Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website
Wilde About Steroids

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Read my Mensa article on Cruelty, Negligence and the Abuse of Power in the NHS: Fighting the System

Read about the cruel treatment I suffered at the Sheffield Dental Hospital: Long In The Toothache

You can contact me by email from my website. The site does not sell anything and has no banners, sponsors or adverts - just helpful information about how salt can cause obesity.


This blog has been exported to a new URL so that readers can leave Comments again. If you want to leave a Comment, please visit my 'new' blog, which has Comments enabled. The 'new' blog is Wilde About Obesity.

Monday, April 30, 2007

More pharmaceutical junk being developed to pour down the throats of innocent people who would like to lose weight...)o:

'Exercise pill' tricks body into burning twice the fat - The Independent

There's never any shortage of misguided gulls seeking to pour even more pharmaceutical junk down the throats of innocent people...)o:

Now HERE is news of a fully researched (i.e. on people, not rodents), completely safe way for an obese/overweight person to get rid of some excess fat from the body - Some quite recent Danish research shows that eating extra dairy calcium, as in low fat yoghurt, increases, in a perfectly natural and safe, healthy way, the amount of fat lost in the faeces. It was shown on a BBC2 programme some weeks ago. - BBC2 The Truth About Food: calcium helps weight loss - Maybe you should copy the whole page in case it ever disappears from the BBC's website. - Note: it does not require you to eat less or reduce calorie intake - only to eat MORE calcium. - If you do try the low fat yoghurt, make sure it's the ordinary low fat yoghurt, not the extremely low fat stuff,, 'cos that's always crammed with dodgy chemicals...)o:

And here is an extract from today's article about another wretched drug being developed:

Extract:

"American scientists have discovered an "exercise pill" that switches on a gene that tells cells to burn fat.

The un-named drug, which is in the early stages of development, could offer an answer to the obesity crisis. Researchers who have tested it in mice say that it prevented the mice putting on weight even when they were fed a high-fat diet. The drug triggers the same fat burning process that occurs during exercise, even when the mice are not active. By kickstarting the metabolism, more calories are burnt than are consumed.

Ronald Evans, a researcher at the Salk Institute in California said he hoped that such "metabolic trickery" would lead to new treatments for human metabolic syndrome, a condition marked by obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol which raises the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

He presented his findings to a conference of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Washington, yesterday."

But remember, the easiest, safest and fastest way to reduce excess weight is to eat less salt and eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - This removes some excess water from the blood stream and also reduces the amount of excess stored fat that sometimes accompanies fluid retention.

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.)

Some NHS trusts refusing some treatments to heavy smokers or patients who are obese

Hewitt: NHS ban on fat people legitimate - Telegraph

Extract:

"Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, said yesterday that it was "perfectly legitimate" for NHS trusts to refuse some treatments to heavy smokers or patients who are obese.

A survey found at least four trusts have stopped providing orthopaedic surgery for smokers
Miss Hewitt defended the right of doctors and managers to draw up local guidelines on treatment after a survey revealed that some trusts are already banning operations."


I have no strong views on whether smokers should have limited access to health care, but I have very, very strong views about obese people and health care. - Since doctors, nutritionists and successive governments/Departments of Health, et al, are those actually responsible/to blame for the huge and growing incidence of obesity, particularly by their negligent prescribing of steroids and other dangerous drugs which cause salt sensitivity and massive fluid retention, followed by almost non-existent monitoring of their patients/victims (see http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html), no obese person should be being denied treatment if there is any useful treatment that would help that person.
Obesity is NOT a self-inflicted disease. - It is an iatrogenic disease.

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.)

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Mother believes her son was murdered for his organs

Son was murdered for organs, mother finds - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"A mother has uncovered sensational new evidence in her three-year quest to prove her son was murdered by an eastern European gang before his organs were removed and sold.

Susan Sutovic arranged for former Scotland Yard forensic scientists to investigate her fears that her son, Petar, 23, was brutally killed.

Until now, the police in Serbia, supported by officials in the UK, have insisted that the young Briton was the victim of drug abuse, a claim his family has always angrily denied. But the fresh evidence suggests that he was beaten up by several attackers before being stabbed to death."

Millions of national insurance numbers have been "lost", the Government has admitted

Fraud fear as millions of NI numbers are lost - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Millions of national insurance numbers have been "lost", the Government has admitted, raising fears that they are being misused by fraudsters and illegal immigrants.

The nine million numbers were issued by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and are registered on its database, but officials do not know if they are held legitimately.

National Insurance (NI) numbers can be used to claim benefits and tax credits, and are sometimes accepted by employers to prove the right to work legally in the UK.

An internal investigation has been launched to try to categorise the numbers, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. It will report to ministers later this year. It is not known if the findings will be made public.


The Government admitted in a recent parliamentary answer that there are now 76.7 million numbers on the database, well in excess of Britain's adult population of 49 million."

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Proximity to pylons a factor in childhood leukaemia and other diseases?

Ban on homes close to pylons would cut child leukaemia says report - Guardian

Extract:

"Banning the building of new homes and schools within 60 metres of power lines is the "best available option" for reducing deaths from childhood leukaemia and possibly other diseases, according to a report from a government advisory group.

The report falls short of recommending this as government policy, however, because of fierce disagreements between members, saying only that "we urge government to make a clear decision on whether to implement this option or not".

The report said that such a policy would have a dramatic effect on property prices within power line corridors. It puts the cost of restricting development at £1bn. But some members of the stakeholder group that put the report together were very unhappy with its conclusions.

"The report is deeply flawed and unrepresentative of what was agreed in meetings," wrote Professor Denis Henshaw, an expert on the health effects of power lines at Bristol University, in one of the report's appendices. He believes the scientific evidence for the effects of power lines on health is compelling and wanted the report to recommend an immediate moratorium on building close to power lines followed by legislation prohibiting it."


"Adult leukaemia, adult brain cancer, Alzheimer's amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, breast cancer, childhood cancers, depression, heart disease and miscarriage have all been linked to power lines, but the scientific evidence is less definitive. If the power lines contribute to these conditions then the health costs are about 100 times the cost of childhood leukaemia alone, at around £5bn."

Man mistakenly declared dead by hospital staff

Man returns from the dead - Telegraph

Extract:

"A man, who was pronounced dead in hospital, was later found to be very much alive when mortuary staff came to collect him from what they thought was his deathbed.

His family had been informed that he had died and were grieving before the mistake was noticed.


The unnamed disabled man in his 30s has since been discharged and returned home.

His death was mistakenly certified in Dublin's Mater hospital on Easter Sunday – a date closely associated with miraculous resurrections although in this case the patient did not die in the first place."

Children at risk of harm from wi-fi emissions

Warning on wi-fi health risk to children - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Children should not place computers on their laps while they are using wireless internet connections because of potential health risks, according to a leading Government adviser.

Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads the committee on mobile phone safety research, called yesterday for pupils to be monitored amid mounting public concern over emissions from wi-fi networks.


He is concerned that few studies have been carried out into the level of exposure in classrooms and believes that if health problems do emerge they are likely to be more serious in children.

Prof Challis, is chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, an £8.4 million investigation, funded by the Government and the industry, into the potential health risks of mobile phones.

