Michael Bublé"s wife says son Noah is recovering from cancer

Michael Bublé’s wife, Luisana Lopilato, has said their son is recovering and well in her first public comments since the couple announced last year that the three-year-old had cancer.

The Canadian singer and Lopilato, an Argentinian actor, have returned to her home country after Noah, their eldest son, had medical treatment in Los Angeles.

Speaking at a press conference in Buenos Aires for her latest film on Monday, Lopilato, 29, thanked those who had offered their support to the family.

She told reporters: “When things like those that happened to us occur, your take on life changes. It happened to us. Now I value life much more, the now and the today. Thank God, my son is well.”

She went on: “It’s difficult for me to speak about this. It’s very recent and I’m still a bit sensitive about the subject. But the love is daily, when people stop me in the street. It’s wonderful to know that you’re accompanied in life and that people love you.”

Bublé, 41, and Lopilato put their careers on hold following the diagnosis, but she said seeing Noah “grow and being happy” gave her the strength to finish her forthcoming film, Those Who Love, Hate.

Noah was diagnosed in November 2016. Earlier this year the couple released a statement on Facebook saying he was “progressing well” and doctors were optimistic about his future.

Michael Bublé"s wife says son Noah is recovering from cancer

Val Kilmer denies he has cancer after Michael Douglas claims

Val Kilmer has denied claims by Michael Douglas that he has cancer after the latter said “things don’t look to good for him”.

Douglas, who acted with Kilmer in 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness, was discussing the film at a Q&A in London on Sunday. According to People, he told host Jonathan Ross: “The picture didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but I had a wonderful time. Val was a wonderful guy who is dealing with exactly what I had, and things don’t look too good for him.”

Douglas was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2010, although it was initially reported as throat cancer. “My prayers are with him. That’s why you haven’t heard too much from Val lately,” Douglas added.

But on Tuesday night Kilmer posted on Facebook denying that he was ill. “I love Michael Douglas but he is misinformed,” Kilmer wrote. “The last time I spoke to him was almost two years ago, when I asked him for a referral for a specialist to get a diagnosis for a lump in my throat.

“I ended up using a team at UCLA and have no cancer whatsoever. I still have a swollen tongue and am rehabbing steadily … come see me live and happy and in person in Westwood next week if you think I’m fibbing!”

Kilmer is a follower of Christian Science, whose adherents often reject conventional medicine in the belief that prayer will heal them. He addressed fans’ concerns that he was not taking care of his health in the post. “Some fans have mistakenly thought my silence about my personal issues meant that somehow I wasn’t being responsible to my health, because of my reliance on prayer and love,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I hope this puts to rest any further concerns about my health by publications that have no respect for the truth.

“Whatever led Michael Douglas to speculate about my health, he’s a loving and devoted friend to a privileged group of talented people around the world, and I’m sure he meant no harm.”

Fears for Kilmer’s health had first been raised in 2015, when he spent time in hospital and was later seen wearing a tracheostomy tube, although he repeatedly denied he had a tumour or cancer.

Val Kilmer denies he has cancer after Michael Douglas claims

Michael Sweet-Escott obituary

Our father, Michael Sweet-Escott, who has died aged 93, enjoyed working as a GP for 30 years in the Yorkshire Dales. He came from a family of classical scholars who mostly became teachers or members of the clergy, so his choice of occupation was a break with tradition, largely prompted by his wartime experiences.

Michael, the eldest of three sons of Will, a schoolteacher, and Olive (nee Mitchell), was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, and educated at Westminster school, London, winning a scholarship to study classics at Christ Church, Oxford. He completed his degree in a year, combining this with training to be an RAF pilot. For three formative years between 1942 and 1945 he was with the RAF in Canada, teaching navigation for 18 months and flying Tiger Moths and Mosquitos.

Towards the end of the second world war, he decided beyond doubt that he wanted to train as a GP, influenced by the Beveridge report and the feeling that peace would bring a new and better world, of which he wanted to be part. He trained at Oxford and at Barts in London, qualifying in 1951, and as a young doctor worked in the East End of London, including treating severe health problems caused by smog.

Michael’s life was enriched in 1950 by meeting Ragnhild, a Norwegian woman who had come to live in Lyme Regis as a companion to two elderly ladies. They were introduced by his parents, who had befriended her as she was so far from home. The couple married in 1953 and had three children.

In 1954 he arrived in Skipton, North Yorkshire, as a southerner who had rarely been “north”; the expectation of the altruistic practice was that a GP was also a counsellor, social worker and paramedic. Michael rose to the challenge of long hours and weekend and night duties, often driving 20,000 miles in a year. He later became one of the earliest participants in the GP vocational training scheme, enjoying teaching, preparing lectures and running discussion groups. His focus on clinical excellence, a patient-centred approach and the support of his colleagues was central to his practice.

Annual family holidays to Norway were a hugely important part of his life, and of ours. He loved walking in the mountains, and painting there, and he developed close friendships with our mother’s extended family.

After Michael’s retirement in 1985 the couple initially moved to the Cotswolds, returning to live near Skipton four years ago. He had a long and fulfilling retirement, enjoying painting, gardening, walking and travelling. He was an interested conversationalist, open to new ideas and intellectually sharp, challenging the family to Scrabble and card games.

He is survived by Ragnhild, us, and seven grandchildren.

Michael Sweet-Escott obituary

Experience: my attempt to go 21 days without a whinge ended up taking six months | Michael Dawson

Sunday 24 July 8.43am. In the midst of the US presidential election, news breaks that WikiLeaks plans to release 20,000 hacked Democratic Party emails that will likely damage Hillary Clinton’s chances, and enhance Donald Trump’s. I read the relevant passage aloud to my wife, before adding my own searing commentary: “I would’ve thought Assange and Co would have the intelligence to realise …” I suddenly pause.

A ripple of panic pulses through me. Am I complaining?

Over the past five months that question is one that has developed the ability to paralyse me. Why? Because I’m in the throes of what has turned out to be an epic challenge. I am trying to go 21 days without complaining. A self-imposed abstinence from grumbling of any kind: no slander of public figures, no whining about the weather. Nothing.

It’s an exercise that I first heard of while listening to a podcast by Tim Ferriss, the productivity expert and quasi self-help guru. Ferriss in turn discovered it after it was popularised by a new age pastor from Kansas City by the name of Will Bowen. And while I identify neither as a member of the self-help set nor the god squad, I was instantly fascinated by the mission.

The rules are ostensibly simple: put an elastic band on one wrist. Every time you complain, switch it over to the other wrist. Repeat, until the band has remained on one wrist for three weeks.

The simplicity is compelling, but the moment you start it becomes awfully complex. It turns out that “Am I complaining?” can be a very hard question to answer, because what is a complaint? There’s obviously the dictionary definition: an expression of discontent about a person or state of affairs, something like that. But in practise it gets murky. Consider the following three phrases.

1. “It’s cold.”


2. “Damn it’s cold.”


3. “Damn this cold.”

I think we could all agree that (1) is probably not a complaint. Assuming the weather is actually cold, it’s just a statement of fact. And we could reach a similar consensus that (3) definitely is a complaint. But what about (2)? What about (1) said in a slightly whiny tone of voice? What if someone else says (3) and you agree with them?

Or how about this: “I would’ve thought Assange and Co would have the intelligence to realise that a Trump government will not be good for people like him.” Is that a complaint, a pointed observation, or merely the expression of a dashed expectation?

On that particular Sunday morning, I decide it is not a complaint. I turn the page and leave the worn-out hair elastic clinging to my left wrist.

Monday 25 July 11.19am. The following day I meet my wife for coffee. As we approach the cafe, I spot a former colleague waiting at the counter. Let’s call him Gary. I’m not a fan of Gary’s. I mean, I wish him no specific harm. He’s not a bad person – he just has an awful sense of humour. Dad jokes and cries of “Taxi!” when a glass breaks are the cornerstones of his comedic oeuvre. Now I’ll have to endure some of it and, worse, my sweet wife will be subjected to it. For a moment I forget myself. As I spot The Gazmeister I let out a big sigh and two words slither out after it: “This idiot.”

That sentence isn’t even a sentence. It doesn’t have a verb. But the moment I utter it, I know the truth. It’s a complaint. I change the elastic band over and brace myself for some punny pleasantries. It stings, because at that point I was into my fourth consecutive day without complaint. And in five long months of trying, the longest I have gone is six days.

