Meniere's Disease? Vertigo? Tinnitus? Feeling of pressure in the ear due to fluid build-up? You can reduce these problems by cutting down on salt.

Meniere's Disease? Vertigo (a form of dizziness where your surroundings appear to spin)? Tinnitus (an abnormal ringing noise inside the ear)? Feeling of pressure or fulness in the ear due to fluid build-up? Fluctuating hearing loss? These health problems are all caused or exacerbated by fluid retention, and fluid retention can easily be reduced by seriously cutting down on salt and salty food. So here's what to do:

Obviously try to give up sprinkling salt on your food. But also, as far as you can, eat fresh food you cook yourself, instead of processed foods, ready meals and takeaways, because these convenience foods are usually very high in salt. See Foods High and Low in Salt/Sodium. Other health benefits you will experience from eating less salt are that you will lose some excess weight, reduce high blood pressure, have more energy, and feel much better. You will also reduce your risk of stroke, diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart attack, most cancers, dementia and many other degenerative illnesses and conditions that are also related to fluid retention and salt sensitivity.

They have horrifying elder abuse in America as well as in the UK

They have horrifying elder abuse in America as well as in the UK. - Same causes: Failure to employ suitable people. Failure to investigate complaints. Useless regulatory systems. Failure to take appropriate measures to curb abuse when abuse is clear. Failure to take serious action in the criminal courts to punish the vile creatures who commit the atrocities. Failure to give a damn about the violated, vulnerable, fellow human beings who are the victims of such appalling assaults. The article for which I have given the link is about elder abuse in Minnesota. Maybe Michele Bachmann might be able to reduce these instances of inhumane treatment?

The trouble is I went to church on Easter Sunday

The trouble is I went to church on Easter Sunday. The nice young couple who used to live near me invited me to go and I was tempted by the prospect of meeting people. 'She' picked me up and took me there and brought me back afterwards, but it was really all too much for me. I was desperately tired and in excruciating pain - pain made so much more intense by the unforgiving hardness of the floor to walk and stand on, and the hardness of the pew to sit on. I've been in a really, really bad way since. - When they ask me again, as they surely will, I must regretfully decline and follow my own sensible advice to listen to what my body is telling me and not stick out the torture for the sake of politeness.

A moving story of injustice and the dangers of flawed judgments by expert witnesses

ProPublica investigates a moving story of injustice and the dangers of flawed judgments by expert witnesses. And the Seattle Times reports on the Twisted Ethics of an Expert Witness.

Circumcision: this morning on BBC Radio I heard a soundtrack of an infant circumcision being carried out

Circumcision: this morning on BBC Radio I heard a soundtrack of an infant circumcision being carried out - by a doctor, in England, on an ironing board, in the home of the baby's parents. If I remember correctly, the baby was 8 days old. The doctor does many of these operations, privately, as with this one. The baby's father held the baby still, with his legs apart. The doctor injected the baby with something to kill the pain; I think it was lignocaine. The baby screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed. The doctor reassured the parents that the baby was not in pain; the lignocaine made the operation painless.

It is too easy to say that another suffering person (or animal) is not in pain. That poor little soul was most certainly in pain: in agony and in terror. A baby in terrifying pain to satisfy the religious beliefs of his parents. - Welcome to this cruel world, Baby!

Silicone breast implants: surely they must be high on the list of operations to avoid

Silicone breast implants: surely they must be high on the list of operations to avoid? - BBC News reports today: "Silicone breast implants are relatively safe despite frequent complications and a small increased risk of the disease lymphoma, US drug regulators have said. In a new report, the Food and Drug Administration said the risks were well enough understood that prospective patients could make informed decisions. But it found as many as one in five breast augmentation patients had the implants removed within 10 years."

This information doesn't make internal sense, does it? 'Relatively safe' and 'frequent complications and a small increased risk of the disease lymphoma' cannot logically belong in the same description, can they? - Then to top it off we are told that 20% of the patients have the implants removed within ten years! - There has to be a helluva lot of dissatisfaction or serious problems/worries to cause someone to go through the trauma/pain/expense/risk of having further surgery on the breasts.

A woman can, after all, wear a padded bra if she feels the need when dressed. And if she thinks she will appear more desirable with surgically enlarged breasts when naked then, in my opinion, she would do well to consider whether the people who value her for her measurements rather than for 'herself' are worth bothering about. Certainly not worth taking risks with your health, your most precious possession.

