Grand designs

[NSS]

16 minutes ago, lizzie said:

@NSS please dont feel bad its the way of things with this rotten ‘condition’ (s) I’m sure you are used to the unpredictability of it all and the dreaded phrases chronic and ideopathic...... I am very pleased for Mrs NSS and hope she has many years of better health in your lovely bubble

Thanks Lizzie. Yes, there are inevitably ups and downs. She's learning to enjoy the good days and endure the not so good ones, but she's her worst enemy in that she tends to overdo it on the good ones and then suffer for it! 

[Hecateh]

4 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

No sh!t!

 

SWMBO & I, only half jokingly, suggested to the two skinny as rakes kids, that they might like to "donate" so Mum & Dad could recolonise our depleted gut bacteria.

 

I'm going to sound like a conspiracist nutter but I really believe modern "life" knocks the sh!t out of us, pun intended. Even if we're eating healthily, what we're putting in is so sanitised it's making us all out of balance. 

Totally agree, I grew up as one of 7 so no ultra hygiene for us.

One brother and one sister were over 12lb born, one breast fed the other, my kid sister, wouldn't breastfeed and (1959) midwife suggested farex (wheat flour based baby food) in the bottle from day one to 'slow her down'.  Both grew up skinny and could eat anything and everything they wanted without gaining weight.  Still relatively slim now in retirement.

I was 10lb, was fully breastfed for 6 months and have struggled with my weight all my life.  2 differences 1) shape wise they both took after dad's family's shape and I took after Mum's and 2) I had antibiotics for tonsillitis at least twice a year from 5 to 11 or 12.  Antibiotics are now known to decimate the good gut health bacteria.

[Onoff]

Prof Tim Spector's experiment where he fed his son nothing but fast food for 10 days is interesting. On the surface a varied menu...but the results!

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/qz.com/402918/i-made-my-son-eat-nothing-but-mcdonalds-for-ten-days-to-prove-what-fast-food-does-to-your-gut/amp/

[curlewhouse]

Indeed - there seems to be an ever increasing amount of evidence now that our gut flora is responsible for way more than just processing our food. There's some fascinatingly promising research going on right now in that field.

   

[Triassic]

The indoor air monitoring at the end of the project was interesting. In a past life I managed a project to carry out indoor air monitoring in around 200 properties. The results were very revealing, people being exposed to diy and petroleum products from attached garages, drug use, smoking combustion products, leaky chimneys and flues, very minor gas leaks, cleaning products, you could  see them all.

[Hecateh]

32 minutes ago, Onoff said:

Prof Tim Spector's experiment where he fed his son nothing but fast food for 10 days is interesting. On the surface a varied menu...but the results!

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/qz.com/402918/i-made-my-son-eat-nothing-but-mcdonalds-for-ten-days-to-prove-what-fast-food-does-to-your-gut/amp/

 

I read the book - funnily enough on the recommendation of my skinny sister.  After reading it I told her there was very little in it that I hadn't already read and mentioned to her previously.  'Yes, maybe,' she said, 'but doesn't it help to know that your beliefs have been validated?'.  'I already knew what I told you was validated but it didn't make you believe me (although to be fair she had some empathy) me having read this won't make anyone else believe it who doesn't already have some idea.'   ('I expect you're right' she said)

[ProDave]

My only comment is £10K for the mvhr.  A casual viewer would discount that when desigining a house as an expensive luxury.

 

Mine cost well under £2K

 

Interesting the "solution" to a low VOC sofa, was buy an old one, so some previous owner has "suffered" it's ill effects.

[jack]

I've done a lot of reading on low carb, ketogenic and even carnivorous diets over the past few years. There's a lot of evidence - well, anecdotes - about people who have cured or drastically reduced the symptoms of immune-system related conditions like eczema, arthritis and colitis by making drastic changes to their diet.

 

Not science, but for anecdotes, see https://meatheals.com. From memory there's a tag list that lets you filter by condition.

 

A bit extreme, for sure, but the guy who runs it is 50, can deadlift a quarter of a ton, holds the world record for rowing 500m for his age group, and 90+% of his diet for the last 5 years has been beef. 

 

I'm increasingly of the opinion that diet science has been hijacked by zealots with an agenda. Dig into the recent Lancet article on meat and cancer, for example, and you'll find that it's literally laughable.

 

They can get away with this because there are serious difficulties in doing proper research on diet. Partly it's the difficulty in doing double blind studies when it comes to food, but there's also inertia, special interest groups (farmers, animal rights activists), ethics (difficulty in testing unconventional diets), compliance (who wants to eat what they're told to eat for months or years?). 

 

It's little wonder it takes decades for food science to advance.

