Stroke patients in UK "missing out on treatment for brain clots"

Thousands of stroke patients in the UK may be missing out on a treatment that involves physically unplugging blood vessels in the brain, research suggests.

Scientists estimate that about 9,000 patients with blood clots in the brain – a tenth of the total – could benefit from mechanical thrombectomy (MT) each year. Currently, fewer than 600 patients a year undergo the procedure.

The catheter technique uses an expandable grabber or suction to clear clots from large blood vessels and is said to be more effective than relying on clot-busting drugs.

Dr Martin James, one of the researchers from the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital, said: “Delivering mechanical thrombectomy to the 9,000 people who need it will require major changes to the configuration and skill sets of existing acute stroke services.

“We must work quickly to establish what needs to be done so that more people in the UK can benefit from a treatment which can dramatically reduce disability after a stroke as well as cutting associated costs to the NHS and social care.”

The study’s authors analysed all the available results from clinical trials of the procedure and compared them with the prevalence of stroke in the UK. They concluded that large numbers of British patients who qualified for MT were not being offered the treatment.

Between 8,770 and 9,750 stroke patients admitted to UK hospitals each year stood to benefit from the procedure, said the researchers, whose findings were presented at the UK Stroke Forum Conference in Liverpool.

Very few UK hospitals have enough specialists and the necessary support to provide MT treatment 24 hours a day, they claimed.

Co-author Professor Phil White, from the University of Newcastle, said: “Mechanical thrombectomy is a highly effective treatment for acute ischaemic stroke, with eight clinical trials showing a significant reduction in disability after stroke if it is used immediately in the right patients.

“The challenge is to make this technique more widely available, as current figures suggest that fewer than 600 patients receive this treatment each year in the UK.”

Stroke patients in UK "missing out on treatment for brain clots"

Thousands of breast cancer patients missing out on 43p-a-day drug

Thousands of women with postmenopausal breast cancer are missing out on 43p-a-day drugs that could prevent their disease spreading, research suggests.

A poll of cancer specialists for the charity Breast Cancer Now found confusion over who funds bisphosphonates – cheap drugs typically used to treat osteoporosis.

The drugs alter bone tissue, making it harder for cancer cells to survive there, and are already used for patients with advanced prostate cancer. They have been hailed as having the potential to prevent around one in 10 breast cancer deaths and could save the NHS millions of pounds every year.

Breast Cancer Now calculates that around 27,000 women every year are missing out on bisphosphonates, with the main reason cited being a lack of clear guidance on who should fund them.

Its poll, which involved responses from 125 cancer specialists, found 59% had not brought in bisphosphonates for their breast cancer patients, 24% had introduced them and 17% had done so partially. When asked about possible barriers to giving the drugs, 45% said they were waiting for funding decisions, 11% were waiting for clinical decisions and the rest were waiting for a variety of other reasons.

Delyth Morgan, the chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, called for a national policy on who would fund the drugs, such as centrally through NHS England or via local clinical commissioning groups.

She said: “While bisphosphonates are not routinely available to all eligible breast cancer patients, women’s lives are needlessly being put at risk. These are cheap and widely available drugs and the overwhelming evidence of their ability to save lives should have changed practice by now. But they are still sitting on the shelf, blocked by bureaucratic inertia.

“We’re fortunate to have so many of the world’s leading oncologists working within the NHS and we must ensure they have all the tools they need to offer the best possible breast cancer treatment.”

Research published in the Lancet medical journal last year found the drugs could prevent 1,000 breast cancer deaths a year.

Postmenopausal women on bisphosphonates saw a 28% reduction in the chances of their cancer returning. The drugs cut the risk of dying from the disease during the first 10 years after diagnosis by 18%.

Analysis by Breast Cancer Now shows the cost of giving women the drugs would be almost £17m a year but it forecasts eventual savings through women needing fewer bone scans and the fact that 1,200 fewer women every year would develop secondary breast cancer.

Bisphosphonates can be taken for about three years, either as a daily tablet (ibandronate) costing 34p per day or intravenously every six months (zoledronate) at 4p per day.

The full cost (including consultant time and monitoring side-effects) is estimated to be 43p a day for each patient.

Rob Coleman, professor of medical oncology at the University of Sheffield, said: “It should be an absolute priority for every clinician and commissioner involved in the provision of breast cancer services to ensure this simple and safe treatment is made available, as a matter of urgency.”

Prof Ian Smith, chair of the Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group, said: “It is deeply concerning that such an inexpensive treatment known to improve survival for women with breast cancer is not being made available to all that could benefit.

“In order to deliver the best quality breast cancer care to UK patients, the introduction of these drugs for all eligible women must now be our top priority.”

The call comes as a separate survey for Breast Cancer Care found two-thirds of NHS hospital trusts in England did not know how many of their patients had secondary, incurable breast cancer.

Despite being mandatory since 2013, 19% of hospital trusts are not collecting data about the number of people diagnosed with incurable breast cancer and 47% are not recording the numbers fully.

An NHS England spokesman said: “The report of the independent cancer taskforce included a specific recommendation on the use of bisphosphonates. We continue to work to realise the ambitions of the report and will shortly be publishing an update on progress made.”

NHS England said decisions on the funding of the drugs were currently made locally. But it said their use would be considered by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in upcoming guidance.

Thousands of breast cancer patients missing out on 43p-a-day drug

NHS cancer patients missing out on innovative drugs

Thousands of NHS cancer patients in the UK are missing out on innovative treatments available in countries of comparable wealth partly because of a failure by medicines regulators to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry on the price of drugs, charities have said.

