Julie Digs

I came across this notification about the recall of sertraline in the UK (SSRIs) yesterday, because the manufacturer have mixed the drugs in with Citalopram. But what alarmed me on top of the recall, which is bad enough as it is, is the government notification on the second slide here, that very clearly states the SSRI corrects a serotonin imbalance in the brain - which is false. Not only is this false, but we have all recently been told by the Royal College for Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association - that they have never said this. When the serotonin theory was effectively debunked in 2022 due to the umbrella review, they both said that apparently patients have never been told this in the first place - and it was never a theory or narrative given to the public. And we all know that was a GIANT lie, as millions of people have been told this. Organisations and charities scrubbed their websites of the serotonin imbalance explanation of anxiety and depression, and instead claimed that patients had been misunderstanding and spreading false information for decades about SSRIs! The audacity. And yet here we are, and one has slipped through the net again. We all know what everyone was told - and yet the powers that be, in conjunction with their good friends, the pharma companies - have decided to gaslight us all into oblivion that they never said mental health conditions were caused by lack of serotonin and required their magic SSRIs. Amazing how frequently these slip ups keep occurring for something that was ‘never said’. Goes without saying too though, if you are currently prescribed 100mg Sertraline, please check with your provider about this recall - as it has not been widely announced (of course) and you may be mixing sertraline with citalopram and not even know x

The polytunnel is doing so much better than I’d hoped for! First harvests already.

Increasingly it’s costing over a tenner to get a sandwich in a cafe where I live.

Tried to get a GP appointment. Told to go to A&E. Go to A&E. They say go to walk in GP centre at Northern. Go to walk in GP centre and see….. My GP. The system is utterly broken. #NHS #HealthService #GP

Look at this. A Reform led council forces Blue Badge holders to pay, then puts the meter behind a high kerb and a bin. ♿️🚫 When told it’s inaccessible, their answer is: 'Don’t come into town then.' They're already showing you how they plan to treat disabled people.

Please don't do this!! It’s all fun and games until you realize you just uploaded a high-resolution biometric map of your hand to a third-party server. Unlike passwords, you can’t change your palm lines or fingerprints if they get leaked or used to train unauthorized authentication systems. This means your unique physical traits could become key to biometric spoofing. Someone might use them to bypass lock screens, approve fraudulent payments, or break into places that use hand-geometry scanners. Your biometric data is what you’re really giving up. #PrivacyMatters

Turns out Hannah Spencer has the popular opinion on this one..

Every single politician when asked to justify why they're still arresting patients for growing their own. x.com/i/status/20483…

Hannah rocks up to Westminster and suggests that perhaps MPs shouldn’t be pissed at work, and the establishment goes into meltdown. Nice work Hannah 💚

British MPs want to drink during the day and have their housing expenses covered by the state. Sounds to me like they are the real benefits cheats.

@o0FrankenMush0o Glad I left them years back. That is shocking.

Curaleaf sure are nosy pricks , i bought a bag of weed from them and need to change my address - so i sent them a photo of my tenancy agreement (single signed page , with address) . This mother fucker wants to see my full tenancy agreement 🤡 #StayInYourLane #MindYourBusiness

This has now turned into a cynical 'scandal for clicks' campaign by increasingly tabloid @thetimes . I am dismayed by journalist @andrewellson's role in this. He has told me several times that he supports medical use of #cannabis but his work on this is nothing but destructive. It doesn't help anybody. #drugspolicy thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/…

@HempEdification The plant is artificial. It belongs to the medical cannabis patient org @PatientsCannUK It’s very realistic and a great discussion point.

Police pinned a man to the floor as cannabis smokers flocked to London's Hyde Park to celebrate 420 World Cannabis Day. He’s pictured on the ground held down by at least 4 officers. In another image, a male displayed what appeared to be a cannabis plant. msn.com/en-au/news/aus…

@CPhilpOfficial Cat check: Here's coverage of the same event in 2023; you were Minister for Crime & Policing at the time Christopher.

Meanwhile in London 🇬🇧 A man who was enjoying the 4/20 celebrations in Hyde park was rushed by a team of police and ARRESTED just having a joint of cannabis. Look at how many officers are there. I wonder how many robberies will go unsolved in London today. Footage from @AyAudits_c4n

A British school dinner in 1975 was cooked on-site, from whole ingredients, by a dinner lady who knew, without consulting a nutritional database, what a growing child needed to eat. The dinner was: roast beef, gravy from the drippings, boiled potatoes, cabbage, and sponge pudding with custard made from eggs and milk. Or shepherd's pie from real mince. Or liver and onions. Or fish on Friday, battered and fried in beef dripping. In a single sitting: haem iron from the meat, calcium from the custard, B12 from the liver, vitamin A from the gravy fat, vitamin D from the eggs, zinc from the beef, omega-3 from the fish, collagen from the gravy, complete protein from every component, and roughly 800 calories dense enough to carry a child through an afternoon of running around a playground in January. Then the system changed. In the 1980s and 1990s, local authority catering was outsourced. On-site kitchens closed. Dinner ladies were made redundant. Central production kitchens began manufacturing meals reheated in convection ovens. The roast beef became a turkey twizzler. The shepherd's pie became a pre-formed disc of processed potato and reconstituted meat product. The liver disappeared entirely. The fish was coated in breadcrumbs and fried in vegetable oil. The custard was made from powder, water, and yellow colouring. The sponge pudding was replaced by a yoghurt tube. Jamie Oliver's 2005 campaign filmed children who could not identify a tomato. Kitchens where the only equipment was a deep fryer and a microwave. Menus that contained less nutritional value in a full week than the 1975 dinner contained in a single sitting. The government pledged reform. But the on-site kitchen did not come back. The dinner lady did not come back. The roast beef and the liver and the custard made from eggs did not come back. The 1975 dinner lady, who had no nutritional qualification and had never heard of a DIAAS score, was producing, at approximately 30p per serving, a meal that contained more bioavailable nutrition than anything the modern system produces at three times the cost. She has been replaced by a supply chain. The supply chain is more expensive. The children are less well fed. The dinner lady knew what she was doing. Nobody asked her.

@o0FrankenMush0o I’m just so made up for you. Have had friends go through similar and seen what a difference it makes!

@Julie_Digs I'm still sleeping at the temporary accomodation atm , my son is dropping off my bed tommorow so i'll be in the new bungalow from then . I'm still absolutely buzzing though and can't wait to get in there , thank you for your kind words and support . Hope you have a great day

Good morning to everyone else though 🌞

The early days of UK #MedicalCannabis were hard for patients, options were limited, prices were high, and average quality was far less than today. That said: - Every clinic served every pharmacy. - Every doctor learnt every new medication. - Every patient issue caused outcry, and resolution, because individual voices were far louder - and reputations were made or broken based upon it. Today, the sad truth is pricing trumps everything else, and companies are emboldened by success despite outcry – because most controversy goes unheard by the greater community/industry, while companies see their numbers still climbing. Price and quality wise, we've never been in such a good position as patients - but what was once careful consideration of practices, is now moving towards companies fighting to find the most cost-effective 'minimum viable service'.