Not complaining is really, really hard. Until you try to stop, you’ve no idea how often you do it. It’s not a question of whether you’re an inherently positive person or a negative one. Complaint is a pivotal part of all conversation – it can be used for good as well as evil. A lot of the time, we complain as a way to connect. A shared moan is a time-honoured technique for relating to a co-worker, fellow traveller or life partner. Who hasn’t felt the warm rush of catharsis that occurs when you discover that someone else hates that thing you hate? Bellyaching is bonding.

So it’s wrong to say that complaints are wholly negative. In fact, some can be extremely positive. In a certain light, you could even view the whole of human progress as the result of complaints. Complaints about slow horses, or polio. Complaints about apartheid, or gender inequality.

We need complaints, and we need negativity. But for me at least, this challenge is not about disputing that fact. Nor is it about worshipping at the altar of positivity. The reality is you can perform some verbal gymnastics that allow you to express negative sentiments without complaining. “This traffic sucks” can become “I would love it if this traffic would clear.”

But in order to do that you’ll need to pause and really think about your choice of words. This is where the challenge becomes fascinating, because you start to realise how little thought we give to what comes out of our gob. The words just tumble out, like goods being looted from a supermarket. By focusing the mind on complaints, you employ someone to work the checkout. And why is that of any benefit? Well, it becomes a sprawling and highly effective exercise in mindfulness.

Mindfulness, in case you missed it, is approaching the status of full-blown fad – pretty impressive for something that is a few millennia old. One description is that it’s the practice of being present in any given moment. If that smells a bit too much like smouldering sandalwood for your liking, try “being aware of what you’re doing and what’s happening around you”.

Buddhists long ago observed what they call the “monkey mind”, the idea that the mind is inherently a bit restless and fidgety. If you don’t give it a clear task, it will either keep a running commentary, or wander off on tangents. Your head becomes filled with an endless, meandering chatter – a din that has been blamed for everything from anxiety to insomnia. The solution, say the Buddhists, is to give the monkey a job. It could be watching your breath come and go (meditation), or it could be keeping a keen eye on what you’re doing (mindfulness).

The claimed benefits are as varied as they are numerous: improved focus, anger management, treatment of depression, lower blood pressure, stress relief, general wellbeing. It’s a laundry list of advantages that has seen mindfulness teachings adopted by everyone from captains of industry to captains of football teams. All sorts are trying to experience the benefits of silencing their simian. There are countless ways to do it, but I’ve found one of the best ways to shut him up is to have him monitor your moaning.

27 July. Mid-morning a colleague and I travel to a meeting in his 2006 Toyota, a vehicle he calls Sonia Kluger, after the Australian media personality. I ask him how he feels now that his people mover has become associated with calls to ban Muslim immigration. He says there’s not much he can do about it. But our conversation has taken a turn, and we make some very pointed observations about Isis and the state of the world. I come dangerously close to complaining, but stop just short.

It’s not until later that evening that things fall apart. Over dinner a family member tells us she’s recently discovered that her former boss underpaid her entitlements. The business is no longer trading, so she’s unlikely to see the money owed. I simply can’t participate in the conversation without making negative comments about the person in question. It occurs to me that if I have any chance of making it to 21 days, I’ll need to recognise these situations immediately, and turn mute.

It’s that recognition that is the hard part though. That’s what makes it so different from other abstinences. When someone breaks their commitment to Dry July, they do so consciously. I’d imagine very few people get halfway through a beer and suddenly remember that they’re meant to be off the sauce. But that is exactly how it is with complaints. By the time you realise a gripe is in the vicinity, it’s usually too late.

5 August. Seven days and counting, a new record. I call the bank about two errors it has made, and manage to correct both without complaining. Instead, I simply state that I “can’t understand” why these things occurred when I was led to believe they would not occur. Sure I sound like a robot, but who cares? I’ve completed a task with a high degree of difficulty. If not complaining were figure skating, the bank call would be equivalent to a triple axel. I might not have shown much grace through the air, but I stuck the landing.

12 August. It’s at this point that I could veer off on a tangent about the general level of whingeing in the world. I could note that social media has amplified gripes about everything from overpriced avocados to sluggish Wi-Fi. I could write about how millennials are profuse whingers, surpassed only by non-millennials when you get them on to the topic of those wretched millennials. I could do all that, but I won’t. That would be a meta-whinge, and I’m 14 days without complaint. I’m into the home stretch and I’m not about to slip up now.

19 August. I took on whining, and I won. Were there some 50/50 calls that went in my favour? You bet there were. But when it’s all said (or weirdly bottled up) and done, I achieved my objective. Thrust into all manner of less-than-stellar scenarios, I summoned the strength to stifle my disapproval. I came, I saw, I concurred. Not only that, I did it at a time when the Pokémon GO frenzy was at its peak.

So how do I feel? Well, unsurprisingly, there’s not some powerful benefit that is unlocked on the 21st day. Rather there is an accumulation. I definitely think my focus has improved, along with general calmness. But perhaps the most noticeable benefit is a greater sense of control. You might think your level of control is just fine as it is – I certainly did – but it can be much better. If you try to stop complaining you’ll see what I mean.

Turning off autopilot is hard to do, and you’ll find those muscles that steer the plane have atrophied. But if you pump them up for a few weeks, the flight becomes more interesting and engaging.

How do I feel? Can’t complain.

Experience: my attempt to go 21 days without a whinge ended up taking six months | Michael Dawson

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Seaside 5:2 diet plan: Week Six update

D1: Consume. Breakfast: One particular slice toast with peanut butter. Lunch: smoked salmon on rye bread, minimal fat crisps, an Consume All-natural bar. Supper – 1 tiny bowl of pasta with house-produced tomato sauce, plus salad and a slice of bread. Fresh fruit salad and normal yoghurt. 1 square chocolate and two glasses white wine. Cals: two,000

D2: Rapidly. Miso soup, and then smoked salmon salad at property. Drank elderflower cordial at a party Cals: 500.

D3: Consume. Breakfast: scrambled eggs and sourdough toast Lunch: packet of nuts on a plane. Supper: salads and gnocchi. Watermelon chunks. 1 glass of white wine. Cals: one,600

D4: Eat. Breakfast: museli and yoghurt. Rye toast. Lunch: falafel sandwich. Snack: muesli bar. 7pm: supper: Baked beans on toast. Two glasses white wine. Cals: one,900

D5: Eat. Breakfast: Slice toast and a boiled egg. Lunch: salad and cold salmon, bread roll. Snack: Slice of cake. Supper: pasta and veggies. Glass of white wine. Cals: two,000

D6: Eat. Breakfast. Slice of toast and peanut butter. Half a banana. Lunch: sandwich with smoked salmon pate and salad. Consume Normal bar. One particular apple. Supper: Vegetable chilli with bulgar wheat. Stewed fruit and organic yoghurt. Cals: 1,900

D7: Rapidly. Black coffee /tea. Miso soup. Pea soup. Cals: 500

End result: Reduction 1lb.

VERDICT:

That was a quick week – fasting is getting easier and feels far more versatile. Nonetheless not acquiring adequate exercise and consuming also much white wine on days ‘off’ though.

I like the way that my physique doesn’t crave snacks as considerably – it’s less difficult to handle awkward schedules and company trips like a single to Germany this week when you know you can control hunger, and resist corporate hospitality and cake trays.

A sore knee is still placing paid to fast workout, but I’m hoping walking is toning me up nevertheless.

But how did I do all round? See the new me with muse Mimi Spencer in following week’s Telegraph.