He said that until more research had been carried out, children who used wi-fi enabled laptops should only do so if they kept a safe distance from their embedded antennas."

""Children are much more sensitive than adults to a number of other dangers, such as pollutants like lead and UV radiation, so if there should be a problem with mobiles, then it may be a bigger problem for children.

"Since we advise that children should be discouraged from using mobile phones, we should also discourage children from placing their laptop on their lap when they are using wi-fi.""


Safeguard your children's health by minimising their salt intake. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.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.)

Britain's dirty hospitals breed disease...)o:

Among the Daily Letters to the Telegraph today, under a sub-heading of "Our dirty hospitals breed disease", is this letter:

"Sir - I am a patient in a ward of a large East Midlands hospital. My bedding has not been changed for six days and the hand disinfectant provided at the bottom of the bed is almost never used.

The daily cleaning of the ward consists of a cursory dry mop, followed by an even more cursory wipe over with a wet mop loaded with dirty water.

Visiting one of the hospital departments, I found so much litter in the corridors that I picked up some and put it in a bin to avoid embarrassing visitors. There is one shower for more than 30 patients, and cutlery and glass-wear seems poorly washed.

By my bed is a cotton-wool swab that has been there since I arrived. I am leaving it to see how long it is before a "cleaner" removes it. I expect the swab to be my longest hospital acquaintance when I leave.

Exotic diseases must be expected in such disgraceful conditions."

The writer of the letter correctly realises that disgraceful conditions like this should be given the oxygen of publicity. - 'Complaining' to the hospital staff directly would be likely to have no effect other than to become thought of as a trouble-maker.


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.)

Friday, April 27, 2007

Warning about dangers of 'safe' alternative to ecstasy

Warning to clubbers over dangers of 'safe' alternative to ecstasy - Independent

Extracts:

"A teenage clubber who collapsed after taking a new dance-scene drug, which has been marketed as a "safe" alternative to ecstasy, is lucky to have survived, doctors report today.
The 18-year-old girl had taken the drug, benzylpiperazine, or BZP, at a London nightclub on a bank holiday weekend last May.


Shortly after swallowing five tablets, she collapsed and suffered a seizure lasting 10 minutes. She was taken by ambulance to hospital where she was given emergency treatment. Her pupils were dilated, her heart was racing at 156 beats per minute and her body temperature and blood pressure had plummeted."

"They warned colleagues to watch out for other young people suffering adverse reactions to the drug, which was legally available over the counter in the UK until last month.

The active ingredient in BZP is piperazine, which was developed in the Fifties as a worming medicine for veterinary use.

It has a similar chemical structure to amphetamine, a stimulant, and has become an increasingly popular alternative to ecstasy and amphetamines, being sold under names such as Pep Twisted, Legal E, Nemesis and Euphoria.

Last month, Britain's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), made the unlicensed sale of the drug illegal."

A drug initially hailed by doctors as giving new hope to people who are at risk of diabetes should not be prescribed to them after all

Changes in lifestyle hold key to reducing risk of diabetes - Independent

This article contains such a lot of sense that ~I have quoted extensively from it. - It is rare to read such good sense on the subject of prescription drugs.

Extracts:

"A drug initially hailed by doctors as giving new hope to people who are at risk of diabetes should not be prescribed to them after all, experts will say today.

The drug, rosiglitazone, sharply reduces the chance of developing diabetes when given to people at high risk, according to the results of an international trial published last year.

But three American professors writing in the British Medical Journal say taking a prescription drug to prevent the condition cannot be justified when lifestyle changes can achieve the same effect.

Professor Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, and colleagues say the "aggressive marketing of rosiglitazone as a preventive therapy" following last year's trial is an example of how healthy people are being turned into patients through the medicalisation of everyday life.

Multinational pharmaceutical companies with an interest in promoting new drugs are increasingly identifying "pre-disease states" which require treatment before people fall ill, they say."

"Speaking yesterday, Professor Montori said: "Our main concern is the idea that you can turn people into patients very early by getting them to take pills. Diabetes is not a disease you feel you have, it is a disease your doctor tells you that you have. All the drugs do is prevent your blood sugar rising to a level that triggers the diagnosis."

"You end up with patients taking more drugs who are then at risk of getting side effects and who have to go for more check-ups. You have become a patient where previously you were at risk of becoming one."

Heart disease, obesity, high cholesterol and high blood pressure were other conditions where drugs were prescribed instead of lifestyle changes."

""There is a tendency then to identify obesity as a condition that needs treating and if you keep going you get to a point where being alive and eating is a risk factor. We should be very cautious about the medicalisation of people who feel healthy and then through treatment become patients."

"Rosiglitazone, marketed in the UK as Avandia by Glaxosmithkline, is an established treatment for people with diabetes, but last year's trial, run in 21 countries and published in The Lancet in September, was aimed at establishing its role in preventing the condition. The results showed that for every 1,000 people at high risk treated with the drug for three years, it would protect 144 who would otherwise have developed the condition.

But most of these people would be unaware of their condition, would not experience any immediate benefit, would require more visits to the doctor, and would have their anxiety levels raised by the diagnosis.

The authors say in the BMJ: "Even under the most optimistic assumptions, patients offered rosiglitazone for prevention will end up taking more pills. Thus neither patients who value preventing diabetes in order to avoid taking drugs, nor a society concerned with cost minimisation, will benefit from early use of rosiglitazone.""

To reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol problems completely safely, all you need to do is stop eating salt and salty food, and do your damnedest to avoid taking prescribed drugs unless they are strictly necessary. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.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.)

Hewitt faces storm over website leaks

Hewitt faces storm over website leaks - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Patricia Hewitt faced protests last night as the row over security breaches in an NHS website containing confidential information about junior doctors deepened.

The Department of Health was forced to suspend the site, which handles job applications from junior doctors, after the second security breach in 24 hours.

The Health Secretary came under fire after it emerged the junior doctors' leaders had warned her at the start of last month that the site was not secure."


"In a further twist, it also emerged that a security breakdown in the NHS's new national computer system, Connecting for Health, led to the names, addresses and mobile phone numbers of consultants and doctors who attended a meeting on the issue earlier this year being placed on the internet.

Dr Jo Hilborne, the chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors' Committee, said: "What little faith anyone had left in this system has evaporated."


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.)

NHS patients are having to wait almost six months for life-saving diagnostic tests such as MRI scans

Patients wait six months for life-saving scans - Telegraph

Extract:

"NHS patients are having to wait almost six months for life-saving diagnostic tests such as MRI scans, new research for The Daily Telegraph shows today.

While waiting lists are falling overall, a study of NHS trusts found that the chance of an early diagnosis depends on where a patient lives.

Patients in Wales had to wait 100 working days for an MRI scan in 2005/6, while those in the North-East had to wait only 47 days."


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.)

Family doctors received a pay rise of almost 23 per cent in one year, according to NHS figures

NHS contracts prove a nice earner for doctors - Telegraph

Extract:

"Family doctors received a pay rise of almost 23 per cent in one year, according to NHS figures published yesterday.

