taken etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster
taken etiketine sahip kayıtlar gösteriliyor. Tüm kayıtları göster

27 Nisan 2017 Perşembe

Vaginal mesh left me in agonising pain. When will women’s health be taken seriously? | Kath Sansom

In the 21st century it is hard to imagine women being maimed in a surgery with risks that they are not being properly warned about.


This, however, is the reality of vaginal mesh. A net-like implant, it is used to treat incontinence or prolapse, conditions that have often, but not always, been caused by childbirth. Between 2006 and 2016, more than 92,000 women in England have been treated with a polypropylene surgical material that is either inserted as a vaginal tape or a mesh patch.


Women are told they are going for a simple, low-risk operation that takes just 20 minutes.


But there is, in fact, the potential for this operation to leave them using a wheelchair or walking with sticks, with leg pain so bad it feels like intense toothache, constant urinary infections that burn and sting, and having to self-catheterise. Some suffer intense inflammation in sensitive tissues which means they lose their sex lives, and the mesh can slice through vaginal walls, urethras or cut into their bladder.


Problems can emerge quickly, or begin years after implantation.


I set up the support page Sling the Mesh on Facebook two years ago, in June 2015, just 10 weeks after I had a mesh implant to treat incontinence from childbirth. The pain in my legs and feet was so intense, along with burning pains in my vagina – like being cut with a cheese wire – that I knew something was terribly wrong.


When I told my surgeon of the pain I was suffering I was ignored. He told me I must have a slipped disc.


I had walked into the operating theatre as one of the fittest mothers in her 40s you could wish to meet – a keen high-board diver, mountain biker and boxer – and emerged a physical wreck. When I searched online I discovered women worldwide suffering similar problems. All were being ignored, not only by their surgeons but also by the media.


Perhaps this will change now that 800 women are suing the NHS and manufacturers of the implants. These women have all suffered serious complications, however the government watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), still says the benefits of this operation outweigh the risks. We know from leaked minutes of a meeting between the MHRA and NHS England in October last year that they are keen to “avoid media attention” over the scandal. It doesn’t seem to be working. Last week, after I appeared on the Victoria Derbyshire show on the BBC to discuss the issue, 200 women joined Sling the Mesh within 24 hours.


This week I was contacted by a lawyer for advice. His client faces having her leg amputated as a result of her mesh implant migrating and causing repeated infections. On the same day three women joined Sling the Mesh; all had lost their bladder because of a simple operation to fix an embarrassing problem. Yes, you read that correctly. Women on support pages globally are losing bladders and bowels, and I estimate more than half the women on my page have lost their sex life.


The majority are told the symptoms they experience after the implant are a mystery. Without the internet we would never have realised that we were not alone.


Some surgeons deny they are putting in a mesh implant when queried by patients, instead calling it a tape or gauze. Or they deny it is plastic. “It is polypropylene” came the earnest reply from a surgeon to one woman earlier this year. (Polypropylene is, of course, plastic.)


The NHS and MHRA say the risk of complications with these operations is 1-3% but a report in the journal Nature by nine leading medics puts that risk at 15%. In the US the Food and Drug Administration recently released figures that said the trocar hooks used to implant the mesh cause injuries for up to 39% of women having a prolapse mesh and 29% of women having a mesh inserted for incontinence.


These aren’t the only problems. Mesh can be fine for years then suddenly shrink or degrade. This happens because the material is not inert – it can change inside the body. Years after implantation it can shrink, twist, harbour infection, go brittle or degrade. Unlike drugs, which have to go through a strict set of three trials, mesh has been approved for use according to a system called substantial equivalence, which means a product can be passed on the basis that there is already something else like it on the market.


Women tell me time and again about how their surgeon told them the risks were very low. Some risks, such as loss of sex life, had not even been highlighted to them, or if they had it was with a quick nod to the medical word dyspareunia (meaning difficult or painful sexual intercourse) and given no further discussion. This is in spite of a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 which stated all surgeons must give reasonable and transparent information to patients about the risks of any procedure.


It is not mandatory for surgeons to report problems to any database and there is no national register, so in truth nobody knows the true scale of this. All I can see as a patient campaigner is women experiencing chronic pain while in many cases surgeons deny the problem has anything to do with their operation. Some go back and forth for up to 10 years before their problems are properly recognised and addressed.


Given the complications, why are so many of these operations still being carried out? One answer seems obvious. Inserting a mesh implant takes 20 minutes as a day procedure under general anaesthetic compared to three hours and up to a four-night stay for traditional surgeries which include the Burch colposuspension (a hitch and stitch) or the autologous sling which uses a piece of muscle from a patient’s stomach wall to make a sling.


It is easy to see that vaginal mesh provides a cost-effective fix.


The traditional fixes have risks, as all surgery does, but the old-fashioned methods do not carry the risk of a piece of plastic shrinking inside the body, cutting into delicate tissues or causing allergic foreign body reactions.


The all-party parliamentary group into women’s health was formed this year to press for women to be treated with dignity and respect. Despite this, some women with the implant feel they are “going mad” after being told there is “nothing wrong”, despite years of painful symptoms, they say. Unlike other devices such as hip or breast implants, mesh embeds into the tissue and is designed to be a permanent implant. Removing it is like trying to get chewing gum out of matted hair.


When undergoing this surgery it is Russian roulette as to whether it will be successful or not. Is that a risk worth taking with a woman’s health?



Vaginal mesh left me in agonising pain. When will women’s health be taken seriously? | Kath Sansom

22 Nisan 2017 Cumartesi

It was taken away to keep you sick

Methylsulfonymethane is marketed lucratively as MSM. The process starts with crystals, which are then turned into powder with anti-caking agents, like silicon dioxide, added to it. This presents a problem for the people that buy it because when the crystals are turned into powder much of its effectiveness is lost. When the anti-caking agents are added to it, the remaining benefits are nullified. To derive the maximum benefits from MSM, it must be in the form of organic crystals and lignin (wood) based or prepared with Food Grade DMSO.


Our organic sulfur crystals are produced as follows:


MSM is made from lignin based DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide), and DMSO is made by processing the waste product of paper making (“pulp and paper industry”)–it is NEVER made by simply processing trees or any other form of plant life (no matter what you might read in some less informed Internet sources), for the sole purpose of extracting DMSO. It COULD be, just as seawater could be used for the sole purpose of extracting gold, but this is totally impractical.


DMSO is extracted from the waste product of papermaking and it is the PAPER MAKING that allows the whole process to be practical. As paper is made, the paper is made of the fibers of wood. But, as trees grow, the fibers of wood are stuck together, in the living tree, by a substance called “lignin.” Lignin is like glue that holds the fibers together. The wood could not be made into paper if all the fibers are still stuck together. So, papermaking must include some process by which the lignin is removed, allowing the wood fibers to be managed into flat paper, etc.


Lignin is removed with something called “pulping chemicals.” These chemicals are sodium sulfite (the majority), sodium sulfide and sodium carbonate). When these chemicals are soaked in a vat with wood chips, the lignin dissolves and the wood fibers can then be removed from the mass. Generally about 50% of the stuff in the vat would be the wood fibers, ready for making into paper, and 50% would be the residue, the waste product, of the original “pulping chemicals” and the lignin that has now been dissolved. That first liquid is called DMS (CH3 – S – CH3), but it quickly and easily further refined into DMSO.


Food Grade DMSO is the main ingredient from which MSM is made by a controlled oxidation process using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and water. There are no other chemicals used, and the H2O2 is turned into water.


It is very important to realize that if you purchase the Organic Sulfur Crystals, then the MSM you receive has been distilled. NO CHEMICALS ARE LEFT BEHIND. It is the purest possible form of the chemical MSM.


Organic sulfur is found in all living organisms. It is also contained in raw plant and animal foods. Organic sulfur is not found in any foods, which have been either stored during shipping, refrigeration, or cooked. Organic sulfur bonds with moisture and is therefore carried away when dehydration occurs – this is why stored, refrigerated or cooked foods no longer contain organic sulfur.


Also, with the introduction of the petro-chemical fertilizers in the 1930’s, the benefits of sulfur were severely diminished and why you must stay hydrated and drink lots of water daily. Also, with the introduction of the petro-chemical fertilizers, which were created to replace manure as fertilizer and to create a cash “crop” for the petro-chemical industry, the oil based fertilizers virtually destroyed the sulfur in the soil. Add to this the obscene over-processing of our food supply, which served only to increase shelf life and profits and which made our food supply completely devoid of sulfur, it’s no wonder that we are a nation of overweight, undernourished, disease-ridden sickos hooked on pharmaceutical drugs.


