New Year Resolution Suggestion: Give Up Dieting!

You've tried many diets. They didn't work. You know that dieting doesn't work. You know that you end up weighing more than before. To do again what you have done so many times before and expect a different outcome does not make sense. - Give up dieting! - Let the deadly dieting industry make money out of other people, not you, in 2011.

Eating fewer calories than your body needs is likely to cause you health problems like eating disorders and osteoporosis, and will NOT make you slim. - Here is how to lose excess weight without counting calories or going hungry: cut down on salt and salty food. This reduces the fluid retention which is the basic cause of overweight or obesity. You will definitely lose weight - and you will lose it rapidly and safely.

Salt/Sodium in foods

Vitamin D: good for your health in so many ways

Read Voice of America news item.

Many painful, crippling adverse effects from taking Levaquin or other Fluoroquinolone antibiotics

Johnson and Johnson has to pay damages to a victim. See Pharmalot.com item. - Be sure to read the Comments from other victims beneath the report. Doctors know too little about the dangers of the drugs they prescribe. Too many lives are being destroyed by pharmaceutical drugs.

Don't become part of the statistics. Avoid prescription drugs if you can.

Vitamin D lowers breast cancer risk: study suggests

A new study has suggested that high levels of sunlight combined with a diet packed with Vitamin D can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 43 per cent.
Laboratory studies have suggested that Vitamin D may have a number of anti-cancer effects and has been shown to slow the spread of cancer cells.
Read article in The Times of India

Gifts we can all afford to give - every day

Gifts we can all afford to give - every day - include
a friendly smile
a sincere compliment
appreciation
a listening ear
consideration
kindness
thanks
help
useful information

I'm sure you can add more to the list yourself. I hope you all had a happy day yesterday.- I did. - It was great to meet some new people and to share thoughts and friendliness with them. - I wish you a happy day today.

Indian study finds that most hip fracture patients are deficient in vitamin D

A study from New Delhi India has revealed high rates of vitamin D deficiency among hip fracture patients, confirming the conclusions of similar international studies which point to vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for hip fracture.
Read article at physorg.com

Vitamin D is necessary for so many aspects of health and conversely there are a multitude of health problems that result from deficiency of vitamin D. - Worth making sure that you are not deficient in this vital vitamin, which is, unfortunately, the nutrient that research keeps finding most people in the developed world actually are short of.

Did you know there is a European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG)?

Did you know there is a European Childhood Obesity Group (ECOG)? - They appear to have had a 'congress' last month: - I wonder how many 'child obesity experts' attended, and how much that 'congress' cost? And whether it has contributed an iota of anything worthwhile toward preventing or reducing child obesity. - I doubt it.

Let's just pick on one guy: Richard Storey. I don't know him or any of the other people who attended the congress. I've just arbitrarily picked on him. - I see that he is Chief Strategy Officer, M&C Saatchi, London, and that his brief is Communicating the messages of obesity prevention to the public. - What d'you think? Think he's doing a good job? Are the messages getting through? - Is child obesity being reduced? Are obese children learning how to combat their very great problems of constantly being insulted and sneered at and bullied and being given the wrong information and advice, and the wrong sort of food? - Or are the messages about obesity prevention that Mr Storey is giving out the same damaging, ineffective pre-digested gobbets of misinformation that obese adults and children have been force-fed for decades now?

If he's plugging the low-fat, calorie-counting garbage that the self-serving Food Industry pushes, then the incidence and severity of obesity will continue to soar. If he's saying that exercise promotes weight loss then he's helping no-one to lose excess weight. If he himself is slim and fit and thinks that 'eating less and exercising more' reduces obesity then he's plain WRONG, and if he thinks that dieting is helpful and that weight loss drugs and weight loss surgery have a part to play in reducing child obesity then I would profoundly disagree with him.

But Mr Storey may not be treading the doom-laden path I have envisaged. He may be giving the correct advice after all. In which case I'm surprised that it's not been headlined in the press and trumpeted in the broadcast media. Too much salt and salty food is the principal, the most important, the overwhelming, cause of child obesity. Children need to have a low intake of salt/sodium in order to prevent damaging fluid retention/weight gain and also to avoid developing a taste for salty food. Too much sugar can also cause unhealthy weight gain, but salt is a major culprit that most people do not know about. An obese child who is fed food containing no added salt will lose weight rapidly, easily and safely. - No dieting, no hunger, no drugs, no exhausting strenuous exercise: it's a no-brainer.

I invite Richard Storey to read my child obesity page, my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection, and the other information on my website, and to read some of the stuff on my blog/s. I wish him success in his mission.

Are you unsteady on your feet? A bit wobbly? Prone to falling?

Are you unsteady on your feet? A bit wobbly? Prone to falling? - It may well be, that like me, upping your vitamin D intake would bring about a great improvement.

Here is news of recent studies that have found that for older people, taking exercise and taking vitamin D supplements is associated with reduced risk of falls. This was certainly my own experience, coupled with much greater muscle strength that makes it easier to rise from a chair, and much more confident walking. If you decide to take vitamin D supplements, then be aware that Vitamin D3 is the more effective version of this vitamin supplement. You could be saving yourself from a fall and a consequent broken bone or two. - Well worth taking the tablets...(o:

Vitamin D is one of the vitamins that are soluble in fat, so the best way to take Vitamin D supplements is with or after a meal that contains some fat.

It's also vital to improve your dietary intake, of course. - Healthy, natural, unsalted food, raw or cooked from scratch, is more likely to reward you with a healthy body than feeding it processed, highly-salted, sugar-laden, chemical-drenched, nutrient-low, denatured junk, isn't it? - Take care of your body! It's the only one you've got. - Saving money by choosing to eat cheap, processed rubbish instead of real food, preferably organic, is the most costly economy measure you could take, because it could cost you your health.

Concerned about Animal Welfare? Access to pasture? Healthy food?

Concerned about Animal Welfare? Access to pasture? Healthy food? Then you may want to object to a proposed ‘mega-dairy’ in Lincolnshire, which if allowed to go ahead would be the largest dairy in the UK, with an initial herd of 3,770 cows to be increased to 8,100 when practicable. "Each cow would be expected to yield 10,000 litres of milk per year. These animals would be kept indoors for the majority of their lives, with little or no access to pasture." Read the Soil Association's webpage about it and how to submit an objection to it.

Good News: 7 influential UK health groups are revising their position on Vitamin D

I recommend you to read the whole of this excellent article about the merits of Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, and about the harm done by not getting enough of this vital nutrient, often because of being wrongly advised by misinformed health experts. My personal experience is that by taking vitamin D3 supplements (my skin is too sensitive to sunshine for me to expose it to the sun much) my health has benefited immeasurably. I have not had a cold or cough or any other infection since I started taking the supplements, my muscle strength is much improved, my hair is in much better condition, etc.)

Do YOU think that illegal drugs should be decriminalised?

Do YOU think that illegal drugs should be decriminalised? - Bob Ainsworth, a former Home Office minister has been calling for it. See this BBC News report. My personal opinion is that the overwhelming need is for legal drugs - by which I mean the drugs medics prescribe - to be very severely restricted, and I suggest that the heaviest prescribers should be charged with a criminal offence. And maybe we could have something like a 'Three strikes and you're out' system - three offences and they get struck off the Medical Register.

The main drug-pushers in the country are, of course, the doctors, largely paid by the state - and their recklessly high prescribing of drugs, most of which do far more harm than good, e.g. statins, antidepressants and antipsychotics, is arguably a primary cause of the drug culture pervading and damaging so much of our society.

Here's a contrarian viewpoint with information you may not have encountered before: The secret history of Big Pharma's role in creating and marketing heroin, LSD, meth, Ecstasy and speed.