For details on how to do the Rapidly Seaside 5:two diet plan, click right here

The Fast Seashore Diet program by Mimi Spencer (Short Books, RRP £6.99) is accessible to order from Telegraph Books at £3.99 + £1.ten p&ampp. Call 0844 871 1514 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Seaside 5:2 diet plan: Week Six update

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Seaside 5:two diet regime: Week 5 update

D1: Consume. Breakfast: Muesli with skimmed milk and half a chopped apple 1pm lunch: mozzarella (100g) and avocado salad with tiny slice of rye bread. Snack: Apple and twenty hazelnuts. 7pm supper: vegetarian sausage, mushrooms, green beans, one boiled potato modest helping of Eton Mess. Cals: 2,200

D2: Quick. Black tea/coffee. 7pm: omelette (two eggs) with greens (spinach, courgette, leeks) /slice jarlsberg cheese. Miso soup. Little bowl % body fat natural yoghurt. Cals: 500

D3: Eat. Breakfast: Two slices rye toast and 1 slice jarlsberg cheese. Two biscuits at 11am. Late lunch at 5pm – little bowl vegetarian chilli, slice rye bread, half an avocado, drizzle oil. Late supper: slice rye bread, small piece of blue cheese, apple, half a modest melon, one particular piece dark chocolate. Cals 1900

D4: Fast. Black tea/coffee. 7pm: big pot of gazpacho followed by spoonful of nat yoghurt and small Galia melon. Cals: 500

D5: Eat. Breakfast: scrambled eggs, mushroom and toast. 1pm lunch: slice of rye bread with modest piece cheese, apple, hummus. 8pm dinner celebration: olives and pistachios, asparagus and wilted greens, salmon en croute with potatoes and green veg gooseberry crumble white wine. Cals: two,500

D6: Consume. Breakfast: toast and a croissant for breakfast 1pm pub lunch: mushroom risotto and a gin and tonic. 7pm supper: slice bread and cheese, hummus, apple, cherry tomatoes two dark chocolate truffles. Cals: 1,900

D7: Fast. Absolutely nothing but black coffee and tea. Then at 7pm fritatta with veggies and a single slice of Jarlsberg cheese. Water. Cals: 500

Outcome: Reduction 1lb.

VERDICT:

Determined to do a 4: 3 to velocity factors up. All going nicely until finally a dinner party and pub lunch the up coming day. Oh dear. Even now, the very best thing about the Quickly diet plan is that Tomorrow is always Yet another Day.

I’m managing to get lots of strolling in – the stage counter is really active – but not sufficient HIT Quickly Exercising partly due to a twisted knee.

I really feel a lot thinner but really do not consider the scales reflect that.

I am nevertheless getting significantly much more portion conscious even though – counting out hazelnuts and weighing yoghurt – it is easy to slip into poor routines with supposedly ‘good’ foods… They still count towards your weekly total.

Subsequent WEEK’S CHALLENGE: the final week…

For details on how to do the Quickly Seashore five:two diet regime, click here

The Rapidly Seaside Diet plan by Mimi Spencer (Brief Books, RRP £6.99) is available to purchase from Telegraph Books at £3.99 + £1.10 p&ampp. Get in touch with 0844 871 1514 or check out books.telegraph.co.united kingdom

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Seaside 5:two diet regime: Week 5 update

Fatty meals rationed as Michael Gove shakes up college food

Pupils will only be presented two portions of deep-fried, battered and bread-crumb coated foods every week. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

Education secretary Michael Gove will unveil a crackdown on fatty and sweet foods on Tuesday as part of new standards on school meals.

Milk need to also be available to principal and secondary pupils throughout the college day under the new rules which come into force in January.

Pupils will only be offered two portions of deep-fried, battered and breadcrumb-coated food items each and every week underneath the rules outlined by Gove.

Pastry-based dishes will be subject to the very same restrictions, schools will be entirely banned from providing chocolate and confectionery in canteens and tuck retailers, and salt will not be accessible for pupils to add to meals right after it is cooked.

Gove has unveiled clearer food specifications for all state colleges in England – and imposed the new principles on totally free colleges and academies that were previously exempt from national requirements in an effort to cost-free them from laws.

But the new guidelines – which are a simplified edition of the existing college food code launched under the earlier Labour government – will only apply to new academies and totally free schools nevertheless to open, because of the legal issues of inserting clauses into the contracts of the academies that have opened because 2010.

Gove was criticised by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver for allowing academies and free schools to “erode” the tougher principles launched soon after Oliver had publicised the poor good quality and nutrition of college lunches.

This time, the Division for Schooling hopes that the one,500 academies and cost-free colleges that opened in England between 2010 and 2014 will voluntarily indicator up to the new laws. Academies produced beneath Labour have been previously needed to adopt national meals specifications.

“We now have a clear and concise set of food standards which are less complicated for cooks to comply with and much less costly to enforce. Crucially we have achieved this with out any compromise on top quality or nutrition,” Gove said in announcing the new requirements.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the Nationwide Union of Teachers, welcomed the selection, but explained it was “a missed opportunity” in allowing existing academies and cost-free colleges to opt out.

“This will imply that above half of state-funded secondary colleges and more than 10% of primaries in England will only be required to sign up to the standards on a voluntary basis. Parents of youngsters in these colleges will rightly be unhappy that the Government is failing to provide the identical guarantee of minimum nutritional food standards for all school,” Blower mentioned.

The new regulations retain a lot of of the overall health and nutrition regulations adopted in 2008 and 2009, like a ban on fatty snacks such as crisps, a restriction on the serving of fried food to two lunches a week, and the promotion of water and milk alternatively of sugary drinks.

The most significant modify is the scrapping of stringent reporting and nutrition targets, which have been criticised by schools and caterers as cumbersome and expensive, with chefs getting to use computer software to judge the content material of each menu.

The new rules also incorporate some tougher measures, restricting serving portions of fruit juice to 150ml and mandating that reduced-fat milk be obtainable for sale.

The DfE stated that the new specifications had established to be common with college cooks for the duration of trials, and have been just as efficient at delivering the suitable energy and nutrients. Secondary schools that trialed the new principles reported an increase in the consumption of veggies.

Fatty meals rationed as Michael Gove shakes up college food

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quickly Beach 5:2 diet program: Week 4 update

DIARY

D1: Eat. Bread roll for breakfast, salad for lunch, a huge handful of cherries at 5pm, and a salad with tuna and egg for supper. Followed by an ice cream – dark chocolate, since you ask. Oh and a glass of rose. Cals: 1500

D2: Eat. Bread roll for breakfast, a cheese baguette for lunch, and vegetarian lasagne at 7pm with two glasses of white wine. Cals: 2,000

D3: Fast. Nothing all day – then a bread roll, with a mixed salad and chilli prawns. 500 cals.

D4: Eat. Bread roll for breakfast, followed by one churros at 11.30am. Skipped lunch to snack on a handful of crisps with a beer at 5pm. Healthy salad for supper with frozen yogurt. Two glasses rose Cals: 2,200

D5: Eat. Bread roll for breakfast, with an egg salad baguette and glass of wine at lunch. Supper is a vegetable curry, with small helpings of Nan bread and rice, a fruit and yoghurt pudding, and a glass of rose. Cals: 2,000

D6: Eat. Scrambled eggs on rye toast. At 1pm, a crepe with mushroom and cheese, and a small Iced bakewell tart. Supper is baked beans on toast with a bowl of blueberries afterwards. Cals: 1900

D7: Fast. Black tea and coffee; smoked salmon salad and miso soup. Small bowl of low fat natural yoghurt. Cals: 500

RESULT: Loss 0lb.

VERDICT:

Holidays are hard – even on the Fast Diet. Looking back it didn’t feel like I was being especially indulgent, but there seems to have been more ice cream than I recall, and certainly more wine than I intended. The bread was hard to avoid, and although I chose healthy salads often (and avoided the dressing trap), I must admit to being terminally bored of iceberg lettuce and tinned tuna.

I am disappointed that the scales haven’t shifted – but perhaps not surprised.

Back home, and now it’s time to knuckle down and really shed some more pounds in time for my Daily Telegraph photo-shoot in two weeks’ time. Can there be greater motivation?

NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE: going for a 3:4 week and lots of HIT…

The Fast Beach Diet by Mimi Spencer (Short Books, RRP £6.99) is available to order from Telegraph Books at £3.99 + £1.10 p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quickly Beach 5:2 diet program: Week 4 update

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Seashore 5:two diet: Week Three update

DIARY

D1: Eat. Small bowl of muesli, banana and skimmed milk; Lunch at 1pm: salad bowl with 100g blue cheese, a packet of crisps and a bread roll; 7pm pasta bake with extra raw veg; glass of white wine. Cals: 1,600

D2: Eat. Bowl of Shreddies with milk and a banana; for lunch an egg sandwich, followed by bowl of low fat natural yoghurt. At 7pm stir fry veg and an omelette. Glass of red wine and two squares of dark chocolate. Cals: 1,400

D3: Fast. Nothing until night time when I had a smoked salmon salad followed by a small helping of low fat natural yoghurt and a helping of blueberries. Cals: 500

D4: Eat. One bread roll and a banana. At 1pm, tomatoes on toast plus yogurt and granola. A small packet of M&Ms. A salad with pan fried salmon and a beer, followed by 2 squares dark chocolate. Cals: 2,000

D5: Eat. One croissant for breakfast. A toasted tuna sandwich at 1pm, and a portion of frozen yoghurt. At 7pm, tortilla and salad followed by Crème caramel and a glass of rosé. Cals: 2,000

D6: Eat. One bread roll and a small cake. At 1pm, a tuna sandwich and an ice cream. At 7pm, tuna and egg salad plus a handful of chips. A glass of rosé. Cals: 1,900

D7: Fast. Nothing but water and black coffee until 7pm, and a salad with egg and tuna, with a small slice of my daughter’s tomato pizza. Cals: 500

RESULT: Loss 1lb.