Breast Cancer Now and Prostate Cancer UK have reviewed different drug systems and the availability of drugs for breast and prostate cancer and concluded that the UK approach is not fit for purpose.

Related: Can the NHS really not afford second transplants for cancer patients like me? | Hannah Partos

One of the main flaws they identify is that Nice (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) in England and Wales, and the SMC (Scottish Medicines Consortium), decide not only the clinical value of a drug but also its cost-effectiveness. However, the latter decision is based solely on the price quoted by the manufacturer, whereas in other health systems one public body makes clinical recommendations and then it is left to another to negotiate to the best of its ability.

Sally Greenbrook, policy manager at Breast Cancer Now, said: “What we found happening elsewhere is one organisation like Nice is doing the analysis of clinical excellence and quality of life, length of life and giving it a quality rating and that feeds into a negotiation process. When we consider the benefits of a drug, we should consider the clinical benefits and not how much it costs at that stage. That should then inform what we’re willing to pay for it. If we have a bit more flexibility in the negotiation scheme, we can perhaps see some of these drugs made available.”

A report, published by the two charities on Monday, compared the availability of treatments in England, Scotland and Wales with that in Germany, France, Australia, Canada and Sweden.

One of the drugs highlighted is Kadcyla, which can offer women living with incurable secondary breast cancer an average of an extra six months of life. It was launched two-and-a-half years ago and is now available in Germany, Canada and France. However it is only available through application to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) in England, and is not available at all in Scotland or Wales.

The value of the CDF as a fallback is diminishing however as it has been reformed because of concerns over its finances and can no longer prescribe drugs not approved by Nice. It will limit what the CDF can approve in future and is likely to see drugs withdrawn from the fund.

The report points out Nice has not approved a single new breast cancer drug for routine use in the NHS in the last seven years, while just two treatments have been approved by the SMC in that time. “We know cancer outcomes are worse than in some other countries in Europeand part of that is going to be access to treatment,” said Greenbrook.

Nice said three-quarters of cancer drugs it has recommended this year have been discounted. The organisation’s chief executive, Sir Andrew Dillon, said: “Nice, working with NHS England, has been successful in encouraging companies to improve their offers, but they need to go further to help us to enable access to the most expensive new medicines.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “Our existing approval process through Nice allows pharmaceutical companies to be flexible on price, which ensures that we improve access to the latest treatments.”

A SMC spokeswoman said price negotiation was not part of its evaluation process, but the Scottish government said it had commissioned an independent review on access to new medicines, to report later in the summer.

NHS cancer patients missing out on innovative drugs

The horror of&nbspTuam"s missing infants is not diminished by misreported details | Tanya Gold

Some commentators think the common outrage close to the Tuam story is fake, but they are incorrect, writes Tanya Gold. Photograph: Patrick Bolger

There was a vigil outdoors the Irish embassy in London on Thursday. It was for the 796 children who died in a former mom and little one property in Tuam, County Galway, which was operated by the Sisters of Bon Secours between 1925 and 1961. There are death records but no burial data for these young children. The area of their graves is a mystery, despite the fact that it is probable that they are near the home, and that some of them, according to testimony from two regional boys, who identified skeletons in 1975 following disturbing a concrete slab, may be in what was as soon as a septic tank in the grounds. When the story broke a month ago there was fury, and misreporting. All the missing children, it was stated, have been in the tank. This is supposition. No one particular is aware of precisely the place they are. The internet site has not been searched.

I do not praise misreporting. It need to not have happened. The New York Instances and the Washington Publish carried corrections. So did the Guardian. But the scandal – and here scandal blooms on scandal – is how an original error has allowed the fate of the mothers and babies of Tuam to be diminished and then normalised. It is equivalent to watching material fray. Tug at a thread and hope the complete collapses.

In a piece for Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neill railed towards the false headlines. He was right to abhor them, but then he lost his stability. He presented those furious at the needless deaths as a “Twittermob continuously on the hunt for things it may truly feel ostentatiously outraged by”. He was, it looks, much more interested in what was misreported than what actually happened the problems in the residences, the stigma that took the girls there and the query of how many equivalent graves there might be across Ireland were significantly less essential. What started as a polemic seeking reality swiftly became the opposite. In reality, he said, the “unhealthy obsession over the previous 10 many years with raking in excess of Ireland’s past … has grow to be a variety of grotesque moral sport, offering kicks to the anti-Catholic brigade and fuel to the historical self-flagellation that now passes for public existence in Ireland”. Is that what the survivors of the Magdalene laundries, the industrial colleges, and the sexual abuse by priests believe is the result of their testimony? Hysteria? Kicks? Or, at final, an acknowledgement of what took place?

O’Neill – a professional agitator himself – believes the well-known outrage is fake. He is incorrect. It was not the septic tank detail that propelled the story everywhere. It was the understanding, brutally exposed, that young girls, some of whom have been raped or coerced, were abandoned by household, church and state to a punishment hostel right after which they had been nearly always denied their youngsters. It takes an specialist cynic – or a denier – to dismiss this on a detail.

