Category Archives: medical

freedom of speech, medical, science

Nanny State's Fatal Addiction

A few days ago the Heresy Corner blog wrote a piece exposing the worrying tendency of officialdom and do-gooders to slam down hard on things they don’t like (eg. smoking, alcohol) but with completely the wrong timing and emphasis. The writer shows that they did it with smoking and now they’re doing it with alcohol, and suggests that it is little more then self-defeating persecution. Consider the following extracts …

Alcohol consumption in the UK in fact peaked in 2004 and has been declining ever since. It’s now 11% lower than it was. There was an especially large fall in 2009. The UK ranks also below the European average in terms of consumption, an under-reported fact that may have something to do with Britain’s having the second-highest level of alcohol duty in the EU. The fall in consumption has been most dramatic among young people (the same is true of smoking) as a combination of draconian ID-checks (these days, you’re lucky to be sold a bottle of wine no questions asked if you’re under 40), rising prices and a media obsession with teenage drunkenness has made the traditional slow transition to the adult world of social drinking far more difficult to accomplish. This, of course, may help to explain why, when they finally are allowed to drink, so many young people seem unable to handle it.

As the harm reduces, so the zeal of the harm-reducers increases, as they focus all their energy and determination on ever-smaller numbers of the recalcitrant. At the same time, new targets come into their sights.

Two media organisations in particular enjoy scaring their audience with exaggerated levels of gloom. The Daily Mail and the BBC […] It’s not just alcohol and tobacco that regularly get this level of alarmist coverage. It’s also… illegal drugs, obesity, sex-trafficking, climate change, internet porn and the “sexualisation of childhood”.

Nanny statism, of course, is what happens when the government takes the regulation of morality away from bishops and gives it to doctors, social workers and professional experts.

I would actually say that this is what happens when you take the regulation of morality away from the people themselves. What happened to the personal responsibility that this government is supposedly such a believer in?

What is just as worrying, as is pointed out by Tim Worstall at Forbes is that the numbers upon which this alcohol policy are being built are themselves a complete fiction. As Worstall points out …

[W]hat drives political action is not the truth but what people believe to be the truth. So, if you can whip up a scare story about the ill effects […] then, as long as people believe you, you should be able to get some action taken […]

“Some 1,173,386 people in England were admitted to casualty for injuries or illnesses caused by drinking in 2010/11, compared with just 510,780 in 2002/3 […] The figures for last year represent an 11 per cent increase on the previous 12 months, when alcohol-related admissions stood at 1,056,962”

[…] there are two things odd about these numbers […] The first is that no one at all is measuring how many hospital admissions are as a result of alcohol. That’s just not what is done:

“It’s largely a function of methodology. Alcohol-related admissions are calculated in such a way that if you are unlucky enough, say, to be involved in a fire and admitted to hospital for the treatment of your burns, it will count as 0.38 of an alcohol-related admission — unless you happen to be under 15, when it won’t count at all.

“If you drown, it counts as 0.34 of an alcohol-related admission […] Getting chilled to the bone (accidental excessive cold) counts for 0.25 of an admission, intentional self-harm to 0.20 per cent of an admission.

“These fractions apply whether or not there was any evidence you had been drinking before these disasters befell you.”

So […] [w]e’re not in fact being told anything at all about the number of alcohol related hospital admissions. We’re being told about the numbers which are assumed to be alcohol related. And I think we can all see what the problem is here, can’t we? […]

Now, does all of this mean that there has been no rise in alcohol related diseases? I’ve no idea actually, but the point is that nor do you and nor do the people releasing these figures to us. The methods they’re using to compile the numbers, the things they’re not telling us about those numbers, mean that they lying to us with those numbers.

So basically the whole thing is a complete and utter lie from start to finish, and the numbers could be adjusted in the background to prove anything anyone wants. And politicians wonder why no-one believes nor trusts them. Would you?

So wither next? You’d better believe that these state-registered nanny do-gooders have their sights on all the “problem areas” mentioned above. Drugs have been a target for a long time; the heavy-handed mobsters must arrive soon. They’ve started on obesity already. And as for anything to do with sex, well we must ban that because, well, it’s just not nice is it?

Next we know they’ll be wanting to grant us licences to shag. Oh wait a minute. We have those already, it’s called marriage. It’s probably as well no-one takes blind bit of notice of that any more.

So be alert … your country needs lerts! Gawdelpus!

medical, science, sexuality

The Mufia

Yep, you read that right … the Mufia are out and about tomorrow.

Apparently tomorrow (Saturday 10/12) will see a “The Muff March against ‘designer vagina’ surgery” along Harley Street, London’s centre private medicine.

