The Small Sign That Means So Much To A Coeliac
I’ve bought Marks & Spencer’s mackerel pate for any years.
It’s the first time, I’ve noticed the packaging has the gluten-free symbol.
More please! My eyesight needs glasses to read the allergies!
Suzie’s Cup Of Joy
It must be very difficult for small cafes in this pandemic, but Suzie’s Cup of Joy in Cleethorpes seemed to be managing. They were certainly doing all the right things.
I had a gluten-free breakfast there on Wednesday.
I would have sat outside, but it was rather breezy.
Lunch At Cafe Piazza In The Hays Galleria
I had a gluten-free lunch in Caffe Piazza in the Hays Galleria near to London Bridge station.
I only had a baked potato and chilli con carne with a glass of wine, but that was all I needed.
I’ll definitely go back again.
Coulsdon South Station Has Gone Step-Free
Coulsdon South station went step-free a couple of months ago, so I went to take a look.
These are my thoughts.
The Bridge
Mechanically, the bridge is typical of many in the UK, but someone has taken care over the design, by the use of well-chosen colours and bricks.
The Café
We need more station cafes like Jaconelli’s Espresso Bar.
- Full range of proper coffee and other drinks.
- Cakes and snacks.
- Gluten-free options.
- Wude selection of alternative milks
- Knowledgeable and friendly staff.
I suspect it is also owner-managed, as most cafes of this type would be in Italy.
It’s one of the best cafes of its type, that I’ve found in a long time.
The Old Bridge
According to one of the guys in the café the old bridge needed replacing.
But leaving it intact, gives the young, fit or agile a second route across the tracks.
Local Walks And Attractions
There are walks nearby in the Surrey Hills and on the London Loop.
I was also told, that you can get a bus to the Lavender Fields.
Zone Six Station On Thameslink
The station is in Zone Six, which puts it in Freedom Pass territory.
It also has two Thameslink and two Southern trains per hour, so it is easily reached.
Car Parking And A Taxi Service
This Google Map shows the station.
Note the car parking and a taxi service, which is called District Cars.
Conclusion
Coulsdon South is now a very well-equipped station and it must be an ideal place to meet a friend, family member or work colleague to either have a chat or a serious discussion.
Surely, with more people continuing to work from home, the need for meetings between those in the office and those at home will grow! Zoom etc. can only do so much and the cpncept doesn’t suit everybody!
So perhaps we’ll see more community-managed meeting rooms, like the one I described in The Newly-Decorated White Horse Room In Westbury Is Open For Bookings.
Dexamethasone Declared First Drug To Save Lives Of Coronavirus Patients
The title of this post, is the same, as that of this article in The Times.
These are the introductory paragraphs.
British scientists have hailed a “huge breakthrough” in the fight against Covid-19 after a cheap drug was declared the first to save lives.
Dexamethasone, a decades-old steroid that costs about 50p per day, was found to reduce deaths by up to one third for the sickest patients. NHS hospitals were advised to begin using it immediately.
According to a retired Senior Hospital Pharmacist friend, Dexamethasone has been around a long time and is used in shock. She added “So don’t know why not tried before.”
The Times article says this about previous use.
While it had been administered to Covid patients in China and elsewhere its use was controversial, with no definitive proof that it worked.
Could it be that the research was discounted on ageist grounds against the drug?
Wikipedia also says this about the drug?
it was the 259th most prescribed medication in the United States, with more than a million prescriptions.
That is about 1-in-327 of the US population.
Dexamethasone And Coeliac Disease
Out of curiosity, I typed “Dexamethasone and coeliac disease” into Google.
I found this page on SpringerLink, which is entitled The Role of Corticosteroids In Celiac Disease.
This is the first sentence.
Since Dickie first described the benefits of a gluten-free diet in the 1940s and 1950s, this diet is the standard of care for all patients with celiac disease. For patients with a new diagnosis, dietary compliance can be difficult to achieve, possibly resulting in a clinical course marked by delayed recovery and persistent symptoms. This is of particular concern for patients in the developing world, where gluten-free food items may be difficult to obtain or to identify. While dietary modifications are likely to remain the treatment of choice in celiac disease, the use of adjuvant corticosteroids in newly diagnosed patients is a topic that has been addressed previously.
I’m no medic, so what follows in the scientific report is beyond my limited medical knowledge.
However in A Thought On Deaths Of The Elderly From Covid-19, I estimated that there are around 120,000 undiagnosed coeliacs in the UK, who are over 65. I used data from Age UK and Coeliac-UK.
According to Joe West of Nottingham University, diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have less chance of getting cancer!
Could it be that this group of people, of which I am one, have a strong immune system?
So could the reverse be true and that undiagnosed coeliacs on a typical gluten-rich diet have a compromised immune system?
