Bruce Ponder, cancer scientist, explains about his dogged research to find out how the disease strikes

The top cancer scientist tells Polly Curtis about his dogged research to find out how the disease strikes - Guardian

Extract:

"The Taichi Arch - Gate of Health, a large bronze by the Chinese master Ju Ming, stands outside the entrance to the newly opened Li Ka Shing Centre, home of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute on the Cambridge biomedical campus, next to Addenbrooke's Hospital. A symbol of the graceful coordination of tai chi is appropriate for the new facility, which brings together scientists and doctors from a broad spectrum of disciplines to unravel the many mysteries of how cancer kills.

Ponder, the new institute's director, is professor and head of the university's department of oncology, and co-director of two other centres on the campus - a cancer research institute and a centre for epidemiological studies of diseases. Until the new centre was ready, he moved between the different centres, at one point working from four offices. Today, he has consolidated what almost amounts to an empire. The aim is to find out how cancer works and, of course, a cure. His angle is the genetics of cancer: how we inherit a risk of developing different cancers.

Ponder's career started in medicine as a doctor, swinging from clinical work to laboratory work - unusual for the time. He had to fight for funding, as well as to be taken seriously as both a doctor and a scientist.

After general medicine and a PhD in molecular biology, he trained for a year in oncology in the US. "With cancer you have the whole spectrum of medicine," he says. "From some poor old guy with cancer of the oesophagus, who would like to die at home and how can you support him and palliate him, to cancer being the outstanding problem in biology. What cancer is, I think, is a breakdown in the way tissues are organised ... If one understood the basic biology, you might understand something about treatments.""

I believe that prevention is far, far, far more important than treatment. And since it is known that obesity is the main contributory factor in the causation of most cancers, reducing obesity and reducing the numbers of people who become obese should be the chief aims of cancer research, in my opinion. - To this end, the truth - the facts - about how obesity comes about should be told, and similarly the correct information should be given about how to reduce obesity. - It needs to be widely publicised that slimming/dieting is unnecessary, ineffective, often harmful and sometimes downright dangerous, because obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention. There has never been any evidence to support the theory that overeating is the of obesity, nor to support the calorie reduction theory of how to reduce obesity. - Indeed these theories have never even been subjected to scientific test!

In children the fluid retention is usually caused by eating meals that contain too much salt/sodium. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

In adults, the fluid retention - and therefore obesity - is usually caused either by pregnancy, because the rise in the levels of certain hormones causes salt sensitivity - or by taking prescription drugs too readily, and often recklessly, prescribed and inadequately monitored if at all, by doctors insufficiently aware of their potential for grave harm. - These drugs include steroids, HRT, tricyclic anti-depressants like amitriptyline and many other drugs.

Obesity can be easily and swiftly reduced by abandoning the calorie myth and instead reducing sodium intake and eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit. - This, then, is the most effective, easiest, and cheapest possible way to reduce the incidence of most cancers.

It is also, clearly, vitally important that the reckless prescribing of drugs, especially in high dose, be curbed by law. Clinical freedom to ignore drug prescribing protocols is destroying the lives and health of vast numbers of innocent victims/patients.

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.)

New cancer tests could do more harm than good, says specialist

New cancer tests could do more harm than good, says specialist - Guardian

Extract:

"A new generation of tests for cancer could do more harm than good by increasingly diagnosing tumours which may not pose an immediate health risk, according to a leading cancer specialist.

People will increasingly have to chose between radical surgery or living with the uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis, said Bruce Ponder, head of Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, at Cambridge University.

The new generation of screening programmes, scanning techniques and genetic tests, which will help diagnose people with the beginnings of life-threatening cancer, will pick up on more very small, latent and benign cancers. People could face a lifetime of anxiety and a decision about whether to undergo radical surgery loading pressure on the already stretched NHS, he says. "One of the things that may happen is that in our quest to develop better and better tests for early diagnosis of cancer we will end up detecting quite a lot of cancers that were never going to do anything in the lifetime of the individual ... we also need to find better ways to find out which cancers mean business and which cancers don't," he said."

