Johnson & Johnson is acknowledged for numerous iconic healthcare brand names.
Listerine has been a staple mouthwash for all around 125 many years. Despite its reputation, Johnson & Johnson proceed to increase the formula, coming up with new flavours and elements to battle oral bacteria.
Bloomberg’s Carol Massar reports from within the so-known as “stink space” in which bacteria is grown for testing.
More than 32,000 British troops failed a key basic fitness test within the last three years, according to new figures that raise fears of an Army obesity crisis.
All soldiers are expected to undergo the personal fitness assessment, which involves press-ups, sit-ups and a run against the clock, twice a year.
But 29,600 male and 2,819 female troops have failed the test at some point in the three years to March 2014, according to figures first disclosed by The Sunday Times.
Soldiers suggested that poor diets were partly to blame, as separate figures showed that more than 22,000 troops were deemed to be overweight and at risk of health problems.
The figures reportedly make some allowance for the fact that soldiers who are heavily muscled may show up as technically overweight under commonly-used body mass index measures, even though they are fit.
One soldier claimed many of his peers had an “appalling” diet involving cooked breakfasts every day and chips with lunch and dinner.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence confirmed the figures. He said: “This figure represents 11 per cent of the Army serving in that period and many of those who failed will have subsequently passed their fitness test.
“All personnel are provided with the support and training necessary to meet the Army’s physical standards, with additional help for those personnel who fail to meet this criteria. Personnel who remain unable to meet the standard could ultimately be discharged.”
The latest figures follow the disclosure earlier this month that increasing numbers of soldiers are being discharged from the Army for being overweight.
There were at least 50 cases between January 2002 and March 2013 where soldiers were released for being obese. In 2011 alone, 13 soldiers were discharged in cases where obesity contributed to their ill-health.
The worst failure rates for the fitness exams had been observed in Suffolk, West Midlands, West Mercia/Warwickshire and Gwent. Photograph: Steve Phillips/Alamy
Hundreds of police officers have failed new fitness tests which are due to turn out to be necessary later on this year, official figures present.
Interim results submitted by 39 forces to the School of Policing showed that 851 officers fell brief, with 3% failing general in a lot more than thirty,000 exams.
Right after taking element in the 15-metre “bleep” shuttle run check, some 253 of the 22,078 male officers who took portion (an average of one%) and 598 of 7,969 female officers (an average of eight%) had been unsuccessful.
The new fitness testing, which will grow to be compulsory in September, was brought in right after suggestions produced by chief inspector of constabulary Tom Winsor.
The worst failure charges had been observed in Suffolk (7%), West Midlands (five.8%), West Mercia/Warwickshire (5.6%) and Gwent (5.5%).
Humberside and Northumbria police have been the only two forces out of a total of 43 in England and Wales who boasted a a hundred% pass prices for both male and female officers.
Information is even now not obtainable for the Metropolitan police, the country’s biggest force, Lancashire, Gloucestershire and Cumbria.
The Winsor suggestions stated that all officers should be produced to consider a “bleep” check annually, with participants having to full a 15-metre shuttle run in shorter and shorter intervals, reaching degree 5.4 – 4 shuttles at degree five.
Officers with special units are expected to complete at greater amounts, with dog handlers needed to total level 5.7 and firearms officers able to do degree seven.six.
Winsor also advised that from 2018 the exams should be created harder, utilizing problems primarily based on the kind of factors an officer may well encounter on duty, but this is becoming regarded by the School of Policing in case it negatively impacts on women.
Assistant chief constable Rob Price explained: “The outcomes to date are encouraging and show the huge bulk of officers examined are match.
“Police forces are sending their results to the college on a quarterly basis and an equality influence evaluation is becoming carried out on those final results.
“New advice will be issued to forces later on this 12 months with a powerful emphasis on delivering supportive measures to support officers pass the check.”
International health care graduates are nearly 15 occasions more likely to fail the CSA than white Uk graduates. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
A substantial court judge has warned the body responsible for conducting GPs’ exams that it need to adjust its evaluation method after acknowledging that ethnic minority healthcare graduates were place at a disadvantage by the recent method.
At a judicial evaluation in central London, Mr Justice John Mitting rejected a claim by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (Bapio) that the clinical skills assessment (CSA), which includes position-playing assessments, should be declared unlawful.
He stated that the Royal School of Basic Practitioners (RCGP) was neither racially discriminatory nor in breach of its public sector equality duty. But he explained that there was a disparity in outcomes amongst different groups and the RCGP should take action.
“If it does not act and its failure to act is the topic of a more challenge in the future, it may possibly nicely be that it will be held to have breached its duty,” he said. “But, as of now, I am content that it’s not in breach of its duty.”
The court heard that United kingdom graduates from ethnic minority backgrounds were almost four instances much more most likely to fail the CSA, and worldwide healthcare graduates had been practically 15 occasions more very likely to fail than white Uk graduates. The CSA was launched in 2007 and is taken at the finish of three years of vocational instruction.
Mitting mentioned the RCGP had carried out numerous assessments that identified the disparity in performance amongst various groups and that it must now take action, like by picking a lot more representative examiners and role-gamers for the assessment.
He said he was happy that the CSA “place south Asians of both categories [Uk-educated and people who studied overseas] at a disadvantage” but he described the assessment itself as “proportionate” and designed to accomplish “reputable ends”.
Mitting said the relative functionality of worldwide healthcare graduates could be explained, at least in component, by inferior education techniques overseas. He described the number of individuals who failed as quite modest.
