Manchester professors claim that priests in Ancient Egypt developed atherosclerosis from eating rich food high in saturated fat

I heard Egyptologist, Professor Rosalie David, of Manchester University speaking on Radio 4's Sunday programme this morning. She was recounting "how the food that the Ancient Egyptians offered to their gods was ultimately eaten by the priests - who paid with their health." She explained that rich, fatty food, like beef and goose, was a feature of the food offered to the gods, and she claimed that because of eating this rich, fatty food, the priests developed atherosclerosis - furring of the arteries - leading to their early death. She also mentioned 'natron' as being a sort of early toothpaste they chewed to cleanse the palate. - My ears stood to attention at this because that sounded like a substance high in sodium. (Natrium is the Latin word for Sodium and Na is the chemical symbol for Sodium.)

And indeed Natron is a substance high in sodium. Wikipedia tells us that "Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate (Na₂CO₃·10H₂O, a kind of soda ash) and about 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called nahcolite^[1] or baking soda, NaHCO₃) along with small quantities of household salt (halite, sodium chloride) and sodium sulfate. "

This evening I found further information about the research. See Manchester University webpage. See also BBC News article.

Professor David, of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology in the Faculty of Life Sciences, worked with co-author Professor Tony Heagerty, of the Cardiovascular Research Group at the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. They conclude that their research provides clear evidence that atherosclerosis was a disease caused by fatty diet in ancient times, just as it still is today.

I'm sorry, Professor David and Professor Heagerty, I don't buy it! I don't believe that saturated fat is the guilty party today and I don't believe it was the guilty party then!

Now the professors may think I'm impertinent to say that, when I am neither an Egyptologist nor a cardiovascular researcher. - But I have become increasingly aware that the belief that saturated fat is unhealthy food, a belief zealously held by many health professionals and by the Food Standards Agency and other Government agencies and quangoes, is a belief less and less held by medics and other scientists who have opened their minds to a wealth of research that does not support the 'conventional wisdom'. And I am persuaded by this more recent research that finds saturated fat is healthy to eat, not unhealthy. See, for example, http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2010/01/21/heart-surgeon-waging-war-on-saturated-fat-seems-seriously-short-on-science-to-support-his-claims/

My own belief, based on my experience as a steroid victim, is that high sodium intake is the primary cause of the atherosclerosis. The Manchester University webpage referred to above tells us that those priests ate a lot of salt and when I couple that with the additional sodium that would ingested from chewing the Natron 'toothpaste', that clinches it for me. See my own webpage on Fat Retention.

Further correspondence with Nick Clegg, MP, Leader of the LibDems

First read my recent blog post about Nick Clegg.

Yesterday I received a letter from Nick Clegg, dated 25 February. It says:

Dear Mrs Wilde

I understand from my caseworker that you became very upset during the conversation she had with you today.

I am sorry for this. I believe she was trying to explain that my diary commitments make it impossible for me to come to visit you again and that there are limits to how much pressure I can put on the food industry and on Government to improve the information given to people on the damage that salt in the diet can cause.

She apologises for any misunderstanding caused.

Yours sincerely

Nick Clegg

Today I responded with an email to this email address: libdemleader@parliament.uk
I wrote:

Dear Mr Clegg

Thank you for your letter of apology, dated 25 February 2010. It really is incredible that, after all the letters and emails I have been sending to you since 2005 even before you were elected to Parliament, you still, apparently, have not actually read enough to know what I am wanting your help with! - I have not wasted my scant energy as a steroid victim writing to you countless times in order to ask you to "put pressure on the food industry"! Good grief! I've not asked you to put pressure on the food industry! - Have you never read any of my letters?

It is abundantly clear that the leader of the LibDem party is not interested in helping me or the many thousands of other suffering victims of drug-induced morbid obesity in this country, nor in preventing thousands of other people from becoming new victims of reckless prescribing by some NHS doctors so ignorant of the side-effects of the powerful drugs that they do not give the VITAL warning that while on the medication the patient should avoid eating any salt or food containing any added salt.

What use is a constituency MP who doesn't bother to read any of the letters from a disabled constituent who needs his help? No use at all.