VERDICT:

I feel SO much more portion aware these days but still falling into bad habits when away from home. So Day Five, which included waking up at Gatwick and flying to Spain for a week’s holiday, was a challenge. I am noticing that if I eat lots of carbs I feel uncomfortably bloated, which helps me make better choices in future. Spanish food seems very carb-oriented – and there is simply no choice at my hotel breakfast – it is bread and cake. Still you don’t have to eat the cake do you? And I’ll have to stick to salads for other meals.

But holidays are for relaxing, too – surely you can allow a glass of rosé into the daily diet if you eat less of everything else? Plus the endless walking and lugging of heavy suitcases must use up lots of calories, not to mention how many you burn jumping waves in the Mediterranean. Hopefully, next week will see a better loss.

NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE: The Fast Beach Diet on holiday…

The Fast Beach Diet by Mimi Spencer (Short Books, RRP £6.99) is available to order from Telegraph Books at £3.99 + £1.10 p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Seashore 5:two diet: Week Three update

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Beach five:two diet plan: Week 3 update

DIARY

D1: Eat. Small bowl of muesli, banana and skimmed milk; Lunch at 1pm: salad bowl with 100g blue cheese, a packet of crisps and a bread roll; 7pm pasta bake with extra raw veg; glass of white wine. Cals: 1,600

D2: Eat. Bowl of Shreddies with milk and a banana; for lunch an egg sandwich, followed by bowl of low fat natural yoghurt. At 7pm stir fry veg and an omelette. Glass of red wine and two squares of dark chocolate. Cals: 1,400

D3: Fast. Nothing until night time when I had a smoked salmon salad followed by a small helping of low fat natural yoghurt and a helping of blueberries. Cals: 500

D4: Eat. One bread roll and a banana. At 1pm, tomatoes on toast plus yogurt and granola. A small packet of M&Ms. A salad with pan fried salmon and a beer, followed by 2 squares dark chocolate. Cals: 2,000

D5: Eat. One croissant for breakfast. A toasted tuna sandwich at 1pm, and a portion of frozen yoghurt. At 7pm, tortilla and salad followed by Crème caramel and a glass of rosé. Cals: 2,000

D6: Eat. One bread roll and a small cake. At 1pm, a tuna sandwich and an ice cream. At 7pm, tuna and egg salad plus a handful of chips. A glass of rosé. Cals: 1,900

D7: Fast. Nothing but water and black coffee until 7pm, and a salad with egg and tuna, with a small slice of my daughter’s tomato pizza. Cals: 500

RESULT: Loss 1lb.

VERDICT:

I feel SO much more portion aware these days but still falling into bad habits when away from home. So Day Five, which included waking up at Gatwick and flying to Spain for a week’s holiday, was a challenge. I am noticing that if I eat lots of carbs I feel uncomfortably bloated, which helps me make better choices in future. Spanish food seems very carb-oriented – and there is simply no choice at my hotel breakfast – it is bread and cake. Still you don’t have to eat the cake do you? And I’ll have to stick to salads for other meals.

But holidays are for relaxing, too – surely you can allow a glass of rosé into the daily diet if you eat less of everything else? Plus the endless walking and lugging of heavy suitcases must use up lots of calories, not to mention how many you burn jumping waves in the Mediterranean. Hopefully, next week will see a better loss.

NEXT WEEK’S CHALLENGE: The Fast Beach Diet on holiday…

The Fast Beach Diet by Mimi Spencer (Short Books, RRP £6.99) is available to order from Telegraph Books at £3.99 + £1.10 p&p. Call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

Dr Michael Mosley"s Quick Beach five:two diet plan: Week 3 update

The NHS needs a leadership revolution | Michael West

Horizon scanning … NHS boards should prepare very carefully for the amount and design of leaders they will require for the potential. Photograph: WestEnd61/Rex

There are a growing number of warnings about the issues NHS leaders face. An ageing population with a lot more complex overall health demands, a difficult financial climate with no expectation of substantial new money, expanding worries about employees pressure amounts, public expectations that care must be delivered with compassion and respect – there are just some of the concerns NHS senior staff are getting to grapple with. They call for revolutionary alter to the way care is designed and provided they also call for a revolution in leadership.

The difficult, complex and modifying surroundings of the NHS requires our leaders to collaborate and co-operate across boundaries, among – not just within – their organisations. We want more emphasis on team and inter-staff doing work and considerably higher involvement of frontline employees.

The correct cultures of care will not emerge overnight. You are not able to mandate compassion in an e-mail from the chief executive. For employees to have a clear thought of the specifications they should meet requires time, dedication to the growth of men and women and teams – and a plan.

These new leadership capabilities will not emerge by chance. We should program for the leaders with the capabilities necessary in area ahead of time. This will call for method rather than piecemeal options to leadership and organisation improvement. And core to these abilities and to the technique for developing them is a recognition that we want collective leadership. We need to have leaders who make the accomplishment of their neighborhood overall health and social care program their priority, not just the achievement of their individual region. So we should attract leaders who will take the correct method to delivering care for the future.

In result, we need to have all leaders to move overall health and social care organisations from fragmentation to integration from tribes to interdisciplinary and inter-organisational teams from inner focus to external concentrate from domination and manage to enabling collaboration from secrecy to transparency and from conflict and conflict avoidance to doing work by way of.

Leadership is the most important influence on culture – every interaction by each and every leader in healthcare shapes the culture of their organisations. The ideal leaders advertise participation and involvement as their core technique market suitable employees autonomy and accountability for improvement guarantee employees “voices” are encouraged encourage personnel to be proactive and revolutionary steer clear of command and management except in crisis consider action to handle systems problems and needless tasks that avoid staff from delivering high good quality care deal efficiently and swiftly with quarrelsome, rude and disruptive behaviour and poor overall performance, particularly (but not solely) amid senior staff and, above all, they model compassion in dealing with individuals and employees.

The most efficient NHS boards are now preparing for the variety of leaders they will require in every single spot the attributes they will need of these leaders  preparing to make sure that varied groups are appropriately attracted and appointed to leadership positions at every single degree and attracting strong fields of candidates from clinical backgrounds.

The urgent problems require sensible and extended-term answers. The King’s Fund is therefore doing work with the not-for-revenue Center for Imaginative Leadership in North Carolina to aid NHS organisations develop the leadership techniques and abilities they need to have. Hopefully, that need to ensure continually enhancing, large top quality, compassionate care to all in our communities.

Michael West is a senior fellow at the King’s Fund. The King’s Fund, in partnership with the Center for Creative Leadership, published two reviews on collective leadership to coincide with its NHS leadership summit.

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The NHS needs a leadership revolution | Michael West

Skeptics will always face an uphill struggle against pseudoscience | Michael Marshall

If the scientific skepticism motion have been to decide on a mascot, we could do a good deal worse than Sisyphus: the figure from Greek mythology doomed by the gods to devote eternity pushing a boulder uphill, only to watch it roll back down yet again the moment he rests. Few other analogies actually capture the frustrations and seeming futility of counteracting a extensively held pseudoscientific belief.

Possibly worse, it is not ample for us simply to push back against the outrageous claims of pseudoscience, and those who capitalise on the bereaved and the vulnerable (whether knowingly or unknowingly) – we also have to do so responsibly. We can’t afford to use the dirty tricks employed by some of these we criticise, lest we lose our very own integrity and with it no matter what persuasive energy we might have had.

Equally, we can’t afford to advocate rationalism with the identical brashness and rudeness displayed by some pseudoscientists, because our truths are sadly significantly less welcome than their comforting untruths. It is effortless to persuade an individual of a falsehood if it is anything they desperately want to hear. They will even spend you for the privilege, and defend you to the hilt.

