Head and Shoulders Shampoo
I’ve just seen an advert on Sky for this.
I tried it along with many other anti-dandruff shampoos over the years before I was diagnosed as a coeliac. None worked very well at all.
But after being diagnosed as a coeliac and going on a gluten-free diet, the dandruff went within two weeks.
Medical Progress
I got my driving licence back on Thursday and yesterday I went to see my stroke doctor at Addenbrooke’s.
So how do I feel both physically and mentally?
Take yesterday.
I needed to get the Lotus Elan back from having the MOT from Newmarket and as everyone was busy and my secretary was not in, no-one could give me a lift. So it was get out my trusty Brompton and cycle. It should have been easy as although the trip was about sixteen kilometres, most of it is downhill. Or at least it is if I go the shortest, but not the car-friendliest route. But the Brompton slipped into fifth and couldn’t get anything lower than fourth. And then there was the cold strong headwind.
But even so I made it easily in an hour. I suspect I would be a lot quicker on my proper bicycle with the wind the other way.
On Wednesday the stroke doctor had told me that I had a leaky valve. Now sometimes I think I can tell when it starts to leak. Or am I imagining things. I just push myself too hard and then I get a bit breathless, but if I get a rhythm going, I can pedal for over an hour. Especially in Holland, where they have abolished hills by law.
It was nice to get back in the Lotus, which is now all pristine and clean. I must take a few photos before it gets dirty!
Mentally perhaps I worry, but then who wouldn’t after what I’ve been through.
But as to brain function, it all seems to be working. Word functions such as spelling are as good (or bad) as they ever was but I can only type with two fingers. But then I never used more. I do various memory functions when I collect my Zopa statistics, and these are just the same.
So far so good.
Except for one curious thing. I do the Sudoku in The Times every day and have always found that the Super Fiendish were beyond my powers, unless I resulted to a process of elimination. That in my book is almost cheating.
But since the stroke, I can do these without problems in just a few minutes. I would never accuse such an august newspaper as The Times, of dumbing down, but they have just introduced a new section called Mind Games.
I should write to them.
My GP asked me how I was getting on mentally. After all, to lose one of your close family is perhaps normal or bad luck, but to lose two is catastrophic and a downright disaster. And then having a stroke doesn’t make you feel better. Does it? I don’t know, but I sometimes wonder that I now I think it can’t get any worse, so I just l0ook forward to the future. She asked me to fill in a form about how I was feeling. I scored very low. But then that was good.
So what did the stroke doctor say?
He explained that the leaky valve wasn’t probably trivial and that he would refer me to the cardiology team. But then I now feel that I’ve had it for years. I don’t think that my stamina was any better in 1980, than it is now. In fact sometimes I think it is better. But I’ve always had this problem of being able to walk miles and not being able to run more than a couple of hundred metres.
He also said that the heart monitor had said I had an irregular heart-beat.
Because of these problems, he suggested that I go on Warfarin or rat poison. This will thin the blood and make it less likely that I have a repeat occurrence of a stroke.
On the positive side, he felt that the research from Amsterdam on B6, coeliacs and strokes was interesting.
So I feel a lot better this morning, as we have a whole set of reasons, all of which it should be possible to overcome.
As I like to say – The Struggle Continues!
The BCA Drops the Case Against Simon Singh
The title says it all. But read about it in full on the BBC. Here are the first two paragraphs.
The British Chiropractic Association has dropped its libel action against the science writer Simon Singh.
Dr Singh was being sued by the organisation because of comments he had made in the Guardian in 2008 about the effectiveness of chiropractic.
I’m very happy for Simon, as this sort of case and costs give British justice a bad name.
If Simon had said something that was truly offensive, then the case should have been quickly found in the BCA’s favour.
If on the other hand what he said was fair comment or genuine scientific unease, then it should have been quickly settled the other way.
But the case was not and it cost Simon upwards of a six figure sum. That is too high a cost to get real justice, as how could the average man on the Clapham Omnibus be able to afford such a sum?
But will Simon’s comments about chiropractors really make much difference? I’ve used them in the past and in most cases they have done just a little for the problems I’ve suffered from. On the other hand, others swear by their treatments and go all the time. We all have our views and follow them, so I suspect you’ll either back Simon or the BCA.
In one case though, I had spectacular results from an alternative form of therapy. At school my humerus was broken in a bullying incident and I’d been plagued by pain in the upper arm and shoulder for well over forty years. I’d seen several doctors, surgeons and osteopaths and no-one had been able to sort it out. I’d even had a full MRI Scan.
