This week, the media reported that “obese NHS patients are being given a gastric weight loss balloon”.
The balloon is placed inside a capsule and swallowed, then filled with water through a thin tube during a 15-minute consultation. An X-ray is conducted to confirm that it is in the correct position in the stomach and filled with water. After four months, a time-activated release valve opens, which allows the water-filled balloon to empty and pass through the gastrointestinal tract.
Two NHS patients have received this treatment at Musgrove Park Hospital. All the hype suggests it’s risk-free and a simple procedure, but can anything go wrong?
NICE says that the “evidence on the safety of the swallowable gastric balloon capsule for weight loss shows infrequent but potentially serious adverse events”. Yet the Guardian and the BBC made no mention of the problems
NICE reports: “The evidence of efficacy is adequate to support the use of this procedure provided that special arrangements are in place for clinical governance, consent and audit.”
Special arrangements mean “there are uncertainties about whether a procedure is safe or effective. NICE also recommend special arrangements if risks of serious harm are known”. Hmm, we didn’t see that either in the news.
The BBC trots out a consultant who says the pill offers “meaningful weight loss”. But no mention of the possible harms.
NICE evidence was updated in April 2020, including a meta-analysis, eight case series, and one case report.
The review included six studies, which were all prospective cohort studies – none were randomised. The meta-analysis reports total body weight loss after treatment (four to six months) of 12.8% (95% CI 11.6 to 13.9). Only two studies of 191 patients reported 12 months of weight loss of 10.9% (95% CI 5.0 to 16.9). Both these effects showed high study heterogeneity and should not have been pooled methodologically.
Serious complications occurred in about one in 200 patients and included gastric perforation and small bowel obstructions. Symptoms such as abdominal pain and nausea or vomiting were frequently reported and required management with medication.
The Daily Mail did make its readers aware of some of the problems:
Some had side-effects – 2.9% couldn’t tolerate it and needed it removed with an endoscope, but the authors said “serious adverse events were very rare”: these included three cases of small bowel obstruction, and one patient had a perforated stomach, all requiring surgery.
Readers of Trust the Evidence will be aware of our Deadly Device series on breast implants, the Essure Implant and transvaginal mesh, amongst others.
As it turns out, gastric balloon insertion has been around for some time as a strategy for managing weight loss. In June 2018, the FDA alerted healthcare providers about five more deaths associated with the use of liquid-filled intragastric balloon devices for obesity. The FDA said it was “carefully tracking adverse events, including a total of 12 deaths over the past two years, that have been reported in patients with two balloon devices used to treat obesity”.
These new capsule balloons avoid the surgery associated with previous devices, and no deaths have been reported.
We have previously written about ‘The Inevitable Harms of Weight Loss Drugs‘, whose history tells us it’s all too predictable. In the absence of randomised trials, a lack of long-term safety data beyond 12 months and serious adverse events in the observational data, we again think it may be all too predictable. However, without journalism criticising the evidence, the public might think balloons are the latest risk-free answer to their dietary woes.
Prof. Carl Heneghan is the Oxford Professor of Evidence Based Medicine and Dr. Tom Jefferson is an epidemiologist based in Rome who works with Professor Heneghan on the Cochrane Collaboration. This article was first published on their Substack, Trust The Evidence, which you can subscribe to here.
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I was getting worried The Daily Sceptic had cancelled Andrew Bridgen too. Dr John Campbell’s video on his speech is just great. Also when he gave it, YouTube took the speech down. This was IMO a huge story. They did later allow it. Presumably the pushback, which was very strong indeed, did get through to them. However it should be noted, taking a video down for nearly a day a few hours after it is published, will destroy it’s vitality and these days I suspect they will have known they would need to restore it at the point they took it down. I know longer think “cock-up” is anything close to the likely reason for this sort of thing happening where Google are concerned.
Better late than never, eh? Well, 3 Round-Ups later, to be precise. Only a video tagged at the end of the Round-Up though, nobody’s bothered to write an article yet. And I’ll bet that video was only stuck on at the end there due to the amount of grumbling and mumbling some of us have been doing regarding the absence of coverage by the DS team on the Bridgen speech/video removal. So too little too late from my point of view tbh. It was first shared on here Fri evening, with subsequent shares, from us commentors. So it’s us lot that have done the leg work in finding, sharing and covering this topic in the meantime. Sorry not sorry DS team, but Monday morning is a tad too late and you’ve missed the boat. We’ve managed perfectly well to inform ourselves of this significant news item since Fri teatime without any effort on your part whatsoever. Best stick with your preference for Gary Lineker and woketard ‘space-fillers’.