When, in 1985, Finland became alarmed over the increasing obscene disease rate of its population, they banned all use of chemical fertilizers fearing the levels of cadmium, yet totally unaware of the sulfur connection. Since doing so, they have become the leading supplier of organically grown foods in Europe. They have also seen their disease rates drop to one tenth of their 1985 levels.


Interestingly enough, in 1985, the U.S. was at the same disease level as Finland. So. Why did we not follow suit and ban the chemical fertilizers and put a lid on the highly processed foods? Well, as the theme song to Donald Trump’s TV show began, “Money, Money, Money”!


Do you really think that we would cease our use of profitable chemicals for our soil and our food, which involves commercial agribusiness, medicine, insurance, and genetic and designer foods? We can, however, regenerate our internal sulfur cycle with Organic Sulfur Crystals, provided that this product has not suffered the same indignities of “science” that our food supply has and continues to suffer.


Like sulfur, the cell membrane is another blind spot in medicine. Despite proof that the cellular membranes need sulfur to be utilized and formatted correctly so any cell can function as the basic unit of life, medicine still depends upon synthetic chemicals to treat a symptom.


In the body, ORGANIC SULFUR is used to repair cells, which have been damaged, as well as to promote the growth of healthy new cells by allowing the cells to transport oxygen more effectively. ORGANIC SULFUR also makes cell walls more permeable, thus able to allow more nutrients in and to allow waste materials to pass out of the cells.


Studies have shown that chlorine and fluorine are detrimental to such oxygen transport, yet these elements have been added to the U.S. mainland and our military bases in Hawaii’s water supply to make our teeth “healthier” and our water more “pure”, or free from bacterial infestation.


Fortunately, other than the military bases, Hawaii’s water supply is fluoride-free and I was instrumental in accomplishing that despite an avalanche of industry and Hawaii Dept. of Health executive blatant lies.


These elements are poisonous at higher concentrations and they block the uptake of both oxygen and sulfur. Hook up a charcoal filter to your faucet and it removes the chlorine before you drink it. The small amount of chlorine in the water, however, has not been found to adversely affect the benefits of the sulfur.


Every day the body uses up to 750mg of ORGANIC SULFUR naturally. ORGANIC SULFUR is natural and is actually found in the water we drink, as well as fresh, unstored and uncooked foods. It is found in fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products. Unless you mostly consume organic raw foods, you are likely not receiving enough ORGANIC SULFUR to realize its tremendous health benefits.


Unfortunately, the shelf-life deterioration for sulfur is rapid in cruciferous vegetables, garlic and onions with as much as a 95% loss of sulfur lost after one week of harvest. Adding insult to injury is the fact that cooked or processed foods have no utilizable sulfur. And sadly, most MSM and other sulfur supplements fail to restore cellular levels of sulfur and omega 3s. The reason for this is that anything synthetic that sulfur comes in contact with renders it useless.


What are the benefits of ORGANIC SULFUR?


OS has a cleansing or “detoxifying” effect on the cells within the body. It allows the body to remove toxins that have accumulated in all types of cells, including fat cells. Should you feel like you are getting the flu or other symptoms where you feel like you are getting sick, understand that you are not getting sick. It is the detoxifying process and it will pass. While this is happening DO NOT STOP TAKING THE CRYSTALS.


The suggested usage is 1 teaspoon full twice per day – one in the morning and one in the evening. This can be done in several ways: dissolved in hot water, putting the crystals in your mouth and chewing them, putting a tablespoon in a liter or quart bottle, fill it with water and drink it all day, or add it to orange juice and take it that way. I personally opted for the chewing method and then drinking orange juice. I have never tasted orange juice so sweet.


OS is not a drug or prescription medicine. It is actually a nutrient, or a food that the body can consume.


OS increases enzyme production within the glands in the body, substantially increasing overall resistance to illness.


OS increases flexibility in the tissues within the body, increases blood circulation and aids in lowering high blood pressure.


OS reduces muscle inflammation, promotes healing in the muscles and prevents them from becoming sore. To the degree there is soreness, recovery and return to normality is quickened. Athletes, in particular, benefit from this as the intake of additional OS dramatically increases their recovery time.


OS eliminates so-called “free radicals” in the body. Allergies to pollens and certain foods can be reduced or eliminated by its use.


OS promotes healthy, increased growth of hair and fingernails.


OS has been studied for possible anti-cancer effects. Because of the oxygenation of the cells and tissues, which creates an aerobic environment, cancer cells cannot exist.


OS studies have shown the reversal of osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.


OS aids in healthy skin production and the reduction of “wrinkles”. It is one of the main ingredients in moisturizing creams.


OS can benefit all skin types and ages. It has been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of skin conditions like acne, eczema and psoriasis (bear in mind that these conditions arise from a weak immune system, which the OS helps strengthen), as well as problematic skin and helps keep skin healthy and strong to guard against premature aging and skin damage.


OS helps the body properly regulate insulin production. Adequate OS in the diet can reduce the need for insulin injections.


OS helps in reducing and often eliminating diverticulitis. Parasites living in the colon are unable to remain attached to the colon walls on which OS forms a smooth, resistant coating. Hatching worms, having nothing to grab on to, are flushed out.


OS helps alleviate emphysema. It provides the body with material to manufacture new, healthy cells, on lung walls. Case in point – the asthma I had my whole life after being vaccinated as a child disappeared after taking the sulfur for 3 days and has not returned since it went away in 2007.


OS, because of its ability to make cell walls more permeable, causes the body to rapidly release alcohol “hangover” toxins, removing them as waste from the body. The process happens far more rapidly than it takes to recover from a hangover, often as quickly as 20 minutes.


OS helps alleviate chronic headaches. Increased circulation in the brain cells promotes proper blood circulation within the brain. Less pressure and pain result, reducing tendencies for headaches.


OS reduces hypoglycemia in the body because it has made it easier for the body to introduce blood sugar through more permeable cell walls. Less insulin is demanded for the process, resulting in less overuse of the pancreas. Several months of consistent OS usage can reduce or eliminate hypoglycemia entirely.


OS helps alleviate PMS. Glandular production in enhanced by OS to have more “normal” levels of production. Acid levels, enzyme levels and hormonal levels are more evenly balanced with OS. Cramps, headaches and nausea from the monthly cycle can be reduced or eliminated through its use.


OS helps promote better kidney function more efficiently. Water retention problems due to bad kidney function can be alleviated.


OS can help alleviate eye problems. Dissolve 1 teaspoon of sulfur crystals in 4 ounces of water and us as eye drops as frequently as you like.


OS will deliver essential omega 3s throughout the body and will also allow the body to produce vitamin B-12.


OS has amazingly reversed autism in 32 children that we know about so far.


OS eliminates the need for Viagra or Cialis as it reverses Erectile Dysfunction.


Important: If you take any medication or supplements, there must be a 30 minute gap between the taking of the crystals and the taking of the meds and/or supplements. The synthetic chemicals and the anti-caking agents will nullify the benefits of the sulfur crystals.


Last but not least, there is a simple test you can do to find out if what you got is good. Dissolve a bit in a little hot water, put it somewhere and let it dehydrate. After it dehydrates the crystals should appear larger and more pronounced kind of like snowflakes. If not, get your money back because it will be useless.


Aloha!


Sources:
www.asanediet.com
www.foodmatters.com
www.drjockers.com
www.cancertutor.com



Hesh Goldstein

When I was a kid, if I were told that I’d be writing a book about diet and nutrition when I was older, let alone having been doing a health related radio show for over 36 years, I would’ve thought that whoever told me that was out of their mind. Living in Newark, New Jersey, my parents and I consumed anything and everything that had a face or a mother except for dead, rotting, pig bodies, although we did eat bacon (as if all the other decomposing flesh bodies were somehow miraculously clean). Going through high school and college it was no different. In fact, my dietary change did not come until I was in my 30′s.

Just to put things in perspective, after I graduated from Weequahic High School and before going to Seton Hall University, I had a part-time job working for a butcher. I was the delivery guy and occasionally had to go to the slaughterhouse to pick up products for the store. Needless to say, I had no consciousness nor awareness, as change never came then despite the horrors I witnessed on an almost daily basis.


After graduating with a degree in accounting from Seton Hall, I eventually got married and moved to a town called Livingston. Livingston was basically a yuppie community where everyone was judged by the neighborhood they lived in and their income. To say it was a “plastic” community would be an understatement.


Livingston and the shallowness finally got to me. I told my wife I was fed up and wanted to move. She made it clear she had to be near her friends and New York City. I finally got my act together and split for Colorado.


I was living with a lady in Aspen at the end of 1974, when one day she said, ” let’s become vegetarians”. I have no idea what possessed me to say it, but I said, “okay”! At that point I went to the freezer and took out about $ 100 worth of frozen, dead body parts and gave them to a welfare mother who lived behind us. Well, everything was great for about a week or so, and then the chick split with another guy.