This is the Greek tragedy of the contemporary skeptical motion. If we’re cursed to play the function of Sisyphus and forever push our boulder up the mountain, we’re also fated to do so with a single hand tied behind our back. Rest assured, these advocating explanation will forever encounter an uphill battle, and any victories will be slow and challenging – and the minute we stop pushing, the boulder will inexorably roll back.

So why do we bother? If each and every victory only holds back the tide for a whilst, what’s the level? It is a question I’ve been taking into consideration a great deal of late, and I feel the answer lies in social duty, humility and an awareness of our own susceptibility. It is as well simple to see ourselves as getting beyond belief, or above belief: “There but for the grace of a god I don’t believe in go not I, for I am smarter than that, and I are not able to be fooled.”

Personally, I don’t buy that mentality for a second. Intelligence is no guard against pseudoscience – wise individuals basically find smarter methods to justify their belief in the unjustifiable. Rather, the genuine defence towards succumbing to seductive nonsense is an awareness of our own intellectual limitations and the cognitive flaws to which we are all prey. Or, in short, skepticism.

Skepticism is an anti-virus system for the brain: it merely supplies the resources to examine suggestions, combined with the knowledge that can get the weight out of undesirable concepts. Realizing that psychics have distinct techniques of asking concerns that make it sound as though they’re supplying data implies you are alive to the trick when you hear it. Awareness of regression to the suggest and confirmation bias may possibly quit you attributing your recovery to the copper band on your wrist or the sugar pill on your tongue. Knowing that President Kennedy’s seat in his car was raised to make him far more visible to the crowd will take the mystique out of the trajectory of that magic bullet.

But the anti-virus application analogy isn’t ideal, since after you have been infected with a “logic virus” it is hard to uncover and delete it, due to the fact it covers its tracks so well. Folks who fall for the seductive claims of psychics do so not simply because they’re wilfully flouting reality, but because there’s a phenomenal emotional sway that goes with the mystical. We have all misplaced a person near to us, and we have all felt the pain of bereavement. As skeptics, we have no magical solution to that soreness.

At their lowest ebb, at their most vulnerable, that is when folks are most at threat of taking a logical misstep that, when made, is extremely hard to reverse. And that applies not just to the “illogical handful of”, but to every a single of us, due to the fact we are all prone to moments of weakness. It is portion of the human problem, and it will take an act of near-perverse will to break that pattern, since it’s so deeply ingrained in our cultural and evolutionary psyche.

But that’s why it’s so crucial that we as skeptics and rationalists phase up: when someone is in a negative area, it’s the obligation of everybody who is aware of them – and even folks who really do not know them – to view their back. Because when I’m in that place myself, when I’m at my lowest ebb and feel as although actuality offers no hope, I want there to be men and women who end me walking – blinded by vulnerability – into an open manhole.

Michael Marshall is the project director for the Good Considering Society and vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He tweets as @MrMMarsh.

Skeptics will always face an uphill struggle against pseudoscience | Michael Marshall

Can Dr Michael Mosley and the Quickly Seashore 5:2 diet program get me fit for summer?

This is the diet regime to consider, I’m informed, when your excess weight loss has slowed down, or you suddenly don’t forget that 30th anniversary or college reunion. Or, worse even now, you’ve realised it is only six weeks to that summertime vacation booked back in January, when we were all living in voluminous waterproofs.

But just before I open up to Michael above black coffee about my body fat ratios and preferred sandwich fillings, I inquire him if the diet regime, which he has now been following for 18 months, is nonetheless that easy.

“The annoying thing about people,” he tells me, “is that we’re truly great at retaining fat. So before I discovered the advantages of eating like this – what is recognized as intermittent fasting, I knew I necessary to drop a number of lbs [at 5ft 11in, he weighed 14 stone], but my efforts to lose them were pretty vague and never lasted.”

But then, Michael, who produces and presents award-winning programmes on science for BBC Two’s Horizon, began to explore the science around fasting, and no matter whether it could assist us dwell longer and actively increase our health. He was particularly impressed by the investigation that linked intermittent fasting to a reduction in the risk of diabetes and dementia – both conditions from which his late father had suffered, and which, consequently, he feared.

Michael started fasting two days a week – “every other day was as well difficult” – and by the time the television programme aired in 2012, he had lost 18lb, mostly of body fat, not muscle. But that wasn’t all: his blood sugar, which had recommended he was close to establishing diabetes, had fallen to typical amounts his unwanted fat percentage had dropped from 28 per cent to 21 per cent. He even measured a blood protein called IGF (insulin-like development aspect 1) which can predict cancer danger: his had fallen from substantial to minimal.

“I was jolly pleased,” he says, charmingly understated.

Best of all, Michael says he is evidence that this is the diet plan that any individual can keep to. Eighteen months in, he fasts a couple of times a week. He adds a few sessions of Large Intensity Coaching (HIT) – an workout regime that also grew out of a Horizon show into a guide named Quick Workout, the place you aim to increase your heart rate with two bursts of workout for just 20 seconds, at optimum energy, three times a week. HIT, study exhibits, would seem to burn excess fat a lot more efficiently than the universal regular of 30-minute sessions 5 times a week. “It’ll be a quick sprint when I can,” says Michael, “or just working tough up the stairs.’’ He actually is the model of attainable, sustainable overall health.

Correct, Michael – ample about you. What about me? In which do I start? Since I’m purchasing in. I want a diet that can get me to the fat I want to be – oh, about a stone lighter than now healthier blood sugar levels and a waistline that nips in rather than bulging out. Oh, and I want to shed two factors off my Entire body Mass Index, which, at 27, at present – cruelly – marks me out as obese.

And, greedily, I want to hold my new form with out too a lot work for lifestyle. Oh, and can we get there in 6 weeks?

Michael, Michael, exactly where do I commence?

”The five:two is not a prescriptive diet plan,” he says. “Everyone has to discover their own way to stick to it. That could imply two fast days in a row, or a lot more intensely fasting 3:four some weeks. Some men and women like to eat a boiled egg in the morning’’ – sans soldiers, of program – ”others go via the day on black coffee and tons of water right up until early evening when they devote all their calories on one particular meal. Experiment until you discover what works for you.’’

He advises that I tot up my calories making use of an app such as MyFitnessPal – there will soon be a Quick Diet regime app, as well – and that I make grown-up choices on the non-quickly day, taking care to avoid what he calls “50:50 foods” – those that are, broadly speaking, half fat and half sugar, this kind of as muffins or chocolate bars. “They are so unnatural,” he says. “There is nothing in nature that is 50:50 body fat-to-sugar.”

The Quick Seaside diet plan suggests also giving up alcohol for six weeks. For those who can not resist a glass of wine, Michael suggests being more “mindful of the calories you are taking in” when you indulge.

His other final bits of guidance are really worth remembering as well: “Practise portion management. Get into excellent routines. Drink a lot of water. Depart your trainers by the door,” – the memory-jogging visual help can make you more probably to go for a run… – “and measure, measure, measure your self.”

That’s the most daunting portion of the Rapidly Seaside diet regime. Much better get on with it. And quickly.

Victoria Lambert will be following the Quick Beach Diet program for six weeks online at telegraph.co.united kingdom/wellness

^{Repeat following me: ‘White wine is not my friend’}

Dr Mosley’s 3 actions on how to use the Quick Seaside diet plan to slim down for the sun

The mind game Be more conscious of every thing you consume. The joy of intermittent fasting is that you do not have to consider about dieting most of the week. But for these 6 weeks, be mindful about every single mouthful. Which signifies:

a. No consuming on autopilot: savour every single meal and mouthful

b. Slow down: consider time over your meals, sip water, have conversations. Enable your entire body to feel complete.

c. In no way consume straight from a box. Measure out every portion on to a plate.

d. Clear your cupboards. Ditch foods that are fattening and tempting…

e. …but hold plenty of healthy meals to hand – and prepared to eat. So out go the Digestives, in come carrot sticks.