Elsewhere, in Forbes magazine, Eamonn Fingleton deals in straw nuns. “Does an Anti-Catholic Bias Aid Describe This Hoax?” he asks. A hoax, I should remind Fingleton, is “a humorous or malicious deception” is there something to laugh at here? “[The story of] wicked-witch nuns shovelling countless small human kinds into a maelstrom of excrement and urine – practically surely never ever happened,” he says. As I said, straw nuns. He thinks we should withhold judgment until finally an inquiry, which has been ordered by the Irish government, is performed, but he isn’t going to extend that edict to himself. “Prison guards at Belsen or the perpetrators of bestial biological experiments at Imperial Japan’s Unit 731 facility in Manchuria … would have been accorded more fairness than the nuns of Tuam,” he says, which is a line from the school of hysterical polemic he loathes. “Have been they [the nuns] holier-than-thou harridans who looked down on the unmarried mothers who came to them?” he asks. “For the most portion, most likely yes. But they did do something for people mothers’ sick-starred young children.” Sick-starred? Did astrology do this to them? Maybe for Fingleton, it did. Mortality charges have been higher in every single public institution, he notes conditions bred infection. Single mothers had been despised by every person the nuns were not baby thieves who watched ladies give birth without having painkillers, and denied them health care care afterwards, as punishment for their sin. They had been saviours. This I call the Stockholm syndrome analysis. It is shape-shifting, and convenient propaganda it is retrospective complicity. Blame everyone and you blame no a single.

There is far more diminishing of what took place in Tuam, and claims of deep offence from apologists, which is ludicrous are there any victims in this tale past the children and their mothers? The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Bill Donohue, wrote a lengthy defence of the property, in which he states that stigma – he speaks especially of the stigma attached to unmarried mothers – “exists as a corrective, as a indicates to discourage undesired behaviour”. Undesirable by whom? And with what results? In the Telegraph Dr Tim Stanley explained Catholic dogma had nothing to do with what happened in these homes. So were nearby priests – and nuns – agitating for girls and their kids not to be separated, ostracised and denied health-related care and good meals, or had been they, as testimony tells us, at least complicit and typically the agents of cruelty?

The apologists have one particular line in common. They do not dispute the death costs in the residences or the truth that the graves of the children are unmarked and they do not agitate for what survivors at the London vigil look for. This is, briefly: an opening of the adoption records, so surviving households can be united, and a effectively funded investigation into every former mom and child house in Ireland, dealing with accusations of healthcare trials performed on youngsters, illegal adoptions and an acknowledgement of the savagery of the crime. The investigations into the Magdalene laundries and the sex abuse scandals have been much criticised. Tuam survivors want a full confession.

The only proper response to this story is disgust and not in the direction of a media that exposed it imperfectly and significantly also late. Alternatively, the slurs fly, breeding denial and compounding harm. The exceptional local historian Catherine Corless, who first observed how a lot of youngsters have been missing, and wondered where they had been, is accused of “inflammatory” rhetoric by Donohue, and of even shifting her story under strain from anti-Catholic campaigners the Irish Times wrote that she retracted some of her findings, which is untrue. Corless, incidentally, paid for a copy of the death certificate of each and every lost child. That is a humane response.

One more response could be this, but I have not heard it: it is time for Ireland to liberalise its abortion laws. The fates of the mothers at Tuam and the unhappily pregnant in Ireland nowadays are not identical, but they are connected. Irish females, if they can afford it, have to now travel abroad, typically alone and at wonderful expense, to safe an abortion if they cannot, there is forced childbirth, or gin and the knitting needle. I will not detail the evident – and humane – arguments for abortion right here, beyond reminding you that childbirth is daily life-threatening. I will only say that Irish abortion laws are a modern incarnation of the ideology that led to mothers’ punishment at Tuam. The dilemma – the shame – of the sexualised woman is still denied. She is still abandoned. Septic tank or not? Apologists miss the point. It isn’t going to matter now.

Deborah Orr is away.

The horror of&nbspTuam"s missing infants is not diminished by misreported details | Tanya Gold

NHS sufferers are missing out on existence-saving robot surgical procedure

A gynaecologist uses a robot. Photograph: Jean-Paul Chasse/Alamy

New life-saving surgical techniques are not being adopted quickly enough in British hospitals. That is the stark conclusion of a report by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) which warns this week that patients are missing out on new procedures because the NHS is failing to set up programmes to promote their use in the UK.

The report, Innovation to Adoption: Successfully Spreading Surgical Innovation, stresses the need to find ways to introduce new surgical techniques as quickly as possible, thus saving lives and helping the NHS to save money.

New surgical techniques – involving robotics, 3D-imaging and lasers – have been developed in recent years, but in many cases have only been introduced in a haphazard manner in British hospitals. This failure to act coherently is now causing concern among surgeons.

“Many patients are not benefiting from ground-breaking procedures, even when surgeons firmly believe that they can save or extend lives. This cannot continue,” said Professor Norman Williams, the RCS president. “We cannot afford to neglect the kind of surgical innovation that has made such a difference to survival and recovery, such as keyhole surgery and advancements in transplant surgery.” He added that the NHS, the government and doctors had to understand how to accelerate innovative surgical practices in the UK.

The point was backed by David Neal, professor of surgical oncology at Cambridge University. “The NHS is the perfect place to test new technologies,” he said. “It covers the whole country and gives us an ideal platform for showing the worth of a new surgical technique. Unfortunately, this is not being done. The NHS does not seem to be able to tackle this sort of thing. Instead, we are relying, in many cases, on tests being done in the US, where there are commercial pressures involved.”

Neal has been involved in using a semi-automated technique known as robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (Rarp) to treat prostate cancer in the UK. “The technique greatly improves a human surgeon’s performance,” said Neal. “Using current methods, a patient is typically in hospital for around five days, while around 20% of them need blood transfusions. With Rarp, they can leave the next day and only about 1% of patients need a transfusion.”

About 200 prostate cancer patients are now being treated every year using the new technique. “That is far to low a figure,” Neal added. “We need to introduce the technique to enough hospitals to treat around 10,000 patients a year, but that is not happening.” He added that the UK needed a network of about 10-15 hospitals where new medical techniques would be taught to surgeons.