So here I was, a vegetarian for a couple weeks, not really knowing what to do, how to cook, or basically how to prepare anything. For about a month, I was getting by on carrot sticks, celery sticks, and yogurt. Fortunately, when I went vegan in 1990, it was a simple and natural progression. Anyway, as I walked around Aspen town, I noticed a little vegetarian restaurant called, “The Little Kitchen”.


Let me back up just a little bit. It was April of 1975, the snow was melting and the runoff of Ajax Mountain filled the streets full of knee-deep mud. Now, Aspen was great to ski in, but was a bummer to walk in when the snow was melting.


I was ready to call it quits and I needed a warmer place. I’ll elaborate on that in a minute.


But right now, back to “The Little Kitchen”. Knowing that I was going to leave Aspen and basically a new vegetarian, I needed help. So, I cruised into the restaurant and told them my plight and asked them if they would teach me how to cook. I told them in return I would wash dishes and empty their trash. They then asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was an accountant.


The owner said to me, “Let’s make a deal. You do our tax return and we’ll feed you as well”. So for the next couple of weeks I was doing their tax return, washing their dishes, emptying the trash, and learning as much as I could.


But, like I said, the mud was getting to me. So I picked up a travel book written by a guy named Foder. The name of the book was, “Hawaii”. Looking through the book I noticed that in Lahaina, on Maui, there was a little vegetarian restaurant called,” Mr. Natural’s”. I decided right then and there that I would go to Lahaina and work at “Mr. Natural’s.” To make a long story short, that’s exactly what happened.


So, I’m working at “Mr. Natural’s” and learning everything I can about my new dietary lifestyle – it was great. Every afternoon we would close for lunch at about 1 PM and go to the Sheraton Hotel in Ka’anapali and play volleyball, while somebody stayed behind to prepare dinner.


Since I was the new guy, and didn’t really know how to cook, I never thought that I would be asked to stay behind to cook dinner. Well, one afternoon, that’s exactly what happened; it was my turn. That posed a problem for me because I was at the point where I finally knew how to boil water.


I was desperate, clueless and basically up the creek without a paddle. Fortunately, there was a friend of mine sitting in the gazebo at the restaurant and I asked him if he knew how to cook. He said the only thing he knew how to cook was enchiladas. He said that his enchiladas were bean-less and dairy-less. I told him that I had no idea what an enchilada was or what he was talking about, but I needed him to show me because it was my turn to do the evening meal.


Well, the guys came back from playing volleyball and I’m asked what was for dinner. I told them enchiladas; the owner wasn’t thrilled. I told him that mine were bean-less and dairy-less. When he tried the enchilada he said it was incredible. Being the humble guy that I was, I smiled and said, “You expected anything less”? It apparently was so good that it was the only item on the menu that we served twice a week. In fact, after about a week, we were selling five dozen every night we had them on the menu and people would walk around Lahaina broadcasting, ‘enchilada’s at “Natural’s” tonight’. I never had to cook anything else.


A year later the restaurant closed, and somehow I gravitated to a little health food store in Wailuku. I never told anyone I was an accountant and basically relegated myself to being the truck driver. The guys who were running the health food store had friends in similar businesses and farms on many of the islands. I told them that if they could organize and form one company they could probably lock in the State. That’s when they found out I was an accountant and “Down to Earth” was born. “Down to Earth” became the largest natural food store chain in the islands, and I was their Chief Financial Officer and co-manager of their biggest store for 13 years.


In 1981, I started to do a weekly radio show to try and expose people to a vegetarian diet and get them away from killing innocent creatures. I still do that show today. I pay for my own airtime and have no sponsors to not compromise my honesty. One bit of a hassle was the fact that I was forced to get a Masters Degree in Nutrition to shut up all the MD’s that would call in asking for my credentials.


My doing this radio show enabled me, through endless research, to see the corruption that existed within the big food industries, the big pharmaceutical companies, the biotech industries and the government agencies. This information, unconscionable as it is, enabled me to realize how broken our health system is. This will be covered more in depth in the Introduction and throughout the book and when you finish the book you will see this clearly and it will hopefully inspire you to make changes.


I left Down to Earth in 1989, got nationally certified as a sports injury massage therapist and started traveling the world with a bunch of guys that were making a martial arts movie. After doing that for about four years I finally made it back to Honolulu and got a job as a massage therapist at the Honolulu Club, one of Hawaii’s premier fitness clubs. It was there I met the love of my life who I have been with since 1998. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She said,” If you want to be with me you’ve got to stop working on naked women”. So, I went back into accounting and was the Chief Financial Officer of a large construction company for many years.


Going back to my Newark days when I was an infant, I had no idea what a “chicken” or “egg” or “fish” or “pig” or “cow” was. My dietary blueprint was thrust upon me by my parents as theirs was thrust upon them by their parents. It was by the grace of God that I was able to put things in their proper perspective and improve my health and elevate my consciousness.


The road that I started walking down in 1975 has finally led me to the point of writing my book, “A Sane Diet For An Insane World”. Hopefully, the information contained herein will be enlightening, motivating, and inspiring to encourage you to make different choices. Doing what we do out of conditioning is not always the best course to follow. I am hoping that by the grace of the many friends and personalities I have encountered along my path, you will have a better perspective of what road is the best road for you to travel on, not only for your health but your consciousness as well.


Last but not least: after being vaccinated as a kid I developed asthma, which plagued me all of my life. In 2007 I got exposed to the organic sulfur crystals, which got rid of my asthma in 3 days and has not come back in over 10 years. That, being the tip of the iceberg, has helped people reverse stage 4 cancers, autism, joint pain, blood pressure problems, migraine headaches, erectile dysfunction, gingivitis, and more. Also, because of the detoxification effects by the release of oxygen that permeates and heals all the cells in the body, it removes parasites, radiation, fluoride, free radicals, and all the other crap that is thrust upon us in the environment by Big Business.


For more, please view www.healthtalkhawaii.com and www.asanediet.com.


Namaste!





It was taken away to keep you sick

21 Nisan 2017 Cuma

Should link between dementia and artificial sweeteners be taken with a pinch of salt?

They were supposed to be the healthy alternative to their sugar-rich siblings. But now diet colas and other low-calorie drinks have been hit by news that will radically undermine those credentials: a counterintuitive study suggesting a link to stroke and dementia.


The study in the journal Stroke may cause a rethink among those worried about obesity, diabetes or a possible early heart attack from sugar-rich drinks who have been considering making a change. It comes to the alarming conclusion that people polishing off one can a day of artificially sweetened drink are nearly three times as likely to have a stroke or develop dementia.


It’s a shocking conclusion. But the first reason to pause is that the study found no such risk in people who drank standard sugary lemonades and colas.


There is little previous evidence with regard to dementia, which is why the researchers were looking at it, but the link between sugar and stroke is very well known. Too much sugar raises the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and stroke. It’s altogether a bad thing, which is why the World Health Organisation is telling us all to cut down. So what was going on in this study?


It’s not in itself a bad study. The evidence it analyses is pulled from the well-respected Framingham Heart Study – a cohort of more than 5,000 people in Massachusetts, US, whose diets and lifestyles have been monitored for nearly 50 years, with the main objective of finding out more about heart disease. Along the way, researchers have looked at other health outcomes.


What they are up against is people’s capacity for forgetfulness and lies. This is the case with every study into the food we eat – except for those rare studies, almost impossible to do today, which have in effect imprisoned their subjects and controlled every sip and mouthful they took.


If you can’t do that, you have to ask people to complete food diaries or complete questionnaires. This study took the latter approach. Most people probably did intend to list accurately everything they ate and drank over the period, but it’s not easy to remember. And some people will be too embarrassed to be entirely accurate. Researchers understand this and try to take account of it, but it is difficult.


There are several possible other reasons why an increased stroke risk was associated with diet drinks and not sugary drinks. One is what is called “reverse causality”. People who come to realise that they are sick and have a high risk of a stroke then switch their behaviour – choosing diet drinks long after sugary drinks have helped cause the problem. It’s also possible that those among the cohort who drank most sugary drinks had already died, because the researchers were looking at only the last 16 years, not the whole 50.


When it came to dementia, the link with diet drinks that researchers saw disappeared once they took into account some elements of the health of the people in the study. “When the researchers accounted for other risk factors for Alzheimer’s, such as risk genes, diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol levels and weight, this significant association was lost, suggesting that these drinks are not the whole story,” said Dr Rosa Sancho, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK.


The researchers point to it themselves: “We are unable to determine whether artificially sweetened soft drink intake increased the risk of incident dementia through diabetes mellitus or whether people with diabetes mellitus were simply more likely to consume diet beverages,” they write. But they call for more research and others will support them in that.


