The housing crisis facing the UK’s sick and disabled

For many sick and disabled people, there is often no light at the end of the tunnel when they will suddenly recover. A large proportion of disabled people struggle with ongoing mobility problems, chronic health issues, pain, and discrimination. Their home should be the one place they can feel safe and live with dignity. Instead, many disabled people have to face the misery of substandard housing and increased poverty due to an onslaught of government ‘reforms’.
The housing crisis facing the UK’s sick and disabled

United Nations Probing UK Over 'Grave' Human Rights Violations Of Disabled

The United Nations has launched an investigation into whether Iain Duncan Smith's disability benefit changes have led to "grave or systemic violations" of disabled people's human rights.

The UN's Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which is carrying out the unprecedented inquiry, has the power to launch a formal probe if it receives "reliable information" that human rights violations have occurred in a country signed up to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

United Nations Probing UK Over 'Grave' Human Rights Violations Of Disabled

Alcohol, fibromyalgia, and quality of life

Low and moderate drinkers had better scores for physical function, ability to work, the number of work days missed, fatigue and pain, than people who abstained. Moderate drinkers who had between three and seven standard drinks a week seemed to have less pain than low or heavy drinkers, even when the results were controlled for confounding factors. A standard drink is equivalent to 12 American oz / 355ml (1.25 units) of beer, 5 oz/ 148ml of wine (1.8 units), or 1.5 oz/ 44ml (1.8 units) of distilled spirits. Similar results were seen for the quality of life scale including social functioning, vitality and general health.

Alcohol, fibromyalgia, and quality of life -- ScienceDaily

Are you as old as what you eat? Researchers learn how to rejuvenate aging immune cells

Researchers have demonstrated how an interplay between nutrition, metabolism and immunity is involved in the process of aging. It has been suspected for a long time that these are linked, and this paper provides a prototype mechanism of how nutrient and senescence signals converge to regulate the function of T lymphocytes.

Are you as old as what you eat? Researchers learn how to rejuvenate aging immune cells -- ScienceDaily

Is skipping breakfast good for you?

It depends.

The real simple answer would be to eat if you are hungry and don’t eat if you’re not. Some people are not hungry in the morning, whilst others will pass out if they don’t eat.

A recent study published on The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition debunks the myth that having breakfast is required for weight loss success. The researchers hinted that if breakfast is not your thing, it’s okay to skip it.

When Skipping Breakfast May Actually Be Good For You

NHS staff survey finds many wouldn't want own families treated at hospitals where they work

Very telling this:

Some hospitals are so bad even their own staff would warn people not to go there.

Almost half the employees at six NHS trusts said they would advise loved ones against working for them or having treatment.

The findings prompted the Care Quality Commission – which assesses medical standards – to brand the trusts “at risk”.

NHS staff survey finds many wouldn't want own families treated at hospitals where they work

 

'Suicide tourism' to Switzerland has doubled within 4 years

The numbers of 'suicide tourists' going to Switzerland to take their own lives has doubled within the space of four years, reports a study. In all, residents from 31 different countries were helped to die in Switzerland between 2008 and 2012, with German (268) and UK (126) nationals making up almost two thirds of the total. Other countries in the top 10 included France (66), Italy (44), USA (21), Austria (14), Canada (12), Spain and Israel (each with 8).

'Suicide tourism' to Switzerland has doubled within 4 years -- ScienceDaily

Half stone loss

Is the UK the first country to face a UN inquiry into disability rights violations?

So quite without the UK public suspecting a thing and without the UK media feeling the need to let anyone know, the UK has become the first country to so undermine the rights of sick and disabled people, that the UN have chosen to look into whether they have violated the convention on the rights of people with disabilities. A convention that the UK - and most of the rest of the world, including Russia - have signed up to and ratified. The UK is accused of "retrogression" - taking sickness and disability provision backwards. 

Is the UK the first country to face a UN inquiry into disability rights violations?

Breaking News: Chemical Changes in Immune Cell DNA from ME/CFS Patients

We are pleased to announce the first study to report epigenetic modifications throughout the genome in female ME/CFS patients compared to a matched sample of healthy controls.  This research conducted in partnership and funded by the Solve ME/CFS Initiative (SMCI) was published today in the high impact and open access journal PLOS ONE (http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0104757).

