Fruity Research and Rainbows

Posted on May 24, 2015 by john graham

Another regular cartoon theme that I have been writing about, relates to research discoveries that help with the ravages of ageing.  Surprising potential cures for dementia, diabetes and strokes are all something I have written about in the last three years.

The cartoons included in the gallery are listed below and can be found by clicking on the dates in the archive.  

“Fruitful Research 7” – 24th March 2013 – Tomatoes cure heart disease

“Fruitful Research” – 11th January 2011 – Strawberries protect ageing brains

“Fruitful Research 2” – 23rd January 2011 – Beetroot juice prevents dementia

“Fruitful Research 3” – 30th January 2011 – Orange juice reduces blood pressure

“Fruit Juice Hopes Squashed” – 3rd July 2011 – Fruits juices’ hidden dangers

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There’s no guarantee that any of them work of course :-(!  Nonetheless they do give hope to many older people and keep them endlessly chasing the rainbow’s end of later life.

The only other thing they guarantee is that they keep universities occupied with a constant stream of research projects.

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged , | 3 Comments

“No more pills”

Posted on May 17, 2015 by john graham

This is the 500th post since I first started writing this blog in 2010.  Obviously now with my thousands of followers, my writing has become much more influential.  Nothing bears this out more than over the last two weeks.  At the beginning of this month I wrote a summary of all my posts on “Pills”, which has been a recurring theme over the last five years.  (Click on “Pills” in the TAG CLOUD to read them all again.)

Judging by recent headlines and articles in several newspapers, it seems as though a number of journalists and a host of doctors are finally thinking the same way about excessive use of pills.  Or maybe, in this flight of fancy they have been up in the clouds reading my blog :-).

The front page of The Times, May the 13th, heralded this new revelation with a headline:-

“Doctors urged to stop giving out so many useless treatments.”

The report was commenting on an article in the British Medical Journal by no less than an authority than Professor Dame Sue Bailey, the President of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. ??? Didn’t she win the X Factor three years ago ???

She pointed out that “far too many risky drugs and operations do not improve patients’ lives”.  This is a bold statement that is hardly likely to endear her to many of Britain’s 220,000 doctors, nor to the drug companies who make so much money out of pills, whether they work or not.  Patients’ high expectations of a cure are clearly a large part of the problem and Dame Sue suggests a new catchphrase for all clinicians:-

“Look, there is absolutely no point in having this”.

That is guaranteed to go down well with the patients!

At least the Chancellor of the Exchequer will be pleased with this new advice.  The Academy estimates that needless tests and treatments cost the NHS £2billion a year!

So, no cure at least helps cure austerity.

 

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged | 3 Comments

Smallprint loses trust

Posted on May 10, 2015 by john graham

Another common theme that I have been writing about regularly since 2010 is the subject of “small print”.

This might seem like a relatively significant issue.   However a very high proportion of older people wear glasses and over 50% of them have some level of visual impairment.   As a consequence small print is a subtle way of disempowering older people.  It may not be intentional ageism, but it nonetheless makes life a little more difficult in completing many everyday activities.  Gradually older people become more marginalised and less independent.

As the grey market is ignored, as products are only available on the internet and as issues like the difficulty of reading small print, mean things are difficult to find, older people are gradually excluded from many activities of daily living.

The cartoons included in the gallery are listed below and can be found by clicking on the dates in the archive.  

Breakfast Exercise – 6th September 2010

Spectacle Wipes – 7th November 2010

Breakfast Exercise 3 – 20th February 2011

Breakfast Exercise 5 – 27th March 2011

Coke No Joke – 29th January 2012

I Spy Small Print – 7th November 2010

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These cartoons are about a less accessible world.  More and more products are difficult for old people to open.  Much of the helpful advice printed on packaging is in such small print as to be unreadable.  It only fulfils the company’s legal obligations but is certainly not “age friendly”.  This only serves to remind older people of their increasing frailty.