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.)

Liver disease: the silent epidemic caused mainly by fluid retention and salt sensitivity

Liver disease: the silent epidemic - New Scientist

I'm afraid I have to disagree fundamentally with the main assertion in this New Scientist article. My comments will follow after the following extract from the article:

"There's more than one way to destroy your liver - and excessive eating is fast becoming the number one culprit

PETE had a truly awful Christmas. A few weeks earlier he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and the news was still sinking in while all around him the alcohol-fuelled festivities were in full swing. "I don't even drink," he told the specialist incredulously when given the diagnosis. Surely only hardened alcoholics get cirrhosis?

In November, feeling tired and washed-out, he had gone to see his doctor. Apart from being overweight he seemed to be in good health. Yet blood tests indicated he was anaemic and an endoscopy revealed a burst blood vessel in his gullet, a sign of cirrhosis, the final stage of liver disease. Weeks later Pete's abdomen swelled alarmingly as it filled with fluid - another sign - and a liver biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. He was only 35. "

It is, of course, correct that cirrhosis of the liver does not develop only in hardened alcoholics, though that is the impression we tend to get because that is mostly what is conveyed to us by health professionals. This article suggests that the cause is overeating. - It isn't. - The main and often exclusive cause is fluid retention and the salt sensitivity that results in the fluid retention. - The fluid retention causes obesity, which could also be said to be the cause of the liver disease. - But obesity is NOT caused by overeating. - That is the point.

The way to protect the liver from this grave illness is to avoid dieting and to minimise salt/sodium intake because this minimises the fluid retention and results in swift, safe weight reduction as some of the excess fluid is excreted from the body.

The liver is also damaged by having to metabolise medications, so it is best to avoid taking prescribed or over the counter drugs if they are not really necessary.

Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in turn is usually caused by sodium retention. The blood vessels become distended with extra sodium and the water it attracts to itself. There is no evidence to support the calorie theory about obesity. - And reducing calories does not reduce obesity. - Reducing salt intake DOES reduce obesity because it reduces the fluid retention by enabling the body to excrete excess salt and water in the urine.

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat 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.

See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html for the many health problems that will be ameliorated by salt reduction.

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.)

Addendum 1:

The first 'Anonymous' has added a comment below this post, saying "I consume more salt than any other person I know, I occationally just pour some in my hand and eat it. I weight 145lbs @ 5'10 and depending on the day can be at body fat percentage that is just below the healthy minimum. Explain that." - Well I am not able to add a comment myself because of a technical problem, but the answer to Anonymous is that only people who are sensitive to salt become overweight/obese and suffer from fluid retention, so obviously Anonymous is not sensitive to salt and that is why he is slim and can eat lots of salt without gaining weight. He has good strong healthy veins that are strong enough to resist becoming swollen with excess salt and the water attendant on it.

Slim people are slim because they have healthy veins and kidneys and are not sensitive to salt.

Addendum 2:

The second 'Anonymous' comment asks if there is something other than salt in the diet that is causing the weak veins and the salt sensitivity and the answer is that there are many prescribed pharmaceutical drugs that cause weak veins and salt sensitivity. If Japanese people take fewer prescribed pharmaceutical drugs than people in the western world then they are much less likely to become obese. Pharmaceutical drugs are a major cause of obesity, especially of morbid obesity, so people who value their health would be wise to avoid taking prescribed pharmaceuticals unless there is very good reason to do so. See my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Bernard Matthews turkey plant will not be prosecuted about food hygiene failings at the time of bird flu incidence.

Watchdog clears Bernard Matthews plant - Independent

Extract:

"A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs report published in February listed a catalogue of failings at the turkey plant.

Inspectors saw gulls feeding on meat scraps left in uncovered waste bins and polythene bags used for meat products left in open bins.

But the Food Standards Agency today said its probe had found "no evidence" that the firm breached animal by-product or food hygiene laws.

