Natural And Healthy

Gaming doctor 'caused baby death'

2009-11-14T21:28:00.000+07:00

A five-month-old Chinese baby has died in a hospital because his doctor was busy playing a game online while his condition worsened, reports say.

Many parents in China complain about healthcare provision

Officials from the Jiangsu provincial health department said that Dr Mao Xiaojun would be sacked from Nanjing Children's Hospital.

The hospital first said he was working on a thesis but later admitted he was playing an online game of Go.

Parents have been angered by a series of major health blunders in China.

"Mao lied to us a few days ago," Li Shandong, director of health care reform in the Jiangsu provincial health department, told the state-run China Daily newspaper.

"He admitted to playing the game of Go online after our computer experts checked out evidence on his computer."

He said Dr Mao did not follow hospital regulations and that his sluggish attitude towards patients led to the boy's death, the China Daily reported.

Further punishments

The baby was taken to Nanjing Children's Hospital on the afternoon of 3 November with an eye infection.

Dr Mao was found to have ignored the parent's pleas for help when the baby's condition worsened, a statement from Jiangsu's provincial health department cited by China Daily said.

The baby died early the next morning from complications caused by the eye infection, the statement said.

Eleven other hospital employees, including the facility's president and party chief, will also be punished over the incident, Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 10,000 lawsuits relating to medical disputes have been filed in Chinese courts every year since 2002, Xinhua reported.

Juggling increases brain power

2009-11-09T08:54:00.001+07:00

BBC News

Complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain, according to scientists at Oxford University.

The volunteers were taught to juggle with three balls

In the journal, Nature Neuroscience, the scientists say they saw a 5% increase in white matter - the cabling network of the brain.

The people who took part in the study were trained for six weeks and had brain scans before and after.

Long term it could aid treatments for diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Diffusion MRI

The team from Oxford's Department of Clinical Neurology used a diffusion MRI which is able to measure the movement of water molecules in the tissues of the brain.

The signal changes according to how many bundles of nerve fibres there are and how tightly packed they are.

Changes in grey matter, where the processing and computation in the brain happens, have been shown before, but enhancements in the white matter have not previously been demonstrated.

Three ball cascade

The scientists studied a group of 24 healthy young adults, none of whom could juggle.

They divided them into two groups.

One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and was asked to practice 30 minutes every day the other 12 continued as normal.

After training, the 12 jugglers could perform at least two continuous cycles of the classic three ball cascade.

Both groups were scanned using diffusion MRI before and after the training.

At the six week point, a 5% increase in white matter was shown in a rear section of the brain called the intraparietal sulcus for the jugglers.

This area has been shown to contain nerves that react to us reaching and grasping for objects in our peripheral vision.

There was a great variation in the ability of the volunteers to juggle but all of them showed changes in white matter.

The Oxford team said this must be down to the time spent training and practising rather than the level of skill attained.

Dr Heidi Johansen-Berg, who led the team, said: "MRI is an indirect way to measure brain structure and so we cannot be sure exactly what is changing when these people learn.

"Future work should test whether these results reflect changes in the shape or number of nerve fibres, or growth of the insulating myelin sheath surrounding the fibres.

"Of course, this doesn't mean that everyone should go out and start juggling to improve their brains.

"We chose juggling purely as a complex new skill for people to learn."

Clinical Applications

Dr Johansen-Berg said there were clinical applications for this work but there were a long way off.

She said: "Knowing that pathways in the brain can be enhanced may be significant in the long run in coming up with new treatments for neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, where these pathways become degraded."

Professor Cathy Price, of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, said: "It's extremely exciting to see evidence that training changes human white matter connections.

"This complements other work showing grey matter changes with training and motivates further work to understand the cellular mechanisms underlying these effects."

Warning on liquorice in pregnancy

2009-11-08T06:39:00.000+07:00

BBC News

Pregnant women who eat large amounts of liquorice could negatively affect their child's intelligence and behaviour, according to research.

Eating 100g of pure liquorice a week could affect a child's development

Experts from Edinburgh and Helsinki universities studied eight-year-olds born in Finland, where consumption of liquorice among young women is common.

The children of women who ate a lot of liquorice when pregnant did not perform as well as other youngsters in tests.

Researchers said a component in liquorice may impair the placenta.

They said the component - glycyrrhizin - may allow stress hormones to cross from the mother to the baby.