Mitting stated the declare had been brought in great faith and in the public curiosity, expressing hope that it would lead to progress. “The bringing of this claim is probably, in the finish, to deliver some thing of advantage to the medical profession,” he explained and concluded by describing the final result for Bapio as “if not a legal victory then a moral accomplishment”.
Bapio president Dr Ramesh Mehta was heartened by the judge’s concluding remarks. “Though we could have lost the battle at this time, we come to feel we have won the war because the judge has also mentioned to the RCGP that they should now take action,” he stated.
Bapio’s attorney, William O’Neill, from Linder Myers solicitors explained it would appeal the verdict.
RCGP chair Dr Maureen Baker welcomed the verdict. “We have often been, and remain, concerned by this situation, and are determined to continue to perform with all other interested stakeholders in both knowing it, and looking to treatment it,” she explained. Baker emphasised that the purpose of the CSA was to ensure “GPs meet the highest standards”.
Mitting also dismissed a declare by Bapio towards the Basic Medical Council for a breach of the public sector equality duty, ordering Bapio to pay out expenses capped at £50,000 to be shared among the RCGP and the GMC.
Though we may be creeping up on summertime, this is the time of the 12 months numerous mothers and fathers across the nation are making preparations for preschoolers to enter school following fall for the very very first time. A single issue that’s often ignored is a preschool eye examination. Youthful kids can usually have a vision-relevant problem with no a single ever noticing that some thing may be incorrect.
It should be pretty obvious how a vision dilemma could negatively have an effect on their potential to learn when they get into school. But there’s much more to it than that. Vision issues in youthful young children, even mild situations, can lead to long lasting injury even as an adult if they aren’t discovered and handled. Some could even lead to a reduction of vision.
Emotional And Social Has an effect on of a Vision Difficulty
It can also impact their emotional well-being and social interaction, as well. In this day in age, “fitting in” is tougher than ever to do for some youngsters. In a report published in the Journal of Behavioral Optometry by Joel N. Zaba M.A., O.D., it’s mentioned that a problem with a child’s eyesight can influence their self-self-assurance. It can consequence in heightened feeling of not belonging and fitting in, inadequacy and even delinquency.
Eye Issues Far more Frequent than Considered
Not also extended ago, it was believed that about one particular in twenty children entering or attending preschool had a vision dilemma. That transformed in 2011, when studies have been revealed by Ophthalmology’s October, 2011 concern. The very same had been presented at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAA) meeting. This research showed that there are many a lot more youngsters needing eyesight care, with the numbers going up to one in each and every four youngsters.
Children at Danger
The above studies also indicated that kids exposed to smoke or these who come from families with less-than-stellar wellness insurance coverage are at a greater danger for vision issues. Refractive mistakes in eyesight might not look considerable, but they put youngsters at larger chance of much more serious troubles. Even the slightest refractive mistakes can improve their risk, which makes it all the a lot more important to guarantee youngsters are screened since a lot of of these errors can be corrected with eyeglasses.
The research located the following in terms of refractive errors:
Note that nearsightedness and astigmatism are attainable to outgrow as children get older, but is not assured. Farsightedness cannot be outgrown. Some children have been found to have troubles far more significant, such as lazy eye (five %) and strabismus or “cross eyes” (two percent). These issues can definitely lead to permanent loss of vision if not handled early. Point Grey optometrists stage out that some of these can be efficiently taken care of via not just eyeglasses but vision treatment, too.
Because the scientific studies have been a one-time assessment of the kids, researchers say that a lot more studies require to be completed. But as a mother or father, these research and the fact that 80 % of finding out for the duration of the very first twelve years of existence is completed visually, should be enough information to give trigger for thorough and ongoing eye exams. The free screenings done by most colleges or in preschool readiness assessments will not lower it, in accordance to the American Optometric Association.
By Dr. Wes Youngberg
When I was 24 many years outdated I study the research accomplished by Drs. Brown and Goldsteine. They had just won the Nobel Prize in Medication for their perform exhibiting how harmful cholesterol particles can enter the artery walls and trigger plaque.
So I took the initiative and received examined. Because I was quite fit and mindful with my diet regime, I was shocked to understand that I had extremely high LDL Cholesterol and Triglycerides. At initial I was depressed but I quickly recognized that I had been provided a present! A 2nd-‐chance of-‐ sorts.
With this new awareness I could make the essential changes now, effectively prior to any overall health troubles produced. Every person desires to be wholesome but few of us recognize the underlying brings about of our suboptimal overall health. A correct tune up requires that we very first do the correct blood tests. But when is the last time we took the time to get a complete wellness evaluation?
Blood exams are usually the ideal and quickest way to assess our overall health and to assist us remain motivated. Even the healthiest between us have “chinks in our armor” and can benefit from these aim lab exams. There are a lot of tests offered to individuals hunting for a health tune up. Right here are numerous tests that I normally advise when initiating a wellness tune-‐up.
No, I’m not swearing at you. This could really be the most essential blood check of your life! It is the most substantial scientific breakthrough resulting from the Human Genome Undertaking finished in 2003. MTHFR is a blood check that tells us if we have a mutation in the gene and resulting enzyme that methylates, and for that reason activates the vitamin Folate.
Individuals with this mutation should keep away from Folic Acid – the synthetic type of folate discovered in most numerous vitamins. This is also the most very likely explanation why studies are locating that multiple vitamin customers may possibly have higher threat of cancer and other conditions. Care should be taken to use only the ideal varieties of nutritional dietary supplements.
