FDA warns of steroid dangers in some body-building products

CNN reports that the Food and Drugs Administration is warning about the use of body-building products marketed as containing steroids or steroid-like substances. The affected products are TREN-Xtreme, MASS Xtreme, ESTRO Xtreme, AH-89-Xtreme, HMG Xtreme, MMA-3 Xtreme, VNS-9 Xtreme, and TT-40-Xtreme, and "the FDA considers them to be unapproved new drugs and says they are neither effective nor safe.

Over the past two years, the agency said, it has received five adverse reports directly related to the named products, including serious liver injury. While there were no reports of acute liver failure or death, it said, there were hospitalizations.

Another 15 events were attributed to this type of product in general, it said."

Extra Vitamin D may help prevent osteoarthritis in the knee joint

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with the loss of cartilage in the knee joint of older individuals, researchers in Australia report. "Cartilage loss is the hallmark of osteoarthritis," Dr. Changhai Ding told Reuters Health. By the time patients reach the point of needing knee replacement, 60 percent of cartilage has been lost, he said. However, "achieving vitamin D sufficiency in osteoarthritis patients could significantly delay total knee replacement," said Ding, at the Menzies Research Institute in Tasmania.
Read article at chiroeco.com

France rejected GMO report by EU food safety watchdog

Read AFP news report at google.com

Tamiflu high in side-effects for children

The Telegraph reports that Tamiflu is linked to high incidence of adverse side-effects among children. These side-effects include stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhoea, also poor concentration, confusion, and sleeping problems.

People should always be aware that most pharmaceutical drugs have side-effects, and that children are particularly at risk, partly because if there isn't a child version/dose available they are often given the same dose as adults.

Since because of the laxity of the telephone 'ordering' system for Tamiflu, most of the doses of Tamiflu that are being given out are being taken by people who do not have swine flu, it should be clear that the Tamiflu is doing far more harm than good, and at vast expense to British taxpayers.

You can boost your and your children's natural immunity to infection safely by minimising intake of salt and salty food, avoiding salty junk food, processed food and takeaways, and avoiding dieting and calorie-counting.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is concerned about elderly people taking so many prescribed drugs and being unsure of side-effects.

The Telegraph reports that a survey by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain "shows that nearly half of over 65s are currently taking over five medicines at any one time," and "Royal Pharmaceutical Society spokesman and pharmacist, Paul Johnson says; “It’s not unusual for older people to get confused with the medicine they are taking, particularly when they are on numerous types of medication.""

The Society is seeking to promote an annual review of the medication elderly people take and says that pharmacists are ideally placed to do such reviews.

Well clearly somebody should be reviewing prescribed meds! - A cocktail of prescription drugs is fraught with risk, especially with confused older people. - You'd think our highly-paid GPs would be doing reviews as a matter of routine and culling the drugs. - Taking more than 5 prescription drugs at the same time, which each have potential/actual adverse side-effects, and causing the side-effects to be increased in number and severity when taken with other drugs... This seems a recipe for harm for most of the patients taking them, though clearly it is of great benefit to the drug manufacturers.

What motivates multiple drug prescribing like this? I consider it irresponsible.

Risk of Tamiflu-Resistant Viruses?

I think the development of drug resistance in pathogens began to be noticed in the 1950s, and tuberculosis, for instance, could no longer be treated with only one antibiotic drug and so multiple drug therapy became the norm for this illness. Unfortunately, as doctors came more and more to rely on antibiotics to deal with infectious diseases, many of them became recklessly profligate in prescribing them, even for very minor illnesses and even for viral infections for which antibiotics are useless. They usually claimed and continue to claim that patients 'demand' them and that they are forced to accede to their demands but that is clearly nonsense.

Thus it is that very serious illnesses now are often difficult to treat because they are resistant to the 'usual' broad spectrum antibiotics, and drug companies try to come up with new drugs that can be used instead - until the medical profession by its cavalier prescribing habits makes the new drugs also ineffective because the microbes have developed resistance to them too.

