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Smoking ban benefits bar staff - The Guardian 1st October 2007
Exposure to second-hand smoke for people working in bars and clubs has dropped by 95% since July 1's ban on indoor smoking in England. In the first study to examine the health and business impacts of the smoking ban, researchers also found that the effect on trade had been minimal, despite the predictions of some in the hospitality industry.
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Is the smoking ban starting to bite? - The Guardian 1st October 2007
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Today is UN international day of older persons. Around the world, rapid population ageing is both a triumph and challenge of our times. By 2050, one in every five people worldwide will be over the age of 60. Over three-quarters of these people will live in developing countries. Currently, an estimated 100 million older people live on less than a $1 dollar a day and some 80% of world's population are not covered by social protection in old age. Older people are among the poorest and most marginalised group in many countries.
Why do you ski? I really enjoy it, I get a lot of exhilaration from the speed and the fun. I ski at the SNO!zone at Milton Keynes which is local to me and has real snow. I recently completed an instructor course, so I'll soon be able to teach as well.
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The health panel: Why do I have such cold hands and feet? - The Observer 30th September 2007
I am 27 and very fit, but have such icy extremities I don't dare touch people. I ran a marathon this year and cycle every day so it can't be bad circulation, but could diet be to blame?
Counsellors' association says The Jeremy Kyle Show 'takes people apart' Pressure on ITV to investigate The Jeremy Kyle Show after it was condemned by a judge as 'human bear-baiting' grew last night when Europe's biggest psychotherapy organisation called for a review of the way the programme treats vulnerable members of the public.
Overhaul for Brown's 'big idea' to engage voters as critics say they are just glorified focus groups. Citizens' juries and other forms of research into public attitudes are to be more tightly controlled amid growing concerns that they are a 'sham' listening exercise used for political purposes, rather than a genuine way of canvassing opinion.
The Lancet misses the point in suggesting that the government is focusing effort in the wrong areas to improve infection control (NHS superbugs, September 28). These actions are based on listening to the evidence of what works. The measures announced earlier this week - a deep clean of all hospitals and a "bare below the elbow" policy - are just part of a whole range of measures to improve cleanliness and reduce hospital acquired infections. We have put in place a range of measures which have already reduced MRSA rates, but we know more has to be done.
My daughter is 14 and I feel ready to move from sex education-type conversations to those about starting sexual relationships. I think and hope there must be some studies supporting the idea that having sex is better left until late teens or early 20s. Is that the case?
As you lay your head on your pillow tonight, spare a thought for anyone who might share your bed – particularly if you're selfish, intolerant or anarchic. Most of us would deny being any of these while awake, but the way people behave as they snooze is an entirely different matter. A new report in the journal Sociology says people often behave in ways that are out of character while asleep.
The man who made a career, in and out of prison, from cannabis has for the first time expressed concern about its links to mental illness in the light of reports in The Independent on Sunday.
Medical leaders clashed yesterday over a plan to extend the right of doctors to refuse treatment to patients where they have a conscientious objection. The British Medical Association accused the General Medical Council, the doctors' disciplinary body, of undermining fundamental ethical principles in proposals that could give doctors a licence to discriminate against certain groups of patients, including same sex couples, Jehovah's Witnesses and alcoholics.
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Doctors oppose care opt-out plans - BBC Health News 28th September 2007
Many women are confused about the benefits and safety of Hormone Replacement Therapy. Our correspondent goes to the experts for the answers
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My grandad died in April, and I still don’t know how to deal with it. It wasn’t until he died that I realised how big a part of my life he was, and how much he meant to me, and I feel guilty that I never told him. Every night I struggle to get to sleep as I relive his funeral — the songs, what was said by the vicar and the speeches. I think about him and can see him as he was the last time I saw him. I fear that I may start to self-harm again, as it was the only thing in the past that could make me feel better.
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Chicken nuggets, pizza and chips are rapidly falling out of favour with concerned mothers who are spearheading a revival of home cooking, according to research.
