Tag Archives: health

January 2, 2026 · 1:05 pm

#HeadlineTherapy France’s ban on ‘forever chemicals’ comes into force today. Here’s what will change.

Thanks to Liam Gilliver from Euro News Online for the Headline

PFA’s are known as forever chemicals as they take ‘forever’ to break down therefore when the products they are made of are disposed of then they stay in the earth , water and air of the planet we live in.

This legislation has taken a long time to come into force, considering the great French Environmentalist Jacques Cousteau was a pioneer in showing the World the beauty of the sea and how it could be decimated by waste and abuse caused by human activity.

Even now , the legislation has been watered down, with Tefal the French owned non-stick pan company preventing the products that they use to achieve their non-stick coating being banned as Tefal has said that they stopped using PFOA’s ( a forever chemical known for it’s heat resistance properties) in 2012 and what they use now( another forever chemical) , has no record of being linked to cancer causing properties.

In truth I would never buy a non-stick pan or indeed an aluminium pan coated with non-stick. I tend to go for stainless steel, cook at lower temperatures and try not to burn stuff. I suppose with eggy bottoms then a good scrubbing brush with a bit of bicarbonate soda works miracles. So I’m not so sure how successful Tefal is but like Renault, the French like to protect their industry so the Tefal lobbying obviously worked.

The good news though is for clothes and make-up , products that use PFA’s when there are perfectly good alternatives to make the product are now banned. Result

Let’s face it the majority of us want to avoid risk and will not buy products however cheap that cause illness and desolation. Well done the French Government and let’s hope everyone else will follow.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading. 🙏

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November 15, 2025 · 9:52 am

#HeadlineTherapy Sam Altman and husband reportedly working to genetically engineer babies from having hereditary disease

This headline is courtesy of Olivia Ireland and the Online Independent.

The article touches on a subject very close to my heart. Unfortunately using Sam Altman’s name as a headline perhaps is inappropriate as the subject itself, Embryonic Altering of Genetic Material is an ethical , worldwide problem which is being addressed by many institutions and governments and there are many opinions on how this technology should be used if at all.

The impression I got from the headline was that there was some personal interest in this couple’s investment and that it was not just an altruistic wish to help with a world wide health problem. Who knows?

Sam is one of the investors, along with believe it or not the Chief Executive of a Cryptocurrency platform and we all have great faith in Cryptocurrency don’t we?

So, $30million has been raised so far to set up ” Preventative”, which in the Californian Hi-tech maelstrom of investment decisions is probably corn feed. However, it is a start and as it is illegal to gene edit a baby in many Countries including the United States , it’s possible that ” Preventative’s ” research will be done in the United Arab Emirates where embryo editing is legal. Why a Californian set up then?

However a genuine successful gene editing treatment has already been used in Pennsylvania in the United States, presumably after satisfying strict ethical criteria and a little boy was cured by correcting a minor yet crucial error in his genetic code at the embryonic stage.

The danger is that we move towards the wish for “designer babies” and genes are altered not to prevent serious medical issues in later life , but to have the “ideal” baby that fits in (with those who are willing to pay )lifestyle choices.

” I want her eyes to match the colour of my curtains”

So as I said this is a subject that is close to my heart. As I wrote ” The Cuckoo in the Nest” which I have published here on my WordPress site , here is a sample chapter. It’s how I imagine the dystopian world if we do go in the direction of “designing babies”

The Cuckoo In The Nest Chapter 29

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December 7, 2024 · 9:30 am

Shooting Solves Nothing

I would first of all like to offer my condolences to the family of Brian Thomson the CEO of United Healthcare. My thoughts are with them and what I write below is meant as a cry for understanding of healthcare needs for everyone.

I feel for American Society that there is no such thing as a good quality public health service in the United States of America.

America voted and Americans said that health care would be a lottery and would be based on means and insurance.

