SALT: it doesn't just kill slugs, it can kill people too

Some people kill slugs by sprinkling salt onto them. This draws the water out of their very watery bodies and produces a sort of slug sludge. It seems a peculiarly cruel death. The internet can supply more kindly ways to divest oneself of unwelcome slugs.

 

When salt kills people it is usually a more long-drawn-out death. Instead of the salt drawing water out of its victim's body as with the slug, it draws more water into the body. Salt's victims tend to be babies/small children, who are vulnerable to salt because of the immaturity of their organs and their blood vessels, or pregnant women, made vulnerable to salt by hormone changes in their bodies, or other groups made sensitive to salt, most notably by taking commonly prescribed drugs, including antidepressants and steroids. All of these groups, because of excess fluid retention (extra salt and water, mainly held in the bloodstream), tend to become overweight/obese/morbidly obese, with the health consequences attendant on that, including high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, cancer (especially stomach cancer), arthritis, insomnia, depression, impaired kidney function, liver problems, type 2 diabetes and many more, as well as emotional distress because of the stigmatising attitudes provoked by obesity in modern-day societies.

 

You could lose weight and reduce your risk of suffering from the unpleasant, unhealthy consequences of salt sensitivity/vulnerability, of early disability and premature death, by simply eating less salt and salty food. - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel sooo much better! - and, dare I say it? - less sluggish!

Antidepressants in pregnancy 'increase risk of babies suffering heart problems'

Women who take common antidepressants - such as Prozac - early in their pregnancy can significantly increase their chances of having children with heart problems, according to a new study. Expectant mothers who took Prozac were four times as likely as other women to have a baby with a heart abnormality and those who took Seroxat were three times as likely.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

Poor maternity care is causing deaths in Britain

Report: poor care in half of maternity deaths

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Half of all women who die during pregnancy or after giving birth have been victims of poor quality care from doctors and midwives, a report claims.

Sub-standard care contributed to 149 of the 295 maternity deaths between 2003 and 2005, according to the study by the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (Cemach).

In many cases, mothers could have been saved if common medical conditions had been recognised earlier, it is alleged. Some women died because doctors and midwives were ignorant of "basic clinical knowledge and skills".

The review of deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, entitled Saving Mothers' Lives, also finds that many women were not seen by a senior consultant at all, even those who were in a critical care unit.

It calls for better communication between staff to cut the number of avoidable deaths. Many consultations are now carried out over the telephone, meaning problems can be overlooked, it suggests.

The report, published today, says: "The apparent lack of basic clinical knowledge and skills among some doctors, midwives and other health professionals, senior or junior, was one of the leading causes of potentially avoidable mortality."

"Gwyneth Lewis, the editor of the report, said: "Some women coming in for maternity care had arms so big that the blood pressure band couldn't go around them, and operation tables couldn't take their weight."

For the first time, cardiac problems are identified as the biggest single cause of death in maternity.

Around 16 per cent of those who died had heart disease, which is often associated with obesity. As a result of the report's findings, Cemach is to launch a three-year national inquiry into obesity in pregnancy."

I could save them their three-year national inquiry into obesity in pregnancy! - Here is the explanation:

Obesity and pregnancy

Pregnant women are at increased risk from obesity because of hormone changes during pregnancy - e.g. higher oestrogen levels. - Oestrogen is not just a sex hormone; it is a steroid, and in common with many other steroids, when its concentration in the blood increases, the walls of the veins relax and become more vulnerable to the incursion of extra salt/sodium and its accompanying water. - This extra water is, of course, a form of fluid retention: obesity is caused by fluid retention brought about by sodium/salt sensitivity. These pregnant women have become more sensitive to salt/sodium. This is why dieting does not work. The truth should be told - namely that to lose weight it is necessary to give up dieting and concentrate on reducing salt intake. To avoid unhealthy weight gain and many other health problems, it is very important that pregnant mothers keep their salt intake low.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

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.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

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

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

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

Women 'get worse heart treatment than men': medical sexism. - Women reporting the same symptoms as men are taken less seriously by doctors.

Extract from a Telegraph health article which appeared on 14th November 2007 but for which I can no longer find a link:

"Women with heart problems are less likely to receive as good treatment and examinations as men, a study has found.

Fewer female heart patients receive effective medication to improve their health and reduce their chances of dying from their condition, an analysis of data collected by the Healthcare Commission shows.

Women admitted to hospital with heart failure were also significantly less likely to have received the most effective tests to diagnose their condition."

This has long been known... - In 1973 researchers, Lennane and Lennane, wrote a seminal paper on medical sexism - about how when women reported physical symptoms of potentially serious health conditions they were less likely to be physically examined, tested and treated, than men reporting the same symptoms, because doctors had a stereotypical negative view of women patients and tended to regard women's symptoms as psychogenic, rather than physical. There have been many similar research research findings since then, and some medical schools have special elements - lectures from psychologists - in their courses to try to eliminate this sexism, which is so damaging to women patients. - Unfortunately the sexism continues...)o: - It is even present in this Healthcare Commission report itself! since they seem to want to lay the responsibility on the women patients, rather than on the doctors who are actually responsible: "Researchers, whose study is published in the journal Heart, are not sure why women with heart problems appear to be having a raw deal, but said part of the reason might be differences in the way they describe their symptoms to GPs." 

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!

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.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods andhttp://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.

"Pfizer suffers lethal blow to $800m 'wonder drug' trials"

Pfizer suffers lethal blow to $800m 'wonder drug' trials

Extract from the article:

"Pfizer has been forced to abruptly scrap trials of its most important new drug because too many patients taking it were dying.

Shares in the world's largest drug company plunged more than 10pc in early trading, following the news that patients in clinical trials taking Torcetrapib were more likely to die or develop serious heart problems than those taking other medicines."

Sadly, there are other drugs made by Pfizer, that do great damage to patients, but are not withdrawn and are far too often inappropriately prescribed. I am thinking in particular of prednisolone, a corticosteroid. Like other corticosteroids and like HRT, it can, and frequently does, cause sodium retention and water retention, and many, many thousands - possibly millions - of innocent patients have been harmed by taking such medications without appropriate monitoring and often in far too high a dose and for too long a period of time. The blame for this does not lie wholly the drug companies, of course. - Negligent doctors who do not check/understand the side-effects of drugs and do not monitor patients' progress while taking the medication share the responsibility for the harm done to their patients. - See Many doctors are failing their patients when they prescribe drugs.

For further information about this, read examples of steroid victims and some of my other blog entries. Also see my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/