Get lively

Here’s how to flip daily activities into a HIT session:

a. Outside running. Warm up by jogging for 1-two minutes run flat out up a hill for ten seconds recover for one minute repeat. Boost to 3 or 4 thirty-second bursts.

b. Indoor cycling. Pedal gently for 1 to two minutes with resistance set on low then set resistance level to your optimum and pedal challenging for twenty seconds. Pedal gently for a single to two minutes to let your heart charge recover. Repeat.

c. Stair-working. Bound up stairs for thirty seconds, recover for a single to two minutes. Repeat. Really don’t run downstairs.

d. Swimming. Warm up leisurely. Sprint-swim for half a length (25m pool) recover for 1 to two minutes. Repeat. Develop up all exercises to three repetitions. You are aiming for a complete of 3 minutes’ higher-intensity exercise per week. Don’t eat beforehand, and don’t use this as an excuse to load up on carbs you won’t want refuelling, and you want to burn glucose anyway.

Eat greater

a. Cut out alcohol. It’s filled with empty calories, disrupts sleep and stimulates appetite. Repeat following me: “White wine is not my good friend.”

b. Cook at house and steer clear of packaged meals.

c. Cut out the 50:50s – that is, anything at all that is half-body fat, half-sugar, such as ice-cream, muffins or sweetened lattes.

d. Have soup ahead of supper. Analysis suggests it can suppress appetite.

e. Use the rule of ¾. Eating 75 per cent veggies to 25 per cent protein or carbs.

f. Banish meat from one particular meal a day, and commence consuming much more fish.

The Quickly Beach Diet regime by Mimi Spencer (Quick Books, RRP £6.99) is accessible to buy from Telegraph Books at £3.99 + £1.10 p&ampp. Phone 0844 871 1514 or go to books.telegraph.co.uk

Can Dr Michael Mosley and the Quickly Seashore 5:2 diet program get me fit for summer?

Michael Gove urges colleges and schools to view for signs of abuse

Michael Gove who has written to all schools and colleges in England urging them to be alert for signs of radicalisation and exploitation of students Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

The education secretary, Michael Gove, has written to all schools and colleges in England urging them to be alert for signs of radicalisation and exploitation of students.

In a letter to headteachers, Gove warned that schools and colleges needed to be aware of any type of abuse of children and should not think that it could not happen to them.

He said the government had published advice on different types of abuse and neglect, including child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, radicalisation, and cyberbullying, among others.

Gove wrote: “The guidance reiterates that staff members working with children should always think ‘it could happen here’ where safeguarding is concerned.”

The updated advice said that everyone who dealt with children and their families had a part to play in keeping youngsters safe. “School and college staff are particularly important as they are in a position to identify concerns early and provide help for children, to prevent concerns from escalating,” it said.

The new advice contained links to existing guidance from different organisations on a range of issues, including one from “Channel”, which is part of a government strategy to protect people at risk of being radicalised.

The document said: “Channel is about protecting people from radicalisation into all forms of terrorism, but the most significant threat to this country is from al-Qaida affiliated, influenced and associated groups.”

It suggested there were a number of indicators that an individual was involved with an extremist group or cause, such as changing how they dressed or their appearance, losing interest in friends or activities not associated with a particular ideology, and their behaviour becoming focused on an extreme idea or cause.

It also said that those at risk of being radicalised might possess material or symbols associated with an extremist cause (e.g. the swastika for far-right groups), spend increasing time in the company of other suspected extremists, or attempt to recruit others to their cause.

The Department for Education’s new advice said that everyone working in a school or college should be aware of the signs of abuse and neglect “so that they are able to identify cases of children who may be in need of help or protection” and can take action.

In a specific section on female genital mutilation (FGM) it said that all professionals needed to be “alert to the possibility of a girl being at risk of FGM, or already having suffered FGM”.

It added that girls at risk of the practice may not know they were in danger.

Michael Gove urges colleges and schools to view for signs of abuse

Michael Gove urges schools and schools to observe for indications of abuse

Michael Gove who has written to all schools and colleges in England urging them to be alert for signs of radicalisation and exploitation of students Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

The education secretary, Michael Gove, has written to all schools and colleges in England urging them to be alert for signs of radicalisation and exploitation of students.

In a letter to headteachers, Gove warned that schools and colleges needed to be aware of any type of abuse of children and should not think that it could not happen to them.

He said the government had published advice on different types of abuse and neglect, including child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, radicalisation, and cyberbullying, among others.

Gove wrote: “The guidance reiterates that staff members working with children should always think ‘it could happen here’ where safeguarding is concerned.”

The updated advice said that everyone who dealt with children and their families had a part to play in keeping youngsters safe. “School and college staff are particularly important as they are in a position to identify concerns early and provide help for children, to prevent concerns from escalating,” it said.

The new advice contained links to existing guidance from different organisations on a range of issues, including one from “Channel”, which is part of a government strategy to protect people at risk of being radicalised.

The document said: “Channel is about protecting people from radicalisation into all forms of terrorism, but the most significant threat to this country is from al-Qaida affiliated, influenced and associated groups.”

It suggested there were a number of indicators that an individual was involved with an extremist group or cause, such as changing how they dressed or their appearance, losing interest in friends or activities not associated with a particular ideology, and their behaviour becoming focused on an extreme idea or cause.

It also said that those at risk of being radicalised might possess material or symbols associated with an extremist cause (e.g. the swastika for far-right groups), spend increasing time in the company of other suspected extremists, or attempt to recruit others to their cause.

The Department for Education’s new advice said that everyone working in a school or college should be aware of the signs of abuse and neglect “so that they are able to identify cases of children who may be in need of help or protection” and can take action.

In a specific section on female genital mutilation (FGM) it said that all professionals needed to be “alert to the possibility of a girl being at risk of FGM, or already having suffered FGM”.

It added that girls at risk of the practice may not know they were in danger.

Michael Gove urges schools and schools to observe for indications of abuse

Michael Gove urges colleges and colleges to watch for signs of abuse

Michael Gove who has written to all schools and schools in England urging them to be alert for indicators of radicalisation and exploitation of students Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

The schooling secretary, Michael Gove, has written to all colleges and colleges in England urging them to be alert for signs of radicalisation and exploitation of college students.

In a letter to headteachers, Gove warned that colleges and schools essential to be mindful of any sort of abuse of young children and must not believe that it could not come about to them.

He said the government had published suggestions on diverse kinds of abuse and neglect, such as little one sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, radicalisation, and cyberbullying, amid other individuals.

Gove wrote: “The advice reiterates that personnel members functioning with children ought to always feel ‘it could happen here’ the place safeguarding is concerned.”

The updated guidance mentioned that every person who dealt with youngsters and their households had a portion to play in maintaining youngsters protected. “College and school personnel are specifically important as they are in a position to recognize issues early and supply aid for youngsters, to prevent issues from escalating,” it stated.

The new tips contained links to current advice from diverse organisations on a assortment of troubles, like a single from “Channel”, which is part of a government technique to defend folks at danger of becoming radicalised.

The document mentioned: “Channel is about safeguarding folks from radicalisation into all varieties of terrorism, but the most important threat to this nation is from al-Qaida affiliated, influenced and related groups.”

It recommended there were a number of indicators that an personal was involved with an extremist group or result in, this kind of as modifying how they dressed or their appearance, losing curiosity in close friends or actions not associated with a distinct ideology, and their behaviour becoming centered on an severe concept or lead to.

It also said that individuals at risk of becoming radicalised might possess material or symbols linked with an extremist cause (e.g. the swastika for far-appropriate groups), commit increasing time in the organization of other suspected extremists, or try to recruit other individuals to their cause.

The Department for Education’s new advice mentioned that everybody functioning in a college or college should be aware of the indications of abuse and neglect “so that they are in a position to recognize situations of children who may possibly be in need of aid or protection” and can take action.

In a specific part on female genital mutilation (FGM) it explained that all experts required to be “alert to the probability of a woman becoming at risk of FGM, or previously obtaining suffered FGM”.

It added that ladies at risk of the practice may not know they have been in danger.

Michael Gove urges colleges and colleges to watch for signs of abuse

Chiropractors" spine-chilling warnings about computer systems, phones and pancakes | Michael Marshall

Scaremongering more than new technological innovation has been all around as long as technology itself, but it sank to a new low last month when The Telegraph published the following:

Computers blamed for children’s undesirable backs

Computers and mobile telephones are triggering an improve in back problems for teenagers, with 40 per cent of youngsters struggling soreness, a examine has claimed.

Researchers warned parents that their teenagers are at escalating threat from back or neck pain due to sedentary lifestyles and excessive use of technology.