About 40% of us have one copy of this mutation which outcomes in a 30% decrease in our body’s ability to detoxify, fix DNA and suppress viruses. Getting two copies creates up to 90% impairment. Since this mutation influences each cell and organ program it can be a hidden culprit in several well being issue.
There are 5 frequent variations of this mutation, each and every with it’s personal effortless to comprehend dietary protocol that not only lowers overall health danger but truly creates a nutritional bypass of the mutation itself. This largely resolves the long-‐term overall health chance. My father was struggling with Congestive Heart Failure and autoimmune attacks on his blood platelets.
Testing MTHFR uncovered a double mutation that after taken care of with the correct nutritional protocol dramatically improved his conditions inside of six weeks. For a cost-free five-‐page overview of this check go to the Lab Testing tab at dryoungberg.com.
The 2hr GTT is the best check to catch diabetes or prediabetes early. Almost 50% of
us between the ages of 40 and 59 already have diabetes or prediabetes. If you are older than 60, the odds you presently have prediabetes is 66-‐75%!
Because 90% of us who currently have prediabetes are completely unaware, it can make having large blood sugar and insulin levels one particular of the most underneath diagnosed health problems in America. A straightforward fasting blood sugar is not sufficient since it’s the right after meal blood sugars that account for the bulk of threat. A
four-‐hr GTT would help figure out adrenal fatigue and low blood sugar tendencies. These can be very easily taken care of after appropriately understood.
For over twenty many years I have suggested this test to virtually each patient and think that this is the most underutilized and most essential components of the “health tune up”. Abnormal GTT or insulin ranges are a essential trigger of large blood strain, plaque buildup, bodyweight obtain, infertility, headaches, dementia, as properly as breast, prostate and colon cancers. Elevated insulin at 1 and two hours into the test is 1 of the earliest indicators assessing the danger of cancer initiation and promotion. The very good news is that we can significantly boost insulin levels in our blood with fully organic approaches.
These exams provide clues about our metabolism and the overall health of every organ method in our physique. Improperly evaluated, bad thyroid perform can outcome in dry skin, fatigue, unhealthy nails and hair,
cold feet or hands, headaches, depression, anxiousness, insomnia, ADHD, allergies, persistent infections, excess weight obtain, diabetes, constipation, large blood pressure, menstrual issues, and so forth.
It is also critical to understand that a regular TSH doesn’t automatically imply that there is optimal thyroid function. We can have elevated thyroid antibodies even with normal thyroid hormone levels. Thankfully there are natural approaches to deal with thyroid successfully. I personally gained handle of a 25 12 months battle with toenail fungus and 15 many years of cold feet (both indicators of poor circulation) when I took time to appropriately handle my thyroid.
Much more importantly, my powerful loved ones history of heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer’s is much less of a concern now that I understand subclinical hypothyroidism as a main contributing issue and implemented the suitable nutritional and hormonal approaches.
This one particular gives a a lot far more extensive evaluation of heart attack and stoke threat. In contrast to the normal Lipid/Cholesterol Profile, this test in fact measures the LDL particle size and number. Even with standard ranges of cholesterol, tiny LDL particles effortlessly infiltrate the artery wall advertising plaque buildup.
Having a higher LDL particle number also tremendously increases wellness threat even with normal complete or LDL amounts. This test help us develop a normal plan to avert or reverse erectile dysfunction, heart attacks, strokes, clotting chance and for that reason enhance circulation of oxygen and nutrition to every single organ. It is a crucial to any wellness tune‐up.
This is a blood test that measures the level of irritation throughout your physique. Inflammation virtually turns on genes that market diabetes, cancer, heart disease and autoimmune conditions. Once identified, irritation can be appropriately addressed with all-natural strategies that support flip off ailment advertising genes.
Vitamin D testing is a essential part of your overall health tune-‐up and extremely straightforward to repair. Research estimate that 35% of all cancers could be eradicated if we optimized our blood degree of Vitamin D. Reduced levels drastically increase our threat of infections, pneumonia, autoimmune condition, neurologic and mental health difficulties. Don’t believe that being in the sun frequently eliminates your want to test Vitamin D.
Even as a seashore and sun lover my Vitamin D degree has been as lower as 25. Get tested and then take enough Vitamin D to attain a 50 to a hundred on your blood check.
There are particular supplements, diet regime protocols and other normal approaches accessible at life-style medicine clinics to support management and even reverse chance factors associated with your “tune up.”
After baseline tests are carried out it is crucial that appropriate strategies be place in place to address the different brings about of the wellness problems identified. Whether my sufferers are involved in the Optimum Brain Wellness series, the Diabetes Management Clinic, Detox System, or the Complete Wellness series, I typically advocate that the abnormal baseline labs be repeated at 5 and then ten weeks in order to ensure good results and make adjustments as required.
The good information is that the over lab tests and tune up can give us the route we need to make the subsequent three months a time of overall health transformation and healing.
Health insurance coverage is changing. Several of us have misplaced health insurance coverage or decided that it is just too high-priced. Most with insurance coverage have a huge deductible, or are no longer willing to allow an insurance coverage plan dictate what exams we can have done.
A excellent option is to function with a clinic that has low cost contracts with neighborhood and national labs. For instance, at our clinic, patients get a 80% low cost on all labs. Likewise, I use the identical low cost services for all labs done for my loved ones. That way I get exactly what I need and at a price reduction that is far better than what my insurance would charge me. Consider charge of your overall health and get the tune-‐up lab tests that can assist you transform your well being naturally.
Go to Dr. Wes Youngberg at DrYoungberg.com.