The watchdog said in a statement: "We have carefully scrutinised and considered the evidence in this case and concluded there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction.

"Accordingly, we have decided not to proceed to a prosecution in this case."

The FSA said its decision followed a thorough examination into possible problems with food waste storage at the Bernard Matthews site.

Defra said the FSA had been investigating Bernard Matthews on its behalf. "


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.)

Obese patients could be causing back pain for nurses who lift them.

Obese patients 'increasing back pain among nurses' - Independent

Extracts:

"A rise in the number of obese patients on wards could be causing thousands of NHS nurses to seek treatment for back pain, according to experts.

About 5,000 nurses are currently being treated for back pain following a surge in patients' weights and the number of patients a nurse has to care for, according to the British Chiropractic Association.

Dr Matthew Bennett, a member of the BCA who has been a chiropractor for 20 years, said: "There are thousands of nurses with work-related back pain and I think this could increase in the future.

"A lot do not turn up in official statistics because it affects employment status.

"The weight of patients is a contributory factor to back pain. It's not just a weight issue - it's a fitness issue with people unable to turn themselves over easily.""

"A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "The department advises that staff should avoid manual handling. No one working in a hospital, nursing home, or community setting should need to put their safety at risk when lifting patients manually."

WHEN is the truth going to be told about obesity?

Read my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection

All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - 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.

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.)

Snapshot reveals rare cancer (retinoblastoma) in girl's eye

Snapshot reveals rare cancer in girl's eye - Telegraph

Extract:

"Carenza Thomas's love of being photographed has saved her life.

While testing a new digital camera, her mother, Kathryn Thomas, noticed something strange about her daughter's eyes. She was puzzled when she viewed the pictures and saw that one eye appeared bright white.

Kathryn took her eight-month-old daughter to a doctor, who diagnosed a rare form of eye cancer.

Further tests found several tumours in Carenza's left eye - which had reflected the light and caused her eye to appear white in photographs.

After two years of chemotherapy the toddler, who has an older sister, Diane, five, is now enjoying an active and healthy life.

Kathryn, 34, said if it had not been for the photograph they may not have caught the cancer in time to save Carenza. She said: "It doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened if we didn't notice something was up in that picture."


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.)

British women may no longer be entitled to one-to-one care from a midwife during labour.

Women to give birth without care of a midwife - Telegraph

Extract:

"Women may no longer be entitled to one-to-one care from a midwife during labour, after a shift in Government policy set to be announced this week.

The Royal College of Midwives says any plans to go back on earlier pledges by allowing hospitals to use cheaper and less-skilled maternity support workers will increase the risks for women and babies.

Several recent reports have suggested that standards of maternity provision are falling as NHS trusts battle huge deficits, and more women are encouraged to have their babies at home. One report by the Conservatives suggested that around one in six of England's 282 maternity units could be shut down.

In its 2005 manifesto Labour promised that by 2009 all women would be cared for by a midwife throughout the pregnancy, and receive continuous care during the delivery. But "Maternity Matters", the strategy to be announced by Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, this week, is ex-pected to suggest that some women could give birth without the care of a midwife."

Scientists have developed a simple method of converting blood from one group to another.

Scientists change one blood group into another - Telegraph

Extract:

"Scientists have developed a simple method of converting blood from one group to another.
The breakthrough could potentially mean the end of blood shortages by boosting supplies of group O negative blood, which can be given to anyone.

Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, an international team of researchers described how they converted blood from group A, B or AB to group O. "

"Giving patients the wrong blood may result in a severe immune reaction and even death."

"Patient trials will have to take place before group O blood produced by the conversion method can be used in hospitals.

The National Blood Service, which serves England and North Wales, currently has around 40,000 units of blood in stock - enough to last about five and a half days."

Rise in UK's child mortality rate is linked to inequality

Rise in UK's child mortality rate is linked to inequality - Independent

Extract:

"Britain has the second highest child death rate among the 24 richest countries in the world, with infants in the UK twice as likely to die before the age of five as children in Sweden, a study has shown.