 

[lizzie]

@jack wholeheartedly agree on eating. I have always eaten organically with meat with known provenance, gardened organically and grown what i can myself so I know its chemical free.

 

 I have been following a low carb keto/paleo type diet since acquiring T2 diabetes.....it is a huge help in controlling blood sugar and if all else was as it should be I am sure I would be bursting with good energy on this woe (way of eating).

 

I also don’t drink alcohol and have not done so for more than 20 years (but I assure you I am not the sober bore at parties LOL).  

 

Its a good way to eat I will stay with it forever now unless some other gremlin rears its head and rules it out.

[recoveringbuilder]

What about impossible builds on more 4 , I’m stunned, builders working through the night ?

[Declan52]

17 minutes ago, Christine Walker said:

What about impossible builds on more 4 , I’m stunned, builders working through the night ?

First time I have watched it. Decent show. Them guys where clean busted.

[Jeremy Harris]

11 hours ago, jack said:

I'm increasingly of the opinion that diet science has been hijacked by zealots with an agenda. Dig into the recent Lancet article on meat and cancer, for example, and you'll find that it's literally laughable.

 

They can get away with this because there are serious difficulties in doing proper research on diet. Partly it's the difficulty in doing double blind studies when it comes to food, but there's also inertia, special interest groups (farmers, animal rights activists), ethics (difficulty in testing unconventional diets), compliance (who wants to eat what they're told to eat for months or years?). 

 

It's little wonder it takes decades for food science to advance.

 

 

Diet and medicine are two fields where very bad science is normal, and belief systems massively outweigh decisions derived from hard data.  The power of belief, even subconscious belief, is massive; far more effective than pretty much any drug. 

 

We've know this for decades, but considered it to be a nuisance, in that it masks the true results from scientific studies (in lots of fields, not just health).  The vast majority of the treatments, deprivations, dietary restrictions etc that some choose to promote are based on belief rather than hard facts, but that doesn't make them any less effective.  After all, all the world's religions have been harnessing the power of belief for millennia, very successfully.

 

There was an interesting programme on last night about the placebo effect, that highlighted just how powerful it is.  IIRC, their findings, from a group of around 100 people with chronic back pain, was that the placebo effect had a medically significant impact on reducing pain for 45% of the test sample.  That's better than pretty much any pain medication available, and there are no side effects.  Quite surprisingly, the placebos carried on working even after the people had been told that they had been taking a placebo. 

 

Even more interesting was a small section at the end exploring a conditioning process, rather like Pavlov's dogs, where taking a foul drink with a medicine, then just taking the foul drink without the medicine, had the same physiological effect.  That indicates something that's far deeper in our subconscious at work, and seems to be a very interesting area of research. 

 

I was particularly interested as one of the related studies was on shoulder surgery that I had a few years ago on my left shoulder, that worked like a magic bullet.  I have had the same problem with my right shoulder for several years, but have been told the surgery is no longer available.  This programme explained why, but, unfortunately, watching the programme hasn't cured my shoulder...

[lizzie]

I think they need to walk in my shoes to know the difference between belief and reality. I try very hard to make belief the core to overcome daily health challenges - it rarely works. I do not blindly follow science either, the placebo/Pavlov dog theory is bunkum in my case.  I live every day with many debilitating health conditions. I find what works for me, without drugs wherever possible (sits looking at the 23 pills that make up the morning dose currently), what I do know is that what works for me may not work for everyone and what works for me currently can change without warning. The change in eating habits to the (modified and adapted by me) keto/paleo/lchf system has had a profound effect and I am truly inspired by the new way of eating, it has helped me enormously and I hope to be able to continue it for many years to come. I care not for the opinions of so called experts if something works positively for me I do it if it doesnt I dont.

 

 Science is little match for the vagaries of the human body which I feel science has yet to fully understand.

 

I have left my earthly remains for organ donation/research but I think they will be of little use if the rate of progress of the last10 years is anything to go by .....they will be all worn out and past it just like me most days ....so says my bio-medical scientist niece bless her! LOL

[joe90]

32 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

but have been told the surgery is no longer available

 

I will watch that tonight, I do like Dr Mosely he talks a lot of sense. If the surgery was sch a success why is it no longer available?

 

i remember another of his programmes where a lady had chronic back pain, could hardly move and was on massive amounts of painkillers, after several different approaches he got a marshal arts instructor to have a go with gentle exercise, the effect was massive if slow, she regained most of her movement and virtually stopped the medication apart from “bad days”.

[Ferdinand]

11 hours ago, Christine Walker said:

What about impossible builds on more 4 , I’m stunned, builders working through the night ?

 

I have not watched it (yet), but doesn’t working through the night imply inadequate Project Management, or a search for drama for the programme?

