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UK Health News
The European commission has been asked to investigate whether the "postcode lottery" of NHS cancer drug funding breaks European anti-discrimination laws. The request comes from Chris Heaton-Harris, the Conservative MEP for East Midlands, whose constituent Russ Jones has been denied NHS funding for the life-prolonging drug Sutent, although primary care trusts in some parts of the country are paying for patients to have the treatment.
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Challenge to NHS funding lottery - BBC Health News 2nd September 2007
She is known to generations of children as the saintly, iron-willed Lady With the Lamp who battled to improve the conditions of wounded British soldiers and founded modern nursing, but a strikingly different picture of Florence Nightingale has emerged from the unpublished letters of one of her bitterest enemies. "Miss Nightingale shows an ambitious struggling after power inimical to the true interests of the medical department," Sir John Hall, the chief British army medical officer in the Crimea, wrote to his superior in London.
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Health warning on lunch boxes - The Guardian 3rd September 2007
Packed lunches are falling behind school dinners in terms of nutritional content and are likely to be full of unhealthy items laden with salt, fat and sugar, research published today reveals. The research, carried out by the School Food Trust - the body advising the government on improving school meals since Jamie Oliver's TV campaign - shows that primary school children taking a school meal were more likely to be eating vegetables and fruit and filling up on bread than children eating packed lunches.
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Fitness fix - The Guardian 3rd September 2007
Why do you play hockey? My dad started me; I used to watch him by the side of the pitch. When you love playing and you've got talent it seems obvious to carry on. I've now got over 80 caps for England and have just played in the EuroHockey Nations Championships in Manchester (pictured).
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Official: obesity risk to half of all children - The Observer 2nd September 2007
The government has admitted for the first time that almost half of all children will be dangerously overweight by 2050 if drastic action is not taken to halt the growth in childhood obesity. Revealing the true scale of the obesity epidemic, Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said the number of children in the high risk category was rising at a worrying rate.
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Obesity UK: we are getting as fat as Americans - The Independent on Sunday 2nd September 2007
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'Half of all UK children could be obese by 2050' - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
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Obesity UK: we are getting as fat as Americans - The Independent on Sunday 2nd September 2007
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'Half of all UK children could be obese by 2050' - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
Expert says males should show a feminine, less career-driven side to cut prostate disease risk. If men behaved more like women, understanding the need for a better work-life balance and how to handle stress, many of the 32,000 new cases of prostate cancer discovered each year could be averted, according to one of Britain's leading specialists in the disease.
An official report into Britain's mental health services will warn tomorrow that there are significant gaps in care offered round the country. Many patients do not receive the quick and effective treatment they need. Almost one third of patients who have asked for counselling, or 'talking therapy', cannot get it, says the independent Healthcare Commission. Their report will also highlight the shortage of crisis teams to help individuals with mental health problems.
When I was expecting my babies, I did not drink alcohol, eat runny cheese or (biggest sacrifice) tint my hair. Once they were born, I tried to get a balance between taking their health ludicrously seriously (what mother doesn't?) and coming to terms with the fact that you can't protect your babies from absolutely everything.
Cheap alcohol blamed as study finds pre-teen bingers have doubled intake Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent Saturday September 1, 2007 The Guardian A persistent hardcore of pre-teen binge drinkers - almost one in 10 of all 11- to 13-year-olds - are consuming more alcohol than ever before, according to new government figures.
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Drink intake of children doubles in five years - The Independent 1st September 2007
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Shock figures show drinking among children as young as 11 has doubled in five years - Daily Mail 31st August 2007
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Teen drinking 'remains a worry' - BBC Health News 31st August 2007
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Newly discovered height gene has disease link - The Independent 3rd September 2007
Scientists believe they have uncovered the genetic link to height – explaining for the first time why some children are smaller than their friends. The slightest genetic mutation can knock a centimetre off a child's eventual height, according to a study analysing the DNA of nearly 5,000 people.
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Patients visiting their family doctor may soon to be able to see at a glance how altering their lifestyle could prolong their lives. Dr Chris Martin, who combines being a GP in Laindon, Essex, with research, has created a computer program that predicts how long an individual can expect to live, based on simple data such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking habits, age and past medical history.
Some women who find being pregnant highly stressful are increasing their smoking or drinking, or even taking it up, to help them cope
Ministers will face calls this week to extend the laws to protect the elderly as tribunals brace themselves for a surge in age discrimination claims. So far an estimated 1,000-plus claims have been lodged since new laws outlawing ageism took effect last October. But the new regulations chiefly protect people in the work-place and do not extend to the provision of goods, services and facilities.
