Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Another 15 Minutes...Health News from Fade



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National News

British scientists are to launch the world's first clinical trials of a controversial gene therapy to cure childhood blindness. Researchers will test the treatment on volunteers with a rare inherited form of blindness, in which a single defective gene causes the retina to degenerate and eventually stop working as the child grows up.


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Doctors seek to cure blind patients by injecting eye with genes - The Times 2nd May 2007


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Doctors test gene transplant to restore sight - The Telegraph 2nd May 2007


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A sector lacking confidence, timid in its vision and ambition, poorly understood by the public, and widely considered to provide low-quality and unsafe services. This blunt verdict on adult social care has been delivered to ministers by Dame Denise Platt, chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, who was asked to review the status of the sector and consider how it might be raised. Her recipe: a liberal injection of "imagination, excitement and enthusiasm".


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Locking away people who have committed no crime and can derive no benefit from treatment will make nobody safer.


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Britain stands out for its litter, and its streets are notably foul. But that's nothing new - the country has long been a pigsty


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Further to the letters on rights and responsibilities in mental-health care (May 1), this is a complex area and there is considerable diversity of opinion. The Royal College of Psychiatrists fully supports a multi-professional approach. The particular amendment to the mental-health bill discussed yesterday relates solely to who is qualified to make the medical recommendation which is required before a patient can have their liberty removed on the grounds of mental disorder. European case law has determined that this task can only be undertaken by a registered medical practitioner. Psychiatrists are the only mental-health professionals so qualified.


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You are behind a pioneering social enterprise company that will bring health services to Wandsworth prison. Why? I have studied prison health since the 1990s and observed the whole paradox of poor healthcare inside prison and better care outside in the NHS. Everything hurts more in prison, so good healthcare is vital.


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Changing Faces has had some notable victories in supporting people with facial disfigurements. But its founder says today's obsession with looks makes its work more important than ever. By Alison Benjamin


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Patricia Hewitt came to the Commons yesterday to tell us why the computer system for junior doctors went berserk last week. She failed. Sadly, I believe that at some point the Health Secretary herself also began to malfunction. She was wearing a giant fabric peach-coloured flower on her lapel. Apparently, I am told that in mid-statement it began to beep. This was supposed to send a signal to an emergency call-out engineer


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Left-handed women are at a higher risk of dying, particularly from cancer and circulatory diseases, a study has suggested. Numerous reports have associated left-handedness with various disorders and, in general, a shorter life span, according to a report by Dutch researchers in the journal Epidemiology.


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Patricia Hewitt agreeing that it is acceptable for NHS trusts to refuse surgery to the obese and smokers (report, April 30) sounds like a stealth form of punishment for those whose willpower is not strong enough to resist the temptations to overeat or smoke.


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The cost of watching TV in hospital has shot up by more than 70 per cent for pensioners. The firm that provides bedside TVs and phones has scrapped the special rate of £1.70 a day for the over-65s. They must now pay the full £2.90 -a rise of £1.20.


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For anyone who struggles to get a good night's rest, it could be a dream come true. Scientists have invented a technique which they say could help trigger deep sleep in the most chronic insomniac.


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Every Tuesday, Britain's leading nutritionist, Jane Clarke, explains how to eat your way to health. This week she discusses how to treat low sodium levels and the benefits of cider vinegar: I have been diagnosed with hyponatremia, a lack of sodium. It seems so odd when everyone else is being told they have too much salt in their diet. What do you suggest?


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Around 8,000 patients a year have surgery for 'watery' eye, a condition where the eyes stream because of a blockage in the tear drainage system. A new procedure means patients may no longer be left with a facial scar. Here, Helen Jackson, 43, a trainee teacher who lives with her husband Billy, 48, and their two children in Bury, Lancashire, tells ANGELA BROOKS about her experience, while her surgeon explains the procedure


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Alan Parsons is the man behind best-selling Seventies rock concept band The Alan Parsons Project which released ten albums, selling around 45 million copies. After spending most of his life in the UK, in 2000 he moved to Santa Barbara, California with his second wife Lisa and her two teenage daughters Tabitha and Brittni. Alan, 58, also has two grown-up sons, Jeremy and Daniel from his first marriage.


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One of the UK's five homeopathic hospitals, The Royal London, is under threat of closure because of funding cuts. Professor Michael Baum, professor emeritus of surgery at University College London, explains why he won't miss it: Many people swear by homeopathy. It is a popular dinner party topic of the Hampstead set, of which I am a member. My friends - otherwise educated, cultured people - say it can help them recover from a cold in just seven days. Yes, I reply, and left alone it would take a whole week.


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MPs are to debate growing concerns over failings in NHS maternity services. It comes ahead of a BBC Panorama programme which shows the pressure hospitals are under and claims wards are buckling under a midwife shortage.


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Women who have their first child by caesarean are more likely to have placenta-related problems in their second pregnancy, research suggests.


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Breastfeeding newborn babies lying down may boost the chances of success, UK research suggests. A study of 40 mothers breastfeeding in different positions found that babies' natural reflexes kicked in more easily when the mothers were lying down.


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Deaths from severe heart attacks after hospital admission have nearly halved in six years, a study shows. The international team, which studied 44,372 patients in 14 countries, found that death rates fell from 8.4% to 4.5% between 1999 and 2006.


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Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt should lose her job after security concerns were raised about a junior doctor job application website, the Tories say. The Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) site was suspended last week after two separate lapses.