High levels of such hormones, known as glucocorticoids, are thought to affect foetal brain development and have been linked to behavioural disorders in children in previous studies.

Of the children who took part in the Finnish study, 64 were exposed to high levels of glycyrrhizin in liquorice, 46 to moderate levels and 211 to low levels.

They were tested on a range of cognitive functions including vocabulary, memory and spatial awareness.

Behaviour was assessed using an in-depth questionnaire completed by the mother.

Shorter pregnancies

The results suggested that women who ate more than 500mg of glycyrrhizin per week - found in the equivalent of 100g of pure liquorice - were more likely to have children with lower intelligence levels and more behavioural problems.

The eight-year-olds were more likely to have poor attention spans and show disruptive behaviour such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the researchers said.

Professor Jonathan Seckl, from Edinburgh University's centre for cardiovascular science, said: "This shows that eating liquorice during pregnancy may affect a child's behaviour or IQ and suggests the importance of the placenta in preventing stress hormones that may affect cognitive development getting through to the baby."

The research comes after a study which suggested that liquorice consumption was also linked to shorter pregnancies.

The results of the study are published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Experts map the body's bacteria

2009-11-06T11:07:00.001+07:00

BBC News

Scientists have developed an atlas of the bacteria that live in different regions of the human body.

The armpit showed less variation in bacteria than many areas

Some of the microbes help keep us healthy by playing a key role in physiological functions.

The University of Colorado at Boulder team found unexpectedly wide variations in bacterial communities from person to person.

The researchers hope their work, published in Science Express, will eventually aid clinical research.

They say that it might one day be possible to identify sites on the human body where transplants of specific microbes could benefit health.

The study was based on an intensive analysis of the bacteria found at 27 separate sites on the bodies of nine healthy volunteers.

Not only did the bacterial communities vary from person to person, they also varied considerably from one site on the body to another, and from test to test - but some patterns did emerge.

What is healthy?

Lead researcher Dr Rob Knight said: "This is the most complete view we have yet of the microbial side of ourselves, one that our group and others will be adding to over the coming years.

"The goal is to find out what is normal for a healthy person, which will provide a baseline for further studies to look at people with diseased states."

There are an estimated 100 trillion microbes living on or inside the human body.

They are thought to play a key role in many physiological functions, including the development of the immune system, digestion of key foods and helping to deter potentially disease-causing pathogens.

The researchers took four samples from each volunteer over a three-month period - usually one to two hours after they had showered.

They used the latest gene sequencing and computer techniques to draw up a profile of the microbes found at each specific site.

Most sites showed big variations in the bacteria they harboured from test to test even within the same individual.

However, there was less variation in the bacteria found in the armpits and soles of the feet - possibly because they provide a dark, moist environment.

The least variation of all was found in the mouth cavity.

Skin sites in the head area, including the forehead, nose, ear and hair, were dominated by one specific type of bacteria.

Sites on the trunk and legs were dominated by a different group.

Researcher Dr Noah Fierer said: "We have an immense number of questions to answer.

"Why do healthy people have such different microbial communities?

"Do we each have distinct microbial signatures at birth, or do they evolve as we age? And how much do they matter?"

Transplant test

The researchers disinfected the forearms and foreheads of some volunteers, and "inoculated" both sides with bacterial communities from the tongue.

The tongue bacteria lasted longer on the forearms than foreheads.

Dr Elizabeth Costello, who also worked on the study, said: "It may be that drier areas of the skin like forearms make generally more hospitable landing pads for bacteria."

A previous study by the same examined the bacteria on 102 human hands.

In total, they identified more than 4,200 species of bacteria, but only about five were shared by all 51 participants.

Dr Knight said understanding the variation in human microbial communities held promise for future clinical research.

"If we can better understand this variation, we may be able to begin searching for genetic biomarkers for disease," he said.

"Because our human genomes vary so little but our repertoire of microbial genes vary so much, it makes sense to look for variations that correlate with disease at specific locations."

Smoking mums have 'problem kids'

2009-11-05T08:43:00.001+07:00

BBC News

Smoking during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of having a child with behavioural problems, according to UK and US researchers.

Smoke toxins can pass to the foetus

Writing in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, they say the problems can be evident in children as young as three years old.

They believe smoking in pregnancy may damage the developing structure of the baby's brain.

One expert said it was another strong reason for mothers to give up smoking.

The researchers from the universities of York, Hull and Illinois looked at more than 14,000 mother and child pairs who were taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study.

