A woman who has baffled doctors with her ability to remember every detail of every day has broken her anonymity to speak of her condition.

The woman who can remember everything

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Jill Price, 42, can remember every part of her life since she was 14 but considers her ability a curse as she cannot switch off.

She described her life as like a split-screen television, with one side showing what she is doing in the present, and the other showing the memories which she cannot hold back.

Every detail about every day since 1980 - what time she got up, who she met, what she did, even what she ate - is locked in her brain and can be released to come flooding back by common triggers like songs, smells or place names.

Mrs Price, a widow who is a school administrator, sometimes struggles to sleep because the vivid memories crowd her mind and stop her relaxing.

Her condition is so rare that scientists had to coin a term for her condition - hyperthymestic syndrome from the Greek thymesis, for remembering, and hyper, meaning well above normal.

For years she remained anonymous, referred to only by initials in scientific journals while experts at the University of California-Irvine tested her ability."

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has called for restaurants that serve fruit and vegetables out of season to be fined for not using home-grown produce.

Gordon Ramsay's war on out-of-season vegetables

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Ramsay said he had spoken to the Prime Minister Gordon Brown briefly about the issue and warned that buying food from abroad made cooks lazy.

"If we don't restrict our movements within this industry of seasonal produce only, then the whole thing will spiral out of control," he told the BBC.

He criticised fellow celebrity chef Delia Smith for her support of ready-made food and canned goods.

"I would expect students struggling on £15 a week to survive eating from a can but the nation's favourite, all-time icon reducing us down to using frozen, canned food - it's an insult," he said.

"And it makes our lives, from a chef's point of view, a lot harder. Here we are trying to establish a reputation across the world for this country's food and along comes Delia and tips it out of a can. That hurts."

Here is a list of which vegetables, according to the food website Eat the Seasons, are in season and when:

January - beetroot, brussels sprouts, parsnip, apples

February - cauliflower, chicory, leeks, pears

March - purple sprouting broccoli, rhubarb, spring onions

April - jersey royal new potatoes, radishes, watercress

May - asparagus, spinach, spring onions

June - artichoke, carrots, courgettes, runner beans

July - broad beans, cucumber, onions

August - peas, potatoes, raspberries, plums

September - butternut squash, marrow, blackberries

October - celery, kale, chestnuts, elderberries

November - pumpkin, swede, quince, walnuts

December - turnips, leeks, apples"

Fruit and vegetables can help you lose excess weight and improve your health in many other ways too. - See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions

Scores of hospital departments such as maternity units and cancer clinics will be closed or merged under plans for a radical shake-up of the NHS.

NHS shake-up to axe hospital services

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Ministers are preparing for a summer of protest as residents campaign against proposals that could mean local hospitals losing specialist services to large regional centres.

In an attempt to head off the reaction that could mar the 60th anniversary of the NHS in July, Lord Darzi, the health minister, has pledged that patients would be involved in decisions and hospital units would not close before new ones opened."

Obesity can increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease by up to 80 per cent, researchers have said.

Obesity increases the risk of dementia

Extract from the Telegraph:

"It is thought that obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels could increase the risk of dementia by damaging blood vessels in the brain, which in turn leads to the death of brain cells.

Dr Youfa Wang, who led the review, said the results showed that obesity was more likely to be a risk factor for women in the matter of developing Alzheimer's disease, and for men when it came to vascular dementia."

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney 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.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

For thousands of years, humans existed and evolved on a low sodium, high potassium food intake and so clearly that is what is best for us.

But over a relatively short span of time, the modern diet has reversed and has become high sodium (i.e. high salt) and low potassium (i.e. low intake of fruit and vegetables). This huge change is a significant factor in the illnesses people suffer today. - These illnesses are often attributed to 'aging' but they are really the diseases brought about by salt sensitivity and its attendant fluid retention.

You can read on my website about the sodium and potassium content in many foods and the health benefits that an adjustment of your sodium/potassium intake can bring. - The most important benefits are a reduction in obesity/overweight and a lowering of high blood pressure.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney 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.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

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

Fears are growing over the safety of a chemical, bisphenol A, or BPA, found in plastic baby bottles.

Baby bottles contain 'harmful' chemical

Extract from the Telegraph:

"American scientists have issued a warning over bisphenol A, or BPA, which they say can affect the reproductive, neurological and immune systems.

Now the National Childbirth Trust has asked for all plastic baby bottles to be clearly labelled for BPA content.

The US retail giant Wal-Mart has already said it would stop selling bottles made with the chemical, while the Canadian government wants it banned altogether.

Scientists with the US National Toxicology Programme concluded that BPA “can cause changes in behaviour and the brain, prostate gland, mammary gland and the age at which females attain puberty”."

Breast-feeding makes children significantly smarter and helps to improve reading and writing, according to the biggest study of its kind.

Breast-feeding boosts a child's IQ, says study

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Researchers looked at almost 14,000 children over a period of more than six years and found that those who had been breast-fed performed far better in IQ tests.

At the age of six-and-a-half, children who had been exclusively breast-fed in infancy scored 5.9 points higher on average in tests of overall intelligence. Teachers also rated these children significantly higher academically than control children in reading and writing.

Previous studies suggested a link between breast-feeding and IQ but they were treated with scepticism because of claims that the findings said more about social factors generally than breast-feeding itself.

"Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that prolonged and exclusive breast-feeding makes kids smarter," says Prof Michael Kramer at McGill University in Canada.

He said the findings should help boost efforts "to promote, protect and support breast-feeding"."

I believe the main factor that makes breastfeeding advantageous for babies is that breast milk is low in sodium/salt. This also helps to prevent infant obesity. See Children and Obesity

The lives of critically ill hospital patients are being put at risk because of a desperate shortage of intensive care beds, new statistics show.

5,000 patients a year affected by shortage of intensive care beds

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Previously unpublished figures from three intensive care networks in England and Wales suggest that as many as 5,000 patients a year are put in an ambulance and sent elsewhere because there are no beds in their local hospital."

"Figures obtained from three intensive care networks show that, on any one day, more than 20 critically ill patients are being sent on risky road journeys because of a lack of beds.

In the East Midlands alone around 200 patients a year are moved to other hospitals.

There have been several high-profile deaths in the past year. They include Angela Borzoni, a 69-year-old Londoner who died from a cardiac arrest in March 2007 after being taken from the Whittington Hospital in north London to Bedford Hospital, 50 miles away, following an operation to remove her spleen.

The Government says it has invested money to boost intensive care bed provision, but consultants say the amount put in is simply not enough to keep up with demand."

Don't diet to try to lose weight! - It's harmful and tiring and it doesn't work. - Here is the safe, sure, reliable way to lose excess weight:

Obesity is NOT caused by overeating and/or inactivity. It is caused by fluid retention/salt sensitivity, 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.)

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, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney 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.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

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

Tens of thousands of vulnerable old people are suffering appalling abuse in homes for the elderly, experts are warning.

Thousands of elderly abused in care homes

Extract from the Telegraph:

"The first ever audit of calls to England's social care watchdog shows that more than 1,000 were made in just six months by people who suspected their relations or friends were being abused by care workers.

Social services chiefs estimate that a further 60,000 "alert calls" are made directly to local councils every year.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has uncovered homes where residents were routinely tied to their beds and chairs, locked up or dragged around by their hair. Some were refused food to punish "bad behaviour", denied trips to the lavatory or stolen from by staff."

"The audit was disclosed by the CSCI as it prepared to publish, on Wednesday, its first guide to all 4,000 residential homes in England for the elderly and disabled, giving each a star rating so that relations can compare factors such as the use of sedatives, staff training, and social activities.

The inspectorate has already said 248 homes do not meet basic safety standards. Investigations have revealed a woman of 85 who had her fingernails ripped off by a care worker, a 78‑year‑old covered in cigarette burns, and a number of thefts of pensions by "home helps"."

"Gary Fitzgerald, chief executive of the charity Action on Elder Abuse, said: "If you include abuse carried out by relatives and friends, studies suggest there could be 500,000 cases each year across Britain.""

www.elderabuse.org.uk

The family of a 39-year-old mother has spoken out after she was admitted to hospital with an ear infection, then died after contracting MRSA.

MRSA kills mother in hospital with ear infection

First extract from the Telegraph:

"Shakuntala Pancholi, a civil servant, had developed the infection after routine surgery.

She was admitted to hospital but died from multi-organ failure 16 days later.

An inquest earlier this week ruled that she died of natural causes and yesterday her husband Suresh, 51, said: "She went into hospital with an ear infection, which is not life-threatening and then suddenly she is in a critical condition."

The inquest heard that Mrs Pancholi was admitted to Leicester Royal Infirmary in September 2004 suffering from an ear infection caught after an operation to repair a perforated eardrum.

MRSA was detected and she was given antibiotics. After a week she was sent home but her condition deteriorated and she was admitted to Leicester General Hospital, where she died four days later."

Second extract from the Telegraph:

"Last month the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust was hit by an outbreak of C-Diff only four days after undergoing a £300,000 clean up. At least 26 people were affected and wards were closed.

It emerged that hundreds of trusts are allowing doctors and nurses to treat patients even after they have tested positive for MRSA and other potentially lethal superbugs, with no systems in place to automatically remove staff from wards if they are found to be carrying an infection."

Joan Burnie, Associate Editor of Scotland's Daily Record , was on Radio 4 Woman's Hour this morning, airing her prejudice and ignorance about obesity.

She was emphatically declaring that 'everybody knows' that they should eat less and exercise more in order not to be obese. She clearly is contemptuous of obese people and blames them for their obesity. She appeared to wish that they would die soon though claimed that she was not serious when she said it.

Centuries ago 'everybody knew' that the world was flat. - It was an assumption made because it seemed obvious. - When the hypothesis was scientifically investigated this assumption was found to be untrue and there can be few people now who still believe in the flat earth theory.

Similarly the theory that people become obese because they eat too much and exercise too little is just an assumption, as is the assumption that if they eat less and exercise more they will lose their excess weight - despite the FACT - the well-known FACT - that diets do not work. There has never been any rigorous testing of the theory. It has always been a mere assumption. - But this mere assumption and the constantly reiterated insulting and harmful advice being given by uninformed bigots like Joan Burnie and the rest of the bullying obesity 'experts' is destroying the lives, health and happiness of many millions of overweight/obese people the world over...)o:

Obesity is NOT caused by overeating and/or 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.)

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, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney 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.)

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Children and Obesity

vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

advice for pregnant mothers

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