Women's average shoe size has gone up from a 5 to a 6 in the past five years

The Telegraph reports that women's feet are getting bigger and that in the last 5 years women's average shoe size has risen from 5 to 6. This is being attributed to the 'obesity epidemic'.

My personal experience is that my shoe size used to be a very narrow 5½ and it is now a wide 7½. This is not, of course, because my feet have grown; it is because they have become very swollen: swollen with the fluid retention that has resulted from my being inappropriately prescribed HRT years ago and negligently not warned to avoid eating salt and salty food while taking those tablets. The fluid retention is easy to see because it shows itself in the grossly distended, intensely painful and extremely delicate veins that disfigure my feet, making them blue/purple, rather than the white they were formerly.

If your feet have become swollen and your shoe size is now bigger, you can reduce the swelling and the pain/aching considerably by avoiding salt and salty food. As well as improving the state of your feet, avoiding salt will benefit your health in many other ways too, including reducing your excess weight and lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Misguided WHO researchers mistakenly conclude that greed is the explanation for the 'obesity epidemic'

The Telegraph reports that greed, not laziness is the explanation for the 'obesity epidemic', but in fact the explanation lies in neither greed nor laziness, nor a combination of the two. The researchers studied data from the US from the 1970s and the early 2000s, and found that the diet of children contained 350 more calories, while adult diets rose by 500 calories.

But calorie excess is not the cause of obesity. - The relevant changes from the 1970s to the early 2000s are a bigger salt intake, mainly from convenience foods and ready meals, a smaller intake of fruit and vegetables, and a huge increase in the consumption of prescription drugs, so many of which cause sodium and water retention/salt sensitivity/fluid retention/water weight/weight gain.

You do not need to reduce calorie intake or to take more exercise in order to lose weight. Obesity is not caused by over-eating. - You know that already if you think about it. - You see lots of slim people eating like there's no tomorrow and they don't put weight on, so clearly eating too much is not the cause of the 'obesity epidemic'.

Obesity is caused by a combination of salt sensitivity and salt intake. - Only people who are sensitive to salt become fat/overweight/obese. This happens because for them, salt is very harmful: it holds excess water in their bodies. This is often called fluid retention or oedema. The veins swell and the skin gets thinner as it stretches to accommodate the swollen veins.

Reducing calories does not help with these problems. It is irrelevant to them. - Reducing salt is what helps. - By eating less salt and salty food you can easily and swiftly lose some of the excess water and thus lose weight - a lot of weight, since water is heavy.

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, 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

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

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

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

The modern obesity epidemic has its roots in the dramatic growth of the human brain and body over two million years ago, misguided scientists claim.

AAAS: Modern obesity epidemic can be traced back two million years
article in the Telegraph

Yes, folks. - It's the usual dangerously misleading claptrap about calories, this time with the emphasis on modern sedentary lifestyles compared with the more active lives of the hunter-gatherers long ago.

Extracts:

"Higher calorie, nutritionally dense diets became necessary to fuel the energy demands of the exceptionally large human brain and help switch from a foraging to "hunter-gatherer" existence.

But the transition from an extremely active subsistence to a modern, sedentary, lifestyle has created energy imbalances that have played a major role in obesity.

According to Professor William Leonard, an anthropologist at Northwestern University, activity patterns must get every bit as much attention as consumption of unhealthy foods in any attempt to reverse the modern-day obesity malaise.

Professor Leonard, who discussed his work during the 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) science meeting, said two million years ago diets had to become richer to provide the nutrition to support the rapid evolutionary increases in both the brain and body sizes of our ancestors."

"The imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure today, Professor Leonard concludes, is the root cause of obesity in the industrialized world."

No, Professor Leonard, the roots of the modern obesity epidemic are much more recent than 2,000,000 years ago. - More like round about 1950, say, which I believe is roughly when doctors started prescribing steroids despite not knowing or understanding that they caused massive weight gain, caused in turn by fluid retention, caused in turn by sodium retention, all of which resulted from the effect of the prescribed steroids on the blood vessels. I don't know when tricyclic antidepressants were first prescribed, but I'd guess it was round about the same time - maybe about a decade later. They had the same damaging effect on the veins and were - and still are - very widely prescribed. Nor do I know exactly when the anti-psychotics started to be prescribed - the anti-psychotics that also caused morbid obesity. And likewise the oestrogen-containing hormone replacement drugs - but I guess that that too was in the second half of the twentieth century, the period in which doctors, hand in hand with the baleful pharmaceutical industry, came to destroy the health of far more patients than they have ever helped. All of these factors were compounded by an unprincipled food industry that ladled vast amounts of salt into inferior processed foods which were bought by consumers who looked for convenience food as more and more women were going out to work and so looking to save time in meal preparation. - To cap it all, the dieting industry started to drop its insidious poison of the need to eat less, exercise more, message that has harmed so many millions of innocent victims.

Obesity is not caused by eating fat or sugar or too many calories. Nor is it caused by inactivity/laziness. It is caused by weakened veins leading to fluid retention in the bloodstream, i.e. sodium retention and water/fluid retention, and thereby to excess weight/obesity.

The way to reduce/prevent obesity is to avoid salt and salty food, and to avoid prescription drugs as far as possible because these are a major cause of the the blood vessel damage that precedes the salt sensitivity/fluid retention.

