Friday, July 31, 2015
Ebola vaccine results 'remarkable'
Andy Burnham: ‘The party is hungry for something different’
You need energy, it is becoming increasingly clear, to fight for the Labour leadership. Accordingly, as Andy Burnham heads for an early train from Waterloo to Guildford, he fortifies himself with his campaign drink of choice, Green Goodness (ingredients include: celery; cucumber; spinach) and contemplates the vigour of the man whose surge in the polls poses a serious threat to his hopes of succeeding Ed Miliband: Jeremy Corbyn. “Jeremy is representing a break with politics,” Burnham says. “There are no soundbites, there is no script. It is that which I think people are finding very attractive.
Related: Andy Burnham: timid Labour would not be up to creating the NHS today
Related: Corbyn supporters risk return to Labour splits of 1980s, says Burnham
Related: Unison endorses Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leadership
Related: Andy Burnham will not vote against 'unsupportable' welfare bill
Continue reading...Noninvasive Stimulation Gets Legs Moving After Spinal Cord Injury
Clinton health care statement: Which medications is Hillary taking?
Thursday, July 30, 2015
HIV flushed out by cancer drug
Ok, so you think you're a 'real vampire'. Whose job is it to tell you you're not? | Matthew Beard
‘Real vampires’ sincerely think they must feed on others to survive. Should a therapist tell a vampire their self-identity is false? It’s not so obvious
“Real vampires” are people who think they must feed on the energies of others, either physically or psychically, for their own wellbeing. Feeding takes a variety of forms. Some will drink blood from consenting human donors, others will rely on physical contact. For some, being in a crowded room is enough to recharge their batteries.
What happens when a “real vampire” needs to get counselling, or go to a social worker? A recent study explores the barriers vampires must overcome when they come into contact with members of the “helping professions” – psychology, social work and so on.
Related: What to do if millions of Romanian vampires pitch camp at Marble Arch | Stewart Lee
In some sense, vampirism reveals the difficulties of human self-definition in a time of tolerance.
We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
Related: What is the meaning of the 'vampire graves' unearthed in Poland?
Continue reading...Knee Replacement May Ease Pain for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients
Medication may reduce injury risk for kids with ADHD
Prostate cancer twice as likely to kill black men as white men, study finds
Researchers say study suggests need to target black men for screening of prostate cancer, which is projected to become the UK’s most common cancer by 2030
Black men in England have twice the lifetime risk of both being diagnosed with – and dying from – prostate cancer compared with white men, according to a study by Public Health England and Prostate Cancer UK.
The research, published in the online journal BioMedicine on Thursday, also found that Asian men have about half the lifetime risk of being diagnosed with, and dying from, prostate cancer compared with white men in England.
Continue reading...Prostate cancer: Five types 'found'
13-year-old basketball player dies after collapsing on court
South-west of England tops list of best places to retire
Six of the top 20 counties in England and Wales for pensioner wellbeing are in the south-west, according to research, with Devon topping the league table
The warmer climate and rolling landscapes attract many older people to the south-west of England and for good reason, it seems, with the region being judged the best for a long, healthy and safe retirement.
Six of the top 20 counties in England and Wales, ranked according to pensioner wellbeing, are in the south-west, according to research, with Devon topping the league table, although Cornwall only manages 19th place.
New dying care guidelines proposed
2 dead after Legionnaires' disease outbreak hits New York City
The Guardian view on the new guidelines for end-of-life care | Editorial
Most of us only experience another person’s death close up a very few times. It is difficult to imagine in advance how our partner or parent will respond to the final days of life, nor how we will respond to them. Very few of us talk about death at all. That puts a particular burden on the doctors and nurses who care both for the dying and, indirectly, for their families.
When it was introduced in the 1990s, the Liverpool care pathway was intended to spread across the health service what had proved to be a successful way of managing the closing days of a life. It was supposed to ensure that as far as possible the dying were where they wanted to be, as comfortable as possible, with the minimum amount of intervention. It was supposed to create a space of a few hours or days where the patient and their family could say goodbye.
Continue reading...No target for most ambulance calls
Toddler without arms meets first-ever armless pilot
Autism Care Costs Could Hit $500 Billion by 2025: Study
Global population set to hit 9.7 billion people by 2050 despite fall in fertility
Predicted increase of 2.4 billion will complicate efforts to stamp out poverty, inequality and hunger and place further strain on health and education systems
Despite a continuing slowdown in the rate of population growth, it is “almost inevitable” that the number of people on the planet will rise from 7.3 billion today to 9.7 billion in 2050, according to the latest UN projections.
Ten years ago, the world population was growing by 1.24% annually; today, the percentage has dropped to 1.18% – or roughly another 83 million people a year. The overall growth rate, which peaked in the late 1960s, has been falling steadily since the 1970s.
Continue reading...Should you worry if you accidentally swallow an insect?
Social Life May Be Key to Suicide Prevention for Women
Coercing people with addiction problems into employment won’t work | Simon Wessely and Greg Smith
Few would dispute the gains arising for the individual, family and wider society of helping long-term unemployed people back to work. The links between unemployment and poor mental health including suicide are just about the strongest links known to psychiatry.
Details emerged on Wednesday of the review to be carried out by Dame Carol Black into how best to support those with long-term health conditions who are unemployed, yet could be helped to rejoin the world of work.
Related: Obese people and drug users who refuse treatment could have benefits cut
Far from reducing costs this is more likely to waste resources by forcing people into treatments that they don’t want
Continue reading...FDA approves stomach-filling balloon for weight loss
Scientists Suggest New Way to Predict Lung Cancer Risk
GlaxoSmithKline CEO: business stabilising despite China slowdown
Pharmaceutical company reported better than expected second-quarter results of £5.9bn, although Chinese sales fell 14%
The GlaxoSmithKline CEO, Sir Andrew Witty, said the Chinese drug market has slowed down dramatically over the past year but insisted that the drugmaker’s own business there is stabilising, as it unveiled second-quarter results that beat City expectations thanks to strong sales of new HIV drugs.
Witty also flagged up 40 new drugs and vaccines that are in mid- to late-stage development, half of which are expected to be on the market or filed for regulatory approval by 2020. He highlighted a new shingles vaccine, as well as treatments for chronic lung disease, severe asthma, anaemia and heart disease.
Related: GlaxoSmithKline to pay £297m fine over China bribery network
Related: First malaria vaccine given green light by European regulators
Continue reading...Skipping breakfast may be bad for diabetics
Drug May Ease Passage When Kidney Stone Strikes
In US, 8 million baby boomers go hungry amid health and economic challenges
According to a new study, millions of older Americans are turning to charity for food as they face unemployment, housing shortages and poor health
The baby boomer generation was supposed to be the one that slid into its twilight years with everything sorted out – health, financial stability and long life expectancy. But that may not be the case. According to a new study, boomers – defined by the authors as people between the ages of 50 and 64 – are facing a host of health and economic challenges.
