British Heart Foundation – Why I support it

British Heart Foundation – Why I support it How important is the British Heart foundation? My personal interest in its work I feel profoundly lucky that research and consequent developments in the treatment of heart problems has benefited me. I have a pacemaker/defibrillator in my chest which ensures my heart rate never falls too low […]
UK Care Crisis deepens – brilliantly explored in BBC programmes with Ed Balls

A care worker in the BBC programme Crisis is not too strong a word to apply to care of the elderly in care homes and those living in their own homes with care assistance. Currently a million people are suffering with dementia in the UK and numbers are increasing. Today’s move (11 November) by the […]
Crowded beaches were actually covid safe

Last August (3rd) I wrote a post saying that the dangers of covid had been exaggerated by the media. I especially pointed out that crowded beaches did not lead to a surge in infections. The important point is that there is little evidence of covid being spread in out of doors situations. More sports and […]
What’s wrong with my heart? A surprising heart problem, my recovery and ICD pacemaker

Anyone who meets me would probably think that I am a very healthy individual. I have felt very well this year and have been very active doing exercise routines most days, swimming in the summer in the sea and rivers, gardening, painting and decorating, and doing quite a lot of walking etc. Hidden problems However, […]
My Sunburn Experience, July 2020

I should have known better, but I love the sun. I worship the sun. Most summers in the last twenty years I have driven or flown hundreds of miles to prostrate myself before it. It makes me feel good. I love to have a suntan. I don’t understand why it gives me so much pleasure. […]
Face masks must be a health hazard as well horrible to wear and of little use

I wore a face mask yesterday when I went to a shop for the first time in five months. It was a horrible experience (but not because it was B & Q). My glasses immediately steamed up. Eventually I needed to wipe my nose. The mask must be a fertile breeding ground for bacteria and […]
My unexpected experience as a heart patient – Part Two, the Angiogram

What it’s like having an angiogram – actually a very interesting experience I was moved into a cardiac ward and put onto a bed. I had hardly got onto the bed and looked around me when a message came that I could have an angiogram immediately. Hospital porters pushed my bed into a small room. […]
My unexpected experience as a heart patient – Part One, a lucky start

I believed I was reasonably fit (February 2019, age 76). After all, for about 10 years I’d been doing a lot of jogging and other exercise. Typically I ran 6 or 7 miles a week (almost two miles every other day) and on days when I didn’t run I usually lifted weights for about 20 […]
Can too much exercise kill? – How I nearly did too much

I’m now 76 (August 2019). For the last ten years or so I’ve run a little under two miles every other day, and on my off days I’ve enjoyed exercising with weights, nothing massive. About 7 kg in each hand: 10 lifts above my head from shoulder height, ten lifts from floor to above my […]
Disturbed heart rhythm – risk of sudden cardiac death

If you are in tip-top physical condition and exercising a lot you may be in greater danger than you realise. I thought I was super-fit but one day, at the age of 76, I unexpectedly felt faint and had a fast heart beat. I was later told that this “episode” could have proved fatal. It […]
The greatest threat to our civilisation today – social distancing

Social Distancing has already trashed our economy and ruined many lives. Thousands of businesses have closed permanently. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs. And many people have died because hospitals postponed operations and treatment. Social life was totally halted for months. Weddings were banned. Even churches that had never closed in hundreds […]
Schools are overreacting to the corona virus

Last night I watched the BBC TV 6 0’clock news with an item about a primary school in the north of England. The presenter, Branwen Jeffreys, showed us a school and its preparations to deal with the return of pupils after the long break caused by the corona virus pandemic, and the steps the head […]
Closing Norway’s Schools May Have Been a Mistake

Norway’s Prime Minister has second thoughts about closing Norway’s Schools. On Wednesday night, Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg went on Norwegian television to make a startling admission: she had panicked. Some, even most, of the tough measures imposed in Norway’s lockdown now looked like steps too far. “Was it necessary to close schools?” she mused. […]
Corona Virus, “The impact on children is minuscule in terms of their health.”

Corona Virus, “The impact on children is minuscule in terms of their health.” – Dr Gavin Morgan. Dr Gavin Morgan, an expert in educational psychology at University College London, said the impact of spending a prolonged period out of education was “100 per cent” worse than Covid-19. “We know how important play is for children’s […]
“Children are at very little risk of infection”

“Children are at very little risk of infection” – Professor Russell Viner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Professor Russell Viner of the UCL Institute of Child Health and President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health told MailOnline: ‘What we know about the novel coronaviruses, including COVID-19, is […]