National Panic Flu Service
I joked about this yesterday. But!
I also heard two stories on the radio.
In the first, a pathologist said that of the samples he’d tested for swine flu, only one in ten were actually the flu and that a lot were all of the various viruses that hang around at this time of year.
In the second, Peter Allen on Radio 5 asked Professor Hugh Pennington, the respected health expert, what he would do if he caught the dreaded swine flu. The Professor said he’d go to bed with paracetamol and a hot toddy. Peter Allen laughed at the good advice.
So are we panicing too much?
Yes! But what do I know.
I have my paracetamol and whisky ready. And the freezer is getting stocked up with home-made reday meals.
By the way, I’ve just noticed that http://www.panicflu.com and http://www.panicflu.co.uk are available.
One story that automatically linked to this post, was this one from the Washington Post. It is entitled, A Fierce Outbreak of Swine Flu Coverage.
Update – Jul 24, 2009 16:03 – If you type the title into Google this post is fourth! That’s not bad for five and a half hours.
Update – JUl 24, 2009 22:50 – Waitrose have run out of paracetamol. This post is now under the News in the Google search.
National Pandemic Flu Service
So the government has got their flu service web site up and running at last.
Who thought up the URL of http://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk? It’s not very user friendly is it. As the web site is down because every Tom, Dick and Harriet is trying to use it, perhaps it should be called the National Panic Flu Service!
Coeliac Symptoms
Before detailing how I was diagnosed, I will go through a list of symptoms that coeliacs can suffer from.
Coeliac disease has been called the Many Headed Hydra by doctors because it produces so many different symptoms. I think that this is because gluten strips your gut and then you don’t take up the vitamins and nutrients that you need. This is especially true with Vitamin B12, which is essential for good cell health.
Consequently, you will get a problem in any organ that needs that nutrient.
It’s a bit like expecting your car engine to run with low engine oil. You can’t be sure where the problem will manifest itself.
I have taken this quote from the précis of a paper by M Hadjivassiliou, R A Grünewald and G A B Davies-Jones called Gluten Sensitivity: A Many Headed Hydra, that appeared in the British Medical Journal in June 1999.
Marsh’s “modern” definition of gluten sensitivity is to be recommended: “a state of heightened immunological responsiveness to ingested gluten in genetically susceptible individuals.” Such responsiveness may find expression in organs other than the gut. Gastroenterologists, dermatologists, neurologists, and other physicians need to be aware of these developments if the diagnosis and treatment of the diverse manifestations of gluten sensitivity are to be advanced. The aetiology of such diverse manifestations presents the next challenge.
I would endorse that as my experience of moderating the UK-Coeliac Yahoo Group gives me the impression, that a lot of coeliacs are misdiagnosed in a first instance, because of their symptoms. The real cause is sometimes not found until many years later.
So what symptoms can you get?
- Abdominal Distension in Children – *
- Amenorrhea – Absence of menstrual periods in a woman
- Bone and Joint Pain, and Arthritis – *
- Constipation – *
- Dandruff – *
- Depression – Generally mild, but not always – *
- Dermatitis Herpetiformis – A serious skin disorder
- Dry Skin – *
- Failure to Thrive in Children – *
- Feelings of Inadequacy – *
- Gait Ataxia/Apraxia
- Gallstones – *
- Gum Disease – *
- Gut Problems – Abdominal pain, bloat, diarrhoea and wind – *
- Heartburn
- Inability to Lose and Gain Weight – *
- Infertility and Recurrent Miscarriage
- Itchy Scalp – *
- Lactose Intolerance – *
- Lightheadness and Fainting – *
- Liver Problems
- Low B12 and Folate Levels – Leading to anaemia – *
- Migraine or Persistent Headaches – *
- Mood Swings – *
- Mouth Ulcers
- Muscle Weakness
- Osteoporosis
- Sinus Problems – *
- Sleep Disturbance
- Small Stature – *
- Thyroid Problems
- Tinnitus
You can almost play that well-known game called Name That Symptom!
The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are ones that I experienced at some time or another.
A classic one is gallstones. I was diagnosed at about the same time as I was diagnosed as a coeliac. I was told to have an operation. Since then though they have been quiet and I hope they stay that way!
But whatever you say it’s a lot of possible things you can suffer from.
Swine Flu Finds an Appropriate Victim
I did think of calling this post, “God Doesn’t Vote Labour”, but then that would be against my principles as I don’t do god.
But it appears that the Labour candidate in the Norwich North by-election has got swine-flu. Is it some sort of poetic justice or an insult to pigs?
Petition to Number 10
SAF on the UK-Coeliac list has posted this.
I have composed a new petition to the prime minister to deal with.
This petition requires 500 signatures to be effective so looking for a lot of support.
The petition can be found on http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/allergenlabels
If the EU has its way, then such things as maltodextrin will be considered gluten-free, for labelling purposes. That may be so, but it still doesn’t alter the fact that I react to it.
So please sign the petition. After all the next ingredient foisted on you might be something that you object to!
World’s Oldest Mother Dies
This is a sad tale of a lady who gave birth at 66 to twins and then died a couple of years later.
I would never want to be a father at my age of 62, let alone a mother. It’s just too much responsibility.
But you can’t impose laws on maximum ages to give birth as what would be law in say the UK, would be legal in a country that didn’t want to make it illegal. Also, there have been cases of natural conceptions of women in their late fifties. With people getting fitter and healthier, it will not be long before a healthy baby arrives to a woman over sixty, who felt that the need for contraception had passed.
It’s a difficult dilemma and it just goes to show how easy for some it is to get pregnant.
Crohn’s Disease and Coeliacs
I was watching the rugby league last night, whilst eating a very nice frozen chilli con carne, when the commentator said that one of the players for Wakefield, Richard Moore, suffered from Crohn’s Disease.
There is a connection between Crohn’s Disease and being a coeliac as this study shows. The study recommends that everybody suffering from Crohn’s Disease, go on a gluten-free diet.
You Don’t Have to Look Old!
Some of us look good as we get old and some of us don’t. I will not comment on myself, but look at this article in the Daily Mail on Sophia Loren. I hope that she’s really as happy as she looks in these pictures.
Some years ago, we were on holiday in Italy and one of the cosmetic companies was having what was probably a thank-you weekend for all of the models that used their products. One absolute stunner who I recognised from the adverts she had done was probably in her late sixties. But she was the one who exercised in front of everyone on the beach. In a bikini too!
That’s why I play a lot of tennis, ride my bicycle and walk when I can. I’m also the same weight as when I got married.
Ragwort
To anybody who keeps horse or cattle, ragwort is a curse. It can kill, although there are various people, who say that it is not as dangerous as we think. That is an interesting attitiude, but what happens if an expensive horse, cow or other animal is poisoned and dies?
So I just don’t like it.
They’ve even got lots of it in Holland.
Ragwort in Holland
But as it says on the DEFRA web site.
Over 90% of complaints that Defra receives about injurious weeds concern ragwort.
To me there is only one thing to do. Make sure it isn’t there! We all need something to hate occassionally and ragwort is a good place to start!
The Anonymous Widower 