This covers UK children born between 2000 and 2001.

The mothers were categorised as light or heavy smokers depending on how many cigarettes they smoked every day during pregnancy.

They were asked to score their three-year-old children's behaviour using a questionnaire called Strengths and Difficulties, which focuses on behaviour problems and hyperactivity, or attention deficit disorders.

Findings

They took into account factors likely to influence the results, including the mother's age at the child's birth, her level of education and socioeconomic status, family stability and problematic parenting.

Mothers who were light smokers were 44% more likely to have boys who had problems with their conduct.

Heavy smokers were 80% more likely to have boys with these problems.

Both heavy and light smokers were also significantly more likely to have boys who were hyperactive or had attention deficit disorders.

For three-year-old girls, light and heavy smoking in pregnancy were significantly associated with conduct problems but not with hyperactivity and attention deficit behaviours.

Foetal development

Professor Kate Pickett, who lead the research, said their findings were consistent with previous research in older age groups.

She said: "Smoking in pregnancy may have direct effects on the foetal development of brain structure and functioning which has been shown in studies of rats.

"Or it may be a marker for the transmission of processes between the generations that are associated with both smoking in pregnancy and behaviour problems in children."

Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: "This is another reason why mothers should make every effort to give up smoking - ideally before they get pregnant.

"There are four thousand toxic substances in cigarette smoke and many of these will pass into the brain of the foetus and it is possible that they could have an effect on how the brain chemistry works."

Pharmaceutical Grade Vitamins and Supplements

Lung cancer care 'inadequate'

2009-11-02T08:26:00.001+07:00

BBC News
Key areas of lung cancer care are still "woefully inadequate", a report by leading lung cancer experts says.

Lung cancer is a major killer

The UK Lung Cancer Care Coalition, an umbrella group composed of doctors, charities and private health firms, says UK care lags behind Europe.

It says too few patients are receiving treatment, such as chemotherapy or surgery, because of staff shortages.

The government says it already recognises that more needs to be done to improve lung cancer services.

Lung cancer kills about 34,000 people a year - more than breast, prostate, bladder and leukaemia versions of the disease combined.

Despite being labelled a "smoker's disease", one in eight people with lung cancer have never smoked.

The coalition draws on data from this year's official national audit as well as feedback from leading doctors.

The report says in some parts of the UK, as few as 10% of patients are receiving any form of treatment and nationally the figure is only 51%.

The coalition is calling for a target of 70% - recognising that for some patients further treatment is not advisable because the cancer has already spread too far.

It estimates this would save an extra 3,000 lives a year.

One of the major problems is a lack of access to surgeons - there are only 44 full-time positions for more than 240 separate teams.

The shortfall means that some patients who would be eligible for treatment are being turned down, the report adds. Read more...

Give children 'healthy Halloween'

2009-10-31T16:02:00.000+07:00

BBC News

Parents should shun chocolate bars and sweets this Halloween and instead give their children spooky-themed healthy food, a charity says.

Halloween could be used to encourage children to try new foods, experts say

The World Cancer Research Fund has come up with a series of Halloween recipes to give families ideas.

These include toast shaped like ghosts, eyeball eggs and carrots made to look like Frankenstein's fingers.

The charity said steps such as these would encourage children to try new types of foods.

Marni Craze, the World Cancer Research Fund's children's education manager, said: "Many party foods on sale at this time of year can be high in sugar and fat but it is possible to have healthier alternatives without losing any of the fun.

"Making healthy Halloween-themed snacks is also a great way to encourage children to eat healthier foods they may otherwise be reluctant to try.

"For example, a child might not choose to eat raw carrots but might be keener when they are presented as Frankenstein's fingers."

The charity has compiled a list of fun recipes on its children's website www.greatgrubclub.com

'Aura' migraines a stroke risk

2009-10-29T23:51:00.001+07:00

BBC News

Young women who have migraines with auras are twice as likely to have a stroke, researchers have confirmed.

Women concerned should make changes that can reduce their risks

Auras are notable sensory or visual disturbances that occur before the onset of a migraine headache.

Based on available evidence, the risk is greater if the woman is under 45, smokes and is on the contraceptive pill, say international experts.

But a migraine charity said most sufferers did not have auras and the absolute risk of a stroke was small.

Migraines affect between 10-20% of people and are four times as common in women compared to men.

The researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal online, say they looked at nine of the most recent studies on the links between migraine and cardiovascular problems.

A previous large study in 2004 did find migraine sufferers had twice the risk of a stroke but the newer studies show that the risk is confined to people who suffer migraines with auras.

The investigators from the US, France and Germany did not find any link between migraines and heart attacks or death due to cardiovascular disease but there was a 30% increase in the risk of angina (heart pain). Read more..

Call to act on maternal mortality

2009-10-28T21:51:00.000+07:00

BBC News

Health ministers from around the world have agreed that swift action must be taken to reduce the number of women dying during pregnancy and childbirth.

Hundreds of thousands of women die each year during pregnancy and childbirth

At the UN Population Fund meeting in Addis Ababa the ministers said the number of women dying in this way was actually increasing in some nations.

The ministers seemed to agree that family planning was the most cost-effective way of tacking the problem.

However, no unanimous declaration was adopted at the Addis Ababa talks.

Brain drain

The ministers said the world must act swiftly to stand any chance of reaching the UN's development goal of reducing global maternal mortality rates.

The ministers also recognised that more investment was needed in primary and emergency healthcare to save the lives of both mothers and babies in 15% of birth when complications arise, the BBC's Pascale Harter in Addis Ababa says.

But many governments - like that of the host company Ethiopia - have already invested heavily in training midwives only to have them work abroad. There are said to be more Ethiopian midwives working in Chicago now than in Addis Ababa, our correspondent says.Read more...

German doctor tried for 13 deaths

2009-10-26T07:43:00.001+07:00

BBC News

A German doctor has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of 13 cancer patients who died from suspected overdoses of pain-killing drugs.

Bach says her actions did not shorten the lives of her patients

A tearful Mechthild Bach, 59, said her actions to lessen her patients' pain had not shortened their lives.

She said all the patients had been close to death, and that she had been helping them to live in dignity.

It is the second time she has stood trial; a first trial collapsed in 2008 when one of the judges fell ill.

Dr Bach has suggested the charges might have arisen because of mistakes in her paperwork, as she did not document certain consultations with the patients in question.

Morphine appropriate?

Prosecutors say Dr Bach, 59, on trial in Hanover, killed the patients between 2001 and 2003 with overdoses of morphine or the sedative diazepam.

Morphine treatment was not appropriate for most of the patients, said Regina Dietzel-Gropp, for the prosecution, adding that the doses were too high in the other cases.

She said the patients, aged between 52 and 96, were not all terminally ill.Read more...

Eye gene therapy boost for young

2009-10-25T12:28:00.000+07:00

BBC News

Gene therapy can be particularly effective in treating inherited sight problems in children, fresh trials show.

The therapy produced highly promising results in an eight-year-old

US doctors treating 12 patients with a rare genetic eye disorder were able to significantly improve vision in the youngest.

The study, published in The Lancet, builds on work carried out by doctors at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital.

The eye is proving to be a particularly successful target for gene therapy.

The principle is simple: to replace a defective gene and restore function to a part of the body affected by a genetic disorder.

Striking early

Treatment so far has focused on Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA), a rare inherited disorder which causes gradual deterioration in vision and can lead to blindness by the time the patient is 20.

It occurs when faulty genes, called RPE65, stop the layer of cells at the back of the eye working.

LCA affects approximately one in 80,000 people, and is responsible for one in 10 severe sight disorders in children. Read more...

US medical cannabis policy eased

2009-10-24T07:09:00.001+07:00

BBC News

Federal prosecutors in the US have been ordered to stop cannabis-related prosecutions in the 13 states where medical use of the drug is legal.

Advocates of medical cannabis say it is effective in treating pain and nausea

Attorney General Eric Holder said it was wrong for federal resources to be spent on prosecuting people who were in compliance with existing state laws.

But he warned that the authorities would continue to go after traffickers hiding behind medical marijuana laws.

The policy is considered a sharp shift from that of the Bush administration.

California became the first state to permit medical use of cannabis in 1996. It allows special facilities to sell the drug and even to advertise.

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could continue to enforce US law barring the cultivation, possession and use of cannabis for any purpose, even when states had legalised it.

'Step forward'

But in a policy memo issued by the Department of Justice on Monday, prosecutors were told they "should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana". Read more...