As a result the head of a Health Insurance Company, United Healthcare, that no one in the UK has ever heard of is shot while walking back to his hotel. Perhaps most Americans know his Company and perhaps relatives and friends suffered at it’s hands due to non payment of claims. With American Gun Laws , the unfortunate but perhaps( to the killers eye culpable man)met his end in a cold blooded planned assassination. The bullets etched with words chillingly used to decline a Health Insurance Claim.

No Chief Executive Officer should die for running a business. CEO’s are numbers people responsible for reporting figures to their shareholders. Their moral compass may have skewed to the extent that they have lost all understanding of the effects purely looking at numbers and results and ignoring the “soft” issues like, people suffering uncontrollable pain through not being able to afford the drugs they need, or families being at their wits end with a very ill baby , who have stopped their insurance payments to keep food on the table. Those issues are not “soft” for those families.

America, now has the potential to turn into a cross between Victorian Britain with its’ paupers graves, workhouses and chronically poor people and the really bad bits of the Wild West( If you didn’t agree with someone you’d shoot them.) Certainly not the American Dream.

To add insult to injury , America is eyeing the UK’s NHS as a potential candidate for their system. The NHS is a money pit , with plenty of opportunities to make people pay. Thankfully we don’t have the gun laws and we don’t have Capital Punishment that would inevitably go hand in hand with more freely available weapons. Killing a police officer in the 1950’s was one of the few offences along with treason that would incur the death penalty in the UK. However, currently in the UK we do not have Capital Punishment.

We do now have assisted dying legislation, however, let’s face it if a hospital wants to send a patient home who isn’t quite ready to go home and is “bed blocking” it’s an inconvenience, just like not paying your insurance subscriptions might be an inconvenience and wouldn’t it be easier and the figures look neater if we could just assist them to a better place. Maybe offer free funerals?

Hippocrates recognised over 2000 years ago the potential for Healthcare abuse, he is responsible for the Hippocratic Oath that all Medical Doctors have historically taken. The American Health Care System modified their version in the US in the 1960’s . Doctors in Pakistan adhere to the original oath apparently. Surely being a Doctor in Pakistan is no different than being a Doctor in the US, UK or the rest of the World for that matter. Why the need to modify it? Were they looking for a short cut in care, to make it cheaper, to make the figures look better.

And this sadly , is where we’ve ended up. We either care of we don’t care . There is no in between.

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November 26, 2024 · 5:30 am

What would life be like without sleep?


Prompt : If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?

If the World didn’t sleep, then it would deteriorate very quickly, sleep is regenerative. How dangerous to think we can live without sleep. So sleep is not wasted time. The time would not be extra , it would be taking away from something that is necessary to us.

So practically, the only people who really would make an effort to go without sleep are those who feel they can fill their time with more activities than others to gain an advantage, or those who just can’t sleep for health reasons( insomnia ). Insomniacs can’t sleep as much as they need and learn to live with the feeling of being tired .

It’s the first group that interest me, the second group have my sympathy and I hope they find techniques that help them. They know not sleeping does not give them “extra time”.

The people in the World who deliberately eat into their own “downtime” and ignore it’s benefits either have to do it, eg. medical staff, people in the armed forces, emergency response staff. They will work almost superhuman hours and achieve superhuman results because they can, but then they need rest and recuperation to recover. They cannot continue at the maximum response for long, their adrenalin may keep them going , but eventually they will burn out and will need to have back up.

Those who make a choice to not sleep to gain an advantage over others , end up on a slow burn and probably cannot think straight. Although in their mind they are functioning at full capacity. They don’t have back up and see whatever they are doing as helping humanity or giving them a distinct advantage against it. They can do more , because they have stolen time.

They know little what damage they can do or what ill effects it will have on their well being. Yes , they may think they are functioning at full capacity, but they are inevitably not. They are an electric car who needs a recharge, the warning red light has come on. It’s time to switch off. The other cars who have had their charge go off on their journey knowing they have a time limit , the more cars being charged the more complete journeys. Those that have stopped half way are those that ignore they needed to be recharged. They have broken down and will need to be rescued.

Please, please , be a World that allows sleep, it is part of our Survival, we all need downtime and rest.

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