My Eyesight May Be Improving
I was entering Starbucks at the Angel, one day this week, when I startled as something low down on the left passed me in the doorway. At first I thought it could be a small child or perhaps a dog running in from the street.
But all it turned out to be was a bubble from the machine outside the shop next door.
So my eyesight can’t be as bad, as I think it is.
My Cholesterol Levels
I started to keep these on-line and then stopped, with all my troubles. So here are the up-to-date values.
- 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
- September 2012 – Total 5.6, Trig 2.26, HDL 1.24, LDL 3.33
John Edrich
John Edrich was in his time a difficult opening batsman to get out and if there was a fight on the pitch, he would do his best to win it. Wikipedia says of him.
He earned a reputation as a dogged and fearless batsman, and his figures show that he was amongst the best players of his generation.
Now he has a bigger fight on his hands; a rare form of leukaemia called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. He seems to have got some respite from the cancer using injections of mistletoe. It’s reported here in the Mirror.
I’m not belittling the mistletoe effect, but to my unmedical mind, it could just be that Edrich, is just applying his dogged and stubborn attitude to enjoying himself and staying alive. After all, he was born and brought up in Norfolk and all East Anglians have a stubborn determination, unmatched by most of the country.
Problems
Looking at the weather over the last few days, I suspect that coeliac disease and my stroke are small problems compared to what some are enduring.
At least I’m snug in a newish warm house in Central London, with buses everywhere. I’ve even got a cafe opposite and a pub next door.
I also think of the problems I don’t have, like a car, a smart phone, and wondering where my money is coming from.
Problems are relative!
Ipswich Launches Campaign Against Cheap Super Strength Alcohol
Ipswich is an independent town in the very independent county of Suffolk and it has always been thus for both of them. Today though it is reported, that they are launching a campaign to ban cheap super strength alcohol. It’s all here in the East Anglian Daily Times. I heard of it on Radio 5 and they said it was the first town in England to do so.
Let’s hope it all succeeds in its objectives.
I suppose the real problem is to get all of the small off-licences to comply.
Faith Healers Claim HIV Cure
BBC London is leading with this story this morning and giving it the due respect it deserves. In other words, saying it’s a load of old religious bunkum and the best thing you can do is take your anti-retroviral drugs. The BBC is also saying that there have been at least three deaths, because people stopped taking their drugs.
Painkillers Can Make Headaches Worse
This has been said on the television this morning. There’s more here.
I used to suffer from bad migraines brought on by flashing lights and exercise, but since being diagnosed as a coeliac and going on a gluten-free diet, I don’t get them any more.
I haven’t taken a painkiller since C died, except when I was suffering two years ago from bad pain in my face due to a tooth and when I had the tooth out.
If I have a slight pain, I use a measure of Scottish falling down liquid, diluted with London tap water.
Homerton Hospital
I’d never been to Homerton Hospital until this morning, although I did have my vasectomy in a private capacity at the old Hackney Hospital.
Today though, I needed my INR to be tested, as I’m changing doctors.
My main reaction was that I was pleasantly surprised and how professional they were. I was on the train to Stratford and Eastfield, forty-five minutes after arriving at the hospital.
The INR result was what it should be too!
A Thought About Coeliac Disease
After reading yet again, about a coeliac in hospital, where they really weren’t too professional about what he could eat, I’ve had this thought.
Is coeliac disease the most common disease, that can be cured by diet alone?
To take this further, am I right to think, that this fact gets up the average medic’s craw, as it means the disease can’t be cured by the two most common treatment methods; drugs or surgery?
Does A Gluten-Free Diet Help Your Hair?
My last hairdresser always said that my hair grew very fast and in fact for a sixty-five-year-old man, I have a pretty good head of hair.
But what got me thinking was that yesterday The Times showed a list of the best dressed older people. What stood out was their compliments for Katherine, the Duchess of Kent. They said of her that potentially she has the best hair in the Royal Family (including Kate Middleton’s, yes).
And she is 79! It is well-known that she is a coeliac, so it can be assumed that like me she sticks to her gluten-free diet.
I posted this on a coeliac list on the Internet and others said that there could be a connection from personal experience.
Over the past forty years, I’ve had a lot to do with flat race jockeys.
Obviously, to keep their weight down, they eat frugally and the typical gluten-rich snacks, beloved of the general population, are probably never eaten. I remember one meal with Michael Roberts, where he ate baked salmon and peas, followed by some fruit.
But you’ll rarely find a flat race jockey, without a full head of hair! And many are riding well into their forties. The best hair on the current crop of top jockeys must be on Hayley Turner. But then she’s a woman. And a coeliac!
And then we could look at people like Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and others, whose diet is mainly rice-based. They generally seem to my untrained eye to have better hair as they get older, than the average Caucasian.
I do wonder if there is a serious link here. It probably isn’t to coeliac disease, but the diet may be the key. After all, Nottingham University have shown that coeliacs, who stick to the gluten-free diet, have a twenty-five percent less chance of getting cancer. Why this is, no-one knows, but it could just be that a healthy diet, which looks after your gut, gets the maximum amount of good vitamins and minerals into your body.
The Anonymous Widower 