According to NHS figures published yesterday, GPs earned £100,170 on average in 2004-05, in the first year of their new contract that linked payments to services they provide such as cholesterol checks and flu jabs. However, they no longer have to provide care at night or at weekends.


NHS negotiators underestimated the payments that GPs would be able to claim under the new Quality and Outcomes Framework contract. Struggling primary care trusts had to pay them £300 million more than expected in the first year."


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.)

A coroner urges hospitals to return to practices common in the days of Florence Nightingale

'We need Florence Nightingale hygiene' - Telegraph

Extract:

"A coroner yesterday urged hospitals to return to practices common in the days of Florence Nightingale as official figures showed the number of elderly patients who contracted the deadly superbug Clostridium difficile rose steeply last year.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said C. difficile infections among the over 65s increased by eight per cent to more than 55,000 last year."


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.)

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Do Botox parties need to be regulated?

Ministers accused of bottling out of Botox clampdown - Guardian

Extract:

"The government was yesterday accused of "bottling out" of introducing regulations to clamp down on Botox parties and beauty clinics which offer aesthetic fillers to disguise wrinkles and plump up lips.

Although surgeons who perform face-lifts and liposuction are subject to some regulation, high street beauticians who offer Botox and fillers are not. And while Botox is a prescription drug which should only be given by a doctor or a nurse under supervision, there are suspicions that the rules are sometimes broken.

An expert working group reporting in January 2005 was also concerned by reports of Botox parties, where champagne was consumed and women who wanted to lose their laughter lines were offered two jabs for the price of one.

The government accepted the report's recommendation that clinics offering Botox and fillers should be regulated by the Healthcare Commission, which monitors the work of the NHS. But yesterday the health minister Lord Hunt said the industry would have to regulate itself. "Cosmetic surgery providers have shown real commitment to improving levels of quality and safety, and so I have decided to ask the industry to take the lead in further improving standards," he said."

What are normally considered as signs of aging or diseases of aging are not normally caused by the passage of the years; they are often the cumulative effect of dieting, poor nutrition and the side-effects of many drugs which are too readily prescribed, often for too long a time, in too high a dose and without adequate monitoring.

To preserve your youthful looks as long as possible eat good meals prepared without the addition of salt and eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables, and avoid taking drugs even if they are prescribed by a doctor, unless they are really necessary and are properly monitored. NEVER go on a diet! - ALL diets in which you eat fewer calories than your body requires are harmful. - Read page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.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.)

17 NHS hospital trusts heavily in debt

NHS admits 17 trusts are mired in debt - Guardian

Extract:

"The Department of Health last night named 17 NHS hospital trusts across England which are mired in debts worth hundreds of millions of pounds and cannot survive without a fundamental reorganisation.

David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, said 12 were not creditworthy enough to be lent money from government funds to cover an accumulated deficit at the end of the financial year last month. Five were permitted to take out loans, but acknowledged they could be repaid only over "a very extended timescale".

His announcement was the first official confirmation of a Guardian inquiry in December which found at least a dozen trusts were technically bankrupt, with no prospect of repaying debts."

Reorganisation isn't really necessary. - A vast amount of money could be saved if only the Department of Health would tell the truth about the causation and best therapy for obesity - namely that it is caused by fluid retention, not be overeating, and that dieting is harmful and cannot help with the problem. - All that is normally necessary for overweight people to lose weight is to give up dieting and cut down drastically on their intake of salt and salty food, making sure they eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - And as a matter of urgency, the DoH should severely curb BY LAW doctors' freedom to prescribe steroids and other drugs (often in high dose) which result in sodium retention and water retention.

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.)

Junior doctors' personal details made public for a time on the internet

Junior doctors' personal details made public in website blunder - Guardian

Extract:

"The Department of Health has apologised after a security lapse on the junior doctors recruitment website enabled confidential information on thousands of applicants, including their sexual orientation and previous convictions, to be accessed by the public yesterday.

With the application process already beset by controversy, the security breach on the site where junior doctors apply for postgraduate medical training programmes is yet another blow to the scheme.

From at least 9am yesterday, many forms of personal information, including doctors' addresses, home phone numbers and religion, were available for eight hours on the NHS medical training website, a breach initially revealed by Channel 4 news."

You've got to hand it to the Department of Health. - Their unfailing ability to make a bad situation worse is unsurpassable...


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.)

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The West's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor

In 2005, G8 pledged $50bn for Africa. Now the reality - Guardian

Extract:

"The west's foot-dragging over aid pledges to Africa was described last night as "grotesque" and a threat to the lives of the world's poor by the body set up by Tony Blair to monitor the results of Britain's Gleneagles summit.

Almost two years after the G8 group of leading industrial nations promised to boost development assistance by $50bn a year by 2010, the Africa Progress Panel headed by the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said rich countries were only 10% of the way to their target.
, ,
"If the efforts to double aid by 2010 are not increased soon it will be too late," Mr Annan said as the APP presented its findings in Berlin to the prime minister and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who will host this year's G8 summit in early June.

Mr Annan said the commitment to doubling aid had fallen year on year since Gleneagles. "In 2005 we did well, by 2006 we were sliding, and unless we now make about $5bn available a year we will not make that target," he said.

Bob Geldof, the musician and lobbyist who also sits on the APP, said the promises of "economic justice" made at Gleneagles, on which Mr Blair had staked his legacy as prime minister, were in danger of collapsing. This amounted to a "grotesque abrogation of responsibility"."

Rate of stillbirths still too high in Britain

Stillbirths rate unchanged despite medical advances - Guardian

Extract:

"The number of stillbirths to mothers across much of the UK is virtually unchanged over the past 13 years, in spite of medical advances, a report says today.

There were 3,676 stillbirths in 2005, and half of those are still unexplained, says the report from the Confidential Inquiry into Maternal and Child Health, which was set up by the medical royal colleges.

The study collects data on all stillbirths and deaths within four weeks of birth from clinicians in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It shows that one in 200 pregnancies end in stillbirth and one in 300 babies die before they are four weeks old.

Stillbirths were in steady decline from the 1950s, says the report, but the rate has held steady since the early 1990s. "The lack of progress in reducing the stillbirth rate is a matter of considerable public health concern meriting further initiatives and research," says the report.

While the causes of half the stillbirths are unknown, it is clear that they were more likely to happen to mothers living in areas of social deprivation, who were twice as likely to have a stillbirth as those in the richest parts of the country."


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.)

NHS foundation trust has backed down over plans to close a midwife-led maternity unit

Protests force U-turn on maternity unit closure - Guardian

Extract:

"As revealed in the Guardian, Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Trust had said it would have to shut the rural Darley Dale unit in Matlock, north Derbyshire, because, with just 120 babies born there each year, it was losing £312,000 annually.

But the decision meant heavily pregnant women would have to travel for up to an hour along country roads to give birth. The closure also flew in the face of plans announced by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, to allow every woman the choice of a home, hospital or midwife-led birth by 2009.

The same recommendations were made by the maternity tsar Dr Sheila Shribman, and are set to be made by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice).

The plan to permanently close the unit - which has been temporarily closed since the autumn - prompted 5,500 local people and the commissioning primary care trust to protest when it was announced as non-negotiable in a consultation document on revamping maternity services.

