World of Health

The ideal time to take out life insurance is when you are young and the earlier you start, the cheaper your life insurance quotes will be. Many people however, do not consider the importance of life insurance until they reach their fifties.  Being over fifty doesn’t mean insurance has to be expensive.  Many people today are finding it easier to be accepted for a policy and they are finding it is a lot less expensive than they thought it would be.  If you are over fifty and don’t have life insurance but do have dependants and/or personal debts then the old saying still rings true…..better late than never.

Life insurance is there to provide financial protection for your dependants in the event of your death.  Although no one wants to think about dying, it is a fact of life and some satisfaction can be gained in the thought that you won’t be leaving your loved ones out of pocket once you’re gone.

If you are in your fifties or older and you’re thinking of buying life insurance there’s a good chance that some health scare or medical problem has sparked your curiosity.  Whatever event has led you here, it’s good that you are considering the future security of your family’s finance.

There are some benefits of being in your older years when taking out your insurance.  For starters most companies will not require you to take part in any medical screening.  Acceptance is therefore guaranteed if you’re a UK resident typically for customers age 50 to 75 and some will accept up to age 80.  The reason your insurance premium may be higher than that of a younger person is that the Insurance companies will calculate the amount of premiums you will likely pay into a policy and the amount they are likely to pay out in the event of your death.

Policies vary in the amount they will pay out in the event of death in the first two years of your policy so be absolutely clear on the terms and conditions of your policy.  Some insurance for example, will pay out a cash sum upon your death after the policy has been in force for two years.  If however, you were to die as a result of an accident before the two years has passed you may still be covered.

As with any insurance product it is worth making sure you have a good deal for your money but you’d be well advised to put a good amount consideration into your policy choices and not just simply opt for the cheapest deal. It is important to take time to consider your needs and what life insurance policies might be best suited to your own unique circumstances, rather than simply looking for the lowest premium.

Because people are living longer and having more full and active lives they often forget about life insurance. You don’t have to be over 50 to consider life insurance but it can act as a reminder to start evaluating your options.

An IVF clinic in Wales is in serious hot water after a couple who have been trying for a baby for over seven years were the victim of a cruel irony when the clinic inadvertently ‘lost’ lost the couple’s embryos.

The couple who can only be identified as Gareth and Clare have now taken out legal action against the clinic which is located within the Cardiff-based University Hospital of Wales following an admission by the health provider that they had misplaced the embryos just before they were due to be implanted in Clare.

Just last year the same clinic was at the centre of another controversy after a mistake led them to implant the last embryo available to a couple into the wrong woman. The hospital claims that this event is a recognised complication of embryo vitrification.

The procedure sees makes use of liquid nitrogen in order to store the frozen embryos which are then thawed in order to be implanted. This case is not good news for IVF clinics as it comes hot on the heels of the report on the BBC5 Live show that stated that official figures show that clinics in England and Wales had seen mistakes double in just one year.

Well respected broadcaster Donal Macintyre interviewed Clare who stated that she was minutes away from the transfer when she was informed by staff that she had only one of three embryos remaining as two of them had ‘gone missing’, and went on to say that they were certain that the acts of not been implanted into another woman.

Cosmos is the largest and most ambitious study ever initiated on the potential health risks of mobile telephone use.  The study is intended to produce definitive answers to the question of whether or not prolonged and extensive use could cause brain cancer or other health problems.

The programme is endorsed by the World Health Organization as well as many others including the U.K. Health Protection Agency (HPA).  It is funded in part by the MTHR, and research in the U.K will be carried out by Imperial College London.

Cosmos, or the cohort study on mobile communications, will involve about 200,000 participants from the U.K., Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands.  The study will last for 20 to 30 years, with initial reports submitted expected to be submitted in 2020.  Researchers will monitor the use of WiFi, cordless phones and baby monitors as well, in order to get the most comprehensive results.

Health professionals and organizations concerned with the safely of mobile phones over the long term say that studies undertaken to date leave too many uncertainties.  Many forms of cancer cannot be detected in the first ten years of their existence, and other problems such as headaches, depression and sleep disorders may not be correctly diagnosed as to cause.

The other concern is that previous studies have been based on the participant’s memory of how much time they spent on the (mobile) phone.  Cosmos will monitor the length of every single call, though not the numbers dialled or those of incoming calls – no invasion of privacy, just a passive background presence.