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

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

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

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

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

Anne Diamond criticises the stigmatisation of fat people, whom she says are treated worse than drunks and junkies in society.

Anne Diamond: fat people get worse treatment than drunks and junkies in society
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The former breakfast TV host, who once underwent radical surgery in her battle to lose weight, claimed obesity in Britain has reached crisis levels so quickly that the public do not understand it and stigmatise the seriously overweight.

She said the cost of treating illnesses linked to obesity, such as diabetes and heart disease, will bankrupt the National Health Service unless action is taken to help people lose weight.

But she added that she feared a likely Conservative government will only blame fat people for their size and not help tackle the problems of poor diet and lack of exercise that lie behind it.

Miss Diamond, 54, who made her name presenting TV-AM in the 1980s, returned to television in 2002 on Celebrity Big Brother having put on 5 stones.

She weighed almost 15st when she appeared on ITV's Celebrity Fit Club in 2006, but during filming admitted she had undergone surgery to help her lose weight, having a gastric band fitted to reduce the amount of food she could eat.

Miss Diamond is now writing a book about the global obesity epidemic and chaired a discussion at the National Obesity Forum's annual conference in London on Tuesday.

New research suggests three quarters of British adults are already overweight or obese, 10 per cent more than previously feared, with the NHS spending £4.2bn on treating diseases linked to weight last year.

Miss Diamond said: "Obesity is one of those things that is hugely stigmatised in society, but the more we talk about it, the more we get it into the open.

"We are much more sympathetic to credit card addicts, alcoholics and drug addicts than the obese."

If anyone should be stigmatised about obesity, it should not be the fat people themselves; it should be the medical profession, nutritionists and dieticians, and the rest of the malign dieting industry plus the manufacturers of salt-laden convenience 'food'. - They, especially the doctors, have caused the increase in the incidence and severity of obesity by proulgating the fraudulent claim that 'overeating' is the cause of obesity and that eating less food/fewer calories/less fat and taking more exercise will reduce obesity. - It doesn't and it won't!

Giving up dieting, reducing salt intake and eating plenty of good food including plenty of fruit and (unsalted) vegetables and dairy calcium in milk and/or low fat yoghurt (not cheese, because it's salty) will ensure safe loss of excess weight.

Obesity is caused by salt sensitivity leading to fluid retention and thus to excess weight. There are various causes of salt sensitivity, the most dangerous of which is the reckless prescribing of certain groups of drugs by doctors who have not familiarised themselves with the side-effects of some of the powerful drugs they prescribe - drugs like steroids, anti-depressants and anti-psychotics and certain pain-killers and other drugs.

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

prescribed steroids and HRT

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

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

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I am very much opposed to the idea that fat children 'should be taken from parents and given stomach-stapling surgery'.

Exclusive: Fat children 'should be taken from parents and given stomach-stapling surgery'
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Tam Fry, a member of the National Obesity Forum's board, will tell a key conference that young people who are overfed by their parents should be treated as victims of abuse, just as malnourished children are.

He will argue that authorities should take obese children away from their families and into care, and that those whose health is at risk should then undergo stomach-stapling operations.

Mr Fry said parents should be allowed to visit their overweight children in hospital, but they must first be "frisked" to ensure they are not trying to smuggle them junk food or fizzy drinks.

He admits his ideas are radical and that he will likely lose a debate on whether child obesity should be treated as a form of abuse, to be held at the forum's annual conference on Tuesday.

But Mr Fry insists Britain's obesity epidemic poses such a risk to public health, with the overweight likely to suffer from heart disease and diabetes, that drastic action must be taken."

This guy is so dangerously ignorant of the facts about weight gain and weight loss, especially with regard to child obesity, that I believe he poses a threat to the health of overweight children and should at the very least be removed from the board of the National Obesity Forum. - If his suggestion were to be acted upon, this would be very harmful to the children chosen to endure the stomach-stapling operations.

Here are some FACTS about obesity:

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

Fat people will be offered cash incentives to lose weight and take regular exercise under a radical Government strategy to tackle the obesity epidemic

Obesity crisis: get paid to lose weight

Extracts from Telegraph report:

"Fat people will be offered cash incentives to lose weight and take regular exercise under a radical Government strategy announced yesterday to tackle the obesity epidemic.