Today the trust bowed to this pressure - and to the threat, by the Maintain Our Maternity Services (Moms) campaign group, to seek a judicial review over the handling of the consultation."


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.)

The NHS is failing millions of patients with long-term medical conditions...

Confusing 'information jungle' fails long-term sick - Guardian

Extract:

"The NHS is failing millions of patients with long-term medical conditions by making it virtually impossible for them to discover where to get essential services, research for the Department of Health acknowledged today.

The researchers sent a team of "mystery shoppers" to investigate services across England for people with conditions such as MS and diabetes. They found themselves referred from one organisation to another, with nobody taking personal responsibility for finding the specialist nurse, therapist or voluntary organisation that could help.

The Picker Institute, an independent charity commissioned by the department to run the survey, said the NHS and social services were to blame for creating "an information jungle" that vulnerable people could not penetrate.

Angela Coulter, the institute's chief executive, said: "The potential service users were frequently pushed from person to person, or from organisation to organisation. They were often left dangling by calls that went unanswered. They encountered sheer brick walls.

"Too often the services supposed to help people in real need throw them back on their own resources. Patients, service users and carers are left standing at a crossroads in their lives with no signposts to information about the kinds of support they say are vital.""


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.)

Best and worst hospitals in the UK

Welcome to the Hospital Guide - Telegraph


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.)

NHS trust hospitals are not taking basic steps to stop the spread of infection

Hospital failings allow superbugs to spread - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Thousands of patients risk contracting potentially deadly superbugs because NHS hospitals are not taking basic steps to stop the spread of infection, research for The Daily Telegraph reveals today.

An independent study of 167 NHS hospital trusts in England found that infection control was in a state of disarray, with hospitals unable to reassure the public that they are screening and isolating enough infected patients.

Only 10 of the trusts surveyed could provide data showing that they had isolated more than 90 per cent of individuals with MRSA - a standard that infection control experts regard as fundamental in the battle against hospital-acquired bugs. "


"Deaths linked to hospital superbugs have increased dramatically.

Government figures show that between 2004 and 2005, the number of deaths recorded as associated with MRSA rose 39 per cent. Those that mentioned Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) rose by 69 per cent. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that mentions of C. difficile on death certificates rose from 2,247 in 2004 to 3,807 the following year, while mentions of MRSA rose from 1,168 to 1,629."


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.)

The pharmaceutical companies now want to poison your dog too...)o:

New tricks - Telegraph

Extract:

"If you feel down, nowadays you don't have to force a stiff upper lip. Your doctor will prescribe you some wonder drug or other.

But what if your pet feels stressed? The makers of Prozac have come up with a cure for them, too. A tempting chewy pill, available in a succulent beef flavour, will help your poodle feel more perky. "

Good grief! - Antidepressants for dogs now!

Lose weight by eating less salt! - Your dog also will lose weight if you stop feeding him/her with salty food! - Go on! - 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.)


Lemsip may become prescription-only.

'Drug fears could force Lemsip off shelves' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Some over-the-counter flu remedies could become prescription-only amid mounting police concern that their ingredients can be used in the manufacture of the class A drug "crystal meth".

Caroline Flint, the health minister, said that police were increasingly worried that pseudoephedrine and ephedrine - used as decongestants in products such as Lemsip - can be extracted "relatively easily" and used to make methylamphetamine.

She warned of "very serious" consequences if methylamphetamine - known as crystal meth or "ice" - secured a hold in the UK Reducing the ease with which common decongestants can be purchased could make manufacture of the drug more difficult, she added. "



Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Health minister, Andy Burnham, was booed at Unison union conference

Health minister booed at union conference - The Argus

Extract:

"A minister was booed and heckled by health workers todaywhen he tried to defend the Government's policies on the NHS which threaten to spark a summer of strikes.

Health Minister Andy Burnham faced a wall of silence when he stood up to address Unison's health workers' conference in Brighton.

Dozens of delegates held up posters which read: "Low pay, no way, NHS here to stay."

Then there was regular heckling and booing and some of the delegates laughed at parts of the minister's speech."

This reception for Andy Burnham was entirely predictable. - See my previous blog entry.

I'm no fan of Andy Burnham either...)o: - See my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.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.)

The government's massive investment in the NHS has not delivered all the improvements hoped for. - You can say that again...)o:

NHS investment achieves 'limited' success - Guardian

Extract:

"The government's massive investment in the NHS has not delivered all the improvements hoped for, a former health minister said today.

Lord Warner, who retired in December, said expected benefits from expanding the workforce had been restricted by "productivity" issues.

The peer also hit out at staff for refusing to accept the need for change, amid growing dissent over the way reforms are being pushed through.

"If you say 'have [staff] delivered all that you would have liked them to deliver for that extra investment' then the frank answer for me is 'not as much as I would like to have seen'," he told Parliamentary Monitor magazine."

The fundamental probem is that the NHS exists for political reasons and for the welfare of its huge staff. Patient care is a very low priority.


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.)



Binge-drinking harms women's brains more than it does men's brains.

Women's brains hit hardest by alcohol - Telegraph

Extract:

"Binge-drinking harms women's brains more than it does men's, according to research published yesterday.

Tests suggest that excessive drinking undermines cognitive abilities such as memory, problem solving and planning more rapidly in women.

Previous studies have shown women who become dependent on alcohol suffer more rapid damage to the liver, heart and muscles than men. The new research, published in the May issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, found female alcoholics may also sustain greater brain damage than male alcoholics.

James Garbutt, professor of psychiatry and research scientist at Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina, said: "Our study reveals that excessive alcohol can reduce one's intellectual abilities. "


Do your brain - and your liver and your heart - a favour! - As well as avoiding excessive drinking, cut down on your salt intake. - 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.)

Research carried out for The Daily Telegraph reveals large disparity in mortality rates in NHS hospitals.

Revealed: Lottery of death rates in hospitals - Telegrpah

Extracts:

"Patients are twice as likely to die in hospitals with the highest mortality rates than in those with the lowest, according to a report from Dr Foster Research, the independent health information company.

It found that despite the Government pouring billions of pounds into the NHS, a postcode lottery exists with standards of care varying widely across the country."

"Patients at the Royal Free Hospital NHS Trust in north London were identified as the most likely to survive, with a mortality rate 26 per cent below the expected rate.

By contrast, George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Nuneaton, Warks, had the highest mortality rate - 43 per cent above the expected rate.

The research did not investigate cause of death at individual hospitals but Dr Foster Research said typical factors would be medical error, infection and failure to deliver "quality of care"."

"Dr Foster Research's mortality rates, the most comprehensive ever compiled, are standardised to take into account a range of risk factors, such as the age of patients, sex, social demographics, the level of deprivation in the area and whether a patient has any other illnesses."

The Department of Health is, predictably, untroubled by these figures: "A Department of Health spokesman said: "We would strongly advise against patients using these figures to make decisions about the relative safety of hospitals. It is impossible to condense into one number the entire performance of a hospital in a way comparable with every other hospital in the country.""


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
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Monday, April 23, 2007

Jackie Ashley thinks that the Olympics are a chance to transform the nation's lifestyle.