The study, released last week by Feeding America – a nonprofit network of food banks – with funding from the AARP Foundation, a lobbying group for older adults, found that roughly 8 million baby boomers are going hungry and are turning to charity for food. According to the report, which surveyed 60,000 people, the main challenges fueling the crisis were unemployment, housing shortages and poor health.
Continue reading...Dodgers third baseman sent to ER with exploding leg pimple
Eight-year-old boy becomes youngest patient to receive double-hand transplant - video
Doctors concerned over uptick in women seeking mastectomies
FDA Approves 'Belly Balloon' Device for Weight Loss
$10m for remote healthcare unveiled in NT, four years after federal offer
Dialysis clinics and accommodation for remote renal patients who need to relocate for treatment will be funded over three years
A plan to spend $10m in federal funds on dialysis support services for remote-living Indigenous patients in the Northern Territory has been announced, four years after the money was offered.
Related: Charlie's story: life and death of the man forced to sleep rough while on dialysis
Continue reading...Iowa extends bird flu disaster proclamation through August
Taking St. John's Wort for Depression Carries Risks: Study
Autism in the workplace: 'Always thought you were a bit weird'
A late diagnosis of autism meant I struggled with the alien codes of small talk and office politics – until I started work at an autism charity
I was sitting in a doctor’s office, describing yet again how a day at work could be hell. I told him why sharing the same space, listening to my colleagues’ music/small talk/breathing drove me mad and why someone saying “good morning” could feel like a personal invasion. The doctor was new, young; he gave a nod of recognition and then he said something strange: “I think you may be autistic”.
He referred me to a psychiatrist who concurred: “Autism. 98% sure.” I did the requisite tests which confirmed the other 2%. No worries, the Australian psychiatrist assured me. “You’re one lucky bastard, Susan. You don’t have to fit in with anyone.”
Related: I'm autistic. When you assess my needs, this is what you must know
Related: 'After what I've been through, don't tell me I'm not autistic'
Continue reading...Tough Mudder runner nearly lost leg in freak mid-race injury, suit says
Health Highlights: July 29, 2015
Do the latest wave of health apps really improve patient care?
There are tens of thousands of health apps on the market but healthcare professionals remain cautious about the benefits they can offer
At the offer of a play on the iPad in the anaesthetics nurse’s hand, five-year-old William Deans instantly forgot his panic triggered by the sight of the operating theatre at Chelsea and Westminster hospital, calmly climbed onto the table and within a minute was being anaesthetised as he played a game chosen for him by the Relax anaesthetics app.
The effect of the electronic tablet loaded with personalised games was, according to his mother Rachel, “like magic” – in less than a minute the situation went from a question mark over whether William’s operation could proceed, to peaceful cooperation and a happy boy with an exciting story to tell at school about the successful operation on his trapped finger.
Related: The future of remote healthcare could be woven into your clothes
Related: Will new patient booking system be a cure for previous NHS tech failure?
Continue reading...My 99-year-old grandmother’s home and wellbeing gone in just five days | Clare Brown
My grandmother, Alice Platt, was a matchmaker in actor Ian McKellen’s life. She went to a Quaker school in Lancashire. Every year, old pupils would gather and reminisce. They called themselves The Old Scholars, an incongruous title as my grandmother remembers much sport but less learning. Walking together in the Lake District, an Old Scholar confided in her friend, my grandmother, that she’d had two marriage proposals. One from a widower. One from a bachelor, 40 years old. Should she marry the widower or the bachelor? The widower, my grandmother advised. She imagined that the bachelor would be set in his ways. The widower was McKellen’s dad.
My grandmother is 99 years old now and I think she might be the last of the Old Scholars alive. “I never lost a race,” she tells me of her school days. “No-one would believe me now!” she says, indicating her legs, both bandaged, fragile skin aflame, recovering from an infection. “Don’t get old,” she has told me many times.
I don’t know where I am. I don’t know why I’m here … I don't know what it is, but I feel all wrong
Continue reading...Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Maryland 8-year-old is youngest to receive double hand transplant
Dying care: New guidelines proposed
Tony Abbott wrong on coal being ‘good for humanity’, Oxfam report finds
Report says Australia must embrace renewables and coal exacts an ‘enormous toll’ on health, drives climate change and is ineffective in delivering electricity to world’s poor
Tony Abbott is mistaken in claiming coal is “good for humanity”, with the fossil fuel causing numerous health problems and ineffective in delivering electricity to the world’s poor compared with renewables, a new Oxfam report has found.
Related: For Tony Abbott, it's full steam ahead on coal, 'the foundation of prosperity'
Related: Tony Abbott says 'coal is good for humanity' while opening mine
Related: Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF
Continue reading...Caramel popcorn recalled for undeclared milk product
GP workloads 'put patients at risk'
End-of-life judgments shouldn't be made by one doctor, says new guidance
Health officials suggest new approach to treatment of the dying using teams of experts and closely involving families after failings of Liverpool Care Pathway
Judgments on when patients are reaching the end of their lives should be taken by a number of health experts rather than relying on the medical opinion of just one doctor, according to new guidance from health officials.
The draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) follow the abolition of the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway – a regime that recommended the withdrawal of treatment, food and water from some sedated patients in their final hours or days – which was phased out last year after a government-commissioned review found serious failings in how it was being implemented.
Continue reading...Deaths, Hospital Stays and Costs All Down Among U.S. Seniors
9-year-old sells handmade bracelets to raise $47G for friend with rare condition
Obese people and drug users who refuse treatment could have benefits cut
David Cameron launches review by Dame Carol Black of welfare for those with drug, alcohol or obesity problems
A full-scale review is to be launched into whether tens of thousands of obese people and those with drug and alcohol problems should be deprived of benefits unless they accept treatment.
A consultation paper launched on Wednesday for a review to be completed before the end of the year by Dame Carol Black admits strong ethical issues are at stake. But it also questions whether such people should continue to receive benefits if they refuse government-provided treatment.
Related: George Osborne’s assault on welfare must not go unchallenged | Polly Toynbee
Related: Cutting obese people’s benefits is bullying | Clare Allan
Continue reading...Skin cancer guidelines updated
Millions of Americans Reaping Benefits of Affordable Care Act: Study
GPs so overworked they risk causing harm, says head of profession
Dr Maureen Baker, chair of Royal College of GPs, recommends measures to relieve strain on NHS family doctors, whom she compares to overtired pilots
Britain’s GPs are so tired and overloaded that they are at risk of harming patients’ health by misdiagnosing illness or giving them the wrong drugs, the head of the profession has warned.
