Zoe Covid Symptom Study Webinar

[Kendrew]

On Feb 3rd at 4pm, Prof Tim Spector from the ZOE Covid Symptom Study will be doing a webinar on the Covid vaccines and "What we know so far" May be of interest to some of you. You do need to be part of the covid symptom study to access the link to register for it. Easy to join it though....just Google Zoe covid symptom study.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Thanks , already booked.

If you’re interested - covid.joinzoe.com/webinar/c...

[Viv54 in reply to DorsetLady]

Thanks DL , have just signed up for this !🙂

[Bcol]

Booked this afternoon.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Shame - can't see them accepting me!!!!

[SheffieldJane in reply to PMRpro]

Why ever not?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to PMRpro]

Don’t have to be a member of study to join webinar ...and it will be available on YouTube later.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to DorsetLady]

Ah, I understood you'd to join the study. Isn't this one UK based?

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to PMRpro]

The study is, but the website also mentions work in Sweden and US - but as before it will be published afterwards if you can’t join live.

[Kendrew in reply to PMRpro]

Sorry....thats my fault...I was mistaken there!

[MrsNails]

Booked, just hope l’m back from my Scan in time but they do make a link available afterwards.

[Kendrew in reply to MrsNails]

Good luck with your scan.

[SheffieldJane in reply to MrsNails]

Yes, good luck! Xx

[Brixhamhampster]

Already a member of ZOE and have also booked. Well worth while site.

[Purple-Owl]

I report daily to Zoe. No trouble at all on your phone. Do download the Zoe app if you're in the UK. They say 'thank you for helping our scientists to understand Covid-19 better, and provide analysis to the NHS daily. ' Professor Tim Spector of King's College University of London gives a weekly update on how things are going.

[tangocharlie]

I'm reading one of his books atm, 'Spoon-Fed: Why almost everything we've been told about food is wrong'

[Kendrew in reply to tangocharlie]

Is it a revelation or would we be already aware of some of it?

[tangocharlie in reply to Kendrew]

It depends how much you've read about food in the last decade or so. If you still think fat is the enemy then all will be a revelation. One chapter that surprised me though is he says there is no need to take Vit D or any supplements, recently changing his opinion as he used to say we should and wrote many papers convincing himself and others they should take it. He thinks the key to good health is all to do with the gut biome now. It's all quite technical, as he's an academic, but that means it is evidence-based

[Kendrew in reply to tangocharlie]

I have recently read a fair amount on healthy fats (as opposed to saturated fats....which are definitely not good for my hypercholesterolemia?) but very interested in the vit.D question. Might have to take a look.

[tangocharlie in reply to Kendrew]

It popped up on Amazon - one of those 'you bought similar book so will probably like this too' algorithms, and yes they go tme bang to rights, I couldn't resist buying yet another book on healthy eating and diet myths I thought I might get through them all in lockdown but there is still a pile on the coffee table to read by 21st June LOL

[Kendrew in reply to tangocharlie]

Haha! Well, I've probably had enough of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen so time for some new reading matter. Anything that helps educate our eating habits and therefore might contribute to helping our condition is a winner for me. All recommendations gratefully received!🍇🥝🥑🍓🥒🌶🥦🧅

[tangocharlie in reply to Kendrew]

My favourite of all the healthy eating books is anything by Jason Fung eg the Obesity code. I think part of it is I like reading things by and about mavericks who like to change and challenge the status quo. There's some famous quote by Gandhi I think, 'First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win'.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

healthline.com/health-news/...

as the other side - some of what is in that article is also debatable. But personally - any book heralded as a "best seller" has to have some doubts about it! I also don't go a bundle on transferring my hard earned cash into someone's bank account. I often find blogs rather more convincing when they share their ideas without you paying through the nose to investigate them ...

