Thursday, 23 May 2013

The Corporate Playbook, BDA and DUK

The BMJ has launched a stinging attack on the relationship between Diabetes UK and their corporate sponsors.  The British Dietetic Association also come in for criticism.

The game really is up for these organisations. Charities such as DUK and BDA have similarly been exposed for their lack of integrity.:
  • Despite the American Heart Association’s statement and the supportive scientific evidence, the food industry continues to adopt strategies to deny sugar’s role as a major causative factor in what now represents the greatest threat to our health worldwide: diet related disease. It took 50 years from the first publication (in the BMJ) linking smoking to lung cancer before the introduction of any effective legislation because Big Tobacco successfully adopted a strategy of denial, planting doubt, confusing the public, and even buying the loyalty of scientists, all at the cost of millions of lives. The same “corporate playbook” has been adopted by Big Food.
It is good to see such high profile discussion of these issues.

Follow the money!

Wednesday, 22 May 2013

Hypertension Fix Pt1



My numbers are getting pretty good - down to 'high normal' (or 'normal' as it used to be called), and often at least one of my readings qualifies as 'athletic'/'low normal'.  I am not sure if these lowered numbers are due to the changes I've implemeted or whether the high readings were episodic and have simply passed.  I believe the former is the case.

Potentially Useful?


Some supplements that might actually be useful in lowering blood pressure. Googling turns up these time and again for HBP (yes, I self-medicate via Google!)

Iodine in the News

A timely story in the mainstream media.  Pregnant women should up iodine intake to increase child’s IQ.  I've mentioned iodine before quoting Bertrand Russell who noted that,
  • "...a deficiency in iodine will turn a clever man into an idiot."
I've recently upped my intake of iodine in my quest to lower blood pressure.  I guess I must be a ripped-idiot.

Lights Out Goes Mainstream

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Seven Tools For Thinking

Daniel Dennett's seven tools for thinking http://gu.com/p/3fpt6