Anti-Atos protest, Manchester, 19 February 2014. Photograph: Steven Purcell/Demotix/Corbis
I read with increasing queasiness the story of Mark Wood, an employment and support allowance (ESA) claimant with mental health problems, whose death by starvation was largely attributable to the Atos assessment of his being fit for work and the subsequent stopping of his sickness benefits (Vulnerable man starved to death after cut to benefits, 1 March).
Years after the Holocaust, ordinary German citizens were called upon by the younger generation to justify themselves: Surely you knew what was going on? Why didn’t you put a stop to it?
I hope I may crave an indulgence to use your paper to put on public record that I was one of those opposed to this government’s policy of abscission against the vulnerable. I submitted to the Harrington reviews on ESA and its assessment processes. I inveighed against the callous manipulation of public attitudes against claimants by the popular press that has driven many people to turn a blind eye to the real agenda. And it is in vain that I now look towards other political parties to protect the weak, when they so obviously realise that the propaganda battle has been lost.
The benefits system has failed those that have most needed help for decades, but it has not until now sought to eradicate them entirely.
Simon Wagener
Wallasey, Merseyside
• Your article quotes a DWP spokesman stating: “A decision on whether someone is well enough to work is taken following a thorough assessment and after consideration of all the supporting medical evidence from the claimant’s GP or medical specialist”. But the DWP does not itself request medical documentation, and it is up to the ESA claimants to produce it. Reasons for claimants not doing this include them assuming the DWP has requested medical records, claimants not realising the importance of such records, and disability such as depression or psychosis resulting in default.
Assessors rely on claimants to say what their medical illnesses are, but claimants sometimes give the wrong diagnoses and often don’t understand the complexity of their illnesses. Although Atos assessors fill in a “medical report form”, Atos nurses and physiotherapists far outnumber medical practitioners. Even when hospital records are obtained, the nurse/physiotherapist may not understand important details eg that an eGFR of 17 means that renal function is severely impaired. Without medical records, the Atos medical practitioner assessors also make decisions having woefully inadequate information. On appeal to first-tier tribunals, a significant proportion of sessions are adjourned to get medical evidence covering several years. A “thorough assessment” it is habitually not.
Morris Bernadt
London
• Following the death of Mark Wood, who starved to death after his benefits were withdrawn, it is surely time for a citizen’s arrest campaign targeting Iain Duncan Smith. The death of Mr Wood, who was disabled, follows the call for a woman in a coma to attend job training, and cuts to benefits after letters were sent to a blind man that he could not read. The responsibility for these appalling infringements of basic human rights lies squarely with the minister who designed and implemented the system. Could legal experts please advise on the case for charging him with manslaughter? I would be happy to place a hand on his shoulder.
Nicola Grove
Horningsham, Wiltshire
• Our twin 41-year-old sons, who have learning difficulties, epilepsy and other problems, have just been informed that they will have to reapply for their welfare benefits through a process conducted on behalf of the coalition government by the French-owned private company Atos.
Dr Giles Youngs, who wrote a letter to the Guardian (19 February) about his recent resignation as a medical assessor for Atos, in which he referred to “unrealistic criteria, set by the DWP, for a claimant being awarded employment and support allowance”, is absolutely right in expressing his concerns that people with disabilities are unlikely to be given even a job interview, never mind a job. Despite the Disability Discrimination Act, discrimination still continues, eg in February 1999 we arranged for one of our sons to meet the North Wales personnel manager of the Benefits Agency, requesting that he give our son work experience in its Wrexham office. At the interview the manager said that although they had given work experience to physically disabled people, they had never done so for a person with a learning disability. We heard no more from him.
What confidence, if any, should all disability welfare claimants now have of the work capability assessment in light of Dr Youngs’ revealing and damning indictment of both Atos and the DWP?
Ken and Mary Mack
(72-year-old unpaid carers), Wrexham
• We are beginning to see the results of several years of campaigning against unjust welfare reforms that target disabled people. But Atos attempting to pull out of its contract (Report, 22 February) represents only a partial victory. Other private corporations are already lining up to take over. So long as the work capability assessment (WCA) regime continues, so will the misery it causes to disabled people and their families, and to the workers involved in implementing a system they don’t agree with.
The WCA should be replaced immediately with a rigorous and safe system that does not cause avoidable harm to disabled people or those with chronic health issues or terminal illnesses. The UK government and opposition should follow the Scottish government’s pledge that private for-profit companies are removed entirely from having anything to do with the assessment of disabled people. This area of public policy belongs firmly within the NHS and the public sector.
The PIP contract must be removed from Atos with immediate effect: targets in its handling of the WCA have affected thousands of disabled people, leading to hastened deaths, waits of up to a year, and leaving people without income or food.
