Welcome to the Podcast of Another 15 Minutes, Health News from the Fade Library. Full links to the articles detailed can be found at www (dot) fade the blog 2 (dot) blogspot (dot)com
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National News
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Sweet natural solution to treating disease - The Observer 21st January 2007
A spoonful of sugar may soon take the place of pills and other medicines, thanks to Leeds scientists. A team led by Professor Simon Carding has adapted a bacterium in our own bodies to make it produce substances called human growth factors which help to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The bacterium has been engineered so it makes these factors only when a special type of sugar - called xylan, which is found in tree bark - is eaten. The treatment is switched off simply by stopping consumption of the sugar.
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Study proves school meals help learning - The Observer 21st January 2007
Children who ate healthy school meals instead of packed lunches scored higher marks in tests, were less disruptive and concentrated longer in the classroom. A study involving thousands of pupils and hundreds of parents and schoolteachers has confirmed the theory that transforming a child's diet improves how they learn and behave.
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How to be happy- The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
As an introduction to her new column starting next week, Dr Cecilia d'Felice explains how therapy offers a proven, scientific route to feeling good about yourself.
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Happy now? - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
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What are you optimistic about? - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
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New York and London reignite size-zero debate - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
Britain's fashion industry will this week issue new guidelines on the use of skinny models, reigniting the debate about size zero. The British Fashion Council will tell its members they should not use models who are obviously anorexic, following hard on the heels of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, which last week issued its own guidelines.
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Pasta and milk are root cause of ill health for millions - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
Almost half the population is suffering from common complaints such as exhaustion, colds and migraines because of food intolerance, according to a new report published tomorrow. "Around 20 million people are suffering from symptoms that impact on their daily lives and yet they are not able to get help from the NHS," said Muriel Simmons, Allergy UK's chief executive.
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IVF doctor is the victim of a witch hunt, claim patients - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
Scores of IVF parents will take to the streets today demonstrating in support of the controversial fertility doctor Mohamed Taranissi. Regarded as "the baby god" by many of his patients, Dr Taranissi found himself at the centre of a media furore last week after a clinic run by him was accused in a Panorama documentary of offering healthy women IVF. He is now being investigated by health watchdogs.
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After a lifetime in Broadmoor, the writer Janet Cresswell is free at last - The Independent on Sunday 21st January 2007
For the first time in more than 30 years, Janet Cresswell spent Christmas at home with her daughter, grandchildren and their pet rabbit. It was a happy occasion that many families take for granted. Not Ms Cresswell. The 75-year-old grandmother and award-winning writer had feared she would end up dying among murderers and rapists in Broadmoor, the psychiatric hospital in Berkshire where she spent a third of her life.
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Rate your doctor, NHS asks patients - The Sunday Times 21st January 2007
PATIENTS are to be given the chance to write restaurant-style reviews of doctors and hospitals on a website being set up by the government. They will be able to post online praise or complaints about the quality of service and the standard of the premises. Had to wait ages for your liver transplant to arrive? Was your GP surly in serving up your diagnosis? Patients will be able to vent their criticisms as consumers frequently do for hotels and restaurants and for products sold on Amazon.
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NHS can’t afford Robinson reform - The Sunday Times 21st January 2007
IT WAS unfortunate that Simon Jenkins assumed that Rotherham hospital was representative of the NHS as a whole: many hospitals instituted the type of change advocated by Gerry Robinson some time ago (Brown can’t cure this paralysed NHS, so he plans to privatise it, Comment, last week). A shame too that he chose not to point out that when Robinson’s intervention resulted in an increase in patient throughput, the commissioning primary care trusts (PCTs) didn’t have the money to pay for the extra work. This is happening across the country, with clinical teams made to rein in their activity until the new financial year.
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Anorexia: a mother reflects - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Your 14-year-old daughter weighs 5st and refuses to eat. What do you do? In despair, Harriet Brown and her husband turned to a controversial treatment in which parents take the place of doctor and nurse. Here she describes how, in one year, they coaxed Kitty back to health
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It's a perfectly healthy system, minister, that you plan to make worse - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Regrettably nowadays, whenever a minister threatens a "radical overhaul" of some long-established policy, it is inevitably for the worse. And so it will be with prescription charges: not perhaps the most thrilling of subjects, but important and difficult to balance – not penalising the sick while discouraging excess prescribing. The present system has worked pretty well for 50 years, with generous exemptions for the young and old and those on low incomes, and a ceiling of £100 per year (the cost of a pre-payment certificate that covers all prescription charges for 12 months) for those who do pay. And, importantly, it is easy to administer. Not so the various "options" recently outlined by the minister of state, Lord Warner. These include a lower flat rate but no exemptions, or basing exemptions solely on income (that will require all to be means-tested). The logistics of both are daunting.
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Tories plan to let GPs hold the purse strings - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Family doctors would set their own targets, run their own budget and decide where their patients are treated under radical health plans to be unveiled by the Tories this week. The Conservatives will propose putting all GPs in control of their budgets, allowing them to make savings and to reinvest money in health care as they see fit.