Artificial sweeteners have been viewed with suspicion by a lot of consumers for many years and not entirely deservedly. They are not natural, in the way that sugar is natural, being grown from beet or cane. Some of the hostility comes from those who worry about ingesting man-made chemicals. But while some artificial flavourings have been shown to carry health risks, studies have failed to find similar problems with artificial sweeteners.


Aspartame “has been extremely controversial since its approval for use by several European countries in the 1980s”, says NHS Choices. In 1996, a study linked it to a rise in brain tumours. “However, the study had very little scientific basis and later studies showed that aspartame was in fact safe to consume,” says the NHS.


Large studies have also been carried out to look at whether the sweetener increased cancer risks – and gave it a clean bill of health. The European Food Safety Authority said in 2013 it was safe even for pregnant women and children, except for anyone with a rare genetic condition called phenylketonuria.


With soft drinks in the spotlight because of rising obesity levels, companies have been making huge efforts to develop artificial sweeteners that will taste as good as sugar and be acceptable to the doubters. Stevia, a plant extract, is marketed as a natural sweetener to the increasingly sceptical health-conscious.


But there are those who think artificial sweeteners will never be the answer to obesity and the diseases that follow in its wake. The problem, in their view, is our sweet tooth and the answer is to reduce our liking for sweetness. So they want to see the gradual reduction of the amount of sugar in our drinks and our food and snacks – without its replacement by artificial sweeteners.


It worked with salt, says Cash, the campaign for action on salt and health, which did much to bring down the salt levels in our food without our noticing it. The same should be possible for sugar. But not if artificial substitutes are used to keep our food and drinks tasting just as sweet as they did before.



Should link between dementia and artificial sweeteners be taken with a pinch of salt?

31 Mart 2017 Cuma

Young people and mental health: "Since diagnosis, I have taken massive strides"

Holly, 22, Sydney, Australia
I have suffered from depression and suicidal ideation since I was about 12. If my parents did not have private healthcare, I would probably be dead.


Vulnerable young people shouldn’t have to wait for months to see a psychiatrist, or to compensate for the lack of communication between specialists. Help-seeking behaviour should be supported and encouraged.


Young people in distress presenting to emergency rooms and hospitals should not be viewed as a problem. You don’t want us to kill ourselves, well, here we are. Mentally ill kids are often really intelligent. We can sense when you feel we are being a burden. Saying there are not enough beds, putting us in wards with elderly dementia patients or adults with drug-induced psychosis will ensure we do not ask for help again.


Malcolm Turnbull and Theresa May have the chance to make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable young people, who have a lot to offer the world in return. Don’t let us down.


Lindsay, London, 24
I am currently detained under section three of the Mental Health Act, and have been in hospital since 22 July 2016. Before this, I had a full-time job and always managed to keep my mental distress under control. I never imagined I would become a person to whom the psychiatric ward was home.


Amy-Hannah Charman, Cheltenham, studying A-levels
This poem was written in 2014 between two stints in psychiatric hospital with psychosis.


I want you to cry, I want you do die,


I don’t want to get hurt, I want to fight’


You need to hurt yourself so you can be free,


You need to ignore him, or in sin you will be,


If you don’t do what I say, I’ll make life hell,


You don’t want to slip; you’re doing so well,


Do this do that, you will be happier then,


Please just draw on yourself in a sharpie pen,


Arggg! Arrg! Cry cry cry,


Please! Please! I want to live life!


You’re a failure; this is not very hard,


Think of your friends, remember Mum’s card,


Cut cut cut, harm harm harm,


Relax relax, calm calm calm,


You need to scratch, you stupid cow,


Just go and find Mum she can save you now,


Cover your evidence, you must be sly,


Don’t do what he says, just look to the sky,


Listen to me, let me take over you now,


No I can’t, I need help, but how?


I hate you and you must hate yourself,


No I don’t want to get help,


You have nothing, nothing at all,


Actually I do like friends and all,


You don’t deserve to be happy like this,


Yes I do, think of that Taylor Swift gig,


You deserve everything I’ve done to you,


I don’t want this, I won’t listen to you,


I want to squish everything out of you,


Little, innocent me please shine through,


I will scar you and hurt you, I will do what I like,


I won’t let you win, I will always fight.


Caitlin Kitchener, 22, PhD student, York
It took an attempted suicide to gain access to therapy. I had been taking antidepressants for a few months, but they weren’t particularly working. It happened during the first year of my undergraduate degree and I remember being picked up in an ambulance outside the halls of residence, with people having a peek to see what was occurring.


Things worked out OK for me, but they didn’t for one of my best friends. She was utterly wonderful, witty, sassy, an absolute star of a woman. After my suicide attempt, she didn’t let me sleep alone for a week and made sure I looked after myself. She even helped arrange a surprise birthday party just four days after my attempt. Underneath all this charisma and humour and kindness was someone who was dreadfully sad. In the third year, she killed herself. She had attempted before, gone to hospital, had a review with a therapist, but faced excruciating waiting times. During her four-month wait for therapy, while she was also waiting for access to university services, she killed herself.


No one from the university or the NHS should be blamed. Maybe reduced waiting times wouldn’t have stopped her. But I can’t help it when I sit on her beautiful memorial bench to feel anger towards Tories whose actions are having real-life implications.


Anonymous, 19
I’ve had depression on and off since I was 11. Over the years, I’ve tried various coping mechanisms: self-harm, restrictive eating, bulimia – you name an unhealthy coping mechanism, and I’ve tried it.


The one that’s been the most constant is alcohol. It’s now got to the point where I’m drinking a small bottle of vodka pretty much every day, sometimes as early as 9am. Needless to say, this doesn’t help my depression, but I’m too dependent on it to give it up. I know I’m in desperate need of professional help, but it terrifies me thinking of my friends and family knowing I’m depressed. I worry that people will be awkward around me, feel guilty for not being able to help me or utter the dreaded phrase: “What have you got to be depressed about?”


I hope that one day the stigma surrounding mental health issues will be non-existent and I will have the courage to deal with my problems in a healthy way.


Anonymous, 17
At secondary school I was taught about religious education, maths, science, English and a plethora of other subjects. But there was one thing missing. After countless sleepless nights, and episodes of self harm, depressive thoughts and suicidal ideation, I had no idea what was wrong with me. I went to the top of a car park and watched the people walk past below like nobody in the world cared.


A woman spoke to me and saved me. After that, I got a correct diagnosis. Learning about mental health and that it is OK to ask for help is important.


Anonymous, 23
Over the years my depression and anxiety has come and gone in waves. After a friend who was having similar problems was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, I visited a doctor and told him my symptoms. He laughed at me and said I simply had social anxiety, and put me on beta blockers.


When I was at university, a different doctor suggested I see a counsellor. After the first session the counsellor said she’d follow up and make a second appointment, which never happened. My confidence was shook, and I tried a second service. The session went well, and she said she’d make a second appointment for me. She never did. I was convinced that they didn’t think I was worth their time.


I called a mental health charity, when my depression got particularly bad. They arranged a time for them to call back and do a full assessment. They never called back.


I have a great family, and got a first in my degree, and a distinction in my postgraduate degree. Still, I constantly feel numb and almost completely emotionless. My few friends have all cut ties with me for unknown reasons.


Dolly Z, New Jersey
As a young adult, I wanted to share my life’s journey with mental illness in verse.



Dolly Z reflects on her mental illness.


Dolly Z reflects on her mental illness.

Laura Vale, 18, student on a gap year
“I’m so OCD about that, I have to have everything straight.” Or, “I’m such a clean freak, I’m so OCD.”


People don’t say these things maliciously, however, they do cause upset to actual sufferers of obsessive compulsive disorder. There are four main categories of OCD: checking; contamination/mental contamination; hoarding; ruminations/intrusive thoughts.


My OCD falls into the category of contamination/mental contamination. I cannot eat cold savoury food, and without medication I could not even be in a room with cold savoury food without having a panic attack. This is the main feature of my OCD, but I also can’t deal with foods touching, or sharing food and drink.


When it’s really bad, I cannot eat because I feel as though I am contaminating myself with food. I have to feel mentally clean, too, which kind of means mentally organised. This can be with relentlessly cleaning myself or tidying or harming myself because I was not clean enough.


Once (while taking Prozac, which really messed with me), I had to empty my room and paint it white. I knew this was illogical, I was crying because I felt insane, and yet I felt that this was the only way for me to be safe and comfortable. Intrusive thoughts control my life. From basic anxieties to more obscure ones, such as my absolute terror of ever having a child and then starving the child through my OCD. But it can be manageable and, for those who know me, since diagnosis I have taken massive strides.


