All GPs to have dementia training

PA, The Independent,
Monday, 22 December 2008
Every GP will be trained to spot the first signs of dementia under plans to provide sufferers with a better quality of life, the Government said today.
“Memory clinics” will also be set up in every town as places where patients can get treatment and support to live their lives [...]

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Diabetics’ use of aspirin questioned

By: PA, The Independent
Friday, 3 October 2008
Diabetes sufferers should not routinely take aspirin to prevent heart attacks, research today suggested.
It had been argued that routine use of the drug could help prevent the risk of suffering a heart attack.
But new research conducted by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) found that [...]

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Red Bull: it promises energy, but doesn’t mention sticky blood…

By: The Independent
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Australian researchers have found that the sugar-free version of Red Bull,launched in 2003, may increase the danger of blood clots, and creates “sticky” blood, raising the risk of heart attack or stroke.
How this affects the sales of Red Bull – last year 3.5 billion cans [...]

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Cardiovascular evaluation, including resting and exercise ECG, before participation in competitive sports

By: Francesco Sofi, clinical researcher, Andrea Capalbo, specialist in sports medicine et al, University of Florence, Italy.
BMJ, 3 July 2008
Participants: 30 065 (23 570 men) people seeking to obtain clinical eligibility for competitive sports.
Exercise ECG showed cardiac anomalies in 1227 athletes with normal findings on resting ECG. At the end of screening, 196 (0.6%) participants [...]

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Things you can do to reduce the risk of dementia

Seven ways to a healthy brain
People are living longer so Alzheimer’s disease is becoming more common. But there are things you can do to reduce the risk of dementia;
By: Amy Fenton, The Independent
Tuesday, 27 May 2008.
It is estimated that, by 2025, more than a million people in Britain will suffer from Alzheimer’s. [...]

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‘Dead’ patient comes around as organs are about to be removed

By John Lichfield in Paris, The Independent
Thursday, 12 June 2008
France may have to reconsider its medical definition of death after a heart-attack victim came alive in the operating theatre as doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant.
The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, recovered after a long period in intensive [...]

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Cigarettes: the last gasp

The last gasp: Health Secretary signals new smoking curbs
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent, The Independent.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Cigarettes will be banned from public display in shops and vending machines are to be scrapped under dramatic new plans designed to curb smoking among young people.
Packets of 10 cigarettes will also be outlawed under proposals to be [...]

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Predictor of long term survival in stroke patients

Karsten Bruins Slot and colleagues – BMJ 29 January 2008
What this study adds:

Functional status of patients six months after onset of an ischaemic stroke has a significant and substantial effect on their long term survival

Less than half those alive with severe disability at six months will survive five years; a survival statistic comparable with that [...]

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LEG ULCER MANAGEMENT

Dressings for venous leg ulcers: systematic review and meta-analysis
Simon Palfreyman and Jonathan A Michaels, professor of vascular surgery; BMJ 2007;335:244 (4 August):
There is insufficient evidence of effectiveness to recommend one type of dressing in preference to another.
Hydrocolloid dressings offer no healing benefit compared with simple dressings under compression.
In the absence of evidence for healing benefit, cost [...]

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