The coverage was based mostly on a press release from the British Chiropractic Association as element of its “Engineering and Teenagers” awareness campaign. The BCA’s press workplace informed me that the study was an opinion poll conducted by a industry research firm, but they declined my request to look at the inquiries that had been asked or the several decision solutions that had been offered.

However, it appears the researchers questioned mothers and fathers of 11 to 16-year-olds about their child’s technological innovation usage and whether their children had ever seasoned back pain, and then invited them to speculate about what might have brought on the discomfort. That the methodology concerned no actual examinations of the kids – either by spinal authorities or chiropractors – significantly undermines the findings.

It comes as no surprise that the full research is not offered to the public, allow alone published in a respectable journal. Yet this flimsy research is apparently adequate to base an complete awareness-raising campaign on, one particular which the media readily picked up.

This technique has worked not only for the BCA, but also for other chiropractic organisations. In March, the United Chiropractic Association went one further than the BCA, releasing a press release that inspired the Daily Mail to declare the humble smartphone to be a prospective killer:

Could sending texts Kill you? Messaging may possibly lead to heart condition and breathing troubles in later existence, examine claims.

Texting and employing mobile products for long intervals of time could lead to a decrease life expectancy, in accordance to a new study.

Chiropractic experts feel the hunching posture adopted by phone or tablet end users can result in breathing difficulties, top to cardiovascular problems later on in daily life and a increased threat of death in older age.

The hyperlink amongst hyperkyphosis, a deformation of the spine usually connected with degenerative circumstances this kind of as osteoporosis, and the posture adopted even though studying emails looks to be the invention of the UCA – it undoubtedly is not supported by any reliable evidence. Quite how our smartphone-reading through posture differs from the bog-common book-studying posture we’ve adopted for centuries is anyone’s guess.

That the Mail reported the UCA’s press release with no a trace of criticism – or, indeed, proof – is undoubtedly poor journalism, and it comes as no shock that its story was rapidly derided by experts.

The campaign comes soon after many years of criticism for chiropractors: in 2010, the BCA lost an costly legal case following suing science writer Simon Singh (who is now my colleague at the Excellent Pondering Society). The BCA was unhappy with his criticisms of claims produced by the association and its members that spinal manipulation – which according to chiropractic concept can unblock “subluxations” in the innate power of the spine – could deal with colic in infants. (There is no dependable proof that spinal manipulation can deal with infant colic.)

Despite this substantial-profile defeat in the courts, a lot of chiropractors – such as some members of the BCA – still routinely distribute leaflets at their practices containing claims that chiropractic remedy can manipulate the spines of newborn infants to deal with colic, breathing problems, ear infections, poor appetite and even allergies. That BCA members even now appear to, in the phrases of Singh, “happily advertise bogus treatments” for which there is “not a jot of evidence” is alarming to say the least. Chiropractors may possibly nicely feel that they are assisting their individuals, but the ideal offered proof does not support their bizarre theories.

The apparent inaction of the chiropractic regulatory bodies is troubling. In the wake of publicity induced by the libel action towards Singh, the sector came below intense scrutiny, with complaints of misleading or unsubstantiated claims levelled against one in 3 registrants of the Common Chiropractic Council. Four years on, it looks minor has been done to discourage chiropractors from making unsubstantiated claims – the GCC seems to be as ineffective as the treatment options provided by its members.

Even though the regulatory side of the chiropractic business has been slow to act, the exact same can not be explained of its advertising and PR departments. Apart from scaremongering more than our deadly smartphone usage, we’ve also been subjected to press releases warning of the dangers of sleeping on poor mattresses, more than-stuffing our ‘man-bags’, and even flipping pancakes.

If chiropractors want to be taken significantly, perhaps they ought to emphasis on bettering the regulation of their market and conducting rigorous study rather than relying on PR stunts to drum up company. But I suspect they will carry on to bend in excess of backwards to exploit every PR opportunity.

In the meantime, the newspapers who merrily regurgitate these flimsy stories should be careful: if they stoop any lower, they’ll put their backs out.

Chiropractors" spine-chilling warnings about computer systems, phones and pancakes | Michael Marshall

Michael Schofield

Michael Schofield produced pioneering work on topics from sexuality to drug-taking and prison reform. Photograph: Frank Martin

Michael Schofield, who has died aged 94, was at the centre of social reform in the 1960s and 70s, nicely known in law pressure groups and, in his quiet way, a figure of considerable influence via his books, reports and articles. He produced pioneering work about gay folks, and his best-known guide was the Sexual Behaviour of Young Individuals (1965).

His first book, Society and the Homosexual (1952), was published below the pen-identify Gordon Westwood, because homosexuality was then a criminal offence. It was the initial non-health care book on homosexuality, a thorough study of its social factors significantly quoted by journalists, politicians and sociologists for the duration of the discussions that led up to the Wolfenden report (1957), whose suggestions that homosexual acts be legalised came into result ten years later on.

Born in Leeds, Schofield was the fourth youngster of a big, content family. Educated at Orleton college, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, he obtained a degree in psychology at Cambridge University, in which he also led and played the saxophone with the Footlights dance band. Following investing 6 many years as a fighter pilot in the RAF (1940-46), he went to Harvard Enterprise College, contentedly expecting that he would join his significantly-admired brothers in the family business, Schofields, the well-identified division keep in Leeds. But after two many years in the firm, he left. Portion of his character, he realised, was at odds with his conventional middle-class upbringing it puzzled him that individuals discovered it so challenging to accept his homosexuality.

This was the begin of his career as a researcher and author on sociological topics. In 1960, yet another book, A Minority, was the initial in depth investigation into the lives of homosexuals who had had no trouble with the law and who had not felt the require for health care treatment. The sociologist Kenneth Plummer later claimed that in Britain, “minor of sociological significance had appeared till Scholfield’s intervention, and that it is tempting to recommend that all the sociological insights grew from the operate of a single guy, Michael Schofield”.

Soon after these publications, Schofield turned to the review of other minority subjects: single-mother or father families, teenage premarital sex, contraception, abortion, drug-taking and prison reform. “It was refreshing,” he mentioned, “to grind other axes.” The Sexual Behaviour of Youthful Individuals showed once more his customary rigorous methodology, and his research benefits were widely reported.

His later on books integrated the textbook Social Study (1969), The Odd Situation of Pot (1971), The Sexual Behaviour of Youthful Adults (1973) and Promiscuity (1976). He also wrote a spoof Report of the Committee on the Operation of the Sexual Containment Act (1978), a satire on those who look upon intercourse as one thing that distorts ordinary existence alternatively of becoming a regular element of it.

Schofield was the study director of the British Social Biology Council (1959-62), and held a similar position in the Central Council for Well being Education (1963-65). He served on the government advisory committee on drug dependence (1967-69) and on the Wootton committee (1969), whose report on cannabis advised that the legal penalties linked with it have been far too severe.

He campaigned to make contraceptives free of charge on the NHS, and on behalf of the Abortion Law Reform Association. An early supporter of frank sex education, gay rights and a more tolerant frame of mind to marital infidelity, in the 60s and 70s he was often to be identified opposing the broadcasting requirements campaigner Mary Whitehouse and her supporters on Tv and radio. But he created number of enemies and, in committee, his shrewd thoughts was not to be fobbed off with anything at all significantly less than a satisfactory response.

For many many years, Schofield was active in law reform groups: he was a member of the executive committee of the Nationwide Council for Civil Liberties (1968-76) and a trustee of its associated charity, the Civil Liberties Trust, now Liberty. Campaigning towards censorship led him to seem as an expert witness for the defence in several trials under the Obscene Publications Acts. He founded, endowed and largely guided the Lyndhurst Settlement, a charitable basis that donated hundreds of thousands of lbs to modest struggling charities, notably these doing work for civil liberties and for the protection of the environment.

In 1982, Schofield retired. He was a great-humoured companion, and loved a contented personal daily life with his partner, Anthony Skyrme, who survives him.

• Michael George Schofield, law reformer, sociologist and author, born 24 June 1919 died 27 March 2014

Michael Schofield

Homeopathy awareness can make the planet a healthier, happier place | Michael Marshall

Planet Homeopathy Awareness Week – the yearly promotional campaign organised by homeopaths about the world – kicked off on Thursday. This yr, rather than disregard it, moan about it or condemn it, scientists and sceptics alike should join in.