Yes, Mogs, and almost 12,000 comments on John Campbell’s video shows how important this issue is. If the DS really missed this story or didn’t pay it as much attention as it so clearly deserved then it passed me by because I haven’t really been around much lately. I am spending less time on here, mainly due to the overriding sense that I am just letting fly with the odd rant when I should be putting my time and energies into tackling the local town and county councils – we are going to the town council meeting tomorrow night to challenge their whole climate emergency narrative and more – plus I am writing a book, well, trying to write a book, a book of fiction that is, which is akin to wrestling a friendly snake covered in butter. My old dad used to have a phrase ‘That went down like a well-buttered snake’ – usually alcohol or food related – and I am finding the well-buttered snake has a mind of its own! I will not abandon this site completely because I highly value all your observations, opinions, wisdom and humour etc and even the comedy downtickers, like a bunch of disgruntled Marcel Marceau mime artists, but I may not be around so much…at least until I have the buttered snake under control in a publishable form! Then again, I may need to rant furiously….
Now don’t you go slithering away entirely Aethelred
No worries, HP, I will be here but not always around
Jolly good
Good morning Mogwai,
You’ve probably seen Dr John Campbell’s “Strange Events” video where a Tory front bencher goes across and appears to tell two opposition MP’s to leave the commons before Andrew Bridgen’s speech on 17 March. But I’ve added the link for those who haven’t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpGcEf2yCok&pp=ygUQRHIgSm9obiBDYW1wYmVsbA%3D%3D
Dr John rightly calls the incident sinister.
Does any one know the individuals involved or can anyone shed any light on what occurred.
What‘s going on?
It’s pretty obvious to anyone by this stage that our whole system of democracy is a pantomime. That said, this particular incident could be anything, could it not? It could be a reminder that this is some subcommittee meeting. Or maybe it’s exactly what John Campbell suggests it is. Either way, it’s not as if we need this to demonstrate it’s all a big farce.
The majority of the population don’t really want net zero, don’t really want ultra-“progressive” woke politics, don’t really want immigration at the current scale, don’t want covid jabs, don’t want to give away our sovereignty to the WEF etc, etc.
And yet, point me to which major political party stands against any of those things? None of them.
I don’t need cloak and dagger stories. The plain, simple evidence out in the wide open is more than enough.
Good morning! Andrew Mitchell was the chap who went over to encourage others to leave. Not sure who the guy who tapped him on the shoulder was though. All rats, the lot of ’em, and a total disgrace to both British politics and humanity. And the fact that Bridgen was citing government figures…says an awful lot about their agenda and loyalties does it not?
https://twitter.com/JohnMappin/status/1637216977159593984
And Mitchell is in Billy’s pocket. To be blunt that defines him as a traitor.
Yes, I wrote to DS yesterday flagging up the video, but to no effect (as yet). As JC says, “The point of parliamentary democracy is we have an opposition, so Mr Bridgen could have given his speech and then the Opposition could have said, ‘”Well, thank you for your advance notice of your speech, Mr Bridgen, I have had an opportunity to consult Professor So-and-so from Such-and-such a University, and he puts a different interpretation on this figure. Let’s discuss this; let’s debate this.’ That’s the whole point of Parliament. … Complete and utter failure to do that.”
Although not a new phenomenon, surely this merits as much attention as the doctoring of Enid Blyton (also not a new phenomenon)?
Well done Mogs. That needed to be said.
Well you know me, hux. “Better out than in, that’s what I always say.” Shrek.
Besides, I’m worried I’ll give myself an ulcer if I don’t.
Here here
Well didn’t you say you thought DS was getting more mainstream now? And look at all the dislikes you got. Well I think you had a point and I will retract my statement!!
Thanks for that Mogs, real integrity!
I must admit a did lay it on a bit thick (paddy’s day hangover and all that)
but the jist was there
Is it Here Here or Hear Hear? I think the latter…
The latter.
In that case, hear hear!
