 41 per cent;

• From 2003 to 2007, the number of teenagers treated for sexual infections rose 21 per cent;

• The number of teenage girls having abortions rose 15 per cent from 2003;

• In 2006-07, a third of children turning 13 were obese or overweight. The data suggest that some social and health problems are growing fastest among younger teenagers.

Drug-related hospital admissions among 11-15 year olds rose 33 per cent from 2000. Smoking-related admissions were up 63 per cent.

The nationwide figures for England mask sharp regional disparities, with the North reporting worse figures on almost every front.

Sexual infections rose by 58 per cent among teenagers in the North East, for example, compared with three per cent in the West Midlands.

Teenage abortions were up 30 per cent in the North West, but down two per cent in London. The capital has the fattest children, with 36 per cent recorded as obese or overweight on entering Year Six at school. The English average was 31 per cent."

Well I can help with the obesity problems. - Teenagers (and other people) need to be told the truth about what causes obesity, namely salt sensitivity/fluid retention, and the best ways to prevent/reduce obesity, namely avoid eating salt and salty food. - And manufacturers of processed foods and ready meals need to be curbed BY LAW from adding salt to their products unless there is a genuine need for it - and I don't mean the need to flavour it!

And everyone should be told the truth about dieting, namely that dieting does NOT reduce obesity and that dieting is harmful and usually causes weight GAIN, because it increases fluid retention, and weakens bones, etc. leading to greater risk of fractures later in life.

More than 1,000 premature births a year could be prevented by testing pregnant women for infections, an expert has said.

Testing women for infections 'could prevent 1,000 premature births a year'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Half of all early deliveries are caused by infections, according to Dr Ronnie Lamont, a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at Imperial College London.

He said that screening mothers-to-be and giving them antibiotics if necessary could reduce the number of risky premature births.

His comments came after a study showed that infections are the cause of more early births than previously recognised.

In Britain around 80,000 babies a year are born before 37 weeks of age.

Of these, one in five, or around 17,000, needs intensive care to help them grow and fight off infections."

advice for pregnant mothers

Men and women are being advised to take aspirin every day to help prevent heart attacks and strokes once they reach middle age.

An aspirin a day could keep heart attacks away
Article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"Previous studies have already suggested taking aspirin could cut the chance of having a heart attack or stroke by a third and the risk of a fatal attack by 15 per cent.

New joint research by Nottingham and Sheffield universities bolsters the view that blanket prescriptions could help millions of people later in life."

"Dr Mike Knapton, director of prevention and care at the British Heart Foundation, warned further "robust research" was needed before blanket prescription could be recommended."

Overwhelmingly, the best, most effective way to reduce the risk of heart attack is to avoid salt and salty food. - And this has no adverse side-effects...(o:

Lose weight, 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 or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

A cholesterol-lowering drug, Inegy, may increase the risk of cancer.

Cholesterol-lowering drug 'may increase cancer risk'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The drug called Inegy is taken by thousands of people in the UK and the drug regulator is studying research which has linked to indicated a link to increased cancers and deaths from cancer.

It is a combination of the statin simvastatin and ezetimibe for use in patients whose cholesterol cannot be controlled by one drug alone.

Just under 300,000 prescriptions were dispensed for Inergy in the last two years in England and Wales, official figures show.

The American Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying preliminary findings from a study has shown found the drug did not reduce cardiovascular problems as expected and a larger percentage of patients on the drug were diagnosed with and died from all types of cancer than those on the placebo during the five year study."

So! - It doesn't actually work and it also causes extra deaths from cancer? - Best not to take it then...(o: - or prescribe it!

