The Black Dog Campaign
According to the WHO by 2030 depression will be the world’s most disabling condition above cancer and AIDS.
So it is to be welcomed that SANE have started the Black Dog Campaign.
The SANE Black Dog at N1 Centre, Islington
This is one of the dogs they are using to publicise the campaign. Even at a mundane level, this dog is giving enjoyment to these kids.
We Need Rebekah’s Law
Popbitch is starting a campagn, so that we can all know if we have any former red-top editors living near us. Here’s the gist.
Rarely does Popbitch get on its soapbox
but recent events have stirred us up.
Inspired by the News of the World, we
demand the right for the public to know
if there are any ex-News International
execs living near us.
As the NOTW once said on its cover
“Everyone in Britain has a sex offender
living within one mile of their home”.
This is surely just as true of ex-
News of the World editors too.
And, like Mrs Brooks, we vow to name and
shame any politician who impedes our
crusade for tougher laws against
former red-top editors.
We need… Rebekah’s Law!
Come on, join our campaign.
It’s what she would have wanted.
I’m now getting very much towards feeling that all of this tabloid wrongdoing is all rather irrelevant and that stories like the multiple killings in Stockport and the financial problems in the eurozone are much more important.
I certainly won’t be venturing anywhere near Stockport or Greece in the near future.
The High Cost Of Gluten Free Food to the NHS
The Times yesterday had a piece about the high cost of gluten free food to the NHS. They quoted an NHS gluten-free loaf at 32.27 and I know I pay a lot less than that for acceptable ones in Marks and Spencer, Waitrose or Tesco. They also said that you could buy gluten-free afternoon tea in Fortnum and Mason for £34 a person. I think I’ll try the latter out one day!
Anyway I was moved to write to the paper and here’s what I said.
As a diagnosed coeliac, I am entitled to various gluten-free prescriptions. But I don’t exercise my right, as most gluten free products available that way are inferior to products bought in normal shops and supermarkets. I do buy bread from a well-known chain twice a week and if I feel like some pasta I go to a chain of Italian cafes, where the penne is as good as any.
It would be much better if all of those entitled to gluten-free products were given vouchers that could be redeemed in shops against suitable products. That way we could eat quality rather than processed cardboard. Some might blow the vouchers on gluten-free chocolate biscuits, which are not available on the NHS, but then having coeliac disease, doesn’t mean you have to be miserable!
But innovation is the real solution. My local pub has a chef who is a coeliac. He made an alternative muffin from slices of grilled aubergine, a sliced tomato and some spinach. It was much better than any gluten-free bread I’ve ever tasted and complimented the Eggs Royale superbly.
Last night, I cooked one of Lindsey Bareham’s simple gluten-free creations; a chorizo, chicken and chickpea stew, all cooked in one pot. Delicious!
I do think though there is a much more cost effective way of getting coeliacs, gluten-free products. Why should we be subsidised so heavily, when there are people in a much worse state than we are? I would happily give up my right to gluten-free food on the NHS, which I don’t exercise, for a monthly voucher to be spent on something gluten free. I would probably use it to buy a gluten free pasta dish in Carluccio’s or some chocolate chip cookies or Damm Daura in Waitrose!
I do remember going through the gluten-free list with a pharamcist once. There is nothing there with any excitement at all.
If You Want To Get Breast Cancer Get Obese
A study from Oxford University about breast cancer has been featured on the BBC.
As someone, who has lost two close family members to the dreaded disease, it is a study that women avoid at their peril.
This is the last two paragraphs of the BBC report.
Dr Julie Sharp, of Cancer Research UK, said: “This is an important study as it helps to show how alcohol and weight can influence hormone levels. Understanding their role in breast cancer is vital and this analysis sheds light on how they could affect breast cancer risk.
“We know that the risk of the disease can be affected by family history and getting older, but there are also things women can do help reduce the risk of the disease. Maintaining a healthy body weight and reducing alcohol consumption are key to reducing breast cancer risk.”
Enough said.
Hackney Bans Smoking In Parks
According to this story, Hackney Council is going to ban smoking in children’s play areas.
I would support a wider ban in the borough to include all parks and bus shelters.
Did Being In Hospital Trigger My Hay Fever?
I have just watched an item on Country File about hay fever.
I think now, that I’ve always sufffered from Hay fever and it was probably the reason why, I had such a bad school attendance record. I can remember in my first year at Minchenden, I virtually missed the whole of the second term.
But looking back, I’ve always suffered a little bit each year and can remember feeling better after I went on a gluten-free diet. But in the spring, I’ve often suffered an itchy bottom , sneezing and other hay fever like symptoms. C always said that I used to sneeze three times, then turn over before I went to sleep. I don’t do that now.