Linda Burnip Co-founder, Disabled People Against Cuts
Tracey Lazard CEO, Inclusion London
John McArdle Co-founder, Black Triangle
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS Union
Frances O’Grady General secretary, TUC
John McDonnell MP
Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite
Francesca Martinez WOW petition
Pat Onions Pat’s Petition
Rosemary O’Neill CarerWatch
Sean Vernell National secretary, Unite the Resistance
Eileen Short Chair, National Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation
Rev Paul Nicolson Taxpayers Against Poverty
Claire Glasman WinVisible (women with visible & invisible disabilities)
Ariane Sacco WinVisible
Mark Harrison CEO, Equal Lives
Kevin Caulfield Chair, Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Cuts
Rahel Geffen CEO, Disability Action in Islington
Lyla Adwan-Kamara Merton Centre for Independent Living
Shaun O’Regan Southwark Benefit Justice Campaign
Barry McDonald Chair, Bromley Experts by Experience
Ian Hodson National president, Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union
Ronnie Draper General secretary, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union
Mick Carney National president, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association
Manuel Cortes General secretary, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association
Sean McGovern Unite executive councillor
Rob Murthwaite Equalities rep, UCU London region
Mike Cox Norfolk Disabled People Against Cuts
Dr Stephen Carty Medical adviser, Black Triangle Campaign
Debbie Jolly Co-founder, Disabled People Against Cuts
Andy Greene Islington Disabled People Against Cuts
Ellen Clifford Croydon Disabled People Against Cuts
Paula Peters Bromley Disabled People Against Cuts
Conan Doyle London Disabled People Against Cuts
Bob Ellard National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Anita Bellows National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Ciara Doyle National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Roger Lewis National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Jane Bence WOW petition
Rick Burgess WOW petition
Anti-Atos protest, Manchester, 19 February 2014. Photograph: Steven Purcell/Demotix/Corbis
I read with increasing queasiness the story of Mark Wood, an employment and support allowance (ESA) claimant with mental health problems, whose death by starvation was largely attributable to the Atos assessment of his being fit for work and the subsequent stopping of his sickness benefits (Vulnerable man starved to death after cut to benefits, 1 March).
Years after the Holocaust, ordinary German citizens were called upon by the younger generation to justify themselves: Surely you knew what was going on? Why didn’t you put a stop to it?
I hope I may crave an indulgence to use your paper to put on public record that I was one of those opposed to this government’s policy of abscission against the vulnerable. I submitted to the Harrington reviews on ESA and its assessment processes. I inveighed against the callous manipulation of public attitudes against claimants by the popular press that has driven many people to turn a blind eye to the real agenda. And it is in vain that I now look towards other political parties to protect the weak, when they so obviously realise that the propaganda battle has been lost.
The benefits system has failed those that have most needed help for decades, but it has not until now sought to eradicate them entirely.
Simon Wagener
Wallasey, Merseyside
• Your article quotes a DWP spokesman stating: “A decision on whether someone is well enough to work is taken following a thorough assessment and after consideration of all the supporting medical evidence from the claimant’s GP or medical specialist”. But the DWP does not itself request medical documentation, and it is up to the ESA claimants to produce it. Reasons for claimants not doing this include them assuming the DWP has requested medical records, claimants not realising the importance of such records, and disability such as depression or psychosis resulting in default.
Assessors rely on claimants to say what their medical illnesses are, but claimants sometimes give the wrong diagnoses and often don’t understand the complexity of their illnesses. Although Atos assessors fill in a “medical report form”, Atos nurses and physiotherapists far outnumber medical practitioners. Even when hospital records are obtained, the nurse/physiotherapist may not understand important details eg that an eGFR of 17 means that renal function is severely impaired. Without medical records, the Atos medical practitioner assessors also make decisions having woefully inadequate information. On appeal to first-tier tribunals, a significant proportion of sessions are adjourned to get medical evidence covering several years. A “thorough assessment” it is habitually not.
Morris Bernadt
London
• Following the death of Mark Wood, who starved to death after his benefits were withdrawn, it is surely time for a citizen’s arrest campaign targeting Iain Duncan Smith. The death of Mr Wood, who was disabled, follows the call for a woman in a coma to attend job training, and cuts to benefits after letters were sent to a blind man that he could not read. The responsibility for these appalling infringements of basic human rights lies squarely with the minister who designed and implemented the system. Could legal experts please advise on the case for charging him with manslaughter? I would be happy to place a hand on his shoulder.
Nicola Grove
Horningsham, Wiltshire
• Our twin 41-year-old sons, who have learning difficulties, epilepsy and other problems, have just been informed that they will have to reapply for their welfare benefits through a process conducted on behalf of the coalition government by the French-owned private company Atos.
Dr Giles Youngs, who wrote a letter to the Guardian (19 February) about his recent resignation as a medical assessor for Atos, in which he referred to “unrealistic criteria, set by the DWP, for a claimant being awarded employment and support allowance”, is absolutely right in expressing his concerns that people with disabilities are unlikely to be given even a job interview, never mind a job. Despite the Disability Discrimination Act, discrimination still continues, eg in February 1999 we arranged for one of our sons to meet the North Wales personnel manager of the Benefits Agency, requesting that he give our son work experience in its Wrexham office. At the interview the manager said that although they had given work experience to physically disabled people, they had never done so for a person with a learning disability. We heard no more from him.
What confidence, if any, should all disability welfare claimants now have of the work capability assessment in light of Dr Youngs’ revealing and damning indictment of both Atos and the DWP?
Ken and Mary Mack
(72-year-old unpaid carers), Wrexham
• We are beginning to see the results of several years of campaigning against unjust welfare reforms that target disabled people. But Atos attempting to pull out of its contract (Report, 22 February) represents only a partial victory. Other private corporations are already lining up to take over. So long as the work capability assessment (WCA) regime continues, so will the misery it causes to disabled people and their families, and to the workers involved in implementing a system they don’t agree with.
The WCA should be replaced immediately with a rigorous and safe system that does not cause avoidable harm to disabled people or those with chronic health issues or terminal illnesses. The UK government and opposition should follow the Scottish government’s pledge that private for-profit companies are removed entirely from having anything to do with the assessment of disabled people. This area of public policy belongs firmly within the NHS and the public sector.
The PIP contract must be removed from Atos with immediate effect: targets in its handling of the WCA have affected thousands of disabled people, leading to hastened deaths, waits of up to a year, and leaving people without income or food.