Leader: Battle of the bulge Your view: Should fat people be paid to lose weight? Employers will be encouraged to set up competitions with money, vouchers and other rewards for people who give up junk food in favour of healthy eating and living. Those losing the most weight would earn the biggest prizes. Ministers believe that by giving people incentives to do something about their weight now, it will help avoid larger costs associated with treating cancer, heart disease and diabetes caused by obesity. Similar schemes have worked well in America and British medical insurance companies already offer discounts for people who go to the gym regularly. Experts say that most of the population will be obese by 2050 unless urgent action is taken and the associated rise in ill health would cost the NHS £50 billion a year. The Government wants Britain to be the first major nation to reverse the rising tide of obesity and said it would focus on reducing within 12 years the proportion of children who are overweight back to the 2000 level of 26 per cent. At present, 30 per cent of children are obese or overweight." "The Government is investing £372 million over three years to implement the strategy and annual progress reports will be published. Dr David Haslam, the clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said the incentives scheme smacked of "desperation". There was little evidence that payments would work and it would be difficult to check whether people were regularly taking exercise. A recent analysis of nine research studies which used financial incentives found there was no effect on weight after 12 months. Aberdeen University's Health Services Research Unit said eating more fruit and vegetables was more effective than paying for weight loss." The trouble with offering cash incentives to lose weight is that it will encourage people to eat less food/diet, and dieting does not reduce weight; dieting usually causes weight gain and is very harmful to health. The best way to reduce obesity is to tell the truth about how it is caused and how to reduce it safely. - Dieting (reducing calorie intake) does not reduce obesity because obesity is not caused by overeating. Obesity is caused by fluid retention in people who are vulnerable/sensitive to salt. These people can lose weight easily and fast by avoiding salt and salty food. - They can lose excess weight even more rapidly by eating plenty of fruit and vegetables because these foods contain a lot of potassium,and potassium helps to remove excess salt from the body - i.e. potassium displaces sodium in the body. - See vulnerable groups

Professor Julian Le Grand, chair of Health England, says a completely fresh approach is required to reverse the epidemic of obesity...

Unveiled: radical prescription for our health crisis

Extract from the article in the Independent:

"A radical plan to persuade people to stop smoking, take more exercise and change their diets was proposed last night by a leading Government adviser.

As new figures were published yesterday showing that England tops the European league as the fattest nation in the EU, Professor Julian Le Grand, chair of Health England and a former senior Downing Street aide to Tony Blair, said a completely fresh approach was required by Government to reverse the epidemic of obesity and to tackle similar ills caused by "excess consumption".

In a speech to the Royal Statistical Society last night, Professor Le Grand said instead of requiring people to make healthy choices – by giving up smoking, taking more exercise and eating less salt – policies should be framed so the healthy option is automatic and people have to choose deliberately to depart from it.

Among his suggestions are a proposal for a smoking permit, which smokers would have to produce when buying cigarettes, an "exercise hour" to be provided by all large companies for their employees and a ban on salt in processed food.

The idea, dubbed "libertarian paternalism", reverses the traditional government approach that requires individuals to opt in to healthy schemes. Instead, they would have to opt out to make the unhealthy choice, by buying a smoking permit, choosing not to participate in the exercise hour or adding salt at the table."

Let us consider the professor's suggestion to reduce obesity, namely participation in an exercise hour. - Exercise can be beneficial in many ways, but it has no effect in reducing obesity. - Exercise has nothing to do with preventing obesity - Forget about it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating or by inactivity. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and harmful.

So you will realise that I am enthusiastically in favour of a ban on salt in processed food. - This is what steroid victims and other salt-sensitive people desperately need.

However, Prof Le Grand, apparently, is advocating the salt ban in order to reduce incidence of high blood pressure - which it would - and not informing people that salt reduction is the fastest, safest, most reliable way of losing excess weight. - If the salt ban were to be implemented, obesity would be reduced, but presumably the reduction would falsely be attributed to the exercise hour!...)o:

But people desperately need to be told the TRUTH!

Also, Professor Le Grand, an excellent way to reduce the incidence of morbid obesity would be to curb the reckless prescribing habits of doctors. - See above.

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

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

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

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

My help is free.

Obesity is 'fuelling cancer timebomb' says Cancer Research UK spokesperson who fails to realise that obesity is caused by fluid retention...

Obesity 'fuelling cancer timebomb' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Obese people are at a greater risk of getting cancers of the womb, gall bladder and kidney and could also increase the risk of prostate and pancreatic cancers. "The biological link between obesity and cancer is complicated but maintaining a healthy body weight will reduce cancer risk.

"We need to continue raising awareness of the dangers of obesity and offer information to help people lose those extra pounds."

Dr Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK, said: "This research adds to the evidence that the UK is in the grip of an obesity epidemic.

"We know that high body weight increases the risk of a number of cancers and it is important we get this message to as many people as possible. A healthy diet with plenty of fibre, fruit and vegetables as well as regular exercise can help people to lose weight and reduce their risk of cancer.""

If only people were to be told the truth! - Obesity is the major factor in most cancers, and tragically the wrong information/advice has been given by doctors for decades and continues to be given. - Obesity is not caused by overeating; it is caused by fluid retention - and fluid retention can easily, rapidly and safely be reduced by eating less salt/sodium. - Dieting is unnecessary for losing excess weight; indeed, dieting is counterproductive and actually HARMFUL.

Because doctors have been telling people and continue to tell people that to lose weight you have to eat less/eat fewer calories, overweight people keep trying to do this. The result is that they are eating insufficient food and so as well as the excess weight being harmful in itself, their inadequate food intake reduces their immunity still further and so the bad advice causes a snowball of increasingly poor health is the doctors' patients/victims.

IF YOU ARE OBESE, PLEASE GIVE UP 'SLIMMING'! - AVOID EATING SALT OR SALTY FOOD AND EAT GOOD HEALTHY MEALS WITH PLENTY OF FRUIT AND FRESH VEGETABLES. - THIS WILL REDUCE THE FLUID RETENTION AND SO YOU WILL LOSE EXCESS FLUID AND THEREFORE LOSE EXCESS WEIGHT.