Fat-free crisps/Olestra: just because fake-fat contains no calories doesn't mean it will help you to lose weight

Read this abcnews report. Fat-free crisps/Olestra: just because fake-fat contains no calories doesn't mean it will help you to lose weight. It doesn't look as though it's even safe! - Why would it be? - Do you think a car would run OK on pretend fuel? - Why should we imagine that a human being could run OK on pretend food? ""It goes against what you might think -- you remove calories from food and you'll lose weight, but at the end of the day the chemical manipulation of food leads to increased weight. We don't understand exactly why yet, but research continues to show this is true," ABC News Medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard said. "

Forget about counting calories! Lose weight safely and simply by eating less salt and salty food! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Just because a drug is legal, it doesn't mean it's safe

Just because a drug is legal, it doesn't mean it's safe, as is explained in this BBC News report. "The Home Office said: "So-called legal highs can be extremely dangerous and anyone taking them is playing Russian roulette with their health. "We are building one of the most robust systems in the world to tackle this worrying trend.""

Private Finance Initiative contracts: File on 4 investigation

They are not guiltless, the gulls who played their parts in setting up these PFI deals decades ago. I urge you to visit the BBC webpage about this and listen to the File on 4 programme using iPlayer. "The Treasury is failing to monitor the "excessive" profits being made by the sale of PFI equity in the so-called "secondary" market, the BBC is told." Were the guys at the Treasury too dimwitted to be trusted with taxpayers' money or were they suffering from those infamous 'conflicts of interest' that are as near as dammit to bribes? - I know what I think, and I expect it's what you think too.

Thinking of taking amitriptyline or other antidepressants? You may like to think again.

For a start, antidepressants don't work. - See Anti-depressants no better than dummy pills. For another thing, most antidepressants cause weight gain leading to overweight/obesity. And they have many other adverse common side-effects too. Have a read of my webpage about amitriptyline and other antidepressants. So, they don't work and they're harmful. It's a no brainer, isn't it? - A safe, drug-free way to feel less depressed is to cut down on salt and salty food. - Honestly. I'm not kidding. - Just try it! Go on!

Latest Salt Warning: Salty Sausages

Latest Salt Warning: Salty Sausages. - CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) researches the levels of salt in processed foods, and this report today in the Daily Mail focuses on the levels of salt in different brands of sausages. While no one, I suspect, would look to sausages to provide a healthy low salt meal, there is a surprisingly large variation in the salt levels of different brands, and the Daily Mail report carries a helpful chart which is far easier to read than the on-pack labels. Musk's Newmarket Sausages look very well worth avoiding if you want to keep your salt intake down!

Many people are sensitive to salt, and most of them do not know that they are. People who are sensitive to salt get troubled by fluid retention and usually have high blood pressure. These health problems and many more, including obesity, can be easily and safely reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. You can check out which foods are high in salt and which are not, by visiting my Sodium in Foods webpage. - Lose weight and improve your health by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You'll feel so much better!

Today is Bloomsday - June 16

Today is Bloomsday. On June 16th each year in Dublin and elsewhere many celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on June 16 in Dublin in 1904. The name comes from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses. BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week this week is a biography of James Joyce and if you wish you'll be able to catch up using iPlayer (available for 7 days).

I first encountered Ulysses when I was a student. I read about 250 pages understanding scarcely any of it. I decided to start the book again - and I'm glad I did because I caught up with it in the second reading, and looked up the words I didn't know. I found it such an incredible book - so inventive/innovative, so clever, so funny, so daring, so varied, so dazzling! For anyone who has not yet read the book, Leopold Bloom's June 16 1904 parallels the episodes of Odysseus/Ulysses' adventures in Homer's Odyssey. Bloom is Odysseus; his wife, Molly 'is' Penelope, Stephen Daedalus 'is' Telemachus... and the adventures with Calypso, the Lotus Eaters, Circe, and all the other phantasmagoria of the mythical story appear before us in its pages, transmuted by Joyce into one of the first stream-of-consciousness novels.

Great though it is, my favourite book by Joyce is Dubliners, a book of short stories, set, obviously, in Dublin, which was Joyce's native city. I think few could read Eveline without being moved by Eveline's sacrifice of her happiness. And few indeed could read The Dead without a host of emotions being evoked.

I was interested to learn in listening to the biography reading this week that Joyce had a fine singing voice, though it was foolish of me not to have realised this anyway.

You may think you don't eat much salt, but have you ever really looked at the nutrition info on the convenience foods you buy?

I think if you check the label information about salt/sodium in your food cupboards and in your fridge you may be shocked at how much salt you are actually eating, even though you very rarely sprinkle salt onto your food yourself. - The food manufacturers usually add a lot more salt to food than you yourself would add. If you were making up a breakfast cereal from scratch yourself, it would probably not even occur to you to add salt to the bowl of cereal, but most breakfast cereal manufacturers add a lot of salt to it. - It's a very cheap ingredient for one thing. I'm sure you can think of other reasons too.