This seems very likely to happen with Tamiflu, don't you think? - Or am I wrong? - It's being given out in the UK for the small proportion of genuine swine flu and larger proportion of self-diagnosed sniffles and coughs, and possibly an even larger proportion to opportunists who have reported non-existent symptoms in order to stock up on the Tamiflu or take it on holiday with them or whatever, because of the over-hyped and ludicrous telephone reporting system that in practice allows many people who do not have flu to get the Tamiflu. - Who decided on this system? - The drug company that makes Tamiflu? - Or somebody in the government who is in the pocket of the drug company? - Or just some half-wits in the Department of Health who either don't know or don't care either about the huge cost to the taxpayer/NHS of these millions of drug doses or that Tamiflu-resistant pathogens are likely to develop?

..............................................................................

One of the many health benefits of cutting down on salt is that it boosts your immune system.

And one of the many harmful consequences of dieting/slimming is that it lowers your resistance to infection.

Corby Borough Council found guilty of negligence in the toxic waste/birth defects case.

Victory for the families damaged by Corby Borough Council's negligence between 1985 and 1999: BBC News reports that "Families who claim their children were born with defects caused by exposure to toxic waste in Northamptonshire have won a legal battle at the High Court."

The judgement was that 16 children had been born with birth defects because of the Council's negligence. - And this was not the only harm done to those children and their families by the Council's negligence. - The Council made the children and their families suffer ten years of legal fight, needlessly. - I heard the Corby Borough Council chief executive Chris Mallender on TV and on radio today trying to excuse the inexcusable by playing with words, while I wondered how he could live with himself at the harm done by him and his Council to innocent children, living lives of constant and permanent pain and disability .

There is another BBC News report on the same news item here: 'Constant pain from a young age'. Both of these BBC reports carry details of the harm done to some of the individual children. I hope that Chris Mallender reads all the reports and thinks about the suffering negligently inflicted, instead of thinking how to twist the meaning of words in an effort to wriggle out of the Council's responsibility for that suffering and to try to avoid paying appropriate financial compensation to that Council's victims. The Council should be leaning over backwards to help the children and their families, not trying to do the least they can get away with.

Experts conclude that sunbeds definitely cause cancer

U.S. News & World Report carries the "recommendation of the American Cancer Society that the use of tanning beds is dangerous to your health, and should be avoided."

Viagra causes serious medical problems in sickle cell patients.

The New York Times reports that Viagra (aka sildenafil) causes serious medical problems in sickle cell patients.

Before you go to the doctor to ask for anti-depressants, consider this:

BEFORE you go to the doctor to ask for anti-depressants, consider this research finding, reported in February 2008 in the Telegraph: Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. Not very often doctors seek to reduce pill-taking! - I fervently hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by harmful, useless drugs.

MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as being helpful in lifting depression.

Are you on a diet? - Dieting is an often overlooked, but significant cause of depression. Good nutrition is an excellent way to improve your health. Obviously when you are not eating enough for the needs of your body and your brain you will experience both physical and mental harm. - It is not necessary (or desirable, or effective or even safe) to diet to lose weight. The safe, natural way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt and salty food. Avoid ready meals and takeaways because these are usually highly salted and offer poor nutrition. They are likely to worsen your feelings of depression.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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
And see Sodium in foods
FAT RETENTION

Read also:
amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

DEFRA is sneakily allowing further GM potatoes trial

DEFRA (Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs) is sneakily allowing further GM potatoes trialling as the Telegraph reports here.

There is, of course, strong resistance within the British public to the idea of GM crops being tested/grown and GM food being imported/sold in the UK and environmentalists, when they are aware of GM crops being test-grown have tended to interfere with the trial plants, partly because of the risk of the GM plants contaminating the genes of native crops.