IF YOU HAVE GOOD REASON TO BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE FAT RETENTION TOO, THEN DO NOT EAT A LOW FAT DIET (HARMFUL AND KNOWN TO LEAD TO MANY CASES OF DEPRESSION). - TO REDUCE FAT RETENTION, YOU NEED TO INCREASE YOUR INTAKE OF CALCIUM, MAGNESIUM AND VITAMIN D. - See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/search/label/calcium and BBC webpage about calcium from The Truth About Food series of programmes

And see Fat Retention

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

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (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

Associated health conditions and

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

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

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

Britain: one in three primary-school leavers is overweight, - The cause of obesity in children is misinformation by the 'experts'.

One in three primary-school leavers overweight - Telegraph

Extracts:

1) "One in three children leaving primary school in some parts of Britain are overweight, it has emerged.

New figures released by the Department of Health have also shown that one quarter of children are already obese when they start school before the age of five.

The statistics form part of a nationwide survey of children’s weight which is currently being carried out by the Government.

Figures released by 10 primary care trusts under the Freedom of Information Act have prompted experts to fear that the obesity epidemic has been grossly underestimated.

The findings suggest the Government may not meet its target of stopping the increase in obesity among under-11s by 2010. "

2) "The research comes as a poll for high-street supermarket Sainsbury’s found that weight-conscious teenage girls are not eating enough calories for their age group.

It revealed just over a third of 13 to 18-year-old girls are on diets or have dieted recently and 45 per cent eat less than 1,200 calories per day, which is below the recommended intake.

Only 14 per cent of the teenaged boys surveyed admitted to dieting but a quarter consumed fewer than 800 calories per day - as little as one third of their recommended daily amount."

The second extract provides the explanation for this increasing problem of obesity - namely the continued incorrect advice that 'experts' give about how to reduce obesity. The advice is based on the assumption - unsupported by scientific evidence - that obesity is caused by overeating and can be remedied by eating less, i.e. dieting. - This is catastrophically harmful advice because, as you have just read, it leads to obese people eating insufficient food - particularly damaging to children.

In fact, obesity is caused not by overeating, but by fluid retention, and fluid retention is exacerbated by 'slimming'/dieting...

To reduce fluid retention, and thereby reduce excess weight/obesity, it is necessary to cut down on salt/sodium intake. Eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables makes weight loss faster, because these are foods rich in potassium, and potassium helps to remove sodium and the water that accompanies it from the body - by way of the urine.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (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

Obesity in children: - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

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

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

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

Obese women who become pregnant are more likely to give birth to babies with deformities

Birth defects more common with fat mothers - Telegraph

Extract:

"Obese women who become pregnant are more likely to give birth to babies with deformities, new research has shown.

Seven of the 16 most common birth defects occurred in babies born to women who were obese or overweight before they conceived, according to an American study published yesterday.

The results are worrying as Britain’s obesity epidemic continues to grow. One quarter of women are currently classed as obese and this is expected to rise over the next five years.

Overweight and obese women are known to be at risk of infertility, complications during pregnancy and high blood pressure as well as chronic diseases such as diabetes.

A team at the University of Texas, in Houston, interviewed 10,249 women in eight states whose babies were born with birth defects between 1997 and 2002.

The women were contacted between six weeks and 24 months after the baby’s birth and asked for their height and weight before pregnancy and compared them with 4,065 women who had babies without birth defects during the same time period.

Obese women were more likely to have babies suffering from spina bifida, heart defects, malformations connected to the genitals and bowels, missing toes, fingers, arms or legs, a hole in a diaphragm, navel defects and a condition called gastroschisis where organs protrude through the abdominal wall.

The study was published in the August issue of Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
The authors of the research paper said the mechanism which causes the defects to occur more in children of obese women is unknown.

I suspect that one of the causes of the birth defects is likely to be that the obese mother was 'dieting'/'slimming' to try to lose weight or limit weight gain during the pregnancy and that the foetus therefore received inadequate nutrition. - Pregnant women should be told the truth - that the safe, reliable way to limit weight gain during pregnancy is to keep salt intake to a minimum and forget about dieting! - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/pregnant_mothers.html

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

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(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

Associated health conditions and

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

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

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

Britain's pet cats and dogs are becoming more and more obese - because they are being fed food containing salt.

Britain's fat cats face obesity crisis - Telegraph

Extract:

"A scientific study has found that increasing numbers of pet cats are being diagnosed with diabetes, with those that are overweight being three times more likely to suffer from the condition.

The research, based on 14,000 cats, found that one cat in 230 in the UK is now diabetic. Being male, neutered, overweight and not taking enough exercise - at least three of which apply to a large percentage of the human population - are the main risk factors.

The study by the University of Edinburgh is the first attempt to quantify diabetes in cats and suggests that the growth of the condition in pets is mirroring the increase in diabetes in people.

The research on feline health was released as it emerged that the NHS is spending nearly £1 million a week on slimming pills in a bid to control Britain's obesity epidemic, which is linked to an increase in human diabetes.

Diabetes is also on the increase in dogs, with figures suggesting that 40 per cent of dogs in the UK are overweight, and 25 per cent are obese.