You may wonder why doctors prescribe these rubbish drugs that don't work and are so harmful. - There was a good clue on the radio today. - There was criticism of pharmaceutical companies that provide expensive junkets/trips abroad for doctors and other health professionals to go to 'conferences' and other euphemisms for free holidays in exchange for prescribing more of the drug companies' pharmaceutical junk to their innocent patients...)o:

'Twas ever thus. There have been many eminent critics of the medical profession's venality and cupidity, e.g. Dr Joe Collier, clinical pharmacologist, was writing about this influencing/bribery of doctors by drug companies 20 years ago in The Health Conspiracy - How Doctors, the Drug Industry and the Government Undermine Our Health and other publications. See also Sleaze

Actually a great many, possibly even most, prescription drugs increase the risk of developing cancer - steroids, HRT, anti-psychotics, tricyclic antidepressants, etc.

Vitamin D deficiency increases hip fracture risk

US researchers have concluded lower blood concentrations of vitamin D increase the likelihood of hip fracture among menopausal women by up to 70 per cent.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

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!

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

More than 100,000 operations have been postponed by the NHS over the past year for non-clinical reasons.

NHS cancels more than 100,000 operations in a year
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The number of cancelled operations is almost twice as high as previously admitted by the Government with thousands of patients suffering from multiple cancellations.

Ministers have previously said that cancelling operations is "unacceptable" yet have failed to act to prevent hospitals from cancelling procedures, often just hours before surgery is due to take place.

The figures have been obtained by the Conservatives who used Freedom of Information laws to request the data from NHS trusts."

The major operation I had last year was twice postponed 'at the last minute' and so instead of having it a few days after going into hospital, it was actually done almost a fortnight afterwards. This caused me agonising pain, immense extra suffering and continuing disability, and the need for carers still even now. It meant extra weeks in hospital and hundreds of hours of traveling to and from the hospital and waiting and time spent with occupational therapists and physiotherapists. It meant intense, needless, agonising pain. - And even now, it appears, I may need to have another operation because my extreme pain went unheeded and uninvestigated for almost a year after returning home after my hospital stay...)o: - Terrible, prolonged, unnecessary pain and suffering and disability; great, unnecessary additional financial cost...)o: - The NHS is a national disgrace.

The NHS still 'has a mountain to climb' in the treatment and prevention of diabetes despite Goverment boasts of good progress, experts have said.

NHS diabetes care 'still has mountain to climb', experts warn
Article in the Telegraph:

Extract:

"Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "This report shows the NHS has taken a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go before people with diabetes are getting the help they need to manage their condition.

"But what is most striking about the report is what it doesn't say. Almost no mention is made of the big risk that, unless we effectively tackle obesity, the number of people suffering with diabetes will almost certainly increase.

"A diabetes strategy will not be worth the paper it's written on if a greater focus is not put on obesity."

Health Minister, Ann Keen, said: "Today's report shows that the NHS is getting better and better at identifying people with diabetes and at supporting them to manage their condition.

"The Next Stage Review made prevention a priority for the NHS and this is especially relevant to diabetes, as a disease whose global increase in prevalence is partly a consequence of rising obesity.

"Our vascular risk assessment programme, Putting Prevention First is expected to prevent thousands of people developing diabetes each year and our strategy to tackle the rise in obesity will help many more reduce their risk of the disease.""

The best strategy for the prevention of diabetes would tell the truth about what causes obesity and thus what causes diabetes. Plus curb doctors' freedom to prescribe the drugs that frequently cause salt sensitivity/fluid retention/obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes - i.e. mainly steroids such as prednisone, prednisolone and HRT, and tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline and imipramine. Plus curb the amounts of salt that manufacturers are allowed to add to to bread and other processed foods BY LAW and UNDER SANCTION.

Obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading to fluid retention, and is easily and safely reduced/prevented by avoiding salt and salty food. - Sadly the Putting Prevention First makes little mention of 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

Sensitive data for more than 4,000,000 people was lost by Government depts in the past year, on top of the high profile loss of child benefit records.

Personal details of 4 million lost by Whitehall in just one year
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Following the loss of details for 25 million child benefit claimants in November, Whitehall departments have begun including information on personal information losses in their annual financial statements.

Analysis shows that beyond the child benefit fiasco, Government departments were last year losing data at the rate of more than 300,000 people's details a month in the year to April it emerged last night.

