Treat Swine Flu – how to treat swine flu and health tips

Swine flu pandemic could trigger spate of heart attacks.

The swine flu pandemic could trigger a spate of heart attacks if rates of illness surge as predicted this autumn, doctors warned.

Patients with heart disease are being advised to accept a vaccine against H1N1 swine flu as it becomes available next month in order to reduce the risk of fatal complications.

An estimated 5,200 people in England went down with the virus in the week before last compared with about 3,000 the previous week, suggesting that a predicted second wave of illness may be on its way.

About 2.5 million people with heart disease, as well as patients with other chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes, will be offered a flu jab. Last year, however, uptake of an annual vaccine against seasonal flu strains among patients considered “at risk” was only 47.2 per cent, researchers writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal said.

Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist at University College London, and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that more efforts were needed to encourage people with heart disease and diabetes — which increases the risk of heart attacks — to have the flu jab. They reviewed 39 studies carried out between 1932 and 2008 and found that people with heart disease made up between 35 to 50 per cent of excess flu deaths.

All the population papers examined also showed a rise in deaths due to heart disease or incidence of heart attacks during times when the flu virus was circulating.

Flu can produce significant stress on the cardiovascular system and cause breathing problems, changes in blood pressure, a rapid heart rate and even direct effects on the heart.

The researchers wrote: “During influenza epidemics there are many deaths and serious complications in vulnerable populations. People with underlying chronic medical disorders such as cardiovascular disease are particularly at risk … We believe influenza vaccination should be encouraged — especially in those people with existing cardiovascular disease.”

Source Link: – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/Swine_flu/article6843679.ece

BBC News

Declining financial skills are detectable in patients in the year before they develop Alzheimer’s, according to US researchers.

The ability to manage financial matters is critical to independent living

The researchers say this could be a useful indicator for doctors supporting people with memory problems.

Previous studies have shown that problems with daily activities often precede the onset of Alzheimer’s.

But charities said most people having trouble working out figures should not be alarmed by the study.

Financial skills

The research from the University of Alabama in Birmingham is published in the journal, Neurology.

The researchers studied 87 people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), 25 of whom developed Alzheimer-type dementia during the study period, and 62 who did not.

They compared them with 76 healthy people with no memory problems.

They used a tool called the Financial Capacity Instrument (FCI) to measure their skills over a period of a year.

The FCI looks at skills including understanding a bank statement, balancing a cheque book, paying bills, preparing bills and counting coins and currency. Read more…

BBC News

Depression can damage a cancer patient’s chances of survival, a review of research suggests.

Cancer patients often struggle with depression

The University of British Columbia team said the finding emphasised the need to screen cancer patients carefully for signs of psychological distress.

The study, a review of 26 separate studies including 9,417 patients, features in the journal Cancer.

It found death rates were up to 25% higher in patients showing symptoms of depression.

In patients actually diagnosed with major or minor depression, death rates were up to 39% higher.

The increased risks remained even after other clinical characteristics that might affect survival were taken into consideration.

However, the researchers said more research was needed before any definitive conclusions could be drawn, as it was difficult to rule out the impact of other factors.

They also stressed that, overall, the increased risk of dying from cancer due to depression was small – so patients should not feel they had to maintain a positive attitude to beat their disease. Read more…

By Jane Elliott
Health reporter, BBC News

Charlie Toward was born with a hernia in his groin.

His parents knew he needed surgery to remove the lump, but were advised to wait until after his first birthday when he was stronger to cope with the open surgery.

Charlie needed a hernia operation

However, last month, aged only seven months, Charlie was able to have keyhole surgery – thanks to the donation of some special baby equipment to The Royal London Hospital where he was treated.

His mother Lizzie, from Essex, said Charlie was back to normal in no time.

“Charlie’s recovery was amazing,” she said.

“He was sleepy the next day but was pretty much rolling around and playing around – you would not have known he had an operation.

“He could not jump around in his jumpy toys but he could play in his activity gym.

“I was amazed by how quickly he recovered. You can hardly see any scarring, they have done an amazing job. The operation took about 40 minutes.”

Transforming surgery

Paediatric consultant surgeon Niall Jones, a gastrointestinal specialist at The Royal London Hospital, said it was one of the few hospitals able to offer the treatment to such young children because of the tailor-made keyhole surgical equipment. Read more…

BBC News

Young children’s exposure to lead in the environment is harming their intellectual and emotional development, according to UK researchers.

Lead is linked to a number of health problems

The researchers say the toxic effects of lead on the central nervous system are obvious even below the current so-called safe level of lead in the blood.

They are recommending the threshold should be halved.

A spokesman for the Health Protection Agency said levels of exposure should be kept to the minimum.

Lead has been removed from paint and petrol by law in the UK, but it is still widespread in the environment.

The study from the University of Bristol Centre for Child and Adolescent Health set out to see if there was any effect on the behaviour and intellectual development of children who had ingested just below the so-called safe level of 10 microgrammes per decilitre (or tenth of a litre) of blood.

The study is published in the journal, Archives of Diseases in Childhood.

Lead levels

The Bristol researchers took blood samples from 582 children at the age of 30 months.

They found 27% of the children had lead levels above five microgrammes per decilitre.

They followed the children’s progress at regular intervals and then assessed their academic performance and behavioural patterns when they were seven to eight years old.

After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, they found that blood lead levels at 30 months showed significant associations with educational achievement, antisocial behaviour and hyperactivity scores five years later. Read more…