MEDICAL MATTERS

[Tizer]

It's heart-breaking to see children who have become obese.

[Stanley]

Dead right Peter and at applies to dogs as well.... Should be prosecuted as abuse in both cases. Too many mothers worrying about children with food fads. In the war if you didn't eat it you waited until the next meal. That cured being faddy....

[Cathy]

Wouldn't it be nice to wave a magic wand and go back to
the time before processed foods were introduced and when people lived a more physically active life.
For decades now we have been sold too much salt sugar hormones insecticides chemicals and bad fats etc in our food. It's all most people have ever know. No wonder we have so many unhealthy people in the world.
A lot of us have listened to the warnings and are trying to eat (mostly) the right things and cook the right way. Sadly there are children out there who can't even name the vegetables, and some people can't or won't change even tho there is now a lot of education re foods available.
Governments, unhealthy food processors, and advertising agents have a lot to answer for.

[Stanley]

You are absolutely right Cathy. As we have said so often, the ultimate answer is self-help, we can never control the monster that is the modern food industry whose only goal is to cut costs, increase sales and make as much profit as possible. In addition they have the money to finance sophisticated lobbying operations and fund helpful politicians and scientists. If a fraction of this money was devoted to educating the public generally but children in particular we would start to see an improvement.
I am a great believer in thorough cost/benefit analysis and I am convinced that if such an exercise was done on this subject, the mismatch between 'the benefits of cheap food' (It isn't cheap actually!) and the subsequent death toll and stress on health services there would be a revolution! I am convinced that we should be teaching children in school to be more critical and aware of the dangers in many common processed foods. Let's do this and teach cookery again in schools! Forget the fancy names like 'domestic economy' and 'food technology'. Simply make kids aware at an early age of the advantages of cooking your own food from basic natural ingredients. The appetite is there! Look at the success of cookery programmes on TV. As a society we will continue to fail as long as we neglect this vital part of education.
Does it work? I can't say for certain but every time I set off for my walk in the morning, striding out and pain-free despite the mileage I can't help suspecting that my 'good luck' is no accident. The effort I put into understanding my body and how it reacts to good basic nutrition must have a bearing on it. Put it another way, even if I am totally wrong, my food is cheap, tasty and free from harmful additions. Compare the cost of a 'ready meal' with half a cauli and some carrots....
I rest my case.....

[Tizer]

I've just seen this on the BBC web site...
`Lancashire homes forced to boil water due to Cryptosporidium bug'
Cryptosporidium is not a bacteria or virus but a parasite that occurs in soil and water and can cause diarrhoea and stomach pain in humans. A large area is affected as shown by a map on the BBC web site and United Utilities are telling people to drink bottled water. LINK

[Big Kev]

Latest news says people should boil their tap water. It's affected an area around Preston, Blackpool and the Fylde coast.

[Stanley]

I use three pairs of glasses, a Varilux pair for general use, a pair ranged specially for the distance to my computer screen and a pair of close readers which are Varilux as well but covering very close reading to a bit further away but not as far as the computer ones. They are all old prescriptions now and I went to see James Bontoft, my optician, yesterday to have them all checked after the beating my eyes have taken over the last two years. (He didn't charge, he was as interested as I was!)
I often use the phrase 'fighter pilot vision' which is how my late friend Walter Fisher described his eyesight after having cataract surgery late on in life. James confirmed yesterday that my left eye exceeds that standard and the right one is also at that standard but marred by the slight distortion after the operation to re-attach my retina. All three pairs a spectacles are correct and don't need changing. The slight aberration I have noticed is due to the distortion in the right eye not any discrepancy in the prescription. He said I had better sight than him and by any standards, exceptional. I didn't need to spend any money, just go away and enjoy what, at my age, is quite exceptional.
I think I knew this but needed an independent assessment. So I shall rest content now. Just one more appointment at the eye clinic to do a final check on my retinas and then the normal annual check in January next year. After all the alarums and excursions of the last couple of years I think I've got my eyes sorted (touch wood!). The message is that modern eye care is a miracle and I am so grateful for all the work that has been done by those dreaded scientists and researchers over the years. You can all take comfort from my experience, even when things go dark there is hope!
The lessons I have learned are that even when your sight is bad you can compensate and when you are about your normal business, always remember that there are people around you who are almost blind. So when you see someone about to cross the road don't automatically assume they can see as well as you can.....
By the way, God Bless the 1945 Labour government!!

[Tizer]

"The slight aberration I have noticed is due to the distortion in the right eye not any discrepancy in the prescription." - Stanley.
In the 1990s my dad had a bout of Bell's Palsy affecting one side of his face. He recovered well and in time his facial features returned to normal. Afterwards, the lens on that side of his glasses always had to have what they referred to as a prism and I assume that was to correct a permanent distortion in his eye resulting from the palsy. You couldn't easily see the prism, the lens looked normal from a distance.

The BBC have got a bit mixed up in their reporting on the Lancs cryptosporidium contamination in drinking water. In one place they refer to it causing mild diarrhoea, in another to extreme diarrhoea. The truth is that the effect depends on the strength of the person's immune system. It should be mild and self-limiting (i.e. goes away in time without need for drugs) in `normal' people but is serious for those with impaired immunity and a concern for babies and infants. It's very serious for anyone with HIV.