The need to promote robots in medicine is seen as being particularly important in future. The first robot procedure was offered to NHS patients in 2004, but the NHS has yet to fund the purchase of a single surgical robot and has relied instead on charities and endowments to provide cash to buy them.

A programme to help surgeons learn keyhole colorectal surgery for patients with bowel cancer and other conditions was set up in 2007. Mark Coleman, a consultant at Plymouth Hospital involved in creating the programme, said: “In 2008, 10% of operations on the colon involved keyhole surgery. Now that figure has reached 50% and the saving for the NHS over that period has been calculated as being around £11m.”

NHS sufferers are missing out on existence-saving robot surgical procedure

NHS individuals are missing out on life-saving robot surgical treatment

A gynaecologist uses a robot. Photograph: Jean-Paul Chasse/Alamy

New life-saving surgical techniques are not being adopted quickly enough in British hospitals. That is the stark conclusion of a report by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) which warns this week that patients are missing out on new procedures because the NHS is failing to set up programmes to promote their use in the UK.

The report, Innovation to Adoption: Successfully Spreading Surgical Innovation, stresses the need to find ways to introduce new surgical techniques as quickly as possible, thus saving lives and helping the NHS to save money.

New surgical techniques – involving robotics, 3D-imaging and lasers – have been developed in recent years, but in many cases have only been introduced in a haphazard manner in British hospitals. This failure to act coherently is now causing concern among surgeons.

“Many patients are not benefiting from ground-breaking procedures, even when surgeons firmly believe that they can save or extend lives. This cannot continue,” said Professor Norman Williams, the RCS president. “We cannot afford to neglect the kind of surgical innovation that has made such a difference to survival and recovery, such as keyhole surgery and advancements in transplant surgery.” He added that the NHS, the government and doctors had to understand how to accelerate innovative surgical practices in the UK.

The point was backed by David Neal, professor of surgical oncology at Cambridge University. “The NHS is the perfect place to test new technologies,” he said. “It covers the whole country and gives us an ideal platform for showing the worth of a new surgical technique. Unfortunately, this is not being done. The NHS does not seem to be able to tackle this sort of thing. Instead, we are relying, in many cases, on tests being done in the US, where there are commercial pressures involved.”

Neal has been involved in using a semi-automated technique known as robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (Rarp) to treat prostate cancer in the UK. “The technique greatly improves a human surgeon’s performance,” said Neal. “Using current methods, a patient is typically in hospital for around five days, while around 20% of them need blood transfusions. With Rarp, they can leave the next day and only about 1% of patients need a transfusion.”

About 200 prostate cancer patients are now being treated every year using the new technique. “That is far to low a figure,” Neal added. “We need to introduce the technique to enough hospitals to treat around 10,000 patients a year, but that is not happening.” He added that the UK needed a network of about 10-15 hospitals where new medical techniques would be taught to surgeons.

The need to promote robots in medicine is seen as being particularly important in future. The first robot procedure was offered to NHS patients in 2004, but the NHS has yet to fund the purchase of a single surgical robot and has relied instead on charities and endowments to provide cash to buy them.

A programme to help surgeons learn keyhole colorectal surgery for patients with bowel cancer and other conditions was set up in 2007. Mark Coleman, a consultant at Plymouth Hospital involved in creating the programme, said: “In 2008, 10% of operations on the colon involved keyhole surgery. Now that figure has reached 50% and the saving for the NHS over that period has been calculated as being around £11m.”

NHS individuals are missing out on life-saving robot surgical treatment

Autism, Pollution, And Genital Malformations: The Missing Hyperlink

When it comes to autism, the rule for flogging investigation findings in the news media appears to be “Go large or go house.” And that gets us teasers like this 1:

A new study gives sturdy evidence that environmental harmful toxins perform a role in the disorder. The report looked at birth defects linked with parental exposure to pollution and found a 1% enhance in the defects corresponded to a 283% boost in autism

Beneath headlines like this:

Developing Proof That Autism Is Linked to Pollution

And this:

Expanding evidence that autism is linked to pollution with infants 283% much more very likely to endure from the problem in contrast to other birth defects

And, saints protect us, like this:

New Triggers of Autism Identified

Only problem is, the research in query supplied no evidence of causes, a lot less a website link to pollution–and even if we took other studies alleging a link at encounter value, it wouldn’t even be the same type of “pollution.” As it is, the authors of this paper didn’t seem at “pollution” of any variety. They looked at genital malformations existing at birth and claimed that these conditions serve as a proxy or substitute for the presence of “pollution.”

They don’t, and no reviews have established that they could.

This research has numerous huge issues that water down any attainable take-homes. In short, they utilized genital malformations existing at birth, such as hypospadias (the opening of the urethra, the place urine emerges, is lower than it should be), cryptorchidism (undescended testes), chordee (curved penis), and micropenis (says what it signifies) and examined their geographic co-occurrence with autism diagnoses using insurance records. Here are a handful of of the issues with this strategy:

1. They use hypospadias (disclosure: I have published papers in this area) and other congenital problems of the reproductive technique as a proxy for “pollution,” claiming that hypospadias and other “male congenital genitourinary malformations (serve) as an approximate measurement of environmental publicity to unmeasured developmental danger factors, like toxins (sic).” They state that these situations have an “unknown genetic etiology–not explained by known Mendelian mutations or detectable chromosomal aberrations. At least a fraction (italics mine) of such birth defects might be due to parental exposure to environmental insults.” For causes that are unclear, these authors ignore the fact that really handful of human genetic problems are explained by “Mendelian mutations or detectable chromosomal aberrations.” In eliding the restricted relevance of a “fraction” in their picked proxy, they also overlook a decade of operate investigating the genetics of circumstances like hypospadias, which can be familial, and the truth that powerful predictors of these circumstances contain non-chemical “environmental insults” such as intra-uterine growth restriction, low birth bodyweight, and early delivery (pre-term). As it takes place, these environmental aspects also are correlated with autism. From the begin, this overlap of predictors of autism and genital malformations at birth confounds their study and precludes establishing any other environmental variables, this kind of as “pollution,” as responsible.

