World of Health

Bowel cancer, which is the second biggest killer in terms of cancers (lung cancer is the top) could be on its way down as a new Government campaign is being launched in order to raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms. ‘Be Clear on Cancer’ will be going nationwide after a successful trial.

Anyone who notices blood in stools or suffers from loose stools for longer than three weeks are encouraged to talk to their GP at the earliest opportunity. If it can be spotted early, bowel cancer is treatable and the five year survival rates are at 90%. This can get as low as 6% if the diagnosis comes late however.

Bowel cancer is diagnosed in roughly 33,000 people each year in the UK, and there are 13,000 deaths. Most of these diagnoses are in those over 55, but the age range is increasing as the number of people diagnosed go up. If England can match the best European survival rates, then 1700 more lives could be saved each year.

The symptoms of bowel cancer, as well as loose or bloody stools, include lumps or pains in the abdomen, unexplained weight loss or feeling more tired than normal. Rather than ‘flushing away’ toilet worries, if people talk to their GP then people will face much smaller risks.

A trial of the campaign in the south of England saw a 48% increase in the number of patients over 50 talking to their GP about relevant symptoms. This works out to roughly one extra patient per week per GP practice. If this is extrapolated, then there could be an extra 100 colonoscopies per NHS trust, which would be 15,000 colonoscopy referrals nationwide.

Paul Burstow, the Care Services Minister, is aware that it can be embarrassing to talk about poo, but wants people to get over this and talk to someone medically qualified to help. By using a simple message about the key symptoms, then people should have the confidence to talk to their doctor and potentially save their own life. Then bowel cancer will not be the big trouble that it currently is.

It has now been established that we all, at some time in our life, will come into contact with somebody suffering from a mental illness. The word ‘mental’ is key here, as if somebody we knew had cancer, or diabetes or some other such illness, we wouldn’t think twice about going up to them and asking them how they were and showing our concern for their health.

Mental illness, however, is a completely different ball game, and the majority of us are worried about approaching a sufferer and asking after them for fear of saying the wrong thing, or how they may react. A campaign backed by the COI aims to address this problem and has released a short film encouraging all of us to talk openly about mental illness and remove the stigma that is still attached to it.

The video shows a workplace and one guy spots a workmate, Dave, who has been off for a long time with a mental illness. This guy is undecided about whether to speak to Dave as he doesn’t know how he will react. As Dave approaches him he decides to speak to him and asks him how’s he’s doing.

There are then two scenarios which we presume are how the guy is imagining that Dave would react. In the first one he starts to speak, then uses his shoe to take a phone call. In the second he disappears into a pile of dust, and the third, which is the real one, has him saying that he’s okay, he has good days and bad days, and he thanks the guy for asking.

You will not offend a mental health sufferer by asking them how they are, much better that than ignoring them, or avoiding them, which only goes to add to the stigma. People with a mental illness are just ordinary people whose health problems are mental instead of physical, so don’t be afraid to approach them.

For many years now, people have been under the misconception that if somebody has stopped breathing, you should give them the kiss of life. The British Heart Foundation, or BHF have now refuted this, saying the best thing you can actually do for somebody who isn’t breathing is to administer only hands on CPR. Those untrained should definitely give the kiss the miss, and a great new campaign has been launched to get this point across.

A TV ad featuring legendary hardman footballer turned actor Vinnie Jones illustrates perfectly as there should be no more kissing, just hard and fast chest compressions to the beat of the Bee Gees ‘Staying Alive’. The BHF, backed by the Resuscitation Council of the UK, say that this is the only kind of CPR that anyone without the proper training should attempt, and the video clearly shows exactly where on the chest to do it.

A nationwide poll showed that when members of the public saw somebody who was in cardiac arrest, they held back from assisting for two main reasons; firstly, they were worried about the whole kissing thing and catching something, and secondly they didn’t want to make matters worse by doing it wrong. The plain fact is that is nobody does anything that person will die, and that’s what this campaign is all about.