Among the losses were the National Insurance numbers of 17,000 people and the theft of a laptop with encrypted details of 17,000 Sats markers, the BBC reported."

If you eat more calcium you will excrete more fat and therefore lose some excess weight. that has been caused by fat retention.

See FAT RETENTION

Drinking fruit juices can prevent vital cancer, heart and blood pressure medicines from working properly, scientists have found.

Fruit juices 'stop drugs from working properly'
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Grapefruit, orange and apple juice can block the absorption of certain drugs meaning patients are not getting the full benefit of their treatment, according to new research."

"To date, grapefruit, orange and apple juices have been shown to lower the absorption of etoposide, an anticancer agent; certain beta blockers used to treat high blood pressure and prevent heart attacks; cyclosporine, a drug taken to prevent rejection of transplanted organs; and certain antibiotics."

Dr Matthew Rath compares/contrasts the pharmaceutical approach to cancer with the more natural micronutrient/vitamin therapies he advocates...

Read here the
Response by Dr. Rath to the Invitation
to Become a Reviewer of
the International Journal of Cancer

Dr Rath is an outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical approach to cancer and a scientific pioneer for new and natural approaches to cancer like vitamin supplementation. (My apologies for spelling Dr Rath's name incorrectly in the title of this post. His first name is Matthias, not Matthew.)

I largely go along with Dr Rath's philosophy on health, but my personal hobby horse is the damage that SALT intake causes in so many people - people who are sensitive/vulnerable to salt - especially children and especially people who have taken certain prescription drugs, including steroids like prednisone and prednisolone and HRT, and tricyclic anti-depressants like amitriptyline, which many doctors prescribe inappropriately, often in recklessly high doses and for ill-advisedly long periods. - It is best for most people's health to avoid prescription drugs unless they are strictly necessary, and if they take them at all, to take in the lowest effective dose and for the shortest time necessary. - Remember also that many prescription drugs deplete the body of essential nutrients, so you may like to consider taking nutritional supplements if you are taking prescribed medication/s, e.g. steroids deplete the body of calcium, potassium, magnesium and possibly zinc, and certain diuretics - like bendrofluazide - deplete the body of potassium and magnesium, and some antibiotics deplete the body of other nutrients.

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. (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 andAssociated health conditions andSee FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

If you are pregnant and want to avoid stretch marks or at any rate keep them to a minimum you need to avoid eating salt and salty food.

See advice for pregnant mothers

See Associated health conditions

See Sodium in foods and

vulnerable groups

If you don't want wrinkles when you are older it would be best to avoid repeated dieting...

Dieting makes your skin thinner and so it will wrinkle more readily. And dieting weaken your bones so that they fracture more readily. You don't need to diet to lose weight; you just need to cut down on salt and salty food. This is the safe, sure, fast way to lose excess weight.

Obesity is NOT caused by overeating and/or inactivity. 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/Elavil. (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.)

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, 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 and

See FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

The powers that be are considering taking fat children from their homes and families and putting them into care...)o:

Obese children may be put into care
from the Channel 4 website. The article is © Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.

I think it would be very unwise and harmful to remove a child from home and family. - People just need to be told the facts about what causes child obesity and how to prevent/reduce it. The conventional 'wisdom' is that over-eating is the cause of obesity. - This is wrong. - So is the advice to 'just eat less and exercise more'. - Dieting (i.e. under-eating) and exercising do NOT reduce obesity, because obesity is caused by fluid retention, and fluid retention is not reduced by eating less or by taking more exercise.

Fruit (and vegetables) are rich in potassium, and potassium helps to prevent/reduce obesity in children because it displaces sodium from the body. When children eat salt and salty food their bodies get too much sodium and this causes fluid retention/weight gain, leading to obesity.

So food low in added salt is best for children's health and happiness (fat children are often bullied and humiliated) and plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables makes their food intake even healthier. - Children should NEVER be expected to diet to lose weight. Dieting is harmful and unnecessary. They just need to avoid salt and salty food.