Cancer Society Catches Heat for Breast, Prostate Cancer Screening Criticism

2009-10-22T20:31:00.001+07:00

Top ACS Official's Statements on Some Cancer Tests Has Docs Locked in Debate

By PEGGY PECK
MedPage Today Executive Editor
Abc News

A firestorm of controversy erupted today when a top official with the American Cancer Society let slip that the benefits of breast cancer and prostate cancer screening may have been oversold.

The epicenter of the controversy is statement by Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the ACS. Brawley made the statement in an interview with the New York Times about a Journal of the American Medical Association analysis of breast and prostate cancer screening, which raised questions about claims that screening saves lives.

Brawley said the questions raised in the journal article were legitimate, and he said the ACS was in the process of reworking its message on breast and prostate cancer screening. According to the Times report, he said the benefits of screening had been "exaggerated."

When ABC News contacted the ACS for an interview with Brawley, it was told that he was attending a family funeral and was not available for comment.

The ACS did, however, release a prepared statement under Brawley's name:Read more...

Diet Experts Issue New Guidelines for School Lunches

2009-10-21T21:34:00.001+07:00

TV Chef Jamie Oliver Says New Equipment Necessary to Change School Lunch

By JOSEPH BROWNSTEIN
ABC News Medical Unit

Unchanged since 1995, the standards for school lunches have perhaps grown stale enough to lend themselves to jokes about cafeteria food.

But researchers hope to change all that with a new set of guidelines to promote healthier eating habits in American children and stem the rising levels of obesity. Today, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) -- part of the National Academy of Sciences -- released new guidelines in an attempt to change what schools serve for breakfast and lunch.

"What you really will see is the change in nutrient needs," said Mary Jo Tuckwell, a consultant for the food services group inTeam Associates in Ashland, Wis., and a member of the committee that wrote the guidelines. "Instead of targeting nutrients, we're really focusing on foods."

Several guidelines, as doctors have recommended for years, suggest adding more fruits, vegetables and whole grains to the menu.

But perhaps one of the biggest changes -- and one that is supported by both child nutritionists and a celebrity chef -- is an emphasis on adding new equipment and infrastructure to school kitchens to speed the changes along.

British TV chef Jamie Oliver told ABC News through a representative that the largest change schools could make to improve menus was to "teach nutrition services staff how to cook freshly prepared meals." Oliver said this would require training, better ways of storing fresh food, and in many cases adding equipment and facilities.Read more...

Ethnic liver cells help drug race

2009-10-20T22:29:00.001+07:00

BBC News

Scientists have produced liver cells specific to different ethnic groups which could revolutionise the development of drugs to treat diseases.

The liver cells have been derived from adult skin cells

The Edinburgh University-led study paves the way for a liver cells library to help work-out the reaction of drugs for different ethnicities.

Experts say the findings are important because in each ethnic group the liver processes drugs in different ways.

Some groups are more prone to adverse reactions than others.

The researchers have developed a way to create liver cells from adult skin taken from Caucasians and Native Americans. The liver cells were created by manipulating the skin cells to resemble embryonic stem cells, which can change into different cells within the body. Read more...

Processed Meat: Packing Your Children's School Lunches

2009-10-19T08:01:00.001+07:00

Dr. Marie Savard Looks at Healthier Options for Your Kids' Lunches

By KATE MCCARTHY
Abc News

As the school year approaches and parents begin to think about packing their children's lunches, the World Cancer Research Fund is recommending that parents avoid using processed meats because of possible cancer concerns.

Parents often serve their kids processed meats because they are convenient and cheap, and children enjoy them. Dr. Marie Savard, ABC News medical contributor, said that the concern about these meats stems from possible carcinogens, such as nitrites.

Savard cited several studies that have linked eating large amounts of red meat and processed meats to an increased risk of colorectal, prostate and stomach cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.

And those studies, Savard told "Good Morning America" today, were only in adults.

"Why would we risk our children?" she said. "I think we give our kids more processed meats because it's easy."

The American Cancer Society recommends limiting consumption of processed meats. Studies of this issue have found increased risk of colorectal cancer in women who eat more than one ounce, or one slice, of processed meat more than two to three times per week, and men who eat more than one ounce five to six days per week.Read more...

Warning over fibroids treatment

2009-10-18T16:12:00.001+07:00

BBC News

UK doctors say a treatment for heavy periods caused by fibroids can seriously harm a subsequent pregnancy.

By the age of 40 as many as 40% of women will have fibroids but not all of them suffer problems as a result

An Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital study looked at the outcomes of 215 pregnancies following uterine artery embolisation (UAE) treatment.