I've got the message. The LibDem leader doesn't care about steroid victims.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Wilde (Ms)

Food Alert about certain Loyd Grossman sauces

BBC News reports that "Batches of Loyd Grossman sauces are being recalled over fears that they may contain pieces of glass.

The food alert affects batch codes 9316 and 9317 of the chef's tomato and chilli pasta sauce jars."

Appetite too big? Here's what to do:

Cut down on salt! - Salt stokes up your appetite.
Give up dieting, eat good healthy meals with plenty of protein and fat and fruit and fresh vegetables, and avoid salt and salty food. You will feel so much better!

Here is a page of information about foods high in salt/sodium (the foods to avoid) and those low in sodium and/or high in potassium (the foods that are better for people who are wanting to lose excess weight)
Sodium foods

You will lose excess weight easily, rapidly and safely, and you will have more energy. - Go on! - Try it! - You KNOW that counting calories and going hungry doesn't work...

Forget about calories! Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Just do it!

Recommended Vitamin D Intake is Too Low

2,000 IU/Day or More Needed for Optimal Health
Vitamin D has been a natural part of man's experience forever, and 90% of vitamin D is derived from solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) irradiance. The health effects of vitamin D can be and have been determined from a variety of studies including ecological, observational (case-control and cohort), and cross-sectional studies. Vitamin D helps both to prevent and to treat chronic diseases including many types of cancer, cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease, stroke, etc.), congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus (types 1 and 2), osteoporosis, falls, and fractures. It is also effective against infectious diseases including both bacteria and viral infections: bacterial vaginosis, pneumonia, dental caries, periodontal disease, tuberculosis, sepsis/septicemia, Epstein-Barr virus, and influenza type A such as A/H1N1 influenza. The autoimmune diseases include asthma, type 1 diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, and perhaps rheumatoid arthritis.

Read news release at orthomolecular.org (This article may be reprinted free of charge provided 1) that there is clear attribution to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, and 2) that both the OMNS free subscription link http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and also the OMNS archive link http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml are included.)

Turmeric was mentioned on "Corrie" last night.

Coronation Street is my favourite bit of TV escapism. It's funny and it's very well acted. Last night's episode featured a mention of the spice, turmeric, for the first time ever, I believe, and, I guess, very likely the last time too...(o: - Did you catch it? Sunita's aunts were checking up on what turmeric Sunita had.

I add a bit of turmeric to my soups and stews. If you look turmeric up on the internet you'll find lots of health benefits attributed to it. Not like the foodstuffs more usually featuring on Corrie: beer, sarnies, crisps... - And do you remember how Sally's girls seemed almost exclusively to live on fish fingers years ago? - Yuk!

Poor Gail! - She's got a rotten taste in men. - And in art too. I reckon that ghastly picture in her house - on the wall in between the foot of the staircase and the door to the entrance lobby - must have been one of the (unconscious) considerations that put off prospective purchasers of the property...(o:

Salty Soups Could Be Damaging Your Health

See BBC News report here. Many soups sold in cafés and supermarkets are higher in salt than is recommended. If you have high blood pressure, or if you are overweight, high salt intake is particularly bad for you.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

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 and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

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

Nick Clegg? - I don't think he'll be getting MY vote!

The other evening I had a phone call from a pleasant person called Angela, who was hoping to secure my vote for Nick Clegg, the incumbant LibDem MP in my constituency. I explained that although I had voted for him previously, I was not inclined to do so again because he had done nothing effective to help me as a steroid victim, and by extension had done nothing effective to help the scores of thousands of other victims of NHS medical negligence who suffer drug-induced obesity but have not been given the vital information they need to reduce or to prevent it. Patients are not being warned to avoid salt and salty food when taking steroids and HRT and the many other drugs that cause sodium and water retention, and so these drugs initiate morbid obesity and a host of other grave and painful health problems in the innocent patients.