High time to stop the medicalisation of the normal!

amusements, arts, food+drink, links, medical, natural history, science

Links of the Week

Here’s your usual selection of things which interested/amused me and which you may have missed. And do we have a bumper selection this week!

First something useful? There’s a view that “use by” dates on food are a myth which needs busting. So it’s American but I don’t see much being different in the UK. But I do worry whether people have enough common sense to safely abolish “use by” dates.

And now to the very unuseful. Why does the search for the Higgs Boson matter? Actually to most people it doesn’t matter; whether physicists find it or not it won’t change the lives of 99.9999% of the population. That doesn’t necessarily mean we shouldn’t look for it, but in the overall scheme of broken banks and countries it actually doesn’t matter.

Sociable wasps have an eye for faces. But not for caterpillars. And you just thought they were animated automatons sent by the Devil to annoy you!

And talking of the works of the Devil, pyjamas are another … The joys and benefits of sleeping naked. And no, it isn’t colder!

Think you’re good at sudoku? You’ll need a good night’s sleep before you try this! He-he!

A few weeks back we told of these strange paper sculptures left in libraries. Well the phantom has returned, for the last time.

Not got enough to do in the run-up to Christmas? Need a craft project? Make storybook paper roses (above).

And finally … Do you need an udder tug? Well who doesn’t? — Certainly no self-respecting mutt!

current affairs, medical, science, thoughts

Gawdelpus …

… if this is the logic!

BBC Breakfast is this morning reporting the need to “halve the number of people in the UK with HIV”. And how are we going to do this? But getting people tested earlier, etc. etc.

No, guys!

Even if there were zero new infections, the only way you halve the number of people with an incurable disease is for them to die!

So did you mean you need to halve the number of new cases? Or halve the number of people who have HIV but are undiagnosed? Or what did you mean?

amusements, food+drink, medical, natural history, personal, photography, science, sexuality

Reasons to be Grateful 2

OK so here’s week two of my experiment: this week’s things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful:
Crab Apples

  1. Autumn Colours^ — there are still some gorgeous golden leaves around as well as bright red fruit on our ornamental crab apple, especially in …
  2. Sunshine* — which makes those autumn colours all the more vibrant
  3. Vagina Cupcakes — they’re a hoot!
  4. Beaujolais Nouveau* — I’ve now tasted three different ones and they’re all excellent
  5. Sleep — it’s so restorative to sleep well and undisturbed as I did last night
^ Click the image for a bigger version, and for other photos.
* No-one said I couldn’t choose the same things as last week!
medical, personal, science

Hairy Mysteries

We are used to the fact that men grow hair on their heads and faces. And that some men even dare to grow hair on their chests — much to the horror, it seems, of most girls.

We also know that male hair growth is in part related to testosterone levels — or at least the testosterone level at some critical point in their development — as well as genetics.

So why is it that even the hairiest of men don’t grow hair round where their shirt collar goes? (There are a few very, very hairy men who do grow hair under their collars, but they are unusual.)

It seems unlikelky that the lack of hair is due to collar abrasion. The area is totally devoid of hair and there is no sign of hair regrowth if collars are not worn. The collar also seems not to affect hair growth in those very hairy men who do grow hair on their necks.

This really does seem to be a genuinely hairless area.

Can anyone explain why this is the case and what evolutionary advantage it might once have had?

Or perphaps to put it another way … why is facial and chest hair selected for, but neck and shoulder hair mostly isn’t?

books, medical, personal, science

Reasons to be Grateful

This week I’ve been reading Richard Wiseman’s 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot. This is a self-help book but with a big difference. As the book blurb says

Welcome to the new science of rapid change. In 59 Seconds psychologist Richard Wiseman exposes modern-day mind myths promoted by the self-help industry, and outlines quick and quirky techniques that help people to achieve their aims in minutes, not months.

And from New Scientist

This is a self-help book, but with a difference: almost everything in it is underpinned by peer-reviewed and often fascinating research. It could actually help you be a little happier, perform better at interviews, procrastinate less, improve your relationships, reduce your stress levels and be a better parent

And it does exactly what it says on the tin!

In the final chapter Wiseman briefly summarises ten things which he could explain in under a minute (the challenge he set himself at the start of the book) and which could make a difference:

  1. Develop the gratitude attitude
  2. Place a picture of a baby in your wallet
  3. Hang a mirror in your kitchen
  4. Buy a pot plant for the office
  5. Touch people lightly on the upper arm
  6. Wite about your relationship
  7. Deal with potential liars by closing your eyes and asking for an email
  8. Praise children’s effort over ability
  9. Visualise your self doing, not achieving
  10. Consider your legacy

No they aren’t all inherently obvious. And I’m not going to try to explain them here — you’ll just have to splash out a few quid on the paperback.