James Purnell, the culture secretary, is a quite remarkable man. He is a little like those extraordinary particles you read about in quantum physics, capable of being in two places simultaneously. A useful ability for a politician, especially one as ambitious as Purnell.
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Culture Secretary caught in photo doctoring storm after lambasting TV fakery - The Times 29th September 2007
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NHS trust faked MP visit picture - BBC Health News 28th September 2007
In his speech to Labour’s conference in Bournemouth, Des Browne, the defence secretary, urged delegates to show their appreciation and gratitude for the efforts and sacrifices of Britain’s armed forces. He was met with muted applause. Lord Guthrie, former head of the armed forces, castigated the prime minister for barely mentioning the services during his speech. Our soldiers, sailors and airmen put their lives on the line for us. When they return home, sometimes physically injured or with severe mental scars, it is our duty to ensure they are properly cared for.
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All men know they need to get their prostate checked, but that up close and personal encounter with the rubber glove – what’s it actually like? I’ll tell you what it’s like. It’s like having a live, wriggling, muscular eel poking its head through your anus the wrong way, having a quick peer round your rectum, and then swiftly exiting with a pop you can feel, although thankfully not hear.
The NHS is being told to overhaul maternity care with mums-to-be having more control Jo Brooker still finds it hard to look at seven-year-old girls: the age her firstborn Holly would have been now. Holly, who died four years ago, was profoundly brain damaged at birth, starved of oxygen for a crucial 15 minutes as staff struggled to deliver her at a Surrey hospital.
PATIENTS should be used as human guinea pigs in drug trials that would formerly have been carried out on animals, one of Britain’s most senior scientists has said.
The nights are drawing in, temperatures are dropping and the cacophony of spluttering and sneezing can mean only one thing: flu season is here. Of course, most people who feel flu symptoms – fever, a cough and muscle aches – are actually suffering from a common cold. Whereas colds infect the upper respiratory tract (the nose and throat), the flu virus marches on into the windpipe and lungs.
My boyfriend snores dreadfully. Can you suggest any remedies that might help, as my sleep is suffering?
Drinking smoothies instead of eating the fruit is no quick nutrition fix Peta Bee There’s nothing like a fruit juice to leave you feeling cleansed, nutrient-pumped and virtuous. Yes, mineral water is calorie-free, but it does not have the detoxing, immune system-boosting properties that you are supposed to get from a glass or bottle of something that has been freshly squeezed, pulped or pressed. So taken are we with the concept of juicing our way to looking and feeling good that we collectively guzzled our way through 34m litres of smoothies last year.
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The uptake of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine rose fractionally last year, though missing data from a large swath of London make the figures unreliable (Nigel Hawkes writes). Statistics from the NHS show that in 2006-07, 85 per cent of two-year-olds had at least one MMR vaccination, up from 84 per cent. But a failed IT programme supplied by BT meant a lack of accurate data from parts of London. The figures show that 73 per cent of children had both MMR jabs by the age of 5, down from 74 per cent the year before. In London the figures was only 52 per cent, leading to a real risk of a measles outbreak.
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MMR uptake still short of target - BBC Health News 28th September 2007
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Patientline in critical condition after warning on its liquidity - The Times 29th September 2007
Patientline, the company that attracted a storm of criticism from patient groups for the high price of hospital bedside telephone calls, said yesterday that it was in danger of collapsing.
It’s getting harder to tell, as the latest research from obesity experts shows. “What do you mean my child’s fat?” When you have always regarded your child as simply cuddly, little different from most of his or her peers at school, it’s a bolt from the blue to be confronted with the fact that they’re overweight. But that’s what may soon be happening to many of us – and not just those who frequent fast food outlets – as a new scheme to routinely weigh and measure schoolchildren rolls into its third year.
The UK health insurance group is poised to announce a major expansion with the purchase of Amity and Guardian Healthcare
Friday is World Smile Day so brush up your pegs, slap on a grin and dazzle everyone with your pearly gnashers. These products, approved by the British Dental Health Foundation and recommended by dentists and hygienists, will help to keep your breath fresh and your teeth and gums in perfect health.