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Tories aim to scrap NHS targets - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
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Out of control - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
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The battle of the bugs: is it over? - The Telegraph 21st January 2007
In the past few days, new drugs and air filters have been announced that can defeat MRSA and other superbugs. So has science finally won the long war with our deadliest enemy? Two years ago, Stuart Maskery, an amateur rugby player and a successful businessman, was an imposing and proud figure. Today, he is a frail shadow of his former self, unable to walk without the aid of a stick, too weak to lift a bag of shopping and racked by constant pain.
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Nish Joshi's Q&A - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Over the past three years I have developed rosacea on both cheeks, with redness and visible capillaries. At times it seems to fade, but then it reappears. I eat a balanced diet, I take multivitamins and I am not constipated. I eat spicy food about every ten days. I have been using metronidazole cream and although it has been suggested that long-term antibiotics might help, I'd really prefer a holistic approach.
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Dog-owners 'lead healthier lives' - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
If you want to live a healthier life get a dog, research suggests. The companionship offered by many pets is thought to be good for you, but the benefits of owning a dog outstrip those of cat owners, the study says.
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Mobile risks 'need further study' - BBC Health News 20th January 2007
A radiation expert is calling for more research into the long-term health effects of using mobile phones. Lawrence Challis, chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications Health Research Programme (MTHR), said it was "responsible" to study long-term users.
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International News
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Low-drug IVF reduces health risks - The Sunday Telegraph 21st January 2007
Women who undergo conventional IVF produce significantly higher numbers of abnormal embryos than those using a more "natural" version, research has found. The results suggest that a regime using fewer fertility drugs could increase the chances of taking home a baby and reduce health risks for the mother. They come amid mounting concern that some treatments may be doing more harm than good.
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Brain cancers shrink in drug test - BBC Health News 21st January 2007
A treatment to starve brain tumours of blood has shown positive results in clinical trials. However, US doctors say it is not yet clear whether the drug, AZD2171, will extend the lives of patients with some of the deadliest cancers.
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Cumbria and Lancashire News
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My reaction was one of disbelief. I thought only old people had strokes - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
A WEBSITE has been set up by West Cumbrian stroke victims to warn of the tell-tale signs of a stroke. Strokelink West Cumbria, a support group started by High Harrington couple John and Alison Hunter, along with others affected by the condition, wants to dispel the idea that strokes only happen to the elderly.
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Private clinics threat to new hospital bid - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
PLANS to build a new hospital in west Cumbria will be threatened by the proposed introduction of privately-run treatment centres, it is claimed. The controversial CATS centres, which aim to reduce waiting lists, are currently planned for Workington, Carlisle and Ulverston.
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Patients, doctors and public asked to join health debate - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
DOCTORS and patients are to have more say about the way health services are run in their community. That was the promise made this week by the new Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT).
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MP’s fury as respite care plans revealed - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
CARLISLE MP Eric Martlew has condemned the new Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT) over plans to close two respite care centres for disabled children. Bosses announced this week that they want to close Orton Lea in Carlisle and Seacroft at St Bees, which both provide overnight respite care.
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Doc’s last chat with hospital death patient - Carlisle News & Star 20th January 2007
A HEALTHCARE assistant from Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital told a jury of her last conversation with psychiatric patient Peter Weighman after he took an overdose. Susan Wright was giving evidence yesterday in the trial of unregistered psychiatrist Peter Fisher, 46, who denies manslaughter through gross negligence.
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Smoking ban to come in at Turf Moor - Lancashire Telegraph 20th January 2007
SMOKING will be banned from Turf Moor from July. Smokers will not be able to light up in any part of the Burnley FC ground, including the executive suites and boardroom. Accrington Stanley is also planning to introduce a ban, although the club said it was trying to find an small area where fans could still have a cigarette.
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Doc ‘sex assault’ jury fails to reach verdict - Lancashire Telegraph 20th January 2007
THE jury in the case of a doctor accused of sexually assaulting a 16 year-old girl has been discharged after failing to reach a verdict. Judge Edward Slinger took the decision yesterday afternoon in the case of Doctor Naveen Shivan, who worked at Blackburn Royal Infirmary.
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Greater Manchester News
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Hospital is to be put in picture - The Bolton News 20th January 2007
PHOTOGRAPHERS are being offered the chance to display their work in a gallery with a difference - a restaurant wall at Fairfield Hospital in Bury. The Broadoak restaurant is being refurbished and will feature a ten-metre long photograph.
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Viruses come under the spotlight - Altrincham Messenger 20th January 2007
A HALE virologist is taking to the airwaves to raise awareness of a little known virus and the potentially devastating effects it can have for children. Twenty-eight-year-old Julia Duffey has been invited to take the reins on the Radio Five Live Matthew Bannister show as a citizen journalist on Thursday.
Full links to the articles detailed can be found at www(dot) fade the blog 2 (dot)blogspot (dot)com, This has been a Podcast of Another 15 Minutes ... Health News from the Fade Library.
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