The researchers found much higher rates of miscarriage, caesareans and heavy bleeding after delivery, and call for caution in recommending the treatment.

The study appears in the journal, The Obstetrician and Gynaecologist.

UAE has been available as a treatment in the UK since 1995.

Pregnancy problems

The doctors pulled together the data from five small studies carried out in the UK, Czech Republic and Canada.

Fibroids are small, benign lumps of smooth muscle in the womb.

Sometimes, because of their number, size and location, they cause heavy period pain or difficulty in getting pregnant and treatment is needed.

Doctors at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital say as many as 40% of women of reproductive age have fibroids. Read more...

Stent Aims to Help Stop Erectile Dysfunction

2009-10-16T09:14:00.002+07:00

Will Implanted Device Work Where Pills Failed?

By JOSEPH BROWNSTEIN
Abc News

People may be used to getting spam e-mails offering discounts on Cialis, Levitra or Viagra, but if a new clinical trial is successful, men with erectile dysfunction may someday be flooded with e-mails for another option: a stent.

Medtronic has begun testing a new pelvic stent it hopes will be able to treat erectile dysfunction.

(Courtesy Medtronic)

Medtronic has begun testing on a new pelvic stent for men who have not been helped by drugs. Investigators will begin with 50 patients at 10 different medical centers.

"This is a common problem. Men many times do not have satisfactory results from first-line medical therapies," said Dr. Krishna Rocha-Singh, director of the Prairie Vascular Institute in Springfield, Ill., who installed the first of the stents in a patient last week.

Singh said erectile dysfunction can also be a sign of larger problems, with potential blockages of major blood vessels.

"Erectile dysfunction could be a symptom of a vascular source," he said, noting that it could be an early sign of what could lead to heart attacks or strokes. "The patients we're treating in our practice [with erectile dysfunction] had the same problem elsewhere in other parts of the body."

By opening up blood flow, Singh explained, stenting might solve some of those problems. However, he pointed out, it remains to be seen which patients would be helped by the stent, a question he hopes the clinical trial will answer. Read more...

Physical problems 'often mental'

2009-10-14T21:23:00.001+07:00

By Michelle Roberts
Health reporter, BBC News

The true burden of mental ill health is unrecognised since many "physical" problems, like cancer and obesity, are really "mind" problems, say experts.

Anxiety can manifest as physical problems

Most lung cancers are caused by addiction to smoking, and some obesity by a brain-driven compulsion to eat, says UK psychiatrist Dr Peter Jones.

And to tackle such problems experts need to go back to delving the mind.

He and other leading mental health experts are calling for a trebling of funding to £200m a year for research.

The Research Mental Health initiative, along with public figures including Alistair Campbell, Jo Brand and Stephen Fry, are taking their declaration to Downing Street.

Mental illness in its "classic" sense, including depression and schizophrenia, affects one in four people in the UK each year but receives just 5% of total health research spending.

Currently, around £74 million a year is spent on researching mental illness.

Yet the economic, social and human cost of mental illness totals £100 billion a year in the UK alone.

And many "physical" health problems involve a strong mental component, they say. Read more...

Instructions for Body Cleanse Starter Kit

Children can 'imagine away' pain

2009-10-12T23:41:00.002+07:00

BBC News

Children can be taught to use their imagination to tackle frequent bouts of stomach pain, research shows.

Abdominal pain is common in children

A relaxation-type CD, asking children to imagine themselves in scenarios like floating on a cloud led to dramatic improvements in abdominal pain.

The US researchers said the technique worked particularly well in children as they have such fertile imaginations.

It has been estimated that frequent stomach pain with no identifiable cause affects up to one in five children.

The research, published in the journal Pediatrics, follows on from studies showing hypnosis is an effective treatment for a range of conditions known as functional abdominal pain, which includes things like irritable bowel syndrome. Read more...

No place like home for treatment

2009-10-11T21:44:00.002+07:00

By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Like most patients, William Hutcheson does not like being in hospital.

William was able to fit his life round treatment

But after a fall he was left a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair, which makes him more susceptible to bouts of infected pressure sores.

To treat such a problem, most patients would face long stints in hospital so they can get intravenous antibiotics.

But the 62-year-old has received the therapy at home thanks to an innovative project run by St Mary's Hospital in London.

District nurses visited William daily at home to help him with the treatment and then once a week he had a hospital check-up.