The report contains this sinister information: "Under current EU rules, scientists have to publish the map reference for every GM field trial. However ministers are understood to be reviewing the rules so more trials can go ahead without threat of disruption."

Makes me wonder whether/which ministers are in the pocket of the biotechnology industry...

Do you know anyone who has, or has had, swine flu? - I don't..

Do you know anyone who has, or has had, swine flu? - I don't. - And furthermore I don't know anyone who knows anyone who has, or has had, swine flu. - There's certainly an awful lot of hype about this supposed but largely imaginary pandemic. My personal, admittedly jaundiced, opinion is that the hype is engineered in order to increase the take-up and sales of overpriced pharmaceuticals - tamiflu et al, and the "fast-tracked" (for "fast-tracked" read 'under-tested': see Times article) vaccine when it is finally unleashed on a fearful populace. Here's a welcome article that plays down the hyperbole: Dr Max Pemberton's article in the Telegraph.

I reckon the sensible thing to do is to build up your natural resistance to infection and improve your general health by good nutrition. - Good nutrition is the best prophylactic in my opinion.

A simple first step in optimising nutrition is to minimise salt/sodium intake. This ensures that your body makes the most of the nutrients it takes in. And of course an absolute essential for good nutrition is to avoid dieting/slimming/counting calories. - Dieting is unnecessary, inappropriate, ineffective and usually harmful. - The safe, natural way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Want to know more about the political influence of the pharmaceutical industry in America?

Want to know more about the political influence of the pharmaceutical industry? - Then I suggest you look here. The website states that "The Center for Public Integrity is dedicated to producing original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable."

I am someone who has been greatly harmed by prescribed pharmaceutical drugs and so I am particularly aware of the danger to the public health (and the public purse) of the great and increasing power of the multinationals, especially Big Pharma. I believe that rather than treating illness with pharmaceuticals, we would do better by preventing and/or treating most illness with better nutrition, which is, after all, the natural way, and which does not have the disadvantage of adverse side-effects. A good way to improve your nutrition and to get the most benefit from your food is to lower your salt/sodium intake.

Good nutrition is the best physician and the safest medicine.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Denny's is being sued for serving food too high in salt

Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times reports that a "New Jersey Superior Court lawsuit alleges Denny's heavy use of salt puts "the restaurant chain's customers at greater risk of high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke." The lawsuit asks the court to order Denny's to list the sodium content of its food on the menu and warn about the hazards of consuming salt in high doses."

Very well done to the Center for Science in the Public Interest for filing a lawsuit on this issue! Highly salted food is extremely harmful to people with high blood pressure, people who are overweight, people with heart problems, cholesterol problems, kidney problems, liver problems, diabetes sufferers and a host of others.

Jerry Hirsch also informs us that "The group also has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to regulate salt as a food additive instead of an ingredient that is "generally regarded as safe." Such a change would make it easier to regulate sodium levels in food, such as by limiting the amounts permitted in various food categories."

That would be a very useful step to take. Salt/Sodium is clearly the most dangerous part of the meals Denny's serves. - Although regulatory authorities stress calorie content, the calorie content is largely irrelevant for health, since it is sodium content that mainly causes weight gain (in people who are sensitive to salt).

Remember:

If you're obese or overweight
SALT is the poison on your plate!
Margaret Wilde © 2008

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

F.D.A. has concerns about Toxic Substances in Electronic Cigarettes

The New York Times reports that toxic substances and carcinogens have been found in electronic cigarettes analysed by the Food and Drug Administration. "The agency and public health officials are especially worried that electronic cigarettes, which are offered in flavors including cherry and bubblegum, are enticing to children and may be easy for those under 18 to obtain online or in malls."

Healthy lifestyle lowers risk of cardiovascular disease

Healthy lifestyle lowers risk of heart disease. - This can't come as a surprise to anyone, surely? - Statistical back-up here: blog on the Boston Globe

Good Nutrition is the Best Physician.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Want to be able to continue to buy vitamin and mineral supplements in the strengths you prefer?