My understanding of how Angela and I left it at the end of the phone call was that someone would ring me to arrange for one of the LibDem local councillors to come to see me to discuss the matter, because as a steroid victim I am too ill and disabled to go to see him at his 'surgery'. Instead, unfortunately, I received this afternoon a most unpleasant phone call from one of Clegg's staff, who clearly has a personal agenda and holds an entrenched position, and does not want people to know the truth about steroids and salt sensitivity and how obesity is caused. I asked her never to call me again as I had found the phone call very distressing. I suggest that such an abrasive, combative person is wholly unsuitable to ring ill, disabled people, and furthermore I find it disgraceful that a party worker should seek to deny a disabled constituent a visit from her MP or from one of her local councillors. Goodness knows we all pay a great deal of money for these privileged political beings who, we are told, "work for us", and we should at the very least be assured of courtesy and proper help.

If you would like to help me in my mission to prevent/reduce great and needless suffering you might like to write to my MP, Nick Clegg, at nickclegg@sheffieldhallam.org.uk asking him to visit me, Margaret Wilde, as soon as possible and not be in a rush as he was when he came in 2006.

If you want to read more about the politics of this matter and about Nick Clegg's previous involvement, see my 'political' page.

What really causes obesity?

Fluid retention is the pre-eminent cause of obesity, and the main cause of fluid retention is salt sensitivity. In children a high salt intake causes salt sensitivity/fluid retention/obesity. In adults it is sometimes the result of eating salt and salty food during pregnancy, when altered hormone levels make the body vulnerable to salt. It is most dramatically and tragically caused by the taking of injudiciously prescription drugs such as steroids, HRT and certain tricyclic antidepressants.

The way to reduce obesity is to abandon the dieting fallacy and address the fluid retention by severely cutting down on salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables as these help to remove from the body some of the excess sodium and its accompanying water.

You can lose weight by eating less salt! – Go on! – Try it!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Child Obesity

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

MSG (monoSODIUM glutamate)is another high-sodium compound to avoid if you are overweight.

Common salt, sodium chloride, is the most common high sodium additive to avoid if you are overweight, because it increases fluid retention, but MSG (monoSODIUM glutamate) is another high-sodium additive you would do well to avoid if you are overweight.

Read here about how to lose weight by eating less salt/sodium.

See Sodium in foods

And here is some further MSG information: Dr Mercola's article about MSG.

Doomed to failure: Scotland's new initiative, entitled ‘Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland – A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight’.

Why do I predict that THIS is doomed to failure? - Because yet again, influential, but ill-informed, people are claiming that obesity is on the increase because of energy imbalance, i.e. that obesity is being caused by taking in too many calories and expending too few calories. They see part of the answer to this supposed cause as pressing restaurants to limit portion sizes! - See this Telegraph article. What an intrusion into the personal liberty of both the customer and the restaurateur! - Why do I say this? - Isn't it worth it to improve people's health? - Well no, actually. - Limiting portion size will not improve anyone's health, and it certainly won't improve their temper or their blood pressure!

It dismays and astounds me that they are still, even now, peddling this lie, despite the destruction it is wreaking on the health of the people they are paid to serve.

Why don't they read the research? - Diets don't work! - Renaming diets 'healthy living' doesn't make them work. Restricting calories in and increasing exercise (calories out) is counter-productive. - It actually causes WEIGHT GAIN, because it weakens the blood vessel walls and so increases fluid retention. See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fatter.

To reduce obesity in Scotland they should be explaining that it is initiated by fluid retention, which tends to be followed by fat retention as well. The vector for both of these forms of excess weight is salt - more exactly, SODIUM. Reducing salt/sodium intake is the fastest, safest way to lose excess weight because it reduces both fluid retention and fat retention. - Fat retention is not caused by eating too much fat and is not cured by eating meals low in fat.

See Lose weight and
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Don't bother about portion control. It is neither necessary nor desirable.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Children and Obesity

And they should be curbing the reckless prescribing of pharmaceutical drugs, since their side-effects are the major cause of adult onset morbid obesity. See

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Obesity-related deaths on the increase

BBC News reports "a "dramatic rise" in deaths in England in which obesity was a contributory factor".

About a quarter of adults in the UK are now obese and the incidence is growing. Since advice about obesity is so prevalent and so spectacularly unsuccessful in achieving improvement in the situation, it should be blindingly obvious that the advice being given is WRONG. - Millions of people are not deliberately going against expert advice and are not deliberately making themselves fatter and more uncomfortable and ill in consequence. The experts must stop giving the wrong advice. Their misinformation is damaging the lives, health and happiness of millions of innocent people, most poignantly, children.