More birth choice is welcome, but where are the midwives? BIRTH made it big this week. There was news of fresh national guidelines stipulating that every woman should have the right to give birth at home. This was joined by reports that the Health Secretary wants more midwives trained, and that a woman gave birth in eight minutes between starter and main course at her dinner-party (we wish).
I’m 70 and lonely after my wife died, as I haven’t found another woman. As gay men seem now to be quite accepted, is it too late to become a homosexual?
The health and safety police are at it again. On Monday morning I stood electrified, toothpaste teetering on the brush, as a fireman described on the radio how he had begged permission from his senior officer to rescue a drowning woman. Under health and safety rules, the officer had to tell him not to. It was only at the third time of asking, when she was clearly losing consciousness, that both men let their instincts override the rules. The fireman bravely jumped in to save her, only just in time.
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A cure for heart-ache - The Times 29th September 2007
Can a holistic technique help Emma Mahony to relax and work wonders on her stress levels? It works for me: emotional healing Science tells us that most of our emotional responses are centred in the brain, not the heart, which makes colloquialisms about being “broken-hearted” sound like old-fashioned thinking. But while the heart might not rule the head, the head has a significant influence on the heart, and particularly heart disease. Only last week a paper in The Lancet reinforced our knowledge of stress’s harmful impact on coronary health.
Children aged five who watch television programmes for two hours a day are more likely to suffer behavioural problems and poor social skills, research suggests. The findings provide fresh evidence of the harm that too much exposure to television can have on the development of young children.
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Children 'recover' from TV harm - BBC Health News 1st October 2007
Genevieve Butler leapt to her death while in hospital after taking an overdose. Her father, Lord Dunboyne, tells Elizabeth Grice what must be done to prevent a repeat of the tragedy The plain facts of Genevieve Butler's suicide are terrible enough. She had asked to be taken outside for a cigarette.
Thousands of Britons who moved to France in search of a better lifestyle could be forced to return home if changes are introduced to end national health care for expatriates. The new rules are due to be enforced from today and Britons on early retirement face large private health care bills, particularly if they have pre-existing conditions.
After years of oral problems and fractured teeth, Helen Birch was shocked to discover the cause… Munching on a piece of toast one morning two years ago, my teeth hit a hard object that was clearly not a wholegrain. After a panicked investigation with my tongue, I found a jagged shard of tooth. One of my molars had snapped off. Again.
Our quest for beauty is proving increasingly hazardous to our health, finds Max Pemberton Our quest for beauty is proving increasingly hazardous to our health, finds Max Pemberton 'Can you just speak to her after I've finished with you?" asks my hairdresser. I nod my head. "Keep still!" she scolds as she nearly jabs the scissors into my ear. "She's so depressed.
Motherhood can be an exhausting business and, with many mothers getting by on a minimum of six hours of sleep a night, it is scarcely surprising that, as reported in the papers last week, most say they feel "tired all the time". But the obvious explanation is not necessarily the correct one. I discovered this when I reassured an energetic friend it was only natural that the demands of her five children should leave her drained at the end of the day.
Family doctors are "appalled" at Tory plans to tear up contracts that have seen GPs' pay soar while their hours have fallen. David Cameron announced yesterday that a Conservative government would renegotiate Labour's deal, which allowed GPs to abandon responsibility for out-of-hours care while taking an average pay rise of 30 per cent.
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Give control to GPs, Tories urge - BBC Health News 29th September 2007
Women who watch their weight and exercise several times a week could slash the risk of developing breast cancer by nearly 40 per cent, doctors will reveal this week. # The Telegraph's health pages and hospital guide Experts have concluded that a package of preventive measures, which includes losing weight, cutting back on alcohol and taking at least three hours' exercise a week, could save thousands of lives every year.
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Action call on 'cancer lifestyle' - BBC Health News 29th September 2007
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Dame Helen Mirren is comfortable enough with her body to have bared much of it on stage and screen over several decades. But the veteran actress has joined the attack on the use of "horrifically thin" young models in the fashion industry, saying it is jeopardising the health of teenage girls.