In the ad we see Vinnie with a couple of his henchmen telling us how there are times in life when being tough comes in handy, like when a geezer collapses in front of you. He stresses that you must first call 999, then start hard and fast compressions on the chest. With ‘Staying Alive’ playing in the background, it emphasises the importance of the regularity of these compressions so that they can really make a difference.

A new advertising campaign aimed at cutting the number of unwanted pregnancies over the Christmas period was launched this week. The advert offers the morning after pill to women over the telephone and free of charge and it is hoped that women at risk of pregnancy will stock up for the festive period and use it in case of emergency.

The campaign has been developed by The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS)

and features a poster with the word ‘sex’ spelled out in fairy lights. The tagline for the advertising campaign is “Getting ‘turned on’ this Christmas?”. The advertising campaign is not without irony and its website address is titled rather humorously, santacomes.org.

Some critics have accused the campaign of being over the top and said it may send out the wrong message. ProLife Alliance campaigner Josephine Quintavalle, called it “incredibly vulgar”. She said: “We believe that this campaign may trivialise the issues at stake here and lead to women being less responsible than they should be. It may also lead to them exposing themselves to risks they wouldn’t normally do.”

The product at the centre of the campaign is the contraceptive, Levonelle One Step, and users will be required to register personal details on the website to attain it. Following this they will be entitled to a fifteen-minute consultation from a trained nurse which is aimed at weeding out young teenagers and others who are not suitable for the pill.

The charity has commented that it does expect that young teenagers will attempt to get hold of the pill by lying about their age, despite the consultation process which is there to prevent them doing so and that some will inevitably slip through the net. Children under 16 would normally require a prescription to get hold of the pill.

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, said that it would be preferable if the pills could be handed over following a face-to-face consultation, but said that there were no plans for the government to intervene.

BPAS described the service as essential considering that surgeries and pharmacies will be closed in most places over the festive period and with pharmacies charging for pills there were significant risks for young girls getting pregnant unintentionally. Chemists charge around £20 for emergency contraceptives and it’s believed the price puts many young girls in vulnerable positions off using them in an emergency.

Tracey Forsyth, BPAS nurse and spokesperson, said: “There is a time frame of 72 hours following unprotected sex in which the morning after pill can be taken to protect against pregnancy. But the sooner the female takes the pill, the greater the chance of its success. It is not foolproof however, and it can fail.”

“Some people who do not have all the facts believe that obtaining the pill in advance will encourage women to act irresponsibly. This is incorrect. The women choosing the pill are taking a responsible line and getting it ready just in case.”

Some critics have slated the scheme saying that it was like calling for a pizza and argued that teenagers would take advantage by ordering pills without their parents consent.

Some argued that it could promote promiscuity and unprotected sex and may even lead to an increase in sexually transmitted disease.

BPAS said its nurses would be trained to discuss contraception then send the pills in the post with condoms and advice leaflets to approved women only.

The release of a new app in the UK which is the world’s first app for brain health has been announced jointly by the Alzheimer’s Association and the BUPA Health Foundation. This tool is said to be the latest digital tool in the ongoing fight against dementia.

Based on the very latest research that has linked a healthy brain and a reduced risk of developing dementia with a healthy cardiovascular system and heart, the ‘BrainyApp’ is the first iPhone app designed to reduce the risk of dementia by helping people to monitor and thus improve the health of both their heart and their brain.

This new app was designed in by the BUPA Health Foundation is conjunction with Alzheimer’s Australia and has already claimed the number 1 spot in Australia and New  Zealand from Facebook in the list of top free apps. It has also clocked up over 130,000 downloads in these two countries alone.

Now available to people in the UK, ‘BrainyApp’ helps users monitor and improve the physical, mental, dietary and social aspects of their lifestyle.

There are currently 750,000 people living with dementia in the UK and this is predicted to rise to over a million by 2021. Delaying the onset of dementia by just five years would reduce deaths directly attributable to dementia by 30,000 a year.

Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive, Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Most people know how to reduce their risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke but they don’t realise that the same healthy lifestyle choices may also lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other kinds of dementia.  The idea is that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain.”