William, from London, said being in his own home has been hugely beneficial.

"Being at home your appetite is better. You have peace of mind and you feel happier," he said.

"It is a lot easier. You can still arrange your life and make arrangements with the district nurses so that if you wanted to go out you could."

His partner Pat agreed, saying the service had been fantastic. Read more...

Cards 'can support mentally-ill'

2009-10-09T10:55:00.001+07:00

Patients rarely receive cards or flowers when they stay in a mental health unit

People should consider sending cards and gifts to friends and family suffering with mental health problems, experts say.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists said cards and gifts were a simple way to support people with mental illness.

The college even said it may aid their recovery.

It made the plea after carrying out a poll of 131 mental health patients, which showed over half did not receive any gifts or cards when they were ill.

This compared to just a third who did not get presents the last time they were physically ill.

Recovery

More than eight out of 10 of the people surveyed said receiving a 'get well soon' card would help their recovery

The college is launching two of its own gift cards with the greeting: "Thinking of you at this time. Hope things improve soon."

A spokesman said existing greeting cards often had inappropriate images and words that were not suitable for a mental health problem. Read more...

Two-thirds of chicken 'has bug'

2009-10-07T07:57:00.002+07:00

BBC News

Two-thirds of chicken on sale in the UK is contaminated with a bacterium which can cause severe food poisoning, research shows.

Cooking the meat properly kills the bug

Campylobacter, which can cause diarrhoea, cramping and abdominal pain, causes 55,000 cases of food poisoning a year in the UK.

However, cooking the meat properly kills the bug.

The Food Standards Agency, which carried out the research, said the poultry industry should take action.

It said levels of campylobacter in chicken were the same as when a similar survey was last carried out in 2001.

However, the latest survey did find that levels of another common cause of food poisoning - salmonella - had fallen, with just 6% of samples showing traces of the bacterium.

Illness caused by campylobacter infection usually clears up after a week.

But there is evidence to suggest that it can trigger a life-threatening bloodstream infection in people with a weakened immune system.

Andrew Wadge, FSA director of food safety, said the poultry industry should take action to try to reduce levels of campylobacter infection.

There is no effective way to prevent campylobacter spreading between flocks. Read more...

Hidden 'hypo' diabetes warning

2009-10-05T15:46:00.002+07:00

BBC News

People with diabetes are suffering needlessly from regular low blood sugar attacks, a survey suggests.

Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes

Among 2,000 people with type 2 diabetes, half had experienced symptoms of a hypoglycaemic episode in the past two weeks, the study found.

GPs said increasing pressure to tightly control patients' blood sugar was partly to blame for the problem.

Diabetes UK, which commissioned the survey, said it suggested many patients may not be on the right medication.

The number of people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK has increased by more than 145,000 in the last year, bringing the total figure to 2.6 million, the latest figures show.

A key part of treatment is to make sure blood sugar levels do not get too high, because this can lead to severe complications in the long term.

But on the other hand, very low blood sugar is also dangerous.

One type of commonly used drug in type 2 diabetes - sulphonylureas - can lead to hypoglycaemia, experts said.

The latest survey focused on mild or moderate attacks, which often come with warning signs such as feeling shaky, sweating, tingling in the lips, going pale, heart pounding, confusion and irritability.

More than half of those questioned said mild to moderate "hypos" affected their quality of life and one in 10 reported having to take at least one day off work in the last year as a result of a mild to moderate attack. Read more...

Son's injury led to intelligent crutch

2009-10-03T17:02:00.001+07:00

By Jane Elliott
Health reporter,BBC News

When Professor Neil White's son, Simon, injured his leg playing football, doctors told him he needed an operation and crutches.

Simon injured his cruciate ligament

But during Simon's treatment for cruciate knee ligament damage, Prof White learned that many people given crutches are unable to use them properly and could even be doing themselves more damage.

So the Southampton University-based engineer set to work to design a more user-friendly crutch.

Prof White said: "Depending on the nature of the injury they are sometimes given crutches to prevent weight being applied to the leg and other times they are encouraged to put modest amounts of weight onto the leg in order to start the healing process.

"The real problems start once the patient gets home.

"For instance if they are told to put 20% of their body weight on the crutch, but they have no-one to guide them about it, they can end up either putting no weight on the crutch or too much.

"We wanted to find a simple way of indicating to a patient how much weight they are actually putting on a crutch." Read more...