Actually, if you have an overweight pet cat or dog it is because they have been eating food containing added salt - possibly part of one of your own meals - maybe a takeaway. (Takeaways are usually high in salt.) This is bad for them. Give them unsalted food instead. They will lose weight, have more energy and live longer.

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

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(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

Associated health conditions

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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - wider implications

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

Doctors intend to suggest that fat children be put into care. They would do better to correct the misinformation they have been giving for decades!

Doctors: 'Put obese children into care' - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"A motion to be put forward at the British Medical Association's (BMA) annual conference later this month will also say that social workers should treat childhood obesity as neglect in cases where parents refuse to listen to the advice of healthcare experts.

The recommendation comes amid growing concern about Britain's obesity epidemic and the long-term health risks. British children are among the most overweight in the world. In the UK, there are around one million obese children under 16. It is thought that as many as one fifth of boys and one third of girls will be obese by 2020. The rise in obesity has led to an increase in childhood diabetes and warnings that children are putting themselves at risk of future heart disease, osteoarthritis and some cancers."

Child obesity is directly caused by the long failure of health professionals and other 'experts' to give the right information and advice about obesity. Their insistence that obesity is caused by overeating has led to overweight and obese people trying to lose weight by dieting/'slimming' and calorie counting/restriction, and to parents trying to get their children to lose weight in this way too.

But obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in children results from eating too much salt and salty food. In adults obesity is frequently the result of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.

Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

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.)

Deny surgery to obese people, says poll.

Deny surgery to obese, says poll - Guardian

This would be very wrong - very, very unjust - because obesity is not caused by overeating!

Here is an extract from my 'political' page. - I urge you to read ALL the page, right to the end. - You will then have a good idea of where the responsibility/blame lies for the present 'obesity epidemic'; it lies squarely with the professions who are extremely highly paid precisely to prevent this sort of health catastrophe - medics, politicians, etc.

"Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article 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 fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

Salt produces obesity only in vulnerable people, i.e.

1. People whose veins are weak because of immaturity (babies, children).

2. People whose veins are weak because of steroids, HRT, amitriptyline or certain other prescribed drugs, too readily prescribed, often in very high dose.

3. People whose natural hormone levels are abnormally high (pregnant women, PMT sufferers).

4. 'Slimmers' - People whose blood vessel walls have been weakened by 'slimming' - i.e. eating insufficient food.

Most medics do not understand what sodium retention is, and most are unaware that tablets they prescribe are causing this extremely damaging condition. They tend to blame obesity, mistakenly, on overeating. Similarly, most nutritionists and dieticians do not realise that obese people need to lose excess water to lose weight, and that excess water held in the body will not be affected by cutting calories. There can scarcely be anyone who has not heard hundreds of times over the message that overweight people should cut calories and cut down on fat and sugar. They have been conditioned to believe this. They do not need to be told it another thousand times.The advice from the nutritionists is WRONG. It does not work! This nation HAS reduced its intake of fat and sugar for some years now. With what result? Ever increasing obesity levels! Obese people need to concentrate on reducing salt, not calories.

Since the summer of 2001 I have been writing to MPs, to medical people, to journalists, to nutritionists and others, urging that suitable warnings be printed on packs of the tablets so that the destruction of more lives can be prevented. I have written hundreds of letters. The warning label should say something like:

DO NOT EAT SALT, OR FOODS CONTAINING SALT, WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION, BECAUSE IT COULD CAUSE FLUID RETENTION RESULTING IN MASSIVE WEIGHT GAIN.

To the best of my knowledge, no action has been taken. Nor is the public being told the truth about weight gain and weight loss. The best way to lose weight is to concentrate on eating less sodium and more potassium. (A book, written a few years ago by a hospital professor, about the health dangers of salt, makes no mention of steroid victims and specifically states, incorrectly, that HRT does not cause a salt problem!)"

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Soaring obesity rates have lumbered Britain with a "cancer time bomb", warns an expert.

Britain's obesity epidemic has created 'cancer time bomb' - Independent

Extract:

"Soaring obesity rates have lumbered Britain with a "cancer time bomb" which, combined with an ageing population, will cause a massive increase in cases unless urgent action is taken, an expert has warned.

Research has shown up to 40 per cent of cancers, particularly hormone-sensitive types such as breast and endometrial cancer (affecting the womb lining), can be prevented by adopting a healthy diet and taking regular exercise, said Dr Greg Martin, science and research manager at the World Cancer Research Fund. Obesity was also associated with cancer of the oesophagus and bowel, said Dr Martin.

"There has been plenty of attention recently on the problems of obesity, but a lot of people still do not realise how closely obesity is linked to cancer," he said. "People getting fatter will lead to an increase in the number of cancer cases as surely as night follows day.

Dr Martin, who was speaking at the start of his charity's Cancer Prevention Week, added: "You also have to add into the mix that cancer is largely an older person's disease, and the UK has an ageing population. So if you have an ageing population that is getting more obese, there could be really serious consequences in terms of the number of people getting cancer if people do not act now. It's a cancer time bomb."

Although the biological mechanics connecting obesity and cancer were far from clear, he said, adipose tissue, which makes up the rolls of fat that form around the belly, was not inert but produced oestrogen. The hormone is known to fuel certain cancers. For people with oesophagus cancer, which is especially deadly, obesity may increase acid reflux which in turn raises the risk of cancer."

