News Headlines

Morphine 'might spread cancer'

(BBC 23/11/2009)

Laboratory tests suggest morphine could in fact encourage the spread of cancer, for which it is routinely prescribed to relieve pain from surgery and tumours. US scientists say the opiate promotes the growth of new blood vessels which deliver tumours oxygen and nutrients. Speaking at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Boston, they also claim to have found a drug which counters this effect. Cancer Research UK said more tests were needed before any changes in treatment.

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Gene clue to brain tumour growth

(BBC 23/11/2009)

Scientists have pinpointed a mutated gene as key to the development of some types of glioma brain tumour. The mutation leads to hugely increased levels of a chemical in the brain, which seems to feed the cancer. The Nature study suggests that detecting higher levels of the chemical could provide doctors with a useful diagnostic tool. It also raises hopes that blocking production of the chemical might prevent the cancer getting worse.

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Parents wrong about child fitness

(BBC 23/11/2009)

Parents have big misconceptions about the amount of exercise their children take part in, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF). It says 71% of parents polled believe their children are "active enough" but only one in 10 of the children say they are doing the recommended daily amount. The charity says parents need to take the "blinkers off" about how active their children are to prevent obesity. However, one expert said there were many barriers to increased activity.

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Victory for health reformers

(The Scotsman 23/11/2009)

HEALTH reform campaigners won an important victory this weekend, when the US Senate voted to debate a controversial healthcare bill. The Senate voted by the narrowest possible margin to block Republicans' attempts to launch a filibuster that would have talked the bill out of existence. The vote comes two weeks after the House of Representatives passed its version of the controversial bill that would provide a trillion-dollar lifeline to an estimated 30 million uninsured Americans.

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'Dirty' bugs keep skin healthy, say scientists

(The Scotsman 23/11/2009)

BEING too clean may impair the skin's ability to stay healthy and heal itself, new research suggests. US Scientists have discovered that bacteria on the surface of the skin play an active role in combating inflammation. The bugs dampen down over-active immune responses which can lead to rashes or cause cuts and bruises to become swollen and painful. "These germs are actually good for us," said Professor Richard Gallo. The findings may provide a molecular basis for the "hygiene hypothesis".

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Mental health is 'Cinderella' of NHS

(The Scotsman 23/11/2009)

NEW treatments for common mental health problems such as depression have been held back by a lack of funding for research, an expert has warned. One in four people will experience a mental health condition during their lifetime and these illnesses cost Scotland billions of pounds a year. But despite this massive burden, researchers have struggled to attract funding to find new treatments to help the many millions of sufferers across the UK.

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Lawnmowers 'pose health danger'

(BBC 22/11/2009)

Using a ride-on mower to cut the grass might save energy but they land thousands of people in hospital every year, experts have warned. Over five years some 66,000 Americans ended up in emergency departments with injuries caused by lawn tractors, reports the Journal of Safety Research. While many suffered bruises or sprains, some of the injured suffered broken bones and amputations. Six people died. Most cases resulted from moving mowers or machines flipping over.

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Dentists enlisted to tackle patients' alcohol excesses

(The Scotsman 22/11/2009)

DENTISTS are to join the fight against Scotland's alcohol crisis - by quizzing patients about their drinking habits. With alcohol misuse costing the country an estimated £2.25 billion a year, researchers in Glasgow are looking at new ways to reduce the growing burden on society. They are now working with the NHS to develop a scheme where dentists ask patients how much they drink, so those who may have a problem can be referred for help.

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NHS slated for failing to preserve patients' dignity

(The Scotsman 22/11/2009)

SCOTLAND's official NHS watchdog has castigated health boards for failing to treat a growing number of patients with the dignity they deserve. Jim Martin, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, said he was speaking out because he was seeing "too many" cases in which patients, many of them elderly and vulnerable, were not receiving adequate care - egTerminally-ill Burnett, who was suffering from pancreatic cancer, was left lying with his genitals exposed and covered in his own excrement.

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Flu jab warning as new strain emerges

(The Scotsman 22/11/2009)

DOCTORS urged people at risk of contracting swine flu to get vaccinated against the virus after five people were diagnosed with a strain resistant to Tamiflu. The advice came from Dr Roland Salmon, director of the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre at the National Public Health Service for Wales. He was speaking after it was announced that five patients at University Hospital, Cardiff, have been diagnosed with a strain resistant to the antiviral drug.

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Tamiflu-resistant swine flu to become more common

(World health - EU Monitor 21/11/2009)

Three out of five patients diagnosed with the Tamiflu-resistant strain remain in hospital today, after it was revealed they could be the world's first cases of person-to-person transmission of the resistant virus, the National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) said. Professor Nigel Dimmock, a virologist at the University of Warwick said: "This is just the beginning. You have got a lot of viruses and if you use Tamiflu at the level they are using it you get resistance."

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Mutation found in swine flu virus

(World health - EU Monitor 21/11/2009)

THE WHO says a mutation had been found in samples of the swine flu virus taken following the first two deaths from the pandemic in Norway. "The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has informed WHO of a mutation detected in three H1N1 viruses," the WHO said in a briefing note overnight. "The viruses were isolated from the first two fatal cases of pandemic influenza in the country and one patient with severe illness," it said, although it added that no further instances were found in tests.

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Childhood abuse 'quickens ageing'

(BBC 21/11/2009)

Physical or emotional abuse during childhood could speed up the body's ageing process, US research suggests. A team from Brown University focused on telomeres, the protective caps on the chromosomes that keep a cell's DNA stable but shorten with age. They found the telomeres of 31 people who had reported abuse as children tended to shorten more rapidly, speeding up cells' ageing process. Experts cautioned that the study needed to be replicated on a larger scale.

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Swine flu: Now drug-resistant strain spreads from one patient to another

(The Scotsman 21/11/2009)

HEALTH officials are probing the first British case of a drug-resistant strain of swine flu spreading from person to person. Doctors have already come across several strains of the virus that do not respond to anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu. But in a case at University Hospital College, Cardiff, the resistant strain appears to have spread from one person to another - the first time this has happened in Europe. It came as Scotland's swine flu death toll reached 40 yesterday.

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Plans for funding care in England could cost Scots dearly

(The Scotsman 21/11/2009)

THE SNP has warned that UK government proposals for free personal care in England could result in Scottish pensioners losing £70 a week benefit. Plans to cut Attendance Allowance, which is claimed by people over the age of 65 with disabilities, and ploughing the cash into English free care have been mooted by the UK government in its paper Shaping the Future of Care Together. One of the options in the consultation paper is scrapping disability benefits and putting the money into care services.

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Blind see again with bionic eye

(The Scotsman 21/11/2009)

BLIND people are being helped to see again with a "bionic" eye. Three Britons are among only 32 in the world taking part in a trial of the technology, which gave a 51-year-old man enough eyesight to read short words for the first time in his adult life. Another patient was able to see fireworks on Bonfire Night for the first time in 40 years. A third patient has also been able to recognise some letters.

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