Ten Food Additives to avoid

Read Top Ten Food Additives to Avoid. - Plus avoid added salt/sodium, of course, especially if you are overweight or have high blood pressure or suffer from breathing problems.

NHS Cumbria's director of Public Health favours seasonal flu vaccine propaganda on Eastenders and other TV soaps

NHS Cumbria's director of Public Health favours seasonal flu vaccine propaganda on EastEnders and other TV soaps, as reported here.

If you favour staying healthy without recourse to vaccines or other drugs, and favour your TV drama unlaced with propaganda, then you may like to consider supplementing your diet this winter with Vitamin D3 tablets and with Vitamin C. Good nutrition is the safest medicine. Another way to improve your nutrition is to reduce your intake of salt and salty food.

Read this very informative page: http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Vitamin-D-Deficiency.htm

See also www.vitamindcouncil.org

NHS appeals for blood donations because of low stocks

BBC News reports that the NHS is appealing for blood donations because of low stocks caused by bad weather.

Pfizer and its calamitous drug trials in Nigeria.

Pfizer and its calamitous drug trials in Nigeria.- Justice delayed is justice denied. The Law should serve the afflicted, not the Pfizer pharmaceutical company that harmed them. Read this article and weep for the child victims of Big Pharma and its corrupt associates.

Will oranges become the next frankenfood?

Will oranges become the next frankenfood? - Read farmwars.info on GM Oranges and China.

Dangers for elderly patients who regularly take opioid painkillers

It is often the arthritis sufferers among elderly patients who most regularly take painkillers, because their pain tends to be chronic. Adverse side-effects are not uncommon, especially with the opioid painkillers, which include codeine, morphine, methadone and brand names such as Demerol, Percocet, Percodan, Darvon, , Vicodin, and Lomotil. The side-effects can be very serious, even dangerous, e.g. more fractured bones. Read this report on MedicalNewsToday.

Yet there is a completely safe and very effective way to reduce the pain/severity of osteo-arthritis, and it does not involve taking pharmaceutical drugs. - You just need to avoid salt and salty food as much as you can. - The less salt you eat, the less pain you will experience from your arthritis...(o: And, since you will also lose some excess water weight from your body which salt has been holding there, there will be less wear and tear on your joints, not having to carry so much water around. - So give salt the elbow, and say goodbye both to so much pain and to dangerous drugs. - See salt/sodium in foods.

Be amazed at how quickly your health improves when you stop eating salt and salty food

You really will be astonished at how quickly your health improves when you stop eating salt and salty food. - Within just a few days you will feel better, have more energy and be more mentally alert. If you are obese or overweight you will have lost some of that excess weight without dieting or counting calories. If you have high blood pressure it will be lower. If you worry about your high cholesterol that also will be lower. And you may well be having people comment on how well you are looking...
See Lose weight by eating less salt! and Sodium in Foods.

Yet another Johnson and Johnson Product Recall

See JnJ recall of Rolaids after customer complaints of finding metal and wood particles in the product.

I reckon that taking painkillers is a habit best avoided, especially for children

I reckon that taking painkillers is a habit best avoided, especially for children. - Don't you agree? - And so I'd suggest not getting into the habit of giving babies and toddlers liquid paracetamol or similar after they have had an injection or taken a tumble. When I was a little girl it was unheard-of for children to be given pharmaceutical drugs to stop their tears. Instead their mothers would give them a kiss and a cuddle, and a special kiss on the poorly place to 'kiss it better'. Happily,unlike drugs, a kiss and a cuddle have no adverse side-effects. I offer this little couplet:

Give a kiss and a hug,
Not a painkiller drug.

Older children can be encouraged to be a 'big boy' or a 'big girl' when they experience pain and to be rewarded with approval for their stoicism. This could serve them well in later years. Our society is too dependent on pharmaceutical drugs, which, on the whole, do far, far more harm than good.

Tony Blair recalled to Iraq War Inquiry

Tony Blair has been recalled to appear at Britain's inquiry into the Iraq War for the second time. The former Prime Minister is likely to give evidence at a public hearing in late January. It is thought Sir John Chilcot and his panel were concerned about gaps and possible inconsistencies in his evidence. Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary at the time of the invasion, cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell and Lord Turnball, his predecessor, have also been asked to return. Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, is among those the panel has asked to submit written evidence.
Read article on the Sky News website

How to avoid/reduce/minimise weight gain from prescribed steroids

How to avoid/reduce/minimise weight gain from prescribed steroids: read Prescribed Steroids Cause Sodium and Water Retention. Read also Obesity and the Salt Connection and How to Lose Weight easily and safely without dieting or counting calories.

Butter: is Good, Better and Best

Here is an impressive array of the virtues of Butter. If you have been misled into believing, as I was misled years ago, that margarine was a healthier option and that saturated fats were bad for your heart and made you fat, etc then for your health's sake you need to read the evidence, which clearly shows that margarines are the baddies, and good dairy butter has been wrongly maligned both in the past and in the present. See what Dr Briffa has to say here and here. Here's what I wrote about butter last August. And remember, it's best for your health to avoid added salt, so buy unsalted butter for preference.

Too much salt in ready-made Sunday lunches

See BBC News report. This is another instance of Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) homing in on a particular example of salty food and highlighting the worst excesses of the Food Industy's responsibility for that high salt content.

These groups of people are vulnerable to salt. They need to minimise their salt intake.

Andrew Lansley, UK's Health Secretary, does not favour regulation to improve public health

It is shaming to read in this excellent Independent article, that Britain's Secretary of State for Health intends to reduce the regulation of junk food, smoking and cheap alcohol. And it is astonishing that a guy who was formerly a director of a marketing company with junk food clients, should have been placed in a position to exert such malign power over food policy. Britain has massive health problems, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, etc. that could so easily be reduced by banning food producers from adding transfats to foods and by putting legal curbs on the amount of salt/sodium that processed food manufacturers, restaurants and fast food takeaways are allowed to add to the food they sell. Lansley is seeking to promote the interests of the food and drinks industry, rather than the health of UK citizens. This is deplorable.

Are you vulnerable to salt? Here is the safe, sure way to lose excess weight fast by cutting down on salt and salty food.

Well done to the Daily Mail for campaigning about the appalling care provided to far too many elderly patients by our unaccountable NHS!

As readers of this blog already know, the NHS Complaints Procedure does nothing about complaints except make life harder for the complainants; it is a sheer waste of time and effort making a complaint about poor or negligent treatment. And Kenneth Clarke, the Secretary of State for 'Justice', is proposing to remove clinical negligence from the scope of the civil legal aid scheme, so no help there either for anyone brave enough to take on as adversaries the extremely experienced legal eagles employed by the NHS and the healthcare professionals.

So very well done to the Daily Mail for campaigning about the appalling care accorded to far too many elderly patients by our non-accountable NHS, and for making a large donation to the Patients Association, a charity that tries to help victims of poor NHS treatment.

Medical Journals Complicit in Corruption

"A growing number of prominent physician-scientists, including several former journal editors, and New York Times columnists, have written sobering critiques about the corrupting impact pharmaceutical industry influence has had on medicine. That influence has debased the integrity of medical research, clinical practice and medicine's institutions."
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Human Research Protection (USA)

EU disregards first ever citizens' petition

The EU hopes to set aside a million signatories in a petition, organised by Greenpeace, calling on the EU to ban GMOs.
Read article at euobserver.com.