Want to be able to continue to buy vitamin and mineral supplements in the strengths you prefer? - Then you will probably find this interview with Paul Anthony Taylor interesting:

The EU and the "Codex Alimentarius" and global food regulations that may limit your future choice options

Extract from the interview:

"in addition to dealing with ordinary foods, Codex also sets global standards for: vitamin and mineral food supplements; health claims; organic foods; genetically modified (GM) foods; food labeling; advertising; food additives and residues of pesticides and veterinary drugs in foods. In all of these areas, the evidence is now inescapable that Codex is increasingly putting economic interests – and particularly those of the pharmaceutical, chemical and GM industries – before human health."

Will there be Pay Sweeteners for US Doctors to ensure their critical support for a Health Care Overhaul Bill?

See taragana blog.

When Britain's NHS started in 1948 there was a similar fix. - "I stuffed their mouths with gold," said Aneurin Bevan, one of the most important ministers of the post-war Labour government and the chief architect of the National Health Service, speaking of the only way in which he had been able to silence the protests of the consultants who might otherwise have strangled the NHS at birth.

Well Britain's doctors are still grossly overpaid and are for all practical purposes unaccountable to the patients whom nominally they serve, because the NHS complaints procedures are in practice an exercise in futility and exhaustion for complainants. Yet despite all the 'gold' lavished on the doctors, we have an extremely poor health service. - Added to poor service, many of our once-clean hospitals are now dirty, and patients fear to go into them in case they catch one of the hospital acquired infections...

Ban on Trans Fats in New York is working well

Forbes reports that New York's crackdown on use of trans fats in restaurant meals is working, and that's good news for consumers' health. Avoiding trans fats reduces cholesterol problems and heart attack risk .

And if you cut down on salt/sodium as well you'll do your health an even greater favour...(o:

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Innovative eye surgery may help sufferers from dry age-related macular degeneration

Innovative eye surgery that may help sufferers from dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of poor eyesight and sometimes blindness in people over 55 in the UK is reported in the Daily Mail. The technique, known as IOL VIP - Intra-Ocular Lenses for Visually Impaired People - is at present only available privately, i.e. is not available on the NHS.

Eating spinach helps to prevent age-related macular degeneration. It can even repair some damage to the macula that has already occurred! - The nutrient involved is lutein. This nutrient is also contained in kiwifruits, leeks, peas, eggs, broccoli, etc. You can find them easily by using a search engine. Details are on this BBC webpage

It's not the calories in junk food that make you gain weight; it's the SALT.

It's not the calories in junk food that make you gain weight; it's the SALT.

Why do you think people find that diets don't work? - It's because obesity is caused by fluid retention/salt sensitivity, not by eating too many calories.

We all know people who eat like trenchermen but never get fat. - They are the lucky people who are not sensitive to salt. For them, eating salt doesn't lead to fluid retention because their strong veins can withstand the input of salt/sodium when they eat more of it than their body needs. - Their kidneys do not have a problem dealing with the salt/sodium and they excrete any excess salt/sodium in their urine, along with the water that salt always attracts to itself.

When excess fluid (i.e. excess salt and water) is held in the veins, the extra blood volume obviously adds to a person's weight: water weighs heavily in fact. - So if you are overweight and reduce your salt intake you will shed some of the excess fluid held in your body and will therefore lose weight - easily, safely and fast.

And do not despise the weight lost and think well, it's only water. - Water is what you NEED to lose in order to lose weight safely. - You don't want to lose lean muscle/firm flesh. You don't want your skin and bones to become thinner and more fragile. - You don't want to lose your hair.

Believe me: you want to lose excess fluid. - There is a great bonus to losing excess fluid. - If you have fat retention as well as fluid retention, then reducing salt intake also reduces fat retention.