In a stark description of the potential consequences to patients’ safety of “GP fatigue”, Dr Maureen Baker says that “persistent and excessive workload” faced by family doctors puts them at the same risk of inadvertently causing harm or even death as overtired pilots or lorry drivers.
We have no strategies in place to reduce the risk of patient harm that might arise from having tired, overworked doctors
Related: Jeremy Hunt's seven-day plan for GP surgeries could cost NHS £3bn a year
Related: Tory plan for seven-day access to GPs branded 'cloud cuckoo land'
Continue reading...Recruiting foreign nurses 'expensive'
Houston nurse accused of scalding newborn with hot diaper
Doctors Perform First Double Hand Transplant in a Child
Man charged with posing as nurse in Aurukun faces further legal action
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency files more charges against 30-year-old Darwin man relating to allegations he pretended to be a registered nurse
A man facing more than 100 charges for allegedly pretending to be a nurse in a Cape York Indigenous community is facing legal action for lying about registration in Western Australia.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has filed 11 charges against Nicholas William Crawford in WA, relating to allegations he claimed to be a registered and qualified nurse.
Experimental MERS vaccine shows promise in animal studies
Anti-abortion activists rally across US as third video targets Planned Parenthood
Presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Ben Carson join protesters at US capitol calling for organization’s defunding – but poll suggests most Americans disagree
The group behind two anti-abortion videos targeting Planned Parenthood has released a third video, continuing a two-week campaign that has seen renewed calls to defund the healthcare organization as well as several state and congressional inquiries.
Planned Parenthood was forced on the defensive after the release of the first of three undercover videos two weeks ago showed an official with the organization discussing the legal but controversial practice of donating fetal tissue for medical research. The organization has forcefully and repeatedly denied that it profits from the practice, saying the videos have been heavily edited and taken out of context.
Related: The anti-Planned Parenthood videos fail to make a case against abortion | Scott Lemieux
Related: The Planned Parenthood 'sting' video's first casualty? Women with breast cancer | Kira Goldenberg
Continue reading...Jealousy Can Drive Some to Problem Drinking, Study Suggests
Instead of curbing drinking, college kids try to curb consequences
Texas man can eat, drink again after surgery corrects rare condition that caused drastic weight loss
Amnesty International says prostitution is a human right – but it's wrong
“If the organization endorses prostitution as a human right, it won’t be supporting the women who might have no choice, but rather the pimps and buyers of sex who have all the choice in the world”
Has Amnesty International been hijacked by proponents of the global sex trade? When the human rights nonprofit convenes its International Council Meeting next week in Dublin, delegates from around the world will be asked to vote on a proposal to recognize prostitution as a human right.
Amnesty is arguing that prostitution is a matter of free choice, a stance heavily promoted by the multibillion-dollar commercial sex industry. The group is putting forth the view that sex work is compatible with the principle of gender equality and nondiscrimination, as if it were a job like any other.
Related: Women's rights country by country - interactive
Related: Barack Obama in Kenya: 'no excuse' for treating women as second-class citizens
Related: Actors call on Amnesty to reject plans backing decriminalisation of sex trade
Continue reading...Weight at First Pregnancy Linked to Complications Next Time
Homeopathy could bosh the NHS budget – cartoon
Jeremy Corbyn once tweeted in support of homeopathy. What would widespread adoption mean for the NHS?
Poll: Your income is linked to how you drink
For Women, No Link Between Kidney Stones, Osteoporosis
Mosquito bite leaves man’s face severely swollen
Obama’s strong words for Kenya are welcome. But it’s too little, too late | Murithi Mutiga
The Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, usually bristles at any criticism of his government from the west. Since taking office in March 2013 – defying calls from Washington and London not to contest the presidency because he was facing charges at the international criminal court at the time – he has deepened ties with China while launching rhetorical attacks on what he calls western “imperial exploiter(s)”.
Yet Barack Obama, who came to Kenya last week with strong words on the need to battle corruption, empower women, respect gay rights and drop outdated practices such as female genital mutilation, was treated decidedly differently. His frank discussion of the problems that bedevil the country would ordinarily have drawn a hostile reception from the government and its supporters. Instead, his address to the nation at a sports arena on Sunday has been met with only gushing praise from broad sections of the public and media.
There are not too many places in the world the US president will visit and find so many children named Barack Obama.
Related: Barack Obama in Kenya: 'no excuse' for treating women as second-class citizens
Continue reading...Standing All Day at Work? It May Take Toll on Health
Tesco to stop selling lunchbox-size sugary Ribena and Capri-Sun
High-sugar drinks withdrawn over concerns about childhood obesity, but supermarket will still sell ‘no added sugar’ versions and larger bottles for adults
Sugary drinks designed for children’s school lunchboxes are to be withdrawn from sale at Tesco amid concern over childhood obesity.
From September, Tesco will stop selling pouches and cartons of high-sugar Ribena, Capri-Sun and Rubicon drinks that have been popular with parents, often marketed as “fun”, “perfect for on the go” and “your daily dose of Vitamin C”.
Related: ‘Take out the sugar and everything changes’: the lab on the food wars frontline
Related: Sugar should be no more than 5% of daily calories, say nutrition experts
Continue reading...Manchester patients test negative for Mers virus
A&E unit at Manchester Royal infirmary was closed for more than two hours on Monday over fears two patients could be infected with respiratory disease
Tests on two patients suspected of having the Middle East respiratory virus syndrome (Mers) have proved negative, Public Health England has said.
The A&E department at Manchester Royal infirmary was closed for more than two hours on Monday due to fears of a possible outbreak of the disease, which has killed at least 449 people globally since it was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Related: South Korea: Mers virus outbreak is over
Continue reading...Why is premenstrual syndrome still so badly understood? | Hannah Ewens
There’s a brilliant catch-all term to encompass female hormone-related physical maladies and emotional issues. It’s spouted by advertisers, joked about in pop culture, diagnosed by a weary doctor with a shrug and pharmaceutical companies claim they cure it. It’s convenient, PMS.
Strange then, that there are over 150 different symptoms of PMS from depression to backache to migraines, and still few answers about how and why these occur. Stranger still that the contraceptive pill or antidepressants are often the only solutions offered, with little explanation. How can there be this much vagueness and confusion over the female body in 2015?
