Olaseni Lewis died in part from "disproportionate use of force"

The death of a man after prolonged restraint by police on a mental health ward was caused in part by “disproportionate and unreasonable” use of force, pain compliance techniques and multiple mechanical restraints, an inquest has found.

The narrative conclusion, which came after the coroner ruled out a verdict of unlawful killing, found fault with both police officers and medics involved in the death of Olaseni Lewis at Bethlem Royal hospital in south London in 2010.

Lewis, 23, an IT graduate with no prior history of mental illness, collapsed at the hospital after being taken there by relatives on 31 August 2010. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at Croydon University hospital on 4 September.

A postmortem examination found he had suffered a hypoxic brain injury, which occurs when the brain is starved of oxygen, jurors heard on the second day of the inquest.

Early in the inquest, Lewis’s mother, Ajibola Lewis, recalled how a nurse at the Maudsley hospital in south London, had warned her not to allow him to be transferred to Bethlem, where the incident occurred.

“She said to me, ‘Look, don’t let him go to the Bethlem, don’t let him go there,’” Ajibola Lewis said. However, she took the decision, on the advice of doctors, that her son should attend the mental health hospital as a voluntary patient.

The case only came to inquest after years of investigations into who should be held responsible for Lewis’s death. In 2015, following an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the Crown Prosecution Service determined that the officers involved had no criminal case to answer.

Last year, it was decided that no charges of corporate homicide would be brought against the South London and Maudsley NHS foundation trust, which manages Bethlem, after it was investigated by Devon and Cornwall police.

A Health and Safety Executive investigation into Lewis’s death is pending following the conclusion of the inquest.

Olaseni Lewis died in part from "disproportionate use of force"

Mountains of the mind: "I’ve become part of the landscape and it’s become part of me"

We begin in darkness and head up towards the light. It is that time just before the dawn when it’s neither day nor night. Down near Lake Coniston, I can hear an owl and a curlew calling, both claiming the hour for themselves. “I like to come this early,” says Sion. “There’s no one else around. I can’t handle crowds. I get confused.”

It’s 4.30am and I am with Sion Jair, 67, and his partner, Wendy Kolbe, 63, and we are heading up the Old Man of Coniston, an 803-metre Lake District fell noted for its sharp ascent and great panoramas of southern lakeland. Or at least we hope so: there are some clouds massing in the east.

For Sion, this has become a daily ritual, adopted seven years ago when a visit to the doctor changed his life for ever. “I had been feeling permanently tired, and suffering some memory problems. It meant I couldn’t get out walking, you see, and when I can’t walk, I really shut down.”

After tests, the doctor diagnosed chronic anaemia from vitamin B12 deficiency. Injections usually sort that out, but Sion reacted badly to the shots and, without them, was given three years to live. Determined not to give in, he set about walking in earnest, covering around 10 miles a day. “Eventually, it worked. I reckon it cured me of the chronic fatigue,” he says.

But there was another blow. The anaemia had been masking signs of dementia. Given the particular type of condition he was suffering from, he was warned that he could expect periods of total memory loss, mood swings and eventually the inability to look after himself. Sion had become one of the estimated 25 million people worldwide suffering this progressive neurodegenerative disease, as feared now as the Black Death was in its day.

“It was quite scary,” says Sion, adding, in something of an understatement. “I didn’t like the idea.”

‘When I can’t walk, I really shut down’ … Sion Jair walking up the Old Man of Coniston. Photograph: Kevin Rushby

Sion’s response was typical of him: he walked even more. Not just the Old Man, but other fells, too: Scafell Pike, Helvellyn, Blencathra, Dollywaggon Pike – all the greats. “I’ve done them so often, I know them blindfolded.” And all this he did without any technological intermediaries, smartphone or GPS – just the steady rhythm of his feet. On one occasion he did 12 peaks and 28 miles in 22 hours, raising cash for his three favourite charities: the Alzheimer’s Society, Mountain Rescue and the Great North Air Ambulance. He also walked in Wales – he walked the Snowdon horseshoe more than 200 times – and Scotland, but it was in Coniston that he found his walking mantra. I suppose you could call it his Coniston Old Man-tra.

“I come twice a day sometimes. I know every part of the path, and lots of individual stones. I’ve done it more than 5,000 times, and hope to do it long into my illness. But I don’t call myself a walker – not at all – this is me. Me and the Lakes. I found a place where I fit in – I’ve become part of the landscape and it’s become part of me. It’s a kind of symbiosis.”

That is what fascinates me about Sion. His walking has embedded him in the Lakeland landscape and made him happy, despite the dementia. Like the Herdwick sheep grazing the hillsides, he has become hefted to the fell.

Walking, of course, is as familiar and mundane as breathing. Most of us do it all the time, and have done probably ever since the proto-human Sahelanthropus tchadensis walked across what is now the Djurab desert in Chad six or seven million years ago. The bones found there in 2001 are currently the oldest evidence for bipedalism, although that species was probably still a tree-climber, too. It was not until Homo erectus, a couple of million years ago, that two-legged locomotion finally became the method of travel that defines humans.

The act of walking, however, has come a long way since it was just about peeking over the elephant grass and carrying a big stick. It can take on a greater purpose and meaning than simply propelling yourself along. Think of the times you have walked a good distance and then looked back and marvelled at how far you’ve travelled. There is something magical and energising about gazing back over the ridges of misty fells, or even how many Tube stations you have passed. Great thinkers and writers, from Aristotle to Lakeland’s own William Wordsworth, have sworn by the power of walking. There is no possibility of cheating, no first-class option. When we walk, we are all equal. “Shank’s pony” is a great leveller. Perhaps that’s why we choose to protest by walking. A group protest march on foot carries the message that something is wrong with the outside world and needs to be put right. In that way, I think, Sion’s walking is a kind of solo protest march against an inner problem, his dementia. It’s his way of tackling it and refusing to surrender without a fight.

We are starting to climb more steeply now, and the track is a treacherous scree of loose, flat stones that make dull, hollow noises when kicked. “It’s hard,” he says, “talking and climbing.” But that doesn’t stop him. When we pass an abandoned slate quarry halfway up the mountain, he tells me how he once moved a wooden beam that was threatening to fall on some unsuspecting hikers. Beside that beam is some rusting winding gear. Perhaps it’s that – the metal wreckage of a former life – that triggers something in his head, because next thing he is telling me a childhood story from the 1950s. “I was out shopping with my mum and two RAF jet fighters collided overhead. I remember watching the fuselage of one jet smash into some houses. When we got home, our house had been hit, too. There was a big crack in the gable end.”

As if on cue, the sun breaks over the low bank of cloud and instantly spreads a fiery glow across the fell ridges and summits. Is this how it works, I wonder – walking triggers memories, then somehow they get tangled into the walk itself? Are the fells listening?

‘I do believe the walking is holding the dementia at bay a bit’ … Sion and Wendy on the summit of the Old Man. Photograph: Kevin Rushby

Sion is certainly an entertaining companion, and has an impish sense of humour. He is also a quick walker. He had said, at the bottom of the hill: “No one passes me on the fells.” By now I could understand why. With short, rapid strides, he gets into a rhythm and does not stop. Wendy is left behind, and I have to concentrate hard just to keep pace with him. His energy and power are astonishing.

Behind us the landscape begins to unfurl: the silver streaks of Lakes Windermere and Coniston, the silver eyes of Low Water and Levers Water. “It might get a bit windy here,” says Sion, and sure enough, within a few strides a cold blast comes roaring up the col, biting at us, and suggesting another story.

“Back in the late 60s and early 70s, I was a biker,” he says, chuckling. “I had long hair and rode a BSA Royal Star. One time me and a mate rode down to London from Birmingham on it – both of us with hair all down our backs. That was in the days when you didn’t have to wear a helmet, and of course we didn’t.” He stops to wipe away a tear that the wind has tugged from his eye. “When we stopped at a service station, we both got off the bike and immediately fell over. Our hair had got knotted together by the wind. It was crazy. I remember bystanders killing themselves laughing. We had to cut it with a knife.”

I ask if these kind of stories come back to him at other times – when just sitting at home in an armchair, for example.

“No. My mind shuts down and I get depressed. I need to walk, then it comes.”

Sion is walking his stories out, using the rhythm and swing of his legs to oxygenate his memory, triggering recollections. With dementia, he tells me, there is very little help in that difficult period between diagnosis and the dreaded moment when the sufferer can no longer cope. This is his self-administered treatment.

I ask about his past. Had he always lived in Cumbria? “I was in Birmingham for many years. I lived beside the M6 at Spaghetti Junction for 14 years.” Recent studies have suggested a link between pollution and dementia. Was there anything good about that? He grins. “I miss the sound of the birds coughing.”

He had gone through some bad times: redundancy, divorce and homelessness, but later he managed to get a housing association flat next to the notorious road intersection. The smell of diesel was ever-present. He was already struggling with chronic fatigue, and a doctor recommended he get away to somewhere with cleaner air – perhaps in the mountains. It was then that he recalled a teenage visit to an Outward Bound course in the Lakes. He telephoned a housing association in Cumbria and asked to do a swap. When they offered a place he took it immediately. He laughs. “They said: ‘Don’t you want to see it?’ I said: ‘No, that won’t be necessary.’”