See Sodium in foods

You can read about the causes of obesity on my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk (the site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information) and in particular about child obesity on this page - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

If you are overweight/obese and want to lose weight, you can do it easily and safely. - Read these pages to see how:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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 also FAT RETENTION

Vulnerable groups

A single can of energy drink Red Bull could raise the risk of a heart attack and stroke, researchers claim.

Red Bull puts heart at risk, says study
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"An Australian study found the sugar free version of the caffeine-loaded beverage causes the blood to become sticky and increases the chance of a life threatening clot.

Dr Scott Willoughby, who tested the drink on students, said: “One hour after they drank Red Bull, their blood systems were no longer normal. They were abnormal like we would expect in a patient with cardiovascular disease.

“If you add in other risk factors for cardiovascular disease - stress or high blood pressure - this could be potentially deadly.”

The study was carried out at the Cardiovascular Research Centre at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Red Bull spokeswoman Linda Rychter said the report would be assessed by the company’s head office in Austria."

If you are worried about your risk of cardioascular disease you should also consider reducing your intake of salt and salty food, a major factor in heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, angina, 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 Sodium in foods

'Snooper's charter' to check texts and emails

· Hundreds of public bodies to access personal details
· Home Office measure driven by EU directive
Local councils, health authorities and hundreds of other public bodies are to be given the power to access details of everyone's personal text, emails and internet use under Home Office proposals. Ministers want to make it mandatory for telephone and internet companies to keep details of all personal internet traffic for at least 12 months so it can be accessed for investigations into crime or other threats to public safety. The Home Office admitted that the measure will mean companies have to store "a billion incidents of data exchange a day". As the measure is the result of an EU directive, the data will be made available to public investigators across Europe.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

The list of organizations that have access to personal information of this type in the UK includes the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. And when the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was discussed in the British House of Lords in 2000, it emerged that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is considered to be a public authority and that it uses “covert surveillance”.

Lack of vitamin D linked to higher risk of death: study

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to 26 percent greater risk of death in men and women, according to a study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland. They studied 13,000 initially healthy men and women from 1994 to 2000, comparing the mortality rate between those with low and normal levels of vitamin D in the blood. They found that of the 1,800 people who died by December 31, 2000 - 700 from cardiovascular diseases - 400 were deficient in vitamin D, which translated to a 26 percent increased risk of death.
Read AFP news report at google.com

Low levels of the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D, may contribute to chronic pain among women, scientists believe.

Pain 'linked with low vitamin D'
Article on the BBC News website (UK)

Reducing intake of salt/sodium also reduces chronic pain associated with being overweight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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 Sodium in foods

Acid reflux drugs may increase risk of fractures

Drugs commonly prescribed to fight acid reflux disease may significantly increase the risk of fractures in people suffering from osteoporosis, a study by Canadian researchers reveals.
Read article in the Globe and Mail (Canada)

One in seven children - up to 1.7million - never eat any fruit, a report has warned.

One in seven children never eat fruit, says School Food Trust
Article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"In total, 14 per cent of youngsters do not even touch an apple, orange or a banana ever despite experts recommending that we eat five portions of fruit or veg a day.

Many children wrongly think that a healthy diet involves starving themselves, the government-backed report by the School Food Trust claimed.

"Although the term healthy eating is familiar to children, it is neither well understood nor applied in practice," it said."

"Childhood obesity is growing with one in three children regarded as overweight or obese, according to the report. By 2050, two in three children and 90 per cent of adults could be fat, risking heart disease and diabetes."

Fruit (and vegetables) are rich in potassium, and potassium helps to prevent/reduce obesity in children because it displaces sodium from the body. When children eat salt and salty food their bodies get too much sodium and this causes fluid retention/weight gain, leading to obesity.

So food low in added salt is best for children's health and happiness (fat children are often bullied and humiliated) and plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables makes their food intake even healthier. - Children should NEVER be expected to diet to lose weight. Dieting is harmful and unnecessary. They just need to avoid salt and salty food.