It is correct that there is a connection between obesity and several cancers, and it is correct that this is not widely realised. - What is even less widely realised though, even by this expert, Dr Martin, is that obesity is caused by fluid retention and that this can be lessened by reducing sodium intake and increasing potassium intake, which means, in practical terms, eating less salt and salty food, and eating more fruit and fresh vegetables. Exercise does not help to reduce obesity, nor does portion control.

Lose weight (and reduce your risk of developing cancer) 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.)

Misguided scientists create hazardous 'anti-obesity' infant formula

Scientists create 'anti-obesity' infant formula - The Independent

I am absolutely incensed about this! - Not content with ruining the health of the rest of the populace, obesity 'experts' are proposing to compromise babies' health before they have even got started on their lives...)o:

There is a dangerous presumption that somehow obesity will continue to increase despite what anyone does. - That is nonsense, of course. - The cause of increasing obesity is the dangerously flawed advice given by the 'experts'. - The assumption that keeps on being made is that obesity is caused by overeating, but it is not. - It is caused by fluid retention. - Fluid retention (and therefore obesity) is caused in children by eating salt or salty food. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html - When adults who previously were slim suddenly put on a lot of weight (i.e. fluid retention) it is usually caused by taking prescribed medication, because so many prescribed drugs have the side-effects of sodium and water retention. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

There has never been any evidence to support the overeating theory of obesity causation, nor to support the calorie reduction/increase exercise theory of obesity reduction. They are both untested and untrue.

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOT TO CUT DOWN ON CALORIES IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT. - IT DOES NOT WORK. - SINCE OBESITY IS NOT CAUSED BY OVEREATING, IT IS NOT REVERSED BY UNDEREATING.

Slimming/dieting is unnecessary, ineffective and is ALWAYS harmful - often dangerously so.

The safe, easy, reliable, rapid way to lose excess weight is to stop eating salt/sodium and salty food and to eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk and my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection Read about the politics, the medical negligence and the baleful pharmaceutical industry that have caused the obesity epidemic - page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html (You need to read the whole page.)
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients in Britain

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients - The Independent

Extracts:

"Britain's obesity epidemic is forcing the NHS to introduce specially adapted ambulances for overweight patients.

Nearly a quarter of hospitals have brought in vehicles which have strengthened stretchers, hoists and suspension, new figures show. More than a third of those surveyed said they were planning to introduce the ambulances, so they could cope with call-outs from the obese.

The NHS spends an estimated £7bn every year on obesity- or bariatric-related disorders. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI) goes over 30. Nearly a quarter of British adults are now overweight, which has created huge problems for ambulance crews."

"How Britain's obesity problem tips the scales

BIGGER COFFINS: Funeral directors are being obliged to order larger-sized coffins from the United States to take expanding Britons on their final journey.

LARGER FURNACES: Cematoriums are installing new furnaces to cater for coffins up to 44in wide.

FAIRGROUND RIDES: Designers are installing larger seats and altering the normal way of strapping passengers in by their shoulders. Instead, they are fastened in around the waist. G Force, in Tamworth, has a larger seat at the rear of each six-seater train.

NEW AMBULANCE TROLLEYS: Wider and reinforced to cope with extra weight. They also feature clamps that fix to the ambulance floor. "

Of course there would not be any of these problems if people had been given the facts about obesity. - Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful. 'Slimming'/dieting almost always results in weight gain because it usually causes increased fluid retention. There has never been any scientific, reproducible evidence to support the theory that eating fewer calories reduces obesity. PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR CALORIE INTAKE DO NOT LOSE WEIGHT. - PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR SALT/SODIUM INTAKE DO LOSE WEIGHT - EASILY AND RAPIDLY.

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

Schoolchildren are becoming so fat that special outsize school uniforms are having to be stocked by school outfitters.

Obesity epidemic feeds demand for 52-inch school uniform - Guardian

Extracts:

"Britain's largest specialist schoolwear retailer has expanded its range of outsized uniforms for sale "off the peg" in response to growing demand from parents who are struggling to find clothes to fit their overweight children.

In what health campaigners say is the latest evidence of the growing obesity epidemic affecting children and teenagers, the National Schoolwear Centres chain is announcing today that it is to offer blazers with 52-inch chests, trousers with 42-inch waists and shirts with 17.5-inch collars. The company said it believes they are the biggest sizes in the school uniform market in the UK.

The garments are designed for boys, although the retailer says it is already offering blouses to fit a 48-inch bust in its existing range for girls at secondary school.

The retailer's managing director, Graham Michelli, said: "The overall trend is that ... boys and girls are getting bigger and girls' legs are getting longer. At the start of the school year one of our stores sold uniforms to two 11-year-old boys. One was fitted with a 26-inch blazer and the other a 48-inch blazer. That is the sort of range we are seeing. One of our stores was even asked for a pair of trousers with a 48-inch waist for a 13-year-old girl.""

"The campaign group Sustain, which incorporates the Children's Food Campaign, said the new sizing was a reflection of the state of youngsters' health. One child in three in the UK is overweight or clinically obese, and that figure could rise to one in two by 2020 if children are not encouraged to eat and live more healthily. Childhood obesity can lead to diabetes, bowel cancer and heart disease."