Do they work. Well clearly Wiseman thinks they do. I don’t know, although I follow the logic behind most of them. So what I’m going to do is try a little experiment of my own here: and that’s try the first on Wiseman’s list which he summarises as:

Develop the gratitude attitude
Having people list three things that they are grateful for in life, or three events that have gone especially well over the past week, can significantly increase their level of happiness for about a month. This, in turn, can cause them to be more optimistic about the future and improve their physical health.

So each weekend I’ll write a short post about at least three (I’ll aim for five) things which have made me happy or which I’m grateful for over the last week. And I’ll aim to do this trough to at least the end of 2012. There’s no control group so it will be hard to know how well it succeeds, other than maybe my qualitative perceptions — but then that is at least half of what it’s all about. Anthony Powell attributes to his character General Conyers in Books Do Furnish a Room:

The General, speaking one felt with authority, always insisted that, if you bring off adequate preservation of your personal myth, nothing much else in life matters. It is not what happens to people that is significant, but what they think happens to them.

So here are my first five things which have made me happy/grateful over the last week:

  1. An excellent Anthony Powell Annual Lecture last evening from Prof. Vernon Bogdanor
  2. Noreen
  3. A stunning flower on our Hibiscus
  4. Sunshine
  5. Beaujolais Nouveau

medical, science

World Diabetes Day

Today is World Diabetes Day.

Who knew? I certainly didn’t and I have diabetes! So they’ve kept that one quiet. Or was I asleep? Yeah, probably.

Think you don’t need to read this? It’ll never happen to you, will it? Think again. Do the Diabetes Risk Assessment. And then read on anyway.

On this day Diabetes UK are asking us to highlight the 15 healthcare essentials which they see as a basic right of all diabetics. Many are surely the basic healthcare rights of everyone.

I’ve listed these 15 healthcare essentials below with a note of when should get them done and how well I do against this.

  1. Get your blood glucose levels measured. Annual blood test. Check.
  2. Have your blood pressure measured. At least annually. Check.
  3. Have your blood fats (cholesterol) measured. Annual blood test. Check.
  4. Have your eyes looked checked. Annual. Check.
  5. Have your legs and feet checked. Annual. Check.
  6. Have your kidney functions monitored. Annual blood and urine tests. Check.
  7. Have your weight checked. As required. Check.
  8. Get support if you are a smoker. As required. N/A
  9. Receive care planning to meet your individual needs. As required. Never really needed this.
  10. Attend an education course. At initial diagnosis. I’ve only recently been offered this after 6 years.
  11. Receive paediatric care if you are a child. As required. N/A
  12. Receive high quality care if admitted to hospital. As required. Yes, on the odd occasion it’s been needed.
  13. Get information and specialist care if you are planning to have a baby. As required. N/A
  14. See specialist diabetes healthcare professionals. As required but at least annually. Check.
  15. Get emotional and psychological support. As required. Not needed anything specific.

Well I’ve actually done better than I thought. Really only the education has been badly missed.

And as you’ll see little if any of this is onerous. And it is definitely worth doing as these simple actions can head off (or at least catch very early) the common long-term complications of diabetes: heart disease, retinopathy, neuropathy and kidney disease.

You can find more details about each of these here.

environment, freedom of speech, links, medical, memes, quotes, science, sexuality, thoughts, topographical

Weekly Links

Here’s this week’s selection of interesting articles you may have missed. And what a selection it is!

Turning the lights off won’t save oil, says Melissa C Lott in the Scientific American blog. Maybe not, but it will save coal and gas, reduce emissions and stop wasting our (increasingly expensive) electricity.

“Put that fly down! You don’t know where it’s been.” But Rob Dunn does. Again in the Scientific American blog.

The Divided Brain is an 11 minute video in which Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist describes the real differences between the left and right halves of the human brain. It’s not simply “emotion on the right, reason on the left” but something far more complex and interesting. Love the cartoons!

Max Davidson in the Daily Telegraph defends old-fashioned words against the influx of new text-speak.

And here’s yet another from the Sci Am blog … Ingrid Wickelgren goes looking for the secrets to a happy marriage. And finds some unexpected answers.

The right to keep your pubes. A feminist perspective on shaving for childbirth. I dunno what’s so feminist about it; seems like a basic right to me.

And lastly, if I hadn’t read this here, I wouldn’t believe it. Londoners are being told to stop shagging for a bit, ‘cos the Mayor doesn’t want girlies dropping bairns in the streets during the sacred cow Olympics. Maybe Boris needs to make sure we keep the lights on!