But then I went to a guy, who put judo players back together. He analysed the problem and gave me a set of exercises to do. The result was that the shoulder acted like the other.
If there is a moral, it’s that you must try everything.
But let’s not resort to law to stop the competitors or promote things that may be against the established order.
The good methods will eventually win out and there will be losers.
Mixed Messages on Cancer
A new and authoritative report says that eating five portions of vegetables a day does not protect you from cancer, as much as was thought.
Eating more fruit and vegetables has only a modest effect on protecting against cancer, a study into the link between diet and disease has found.
The study of 500,000 Europeans joins a growing body of evidence undermining the high hopes that pushing “five-a-day” might slash Western cancer rates.
The international team of researchers estimates only around 2.5% of cancers could be averted by increasing intake.
It two and a half percent benefit is worth having, but it’s not great.
Now what is interesting in these findings is that some research has shown that diagnosed coeliacs have a lower risk of cancer than normal. It could be argued that this was due to the fact that coeliacs tend to eat well and generally eat lots of unprocessed meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.
But perhaps we should all adhere to the last two paragraphs of the article.
Yinka Ebo of Cancer Research UK said: “It’s still a good idea to eat your five-a-day but remember that fruits and vegetables are pieces in a much larger lifestyle jigsaw.
“There are many things we can do to lower our chances of developing cancer such as not smoking, keeping a healthy weight, cutting down on alcohol, eating a healthy balanced diet, being physically active and staying safe in the sun.”
I do all of those things. They also supposedly protect you from strokes.
I blame the genes. After all my father and grandfather died before their time and my wife and son both died from cancer at early ages.
Bad Friday
I don’t know why it’s called Good Friday. For me yesterday was definitely Bad Friday.
I didn’t get out of the house at all, as every time I thought about going to perhaps have a bike ride, it started to rain heavily. I just spent most of the time getting this blog up to date and doing puzzles in the kitchen. The television wasn’t even very good, so I spent the afternoon watching the Indian Premier League on ITV4. At least we had the Indian Hill Railways program on BBC2 in the evening.
The day had one positive though, in that I got rid of the ECG monitor in the morning.
Portable ECG Monitor
It wasn’t too bad to take off, but now I have the problem of getting it to the hospital before nine on Monday morning.
As an aside here, I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this type of device in the future. They’ll be smaller too!
A Day at the Hospital
I spent Thursday morning at Addenbrooke’s.
They did an ultrasound and found that I had one and that it gave good pictures. Why don’t they tell you there and then? I suspect that if it had been missing or badly faulty, they’d have called the Crash Team or whatever and locked me in a darkened room.
I then found out that they wanted to fit a ECG monitor on me to record the heart for some hours. So I got part of my chest shaved and the electrodes were glued on. I thought for a moment that horror of horrors, I wouldn’t be able to tuck my shirt in, but the nurse knew how to get the wires to my shirt pocket.
At least I had a lady to drive me about. She’s one of my old work colleagues, who’s married to another ex-pat Scot and work colleague, sheltering from the cold-up north in East Anglia. We went to Waitrose and then had a decent lunch. Pleased to see to, that the Star now sells Aspalls. A reason for going!
It’s only now that I realise how difficult it is living here without a car. The taxi from Cambridge on Wednesday night cost £40. It’s not the money, but I just think it’s extortionate.
Cambridge to Nice by Train
I was dropped at Cambridge early, as since my stroke I get almost paranoid about missing anything. It’s probably that I’m insecure. But then I always was a bit! I’m just moreso now. But I really had no worries as my credit card and the reference number from Eurostar got the tickets issues without any fuss.
The outcome was that I got the 7:15 out of Cambridge instead of the 7:45 and sat comfortably in First Class. I should say that the extra two single tickets from Kings Cross to Cambridge cost me just £15 for the pair. And as I’m travelling First all the way to Nice, I get First to London. First Capital Connect are not always praised for their service and punctuality, but I had no problems and arrived in London on time.
But of course it was into the main station at Kings Cross, rather than the old surburban one which is just a short walk from St. Pancras International.
Kings Cross Station
As I knew I had a fully flexible ticket, was thirty minutes early and I had to pick my tickets up from the station, I decided to see if I could catch an earlier train. It’s the paranoia again, as I was rather worried that I might miss the connection in Paris, so a few extra minutes might be welcome.