The main issue with OCD is the lack of understanding in mainstream society. By making statements such as: “I am so OCD about that,” you are trivialising a mental illness that is so controlling, manipulative and horrible, and making the sufferer feel as though their struggle is not real and their feelings are irrelevant. Education is key.


In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14.



Young people and mental health: "Since diagnosis, I have taken massive strides"

25 Kasım 2016 Cuma

Huge rise in hospital beds in England taken up by people with malnutrition

The number of hospital beds in England taken up by patients being treated for malnutrition has almost trebled over the last ten years, official figures reveal, in what charities say shows the “genuinely shocking” extent of hunger and poor diet.


Beds in hospitals were occupied a total of 180,528 times last year – a huge rise on the 65,048 seen in 2006-07. The sharp increase is adding to the pressures on hospitals, which are already struggling with record levels of overcrowding.


Critics have said the upward trend is a result of rising poverty, deep cutbacks in recent years to meals on wheels services for the elderly and inadequate social care support, especially for older people.


Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, unearthed the figures in a response to a recent parliamentary question submitted to health minister Nicola Blackwood.


“These figures paint a grim picture of Britain under the Conservatives,” he said. “Real poverty is causing vulnerable people, particularly the elderly, to go hungry and undernourished, so much so that they end up in hospital.


“Our research reveals a shocking picture of levels of malnutrition in 21st-century England and the impact it has on our NHS. This is unacceptable in modern Britain.”


The Department of Health figures showed that the number of bed days accounted for by someone with a primary or secondary diagnosis of malnutrition rose from 128,361 in 2010-11, the year the coalition came to power, to 184,528 last year – a 61% rise over five years.


Such patients only account for one in 256 of all hospital bed days, or 0.4% of the 47.3m total. However, the financial cost is considerable as each bed costs the NHS on average £400 a day to staff and each spell in hospital because of the condition lasts on average 22 to 23 days.


Graphic

Simon Bottery, director of policy at the charity Independent Age, said: “These new figures on malnutrition are genuinely shocking. As a society there is no excuse for us failing to ensure that older people are able to eat enough food, of the right quality, to stay healthy.


“Yet we have been cutting back the meals on wheels services and lunch clubs on which so many vulnerable elderly people relied and reducing the numbers who receive home care visits.”


Freedom of information requests submitted by local councils in England early last year by the then shadow care minister Liz Kendall found that 220,000 fewer people were receiving meals on wheels in late 2014 than in 2010 – a fall of 63%.


Research by the National Association of Care Catering found that only 48% of local councils still provided meals on wheels, compared to 66% in 2014. Only 17% of councils in the north-west of England still do, for example, and 91% of providers expect the provision to fall further in the next year.


The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence classes someone as being malnourished if they have a Body Mass Index of less than 18.5, or have suffered the unintentional loss of more than 10% of their weight over the last three to six months or if they have a BMI of under 20 and have unintentionally seen their weight drop by more than 5% over the previous three to six months.


The decision by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, not to give the NHS or social care any more money in his autumn statement last week would only worsen the situation, Ashworth said. “The reality is the government have failed this week to both give the NHS and social care the extra investment it needs while also failing to invest in prevention initiatives to foster healthier lifestyles. The cuts to public health budgets along with an emaciated obesity strategy are both utterly misguided,” he added.


Figures are not available for exactly how many patients accounted for the 184,528 bed days last year. But information supplied to Ashworth by the House of Commons library shows that 57% of the patients involved were women and that 42% occurred among over-65s.


Worryingly, four out of five people who needed inpatient hospital care because of malnutrition were admitted as an emergency, which suggests their health had deteriorated significantly in the days before they were taken in. Too many health and social care professionals do not have the time or knowledge to correctly identify malnutrition, said Bottery.


Dianne Jeffrey, the chair of the Malnutrition Task Force and Age UK, said: “If malnutrition is left untreated older people can become much more susceptible to illness and injury, are more likely to end up in hospital and on average take much longer to recover if they do become unwell.


“It is shocking that in modern times over a million older people across the UK are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.”


A Department of Health spokesperson said: “The NHS is getting much better at spotting malnutrition and giving early treatment, and we are improving our data collection, all of which helps explain what might otherwise appear a significant rise in cases. But importantly, to prevent cases in the future, we have given £500,000 to Age UK to help reduce malnutrition among older people and will continue to train staff so early action can be taken.”


Stephen Dalton, chief executive for the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said: “Our members take malnutrition seriously. Good nutrition is a fundamental human right our citizens can expect, and vulnerable, particularly older, people are most at risk of serious consequences if denied basic compassionate care. At a time of unprecedented demand on health and social care we need to be alert and will take seriously any reliable evidence of basic care not being delivered.”



Huge rise in hospital beds in England taken up by people with malnutrition

27 Ekim 2016 Perşembe

Emily wanted to die when her son was taken. Nurses gave her a future

“If my children were ever taken off me, I wouldn’t survive the day,” was my sister’s emotive, yet understandable, comment when we were discussing the impact losing your children could have on your mental health. It made me think of a woman I had worked with, Emily.


Emily had her son taken off her after she had attempted to kill herself. The boy, Jacob, was pre-school, and the decision by social services was made in her best interests. Emily had been in an abusive relationship and was struggling to cope. She had serious mental health problems as well as a history of childhood abuse, so coping was not something she was good at. She had always refused to engage with mental health services for fear that it would result in Jacob being taken away. The tragedy is that engaging with services was probably the only thing that would have kept their family together.


After further attempts to take her own life, Emily was detained under the Mental Health Act and admitted to the mental health ward where I worked. At this point, Jacob had been taken away by social services. Emily was told Jacob would be adopted; she could have phone contact until then and one final visit to say goodbye.


Initially she could not accept this and just wanted to die. It was one of the hardest cases I have experienced. She was right – what did she have to live for now she had lost Jacob? How could she continue feeling this pain and despair for life? As a team – nurses, doctors, occupational therapists and psychologists – we worked tirelessly with her to instil some sense of a future. Jacob was going to grow up loved, in a safe and secure environment unlike anything Emily had ever experienced. Her son had a positive future and she could take some comfort in that.


We focused on preparing Emily for her last contact with her son. She made her own plans about what she wanted for the two of them, and we supported her to achieve it. Emily was brave and made sure she could hold it together until Jacob had left, and then her world came crashing down.


Part of the preparation included talking to Emily about her suicidal thoughts and talking to her about what we could do to minimise the risk. We kept her safe while she grieved the loss of her daughter. We then worked with her to create the positive future she wanted for herself. This started with her keeping herself safe on the ward, one day at a time. We then looked at a longer term placement where she could get the intensive psychotherapy she needed to manage her mental health issues, heal from the hurt of the past and come to terms with losing Jacob.


Every day mental health nurses help people like Emily, who feel they have nothing to live for. Every day mental health nurses save lives. According to a report by the Mental Health Taskforce Strategy (2016) more than 14,000 people who have killed themselves between 2003 and 2013 had been in contact with mental health services; this is only just over a quarter of all suicides in that time. The same report acknowledges that suicide rates for mental health inpatients are declining, but sadly it is only the people we don’t manage to save that make the headlines. I am glad that we were able to help Emily and she hasn’t become another statistic.


Names and some details have been changed


If you would like to contribute to our Blood, sweat and tears series which is about memorable moments in a healthcare career, please read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.


Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.



Emily wanted to die when her son was taken. Nurses gave her a future

19 Ağustos 2015 Çarşamba

"Smart drug" taken by a single in 4 college students really does improve overall performance


A ‘smart drug’ taken by 1 in four students at Oxford University genuinely does improve brain electrical power and colleges need to take into account whether it need to be banned, scientists have explained.




Modafinil is at the moment offered on NHS as a treatment for narcolepsy but surveys have advised that a fifth of university students use it to improve performance for revising and exams following it was linked to improved cognition.




Oxford University and Harvard Health care School looked at 24 research into modafainil and have concluded that it actually does enhance considering capabilities, particularly in extended complicated tasks. It was also found to assist with planning, decision generating, flexibility, finding out and memory, and creativity.




It is the 1st ‘smart drug’ identified to in fact operate and it appears to have couple of side effects, say researchers.




But the scientists say the final results increase critical ethical inquiries about regardless of whether it need to be ‘classified, condoned or condemned.’




Dr Ruairidh Battleday explained: “Modafinil can and does enhance some cognitive functions.


“For the 1st time, we have a cognitive enhancer that appears not to have considerable detrimental cognitive, emotional, or bodily side effects.


“This implies that it is time for a wider societal debate on how to integrate and regulate cognitive enhancement . The ethical exploration is a large and essential goal for the close to long term: one that the two scientists, politicians, and the public need to be concerned in.”