Obesity is NOT caused by eating too many calories/too much fat and/or taking too little exercise. – No matter how many doctors and other ‘experts’ claim that it is, and that it can be reduced by eating fewer calories and taking more exercise, they are wrong and it is still NOT true.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention in people who are sensitive to salt. – It is as simple, and as profoundly complex, as that.

Now – what really causes the fluid retention/salt sensitivity/obesity? – Here are the main causes:

1. Prescription drugs such as tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline.

Weight gain is also widely reported by people taking SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors). As with the tricyclic antidepressants, the weight gain is because of sodium retention and fluid/water retention, and can be avoided/reduced by avoiding eating salt and salty food.

2. Other prescription drugs such as steroids including prednisolone, prednisone, cortisone, hydrocortisone, HRT and other medications containing oestrogen – like some birth control medication (contraceptives) – some anti-psychotic drugs, including Zyprexa (aka olanzapine) and other psychotropic drugs, and some anti-epileptic/anticonvulsant drugs, notably valproate (trade name Epilim).

If you have been inappropriately prescribed or over-dosed with corticosteroids or HRT or the any of the many other drugs that cause weight gain, then you may well have developed drug-induced Cushing’s Syndrome, a very serious illness, frequently far more serious than the health problem for which the drugs were prescribed. It is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely preventable illness if doctors conform to the protocols for prescribing these drugs and if they monitor patients’ progress on the drugs, and if they warn patients about salt. It is VITALLY important that it be realised that weight gain resulting from these drugs is from sodium and water retention, so patients taking these drugs should be warned not to eat salt, or foods containing salt, while taking the medication. They should also be informed that any weight gained in this way can easily and swiftly be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, and they should be warned not to try to lose weight by eating less food or restricting calories because this will not help them to lose weight and is harmful.

If you gain weight suddenly and unexpectedly when you start to take prescribed medication, it is highly likely that the weight gain is caused by the drug. You may like to consider whether you really need to take that drug, or whether the dose could be lowered. At any rate if you continue with the drug, try to reduce your salt intake in order to reduce the weight gain. Doctors seldom, if ever, warn about the drugs that cause salt sensitivity and the need very strictly to avoid salt and salty food while on the drugs, and many do not observe the drug protocols and very few properly monitor the patient’s progress on the drugs. Obviously if doctors did do all these things, there would be no steroid victims, no patients with drug-induced obesity, etc. whereas there are many millions of them worldwide, victims of medical negligence and ignorance.

3. If, as a baby or small child, you ate salt and salty food, you were highly likely to have developed sensitivity to salt and you therefore became fat or overweight.

4. Pregnancy can cause fluid retention/salt sensitivity because of hormonal changes during pregnancy. It is important to avoid salt and salty food during pregnancy.

These are the main causes of obesity. Dieting/calorie counting makes obesity worse and should be avoided.

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 and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

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

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

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

Authors of a new study propose a strict ban on medical ghostwriting

Read article at scientificamerican.com

Opposition to GMOs

Read news release on the Scottish Government website (Scotland/UK)

Low-Fat Chocolate Bar is not an answer to Obesity

There are currently a lot of articles such as this Daily Mail report about a high-tech, low-fat chocolate bar which, it is claimed, could help with the 'obesity crisis'. This low-fat bar, in which most of the fat is replaced by water, without, apparently altering the taste, is described as a "healthy" chocolate bar.

Well I've 3 observations to make:

1. Pigs will fly before these chocolate bars make the slightest difference to the incidence or severity of obesity.

2. There is no evidence at all to support the theory that fat intake is a cause of obesity.

3. 'Low-fat' does not equate with 'healthy'.

