Swine Flu
The son of two of my friends, has just been diagnosed with swine flu. It’s funny, but it seems that mainly the young get it. Perhaps, Dr. Rosemary on the BBC was right, when she said that older people like me got an immunity in the 1950s.
I’ve just sent them this list of swine flu jokes to cheer them up.
Remember that hangovers are now called wine flu.
Living Alone Increases Change of Dementia
Swedish research has shown that if you live alone and have a particular gene variant, you are more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s. Not good. The full article is on the BBC and here’s an extract.
The researchers studied 2,000 men and women from eastern Finland aged around 50 and again 21 years later.
They looked at their marital status and also carried out genetic tests to see if they carried the gene APOE variant 4.
People living alone in middle-age had twice the risk of dementia than those who were living with a partner.
But widows and widowers had three times the risk of dementia.
And those with the APOE gene variant who had lost their partners and remained living alone had the highest risk of all of developing Alzheimer’s.
Not good.
Widowhood Research
Kate Bennett of the School of Psychology at Liverpool University is recruiting volunteers for studies into widowhood.
This is Kate’s description of the first study.
One is a two week study looking at a model of bereavement called the Dual Process Model. This study takes part over two weeks. At the beginning we will interview participants about their general experiences of bereavement, and they will complete a questionnaire. Then over the next week they will complete a daily diary about their experiences – they can write as much or as little as they like. At the end of the first week, there is a short interview and a questionnaire. In the next week they complete the diary everyday, and then are interviewed and have a questionnaire at the end. This study is being run by myself and my student Lizzie Evans.
And the second.
The second study is an interview study which focuses on changes in social relationships, activities and support before and after the loss. This forms part of my student Laura’s PhD.
There are more details, including how to join, at this web page.
Ritalin, ADHD and a Gluten-Free Diet
In my previous post on Tamiflu, I found the Electronic Medicines Compendium.
The EMC is very comprehensive and contains all of the details you need to know about a drug. Type something as simple as Cough into the search and you get a list of proprietary cough products, with cough in the title. This sort of search is very useful, as finding a gluten-free cough mixture is very difficult. One of the Boots ones is gluten-free, but I’m not sure which. Many use glucose as a soothing agent. And where does the gluten come from. Wheat!
Out of curiosity I used one of the advanced search features of the EMC to search for wheat. I got ten hits and one of them was Ritalin. The tablets contain wheat starch.
Ritalin is used to control ADHD and similar problems in children.
As someone who follows the gluten-free literature, I have come across many references to using a gluten-free diet with ADHD, autism and Asperger’s.
Now I don’t know how much wheat starch Ritalin contains, but it does strike me as surprising, that one method of treatment might be undermined by another.
Update – It is three hours since I posted the original. If you type Ritalin gluten into Google, this post is now second. Does that mean that the connection is not spoken of commonly. I’ve also found that Ritalin is a pretty old drug and this may account for the wheat starch filler. Now, drug componies know more about coeliacs.
Coeliacs and Tamiflu
I haven’t got the dreaded swineflu yet, but can I be sure that Tamiflu is gluten-free.
A lot of medicines are not and as an example most cough mixtures contain wheat-derived glucose. Boots Chesty Cough Linctus is OK, as it is based on sucrose.
I have found some information on the web, one US site says that all Roche products are gluten-free and I’ve also found this list of exgredients for Tamiflu.
Capsule core:
- Pregelatinised starch (derived from maize starch)
- Talc
- Povidone
- Croscarmellose sodium
- Sodium stearyl fumarate
Capsule shell:
- Gelatin
- Yellow iron oxide (E172)
- Red iron oxide (E172)
- Black iron oxide (E172)
- Titanium dioxide (E171)
Printing ink:
- Shellac
- Titanium dioxide (E171)
- FD and C Blue 2 (indigo carmine, E132)
This list just shows what does go into some of the things we take.
I got this information from the Electronic Medicines Compendium. I tried to search for another couple of drugs at the main site and it worked.
Legal Highs
There was a fascinating program tonight on BBC3 about legal highs.
It says to me that I don’t really want to take anything dodgy.
Blood Test for IVF Success
The Times today reports that a blood test has been developed that helps to predict IVF success.
I hope that the blood test looks for problems of coeliac disease.
Here’s why!
I am a coeliac and used to suffer from very low vitamin-b12 levels until I was diagnosed as a coeliac at 54 or so. Now on a gluten-free diet, my b12 levels are fine.
As a man, that doesn’t matter, but I can trace my coeliac ancestors back through my family tree. The men died young and the women never had any children. My sister didn’t and was never diagnosed as a coeliac, whilst of child-bearing age.
I also moderate a list on the Internet for coeliacs. Over the last few years, three women have joined in their mid-thirties who have just been diagnosed. All were childless, but wanted children and within months they became pregnant and successfully gave birth.
Are questions about coeliac symptoms asked when people are looking to conceive with IVF? After all, amenorrhea is a common coeliac symptom.
As an engineer/scientist these notes are not good research, as they are personal and a rather small sample, but serious research needs to be done in this area.
Coeliacs and Mental Problems
Just listening to the twins, Will and Rupert Young, on the radio as I write. Will is the well-known singer and his twin brother, Rupert, has a history of mental problems. He’s just set up the Mood Foundation to help people with their problems.
It’s just a small point, but I moderate a list on the Internet for coeliacs. We are all allergic to the gluten, found in wheat, barley and rye. What keeps coming up is those with this allergy are often diagnosed as suffering for depression, bi-polar disorder and other mental problems. When they go on a gluten-free diet, the symptoms disappear.
Obviously, this is only likely to help in the cases of the 1-in-100 of the UK population who are coeliacs, but to test for the allergy is now a simple blood test.
