If your skin is red and you're not a tomato

If your skin is red and you're not a tomato or a beetroot, it's very likely that you are sensitive to salt. I say this because salt sensitivity tends to cause skin-thinning and swollen veins. Then because of the thin skin, the veins are effectively nearer to the skin's surface, and their red/purple/blue colour makes the skin appear flushed. 

 

I suggest that you try cutting down on salt and salty food. If you take up my suggestion, your high colour will be reduced and you will feel ever so much better! You will lose some excess weight/fluid retention, lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of stroke, heart attack, cancer and diabetes, increase your energy and pep up your mental alertness. - "Bring it on!" I hear you cry! - And here's an added inducement to desalinate your diet: read "The Fat Man with the Red Face."

Was it the medication prescribed by your doctor that made you fat?

Maybe you've sometimes wondered whether it was the medication prescribed by your doctor that made you fat. Check out the prescription drugs mentioned on this page and on this. If you conclude that your weight gain may have been caused by one or more or these drugs, then you can easily reduce that excess weight by cutting down on salt and salty food. - Why not try it? It is a safe, fast, effective way to lose weight, lower high blood pressure, reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, of stroke, of heart attack and heart disease, reduce your risk of most cancers and of depression, cognitive decline/dementia/senility, frailty, falls and fractures, and a host of allied health problems. - What's not to like? - You will feel sooo much better!

Eat less salt to reduce your risk of cancer

Big 'news' this week is that eating less salt lowers your risk of developing cancer, especially cancer of the stomach. See this BBC News report, where you will read: "Cutting back on salty foods such as bacon, bread and breakfast cereals may reduce people's risk of developing stomach cancer, according to the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF)." I put inverted commas round the word 'news' because my website has been informing people of this fact for many years and so it is hardly news. The usual establishment health message about salt reduction is that reducing salt intake reduces your risk of stroke, heart disease and heart attacks, and that it lowers high blood pressure, and while this health message is undoubtedly correct, it omits a multitude of other health benefits that result from eating less salt, most amazingly omitting the information that cutting salt intake is the fastest, safest way to lose excess weight. - In view of all the publicity about the prevalence and dangers of obesity, it's a real shame (I use the word advisedly) that this weight reduction information is not being promulgated by the public health brigade. Indeed, they almost seem to go out of their way to keep us in the dark about it. (The explanation for the weight loss is that salt reduction reduces the fluid retention which contributes to all overweight. Read about the groups of people that are particularly vulnerable to salt.)

Cancer specialists warn about the high costs of excessive unproved cancer treatments

BBC News informs us that a "group of 37 leading experts from around the world say the burden of cancer is growing and becoming a major financial issue... Lead author Prof Richard Sullivan told the BBC: "It's not just pharmaceuticals. Biomarkers, imaging and surgery are all getting through with very low levels of evidence - the hurdles are set too low." The report calls for a proper evaluation of the relative merits of conventional surgery and less invasive robotic surgery."

This is a view that certainly finds favour with me. With the incidence of cancer so much on the increase, it is more and more clear that cancer prevention is of paramount importance. Most people know that smoking is the main cause of lung cancer. As well as cigarette smoke, many other chemicals, including household chemicals, are carcinogenic. Also radiation, so avoid scans unless they are strictly necessary. - See http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Cancer-What-Causes-Cancer?.htm And be wary of artificial sweeteners. And do you know that breast feeding reduces cancer risk in mothers? There is a great deal more information about cancer prevention on this page.

Added later: I forgot to draw attention once again to the need for a legal ban on food manufacturers adding transfats to so many of their products. Transfats have been linked to breast cancer risk, as well as to many other health problems. So these cancer experts may like to consider pressing Andrew Lansley, the 'Health' Secretary, to get transfats banned pdq, instead of leaving it to the food industry to go at their own, s-l-o-w, voluntary rate of reduction.

We Need More Vitamin D

Vitamin D has emerged as the nutrient of the decade. Numerous studies have found benefits for nearly 100 types of health conditions. These health benefits include reduced risk of bone diseases, many types of cancer, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes mellitus, bacterial and viral infectious diseases, and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, neurological conditions such as cognitive dysfunction, and improved athletic and physical performance.
Read news release at orthomolecular.org

Cancer threat from man-made chemicals

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

Increasing selenium intake may reduce bladder cancer risk

According to results of a study published in the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, selenium intake is associated with decreased risk of bladder cancer. "The lower the levels of selenium, the higher the risk of developing bladder cancer," said lead researcher Núria Malats, M.D., Ph.D., leader of the Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Group, Human Cancer Genetics Program, Spanish National Cancer Research Center.
Read article at physorg.com

Government should recommend organic foods

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) is calling on the US Government to revise national dietary guidelines to encourage people seeking to minimize their exposure to toxic chemicals to choose organic. The call comes just weeks after a report from the influential President’s Cancer Panel said that eating foods grown without pesticides was one practical way to reduce environmental cancer risk. The report added that exposure to antibiotics and growth hormones could be similarly “minimized by eating free-range meat raised without these medications.”
Read article in Natural Products magazine (UK)

Is the perfume you use harming you? harming your children? harming other people who come near to you?

See Dr Mercola's article about the Fragrance Industry.

Study suggests use of cleaning sprays, air fresheners and mould removers may increase risk of breast cancer

Based on retrospective self-reporting of use of household cleaning chemicals, higher use appeared to be linked to the doubling of breast cancer risk. Many such products contain endocrine-disrupting chemicals linked to breast cancer in laboratory experiments on rodents. Read article in the Independent.

High levels of Vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine appear to cut the risk of lung cancer by half

BBC News reports. "People with plenty of a B-vitamin in their blood appear to be at a reduced risk of lung cancer, even if they smoke." "High levels of Vitamin B6 and the amino acid methionine cut the risk by half, a study of 400,000 people suggested."