‘No one passes me on the fells’ … Sion Jair on the descent back to Coniston. Photograph: Kevin Rushby

When he arrived in Ulverston, he looked out the front window and in the distance saw the Old Man, the fell that looms over Coniston village. The next day, he went up it. “I’ve always walked a lot. When I was going through divorce and redundancy, I walked to deal with my problems.”

As we reach the final summit ridge, he instinctively turns away from the wind and leads us to a place of shelter, then dons a thicker jacket. “We’ll not stop long at the top – it’s going to be too cold.” And that reminds him. “A lot of people come out now with GPS, but in cold weather the batteries don’t last as long. They forget that.” He doesn’t believe GPS helps. “It takes away skills like timing, pacing and contour-reading – skills that bring a feel for the landscape.” And beyond that, “I reckon they prevent people from building memories of places and routes, gathering all that knowledge and experience into a useful mental map.” This is something that is particularly significant for a dementia sufferer, and the evidence bears him out.

Soon after GPS first appeared in civil navigation, around the turn of the millennium, academics began noticing its adverse effect on mental maps, even damaging spatial awareness. In 2008 a Japanese researcher, Toru Ishikawa, showed that subjects given GPS rather than paper maps made more errors and travelled further. Other studies confirmed this and similar findings. No wonder there has been a spate of books on traditional navigational methods, such as John Huth’s The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, and Tristan Gooley’s The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs. One area of the brain long thought to be associated with mental map-building is the hippocampus. Unsurprisingly perhaps, London cabbies who have done the Knowledge have been found to have larger hippocampus volumes. It is known that people with reduced hippocampus volumes are at a greater risk of developing conditions such as dementia. The science suggests that Sion is absolutely right in treating himself with large doses of mental map-building.

At the summit, we brace ourselves against the icy blast and gaze around. Wendy comes up and joins us. Sion names the fells and lakes. Northwards to Fairfield, Wetherlam and Scafell Pike; east to Low Water, the Coniston Fells and the Pennines. He has walked all these ridges, and knows every path and tarn. Not wanting that knowledge to be wasted, he and Wendy have started a not-for-profit venture to teach navigational skills using traditional map-and-compass methods. “We try to give people the confidence to be out here alone,” says Wendy.

It had seemed like a joke when I had asked Sion if there was anything he missed about Spaghetti Junction, but now I ask if there have been any benefits to his diagnosis of dementia. He laughs. “I can never remember who lent me money.” But then he thinks, his eyes twinkling. “You know, I think there is. I’ve learned to live every day as it comes. I do believe the walking is holding the dementia at bay a bit. And I’m up here in all weather, even Christmas Day. I love it. I’ve tuned in to the Lakes, and they’ve tuned in to me.”

Mountains of the mind: "I’ve become part of the landscape and it’s become part of me"

Talking about death is a part of my work – I worry I say the wrong thing

I am a NHS hospital consultant and work in a healthcare team that specialises in the care of adults with cystic fibrosis (CF). This is a genetic condition that affects various organs, but primarily the lungs. It results in recurrent and severe chest infections that ultimately cause the lungs to fail. There have been considerable advancements in new therapies that we are hopeful will change the natural history of the disease. Nevertheless, it remains a life-shortening illness and coping with the death of young adults brings many challenges to the team that I work in.

Patients move to our CF centre when they are 18 years old. The doctor-patient relationship is a dichotomous and delicate balance of professional distance and empathy. But it does not fully guard against emotion when we see those we look after approach death. Over the years we develop bonds with our patients and their families and witness many life events. We share in their laughter and tears. Occasionally I am the focus, a patient recently said to me: “You’ve lost weight … you need to look after yourself better.” That made me chuckle.

Clinical care satisfies the needs of today, but research brings the hope for tomorrow

Patients strive to lead normal lives and I am frequently in awe of their achievements. Some of their journeys are truly Homeric in stature. But years of infections and damage to the lungs take their toll. The hope of a better tomorrow is a powerful support but the reality of declining health can dismantle the scaffold. Broaching these end-of-life conversations is often difficult as the words uttered can confirm patients’ fears.

It is so important to choose those words carefully as they can linger in the family’s memory. I remember one young 22-year-old woman who was not responding to treatment in hospital; her death was imminent. It was important for her to have some sort of control. I asked her: “You are in the driving seat now, what would you like us to do with your treatment?” She wanted to stop it, and I did. Some months after her death her mum called into the hospital and said: “Thank you for putting my daughter in the driving seat”. I’ve cherished those words.

Many patients now have young families of their own and the death of a parent is a traumatic experience. We arrange for our patients to engage with a specially trained counsellor to express their thoughts in words and pictures. A personalised memory book is produced, which includes advice for the future without them.

I’ll always remember the young girl, after losing a parent, who put her thoughts down in a letter. It was a remarkable achievement for one so young. She said the book helped her and reminded her of the parent she had lost. The presence and tactility of a book is tangible. A father whose son died wrote to me: “It is impossible to balance the awfulness of our heartbreak with the comfort that this book provides, but what is paramount is that it provides amazing comfort to us all.” Their letters are the most powerful I have ever read.

In the liminal transition from life to death a peace descends in the half light. I reflect on what I could have done differently. Should I have changed the treatment plan? Could I have phrased things a little better? Some parents have lost all their children to this disease and they have been made to endure grief that is simply unendurable. So when I go home at night my family are hugged that little bit tighter, as nobody is immune to loss. Death casts light on my own mortality and the impermanence of life comes sharply into focus.

In the following days and weeks we redouble our efforts. Clinical care satisfies the needs of today, but research brings the hope for tomorrow. It is so important to be part of that hope. I walk into the hospital ward to hear new stories and guide as best I can. It is an enormous privilege to do what I do.

If you would like to write a blogpost for Views from the NHS frontline, read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

Talking about death is a part of my work – I worry I say the wrong thing

M&S launches mental health drop-ins as part of Ruby Wax project

Marks & Spencer is to host mental health drop-ins in its store cafes as part of an initiative designed to soothe stressed shoppers.

The Frazzled Cafe project is fronted by the comedian and mental health campaigner Ruby Wax. The fortnightly sessions, which will be hosted by trained volunteers in restaurants that have closed for the day, will initially be held in 11 stores with more locations to be added in the coming months. The branches taking part include three in London as well as outlets in Nottingham, Leeds and Newcastle.

The retailer said the sessions were “not therapy” but aimed to provide a space “where people can talk openly with others who understand how they are feeling”.

“We live in a time where to have a life crammed to the hilt is considered a success story,” said Wax. “But with all this pressure, so many of us have nowhere to go to meet and talk about it. Frazzled Cafe is about people coming together to share their stories, calmly sitting together, stating their case and feeling validated as a result.”

The project was trialled in some M&S offices and two stores last year with the decision to commit to the project confirmed on Tuesday at an event hosted by Wax at the London Book Fair. The Frazzled Cafe project, which is in the process of becoming a registered charity, stemmed from the public response to Wax’s book A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled and the accompanying theatre show.

“It’s special to get a company like M&S on board,” Wax added. “I’m grateful for the set-up support they’ve given us and access to their cafe network is a huge boost.”

The economic cost of mental health problems in the UK is estimated at roughly £105bn a year with about 4m prescriptions for antidepressants written annually. Official figures last year showed the number of antidepressants given to patients in England has doubled in a decade.

“This is a simple, pressure-free way of tackling what can be a taboo subject – feeling stressed,” said M&S retail director Sacha Berendji of the partnership, which is part of the company’s Plan A eco and ethical initiative. “We hope that by providing free and calm venues after the cafe has closed, we can help any members of the community who simply need to talk about things and what’s happening in their lives.”

M&S launches mental health drop-ins as part of Ruby Wax project

Ten Must-read Health and Wellness books: Part 1

Ten Must-read Health and Wellness books: Part 1

4 Reasons Why BTA Should Be Part of Your Cancer Prevention Toolbox

Oops! You forgot all about that stick of butter that has sat on your kitchen counter for over a week. When you finally get around to opening the lid, there is that familiar unpleasant odor. You know the one: that characteristic foul smell that tells you when food has gone bad. That smell is also a reminder, however, that Butyric Acid (BTA) is present.

Although I definitely don’t recommend eating rancid butter, it is important to realize that Butyric Acid, in this case within butter, is a true healing substance that has the ability to stabilize many disease conditions, including possibly cancer.

What is Butyric Acid?

The word “butyric,” in fact, comes from the Greek word for butter, which makes sense since butyric acid makes up about 4 percent of the contents of butter. It is also found in other animal products, such as raw milk, ghee and some cheeses. Outside of the animal kingdom, butyric acid can be found in Jerusalem artichokes, raw jicama, and raw dandelion greens.

Butyric acid is a short-chain saturated fatty acid that is soluble in water. It sometimes goes by other names such as: butanoic acid, n-butyric acid, n-butonoic acid and proylformic acid. The substance “butyrate” is sometimes used interchangeably with BTA; this has a different yet very similar chemical structure.

Four Reasons Why Butyric Acid is Important for Cancer Healing and Prevention

#1 Gut Healing. The most significant healing property butyric acid possesses is its ability to heal the gut, especially the colon. This is because practically all of the short-chain fatty acids in your large intestine are made up of it. BTA is create through the fermentation of carbohydrates, especially those that are “prebiotics.” This makes butyric acid a real healer for conditions such as Crohn’s disease and IBS. Over a century ago, Nobel Prize-winning Russian scientist Ilya Metchnikoff made the connection between unhealthy gut flora and disease. Since then over a thousand studies have been conducted which have made the same connection, including the link between a weak digestive system and cancer.