13% increase in written complaints about NHS and community services

The Patients Association reports a rise of over 13% in the number of written complaints about the NHS and community services, and Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive, deplores "stories of neglect, misdiagnosis and a distinct lack of care and compassion," and states that the number of complaints between 2008/9 to 2009/10 rose from 89,139 to 101,077, and that this is certainly a massive underestimate of the number of people who actually want to complain. She says, "We need a fundamental review of the complaints process. As a first step every person that makes a complaint should be asked to rate the response and that information should also be published. That will also enable us to pick up those Trusts making no effort to learn. At a time when the NHS is facing budget constraints, we want to make sure that the quality of care patients receive is not compromised and that staff and management become more open and more accepting of complaints and respond constructively when something goes wrong."

A previous Chair of the Patients Association told me years ago that she did not know of even one case of a complainant being satisfied with the response to their complaint. My own experience of the NHS Complaints Procedures is that the complainant is actually punished for making the complaint, and nothing at all is done to help the complainant or to prevent appalling treatment from happening again. Indeed, that the healthcare staff complained about are routinely protected from censure or sanction, ensures that poor treatment will be repeated.

Study links tricyclic antidepressants to increased risk of CVD

The Telegraph reports on a study that finds that taking tricyclic antidepressants is linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. These harmful anticholinergic drugs, the most commonly prescribed of which is amitriptyline, are well known for causing unhealthy weight gain and many other serious side-effects. See amitriptyline.

Since antidepressants do not work anyway, doctors should not be prescribing them. Don't doctors ever read research about antidepressants? Don't they care about the harm their prescribed drugs cause their unfortunate patients? The very tiny likelihood of benefit from them is far, far outweighed by the harm they do and the risk of further harm, including brain damage in later life.

EU Consumers reject GM food

EU Consumers are still overwhelmingly opposed to GM food, new research published by the European Commission shows.
Read article at farmersguardian.com

More retailers are being asked to use ‘reared without GM’ labels

European supermarkets are coming under NGO pressure to label produce from animals reared on non-GMO feed, following a move from Carrefour.
Read article at foodnavigator.com

Low Carb, High Fat: LCHF. This is such an engaging little video about losing weight.

I apologise for its title, but this little video is really so good and great fun to watch.
It's from a Swedish paleo type movement, LCHF (Low Carb High Fat).

youtube

Note: Paleo is short for paleolithic, and refers to the (Old) Stone Age. Obviously Stone Age people had a very low intake of salt/sodium.

The Telegraph reports that drug and cosmetics firms intend to eliminate animal testing

The Telegraph reports that drug and cosmetics firms intend to cut down on animal testing. - So drug firms and cosmetics firms are going to cut down on animal tests, are they? - Let's hope so! There's been horrifying cruelty along the way. And precious little benefit to the health or safety of the humans the testing is purported to protect.

Does testing drugs on animals result in safer drugs for people? - You're kidding! - What then has been the purpose of testing on animals the drugs intended for use by people? - The purpose of the testing has been to pretend that it makes drugs safer for people, and, most importantly, to allow the drugs eventually to be manufactured and sold.

You cannot trust drug manufacturers. - Avoid pharmaceutical drugs unless they are absolutely necessary. Take them in as small a dose and for as short a time as possible. Report any side-effects.

Bernard Matthews: A man whose debased food products have harmed the health of many thousands of people

The Guardian's obituary for Bernard Matthews: A man whose debased food products have harmed the health of many thousands of people. This obituary seems a fitting tribute.

I always think, in particular, of the school-children who were served his highly-salted, toxic, Turkey Twizzlers as their school dinners, thereby damaging their health at that time and also giving them the taste for salty meals that would continue to damage them throughout their adult years. Children need to be protected from salt and salty food.

The Education Authorities and the Health Authorities that permitted children's health to be damaged by perversions of food in order to save money and to prosper big business, share the responsibility for harming those innocent children, and for much of the nation's present ill-health by way of obesity, high blood pressure, heart problems, stroke, diabetes, cancer, arthritis et al.

EU announces ban on use of bisphenol A (BPA) in babies' bottles from next year

EU announces ban on use of bisphenol A (BPA) in babies' bottles from next year. See BBC News report. That's welcome news.

Nutrition Science or Nutrition Science Betrayed?

The War for Nutrition Science Integrity
"The American Society for Nutrition (ASN), the largest society for nutrition researchers in the US, openly receives support from pharmaceutical companies like Abbott Nutrition and Martek Biosciences, genetic engineering and pesticide giant Monsanto, food processor ConAgra, and junk food suppliers and producers Coca-Cola, Mars, Kraft, McDonald’s, General Mills, and Kellogg’s, not to mention the Sugar Association, Inc. (among many others). Think about that: an organization claiming “excellence in nutrition research and practice” receives major funding from companies making drugs, pesticides, and some of the most health-damaging foods on the planet."

We must all stand up and be counted in the battle against pharmaceutical junk, food junk and manipulated junk science. Good nutrition should be our civilisation’s foundation and a legacy to be bequeathed to future generations. Our health is being sold by scoundrels and bought by arch-criminals.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health (USA)

An apocalyptic vision of the future for Ireland's working class under the thumb of the EU and the IMF

Europe’s Dirty Secret: Financial Elite Looting Public Treasuries
Read article on the Centre for Research on Globalization website

Justin Webb is turning me off the Today programme

I used to like Justin Webb's well-modulated voice and thoughtful contributions from America to the BBC News on television. I have a very different view of his work today.

He started off on the wrong foot by replacing Ed Stourton, a broadcaster of great intelligence and experience and unfailing courtesy to interviewees - a courtesy that accompanied mastery of complex material, and did not preclude rigorous inquisition when appropriate. I was sorry that the Today programme lost Stourton, though of course he is not lost to Radio 4 itself.

Webb has fairly recently fashioned himself into a boor with a posh voice, and his patently insincere and constantly repeated, "Sorry to interrupt you," coming as it does mere seconds into his interviewee's scarce-begun reply to a question asked by Webb, and in which you would think he had an interest, is turning me off Today. These ritual ill-mannered interruptions are not forensic questioning to get at the truth; they are an attempt by Webb to make a name for himself. - Unfortunately that name is Boring.

Just say No to GMOs!

Just say No to GMOs! Read on responsibletechnology.org about how "GM foods can create unpredictable, hard-to-detect side effects, including allergies, toxins, new diseases, and nutritional problems." Protect human health and the health of other animals and other species by saying No to GMO.

Thinking of having a flu jab?

Before deciding to to have the flu vaccination I recommend you read this thoughtful article, written by a medical doctor whose careful evaluations of the evidence I respect. I think you may then decide against having it. Speaking for myself, I haven't had a flu jab for many years - nor any other vaccination, come to that...

A good, natural, non-drug way to protect yourself from infections like colds and flu is to eat plenty of good food (i.e. not processed food) and optimise your nutrition, especially by ensuring you are not deficient in Vitamin D and other important nutrients. And hand hygiene/hand washing is very important because flu microbes can be passed from nose to hand and from hand to another person's hand or from hand to eye by rubbing your eyes, etc.

Avoid 'slimming', because insufficient food/inadequate nutrition lowers your immunity to infection and leaves you less able to fight it and to recover from it. If you want to lose weight, do it the safe, sure, rapid, natural way by avoiding salty and salty food and avoiding diet junk and weight loss drugs.

Improve your health by eating more like the hunter-gatherers and by avoiding added salt, and by avoiding pharmaceutical drugs

For millions of years our species ate what we might call for the sake of brevity a Stone Age diet. These 'hunter-gatherers' lived in the Paleolithic Age. We are separated in time from them by a 'mere' 10-12 thousand years. Our genes are our inheritance from those ancestors of ours, modified by natural selection over that geneological 'blink of a eye' since Neolithic, the New Stone Age, succeeded the old. This brought farming to the service of our kind. It was a mixed blessing: more food to feed more people, but a radical change of diet that caused some harm to the people who ate it.