To lose excess weight you need to reduce your sodium intake, not your fat intake.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Associated health conditions

Bulgaria proposes five-year ban on GM foods

Following the wave of protests against a bill of amendments that would allow genetically-modified organisms (GMO) to be grown in Bulgaria, the country's ruling party will now propose a five-year ban on all genetically-modified cultures in the country, it emerged on February 5 2010. The ban would affect all crops and the entire country, Environment Minister Nona Karadjova said.
Read article in the Sofia Echo (Bulgaria)

Omega-3 may boost oral health

The dental health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids may include anti-bacterial effects, extending the benefits beyond inflammation, says a new study from the University of Kentucky. Omega-3 fatty acids of marine and plant origin were found to have strong anti-bacterial activity against a range of oral pathogens, according to findings published in Molecular Oral Microbiology.
Read article at nutraingredients-usa.com

Sea salt will not help you to lose weight

Sea salt will not help you to lose weight, but using one of the low sodium salt substitutes instead of ordinary table salt really does help with weight loss. Read more details about salt substitutes, about sodium in foods and about how lowering salt/sodium intake reduces excess body weight:

Sodium in foods

Lose Weight

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Omega-3 may improve the kidney health of diabetics: study finds

Supplements of omega-3 fatty acids may improve the kidney health of diabetics, say results of a double-blind placebo-controlled trial from Hong Kong.
Read article at nutraingredients.com

Illness after H1N1 flu jabs

The provincial health ministry is investigating 17 cases in which people fell seriously ill after the receipt of the H1N1 flu vaccine. Andrew Morrison, spokeman for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, said the cases include four vaccine recipients who came down with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) — a rare neurological condition characterized by sudden weakness or parlysis. Another 13 people came down with anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction which can include symptoms of anaphylactic shock, rapid heartbeat, itchiness in the skin and difficulty breathing.
Read article in the Toronto Sun (Canada)

Giving up something for Lent?

Why not consider doing a good turn for your health by giving up salt and salty food? - See Sodium in foods

Most NHS trusts are endangering patients' lives by not implementing patient safety alerts

BBC News reports that the charity, AvMA, Action Against Medical Accidents, made Freedom of Information requests to NHS hospital trusts and found that 300 (75%) of them had not complied with at least one patient safety alert despite the deadline passing.

Radio 4's File on 4 programme this evening was an investigation into this matter and I listened to it. As a victim of many years of NHS blunders and knowing only too well the futility of expecting any lessons to be learned or remedial action taken, the horrors related in the programme held no surprise or shock for me. But if you are unfamiliar with the routine lack of importance accorded patient safety in NHS hospitals (compounded as they are by the uselessness of the Complaints Procedures) then I suggest you listen to the programme when it is repeated on Sunday, 21 February, at 1700 GMT. Or you can listen via the BBC iPlayer or download the podcast.

Shocking series of avoidable errors led to death of four months old baby, Abbie Jones

See Daily Mail report.

GP receptionist made out a prescription for the baby, but disregarded the warning given by the computer that the dose was too high, and then presented it to the doctor as though it was a repeat prescription, which it wasn't. The doctor signed the prescription without noticing the error. The pharmacist dispensed it without checking that his technician had spoken to the doctor about the dose. And the innocent mother therefore administered ten times the correct amount of the powerful diuretic Furosemide to her poorly baby. At every stage of this catalogue of avoidable, careless errors, there were procedures/protocols in place to prevent just such mistakes, but they were ignored/disregarded - even overridden(!) by the receptionist - and a baby died.

I believe these mistakes happen because any punishments that ensue to the professionals who make the mistakes are too light. If they knew that making a serious mistake would bring them a serious punishment they would take far more care to avoid making the mistakes and far more care to follow recommended procedures.

UK Teenage Boys Fitted With Gastric Bands

BBC News reports that two 14-year-old boys have had gastric bands fitted at Sheffield Children's Hospital. This appals me. In the report it says:

"Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said such operations were an example of society's failure to understand the problem of obesity in the UK. "It is a horrendous indictment on society that we should ever allow these children to get this fat," Mr Fry said."

There is a ghastly irony to Tam Fry's statement. Child obesity is the result of misinformation about the causes of obesity and the best ways to remedy it, and that calamitous misinformation tends to be given by organisations like the National Obesity Forum itself - see its NOF's Healthy Eating Tips and Cancer Research UK's Ten Top Weight Loss Tips. Of course the information on these pages may be changed in the future, but as I write this on Feb 15th 2010, the word 'SALT' does not even appear on either of these pages!! - And yet it is Salt Sensitivity/swollen veins/sodium retention/fluid retention/ that is overwhelmingly the cause of obesity, and reduction of salt intake that is the quickest, safest and most effective way to reduce/prevent obesity. Almost all child obesity is caused by high salt intake.

