Criminal practices within Insurance Companies are causing immense suffering to many American citizens

Criminal practices within Insurance Companies are causing immense suffering to many American citizens. Read this account by one of the victims.

Rally against GM potato trials

A Rally against GM potato trials is to be held at The Forum, Norwich, 12 noon, Saturday 23rd July 2011. "British trials of genetically modified blight resistant spuds have been failing for the last ten years. But a conventionally bred variety of blight resistant potatoes has been available for 3 years. So why are we still paying for their dangerous experiment?"

Law and Order on ITV on Sunday evening

This was the first time I have ever watched Law and Order. It didn't grab me; I don't think I'll watch it again. However, some comments:

A young woman died in hospital. It was not her illness that killed her; it was the easily avoidable error of administering a fairly commonly prescribed painkiller - codeine - to a patient who was already taking an antidepressant drug known to have an adverse interaction with that painkiller.

The hospital record had been altered to change codeine to paracetamol and a page of the notes was missing. These are serious offences which are, sadly, not uncommon after medical negligence occurs. What is uncommon is for anyone to be punished for it.

The investigators were lied to about it all by several of the hospital staff, such that Bradley Walsh's character comments to his colleague that the staff were all agreed that nobody did anything wrong. - In my experience, this cover-up is standard practice in cases of medical negligence, the difference being in this story, that the lies were checked out, instead of simply being uncritically accepted.

It turned out that it was the consultant who was most to blame for the untimely death of the young woman, because he was addicted to codeine, and this addiction had impaired his mental abilities. He also lied both in court and prior to the court case. The death of the patient was not 'a mistake'. It was a consequence of his drug addiction. Nonetheless, and despite being found guilty, he received only a two-year suspended sentence.

A derisory sentence for avoidably causing the death of a young woman patient; no sentences at all, apparently, for the other hospital staff who sought to pervert the course of justice by lying to the police investigators; lots of sympathy and understanding for the negligent consultant; and bugger-all sympathy and help for the bereaved and blameless father of the deceased. - 10 out of 10 for accuracy about how medical negligence is dealt with in this country...)o:

The Food Programme Radio 4: Transfats are poisonous. Why is the Food Industry still allowed to put them into our food?

The transfats to which I refer are the artificial transfats that are added to food products, mainly in order to increase their shelf-life. In other words, they increase the profits of the food manufacturers. Artificial transfats are not a natural constituent of any food whatsoever. The body does not have a natural way to metabolise them. It cannot use them as food, because they are not food. They are toxic to the body. Toxic is a synonym for poisonous. For most consumers it is next door to impossible to know whether some of the foods they buy contain any of these poisons or not, and if they do contain any of these poisons, how much? and how much harm will they do? They damage your body and your brain. They contribute to your risk of stroke, heart disease, memory problems, dementia and more.

On the Food Programme on Radio 4 this week "Sheila Dillon investigates the issue of trans-fats in our food, and asks whether a voluntary agreement by the food industry to eliminate them by the end of the year is enough to prevent the kind of health problems associated with a diet heavy in industrial cooking fats." - I can tell you the answer to that question right now: it isn't...)o: - No way! No! It is not!

If you listen to this programme on iPlayer you will hear Sheila Dillon ask pertinent questions and you will hear slithering responses just as oily and toxic as the transfat content the apologists seek to defend. And do not be fooled by the talk of small quantities and of small percentages of calories from these transfats. They are very harmful even in very small quantities. And the damage they do is cumulative. - Remember the old adage: poison comes in small packages!

If you eat shop-bought biscuits, cakes, bread, pizzas, margarine, vegetable shortening, ice-cream, puddings & pudding mixes, ready-made pies, some confectionery - this list is not exhaustive - then you will almost certainly have eaten artificial transfats. Some groups of people are more reliant on processed foods than others are, and some groups of people, e.g. people whose health is already compromised by degenerative disease, are more vulnerable to the harm that artificial transfats cause in the body.

Unfortunately, the groups most at risk from these transfats are of minor importance to UK legislators. Otherwise there would be a BAN on adding these poisons to our food. Adding these poisons to our food swells the profits of the Food Industry, i.e. big business. Food Manufacturers are the groups whose welfare is important to our legislators. Their welfare is paramount.

That processed foods so often contain artificial transfats is yet another reason why, as far as you can, you would do well to avoid processed food, and eat fresh food that you eat raw, or that you cook yourself.

How can the GMC possibly be allowed to continue as a regulator?

How can the GMC possibly be allowed to continue as a regulator? - I have many times inveighed against the uselessness of the GMC and I have many times called for it to be scrapped. It has no regard at all, other than rhetorical, for the safety of patients, and it routinely protects lousy doctors from anything but the most lenient of punishments for very grave malpractice. But this report by the Sunday Telegraph of its investigation into the case of a grossly negligent, incredibly ignorant, fraudster of a doctor really MUST be followed by the speedy demise of the General Medical Council. This is a national scandal of mind-blowing proportions. I urge you to read the whole article; a mere summary seems inadequate.