The Paleolithic diet had mainly comprised meat, fish, nuts, non-starchy vegetables and fruit. The new foods of the Neolithic diet included cereals, i.e. grains. Grains make up such a large part of the modern day diet that it bears little resemblance to the hunter-gatherers' food of long ago and cannot logically be considered best suited to our species, the genes of which have not altered to suit it.

What 'food substance' have I not specifically mentioned? - SALT! - Salt is an even more recent newcomer to the modern diet. Humans started to eat added salt, it has been estimated, between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago, and in recent decades the food industry has, by adding copious amounts of salt to its processed foods, ensured that there wasn't a snowball's chance in Hell that our bodies could possibly adapt to so massive a change from the low sodium intake of our ancestors to the very high sodium intake of our societies today.

The outcome is that modern food is unsuitable for the health and nutrition of most people today and this partly explains the growing incidence of what we have come to think of as the new diseases of civilisation - diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, stroke, dementia, etc. And of obesity.

The even more recent scourge that is afflicting our species is the rapidly increasing ingestion of pharmaceutical drugs recklessly prescribed by an over-powerful medical profession, under-informed about the harm their prescriptions do to their unfortunate patients.

You could improve your health, rapidly and immediately, by seriously cutting down on your intake of salt and salty food, by cutting down on sugar and cereals/grains, and by avoiding prescription drugs unless they really are necessary. - Why not start in this way to improve your health this very day? - You have nothing to lose but excess weight, some avoidable pain, and the unnecessary risk of degenerative illnesses. - I wish you Good Health!

The transgressions of the EU and the folly of the Eurozone

The transgressions of the EU and the folly of the eurozone. Read these articles assembled here: Reject the EU!

Suggestion for makers and sellers of tiny softgels

Some dietary supplement retailers supply their products in the form of softgels. I am currently taking supplementary vitamin D3 in the form of tiny softgels. I find them easier to swallow than caplets. But my, they are little rascals! - You tip the container to get one out, and if you are a tad too fast/clumsy and spill a few, then away they go like spilt quicksilver, eager to escape their bounds. I think if the manufacturers or retailers could imprison them in some sort of device to dole out one tiny softgel at a time when you depress a button it would save purchasers a few little searches over the kitchen floor...(o:

Overpaid top hospital consultants continue to ride the gravy train

The Telegraph reports that despite Britain's austerity measures and cuts in public spending, and the assurances made by the ConLib government - to overhaul the system, limiting rewards which currently give most consultants bonuses for life - massive lifetime rewards have continued to be awarded to the top consultants. The awards are meant to be for "outstanding contributions to patient care or research" and yet they are received by more than half of doctors! - How can more than half of them be outstanding? - The correct answer to that question, as you well know, is that they can't. It's got to be a fix, hasn't it? - Overpaid and on the make is a common moral failing in these materialistic days...)o: - Oops! - I forgot! - It's medical ethics, no doubt...

Prescribed medications are responsible for more than 3% of road traffic crashes in France

Prescribed medications are responsible for more than 3% of road traffic crashes in France.
The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims takes place on the third Sunday of November every year as the appropriate acknowledgment of victims of road traffic crashes and their families. It was started by RoadPeace in 1993 and was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.
Read article at physorg.com

Dr Mercola pillories drug industry's corporate criminality

Dr Mercola pillories Big Pharma's corporate criminality: read this shocking article.

Truthman speaks out against GlaxoSmithKline

Truthman speaks out here against nefarious practices by GlaxoSmithKline, the drug company. He writes about the illegal marketing of depression drug Wellbutrin as a weight-loss aid, and the tragedies caused by SSRI anti-depressants, including Prozac, Seroxat, Citalopram and Zyprexa, because of their grave side-effects. If you ever think of taking any of this pharmaceutical junk yourself, I urge you to ponder Truthman's words and the words of Dr David Healy, an expert on SSRI drugs, and think again. Improving your nutrition is far more likely to lessen depression than any pharmaceutical mind-altering drugs. Can you really trust GSK or other drug companies with the safety of your brain/mind when you read of their iniquitous behaviour? - Your brain is not infinitely elastic. Guard it from assault by psychotropic drugs.

Study suggests garlic capsules help to lower high blood pressure/hypertension

Read this BBC News webpage where there is a great deal more detail about this. Speaking for myself, I try to eat a few cloves of garlic a day and I believe it is doing me good. - A safe, rapid way to reduce high blood pressure naturally without using drugs (which always have undesirable side-effects), is to cut down on salt and salty food. This provides many other health benefits too. - Do yourself a favour and cut down on your salt intake. - You will feel so much better!

I lost 50 pounds excess weight in 14 months by simply cutting down on salt and salty food

I lost 50 pounds excess weight in 14 months by simply cutting down on salt and salty food. I just lost it steadily during that time, without gaining weight at all except when I bought and ate a ready-made sandwich while I was out one day and that week gained a pound. (Bread is very fattening for overweight people because it contains a lot of added salt.)

If you are overweight/fat/obese, you too could lose weight easily and safely by eating less salt and salty food. There is no need to go hungry or to count calories and definitely no need to damage your health by taking weight loss drugs or appetite suppressants. Just eat less salt and salty food. - You will feel so much better!

Today is World Diabetes Day

Today, 14th November 2010, is World Diabetes Day. Here is a page of links to good advice/information for people with diabetes or metabolic syndrome, and for other people to reduce their risk of developing diabetes. It is also helpful to cut down on salt and salty food.

Department of Health favours Big Business over Public Health for its policy on Obesity, Alcohol and diet-related disease

Read Guardian article. "The Department of Health is putting the fast food companies McDonald's and KFC and processed food and drink manufacturers such as PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo at the heart of writing government policy on obesity, alcohol and diet-related disease, the Guardian has learned."

I haven't read all of the hundreds of readers' comments published beneath the article, but I've read a lot, and not one of those I've read was other than deeply cynical about this catastrophic decision by the DoH. Even the catering company guilty of providing innocent school-children with salt-laden, additive-rich, nutrient-free crap called Turkey Twizzlers, instead of with proper food for their school dinners years ago, is to play a part in the advice given to the asinine DoH.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better.

NHS provides poor care for elderly surgery patients

BBC News informs us that "Hospitals must improve their care of elderly patients undergoing surgery, an independent review has concluded. Pain management, nutrition and delays were all highlighted as problems by experts from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death. Overall, just over a third of patients were judged to have had good treatment."

I heard this discussed on Radio 4's Today programme the other day and was dismayed that the discussion was steered almost immediately into focussing on the need for better pain relief. - I may be in a minority, even a very small minority, here, but I believe the strong emphasis on pain relief is counterproductive. - What is far more necessary and far more beneficial is to work at pain prevention. - This means the surgeons should perform any necessary surgery ASAP instead of after considerable delays which increase the pain and emotional distress, compromise nutrition, extend the length of hospital stay, and result in more complications and greater need for rehabilitation and caring. - As far as I am concerned, stuff the pain relief and the dedicated pain teams and the multitude of pain-killers with their many harmful side-effects! Concentrate on getting the surgery done as a matter of urgency and compassion, and providing nutritious food and good nursing to promote a speedy recovery.

Monsanto's Roundup herbicide link to birth defects and child cancer?

Monsanto's Roundup herbicide link to birth defects and child cancer? Intimidatory mob seeks to stifle criticism and discussion. Read article and comments at truth-out.org

NICE issues draft guidance that broken hips should be operated on on the day of admission or the day after

NICE has issued draft guidance that broken hips should be operated on on the day of admission or the day after, as reported by the Telegraph, in order to reduce complications. The report states that "in some hospitals around half of patients wait longer than 48-hours for surgery even though evidence shows it doubles the risk of major complications and death."