The researchers, from Dundee University, who link relatively high infant mortality with income inequality, found that in the UK the gap between the haves and the have-nots was the third biggest among the 24 countries. They calculated that the top 20 per cent of people in the UK have more than 2.5 times the income of the bottom 40 per cent, almost double the difference in Japan.

Their work, which is reported this week in the Journal of Public Health, analysed Unicef data on child mortality and income inequality. The study comes 14 years after the UK and other "Anglo-American" rich countries were strongly criticised in a Unicef study on child neglect in wealthy nations. That study did not report on child death rates but at that time the UK ranked 15th for child mortality;the new research shows it has now dropped to joint 22nd, just above the US."

Armed forces' suicides exceed numbers of combat deaths

Armed forces' suicides surpass combat deaths - Independent

Extract:

"More servicemen and women have committed suicide over the past two decades than have died in military action, according to new figures.

The latest death toll for those in the armed forces who have taken their own lives has risen to 687 compared with 438 killed during active service in major conflicts such as the Gulf, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) figures released this weekend also reveal that the number of suicides among servicemen and women has risen by at least 49 in a year. This is more than three times the number of soldiers killed since the start of war in Afghanistan in 2001 and has raised fresh concerns about the mental welfare of troops. Those most at risk of taking their own lives are soldiers in their early 20s and teenage army recruits."

More about the dangers of statins and the ignorance of doctors about the devastating symptoms they cause when prescribed to lower cholesterol levels.

The deeper I go into it, the fishier statins seem to become - Dr James LeFanu - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Statins again, whose mass prescription is turning out to be much more serious (and sinister) than I could have supposed.

The response to my last two columns has been, almost literally, overwhelming, so why are doctors apparently so unaware of the devastating symptoms they can cause? The British Heart Foundation (whose chairman, Professor Peter Weissberg accused me last week of being "easily led" on this matter) claims that statins have "minimal side effects" compared to those taking controlled (or placebo) drugs. And, indeed, several major trials report an astonishingly low incidence, of around 0.5 per cent, of the commonest side-effects of severe muscular aches and pains, both in those taking statins and those taking the placebo.

This seems staggeringly unlikely, the more so since a recent survey of 5,000 patients taking statins, conducted for a Dutch television programme, produced a rather different figure of 27 per cent, That would mean that nearly a million people are affected by statin-induced muscular pains and reduced mobility. It is not necessary to be a conspiracy merchant to suspect that something fishy is going on here.

The need to find out what is really happening is all the more urgent as medical leaders and prominent cardiologists are now pressing for a yet lower "ideal" cholesterol level, with a target of less than four, which will catch yet more millions in the statin trap. Several readers report that their family doctors have already doubled the doses of their drugs in the last six months. The time has surely come, with such vast sums of public money at stake, for questions in the House."

There should also be questions in the House about the reckless overprescribing of steroids and other drugs that cause massive fluid retention and therefore obesity and even morbid obesity. They damage the lives of scores of thousands of innocent sufferers in this country, and probably worldwide the total of victims would number millions.

If you are concerned about the health of your heart, it would be wise to cut down on the amount of salt that you eat. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html
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.)

Plans to restrict IVF treatment in Britain

Plans to restrict IVF treatment - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Women having IVF treatment may be restricted to having only one embryo implanted at a time to avoid the dangers of multiple births.

In a public consultation paper launched on Wednesday, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority will raise the issue of “single embryo transfer” amid fears that multiple births are putting the lives of mothers and babies at risk.

Strict rules governing IVF treatment currently mean that women under 40 in Britain can have two embryos implanted while those over 40 are allowed three.

The more embryos that are transferred, the greater the chance of twins or triplets, increasing the risk of premature births, cerebral palsy, low birth weight and other complications. "

Most women can improve their fertility by reducing their salt intake. - This is because reducing salt intake reduces any fluid retention, which is the cause of obesity, and there is a positive correlation between obesity and infertility.

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.)See also http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html