This blind ageism may not be deliberate but it is definitely inconsiderate.

In some circumstances, a more cynical person might say that it was intended to exploit the weaknesses of older people.

These are all signs of “times past” and values lost, when trust and personal service were a key to retaining repeat business.

The times when people and products could always be trusted, have now been replaced by:-

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Posted in Grey Products | Tagged | 2 Comments

Pills

Posted on May 3, 2015 by john graham

Ever since I have been writing this blog, “pills” have been a regularly recurring theme and Pilly Galore has been a character that has featured in many of my posts.  Pills are a daily feature of many older people’s lives as we all attempt to stave off the ravages of old age.  Indeed the older you get it seems the more pills you take.

The slideshow below captures the images that I have used to illustrate this issue.

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A multi billion pound industry has grown up around the delivery of medication.  GPs spend a large part of their day giving out these pills.  The Government, through taxation, foots the bill for the majority of the cost through the issue of “free prescriptions”.

In many cases there is evidence to suggest that either the pills are not taken correctly or not needed at all.  There is also a history of research being published which is then contradicted by new research, as shown by my last two posts on Pills which can be found by clicking on “PILLS” in the TAG CLOUD.

You would have to wonder in the austere times ahead of us whether we might all benefit from taking a lot less pills.  Old people wouldn’t worry so much about whether they have taken their pills and GPs could spend much more time on promoting healthy lifestyles.  Of course the pharmaceutical industry would be devastated by this news which is why it will probably never happen!!!

1 Comment

“Old Paper Boys”

Posted on April 19, 2015 by john graham

A rattle of the letterbox caused me to look out of the front window, only to see a smart new car parked outside our door.  Two older gentlemen were walking off in opposite directions delivering the local free newspaper to all the houses up and down the street.

I rarely look at the paper, it’s full of local adverts and pages of houses for sale.  Occasionally I use the paper to light the fire but most of the time it goes straight into the bin for recycling.

Still, somebody must read it and buy something, otherwise the advertisers wouldn’t advertise.

Meanwhile, the paper is keeping a few journalists and printers busy every week.  Also a small army of elderly delivery “boys” are getting plenty of exercise and earning some useful pin money.  The good news for older paper boys is that the dogs that used to greet them when they were young are also a little older and more friendly than they used to be.

Old Paper boys finished

We need a lot more job opportunities like this for older people.  Getting out and about with a friend, being paid to keep fit in the fresh air and having the dignity of a job in later life.

Let’s hope the internet doesn’t make them redundant.

Posted in SMILES | 3 Comments

“Same Old, Same Old 1”

Posted on April 14, 2015 by john graham

My blog posts have thinned out in the last few months because it is hard to think of new things to say about the same old issues.  It seems like no-one is listening, or if they do hear, perhaps no-one cares. Here are some examples of recurring headlines:-

“Stop rushed visits to sick and elderly, carers told”

Times, 5th March 2015

This is a commentary about domiciliary care which 470,000 people in England receive, via funding through social services.

Domiciliary care was the bridge between hospital and home.  A way, with early intervention, of preventing people going into hospital unnecessarily.  Equally important a way of enabling people to be discharged quickly from acute hospital care and still receive some support.

Over the last 10 years, this service has quietly been withdrawn due to the twin pressures placed on the service by increasing numbers of older people and austerity measures.

It started with domiciliary support being limited to ‘critical and substantial’ cases.  Thereafter, visits were frequently reduced to 15 minute time slots – now in some cases that has become 5 minute visits!  Between April 2010 and March 2013, funding for social care fell by 8%.

Funding is reduced, hospital admissions rise and beds are blocked by patients who cannot return home without support.  Meanwhile other Government funded organisations charged with looking after the quality of care for older people, give a chorus of impotent advice:-

  • The Care Quality Commission, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, points out the obvious – “choosing between a bath and breakfast because staff dont have enough time, is not safe caring”.
  • The National Institute for Health Care Excellent issued new guidance suggesting home help calls last at least half and hour.
  • The Watchdog Healthwatch England says it will challenge Local Authorities who do not meet the new benchmark (of half hour visits).