Taking a scientist’s view of the body, undiagnosed coeliacs are often low in vitamin b12 and guess what? This is absolutely essential for healthy functioning of the brain.
But perhaps more importantly, we need to have a totally open view to mental illness and not rule out ANY cause of a person’s problems. After all a cured patient can become a valuable member of society.
Rupert has just said that he was helped by equine assisted therapy. As someone who breeds racehorses, I know that horses can help in mental problems. To relate to say a mare and a skitty foal, you have to be calm, just to get them to take a tidbit. And so you learn how to calm your emotions. Also for people who have problems with violence and losing their temper, they don’t want to try anything remotely like that with a horse. They’ll get a good kicking. So you learn to control yourself.
Does Gluten Lower Cholesterol?
I am a coeliac, which means that I don’t eat the gluten in wheat, barley and rye. But does not eating gluten mean that I have other health problems.
My doctor is worried about my cholesterol, which despite eating all the right things does seem to be rising. Over a period of four months, I stayed off all of the dangerous foods, used Benecol and the level rose by half a point. This is worrying. Especially, as I’m very anti taking statins. Nothing particularly against statins, but I just don’t take drugs unless they are absolutely necessary.
The levels for your information were as follows.
- December 2008 – Total 6.0, Trig 1.3, HDL 1.16, LDL 4.25
- April 2009 – Total 6.7, Trig 1.1, HDL 1.63, LDL 4.57
I’m not a medical person but I think I can draw the following conclusions.
- The triglyceride levels are well within the normal range.
- The high-density lipoprotein levels are considered in the range for greatest protection against heart disease.
- The low-density lipoprotein levels are considered high, but not quite in the highest risk level.
But can it be that by sticking to my gluten-free diet, I’m actually causing the problem.
I found this under a heading of Your Cholesterol Levels will Probably Rise in an article called Side Effects of a Gluten-Free Diet.
For the first four decades of my life, while I was still eating gluten, my doctors always told me I had the lowest cholesterol levels they’d ever seen. It retrospect, it’s easy to see why — my intestines weren’t absorbing any of the cholesterol in the foods I was eating. Those days are over. Now I have to watch my cholesterol levels along with everyone else. When I check food nutrition labels for the presence of gluten, I also check the fat and cholesterol content. It’s very important to choose low-fat, low-cholesterol foods. Packaged gluten-free products are often higher in fat than their gluten-containing counterparts. This is especially true of packaged gluten-free cookies, crackers, and cakes. The American Heart Association points out that foods that are high in soluble fiber have been shown to help lower cholesterol — so look for beans, peas, rice bran, citrus fruits, strawberries, apple pulp, and gluten-free oats.
This doesn’t apply to me, but I can see the logic. I don’t eat many packaged biscuits and cakes, but I do it lots of berries, beans and apples. Apples I didn’t eat until I tried to lower the cholesterol. Now I eat one a day instead of the occassional crisp.
But this doesn’t seem to explain my problems.
I also found this article called Gluten Lowers Cholesterol on Dr. Mirkin’s web site. It’s from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and it comes from the University of Toronto, so it meets all of those criteria needed to be a proper scientific report and is not something produced by a health nutter.
Here’s the abstract.
A study from the University of Toronto shows that a high-gluten diet helps lower oxidized LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and uric acid.
Many studies show that eating whole grains helps to prevent heart attacks, but doctors are not certain why. Before the bad LDL cholesterol can cause plaques to form in arteries, it must be converted to oxidized LDL. This study shows that gluten does not lower blood levels of the bad LDL cholesterol; it helps prevent LDL from being converted to oxidized LDL cholesterol. Gluten also lowers blood levels of triglyceride that increase heart attack risk.
There is an interesting discussion on the problem on the US web site, celiac.com. Now this is not proper scientific fact, as it is really a collection of peoples’ opinions.
Someone suggested the South Beach Diet.
Starting the SBD was a pretty radical change for me, but I found pretty quickly that I really enjoyed eating this way and felt lots healthier. If you’re interested you should get the book, but basically you eat lean meats, LOTS of veggies, good fats (e.g. olive oil, nuts), dairy (if you can tolerate it, which I can’t) and small portions of fruits and whole grains. People tend to think of it as a “low-carb” diet in the same vein as Atkins, but it’s really not. It’s just focused on GOOD carbs (whole grains, fruits, veggies) and GOOD fats.
This is virtually my diet, but I perhaps don’t eat as many whole-grains as I could.
There was also a warning about statins.
Other than that, eat loads of fruits and veggies, good protein sources like fish and drink more water. Do not be talked into cholesterol lowering drugs unless you want liver or kidney problems. They have serious side effects and my brother, who has celiac disease (in denial) and Type 1 diabetes, took one and now his kidneys are in poor shape….from the drugs.
I’ve had similar warnings about statins from a couple of lawyers. As my wife was a barrister, I can vouch they are always a good source of gossip about doctors, hospitals and drugs.
I shall be researching this further.
Scotland and East Anglia
Radio Five Live was in Scotland today, as it is the tenth anniversary of the Scottish Parliament.
No problem there, but this government has widened the divide in public support between Scotland and many of the English regions. Here in East Anglia, we have the same GDP as Scotland, but have many fewer government jobs, export a lot more, have better health etc.
So we’re doing a lot better except in one respect.
Various projects such as the dualling of the A11 are never completed. We get everybody else’s cast off trains. The government doesn’t want to protect us from the sea. And we now have the farce of the downgrading of Ipswich Hospital with respect to heart patients.
The latter doesn’t actually bother me, as my nearest hospital is Addenbrookes in Cambridge, but the distance from say where I used to live at Felixstowe to Norwich is about two hours. It’s just too far!
The Anonymous Widower 