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

Possible Hope for Nut Allergy Sufferers

The Telegraph reports that doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge have developed a therapy that retrains the immune system of food allergy sufferers so that so that they become desensitised to the food. It is emphasised that the treatment should only be carried out in a clinically controlled environment: it should not be attempted outside of a hospital research study. It would not be safe.

See The Telegraph's report of one child patient's successful treatment for his life-threatening peanut allergy.

Premature Baby Boy Dies of Dehydration from being put on a Saline Drip.

The Telegraph reports that a baby boy died earlier this month in the Queen's Medical Centre hospital in Nottingham after being put on a saline drip which apparently left him dehydrated.

This absolutely APPALS me. - A saline drip is a means of putting salt (sodium chloride) and water into the bloodstream by way of a vein. Doctors appear to believe that this hydrates the body. - It doesn't. -

A saline drip dehydrates the body. This dehydration could also be described as Salt Poisoning.

Salt is extremely harmful to small children and especially to babies, and this poor baby was premature and so even more vulnerable to harm from salt. I hope that those responsible for putting this baby on a saline drip will be named and will be severely punished so as to draw attention to the serious harm that salt causes to babies.

I believe there are horrifying parallels between this tragedy and the death of 3 year old Christian Blewitt in December 2002. - See the Saturday, March 03, 2007 entry on http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html See also the Wednesday, October 15, 2008 entry on http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

In both of these sad deaths a saline solution was administered to a small child in hospital. In both cases the child died because of too much salt in the body. Health professionals seem unaware of the lethal possibilities of intravenous administration of saline solution to babies and small children.

I have a website about how salt is harmful to groups of people who are vulnerable to it. One of the vulnerable groups is children. - Here is an extract from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html about children and salt:

"When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food."

Here is a highly disturbing extract from the Telegraph report:

"Peter Walsh, the chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents, said

"This is a worrying incident. Research shows us that around 10 per cent of hospital admission result in adverse incidents. These are very alarming statistics.

"But more alarming is that the real figure is even higher since many errors go unnoticed by hospital staff. ""

Wunder Lower Calorie Chocolate Bar

The Wunder lower calorie chocolate bar reported here in the Telegraph is not necessary to help you to lose weight, because chocolate is not fattening anyway. - See Daily Mail report about the 100 year old grandmother who has been eating 30 bars of chocolate a week for a decade and has not become fat and believes that eating chocolate benefits her health.

It is not calories that cause weight gain; it is salt and salty food that cause weight gain - but only in people who are vulnerable to salt.

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Children and Obesity

FAT RETENTION

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Anonymity should be granted to teachers who are the subject of false allegations by pupils

The Telegraph reports that the vast majority of allegations made against teachers are false and that the cross-party Commons Schools Select Committee is seeking the right of anonymity for accused teachers, similar to the anonymity rape victims are allowed. The MPs revealed that one child aged just seven told a head teacher: "I will get you suspended."

A Government study suggests that only 1 in 20 of the thousands of allegations made leads to a criminal conviction.

These false allegations blight the lives and careers of the accused teachers. Many headteachers suspend these teachers too readily and bar them from contact with their colleagues. As well as the emotional and career cost to the teachers, there are substantial costs to schools in covering for the suspended staff. The Select Committee say that unfounded allegations should be deleted from the teachers' records.

It always seems to me that the teachers against whom these allegations are made are treated as guilty until they can prove themselves innocent, even though clearly many of the allegations are made maliciously, whether by a pupil or by a pupil's parents. And I contrast this manifest injustice with what happens with complaints made by patients or their relatives about negligence/incompetence/poor practice by health professionals. - Instead of the health professional concerned being suspended to protect other patients, pending investigation of the matter, the health professional is usually assumed not to be at fault; nothing is done to improve their competence/poor practice or whatever, and if it finally has to be admitted that something did go wrong, it is likely to be blamed on shortage of staff/overwork/lack of money and again, nothing done to remedy the faults. - And the people making complaints about health professionals are not maliciously motivated children or parents; overwhelmingly they are patients who have been harmed by the shortcomings of the health professionals or by the shortcomings of the system itself.