Linda Burnip Co-founder, Disabled People Against Cuts
Tracey Lazard CEO, Inclusion London
John McArdle Co-founder, Black Triangle
Mark Serwotka General secretary, PCS Union
Frances O’Grady General secretary, TUC
John McDonnell MP
Len McCluskey General secretary, Unite
Francesca Martinez WOW petition
Pat Onions Pat’s Petition
Rosemary O’Neill CarerWatch
Sean Vernell National secretary, Unite the Resistance
Eileen Short Chair, National Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation
Rev Paul Nicolson Taxpayers Against Poverty
Claire Glasman WinVisible (women with visible & invisible disabilities)
Ariane Sacco WinVisible
Mark Harrison CEO, Equal Lives
Kevin Caulfield Chair, Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Cuts
Rahel Geffen CEO, Disability Action in Islington
Lyla Adwan-Kamara Merton Centre for Independent Living
Shaun O’Regan Southwark Benefit Justice Campaign
Barry McDonald Chair, Bromley Experts by Experience
Ian Hodson National president, Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union
Ronnie Draper General secretary, Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union
Mick Carney National president, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association
Manuel Cortes General secretary, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association
Sean McGovern Unite executive councillor
Rob Murthwaite Equalities rep, UCU London region
Mike Cox Norfolk Disabled People Against Cuts
Dr Stephen Carty Medical adviser, Black Triangle Campaign
Debbie Jolly Co-founder, Disabled People Against Cuts
Andy Greene Islington Disabled People Against Cuts
Ellen Clifford Croydon Disabled People Against Cuts
Paula Peters Bromley Disabled People Against Cuts
Conan Doyle London Disabled People Against Cuts
Bob Ellard National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Anita Bellows National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Ciara Doyle National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Roger Lewis National steering committee, Disabled People Against Cuts
Jane Bence WOW petition
Rick Burgess WOW petition
On Wednesday evening the New England Journal of Medication published a research showing that a new, DNA-sequencing based blood test provides a dramatic improvement in accuracy at screening for Down’s syndrome and a 2nd, connected ailment. That could open up a $ 6 billion market to the biotechnology companies that are presently advertising these exams.
Each 12 months in the U.S. there are 6.six million pregnancies and 4 million births, in accordance the Centers for Ailment Management & Prevention. The record costs of the exams, which are sold by four distinct organizations, assortment from $ 700 to $ 2500. Assuming that pricing settles in the middle of that range and that there are 5 million women who select to have the test, that would be a $ eight billion marketplace.
But give that number a haircut. “I have to imagine pricing could come down much more aggressively if tips expanded,” says Douglas Schenkel, an analyst at Cowen & Co. Not each and every pregnant woman will ever get the check. But he still argues that the industry for these exams could increase six-fold from its present dimension of about $ one billion. Isaac Ro, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, supplied comparable estimates in a note to clientele.
Such a industry expansion could be critical to all of the companies that make the tests, such as Ariosa, which can make the lowest cost check, Natera, and Sequenom Sequenom. But the biggest winner could be Illumina, the San Diego maker of DNA sequencing gear that funded the trial and that obtained Verinata, a fourth maker of the new exams, for $ 350 million final year.
Illumina says it believes Verinata has strong intellectual home position in this booming new industry. Past that, however, all four producers run their exams on Illumina’s DNA sequencing machines, which means the firm wins no matter what. Francis DeSouza, Illumina’s president, stated in an interview that, if anything at all, he expects to commit significantly less on marketing Verinata and that the business is taking care for there to be an even playing field for the exams. It prices its check in the mid-range of the marketplace, at a $ one,500 checklist price tag.
Illumina also says that it does not anticipate a value war, since the market place expansion will be dependent on healthcare societies writing suggestions that endorse the new check. Right now the American University of Obstetricians and Gynecologists suggests the DNA-based mostly tests only for mothers at substantial danger, including people more than 35.
But the NEJM paper makes a strong argument for expanding that recommendation. Proper now it is suggested that all pregnant females be presented a pair of tests – a blood test and an ultrasound to search for fluid at the base of the fetus’ neck – to display for 3 issues induced when the infant has an further copy of 1 of the 46 chromosome bundles that incorporate the human genetic code. There are 3 this kind of issues that occur commonly: trisomy 21, or Down syndrome, is the most common, creating diminished intellectual ability and slower development trisomies 18 and 13 are less typical, but are often fatal for the infant.
Present screening exams yield a huge variety of false positives, so they have to be followed up with an invasive test that samples cells from the fetus. One such check, chorionic villus sampling, has a miscarriage price of 1 in 200 the other, amniocentesis, causes miscarriages one out of every single 600 instances.
These invasive exams would nevertheless be essential to verify positives from the DNA exams, but they’d be utilised in ladies whose fetuses really do not have Down’s or other trisomies far less typically. The NEJM examine gave the old screening exams and the new DNA-based mostly test to 1,914 pregnant women and followed them right up until the baby was born. For Down Syndrome, the new test gave just six false positives compared to 69 for the previous screening exams. For trisomy 13, there had been 3 false positives with DNA sequencing in contrast to eleven with the classic number. For trisomy 13, the numbers were 1 and 6.
Assuming five million women are tested each and every year, that would indicate 245,000 would be spared an invasive check, and 358 miscarriages may possibly be prevented. Even at a larger expense, that could be tough for insurance coverage companies to say no to. Some professionals, which includes Illumina, assume that more studies will be needed to modify the recommendations.