See Sodium in foods

You can read about the causes of obesity on my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk (the site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information) and in particular about child obesity on this page - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

If you are overweight/obese and want to lose weight, you can do it easily and safely. - Read these pages to see how:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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 also FAT RETENTION

Vulnerable groups

Traces of salmonella have been found in jars of Bovril beef extract and have prompted recall of the product.

Salmonella found in Bovril prompts recall
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Manufacturer Unilever has recalled 15,000 jars and 72 plastic tubs from stores across the UK "as a precautionary measure".

The alert followed routine checks which identified traces of salmonella in a small number of packs produced during a specific period.

The products being recalled are 250g glass jars of Bovril Beef Extract with a best-before-end date of January 2010 and batch codes of L8201XX795, L8206XX795, L8207XX795 and L8208XX795.

Bovril Beef Extract in 600g plastic tubs with a Jan 2010 best-before-end date and batch code L8207XX795 are also being recalled.

The information can be found on the back label of glass jars or on the base of plastic tubs."

Prince Charles remains vehemently against genetically modified (GM) crops.

Prince Charles sparks debate over GM crops claims
Article in the Telegraph, following the Daily Telegraph's exclusive interview with Prince Charles

Extracts:

"In a statement setting the Prince against politicians who believe GM foods will be crucial to feeding under-nourished populations in the developing world, he said: "What we should be talking about is food security, not food production - that is what matters and that is what people will not understand."

His belief was backed up by Mike Childs, the campaign director for Friends of the Earth. "GM crops will not solve the food crisis - and forging ahead with an industrialised farming system will continue to fail people and the environment around the world," Mr Childs said.

However Phil Willis, a Liberal Democrat MP and the chairman of the Commons science committee, said the Prince's "lack of scientific understanding" would "condemn millions of people to starvation in areas like sub-Saharan Africa"."

"The Prince accused large corporations of conducting experiments with nature, which had, he said "gone seriously wrong". His comments were supported by Patrick Holden, a director of the Soil Association.

"If we go down this path I think we will put this country at risk. There could be a period of great difficulty in the next 10 or 20 years," Mr Holden said. "No evidence has emerged from the first round of GM crops of any public benefits. They have actually increased pesticide use in the farms that have used them.""

I've a lot of sympathy with Prince Charles' views on GM foods.

Don't feed your tubby little boy or girl lots of food from the red list! - Give them plenty of food from the green list! - They'll soon be less tubby!

The red and green lists are on this page: sodium in foods
and some more information you need is on this page: how to help children to lose excess weight

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

See also FAT RETENTION

"We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun." - George Orwell had something there...

"We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun." -
George Orwell. - How right he was!

George Orwell also , in his prescient book, 1984, introduced us to Doublethink: "The power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accept both of them." - I've got news for you: - you almost certainly exhibit this power yourself. - Here's how:-

You KNOW that you know personally people who are not fat - people who are slim, in fact - who definitely eat far more than their body can require, and who take very little exercise and who do not have a particularly high temperature. - And so you KNOW that over-eating and inactivity do not cause obesity - because they do not cause obesity in those people.

And yet simultaneously you nonetheless believe that fat people are fat because they eat too much...

This is Doublethink. - Give it up!

So much tinned food is high in salt/sodium - and it is salt/sodium that makes fat/obese people fatter/more obese, and, more and more, obesity will bring about great suffering and early death to millions upon millions of people.

Don't fall for the lies being promulgated about obesity being caused by greed and laziness; it is caused by fluid retention, caused in turn by salt sensitivity. - Read the facts, not the propaganda...

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

See also FAT RETENTION

Common fertility treatments given to thousands of couples do nothing to boost their chances of getting pregnant, according to a recent study.

Common fertility treatments 'do not aid conception'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Giving couples a popular fertility drug or a common form of insemination are no more effective than encouraging them to 'keep trying', researchers said.

Both treatments are officially recommended as one of the first courses of action for couples having trouble conceiving.

They are designed to improve fertility rates either by stimulating egg production in the ovaries or by injecting sperm directly into the womb.

But the study suggests that both have little or no effect on conception rates.