‘BrainyApp’ allows users to take a brain-heart health survey about their diet, exercise patterns and lifestyle. It then provides suggestions and ideas about how to make improvements to each. It also includes all-new brain games, and encourages users to build brain-heart points by staying physically and mentally active, socialising with friends and family, and sharing their progress on Facebook.

One of the brain games – ‘Word Tennis’ – requires players to unscramble anagrams in order to move a paddle and hit a ball back to their opponent.

Director of dementia care for Bupa Care Services, Dr Graham Stokes, said: “There is evidence to show that keeping the mind exercised can stave off the onset of dementia but ‘BrainyApp’ highlights that good physical health also has a part to play. Best of all it’s good fun.”

‘BrainyApp’ is available as a free download for users of iPhone, iPod and iPad devices from the App Store. There are plans to develop an Android version in early 2012.

More information about BrainyApp is available at www.bupa.co.uk/brainy-app.

A new website, backed up by a hard hitting campaign, has been launched by 14 councils across the Yorkshire and Humber reasons in a unique bid to champion the roles that are played by children’s social workers, and to highlight the difficult but rewarding job that they do.

Children’s social workers across the country are currently have to deal with a record breaking number of cases, and in the Yorkshire and Humber region alone, they were called on to help and support over 74.000 children in 2010. The council has joined forces with another 14 to ensure that the standard of care that vulnerable children so badly need will continue to improve.

A video has been produced to promote the new website, and while there are no images in the video, the words projected on the screen, highlighting the kind of problems that children’s social workers deal with on a daily basis, are nevertheless heart wrenching.

We read about children left alone while their parents go abroad on holiday, a young an vulnerable girl who end up pregnant at 12, physical and mental abuse, neglect, it makes difficult reading but this is the reality of life when you are a children’s social worker, one of the hardest jobs in the world.

The campaign is operating under the banner of ‘Children’s Social Work Matters’ and is also a recruitment drive to attract more children’s social workers to the region, which is the largest region in the UK, and also to change the many misconception that exist about this vital service.

On the website you will be able to see real life stories told on video by some of the children’s social workers in the region, and they also explain how they manage to deal with both the complexities and the challenges that such a job entails. You will also get to meet the team of social work champions who will be dealing with online questions about the role they play and just what it takes to be a successful children’s social worker.

A report published on Tuesday has indicated that a malaria vaccine will be partially successful in protecting children against the deadly disease. Bill Gates, the billionaire philanthropist who funded the research, described it as “a significant milestone in combatting the disease.”

Andrew Witty, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline has said about the vaccine, “This vaccine will half the risk in young children who are less than 17 months old. It is this kind of work that GSK is doing that shows we care about health problems in the developing world as well.”

While clinical trials have shown great promise for the vaccine, more research is needed before it is known exactly how effective it will be. It is estimated that malaria kills around 800,000 people every year. The World Health Organisation has said that this is a reduction on the near 1 million deaths that were occurring 10 years ago.

It was just five years ago when Mr Gates stated that his ultimate philanthropic goal was to eradicate malaria. He has invested over $1.75 billion in combatting the disease. He also stated that this is just the first vaccine that has been developed, a second-generation vaccine is already in the pipeline and this should be even more effective at preventing the spread of the disease via the malaria parasite.

There are many drugs on the market that are used to prevent malaria, but the sheer cost of these makes their use in developing countries impossible. A vaccine is a much more cost-effective way of preventing malaria, especially in the long term.

It has been shown that vaccines can be effective against parasites, as well as bacteria and viruses as was previously known. The vaccine works by causing an immune response in the body to the parasite.

It has been in development since the 1980s and $500 million has been spent by the US government, GSK and the Gates foundation combined. Mr Gates also commented, “It has been shown to have a long-term effect of protecting 50% of people. This has the potential to save thousands of lives.”

The cost of the vaccine is currently unknown, but GSK have said that they intend to sell it at 5% above the production costs. The company also said that the profits from the vaccine will be used to research other vaccines for malaria  and other neglected diseases. Discussions will soon begin between donor groups and the drug company.