Yes, I sometimes wonder if DS is beginning to lose the plot. As far as I know, it said nothing about NZ data showing how a third dose increases the risk of death by 11% (as analysed by Dr Guy Hatchard, former senior manager at Genetic ID). It said nothing about the recent ONS report on deaths by vaccination status. A graph based on the report shows that the mortality of those dosed twice is approximately double. Mortality of the 3+ dosed is higher than unvaccinated up to July, then abruptly drops.
Transcript of Bridgen’s speech here. Also well covered on The Daily Expose site, which seems much more alert than The Daily Sceptic at the moment.
Thanks for all those links Steven. Yes I share your observations. I mean, DS had 3 Telegraph articles all on Lineker yesterday and not a thing about Bridgen. Skewed priorities or what? I really think they need to not just keep up to date better but vary their stories and sources more. It’s the reality that most of the quality stories and links are coming from the comments sections.
Anyways, I’ll put a sock in it now I’ve said my piece. Don’t want to be getting a reputation as a moaning minnie now.
Great data.
I think there may be some source list differences between Toby and Nick Dixon. Since Nick has been designated editor the breadth and timeliness of stories seems to have reduced. Perhaps he needs to review his Twitter following list! Sorry Nick, I like the content content you produce and I think you are successfully introducing some new issues and increasing variety away from repeating over all the same topics, but I’m worried you need a bit of help on the newshound “ear to the ground” content selection side of the editorial equation.
Another story that has been missed. John Beaudoin is calling for a criminal investigation into remdesivir citing data from Massachusetts that it may have killed 100,000 people in America, as a result of acute renal failure. Using a Freedom of Information Act request, Beaudoin received all the death certificates in Massachusetts from 2015 to 2022. He produced graphs from the information he received and found 1,840 excess deaths from acute renal failure from 1 January 2021 to 30 November 2022, which he attributes to remdesivir.
The lethality of remdesivir has been known about for a long time, but the DS never mentions it, apart from one passing remark that the NHS prescribes the drug, without any expression of concern.
Wow, that is very interesting indeed. Thanks for bringing it onto this forum…
…I know a few people who have received a letter from the NHS, outlining that as they are considered vulnerable they can now access Covid treatments…one of which is Remdesivir….?? As these treatments have about as much bogus data backing them as the vax, and in the case of Remdesivir, a terrible safety profile, I hope people will avoid them….
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-care-and-treatments-for-coronavirus/treatments-for-coronavirus/
Not Remdesivir but NHS protocol NG163 with publicly available evidence to support the assertions made. When you get down to this level of detail it looks like state sanctioned murder. Why is this not being investigated ATL?
https://teresatannahill.substack.com/p/the-midazolam-murders?publication_id=1189723&isFreemail=true
CAn anyone tell me the names of the 5 MPs who were at least prepared to stay and listen
Three representing the govt were legally obliged to be present; Sir Christopher Chope – the MP who advised the Lib Dems to leave was Andrew Mitchell (according to John Campbell who seems very well informed). The sergeant at arms also had to be present.
Thanks, so it seems only Sir Christopher Chope supported Andrew Bridgen. I would have been really disappointed if he had not done so, but would have hoped that some of the others who have spoken out against the totalitarian legislation such as Walker, Drax and Swayne would have done so as well
The Covid enquiry is to last seven years? Yes, it will take that long to dig a hole deep enough to bury everything.
They missed the 1 off the front of the 7…
I think it’ll be 25-30 years when all those who made the decisions are dead or unfit to stand trial before we get answers
That is what is seems like to me. There is a broad consensus to sweep it all under the rug. And Bridgen, for whatever reason, refuses to play along. Probably to honest, stubborn, proud.
I predicted that for every day the lockdowns were in place one whole month would be added to the time needed for the reckoning to conclude.
Wind Farms: Steal from the taxpayer to give to the rich
Stand in the Park
Make friends & keep sane
Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field
near Everyman Cinema & play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
Tomorrow evening, we’re going to confront our local town council about their ‘climate emergency‘ plans. We will be asking them about the decision process behind declaring a ‘climate emergency’ in the first place. We want to unearth the script they are so clearly working to plus we aim to put more holes in their plans than Blackburn, Lancashire (sorry, Beatles reference!) by calling them out on the more ludicrous aspects. Similar challenges are going on throughout the length and breadth of the country.
Loved your Beatles reference and have presumed to copy in the lyric below.