Modafinil is taken by up to one in 4 college students at British universities  Photo: ALAMY


A survey run by the Oxford University student newspaper The Tab showed that 26 per cent of college students at the university explained they had utilized it. A single quarter of youngsters at Newcastle and Leeds claimed to have attempted the drug and close to a single in 5 at universities like Imperial, Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester.


Modafinil is normally prescribed to deal with sleeping issues and has been used in the past by the US Air Force to hold pilots alert throughout prolonged distance flights.


But physicians have anecdotally complained that they are currently being forced to give students valium to control withdrawal following exams due to the fact it results rest patterns so badly.


Professor Guy Goodwin, President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP) said: “it’s the very first real instance of a ‘smart drug’, which can genuinely help, for illustration, with examination planning.


“Previous ethical discussion of this kind of agents has tended to presume extravagant results before it was clear that there were any.


“If appropriate, the current update signifies the ethical debate is genuine: how ought to we classify, condone or condemn a drug that improves human overall performance in the absence of pre-present cognitive impairment? “


The final results were published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology.




"Smart drug" taken by a single in 4 college students really does improve overall performance

18 Ağustos 2015 Salı

Three Scottish scouts taken care of for meningitis soon after Japan trip

The Scottish well being authorities have contacted about 4,000 British scouts who took part in a jamboree in Japan following 3 from the north of Scotland required therapy for meningitis.


The precautionary letter from Overall health Protection Scotland mentioned whilst the danger of an additional case was very slight, it was sensible to be aware of the signs and symptoms, which incorporate vomiting, serious headache, stiff neck and seizures.


The HPS letter, dated 14 August, mentioned the 3 Scottish scouts were recovering nicely after currently being treated with antibiotics.


Jim McMenamin, a advisor epidemiologist, wrote: “I value this news may possibly lead to some anxiety but please be reassured that as a result far no other cases have been reported from scouts from other elements of the Uk or from other international nations attending the jamboree. The occurrence of this sickness is unusual and the danger of one more case amongst individuals attending the jamboree is quite small.”


Even so, the Associated Press reported that Sweden’s public well being company explained on Monday that one particular Swedish participant was most likely to have contracted the condition at the jamboree, and that two other cases had been below investigation.


An estimated thirty,000 scouts from around the world attended the 12-day event that ended on 8 August in Kirarahama in western Japan, like 4,000 from Britain. The jamboree incorporated a go to to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as portion of the 70th anniversary of a nuclear bomb being dropped on the city.


In his letter, McMenamin stated not all of indicators and symptoms of meningitis might demonstrate at once, but somebody with the sickness could grow to be really ill. The sickness might progress in excess of one or two days, but can develop really quickly, occasionally in a matter of hrs.


Meningitis, an infection of the meninges (protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord), can be caused by bacteria or a virus. It leads to the meninges turning into swollen, which can harm the nerves and brain. The early signs can be like poor flu, but diagnosis in the early phases can be difficult.


McMenamin mentioned laboratory and other data indicated that the chance of infection appeared confined to the little group of scouts in the north of Scotland who attended the jamboree and individuals in households of the 3 confirmed instances.



Three Scottish scouts taken care of for meningitis soon after Japan trip

16 Temmuz 2014 Çarşamba

Why Mobile Well being Technologies Have not Taken Off (Nevertheless)

Tech entrepreneurs see the mobile overall health (mHealth) marketplace as the following wonderful enterprise revolution, but it has nevertheless to obtain critical mass.  mHealth is regarded the sum of technologies-based applications that enable a patient and a physician to clinically interact from distinct locations.  Examples incorporate the exchange of health care details via e-mail, texting, smartphone apps, storing and forwarding photos, and Net-primarily based video.


The mHealth marketplace is becoming re-energized by the development of the smartphone industry, with a lot more than 140 million smartphone consumers in the U.S.  This quantity is expected to rise to more than 200 million in excess of the subsequent five many years.  This growth is getting fueled by 1000′s of apps that are empowering customers in their every day lives.  Customers are enjoying the handheld convenience of depositing checks, steering clear of visitors, playing video games, and staying linked to pals.


But is the U.S. healthcare infrastructure ready to embrace the developing need for non-traditional doctor-patient encounters?  Regrettably, the adoption curve has been slow, with only about ten% of the U.S. population (36 million) possessing ever utilized mHealth technologies, such as telemedicine.  Irrespective of the medium by means of which the experience will take location, there are even now main hurdles for mHealth to implement remedies that are presently prevalent in other service-based mostly industries, this kind of as banking, insurance coverage, and travel.  Despite much more than 20,000 healthcare-connected smartphone apps that are available in the marketplace right now, a 2012 Pew Analysis Center review located that only ten% of smartphone customers have downloaded a healthcare app.  A comparable variety of customers have ever obtained an electronic mail or alert directly associated to their health.



Telemedicine Consult

Telemedicine Seek advice from (Photo credit: IntelFreePress)




To obtain some insight into the state of mHealth adoption, we contacted Dr. Darren Sommer, Chief Health-related Officer of the Optimized Care Network, a network of healthcare companies who nearly connect with and treat individuals.  In accordance to Sommer, mHealth apps can be divided into 3 types of encounters: (1) initiated and concluded by the patient, (2) initiated and concluded by the healthcare supplier, and (3) initiated by either, but concluded by the other.


The 1st two represent the potential for either the physician or the patient to utilize technological innovation as a personal resource for their medical needs.  A patient might track his or her diabetes, or a doctor may seem up the dose of a medication.  In the two examples, the patient and the doctor are not dependent upon each other.  The third category, which is defined by the patient or doctor initiating the app use and the other concluding the interaction, is a considerably tougher model.  Some pre-coordination must consider place ahead of the data being collected can be acted on.


A lack of standardization is not surprising, considering the amount of mobile platforms and medical apps providing equivalent functions.  For illustration, says Sommer, “If a patient self-selects the use of a diabetes app without coordinating with their doctor, the doctor may only be in a position to alter a patient’s diabetes routine by reviewing a paper printout brought by the patient to the following in-man or woman pay a visit to.  The worth of collecting that data in true time is now marginalized.”  It would be greater for the two the patient and the doctor to be able to share that information in real time, overview it, and act on it ahead of issues can come up.


The logistical hurdles to mHealth adoption also have monetary ramifications.  If a major care medical professional manages a population of two,500 patients, do they have the employees and/or time to integrate and act on what could be hundreds of day-to-day notifications?  Today’s fragmented, brick-and-mortar healthcare practices had been not developed to modify their workflow like utility grids that foresee and deal with the peaks and troughs of energy consumption.  A utility firm is financially incentivized to deliver power effectively, which saves them income and improves their margins.  In healthcare, nevertheless, there is not a compelling financial case for incentivizing the patient and the doctor to invest their own resources into several, discrete mHealth options.


There are thousands of organizations offering telemedicine technology, but there is no widespread adoption by practitioners.  Sommer asks, “Why would a family members practitioner that sees 25 individuals in the office per day quit seeing 5 of those individuals, in purchase to see 5 remotely?  Even if they could get paid for the e-pay a visit to, which they likely can’t (at least beneath existing reimbursement designs), they would nevertheless drop funds on their investment in the telemedicine engineering.


Numerous independent physician practices do not have the resources to invest in new infrastructure.  Imagine your regional independent barbershop investing 1000′s of dollars into an app that allows its buyers to book appointments online, figure out the schedule of their favorite barber, and get reminders when a defined time period of time expires in between haircuts.  The barbershop could by no means afford to do it unless the investment could be recouped.  This would come in the form of far more patrons receiving haircuts.  However, if the store is operating at greatest capacity, there is minor cause to invest added assets just for the sake of buyer ease.  The case is the very same for healthcare.  If a household physician has a practice that is operating at capacity, there is no economic incentive to invest in new providers to attract extra patients or chance diminishing its already tight margins.


Regardless of all these headwinds, it’s most likely that healthcare buyers will soon commence to act a lot more like consumers of solutions from other industries.  They will demand far more for their healthcare dollar, since more of that healthcare dollar will come from their wallet and not from their health insurance coverage company.  Innovative providers of healthcare will devise new ways to supply large-good quality healthcare at reduced expenses.  These innovations will get rid of the middleman (government agencies and wellness insurance coverage organizations) and restore the primacy of the patient-doctor partnership.  These new clinical companies will be more responsive to the wants of individuals, more marketplace-driven, and much more in line with other services-primarily based industries.  As Dr. Sommer puts it, “Medical practices will compete in the very same way that other organizations do or they will not survive.  This, in time, will drive down healthcare expenses and boost quality for all.”


Rob Szczerba is the CEO of X Tech Ventures.  Comply with him on Forbes, Twitter (@RJSzczerba), Facebook, and LinkedIn.