#2 Insulin Stabilizing.  The presence of BTA also been proven to be effective in stabilizing diabetes and insulin resistance as well as helping obese individuals shed pounds, again through BTA’s ability to rebalance gut flora. Animal studies have shown that rats given a high-fat diet and also supplementation in BTA were all able to preserve normal blood glucose levels and insulin tolerance while at the same time maintaining their original weight.

The connection between Type 2 diabetes and cancer is very clear. A recent study published in the official journal of the American Diabetes Association found that cytokines, which are responsible for the inflammatory response and also cancer tumor growth, were elevated in those with Type 2 diabetes.

#3 Super Anti-Inflammatory. The presence of BTA in the large intestine can severely reduce inflammatory responses in general and, according to some studies, may even help to boost the immune system. The inflammatory response is responsible for the onset of many disease conditions. As mentioned above, a high level of inflammatory cytokines is a common cancer marker, including for breast cancer.

#4 Directly Healing Cancer Tumors.

Studies have shown a direct healing connection between butyric acid and cancer healing. An in vitro 2011 study conducted by the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and the Simmons Cancer Institute found that treatment with butyrate led to the programmed cell death (apoptosis) of colon cancer cells. Although more research needs to be done, this study opens up the possibility that BTA may have a similar effect on other forms of cancer as well.

Taking Butyric Acid

Experts agree that getting BTA in as natural a way as possible is the most effective. One of the best way is through eating ghee. Ghee is butter where the milk solids and water are extracted. It can be considered a super food not only because it contains high levels of butyric acid but also because it is high in essential vitamins such as D and A as well as other gut-healing and health-balancing properties.  I get my BTA by putting ghee in my morning hot cacao drink and occasional in my coffee. I froth it all up in a blender and it is delicious!

There is really no known side effects to upping your BTA consumption. Of course, be sure to consult with your holistic health practitioner before adding BTA to your diet, especially if you are on a healing journey with cancer.

Dr. Veronique Desaulniers, better known as Dr. V, is the founder of  the 7 Essentials System ™, a step-by-step guide that teaches you exactly how to prevent and heal Breast Cancer naturally. To get your FREE 7-Day Mini e-Course and to receive her weekly action steps and inspiring articles on the power of Natural Medicine, visit her at BreastCancerConqueror.com

4 Reasons Why BTA Should Be Part of Your Cancer Prevention Toolbox

Delicious roast spuds are part of the good life. Poor cancer advice isn’t | Suzanne Moore

There wasn’t exactly a muted reaction today to the news that your breakfast may kill you. Trump may start a war on facts, a missile may go astray, but it turns out that the final straw is telling people that their toast is bad for them. According to the Food Standards Agency (FSA), burnt toast is potentially bad, as are crisps, and well-browned roast potatoes. With this news, something has stirred deep within us. You will only take away our delicious crispiness by prising it from our cold dead hands. We will fight for the right to fluff: that is, to increase the surface area of potatoes before roasting them in order to maximise the brown, crispy bits. Isn’t that Jamie Oliver’s contribution to humanity? We don’t want warm bread, we want actual toast, toasted. Don’t even start me on crisps.

But the latest abomination, according to the FSA, is that we are consuming too much acrylamide. This has been shown to increase the risk of cancer in mice and therefore is likely to have the same affect on us. It is a chemical produced by cooking starchy foods at high temperatures. Which is, of course, the miracle of deliciousness that we must now shun, or moderate – if not give up altogether.

Actually, none of this information is new. We knew in 2002 that burnt foods suspected of being carcinogenic, and we’ve since learned that the process of curing is considered risky. We are now told that sugars – basically, what carbs turn into – are the work of the devil, so we shouldn’t be eating them crisped to perfection anyway. But hey, life too short and all that …

Or we could be making it so. The problem with all this is partly to do with our understanding of risk, which is extremely poor, and partly to do with the message everywhere now that cancer is reducible to lifestyle. Scientists have to give us the information they have. But we need more context, or otherwise their studies just become a list of things that are bad for us, because … rat studies. The mature response would be to eat less of the bad things and give up all that is lovely. Live a life of vegetables and the odd nut. Clearly most of us never reach this level of maturity. And anyway, I don’t buy this whole “you are what you eat” argument.

Cancer is not a choice or simply a result of diet. This is a vast over-simplification. We can say that two-thirds of cancers are related to lifestyle “choices”: obesity, smoking and drinking primarily, but a third aren’t. We have to take in genetic and environmental factors. What Susan Sontag described as “disease-producing lifestyles” we could now say is basically modern life. There are carcinogens in the environment as well as those we choose to put into our bodies. Pinning cancer to environmental factors is extremely difficult because epidemiologists rarely get the chance to link individual cancers to specific pollutants.

Here are a few other things that increase your risk: paint, Chinese salted fish, contraceptive pills and wood dust

So the lay person has to wade through this advice on eating without comparative studies, and without fully understanding the risks. Yes, burnt toast might up your risk of cancer. (How much would you have to eat, and for how long though?) Here are a few other things that will also increase your risk: paint, vinyl, Chinese salted fish, contraceptive pills and wood dust. We have to navigate our way through this minefield as best we can.

All those crappy alternative health books that somehow blame people for their own illness – attributing it to their repressed-anger “cancer personalities” – are now being rewritten from the perspective of clean living. The proponents of this talk as if we are all only individually responsible for our own health. They hold up the myth of the ever well, pure, toxin-free body. Obviously they live in a different environment to the rest of us. Planet Denial.

Of course we can all take better care of ourselves. Eat more veg and steam more stuff. Moderation and all that. Crisped-up carbs may indeed be the opium of the masses, and the masses will hold on to them. We may seek to extend, life but someone also has to talk about the point of living. If roast potatoes aren’t part of that, I don’t know what is.

Delicious roast spuds are part of the good life. Poor cancer advice isn’t | Suzanne Moore

4 Celebrities Doing Their Part to Save the Environment

Not all celebrities are self absorbed. Here are four celebrities doing their part to save the environment, and it’s time we follow suit.

• Leonardo DiCaprio

Leo is well known for his efforts to save the environment. DiCaprio understands that his popularity and that of other celebrities can be used as a platform to help bring awareness and change to climate change. Climate change will not just affect an unlucky few, it will affect us all. Leo gets it. And he is doing everything he can to try and bring about solutions that will address climate change.

• Erin Brockovich

Maybe she isn’t a movie star, but they did make a movie about her. Brockovich’s help in uncovering PG&E’s pollution and cover up led to the largest settlement of its kind. The people of Hinkley, Ca were awarded $ 333 million. Brockovich uncovered the illegal dumping of unfiltered contamination into local groundwater. According to Filtra Systems, “Industrial water filtration opportunities present a considerable opportunity for the machining, mining, semiconductor, and other industries to improve the quality of their water while preserving the water in the environment”. PG&E would be $ 333 million richer if it had invested more in safety.

• Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson is a surfer that lives in Hawaii and has a special opportunity to see the effect of climate change. He uses his celebrity status to help bring awareness to environmental issues. Jack Johnson promoted Green Touring in 2014 as a way for artists to reduce their environmental impact on tour. Jack and his wife, Kim, founded the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation in 2008. The foundation helps support communities by promoting education in art, music and the environment.

• Daryl Hanna

Not all celebrities are willing to put themselves on the front line when it comes to protecting the planet. Daryl Hanna does not just talk the talk but walks the walk. Risking jail time in order to help the cause. Hanna has been arrested more than once in her efforts to save the environment. She was arrested while protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline construction, physically placing herself in front of construction equipment. Hanna was arrested twice protesting outside of White House against the pipeline development. Before those arrests, she had previously been arrested in 2009 and 2006. In 2009 she was part of a protest to stop mountaintop removal for surface mining. In 2006 she was involved in protesting against the bulldozing of an urban garden in south central Los Angeles. Her efforts in protecting the environment have been heroic, to say the least.

References:

Filtra Systems

4 Celebrities Doing Their Part to Save the Environment

Private providers are part of the NHS’s problem, not the solution | Letters

I’m afraid Stephen Dalton is wrong about pretty much everything (Private money is the NHS’s saviour, not its bogeyman, 22 November). Where sustainability and transformation plans have been published (most have been shrouded in secrecy, and for good reason) it is clear that cuts and closures are on the way. For instance, 600 GPs are to be reduced to 400 in one part of London alone, and maternity units and A&E departments face the axe. We have the second lowest number of hospital beds per capita in the EU, and that is set to fall further. Dalton says we must move care away from hospitals, but that means investing in primary and community care, both of which have been undermined and cut.

Dalton says that the private sector can help the NHS. Well, up to a point, Lord Copper. The private sector has always been there, but as a peripheral presence and not competing with the NHS. The compulsory competition introduced by Andrew Lansley has been a very costly failure. The private sector is expensive, unaccountable, and will walk away when it can’t make a profit. By cherrypicking profitable services it destabilises the local NHS, which can’t drop the expensive work or turn away patients with complex problems. And its ethos is questionable, leading, for example, to profits being sent offshore with no tax paid.