2. They use industrial insurance coverage claims for autism spectrum disorders and genital malformations at birth as their dataset, covering between 17.5 and 45.2 million in the US in excess of the many years 2003 to 2010. Many troubles arise around this choice, some of which the authors note. Most essential, only households who have commercially bought insurance coverage appear to have been represented in this survey. This element is related for several reasons, not least of which relates to the occupational environmental exposures that have been somewhat mathematically linked with hypospadias. As the authors note, these occupations include hairdressing, house cleaning, and agricultural operate, which are not normally linked with employer-provided or commercially purchased insurance. 2nd, autism coding can be employed to obtain coverage for companies or referrals for demands that otherwise would not be met, even in the absence of a accurate autism diagnosis. The best way all around these confounders is, of program, to use a database that doesn’t involve variability in healthcare accessibility, this kind of as the Danish have, or to carry out managed scientific studies like this one.

3. The authors say that they identified that male children with autism spectrum problems (ASD) are five.53 occasions more most likely to have congenital genital malformations than unaffected males but located no substantial link between intellectual disability and these malformations. That is strange. Other research that have looked at rates of these malformations in autistic people versus nonautistic men and women have not located a important enhance of 1 with the other, with the exception of syndromes that involve overlap of both, along with other physical characteristics. But scientific studies hunting at intellectual disability and these malformations have identified a hyperlink. Most of these syndromes that incorporate both or all three are genetic. (For what it’s really worth, some of us in the autism local community suspect far more syndromes will at some point be recognized, syndromes with a genetic basis that involve a distinct phenotypic suite.) If costs of these genital malformations are greater in the ASD population, that is a new finding that calls for, as they say, potential scientific studies to confirm and says absolutely nothing about result in.

4. From a developmental biology and endocrinology point of view, making use of hypospadias or other reproductive system malformations as a proxy for environmental influences in autism can make minor sense. Here’s why. The chemical compounds that are implicated in hypospadias and other reproductive anomalies are those that behave like estrogens or anti-androgens. Yet autism has repeatedly been asserted to be a manifestation of the results of androgens. The authors note a greater association for boys, but girls really do not have cryptorchidism or chordee, and hypospadias in women is vanishingly rare or even controversial as an entity in ladies. And then they report ethnic disparities, this kind of as Pacific Islanders having low costs of each “diseases,” which genuinely throws some shade on any benefits, provided that research indicate that neither situation exhibits a definitive etiology-relevant ethnic pattern.

5. The function of environmental chemical agents, if any, in hypospadias, is not established, and final results are mixed. Even the notion that the children of hairdressers are at elevated chance since of chemical compounds connected with the occupation has been named into question. We can’t even agree on no matter whether or not prices are growing. In other words, we really don’t know the environmental contribution of “pollutants” to hypospadias itself, significantly much less have the potential to place hypospadias or other genital abnormalities as a proxy for pollution. These malformations are what we get in touch with multifactorial situations since a number of elements, each genetic and environmental, probably contribute to them. The genetics is even now an unfolding story, though hypospadias can run in households, and the environmental variables that are effectively established relate largely to non-pollutants. This attribute, in distinct, leaves a critical link missing from this review.

The authors recognize some factors that do make sense in the context of earlier benefits. They identified that a greater revenue is linked to larger rates of autism spectrum disorder diagnoses, as was urbanization (which implies better entry to care and companies). And publicity to a viral infection was also a likely factor. They seek out to pin their findings to environmental chemical compounds, but urbanization and its related assets, becoming insured (ditto), and having accessibility to care are also explanatory and more defensible. They conclude that

It appears that thorough documentation of environmental elements should be recorded and utilised in genetic analyses of ASDs and failure to do so dangers omitting essential information about potentially sturdy confounders.

As does the design of this examine, which excluded the most crucial confounders of existing, acknowledged environmental influences on both autism and hypospadias–uterine growth, pre-phrase birth, and complications at birth, and utilised an inapt proxy for “pollution.” Some syndromes do exist that integrate a number of attributes of autism, genital malformations at birth, crucial bodily characteristics, and other factors. But the widespread link for these syndromes is not the atmosphere, it is genetics.

Autism, Pollution, And Genital Malformations: The Missing Hyperlink

Levaquin, Cipro, Fibromyalgia and Leaky Gut – The Missing Website link.

An age old conundrum……which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, one might ask the same question about fibromyalgia, fluoroquinolone toxicity and systemic candidiasis. What commonalities do they share if any? Why do doctors have no problem diagnosing “fibromyalgia” but it’s easier to get blood from a stone than to get a fluoroquinolone toxicity or systemic candidiasis diagnosis even though the symptoms all present the same.