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Shock figures show drinking among children as young as 11 has doubled in five years - Daily Mail 31st August 2007
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Teen drinking 'remains a worry' - BBC Health News 31st August 2007
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It is the ultimate cure for diseased hearts. When the muscle softly beating behind the ribcage starts to fail – grow a new one. Professor Magdi Yacoub, Britain's best-known cardiac surgeon, who pioneered heart transplants in the 1980s, champions a new approach to heart surgery involving patients growing their own heart tissue to replace damaged parts of the existing organ.
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Patients help heal themselves - The Times 3rd September 2007
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Heart patients to get valves grown from their cells - Daily Mail 3rd September 2007
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Patients help heal themselves - The Times 3rd September 2007
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Heart patients to get valves grown from their cells - Daily Mail 3rd September 2007
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Newly discovered height gene has disease link - The Independent 3rd September 2007
Scientists believe they have uncovered the genetic link to height – explaining for the first time why some children are smaller than their friends. The slightest genetic mutation can knock a centimetre off a child's eventual height, according to a study analysing the DNA of nearly 5,000 people.
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Patients visiting their family doctor may soon to be able to see at a glance how altering their lifestyle could prolong their lives. Dr Chris Martin, who combines being a GP in Laindon, Essex, with research, has created a computer program that predicts how long an individual can expect to live, based on simple data such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking habits, age and past medical history.
Some women who find being pregnant highly stressful are increasing their smoking or drinking, or even taking it up, to help them cope
Ministers will face calls this week to extend the laws to protect the elderly as tribunals brace themselves for a surge in age discrimination claims. So far an estimated 1,000-plus claims have been lodged since new laws outlawing ageism took effect last October. But the new regulations chiefly protect people in the work-place and do not extend to the provision of goods, services and facilities.
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Once dismissed as “yuppie flu”, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or ME (myalgic encephalopathy) is now recognised by the World Health Organisation as a neurological illness. Sufferers complain that doctors fail to diagnose it properly and the government recently issued guidelines to GPs about proper treatment of the condition, whose symptoms include debilitating fatigue, pain and problems with sleep, memory and concentration.
THE dream of a new life in France for thousands of Britons is to be dealt a blow by Nicolas Sarkozy, the new president, with plans to strip them of their subsidised healthcare. Expatriates, many of whom have cashed in on the boom in the British property market to take early retirement, have been told to surrender the documents that entitle them to French state healthcare.
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British retirees in France lose free health care - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
RECORD numbers of Britons are fleeing the country for a new life overseas. In the past 12 months, 385,000 people left Britain for good, according to the Office for National Statistics – the highest number since data were first collected in 1991. The most popular destination was Australia, with 71,000 Britons starting new lives there. Canada, New Zealand and South Africa are also attracting huge numbers of expats.
It seems the UK is a nation of loners. In 2004 there were 7m people living alone in Britain – nearly four times as many as in 1961. It seems the UK is becoming a nation of loners. In 2004 there were 7m people living alone in Britain – nearly four times as many as in 1961. By 2021, 37% of all households in Britain are expected to be made up of people who live alone.
WOMEN are to be offered for the first time a dedicated egg freezing service that will enable them to have a healthy baby when they choose. Two of Britain’s leading fertility clinics will this month launch new egg freezing programmes designed for women who wish to postpone motherhood to pursue a career or find the right partner. It could transform women’s lives in a similar way to the con-traceptive pill by enabling them to beat their biological clocks and pick the moment in their lives when it best suits them to start a family.
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Diet, exercise, even a night out with the girls- they can all improve your sex life. Everyone has seemingly inexplicable sexual-energy slumps. You know, those times when bed simply means sleep, and an erotic interlude seems as tempting as a Gillian McKeith smoothie.
I am lactose intolerant. Why do many prescription tablets contain lactose and what purpose does it serve?
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Measles or vaccine? What should parents do for their children now? - The Times 1st September 2007
Some medical “breakthroughs” are simply hot air. But one that really has transformed our lives is the near-conquest of infectious disease. Parents a century ago were regularly desolated by the death of children, often from diseases that today are quickly cured by antibiotics, or prevented altogether by vaccines.