The answer for the current NHS crisis is to fund the NHS to the EU average (it is currently heading down to less than 7% GDP), to deal with the costly market and PFI schemes which are wasting money hand over fist, to value and support the staff, and to stop re-disorganising it every two years in a futile effort to sort out the last political mess inflicted on it.
Dr Jacky Davis
Founder member, Keep Our NHS Public

• The article by Stephen Dalton is simplistic in the extreme. Here in Cornwall we have examples of two of the privatisations he extols. Both failures.

Twelve years ago a panel I was a member of voted to give Serco the out-of-hours service for Cornwall. It was a mistake. They were condemned by a parliamentary committee for cooking the books and they have since abandoned the contract. I voted against them.

In 2014 the Royal Cornwall hospitals trust board of which I was vice-chairman voted to allow Mitie to run their hotel services, catering, cleaning etc. I voted against. They have proved to be a disaster. If Stephen Dalton wishes to write these misleading articles he should at least give examples of the successes of privatisation. Does Hinchingbrooke ring a bell with him?
Rik Evans
Truro, Cornwall

• Stephen Dalton argues that “examples of beneficial of private sector involvement include … more rapid discharge from hospital through well-established ‘recovery at home’ services and access to private sector community diagnostic facilities”. Meanwhile you report that the private company Mitie has said it would withdraw from its healthcare business, which provides home care for the elderly (Mitie profit warning as it bales out of elderly care, 22 November); your article quotes the chief executive as saying that government spending cuts had made the healthcare business unviable: “If we are serious about social care in the UK it needs significantly more than the funding that has been suggested.” Quite.

More generally it is worrying that Dalton, as chief executive of the NHS Confederation, still does not understand that for private companies profits come before patients, and that any system that has to fork out to shareholders has less to spend on care. Supposed benefits from “greater efficiency” usually means cutting corners and paying workers less.
Dr David Griffith
London

• Despite Stephen Dalton’s assertion of an apparent “political negativity” towards privatisation of the NHS, the non-public-sector involvement within our healthcare system actually continues unabated: the Department of Health’s funding of “independent sector providers” rose from £4.1bn in 2009-10 to £8.7bn in 2015-16. And a study published in the Journal of Public Health in July this year found that: “An increased use of private sector provision by NHS boards was associated with a significant decrease in direct NHS provision and with widening inequalities by age and socio-economic deprivation.”
Steven Jouanny
Sheffield

• We completely agree with Stephen Dalton’s assertion that we need to shift the focus away from hospitals in order to help create a more sustainable NHS. However, being more open to private providers is not the only answer.

The mixed economy for end-of-life care in the UK is a case in point, and the role of charitable hospices in this should not be overlooked. Last year hospices in the UK spent more than £868m on care and supported 200,000 people with life-limiting conditions – a significant contribution to the UK’s health economy.

Hospice care is provided free and yet hospices receive only a third of their funding from the NHS, having to raise the rest themselves through community fundraising. Hospices have a strong ethos of compassionate care, coupled with a vibrant culture of innovation and enterprise reflected in the new and different ways they raise income and successful partnerships developed with other providers.

In these hugely challenging times for the NHS, improving end-of-life care by working more closely with hospices could help deliver the sustainability that is so desperately needed.
Tracey Bleakley
CEO, Hospice UK 

• On the occasion of American Thanksgiving, as a British citizen who lives in the US but finds myself in the UK with an ailing father, I feel compelled to express my gratitude for one of the things that makes the UK exceptional: the NHS and associated strongly held value that good healthcare for all is a right not a privilege. I am a management consultant and have spent a large chunk of my career working within the American healthcare system. The recent US election troubles me greatly as the incoming administration seems to offer little vision for healthcare other than the aspiration to unwind the recent gains of improved access to all. In recent weeks I have sat holding my sleeping father’s hand as he moves beyond a stroke. As I’ve watched the wonderful staff on the Dunkery stroke unit at Musgrove Park hospital in Taunton, which, somewhat ironically, started as an American army hospital during the second world war, I have felt incredibly grateful for the compassionate care he – and my family – are receiving. Absent is the additional stress of wondering how we as a family will be able to pay for his care, which would already be well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars had he been born on the other side of the pond.
Celia Kirwan
Boston, Massachusetts

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters

Private providers are part of the NHS’s problem, not the solution | Letters

Fireworks’ part in toxic air pollution | Letters

Delhi was this week blanketed with toxic fog after hundreds of thousands of people set off fireworks to mark Diwali (Report, 1 November). The pollution levels were up to 42 times the safe limit and even exceeded the normal harmful air in the city from traffic. In Britain, firework night and the following day are the peak days for hospital admissions for asthma and other breathing problems. Fireworks pollute the air with toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, aluminium, cadmium and radioactive barium, etc. Some of these are used to give fireworks their colours. Smoke from fireworks consists of fine toxic dusts that can enter the lungs. Work should be done to produce fireworks that are less harmful to health and the environment.
Ann Wills
Ruislip, Middlesex

• A couple of days before bonfire night and I’ve just picked a small but choice bowl of raspberries and eaten them outside in pleasant sunshine. November used to be all baked potatoes and roast chestnuts.
John Bailey
St Albans

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Fireworks’ part in toxic air pollution | Letters

Don’t blame the fashion world for the cult of skinny – even Roald Dahl plays his part | Hadley Freeman

It’s September, which means – exciting! – it’s fashion Groundhog Day again. This consists of fashion weeks starting up, followed swiftly by the announcement of a political initiative to protect women against this evil on the catwalk. (Another feature of fashion Groundhog Day, incidentally, is a slew of articles by male columnists expressing bafflement at why the models are so thin, which can be summed up as: “I don’t find this sexy, so why?!” However would we know how to look without men telling us what turns them on?)

Anyway, the latest initiative comes courtesy of the Women’s Equality party, which has launched a campaign demanding, among other things, that British designers and retailers stop using size zero clothes in shows and photoshoots. This, the WEP claims, “will tackle negative body image issues and eating disorders”.

I’m going to ignore the all-too-predictable connection between fashion models and eating disorders here, because I’ve written enough for this lifetime about how absurdly reductive it is to suggest that a mental illness is caused by Vogue. Instead, I’ll say this: the WEP is perfectly within its rights to address this issue, but – spoiler alert – it will not make a blind bit of difference. There have been efforts to legislate against fashion’s obsession with skinniness in the past; these laws, wherever they’re passed, always get a lot of play, because the media love a story that allows them to run a photo of a skinny model at least as much as the fashion industry likes the skinny model herself.

So it would be understandable if you were confused as to why things haven’t changed. The problem is not only that the laws are rarely enforced, but also that they are the equivalent of rearranging the Titanic’s deck chairs. For a start, fashion is too international for one country’s legislation to make a difference – especially, I’m sorry to say, when it’s this country doing the legislating. With the exception of Burberry, British-based fashion companies simply do not spend enough on international advertising for any laws to have an effect; the rest of the world won’t even see the photographs. Slapping legislation on a tiny British brand will not change the aesthetic if Chanel and Prada can carry on as before.

While fashion represents the connection between skinniness and perfection in its purest form, it is also the end point. By the time a woman is looking at fashion photography, she’ll have gone through years of indoctrination that the less of her there is, the better. It’s there in all the children’s books and films, in which the evil women are plump and the nice ones are slender (Roald Dahl is especially bad on this). It’s there in pretty much every film ever made (the only person I’ve interviewed with an evident eating disorder was not a model but an actress). And it’s there in the general atmosphere of being female today, the things you grow up hearing the adult women around you saying about their bodies, the way they decline dessert. According to a report just published by the Children’s Society, teenage girls are unhappier than ever, especially with their bodies, which they compare unfavourably with those of their friends and celebrities.

This masochistic tendency towards self‑erasure is a complicated issue, something a well‑meaning but overly simplistic campaign against thinness in fashion can’t fix. The WEP has also suggested including body-image lessons as part of the school curriculum, which is a better idea (and, tellingly, it has had less pick-up, what with it lacking the vital excuse for a photograph of a model). But instead of fussing about the meaningless phrase “size zero”, or conflating thinness with anorexia, the WEP would be more effective if it looked at the prevalence of eating disorders in the fashion industry and exposed this. Instead of pretending it can tell fashion editors what to put in their magazines, the WEP could talk to them to get a more realistic sense of the problem, and get them on side.

If we really want to end the association between female skinniness and female aspiration, women need to be doing this on an individual, focused level, not leaving it to politicians to act on an amorphous, collective one. Look at the way you talk about your body and what you eat, especially in front of young girls. Call out publications that condescend to larger women and feature photographs only of slim ones. Remind your female friends and your daughters that their jeans size is not a measurement of their personal value.

It is easy to damn the fashion industry for promoting skinny as the feminine ideal. It’s harder to admit that it is only echoing back too many of our own darkest thoughts, our own self-loathing.

Don’t blame the fashion world for the cult of skinny – even Roald Dahl plays his part | Hadley Freeman

From long jump to rowing: Britons take part in national sports day

Hundreds of thousands of people across the UK have been taking part in sports events after clubs and sports centres opened their doors for free to celebrate Team GB’s Olympic success.