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Marks and Spencer is to launch pyjamas designed to protect hospital patients from the MRSA superbug. The retailer says the "Sleep Safe" nightwear comes in response to customers' concerns, after tests showed that pyjamas containing silver thread can reduce the spread of hospital infections.
A Channel 4 reality show on bringing up babies has come under attack for presenting advice known to put infants' lives at risk. The TV watchdog, Ofcom, has received more than 250 complaints after Bringing Up Baby repeated advice known to increase risk of cot death, with no warning that it contradicted government recommendations.
The Government must do more to recognise the contribution of carers who, says Alison Steed, are saving the NHS from catastrophic overload and get next to nothing Britain's 6m unpaid carers provide support to their families and friends worth a staggering £87bn a year, according to Carers UK, more than the £82bn spent in total on the National Health Service (NHS) for 2006/07.
Poor diet, lack of exercise and an increase in alcohol abuse has led to steep rises in those suffering from lifestyle diseases in the past five years, according to official figures published yesterday. Levels of diabetes have more than doubled in that period, showed figures released by the Information Centre, a body responsible for NHS data. While the number of people with high blood pressure has risen by more than a third in five years — one in nine people now seeing their GP is suffering from high blood pressure.
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Obesity fuelling a 'diabetes epidemic' with 70,000 new cases in a year - Daily Mail 28th September 2007
But proceed with caution because power of attorney is changing, as Harriet Meyer reports Anyone arranging a "power of attorney" can use this agreement to reduce inheritance tax (IHT) liabilities if the individual concerned is unable to manage his or her own affairs.
Nina Grunfeld's 7 Steps to a Successful Life. 6: Avoid comparisons Sometimes we don't feel successful because we compare ourselves with others. Nina Grunfeld Nina Grunfeld This can be motivational in some situations, for example, reading Richard Branson's autobiography because you want to build a business like his, but often we compare ourselves with people in an unhelpful way: "How come he's famous and I'm not?"
With the impending implementation of the Mental Capacity Act (2005) I feel some concern as to the potential for human rights abuses that it allows, in particular over the withdrawal of fluids and nutrition based merely on hearsay and the delegation of power to consent or instruct withdrawal of nutrition to third parties.
A boy of 12 suffers from so many allergies that he is able to eat only five foods. Tyler Savage is violently ill every time he is given dishes containing dairy products or wheat, gluten, eggs, lactose and soya.
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Bedbug epidemic that's turning Great Britain into Great Bitten - Daily Mail 30th September 2007
An epidemic of bedbugs is sweeping the nation, fuelled by air travel and warmer summers. Infestations have soared 500 per cent in the last two years, according to pest control experts.
Nearly half of packed school lunches did not contain any fruit, a survey has found. But of the 1,300 pupils aged eight and nine in the survey, 68 per cent had a cake or biscuit in their lunch box and 12 per cent had sweets. A sandwich was found in 85 per cent of packed lunches, with 37 per cent of those made from two slices of standard white bread.
Do-it-yourself breath test machines have been installed at car parks so drivers can check if they are over the drink limit before they get behind the wheel. Drivers blow into a plastic pipe until prompted to stop and seconds later a reading flashes on a screen, telling them whether they can legally drive. The Alcolizer machines use the same technology as police breathalysers.
A mother who lost her child at birth has won £30,000 compensation after a GP failed to advise her to take folic acid to cut the risk of her baby developing defects. In one of the first cases of its kind, Jill Fox was awarded damages out of court following a civil case for clinical negligence against her doctor.
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A patient is suing a hospital for £200,000 claiming an operation to cure blushing has ruined his sex life. Fitness instructor James Woodward, 32, underwent two courses of laser treatment at The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex, to stop his cheeks from going red.