Most health advisers these days recommend that adults should eat no more than 6g a day of salt. That's 2.4g of sodium a day, because to convert sodium content to salt content you need to multiply by 2.5. And for children, because of their smaller size, the recommendation per day is less, in proportion to their size. Salt is especially harmful for babies. Babies should not be given food that contains any added salt at all.

It's very easy to eat too much salt because so many modern foods contain high concentrations of it, for example most bread is high in salt; so is bacon, and cheese, and cornflakes, and processed meats. I invite you to visit my webpage that tells you more about which foods are high in salt and which are low in salt.

Did you know that for people who are sensitive to salt, salt intake can cause weight gain? - You may be sensitive to salt and not know it. Most people who are sensitive to salt do not know that they are. Cutting down on salt and salty food can be a very easy, very fast, completely safe way to lose weight. - What's not to like? - Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You have nothing to lose but your excess pounds!

Good News about the 'Duty of Candour'

You may remember I wrote last month about Will Powell and others campaigning for a Duty of Candour (Robbie's Law) with the aim of reducing medical errors and associated cover-ups. Some of you may have signed the petition for which I gave a link. - I am delighted to report a good outcome to this long campaign:

AvMA PRESS RELEASE For immediate release
GOVERNMENT APPLAUDED FOR INTRODUCING A "DUTY OF CANDOUR"

In its response to the NHS Future Forum report published today, the Government has finally committed itself to a Duty of Candour in healthcare - an enforceable duty to be open and honest with patients or their families when things go wrong. Although the detail of how the new duty will work is not yet known, it is described as a new contractual duty on healthcare providers. Additionally, the Government has said that it will give legal force to patients' rights in the NHS Constitution, which also covers being honest about mistakes.

Peter Walsh, Chief Executive of AvMA, said:
"This is great news - potentially the biggest breakthrough in patients' rights and patient safety since the creation of the NHS. The devil will be in the detail. The duty must be clearly set out in statute and organisations who fail to comply must be held to account. But we are extremely grateful to the Government for having listened. This new duty should be known as "Robbie's Law" in honour of Robbie Powell, the young boy who became the symbol of our campaign and whose family have done more than anyone to raise awareness for the need for change".

Blackdog has written more fully about this.

Choosing to die: presented by Terry Pratchett on BBC2

Choosing to die: This TV programme shown yesterday and presented by Sir Terry Pratchett was a sensitive and timely consideration of assisted suicide. It had special poignancy because of Sir Terry's own condition of early Alzheimer's Disease. The programme concentrated on giving an airing to the reasons why two men, unrelated except that they were suffering, each chose to go to Dignitas, in Zurich, to have paid-for assistance to die before their suffering became too great to bear. Peter Smedley had Motor Neurone Disease, an incurable and progressive condition. The other, Andrew Colgan, had Multiple Sclerosis, also incurable and progressive. The hour-long programme is available on iPlayer for another 6 days.

Sir Terry travelled to Zurich, and he and we, the viewers, were privileged to watch Mr Smedley's death, with his loving and beloved wife of forty years by his side, and it certainly looked to me a kindly death compared with the alternative of long-drawn-out suffering.

I have been dismayed and shocked, though not surprised, at the volume of criticism the programme has attracted. As ever, there are people who wilfully conflate the personal choice of death in order to put an end to pain/indignity/suffering and the decision by someone else that another person should die. A 'slippery slope' is always envisaged that must be guarded against, however much agony that causes the people who have to bear the unbearable. I was personally incensed by the former Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, saying on Radio 4 this morning that pain can always be controlled. - This is completely untrue and it is disgraceful that such untruths are perpetuated by Christians and others, especially doctors. It is all too easy for some to bear another's pain/trivialise it/offer simplistic solutions that do not work. "He jests at scars that never felt a wound."

New Study suggests Sunshine may help prevent Multiple Sclerosis

A new study in Australia suggests that obtaining Vitamin D through sun exposure may help prevent the onset of multiple sclerosis as well as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancer.
Read article on the Daily Nexus website (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

Well done, BBC London!

Well done, BBC London! - I applaud the investigative journalism I read of in this BBC News item. "A government minister has called on the chief executive of Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) to resign for "covering up" failings in the Baby Peter case. Liberal Democrat Lynne Featherstone accuses the hospital of withholding crucial information about the children's clinic where its locum doctor examined the toddler two days before he died.

