World of Health

Very recent studies have found that gender plays a part in pain tolerance and threshold.  It has long been admitted that women make up the majority of chronic pain sufferers.  There are a disproportionate number of women who suffer Irritable Bowel Syndrome, migraines, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritis.

This observation, about pain in women, seems validated by a 2003 study in which Jeffrey Mogil, a pain researcher who studies rodents, and roger Fillingim, a psychologist and human pain researcher combined efforts to prove a sort of challenge by Mogil.

Mogil wagered that redheaded women would have a good response to the pain drug Talwin.  Researchers have well known that there is a different response in the sexes to opioid or narcotic drugs.  Mogil and Fillingim used genetic mapping to find a key receptor gene significant in causing the different gender responses to pain.

Red headed women and women with very fair skin have two mutant copies of this gene.  This effectively renders it useless.  The redheaded women experienced greater pain relief from the Talwin than any other participating group due to this negated gene in their bodies.

Studies such as this might go a long way in helping science to determine how and why the different genders respond dissimilarly to pain stimuli.  Even simpler studies are being done to first conclude that there is a measurable difference in pain response between men and women.

Generally, these studies have found that when female subjects are exposed to pain stimulus, like immersing a hand in very cold water, increasing heat stimulation on the arm, and painful electrical jolts, they have less tolerance than their male counterparts.

This science of gender related to pain is an almost brand new field of study and much more work needs to be accomplished before anyone can draw any conclusions as to the difference in the nature of pain between the two genders.

Everyone loves a great sausage stew from time to time, but most people avoid treating themselves to sausage too often given the fact that it is a known artery blocker and all around poor meat choice for a healthy body.

However, now you can have your sausage and eat it too thanks to Quorn, which has created a Quorn Sausage brand which tastes like the original meat with absolutely none of the unhealthy attributes of pork.  In its place is mircoprotein, which is an extremely healthy ingredient that is packed full with all the traditional amino acids your body would normally get from meet.

In this great promotional video you get to watch a chef prepare a mouth savouring meal in three minutes that translated into real time would only take the average chef about twenty minutes to prepare.

That means that in twenty minutes, about the time it takes to run out of the house to grab a take-out, so on a busy evening or after a long day with the children, you can serve your family a traditional home-made meal that is low in fat, low in calories, and contains almost no cholesterol that still tastes great.

This is the true blessing of all Quorn products such as the sausage brand, the fact that they allow you to serve your family the healthy meals you want without paying more or spending more time in the kitchen.

In fact, for the meal in the video all you need is some Quorn sausage, onions, peppers, tomato, oil, and corn.  Just these five ingredients and a handful of spices and you can have a meal fit for a restaurant in front of your family, which is just another reason why vegetarians and non-vegetarians are discovering the magic of Quorn.

Obesity is now running rampant in British society, with this epidemic of being overweight comes a very wide range of health problems which most people are aware of such as diabetes, various cancers, joint problems and of course heart disease.

But many people are not aware of is that there is strong evidence from the Endocrine Society that there is a direct relationship between tooth decay and obesity, especially in children. According to their report there is a clear correlation between obesity and dental problems.

The pattern of increased weight and increase oral hygiene and decay problems are closely linked over the last 50 years. The more weight that the average person gains, the more dental problems have arisen.

It is not too difficult to figure out why obesity and dental health go together hand in hand. Firstly there is the issue of simply eating more food will mean more use of the teeth, and a higher probability that food will be left between the teeth to decay, and that there will be a build up of plaque, and an increase in gingivitis.

Another problem is that obese people tend to have unhealthy eating habits, which include large amounts of fats, starches and sugars, all of which contribute to dental health issues.

Another problem with overeating is snacking between meals; these snacks tend to take the form of prepackaged foods, many of which contain high amounts of sugar as well as being laced with chemicals which also attack the teeth.

Improvements can of course be made by individuals in reducing their weight and at the same time their tendency towards dental problems. Eating more vegetables and fruit for snacks instead of empty calories will certainly help.

A complete change in diet to a healthier lifestyle is also obviously extremely effective, as is increased levels of activity in the form of exercise, as well as a better regime of flossing and brushing teeth. But perhaps the most effective short-term gain can be made from more regular visits to the dentist, even if that means investing in some dental health insurance in order to make dental visits more financially viable.