Why Mobile Well being Technologies Have not Taken Off (Nevertheless)

10 Temmuz 2014 Perşembe

"Juicing shouldn"t be taken care of like a slimming craze"


With juice bars popping up all in excess of London, juicing appears like the latest craze. But there is also a whole lot of confusion around the topic –we’ve been told that fruit juices are total of sugar, that cold pressing is the greatest way to extract vitamins and that orange juice in a box is the most evil of them all. So in which does that depart the beginner juicer?




‘We see juices as an addition to a wholesome balanced diet program, when enjoyed with other food items, they can have actual overall health positive aspects, from greater digestion, higher energy ranges and brighter skin,’ Lily Simpson from the Detox Kitchen says.




Earlier this month she invited nutritionists and fitness pros to speak about juicing. ‘With celebrities and versions as frequent ambassadors of juicing, many folks assume it indicates starving by yourself,’ Danielle Copperman, a nutritionist, model and founder of Qnola, a granola-based mostly breakfast merchandise, says. ‘I personally think it is critical to supplement your diet with fresh juice.’




Nutritionist Yvonne Wake agrees: ‘We would be a significantly healthier nation if we had been to take juicing a bit more critically and not treat it as the most current slimming craze. The truth that antioxidants are abundant in a good green juice and we could be so significantly healthier if juicing was part of our everyday existence.’




Now we’re supposed to be consuming at least ten portions of fruit and vegetables per day, in accordance to a 12-year study by UCL in March, and primarily vegetables, which were found to be 4 occasions healthier than fruit. But this, Wake says, is straightforward when you juice. ‘All it takes is one particular juice in the morning, stuffed full of kale, cucumber, celery, spinach and an apple and we would have fulfilled most of our green needs for the day.’




Three juice recipes to attempt at home


And what about sugar? ‘There are so many green juices as options now which can incorporate no sugar at all,’ Simpson says. Companies this kind of as Imbibery London, exactly where all their juices are cold pressed – meaning no heat to destroy off the nutrients. They say their green juice, containing spinach, cucumber, celery, apple and lemon, is their most common (they also have a more tough core version, Phyto, which has parsley instead of apple). One particular bottle includes 1 to two kilos of produce.


Which has the comfort marketplace cornered. But if you do not want to (or cannot afford to) commit £7 for 250ml of juice per day, the nutritionists were in agreement that the very best way is just to do it yourself. ‘Don’t worry also significantly about what you’re carrying out, what machine you are using or what components you are placing in,’ Rhian Stephenson, nutritionist at Psycle London says, ‘just do it.’


Read: Word of mouth: Detox Kitchen, a service producing dieting less dull




"Juicing shouldn"t be taken care of like a slimming craze"

8 Mayıs 2014 Perşembe

One particular in 5 college students have taken the study drug modafinil

colourful drugs

A new survey reveals that the use of research drugs is frequent amid students. Photograph: Alamy




One particular in five college students at Uk universities have used the review drug modafinil to examine and remain awake, according to a survey.


The study, carried out by pupil web site the Tab, asked virtually 2000 college students at 41 diverse universities about their use of study drugs.


It found that 1 in five had taken modafinil, a drug which is employed to stop sleepiness and enhance concentration, to help them with their academic operate.


Ally Biring, a latest graduate of the University of the Arts London, says: “Self-medicating is extremely worrying. But students really feel that there is no option. We want to search at what we as a society see as accomplishment.


“College students are investing a good deal of cash into their studies and there is no promise that they will get a occupation. So the competition is fierce. They require to demonstrate that they are the very best and outperform their peers.”


Virtually half of college students who had taken the drug had purchased it online and several reported side effects this kind of as getting a lowered appetite, an inability to sleep and needing to go to the toilet more.


Usually prescribed to treat narcolepsy, the drug is not illegal to purchase but is unlawful to supply. In recent years students have employed the drug to help them focus on their function in the construct-up to exams and deadlines.


An NUS spokeperson explained in the Metro: “With the present labour market, college students may possibly really feel a lot of pressure to do effectively in their research. But taking drugs like these can existing a threat to your wellness, just like something that is not prescribed by a doctor.”


Pupil houses are mouldy and high-priced
Over a third of college students consider their lease is poor worth for money, according to a new survey by Accommodation for College students and Glide. Not only is lease large, but some of you are bailing out your flatmates. Virtually 12% of college students have had to pay out somebody else’s bills, says the survey of one,170 students.


How do you pay for your uni accommodation? Nearly a third said they relied on credit cards or overdrafts to spend their rent, and 65% said they were anxious about funds.


In excess of at the University of York, a survey by Nouse pupil paper this week discovered that 34% of York students feel there is as well significantly mould in their student home.


Poppy ban defeated at Belfast
This week students at the Queen’s University in Belfast proposed a ban on the sale of poppies, saying the poppy appeal is “a politically charged”. Nonetheless, the movement was defeated 40 votes to 15. Final yr the University of London Union brought on a stir when it “boycotted” Remembrance day providers, asking representatives to attend only in a personalized capacity and not to talk for the union.




One particular in 5 college students have taken the study drug modafinil

25 Mart 2014 Salı

MPs: action must be taken to curb rise in liver illness

The government must handle the “catastrophic consequences” of ignoring the burden of liver condition, MPs have mentioned.


An inquiry report from the all-get together parliamentary hepatology group (APPHG) accused NHS England of ditching programs to produce a technique for tackling liver ailment, which kills nearly eleven,000 people a 12 months.


The British Liver Believe in has predicted that spend on combating liver disease will attain £1bn a 12 months inside of the next decade.


The report stated the government, the NHS and Public Health England must take action to curb the tide of rising liver illness.


Recommendations consist of a minimal 50p unit cost for alcohol and the co-ordination of a national method to stopping ailment as effectively as guaranteeing much better care and early diagnosis.


Action is also necessary on weight problems and getting rid of hepatitis C inside the next 15 years, the APPHG explained.


Liver disease is the fifth biggest – and quickest-growing – killer in the United kingdom but a lack of apparent signs signifies it can be diagnosed at a late stage.


Figures display that a third of men and women in the United kingdom with liver condition have weight problems-related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.


Alcoholic liver condition is also accountable for about 66% of all alcohol-associated deaths.


Meanwhile, an estimated 216,000 men and women in the United kingdom are infected with hepatitis C which can also cause liver condition.


Public well being minister Jane Ellison announced in December that NHS England had no strategies to publish a national liver ailment outcomes approach, which the APPHG said had been 3 many years in the drafting.


Tory MP, David Amess, who chairs the APPHG, explained: “The launch of today’s inquiry report is a wake-up call for the nation.


“Liver condition is the only one of the UK’s leading five causes of death where death costs proceed to rise and there is no national approach to tackle this. Except if urgent and co-ordinated action is taken now, in much less than a generation, liver disease has the possible to be the UK’s greatest killer.


“As most liver ailment can be prevented, this is a tragic waste of life.”


Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, explained: “Liver disease is a nationwide scandal and much more must be accomplished to avert, diagnose and treat the situation.


“We can’t sit by and allow so much needless struggling and death. Liver ailment destroys lives and puts a important fiscal burden on society. We want decisive action now.”


Charles Gore, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, stated: “There is so considerably more that could be accomplished to avoid the escalating death toll from liver illness.


“For example, only three% of hepatitis C individuals acquire probably daily life-conserving treatment every 12 months. With the new therapies we could properly get rid of the virus in the Uk inside of a generation. The government, Public Well being England and all elements of the NHS urgently wants to prioritise action on the causes of liver condition.”



MPs: action must be taken to curb rise in liver illness

19 Mart 2014 Çarşamba

FGM: thousands of girls taken care of in London hospitals

Guy

Guy’s hospital near London Bridge. The believe in which runs Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals taken care of 1,146 FGM sufferers from 2009-13. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian




Thousands of females have been handled in London hospitals after suffering female genital mutilation.


Figures obtained by BBC London located that 3,939 FGM sufferers had been taken care of across 31 NHS hospital trusts in the capital.


Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS basis believe in taken care of 1,146 FGM sufferers amongst 2009 and 2013.


St George’s Healthcare NHS believe in cared for 795 sufferers, the BBC reported.


Ealing Hospital NHS believe in handled 633 individuals, even though the Whittington Health NHS trust cared for 493 patients.


Last year, well being authorities warned that the wellness and social care method was failing young women who were at risk of FGM – which is classed as torture by the UN.


They said far more essential to be completed in the Uk to safeguard younger girls and babies at threat of the brutal process.


A report by specialists from the Royal University of Midwives, Royal University of Nursing and Royal School of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the human rights organisation Equality Now and the trade union Unite mentioned there have been “gaps in responsiveness” to addressing FGM in the health and social care method.


Officials did not know whom to turn to if they suspected it had been carried out, and if a lady suspected to be at risk was referred to social providers the issue may be dropped because some care employees did not really feel that FGM lay within their remit, the report mentioned.