Care in the community is rapidly becoming:

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Posted in ELDERLY UK POLICY | 1 Comment

“Wonder Porridge”

Posted on April 12, 2015 by john graham

I do not normally look in the Journal of the American Medical Association for recipes about healthy living, but obviously I should have.

They reported on a study at Harvard School of Public Health which looked at the eating habits of 100,000 Americans over a 14 year period.  In that time, a quarter of the participants died – my guess that was from over consumption of burgers, French fries and donuts 🙂

The good news is that those who ate more wholegrain lived longer.  For every ounce of wholegrain you eat a day the study showed you will achieve a 5% drop in mortality.  This is the equivalent of a small bowl of porridge a day.

The even better news is I already eat porridge so I am on the right track.

wonderporride

By my reckoning, if I manage to eat 20 bowls of porridge a day I could live forever.

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Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 1 Comment

” More Age Rage “

Posted on March 26, 2015 by john graham

Two months ago I wrote  a couple of posts on pensioners in Sheffield protesting about cuts to free travel.  (see “Protesting Generation” by clicking on  January 2015 in the Archive)

Now on the 23rd March at a rally in London organised by  Age UK the prime Minister came along hoping to woo some friendly grey voters and get some positive pre-election publicity.  How wrong can you be?

The pensioner audience were in no mood for politician platitudes and evasive answers. Mr Cameron had an uncomfortable reception. Faced with questions about the NHS and cuts in social care, his answers were greeted with jeering and derision.

The result was a front page headline in yesterdays Times   ” Cameron heckled by angry pensioners “

Sadly, on the previous page you can see Age UK’s own report of the event  which is  a watered down version of what transpired.

           Age UK don’t do AGE RAGE even if their pensioners do !    

Posted in GRUMBLES | Tagged | 1 Comment

A rallying call for a great place to grow older

Posted on March 26, 2015 by john graham

This is a post that I have taken from the Age UK blog.   It starts with a nice publicity shot taken outside the Houses of Parliament to promote a rally to celebrate  the joys of later life.

Read the Age UK blog first, then see my next post which comments on  the reception that the Prime Minister got when he attended 🙂

2 Comments

“Kitchen Comforts”

Posted on March 8, 2015 by john graham

Redecorating the kitchen with a wifely makeover, a clear-out of all the cupboards and drawers; the cupboards where things fell out when you opened the door; the drawers that would not open because of something stuck at the back.

Where did all this stuff come from?  The back of the cupboards is the resting place for almost-empty jars or just-past or long-since past sell-by date cans.  The kind that Captain Scott might have been forced to eat, but we keep “just in case”.  Impulse buys that didn’t turn out to be impulse eats.  The second of the “buy one get one free” offers, when you only wanted one.

Then there is the “never know when you might want one drawer” full of screwdrivers, paperclips, note pads, assorted pens, torches that don’t work and left over batteries.

The “clear anything and everything cupboard” under the sink.  The thick bleach, the thin bleach, the glasses cleaner, the window cleaner, the silver polish, the Brasso, the wall tile cleaner and the floor cleaner.  Then there’s the shoe polish – black, brown and natural – all multiplied by five.  Never finish polish off completely before buying a new one, otherwise you might end up with dirty shoes on the very day you’re going for a job interview.

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I haven’t even mentioned the cupboards of technical stuff like saucepans and cake tins; jars and jugs; spoons and forks and forks and spoons; big knives; little knives; serrated knives; cheese knives; sharp knives and blunt knives.  Oh and foil, yards and yards of aluminium foil. We could wrap up the moon!

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P.s now it’s all cleared out and tidy, the cupboard doors open and close, the drawers slide in and out.  All ready for filling up again!

Posted in SMILES | Tagged | 1 Comment