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922 FOCUS.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2019 11:39 Page 20 20 Focus Over to you... Support Hospice Care week! 7 th - 13 th October Can you host a Quiz and help make a difference? Dear Focus reader, Working at the Mister Gees Foundation Shop is great fun and we laugh a lot but work well together doing whatever needs doing at the time. I work various days of the week, when needed and the shop is especially short of staff on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. If you are able to spare some time to help out or would like to join us on any other day, we would appreciate you either coming into the shop and asking for Douglas or Ian, phoning the shop on : - 07434 830379 or emailing :- foundation@mistergees.co.uk The shop opening hours and shifts are :- Monday to Friday 9.00am - 1.00pm, 1.00pm - 4.30pm Saturday 10.00am - 1.00pm, 1.00pm - 4.00pm Many thanks for your assistance, Val Shrimpton This October we are asking schools, colleges, pubs, community groups and friends to get together and host a community quiz in aid of Farleigh Hospice. For your Community Quiz pack call us now on: 01245 457411 or email: fundraising@farleighhospice.org It is because you care that we can www.farleighhospice.org Registered charity no 284670 Purleigh and District Gardeners’ Society The club welcomed Burnham Gardening Club to their September meeting where Andrew Brogan gave a talk about the Henstead Exotic Garden which he has designed and made from scratch over the last 19 years. Andrew moved out of London when his company relocated to Norwich and it was at that time that purchased his cottage and ½ acre of land. He had had very little gardening experience in his formative years but had been inspired by Hardy Palms which he had seen growing in London and decided that he would try to make an exotic garden just 2 miles from the inhospitable East Coast. Working mainly as a one-man-band Andrew’s garden has grown to 2 acres and he has fulfilled his dream of an creating an exotic garden filled with hardy palms, tree ferns, bamboo, exotic shrubs and plants, water features, grottos, buildings and other landscape features. Andrew has an interesting and humorous way of telling the story of how his garden has developed and all the members thoroughly enjoyed his talk which he supplemented with photos. He also brought along a number of the plants that he had grown in his garden for members to purchase. Andrew’s garden was voted as Alan Titchmarsh’s number one garden and has featured on television, in books and is regularly used as a backdrop for photo shoots. It is open to the public from June to September on Sundays and Wednesdays. During the interval tea, homemade cakes and sausage rolls were served. Members were also given 3 Narcissi bulbs to grow for the Lawrence Cooper Challenge at the Spring Show next year and Seed Catalogues for Kings Seeds were available. On Thursday 12th September club members had a private visit to Furzelea Garden in Danbury. This is a very romantic garden, full of late summer colour and is regularly open to the public for charity via the NGS scheme. We had a lovely day concluding with tea and home-made cakes on the sheltered, sunny patio. Thank-you to Avril and Roger Cole-Jones for giving us the opportunity for a private visit and for providing tea, cakes and recipes!! The meeting next month on Monday October 21st is a talk by Tricia Moxey on the Wonderful World of Fungi. This will be held at Purleigh Village Hall at 7.30 pm. There will also be a plant sale and members are asked to bring along any plants that are surplus to their requirements for the sale. Visitors are very welcome for a small fee of £2.00. Jill Challis FOCUS
922 FOCUS.qxp_Layout 1 24/09/2019 11:39 Page 21 0South Focus Woodham Focus South Woodham Focus 21 DEMENTIA PROGRESS. There isn't a 'cure' yet - but there's a lot of progress with early diagnosis. "What's the point if there's no cure?" I hear you say. Well, you can take avoiding action so as to delay and/or minimise the condition . Tom Barnes wrote in the Indy in August that "A blood test to identify the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease has been developed by scientists in what could prove to be a major breakthrough in the treatment of the condition. Researchers say the simple test for the neurodegenerative disease, which has been found to be more than 90 per cent accurate, could be available at GP surgeries “within a few years”." There is currently research which is looking at a broad range of possible predictors - all the usual suspects such as blood tests, cerebrospinal fluid examination, scans etc - in order to find out what most accurately forecasts the onset of dementia. FOCUS ON HEALTH industry were "asleep at the wheel" and not tackling obesity. Obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease and is putting millions of people at risk of cancer." The problem the public heath gurus face is that you can try to educate people about the dangers of 'the unhealthy lifestyle' until you are blue in the face but there's only a relatively a small cohort of 'fitness enthusiast' who take the message onboard. It's only when you slap a tax on things that most of us start saying things like: "I'm not paying that for a pack of ciggies!" The alcohol minimum price has done more to change behaviour in Scotland following its introduction there than Adrian Chiles could ever hope to achieve in a million years. There are dissenting voices - Boris Johnson, for example, (whom insiders believe is unlikely to be crowned 'Slimmer of the Year') has questioned whether "sin taxes" actually cut obesity. The evidence points to the fact that they do. Until there is a quick diagnostic test that is available in a GP surgery (one that avoids the need for you to head off to the 'Memory Clinic') and an effective treatment or treatments we have to fall on the fact that prevention is by far the best option. The advice is straightforward ... the lifestyle that lowers your risk of stroke and heart attack, and that also lowers your risk of diabetes and cancer is also the one that gives a good deal of protection against dementia ... in other words the bog standard 'healthy lifestyle' - and dementia experts tell us that it's the lifestyle we should ALL adopt irrespective. For more information Google: 'BBC Dementia: Lifestyle changes that could lower your risk'. Alternatively Google: 'British Heart Foundation reduce your risk' - or - 'Cancer Research UK Can cancer be prevented?' - or - 'Diabetes UK Reduce your risk of Type 2 diabetes'. They all tell you pretty much the same thing. Dentist: "You need a crown." Patient: "Finally someone who understands me!" GOOD NEWS AND BAD ON SUGAR. The BBC reports that: "The sugar tax - officially the soft drinks industry levy - was introduced in April 2018. It charges manufacturers 24p per litre on very sweet drinks and 18p per litre on medium-sugar ones. Brands such as Fanta, Ribena and Irn Bru changed their recipes in response. On average, 100mls of sugary drinks now contain 28.8% less sugar than in 2015." What's the outcome? "Sales of soft drinks increased between 2015 and 2018, but shifted towards low- or zero-sugar versions. It works out as more than 30,000 tonnes less sugar - 5 billion fewer calories - being sold in such drinks each year." Now for the bad news. According to the Beeb: "The progress on the sugar content of pop is in stark contrast to that in other foods. Efforts to cut a fifth of the sugar out of our food by next year are way off target, figures from Public Health England show. Between 2015 and 2018 the average sugar content of shop-bought food fell by just 2.9% and the amount of sugar we actually eat has gone up" ... despite the tax on sugary drinks. The BBC report goes on to say: "The food industry said the voluntary target was too ambitious. But experts said parts of the "Mum! I’m a 3d printer!" "Oh come on, Tommy, close the door when you do a poo!" TAP WATER IS BEST. Earlier this month there were headlines in The Daily Mirror, The Guardian, The Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Mail Online, and The Times suggesting that soft drinks (including the diet/sugar-free varieties) are linked to increased risk of early death As ever, the NHS has looked at the evidence behind the headlines. It concluded that "While the link between sugar consumption and health problems is well established, it is unclear why artificially sweetened drinks could have an adverse effect on health. Due to the nature of the study the researchers were unable to prove that soft drinks are directly to blame for the small increased risk of death. However, the researchers say their findings add support to public health campaigns urging people to drink water instead of soft drinks. After all, tap water in the UK is safe to drink and free of calories." The conclusion is that: "There's no need to panic about the headlines suggesting that diet drinks will shorten your life. Taking that into account, it remains the case that drinking a lot of soft drinks is not recommended as part of a healthy diet. Water and unsweetened tea or coffee are likely to be healthier options. Replacing soft drinks with tap water is not only likely to be healthier but could save you a lot of money." Not only is tap water good for your wallet - it's also hugely beneficial to the air you breathe and the wellbeing of the planet. As you read this there are fleets of lorries delivering bottled water here, there and everywhere, and spewing out noxious fumes as they do so - and the number of plastic bottles manufactured to cater for this fad is the stuff of Greta Thunberg's worst nightmares. DR JOHN FOCUS
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