Equine Research Day at Leahurst
The purpose of my trip to Leahurst was to go a series of presentations, about the work of the equine work of the School of Veterinary Science at Liverpool University.
It was a comprehensive series of talks, ranging across the whole field of equine welfare research.
One of the biggest areas talked about was colic and how to prevent it. I was quite surprised at how much of the research was done using computers to analyse databases of incidences of colic and other collected and observed data. I always believed that analysis of events is a very powerful tool to getting to the bottom of problems and my software; Daisy, has been used in numerous applications, although it’s all stagnated a bit, due to my illness.
There was also a presentation on obesity in horses, which is just as serious for them, as it is for humans.
But in some ways the biggest surprise was all the work done on arthitis in horses and humans, which is being funded in part by Arthritis Research UK. The aim is to learn more about this disease and be able to diagnose it earlier in all animals.
I believe they are putting the presentations on the Internet and I will link to them, when they are available.
A New Food Source To Develop
As someone, who has planted more than a few trees in his time, I’ve had the odd runs-in with deer, who feel that the new shoots of saplings are tasty for breakfast, lunch and dinner. C also hit a deer in my car, which to say the least didn’t do it much good.
So although they are nice to see in the countryside, when the University of East Anglia says we have too many deer, as reported here, I tend to agree. The researcher, Dr. Dolman is quoted as follows.
We are not killing something and then incinerating the carcass – what we are talking about is harvesting a wild animal to supply wild free-ranging venison for or tables – for farm shops, for gastro pubs.
“What we are advocating isn’t removing deer from the countryside – what we are advocating is trying to get on top of the deer population explosion and try to control the problems that are being caused.
“And in a way, [venison] provides a sustainable food source where you know where it comes from, you know it is ethically sourced, you know it is safe to eat, and that puts food on people’s tables. As much as I love deer, to be a meat eater but then to object to the culling and harvesting of deer seems to be inconsistent.
That sounds all very sensible, but I suspect that the RSPCA and others will be against the large scale cull, that he suggests. The RSPCA’s view is in this part of the article.
In a statement, the RSPCA said it was “opposed in principle to the killing or taking of all wild animals unless there is strong science to support it, or evidence that alternatives are not appropriate.
“Even if a cull is supported by science, it is very important that it is carried out in a humane and controlled way.
“Any decision to carry out a cull must be taken on a case by case basis based on the specific issues which impact a specific area. We don’t believe this should be rolled out in a uniform way across the whole country. It is certainly not a case of one size fits all.
If we don’t cull the deer to reasonable levels, we will get a double destruction of the countryside. By the deer on the one hand and on the other by farmers and householders putting up more and more secure fences to keep the pests off their land.
With all the trouble over horsemeat, it does strike me, that we ought to develop our taste for venison and support those like Marks and Spencer, who are using it in high-quality ready meals.
After all, venison is supposed to be good for you and certainly doesn’t have the health problems that are being reported today for processed meat.
My History Of Nail Biting
As a child I was a compulsive nail-biter. My mother always said, I started, when she stopped me from chewing the collar of my shirt. So you stop one habit and another starts.
I tried a few times to stop biting my nails, but it wasn’t successful and although I might stop for a few days on holiday outside of the UK, I started when I got back. C didn’t like it and at one time, I was painting awful stuff on my fingers to stop my biting of the nails. It wasn’t that successful.
Incidentally, two of my sons were nail-biters in a small way, but gave up before adulthood, which of course I didn’t do.
But then when I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went on a gluten-free diet, I stopped biting my nails. It happened virtually overnight and I’m not the only person I know, who has found this after going gluten-free.
These days my all twenty of my nails are very dry and need constant care to keep them in good condition. Interestingly, the odd bit I’ve broken off and eaten, taste just like my nails did as a child. You could argue that nails taste like nails, but my good nails of say ten years ago had a different flavour.
So perhaps, I bit my nails as a child because they were dry and that as I liked doing it I’ve remembered the taste.
When they tasted that way, I had these awful breathing problems, just as I have rhinitis today. So perhaps all that time off school, was caused by the same illness that has plagued me this winter.
Perhaps my body is incredibly dry and that is causing the rhinitis.
The great thing is that it didn’t kill me sixty years ago!
Charles Everett Coop And Richard Doll
Charles Everett Coop, who was Surgeon General by Ronald Reagan has just died.
He seems to have really thought about his job and didn’t allow his religious beliefs get in the way of good health. But like our own Richard Doll,l who proved the link between smoking and cancer, he let the facts and the statistics do the talking.
Interestingly, both were recipients of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement.
Both though have a health lesson for us all, as Doll died at 92 and Koop did even better dying at 96.
So perhaps they not only looked at the facts and the statistics, but they acted upon them to prolong their own lives.
I always like this quote from Richard Doll.
Death in old age is inevitable, but death before old age is not.
I would put one up from Charles Everett Koop, but I can’t find something pithy and direct.
Is The NHS The Cause Of Our Bad Health?
Reports such as this one on the BBC web site, show that our health is getting worse.
I have no complaints about the way, I’ve been treated in the last few years and the NHS was very good in their treating of my wife and son, and especially my granddaughter.
But I do wonder if this good service is the problem and contributes to our bad health.
How many smokers, drinkers and obese believe that the NHS will sort their problems out and of course at no cost to themselves or their families? If I had had a pound for every smoker, who said his father smoked all of his life and then he died at 90, I’d be a truly rich man.