The Olympics are a chance to transform the nation's lifestyle - Guardian

Extract:

"The marathon story is uplifting because it symbolises our urge for self-improvement, open to anyone from any background, fit or unfit. But of course it's a minority who run - a small minority in two senses. The wider picture is that we British are getting unfitter and fatter. Obesity is soaring. Just over a decade ago, 16% of women and 13% of men were obese. Bad enough, but by 2005 the figures were much higher: nearly a quarter of women and 22% of men. Among kids, there has been a similar jump. Just under a fifth of boys and girls are now considered obese.

So what else, apart from marathon running might really make a difference on a national scale? To change the country's attitude to sport will take more than a bit of government finger-wagging now. It will need something big.

That exists already, of course. It is the London Olympics of 2012, the subject of national celebration two years ago but already buried as a good news story by an unending stream of grim tales of soaring costs, terrorism fears and fighting about who will pay."


Pious hopes - but only hopes... - Obesity is not caused by inactivity and is not lessened by taking more exercise. - Read the evidence here: Exercise has little effect on childhood weight

Obesity is caused by fluid retention and can be lessened by reducing salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of potassium-rich food like fruit and fresh vegetables.

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.)

Three doctors, including Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine, say a free health service is not possible.

Doctors' report claims: 'We no longer have free health care' - The Independent

Extract:

"Increasing numbers of patients are paying for private "top-up" treatments alongside NHS care, meaning the health service is no longer free, a report by leading doctors warns today.

The doctors have written to all three main political parties, and the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, outlining their concerns that the idea of a free health service is a "political mirage".

The study was written by three doctors, including Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine for the group Doctors for Reform, which has nearly 1,000 members, all working for the NHS.

It says that patients are developing "sophisticated approaches to purchasing upgrades to their care", including in key areas such as cancer and heart disease.

Publication of the report "Free at the point of delivery: reality or political mirage" comes the day after International Development Secretary Hilary Benn was heckled by union delegates as he tried to defend the Government's record on the NHS.

While politicians often claim care is free at the point of delivery "this mantra is now a political mirage", the report said. Doctors for Reform is urging a debate on future healthcare funding."



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.)

Misguided scientists create hazardous 'anti-obesity' infant formula

Scientists create 'anti-obesity' infant formula - The Independent

I am absolutely incensed about this! - Not content with ruining the health of the rest of the populace, obesity 'experts' are proposing to compromise babies' health before they have even got started on their lives...)o:

There is a dangerous presumption that somehow obesity will continue to increase despite what anyone does. - That is nonsense, of course. - The cause of increasing obesity is the dangerously flawed advice given by the 'experts'. - The assumption that keeps on being made is that obesity is caused by overeating, but it is not. - It is caused by fluid retention. - Fluid retention (and therefore obesity) is caused in children by eating salt or salty food. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html - When adults who previously were slim suddenly put on a lot of weight (i.e. fluid retention) it is usually caused by taking prescribed medication, because so many prescribed drugs have the side-effects of sodium and water retention. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

There has never been any evidence to support the overeating theory of obesity causation, nor to support the calorie reduction/increase exercise theory of obesity reduction. They are both untested and untrue.

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOT TO CUT DOWN ON CALORIES IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT. - IT DOES NOT WORK. - SINCE OBESITY IS NOT CAUSED BY OVEREATING, IT IS NOT REVERSED BY UNDEREATING.

Slimming/dieting is unnecessary, ineffective and is ALWAYS harmful - often dangerously so.

The safe, easy, reliable, rapid way to lose excess weight is to stop eating salt/sodium and salty food and to eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk and my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection Read about the politics, the medical negligence and the baleful pharmaceutical industry that have caused the obesity epidemic - page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html (You need to read the whole page.)
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients in Britain

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients - The Independent

Extracts:

"Britain's obesity epidemic is forcing the NHS to introduce specially adapted ambulances for overweight patients.

Nearly a quarter of hospitals have brought in vehicles which have strengthened stretchers, hoists and suspension, new figures show. More than a third of those surveyed said they were planning to introduce the ambulances, so they could cope with call-outs from the obese.

The NHS spends an estimated £7bn every year on obesity- or bariatric-related disorders. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI) goes over 30. Nearly a quarter of British adults are now overweight, which has created huge problems for ambulance crews."

"How Britain's obesity problem tips the scales

BIGGER COFFINS: Funeral directors are being obliged to order larger-sized coffins from the United States to take expanding Britons on their final journey.


LARGER FURNACES: Cematoriums are installing new furnaces to cater for coffins up to 44in wide.

FAIRGROUND RIDES: Designers are installing larger seats and altering the normal way of strapping passengers in by their shoulders. Instead, they are fastened in around the waist. G Force, in Tamworth, has a larger seat at the rear of each six-seater train.

NEW AMBULANCE TROLLEYS: Wider and reinforced to cope with extra weight. They also feature clamps that fix to the ambulance floor. "

Of course there would not be any of these problems if people had been given the facts about obesity. - 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. 'Slimming'/dieting almost always results in weight gain because it usually causes increased fluid retention. There has never been any scientific, reproducible evidence to support the theory that eating fewer calories reduces obesity. PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR CALORIE INTAKE DO NOT LOSE WEIGHT. - PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR SALT/SODIUM INTAKE DO LOSE WEIGHT - EASILY AND RAPIDLY.

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.)

Remarkable kidney transplant arrangement for two American men, Clinton Johnson and Young Hwang

Couples swap kidneys to save each other - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"When it comes to reality television, wife swaps are a recipe for disaster. But two American men have discovered that the concept has life-saving possibilities.

Two months ago, Clinton Johnson and Young Hwang were both suffering from kidney failure and facing uncertain waits for donor organs; their choices were between debilitating dialysis and death.

Now they have taken part in a remarkable transplant arrangement that has left each the proud owner of a new kidney - given by the other man's wife. Mr Johnson, 58, from Laurel in Maryland, who received a kidney from Sun Hae Hwang, said: "I had decided I did not want dialysis and had accepted that if I did not get a kidney, I was going to die. Now I can look at a full life. It is amazing."


Mr Hwang, a 64-year-old from Oakton in Virginia, who was given a kidney by Mr Johnson's wife Pat Divinnie, added: "My kidney is a gift from God through a person."

The organ swap was organised by the Washington Hospital Centre, in the American capital, after Mr Hwang had already been waiting three years for a kidney and Mr Johnson was told his condition was rapidly deteriorating."

Reduce your own risk of kidney failure by cutting down on salt and salty food. - 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.)


Thousands of traumatised soldiers have been denied payouts because Government-approved insurance scheme doesn't cover long-term psychological illness

Mentally ill troops denied pay-out by the Army's approved insurers - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"Thousands of traumatised soldiers have been denied payouts because a Government-approved insurance scheme does not cover long-term psychological illnesses.

Troops medically discharged from the military after developing combat-related mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not receive compensation from the Pax insurance scheme, which is described to soldiers as "your best defence against the unexpected". Pax is owned by Aon Ltd, one of the five biggest insurance companies in the world.


The chance of developing a psychological illness after serving in combat operations is now greater than at any time since the Korean War half a century ago. Government figures show that more than 2,100 soldiers have returned from Iraq since 2003 suffering from some form of mental illness. Afghanistan will have produced further such casualties.