Two extremes, both mightily unfair and harmful: complaints about teachers dealt with in a way that harms teachers, complaints about doctors dealt with in a way that harms patients.

Further Example of the Shortcomings of the General Medical Council

The General Medical Council (GMC) refused to warn other countries about the incompetent surgeon who had botched the liposuction procedure he carried out on Colin Hendry's wife, Denise, the Telegraph reports. The surgeon, Dr Aniansson, is still working as a doctor, in Sweden, where there have also been complaints about him, apparently.

This is a further example of the dangerous partisanship of the GMC: it routinely favours protecting the reputations of negligent doctors and shows precious little concern for the safety of patients. I have written about this before.

The GMC should be abolished.

Backpacker, Jamie Neale, Found Alive

The Telegraph reports the amazing news that Jamie Neale, the 19 year old British backer, missing for 12 days in the New South Wales Blue Mountains, has been found alive, despite the cold Australian winter.

I heard Jamie's joyful father, earlier this morning, being interviewed on the radio. He said he had been optimistic about finding his son alive, because as a family they do not feel the cold much, and because his son is a very resourceful fellow. - Jamie had found seeds to eat and some fresh water to drink and had slept under a log.

Jamie is now in hospital, recovering from dehydration and exhaustion, but pretty fit, considering his 12 day ordeal. His big mistake, apparently, was to have gone on his walk without taking his mobile with him.

Which Food Additive Is Doing The Most Harm? - For Most People The Answer Has To Be Salt.

Which is the food additive most likely to be harming your health? - It is salt - common salt - sodium chloride. - That's if you are one of the people living in the developed world and are one of the majority who are overweight or obese.

These are two of the factors that make salt/sodium a harmful food additive for you:

1. It may be that you like to eat convenience food/ready meals/takeaways/processed foods/salty snacks. These are too high in salt to be healthy for anyone who is overweight.

2. It may be that you have taken or are taking prescribed medication that causes salt sensitivity and that has resulted in fluid retention/weight gain/obesity/high blood pressure and all the other health problems associated with drug-induced obesity.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Vulnerable groups

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

Are you always thinking about food?

Are you always thinking about food? - Do you wish you could stop thinking about food all the time?

Here are the two most common reasons for people thinking about food all the time:

1. eating salt and salty food (because salt makes you feel hungrier)
2. dieting/slimming/counting calories/eating too little
   

Both of these problems can be solved by giving up dieting and giving up counting calories, and instead simply concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food. - Magic!

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose excess weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose that excess weight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

FAT RETENTION

NHS intends Swine Flu Vaccination for the whole of the population

The Telegraph reports that the NHS is planning to vaccinate the entire nation against swine flu.

You can boost your immune system by cutting down on salt and salty food, and by avoiding dieting, because dieting lowers your resistance to infection.

Are Pork Pies to Blame For the Stockton-on-Tees' Child Obesity Problems?

The Times reports that people in Stockton-on-Tees eat more pork pies than people elsewhere in the region, and also that the town was named as the country’s capital for childhood obesity in Department of Health figures released this week. The question arises as to whether there is a causal connection between these facts.

Well pork pies are very high in salt/sodium, as are all cured meats or foods containing cured meat, so I'd say that if many of the children in Stockton-on-Tees are eating pork pies then the pork pies are definitely contributing to the child obesity problem.

When children become fat it is because they are eating salty food like pork pies, sausages, bacon, crisps, takeaways, ready meals, etc. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, can contain almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, burgers, hot dogs and savoury snacks.

Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health. And exercise has no effect on child obesity.

Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body.

Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating yogurt (but avoid the sort of yogurt that has lots of chemical additives).