There was no accountability in performance of health and social care staff and a lack of consistent information about the concern, the report discovered. There have been no prosecutions for FGM, even though it has been banned in the United kingdom because 1985.


The property affairs choose committee launched an inquiry into FGM in December. The committee chair, Keith Vaz, stated at the time: “It is surprising that 28 years on from female genital mutilation very first currently being made a criminal offence, there has not but been a productive prosecution in the United kingdom.


“The committee’s inquiry will seek out to locate out why this is the situation, as well as contemplating what far more requirements to be done to safeguard at-danger girls.”




FGM: thousands of girls taken care of in London hospitals

19 Şubat 2014 Çarşamba

Folic acid taken by less than third of girls planning pregnancy

Mung beans and spinach dish

Mung beans and spinach are a supply of vitamin B9 but authorities advise girls to get further folate in dietary supplements when planning a household. Photograph: Alamy




Females are ignoring specialist advice to get folic acid supplements just before pregnancy to defend their unborn children, a examine has proven.


Researchers who questioned nearly 500,000 girls attending antenatal clinics in England and the Isle of Guy found that fewer than one in 3 took folic acid prior to getting to be pregnant.


These omissions had been in spite of robust proof displaying that most situations of spina bifida and other birth defects affecting the brain, spine or spinal cord, can be prevented by boosting amounts of folate – vitamin B9 – ahead of pregnancy.


The examine showed that the proportion of females who heeded the tips when arranging a household had really fallen, from 35% amongst 1999 and 2001, to 31% from 2011 to 2012.


Even amongst ladies with prior knowledge of a pregnancy involving a neural tube birth defect, this kind of as spina bifida, only just over half (51%) took the supplements.


Spina bifida is a neural tube defect that takes place when the developing spinal column does not near effectively, leaving nerves exposed. In most cases surgical treatment can be carried out to restore the defect after birth, but usually nerves have previously been damaged leading to paralysis, incontinence and reduction of skin sensation.


Amid the recognized danger aspects for spina bifida, the most crucial is a lack of folic acid just before and at the very start off of pregnancy.


The findings prompted calls for the introduction of necessary folic acid fortification of flour in the Uk, a policy currently adopted in far more than 70 countries, which includes the US and Australia.


Sir Nicholas Wald, from Queen Mary University of London, 1 of the research authors whose original operate uncovered the protective effect of folic acid, explained: “It’s a public overall health tragedy that, in spite of the folic acid fortification initiative in a lot of countries, the United kingdom has not introduced necessary folic acid fortification. The failure to fortify flour with folic acid is like possessing a polio vaccine and not employing it.”


The analysis, published in an on-line journal of the Public Library of Science, was performed by a group from Queen Mary’s Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medication amongst 1999 and 2012.


The study showed that a lot more girls took folic acid after they identified they had been pregnant, the proportion growing from 45% to 62% among the periods looked at in the examine. But experts anxiety that to provide successful protection the dietary supplements essential to be taken ahead of pregnancy.


The research also showed sturdy ethnic variations, with only 17% of Afro-Caribbean females, twenty% of south Asian women and 25% of east Asian females taking folic acid, compared with 35% of white Caucasian females.


Just six% of teens under 20 attending the antenatal clinics had taken the supplements, although forty% of older girls aged 35 to 39 followed the tips.


Jonathan Bestwick, co-writer of the review, who is a lecturer in health-related statistics at Queen Mary, mentioned: “The recent Uk policy of recommending females take folic acid supplements has failed and has also led to overall health inequalities amid ethnic minorities and younger females. The government need to introduce mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid with no delay.”


Joan Morris, a statistician at Queen Mary, said: “Each year in Britain there are about 1,000 pregnancies impacted by spina bifida or other birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord. Most of these lead to a termination of pregnancy, which is an agonising decision for couples who want a kid.”


Jane Munro, from the Royal University of Midwives, explained: “There is no doubt about the positive aspects of taking folic acid dietary supplements for women who are organizing to become pregnant. The RCM advises ladies to get supplements if they can.


“Even so, there is a require to ensure entry to dietary supplements for girls who are unable to afford them, and to reach groups of women the place taking these dietary supplements is minimal.


“On the problem of including folic acid to foodstuffs this kind of as flour, we would anxiety the need to have for a lot more discussion prior to such a stage is taken since there will be men and women for whom additives will be unacceptable.”




Folic acid taken by less than third of girls planning pregnancy

29 Ocak 2014 Çarşamba

Medical doctors to blame for boost in elderly individuals taken to A&E, says Nationwide Care Association

“GPs are not prepared to come out to something like this and they will generally say get in touch with the support [NHS 111] and get this man or woman to hospital since that’s what they feel is the quickest and easiest way,” she additional.


Figures from the Overall health and Social Care Information Centre display that in 2012-13, one.sixteen million individuals in their 80s arrived in casualty units — a rise of 65 per cent in 5 many years, with a 75 per cent improve in the variety sent by ambulance. This exceeds the eight per cent rise in the population of above 80s for the duration of this time period.


Ms Ahmed said the alter in assistance has consequences for how elderly people can be cared for.


She extra: “There is the whole standpoint that folks can be looked after at residence as lengthy as feasible, but we’ve not got the right assistance since of a lack of funding.


“People are not acquiring the degree of support they require at a vital time of their lives.”


Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are now becoming taken care of as emergencies in hospitals, n what has been noticed as a lack of self confidence in out of hrs care.


Dr Cliff Guy, president of the University of Emergency Medication, mentioned this care was “very quite variable” dependent on in which folks live.


He said: “This indicates individuals who are residents of nursing houses, when they fall unwell as well often the default position is to take them to A&ampE.”


Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, explained that also several elderly people had been ending up in hospital due to the fact of the flawed GP contract, signed below Labour in 2004, that allowed family medical doctors to abandon accountability for out-of-hours care.


From April, GPs will have to consider close to-the-clock accountability for the care of all sufferers aged 75 and more than as he said they are “bringing back suitable loved ones doctoring.”



Medical doctors to blame for boost in elderly individuals taken to A&E, says Nationwide Care Association

23 Ocak 2014 Perşembe

Older cancer patients becoming written off instead of taken care of, says charity

Older cancer individuals are becoming “written off” since of their age, a top charity has warned. Macmillan Cancer Assistance mentioned some sufferers have been getting deemed as as well outdated for remedy and had been not assessed on their total fitness.


Research from the charity and the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) also found that tens of thousands of pensioners diagnosed with cancer have survived for at least a decade.


The figures showed more than 130,000 men and women in the Uk have survived for at least ten many years soon after currently being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 65 or over. That quantity incorporated more than 8,000 sufferers who had been diagnosed at the age of 80 and in excess of.


But regardless of the huge amount of older people who are “extended-phrase” survivors of the illness, the charity stated numerous individuals in the United kingdom are getting denied remedy simply because they are deemed to be as well old.


It stated that cancer survival rates in this age group are “poor”.


Macmillan pointed out that survival prices in the United kingdom in contrast badly with those on the continent and warned of what it saw as a worrying trend in the way men and women are taken care of.


For many common cancers – which includes prostate, breast, lung, stomach, ovarian and kidney cancers – the United kingdom and Ireland have a decrease 5-year survival rate than the rest of Europe, a spokesman mentioned.


Well being staff must guarantee treatment choices are not based mostly on age alone and ought to also assess a patient’s bodily and psychological properly-becoming, the charity added.


“It truly is wrong to publish off older folks as also outdated for treatment method,” stated Macmillan’s chief executive Ciaran Devane


“With a appropriate evaluation and acceptable therapy, our analysis displays that many older cancer individuals can live for a prolonged time and can even be cured.


“Whilst it’s very good information that so a lot of older people are benefiting from remedy, many thousands a lot more could live longer if our survival prices for in excess of-65s matched these in comparable nations.


“The barriers to getting treatment method – which incorporate age discrimination and inadequate evaluation methods – should be tackled now so more older folks can survive cancer and live for several many years.”


NCIN’s clinical lead Dr Mick Peake extra: “It is vital that all individuals acquire the ideal and most successful remedy primarily based on the nature of their cancer and their fitness for therapy and that chronological age alone is not the deciding factor.


“We know that cancer survival rates in older individuals in many other nations are better than in the United kingdom and guaranteeing optimum treatment at all ages is the way of tackling this issue.”


Dr Mark Porter, chairman of council at the British Health-related Association, said: “It is essential that all healthcare professionals make sure that patients are treated on the basis of their clinical need.


“With an increasingly ageing population, it need to be a crucial part of medical professionalism to ensure that older sufferers are taken care of with the care and respect they deserve.”



Older cancer patients becoming written off instead of taken care of, says charity