OneGuyFromBarlick

One consequence of the dry weather is that my ear wax has tended to harden so I am running on Otex ear drops at the moment to improve my hearing! I think it's working.....

After only 2 weeks on Dulaglutide weekly injections my sugar levels have dropped 3 points on the mmol/L scale. My appetite is much reduced so I'm eating less and loosing weight and I feel better that I have done for a couple of years. Hopefully if this continues I can come off the dreaded metformin. Nolic

Pleased to hear the drug is working for you Colin, but I cant help but mention that changing your diet to low carb/high healthy fat might well have the same effect.

Had a lower back problem since Friday night. Don't know how I did it but the usual symptoms of cant bend without excruciating pain. Not good as I need to do daily exercises for my spinal stenosis problem. I have been taking co codamol which does allow me to move and get the regime in. I'm fairly certain the exercises are good for both, (core strength and spinal flexibility). It's starting to ease and I'm hoping that I will be able to ditch the pills shortly.

I hope it clears for you quickly, Ian. My recent back pain has gone, possibly helped by me managing to keep walking every day and taking great care over posture and sudden movements. One of the dangers when you have back trouble is tripping and jerking your body. It's so easy, just stepping on or off a kerb, and it can knock back any improvement.

PanBiker wrote: ↑02 Jul 2018, 08:39 Had a lower back problem since Friday night. Don't know how I did it

PanBiker, you may have got the answer with your outings on the bicycle. I always put my back problems down to the rather unnatural posture that you take up on a bicycle. Being curled up 'honking' up a steep hill doesn't do backs any favours. Just something to bear in mind.

Wendyf wrote: ↑02 Jul 2018, 06:42 changing your diet to low carb/high healthy fat might well have the same effect

I heard a programme on Radio 4 on this topic this afternoon whilst driving into town (3.30 - 4.00 pm). Featured a senior doctor called Unwin from Southport - I think I've heard his story before. Without embarrassment he seemed to say he didn't realise that carbohydrates digested into sugar, until a patient told /reminded him. He then spoke of reversing diabetes using diet, and it was said that he underspent his diabetic medicine budget by £38,000.

They seemed to imply that this was still not widely appreciated by doctors, and still not being taught in medical schools.

The progamme then (for me) lost focus, and spoke a lot about reducing sugar forgetting they had just said that carbs are effectively sugar. When I left it - they had a hospital head chef describing how he was experimenting with sugar free biscuits! They spoke of junk food in hospitals, and said it was often a feature of contracts that such should be available and even said there was a case where sugary drinks and chocolate had to be available to recovering heart surgery patients. Sounded like fake news to me.

That was the Food Programme, we listened to it this morning. Dr David Unwin does a brilliant job!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b86702

plaques wrote: ↑02 Jul 2018, 19:24

PanBiker wrote: ↑02 Jul 2018, 08:39 Had a lower back problem since Friday night. Don't know how I did it

PanBiker, you may have got the answer with your outings on the bicycle. I always put my back problems down to the rather unnatural posture that you take up on a bicycle. Being curled up 'honking' up a steep hill doesn't do backs any favours. Just something to bear in mind.

My bike ride was 6 days before the onset and I had been doing my normal lower back exercises the rest of the week without any ill effects. Friday when it went pear shaped and still a mystery, one thing, it is easing up.

I can come off the dreaded Metformin I must be lucky Comrade, I have no ill effects from Metformin.
Speaking from long experience Ian backs are like that, they sneak up on you when you least expect it and for no apparent reason. Get off the pain killers as soon as you can and be patient, it will retreat. Remember what Arthur Morrison told me, that God would cure it as I got older. He was right!
David, long time since I heard anyone mention 'honking'! Did you have a 'bonk bag' as well?

Already ditched the pills, only used as a means to an end to allow me to do my exercise regime. It's worked and I can complete the cycle with only the mild pains when you hit the the threshold of each routine.

I have had lower back pain today. Can't think what I've done to deserve it. No pain killers needed but I did stoop to a rub of Voltaren Emulgel tonight. Good stuff! Felt better after 10 mins...( I swear by that rub every time I use it...really works for me)

I was prescribed some Ibuprofen 10% Gel as a mild pain relief. Compared with the Emugel its useless. I may as well rub toothpaste over the area. A pharmacist who I know said that the massaging action trying to rub the stuff in was probably more effective than the Gel.