Surely this is a no-brainer! If delay "doubles the risk of major complications and death," what on earth are surgeons thinking of? - How can they routinely be doubling the risk of their hip fracture patients (who are mainly elderly, and many of whom are frail and ill) suffering major complications and death? This is disgraceful. Is it an example of covert age discrimination?

The longer the delay, the more pain the patients will suffer, the more physiotherapy and other rehabilitation they will need, the longer stay in hospital, the more support/care at home. - All avoidable extra suffering, all avoidable extra expense.

I've never had a hip fracture, thankfully, but I've had a very complicated fracture of the humerus, which needed an operation. If I had had the operation within a few days, as I was promised on admission to the Northern General Hospital, I would have been back at home again within a week, I am sure, little the worse from the fracture. But because my agonising pain from the splint was discounted and it was almost a fortnight before the arm was operated on, there was massive damage to my right hand - mainly radial nerve palsy and ulna nerve injury - and my stay in hospital lasted a month instead of the few days it would have been with prompt treatment. My (dominant) right hand was completely unusable and intensely painful for months. No one in the system ever apologised or even expressed regret.

I needed many months of physiotherapy and occupational therapy before I could move the hand at all. - It takes you a few seconds to read that sentence. - Just think of having to cope with that yourself: months with a swollen hand, totally unusable and exquisitely tender to the slightest touch. And I have had to have carers to help me since then, though I previously had managed without. Are these inexcusable delays attributable to callousness, ignorance, incompetence or what? - They are certainly unnecessary and they benefit no-one.

If David Cameron speaks out on the subject of human rights abuses while in China

I hope the response he receives will include a reminder that the UK itself has an extremely poor record on human rights. - Read about Chemical Cosh drugs that are harming and bringing early death to many thousands of dementia sufferers. And the appallingly callous treatment in the Staffordshire Hospital that resulted in terrible suffering and premature death for hundreds of patients. And the many millions of UK citizens (mostly women) gravely harmed for decades by tranquillisers and other toxic psychotropic drugs which are still being prescribed by foolish doctors. - Just a few examples of the atrocious treatment far too many UK citizens routinely receive from the NHS.

Medical Journals Also Have Conflicts Of Interest

Much attention has been paid to conflicts of interest relating to the pharmaceutical industry, but where do medical journals fit in this equation? A new study notes that journals also have vested interests that warrant disclosure. Specifically, industry-supported clinical trials can boost a journal’s so-called impact factor by generating greater distribution of reprints that increase citation rates and, of course, revenue. The trials are often supported by drugmakers, which purchase reprints.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Novartis Downplayed Bone Drugs' Risks, Lawyer Told Jurors

Novartis AG officials downplayed risks that the drugmaker’s bone-strengthening medicines Aredia and Zometa could destroy patients’ jaws, a lawyer for a woman suing the company told a North Carolina jury. Officials of the Basel, Switzerland-based drug company got reports from doctors as early as 2002 that Rita Fussman and other cancer patients taking Aredia and Zometa to prevent bone loss during treatment suffered irreplaceable jawbone damage, Bob Germany, a lawyer for Fussman’s family, said in opening statements in a trial over the medicines.
Read article at Bloomberg.com

Dangerous chemicals lining some junk food wrappers are being ingested along with the food

"University of Toronto scientists have found that chemicals used to line junk food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags are migrating into food and being ingested by people where they are contributing to chemical contamination observed in blood." - Read ScienceDaily news item here.

Addictive tranx drugs recklessly over-prescribed long ago are linked to lasting brain damage

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday article informs us that the link between benzodiazepines and similar psychotropic drugs and brain shrinkage was made years 30 years ago and the Medical Research Council agreed in 1982 there should be large-scale studies done, but they were not done. I urge you to read the article.

The IoS tells us that Catherine Hopkins, the legal director of Action against Medical Accidents, has stated, "The failure to carry out research into the effect of benzodiazepines has exposed huge numbers of people to the risk of brain damage. This research urgently needs to be carried out, and if the results confirm the suspicions of the 1981 expert group, it could lead to one of the biggest group actions for damages against the Government and the MRC ever seen in the courts.""

I remember these extremely harmful, extremely addictive tranquilliser and hypnotic drugs - Valium, Librium, Mogadon, et al being prescribed with reckless abandon for all kinds of purported conditions. I remember people taking them in the 60s and 70s - taking them in good faith - and some of them becoming Zombie-like in consequence. Years later I took them myself (they were mainly prescribed to women, in a ghastly example of rampant medical sexism), along with amitriptyline, a dangerous anti-depressant, as the caring professions played a cruel game of pretending that my agonising toothache was 'really' Depression - still a favourite 'diagnosis'/insult used to cover up dental/medical negligence. Read my Mensa article on Cruelty, Clinical Negligence and the Abuse of Power in the NHS

It took me 8 months of monumentally difficult struggle to wean myself off the Mogadon, which is reportedly far more addictive than heroin. Some poor souls took these drugs while pregnant and have had to live with the corrosive guilt of irreparably damaging their babies while they were still in the womb. Many unfortunate victims are still addicted to tranquillisers today, decades after starting to take the drugs, and incredibly, doctors are still prescribing these drugs. I would strongly advise anyone to decline to take any of this pharmaceutical junk. It is far more likely to harm you than to help you.

The country should be grateful to Esther Rantzen, who on her programme, That's Life, fought to curb the terrible consequences of the medical profession's love affair with tranquillisers. Until she took up the matter, doctors, guided by profit-motivated, not-to-be-trusted drug company reps, were assuring patients who reported their dreadful symptoms of addiction that the drugs had not caused their symptoms and that they should continue to take them.

U.S. Government Says Human and Other Genes Should Not Be Eligible for Patents

The new position could have a huge impact on medicine and on the biotechnology industry. The new position was declared in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Department of Justice in a case involving two human genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. “We acknowledge that this conclusion is contrary to the longstanding practice of the Patent and Trademark Office, as well as the practice of the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies that have in the past sought and obtained patents for isolated genomic DNA,” the brief said.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)
Comment from Dr Rath Foundation: The U.S. federal government should be applauded for taking this important position against the multi-trillion dollar “business with disease.” The human genome − the blueprint of life and the biological basis of our existence − belongs to all mankind. Efforts to own this genetic code with the goal to re-build, sell and manipulate the human body or parts of it for corporate gain, should therefore be prohibited.

CEOs should be prosecuted when pharmaceutical companies break the law

CEOs should be prosecuted when pharmaceutical companies break the law.

See this NewScientist article by Paul Thacker, an investigator at the Project On Government Oversight, a non-profit organisation exposing waste, fraud and abuse in federal government.

Indian Farmers Protesting Against GM Crops

Indian farmers have been mobilizing to protest the introduction of genetically modified crops into India and what they see as a takeover of Indian agriculture by Monsanto and other multinational biotech giants. The protesters say the crops are disrupting the domestic seed market and reducing income for all farmers.
Read article on the EIN News website

Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica - Radio 4's Book of the Week

So good to listen this week to Philip Larkin's 'Letters to Monica', his woman-friend of 40 years or so, to whom he wrote reams of letters. The readings are Radio 4's Book of the Week and the episodes are read by Hugh Bonneville. The next episode will be the last one, but you can listen to them again on the BBC iPlayer for a few days more. - Details here: Book of the Week. The letters give the lie to Larkin's being a dour, depressing fellow, as some people think. They are so warm, so personal, so inventive. I feel that any Monica would have treasured them, as this Monica must have, since, apparently, nearly two thousand letters were discovered after her death.