About 2,600 free sporting events were being held, involving up to 60 Olympians, while ITV switched off all seven of its channels for an hour at 9.30am to encourage people to get involved.

The national sports day, called I Am Team GB, aimed to rally the British public to get active, and follows a mixed legacy from London 2012, when sports participation slumped despite GB climbing the medal table.

The Olympian Greg Rutherford opened his back garden, complete with long jump, to young people in Woburn Sands, near Milton Keynes. “It’s an interesting concept, come to my back garden and jump into the pit that I train on for the world championships, Olympics and everything else,” he said.

The long jump has a 52 metre runway and a 9 metre pit for children from the local athletics club to try out.

“For me, it’s just very important for kids to be getting involved. We live in a day and age now where there’s so many different distractions; there’s so many different things youngsters can do. When I was growing up, we didn’t have a computer in the house until I was 13 or 14. Nowadays kids learn to walk and they can play on an iPad. When I was younger I was getting out climbing trees and being active.”

Max Whitlock ‘switches off’ ITV. Photograph: ITV/PA

At London’s Copper Box arena, which was used to host the London 2012 Games, people were trying out activities, from handball to belly dancing, alongside the double gold medallist and gymnast Max Whitlock.

Nicole Sherapin, from Stratford, took her two children to the event. “I watched the Olympics every time it was on. It’s great that Team GB came second in the medal table, so when I saw this on the TV this morning I thought I’d bring the kids here because they’re really into sport and it’s something fun to do with it being the school holidays. They’ve tried the bikes, badminton, table tennis. I want my youngest to have a go at handball because it’s an alternative to football.”

In Reading, the Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover was offering advice to people who wanted to try out the sport. “There’ll be some challenges on the rowing machine. I think we’ll try to get some boats out if anyone wants to have a go at rowing. It’s really good that we’re challenging ideas and trying new things, it’s the first time ever a TV channel has been switched off to encourage people to leave the house and I think it’s amazing.”

She added that although she may give out some tips on the secrets of becoming an Olympic success, the event was about encouraging newcomers to have some fun. “I won’t be talking, unless people ask specifically, about how to be the next big thing, it will be about how to enjoy it and what sport to try.”

I Am Team GB is organised by the national lottery, ITV, UK Sport and the British Olympic Association.

Adam Chataway, the marketing manager at Camelot, said he expected hundreds of thousands of people to take part. “The Olympics has obviously caught the imagination of the nation and what we really wanted to do was bottle that and use the excitement of the Olympians returning to their communities to get out there, get active and give people the encouragement to get involved and give sport a go.”

From long jump to rowing: Britons take part in national sports day

Finance pros have a part to play in the NHS

‘Only thirty% of finance staff feel valued by their nationwide government wellness division, falling to 17% by the public’, says Paul Briddock. Photograph: Wolfram Schroll

A lot more than a yr has passed considering that the reorganisation of the NHS in England, and April marked a new chapter as Simon Stevens took up his chief executive publish. To mark a year on from the alterations, the Healthcare Fiscal Management Association (HFMA) took a snapshot looking at the attitudes of their members, these doing work on the frontline.

Amid the backdrop of monetary pressures, it is estimated that the NHS in England demands to discover £30bn of cost savings by 2020-21, the results have been telling, particularly when it comes to how finance workers truly feel they are perceived by clinical colleagues and the general public. Even though 89% truly feel highly valued by their line managers and a even more 69% by their boards, 39% do not come to feel clinicians value the contribution they make to the sector.

Even so, the finance perform has a critical function to play in the NHS. On the transactional side, finance experts hold the organization side of large nearby organisations ticking in excess of – at the most standard degree, employees and invoices get paid. But the finance function is a lot greater than this. Finance professionals have a large position to perform in governance, accountability, yearly reports and maintaining accounts that inform public sector funding choices in the future.

Perceived attitudes of individuals past the hospital doors have been even a lot more worrying as only 30% of finance employees truly feel valued by their national government wellness department, falling to 18% for individuals and only 17% by the public. One finance manager even admitted it was “tricky” to inform a stranger the place they worked, and this in component was exacerbated by media pillorying of managers inside of the NHS.

Why are we in this situation? Do we danger dropping talented personnel working in the sector due to a lack of understanding about the work they do? Moving forward it is clear the NHS wants to transform the way it delivers providers. We want to enhance the top quality of solutions and meet growing demand – driven by an ageing population and growing levels of extended term illness – from broadly flat, real terms budgets.

There is a consensus across the sector, from finance specialists and clinical workers, that adjust can only come about by shifting patient pathways – for example delivering far more providers in the local community to support patients to deal with their conditions and stay away from inpatient hospital admissions. At the identical time there is probably to be a part for greater specialisation or integration of companies – such as the alterations in stroke care. Strategies for all of these moves forward require to have a firm economic foundation and strategic organizing from a multi-disciplined staff. Clinicians tasked to make selections about companies want good top quality details and intelligence at their fingertips, evaluating the recent state of play to forecasted alternatives – their finance colleagues can offer these. Even in which required adjustments could increase fees, individuals on the frontline want to recognize how and exactly where these charges will arise, so they can program for them.

In contrast to some perceptions, most finance professionals questioned were motivated to remain in their part due to public sector values (70%) or “the opportunity to improve companies for individuals” (60%), demonstrating that monetary staff, in spite of what might be reflected by public view, are as committed to public service aims as the clinicians they employ. So to move forward, perhaps a broader understanding of healthcare finance is necessary?

It is honest to say that a day never ever passes without a NHS financial story in the information. Numerous of these highlight concerns that teams of finance specialists and clinicians have been doing work hard to solve long ahead of they are reported on. Whilst it is essential to inform the public, there need to also be a accountability to give an appropriate context – how a lot it charges to offer sufferers with X and in which the cash comes from for Y – to paint a rounded and reasonable image. Patients should be at the heart of everything the NHS sets out to do and I was pleased to see the attitudes of fellow finance experts reiterating this as component of the results we located.

The analysis also showed that job fulfillment was large (six.8 out of ten) and improved with seniority – a reassuring sentiment to hear in a time of mounting pressure and flux. There have been a quantity of aspects which preserve personnel morale sturdy one is the opportunities the NHS supplies for them to take on new roles and difficulties.

We all have a central part to perform in generating clinically-led transformation come about, achieving the ambitions set out by the new NHS framework and finding out from the problems of the past. But we will only ever attain a fit-for-the-future NHS as a staff – clinicians and healthcare financial professionals doing work together.

Paul Briddock is policy and technical director at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)

Are you a member of our on-line local community? Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to receive standard emails and unique delivers.

Finance pros have a part to play in the NHS

Caesarean part does not decrease fertility

Between minimal-danger first-time mothers, 224,024, or 21.four%, had been delivered by Caesarean part, with fewer than 4% possessing an elective caesarean segment, or a single planned in advance.

All types of caesarean part were connected with a lowered subsequent birth charge, compared with these who had vaginal deliveries, but the dimension of the reduction varied amongst distinct groups of ladies.

The smallest reduction was for an elective caesarean segment for a breech child – one in feet-very first place – where a girl had no other issues for the duration of pregnancy.

The greatest was for ladies possessing an elective caesarean area for health care motives.

Dr Tahir Mahmood, from the workplace for study and clinical audit at the RCOG and co-writer of the paper, which is published in the journal Human Reproduction, explained: “The attainable effect of caesarean segment on subsequent fertility is important as the age of initial-time mothers proceed to rise, along with the charges of caesarean part.

“This is the greatest cohort study to date hunting at the association in between mode of delivery and fertility, and to minimise the chance of bias we focused on minimal-danger pregnancies.

“By carefully distinguishing among different problems of pregnancy, we have found that getting a caesarean segment as a very first-time mom leads to only a quite small result on subsequent fertility.

“The conditions behind the method may have a bigger influence and may possibly explain the reduction in fertility apparent in prior studies.”

Previous research have reported that delivery by Caesarean is linked with fewer subsequent pregnancies and infants, as properly as longer intervals among pregnancies.

A research published in 2004 by researchers from the University of Dundee located that girls who had their first little one by Caesarean have been more very likely to report getting troubles conceiving once more compared to girls who had a vaginal delivery using instruments this kind of as forceps.

Louise Silverton, director for midwifery at the Royal School of Midwives (RCM), mentioned: “The reality that the effects on fertility may possibly be minimal need to go some way to reassure individuals ladies for whom a Caesarean is needed and who might want an additional child in the future.

“Nevertheless, even although there is less result on fertility than was assumed, this does not negate the other unfavorable effects of Caesarean sections. The wider problem right here is to ensure that girls are aware of the consequences that can come up as a end result of having an needless Caesarean part.

“There is escalating evidence about the negative implications for women and their infants of possessing a caesarean segment. This is a major surgical operation that has the prospective for elevated complications each time a woman has the process carried out. A choice to have a caesarean section must not be taken lightly by ladies or physicians.

“As a consequence we ought to carry on to try out to minimize the number of Caesarean sections amongst first-time mothers. We should also carry on to encourage women who can, to take into account a vaginal birth for the next and subsequent pregnancies.

“A single of the methods this can be done is by marketing and providing far more midwife-led care the place lady are significantly less probably to have a caesarean area and other interventions.”

Caesarean part does not decrease fertility

What Part Should Coca-Cola Play In Weight problems Investigation?