The majority of people under 65 in flu 'at risk groups' are not protecting themselves, according to the Department of Health. Last year, 58 per cent of those at risk, with conditions such as asthma and diabetes, did not get inoculated. This left more than two million vulnerable to the effects of the virus. The figures were highlighted as the Government launched a major new
campaign to ensure those most at risk from flu are vaccinated.
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A pioneering new treatment which could help thousands of multiple sclerosis suffers "recover" from the incurable disease is being trialled for the first time at a British hospital. The patients will be injected with bone marrow stem cells, which researchers hope will repair damaged areas of the brain and spinal cord and "reverse" their physical decline.
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The legal minimum age at which tobacco can be bought in England, Scotland and Wales has gone up from 16 to 18. The government hopes the move will reduce the number of young people who smoke and make it easier for retailers to spot under-age smokers.
A daily dose of dark chocolate may help reduce the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, say UK researchers. Patients in a pilot study found they had less fatigue when eating dark chocolate with a high cocoa content than with white chocolate dyed brown.
The damage caused by heart disease may make the organ cope better with the dangers of surgery, say researchers. Mice with symptoms of heart disease were found to be more resistant to the damage caused by cardiac surgery, which involves stopping the heart itself.
Robert Burns is very used to hospitals, not only does he work in one, but he also has a heart condition. Robert was born with a congenital heart condition, which required open heart surgery and left him with heart rhythm problems since the age of two months old.
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The number of people living beyond 100 years has reached a record high in England and Wales, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics says there are now 9,000 "centenarians" - a 90-fold increase since 1911.
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When Helen Savage lost her first baby at 39 weeks she and her entire family were devastated. Little Samuel was to have been the first grand-child on either side of the family and his arrival was very much anticipated. But just a week before being born he had died from Group B streptococcus - one woman in four carries this bacteria in her vagina, although she may have no symptoms and be unaware it is there.
The mother of an 11-year-old schoolboy is teaching him at home - because he has a nut allergy and his new school planned to segregate him for safety. George Hall-Lambert has a nut contact allergy and can self-medicate in some circumstances.
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Two orders of Irish nuns have been pitted against each other in a struggle over that new secular obsession of 21st-century Ireland: property. The Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Mercy are arguing over control of a hospital car park and plans by one of Ireland's richest and most devout Catholic businessmen, Noel Smyth, to build luxury flats on the prime spot overlooking Dublin Bay.
A schoolgirl who nearly provoked a constitutional crisis in the Irish Republic four months ago by demanding the right to travel to England for an abortion is pregnant again.
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Stress at work 'can increase breast cancer risk by a third' - Daily Mail 30th September 2007
Women who feel stressed at work could be at a dramatically increased risk of developing breast cancer, a study suggests. It found women in demanding jobs are 30 per cent more likely to develop the disease than those who feel on top of their work.
A nasal spray packed with viruses could ease the devastating symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The treatment improved memory and learning in mice with a disease similar to Alzheimer's.
Scientists say it may be possible to use a breath test to monitor blood sugar levels in people with diabetes. US researchers have discovered people with type 1 diabetes exhale higher levels of methyl nitrates when their blood sugar levels are too high.
The US Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill to expand a children's health care insurance scheme, setting up a policy showdown with President Bush. Mr Bush has threatened to veto the bill which he argues takes the programme beyond its original purpose of insuring children from low-income families.
The Health Ministry in the Democratic Republic of Congo has confirmed a further seven cases of the deadly Ebola virus, which now totals 24 known cases. More than 170 people in the West Kasai region have died of a haemorrhagic fever since April, but only six were confirmed as being from Ebola.
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Court puts on hold HIV decision - BBC Health News 28th September 2007
A court in India's Rajasthan state has put on hold a controversial decision by a lower court denying an HIV-positive woman the custody of her daughter. Last week, a court in Jaipur ruled that the mother was unfit to look after her nine-year-old girl on account of her HIV-positive status.
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THOUSANDS of workers at Liverpool City Council have been left vulnerable to illness and injury, it emerged last night. The Health and Safety Executive has issued the local authority with an official notice to improve its occupational health service for its 19,000 staff or face legal action.
