h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Welcome back Hyp

Mowing in February? *looks at the few remaining spots of snow in shady places still left from the snowstorm last Saturday*

Although one of my former colleagues (Italian) managed to make an apricot tree grow in a sheltered corner - no idea how he got it to survive the winters.

Lil, it sounds like you've been through the wringer. I'm sorry I wasn't around for moral support.

Amy, I did know about your house! It's been a long time coming. Great news.

Ti, my gardening triumph, for my part of the world, is being able to raise figs. I have two in a spot near my house. It's sort of a micro-climate area that is completely sheltered from the north and west and partially from the south.

Websailor, I've thought of you often the past few months but am such pants at communicating that the thoughts never went any farther. How are you adjusting?

It's great to get back in touch with so many of the old gang. Thanks to all of you for the welcome backs.

Dear Asteroid lil,

Have you been ill and are you in hospital. I am sorry I was off line for a while and missed it. i hope that if you have been ill that you are recovering well and you obviously have had time to do a lot of reading. Ludky you. My eyes are so bad it is a real problem to read.

Go well,

alsoRan83,
Christiane

Tuesday 16th april. 2012 16.45 GMT

alsoran, thank you for your kind thoughts.

i am in the boring phase of just lying around, healing, and the healing is going extremely well, but i did have a stage 4 wound, an infected pressure sore, complete with exposed bone. many student nurses have been exposed to my backside. things got to that stage with the wound because i am, basically, a numbass.

You had all that - and you still tried oral antibiotic treatment at home for a few days?

Very dear friend,

You poor darling,

I always worry because i have been sitting on my btm. in a wheelchair for the last nearly twelve years. One cannot get anyone to massage that area of one's anatomy, so I do all sorts of extraordinary exercises because I do not want to have what you have suffered from.

Hope it gets better very very soon.

with much affection

AlsoRan83
Christiane.

tuesday 16/4/2012 19.31 GMT

Hypatia, thanks for asking, I am adjusting fine. Too busy with house renovations and stuff to think much which is a good thing, and I flake out every night, shattered. There is no choice but to get on with it really.

I did the Calculator thingy and for me it was a bit of a nonsense - it came up with 10 years so I have no idea if it meant I would live till I was ten or live another ten years!

I agree with previous posts, the BMI is totally out of kilter. My late husband was short and very big boned was was classed as obese, though at the time he would have given the doctors and nurses a run for their money fitness wise.

Recently over here a little girl was classed as obese and she hadn't a spare ounce of fat on her, not even a little puppy fat!

It is time they started work on the rubbish 'food' that is produced in this country which would make a huge difference. Mushy stuff that needs no chewing, full of sugar, fat and salt, colouring and preservatives which are eaten by the ton by most of the population.

I try to buy basic food and cook my own, except when totally CCd as I am at the moment.

Websailor

Websailor, I'm glad you're doing so well. Not a bit surprised, either. And you're absolutely tight. We have to just get on with things.

One thing that is so frustrating about BMI, at least in the US, is that insurance companies use it, independent of other factors, as an excuse to raise rates. It is incredible that such a flawed measurement is still considered credible.

The US is awash with unhealthy food as well. Americans eat way too much sugar and processed franken-foods. And the lipid hypothesis is still believed by the majority of doctors and nutritionists, so a lot of people are on low-fat diets and dangerous drugs to lower cholesterol when what they should be seriously rationing in their diets are sugar and flour. And don't even get me started on HFCS, MSG, dyes, preservatives, et al.

http://www.skrattsidan.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/burger-king-diabetes-billboard.jpeg

Oh, Hypatia, we are on the same wavelength/bandwagon In spite of everything that is now known, people just don't listen. I am sure I have written on most of those when I was writing for but of course I couldn't rant

I have been watching a TV series here about enormous people who need hoists, huge wheelchairs,etc. and enlarged and reinforced beds and ambulances etc. I have some sympathy for one or two who have sound medical/surgical reasons for their state of health, but social services and health services have been involved with the others for decades so why have they been allowed to get like that

Better shut up for the sake of my blood pressure

Websailor

I could get into the science, but I like you both too much to disagree with you...

Z, I will always respect both you and your opinions. Go ahead, tell me how wrong I am. You won't change my mind, though, any more than I'll change yours.

That's the thing though, my mind can be changed. I just need proper robust scientific evidence. I am happy to have a decent scientific discourse, but that means both parties accepting what constitues proof and being open to changing their mind.

This paper in last weeks BMJ has changed my mind on white rice : http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e1454 Free full content available.

This paper in the New England Journal of Medicine has changed my mind on the Atkins Diet ( http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0708681 )

It just hurts my brain to see such a scientific study still use BMI.

Science isn't the only criteria but I wouldn't expect you to think any other way Z I am afraid age and life experience counts a lot with me Z, and I can give you many years on those, so we will agree to differ.

Websailor

not completely clear on the results of the white rice risk study; only Asian populations suffer significant increased risk of type 2 diabetes? i eat a lot of rice when at home. *worries*

Humm looking at the data it seems that it is more significant in the Asian population, but still significant in studies of western populations. Again hard to see why that may be, unless there is some sort of genetic difference.

we have certain native american tribes, such as the chiricahua apaches, who are terribly disposed to obesity and diabetes. their ancestors lived in such difficult conditions (in terms of availability of food) that the sugar-rich american diet really disrupts their metabolism.

>> I just need proper robust scientific evidence.>>

Yeah, try finding anyone to fund a study on how to improve your health by simply eating the right stuff, rather than 'curing' whatever the condition is by eating pills.

Sorry, but a recent article on diabetes that focused on 'let people eat/drink whatever they want' and 'let's find a cure for it' (medical cure, that is) has left me in a rather sarcastic mood.

But they don't want to *cure* anything. They want to treat diseases. Why sell drugs for a cure when they can sell daily doses for the rest of your life?