What position must Coca-Cola Coca-Cola and other meals and beverage companies play in funding and communicating investigation about nutrition and obesity?

The query is prompted by a recent article in the Journal of the American University of Cardiology. The “state-of-the-art” paper evaluations the connection of obesity and cardiovascular ailment and presents the case that a decline in bodily action is the principal trigger of the obesity epidemic.  The write-up downplays the part of calories and diet plan and does not include the phrases “sugar,” “soda,” or “beverage.” Three of the five authors of the paper report financial relationships with Coca Cola.

It is crucial to acknowledge that there is an lively scientific controversy about the relative significance of diet and exercising. But it also would seem clear that the viewpoint on this controversy as presented in this paper is remarkably congruent with the interests of Coca Cola.

Defending Coca-Cola

I asked the lead writer of the paper, Carl Lavie, a Louisiana cardiologist and weight problems specialist, to respond to issues that the authors’ relationships to Coke might have affected the content of the paper. Right here is Lavie’s (lightly edited)  response:

My individual romantic relationship was delivering consulting and providing a couple of lectures on the significance of fitness. My colleagues have also consulted and acquired non-limited educational grants  for study research. Coca Cola had practically nothing to do with the information of the examine, analyzing final results, or publishing the paper. For that reason, I do not believe that this partnership adversely impacts any of the benefits of their studies or my invited state-of-the-artwork review post, which transpires to be on a subject the place I have published far more than anybody else in the planet in the course of the previous ten-15 many years.

My post genuinely was not on sugar, and you are appropriate that this (or diet plan in common) was only briefly pointed out. Despite the fact that  there is a good deal of consideration on fast meals and sugary beverages leading to obesity, the analysis from my colleagues and I display that very marked declines in physical activity, which is also a main part in leading to fitness, is by far the main lead to of obesity, not sugar and fast food items. However, I agree if the bodily exercise is very minimal, a single have to cut all calories to compensate, such as these from sugar and rapidly meals.Concerning Coca Cola, despite the fact that their “flagship” merchandise is a sugary beverage, keep in thoughts that they have many much more minimal or no calorie items in their comprehensive arsenal!!

In the medical field, many firms fund scientific studies and educational plans, but the investigators and speakers are not changing what they say due to who sponsors the operate!

Lavie subsequently sent a succinct summary of his place:

1) Hopefully the science speaks for itself, regardless of the sponsor.

2) Science itself is enhanced by data and information.

3) Not to be too harsh, but my view (primarily based on my interpretaion of the science) is not for sale and cannot be purchased. I am confident my colleagues really feel the identical way.

four) All researchers have bias, as do I, but if you try out to eliminate each and every researcher/scientist/clinician with bias, there will be hardly any left.

five) Therefore, the ideal way to proceed is to emphasis on well-created and well-executed studies.

I then sent Lavie some followup concerns:

Do you think there must be any limitation on business funding of analysis and schooling? What about analysis sponsored by a tobacco business?

Lavie: I do not feel so, as prolonged as it is entirely disclosed. I feel that in some of the tobacco settlements they are possessing to spend income for study. There are quite tiny likely health benefits of tobacco, despite the fact that I guess if a single smoked 1 cigarette a week there may not be a lot harm. I personally have no issue with [some]one particular accepting funds, specifically as a non-restricted educational grant, but suspect few would do so contemplating the adverse emotions that so numerous have about the tobacco sector. I suspect that quite couple of truly feel as strongly about Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell and so forth.

What about unconscious bias or subtle bias? For instance, isn’t it feasible that the paper would have contained a brief discussion of sugar and sugar-sweetened drinks (SSBs) without the fiscal associations of the authors with Coke?

Lavie: This is achievable I guess if a single have been working for a organization, but in my case for example, obtaining a few minor honorarium would hardly taint my views. My very first lecture for Coca Cola was just a couple of many years in the past, and I have been publishing on this subject for nearly 15 many years, so this is probably not applicable. I have by no means published on sugar or even relevant to this in any of my nearly 800 publications, so personally this genuinely does not apply much…

What do you think is Coca Cola’s motivation in providing funds for analysis and education? Does this signify altruism on the company’s element? Would it be very likely to fund researchers who hold opinions that are much less congenial to their company?

What Part Should Coca-Cola Play In Weight problems Investigation?

We Fret About Trace Quantities Of BPA Even though Taking part in Russian Roulette With Dietary Dietary supplements

We Have A Badly Distorted Sense of Risk.

Exactly forty years ago, in a seminal paper, the behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky described cognitive mistakes and pitfalls that have an effect on our ability to gauge the probability of even easy occasions.

These pitfalls impact contemplating in a lot of places, but they are probably nowhere far more prominent than in contemplating about issues that could have an effect on our overall health.

Above the past two decades we have been socialized to fret about a succession of elusive hazards to our wellness lurking in our environment.  These have incorporated – and this is a extremely partial listing — chlorinated compounds in consuming water, DDT and other pesticides, PCBs, radon fuel seeping into our homes, electromagnetic fields from power lines and electrical appliances, cell phones, and, most not too long ago, chemicals this kind of as BPA and phthalates.

BPA (or bisphenol-A), a compound that has been utilised for the previous 60 many years in canned foods containers to avert spoilage and in certain plastics, has been linked to every little thing from obesity and diabetes to heart condition and cancer.  Despite the efforts of a minor cottage industry cranking out these benefits, the most rigorous scientific studies suggest that BPA is not a hazard even to infants at the amounts encountered in daily existence.

BPA and the other threats pointed out above could be known as “theoretical hazards.”  That is, they have been linked to some wellness final result in some animal experiment or in observational epidemiologic scientific studies, but the proof is weak and inconsistent.  They might well pose a hazard if the exposure had been higher.

Let’s contrast these theoretical hazards with yet another publicity, which is very substantial in the US population but which is viewed in a really various light from that which is directed at minimal-level environmental hazards.  I’m referring to “dietary supplements,” which is an elastic term that encompasses vitamins, minerals, botanicals, amino acids, probiotics, and other ingredients.

Use of dietary supplements has been a development market in the United States more than the previous twenty years.  Since 1994, when there have been four,000 such merchandise, the quantity of dietary supplements on the industry has increased in excess of 20-fold.  As mentioned in an report in last week’s New England Journal of Medicine, right now Americans commit a lot more than $ 32 billion a yr on far more than 85,000 different sorts of dietary dietary supplements.  Far more than half of Americans report employing dietary supplements.

The NEJM write-up Dr. Pieter A. Cohen of the Harvard Medical College is the most latest of several attempts to educate physicians and the public about the dangers of dietary dietary supplements.  The danger stems from the truth that, in contrast to prescription medicines, dietary dietary supplements are not essential to be examined for security and efficacy just before they are marketed.  Under the 1994 Dietary Supplement Overall health and Training Act (DSHEA), any item labeled as a dietary supplement is assumed to be protected right up until proof to the contrary surfaces.  When this kind of proof emerges, it is the responsibility of the FDA to identify and get rid of implicated dietary supplements from the market.

We Fret About Trace Quantities Of BPA Even though Taking part in Russian Roulette With Dietary Dietary supplements

Cancer – Taking Your Energy Back! Part 2

Please Read Cancer – Taking Your Power Back! Part 1 Prior to this. It can be found on my Natural News Author’s Page http://blogs.naturalnews.com/author/sarahbarendse.

From childhood we are taught to be nice and polite and care about what others think and feel. But how many of us were taught to care about what you, yourself, think and feel? Were you taught to speak your mind, and to express yourself freely, really standing strong as your own unique and appreciated self? If you have – Fantastic! Kudos to your parents! Not enough of us have been, for sure. The good news is – it is never too late!

Many live their lives from an altruistic perspective, putting everyone else first and themselves second. Is this noble? Sure. Admirable? To many people – yes, it is but it isn’t actually a healthy way to live.

In order to truly show someone love, one must first love themselves and take care of themselves lest they use all of their energy up outwardly, wearing themselves down in the process. This type of selflessness can also lead to over stressing of the body and spirit and ultimately depression, illness, and even death.

At this point you may be thinking that I am a selfish person. To this I smile and say “Thank you.” Selfishness has gotten a bad rap. To be selfish means to think of ones own needs first. The reality of it is, if you do not put yourself first, no one will. YOU are important. Let me say that again. YOU are important. Think of it in shorter scenario terms. Say you are about to be in a plane crash. What does the Airline Attendant always tell you in their little spiel before you take off? In the event of a crash, oxygen masks will drop from the compartments above your seats. Please put your oxygen mask on first before assisting other passengers. Why? Quite simply because you cannot help anyone else if you have passed out.

When people are angry with you, they often will accusingly call you selfish, intending it as an insult, when what they are really saying is that they are not pleased with your selfishness because they were trying to be selfish by making you put them first in front of you. Now they are angry because it did not work! Do you see how hypocritical this is? Yet many of us fall for it every time out of guilt.

Guilt is a useless toxic emotion in and of itself. If you know you are going to feel bad about something, the solution is simple. Don’t do it. Feeling bad and dwelling on something as an afterthought, when the action is in the past and cannot be changed, doesn’t help you or anyone else.

Negative thoughts are toxic.