“I get bitten loads of times at night. I get sick five times a year, I think. I do not have a mosquito net. My brother does, but I don’t.”

Many families like Nanawewje’s do not have enough mosquito nets. Their extreme poverty forces them to prioritise who will get to sleep under the net or even who gets malaria treatment if they become sick.

As World Malaria Day (26^th April) approaches, it is shocking to think that a preventable and curable disease like malaria still kills nearly 850,000 people each year – mostly children even younger than Nanawewje and mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Yet this year marks a significant milestone in the meeting of malaria control targets among the development community and  there has been some excellent progress in the fight against the disease. It is as a result of these interventions that the number of child deaths from malaria is estimated to have dropped from 3,000 a day to 2,000, according to the latest Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM) report.

“If it takes us almost 15 years to reduce child deaths from malaria from a child every 30 seconds to a child every 45 seconds, we will never beat malaria,” said Sunil Mehra, Executive Director of Malaria Consortium at a recent reception to mark World Malaria Day at the United Nations in New York.

“We’re at a critical crossroads in the fight against malaria,” he added. “There has been significant support from donors in recent years, but what really needed is sustained, long-term resources for a wide range of activities to beat this disease.”

In RBM’s report it is estimated that $6 billion will be needed in 2010 for the widespread malaria control activities. At the moment, funding amounts to one third of that requirement. This annual amount will gradually lessen, however, once control measures become embedded and sustainable.

“It is crucial that donors don’t stop their support for malaria control activities, but what is really needed is over the long term is for the national governments of those countries affected by the disease to commit resources from within their health budgets.”

Mr Mehra was co-hosting a reception with RBM at the public gallery of the UN Headquarters in New York, with guests of honour Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and HRH Princess Astrid of Belgium. Some 250 guests attended the reception, which included a special viewing of the highly successful photographic exhibition Malaria: blood, sweat, and tears by award-winning photographer Adam Nadel, which was commissioned by Malaria Consortium, the world’s leading non-profit organisation dedicated to comprehensive control of malaria.  The story of Nanawewje is just one of the featured portraits of people living with malaria on a daily basis. To view the exhibition online, please visit www.malaria-bloodsweatandtears.com.

According to a new study of sexual health from Lloydspharmacy – 72% of men have never had an STI screen, compared to 62% of women. Lloydspharmacy also found men were almost twice as likely to test positive for certain STIs such as chlamydia.

13% of men buying chlamydia tests from Lloydspharmacy’s Online Doctor tested positive compared to just six per cent of women.

The research from the community pharmacy chain also found that men are placing themselves at greater risk of picking up an STI with 13% of men having had unprotected sex with more than one person over the last five years, almost double that of women (7%).

With the research revealing that men are more reluctant to be tested but significantly more likely to test positive than women, the findings fuel concerns that men may be delaying testing until they are showing symptoms and that real rates of infection are significantly higher than reported.

Although men are less likely to have had a face-to-face consultation for an STI screen, according to Lloydspharmacy sales of tests online are split almost equally between men and women. This suggests that men prefer the anonymity of the online channel.

Through its Online Doctor service the community pharmacy chain has launched a postal Platinum Test for men which screens for five genital infections; genital Chlamydia, genital gonorrhoea, mycoplasma, ureaplasma and trichomonas. This confidential postal service allows men to be tested and if found to be positive, treated without the need to visit their GP.

“The lower rate of face-to-face testing and higher incidence of positive results amongst men suggests that many men may be waiting until they suspect they have an infection before getting themselves tested”, said Clare Kerr, Lloydspharmacy’s head of sexual health. “This is particularly worrying as many STIs don’t have any obvious symptoms, so men could be putting both themselves and their partners at risk by delaying tests.”

“Embarrassment is a huge barrier to testing and so we hope that removing the need to see a GP or GUM clinic face-to-face will encourage men to test themselves regularly. We can provide accurate tests for a wide range of genital infections anonymously and discreetly through the Online Doctor.”

Website:  http://onlinedoctor.lloydspharmacy.com/

Looking for a new job is never the most enjoyable task, whether you are unemployed or are currently employed and looking for a new job, but specialist job sites on the internet help to make the task as pain free as possible.  When looking for a new job the web is most definitely the place to start and with all the employers that recruit people online in a number of different industries, it is the place that you are most likely to find the perfect role for you.  If you work in the medical industry then there are thousands of jobs listed online that might just fit the bill for you,  including doctors jobs and employment in the nursing sector.

