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If you’re looking for a health blog that isn’t afraid to educate and inform on taboo subjects along with more talked about health problems, then take a look at World of Health. This health guide covers news from areas such as medical research, fundraising for health charities, and treatments for complaints such as back problems. There are recipe ideas for a healthier diet, developments in the NHS and private healthcare, and health resources for different age groups. Dementia, cancer, diabetes, drug treatments, and vitamin pills, are all topics that could be blogged about here, but if you want to find out what else this health blog offers, you’ll just have to get reading!
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned 50 large hospitals providing Accident and Emergency services that they are putting patients at risk by not adhering to the basic care standards. The Labour party has responded to the news by instructing its MPs to attack David Cameron’s record on the NHS.
Some common scenes found during inspection are – nurses not responding to patients when they call for assistance (often because their call buttons have been put out of reach and they either bang something on a surface or shout out), staff being rude and patronising and doctors agreeing to putting DNR (do not resuscitate) on patients’ notes, without they or their relatives knowing.
In the wake of the scandal of Stafford Hospital, where up to 1,200 people died unnecessarily, the government has said it is beefing up the CQC – whose role has also been severely criticised – in an effort to do away with “sub-standard care in hospitals”. The coalition has also created a new post of Chief Inspector of Hospitals.
The CQC found that people were not getting the care they have a right to expect, so they gave the hospitals deadlines for improvement. They were constantly monitored and changed their approach to inspecting hospitals.
One of Labour’s shadow health ministers, Andrew Gwynne claims that his Ministry has repeatedly warned ministers about the crisis in A&E departments but they were never acted upon. This reaffirmed the fact that David Cameron could not be trusted with the NHS. Another shadow health minister Jamie Reed also reconfirms the same and continues with the blame game.
When used on its own, a commonly used test for diagnosis and treatment of angina can be flawed, a leading heart specialist claimed today. The condition, characterized by a painful tightening of the chest when a build-up of fatty substances blocks the blood supply to the heart, is diagnosed using coronary angiography.
In the “gold standard” method to detect angina, X-rays taken via tubes which are put in the wrist or groin to inject dye into the coronary arteries to highlight narrowing. Professor Nick Curzen, a consultant cardiologist at Southampton General Hospital, feels angiograms would be more accurate if combined with a pressure wire to assess the severity of blockages at the diagnostic stage.
Used in conjunction with angiography, the additional test, known as fractional flow reserve (FFR), allows doctors to choose the most appropriate management plan for their patients, which could be medical management, the insertion of a stent (angioplasty) or coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
The tiny wire, passed into individual major arteries to measure pressure within the vessel, gives a precise reading of whether blood flow is significantly restricted through the coronary artery, vital in deciding if the artery needs a stent or surgery.
In the study, Prof Curzen found more than a quarter (26%) of stable heart disease patients would have had the wrong treatment plan based on angiogram alone. The findings could be important because coronary artery disease is the most common cause of angina and heart attacks and responsible for 82,000 deaths in the UK every year.
As part of the project, cardiologists performed diagnostic angiograms on the patients, drew up their treatment plans based on the initial assessment. A second cardiologist carried out the pressure test in 26 percent of the 200 cases, the management plan changed after the cardiologist had seen the FFR information.
The EHIC is a medical card accepted by hospitals and clinics in the European Union as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
In the UK, healthcare is free with the National Health Service (NHS), however, this is not the case in a number of European states. This means that if you have an accident or need medical attention when travelling in mainland Europe, you will have to pay for treatment or services. With the EHIC card, some of those costs are absorbed, but what are you covered for?
Benefits of an EHIC
This card covers medical treatment you might need if you fall ill or have an accident during your visit to European countries. It also covers treatment for long-term conditions and existing illnesses. You can have access to state medical care but not private medical treatment with this card.
The EHIC card can help holidaymakers when faced with medical expense overseas, but it doesn’t replace single trip or holiday travel insurance cover.
This is because that the EHIC may not cover specific costs met under travel insurance policies including mountain rescue in ski resorts and the cost of repatriation.
Travel insurance also provides cover for a host of added extras such as luggage loss or cover if your holiday is unexpectedly cut short.
The EHIC was introduced in 2006 and was designed to replace the old E111. This card is valid for five years and can be renewed for free. You can get an EHIC cards free from the official website.
 A look at the biggest killer in the UK The biggest killer in the UK is cardiovascular disease and accounts for a third of all fatalities which are the results of illnesses such as heart disease and strokes. As the risk of developing it increases with age, researchers from Lancaster University have been carefully studying what changes take place in the cardiovascular system as we get older.
Blood flow, and various other cardiovascular signals, were recorded and then analysed from 200 people using methods taken from both mathematics and physics, and these revealed the subtle but nevertheless important changes that occur as we grow older.
Professor Aneta Stefanovska of the Physics Department said: “The heart does not beat regularly, but varies in a complicated way which is linked to the action of the lungs. The whole cardiovascular system – the heart, lungs, arteries, veins and peripheral system interacts to create a non-linear dynamical system. These oscillations of the cardiovascular system can tell us a lot about the state of a patient’s health.”
There are now plans to develop a routine diagnostic tool called an “endotheliometer” which measures activity within the endothelium, a layer of cells that coats the inside of every blood vessel in the body.
Professor Stefanovska said: “Endothelial function declines with age, and diseases such as heart failure and hypertension have associated endothelial dysfunction.
“We can use it to check that the state of ageing is within healthy limits and can try to prevent possible complications leading to serious impairment and cardiovascular disease.”
The eight-year project has been funded by EPSRC, Wellcome Trust and, most recently, by ESRC under its New Dynamics of Ageing programme. The research has led to several important discoveries about the ageing of the cardiovascular system including:
• the variability of the heart rate decreases with age and the heart becomes less and less able to coordinate its activity with the lungs
• the coordination between muscular movements in the heart and the vessel walls deteriorates with age
• the oscillations associated with endothelial activity contribute relatively less to blood flow regulation in older people.
Professor Stefanovska commented: “These results show that we now have methods in place to evaluate, not only the function of individual organs, but also the interactions that occur between them. These new methods promise to be particularly useful in evaluating the effect of drugs.”
Recent members of the team have included Professor Peter McClintock, Dr Alan Bernjak, Dr Jane Owen-Lynch and Mr Dmytro Iatsenko of Lancaster University together with consultant cardiologist Dr Peter Clarkson from the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
health and wellbeing authorities are putting millions at risk by undermining the dangers of diabetes. 20 boards’ health strategies and policies have been examined by Diabetes UK, and have been found to be wanting.
The CEO of diabetes UK, Baroness Barbara Young has said that the number of people afflicted by the condition is rising drastically, with little effort put out to prevent type 2. Massive NHS costs, premature deaths and sever complications arise from poor management of the condition in those who already have the condition.
There is a new treatment that reduces the damage done to myocardial tissue by heart attacks. The treatment will also help those who are in danger of developing heart complications in future.
MitoSNO, the new drug, will temporarily disable the functions of mitochondria, in myocardial cells, thereby preventing free-radical damage, when circulation is restored to the heart tissue.
MitoSNO has greatly reduced the amount of tissue damaged in the hearts of mice due to heart attacks, says the journal Nature Medicine. According to researcher Shannon Amoils, of the British Heart foundation, the drug will be part of the routine for treating people who have just suffered a myocardial infarction.
The treatment will stop people, who have survived a heart attack, from living with the debilitating and distressing stress of expecting further heart failure.
Journals are reporting about the benefits of stem cell therapy, for people who have been disabled by a recent stroke. Five in Nine victims of stroke have shown a mild-to-moderate improvement after stem cells were injected into their brain.
Some of the patients were able to move their fingers after they had spent several years without having any motility in them. Similarly others were able to walk for a distance without any assistance. The patients studied were all over 60 years of age and has suffered a stroke for periods ranging between 6 months and 5 years previously.
Men’s health is not only about training for a triathlon or building abs. All men should be aware of some conditions that usually affect women as they may be high risk for them as well.
In fact, according to experts tens of thousands of men find themselves affected every year by conditions that are generally thought of as more of a woman’s problem. The following conditions affect men in large numbers on an annual basis.
Male Breast Cancer
While this is still a fairly rare form of cancer, accounting for less than 1 percent of breast carcinomas, the incidences of it have increased significantly the last 26 years. According to the National Cancer Institute, it’s estimated that there will be 2,240 new cases of male breast cancer and 410 deaths from the disease in the United States this year.
“Male breast cancer is about 100 times less common than in women,” says Dr. Michael Cochran, an oncologist with Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill. “But it still occurs and we do see it. Men need to do periodic self-exams, and any unexplained lump should be evaluated. The majority of lumps in men are benign. Often a condition called gynecomastia—an enlargement of male breast tissue—can occur as a side effect to taking certain medications.”
Dr. Cochran also explains that the course of diagnosis and treatment for male breast cancer, as well as the stage-for-stage survival rates, are the same as with female breast cancer. “The approach to male breast cancer is the same—a mammogram and biopsy, and then similar courses of treatment if it is cancer. But we stress that the majority of male breast enlargements aren’t cancerous, but do need to be evaluated.”
Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is still viewed by many as a condition that is for women only, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2 percent of men age 50 and older suffer from osteoporosis of the hip. One in five men over the age of 50 will suffer an osteoporotic fracture during their lifetime, and men who sustain fractures have an increased mortality risk.
While women still suffer from osteoporosis in larger numbers, men need to be aware that as they age (and are living longer), they are at greater risk. Men in their fifties won’t experience the same rapid rate of bone loss that women do after menopause, but by age 70, men and women suffer bone mass loss at the same rate.
Unhealthy habits such as excessive drinking, smoking and lack of exercise all increase your risk of osteoporosis as you age. Regular exercise, making sure you’re getting enough calcium and vitamin D and talking to your doctor about medications you’re taking that might increase your risk of osteoporosis are all helpful steps in preventing it as you age.
Eating Disorders
According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, an estimated 10-15percent of people with anorexia or bulimia are male, and men are less likely to seek treatment for eating disorders because of the perception that they are “woman’s diseases.” That translates into roughly one million men suffering from an eating disorder in this country.
However, according to a study published online for the Journal of Treatment and Prevention, male weight and body image concerns differ from those of women in one key way: men generally don’t strive for thinness and are prone to have as much desire to gain weight as they are to lose it.
The National Eating Disorders Association offers these helpful tips in preventing eating disorders in men:
- Recognize that eating disorders don’t discriminate by gender
- Be aware of sports that may foster weight restriction (e.g., gymnastics, track, swimming, wrestling, rowing). These can put males at risk for developing eating disorders. Male wrestlers, for example, present with a higher rate of eating disorders than the general male population.
- Never emphasize body size or shape as an indication of a young man’s worth or identity as a man
- Address the ways in which cultural attitudes regarding ideal male body shape, masculinity, and sexuality are shaped by the media
The NHS vaccination bosses are being asked to introduce a new Meningitis B vaccine after a toddler was left severely disabled by the disease. According to Julie Tuckley, 37, the pain and anguish suffered by her 19-month son, Tommy Brown, should not be inflicted on another child.
When Tommy was only 5 months old, the potentially fatal disease struck him. After noticing that the boy was running a fever of 37.3°, Ms Tuckley and Dean Brown, 28, took him to the doctor. Although he was diagnosed as having a throat infection, the development of a purple rash, which spread across his body the following day, forced them to go back to the doctor, where he had to be revived after technically dying.
According to doctors the little boy, hailing from Walsall, West Midlands, had a survival chance of about 5%. However, the youngster has recovered after undergoing a serious, lifesaving, operation during which the doctors had to amputate both of his legs, and the fingers on both hands.
According to Ms Tuckley and Mr. Brown, the NHS should readily avail the “life-saving” vaccine which had already received approval from the European health chiefs in January.
Meningitis UK and Meningitis Trust have both teamed up with the couple in an effort compel the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to allow the use of the Bexsero vaccine.
The cost effectiveness and safety of the vaccine will be discussed by a JVCI next month. There are three expected scenarios; to allow the NHS to routinely use the jab, to allow the jab to be given only to high risk groups, or to allow parents who wish to pay for the vaccine to get access. Their petition can be found at www.beat-it-now.org, where the charities are asking for the vaccine to be included in the routine childhood immunisation programme.
 Wheelchair users have a limited amount of freedom in certain circumstances, especially if they are dependent on the current models of mobility scooters. Although most mobility scooters are able to offer comfort and reliability to their customers, the overall dimensions mean that do not fit easily into vehicles that are supposed to be wheelchair accessible and limit the travel possibilities of their passengers.
However all this is set to change as Wheelchair-Cars, one of the leading experts in sourcing quality wheelchair accessible vehicles have now introduced a great range of mobility scooters specifically designed to be compatible with disabled access vehicles that are fitted with ramps to the rear, usually where a wheelchair bound passenger would enter the vehicle.
What revolutionises these new scooters are the streamlined dimensions and aesthetic designs that not only present a great level of style and comfort, but also the ability for disabled users to travel further afield taking their mobility scooter with them, perfect for trips away where taking a scooter needs not be a major issue for you or your family, easily fitting within the space provided by the wheelchair accessible vehicles original conversion.
Peter Muddy representing Wheelchair-Cars is very excited at the huge possibilities that the new range of scooters now in stock offer for those customers who want to go further afield without having the issue of transporting mobility scooters either on trailers or having to leave them behind.
Stating that “The particular range of mobility scooters now available here at Wheelchair-Cars are all designed to fit neatly in all of the wheelchair accessible vehicles you will find on our forecourt and website”, Peter explains that following design changes, these scooters utilise the ramp space usually used for a standard wheelchair to be secured.
The choice to stock their chosen scooters is by far a wise one, with popularity and positive feedback from existing customers and new visitors has really allowed those dependant on motorised assistance to feel relieved in their ability to go further than before, travel greater distances on days out and feel that much more freedom than previously offered.
With prices for the new mobility scooters currently at some of the most competitive across the UK, there is every reason you should contact the team at Wheelchair-Cars today on 0161 793 5934 or their 24hr contact line on 07841 112550 for a fast, pleasant and professional service. Whether looking for particular wheelchair accessible vehicles or mobility aides such as their new scooters now, take a look at their website at www.wheelchaircars.co.uk now.
If you are one of the millions who suffer from sensitive teeth, imagine if you could get instant relief by applying a small amount directly to the sensitive area with your fingertip. That sounds like the stuff that dreams are made of doesn’t it?, but now thanks to Colgate, the leading name in dental hygiene and health, that dream is now very much a reality and readily available on every high street in every British town, and this unique product goes by the name of Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief toothpaste.
Those who do not suffer from such sensitivity cannot understand the pain and discomfort you get as well as the effect it has on your life by dictating what you can eat or drink. How many sufferers have longed for an ice lolly or a long drink with ice on a hot day but haven’t dared due to the inevitable pain that would come with it? These, and millions of others, can now eat and drink what they want, when they want, thanks to Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief.
The adverts on television show exactly how it works, and these are real people, not actors, and sufferers will probably have been tempted to give it a go. These are austere times, and few of us have the spare cash to spend on something that doesn’t deliver what it promises. The difference is that Colgate know how good this product is, and the relief it can bring, so they are offering everyone the chance to take the instant relief challenge for free as if you are unsatisfied your money will be refunded.
Full details of the challenge can be found on the Colgate website, and you can read all about the challenge, the T’s and C’s, and hear from thousands of other who have waved goodbye to the pain of sensitivity forever, thanks to Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief toothpaste.
Such is the success of the advertising campaigns from Specsavers that they have coined a phrase used by most of us in every day life. A trip, or any kind of silly mistake which makes you look as if you are short sighted is invariably followed by a shout of ‘should have gone to Specsavers’. We have long giggles at their adverts, who can forget the old couple on the roller coaster, and the latest one is no exception.
What Specsavers do in a light hearted and often very funny manner is get across a very serious message. We all need to get our eyes tested on a regular basis and by going to Specsavers you can find solutions to all your sight problems, be it through glasses or contact lenses, at very reasonable prices. The latest ad is set at a vets, and sees a vet conscientiously and methodically examining an animal he strokes and calls Phoebe and checks her temperature.
He checks that his stethoscope is working on himself then shouts for his nurse that he has a cat with no pulse and needs adrenaline and an IV line straight away. Karen comes running in and stops dead, before picking up Phoebe and putting her on her head. The vet has been examining her hat and Phoebe the cat is shown waiting patiently on the table to be examined. Fun? yes, but nevertheless pointing out the mistakes that can be made by not getting your eyes tested and getting the visual aids you need.
Over the years, Specsavers have become one of the most respected names in the world of ophthalmology, and nobody now has too travel far to a branch. If you are struggling to see and its affecting your life do yourself and everyone else a favour, and book an appointment at Specsavers, and literally see the world differently.
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