An American assessment of the UK phonehacking scandal

Here's an American assessment of the UK phonehacking scandal. This thoughtful article is followed by equally thoughtful and pertinent comments by George W. Drance and "Lynn", the former drawing attention to the fraud and corruption perpetrated by rogue lawyers, who, like the British press, lack an independent regulatory body, and the latter pointing up the harm done to society when members of the professions, by dint of being accorded unmerited respect, are allowed to practise dishonesty and get away with it. I have myself come to realise that massive flaws in the practice of Law play a huge part in the ever-increasing instances of Medical Negligence and the avoidable suffering that results from it (See, for example, Lawyers Can Seriously Damage Your Health, by Michael Joseph). And I whole-heartedly agree with Lynn on the widespread suffering caused by professionals' dishonest behaviour. My own experiences illustrate the truth of both George W. Drance's and Lynn's Comments. See Fighting the System and Long in the Toothache.

Shameful facts about diagnoses of mental illness

Shameful facts about diagnoses of 'mental illness'. Read this book review. Personally, I don't believe in mental illness. If you do believe in it, I invite you, after you have read this book review, to try reading some of the many books by Thomas Szasz. You'll soon have a different take on it.

The News of the World is to close

The News of the World is to close on Sunday. See Guardian blog post. That's excellent news! Thank goodness we still have some ethical newspapers, among them the Guardian.

Kirstie brought her baby to see me today

My friend Kirstie brought baby George to see me today. It was so nice to see them. It is the first time I've seen them since George was born, nearly two months ago. He was wide awake and busy looking round and learning. Kirstie is giving him a good, healthy start in life by breastfeeding him, and she doesn't eat any salty food or other junk that would be bad for him. I gave her a tub of Yeo Valley whole milk probiotic natural yoghurt to take home with her. That will do them both good, with its no added ingredients, and the dairy calcium, vitamin D and Bifidobacteria it naturally contains.

Mitochondrial damage caused by some anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV, study shows

A class of anti-retroviral drugs commonly used to treat HIV, particularly in Africa and low income countries, can cause premature ageing, according to research published in the journal Nature Genetics. The study shows that the drugs damage DNA in the patient's mitochondria – the 'batteries' which power their cells. The findings may explain why HIV-infected people treated with antiretroviral drugs sometimes show advanced signs of frailty and age-associated diseases such as cardiovascular disease and dementia at an early age.
Read article at medicalxpress.com

Children's health is being damaged and their lives shortened because they are eating too much salt and salty food

Children's health is being damaged and their lives shortened because they are eating too much salt and salty food. See Children are vulnerable to salt. It is important to protect children from processed foods/salty snacks/ready meals and the like. Children are more at risk from their salt intake than adults are.

Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume and other fluid retention results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body. Overweight children should not be put on a diet; dieting is harmful and unnecessary and does not usually result in weight loss. Once children start dieting it is often the beginning of a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and increasing weight and ill-health.

Unfortunately bread contains a lot of salt and most families eat quite a lot of bread because of using it for sandwiches in packed lunches, and for toast, etc. Because of its high salt content bread is not a healthy food for little children or for anyone who is overweight. Some bread manufacturers have lowered the salt content of certain loaves, but most bread still usually contains 0.5g or more of sodium per 100g. This is too much. - Always check on the packet; look for the lowest sodium content.

Cheese is often recommended as being good for children because it contains calcium, but cheese is not really good for children because it has a high salt content. So don't give them a lot of it. Children can get plenty of calcium by drinking milk and by eating dairy yogurt (but avoid non-dairy yogurt and low-fat yogurt and the sort of yogurt that has added sugar or sweeteners, colours or other synthetic chemical additives).

Too many UK patients are prescribed high-risk drugs

"Findings of a new study suggest that too many patients in the UK are being prescribed high-risk drugs that could potentially cause them harm, and reveals that GP prescribing between practices remains significantly varied. According to the research paper, published in the British Medical Journal online, thousands of patients in Scotland particularly vulnerable to side effects from medicines were dished out 'high-risk' drugs by their GPs."
Read article at pharmatimes.com (UK)

Overall the level of pharmaceutical drug prescribing in the UK continues inexorably to rise, and with it the consequences of harmful side-effects, and the further risks of this abundance of 'legal' drugs getting into the hands of drug-dealers and potential addicts. We need statutory limits on prescribing levels, with serious sanctions, including permanent removal from the Medical Register, for doctors who contravene such limits. - "First do no harm."