[Jeremy Harris]

24 minutes ago, joe90 said:

 

I will watch that tonight, I do like Dr Mosely he talks a lot of sense. If the surgery was sch a success why is it no longer available?

 

 

Michael Mosley does seem to be well endowed with common sense, and, refreshingly, seems very willing to challenge conventional medical thinking, even to the extent of experimenting on himself.

 

My GP was very keen to refer me to a consultant surgeon the first time around, and I had the shoulder surgery as an outpatient, followed by physio, and it really was incredibly effective - I've never had any medical treatment before that had such an immediate and profound impact.  Over the past 6 years or so, all my GP will do for my right shoulder (same symptoms as for the left shoulder that was operated on) is prescribe painkillers (which I've stopped taking - I do not like the idea of taking codeine all the time at all), plus a cortisone injection into the shoulder joint every six months or so.  The latter works well for a month or two, but gradually the pain and movement restriction returns.  The GP hasn't told me why the surgery is no longer an option, but the programme last night seemed to reveal that it was no longer available on the basis that "placebo surgery" worked just as well.  Sadly my GP didn't tell me this, and hasn't offered anything other than continuing long term drug treatments, which frankly annoys me, as I do not like the idea of drug treatments at all.

[joe90]

Can’t you get a second opinion or find a surgeon that will do the op as it was such a success fir you? A good friend of mine had a serious foot problem after a bad break and he found out about a procedure that was not available according to his GP, he found a surgeon up North that was willing to do it and it’s been a success.

[Jeremy Harris]

3 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Can’t you get a second opinion or find a surgeon that will do the op as it was such a success fir you? A good friend of mine had a serious foot problem after a bad break and he found out about a procedure that was not available according to his GP, he found a surgeon up North that was willing to do it and it’s been a success.

 

I'm tempted to, once we're settled.  I've been putting it off because I didn't want to be out of action for a few weeks, TBH.

[jack]

9 minutes ago, JSHarris said:

Over the past 6 years or so, all my GP will do for my right shoulder (same symptoms as for the left shoulder that was operated on) is prescribe painkillers (which I've stopped taking - I do not like the idea of taking codeine all the time at all), plus a cortisone injection into the shoulder joint every six months or so.  The latter works well for a month or two, but gradually the pain and movement restriction returns.  

 

You're right to get off the long term use of painkillers, but repeated cortisone injections are also a big no-no. They do nothing to help the underlying problem, and in fact can make the damage worse (from memory, repeated use weakens connective tissue).

 

In my opinion, cortisone should only be used once or twice, and only to relieve pain so that rehabilitation exercises can be done.

 

Shoulder rehab is particularly difficult due to the complexity of the joint and the amount of freedom of movement it has. I'd encourage finding a physio who's an expert in shoulder rehab and planning to spend at least several months exercising daily to get back strength and, as importantly, control of your shoulders. I went from being unable to lift a 10kg dumbbell overheard without pain and impingement to doing the same for reps with a 25kg dumbbell without any discomfort at all. Part of it is improved strength of both primary and stabilising muscles, but a lot of it is about control of the scapulae and upper back. 

 

As for surgery, ask your doctor for a referral to a surgeon. I can't see why a serious longstanding issue like this is being managed long term by a generalist. Personally, I'd be looking for another GP.

[Jeremy Harris]

I'll be changing GP soon anyway, so I'm hoping that the new one may have a more enlightened view on treatment.  My old GP (he's now left the practice) had seemingly become a bit keen on just prescribing drugs, something that I think may have been driven, in part, by the demands of having to hit short consultation time targets in the practice.  There's not much a doctor can find out, or advise on, in the 7 1/2 minute consultation time allowed.  The practice we're moving to has a 15 minute consultation time target, which seems a lot more realistic.

[Triassic]

Look what just dropped into my in box...

 

https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/every-breath-we-take-lifelong-impact-air-pollution

 

The report starkly sets out the dangerous impact air pollution is currently having on our nation’s health. Each year in the UK, around 40,000 deaths are attributable to exposure to outdoor air pollution which plays a role in many of the major health challenges of our day. It has been linked to cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and changes linked to dementia. The health problems resulting from exposure to air pollution have a high cost to people who suffer from illness and premature death, to our health services and to business. In the UK, these costs add up to more than £20 billion every year.

[recoveringbuilder]

6 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I have not watched it (yet), but doesn’t working through the night imply inadequate Project Management, or a search for drama for the programme?

It was the 

[recoveringbuilder]

Just weather conditions they wanted it water tight before the weather got bad , I thought they did pretty well

[recoveringbuilder]

See Kevin Mc loud is wearing glasses now but clearly they’re not working after watching the build tonight which he thought was beautiful, I wouldn’t like to try selling it!

[PeterW]

I quite like it....