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

Children and Obesity

FAT RETENTION

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

When Obese People Get Swine Flu There Is a Risk of Severe Complications

Google News today has a number of reports about obesity resulting in severe complications and even death for people who catch H1N1 swine flu. My advice to anyone who is obese is to cut down your intake of salt and salty food as much as you can. - This is the way to lose weight safely and it will boost your immunity to infection.

People who are overweight/fat/obese are sensitive to salt, which for them can result in sodium and water retention and therefore, obviously, weight gain. This in turn can result in calcium deficiency, which causes fat retention. Reducing salt intake reduces both the fluid retention and the fat retention. - Reducing calories does not address the fluid retention problem at all and that is the explanation for the fact that diets don't work.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of fluid retention/obesity/salt sensitivity and especially of morbid obesity. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Further Negative Findings re Breast Cancer Screening

The Telegraph reports on a study which finds substantial 'overdiagnosis' in breast cancer screening: more than a third of cancers detected in the screening are 'harmless'.

I have never been in favour of breast cancer screening. I have not myself taken up offers of this screening. My personal strongly held opinion over many years is that it does much more harm than good.

I remember an earlier negative finding reported in the Telegraph, which I wrote about in my blog on October 18, 2006:

Screening for breast cancer 'may harm women' here - Extract from the report:

"Breast cancer screening may be doing more harm than good, a new report says today. One in nine UK women is diagnosed with breast cancer at some time. The research found that for every 2,000 women invited to have mammograms, one would have their life prolonged but 10 would endure potentially devastating and unnecessary treatment."

Since the incidence of breast cancer is rising, and one of the contributory causative factors is obesity, women who are overweight would lower their risk of developing breast cancer if they were to lower their sodium intake, because salt sensitivity and fluid retention are what cause obesity, rather than over-eating.

(A survey carried out by Cancer Research UK found that most British people do not know there is a strong link between obesity and cancer. Most were aware of a link between obesity and heart disease, but not with cancer. Studies have shown that being overweight increases the risk of cancer of the breast, bowel, womb, kidney and oesophagus. A major study (2003) by the American Cancer Society also associates obesity with stomach cancer and prostate cancer in men, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and cancers of the cervix, ovary, prostate, liver, and pancreas.)

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

If you are interested in 'The Elixir of Life'

If you are interested in 'The Elixir of Life' that is in the news, here is today's Telegraph report that an "elixir of life" biochemical has been discovered in the soil of Easter Island.

Throughout much of history there have been people who have sought an "elixir of life" to lengthen their lives - an anti-ageing potion. - Wikipedia article on this. As you will see in the Wikipedia article, sometimes these elixirs brought death, rather than an increase in longevity!

Today's 'elixir' appears to have lengthened the life of some mice - mice that were protected from infection. Whether it would lengthen human life is not known as yet. - That it would have undesirable side-effects is certain, since rapamycin, the so-called 'elixir of life', suppresses immunity to infection.

There is a completely safe, drug-free way to increase your longevity and at the same time to improve your health in a myriad other ways - that is to avoid eating salt and salty food.

You will also find, if you are overweight, that reducing salt reduces your excess weight.
Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods and
http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers
Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions
and FAT RETENTION

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

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

Anybody who believes that doctors are hard-working, all-knowing saints should read this:

Dr LeFanu's Telegraph entertaining article on stupid, arrogant doctors.

I've been interested in recent months to notice that people who complain about unsatisfactory or negligent treatment often tend to be disparagingly referred to by doctors or their retinues as 'disgruntled patients'. Bearing in mind the sort of serious matters that occasion the complaints that dissatisfied patients make - having read the Telegraph article for instance - 'disgruntled' seems a very inapposite adjective to use. It is so inapposite and disparaging, and yet so commonly used, it makes me wonder whether medical students are actually taught to use the word as a put-down to damaged patients...