The overwhelming problem is the continued false assumption that obesity is caused by overeating and that it can be reduced by calorie restriction. - But obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in children is usually caused by eating a salty diet. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. Avoid convenience meals/processed food because these are usually very high in salt. Try to cook from scratch with fresh ingredients. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective, counter-productive and often extremely harmful.

Since this Guardian article specifically mentions the campaign group Sustain, which incorporates the Children's Food Campaign, I would like to point out that I emailed Charlie Powell of Sustain two years ago, explaining that obesity is not lessened by dieting, but only by reducing salt intake, and I included evidence and weblinks to support what I wrote and he wrote back: "Many thanks for your e-mail. It all sounds most interesting and I will endeavour to follow up the links you have provided." - Clearly he did not bother to do this or we would not be in the appalling situation of children becoming more and more obese.

Last year I rang up Kath Dalmeny of Sustain, since clearly nothing at all had been done about the info I had sent Charlie Powell. I also emailed her more than once. - She emailed me back, emphasising that Sustain informs people about the need to reduce salt intake. - BUT THAT, OF COURSE, IS NOT THE POINT! - Every Tom, Dick and Harry is advising people to eat less salt! - The point is that people are NOT being told that THE WAY TO REDUCE OBESITY IS TO EAT LESS SALT and eat plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. - And, crucially they are not being told to give up calorie counting and dieting, because these actually have the effect of increasing fluid retention and therefore increasing obesity and serious illness.

I consider it very remiss of Charlie Powell and Kath Dalmeny not to have done anything useful or effective with the vitally important information I sent them.

The trouble is, misguided health campaigners like Charlie and Kath are frightened of getting into trouble if they go against the conventional wisdom. - If only they were frightened of harming the innocent victims of the conventional wisdom!

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

Salt consumption in Britain is falling but still 50 per cent higher than advised, claims Food Standards Agency.

Salt consumption falling but still 50 per cent higher than advised

Extract:

"Salt consumption in Britain has dropped but is still on average 50 per cent higher than the recommended amount, new research claims. Tests on 1,287 adults showed their average salt intake was 9g per day compared to 9.5g when tests were done in 2001.

But consumption is still higher than the Government's national target of 6g per day, the Food Standards Agency said.

The urinary sodium tests carried out in 2005-06 showed men consumed an average 10.2g of salt per day compared to 11g in 2001.

Women's average intake was less at 7.6g per day - down from 8.1g in 2005/06.

The results follow a Food Standards Agency campaign encouraging people to cut their salt intake. The campaign warns that 75 per cent of salt eaten in Britain is found in processed food."

It is scandalous that successive governments and their negligent Departments of Health delayed until 2003 warning British citizens that salt intake could be too high and could cause serious illness and early death. AND THEY ARE STILL NOT TELLING PEOPLE THAT TO LOSE EXCESS WEIGHT THEY NEED TO REDUCE SALT/SODIUM INTAKE AND NOT REDUCE CALORIES, BECAUSE OBESITY IS CAUSED BY FLUID RETENTION, NOT BY EATING TOO MANY CALORIES. - I certainly do not believe that all the expensive government advisors are so ill-informed that they do not know this to be the case. I believe that the reason we are being constantly exhorted to eat less salt is in the pious hope that obesity will thereby be reduced - but will be attributed to an increase in exercise, about which we are also being constantly exhorted. 'Experts'on eating problems have a big eating problem of their own; they do not relish having to eat their own words. - They are hoping to get away with it - get away with not being forced to admit that their calorie and overeating claims of the past are not only needless and ineffective, but are also counter-productive - more likely to cause weight gain than weight loss in obese people, because eating insufficient calories causes increased water retention in the blood stream. And of course the ones who know the truth are hoping desperately to hide the truth so that they do not get sued by the thousands and thousands of innocent people who have been greatly harmed by the misinformation the 'experts' have been giving for many years. - If the truth were to be told - that to lose excess weight the calorie myth must be abandoned and the obese person needs to cut down seriously on salt/sodium intake - then obese people could concentrate on eating less sodium instead of wasting any more of their lives on the dangerous course of eating fewer calories than the body needs. - And they would rapidly and safely lose weight - without hunger, without drugs, without strenuous exercise and without fail.

1 Nutritional Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease 1994 This COMA report considered the evidence for a causal relationship between the consumption of sodium and both the level of blood pressure and the rise in blood pressure with age. A statement in the report said it recommended: "A reduction in the average intake of common salt (sodium chloride) by the adult population from the current level of about 9g/day to about 6g/day. There needs to be a gradual reduction in the amount of sodium from salt added to processed food and food manufacturers, caterers, and individuals should explore and grasp the opportunity for reducing the sodium content of foods and meals." The Chief Medical Officer at that time, accepted all the recommendations in this COMA report except for the recommendation to reduce salt. The reason for this is not clear but is believed to be pressure from industry. Department of Health (1994), "Nutritional Aspects of Cardiovascular Disease", HMSO, London.

