What an Ombudsman Can Do For You

If you've made a complaint and got nowhere, try these...

Financial Ombudsman. For complaints about most financial products or services - from bank accounts to loans, mortgages and debt collection.
Call 0800 023 4567 or visit financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Pensions Ombudsman. Deals with pension disputes and complaints. Its determinations are legally binding.

Consumer Ombudsman. Complaints about energy suppliers, mobile phone, landline and broadband suppliers, or other consumer complaints. Its website allows you to launch complaints with the Energy and Communications Ombudsman too.
Visit ombudsman-services.org

Parking On Private Lands Appeal (POPLA). Will help with parking ticket disputes.
Visit popla.co.uk

Source: Item in Good Housekeeping, Sept. 2020.

Raw Food Diet

 The raw food diet dates back at least to the mid-1800s when a US Presbyterian minister claimed people would never become ill if they only ate uncooked foods. But over the last few decades it has resurfaced. So is there any truth in this?

Although there has been a lot of academic research on raw food diets, almost all of it relates to cat and dog food. There are only a few academic papers on human studies, often using different designs and measures, so there is only a patchy evidence database.  

• In general, most proponents of raw food diets are also vegetarian or vegan, and they often eat very low levels of starchy carbohydrates (bread, rice or pasta). 
• 1999 study found almost all raw food eaters had a much higher rate of erosion of tooth enamel, thought to be due to high fruit consumption. Their levels of plant derived antioxidants were either only at normal level, or sometimes at low level, attributed to very low fat consumption, which traditionally acts as a delivery mechanism for such oil-based antioxidants. 
• 2005 study found those with largely raw food diets had lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels; not surprising as participants were eating an average of 20 servings of fruit and veg. However, participants were often deficient in vitamin B12, found almost exclusively in animal products in nature.
• Another 2005 study found similar mixed results. Raw food eaters tended to weigh less and be leaner than the general population, but had significantly lower bone density in clinically important skeletal regions. 

There are good, underlying reasons why animal foods are best eaten cooked.

• Cooking renders animal foods safe from potentially life-threatening parasites and microbes.
• Humans don't produce the right digestive enzymes or harbour the necessary gut flora to access calories in uncooked carbohydrates.
• For some plant foods (e.g. tomatoes), cooking allows improved access to nutrients by breaking down the cell walls. With kale and spinach, cooking reduces the volume and removes difficult to digest compounds, so we can eat a larger amount of them.

Evolutionary anthropologists suggest it was the advent of cooking that triggered the reduction in gut size that allowed us to develop larger brains. Cooking food is not only an ideal way of getting a varied, balanced diet, but is probably what made us human.

Source: Are there benefits to a raw food diet? by James Wong, New Scientist, 2 Jan. 2021

The World Population Debate

 In 1854 (the year the cause of cholera was found) the world population was 1.25 billion. Almost 200 years on, in 2020 there are 7.7 billion alive in November 2020.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, degradation of the biosphere and now the coronavirus pandemic - each is linked to human population. With fewer people, there would be fewer greenhouse gas emissions, less pollution and waste, and more space for ourselves and the rest of the natural world to survive and thrive.

In 1854, more than half the deaths in England were caused by infectious diseases. One in four children died before they were five, but now that figure in four children in one hundred. The average life expectancy was 40, but is now about 80 in Western Europe and over 60 in sub-Saharan Africa.

Demographic transition. Better healthcare and living conditions, and fewer living in poverty, results initially in lower death rates. As people are confident that children will live to be adults, birth rates fall but this lags behind the change in death rates. The result is that population rises over time. The global population of 1 billion in 1800 doubled by the late 1920s. By the mid-1970s it had doubled again to nearly 4 billion, and now it is approaching 7.7 billion. In 2020, more than twice as many people will be born than will die. by 2100, it is projected that there will be 10.9 billion humans alive.

Researchers estimate that having one fewer child would save 120 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for the average US citizen. Living car-free would save 3 tonnes for the average person in the US, with avoiding flying, using green energy and eating a plant-based diet gave even smaller savings.

Starting in the 1960s, the worldwide fall in birth rates were down to rising levels of education, especially for women, increasing urbanisation and rises in living standards and healthcare. The availability of contraception and abortion also helped. Currently fertility rates in many countries are at, or close to, the replacement rate of 2.1 children per women. It is thought that developing countries are transitioning at a faster rate than the developed world. However, the world population is still rising.

Economic growth models (based on more people creating more demand for goods and services) often suggest that lower fertility levels are worrying. Nations which have already low fertility levels find that economic growth, stable finances and a cohesive society are more difficult to maintain  with a large, ageing, economically inactive populations supported by tax income from an increasingly smaller group of working people.

Advocating population growth is on the increase, with limited access to abortion and defining women as mothers and caretakers rather than as individuals with rights. Those taking this viewpoint include nationalists and social and religious conservatives. The decision to have or not have a child is a deeply personal one, but people react very strongly and emotionally if they feel their decisions are being threatened or attacked. The eugenics movement to 'cleanse' populations of supposed undesirable traits still dogs rational discussion today. Sterilization programmes in the US disproportionately targeted minority communities and China's one child policy led to selective abortions of female foetuses.

While it is suggested that half of the predicted global population increase would come from eight developing economies plus the US, poor people in Africa where the population is growing most rapidly are not contributing at all to greenhouse gas emissions.