All forces personnel are encouraged to take out insurance before they deploy on military operations. Most choose the Pax policy because it is approved by the Ministry of Defence.
Although the policy states in the small print of its terms and conditions that it does not include cover for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or psychiatric illness, serving officers claim that such stipulations are rarely, if ever, spelled out to -soldiers."

"Up to 328 servicemen and women returned from Iraq with PTSD, which can lead to manic depression. Another 227 were diagnosed with other neurotic disorders. A further 188 had taken part in "psychoactive substance misuse", including alcohol and drug abuse, and the abuse of antidepressants."

Melvyn Bragg attacks Mental Health Bill as 'inhumane, inefficient and unfair'

Lord Bragg attacks Mental Health Bill as 'inhumane, inefficient and unfair' - The Independent

Extract:

"Melvyn Bragg has launched a blistering attack on the Government over its attempts to bring in "inhumane" and unfair laws that would lead to the mentally ill being locked up rather than treated.

Speaking before moves to force mental health legislation through the House of Commons this week, the broadcaster and Labour peer said: "It would be cowardly of the Government to allow its policy to be driven by tabloid hysteria about the very, very rare, though of course deeply regrettable, incidences of murder and assault committed by people with severe mental health problems. The way to cure that is to improve probation and not resort to lock-them-up legislation, which is inhumane, inefficient and, above, all unfair.""

Two giant mobile phone companies are going to move a mast at a primary school, after parents claimed their children became ill.

The school that took on mobile phone companies - The Independent

Extracts:

"Two giant mobile phone companies are to move a mast at a primary school, after parents claimed their children fell sick.

The mast was already in use when St Edward's RC primary school opened in Coleshill, Warwickshire 11 years ago. It is owned by O2, which rents space on it to Orange. An O2 spokesman said "there were concerns from some of the local people that there are health issues" but added that the mast posed no risks to health."

"56 per cent of the children and 86 per cent of the staff had problems sleeping, 54 per cent and 59 per cent respectively were getting headaches and migraines, and 46 per cent and 95 per cent respectively reported fatigue and numbness. About 45 per cent of teachers and pupils had red eyes; other symptoms included dizziness, nosebleeds, nausea and hearing strange hums and clicks."


Do your health a big favour and also 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.)

Wi-Fi: Children at risk in schools from using wireless communication networks

Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog' - The Independent

Extracts:

"Britain's top health protection watchdog is pressing for a formal investigation into the hazards of using wireless communication networks in schools amid mounting concern that they may be damaging children's health, 'The Independent on Sunday' can reveal.

Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency, wants pupils to be monitored for ill effects from the networks - known as Wi-Fi - which emit radiation and are being installed in classrooms across the nation.

Sir William - who is a former chief scientific adviser to the Government, and has chaired two official inquiries into the hazards of mobile phones - is adding his weight to growing pressure for a similar examination of Wi-Fi, which some scientists fear could cause cancer and premature senility.

Wi-Fi - described by the Department of Education and Skills as a "magical" system that means computers do not have to be connected to telephone lines - is rapidly being taken up inschools, with estimates that more than half of primary schools - and four-fifths of secondary schools - have installed it .

But several European provincial governments have already taken action to ban, or limit, its use in the classroom, and Stowe School has partially removed it after a teacher became ill.

This week the Professional Association of Teachers, which represents 35,000 staff across the country, will write to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for Education, to demand an official inquiry. Virtually no studies have been carried out into Wi-Fi's effects on pupils, but it gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile phones and phone masts."

"Professor Olle Johansson, of Sweden's prestigious Karolinska Institute, who is deeply concerned about the spread of Wi-Fi, says there are "thousands" of articles in scientific literature demonstrating "adverse health effects". He adds: "Do we not know enough already to say, 'Stop!'?"

For the past 16 months, the provincial government of Salzburg in Austria has been advising schools not to install Wi-Fi, and is considering a ban. Dr Gerd Oberfeld, its head of environmental health and medicine, calls the technology "dangerous"."


See also Danger on the airwaves: Is the Wi-Fi revolution a health time bomb? - The Independent

Extracts:

"So far only a few, faint warnings have been raised, mainly by people who are so sensitised to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobiles, their masts and Wi-Fi that they become ill in its presence. The World Health Organisation estimates that up to three out of every hundred people are "electrosensitive" to some extent. But scientists and doctors - and some European governments - are adding their voices to the alarm as it becomes clear that the almost universal use of mobile phones may be storing up medical catastrophe for the future.

A recent authoritative Finnish study has found that people who have used mobiles for more than ten years are 40 per cent more likely to get a brain tumour on the same side of the head as they hold their handset; Swedish research suggests that the risk is almost four times as great. And further research from Sweden claims that the radiation kills off brain cells, which could lead to today's younger generation going senile in their forties and fifties.

Professor Lawrie Challis, who heads the Government's official mobile safety research, this year said that the mobile could turn out to be "the cigarette of the 21st century"."

"Prof Leif Salford, of Lund University - who showed that the radiation kills off brain cells - is also deeply worried about wi-fi's addition to "electronic smog".

There is particular concern about children partly because they are more vulnerable - as their skulls are thinner and their nervous systems are still developing - and because they will be exposed to more of the radiation during their lives."


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 clamp down on the way cigarettes are sold are being considered by the government to protect children's health.

Plans for clamp on teenage smoking - The Observer

Extracts:

"Radical plans to clamp down on the way cigarettes are sold are being considered by the government in an effort to tackle historically high levels of smoking among teenagers.

The blueprint for making cigarettes harder to buy, particularly for young people, have been drawn up by leading doctors and will now be evaluated by the Department of Health.

The sale of packs of 10 cigarettes - attractive to teenagers because they are cheaper - would be banned and cigarettes kept out of sight in shops."

"The far-reaching suggestions from the BMA's board of science are intended to reduce the harm which adult smoking does to children. Its report, 'Breaking the Cycle of Children's Exposure to Tobacco Smoke', stresses that parental smoking has a profound impact on the health of offspring, through inhalation of second-hand smoke, house fires caused by cigarettes and encouraging youngsters to regard smoking as normal. Having parents who smoke increases the chance of young people smoking."

"The measures are intended to reduce what the Treasury has estimated is the 80 billion cigarettes bought in the UK every year and, over time, cut the annual toll of about 112,000 deaths - 70,000 in men and 42,000 in women - linked to smoking. About 1,000 people a day are admitted to hospital in England alone suffering from smoking-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems.

Although only a quarter of British adults smoke, almost half the country's children are exposed to tobacco smoke at home, according to research by Cancer Research UK, the leading cancer charity. The Royal College of Physicians estimates that more than 17,000 children under five are admitted to hospital every year because of passive smoking."

Reduce your risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer, and lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website
www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk and webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Pensioners led by Donald Giddings, a 78-year-old heart patient, challenge the decision-making process in downgrading Hemel Hempstead health services.

Pensioners go to court over casualty unit loss - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"The Government is being taken to court by patients furious at the loss of local emergency services.