Since I first was introduced to Larkin's poetry I have liked it quite inordinately. I also enjoyed "A Girl in Winter", one of his two novels. When working in the Market Research department at Reckitt's in the holidays as a student, I did a bit of work for Philip Larkin in connection with the use of the stacks at the university library. When the work was completed, my boss went to lunch with my idol (at that time), and she brought me his autograph, neat and dated, on University of Hull headed paper. I was pleased to have it of course, but would have been so delighted if I could have been the one who had lunch with him...

Next month will see the 25th anniversary of Larkin's death. There are some celebratory (free) lectures still to come at the University of Hull. For details see this Philip Larkin Society webpage.

ANH seeks donations to fund legal battle against EU herb laws

The Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl) and the European Benefyt Foundation (EBF) have issued a call for €100,000 in donations to fund legal battle against the 2004 Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive.
Read article at nutringredients.com
Comment: To learn more about the proposed legal challenge to the ‘Brussels EU’ bans on traditional herbal medicines, click here.

Australians draw attention to the health benefits of lower salt intake and the need for mandatory reductions in salt content of manufactured foods

Australia's experts are pointing out that voluntary reductions are not having much effect because of the self-serving irresponsibility of the food companies. Read Telegraph article. It is certainly high time that salt content of processed food be limited by law.

Read about the politics of salt reduction.

Zoe has some good ideas about reducing obesity

This Daily Mail article informs us that Zoe Harcombe has written a book which attributes the increasing incidence of obesity on a radical change in government dietary advice a few decades ago, and the promulgation of myths about what is healthy food and how to reduce obesity. I tend to agree with her and I believe that people who follow her advice are likely to be successful in losing some of their excess weight and in improving their health. I especially agree with her in her criticism of the involvement of the food and drink industry in public health advice.

The article does not, however, mention salt intake or salt sensitivity, or that people who are sensitive or vulnerable to salt gain weight because of salt intake, which for them results in fluid retention leading to obesity. Salt and salty food is indeed the main cause of child obesity. Protecting toddlers and small children from high salt intake protects them from many health problems in addition to protecting them from the main factor in children becoming obese.

The other very important omission from the article is the role of pharmaceutical drugs in causing obesity. Prescribed drugs are a major cause of obesity, since many, possibly most, prescription drugs cause fluid retention/obesity when they are taken for an extended period of time. Drugs that routinely tend to cause overweight/obesity include many steroids, HRT, most anti-depressants, anti-epileptics, anti-psychotics, etc. See steroids and HRT and amitriptyline and other anti-depressants.

See Sodium in Foods and my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection. You may also like to read my political page about salt, pharmaceuticals and medical misinformation leading to obesity and a host of avoidable ill-health and suffering.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Unsubstantiated claim that lower British death rates are 'due to rise in statins use'

This really is a preposterous claim. Read Dr Briffa's blogpost about it. And click on the 'statins' label beneath this post to see my previous posts about statins.

To reduce risk of heart attacks and strokes and to lower cholesterol it is not necessary to take statins (expensive and have adverse side-effects). The safe, sure, swift, drug-free way to reduce all heart problems, lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, is to avoid/reduce intake of salt and salty food. This brings a host of other health benefits too and it makes you feel better and have more energy. Read how lowering salt/sodium helped Ray Hayden.

Burns rapidly deplete the body's stores of vitamin E

Severe burn injuries in children have been shown to rapidly deplete the levels of vitamin E in their body's adipose, or fat tissues, a new clinical study has found. Stored levels of this important antioxidant were reduced more in a few weeks than might normally be possible in years. An analysis of eight children with third-degree burns over much of their body found they lost almost half of their stored vitamin E in three weeks, even though they were being given about 150 percent of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin E and other nutrients in a high-calorie diet.
Read article at physorg.com

Government study finds Germany's foreign ministry was complicit in Holocaust

Germany's foreign ministry was far more involved in the murder of millions of Jews than previously thought, according to a government study. The findings contradict claims that the ministry disapproved of the Nazis.
Read article on the Deutsche Welle website (Germany)

The weight gain associated with oestrogen therapy is an increase in Blood Volume.

The weight gain associated with oestrogen therapy (and with PMT, I am sure, when the body’s oestrogen levels rise naturally) is an increase in Blood Volume. See oestrogen-induced weight gain and PMT. It can easily be reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. Read how to lose weight.

GSK pays $750 million in criminal fines and civil penalties to settle adulterated drug allegations

Read report.

Bisphenol A: Is it safe?

New Scientist article queries safety of Bisphenol A (BPA).

Exercise may ward off onset of Alzheimer's disease brain changes

Walking, jogging and other forms of regular aerobic exercise may actually ward off the onset of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain, suggests newly published research from Washington University in St. Louis.
Read article at physorg.com

IMS Health Forecast of Global Pharmaceutical Market Growth in 2011

IMS Health Forecasts Global Pharmaceutical Market Growth of 5-7 Percent in 2011, Reaching $880 Billion
The value of the global pharmaceutical market is expected to grow 5-7 percent in 2011, to US$880 billion, compared with a 4-5 percent pace this year, according to IMS Health.
Read press release on the IMS Health website
Comment from Dr Rath Foundation with which I completely concur: With the drug industry’s annual global sales now approaching 1 trillion dollars, there can be no doubt that the whole of humanity is being held to ransom. It is worth remembering this the next time someone asks you to donate money to a charity for research into new drug treatments for cancer and other chronic diseases. After all, with astronomical sales figures like these, the pharmaceutical industry is clearly not short of funds for research. To learn the facts about the drug industry – and understand why it constitutes the largest fraud in the history of mankind – click here.

The Population Debate, radio discussion on the World Service's One Planet

I listened to this interesting programme early this morning. You can listen using iPlayer here.

"The number of people living on the planet is rising and we are approaching the seven billion inhabitants mark......

This week, the UN published its latest projections for the world's population, so One Planet's taken the opportunity to take another look at the topic of humanity's numbers.

Three guests from around the world join Mike to discuss the issue. In London we have John Guillebaud from the Optimum Population Trust; from New York Matthew Connelly, author of Fatal Misconception; and from Calcutta, the social demographer Alaka Basu. Plus we hear reports from Uganda - a country with one of the fastest birth rates in the world - and from Japan, a country that is suffering a decline in its population."

They consider whether family sizes should be deliberately limited and whether this should always be voluntary. (There is a view that it is the rich people who most need to limit family size because they are the people who are most profligate in their usage of the planet's resources.) They do not, of course, discuss intentionally reducing population size by famine, war and pestilence! - But here is a webpage arguing that the Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel is already embarked on "chemical warfare" using toxic drugs. Before you dismiss this idea as fanciful, consider the terrible harm done by the majority of pharmaceutical drugs, the fraudulent claims made by the drugs companies, the times they have been sued for suppressing evidence of adverse effects from their products, their bribery and corruption of doctors, influential politicians and others, the drug trial scandals, etc.

Study: HRT Even Riskier Than Thought

Latest analysis finds combination of estrogen/progestin increased risk of more deadly breast cancer
Not only does prolonged use of hormone replacement therapy raise the risk of breast cancer, new research finds, but it also ups the risk for more severe forms of the disease and increases a woman's chances of dying.
Read article at msn.com

The article is about breast cancer. I took combined hormone therapy of the kind written about in the article. From my own experience I know that there are many other serious diseases/conditions that HRT can and does cause, most of them stemming from fluid retention. See HRT causes Fluid Retention and What to do about Weight Gain caused by HRT.