I see that Cancer Research UK claims that its weight loss tips are based on scientific evidence! - I take leave to doubt that. Perhaps they could favour us by giving the references for any scientific evidence showing that those tips work better that simply cutting down on salt and salty food? - Or that as many as half of them even work at all!

And Cancer Research UK's statement that "Simply put, obesity is the result of taking in more calories through your diet than you are burning through physical activity." is simply WRONG. It is not true.

High salt intake is the primary cause of child obesity. It is VITAL to protect babies and small children from salty food.

See Children and Obesity

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Reluctant to bend down to pick something up because blood vessels in your head feel as though they will burst?

Reluctant to bend down to pick something up because blood vessels in you head feel as though they will burst? It's a problem of high blood pressure and delicate veins, i.e. it's a problem of excess fluid retention in the blood stream. You need to

lose weight

by cutting down on

sodium in foods.

Obesity tends to be set in before the age of two.

See BBC News report. This is a national and international scandal caused largely by the misinformation that has been promulgated for decades by the medical profession, the diet industry, health agencies, government officials et al, and continues to be promulgated.

These unfortunate children have a lifetime's ill-health and unhappiness ahead of them, in which they will be repeatedly insulted and urged to 'eat less and move more', except that the language used is likely to be coarser and more wounding than that. That obesity is on the increase is not because these child victims are greedy and/or lazy. 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.

High salt intake is the primary cause of child obesity. It is VITAL to protect babies and small children from salty food.

See Children and Obesity

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Dr Andrew Holton's child victims, reduced to 'zombies' following his misdiagnoses and wrong treatment, have been awarded £4 million in compensation

The Telegraph reports that Dr Andrew Holton's hundreds of child victims, reduced to 'zombies' following his misdiagnoses and catastrophically inappropriate medication, have been awarded £4 million in compensation. This appallingly poor doctor, who had worked for years as a paediatric neurologist despite having no formal qualifications in paediatric neurology, has destroyed the lives of these children and of their families. Clearly he knew he had no relevant qualifications to be so readily 'diagnosing' epilepsy, nor so recklessly prescribing dangerous anti-convulsant drugs like Epilim.

See also the long years of struggle by Ryan Pitcher's parents to find out the why their 3 year old died.

"Dr Holton now works as a consultant neurophysiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust."
I believe he should be serving a long custodial sentence in prison for the horrific suffering he has inflicted on innocent children and their families.

GM Wheat rejected by 233 Consumer and Farmer Groups in 26 Countries

233 consumer and farmer groups in 26 countries have joined the "Definitive Global Rejection of GM Wheat" statement to stop the commercialization of genetically modified (GM) wheat and remind the biotechnology corporation Monsanto that genetically modifying this major crop is not acceptable to farmers or consumers.
Read news release at newswire.ca (Canada)

Schoolboy's Vitamin D Petition successful

Read article in The Herald (Scotland/UK)

Rhubarb Crumble is good for your health

See Telegraph article here. Nice to have a reminder about this delicious pudding that you can make with the rhubarb growing in your back garden. My grandad used to grow rhubarb in the garden and it usually found its way into crumbles, and was served with custard. I used to like to play with the very large leaves, wearing them as hats. Happy days!

There are many thousands of recipes for rhubarb crumble on the internet. Best to choose one with no added salt or baking powder so as to avoid unhealthy, unnecessary sodium, and of course use unsalted butter, not margarine. If you've not made it before, be assured it is very easy to make and heavenly to eat.- Bon Appétit!

Risks associated with low potassium in heart failure patients with chronic kidney disease

New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) says low potassium levels produce an increased risk of death or hospitalization in patients with heart failure and chronic kidney disease (CKD). In findings reported in January in Circulation: Heart Failure, a journal of the American Heart Association, the researchers say that even a mild decrease in serum potassium level increased the risk of death in this patient group.
Read article at physorg.com

AstraZeneca’s statin drug, Crestor, has been approved by the US FDA for people who don’t have high cholesterol.

That's another sinister victory for the drug industry. Those who take statins risk painful and incurable side-effects from the drugs. - Click on my 'statins' label directly under this blogpost to read further about reasons to be wary of taking statins.