I mean that very literally. They are dangerous to your emotional well being and your physical health. It is imperative that we let go of guilt as well as working on forgiveness – the forgiveness of self and forgiveness of others. Forgiveness is one of the best things you can do for yourself.  Anger, allowing it to stew and holding onto a grudge doesn’t hurt the person you are mad at, it hurts you. Forgive others not for their benefit but for yours. However, if it’s on a subconscious level, how do we access that and figure out the root cause of our particular challenge?

One of the leading and respected authors on the subject of the mind-body connection is Louise L. Hay. Her acclaimed book “Body Talk” is an unmatched investigational resource for linking specific ailments to the emotional root attachment, as well as giving life-affirming mantras to help realign the energy in a positive way, which in turn brings about healing.

In “Body Talk”, Louise gives you a virtual alphabetical listing of aliments from:

Acne – which stems from the root cause of “Not accepting the self. Dislike of the self” which makes perfect sense as to why this is an affliction during the turbulent teen years when you are just starting to know yourself and get comfortable in your own skin. To help heal the issue, the daily recommended mantra is “I am a Divine expression of life. I love and accept myself where I am right now.”

The book also delves into more dangerous manifestations like cancer, which at the soul root comes from “Deep hurt. Long-standing resentment. Deep secrets or grief eating away at the self. Carrying hatreds. A feeling of ‘what’s the use?’” The mantra to get your thoughts back on the right path according to Ms. Hay is “I lovingly forgive and release all of the past. I choose to fill my world with joy. I love and approve of myself.” I highly recommend this book as a staple in your home library collection for frequent use.

This is confirmed as well by Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer in his book “New Medicine, and Healing Cancer & Your Mind”. He says, “Failing to take action to solve long-standing life conflicts in the inner worlds, cancer is known as the ‘butterfly disease’. Like a butterfly, the cancer patient has to struggle to break out of the ‘cocoon’ of their disease or die in the attempt. More often than not, the cancer ‘victim’ has a pattern of long standing life problems that have been ‘eating them up inside’.

Their inability or unwillingness to effectively deal with these problems is what created the cancerous cocoon to begin with. Often, cancer is the manifestation of the person’s conflicting desires to escape the situation and to ‘keep things as they are’ because change is too scary or painful. Cancer becomes the means of escape that many take by doing nothing to stop it from leading them to a final solution.”

Once you understand these concepts it starts to become a little easier to see where one’s own thought and action patterns have played into the current dilemma. The other thing to consider is if you believe in reincarnation and pre-birth planning, you may have very well agreed to experience this illness for your own personal growth.

Illness always has a purpose. Illness is meant to propel you on a journey of the inner self that you may have not taken otherwise. When you get stuck in the day-to-day — filling your time with work, drudgery and tasks, you are often not caring for yourself properly. Your energy is not aligned with your higher self, causing split energy. This can be exhausting making you feel run down, tired, depressed and even sick. When you are in alignment, your energy body and your physical body move freely and almost effortlessly together.

When you feel “in the flow”, which is sometimes referred to as being “in right brain mode”, you may experience sensations like a feeling time has stood still, or the opposite, that time has just flown by – hence the expression “time flies when you’re having fun!” Things come easily to you and without much effort. You feel harmonious and peaceful and happy. Artists often thought to operate from the right side of the brain experience this when working on their craft. Writers are a wonderful example as well. When a writer is in the flow, the vortex, working in right brain mode, whatever you choose to call it — words come easily. Thoughts spill out on to the page with seeming effortlessness, but when they are out of alignment, they are at odds and pull against each other.  It is experienced as a “writers block”, a stifling of creative energy, and oftentimes frustration soon follows. The more you try and force it, the more frustrated you get. This happens with sleep as well! Nights when you cannot fall asleep, what’s happening is that you are not allowing yourself to drift off “into alignment.”

So what can you do to get into alignment?

Anything that makes you feel even just a little better is helpful. Be kind to yourself. Do things that make you feel good, that make you happy. Make time for yourself, even if it’s only a quick 15 minutes stolen away in a bubble bath.

Soothing yourself into alignment is the most important job you as a healthy happy human have!

Who is this “higher self” I keep referring to anyway? It is you, just not the physical you. It is the level of your consciousness that resides in the ether watching over you, helping to guide you (if you will listen). It is “that little voice” that we all have. It is the pure energy, pure love version of yourself and you are magnificent if you will just open up to it and allow.

This is all very interesting, but what about my cancer?

Words are powerful. Each one has a power and magic held in its vibration that is uniquely its own. For this reason I suggest not taking ownership and calling it “my cancer”. That implies it will be making itself comfortable putting its feet up and staying a while, which it most certainly will not! “This too shall pass” is another wonderful mantra to say daily.

Monitoring your thoughts and becoming more positive takes time and practice. But your body really does respond to your thoughts so make them count and think good ones! Tell your body that you love and appreciate it. (Yes, you may feel silly, even down right stupid doing some of this at first. Just humor me.) Go stand in the mirror. Look at yourself and say “I love you. You are a wonderful body and I am thankful you are mine.” If you are really brave, do it naked.

Think to yourself. “I am healthy, I am well.” “Every day in every way I am getting better and better and better.” “Everything I eat turns to health and beauty”, and so on. If you catch yourself thinking something negative – celebrate! For that is a wonderful sign of progress. It means you are becoming aware!

Use these as opportunities and as a tool to clear old negative programming and replace it with new, fresh, better for you thoughts, when you do. Be easy on yourself. No one gets this 100% right just out of the gate.

When you notice a negative thought, simply stop. Say “Cancel, cancel, cancel” and then replace it with a more positive one. For example, if the thought crept into your mind,, “Ugh, I feel so lazy and tired.” say out loud or in your head, “cancel, cancel, cancel” and replace it with something along the lines of “Every day I have more and more energy.” After a while, you will no longer need to say or think the cancel part. It is merely a tool that helps you direct your thoughts as you can’t actually retract thoughts back in from the Universe. That would be exhausting and, quite frankly, a misdirection of focus. You can, however, correct them and make the good ones the ones that count! A positive thought is vastly more powerful than a negative one.

Visualization is another incredibly powerful tool. When you picture yourself…do not see yourself as ill. Always see yourself as well. Picture what you want, not what you currently are. You are your very own work of art, so sculpt away!

This is easier for some of us than others. Some have visual imaginations and when someone says to you, “picture this”, you see images in your mind’s eye. For others who are not naturally kinesthetically visual, this can be a frustrating task.

When we say, “see yourself as well”, you don’t get a picture in your head, so what do you do? Lets make it a tactile and tangible thing instead. Even for those of us who can “see it”, this is a wonderful (and fun) thing to do. So go find some paper, scissors, glue and your very favorite picture of yourself where you are in a good state of health. Grab a travel magazine or Better Homes and Gardens or something of the like and a nice cold glass of lemonade or a warm steamy comforting cup of tea – whatever makes you happiest.

Sit down in your favorite spot and cut and paste the old fashioned way. First cut your happy healthy picture of you out of its background. Now, find a picture in a magazine or pictures if you like, that represent to you happiness, health, comfort, fun and love. Choose things you would like to be surrounded by in your life. Colors, images, people, places and things that make you feel alive and food you love to eat. Tear them from their binding and snip away! Glue or paste them on to a piece of paper, cardboard, or a canvas and put yourself, happy, right in the middle of it all. You are the star in your own life after all!

There are no rules, no right way or wrong way. Your art should be as one of a kind as you are. Once this masterpiece is finished and dry, hang it somewhere in your home where you will see it every single day. This will help you see yourself as you truly are and will be…. Well!

So far these are all conscious actions I have asked you to take, but what about the subconscious? If that is really who is running the show along side the higher self, how do I get in touch with them? Do they have email?

While that would be lovely, it’s not quite the way it works. Although, accessing your subconscious is not as difficult as one might think. This is where meditation comes in handy.

Meditation is the silencing of the mind in order to connect with your higher self, subconscious, the Universe or God. Meditation can be done by anyone, anywhere, at any time. It just takes focus and practice. And the good news is that all you need is you.

There are varied schools of thought on specific meditation techniques, but all have the same universal elements in common.

1. Find a peaceful, quiet location where you can sit or lay unbothered or interrupted for a length of time. 15 minutes minimum and there is no maximum.

2. Pick a position you will be comfortable in for an extended length of time. It can be lying down, sitting up, or for more advanced students, even standing or walking. Please try to always keep your spine straight, as this is your major energy channel.

3. Set the mood. Candles, incense, music or sounds – anything that helps you personally relax. It is important not to have the television or radio on during this, as it is constantly advertising to you and attempting to influence your subconscious for its own gain.

4. Most importantly, set your intention to be open. Let go of the surroundings, of any distractions, and bring your focus inward. Setting your intention just means to decide in your own mind that this (fill in your intention here) is what you want / are choosing for yourself.

When you first meditate you will likely find your mind wandering. Our minds tend to be full of things we need to do, are considering, things people have said and so on. The mind is like a 3 year old who has been given multiple shots of espresso. It’s ok, don’t let this frustrate you. Allow the thoughts to come and go and as they do, breathe deeply. Do this over and over again till you begin to feel a sense of lightness to your physical body.

There are many breathing methods that can be used. The one I feel works best is: as you begin to relax, breathe in deeply and slowly. Hold that breath as long as it is comfortable and then slowly release. Repeat this 10-20 times. Focusing on your breathing helps you have something to concentrate on besides actual words that come into your head.