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Vaccine required to stop this madness - The Times 1st September 2007
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Causes of measles - The Times 3rd September 2007
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Fresh evidence in the food-or-fitness debate suggests that PE can keep kids slim. The PE kit is washed and bagged, ready for a new term. But new research is about to reveal how important it is that your children get to use it. An important new study of UK schools indicates that pupils who do more physical education at school have significantly smaller waistlines. This is a significant contribution to the debate about whether it’s fitness or food we need to concentrate on if we’re seriously going to address the nation’s “obesity epidemic”
Freaking out in meetings? There’s a machine that can help. Presentations play a crucial role in Nick Janvier’s job. The 36-year-old NHS statistical analyst has long delivered talks to rooms full of colleagues. But in February last year that suddenly changed. As Janvier started a presentation he was overcome by anxiety so severe that his heart started to pound and his voice shook. He stumbled on for about a minute, but eventually had to ask a colleague to take over.
Look into my eyes, you are feeling sleepy . . . Or, rather, look into your iPod, you’re feeling wide awake. Because, according to a recent survey, most teenagers have so many distracting gadgets in their bedrooms that they get only between four and seven hours’ sleep each night.
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An influential former Bank of England executive has called on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to abolish the National Health Service. Abolish NHS, says Willem Buiter 'The NHS must go' according to Willem Buiter and Anne Sibert Willem Buiter, who was appointed by Mr Brown as one of the founder members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, has urged politicians to consider disbanding the current system.
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City comment: Put the NHS out of its misery and allow competition - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
As a new report claims that this deadly disease is too often misdiagnosed. Judith Woods speaks to one father about his tragic loss It is every parent's worst nightmare; their child has a fever, flu-like symptoms and the beginnings of a rash, so they call their GP.
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Trust me, I'm a junior doctor - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
Rigid protocols are dangerous, says Max Pemberton It is a curse of modern life that bureaucracy so often gets in the way of the apparently obvious, straightforward course of action. Everyone has come up against the "computer says no" attitude at some point when dealing with big organisations but nowhere is it more frustrating than in hospitals, where protocols and policies have proliferated beyond belief.
Half a million women are suffering daily headaches caused by the very drugs that promise to ease their pain, experts have warned. Doctors and migraine charities are calling for a national campaign to alert sufferers, especially migraine victims, to the phenomenon of "rebound" headaches which are triggered by overuse of painkillers.
Social workers have been accused of trying to pressurise a psychiatrist into dropping his support for a pregnant woman who faces having her baby taken into care at birth. Dr Rex Haigh, who had written a character reference for Fran Lyon, a 22-year-old charity worker, said that a social worker was "clearly trying to undermine" his support for Miss Lyon, who is five months pregnant.
They shun exercise, feed on junk food, and generally live couch-potato lives, but millions of men still think their bodies can be saved - with cosmetic surgery . Almost half of men take no regular exercise and eat appallingly, a survey for The Sunday Telegraph has shown. Yet a staggering one in four said they would consider surgery to improve their looks.
First came tornados, torrential rain and floods. Just as the summer storms have ended, nature has delivered a final twist - an explosion in wasp numbers. Swarms of the pests, encouraged by warmer weather, have sent families scurrying from picnics and barbecues in recent days.
I get a wheezy chest every time I get a cold. I am 62, eat lots of fruit and vegetables and don't eat processed food. I have cut out cheese and I don't take supplements. I'm in otherwise excellent health, but do dread the onset of winter.
Research using hybrid embryos is likely to be given the go-ahead this week after warnings it would be a major blow to British science if the Government watchdog refused to allow it. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will decide on Wednesday whether to permit scientists to create human-animal hybrid embryos to extract stem cells for research.
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Hybrid embryo timeline - The Telegraph 1st September 2007
An advertising executive who was sacked just a fortnight after having a massive stroke has been offered a payout of £50,000. Mike Austin held a high-profile creative post on a salary of more than £60,000 a year.
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Immigrants with cancer 'could swamp the NHS' - Daily Mail 2nd September 2007
The Health Service could be "overwhelmed" by cancer sufferers from Eastern Europe, a leading doctor has warned. There are almost twice as many smokers in Poland and neighbouring countries than the UK, which means they have far higher rates of lung and other cancers.
An advertising executive who was sacked just a fortnight after having a massive stroke has been offered a payout of £50,000. Mike Austin held a high-profile creative post on a salary of more than £60,000 a year.
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Immigrants with cancer 'could swamp the NHS' - Daily Mail 2nd September 2007
The Health Service could be "overwhelmed" by cancer sufferers from Eastern Europe, a leading doctor has warned. There are almost twice as many smokers in Poland and neighbouring countries than the UK, which means they have far higher rates of lung and other cancers.