It follows an investigation by BBC London which reveals the hospital failed to pass on to an official inquiry findings of a report into St Ann's clinic in Haringey, including the fact its senior doctor viewed it as "clinically risky". Home Office minister Ms Featherstone has said the government should investigate and called for Dr Jane Collins to step down. She said: "I'm disgusted. I cannot believe that anyone, let alone people in these very trusted positions, would hold back, withhold, doctor, cover-up information.""

It's a good job we have the BBC doing investigations - Panorama with its recent exposé of cruel maltreatment of vulnerable young adults in a privately-run hospital, and now this BBC London exposé of cover-up and dissembling by senior personnel at the children's hospital that served baby Peter Connelly so appallingly. Without the outside investigation by the BBC, the all-too-usual lesson would have been learnt, i.e. Make sure no one finds out the truth...)o:

Want to know more about infectious diseases? I recommend Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 programme

I recommend Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 programme "In Our Time" which I heard yesterday. Lord Bragg assembled experts: Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at University College London, Sir Roy Anderson, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London and Mark Pallen, Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of Birmingham and led a fascinating and informative discussion on the origins, history and survival mechanisms of the microbes/bacteria/viruses, etc. that sometimes afflict us with infections. There is an iPlayer facility on the webpage to listen to the programme.

And if you would like to reduce your own risk of succumbing to respiratory diseases, I recommend Dr Briffa's recent article about Vitamin D.

Harmful antipsychotic drugs are still being wrongly prescribed to dementia sufferers

BBC News reports that harmful antipsychotic drugs are still being widely and inappropriately prescribed to elderly dementia sufferers. "More than 50 health and social care organisations are calling for fresh action to cut the prescription of "chemical cosh" drugs. Around 180,000 people with dementia are thought to be prescribed antipsychotic drugs in the UK. But 80% of those prescriptions are said by critics to be inappropriate. Long-term use of the drugs can make dementia symptoms worse, reduce the ability to talk and walk and increase the risk of stroke and even death."

Average Drug Label lists 70 potential side-effects!

MSNBC.com reports that the average Drug Label lists 70 potential side-effects/drug reactions! - “The greatest number of side effects was found in antidepressants, antiviral medications and newer treatments for restless leg syndrome and Parkinson's disease. In general, medications typically used by psychiatrists and neurologists had the most complex labels, while drugs used by dermatologists and ophthalmologists had the least.” Read what Dr Mercola has to say about this report.

And Dr Mercola tells us that "according to the latest statistics from the Kaiser Health Foundation, the average American aged 19 to 64 now takes more than 11 prescription drugs!" - And all of them have their side-effects! And side-effects are potentiated when more than one drug is being taken! - No wonder that prescription drugs occasion many thousands of visits to emergency services and are the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States!

Clearly this is a deplorable state of affairs. On my own website, more people visit with concerns about amitriptyline and other antidepressants, than about any other drug or family of drugs. And since antidepressants work no better than dummy pills and have lots of undesirable side-effects, most commonly weight gain/fluid retention/sodium retention, the massive prescribing of these particular harmful prescription drugs could and should be stopped ASAP, with great benefit to health and massive saving of money.

The Woman on the Bus was crying

The woman on the bus, years ago, was crying. I sat down beside her; it was the only vacant seat left. - "I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know why I'm crying. I'm not sad." - "My guess is you're not getting much sleep." - "You're right. How did you know?" she asked. - "Lack of sleep is the main reason people find themselves crying," I said. "They can't help it. It's a physical thing, not emotional. Don't let them tell you you're depressed."

A bit of good news about Calpol, the version of paracetamol that is, unfortunately, given to children.

A bit of good news about Calpol, the version of paracetamol that is, unfortunately, given to children. - See BBC News report. - The bit of good news is that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency says there will be more specific dosing instructions for this product, with narrowed age brackets. This will probably reduce some of the dangerous and damaging over-prescribing of paracetamol to toddlers that has been going on.

"Dr June Raine, the MHRA's director of vigilance and risk management of medicines, insisted the change was not because of safety concerns.

"The change is to ensure children get the most optimal dose of paracetamol suitable for their age.

"This updated dosing advice will clarify the doses, making it easier for parents and carers to know exactly how much paracetamol they should give their children.""

I'm sorry, Dr Raine, that you " insisted the change was not because of safety concerns". - It damn well ought to have been for safety concerns! I regard giving painkillers to little children as harmful, risk-laden folly.

Apart from the very real and present physical harm that can result, the practice of medicating every little pain and symptom in a child's life can produce an adult who will carry on the habit, looking for health and well-being in pills and potions, instead of in good food, good nutrition, good friends, fresh air, exercise and all the other good, drug-free benisons you, Dear Reader, would yourself list.