Related: Luisa Dillner on the rise in women handed antidepressants for the symptoms of PMS
PMDD is depression, lethargy and feeling out of control between ovulation and the onset of your period
Continue reading...Five urban design mistakes that create unhealthy and inactive communities
Suburbia has long been plagued with bad architecture that discourages exercise, but similar mistakes are blighting neighbourhoods for city dwellers too
We all want to be fit, healthy and happy but the best intentions – whether it’s to jog to the shops, eat a balanced diet or strike a better work-life balance – can often elude us.
Related: The eight problems that plague new housing developments – in pictures
Continue reading...Awkward patients aren't to blame for GP workloads – we really are getting sicker
For every one who requests shoes, there are many more with conditions such as allergies, acne, depression and IBS which are on the rise
When patients attend GP surgeries after just one day of ill-health or an ill-informed session with Dr Google, it’s easy to assume that the blame for the seemingly ceaseless demand for appointments lies with them. But for every patient who comes requesting energy-boosting pills, or even glasses and shoes, there are dozens whose decision to visit their GP is both appropriate and necessary. While undoubtedly there are many patients who seek help without trying self-care, there is a better explanation for the rise in demand for appointments – that people are getting sicker.
Related: Wasting GPs' time: 'No, I can't prescribe you new shoes'
Continue reading...Very premature or underweight babies at risk of being neurotic adults – study
Researchers say those born weighing less than 1,500g or before 32 weeks of pregnancy are more likely to grow up introverted and risk-averse
Children who were born very prematurely or were very underweight at birth are at risk of growing up to become introverted, neurotic and risk-averse adults, according to a new study.
The researchers, publishing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, part of the BMJ group, say that adults born with very low birth weight are more likely to have what they describe as a “socially withdrawn personality”. They are easily worried, less socially engaged, less interested in risk-taking, and more rigid and poorer in communication. Their findings, they say, may explain why people born early or underweight are more likely to have difficulties in their career and relationships.
Continue reading...Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Dialysis Patients May Be Unprepared for Natural Disasters
What’s the best age for kids to have smartphones?
Reports of cancer among Guantánamo personnel prompt US navy investigation
Complaint calls for carcinogen tests amid concerns of a cancer cluster after seven civilians and members of the military are said to have been diagnosed
The US navy is investigating a complaint that seeks the evacuation of civilian and military lawyers from parts of the US base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, following reports of cancer cases among personnel working on the trials of detainees there.
At least seven civilians and military members who worked on detainee trials at Guantánamo Bay have been diagnosed with cancer, according to the complaint, which was filed with the Defense Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The complaint calls on American military officials to remove personnel from court facilities on the base and test them and the base itself for carcinogens.
Continue reading...Blowing balloons 'treats glue ear'
CDC data says Montgomery most sexually diseased US city, group
Very premature or underweight babies risk becoming neurotic adults – study
Researchers say such babies, born weighing less than 1,500g or before 32 weeks of pregnancy, are more likely to grow into introverted and risk-averse adults
Children who were born very prematurely or were very underweight at birth are at risk of growing up to become introverted, neurotic and risk-averse adults, according to a new study.
The researchers, publishing in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, part of the BMJ group, say that adults born with very low birth weight are more likely to have what they describe as a “socially withdrawn personality”. They are easily worried, less socially engaged, less interested in risk-taking, and more rigid and poorer in communication. Their findings, they say, may explain why people born early or underweight are more likely to have difficulties in their career and relationships.
Continue reading...New Moms Often Get Poor Advice on Baby Care: Study
Living Wage 'could harm home care'
Tiny 'cellular lasers' could aid targeted cancer treatments
The police’s unenviable role in austerity Britain | Letters
Giles Fraser’s article about how the police have become the social service of last resort – and in particular a substitute mental healthcare service – would be laughable if it wasn’t true (Loose canon, 25 July).
Reductions in the provision of care for vulnerable people with mental health problems means that police are now called on to deal with incidents involving people having mental health problems that are only peripheral to crime and have no connections with organised crime or terrorism, but are usually public order or personal behavioural problems.
Related: The police, like vicars, are now the social service of last resort | Giles Fraser: Loose canon
Continue reading...Teens Using E-Cigs More Prone to Take Up Smoking: Study
Are Hospitals Overusing Neonatal Intensive Care?
Cuts to UK mental health services are destroying young lives and families | Mark Austin
£80m has been cut from the NHS mental health budget for children and adolescents in the past four years, including £35m in the last year alone
I went to the funeral of a friend who took her own life last week. She was a beautiful, horse-loving, vivacious mother of two wonderful daughters. One of them, just 15, stood up in the church to speak. She spoke of the mum she loved, the mum she would desperately miss. And then she said this: “We know there was a darker side to her. And nobody has to become wholly dark for them to be tipped over the edge.
Related: A&E staff attitudes to patients in mental health crisis ‘often shocking’
We met a 22-year-old girl with mental health problems forced to spend a night in a cell because there were no beds
Continue reading...High Blood Sugar May Boost Alzheimer's Risk
Radiography students in hospitals tell stories that make me want to weep
In the NHS, students are at the bottom of the pile with little voice. It’s time the health service acknowledged that they can help improve services
I am a diagnostic radiographer; one of the allied health professions often forgotten by the public and media in a world where the NHS seems to consist of only doctors and nurses. Diagnostic radiographers often see tens, if not hundreds, of new patients each day. We get very little time with our patients; it can take as little as two minutes to complete a chest x-ray. During this time, we are expected to build a relationship of trust with our patient to enable us to get the best possible image while ensuring that the patient is cared for. It is a difficult balance to achieve but one that is vitally important. That two minute x-ray could be a life changing event; something that is easy to forget when you are x-raying the chests of over 100 people each day.
Related: I loved being a midwife but bullying, stress and fear made me resign
Continue reading...When crossword clues clash with the Guardian style guide | Chris Elliott: Open door
There are few groups of readers more passionately committed to their patch of the Guardian than the devotees of the crosswords, both quick and cryptic. If the puzzles are just a few minutes late in going up on the paper’s website – normally around midnight every day – the puzzlers are swift to complain, increasingly from abroad, where the crosswords’ audience is growing.
Any error will provoke a stream of emails and telephone calls to the readers’ editor’s office within hours of being spotted. People love to wrestle with the teasing, subtle language of the clues. However, sometimes readers find that language jars, especially when the setter’s clues rely on an aspect of physical or mental health.
Related: When the Royal Cripples hospital became the Royal Orthopaedic we didn’t bin our sticksl | Letters
Continue reading...Monday, July 27, 2015
Suspected Mers virus shuts A&E unit
Study finds disobedient kids earn more money as adults
Patient data must be safeguarded | Letters
The effective use of patient data is of critical importance to improving healthcare delivery, service design and medical research in the NHS. Your story (PM plans patient data grab in proposals for seven-day NHS, 22 July) highlights the critical need for clearly defined and robust governance processes to give patients confidence that their data is being respected. We are concerned that this incident, as reported, suggests that vital lessons from the care.data fiasco have not yet been learned.