When attempting to get a diagnosis after taking a fluoroquinolone drug (or ANY broad spectrum antibiotic) and experiencing all of the above symptoms and a suitcase full more, victims are routinely told they have fibromyalgia. My conundrum is that fibromyalgia and fluoroquinolone toxicity are exactly mirrored in symptom presentation. There is no criteria for a diagnosis of “fluoroquinolone toxicity” because doctors refuse to consider that a medication designed for ANTHRAX , a chemically synthetic drug with chemotherapeutic properties, can do damage to the nervous system as well as the intestinal tract in the way that fluoroquinolones do. The medical community is not exactly rushing to inform patients that the drug prescribed to them actually caused the patient to become sicker.

Victims who have been injured or disabled by broad spectrum antibiotics such as Levaquin and Cipro will tell a very common story. They experience all the same symptoms of fibromyalgia as well as “Leaky Gut” and many, many more. And by more, I mean very serious adverse events such as liver, heart, kidney damage as well as multiple organ failure, brain function issues and a long list of very serious health risks as well as serious nutritional deficiencies. Leaky gut and complete devastation of healthy gut flora will cause multiple system failure over time. Many victims never see it coming and begin to experience symptoms of fluoroquinolone toxicity months to years after the last pill. My guess is that gut devastation and systemic candida infiltration takes a little time, the nutritional deficiencies are not far behind which only compound the problems. Fibromyalgia suffers will tell of systemic body wide pain and muscle soreness.  Just for the record here….Fibromyalgia is not a medical diagnosis…it’s a collections of symptoms.  So why has this become so prevalent in the last 10 years?  I point the finger directly at the over use of fluoroquinolone drugs such as Cipro and Levaquin and other broad spectrum antibiotics.  It may not be the first RX that get you, it’s always the last one that kicks you into Hell.

Also, with fibromyalgia, they have a very long grocery list of drugs they can give you in an attempt to stop your mood disorder, sleep disorder, panic attacks, central nervous and peripheral nervous system damage and any other fibromyalgia symptom someone may have. They have a list of merchandise all lined up. Let’s not forget there are drugs for your irritable bowels because you are such a “nervous Nelly” as well. I wonder just how many Americans are being diagnosed as “fibro patients” when they are actually fluoroquinolone toxicity victims? I use the word victim because no one would actually take these drugs if they were properly informed of the chemical properties, potential risks and outcomes of their use.

So is fluoroquinolone toxicity really fibromyalgia and/or is fibromyalgia really mild to moderate fluoroquinolone toxicity?  Is Leaky and systemic candidiasis really at the core of all of this? I know many are also saying “My gut is fine but I hurt all over. WHY? I wonder…..? Let’s look at the descriptions of each.

FIBROMYALGIA
The defining symptoms of fibromyalgia are chronic widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and heightened pain in response to tactile pressure (allodynia). Other symptoms may include tingling of the skin (paresthesias), prolonged muscle spasms, weakness in the limbs, nerve pain, muscle twitching, palpitations, and functional bowel disturbances.
Many patients experience cognitive dysfunction (known as “fibrofog”), which may be characterized by impaired concentration, problems with short and long-term memory, short-term memory consolidation, impaired speed of performance, inability to multi-task, cognitive overload, and diminished attention span. Fibromyalgia is often associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms.

FLUOROQUINOLONE TOXICITY
Some of the Central Nervous System effects that can occur include:
Insomnia, Panic/Anxiety,Brain Fog (impaired thinking), Memory loss (including impaired short term memory), Aphasia, Confusion, Abnormal dreams, Headaches , Depersonalization, Depression, Thoughts of suicide, Agitation / personality changes, Hallucinations, Seizures
Peripheral Neuropathy effects include:  Tingling, prickling, pins & needles, or numbness, bugs running on skin, water trickling, fabric moving, in arms or legs, allodynia, Buzzing, in arms or legs, Pressure or squeezing feelings, in arms or legs, Feelings of electrical zaps, shocks, or deep stabs, in arms or legs, Burning pain in arms or legs, Pain with normally non-painful touch or hypersensitivity to pain (allodynia), Teeth, mouth, and lip nerve pain, of any kind (shocks, tingling, buzzing, etc.), Facial nerve pain of any kind (Trigeminal neuralgia), Squeezing feelings on head, “Head pressure” feelings, Muscle twitching of small pieces of a muscle independently [Fasciculations], Muscle twitching of whole muscle body (Tremors),Neuralgia (pain along nerve trunk lines).

This is the short list of symptoms but you can now see where I am going with this.