Methionine is found in protein like meat, fish and nuts, and vitamin B6 is found in meat, nuts, vegetables and bananas. Obviously, giving up smoking (or never starting to smoke) is the best way to reduce risk of lung cancer, but these two featured nutrients are associated with lowered risk for both smokers and non-smokers.

Certain prescription drugs deplete the body of vitamin B6. I experienced this when I was a teenager, taking drugs to treat pulmonary TB. It became totally impossible for me to sleep. I could not sleep AT ALL. The drug called isoniazid had depleted my body of vitamin B6. No-one told me that my intractable insomnia was the consequence of severe lack of vitamin B6 (aka pyridoxine). The doctors probably did not know at that time, when the drugs were pretty new, that there was this side-effect. If I had been prescribed pyridoxine tablets to make up for the deficiency I would not have suffered those terrible years of insomnia, which brought in its train many other problems.

Drugs commonly used for heart failure and high blood pressure problems are linked to increased risk of cancer

BBC News reports that researchers have found a slightly increased risk of cancer associated with taking angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs). As usual, people are being advised not to stop taking the drugs, but to seek advice from their GP if they are concerned about this research finding.

There is a completely safe, drug-free way to reduce high blood pressure, reduce heart problems and lower your risk of stroke, diabetes and most cancers, and that is to cut down on salt and salty food. Cutting down on salt/sodium also reduces excess weight.

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

IOM presses FDA to set new federal standards for the amount of salt that food manufacturers and restaurants be allowed to add to their products

This WebMD article reports that the Institute of Medicine is calling for the FDA to set mandatory standards for safe levels of sodium, using their existing authority to regulate salt as a food additive.

Not before time! Most people have surely encountered the message that lowering sodium intake can reduce high blood pressure, as well as reducing the risk of stroke, heart failure, heart attack, kidney failure, type 2 diabetes and many other degenerative diseases. Unfortunately most people do not know that lowering sodium intake, i.e. cutting down on salt and salty food, is also the fastest, safest and simplest way to lose excess weight.

The trouble is that there are many vested interests seeking to keep consumers salt intake high. It suits food manufacturers to add more salt than is healthy for a number of reasons. Among these reasons: salt is a very cheap ingredient, and it is an ingredient that allows more water to be added (thus adding salt and water to ham enables salt and water to be sold at the same price as ham). Salt is also addictive for many people and so this keeps up the sales of salty products. And in the case of fast food restaurants, high salt levels produce increased thirst and therefore increased sale of drinks and enhanced profits.

Until mandatory salt restriction in foodstuffs comes about, we need to police our own intake of added salt and avoid it as far as we can.

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

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

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

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

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

Vitamin D supplementation is linked with reduced risk of cancer including breast cancer

See Dr Briffa's blogpost about this.

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

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

BPA (Bisphenol A) in plastic bottles 'poisoning us'

A leading toxicology scientist believes tighter regulations are needed to prevent chemicals leaking into the human body from common plastic drink bottles and packaging. University of Canterbury professor of toxicology Professor Ian Shaw says it is crucially important to decrease the amount of the chemical BPA from New Zealanders' diets. BPA, which leaches from food and drink containers into the body, has consistently been found in overseas tests in blood, urine and even the amniotic fluid protecting a foetus. Such chemicals are linked to health problems that can include reduced sperm count in men, early puberty in girls and increased incidence of breast and testicular cancers - and countries such as the US, the UK and Canada have become alert to potential risks.
Read article in the New Zealand Herald

The Guardian reports that less than half of doctors and nurses in the NHS intend to have the swine flu vaccine.

The Guardian reports that less than half of doctors and nurses in the NHS are intending to have the swine flu vaccine. "There are growing signs that large numbers of workers will shun the jabs because they see them as unnecessary and potentially unsafe."

See Might Swine Flu Vaccine increase Risk of Cancer?
Concerns about safety of swine flu vaccine
Drug firms dodge swine flu liability

You can boost your immunity to infection by cutting down on salt and salty food. Good nutrition has no adverse side-effects.

Health expert warns of cancer danger from some anti-ageing creams.

Health expert warns of cancer danger from some anti-ageing creams. See Telegraph report. "Many products claiming to rid skin of wrinkles and fine lines actually strip away the protective top layer and leave it vulnerable to sun damage and dangerous toxins, according to Dr Sam Epstein, chairman of the US Cancer Prevention Coalition."

Reducing salt and salty food reduces the risk of developing cancer.

Cancer patients recover faster from gastrointestinal surgery if given liquid food directly into the intestine

BBC News reports on a study that finds that cancer patients recover faster from gastrointestinal surgery if given liquid food directly into the intestine. It appears that, amazingly, it had previously been thought nutrition hampered patients' recovery!! - I wonder who was the half-witted originator of this strange idea? "Oesophageal, stomach and pancreatic cancer patients usually fast, or are nil by mouth, for up to 10 days after gastrointestinal surgery." It must have harmed many thousands of cancer patients over the years...)o:

Anyway, thankfully, they have now found "that patients given nutrition directly into the intestine through a feeding tube recovered around three days faster than those who were fasted and only given basic hydration." And there are also fewer complications, so as well as saving patients needless extra suffering, costs to the NHS will be lower and there will be fewer bed shortages.

You can lower your risk of cancer by cutting down on salt and salty food.

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 damage 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! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

More studies link HRT treatment to increased risk from cancer.

The Telegraph reports on greater cancer risk for women taking HRT.


Reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver damage 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! 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

prescribed steroids and HRT

Associated health conditions

Vulnerable groups

Sodium in foods