The Department of Health, the NHS and the HSCIC must ensure there are transparent and proportionate procedures in place to safeguard data and control access. There must be absolute clarity about how data can be accessed, by whom and for what purposes. While risks to privacy can never be entirely eliminated, they must be effectively reduced and managed.
Continue reading...Many Young Cancer Patients Unaware of Fertility Preservation Options
South Korea declares 'end' to Mers
Some serious drug side effects not told to FDA within 15 days
When the Royal Cripples hospital became the Royal Orthopaedic we didn’t bin our sticksl | Letters
When I was a lad I, together with other sufferers from various disabilities and deformities, attended the Royal Cripples hospital here in Birmingham (When Crossword clues clash with the Guardian style guide, 27 July). At some juncture in the 1970s the name was changed to the Royal Orthopaedic hospital. How we rejoiced, we rose from our beds and walked, we binned our sticks and crutches. No, we didn’t, it made not the slightest difference to us but it no doubt pleased some obscure NHS official who felt he had achieved something towards alleviating suffering (no doubt at some expense in changing noticeboards and letter headings). All the style guides in the world don’t help sufferers, they only make bystanders feel better.
John Hurdley
Birmingham
Health Highlights: July 27, 2015
Dangers of formaldehyde lurk in everyday products
Transphobia to be targeted as MPs review transgender equality
Discrimination and challenges faced by UK trans people to be investigated in areas including education, health and criminal justice
A landmark parliamentary inquiry into transgender equality in the UK has been launched in order to assess levels of transphobia, access to NHS services and issues affecting trans youth.
Related: 'Support trans students – we shouldn't have to drop out for being who we are'
More work needs to be done on order to achieve greater equality for trans people in the UK
Related: My interview for Cleo magazine and why I did it
Continue reading...You don't actually need to drink 8 glasses of water a day
Topshop ditches unrealistically thin mannequin after slating from customer
Laura Berry had accused the retailer of a ‘lack of concern for body conscious youth’ after posting photo of the offending mannequin on Facebook
Topshop has said it is halting new orders of an unrealistically tall and thin mannequin after a customer complained that it was “ridiculously shaped”.
Laura Berry addressed the company directly on Facebook, accusing it of encouraging young women to aspire to a “cult image”.
Related: Are Topshop's mannequins too skinny?
Continue reading...Boys, girls have unique difference from moment of birth
Manchester Royal Infirmary reopens A&E amid suspected Mers outbreak
Hospital trust says ‘no significant risk to public health’ as two patients are isolated, suspected to be suffering from respiratory virus
The accident and emergency department at Manchester’s main hospital was closed for more than two hours on Monday afternoon after two patients were suspected to be suffering from Middle Eastern respiratory virus syndrome (Mers), a deadly viral respiratory disease caught from camels.
Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) reopened after both patients were isolated for ongoing clinical treatment and management of their condition, Central Manchester University hospitals NHS foundation trust said.
Continue reading...Nasal Balloon Can Treat Youngsters for 'Glue Ear'
UK says investigating two suspected MERS cases in northern England
How will the delay of the cap on care costs affect you?
With Jeremy Hunt facing questioning by the health select committee, tell us what you think about the four-year delay of the cap
The delay of the cap on care costs until 2020 was announced more than a week ago, but the story was given new life on Sunday when the Observer reported that the U-turn had cost taxpayers between £50m–£100m.
Related: Care costs cap delay: government urged to resolve funding crisis
Continue reading...Drug Makers May Delay Reporting Patient Harms to FDA: Study
Testosterone fails to help with ejaculation problems
Governor general calls for new approaches to address suicide rate
Suicide is leading cause of death of Australians under 44, Sir Peter Cosgrove tells a suicide prevention conference in Hobart and there are no easy answers
The governor general, Sir Peter Cosgrove, has urged governments and researchers to come up with new and creative approaches to stop the 2,500 suicides around the country every year.
Opening the National Suicide Prevention Conference in Hobart on Monday, Cosgrove said Australia’s suicide rate was “not a situation that any society can tolerate”.
Related: Life expectancy for Australian men rose by six years since 1990, study finds
Continue reading...Germany culls 10,000 hens after confirmed bird flu case
Sunday, July 26, 2015
11 ways to help your child adjust to a new baby
School's Out, Fattening Behaviors Are In
Aboriginal people are disproportionately affected by hepatitis. We know why | #IndigenousX
In Hepatitis Awareness Week, @IndigenousX host Heather McCormack will be addressing the cycle that leads to high rates of viral hepatitis infection in Indigenous Australians and sharing materials to support them
It’s Hepatitis Awareness Week from 27 July to 2 August. In my role at Hepatitis NSW, I’ll be working to get the week’s three key messages across, particularly to Indigenous Australians.
When we talk about closing the gap, we often talk about very siloed ideas of what that means: there’s over-incarceration, the health gap and the education gap, for example. But viral hepatitis, and particularly hepatitis C, is one of those areas where it all links together in a horrible cycle that ends up disproportionately affecting Aboriginal people’s health.
Related: Charlie's story: life and death of the man forced to sleep rough while on dialysis
I cannot be any clearer that the easiest way to reduce hepatitis C transmission would be to introduce NSPs in prisons.
Related: If Aboriginal people are forced off their land, who will pass down the stories? | Kelly Briggs
Continue reading...One simple test to tell if you’re standing wrong
Almost half of EU doctors seeking work in UK failed to prove English skills
General Medical Council says 45% of those who applied in the past year did not give evidence of their language skills and were refused a licence to practise
Nearly half of all EU doctors who sought work in the UK in the past year were turned away because they failed to prove their English was good enough, the medical regulator has revealed.
In all, 779 doctors – 45% of those who applied – did not give evidence of their language skills to the General Medical Council (GMC), and were therefore refused a licence to practice, between 25 June 2014 and 6 July this year.
The fact that we can now check on doctors coming to the UK from elsewhere in Europe is proving effective
If you can’t communicate with your patients, you can’t function as a doctor
Continue reading...A year later: Hero doc reflects on surviving Ebola
More pupils try 'vaping' than smoking
‘Stopping my lifesaving drug will be my end,’ says woman with rare illness
Sarah Long, oldest survivor of Morquio syndrome, pleads for NHS to provide expensive drug to treat condition
Every day Sarah Long becomes weaker. She cannot sleep for more than an hour at a time, loses concentration and struggles to speak.
“I don’t have much longer,” she says with a remarkable lack of self-pity. At 44, she is by far the oldest person to have Morquio syndrome, an extremely rare degenerative impairment, caused by missing enzymes, that has stopped her from growing since the age of six.
Continue reading...UK relaxes Ebola screening measures
1 in 3 Colon Cancers in Young People Has Genetic Link
Scientists warn that new drugs will require earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s
Announcement about success of solanezumab leads to calls for improved testing to identify those who would benefit from slowing of mental decline
Major improvements must be made in techniques for identifying future Alzheimer’s disease patients if medicine is to take advantage of drugs that could inhibit or halt their mental decline.
This warning was made last week by several senior scientists after the announcement by the pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly that its drug, solanezumab, had been shown to stave off memory loss in patients with mild Alzheimer’s.
Related: John’s Campaign to transform dementia care is gaining powerful support | Nicci Gerrard
Related: The Observer view on dementia care | Observer editorial
Continue reading...Transgender Youth Don't Have Hormone Abnormalities
Protect abortion clinics from harassment, Jeremy Hunt urged
Dr Susie Orbach, Richard Dawkins and Diane Abbott MP among signatories to open letter demanding government action after protesters force closure of clinic
Britain’s health service is being “held hostage” by anti-abortion protesters who have forced the closure of one clinic and put another under threat, say campaigners.
In an open letter, a group of MPs, academics, health workers, authors and women’s rights campaigners have called on the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to protect NHS staff and services from “harassment”. Among the 30 signatories are Dr Susie Orbach, Richard Dawkins, Diane Abbott MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Baroness Gould, Kate Green MP and Dr Evan Harris.
Continue reading...Thinking style 'predicts music taste'
Diet pills website ‘should have been shut down’ a year before student’s death
The website believed to have sold diet pills to Eloise Parry, a 21-year-old student who died in April after taking eight of them, should have been shut down a year before her death.
Parry died on 12 April after taking a fatal dose of the pills, which contained 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP), an industrial chemical that promises a “quick fix” for rapid weight loss. The website believed to have been used by Parry, which cannot be named for legal reasons, has been shut down, but letters seen by the Observer reveal that concerns were first raised in May 2014, when the Canada-based website registrar, Tucows, was warned that a string of websites registered with the company were operating as illegal online pharmacies – including the site that was to be used by Parry.
Continue reading...John's Campaign – listing hospitals that welcome carers
The list is growing. Now more hospitals need to encourage carers to stay with their loved ones
John’s Campaign was launched in the Observer in November 2014 after the death of Dr John Gerrard. The aim of the campaign is to give the carers of those living with dementia the right to stay with them in hospital, in the same way that parents stay with their sick children – a campaign also supported by The Observer 50 years ago.
There is already good practice within individual hospitals and we celebrate this. Nevertheless, access to a vulnerable patient should not depend on geographical location or individual decisions. The list below will remain open until November 2016 and the campaign challenges all acute hospital trusts to make the small but significant commitment to ensure that they are included.
Continue reading...The Observer view on dementia care | Observer editorial
Last November, we carried a harrowing account by Nicci Gerrard, a long-standing Observer journalist and acclaimed novelist, of the decline endured by her father, John, who had Alzheimer’s, after he was admitted to hospital suffering from leg ulcers. She described how he entered the ward articulate and able, but emerged just weeks later a broken man. The problem she identified was not one of inadequate medical care. On the contrary, his treatment by doctors and nurses was exemplary; they healed his infection and cared for him with kindness and respect.
Instead, she believes, the terrible descent she chronicled during his five-week stay in hospital into incoherence, incontinence and bewilderment happened because he was deprived of the support that his family and friends could provide by regulations preventing them visiting whenever they wanted – and needed – to be by his side. The response she received was powerful and showed that her experience was typical of that of thousands more.
Continue reading...Oliver Sacks, who has taught us so much, now teaches us the art of dying | Ranjana Srivastava
Death is never easy. But Oliver Sacks shows us an approach that views life as a welcome gift rather than bemoaning death as a medical failure
Like millions of readers I had a lump in my throat as I read Oliver Sacks reveal his diagnosis of terminal cancer earlier this year. Every doctor aspires to be a little like Sacks whether for his sharp intellect, his obvious humanity or his exquisite writings that go to the core of what it means to be human and frail.
In February he calmly declared that metastatic melanoma affecting his liver meant that his luck had run out. I found it hard to share his calm but then like the genial, grandfather-figure he is, he reassured us, oncologists and all, that he still felt intensely alive, wanting to “deepen my friendships, to write more, to achieve new levels of understanding and insight.”
Related: On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks review – road stories of an uneasy rider
Patients who can get even part of the way to acknowledging their mortality ultimately do themselves an untold favour.
Related: Cancer may be the best way to die but it doesn't have to be | Ranjana Srivastava
Continue reading...Sydney hotel shut down for 72 hours for second time over alleged drug dealing
The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville has been closed down again after authorities claimed to have detected illicit drug use and multiple intoxicated patrons
A hotel in Sydney’s inner west has been dealt a second closure order in just over a month due to continuing concerns about drug use and intoxicated patrons.
The Imperial Hotel in Erskineville was served the 72-hour closure order, which will prevent it from opening over the weekend, at 7pm on Friday.
Related: Assaults in Kings Cross and Sydney CBD drop after year of liquor law reforms
Continue reading...Saturday, July 25, 2015
Branch impales cyclist's neck after mishap — and he survives
Charlie's story: life and death of the man forced to sleep rough while on dialysis
Frustrated with the life his illness had forced on him, he decided to visit family in Broome. Unfortunately, he never accessed dialysis at the town’s busy clinic
Kwementyaye Charlie, an Aboriginal man who Guardian Australia reported in February was forced to sleep rough while undergoing dialysis treatment in Alice Springs, has died in Broome.
Charlie was well-known, well-travelled and a talented artist. He was also a “cranky, charismatic and supersmart” man, who was frustrated with the life his illness had forced him into and often railed against the system that kept him alive but struggled to support him.
Related: Northern Territory moves to use $10m dialysis funding after years of delays
He was an extraordinary bloke. He was cranky and charismatic and supersmart. He knew what the deal was. He made choices.
Related: Dialysis patient forced to sleep rough in Alice Springs as funding cuts bite
The pull to continue to participate in family life often is a bigger pull than their physical health.