LEAKY GUT / SYSTEMIC CANDIASIS

Symptoms Caused byLEAKY GUT / SYSTEMIC CANDIASISLEAKY GUT / SYSTEMIC CANDIASISLEAKY GUT / SYSTEMIC CANDIASIS  Allergies, sensitivities and intolerances that worsen in damp, muggy or moldy places or weather that is damp, muggy, humid or rainy, Hay fever and asthma.  Intolerances or allergies to perfumes, odors, fumes, fabric shop odors, grass, cats, dogs or other animals, tobacco smoke, chemicals, smog, molds, dust mites, dust, pollen, and other airborne substances, Athletes’ foot, Babies – colic, diaper rash, thrush (coated white tongue), and cradle cap, Bruising easily, Cheekbone or forehead tenderness, pain,  Cold hands or feet, low body temperature, Cold-like symptoms – excessive mucus in the sinuses, nose, throat, bronchial tubes and lungs, Cravings or addictions for sugar, bread, pasta and other high carb foods, and also alcohol, Cysts, abnormal formation of, in different parts of the body, especially around the neck, throat, and ovaries, and in the bladder or scrotum, Digestive problems – diarrhea, constipation, abdominal distention, bloating or pain, gas, mucus in the stools, hiatal hernia, ulcers, suffering from bacteria, i.e. salmonella, E. coli, h. pylori, etc, Ears – ringing in the ears (tinnitus), sounds in the ears, ear infections, dryness, itchiness, ear pain, ear aches, ear discharges, fluid in ears, deafness, abnormal wax build-up, Eyes – erratic vision, spots in front of eyes (eye floaters) and flashing lights; redness, dryness, itching, excessive tearing, inability to tear, etc, Fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome or Epstein Barr or a feeling of being drained of energy, lethargy, drowsiness, Flu-like symptoms, Glands – swollen, too little saliva (dryness in the mouth), blocked salivary glands, swollen lymph nodes, Hair loss, scum on the scalp, dandruff, itchy scalp, scalp sores and dryness, Heart palpitations and irregular heart beat, Headaches, migraines, brain fog, dizziness, etc, Hemorrhoids, and rectal itching, rash, irritation and redness, Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and diabetes, Hypothyroidism, Wilson’s Thyroid Syndrome, Hashimoto’s disease, hyperthyroidism, erratic thyroid function, etc, Irritability, nervousness, jitteriness and panic attacks, Lesions on the skin, and inside the body, i.e. the brain, Male associated problems – jock itch, loss of sex drive, impotence, prostitis, penis infections, difficulty urinating, urinary frequency or urgency, painful intercourse, swollen scrotum, etc, Female health problems – infertility, vaginitis, unusual odors, endometriosis (irregular or painful menstruation), cramps, menstrual irregularities, pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS), discharge, painful intercourse, loss of sexual drive, redness or swelling of the vulva and surrounding area, vaginal itching or thrush, burning or redness, or persistent infections, Fungal infections of the skin or nails, i.e. ringworm, saborrheic dermatitis, dark and light patches on the skin (tinea versicolor), etc, Joint pain, stiffness or swelling (arthritis), Kidney and bladder – infections, cystitis (inflammation of the bladder with possible infection), urinary frequency or urgency, low urine output, smelly urine, difficulty urinating, burning pain when urinating, Lack of appetite, Mind and Mood – anxiety attacks, crying spells, memory loss, feeling spaced out, depression(including suicidal feelings), manic feelings, inability to concentrate, mood swings, irritability, etc, Mouth sores or blisters, canker sores, dryness, bad breath, a white coating on the tongue (thrush) and blocked salivary glands, Muscle aches and pain, numbness, burning or tingling, and lack of strength and coordination, Nasal congestion, postnasal drip, itching, dryness, Odor of the feet, hair or body not relieved by washing, Respiratory – cough, bronchitis or pneumonia, pain or tightness in the chest, wheezing, shortness of breath, asthma, Sick all over feeling, Sinus inflammation, swelling and infections, Skin – dryness, dry red patches, acne, pimples, hives, rashes, itching skin, eczema, psoriasis, seborrhoea, ringworm, contact dermatitis, rosacea, etc, Stomach – h. pylori bacteria (causes ulcers), heartburn, indigestion, hiatal hernia, acid reflux, belching, vomiting, burning, stomach pains, needle-like pains, food that seems to sit in the stomach like a lump, etc, Sleep – insomnia, waking up frequently, nightmares, restless sleep, etc, Sore throat, hoarse voice, constant tickle in the throat, laryngitis (loss of voice), etc..

As a fully recovered survivor of Levaquin and some one who has spoken with thousands of victims, I can tell you the reader that every victim I have ever consulted with has every symptom of systemic candidiasis. The question is why? The answer is gut devastation and the resulting devastation of systemic candida leaving the badly damaged bowels. It called “Hyperpermeable Intestines”.  A fancy medical term that means the intestinal lining has became more porous, with more holes developing that are larger in size and the screening out process is no longer functioning properly. In short, food particles as well as candida and toxins that would be harmless in the bowel, have leaked out into the blood stream. This floods the body with nasty things that do not belong there, traveling to the brain as well as any organ in the body that receives blood.  Your body is now in full on autoimmune overload and it lets you know by screaming out in pain.  The toxins do damage to every cell in the body. It’s slow, toxic poison. This poison puts a tremendous strain on the body and cells which results in severe lethargy. The lethargy, in my humble opinion, is the body struggling with oxygen deprivation due to a constant anerobic state caused by the candida overgrowth. This only complicates gut function since candida is a facultative anaerobe, basically meaning it can live in and oxygen rich environment or an oxygen deprived environment so it’s pretty flexible about surroundings and does well no matter what you throw at it.  Parasites love this dank, dark low oxygen environment, in fact they thrive in it, as well as fungus. Candida is a yeast, it’s a good healthy and beneficial in a healthy clean environment. It’s the building block of healthy gut flora. In a dank and dark low oxygen environment, it mutates from a good yeast to a very dangerous cousin called a fungus. It’s pretty scary and includes a serious condition called Candida Glabrata which has a 90% mortality rate and Candida Glabrata is presenting in astronomical numbers never seen before.  I’m not even going to talk about the parasite infestation we suffer due to the malfunction going on because it’s just too disgusting. Those little critters virtually take over our gut and the result is chronnic weight loss, severe, diarhhea and bathroom descriptions that defy logic and propriety.