The most severe form of malaria can kill and this vaccine was found to reduce the chance of developing this type of malaria by nearly 50%. This was only found to be in the one specific age group and outside of that it was less effective. For example in children between five and 17-months old the vaccine was only found to be effective in one third of cases.

Nicholas White a Bangkok-based physician has said, “This vaccine is an incredible achievement, but it is only partially effective. There are also some significant side-effects which occurred in the test groups. Those taking the vaccine were much more likely to develop meningitis.” There are also some other problems with the vaccine, one of these is the logistical problem that it has to be kept cold. This can be a problem when distributing the vaccine in Africa.

If the vaccine makes it to market and donor buyers can be found then Glaxo said that it will probably manufacture the vaccine in low cost countries such as India or Africa. However, until the company knows the demand for the vaccine, it won’t know how much to produce.

One of the best ways today of getting a message across is to release a hard hitting short video that is thought provoking, maybe slightly shocking but really gets the message across. Long used as a marketing medium, other ‘commodities’, such as charities, are also using videos to get their point across, and a new short video from Cancer Research UK certainly pulls no punches.

This animation deals with something most of us have, belly fat, aka a spare tyre. Most of us think nothing of it, despite moaning occasionally the majority of us have a flab on our bellies than any other part of out bodies. These fat cells are far from innocent though, as this video explains.

These seemingly innocent fat cells quickly turn into something called ‘active fat’ which can be very dangerous and the cause of such diseases as cancer, type 2diabetes and heart disease. Three leading health charities have got together to tell us how to beat these vicious active fat cells and this is the first video in a series.

The first step is to get an accurate waist measurement, and it explains exactly how to do this as many of us are confused as to where we should actually measuring. The video tells us that your waist should be measured between the bottom rib and the hip to achieve the most accurate measurement.

It also gives the website address www.activefat.org to check where our waist measurements place us in terms of health, and there are also lots of other help and advice on there regarding fighting back against active belly fat. This is video isn’t pretty, and its not meant to be, as it gets across the message of the possible results of carrying around this belly fat and not doing anything about it.

You may not have had to undergo a blood transfusion yourself, but the majority of us know someone who has at some time had to be given blood as the result of an illness, accident or during surgery. While most think that somewhere deep in the bowels of a hospital there is a never ending supply of blood waiting to be used, this is far from reality.

Yes hospitals have a store, but how do they get extra or rare blood if there is an emergency situation? The answer is through a nationwide team of volunteers who run ‘blood bikes’. These are ordinary people who volunteer in their own time, mainly during the night, to collect and deliver blood wherever and whenever it is needed. They pay for all their own fuel too, thus costing the NHS nothing for this vital service.

A new video has been released showing one of these volunteers. Explains that when the call comes they have no idea who the patient is, or what is wrong with them, they simply jump on their bikes and get the blood from A to B as quickly as possible. The guy in the video tells how he mainly rides at night, and how it feels, at times, to be the only vehicle on the A1 motorway in the middle of the night while everyone sleeps.

The video is sponsored by Honda as this particular ‘blood biker’ uses a Honda as his work bike, due to their speed and reliability. This is an incredibly thought provoking insight into a group of people that many don’t even realise exist. This is true charity work as they get nothing from it except the knowledge that they could have saved another life. After watching this video, you will think very differently about blood supplies to hospitals.

Fishing is being used in Scottish hospitals for mental health patients as a way of therapy. A group of nurses in Clyde and Greater Glasgow and Dykebar and Leverndale from two NHS mental health hospitals hit about the idea to help calm the patients down and are now taking them out fishing.

A nursing assistant said they are finding it extremely therapeutic and their thought is that angling will help a number of the patients as they would benefit from the experience. They want to improve their patient’s quality of life and include a change in their everyday routine. The managers gave immediate and brilliant feedback to establish a plan with the results surpassing all their hopes.

The patients love the trips and even the rain and wind has not put them off. They take out groups of between eight and 10 patients to teach them the basics of fishing with the aim to give them a new life skill while creating a challenge for them and a sense of achievement. The patients that go out are the ones from the long tern ward and for many the trips may be their only time to get out and about.