More than 21,000 couples a year receive the drug, called Clomifene citrate, which has cost the NHS around £1 million over the last five years.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which regulates fertility treatment in Britain, does not collect information on how many couples receive unstimulated intrauterine insemination (IUI) but experts believe there are thousands of the treatments carried out every year, at a cost of around £300 per cycle."

Sounds as though it would be a good idea to discontinue these treatments. -This would save raising false hopes, save people's time, save money...

A drug-free, cost-free way to improve fertility is to avoid salt and salty food. This also benefits health in many ways.

A name to conjure with: - Noam Chomsky, thinker for our times.

http://www.chomsky.info/index.htm

Who would you recommend as a thinker for our time?

Broccoli may undo diabetes damage

Eating broccoli could reverse the damage caused by diabetes to heart blood vessels, research suggests. A University of Warwick team believe the key is a compound called sulforaphane found in the vegetable. It encourages production of enzymes which protect the blood vessels, and a reduction in high levels of molecules which cause significant cell damage.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

A £13 billion computer system intended to overhaul the NHS records system has been so dogged with problems that it is damaging patient care.

£13bn NHS computer system failures affecting patient care
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Appointments for suspected cancer sufferers, accident and emergency treatment and scheduled operations have all been delayed by problems, and complaints have soared.

The glitches came with the introduction of the Connecting for Health computer network to the first NHS trusts to use it, which were in London.

The problems will concern those who have expressed doubts over the feasibility of the overarching system, which has yet to be brought into use nationwide.

Enfield Primary Care Trust was one of the organisations using the Connecting for Health system and problems with it led to 63 patients with Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust having delayed operations.

Last May, the same trust cancelled 272 operations for 'non-clinical reasons' and 20 patients did not receive their scheduled post-operative check-up because their care was not sufficiently well tracked."

Toxic chemicals found in common scented laundry products and air fresheners

A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.
Read article at physorg.com

Lilly trained its sales force to downplay Zyprexa's risks

Eli Lilly & Co. trained its sales force to downplay risks for Zyprexa and encourage doctors to prescribe the drug beyond approved uses for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to court documents.
Read article at bloomberg.com

Biogen's Tysabri has caused brain infection in two patients

Biogen and Elan have reported two confirmed cases of a deadly brain infection - progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy - in patients taking their Tysabri multiple sclerosis drug, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Not all junk food is cheap and nasty. - Some is very expensive and nasty. - Caviar, for instance. - It's laden with salt/sodium...)o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

See also FAT RETENTION

You've got water retention? - So what do you think is holding that water in your body? - Blotting paper? - Think about it...

It's SALT. - It's SALT that is holding excess water/fluid in your body. - Salt/sodium is the culprit. - You need to cut down on salt and salty food because it is harming you and making you overweight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods

British people are taking more and more drugs prescribed by their GPs.

In the past decade, prescribing by GPs has risen more than 50 per cent.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

Prescription drugs are a major factor in Britain's growing obesity problem. - Many prescription drugs, especially steroids, HRT, anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, cause sodium and water retention, i.e. fluid retention, i.e. weight gain. - This weight gain could be avoided/minimised if doctors were clued-up about the side-effects and warned patients that when taking these drugs they must avoid eating salt and salty food. - But they don't realise the warning is necessary/vitally important, and so they don't give it. - They then blame their patient/victim who gains weight, telling them that they are eating too much and/or not taking enough exercise.

GPs' reckless over-prescribing should be curbed BY LAW! - They are destroying the nation's health with this pharmaceutical overload.

See vulnerable groups

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Are there links between cancer and the cholesterol drug Vytorin?

The House Energy and Commerce Committee wants the Food and Drug Administration to turn over the results of an analysis looking into the potential links between cancer and the cholesterol drug Vytorin.
Read article in the Wall Street Journal (USA)

A safe, drug-free way to lower high cholesterol levels is to minimise your salt/sodium intake. This benefits health in many other ways too, including lowering your risk of developing cancer.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods