World of Health

Scientists have found a link between certain types of migraine and a certain variant of DNA. This is the first time a genetic risk factor has been associated with migraines. Scientists say that this could lead to new therapies to help with the attacks.

A team of international scientists examined the DNA of around 50,000 people. They found that patients who had a certain variant of DNA on Chromosome 8 between two different genes had an increased risk of having migraine attacks. According to the scientists, this specific DNA variant functions to regulate levels of the chemical glutamate, which can pass messages from nerve cell to nerve cell inside the brain.

According to the Health and Medicine Journal, this suggests that a build-up of the variant in junctions of nerve cells could be the cause of migraine attacks. According to Dr. Aarno Palotie, this study was only possible with international collaboration on a very large scale. He also stated that this could open “new doors to understand common diseases”.

By comparing the genomes of several thousand people from several European countries who get migraines with genomes of over 10,000 people who do not, they were able to make comparisons and detect differences in the two groups. A second test was later done in order to confirm their findings, where over 40,000 healthy people were compared to a second group of 3,000 migraine patients.

According to Christian Kubisch, the co-author of the study, the findings of the research will allow scientists to look “in depth at the biology of the disease” in further studies. With the knowledge gained from this study, scientists may soon be able to develop a way to prevent migraines.

Office workers enjoying the summer sunshine at lunch time are seriously risking their health by failing to take adequate sun care precautions, according to research from Tesco Bank and their health insurance team.

Only one in ten Brits applies sun cream before heading out for lunch, leaving the majority of us at risk of potential skin damage this summer. And while many of us associate the risks of too much sun with summer holidays, 16% have got sunburn from being out without protection during their lunch break.

While we may think that the south of England gets some of the best weather during the summer months, it is workers in Newcastle who have most felt the effects of being out in the sun. A quarter of those in Newcastle have been burnt from being out in the sun without protection during their lunch hour. This compares with a fifth of workers in second and third-placed cities Brighton & Hove and Portsmouth. While it may not be known as a sun hot spot, the results correlate with the fact that only 7% of those in Newcastle apply sun cream when heading out of the office.

A sunny day lures most of us (86%) out of the office and workers eat their lunch outdoors on average of three to four times a week when the weather permits. Sunbathing during the lunch hour is a popular pastime for 15 per cent of us.

Half the people questioned felt that the sun was stronger abroad than in the UK and this could explain why so many people are leaving themselves exposed to skin damage during the working week.

Jeremy Sutton, Head of Health insurance at Tesco Bank, said: “We all enjoy time away from our desks at lunch time during the summer months. While the sun is out, it’s important to highlight the risk of spending long periods of time in the sun without protection at home as well as abroad.  It only takes one serious burn to potentially have lasting consequences when it comes to your skin. Prevention is always better than cure when it comes to your health.”

After it was reported that a 15 year old girl is the youngest person in Britain to receive Botox the media was flooded with plenty of comments about if this type of treatment should be allowed at such a young age.

Skincare experts are against using such treatments on young skin given that the purpose of it is to relieve wrinkles in the face, which will only work if they are on the face to begin with.  Most have a policy of not offering Botox to anyone under the age of 25.

Dr. Sean Lanigan stated that Botox is based on the principle of freezing the facial muscles from under the skin which stops wrinkles or lines from forming and given that teenagers do not have these lines the idea of using it on them is irresponsible.

Skin care experts are blaming the new craze on celebrity culture, which has increased the demand for Botox across the board and thus among teenagers who want to be part of the next big craze.

The more young girls see the Hollywood image of perfection experts believe the more tempted they are to achieve the same airbrushed results in real life which has led to peer pressure and a misunderstanding about the real purpose.

Experts also blame the large amount of Botox clinic ads that are now on television, which has led to an increase in the amount of people who receive the treatments at clinics.

Andrew Lansley the Health Secretary stated that he was frustrated that mixed-sex accommodation in hospitals had not yet been outlawed and that he planned to make an official statement in regards to the issue soon.

Lansley is expected to state that patients have the right to stay in single sex wards outside of the departments of intensive care and Accident and Emergency. Any hospital that misses the deadline that is set by Lansley is expected to be subjected to a high fine.

The newest statistics show that one out of every ten people who end up in the hospital have to stay in mixed wards, while another one out of three are forced to share unisex bathrooms.

The Privacy and Dignity Fund run by the former Labour party was behind improvements that led 95% of all hospitals in the UK to provide single sex accommodation with a fine already in place for those that have not yet confirmed to the standard.

In the past other Labour governments have tried to get the same policy passed but were never able to push it through.

It was Tony Blair who first pledged to end the practice of mixed-sex accommodation in hospitals back in 1996 before he became the Prime Minister, but it was passed on to Gordon Brown whose health minister was forced to state that it was not going to be complete by 2008.

The Shadow Health secretary, Andy Brunham, has spoken out against Lansley stating that he made the announcement in an attempt to claim credit for the hard work of the Labour party in getting the policy on the table.

The Philips Livable Cities Award is a new innovation grant being backed by the Philips company and overseen by respected professor Richard Florida, who is well-known for his work investigating the way we live and interact in our cities.

He has produced a number of well respected scientific papers as well as several books on the subject of city living including The Rise of the Creative Class, as well as its recent bestseller Who’s Your City?

The purpose of the award and the grants, which total 125,000 Euros, is to let ordinary people living in cities offer their own achievable ideas for improving the health and well-being of their fellow city-dwellers.

The grant will be divided between the three best ideas, and will be used to kick start new innovations that may change the lives of many thousands of people in simple but effective ways.

Most people like the city that they live in, but see day-to-day negatives that perhaps could easily be remedied with a little creative thought and some financial backing. Philips Livable Cities Award and Professor Florida believe that ordinary people may have the best views and feel for the place where they live in, and are probably in the best position to come up with simple ideas that may lead to big changes.

Watch the following video to find out more.

If you would like to find out more about how you could get involved in the Philips Livable Cities Award click here.

Just months after the Swine flu scare, scientists are now warning that there is a new bug called New Dehli-Metallo-1 that could pose a threat worldwide. The bug, also know as NDM-1, is an enzyme that attaches itself to bacteria and can cause health issues elsewhere in the patients body.

Scientists are concerned that NDM-1 could potentially attach itself to deadly diseases and possibly make the bacteria resistant to antibiotics. The bug has mainly been discovered in E-Coli bacteria.

The new health threat was picked up in UK hospitals and there have been 37 cases reported so far. Most of the patients with NDM-1 have recently visited Asia on medical grounds and scientists are claiming there is a potential for the bug to become endemic. Scientists have condemned people travelling for plastic surgery to India as a potential risk in the current situation and could end up being the cause of a worldwide endemic.

UK hospitals have been alerted of the situation and advised that strict infection control procedures need to be maintained. The have also been asked to provide any samples from patients suspected of having NDM-1.

The UK’s HPA, Health Protection Agency, are currently working alongside other European countries to produce antibiotics for NDM-1. The HPA expect the situation to worsen in the near future and have expressed their concerns for this bug to become highly dangerous and for the lack of procedures in place to tackle such an outbreak.

The production, sale and use of so-called ‘legal high’ substances have swept across the U.K., with new legal highs available everywhere you look.  Since the government made mephedrone illegal, numerous legal substitutes have appeared, including the one known as Ivory Wave and packaged as concentrated bath salts but purchased as party powder.

Now the authorities are warning that this particular high may be legal but it’s hazardous to your health.  This past week twenty people in the NHS Lothian area of Scotland, mostly Ivory Wave partakers, were hospitalized suffering from symptoms ranging from vomiting to hallucinations.

Officials at the Public Health Board and other agencies warn that these ‘legal’ substances often contain unknown, untested and unidentifiable ingredients, and that there is usually no way for users to know exactly what they’re getting.

The manufacturers keep changing chemicals to stay in the ‘legal’ range, but health authorities are trying to get the message to the public that just because a product is on the legal list there is no guarantee that it’s safe.

The major source of legal highs is the Internet, and anyone can purchase almost anything.  Most of the products on offer contain chemicals whose effect is untested and basically unknown.  The ingredient MDPV, a stimulant similar to and supposedly three times stronger than cocaine, is present in many of these products, including Ivory Wave.

Scottish health officials published a warning about Ivory Wave specifically and legal high substances in general, stating that use could lead to kidney failure, seizures, muscle damage and loss of bowel control, amongst other as yet undiscovered hazards.

A new study, published this week in a journal that focuses on septicaemia and meningitis may have found small genetic differences that could account why some people seem to be highly susceptible to these diseases and others seem to be highly resistant to them.

You can read the research that was conducted by the Imperial College London and the Singapore Institute in the August 8^th Nature Genetics online issue.

The study took into account 6,000 people and found that people who come down with septicaemia and meningitis have certain gene variants in their biological makeup that prevent their immune systems from effectively defending against the bacterial infections.

Professor Dr. Michael Levin from the Imperial College London told the press that almost all people carry the meningitis bacteria at various points in their life even though only one out of every 40,000 people actually develop the full blown disease.

As a result, his team set out to find out why this small percentage of people get infected while other people stay immune to its presence throughout their life.  Levin emphasized that their findings proved that so far it seems genetic factors are the main factor in why people develop chronic cases of meningitis.

One in ten people who become ill after being infected with meningococcal bacteria will die after their brain linings become inflamed.  The disease is caused by different organisms including fungi, viruses, and bacteria.

Young children, infants, young adults, and teenagers are at the highest risk of coming down with this type of meningitis and can become seriously ill in just a matter or hours.

Victims that end up with a serious brain injury from an accident may now have a better chance at a meaningful recovery due to new research that is underway at the Cambridge Addenbrooke’s Hospital Neurosciences Critical Care Unit.

Professor David Menon is in charge of the unit’s research, which is considered to be one of the leading care units for brain injury anywhere in the world.  The group is looking at the effects and causes of brain injury in an attempt to offer better recovery rates to the thousands of people who suffer brain injuries each year.  At the moment about 40% of patients admitted to the unit are able to reach a full recovery.

This percentage is continuing to increase as Professor Menon’s team continues to push past the accepted boundaries of neuroscience in an attempt to help people recover from traumatic injuries that leave scarring effects on those affected and their families.

The Unit was created 13 years ago and over that time many patients who previously would have died from serious brain injuries have regained some use of their brain if not a full recovery due to the many advances.

Serious Law specialist, Matthew Dixon, stated that the Unit is offering cutting edge research in neuroscience that is allowing those who would have died twenty years ago from head trauma to recover to live a meaningful life.

Just seven years ago the recovery rate for the unit was only 20%, which means that since 2002 the recovery rate has doubled, with further research carried out on a daily basis so that the percentage of recovery continues to increase offering hope and peace to those who are victims of a traumatic accident.

Kidney stones are becoming a large scale health problem globally and their appearance in the urinary tract seems to be on the rise.  If not properly treated, kidney stones can lead to health problems and potential complications.  However, many people who have had kidney stones often times take time to look for less invasive treatment as a way to remove the bothersome blockage from their urinary system.

Symptoms of kidney stones include excruciating pain and other serous symptoms.  While there are many treatments for the health situation, most of these treatments involve the use of CT scans, incisions, or stents as well as visits to the hospital, doctor, or ER visits.

When it comes to kidney stones, there are two options that sit in front of you, natural or conventional treatments.  The most common conventional treatments for kidney stones include Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy, Extracorporal ShockWave Lithotripsy (ESWL), or Ureteroscopic Stone Removal.

The most common approach involves using the ESWL to shatter the kidney stones into thousands of pieces so that they will pass, but oftentimes pieces are still left in the UT system which requires additional treatment options.  Complications from ESWL includes minor discomfort and bruising in the abdomen and back as well as discomfort while the stone pieces travel through the urinary tract and out of the body.

Larger stones are generally treated with the use of Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy in which an incision is made in the back so that the kidney becomes more accessible.  At this point a nephroscope is then used to find the kidney stone and remove it.  Larger stones sometimes may require this treatment and the use of ESWL.