2 Dietary Reference Values 1991 This COMA report considered that: "Current sodium intakes are needlessly high and we caution against any trend towards increased intakes". It set its recommended intake for salt, as with all the other recommended intakes for nutrients, on the basis of the balance of risks and benefits, which might practically be expected to occur. The RNI for a particular population group is defined as the amount of the nutrient that is enough or more than enough for about 97% of the people in this group. The Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI) for sodium for adults was set at 1600 mg/day. This is equivalent to approximately 4g of salt, if all the sodium was present in the diet as sodium chloride. This is considerably less than the present intake of 9-12g. Department of Health (1991), "Dietary Reference values for food, energy and nutrients for the United Kingdom", HMSO, London

I wonder why The Chief Medical Officer in the early '90s apparently did nothing to implement the recommendation of a maximum of 4g of salt a day, and apparently gave greater consideration to the desires of the food industry than to the health of the nation, and I wonder how many deaths and how much terrible suffering he was, therefore, personally responsible for? And I wonder why his successors in the post were so tardy in taking effective steps to give warnings about salt consumption? - Political considerations? - What though, could be more important in this matter than the health of the members of public - the electorate - the tax-payers, in fact?

I consider the failure to put pressure on food manufacturers and caterers to reduce the sodium content of foods and meals until recent times to be a dereliction of duty of successive political administrations and health departments. - I remember buying McCance and Widdowson's 'Composition of Foods' in the late '90s, at considerable cost, in order to discover how much sodium there was in food. There was no way consumers could get this information from the pack.

Here's a serious suggestion for the government: - put a punitive tax on table salt.

For fuller discussion on the political considerations that have caused the obesity epidemic you need to read the whole of page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html

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

Surge in obesity among children adds to Britain's growing band of diabetics. The Calorie Myth needs to be abandoned. Children need to eat less salt.

Surge in obesity among children adds to Britain's growing band of diabetics

Extract:

"The burden of diabetes is growing much faster than health planners anticipated because of the epidemic in obesity in Western countries, scientists say today."

"Diabetes can lead to many serious health problems, including heart disease, blindness and amputations. It occurs when the body cannot properly utilise sugar to provide energy. This results from either a lack of insulin — the hormone that controls sugar use — or because the effects of insulin are no longer felt."

The reasons for the surge in obesity - and therefore of diabetes and its attendant serious health problems - are explored on my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and may be briefly summarised as the failure to publicise the true causes of obesity and the best ways to reduce it.

Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in turn is usually caused by sodium retention. There is no evidence to support the calorie theory about obesity. - And reducing calories does not reduce obesity. - Reducing salt intake DOES reduce obesity. Excessive salt intake is the main cause of child obesity. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 British Medical Journal article 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 fat.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

UK Doctors to face regular competency tests and General Medical Council stripped of some powers. Also Nick Clegg, Andy Burnham, complacency...

Doctors to face regular competency tests

Extract:

"Doctors are to face checks every five years to check that they are competent to continue working, under new plans announced today.

The Government is also to strip the doctors' regulatory body of a key powers, in a move likely to anger medical professionals.

The General Medical Council will lose the right to adjudicate in fitness to practise cases when complaints are made against doctors.

The GMC will still investigate concerns about doctors but the final decision on what happens to a doctor is likely to pass to an independent tribunal.

The Government's White Paper is part of a response to the Shipman inquiry, which was heavily critical of the GMC. "

Well it's certainly high time for the GMC to be stripped of its adjudication of complaints about doctors since it has always so scandalously favoured doctors over complainants. But I question the procedures that will comprise the competency tests. - Consider the following:

The high prices of new drugs is claimed to be necessary to pay the huge costs involved in the research and testing that by law has to precede the launch of a new drug. - But this 'justification' rings very hollow to me, a steroid victim.

The British National Formulary is a reference book doctors are assumed to use to look up important information about the drugs they prescribe. - For well over 20 years certainly, and maybe even longer, sodium retention has been among the side-effects listed for the drug that made me a steroid victim. - Because of this side-effect of sodium retention, all patients who are prescribed this medication, or any other of the many medications that result in sodium retention, should be warned not to eat salt or food containing added salt/sodium while taking the medication. - I was not given this VITAL warning and I do not know of even ONE person who was given this warning! - In consequence there are scores of thousands of steroid victims in this country - made needlessly and gravely ill and disabled because they were not given a simple piece of information, which surely, is the very reason that for all the expensive testing... - What use, then, all the testing? all the vast expense? all the laboratory animals that suffered to provide information for the researchers? - ARE ANY OF THE MANY, MANY DOCTORS WHO PRESCRIBE STEROIDS (INCLUDING PREDNISOLONE AND HRT) ET AL IN THIS NEGLIGENT WAY COMPETENT TO PRACTISE? - NOT IN MY OPINION. - THEY ARE CERTAINLY NOT COMPETENT TO PRESCRIBE OR TO MONITOR THESE DRUGS. - The drug companies themselves must have long known of the need to avoid salt while taking these medications and must also have soon become aware, as the numbers of steroid victims grew, that doctors were not giving the warnings, but there was no warning on the packs of drugs with which I was issued...

When is this scandalous situation going to be remedied? - My MP, Nick Clegg, wrote to the Secretary of State for Health about it last year but received only complacency in the response from Andy Burnham, and no promise of any action. See Individuals and agencies who are responsible for the 'Obesity Epidemic' - I hope you will read the whole page.