For many sufferers of Leaky Gut, this issue is complicated by the fact that oral solution and cleanses are simply out of the question. The same way food particles and toxins leak out, so do those oral candida supplements and candida cleanse products used by the masses. Those work great…unless you are devastated like I was…then you have all your previous symptoms and a toxic reaction to the cleanse. No bueno.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a recovered victim. HOW? you ask. I did it in the most natural way possible. I needed a transdermal solution and I found it is 2 specific essential oils that brought my nightmare to an end in a matter of days. Even I did not believe it. The oils were specifically designed to kill parasites, fungus and bad gut flora that has set up camp in our gut. I had a dramatic lowering of inflammation levels and a colossal boost in oxygen to my body via these all natural organic plant concentrates. The oil designed to kill parasites and candida infestation is a blend of anise, caraway, corriander, fennell, ginger, peppermint and tarragon. These highly concentrated blend of plant extracts have been used for thousands of years as anti-inflammatorie, anti-bacterial, antiparasitic and anti-spasmodics. They work. They work better than the drugs that doctors are pushing on patients.
And who couldn’t use a little boost in energy brought to you by oxygen? Not only does the increase in oxygen give us more energy but it also provides the oxygen needed to heal the gut and cells damaged from the low oxygen environment we had been surviving in for so long.

Whether it’s Fibromyalgia, Fluoroquinolone Toxicity or Systemic Candidiasis, it’s pretty much misery. If it can be stopped it should be. Because all three have no real defined medical classification, we must take personal responsibility for our own recovery and be our own health advocates. Doctors don’t listen, some don’t care. There are pills that dull pain, pills to make us happier, pills to make us sleep and pills to keep us going through the day but there is no pill to heal the damage done to our bodies. Healing does not come in a plastic bottle, it comes from ourselves.

If you would like to read more about my recovery you can do so HERE

Visit the premier website for fluoroquinolone recovery HERE Here you will find alternative treatments and other success stories.

Learn more about essential oils and how to dramatically reduce inflammation and STOP THE PAIN!  OILS FOR RECOVERY

Levaquin, Cipro, Fibromyalgia and Leaky Gut – The Missing Website link.

What is missing from the debate about girls leaders in the NHS? Guys

A better gender balance on boards prospects to improved providers – so guys should view out for unconscious bias. Photograph: Stockbroker/Alamy

There seems to be a good deal of discussion at the second about ladies in leadership in the NHS.

This is great – nonetheless, it is almost always getting carried out by ladies. To some individuals it would look odd to have a guy communicate or publish about ladies in best jobs. How can they comprehend the troubles and difficulties that these females encounter? But this is an issue far better than one particular of fairness or equality, and males do require to engage in the debate.

I was just lately asked to give a speech on females in leadership and the options and issues this presents for guys. I was surprised that there was only 1 male delegate, in spite of the efforts of the organisers. This was particularly surprising given that we are attempting to guarantee a a lot more visibly compassionate NHS – and this will get the leadership of both guys and women.

Equality is crucial, which is why the debate about women leaders is often framed as 1 of fairness. And it truly is not just the NHS in which this is an situation. In truth, the NHS does better than most. Nevertheless, Michael West, professor of organisational psychology at Lancaster University, lately wrote that “leadership is the embodiment of culture” – and it is important to recognise that obtaining much more women in leadership roles is far more than just an concern of equality, and will require organisational adjust.

A report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission measured the amount of females in positions of energy and influence, and calculated that at the existing fee of modify it would consider about 70 years to reach an equal amount of males and female directors of FTSE one hundred firms.

Figures from the report reveal that, while females are graduating from university in increasing numbers and obtain much better degree benefits than men, they only represent 13% of directors of FTSE a hundred organizations. In the public and voluntary sectors, ladies only account for 23% of local authority chief executives, 14% of university vice chancellors and 33% of overall health trust chief executives.

A effectively-identified management theory called the Peter Principle suggests that folks who perform well at their occupation get promoted into various roles right up until they attain a stage the place they are no longer good at what they do. But a conflicting theory referred to as the Paula Principle argues that most girls work below their degree of competence.

It says they are held back by elements such as discrimination and the want to care for relatives. This theory also says that women are frequently averse to putting themselves forward for promotions are significantly less likely to have connections larger up the ladder and at times even select to stay where they are rather than move up to the next degree.

It is largely accepted that men and ladies have distinct variations of leadership. For ladies these are often cited as collaboration, conviction, inclusiveness, creation and mentorship – and that is why getting females in leadership is far a lot more critical than straightforward equality. We know that much more girls on boards leads to greater companies. It can be argued that this is not caused by getting far more females but rather a far better gender balance, but whichever way you seem at it the benefits contain:

• Better governance apparently linked to women’s ability to far better manage and handle chance and initiate a different variety of boardroom discussion

• Improved collaboration linked to women’s tendency to be more open and inclusive

• Values-led determination making linked to women’s tendency to operate on widespread agreed rules.

So the huge possibility for males is that if we have more ladies in leadership we get far better companies. Much better for individuals, greater for our families and better for us. Of all the changes NHS culture needs, this 1 – on paper at least – need to be less complicated to handle.

The biggest challenge for males is that we do not fall victim to unconscious bias. We need to end seeing the “problem” as one of women’s leadership fashion or training. It is us, and the NHS culture, that requirements to change.

It is genuinely crucial that we as a sector continue to make certain improved participation of females in leadership programmes, education and improvement. And, for that matter, enhanced participation amid the BME community in which the gap is even starker. But much more importantly we have to search our predisposition and prejudice in the encounter and modify our attitudes and knowing.

With out that, we have culture acquiring in the way of far better patient care. This need to modify.

Dean Royles is chief executive of NHS Employers. You can pay attention to a podcast of his King’s Fund speech right here

This report is published by Guardian Skilled. Join the Healthcare Pros Network to get standard emails and exclusive offers.

What is missing from the debate about girls leaders in the NHS? Guys