The fastest, safest, most effective way to lower high cholesterol levels is to minimise your salt intake. - Avoid salt and salty food. Read here about one guy's experience of doing this: http://rayhayden.us/ete_insights/lowsodium.php

You can reduce your risk of most degenerative diseases by
1) avoiding prescription drugs unless they are really necessary
2) minimising your intake of salt/sodium and salty food
3) avoiding dieting

See Sodium in foods

Lose weight safely.

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

NHS GPs are reporting very few of the many thousands of errors they make in treating and diagnosing patients.

GPs are reporting very few of the many thousands of errors they make in treating and diagnosing patients. See Telegraph article. To be honest, I'm very surprised to read that they report any. The GPs who have so badly harmed me have certainly never reported those mistakes. Nor has any other health professional who has harmed me. And I've never personally heard of any healthcare worker reporting their mistakes to anyone. That's one of the reasons they never learn from their mistakes of course.

Huge rise in NHS hospital admissions for obesity problems and in admissions for weight loss surgery

See Telegraph article

These rises are due, of course, to the continued failure of the NHS and the medical profession et al to give the correct information and advice about the causes of obesity and the best ways to reduce it. Dieting, calorie reduction and low-fat eating do not reduce or prevent obesity and they are often very harmful.

It is easy and completely safe for any obese person to lose a considerable amount of excess weight by reducing the fluid retention that is a feature of all obesity. To reduce excess weight therefore, cut down on salt/sodium and salty foods. This reduces the sodium and water retention by excretion of excess salt and water in the urine. Before anyone, especially young people, embarks on bariatric surgery with all the risks and expense involved in surgery, they should be advised to cut down on sodium intake as a completely risk-free means of weight loss.

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Redesigned hospital gowns that preserve modesty are to be introduced into NHS hospitals in England by early 2011.

See BBC News item. Redesigned hospital gowns that preserve modesty and decency are to be introduced into NHS hospitals in England by early 2011. That will certainly remove a huge unnecessary stress from patients. Why on earth has it taken so long to take this measure?

I hope the new designs will be wider/looser in the sleeves to make it easier and less painful for trauma patients with splints/plaster casts on broken arms. I endured excruciating pain in the summer of 2007 in Northern General Hospital because the armholes were so needlessly and thoughtlessly tight.

India decides against GMO

See Telegraph article.

Prescription Drugs Can Seriously Damage Your Health

Adverse side-effects from prescription drugs are not at all rare. In fact, many drugs routinely cause very serious adverse side-effects, often very much more serious than the health problems for which they are taken. Only take them if they are really necessary and take them in the lowest effective dose.

Get informed about the harm drugs do. – For a start you could read about tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline here:

Amitriptyline

and about steroids like prednisolone or HRT here:

Steroids and HRT.

Reduce Risk of Steroid/Oestrogen/HRT-Induced Asthma by Lowering Salt Intake

Reduce Risk/Severity of Steroid/Oestrogen/HRT-Induced Asthma by Lowering Salt Intake. There is a common element here. Certain steroids, of which oestrogen is one, frequently cause weakened blood vessels/weight gain/sodium retention/water retention/sensitivity to salt, the result of which is that the veins become distended/swollen as blood volume increases, retaining extra sodium and water. Obviously this extra weight has many negative effects on health, e.g. tiredness from carrying extra weight around, increased appetite because of needing more energy to carry the extra weight and service the heavier body, greater demands on the heart and lungs and kidneys, etc.

You can reduce all of these problems by reducing your sodium intake. You will then excrete some of the excess sodium from your body, along with its accompanying water. You will lose weight swiftly and safely and you will find your breathing is easier and you will feel much better.

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Mysterious, murky use of UK taxpayers' money in 'climate-related' projects

Cui bono? See Christopher Booker's excellent article in The Telegraph.

Why all the secrecy and obfuscation? Science is being perverted and her acolytes corrupted. Why is taxpayers' money being used to distort facts and deceive?

Low levels of vitamin B6 may increase risk of heart disease.

Read article at nutraingredients-usa.com

Why don't public-health officials do more to reduce/remedy the widespread incidence of vitamin D deficiency?