Pensioners led by Donald Giddings, a 78-year-old heart patient, are challenging the way in which the decision to downgrade health services in the Hertfordshire town of Hemel Hempstead was made.

This week, the High Court in London set a date for a judicial review that will examine claims by the Dacorum Hospital Action Group that the views of the public were misrepresented" during the consultation over the proposed changes.

If successful, the case could lead to dozens of similar claims being made by opponents of government proposals to close dozens of other hospitals across the country.

The group, represented by Matrix, the law chambers of which Cherie Booth, the Prime Minister's wife, is a member, claim that their views were ignored during a consultation led by John Underwood, a former Labour spin doctor hired by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust last July."

"...thousands of members of the public told the trust that they did not want to lose their casualty department. However, when health chiefs admitted last November that they could not afford to build the new hospital, they said that Hemel Hempstead would still be stripped of most of its services."

Safeguard your health! - Cut down on salt! - See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk and webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Prince Charles criticises Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its handling of agricultural policies.

Farmers 'let down' by ministers, says Charles - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"The Government is jeopardising Britain's rural communities by failing to give proper support to farmers, says the Prince of Wales.

The "guardians of our countryside" have been let down and face a bleak future, he says in a veiled attack on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its handling of agricultural policies.

In a letter to a farming charity, he said farmers were enduring "some of the toughest times in living memory" because of the fiasco over missing subsidy payments that has left many facing ruin."

"More than 116,000 farmers across the country were supposed to have received their subsidies by mid-2006. By February this year, however, 25,000 cases were still under review, with the sums involved ranging from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands. About 10,000 farmers have not yet received anything.

This has cost debt-ridden farmers big sums in bank interest, and contributed to a huge rise in the numbers struggling to survive. Calls to the Farm Crisis Network from farmers asking for financial and psychiatric help rose by 60 per cent last year to the highest level since the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001."

Defra has been one of the government's more spectacularly poorly performing departments...)o: - The Department of Health is the worst...)o:


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.)

More babies - one in 100 - are born with foetal alcohol syndrome than all the major genetic disorders combined.

'The brutal fact is that Dominic looks like this because he was so drunk while in the womb' - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"More babies - one in 100 - are born with foetal alcohol syndrome than all the major genetic disorders combined, yet the public know almost nothing about it. With alcohol consumption increasing among women, Olga Craig uncovers the appalling consequences for the damaged children. "

"About 28 babies with the most severe form are born each week. Yet the woeful lack of diagnostic expertise within the medical profession and the lack of publicity given to the syndrome means that thousands of women drink, and drink heavily, during pregnancy, oblivious to the risk to their unborn child.

Last Friday, backed by women such as Mrs Head, Lord Mitchell, the Labour peer, introduced the Alcohol Labelling Bill in the House of Lords, calling for it to be made compulsory for all alcohol containers to carry labels warning about the dangers of drinking while pregnant - as is already the case in France, America and Chile.

The backbench bill, which is backed by the National Organisation for Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS), gained an unopposed second reading. But it may face a rocky ride through the Commons, since many MPs believe it is yet another example of a nannying state. Without Government backing it is unlikely to become law.

As Britain's binge-drinking culture becomes ingrained in our psyche, all too few pregnant women are aware of the enormous risks to which they expose their unborn child if they continue to drink."

"Raj Mukhjejee, a leading expert in FASD, from St George's hospital medical school, in south London, says we now know that the problem is much greater than was previously thought, and it needs more publicity. "The uncertain levels of risk to the developing foetus, coupled with the possibility of misinterpreting a health-promotion message means the only safe message in pregnancy is abstinence," he says.

His view would seem to be at odds with Department of Health guidelines, which are also followed by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. They suggest that it is safe to drink one to two units, once or twice a week."


It seems clear that pregnant mothers will give their baby a healthier start in life by avoiding alcohol during pregnancy. And it would be a heavy burden of guilt to bear if, by binge-drinking in pregnancy, a mother caused her child to be born seriously disabled. - Pregnant mothers will also give their baby a healthier start in life if they avoid salt and salty food during pregnancy. - This would safeguard their own health too, lowering their risk of high blood pressure and undue weight gain. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/pregnant_mothers.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.)

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Botulism warning about some vacuum-packed meat sold in Scotland and Cumbria

Botulism warning over vacuum-packed meat - Telegraph

Extract:

"Consumers have been warned not to eat batches of vacuum-packed meat sold in Scotland and Cumbria over concerns it could be infected with one of the most lethal forms of food poisoning.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issued the alert over 2.6kg of smoked wild venison and smoked beef amid fears it is tainted with the deadly botulism bacteria.


The warning applies to 100g packs of meat produced by Islay Fine Food Company, Isle of Islay, which was sold at several specialist retail and catering outlets.

The beef batch has a use-by date of May 9 2007. The venison batch has a use-by date of June 9, 2007."

Friday, April 20, 2007

Hospitals were yesterday ordered to assess every patient on admission to hospital for their risk of developing deadly blood clots.

Hospitals told to assess all patients for blood clot risk - Guardian

Extract:

"Hospitals were yesterday ordered to assess every patient on admission to hospital for their risk of developing deadly blood clots, in an attempt to prevent the 25,000 deaths a year from clots.

The risk of developing a fatal blood clot rises eightfold when people are admitted to hospital and doctors could prevent many of the deaths if they were on the look out for those most at risk, according to a high level report ordered by the chief medical officer.

Ministers immediately backed the plans.

Hospital staff should assess each patient for risks - including age, immobility or if they are on certain medications including the pill. Those most at risk should be routinely prescribed prophylactics, the report says.

Blood clots in the veins, known as Venousthromboembolism (VTE), are responsible for more deaths in the UK a year than breast cancers, road traffic accidents and Aids put together.

They include the most serious, deep vein thrombosis, and 50,000 a year die - half in hospital, where immobility and some surgical procedures increase the risk."


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.)

Dentists were yesterday ordered to stop reusing instruments in root canal treatments after fears that they could spread the infection of variant CJD

Dentists given root canal warning over CJD risk - Guardian

Extract:

"Dentists were yesterday ordered to stop reusing instruments in root canal treatments after fears that they could spread the infection of variant CJD.

The chief dental officer, Barry Cockcroft, issued the edict after evidence that vCJD could hypothetically survive the sterilisation techniques used between surgeries. He emphasised that the move was precautionary, and there had been no reported cases of anyone contracting vCJD from dental procedures.

Dr Cockcroft added: "The guidance is purely an extra precaution. The public should continue to attend their dentist as normal.""


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.)

Disquiet over huge compensation paid from taxpayers' money to Bernard Matthews, the turkey products company associated with the bird flu outbreak.

Disquiet over pay to 'bird flu farmer' - Independent

Extract:

"Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons, said he was "uncomfortable" with the payment of £589,000 in compensation by the taxpayer to Bernard Matthews, the turkey products company at the centre of the bird flu outbreak.

Some 159,000 turkeys were culled at Bernard Matthews' Suffolk farm to prevent the H5N1 virus spreading. The firm will be reimbursed between £3 and £4 per bird, depending on their age, by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Mr Straw told MPs: "All of us are uncomfortable about the reports of high levels of compensation to Mr Matthews' firm.""