Breaking News: Chemical Changes in Immune Cell DNA from ME/CFS Patients | Solve ME/CFS Initiative

Unemployed Britons To Blame For High Levels Of Immigration, Says IDS

The UK is attracting high levels of immigration because the benefit system in allowing too many British born people to escape work, says Iain Duncan Smith.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith MP, will further demonise benefit claimants in a speech on Monday. He will say that immigrants are coming to the UK because unemployed Brits are preferring to live on benefits, rather than accepting the jobs on offer.

Unemployed Britons To Blame For High Levels Of Immigration, Says IDS

Severe ME Awareness Day 8th August 2014 Stop the ME Cover up!

Severe ME Day is upon us again. This is a relatively new event following it’s launch last year under the banner of Severe ME Understanding and Remembrance Day 2013 which focused on those who had sadly lost their battle to this dreadful disease.

Many people received this day of remembering the severely affected sufferer with open arms and some other ME organisations advertised it by highlighting it within their own publications and websites to help raise awareness.
This year we want to highlight the “ME Cover Up”.

We want to feature this “Cover Up” within our Severe ME Day section of the website, and have asked members, if possible, to send in photos of themselves covered by a sheet and holding up an awareness slogan.

Through this, we want to show that many sufferers feel they are invisible to the outside world and feel that ME is not taken seriously.

We also want to make the point that sufferers really want and need so desperately to be “seen, heard and recognised” and to show that we refuse to be ignored or to be invisible to the world. We may not be able to present ourselves to the world because of severe ill health but we want to be listened to and heard by the appropriate authorities and to receive services, and appropriate help. We would also like to see more biomedical research undertaken, and cognisance taken of the body of biomedical research that exists at present.

We want the medical profession and general public to understand the seriousness of the illness and remember that underneath the sheet there is still a human being.

The 25% M.E. Group Website

A ‘Memory Quilt’ for Severe ME Day | 8 August 2014

“Severe ME Day” (8 August) is a day designated by the 25% ME Group for us all to specifically remember those with Severe ME. We are equally determined to make sure that ME sufferers who are unable to leave their beds, or their homes, are not forgotten or overlooked on that day. You matter to us. Your struggles are at the heart of all we do – to find treatments and a cure for this horrid illness.

A ‘Memory Quilt’ for Severe ME Day | 8 August 2014 | ME Association

Cheese too salty and a risk to public health, study finds

Many popular cheeses on sale in UK supermarkets contain high levels of salt, despite meeting government reduction targets as part of the drive to improve public health, campaigners have warned.

Halloumi and imported blue cheese such as Roquefort contained the most salt – more than sea water – while cottage cheese contained the least, according to a major new research study carried out by Cash (Consensus Action on Salt & Health) and published in the British Medical Journal.

Cheese too salty and a risk to public health, study finds

Could you go five weeks without money? Under a new DWP plan you might have to

The latest development of Ian Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit scheme will soon mean that people made unemployed will have to wait at least five weeks before getting any financial support.

At present it’s two weeks; still a long time to wait when you have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

Could you go five weeks without money? Under a new DWP plan you might have to

The book that helps the government smear the sick as ‘malingerers’

What we have here is a propaganda screed, riddled with inconsistencies and running against reason, that has been used to support the government’s position on sickness and disability benefits. As an argument in favour of current policy, it is worse than useless. In fact, it should be a tool for campaigners to use against that policy.

Found: The book that helps the government smear the sick as ‘malingerers’ | Vox Political

Former DWP Staff Set Up Website To Help Wrongly Sanctioned Jobseekers

Three disillusioned former DWP civil servants have set up a website to help benefit claimants who feel they have been wrongly sanctioned.

The three women, who have not disclosed their identities and run the website from a house in the North of England, say that Jobcentre staff are being pressurised into referring claimants for potential sanctioning.

Since the creation of the website jobseekersanctionadvice.com in June, the former civil servants have been inundated with requests from desperate benefit claimants who have seen their payments docked.

Former DWP Staff Set Up Website To Help Wrongly Sanctioned Jobseekers

Organic farming boosts environment and nutrition

How we farm matters, writes Pat Thomas - not just for water, insects, birds and the wider environment, which benefit from organic farming, but also the nutritional value of our food. It's time to value the quality of what we eat, instead of prizing quantity above all.

Organic farming boosts environment and nutrition