[tangocharlie in reply to PMRpro]

I don't really see it as a diet book, it just explains lots of things and debunks things like the calories in calories out myths, how different foods have different effects on your body, why people who lose a load of weight usually put it all back on again and more etc . Like at one point he says 'I can make you fat, all I have to do is give you Prednisone'. He is a nephrologist but explains things in Plain English.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

Dunno - I have read some not very evidence based stuff from academics! Not saying his isn't.

[tangocharlie in reply to PMRpro]

Yes and I wonder if you can find a study to back up any point you believe in and ignore others. Most studies are about a dozen young rats anyway, not 60 year old women. His main summary is 'eat diverse foods, mainly plants, without added chemicals'. One of the reasons I bought it is that next time one of my well-meaning freinds or family says all I have to do is 'move more and eat less' I can shove the book up their @rse and say 'read this'

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

Hahahaha! I suppose a lifetime of doing science, physiology and biochemistry in particular, made a lot of the extreme opinions look very doubtful to me. I never espoused the cholesterol thing - Axel Keyes' work was very biased and I've always been suspicious of big industry pushing anything, Low fat food and artificial stuff like margarine always seemed a strange concept. Like nowadays with all the vegan products - don't have a problem with vegan, just with the multimillion dollar industrial solutions that have sprung up ...

[tangocharlie in reply to PMRpro]

And as he says the food industry are rubbing their hands with the 'gluten free' movement too (which he says is unneccesary unless you're coeliac) now that they have been rumbled on the 'low-fat' crap

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

We have one of the biggest companies in the world here in our region - basically because there is a high demand in the Alps, like in Ireland, with a lot of people who are coeliac. Lot of lactose intolerance too. I don't need gluten-free but in the UK it was the easiest way to be wheat-free although in the UK they do allow chemically treated wheat starch and I react to that. But here everything must be naturally gluten-free, rules out wheat being used. But here the bakers do loads of spelt, kamut and pure rye breads.

[tangocharlie in reply to PMRpro]

I'd forgotten you can't do wheat. Can you eat other grains? He says the incidence of coeliac in Italy is about the same as the UK, prob a large genetic component but then even with identical twins one might get it and one not. Mainly a northern Euopean thing but also in the US (sounds like PMR). His point is that it is relatively rare but so many people think they have a gluten intolerance because they have read about from social media and influencers and think it is something they should avoid.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

Overall in Italy possibly - but concentrated in the mountains. Wheat arrived late - couldn't be grown in the high relatively inaccessible valleys and up mountains so there was a lot buckwheat and polenta and stuff used. When it did arrive it was suddenly included in the diet in large quantities and caused overload. Same in Ireland. That is the theory at least and possibly true. Oh yes - most of the "don't eat gluten" stuff is a load of rubbish. There is nothing inherently bad about gluten - but more to do with highly commercialised food production. Traditional breadmaking with proper sourdough and long rising times makes a big difference - rather than the Chorleywood process. The difference between cooked and raw in some ways!

Yes, can eat ancient wheats, spelt and kamut. And rye. Just the highly commercialised modern stuff has something in the starch structure that makes me itch!!!

[tangocharlie in reply to PMRpro]

Every time I read somethnig on healing leaky guts it says gluten is the thing responsible for making holes that lets pathogens nto the bloodstream, causing all sorts of woes like autoimmune illnesses. No idea why they pick on gluten and not other things

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to tangocharlie]

And THAT is a very good question ...

[Kendrew in reply to tangocharlie]

HAHAHA!😂😂😂

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Kendrew]

I just read a review in the Guardian - other than his vit D comment I doubt there is anything in it I don't already know . Salt, sugar, processed, especially ultra-processed, food is bad, big bad food industry lies to pander to the latest guidelines/beliefs ...

[Kendrew in reply to PMRpro]

Sounds like 'stuff' I probably already know but always good to read up on again and have that knowledge endorsed by an academic. Haha.... there's something quite gratifying about holding knowledge and then reading how right you are!😂😂 That doesn't happen to me often!😄😄

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Kendrew]

Most of it I learned from scientific sources I suppose ...