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 as normally as possible, Care Services Minister Phil Hope said.

A total of 700,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia.

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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 people who showed no symptoms of heart disease, received no benefit after regularly taking aspirin.
The study found that aspirin benefited people who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke as the drug could reduce the risk of future related problems by a quarter.

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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 were sold in 143 countries – is yet to be seen.

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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 were considered ineligible for competitive sports.

Follow-up studies are needed to show if disqualification of such people would reduce the incidence of CV events among athletes.

(Age >30 years was significantly associated with an increased risk of being disqualified for cardiac findings during exercise testing.)

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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. Its symptoms include memory loss, confusion and language breakdown, and it is incurable.

Train your brain
When it comes to retaining brain agility, the “use it or lose it” principle holds true. Games such as Brain Age on Nintendo DS can help us to increase brain flexibility and activity

Keep fit
There is good evidence that keeping fit can help to keep your brain in shape. A Swedish study showed that regular exercise can reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 50 per cent.

Relieve the pain
According to a study by the University of Washington, cholesterol-lowering drugs may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by almost 80 per cent.

Work at your social life
Having plenty of friends is another factor.

Work by the Alzheimer’s Society has shown that the chances of inheriting the disease from a parent or relative could be moderately low.
“We know that there are a small number of families where there is a very clear inheritance of dementia from one generation to the next,” Sorensen says.

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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 care and is now able to walk and talk.

The 45-year-old man owes his life to the fact that surgeons authorised to remove organs for transplant operations were not immediately available. Under experimental rules adopted in France last year, to make more organ transplants possible, the man had already reached the point where he could be officially regarded as dead. Similar rules – allowing the removal of organs when a patient’s heart has stopped and fails to respond to prolonged massage – already apply in several other European countries, including Britain.

Professor Alain Tenaillon, the organ transplant specialist at the French government’s agency of bio-medicine, told Le Monde: “All the specialist literature suggests that anyone whose heart has stopped and has been massaged correctly for more than 30 minutes, is probably brain dead. But we have to accept that there are exceptions…. There are no absolute rules in this area.”

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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 published later this week by the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson.

A consultation paper includes plans to force cigarettes to be kept “under the counter” out of public view, Mr Johnson said.

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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 of several malignancies.
• If you want to read the whole study report, then click here…

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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 should be a factor in the choice of dressings.

If you want to read more JUST CLICK HERE.

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