Let’s say the flexible ticket worked and instead of being on the 9:32, I was on the 8:55. But I was told there might be a problem with my gluten-free meal, so would I mention it at the gate. I think the paranoia ruled the stomach and I preferred to be early and hungry, rather than full and late. It was just as well.
The guy on the gate made a note and said that he’d try to get it sorted.
He did and the first thing the steward said when I boarded was that they had the gluten-free breakfast.
That in itself felt that at least someone was looking after me!
The trip was uneventful and I tried yet again to take a picture of the Dartford Bridge from the train. At least this time I was ready for it, not like when I took the journey a couple of months ago on a Javelin.
Dartford Bridge from Eurostar
The only other new feature of note on the English side of the Channel is the station at Stratford. For my liking it is too stark and nothing but concrete at the moment. Surely not something for the entrance point to the London 2012 Olympics. But then, I suspect it hasn’t been properly finished and a good bit of colour helps most things.
On the other side of the Channel the train rolled along as it should across the flat open countryside of Northern France.
Flat France
You can understand why they didn’t have much trouble building this high speed line, as except for Lille, it missed out all the towns and villages. But then France has a lot more space than we do.
Gare du Nord, Paris
I arrived on time into Gare du Nord or Gare Nord, as they call it now, and had ninety minutes or get to the Gare de Lyon. I had been intending to take a taxi, but as I had the extra time I took the RER D from under the station.
It was a wise choice.
A young lad about eighteen or so was by the ticket machines, dressed in a vest which said that he was there to help. He showed me how to use the machines and told me that I needed track 44. Paris is certainly trying to make sure that they welcome visitors! But then tourism is a cut-throat business these days and personal service is something that always works.
Paris RER
Note the double deck! Will Crossrail be that way? I doubt it.
Gare de Lyon, Paris
But then I had an hour to spend in the Gare de Lyon.
Le Train Bleu, Gare de Lyon, Paris
Le Train Bleu Restaurant, that evokes pre-war travel and glamour, is still there, although it does have an Express version as well. Perhaps, we don’t have as much time as we used to.
The station is being upgraded and probably not before time, as such as St. Pancras, Milan, Berlin and even dear old Liverpool Street show that a good station creates the right experience.
The train left on time for the long haul to Nice. To say it is a large train would be an understatement. It is two TGV Duplex or double-deck units coupled together. Short of a boat, it must be one of the largest people carriers around. According to Wikipedia each set carries 545 people.
You do wonder about trains though!
A friend is joining me at Nice for a few days and they have just phoned me from Lyon. Their plane has diverted there because is on the ground there because of mist at Nice! Do I hear herds of thundering tortoises?
Now I’m the tortoise, as the train threads its slow way through Toulon and all stations to Nice. Not the best.
Neither was the snack I got. Despite asking several times in my worst French, I ended up with a fish thing clearly labelled gluten. So I picked out a few bits of fish and potatoes and left the rest. I hope I’m OK. Why didn’t the silly woman show me the packet and I could have read it?
We’re barely walking pace at the moment and my friend has just arrived in Nice. Perhaps this train is always late, as it was the last time I caught it. That was between Antibes and Nice in 2007 on one of the last holidays with my late wife. It seemed strange to use it as a local train then, but everybody does.
Still the countryside is all green and it’s sunny.
TGV Duplex Arrives at Nice
Finally we arrived in Nice about a quarter of an hour late.
And then I got ripped off by the taxi driver.
Who cares? There are worse things in life! But it’s probably why I avoid them like the plague.
Vitamin B Complex for Coeliacs
I mentioned in this post some research, which investigated the “effect of B vitamin supplementation on plasma homocysteine levels in celiac disease”. These were stated that they might lead to strokes.
I have since contacted the lead researcher, Muhammed Hadithi, and he said the following :-
Your option to take vitamin B complex supplement is in my opinion very justified and wise.
Our findings were also confirmed but probably not published by group of Joseph Murray in Mayo clinic. Coeliac is risk for hyperhomocysteinemia and secondary blood vessel disease that can be well compensated by taking vitamin B complex. These vitamins can not do us any harm anyway and the benefits outweigh their costs.
If this simple pill might have a positive and as there is unlikely to be harm, I have now started taking them.
Banning Smoking in Cars
Yes!
I remember my father who used to fill his pipe whilst driving. He used to steer with his knees. It was downright dangerous and I still regularly see people driving and rolling a fag at the same time.
I can’t understand why anybody smokes in the first place. But then I can’t understand why people take drugs either!
Life is difficult enough in the first place, without ruining your health.
The Anonymous Widower 