If we had to pay directly for our health care, we might take more care of our health. Not that I’m advocating it, but we should all perhaps get a statement each year from our GP about our health and how much we’ve cost the NHS.
An aside here, is that for the last thirty years, I’ve had private health insurance, which I haven’t used much. Because the NHS is so good round here, with two world-class hospitals a short bus ride away, I have now discontinued it. If though say, I had a small inconvenient problem like a damaged finger that needed an operation, I would probably pay to jump the queue. But the cost would be well within what I saved on the insurance.
Illegal Cigarettes On The Rise
According to this article in the Metro, the amount of illegal cigarettes smoked has risen by a third and is now costing the Exchequer about £2 billion pounds a year.
Perhaps, we should make it a criminal offence to smoke illegally smuggled cigarettes.
Got A Migraine, Have Sex!
Research from the the University of Munster in Germany has shown that sex may be a better cure for migraine than painkillers. It’s all here in Her Majesty’s Daily Telegraph.
I wonder what Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells thinks of this?
Incidentally, I used to get the odd migraine, until I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free.
The Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made
These are some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made.
Not Selling Up And Returning To London Sooner
After C died in 2007, I had a phone call from an agent, who made me an offer, he thought I wouldn’t refuse for the house and stud.
Although C and I had talked about moving back to London, in a couple of years, I said that, I’d stay put.
I just wonder how my life would have turned out, if I’d accepted that offer.
Not Carrying Camera For A Large Part Of My Life
From probably the mid-1970s until perhaps the mid-1990s, I rarely had a camera with me and much of the things I did is unrecorded. C also had the habit of throwing away negatives, so a lot of the pictures I took, have now been lost.
Not Giving Up Driving Earlier
Admittedly, I had the stroke, but I actually regret not giving up driving earlier. I obviously couldn’t until I moved to London, but then you don’t realise what a tyranny and a chore driving is, until you abandon it. After all, with the money I save, I could afford a chauffeur-driven limousine when I need one. Although, these days, like in Blackburn, the bus is probably sufficient.
Not Cooking Enough When C Was Alive
I rarely cooked, when C was alive, as if she was busy and couldn’t find time, we would drive down the pub or go to the local Indian restaurant.
When she died, I learned to cook again quick enough and these days I thoroughly enjoy it, with one of my friends being very complimentary about my fish pie.
Not Pushing C To Take Longer Holidays
C was a barrister and I’ve never met one yet, who wasn’t a workaholic, who was always worried that if you took time off, your colleagues in Chambers would take your best work.
I never pushed her to take more holidays, despite the fact that some we took like flying round Australia and driving around South Africa were perhaps ten days too short.
In some ways she did take more holidays in the last couple of years of her life, so did she know that something was awry with her health.
Not Having More Children
This is very much a mistake with hindsight, after the death of our youngest son and now, I would never entertain being a father again.
After we sold out of Metier and Artemis, C and myself, seriously thought about having another child, as we were only around forty. We could have afforded it and C was fit and well. These days, that is an age, where people start families.
The only fly in the ointment was my vasectomy, which could probably have been reversed. After all, the doctor, who did it in Hackney Hospital in the 1970s, assured me, that it could be reversed.
We did think hard about it, as although C said, she didn’t want a girl, I probably did. Even if we never had a name for a girl and what she’d have been called, I know not.
We did flirt with the name Tyche or perhaps more correctly I did. Tyche is the Greek goddess of luck. Surprisingly, or perhaps not so, I’ve never seen the name used. But given the connotations, I think this is surprising.
Not Buying A Flat In Barrier Point
In about 2000 or so, C and I looked seriously at buying a buy-to-let flat in Barrier Point close to the Thames Barrier.
Barrier Point
In the end we didn’t, but it is one of the biggest regrets of my life.
I suspect, if we had, I’d have moved there soon after C died and some of my medical problems may have been caught earlier.
This Is Getting Beyond A Joke
After trying to boil me last year, this house is now trying to freeze me to death. I can just about get the heat up to 18.5°C, by having the boiler on full and controlling the valves manually upstairs.
As to having a bath, that is impossible. As we decided to take it out last week. But only on condition, I had a working shower. Guess what both showers are not working. Now they have done this before, so I suspect that could be down to the cold weather too! I just tried the shower again and took this picture.
My Stone-Cold Leaking Shower
Note how the water is leaking everywhere. The water was absolutely stone cold.
I suppose the shower isn’t too important, as I know that I can get one at my physio tomorrow.
But what did I do to deserve to be frozen to death? Or am I drowning, as my nose just never stops running with this rhinitis? But then, I had this chronic rhinitis for some years as a child, so I know despite it’s worst intents, it doesn’t appear to be fatal.
In some ways the worst pain I have is in my left humerus, where the school bully broke it. But that isn’t at all funny.
I suppose I could always move to somewhere like Mali, where I’m told it’s a bit warmer.
The Danger Of Religious Fraud
This story is running on BBC’s London News. This is the first part.
TV shows made in London that encourage viewers to believe they are cured of life-threatening illnesses by prayer have been condemned by charities.
Charities criticised an episode of the Miracle Hour show, on Faith World TV, during which a diabetic caller was told he was “set free” from the disease.
“It is particularly dangerous and puts his life at risk,” said African Health Policy Network head Francis Kaikumba.
It strikes me that when people like these make dangerous television programs like this, that the law should get involved.
At least they should be charged with fraud, as that is what it is!
The Anonymous Widower 