So what should we be doing? People in advanced economies should be re-thinking consumption-fuelled economic models, while helping people elsewhere to develop more sustainably, by focusing on education and support for family planning and gender equality, and there should be stronger measures against polygamy and forced marriage (which often takes place when the girl is still very young).  

Source: Various, including feature in New Scientist, 14 Nov. 2020.

How to Stop Targeted Adverts

Targeted adverts on the internet can seem invasive and leave you feeling you are being followed. Here's how to reduce them.

On a computer
Use Incognito mode (also known as Private Browsing) when shopping online so that cookies (the little bits of data left on your computer when you visit web pages) aren't saved on your device.

Even if you use Incognito mode, clear your cookies regularly. Head to your browser's Settings menu, tap on Advanced and look for the section marked 'Clear browsing data'.

On smartphones and tablets
Mobile apps use AdvertisingIDs rather than cookies to track what you do online. Resetting this is equivalent to clearing cookies.

Open the Settings menu, then on an iPhone select Privacy, followed by Advertising, then press Reset Advertising Identifier. Also ensure that Limit Ad Tracking is switched on.

On an Android smartphone, choose Google  from the Settings menu, then Ads and Reset Advertising ID.  Also ensure that Opt-out of interest-based ads or Opt out of Ads Personalisation are switched on.

If your apps can access features like the microphone or your contacts (and they don't need them to function), they may be using them to sell information on you to advertisers. Revoke these permissions in the Settings menu.

On an iPhone, select Privacy followed by the feature, such as the Microphone, then use the slider to revoke the app's access.

On an Android device, choose Apps, Permissions and again select the specific feature and use the slide device.

Google and Facebook
Google and Facebook let you turn off ad personalisation so that your online activity and information shared with these services is not used to personalise adverts. On Facebook, open the Settings menu, then choose Settings from the Settings and Privacy section. Tap Ads, the Ad Settings. For Google, visit myaccount.google.com/data-and-personalization to do this.

Don't stay signed in when using Chrome and other Google services. This helps reduce your online footprint.

Source: In Good Housekeeping, Nov. 2019.

UK Covid Trial Tests Mixing Vaccines

February 2021: A UK trial has been started to see if giving people different Covid vaccines for their first and second doses works as well as the current approach of giving the same type of vaccine twice.

If there is a proven benefit it would (a) provide more flexibility with vaccine rollout and help deal with any potential disruption to supplies, and (b) scientists say mixing vaccine jabs might also give better protection. No changes would be made to the UK's current approach until at least summer 2021.

Current official guidance from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is that anyone who has had a first dose already should be given the same vaccine for their second dose. (In rare circumstances a different vaccine can be given - if only one vaccine is available or it is not known which was given for the first dose.)

Why is the trial happening? Scientists have good reason to believe that mixing vaccines may prove beneficial; some Ebola immunisation programmes already involve mixing different jabs to improve protection. In the UK mixing doses has happened historically with vaccines for hepatitis, polio, measles, mumps and rubella.

Study details. The Cm-Cov study is run by the National Immunisation Schedule Evaluation Consortium and will involve over 800 volunteers over the age of 50 in England. Some will receive the Oxford jab followed by the Pfizer jab, or vice versa. Some will have the jabs four weeks apart and others 12 weeks apart. Other vaccines may be added to the trial as they are approved by regulators. Results are likely to be published during summer 2021. 

Volunteers will be monitored for side-effects and blood tests will check how well their immune systems respond. They are currently being recruited in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol, Oxford and Southampton.

Why this approach could work. Animal studies have shown a better antibody response with a mixed schedule rather than the same vaccine on both occasions. The trial will test if an enhanced immune response happens in humans, or at least that the response is as good as using the same vaccine twice.

The full study will continue for 13 months, but it is hope that initial findings can be announced by June 2021, and could inform the types of vaccines younger age groups are offered as their second dose. It will also provide data on:

• The impact of the vaccines on new variants.
• The effects of second doses at four and 12 weeks.

Source: BBC News 4 Feb. 2021. Covid trial in UK examines mixing different vaccines.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55924433

Potential Cancer Drug may be Effective Antiviral Drug

 An experimental drug (thapsigargin) derived from the poisonous thapsia plant is being trialled for prostate cancer, but researchers at Nottingham University believe it may also be an effective anti-viral.

While testing it on animals, researchers have found that it may also be able to stop infection with a range of coronaviruses that cause the common cold, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Rather than targeting a specific coronavirus, the antiviral could possibly be used to inhibit the development of a range of viruses that trigger similar symptoms.

If it is proven to work in this way, it could potentially be an effective drup against future 'Disease X' pandemics. However, more testing is needed as no evidence exists that it will work on humans.

It costs around £76 per 1mg for use in current experimental research, but the cost would fall drastically if it went into full production. Flu antivirals can require between 200mg to 800mg per dose. It could be readily made in bulk in laboratories, without direct harvest from plants, and would not need deep freeze storage.

Antivirals licenced for flu target a part of the virus to stop or slow down its ability to make copies of itself inside infected cells. But thapsigargin triggers a range of host cellular responses, using the immune system's natural ability, rather than targeting the virus itself. By disrupting the virus's reproduction cycle in several places at the same time, it would prevent the virus replicating and taking hold. This would mean the drug would be useful against new strains as any virus mutations should not reduce its effectiveness. Lab tests on cells showed it stopped virus replication in just 30 minutes, and did not wear off for two days.

Source: News item in Daily Mail 3 Feb. 2021.