“I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I’d love to turn you on.”
Lennon and McCartney
Thanks for posting these Michael – an apt reference it turns out!
Apparently every single council has signed up to the 15 minute ghettos program although I have concerns this could eventually become pogroms.
The vast majority of local councillors are ill-educated and stupid people who would struggle with two times tables so who is directing this work?
There are I believe 380 local councils – happy to be corrected – so who, what and where are the orders being issued from?
Where and what compromises the central command?
When were these people recruited and under what cover?
The instructions for the ghettoisation must largely follow a blueprint so when is this going to be published?
Who wrote these plans?
Why are Central government keeping schtum on this matter?
How much is this going to cost and who pays the bills?
When will ghettoisation be deemed complete?
Just a few questions bothering me.
Brilliant, HP. Thanks. I am going to borrow (and perhaps slightly adapt) some of your questions for tomorrow evening’s town council jamboree if you don’t mind.
Aethelred, I would be honoured. Please provide a report.
The ever excellent Jose Gefaell has put together a good set of data in relation to the the ‘non’ effects of the vaccine…a good source of data for those who are interested…
…..basically showing that there is no data showing that the quacksine had any effect on Covid…….”Correlation does not mean causation, but a non-correlation means that there is no correlation…”
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wtt1q3hsi1et7or/Covid%20and%20Excess%20Deaths%20in%202022.pdf?dl=0
Money for nothing.
Covid 2022: Post Morten analysis.
Three years of life lost and economies sunk for nothing. We have bought at a great price a narrative from governments, pharmaceuticals and central banks… for nothing.
“We have bought at a great price a narrative from governments, pharmaceuticals and central banks… for nothing.”
You could say the same about WW1, WW2, and all the rest.
Here’s a communication system you’d only think about when you actually need it, (and you never know!)
morse code anyone?
https://www.popsci.com/technology/am-radio-electric-vehicles/
https://brownstone.org/articles/strict-safety-standards-for-cough-syrup-but-mrna-shots-get-a-free-pass/
I’m glad to see this in the round-up. I experienced great difficulty when trying to buy cough medicine recently. Also, paracetamol tablets are getting exceedingly hard to find but the horrible – to me, even the enteric coated – ibuprofen tablets are still readily available.
Heaven forbid that we take cough medicine – shock, horror – but should step forward on multiple occasions to be jabbed with lucrative but somewhat noxious substances, ‘identified’ as safe and effective.
A good, effective & toxin free cough syrup can be made at home & kept in the fridge.
Finely chop 1-2 whole organic lemons & 100g organic root ginger, place in a sterilised jar & cover with one jar of organic runny honey. Stir & leave in fridge for a week before using.
You can use it for a hot drink, add to natural yoghurt, porridge or just take a spoonful.
It’s a damned sight cheaper than cough syrup & works with your body rather than against it.
Paracetamol suppresses the production of glutathione, which is essential for healing. Everything we’ve been taught to do when ill in fact actively works against healing.
Sorry for late reply, I’m only now catching up.
Thank you so much for the cough remedy. I’ll have a go at that. I will make some and try out on my breakfast cereal, too. I like anything with ginger in it.
I managed to buy some cough linctus eventually which did help. It’s debilitating – so tiring – during the coughing attacks and I was desperate for something. It helped and I managed to have a few hours respite and slept, waking feeling much brighter. Sleep is good.
Paracetamol – yes, I know it’s not recommended – but it seems to work for me. I do not like taking tablets – indeed much any medication – and will only take as a last resort. I suppose it’s the power of auto suggestion – they’ve worked in the past and as such, I’ve got faith in the odd one or two. I honestly felt better after taking some, followed with the cough mixture then blessed sleep.
Saying that, I’m currently drinking a hot toddy and that’s making me feel good.
I might have to self prescribe another one!
Sleep. Best remedy ever! So glad that you managed to get some. Hope that you find that this works for you. A nip of whisky or brandy in a hot honey & lemon drink made from this is good too.
For pain relief DMSO 70% is good, buy as a topical gel & as a liquid.
Hydrogen peroxide 3% inhaled in a steam bath or nebulised is good to clear the rubbish off your chest.
If you’re coughing & clearing any crap from your throat steam inhalation is the only way to directly soothe your vocal folds.
