Words and theories about curing coughs and being fat!

Before waking up coughing in the middle of the night became our default setting, we heard something about a strange cure for night time coughing. It involved rubbing Vick's Vapor Rub into the soles of your feet and putting on a pair of socks before retiring to bed. Somehow, the healing qualities of the Vapor Rub would permeate from the soles of the feet to the chest or lungs or wherever the cough generator is situated and prevent the coughing from occurring. Maybe it's in some way connected to alternative medicine, pressure points on the feet, acupuncture and all that sort of thing. Who knows? 

Our son said that they had tried it on their eleven month old daughter. To no avail. It didn't work on her. She continued to cough herself, and them, awake at night. Our daughter, on the other hand, tried it on her eleven year old daughter the other night and it worked like a dream. Maybe it only works on people whose age is measured in years instead of months. Maybe you need to be old enough to be aware of what's going on and thus give it the help of your faith in the methodology. Another mystery! 

However, as Phil continues to cough the night away, we plan to try it tonight and see if he manages to stay asleep. He got as far as trying to make an appointment with the doctor today. Nothing until the week after next! If he phones first thing on Monday morning they just might have a cancellation slot to offer him. This is perhaps one of the reasons why hospital A & E departments are currently experiencing such chaos! Here's another medical anomaly. On a radio programme we came across a new word: obesogenic - an adjective meaning pertaining to or tending to cause obesity. A recent medical term for factors tending to make people fat. Example: we live in an obesogenic environment. I googled it and found some common sense stuff and some totally weird stuff. First of all the common sense stuff. An obesogenic environment is, in simple terms, an environment that encourages people to eat unhealthily and do too little exercise. So shops where the lifts and escalators are easy to find but the stairs are hidden away behind door at the back of the store fit into that category. As do large out of town shopping areas (I hesitate to call them shopping malls or shopping centres) which are really huge barn-like stores in an immense car park with no pedestrian-friendly way of getting from one store to another. 

Then there is the average high street that is full of places to buy food. To begin with there are cafes and restaurants. That's OK. You do your shopping and pop in for a sit down, even for a meal, making your shopping trip into a social occasion. Next come the fast food outlets like MacDonald's and Burger King, a poor excuse for a restaurant, truth to tell. Then you have bread and cake shops, places like Gregg's, which call themselves a bakery but where you would not go to buy a loaf of bread as a rule. No, you go to buy sandwiches, packs of sausage rolls, pasties and pies - snack stuff to eat instead of, or as well a chocolate bar. Some people purchase their lunch there and head back to the office to eat it; others just pick up something to eat as they walk along the road. And you see an awful out of walking-along-the-road eating these days. Contributing to that are the far too numerous hotdog stands, baked potato stands, and assorted-greasy-food stands! 

And don't let me get started on so-called book shops that sell sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks right next to the till! 

Here's a little nugget: a chap from the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence tells us, "... Research shows that the number of takeaways in an area has an impact on obesity". Really? You needed research to tell you that? My astoundment knows no bounds! 

What is a person with absolutely no self control to do? Just eat and eat and eat! 

Of course you could try just walking past these food outlets without buying anything. Or is that too sensible? 

 Now for some of the weird stuff about things that make you fat. Because it turns out that it's not just the obvious - eating a lot of sugary stuff. There's all sorts of science involved. 

First of all there is something called Bisphenol A (BPA). " Studies in the lab find that BPA has the ability to accelerate fat-cell differentiation, disrupt pancreatic functioning, and cause insulin resistance, leading to obesity problems. In addition, other studies have linked BPA exposure to neurological development problems and sexual reproductive problems, including male infertility in humans." 

It sounds like dangerous stuff and apparently it is found everywhere, yes, everywhere, and in high volumes. And in some odd places. My source recommended handling cash-register receipts as little as possible because some have a high BPA content. So why are all cashiers in supermarkets not really, really fat? Enormously fat? They must handle till receipts all day long! My source suggests telling cashiers you don't need a receipt. Let them keep their nasty, toxic bits of paper. 

You should also choose fresh or frozen food rather than stuff in tins. Glass jars are ok, it seems, but metal cans contain BPA. Clear all canned good from your kitchen cupboards at once! (Not quite so weird that one!) 

Next I came across Phthalates. I can't even say that! They are "hormone-disrupting chemicals tied to obesity, and they are ubiquitous in the personal-care product industry, particularly due to the chemicals' use in synthetically fragranced products". So there it is: get rid of air fresheners, scented candles (I can't abide them), cleansing products with added fragrance - probably shampoo and deodorant as well! Not to mention shower gel, body lotion and a whole mass of creams and potions! Aaargh!!!! 

The unpronounceable Phthalates are also found in vinyl, I am told. Does that mean that we need to get rid of our old vinyl record collection? Avoid vinyl. Avoid Teflon and other non-stick products. You should even avoid grease-proof paper. It's getting silly! 

OK, let's face it. You should just avoid everything. Undoubtedly, everything you look at, touch, go within two yards of will make you fat. Go and live in a bubble somewhere!

And of course, remember that it's not your fault if you put weight on. It's all down to that obesogenic environment we all live in!!!