Whatever you choose to do, you should make changes in order to improve your overall health as well as saving your teeth from the inevitable decay that being overweight brings.

Viagra will soon become available over the counter at Tesco supermarkets.  The Erectile Dysfunction drug will make a move onto shelves for sales to men with no GP prescription in about a week, spokesmen say.

Tesco says it will offer the cheapest available price for the drug at its 300 UK locations.  Currently, Boots Pharmacy charges 55 pounds for four pills, whereas Tesco says they will charge 58 pounds for eight pills.  Men with GP prescriptions can buy the medication for even less at some dispensaries.  That price can go as low as 48 pounds for a supply of eight pills.

Even though customers will not need a prescription, the supermarket says that a pharmacist will be dispensing the Viagra and that buyers will be screened.  There will also be an age range of forty to sixty-five years placed upon purchasers.  Blood pressure and cholesterol levels will be checked, screening for diabetes will be done and the purchaser must complete a questionnaire.

The screening and tests are very important, because for many men, Erectile Dysfunction can be a symptom of greater, underlying health problems.  While it is felt that making the process for purchasing these drugs easier is important, it is also important to maintain health standards in association with responsibly dispensing medication.

There was no mention of any additional charges for the screening and testing services, which might make men more prone to buy from the store than scheduling an appointment with their doctor.  By providing the tests and screenings it can be assured that, either way, the health of the buyer can be assessed and risk factors greatly reduced.

When you go to hospital, you are still going to pay parking fees.  Some have described these parking charges as taxing illness and the Labour Party had promised to get rid of them.  Word has now come from health minister Simon Burns that the coalition government will not honour the promise.

It seems that there is just too much money at stake as a total of 100 million pounds is at risk of forfeit.  So, the government says that sick people will just have to continue to pay to park, while the patients and their visitors say that it is unfair.

Patients and their families argue that spending this money while receiving life-sustaining treatment is stressful for patients and afflicts them with unnecessary strain as they struggle with other obligations.

Meanwhile, the government argues that not only would the NHS lose the 100 million pounds from removing the charges, but there would also need to be an additional 100 million spent on attending to the parking overhaul.  This would be a total loss of 200 million pounds that couldn’t be used on healthcare because it was being used to address parking issues instead.

Where the additional 100 million pounds comes into play is unclear.

Most people make appointments to see a GP with the confidence that they will find the proper treatment for what is ailing them.  However, when the diagnosis gets more complicated and surgery or high level treatment options come to the front, it is possible that a doctor may make a misdiagnosis that forever changes the path of your life or the life of someone you love.  It is possible that this small mistake may disable or shorten the lifespan of a loved one forever, which is when a medical negligence claim comes into the forefront.

There are many different reasons that may warrant the exploration of a medical negligence claim, but first there are a few things that you must determine to prove that a doctor did make a misdiagnosis.  First of all you will need to establish that the medical professional in question was in charge of the health and care of the person involved.  Then you will need to prove that they gave the diagnosis that is in question, because if you do not have evidence to support these claims then you cannot move forward with a medical negligence claim.

Once this evidence is in place the next step becomes proving that the doctor did in fact make a misdiagnosis.  This can be easy to prove or hard to prove depending on at what point the misdiagnosis took place.  For instance, a doctor that misses a breach baby during birth resulting in birth defects makes for a clean case for the most part since it is easy to spot the mistake.

However, a doctor that for instance diagnoses a cancer progression at the wrong stage leading to non-aggressive treatment when aggressive treatment should be given is a bit more of a gray area that may be harder to prove to make a medical negligence claim possible.

While working on gathering the evidence that is needed to support your medical negligence claim you should also look at how the outcome for proper diagnosis and treatment is on average.  While there are bound to be some discrepancies in every outcome, in general there should be some type of expected outcome which can be weighed against your experience to show that the doctor was wrong proving the medical negligence claim has enough validity to be taken seriously in court.  This will help expedite the speed that your case is settled or taken to trial.

Finally, while pursuing the proof to back the misdiagnosis claim keep in mind that there is a time limit in which all medical negligence claims must be filed within Wales and England.  Although there are special cases in which the court can use discretion to trial a case, the court rarely uses this power and you will have a three time period in which a medical negligence claim can be filed.  Thus, if you have any suspicion that a doctor has misdiagnosed it is best to act promptly.

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.