How does the new check perform? Basically, by counting. Because some of the fetus’ cells circulate in the mother’s blood, researchers can sequence DNA and see if genes from any chromosomes appear also typically. For a much more complete description, examine out the video embedded from Steve Quake at Stanford, who co-invented Verinata’s technological innovation. His explanation commences at five:fifty five.
Not everyone is positive that the new technological innovation, recognized as non-invasive prenatal testing, is an unmixed blessing. Hank Greely, a professor of law at Stanford Law College who has written extensively on genetic concerns, says that the new test is “more reason to think NIPT will largely take more than Down’s screening.” But he warns that these very same approaches may possibly lead to exams for far more difficult tests. “If, say, 70% of American pregnancies obtained broad genetic screening, the up coming generation would look diverse – some will say for better, some for worse.”
Jo’s Believe in is operating Cervical Cancer Prevention Week from 19 to 25 January to raise awareness of the illness and the value of screenings.
The charity has launched a campaign, Place By yourself In The Picture, which aims to put females in the picture on why they want to attend cervical screening.
Robert Music, chief executive of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, explained: “Every day in the Uk, eight girls are diagnosed with cervical cancer and almost 3 die of the illness. A cervical screening test only takes five minutes but could save a woman’s lifestyle.
“With uptake for cervical screening declining we want to put females in the picture when it comes to cervical cancer prevention and reverse this downward trend. Sadly we support too a lot of ladies who have had to go by way of a lot more invasive treatment due to a later diagnosis which might have been prevented had the lady attended screening when invited.”
The campaign asks girls to upload a selfie into a personalised digital image frame on the Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust web site or Facebook web page, share it with close friends and family members and pledge to attend cervical screening.
It is supported by Fresh Meat’s Sara Stewart, who stated: “Having had breast cancer myself, I have come to realise the significance of early diagnosis – the place mammograms are there to detect breast cancer, cervical screening is essential for helping girls, the two younger and old, to catch cervical abnormalities early just before they produce into anything a lot more serious.”
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland all women in between the ages of 25 and 64 are eligible for cervical screening. In Scotland screening is at present amongst the ages of twenty and 60 and will be raised to 25-64 in 2015.
Ideas for attending a cervical screening:
· Very first time or nervous? Tell the sample taker.
· Anxious about discomfort? Inquire the sample taker to use a smaller speculum.
· Feeling embarrassed? Wear a skirt as you can preserve this on throughout the check.
· Consider to unwind and distract your thoughts.
· Do not want to go alone? Get a pal to wait in the waiting room with you.
· Not positive what to anticipate? Go to the Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust site or call their helpline (0808 802 8000).
Right after rolling my eyes many a lot of instances this week, I at some point caved in. I lastly took BuzzFeed’s “What City Need to You Truly Dwell In?” quiz. In situation you are wondering, I belong in Paris. Without having even a hint of irony, I had clicked by way of their “Which Muppet Are You?” quiz a handful of days ago. Bunsen Honeydew (I really like something Muppet). Because Facebook was overrun with Zimbio’s “Which Star Wars Character Are You?.” I just caved and took the quiz whilst creating this post.
Apparently, I’m Darth Vader.
Yes. There’s some reality to that. I truly feel the temptation to be seduced by the dark side of the force every time I see these stupid quizzes.
Quizzes like this are a magazine common. I Googled “most popular magazine quizzes”:
Are you a very good kisser? (Seventeen)
How millennial are you? (Time)
What’s his intimacy IQ? (Cosmopolitan)
What does your favorite snack food say about your persona? (Girls Residence Journal)
What is it about these quizzes, I wondered, that attracts us? Definitely, no one believes in the outcomes. It is just enjoyment. So why do these quizzes amuse us?
I’ll admit that when I clicked through the alternatives on “Which Muppet Are you?”, I secretly hoped I’d get Animal or Dr. Teeth. I’d have settled for Kermit or Gonzo. I was checking to see how effectively my preference measured up to the final results.
But why? I know these quizzes are based mostly on absolutely nothing. I know there is not even a kernel of truth in the end result. No methodology is listed. The authors credentials are nowhere to be discovered. And how does 1 even earn the qualifications needed to undertake an evaluation of “Muppet-ness?”
The total issue is absurd.
You’d probably say I’m overthinking it. You might believe that people consider these quizes just for exciting. But frankly, I discover it bizarre that any of us want to be analyzed by simple algorithms that divide and decrease us into a constrained quantity of categories. Where does this wish come from?
Basically, entertainment quizzes are diluted novelty versions of the psychological character exams that gained popularity in the 1920s. The Rorschach Inkblot check was introduced in 1921, the very same year Carl Gustav Jung wrote his famous guide Psychological Kinds.
Carl Jung’s character typology laid the basis for the popular Isabella Myers-Briggs’ test, developed in 1923. In Jung’s book, he named psychic functions: feeling, contemplating, sensation, and intuition. And attitudes: introverted and extroverted. In accordance to Jung, we all have a tiny bit of almost everything, but in every person specific functions and attitudes are much more dominant than other people.
In spite of Jung’s original intentions, the Myers-Briggs check has, ironically, turn into most popular as a approach for evaluating your expert aptitude and deciding on techniques greatest suited for obtaining your self ahead in the planet. Jung’s theories, nevertheless, largely aimed to help us determine a common psychic imbalance that was, in the Western Globe, disproportionately tilted towards a heroic, competitive, success-driven mindset. Paradoxically, his venture was often to assist us move away from the deterministic, definition-driven, certainty that is implicit in any typology’s dependence on categorization.
Jung’s theories, like other typologies just before and after, eventually led to a thriving industry which sells the specialist persona test, employed largely to assess regardless of whether or not an applicant has the proper psychological disposition for a distinct work.