A LIVERPOOL anti-tobacco youth group warned that the latest measures to stop young people buying tobacco did not go far enough. New legislation which came into force today makes it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone in England and Wales under the age of 18.
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Mersey campaign group: New smoking laws need to go further - Liverpool Daily Post 1st October 2007
TWO of Wirral’s Labour MPs are at loggerheads over plans for a “supersurgery”. Wirral Primary Care Trust wants to locate a doctors’ surgery on the former Warrens Nursery site, in West Wirral.
THOUSANDS of children at 350 schools across Merseyside will this week take part in a new campaign aimed at encouraging them to walk to school. Organisers hope the region-wide project will lead to reduced road congestion at school-run times and also help tackle the area’s youth obesity crisis.
THE chief executive of Merseyside’s biggest specialist heart hospital is to retire from the post after a decade. Mike Bone, who joined the Cardiothoracic Centre (CTC) Liverpool NHS Trust in 1997, announced yesterday that he will leave at the end of next month.
PLANS for a major health survey on Wirral were unveiled today. More than 5,000 homes across the borough will be contacted to get a picture of how people live.
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Condition check as new Southport health centre takes shape - Southport Visiter 28th September 2007
A NEW state-of-the-art healthcare facility for Southport is on track to open its doors to patients and members of the public in early 2008. The centre, on the corner of Church Street and Hoghton Street, will accommodate a wide range of services over three floors, closer to people in the community.
THE public is being asked to help rid hospitals, care homes and nurseries of MRSA. NHS managers say they have good systems in place to combat health care-associated infections, but worry they are not always put into practice.
LOCAL people are being asked for their views about how sexual health services in Sefton could be improved. All responses gained by Sefton Primary Care Trust (PCT) will help shape a new and modernised sexual health service for the borough, currently being commissioned by the PCT. People are being invited to send in their comments up until the start of October.
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Brady's legal bid to die - Manchester Evening News 29th September 2007
MOORS murderer Ian Brady has started the first stage of a legal bid to be allowed to kill himself. Brady, 69, is applying to be moved out of a mental health unit to a conventional prison so he can starve himself to death.
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SCIENTISTS in Greater Manchester are developing a `wonderbra' which could detect the first signs of breast cancer. Researchers say a microwave antennae system woven into the fabric of the bra detects slight temperature changes in the breast - caused by early cancer cells - catching tumours before they develop and spread.
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'Smart bra' to detect breast cancer invention - The Bolton News 29th September 2007
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'Smart bra' to detect breast cancer invention - The Bolton News 29th September 2007
MOORS murderer Ian Brady has started the first stage of a legal bid to be allowed to kill himself. Brady, 69, is applying to be moved out of a mental health unit to a conventional prison so he can starve himself to death.
HOSPITAL bosses are failing to tackle superbugs, according to the latest statistics. By the end of August, there had been 25 cases of MRSA at the Royal Bolton Hospital, already exceeding the annual target of 15 set for the hospital by the Government.
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The support that is available for people caring for relatives at home is to come under the microscope. It is estimated that there are 28,000 such carers. Bolton Council now plans to give
them a chance to share their experiences and identify needs to help to develop support services.
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them a chance to share their experiences and identify needs to help to develop support services.
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SOME patients have been transferred to Fairfield Hospital from Rochdale Infirmary after cockroaches were discovered in the maternity unit.
THE North West Ambulance Service is committed to "taking healthcare to patients and patients to healthcare", according to trust chairman, Mary Whyham. Speaking at the Trust's first annual general meeting this week, Ms Whyham praised staff's dedication and commitment to patients and spoke about a clear statement of purpose and focused strategic aims that will establish a clear direction of travel for the organisation.
James Purnell, the culture secretary, is a quite remarkable man. He is a little like those extraordinary particles you read about in quantum physics, capable of being in two places simultaneously. A useful ability for a politician, especially one as ambitious as Purnell.
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NHS trust faked MP visit picture - BBC Health News 28th September 2007
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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