My son was an undiagnosed coeliac, with a poor diet who smoked. He died at just thirty-seven from pancreatic cancer!
Could some of the patients, who recovered from COVID-19, when given dexamethasone, have been undiagnosed coeliacs?
I, of course don’t know.
But the role of coeliac disease in the recovery from COVID-19 must be investigated.
A quick way to test my theory would be to survey the catering departments of all hospitals and see how much gluten-free food was being sent to wards, where COVID-19 is being treated.
Coeliacs, whether diagnosed by doctors or self-diagnosed, will probably be vociferous in their need for gluten-free food. I certainly was, when I had my stroke in Hong Kong.
Give me the data and I’ll analyse it!
I would also like to hear from any coeliacs, who have been given dexamethasone!
Will Bread And Circuses Help Us Through COVID-19?
Bread and circuses is an old phrase that goes back to Roman times.
It looks like TV and on-line cooks and chefs and the supermarkets have given us the first, so do we need more of the second?
At the weekend, I enjoyed watching quality horse-racing on ITV, so wouldn’t it be sensible to get football on free-to-air television as soon as possible.
It might encourage people to stay-in, rather than gather in groups.
Would it cut the spread of COVID-19?
COVID-19 Pandemic In Cambodia
The title of this post, is the same as this entry in Wikipedia.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The first case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed in Cambodia on 27 January 2020. According to Global Health Security Index’s report in 2019, Cambodia ranked 89th out of 195 countries in preparedness for infectious disease outbreak.
It doesn’t prepare you well for the remarkable statistics from the country, given in the Wikipedia entry.
- Confirmed cases – 123
- Tests conducted – 15,162 as of 17th May
- Active case – 1
- Recovered – 122
- Deaths – 0
The Wikipedia entry then lists all of the cases in detail.
I know we can say that any country with an important amount of revenue from tourism can massage the statistics, but I do feel that the data is reasonably scientifically correct.
So why are Cambodia’s statistics so remarkable?
I have never visited Cambodia, but Cambodian cuisine used to be recognised as completely gluten-free, when I was diagnosed as a coeliac by Addenbrooke’s hospital in 1997. I was told by a dietician at the hospital, who joked that someone should start a Cambodian restaurant in Cambridge
There is sufficient data on the Wikipedia entry to almost do a professional track and trace and it appears that several cases came from a cruise ship and others from foreign travel.
But even so, only 52 Cambodians have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 and all have survived.
Could it be that their diet gives them a strong immune system?
I seem to remember reading somewhere, that a scientist postulated that one of the waves of plague that swept Europe happened, soon after high-gluten wheat started to be grown in great quantities.
Conclusion
The Cambodians are obviously doing something right!
Thoughts On Coeliacs And COVID-19
This article in The Times is entitled Covid-19: Being Black Does Not Put You At Greater Risk, Researchers Say.
This though is the significant paragraph in my view.
The documents also show that among younger people obesity raises the death rate fourfold, and for those in their fifties it more than doubles it.
As I am not by any means obese, it pleases me.
But it got me thinking about fellow coeliacs.
Most are built like whippets and many seem to be fit for their age.
So do we get a secondary protection against COVID-19?
How Many Diagnosed Coeliacs Have Caught COVID-19?
the coeliac charity; Coeliac UK, indicated to me, that they are doing research into the number of coeliacs, who have caught COVID-19.
Surely, one way to find out how many coeliacs are in hospital with COVID-19, would be to look at how many hospital cases are on a gluten-free diet!
Solar Freeze
I found this simple idea on an awards web-site.
Solar Freeze is designed to solve this problem.
In much of the developing world, postharvest losses are as high as 80% and the cold‐storage chain is virtually non‐existent due to the high cost of equipment and spotty electricity. Because fresh produce can perish in a matter of days under ambient temperatures, temperature control alone can extend the shelf life by weeks or even months.
And this is their solution.
Solar Freeze is pioneering mobile cold storage units powered by renewable energy for rural smallholder farmers, to help them reduce the huge challenge of post-harvest loss in much of the developing world, postharvest losses are as high as 80% and the cold-storage chain is virtually non-existent due to the high cost of equipment and spotty electricity.
I do like the term spotty electricity!
They’ve come up with products like this mobile solar-powered cold room.
I’ve also found this video.
This is the sort of help and innovation, that a lot of the world needs.
Prue Leith’s Solution To The Flour Shortage
I was watching BBC Breakfast, when Prue Leith was interviewed about the shortage of flour.
When asked for her solution to the problem of making cakes without flour, her answer was forthright.
- She said the best thing to do, was to buy a gluten-free cookery book.
- She then gave some ideas for cakes.
As a coeliac I thoroughly approve.
The Anonymous Widower 