I started my latest batch of honey, lemon & ginger yesterday. Woo! Think I may have gone a tad heavy on the ginger! It packs a punch
“Biden vs Trump, the 2024 edition, could be the most ugly and dishonest election yet.”
This is the concluding line from Freddy Gray’s Spectator piece above. By “ugly and dishonest” I think he means lies and personal attacks, rather than election fraud and irregularity, since I understand that both the Spectator and UnHerd (for both of which Gray writes) subscribe to the mainstream narrative that the 2020 Presidential election was not subject to significant fraud and irregularity.
As someone who thinks the election probably was “stolen”, I would be interested to know what others think about this matter.
Anybody believing that the US 2020 election was not mired in fraud is away withe faeries in my opinion.
I dont think it’s just 2020 ,I think the US voting system is in a right mess and has been for years,to easy to fix, too much postal voting,too much voter absence allowed!
It should be one vote each in person at a voting station! Other than for the special needs of some voters who find it difficult to be there in person then postal is fine but it must be policed, and forget online voting, way to open to abuse!
This is an excellent Substack, about the approval process for the quacksine in New Zealand…,and well worth the ten mins’ or so to read…
Is it a ‘cock-up’ when Government figures mis-represent, ignore or outright lie about studies they then rely on to promote anti democratic measures?
https://cranmer.substack.com/p/pfizer-vaccine-approval-in-nz-under?r=o7iqo&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Pfizer Vaccine Approval in NZ Under Scrutiny: A Retrospective AnalysisThe government’s enthusiastic promotion of the Pfizer vaccine approval in New Zealand overstated the strength of the clinical assessment despite significant gaps in the data.
Hurray! BBB have now increased to 17 seats and Rutte’s coalition have decreased. This gives more optimism and hope to the farmers’ plight. I’m sure both me and JaneDoe will keep yous posted on any significant future developments, although anybody outside of the NL can find this news obviously.
”The farmers’ party BBB will get 17 seats in the Senate, making it by far the largest. Previous provisional prognoses by the ANP Election Service previously had Caroline van der Plas’s party at 16 seats. But after almost all the votes have been counted, the newcomer and big winner of the Provincial Council elections gets an extra seat.”
https://nltimes.nl/2023/03/20/bbb-17-seats-senate-coalition-22
Brilliant news and many thanks for the update Mogs.
Thanks to Jane NL for her reports too. Keep ’em coming both.
Agreed – I think the situation with the Dutch farmers is one of the most important things going on at the moment. We ALL need them to succeed…
With you totally Michael
And I am with you too!
Totally agree
“The clarion call for the elites to promote their depopulation agenda came in 1972. That year, the Club of Rome, founded by David Rockefeller and consisting of world leaders and businessmen, had a meeting with the purpose of uniting the world behind a common crisis that could be solved only by the globalist elite and, at the same time, would advance their depopulation plans. After the meeting they said: ‘In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. The real enemy, then, is humanity itself.’
Thus was born the global warming myth, promulgated with the assistance of the mainstream media and used to justify depopulation, with the whole of humanity now the target.”
An excellent article from Stephen McMurray over at TCW.
This probably won’t feature in a News Round-up and it is certainly a touch grim. Part one of four.
This goes beyond “worth reading in full,” – I urge members to read this. It’s happening.
This underscores the need to grow whatever crops you can at home or in your community & to ensure that you have some chlorine dioxide to treat water if water becomes difficult to get.
Firstly, I want to comment on Liam Halligan’s piece about the budget. The budget confirms to me how much our government is tied or possibly controlled by big pharma companies, because apart from rich people with big pension pots they are the only ones to benefit. We should also be ashamed of the despicable MPs who cleared the chamber rather than listen to Andrew Bridgen’s speech, which was probably the most important one in Parliament for some time. Not one of these ignorant snakes is worth our vote. The response from the government minister was pathetic and did not counter a single element of what Andrew Bridgen said and just trotted out the distorted lies of the government line.
Nobody can now argue that the NWO is a conspiracy theory…
https://unnwo.org/
“Nobody can now argue that the NWO is a conspiracy theory…” And here is further confirmation:
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/contexts-for-central-bank-digital-currency
The brilliant Simon Elmer explaining where we are now and where we are headed via CBDC. A long but worthwhile read and not pleasant.
And CBDC is coming in 2025.