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.

UK's cheap pineapples inflict great harm and suffering and environmental damage in Costa Rica

Read the shocking details in this Guardian report by Felicity Lawrence. "UK supermarket price wars are wrecking lives in the developing world, according to a new campaign launched tomorrow by Consumers International (CI). Recent deep cuts in the price of pineapples on the British high street have inflicted unacceptable damage on those living and working on plantations in Costa Rica, the consumer group says."

Following the tragic death of her daughter, Alex, while cycling, Cynthia Barlow succeeded in getting CEMEX to fit safety features to their lorries.

Read here how "Up to 2004, at least one person a year was either killed or suffered life-changing injuries from collisions with CEMEX trucks. Since then, with the safety features installed, there have been no deaths or injuries."

If CEMEX had not taken Cynthia's story and ideas seriously, no doubt there would have been other mothers, other families grieving the loss of a loved one in what tended to be considered “accidents”, but which were really preventable. Well done to CEMEX. And very well done to Cynthia. Cynthia now chairs Roadpeace, the national charity for road crash victims.