A ban is recommended on 2 popular prescription painkillers, Percocet and Vicodin, because they cause liver damage

The New York Times reports that "The two drugs combine a narcotic with acetaminophen, the ingredient found in popular over-the-counter products like Tylenol and Excedrin. High doses of acetaminophen are a leading cause of liver damage."

A ban is recommended on 2 popular prescription painkillers, Percocet and Vicodin, because, like so many prescription drugs, they cause liver damage.

If you would like to experience a safe, drug-free way to reduce pain, I suggest you try seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. This reduces most chronic (long-standing) pain, for example, arthritis. It also benefits your health in a host of other ways, including lowering high blood pressure and reducing excess weight. - Why not try it? - It costs nothing and is completely safe. - You have nothing to lose by trying it, nothing but some pain and ill-health and excess weight...

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods

Statins are causing muscle damage in some patients.

Science Daily reports on a study "by researchers from the University of Bern, Switzerland and the Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, [who] looked at muscle biopsies from 83 patients, 20 of whom had never taken statins. They found significant muscle injury in patients who had taken statins, including several who had discontinued medication before the biopsy."

Many patients experience a lot of adverse side-effects from statins (drugs taken to lower harmful cholesterol levels and thereby to reduce cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, etc.). Many discontinue the medication because they find the side-effects too unpleasant. And of course, the side-effects can do lasting harm, even if you discontinue them.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, cardiovascular disease, depression, cancer, brittle bones, etc. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

The most effective and the cheapest way to lower cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart attack, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and a multitude of other chronic health problems is to avoid eating salt and salty food. This is also a completely safe measure to take; reducing sodium intake has no bad side effects whatsoever. - You will also find, if you are overweight, that reducing salt reduces your excess weight.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

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

Psychotropic drugs are killing children

In Massachusetts, a four-year-old girl named Rebecca became the center of a murder investigation after being found dead from an overdose of a dangerous combination of drugs. Both her parents and psychiatrist are facing criminal prosecution and will stand trial later this year. In Florida, a seven-year-old boy named Gabriel made headlines because he hanged himself with a shower hose in his foster home. It was later discovered that the boy was on an unauthorized cocktail of psychiatric drugs while in the state’s protective custody. He had been taken from his mother who was herself deemed a danger to the child because of drug addiction. In Texas, a fourteen-year-old boy named Matthew died suddenly after only 29 days of being on a powerful stimulant for ADHD. His devastated parents are suing the drug manufacturer and were recently interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America”.
Read article at healthnewsdigest.com (USA)

Children should not be prescribed these dangerous psychiatric drugs. Their health and happiness are being sacrificed to add to the profits of drug companies.

Good nutrition is the best medicine.

GlaxoSmithKline's OTC 'Slimming Pill', Alli, May Be Causing Liver Damage

The Telegraph reports that "the pill contains the drug orlistat which some users have claimed can bring on hepatitis and other liver abnormalities. Other reported side effects have been headaches, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, depression and fatigue."

You do not need to take risky'slimming' drugs to lose weight. The easiest, safest, fastest way to lose excess weight is to give up dieting and concentrate instead on avoiding salt and salty food. This entails eating plenty of real food, cooked from fresh, instead of processed food and ready meals, which contain a lot of added salt. Cutting down on salt/sodium causes the body to excrete excess water (fluid retention), which is the cause of excess weight.

People who are overweight/fat/obese are sensitive to salt, which for them can result in sodium and water retention and therefore, obviously, weight gain. This in turn can result in calcium deficiency, which causes fat retention. Reducing salt intake reduces both the fluid retention and the fat retention. - Reducing calories does not address the fluid retention problem at all and that is the explanation for the fact that diets don't work.

Prescription drugs including many steroids, many antidepressants, anti-psychotics and epilepsy drugs as well as other pharmaceuticals, are a major cause of fluid retention/obesity/salt sensitivity and especially of morbid obesity. - Avoid taking prescription drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

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