The Cryptosporidium parvum parasite came to be recognised in the 1990s as a major cause of diarrhoea around the world. It's passed from animal to animal via the faeces and is therefore widely spread in the environment and can be detected in most water reservoirs. The water companies were missing it because it's not affected by chlorination. The parasite reproduces in the host animal, forming eggs (oocysts) which are then excreted in the faeces. These eggs `hatch' when they get into the next animal. There was an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in and around Clitheroe in 2000 and this was found to be due to contamination of drinking water. An interesting fact emerged afterwards and I hope that United Utilities take it into account. The water company switched to another, uncontaminated, water source but the cryptosporidium oocysts persisted in the water distribution system and took a long time to clear. It's thought that they became trapped in the biofilm that coats the inside of water pipes. LINK

[Stanley]

I've always had a prism in the right lens. They are used to correct slight misalignments in an eye and most people have them to some degree. That's why someone with properly tested and prescribed glasses can have better vision than others who 'don't need glasses'. This puzzled them when I was in training in the army in 1954 when I shot a 'marksman score' with the .303 rifle at Sealand Ranges. I was classified as C3[not to be employed in infantry or artillery] because of my eyesight. With it's usual quirky logic the army put me in the Cheshires (infantry) and then in Anti Tank (artillery)!
They smelt a rat and didn't believe the score was genuine so the following day the Company Sergeant Major took me to the range and supervised me shooting the course again which included some targets at 600 yards. I shot an even better score and I explained to him that without glasses I was almost blind but with them I had almost perfect vision.... You got extra pay for being a Marksman and a crossed rifle badge on your sleeve.... I was top man with the Bren Gun as well but that didn't count.

[Tizer]

Putting you in infantry and artillery regardless of the C3 designation reminds me of Vic Shackleton's story. The army looked at his occupation as a steeplejack, puzzled a bit, then put him in the catering corps! (And he hadn't been there long before they whipped him out and sent him back home to be a steeplejack again in a protected occupation.)

[Stanley]

I often thought that the allocation to units was done by sticking a pin in a list. It worked out well for me but not for some. I saw some sad cases....
My mind started working yesterday and just for curiosity I downloaded the necessary form and I've sent off to Glasgow for my full service and medical history.....
News item this morning advising 'middle aged' people to get enough sleep.... Also the usual bleeding obvious advice about obesity, exercise etc. Why just the 'middle aged'?

[Stanley]

My current Varilux lens are scratched slightly so I decided to treat myself with a new pair to be kept for 'best'. (ie. Not in the shed!) New frames and lens are £207! Still, no pockets in a shroud.....

[Tripps]

There is a new shop called Home Bargains opened near here, and I took a look. I bought a pair of reading glasses for spares / shopping / losing, and they cost only 99p. I compared them to the Tesco optician prescribed ones which I have, which cost about £50, and they seem to be of comparable quality, both having spring loaded arms. Assuming they are not selling them below cost - that's ridiculous. Now I know who pays for the continual (and very funny) Specsavers adverts on TV.
Another option is to use your prescription elsewhere.

[Bruff]

Home Bargains seems to have a permanent offer of 240 Yorkshire Tea bags for the price of 120. Marvellous.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

See THIS for the latest pronouncement from NICE on over prescribing of antibiotics. One wonders if this is a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.... For many years I have tried to avoid antibiotics and relied on my immune system. It seems to have worked so far. But of course the problem is that the majority of the public know nothing about the effects of antibiotics and regard them as a 'magic bullet' that cures all ills...
Perhaps rather than threatening hard pressed doctors it would be better to make a really serious bid to educate patients. But is it too late? In many cases the genii is out of the bottle....

[Cathy]

Can't remember when I last had a course of antibiotics, must be a good 15 or more years ago.

[Marilyn]

Reckon it would be 30+ years for me Cazza...my old GP didn't believe in them.

[Stanley]

You will both have unsullied immune systems....

[Tizer]

I've only rarely had an antibiotic, and then for severe, dangerous bacterial infection, but in the mid-1990s I had duodenal ulcers and the standard treatment has become antibiotics to kill off the Helicobacter which are now considered to be their cause. I have the impression that those antibiotics might have been at least partly responsible for the chronic gut problems I now have.

Stanley, as well as the genii being out of the bottle there is the problem that antibiotics are used widely in veterinary treatment, notably in farm animals which means that resistance genes are even more widespread in the environment. Some of these vet antibiotics are the same as those used in humans.

[Stanley]

I saw that happening in the late 1960s and I think that agriculture and veterinary medicine use the greater proportion of antibiotics produced today. Much of it in the US as a routine feed supplement.

[Tizer]

News today that we might have to improve our polio vaccines. It's been found that a man who was vaccinated 30 years ago has been shedding live polio virus ever since. He has an immune disorder that allowed the vaccine virus to live in his body. Testing of sewage samples now shows that polio virus is sometimes present, suggesting that there are other people like him.

[Moh]

I am on my second dose of antibiotics & steroids for a nasty chest infection that has aggrevated my COPD leaving me very short of breath and plenty of coughing.

[Cathy]

Oh Moh sorry to hear that, hope you get better very soon

[Tizer]

You have my sympathy, Moh. I now have a lung problem, a type of COPD I think I inherited genetically from my Mum, and I get short of breath very easily, such as walking up stairs. Just after our holiday in Cornwall I got a chest infection and was coughing badly for several weeks. I just about got over when my dad went into hospital and I got another bout of similar infection after visiting the hospital! Keep warm and get well soon!

[Stanley]

That's not fair Moh! I hope you get better soon but from the sound of it it's a chronic condition and both you and Tiz are always at risk. How the hell have I escaped that? You can do much to safeguard your own health I know but things like that are a lottery.....