Iboprofen gel doesn't work for me either...

Mild lower back pain back tonight ( have been fine all day and (again) have done nothing to deserve it). Just had another rub with the Voltaren Emulgel and I'm sure I will survive. I find it very effective ( then again, I stress I do not suffer severe or debilitating pain as some do. I feel for folk who suffer every day.)
I shall be tickertyboo by morning.

I feel for folk who suffer every day. I had fifty years of it Maz, and you're right, it gets a bit wearing but you just have to soldier on.

A blood test that can predict more accurately how long you may have live. Link.. I'm not too sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing unless you can do do something to cling onto your perch a bit longer.

Not interested! I'm doing all the right things and clinging to life!

See THIS report about problems in the courts in the US over suspicions that Johnson and Johnson's signature talcum powder contains asbestos and causes ovarian cancer..... Is there any truth in this or is it s symptom of a legal system that favours the plaintiff.

plaques wrote: ↑09 Jul 2018, 12:27 A blood test t GP saihat can predict more accurately how long you may have live. Link.. I'm not too sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing unless you can do do something to cling onto your perch a bit longer.

Had to laugh when I saw this. Just had blood and urine tests. GP said when reading them 'you'll live to be a 100'; but then added 'don't think that because your tests are OK you are healthy'.
kind regards,
cloggy.

Stanley...I haven't clicked on your link re Johnson and Johnson Talcum Powder ( sorry...I am a bit busy cooking dinner) but I can tell you that in the 1980's nurses here were told not to use it because of the link to Ovarian Cancer. It was a word-of-mouth thing between nurses back then. But that was at least 30+ years ago, and it was withdrawn from use here then.
I must read your link later, but I am just getting my comment in without bias, from what I heard back then...and I am sure I have mentioned it before on OG.
And ( call me funny) but I would never smear Petroleum Jelly on a baby's bum either. It's a Petro-chemical product.

Marilyn wrote: ↑13 Jul 2018, 08:15 ...And ( call me funny) but I would never smear Petroleum Jelly on a baby's bum either. It's a Petro-chemical product.

All things are chemicals, where do you draw the line?

Stanley wrote: ↑13 Jul 2018, 04:08 See THIS report about problems in the courts in the US over suspicions that Johnson and Johnson's signature talcum powder contains asbestos and causes ovarian cancer..... Is there any truth in this or is it s symptom of a legal system that favours the plaintiff.

I raised an earlier case of this on OG in 2016 and have no reason to change what I wrote then: LINK
Regardless of there having been many investigations there is no conclusive evidence that talcum powder causes cancer. There are claims that it contains asbestos but talcum powder used in cosmetic and food applications contains no asbestos. People confuse the product `talcum powder' with the mineral `talc'. Some talc mineral contains asbestos but that is not used for these applications. Asbestos has never been found in talcum powder used in these applications. And yet judges are awarding people astronomical sums in `compensation' against manufacturers even though there is no evidence that the person's cancer has been caused by talcum powder. There is now a queue of 1200 similar claims against the manufacturers. Where will this lead us?

In a post on the following day I wrote: There are so many other potential causes of ovarian cancer so why should a judge assume that its due to talcum powder? There seems to be an incorrect assumption that a cancer can only be caused by a material capable of coming into contact with the organ, but there are plenty of other ways such as diet and inhalation. You'd think that judges would be seeking sound evidence before passing judgements.

It reminds me of the campaign some years ago to have serpentine dropped from being the `state mineral' of California because some politicians confused it with asbestos.

I still haven't clicked on that link, ( so I still say this without bias), but back in the '80s the thought was that the irritant nature of talc could work its way up from the perineum to the internal structures of a baby girl. Of course I have no proof of this. But if you hear these things, you are unlikely to take the risk with any baby. There was no mention of asbestos...just the irritant nature of talc.

Thanks for those views. Interesting Maz that you were warned not to use it as early as that. I don't use it and have no ovaries so that's OK.....
My mind goes back to displaced persons being smothered in DDT powder at the end of the war to kill lice and arrest Typhus. I wonder how 'safe' that was?