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Berwick Area Heart Support Group December 2008 Newsletter
Berwick Area Heart Support Groups next meeting is Wednesday 3rd December 2008 at the day Hospital Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm, the guest speaker is Dr Higham and he will be followed by a small Christmas buffet.
Dr Higham is Honorary President of our group and his talks are most popular with the group and are the highlight of our year. This year we hope for even wider attendance, including interested in our group professionals.
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NOVEMBER SPEAKER – REPORT
Everything that you thought you knew about journalists and their newspaper editors is true! We had an entertaining evening at our November meeting, when David Banks, ex-Editor of The Daily Mirror, gave his talk, “From Crookham to Fleet Street and Back”.
David’s mother and her parents came from the Scottish side. His mother was born at Fogo in the Meuse, and his grandparents, though they originated only just up the road from Berwick, remained fiercely Scottish. Like a lot of folk in the old days, they had worked on the farms and ‘flitted’ frequently. Gran’dad moved, generally when he fell out with the farmer, back and forth across the Border. Well … that is Berwick! When David was a boy he spent his summers at Crookham. This remains his area; his newspaper career took off from The Journal, (the Scottish Daily Record would not entertain the boy’s early request for a job) and in his semi-retirement he now does a column for that paper, but his working life was mostly spent in New York, Sydney and London. He retired because of ill health, to, where else, Crookham.
David, on request, gave a brief account of his life-saving encounter with high technology. His successive chemos for a cancer of his immune system had not worked. The only chance was if the medics could destroy his immune system (which originates in the bone marrow that renews the blood) and then replace it with a new one from somebody else. They had to find one that did not react to and reject his body. By a lucky fluke, odds of 25:1 apparently, his brother had a genetically very closely matched immune system. The modern trick was to persuade stem cells (those magical survivors in our tissues that retain the ability to start all-over again and to grow new tissue), to come out of his brother’s bone marrow, and to be ‘harvested’ until there were enough to grow David a new immune system. They have a drug that does just that persuasion. David then sat with his brother for the few hours that it took to run his brother’s blood through a loop dialysis filter machine - and back into his brother. After the implant into David it was a very long haul in the Borders General, where he must be protected from infections. Success, and finally back to Crookham.
One of David’s stories came from a spell on The Sun under the phenomenon known as Kelvin Mackenzie. During the usual shortage of news one August when French farmers were protesting at Calais that British ‘lamb’ unfairly undercut their own production; KM engaged a scratch invasion force including Page 3 Girls to take the ferry across to “retake the town for Britain”. This splendid force was returned safely, although the girls just about froze, but minus the London policeman’s helmet they had taken with them to make some point or other. French Customs impounded it – fake foreign policemen are not allowed in France!
During his time as Editor of The Mirror, David met many of the famous, (Princess Di apparently forgave him for publishing the photos taken by the nefarious Gym owner) but perhaps his most telling story was a journey toEthiopia during the aftermath of the big famine. Donations had resulted from the publicity and David has a vivid memory of being approached by an elderly farmer in the square of a dusty town. Through the interpreter, the old man thanked him for the two oxen that had been the saving of his family, but added: “do not worry, though, we will repay you”. For many in our Heart Group audience I think the old Ethiopian man’s words brought echoes of those not-so-far-away Scottish grandparents, their own as well as David’s.
Thank you David, and the best of luck with your latest publishing and writing endeavours: that column on The Journal as well as the email Crookham Clarion, and the front-room internet-radio broadcasts. (A recent radio guest was Martin Bell MP – he of the white suit!)
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WHOLE GRAINS: (… again … and fewer eggs!)
Ever since the visit by the dieticians, we have been banging on in the Newsletter about the Mediterranean Diet – or the modern ‘scientific’ version of the traditional cardio and cancer protective version. ‘Whole grains’ and fruit and veg we know are good for everybody and particularly well suited to such as us, but increasingly we learn, unfortunately, that eggs, although low in saturated fat and high in protein, are not such good news.
Heart Failure is not uncommon in the elderly and follows on particularly from heart attacks and arterial disease. The following is taken from a very recent medical news report.Primary source:Journal of the American Dietetic Association
Excerpts:
“Explain to patients who ask, that eating whole-grain foods such as cereal or dark bread was linked to a lower risk of heart failure, whereas consuming eggs and high-fat dairy products, such as whole milk, cheese, and ice cream, was associated with an increased risk.
“… Whole-grain foods included oatmeal or flakes, whole-grain cold cereal, and whole-grain or dark bread.
“… On the other hand, a greater intake of eggs in all forms -- including omelets, egg salad, and quiche, but not egg substitutes -- were associated with a 23% higher risk, and a greater consumption of high-fat dairy foods had an 8% higher risk. High-fat dairy foods included whole milk, cheese, and ice cream.
“… The positive association between high-fat dairy intake, namely saturated fat as the main component, and heart failure in this study has been fairly well established elsewhere as a cardiovascular disease risk.
“… The finding in this study that fish consumption did not lower the risk of incident heart failure might be explained by the fact that it is likely that a large proportion of the fish consumed was fried.
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WALLY,S YARN
Heaven- hopefully not on an old record?
The couple were 85 years old and had been married for sixty years. Though they were far from rich, they managed to get by because they watched their pennies. Though not young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife's insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the last decade.
One day, their good health didn't help when they went on a rare vacation and their plane crashed, sending them off to Heaven. They reached the pearly gates, and St.. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion, furnished in gold and fine silks, with a fully stocked kitchen and a waterfall in the master bath. A maid could be seen hanging their favourite clothes in the closet.
They gasped in astonishment when he said, 'Welcome to Heaven. This will be your home now.' The old man asked Peter how much all this was going to cost. 'Why, nothing,' Peter replied, 'remember, this is your reward in Heaven.'
The old man looked out the window and right there he saw a championship golf course, finer and more beautiful than any ever built on Earth..
'What are the greens fees?,' grumbled the old man.
'This is heaven,' St. Peter replied. 'You can play for free, every day.' Next they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch, with every imaginable cuisine laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts, free flowing beverages.
'Don't even ask,' said St. Peter to the man. This is Heaven, it is all free for you to enjoy.'
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife.
'Well, where are the low fat and low cholesterol foods and the decaffeinated tea?,' he asked.
That's the best part,' St. Peter replied. 'You can eat and drink as much as you like of whatever you like and you will never get fat or sick.
This is Heaven!'
The old man pushed, 'No gym to work out at?'
'Not unless you want to,' was the answer.
'No testing my sugar or blood pressure or...''Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourself.'
The old man glared at his wife and said, 'You and your !!!!!!! bran Flakes. We could have been here ten years ago!'
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