Here's an excellent article that gives information about the harmful ingredients that are added to Calpol as well as the paracetamol itself. And here's another such article.

Do you think a Burglars' Protection Society would be a good idea?

Do you think a Burglars' Protection Society would be a good idea? - I'll explain what I mean: a Burglars' Protection Society would offer insurance to burglars so that if they got arrested for burgling, the insurance would pay the legal fees for their defence, enabling them to have top, highly-paid lawyers working for them, particularly skilled and experienced in all the ins and outs of winning such cases. And there would be inhouse salaried lawyers constantly on hand for legal advice. As well as this, the insurance would also cover any fine the Court imposed and would cover any damages awarded to the burglars' victims in a civil court action. The burglars would pay a yearly subscription of course.

Well I'm pretty confident that you can see many flaws in the idea of a Burglars' Protection Society and that you find the very idea ridiculous, and I'd agree with you about this. - But stay with me for a while because I have been setting up an analogy to put before you. - I suggest there are parallels to be drawn between the hypothetical Burglars' Protection Society and the actual medical protection societies that offer legal protection to physicians and surgeons.

Doctors pay subscriptions to their various Medical Protection Societies and in return receive ongoing top notch legal advice, and in the event of being sued in a civil action for professional negligence or arrested for criminal negligence and appearing in a criminal court, they have the very sharpest, most experienced defence lawyers money can buy. In the distinctly rare instances in which the court has the courage to find them guilty and fines them an amount of money or orders them to pay damages/compensation to their victim/s, this money too would come out of their insurance.

Now the main reason you and I find the idea of a Burglars' Protection Society ridiculous is that it would obviously result in many more burglaries, many more innocent citizens suffering loss and damage to their possessions and damage to their mental, emotional and financial well-being (and sometimes their physical well-being too), because with the insurance paying the burglars' penalties, there is less deterrent to burgling. - I invite you to see the same flaw with medical protection societies' insurance, i.e. when the doctor is found guilty, the monetary fine or the damages/compensation comes out of the well-filled coffers of the insurance company, and not out of the pocket or bank account of the negligent doctor. - So there is very little to deter doctors from being negligent. - Indeed there is so little to deter medical negligence that it is constantly on the increase.

Whoever thought up the nifty idea of medics insuring themselves against any effective deterrents to incompetence or negligence, you can be sure it wasn't a patient! The insurance is, I believe, 'justified' by explaining that it is in order to guarantee that the victims will receive any damages the courts may decide upon, but, as people who use their brains, you and I both know that this is not the case, don't we? - And wouldn't we all rather reduce the chance of being harmed by doctors' incompetence/negligence/malpractice than increase the chance of being awarded some money if and when we do indeed get harmed by them?

Also note that while the worst effect a guilty verdict would have on a doctor's wallet might be an increase in insurance premiums, by contrast, the doctor's victims are soon to be denied any scrap of legal aid (as well as no help from the Complaints Procedures).

Ugandan farmers reject GM seed

Farmers have strongly rejected the use of genetically modified (GM) seeds in Uganda, saying that their introduction is detrimental to the indigenous seed.
Read article in the Daily Monitor (Uganda)

Panorama: the shocking abuse of patients with autism and learning difficulties

Panorama: most people in the UK will have learned of and been horrified by the scandalous and criminal abuse of young patients in a British 'hospital' that purported to be a suitable residence for the care of these patients, some autistic, some with learning difficulties. In fact, it was for them effectively a locked prison in which they were physically and mentally abused by some of the 'carers'/gaolers, led by a bully who took pleasure in taunting and assaulting them. Most people in this country are aware of widespread, inhuman treatment of elderly patients in some hospitals and care homes, but the special extra horror that Panorama has revealed to us this week is this secret abuse of young, vulnerable patients.

But for Panorama's investigative journalist embedded in the hospital/prison and his video record of the assaults, the chilling probability is that those young victims would have spent the rest of their lives being tortured by warped 'carers' such as were seen in the programme last Monday. Because the shameful accompanying facts of the matter are that the abuse was repeatedly reported to the Care Quality Commission by a whistle-blower who had formerly worked at the hospital, but his evidence was ignored. - Ignored! - The poor victims have no voice themselves because tragically their complaints are routinely and automatically discounted as it is assumed that what they say cannot be relied on to be true.

Panorama has saved them from the continuance of great and unnecessary suffering: Panorama - not the managers of the hospital, not the CEO of the parent company, not - Perish the thought! - the indolent, unconcerned and negligent apology for a regulatory body, the Care Quality Commission! - And herein, in my opinion, is the most scary fact of all: that the highly-paid regulators were as useless to these tortured young people as a chocolate teapot...