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Actress Leslie Ash has earlier revealed how an accident left her fighting for survival. Here, in the last part from her autobiography, she describes how she learned to walk again and the moment she realised her career was in peril
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Babies born in the summer are more likely to become short-sighted in later life, a study has shown. As many as a quarter of all cases of short-sightedness are caused by too great an exposure to sunlight in the first weeks of life, say eye experts.
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David Cameron was last night putting the finishing touches to a package of sweeping public sector reform plans. He will use two major policy statements to open a new front in the 'fightback' he launched last week.
The family of a distinguished war veteran have criticised the hospital where he was infected by a killer bug. Major Sam Weller - who survived three years as a prisoner of war - died after catching Clostridium Difficile following an operation on his hip. His relatives said he had been let down by the country he fought for.
Sufferers of an extreme form of snoring are set to be provided with breathing masks to help them get a peaceful night's sleep free on the NHS.
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'Thousands more midwives needed' to cope with rising birthrate - Daily Mail 31st August 2007
Nearly 5,000 more midwives will be needed by 2012 if the Government are to avoid an impending crisis in maternity services, the Royal College of Midwives have announced.
Ready meals are no longer just for couch potatoes. They are becoming increasingly popular with healthy eaters as manufacturers use less fat. Britons spent more than £2 billion on ready meals last year - more than anyone else in Europe, market analysts Mintel reported.
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The first human trial of a new schizophrenia drug has yielded promising results, report scientists. What sets apart the experimental drug from all other antipsychotics is its target in the brain - glutamate receptors rather than dopamine.
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Mental health care progress made - BBC Health News 2nd September 2007
Community mental health services are getting better, a survey from the health watchdog suggests. But access to counselling and support for carers is still poor, the Healthcare Commission warned.
Depressed by the appalling summer in the UK this year many of us are planning a little break in the sun. A last chance to warm our bones up before we face the cold of winter.
Diabetics could be giving up vital home blood sugar checks because they believe they are of no use, says a researcher. Psychologist Dr Elizabeth Peel interviewed type 2 diabetes patients, and found that many were confused over what to do with the results.
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A war veteran has made history with a hip replacement joint that is still going strong after 60 years. William Jefferies, aged 86, underwent the operation to temporarily repair his hip in 1947 after being shot in Burma by a Japanese sniper.
Oliver Dillon is a talented actor and recognised as the voice of 'Lumpy the Heffalump' in Disney's cartoon. People also recognise him for his roles in the sit-com 'Our Family' and the children's classic 'Basil Brush.'
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International Health News
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Government in dock as HIV couple sue US drug firms in blood scandal - The Guardian 3rd September 2007
Lawyers for a couple infected with HIV through contaminated blood products are hoping to reopen the issue of government responsibility for the scandal in the British courts. Writs against the American pharmaceutical companies that supplied the blood products have been issued in the names of Haydn Lewis from Cardiff, a haemophiliac given contaminated blood who was diagnosed with HIV in 1985 and with hepatitis C in the early 1990s, and his wife Gaynor Lewis, whom he unwittingly infected with HIV.
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The German army's reputation as a disciplined and highly professional fighting force has been undermined by new figures which suggest the service is being weighed down by flabby, overweight conscripts who are unfit for duty.
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Fate of a couple is sealed with first kiss - The Times 3rd September 2007
It is a moment of high anxiety in any romantic relationship. But now researchers have found that the first kiss may be even more important than anyone suspected. While a kiss may just be a kiss for a man, for a woman it’s an all-important means of gauging a prospective partner’s compatability. She uses it, the study suggests, to assess a “rich and complex exchange” of romantic and chemical clues that pass between partners as their lips touch.
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Thousands of lives could be saved in Britain if a blood pressure treatment that costs 50p a day was used to treat obese patients with type 2 diabetes, an international research team said yesterday. The drug also has virtually no unwanted side-effects.
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Cheap pill 'cuts deaths from diabetes' - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
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Diabetes treatment that could save 100,000 lives - Daily Mail 2nd September 2007
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Cheap pill 'cuts deaths from diabetes' - The Telegraph 3rd August 2007
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Diabetes treatment that could save 100,000 lives - Daily Mail 2nd September 2007
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Fate of a couple is sealed with first kiss - The Times 3rd September 2007
It is a moment of high anxiety in any romantic relationship. But now researchers have found that the first kiss may be even more important than anyone suspected. While a kiss may just be a kiss for a man, for a woman it’s an all-important means of gauging a prospective partner’s compatability. She uses it, the study suggests, to assess a “rich and complex exchange” of romantic and chemical clues that pass between partners as their lips touch.