Whatever type of medical work you are interested in, specialist medical job websites have every angle covered, with full-time employment available in a number of different sectors, alongside locum nurses jobs where contracts are for a short but fixed period of time. Each medical sector has its own sub-site, and within each of these you can conduct an advanced search and specify the type of contract that you are after, whether that is a part time or permanent contract.

There are many other criteria that you can search by as well, and if you are settled in a specific location or do not have access to transport to be able to travel a long distance to work every day, then you can search for jobs that are only located within the region of your choice. Within each of these regions you can even specify a certain area if you are really limited in the distance that you can travel, so for example you can just browse through the nursing jobs that are listed in North London.

One of the medical sub-sites that are featured is the health science jobs website that has dozens of health science employment for you to choose from. You can select a certain category, whether that is biomedical science, pharmacy or physiological sciences, and just look at the jobs that are listed in that category. You can also search through the employers that are currently recruiting, as well as the latest jobs that have been listed, so that you are always aware of what new jobs have become available.

The internet is a great place to search for jobs, but is also home to a vast amount of information that can prove to be incredibly useful in helping you to secure a job. Your CV is a very important document and you can access plenty of advice and get tips on how to make yours to stand out from other peoples, and then upload it to the site so that you can be head hunted by employers. You can also plug in your ideal employment criteria and in turn sign up for email notifications when certain jobs become available.

Information and advice on how to write the perfect modern day CV is posted through the blog that accompanies the revamped site. The blog features posts on medical news and views as well as CV and interview tips, and as a result there is something for everyone to access, get value from and have a read through at their leisure. You can even get medical career tips and learn how to sell yourself as the perfect applicant for the specific job that you are applying for.

Learning the art of selling yourself can be extremely useful for all job-seekers and is an important part of writing a good CV or effectively responding to questions in an interview. By highlighting your abilities and accomplishments you can help to set yourself apart from others and with practice it should become second nature. Then when you find the job that you are looking for you can ensure that you have a pretty good chance of getting it by being able to succinctly say how you would be able to make a difference to their business.

The result of all this information and advice is that an online community has been created for medical professionals to enhance their chances of finding their ideal job. Social elements such as tweets by the Job Doctor and her Facebook status updates will also provide you with further useful information and a space for fellow professionals to interact online and share the knowledge that you have gained over the years with your peers, as well as learning from others and just having a friendly chat.

There are also further resources that can be accessed online, which include a list of useful links for a wide range of medical sites. As well as having links for each of the six dedicated sub-sites that each feature a variety of jobs from the relevant sector, there are also further links for useful general medical sites. These include links for sites such as BBC Health and Times Online that will keep you right up to date with the latest medical news, as well as links on working in the UK and general sites that include NHS Direct and the British Medical Association.

First and foremost the new look British medical job site is a valuable tool for job-seekers, but as for most of your life you will not be job hunting there are many other resources that provide help and advice for any medical professional. The thousands of jobs that are listed will help you to find work whether you are a qualified midwife or psychoanalyst, and the improved functionality allows you to find a selection of relevant jobs in a matter of minutes.

Once you have found the medical job of your dreams or if you are already happy in your current employment, then the up to the minute blog will provide readers with medical industry news stories and industry updates. The social media channels also allow you to engage with the experts and vice versa, creating an online community for medical professionals through which you can interact as well as improve your chances of finding that perfect job.

Professor of chemistry at the Belfast Queen’s University, John Mann, stated that mephedrone should have been banned sooner, after it was found that 27 people in the UK may have died from its use.  The street names for the drug are ‘miaow miaow’ and ‘plant food’.

Mann, stated that the dangers associated with the drug could have been widely published sooner since it is chemically similar to other drugs.

People who use the Somali drug khat, are openly known to have trouble with impotence, which should have been detected earlier as mephedrone is a close structural relative of cathinone, which is one of the most psychoactive ingredients of khat.

Mann added that mephedrone is also chemically related to amphetamines which are limited to use only as controlled substances due to their known dangers.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced that mephedrone will be banned along with substances that are similar to it on Monday, with the law likely to go into effect by April 16^th.

On Thursday, a report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs was released.

In England there are 18 deaths that are linked to mephedrone, one in Wales and Northern Ireland, and seven in Scotland.

The report revealed that users of the drug tend to be younger compared to those that use ecstasy and cocaine and are most often in their 20s or teens.  It also stated that police have problems testing accurately for mephedrone use.