Cough syrups containing codeine should not be given to children

Children under 18 should not be given cough syrups containing codeine, drugs regulators have warned, in a further clampdown on over-the-counter drugs. There is no evidence these syrups help children with a cough and the unpredictable side effects of codeine means they should not be used in under 18s, the UK drugs regulator has said.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Medical Research Deception

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found over 40 percent of the best designed, peer-reviewed scientific papers published in the world's top medical journals misrepresented the actual findings of the research. The "spin doctors" writing the papers found a way to show treatments worked, when in fact, they didn't.
Read article in The Huffington Post (USA)
Comment: As this article points out, academic medical research has become corrupted by drug industry money and special interests. Similarly, government regulators, rather than dealing with this problem, see the interests of corporate multinationals as being more important than those of the public.

Steroid injections for tennis elbow do more harm than good in the long term

Australian researchers analysed the treatment of tendinopathy in more than 2,600 patients from 41 past studies. They compared results using steroids with results using placebo, and they looked at results in the short, medium and long term. In the short term steroids reduced pain more, but in the long term the use of steroids made the pain worse. The researchers recommend exercise as the best way to cure tendinopathies.
Read the very interesting article about this on the BBC News website.

Aqueous cream should never have been prescribed as a moisturiser. It is a soap alternative which contains emollients. Why didn't doctors know this?

Aqueous cream aggravates eczema. When used as a moisturiser it thins the skin and makes it more vulnerable to irritation. Read this BBC News report, where you will see that "it is also frequently recommended by doctors for its moisturising properties - one recent poll suggested nine out of 10 GPs recommended it for childhood eczema."

How on earth can UK doctors - reputedly the highest paid GPs in Europe - not know this? How can 9 out of 10 doctors have been recommending it for childhood eczema when it makes the condition worse? It contains sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), a harmful chemical if left on the skin.

If you have had it prescribed or recommended for your child you may like to print out the BBC article and take it to show your doctor. This would surely not only help your own child but other children currently being damaged by the use of aqueous cream as a moisturiser.

Female sexual dysfunction is an invention of the Drugs Industry

Female sexual dysfunction – which is claimed to affect up to two thirds of women – is a disorder invented by the pharmaceutical industry to build global markets for drugs to treat it, it is claimed.
Read article in The Independent (UK)
Comment: Research published in 2008 in the peer-reviewed journal Public Library of Science Medicine showed that U.S. pharmaceutical companies spend almost twice as much on marketing and promoting drugs than on research and development.

Italy's regions want an official GM ban

Italy's regional farming heads agreed unanimously to urge the agriculture minister to ban cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize and potatoes, their coordinator on GM policy told Reuters.
Read report at reuters.com

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

I reckon The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have increased in number. I see them now as:

The Pharmaceutical Industry (Big Pharma)
The Food Industry and Agribusiness
Oil and Petrochemicals Industry
Corporate and International Lawyers
Arms Dealers
Corrupt Bankers
The Diet Industry

plus their stable-boys: - The EU, the Health Industry, corrupt politicians, the Press, the media...

Who would you add to that list?

Another Tylenol painkiller product recall damages J and J's reputation further.

See Reuter report.

Cancer threat from man-made chemicals

Millions of women face a greater risk of breast cancer because of man-made chemicals that are found in every home.
Read article in the Daily Express (UK)

Survey about Vitamin D Deficiency

Many New Zealanders may be blocking out the health benefits of sunshine and becoming vitamin D deficient, researchers say. Growing evidence of vitamin D deficiency, including the re-emergence of childhood rickets, has prompted two health researchers to conduct an online survey of mothers and health professionals to find out how much they know about the essential vitamin. "There is emerging evidence that sections of the New Zealand population, ranging from newborn babies to the elderly, are vitamin D deficient," Massey University Vitamin D Research Centre co-director Pamela von Hurst said.
Read article in The New Zealand Herald
Comment: Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a worldwide problem. In the United States, Canada, the UK and throughout the EU, for example, deficiencies of the vitamin are now widespread. Anthony Norman, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences and an international expert on vitamin D, notes that half the people in North America and Western Europe get insufficient amounts of vitamin D and that merely eating vitamin D-rich foods is not adequate to solve the problem.

Child Obesity: Listen to Bringing Up Britain, Radio 4 tonight at 10.15

If you are interested in Child Obesity, its causes and possible remedial measures, I recommend this thoughtful discussion programme (45 minutes), led by Mariella Frostrup, one of my favourite broadcasters. See Bringing Up Britain. The broadcast is also available to be heard on BBC iPlayer for a few more days.

My own webpage about children and obesity is here. See also my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

I must say my sympathies lie with Dr Sarah Myhill

This medical doctor has been barred for a year from practising medicine. - See Wales News report. - I must say I found it laughable to see the useless General Medical Council described as a 'medical watchdog!' - Medical lapdog or medical lickspittle would be nearer the mark in my opinion. - As readers of this blog will know, the GMC tends to punish serious medical malpractice with a light tap on the back of the hand and a slightly disapproving smile. Here we have a much graver sanction doled out to a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary medical doctor who tries to help patients by improving their nutritional status, a wholly admirable endeavour. - I wish this doctor lived in my neck of the woods!

What do you think? - See Dr Sarah Myhill and Dr Sarah Myhill's GMC Hearing.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. Clean Hands Save Lives.

Today is Global Handwashing Day. It's not rocket science. Dirty hands can spread infections and bring suffering, or even death, to others.

It's particularly important for health professionals to be scrupulous about hand hygiene. There is a long tradition of doctors harming their patients because of not washing their hands, e.g. many years ago many poor women died in childbirth because of doctors not washing their hands prior to examining patients and the women caught puerperal fever, which killed them. - See http://www.jameslindlibrary.org/trial_records/19th_Century/semmelweis/semmelweis_commentary.html

And as recently as 2006 the Telegraph reported that thousands of hospital staff fail to wash hands correctly. In my opinion, this is medical negligence. "Health staff carrying out wound care, such as changing bandages, failed to follow hand-washing guidelines on 86 per cent of occasions, while a quarter of staff did not wash their hands after contact with human waste.

The failure of staff to follow hand-washing guidelines is hampering the multi-million pound fight to combat MRSA, which is blamed for the deaths of as many as 5,000 patients each year."

Misleading Drug Trial Claims made about Pfizer's antidepressant Reboxetine (Edronax)

See BBC News report. "Doctors and patients are being misled about the effectiveness of some drugs because negative trial results are not published, experts have warned.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, they say that pharmaceutical companies should be forced to publish all data, not just positive findings."

Pharmaceutical companies cannot be trusted. There is systematic manipulation and abuse of scholarly publishing by the pharmaceutical industry and its commercial partners in their attempt to influence the health care decisions of physicians and the general public.

See Public Library of Science webpage: http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000156

Quite apart from the criticisms being published about these particular drug trials, it should be recognised that antidepressant drugs work no better than dummy pills anyway and should not be being prescribed. Most antidepressants make you fatter and damage your health in many other ways too, so it's best to avoid these 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.

Good nutrition is the best doctor and the safest medicine.

How would you like to be rich?

Years ago a friend of mine was in the city centre when someone came up to him and asked this question: "How would you like to be rich?" - It was at a time when there was a lot of pyramid-selling going on. Pyramid-selling is an illegal scheme for making money out of people who do not properly understand that the scheme is a non-sustainable business model that brings profit only to the early participants/con-artists, and that later joiners inevitably lose money.

My friend was not interested in making money out of conning people out of their money. When asked, "How would you like to be rich?" he replied, "Spiritually," and went on his way.

This little anecdote seems to me to be related to Jesus's words: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

If we profit from another's loss by cheating/lying/stealing/etc. there is a loss to us too. We damage our character, our reputation, our self-esteem, our peace of mind. That is a big price to pay.

Official praise for Rhys Morgan's campaign against MMS, the dangerous chemical sold as a health cure on the internet

See WalesOnline News report.

"A SCHOOLBOY’S campaign to ban a “miracle” health drink was hailed yesterday by UK Government officials after it was taken off sale in Britain.