This may appear relatively perverse – particularly given the comprehensive evisceration of homeopathy earlier this week at the hands of the Australian National Overall health and Medical Analysis Council, which concluded “there is no trustworthy proof that homeopathy is effective”. Yet what homeopaths are in search of – consideration and awareness – is precisely what they ought to steer clear of. As any person who has explained the baffling approach of homeopathic dilution to an incredulous colleague will attest, raising awareness of homeopathy is by far the quickest way to dispel any belief in it.

With this in thoughts, the Great Contemplating Society (a charity that promotes rational considering) has launched its personal homeopathy awareness week website: homeopathyawarenessweek.org. The internet site highlights twelve points that homeopaths appear surprisingly unwilling to make individuals conscious of, like examples of exactly where homeopathy has critically harmed sufferers.

Apologists for homeopathy will argue that due to the fact the tablets include nothing at all but sugar, they can’t be harmful. Although their chemistry may be exact, their conclusion definitely is not. For example, there is the situation of Penelope Dingle, a bowel cancer patient in Australia who followed the tips of her homeopath husband, and as a consequence suffered a agonizing and unnecessary death.

Equally tragic is the story of Gloria Thomas, a child whose homeopathically handled eczema became so badly contaminated that it led to her death at the age of 9 months. The public ought to also be aware that homeopaths often provide ineffective homeopathic “alternatives” to vaccines that put children at threat of serious disease. You won’t discover these stories on any other homeopathy awareness websites.

It is alarming to note that homeopaths all around the globe are appropriate now claiming to treat a assortment of significant circumstances, this kind of as malaria, AIDS and even the Ebola virus. Indeed, Homeopaths Without Borders – a group of doubtlessly nicely-that means folk – are flying into areas of crisis in the building world carrying suitcases total of homeopathic tablets that contain nothing but sugar. It is not so much Médecins Sans Frontières as Médecins Sans Medicine.

Of course, belief in homeopathy is not merely a curio identified solely on foreign soil – it is effectively represented, for illustration, on the shelves of high street pharmacies in the United kingdom. Boots – the company whose otherwise exceptional reputation made it the target of demonstrations towards homeopathy in 2010 – nonetheless unapologetically stocks homeopathic goods on its shelves in thousands of retailers up and down the nation.

Luckily, there are constructive signs. In 2010, when I first became involved in alternative wellness activism, the NHS funded no fewer than five homeopathic hospitals nowadays all have both closed or faced a severe risk to their existence. Latest figures, obtained via a freedom of information request by the Nightingale Collaboration, demonstrate an encouraging swing away from homeopathy, with prescriptions falling from a substantial of 170,000 per annum in 1996 to just over 10,000 final 12 months.

Clearly, demand is falling. Provide, too, is on shaky ground. When Nelson’s homeopathic pharmacy – sugar pill supplier of option for Boots and Holland &amp Barrett – explored the likelihood of exporting to the US, the resulting FDA inspection reached a startling conclusion. In accordance to the report, the succussion method (the vigorous shaking that apparently activates the “vibrational memory” of water) meant that in a single out of every 6 homeopathic vials observed, the magical drop of homeopathic liquid missed the sugar tablets fully.

“The lively ingredient was rather seen dripping down the outdoors of the vial assembly. [Nelson’s] lacked controls to guarantee that the energetic ingredient is delivered to every bottle.”

In other phrases, 1 in six vials of homeopathic capsules from the greatest supplier of substantial street homeopathy incorporate no homeopathy at all. That no customers seem to be to have observed speaks volumes for the efficacy of homeopathy.

Maybe most surprising and encouraging of all is just how mainstream this discussion has turn into. Homeopathy is now the butt of mainstream comedians’ jokes and Television sketch displays, and homeopaths have grow to be a watchword for anachronistic thinking, overtaking the Flat Earthers. And, judging by the responses on Twitter to our homeopathy awareness web site, these days practically everybody has their very own “homeopathy is ineffective” gag.

So, I say: deliver on higher awareness … but awareness in its truest sense. Awareness that homeopathy has no scientific basis, is a waste of your income and has the prospective for great harm. If we can continue to spread this type of awareness, we’ll consign homeopathy to the historical past books where it belongs.

Michael Marshall is the undertaking director for the Good Considering Society. As vice president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, he is also one of the organisers of QEDcon, which starts tomorrow. He tweets as @MrMMarsh

Homeopathy awareness can make the planet a healthier, happier place | Michael Marshall

Michael Gove writes to every single college in England about dangers of FGM

The petition calling on Michael Gove to highlight the practice of FGM received assistance from hundreds of 1000′s of concerned members of the public. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Pictures

The education secretary, Michael Gove, has written to every single college in England warning them to be alert to the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM) soon after a Guardian campaign to carry the problem into schools attracted the support of more than 230,000 people.

The petition calling on Gove to highlight the practice, which requires removing element or all of a girl’s outer sexual organs and is carried out in many African countries as nicely as places of the Middle East, obtained help from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, as effectively as hundreds of 1000′s of concerned members of the public.

After meeting 17-yr-old Brighton schoolgirl Fahma Mohamed, who led the campaign, Gove has sent a letter to all headteachers in England alerting them to new suggestions designed to preserve youngsters risk-free, which consists of guidance on FGM. A spokeswoman for the Department for Education informed the Guardian that the training secretary would preserve up stress on schools by flagging up the dangers of FGM once more in his yearly “back to college” letter in September.

For the initial time, the safeguarding tips include certain mention of FGM and urge teachers to be vigilant. An estimated 66,000 women and girls in the United kingdom have been victims of FGM, with up to 24,000 girls beneath the age of 15 believed to be at risk.

Retaining Kids Safe in Schooling outlines the measures all colleges have to consider to safeguard their pupils, in accordance to the letter from the DfE, seen by the Guardian.

In the letter the schooling secretary tells all teachers and colleges to consider, when considering safeguarding issues, “it could take place right here”. The advice contains an eight-webpage segment that should be distributed and study by all college workers, so they can identity neglect and abuse this kind of as FGM. It will, in accordance to the letter, “inform them how to refer a child … to the acceptable company and it will direct them to even more, comprehensive info on certain safeguarding matters which includes female genital mutilation, little one sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, mental health, and radicalisation”.

It clearly states that all pros “require to be alert to the likelihood of a woman getting at chance of FGM, or presently having suffered FGM”, noting that teachers should be specifically vigilant with ladies known to come from communities the place FGM is practised. If employees suspect FGM might have taken place they must get in touch with police and social solutions quickly, it says.

The move comes after the secretary of state came underneath increasing pressure to target focus on FGM in schools following the Guardian launched an online petition with Alter.org, headed by Fahma, a Bristol schoolgirl.

The petition, launched on the UN’s day of action against FGM, referred to as on Gove to publish to the leaders of all main and secondary schools, urging them to flag up the dangers of FGM just before the summertime holidays, when ladies are at the greatest risk. It became a single of the fastest growing Uk petitions on Adjust.org and aided secure a meeting among the schooling secretary and Fahma and members of the youth group Integrate Bristol, who have played a important position in raising awareness of FGM.

Campaigners welcomed the move, but called for more specific guidance and action on FGM. “I am actually pleased that the letter has been sent and I know headteachers are more conscious of FGM now,” Fahma stated. “But I would have liked much more specifics. It’s a fantastic step forward but there is still far more to be done, so we are not giving up the battle but.”

Lisa Zimmermann, the group’s founder, mentioned Integrate Bristol had asked Gove to set up a meeting in between it and the head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, in purchase to urge him to inform inspectors to verify that function to tackle FGM was going on in all colleges. “This is certainly a victory for Fahma and the Guardian, but we would have liked the guidance and language employed to be stronger and we would like to see true education of teachers to aid them recognise the warning indicators of FGM,” stated Zimmermann.

Efua Dorkenoo, FGM adviser at Equality Now, praised Gove’s dedication to joining “the multi-pronged method to ending FGM in the United kingdom by mentioning FGM especially in the DfE’s child safeguarding recommendations”. She extra: “The letter and recommendations are a wonderful start but what we need to have now is urgent action to implement the policy successfully so that all women at threat are safeguarded.” Chance indicators had to be manufactured clearer to teachers, who ought to all be qualified to appear out for warning signs, she said.

Nimko Ali said Gove needed to offer far more assurance that youngster survivors of FGM would be listened to and supported. “These young children who have been failed like me by the state are searching for safety, and are asking to be respected like any other kid who has suffered this kind of child abuse.”

Michael Gove writes to every single college in England about dangers of FGM