Feeling abandoned by their countrymen, the residents of one Israeli town have endured over 2,000 rocket attacks. Philip Jacobson reports on the psychological price paid by the people of Sderot.
Can scary pictures really make us change our behaviour? “SMOKERS to face picture warnings” was the headline this week after news that graphic images of the consequences of smoking, including diseased lungs and rotten teeth, will be printed on all tobacco products from October next year.
Running barefoot isn’t just for Zola Budd any more. Those who take to the latest exercise trend from the US say it feels more natural, improves your technique and can even cure injury niggles.
Work time is the single most important lifestyle factor that impacts on sleep - the more hours you work the less sleep you get - research suggests. Those who got less than four-and-a-half hours sleep a night worked an average of 93 minutes longer on weekdays and 118 minutes more on the weekend.
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Woman has second set of triplets - BBC Health News 31st August 2007
A woman in Ohio has given birth to her second set of triplets. Victoria Lasita and her husband Tim conceived both sets naturally, without fertility treatments that increase the chance of multiple pregnancies.
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Cheshire and Merseyside Health News
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JUST one person was cautioned for smoking in a public place in Liverpool during August, it has emerged. This brings to just three the total number of warnings issued to individuals breaking the smoke-free law in the city since the national ban came into force two months ago.
A MAN who died after a drunken fall lay untreated for hours because his friends did not believe he was injured. Richard Swindles, 30, from Birkenhead, suffered a ruptured liver, spleen and stomach when he fell from the war memorial near Grange Old Road, West Kirby, an inquest heard.
A MOTHER stranded in a Tunisian hospital was today finally back in Liverpool after two months of hell. Julie Hudson, 46, was flown home from Africa to Merseyside in an air ambulance after suffering serious injuries in a quad biking accident.
THE niece of a decorated war hero whose credit card was stolen as he lay dying in a hospital bed said today that the nursing assistant responsible should be jailed. Lin Starkey refused to let the matter drop when she discovered money was missing from the bank account of 83-year-old Albert Davies.
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Nurse may be jailed for theft from hero - Liverpool Daily Post 31st August 2007
A FORMER nurse who downloaded child pornography from the internet has been spared a jail sentence. Christopher Nolan, 35, resigned from his position as a staff nurse at Whiston hospital after being convicted by a Liverpool crown court jury of 26 charges of making indecent images of a child.
TWO troubled hospital trusts in the region are finally back in the black after years of financial strife – but they must still pay off hefty “historic” debts. North Cheshire trust - which runs the general hospitals in Warrington and Runcorn – is forecast to turn a £6.6m deficit in 2006-07 into a £3.5m surplus in this financial year.
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Cumbria and Lancashire Health News
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A FORMER Carlisle gynaecologist who tore out a woman’s ovary in a botched abortion took a has taken a step nearer to practising unrestricted again. Dr Andrew Gbinigie, 51, escaped being struck off amid public uproar after he made horrific surgical blunders and sexually harassed colleagues.
NURSES in East Lancashire are supporting a campaign to dispel myths about what palliative care means to cancer patients. For many the term deals solely with the support and assistance which medical professionals can offer at the end of an individual's life.
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Field hospital plan for Burnley - Lancashire Telegraph 31st August 2007
BURNLEY is to get a field hospital to treat injured late-night revellers. But the council leader has warned the centre could not be considered any compensation for the loss of the town's casualty department.
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Greater Manchester Health News
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Compensate 'poisoned blood' victims plea - The Bolton News 1st September 2007
A FATHER who almost died after being given contaminated blood products while being treated for his haemophilia on the NHS is supporting calls for compensation for the thousands of other victims. David Fielding, aged 51, of Darley Avenue, Farnworth, spoke out after attending the Archer Independent Public Inquiry.
PATIENTS looking for more information about the health service can contact the Bolton Patient Advice and Liaison Service. PALS is there to advise and support patients, provide information on services, listen to concerns, suggestions and queries and help sort out problems.
SMOKERS have been piling on the pounds since the smoking ban was introduced. Research shows the average smoking has already put on 3lbs since smoking was outlawed in enclosed public places on July 1.
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Hospitals will have £170m spare cash - Manchester Evening News 31st August 2007
HEALTH trusts in the region are expected to have £170m in unspent cash - as critics accuse hospitals of rationing care to make savings. Every hospital and primary care trust in Greater Manchester is expecting to break even or have a surplus by the end of the financial year, according to Department of Health figures.
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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