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Healthy older people who take regular aspirin to prevent stroke may actually be increasing their risk. In the past 25 years the number of strokes associated with blood-thinning drugs such as aspirin or warfarin has risen seven-fold, a UK study found.


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An estimated 600,000 people in England are poised to quit smoking when the smoking ban comes into force in July. Follow our panel of readers as they attempt to kick the habit.


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Three-quarters of emergency admissions for asthma in England could have been avoided, a report argues. The charity Asthma UK said better guidance to help patients manage their conditions could save the NHS in England £43.7 million a year.


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War veteran is denied sight drug - BBC Health News 1st May 2007


A war veteran who cares for his disabled wife has been refused drugs which could stop him from going blind. Dennis Devier, 84, from Henley, is already blind in one eye but needs a course of the treatment Lucentis to stop him losing his sight completely.

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International News

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A pregnant 17-year-old in state care in Ireland began a court battle yesterday to be allowed to travel to England for an abortion, as the country's failure to resolve the ambiguities in its abortion laws threatened to erupt into a constitutional crisis.


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Brain scans of Gulf war veterans have revealed neurological differences that may be caused by exposure to toxic chemicals such as nerve agents and pesticides used during the conflict. The study of veterans from the first Gulf war, which began after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, found that two regions of the brain involved in memory and thinking were smaller among those apparently most affected by Gulf war syndrome illnesses. The same personnel also fared worse in simple tests of cognitive ability.


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The standard of health of Aborigines lags almost 100 years behind that of other Australians, with some indigenous people still suffering from leprosy, rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis, according to a report written for the World Health Organisation. Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who make up about 2.5% of Australia's population, live on average 17 years less than their fellow citizens. The average age of death for Aboriginal men in parts of New South Wales is 33, the report said.


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The pace of life in cities is getting faster, a study shows. Psychologists have measured the speed at which people walk and found a 10 per cent increase in the past decade. Ten years ago, a US psychologist, Robert Levine, showed that walking speed provides a reliable measure of the pace of life in a city. Since then, that pace has speeded up, the study - from 32 countries - reveals.


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Eating soup with a meal could be the answer to the obesity crisis, according to scientists in the US. People who fill their stomachs with soup at the start of a meal eat less overall, research shows, and rather than piling on the pounds, the addition of the extra course can actually help people lose weight.


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Obese British teenagers will have to spear wallabies, trap lizards and skin snakes when they go hunting with Aborigines in a new BBC reality television show. Drawing on 40,000 years of knowledge, Aborigines will teach 10 overweight young Britons how to survive on bush tucker in the series Fat Teens Can't Hunt.


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A slice of cherry pie a day may help stave off heart disease, research has found. The fruit also lowers cholesterol levels and may reduce the risk of diabetes. The darker the cherry the better, as the health effect comes from the pigment responsible for their red colour.


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A daily spray that eases the symptoms of hay fever and tackles the painful problem of red and itchy eyes could be on sale later this year. The good news is that the steroid can provide rapid relief from the allergy that blights the lives of one in four Britons each summer.


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Drinking 'fuels growth of tumour' - BBC Health News 1st May 2007


Drinking just two alcoholic drinks a day when you have breast cancer fuels the growth of tumours, a study says. It has long-been known alcohol increases the risk of developing cancer but the effect of drinking once cancer is present is less established.

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Cheshire and Merseyside News

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A DOCTOR has denied possessing a CS gas canister and drugs. Fabrizio Equizi, 41, a GP at Claremont medical centre in Maghull, was before Liverpool crown court yesterday.


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Vital health meeting tonight - Warrington Guardian 1st May 2007


HUNDREDS of protestors are expected at the Parr Hall tonight, Tuesday for a crunch health meeting. The evening is the biggest of the consultation events to take place to discuss plans to change how the health service runs in Warrington. Health bosses want large supermarkets to replace traditional GP surgeries.

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Cumbria and Lancashire News

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Health bosses go ‘on the road’ - Lancashire Telegraph 1st May 2007


NHS bosses from across the North West will descend on Nelson tomorrow. Board members from NHS North West, the regional strategic health authority, will meet at East Lancashire Primary Care Trust's headquarters at Kenyon Road, on the Lomeshaye Estate.

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Greater Manchester News

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SOME of Manchester's poorest children may not be seeing a dentist often enough because of confusion about a new appointments system. Under new guidelines, youngsters with the worst teeth and poor diets are now entitled to check-ups four times a year.


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NEARLY 5,000 people have quit smoking while being treated at the Royal Bolton Hospital in a bid to cut lung cancer rates in the area. A specialist stop smoking service has been helping smokers for more than three years - encouraging both in and outpatients to give up.


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BOLTON has some of the lowest rates of hospital admission because of asthma in the North-west. The number of people living in the borough who are admitted to hospital because of attacks or other problems is just three per cent above the national standardised average.


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THERE is still a lot of work to do, but the results of the efforts of Bolton's specialist stop smoking team are encouraging. Almost 5,000 people have kicked the habit while being treated at the Royal Bolton Hospital over the past three years.


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Search must go on for cure to genetic diseases - The Bolton News 1st May 2007


TRAGIC Tommy D'Attore was only in this world for just three months before he died but he brought his parents and brother and sister boundless love. The tiny baby suffered from a rare genetic disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) for which there is no cure.

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