When beginning to meditate, sometimes a completely clear and quiet mind seems too much of an unreachable goal. It is less daunting to start with a mantra. A mantra is a set of powerful key words to focus on. Repeat them in your mind over and over. This helps to hold the space in your thoughts without being bombarded with your grocery list or worries about work.

Being general is a good way to begin. For example, “I allow and release all that is no longer in my best and highest interest with ease and grace.” Make sure you keep the “with ease and grace” portion in there. In this manner, things will go far more smoothly for you. Feel free to modify your own personal mantra to fit you. There are no hard and fast rules for meditation as we are all unique entities, in and of ourselves. Some things that work well for one may not be right for another and vice versa.

Music is also a wonderful way to help guide your focus. It takes you out of content and puts you into content – out of the linear and into the non-linear.  The best choices are those without actual lyrics, as words will guide your mind in a particular direction – distracting you from your own thoughts, images and impressions. Crystal bowl music, soft chanting, mellow instrumental; the choice is very much personal preference.

Guided meditations are also fantastic and highly recommended for beginners and are also beneficial for advanced meditative students as well. They take you on a journey through use of guided imagery and sound. They can be tremendously beneficial as you can choose what you would like to experience by topic and genre. It is important to choose a guide whose voice resonates comfortably with you. Having listened to several, if the persons voice is at all irritating to you, it just wont work as that is all you are able to focus on. Simply stop the audio, and choose another one.

It seems that most of the information out there on meditation is focused on the how. There is very little written on meditative experiences themselves and what you may encounter. So lets delve into that realm, shall we?

I’m sure that, to many, all of this seems very abstract in concept. Talking to your higher self and so forth. When it comes to intuitive endeavors, everyone experiences them a little differently. There are primarily four avenues to experience this connection through, though most people tend to be a mix of the four rather than just one singular expression.

Visual – They see pictures and colors and images in their minds eye.

Sensory – Sensory oriented people experience things by feeling them physically.

Auditory – these people may hear actual words or voices and sounds.

Clairvoyant – Clairvoyants simply have a sense of intuitively knowing. This goes for meditation as well.

As you start to meditate, set your intention for that particular session. Ask for guidance on a question or subject. Ask for healing. Ask for release. If you have a medical diagnosis or condition already such as cancer, ask for healing and for the tumor to be dissolved and leave your body easily and painlessly. You can do this out loud or quietly to yourself in your head. Whatever you are more comfortable with and feels right to you is the appropriate choice.

Consciously visualize or concentrate on the area of your body that needs healing. Picture it surrounded in a bright white healing light. Picture the tumor breaking down and being washed away. See it leaving your body. Setting your intent through meditation and visualization is much like tossing a penny into a wishing well. First you must concentrate. Then, toss and let it go. Then just allow your mind to quiet. You will be surprised what comes up for you.

The experience:

The music plays or the guide on the audio meditation begins. As you start breathing deeply you begin to feel a lightness about you. You can feel your body starting to relax and soften. You may sometimes notice a sinking feeling as if you are floating downward within yourself. Breathing becomes easier and even your facial muscles start to relax. You may feel the first effects in the palms of your hands or the temples and crown of your head as a light tingling or pulsing.  It is very pleasant.

It is normal for these sensations to come and go throughout the meditation. Beneath your closed eyelids you may see changing colors, patterns, or even vivid images. Just let them come without judgment, analysis or question. Some will strike you as important while others will be just passing flickers like frames from a movie.

Breathe and think to yourself, “I allow. I am open.” It is likely you will feel an increase in energy as you do so.  You may also feel different sensations and there is no limit to these and what you may experience. Some examples would be feeling like water droplets are falling on you, hands touching you, feeling like you are weightless, or being lifted. You might also experience sharp little weird pin pokes, pressure on the crown of your head and so on. You may also have muscle twitches that are involuntary. These are releases of built up, previously blocked energy. All of these experiences are uniquely yours. Experience them openly knowing that you are safe always.

In all cases, you will only experience and see what you are ready to. Your higher self will never throw you in the deep end of the pool just to see if you sink. In some cases you may even experience visions or a sense of reliving scenes from a past life. Just allow it to come and breathe through it. Crying and intense emotion are not at all unusual. This is a great release as these are things held on to for such a long time, even from lifetime to lifetime. When personally translated, they are also often found to have direct correlation to the current life and often allow for healing in the present tense.

How do you use this technique to keep you healthy?

In our modern society, the body to spirit connection is often overlooked. To be truly healthy, it’s a two-sided coin. You can eat all the right foods and work out, taking all the supplements in the world, but if you aren’t spiritually healthy it’s not complete. This works in reverse as well. You can meditate until the cows come home, but if you never use your body physically, it will soon soften and deteriorate. Balance is key in all things, but especially so in health.

By cleansing and unclogging your spirit (through establishment of connection) you are opening up the channel from the physical self to the higher self for better, more open, communication and a more complete YOU. This allows flow of energy, which is incredibly healing. Think of meditation as spiritual Drano.

Automatic writing is another tremendously useful technique that requires only you, a pen or pencil, paper and a little bit of quiet time. Set aside between 15 minutes to an hour. This is sometimes also referred to as Trance Writing because it is directed by spirit or your subconscious. It doesn’t matter what you write. Just start writing. Keep your mind as clear as possible. Anything at all that comes into your head: symbols, words – jot it down and keep writing as fast as you can. Try not to consciously write anything and never correct or rewrite. If you get to a pause, start a new line and write whatever letter comes to your mind first and go from there. This is total free association. Allowing yourself to be receptive during this is key. When you sit down to write state your intent to allow thoughts and feelings to flow. To allow whatever needs to come out to do so at this time. You will be amazed at the words that will spill out on to the page that you were not even aware you had been thinking about. It may take a few times. Be patient with yourself. When you do start getting results, try asking a question before starting. There are no hard and fast rules. This is about as free flowing as it gets! For an additional twist, try doing this exercise with your less dominant hand (if you are right-handed, use your left or if you are left-handed use your right hand).

For something a little more directed, another very interesting audio course I discovered is “Overcoming Self Sabotage” by Debbie Ford. Debbie Ford, creator of The Shadow Process, is an internationally recognized expert in the field of personal transformation. A pioneering force in incorporating the study and integration of the shadow into modern psychological and spiritual practices, Debbie’s work is based on the core belief that outer transformation occurs when we experience an internal shift in perception.

This course can be found online at www.dailyom.com.

If you are not moving steadily in the direction of what you say you want, you can be certain that you are sabotaging yourself somewhere. In this on-line course from #1 New York Times best-selling author Debbie Ford, you will learn 14 key lessons to help you overcome self-sabotage.

As we come to understand the mechanisms and patterns that underlie self-sabotage, we begin to free ourselves. We begin to allow ourselves to interact with ourselves and the world with greater success, joy, and fulfillment. Overcoming self-sabotage and finding the wisdom inside the wounds you’ve endured is one of the most important conversations you’ll ever have with yourself. Honor it and know that it will change your life.

This 8 week course contains powerful lessons every 4 days that includes specific information about how to overcome different aspects of self-sabotage, a new audio guided meditation each lesson to help you directly access your innate wisdom, and tangible action steps to help you take the steps in order to release the past and step into a new level of consciousness.

TOPICS COVERED

Overcoming Self Sabotage

Taking Inventory of Your Biggest Life Lessons

Breaking Through Toxic Emotions

Discovering Your Unmet Needs

Breaking the Trance of Denial

Maybe You’re Just Hurt

Uncovering Unconscious Patterns

Feeling Safe in the Face of Fear

The Destruction of Hidden Rage

Are Your Excuses Keeping You Stuck?

The Gifts of Standing in Your Power

The Sacred State of Surrender

Making Peace with Your Pain

Healing the Split Between Ego and Spirit

This is indeed a transformational course. I never considered myself to be particularly self-sabotaging, nor did I think after much of the self-awareness trainings I had done I had much left to uncover.

Looking back I see how naive I was. Through the 8 weeks of this course I uncovered things I had no idea I was still mad about (or indeed had ever actually been mad about in the first place), frustrated over or deeply saddened because of going all the way back to age 4. It helped me not only uncover these issues, but see how they translated into the way I viewed and related to the world, as well as ultimately heal them for me.

Along the road of self-awareness and discovery there will always be those who declare themselves Masters or Guru’s in their chosen fields. You can, of course, gain much knowledge from some of them and it is wonderful to have someone as a guide. However, be assured there is nothing that they are doing that you, yourself, are not able to do with practice and time. There is no need to feel intimidated by their accomplishments. We are all special and we are all connected. We never need to measure our lives by any other – all paths are unique and not one is better than another. By being open you take the first step.

There is never any need to judge your life or gains by anyone else’s standards as we are all on our own track.

Trust in the Universe that you are loved, supported and always in the right place where you need to be at that current time. You, my dear human, are the most perfect version of you that you have ever been. Right here, right now, and you are getting better and better every day. The sooner you realize and believe this, the sooner you will be back to health.

Stay Tuned for Part 3!
This was originally published as an ebook but as I felt this was very important for people to hear I am blogging it for free.
Sincerely,
Sarah

Cancer – Taking Your Energy Back! Part 2