After she died, I changed small things in my lifestyle. For a start, I started to sleep in a totally closed room, whereas she had often kept a window open. I have always had a thing about draughts and thus, I always kept the house closed. The house was probably cleaner too, as now there was only one person living in it. I was also only down to one dog and she spent a lot of time with my secretary’s pack. So perhaps, I was living in too clean an atmosphere. Remember, I was usually driving a Jaguar with an efficient pollen filtering system. I didn’t go for too many walks in the countryside either.
Over the last three years or so, I have got the symptoms of hay fever of a runny nose, leg pains and lethargy and could it be caused because I’m not giving myself exposure to pollen in a graduated way. At one time, I was going to the continent a lot and was suffering badly. I put it down to different pollens in the two locations.
Then last year, just as the pollen was coming into season in the UK, I started on my trip around the world and had the stroke in Hong Kong.
There and when I returned to the UK, I was in an air-conditioned and hopefully sterile hospital, so my pollen defences weren’t aroused in the usual way as they are each season.
I now believe that the high pain I suffered last year was nothing more than a severe reaction to the pollen.
Let’s hope I’m on the right track, as if so, some simple immunotherapy might just sort it out. Especially, if Country File’s expert was right about how sometimes a too sterile environment makes hay fever worse.
Hay Fever in Switzerland
You’d expect the Swiss to be fairly professional about this and this web site is very much so. The trouble is finding it was difficult as typing something like “pollen forecast switzerland” into Google, gets all sorts of crap paid for sites mainly from the United States.
The interesting fact, is the Swiss thinks a lot of their hay fever comes from an imported plant called ambrosia. They are now attempting to eradicate it.
Originally from North America, ambrosia (ragweed) is a weed with two specific properties: an extremely high spread potential and highly allergenic pollen. Pollination begins in mid July and continues until the first autumn frosts.
In the last twenty years ambrosia has spread on a massive scale in Europe. In Switzerland it has now spread over vast swathes of land in the Geneva and Ticino regions. North of the Alps its presence is limited to specific areas, but without appropriate countermeasures there is an imminent risk of it invading the whole country.
To avoid this scenario, from July 2006 ambrosia has been declared by law a plant that must be disinfested / eradicated.
I wish them luck.
The Interaction Between Coeliac Disease, Hay Fever and My Stroke
I had the stroke about twelve months ago and I thought that by now I would be starting to feel better, but as time goes on, I seem to be feeling worse and worse.
Take today, I got up just around six and felt reasonably good after about eight hours of sleep. I used the hay fever spray on my nose, but when I left home about eleven, I felt that the optimism of the early morning had disappeared. My left shin was tight, as it often is and my nose was blocked solid with the hay fever. After lunch with a friend, I returned to the Angel to do a bit of shopping and could hardly walk back from the bus to my house, such was the tightness in my shin and the pain in my left arm. I checked my e-mails and then lay on the bed, where I fell asleep for a couple of hours. I feel reasonably bright now, although there is a pain in the back of my left shin. What is strange is that I only get pains in my left shin and left arm. I know that was the side of the stroke, but I’ve always had occasional pain in my left arm from where a bully broke it at school and over the past couple of years, I’ve had pain in the back of my left shin, since I trod on a razor shell on Holkham Beach. I couldn’t be sure, but these pains could have been worse in the spring, or should that be hay fever time.
In trying to find out what is wrong, an MRI Scan has shown problems in my neck, where a nerve might be trapped. But it’s nothing serious that good physiotherapy shouldn’t be able to sort out.
If I go back a few weeks, when the pollen was low for a few days, all of the pain disappeared. So it does seem that the pain is partly caused by the pollen levels, which at the moment are moderate. But then they have been for several weeks.
Another point is that at times my gut feels not quite right. It’s almost like being glutened and it feels as though something not too nice is upsetting my digestion. In some ways, it’s something that may have plagued me for years. So do histimines created by the pollen upset your digestion system? Especially, if you’re a coeliac.
I have a feeling that the only solution is to take a gluten free cruise.
Hayley Turner Wins The July Cup
This report from the BBC describe how Hayley Turner won the July Cup at Newmarket on Dream Ahead.
This was the first outright win by a lady jockey in a Group One race in the UK. There had been one dead heat in the past.
Not only is she the best female jockey we’ve ever had in the UK, she’s also a coeliac.
She’s also a very nice person in every way. She rode for me several times and I would recommend her to anybody.
The Anonymous Widower 