Continue reading...Malaria vaccine one step closer
New Gene Test Speeds Diagnosis of Stomach Bug That Strikes Kids
FDA approves Sanofi/Regeneron cholesterol drug with limits
Judge bans father taking daughters to Nigeria for female genital mutilation
Court issues protection order preventing three sisters, aged six to 12, from being taken out of UK after mother testifies she has ‘never recovered’ from FGM herself
Three sisters whose father was deemed to be preparing to have them undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) have been made the subject of a new-style protection order aimed at stopping the practice.
The mother of the three girls, aged six, nine and 12, submitted evidence to the family division of the high court in London that the children’s father had been putting pressure on her to have the procedure performed on their daughters. Both parents are Nigerian.
Related: FGM affects females in every local authority in England and Wales - study
Related: Millions of women risk female genital mutilation. Will Obama defend them? | Jaha Dukureh
Continue reading...FDA Wants to Strengthen Sugar Labeling
Jeremy Hunt's seven-day plan for GP surgeries could cost NHS £3bn a year
Medical helpline calculated conservative estimate of £500,000 for a typical practice but PM said 18 million will have evening and weekend access by 2016
Keeping a typical GP surgery open on weekends would cost an extra £500,000 a year, according to a report, which raises questions about the feasibility of health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s plans for a seven-day NHS.
If extended to England’s 8,000 practices, the analysis, based on “a typical English GP surgery in the home counties”, suggests the NHS could be left with a bill exceeding £3bn.
Related: NHS waiting times for elective surgery spiked last year, report finds
Continue reading...Playing it safe: Signs of concussions in kids
Medical Marijuana May Pose Risk to Teens, Study Suggests
Vulnerable populations often miss cancer warning signs
Middle-class drinking? It’s one of my favourite things | Christina Patterson
Last night I was fully clothed. My dress didn’t ride up and expose half my bottom, probably because I was wearing jeans. I didn’t slump on a pavement, looking as if I was about to pass out, but then I was sitting in a chair. I didn’t throw up over my friend’s handbag, and I didn’t feel the world spinning. But I did have a drink. I had two big glasses of rioja and an Aperol spritz. If you haven’t tried it, you must. It’s a mix of prosecco and an aperitif made with orange, gentian and rhubarb, and it’s delicious.
I’m glad not to have been on the front pages of yesterday’s papers, but if they had wanted to illustrate the latest threat to the NHS, they might just as well have snapped me. They would have caught me sitting in my friend’s kitchen, chatting away to her nieces and nephews over baked risotto, Nigella’s flourless chocolate cake and fruit salad. Oh, and sipping Aperol spritz. Delicious, delicious Aperol spritz. And having a really lovely time.
Related: Harmful drinking among middle-class over-50s is a 'hidden phenomenon'
14 units of alcohol – you can get through that in a couple of nights. What are you supposed to do for the other five?
Continue reading...High School Band Classes May Boost Teen Brains
New Jersey boy diagnosed with incurable genetic disorder in 'fight of his life'
Millions of women risk female genital mutilation. Will Obama defend them? | Jaha Dukureh
The US president could use his Africa trip to play a historic role in the fight to eliminate FGM if he chooses to
The return of a son of the diaspora to his ancestral homeland is always an emotional moment, even more so if this returned son is the first African-American President of the United States. That makes President Obama’s visit to Kenya and Ethiopia an important and inspirational occasion for Africans.
But President Obama is also visiting a region of Africa with enormous problems and one in particular that receives sparse attention from his administration: female genital mutilation (FGM). This barbaric practice is destroying the lives of millions of girls in both Kenya and Ethiopia and 25 other countries in Africa. More than one in four girls in Kenya are subjected to FGM; in Ethiopia it is three out of four girls who are mutilated.
Continue reading...FDA approves Novartis's advanced skin cancer drug
NHS waiting times for elective surgery spiked last year, report finds
Patients Association says 50,000 people waited longer than 18 weeks for one of seven key procedures, with some delays longer now than in 2010
Delays faced by patients for common forms of surgery increased sharply last year, with those referred for hernia repairs or removal of cataracts, tonsils or adenoids now waiting about a month longer than in 2010, NHS statistics show.
The waiting time for seven key procedures in England now ranges from 91 days, for gallstone removal, to 107 days, for a knee replacement. In just a year, the average waiting time for cataracts removal rose by a third (24 days) compared with 2013.
Continue reading...Dementia Risk May Be Dropping With Generations
Pet carriers, crates may harm pets, passengers in vehicles, crash tests suggest
Nigeria marks a year without polio, with hopes high for eradication from Africa
With Nigeria having reached 12-month milestone, Africa will have gone a full year without polio unless Somalia reports a case within the next month
Nigeria marked its first year without a single case of polio on Friday, reaching a milestone many experts had thought would elude it as internal conflict hampered the battle against the disease.
It means Nigeria could come off the list of countries where polio is endemic in a few weeks, once the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirms that the last few samples taken from people in previously affected areas are free from the virus.
Continue reading...FDA proposes putting percent daily value of added sugar on food labels
India’s skin-whitening creams highlight a complex over darker complexions
She is sitting in Coffee Day, a favourite spot for Mumbai high school students. “You OK, Nina?”, her friends ask as they arrive. They sit down laughing and order iced coffee and doughnuts. Next door, the Eros cinema is showing R... Rajkumar. Its stars, Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, are good-looking, happy and in love. Both are fair-skinned.
Nina is darker, not really black. “One of my aunts keeps offering to apply whitening lotion,” she says.
Related: India's unfair obsession with lighter skin
Continue reading...Funding crisis puts India's AIDS program, and lives, at risk
Experience: I can’t stop sweating
My mum can remember me having very sweaty feet even as a baby, but it wasn’t until I turned 26 that I discovered I had an actual medical condition that means that I sweat excessively. In school I drenched exercise books with my palms and I was so embarrassed about my constant underarm patches that I would always wear a blazer, even on sunny days. Eventually my mum sensed something was wrong and took me to see a couple of doctors who both said I would grow out of it. But I didn’t; I spent most of my time at school keeping myself to myself.
I had no words for my condition until 19 years ago, when I saw a documentary on TV about a girl who had a condition called hyperhidrosis. Like me, she couldn’t turn doorknobs or open jars as she had no grip. She was having an operation called an ETS (endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy), where they burn the nerve endings in your armpits and back. I went straight to my GP and asked for the same thing.
Continue reading...Why this 560-pound man decided to bike across America
First malaria vaccine given green light by European regulators
European Medicines Agency recommends RTS,S, or Mosquirix, developed by GSK and backed by Gates Foundation, for use in young children in Africa
The world’s first malaria vaccine has been given the green light by European regulators and could protect millions of children in sub-Saharan Africa from the life-threatening disease.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended that RTS,S, or Mosquirix, should be licensed for use in young children in Africa who are at risk of the mosquito-borne disease. The shot has been developed by Britain’s biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and part-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It has taken 30 years to develop vaccine, at a cost of more than $565m (£364m) to date.