Why don't public-health officials do more to remedy the widespread incidence of vitamin D deficiency? It would reduce ill-health and suffering so much.
Read article on the website of the Alliance for Natural Health USA

I recommend Neil MacGregor's "A History of the World in 100 Objects" on BBC Radio 4

This is an entrancing series of 15 minute episodes, each one about a significant artefact from the British Museum's collection. Mr MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, is an enthusiast who compels our interest by the quality of the story he tells and by the scholarship and insight he brings to bear to enrich our understanding of peoples and civilisations in the past. It is a revelatory experience. I had always considered that I'd had an excellent education but these programmes show it had some large and important gaps.

As well as being able to listen to the programmes themselves: A History of the World in 100 Objects, we can view photos of the objects, we can listen again on the iPlayer and we can download programmes from the series.

Amitriptyline, Constipation and All-Bran

Just an extra warning about the tricyclic anti-depressant, AMITRIPTYLINE:

As well as frequently causing weight gain/sodium retention/water retention/obesity as a side-effect, amitriptyline also causes constipation. Doctors sometimes suggest counteracting the constipation by eating All-Bran because of its high fibre content. - But you would be wise to avoid All-Bran, because it is high in sodium/salt. This high salt content will increase the weight gain from the amitriptyline and will increase all the other problems associated with the weight gain - higher blood pressure, swollen blood vessels, breast tenderness, etc. If you take amitriptyline it is advisable to lower your salt intake as much as you can in order to keep the weight gain to a minimum.

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

High blood levels of vitamin D are associated with a lower risk of colon cancer, study finds.

See report in sciencedaily.com. "The risk was cut by as much as 40% in people with the highest levels compared with those in the lowest."

Concern about growing incidence of dementia and its cost to UK economy

The number of people with dementia in the UK is higher than was previously thought, as BBC News reports here, and it is expected that before 2025 the number will exceed one million.

"Researchers from the University of Oxford compared the cost of caring for a person with dementia to the cost of dealing with cancer, heart disease or stroke - the three main causes of death in the UK.

As well as immediate health care expenses, they looked at the costs of social care, unpaid carers and productivity losses.

Every dementia patient, they found, costs the economy £27,647 each year - nearly five times more than a cancer patient, and eight times more than those with heart disease."

Obviously, with degenerative diseases, prevention is a far cheaper and better option than treatment/cure. Happily, the risk of developing any or all of these degenerative conditions - dementia, cancer, heart disease and stroke and many more - is significantly lowered by cutting down on salt and salty food, because obesity is a common causative factor in all of them, and obesity itself is reduced by eating less salt and salty food.

The need to rein in the continual increase in pharmaceutical drugs being prescribed by NHS doctors is ever more urgent, since scores of prescription drugs cause obesity by weakening the blood vessel walls and thus causing sensitivity to salt. The blood vessels become distended with sodium and water retention and the increased blood volume raises blood pressure as well as weight. Prescription drugs are the major cause of the most serious cases of obesity, namely morbid obesity. - Ironic, isn't it? - The NHS pays loadsamoney for prescription drugs, many of which do serious damage to the innocent patients who take them. (The 'guilty' drugs include steroids, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, and many more. It's best only to take pharmaceutical drugs if you really need them.)

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

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

Do vested interests influence views on harmful effects of added salt?

Read article on foodnavigator.com.

Professor Graham MacGregor calls for more awareness of salt intake

His concern is reported here. He said, "Making sure salt intake is kept to an absolute minimum is essential in the diets of babies and children as too much of it can prove fatal for a youngster." And he "went on to point out the wide range of illnesses which salt intake can contribute to, from kidney disease to stomach cancer and osteoporosis."

If only he would explain that eating salt and salty food is the primary cause of child obesity! And that the safe, easy way to reduce obesity is to reduce salt intake!

See Children and Obesity

Sodium in foods

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Associated health conditions

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

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Vitamin D supplements reduce falls

Giving people living in nursing facilities vitamin D can reduce the rate of falls, according to a new Cochrane Review.
Read article at physorg.com

Aerobic exercise is good for your brain

Aerobic exercises such as running or jogging have long been known to be good for the health, but now new research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has shown that it also stimulates the growth of new brain cells and improves the memory and ability to learn.
Read article at physorg.com