The stress of everyday life is threatening a global epidemic of cardiovascular disease, a report by international health experts claims.

'Stress threatens epidemic of heart disease' - Telegraph

Extract:

"The stress of everyday life is threatening a global epidemic of cardiovascular disease, a report by international health experts has warned.

High blood pressure is a "silent condition" which is "grossly underestimated" by patients, their families, medics and politicians, according to the study unveiled at the European Parliament in Brussels.

The move towards "Westernised" lifestyles - associated with high-fat diets, long working hours and lack of exercise - is partly to blame. But by 2025 almost two thirds of the world's adults could have high blood pressure."

What nonsense! - 'Stress' is a weasel word. - People use it to mean exactly what they want it to mean. Here the word 'stress' is being used to cover up the real causes of heart disease and the people/power groups responsible for the high incidence of heart disease and so many other diseases.

Overwhelmingly there are two main causes of high blood pressure. One is salt sensitivity, and that is mainly caused by the side-effects of many - maybe even by most - of the drugs that doctors routinely prescribe far too much, frequently in far too high a dose. The other is the very grave effects of decades of misinformation and catastrophically wrong advice given by the medical profession and other supposed 'experts' about the causes and treatment of obesity.

These two factors lead to increased sodium and water retention in the blood stream, weakened blood vessel walls, thinning skin, strain on the heart because of the greater blood volume, leading in turn a host of ill-health problems of varying degrees of seriousness, including an enlarged heart and events like strokes from cerebral haemorrhage, and heart disease, heart attack, internal bleeding, obesity, type 2 diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol levels, cirrhosis of the liver and other liver damage, kidney damage, tiredness, poor sleep, red face, sleep apnoea, snoring, varicose veins, tendency to bruise easily, headaches and migraines, depression, thinning skin, pain, osteoporosis... the list is literally endless. - See some of them here: http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Read about the politics of all this medical negligence and ignorance, the dereliction of duty of successive Chief Medical Officers at the inappropriately named Department of Health(!), political unconcern and complacency, the food industry that persisted in ladling extremely high quantities of salt into their processed foods and putting pressure on government departments to let them continue to do so, the harm done by the pharmaceutical companies, etc on this page - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - and the wider issues on this page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html

You may like to read my Mensa article here
Obesity and the Salt Connection

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.)

If you need further help/info, I can be emailed from my website.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sue Threakall, whose husband Bob died aged 47 in 1991, has accused the government of ignoring warnings, and doctors of ignoring the Hippocratic oath.

Widow accuses doctors over donor blood risks - Guardian

Extract:

"The widow of a haemophiliac who contracted HIV through contaminated blood products given on the NHS has accused the government of ignoring warnings, leaving 5,000 people to be infected in a "wholly avoidable tragedy".

Sue Threakall, whose husband Bob died aged 47 in 1991, also accused doctors of ignoring the Hippocratic oath by treating patients without telling them of the risk of infection from HIV or hepatitis C.

She said doctors also failed to tell patients when they were being tested for HIV, and to tell them immediately if they tested positive. Her husband was not told for six months, despite doctors knowing the couple were having unprotected sex. Mrs Threakall said: "Warnings were ignored, lessons were not learned and our community was lied to by the people it should have trusted most."

Mrs Threakall, 54, a teacher from Barnstaple, Devon, was speaking on the first day of an independent public inquiry into the supply of contaminated blood plasma to haemophiliacs by the NHS in the 1970s and early 1980s."

NHS consultants are getting paid a lot more to do a lot less work...)o:

NHS consultants 'work less for 25% more pay' - Independent

Extract:

"Consultants working in the National Health Service in England have enjoyed a 25% increase in pay while seeing their workload fall, the Whitehall spending watchdog disclosed today.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said it was "regrettable" that the new consultants' contract, agreed in 2003, has so far failed to deliver promised improvements in productivity and patient services.

The NAO said that the implementation of the contract in England for the first three years had cost £715 million - £150 million more than the Department of Health originally estimated.

In that time, the average consultants' pay rose to £110,000 - an increase of more than 25% - while the average number of hours worked fell from 51.6-a-week to 50.2 - a 1.4 hours-a-week decrease. "

You couldn't make it up, could you?

Suggestion: - since the National Audit Office tends so regularly to turn up this sort of Alice in Wonderland pay anomaly with regard to doctors' pay, wouldn't it be a good idea for a member of the NAO to be co-opted to the government's negotiating team, so that the doctors' negotiating team - so skilled at screwing massive overpayments from the public purse - would have somebody with some sense to stand up against unbridled avarice?


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.)

Nurses threaten industrial action over pay award

Nurses threaten action over pay award - Independent

Extract:

"Nurses' leaders have threatened to ballot their members on industrial action unless ministers reverse their decision to award nurses a below-inflation pay deal.

Dr Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said the union's council would be seeking an emergency meeting with Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, and Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, following angry scenes yesterday at the RCN's annual conference in Harrogate.

The RCN's members called the pay award "insulting". Nurses also voted overwhelmingly, by 97 per cent, in favour of calling on the union's council to investigate what forms of industrial action could be taken."

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A little more about the haemophilia sufferers being given unsafe blood products.

Tests of clotting agent 'led to 2,000 deaths' - This is the Independent's take on the haemophilia sufferers being given unsafe blood products.

Extract:

"Some 2,000 haemophiliacs died after British doctors tested new blood products on them, having ignored safety warnings for the sake of "scientific kudos," it has been claimed."

It is reported that the UK has the highest level of problem drug use and the second highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe.

UK 'has worst drug problem in Europe' - Independent

Extract:

"The UK has the highest level of problem drug use and the second highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe, according to a report being published today.

Despite successive governments' attempts to control the demand for and supply of illegal drugs, drug policy appears to have had "minimal" impact on the overall level of use in the UK, according to its authors.

However, they do credit drug policy with succeeding in addressing certain illnesses and aspects of criminality associated with problematic drug use.

The report, by experts Professor Peter Reuter of Maryland University in the US and Alex Stevens of the European Institute of Social Services at Kent University, has been commissioned for today's launch of the independent UK Drug Policy Commission."

The legally prescribed drugs cause far, far more problems and far, far more suffering than the illegal drugs, in my opinion...)o:

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.)

Most young people in care believe they should have the option of going to boarding school

Children in care back boarding school proposal - Guardian

Extract:

"Over two-thirds of young people in care believe they should have the option of going to boarding school rather than staying in a care home or foster family, according to findings published yesterday.

A government consultation on plans to overhaul the UK's troubled care system revealed almost the same proportion of care professionals also think a boarding place should be available as an alternative for children unable to live with their families.

The idea was floated by the government last October in its Care Matters green paper, which said boarding school could provide "an excellent means of stability and support". Children and professionals involved in the consultation backed the idea of expanding that option, providing any decision was based on the best interests and needs of the child.

With boarding fees running at between £12,000 and £24,000 a year, the scheme could also be a more cost-effective alternative to placing children in care, which can cost up to £3,000 a week, or over £150,000 annually."


What an excellent idea! - I do hope it gets implemented. Children in care seem at present to get a pretty raw deal in so many ways.

Safeguard your children from becoming obese: do not give them salty food to eat. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.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.)