As to be expected, the standard view in the industrial age was that we had the achieved a heretofore unmatched degree of scientific progress that guaranteed efficiency, accuracy, and precision. In no way thoughts that these tests are hardly diverse from the typological categorization that was already well-liked in the ancient globe. Hippocrates described four standard human temperaments, named “humors.” Plato divided us into philosophers, guardians, artisans, and scientists.
In 1935, Leopold Szondi created a non-verbal character check known as the “Szondi Test.” His was based on Freud’s drive concept. But by the late 1950s he may have been disillusioned with psychometrics. He explained, “in the last decades, the exclusively psychological considering has been practically completely suppressed and eliminated, and replaced by a statistical pondering. Precisely right here we see the cancer of testology and testomania of right now.”
Testomania is correct. Customers really like personality quizzes. At the time of this creating, Buzzfeed’s “What City” check had presently been viewed above 14 Million instances in two days. Google Google reports 135,000 monthly queries for “Myers-Briggs” and 301,000 monthly queries for “personality check.”
Apparently, we get pleasure from becoming categorized.
Nevertheless, I’m baffled.
Simultaneously, my Facebook feed is saturated in persona quizzes and also back links to snarky viewpoint posts about Google’s $ three.two Billion acquisition of Nest. At very first these two issues seem to be unrelated, but on closer inspection an inherent contradiction is exposed.
What scares us about Google (and the NSA, for that matter) is the large-brother-like way a connected world–an world wide web of things–uses algorithms to file us into categories that let targeted advertising, profiling, and surveillance.
Why is it that when it comes to novelty quizzes we get pleasure from getting analyzed by straightforward algorithms that divide and decrease us into a restricted amount of determinate categories, but when it comes to Google and the NSA we’re terrified of the very same issue? My theory is that it is a collective manifestation of a psychological perform that Sigmund Freud referred to as “displacement.”
Displacement, in accordance to Freud, is an unconscious procedure through which the psyche transfers vitality, tips, and feelings away from things that cause nervousness, and toward similar items that are superficial, whimsical, and distracting.
In this situation, rather than focusing on the algorithmic focusing on and surveillance that has become so ordinary in our every day lives, we distract ourselves by focusing on meaningless algorithmic categorization.
What’s much more, since these novelty quizzes are so clearly inaccurate, they really do not scare us. Heck, they don’t even challenge us to be introspective.
We brush them off as “merely entertainment,” forgetting that by participating–through the act clicking–we’ve once once again provided Google with a plethora of character data that is forever stored in our file.
Jordan Shapiro is author of FREEPLAY: A Video Game Guide to Maximum Euphoric Bliss. For info on his approaching books and events click right here.
Diabetics could in long term steer clear of agonizing pinprick blood glucose tests making use of a smart speak to lens being developed at Google which measures glucose amounts in tears.
A prototype proven off by the business uses an embedded miniaturised glucose sensor and wireless chip in a make contact with lens to measure glucose in tears as frequently as after every single second.
That would make monitoring glucose ranges – an important activity for diabetics, who are at risk of heightened or lowered blood-sugar amounts – quicker, easier and much less painful due to the fact it would eliminate the need to break the skin and measure blood glucose amounts straight.
Diabetes, triggered by a deficiency of the sugar-regulating hormone insulin, affects all around 5% of people in produced nations. It is a leading lead to of kidney failure, blindness and amputations if insufficiently handled.
French scientists identified that tears carry measurable levels of glucose in the 1930s, but it has taken decades to uncover a way to exploit that to develop a non-invasive check. A team at the University of Michigan showed off a sensor which examined tears in November 2011, and had been even then a single of a number pursuing the thought. Microsoft Analysis, then collaborating with Babak Parviz – at the time a professor at University of Washington – unveiled a prototype of the glucose-measuring contact lens in 2011.
Since then Parviz has moved to join Google’s experimental X Lab, for which this is its most current solution. “We’re testing prototypes that can create a studying as soon as per 2nd,” stated Brian Otis and Parviz, co-founders of the project which they began at the University of Washington, in a joint site post. “We’re also investigating the possible for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, so we’re exploring integrating small LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose amounts have crossed above or beneath specific thresholds.”
Diabetics who are not ready to maintain their blood sugar levels under management danger going into a coma, and there is also a greater likelihood of extended-term harm to blood vessels and the eyes, with connected hazards of stroke and blindness.
“Although some individuals put on glucose monitors with a glucose sensor embedded beneath their skin, all folks with diabetes should even now prick their finger and check drops of blood all through the day. It is disruptive, and it’s unpleasant,” explained Otis and Parviz. “As a end result, numerous individuals with diabetes examine their blood glucose less often than they ought to.”
Google is at the moment talking to the US Foods and Medicines Administration, which regulates drugs and health care applications, about promoting it as a health care device, and seeking partners amid health-related experts to deliver a wise get in touch with lens and apps to market place.
“We’ve always stated that we’d seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or odd, and at a time when the Global Diabetes Federation is declaring that the globe is ‘losing the battle’ against diabetes, we imagined this undertaking was really worth a shot,” Otis and Parviz stated of Google X labs, which also produced Google’s self-driving cars and Google Glass, the company’s smart glasses.
Smart make contact with lenses are previously obtainable on the health care marketplace, such as a disposable lens that is utilized to personalise the remedy of glaucoma by measuring changes to the eye from Sensimed Triggerfish.
• A woman faced a San Diego court for sporting Google Glass even though driving her car