Continue reading...Northern Ireland abortion ban endangers women's lives, says UN
UN sharply critical of near-total ban, while Amnesty International says province is ‘global embarrassment’ in terms of rights of women and girls
The United Nations has denounced Northern Ireland’s ban on most abortions.
In a critical report on the province’s abortion policy released on Friday, the UN’s human rights committee said the severe restrictions on terminations were putting Northern Irish women’s lives at risk.
Continue reading...Indian court denies late abortion to girl, 14, allegedly raped by doctor
Judge in Gujarat rejects father’s petition for termination, saying unborn child could not be blamed for trauma of young mother
An Indian court has denied a 14-year-old girl a late-term abortion after she was allegedly raped by a doctor in the western state of Gujarat, said the victim’s lawyer.
In a decision that emerged on Friday, the Gujarat high court rejected a petition filed by the girl’s father, saying India’s abortion law does not allow termination of pregnancy after 20 weeks. The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is more than five months pregnant.
Continue reading...Talk to your children about body image – it’s not worth dying for | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Eloise Parry took illegal diet pills in pursuit of an unachievable body image ideal, and it killed her. Society should tackle the problem at its root
“I think I’m going to die. No one is known to survive if they vomit after taking DNP. I’m so scared. I’m so sorry for being so stupid.” These were the words that 21-year-old Eloise Parry texted from hospital before she died after taking slimming pills that she had bought on the internet. The regret in her words serve to highlight the completely unnecessary and avoidable nature of her death. Another young woman’s life lost in pursuit of an unachievable body image ideal.
Related: How not to talk to people with an eating disorder | Charlotte Samantha
It can be difficult to understand a young woman’s motivation for recklessly consuming drugs bought online.
Continue reading...NHS's financial problems need one solution, not many
A collaborative approach is needed between local and national systems to ensure the NHS stays within its 2015-16 budget
The latest evidence, such as the King’s Fund Quarterly Monitoring Report (QMR) published last week, shows that the NHS faces a significantly more difficult challenge to stay within its budget this year than it did last year.
There are a number of possible responses from NHS frontline leaders to this problem. One would be, “The only way we can manage 2015-16 without the system crashing is for the government to inject more money and admit the current challenge is undeliverable”. Another might be, “Making the NHS numbers add up is a system level responsibility of the department of health and the arm’s length bodies, not ours”. A third would be, “We can only deliver by forgetting about everyone else and sorting out our own problems”.
Related: Who has the answer to the £22bn NHS funding question?
Related: David Nicholson: we need a new tax to fund the NHS
Continue reading...One challenge of being a female surgeon is patients presuming I'm a secretary
Only 10% of consultant surgeons are women, but the workforce is changing with more female trainees
As a surgical trainee in a hospital, my working day typically starts at 7.30am with a ward round of inpatients. We may have an elective theatre list – where we operate on patients having a planned operation to remove cancer of the bowel, for example – or a multi-disciplinary meeting where we discuss a patient’s management plan. If I’m on emergency cover, I will manage and investigate patients who are unwell and will operate in the emergency theatre. This may include patients who have been admitted to A&E needing an emergency operation to remove their appendix, or to repair a perforated bowel, or dealing with a patient who has trauma injuries caused by a car accident.
Related: The NHS needs more female leaders
Related: It’s time for female NHS leaders to unleash their power | Karen Castille
Continue reading...On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss review – an enthralling, deeply personal book
A mother’s concern for her newborn son led her to investigate the science and mythology of vaccination – with compelling results
When Eula Biss went into labour for the first time, she walked out from her Chicago home to watch the morning sun breaking up ice floes on Lake Michigan. During the long, difficult delivery of her son, she almost died: “I imagined myself swimming in the lake, which became, against my will, a lake of darkness and then a lake of fire and then a lake without a horizon.” A rare complication had occurred – a “uterine inversion” – triggering shock and a life-threatening haemorrhage. In the weeks following birth, the seismic adjustment all new parents have to make was made more difficult by anaemia, “delirious fatigue” and her suffocating new awareness of the fragility of life. She became prey to anxieties and paranoia, and would pass nights rocking her boy in a chair, soothing him through her insomnia.
Of the many dreads that pressed in on her the most prominent was that her son, in his perfection, would be polluted by contact with the world – she became frightened of contamination by manmade chemicals and vaccinations. But instead of giving in to those apprehensions, she set out on something remarkable: a journey to discover the truth about vaccines and inoculation. She read deeply into the history, mythology, sociology and the clinical science of immunisation and, to a lesser extent, toxicology. On Immunity is the result: an enthralling, deeply personal book that’s by turns lyrical and impassioned, lucid and enlightening – one woman’s journey to discover the best way forward for her son, herself and the communities of which we are all a part.
It’s odd to be concerned that vaccination is unnatural – after all, it’s natural to die in infancy
Related: The perils of parenthood with Eula Biss and Kate Hamer – books podcast
Continue reading...Thursday, July 23, 2015
Stroke drug is safe, says review
Cheap osteoporosis drug could prevent a sixth of breast cancer deaths
Study finds bisphosponates, which only cost 5p a day per patient, reduced risk of dying from breast cancer for postmenopausal women
A cheap and widely available drug used to treat osteoporosis could prevent a thousand breast cancer deaths a year, a study has found.
Researchers said that bisphosphonates, which are given to keep people’s bones healthy, prevented one in six breast cancer deaths in postmenopausal women over the course of a decade.
Related: Breast cancer hope as hormone shown to slow tumour growth
Related: Women are not always to blame for delayed breast cancer diagnosis | Joanna Moorhead
Related: 'We fish, laugh and eat': the breast cancer survivors learning how to fly-fish
Continue reading...Dr. Manny: The horrific female genital mutilation in the UK must be stopped
Stillbirths Now Outnumber Infant Deaths in U.S.
The Lego prosthetic arm that children can create and hack themselves
Carlos Arturo Torres has designed a modular system that lets kids programme their own prosthetics – and this is only the start of toy-based body parts
Children could soon see their favourite toy grafted on to the end of their arm, thanks to designs for Lego prosthetics that allow everything from mechanical diggers to laser-firing spaceships to be screwed on to the end of a child’s limb.
Iko is the work of the Chicago-based Colombian designer, Carlos Arturo Torres, and is a modular system that allows children to customise their own prosthetics with the ease of clicking together plastic bricks. The only limit is their imagination – and what they can find at the bottom of the Lego box.
Continue reading...