Rhys Morgan, 15, highlighted the dangers of Miracle Mineral Solution to trading standards officials.

And the Food Standards Agency (FSA) yesterday said it had warned other European countries about it after Rhys’ campaign."

I think Rhys should receive an award. His campaign must surely have saved some people from great harm and suffering. And well done to the Trading Standards Officers and other officials for taking Rhys seriously and taking action on the matter.

One Planet:: I listened to a programme about GM crops on the World Service recently

The programme is called One Planet. You could listen on iPlayer to this half hour programme yourself and hear from a molecular geneticist why we should be guarding our planet from the continuing spread of GM characteristics and the warning that commercial GMOs are able to "spread in an uncontrolled way and we are stuck with the consequences of that." And you can hear Bolivia's president make clear that his country does not want genetically modified crops, nor dependence and loss of sovereignty to the multinationals. And hear also Dr Roger Beachy, 'the father of GM foods,' speak about 'scientific ignorance and our moral obligations.'

I suspect that you are reading this blogpost because you are not in favour of GM food, and that Dr Beachy's arguments will not find favour with you. But his words are well-rehearsed and may sound persuasive to some listeners. If that is the case for you, then I urge that as well as listening to this radio programme, you get hold of a copy of Food Inc. and have your mind opened to the realities of the unscrupulous bullying employed by the multinational companies who deal in GM crops. - Slick words do not equate with ethical practice.

Linus Pauling: Great Nobel Prize Winner of the 20th Century

We are hearing a lot about Nobel prize winners just now. - That two-dimensional Graphene material sounds very interesting, doesn't it? - But it is the Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling (1901 to 1994) who has always particularly excited my admiration. He won two Nobel Prizes: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) and Nobel Peace Prize (1962).

His interests and contribution to the sum of knowledge and the benefit of our world were many and varied. Read this Wikipedia page about him and be amazed at the list of Honors and Awards he accrued.

As I read that page last night I was interested to see that, "In 1941, at age 40, Pauling was diagnosed with Bright's disease, a renal disease. Following the recommendations of Thomas Addis, Pauling was able to control the disease with Addis' then unusual, low protein, salt-free diet and vitamin supplements.^[54]"

So one of the greatest thinkers of all time lived and worked for decades on a salt-free diet with vitamin supplements. That seems excellent anecdotal evidence of the safety and merit both of a salt-free diet and of vitamin supplements...(o:

Too much salt in children's meals in UK hospitals

Children need to be protected from eating food high in salt because it can do life-long harm to their health, especially if they develop a taste for it, which so many of them do. Yet research by Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) has found that children are in particular danger from very salty meals they are served in hospital, where they should, surely, be safer. - See the BBC News report.

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. See Children and Obesity and Salt in Food.

Why do food companies put so much salt into their processed foods?

When more salt is added to the ingredients, this enables the product to absorb more water - for example, if the food company manages to get more salt into its bacon, it can sell excess moisture content (water) at the same price as bacon. - A nice little earner...

Extra added salt tends by its taste to disguise the taste of poor quality meat, thus cutting costs by reducing quality.

Salt increases thirst. This enables retailers to sell more drinks. Hence the widespread practice in fast food restaurants of sprinkling salt onto burgers and chips if it is permitted. Likewise in pubs it has been the custom to provide free salty snacks like crisps and salted peanuts, not as a generous gesture, but so as to ensure that more drinks are bought.

Lose weight by eating less salt. - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

New Warnings about possible health risks of Mobile Phones

See Daily Mail article.

Cream or milk? - Which is the more fattening?

You may be surprised to learn that the answer is that CREAM is less fattening that MILK. - The reason is that cream contains less salt/sodium than milk, and also contains less sugar than milk. (The sugar in milk is called lactose.) So if you are sensitive to salt, taking cream or whole milk in your coffee will cause less water retention/weight gain/fluid retention than taking semi-skimmed milk or that ghastly thin skimmed milk (yuk!). And if you are sensitive to sugar, e.g. you have type 2 diabetes or you have metabolic syndrome, then cream in your coffee will be better for you too than semi-skimmed or skimmed milk.

I am talking about real fresh cream, of course, not dairy cream, which contains added sugar, and not artificial cream like Elmlea cream substitute. Artificial, pretend foods like Elmlea are bad for your health.

It's strange, isn't it, that lots of processed foodstuffs are described as 'light' or 'lite' when they contain less cream, when actually cream is less dense (weighs less for the same volume) than milk or water? It's the cream that actually is lighter than the less healthy, more fattening alternatives. In natural milk that has not been homogenised, the cream rises to the top, thus clearly showing that cream is the lightest part of the milk, and also making clear that the salt content is less concentrated in the cream part, because salt is one of the heavier constituents of a bottle of milk and has more of a tendency to sink further down in the liquid.

Most Britons want to leave the EU

YouGov poll shows a clear majority of British people would choose to leave the EU in a referendum.
Read article at the parliament.com

Study links Voltaren (aka diclofenac) painkiller to increased risk of strokes

There are calls for one of Australia's top-selling painkillers to be banned, after another study linked it to an increased chance of stroke in healthy people. Commonly sold as Voltaren, diclofenac is available in a number of brands and is as dangerous as the arthritis drug Vioxx, according to the author of the study.
Read article on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Water Fluoridation in the EU: VOICE presents evidence of adverse effects

EU Commission hearing exposes fatal flaws in water fluoridation
“VOICE, along with other environmental and health campaigners and international scientists, have presented detailed evidence of the adverse effects of adding fluoride to drinking water at an EU public hearing held in Brussels” said VOICE spokesperson Robert Pocock, who made a presentation to the public hearing in Brussels. “Its effects on bone and tooth enamel, the brain, kidney, thyroid function and the endocrine system regulating the body’s hormones were confirmed by reference to extensive scientific research” continued the spokesperson. Ireland and the UK are the only EU member states to deliberately fluoridate their citizens. The European Commission’s scientific committee on health and environmental risks (SCHER) is critically reviewing fluoride and fluoridation chemicals, following repeated questions from VOICE and other organisations, and Irish and UK MEPs. See VOICE of Irish Concern For The Environment.

Dangers of GM food

If you value your health and the health of your family, you really do need to avoid eating GM (genetically modified) food. Read this webpage. ACT UPON IT! If you have not already seen the film Food Inc. watch it and learn more about the dangers to health that can result from simply eating the modern perversions of food that unscrupulous multinationals produce and inflict on their innocent customers.

This month is NON-GMO MONTH.

US apologises to Guatemala for deliberately infecting nearly 700 people with gonorrhea and syphilis

64 years ago, under the guise of leading to improved public health by discovering more about the possible effectiveness of the recently-discovered penicillin. See BBC News report. The doctors/researchers/evildoers/criminals who perpetrated this atrocity chose Guatemala because this aspect of their 'research' would not have been permitted in the United States itself, and because the people they harmed were mentally ill patients and prisoners, i.e. vulnerable groups with little power to resist or object.

This ghastly revelation "was unearthed by Prof Susan Reverby at Wellesley College. She says the Guatemalan government gave permission for the tests." - I wonder if that government regarded those victims of medical negligence as expendable? I wonder whether there was any financial or other gain for the members of that government?

I deplore the fact that although medical ethics figures a lot in medical pronouncements and studies, it does not seem to figure in the most important matter of deliberately (or negligently) harming patients. I suggest that medical students should be taught to hold certain codes of behaviour pre-eminent in their dealings with patients:

First do no harm.

If you do in fact do harm, seek immediately to remedy it or alleviate it.

Tell the truth about what happened.

Understand that harming some people in order for others to benefit from that is unethical and wrong.

Evaluate honestly the outcomes of your actions and the advice you give.