University of Chicago researchers asked adults aged between 57-85 to do a quick smell test.
The test involved identifying odours that were put on the tips of felt-tip pens.
Smells included were fish, peppermint, rose, leather and orange.
5 years later 39% of adults who had the lowest test scores had died, this compares with 19% who had moderate test and 10% who had good test scores.
Issues like smoking habits, nutrition, poverty, overall health and age were taken into account, despite this the researchers found adults who had the worest sense of smell were still the most at risk.
Prof Jayant Pinto, said: "We think loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine.
"It doesn't directly cause death, but it is a harbinger, an early warning system that shows damage may have been done.
University of Chicago researchers asked adults aged between 57-85 to do a quick smell test.
The test involved identifying odours that were put on the tips of felt-tip pens.
Smells included were fish, peppermint, rose, leather and orange.
5 years later 39% of adults who had the lowest test scores had died, this compares with 19% who had moderate test and 10% who had good test scores.
Issues like smoking habits, nutrition, poverty, overall health and age were taken into account, despite this the researchers found adults who had the worest sense of smell were still the most at risk.
Prof Jayant Pinto, said: "We think loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine.
"It doesn't directly cause death, but it is a harbinger, an early warning system that shows damage may have been done.
University of Chicago researchers asked adults aged between 57-85 to do a quick smell test.
The test involved identifying odours that were put on the tips of felt-tip pens.
Smells included were fish, peppermint, rose, leather and orange.
5 years later 39% of adults who had the lowest test scores had died, this compares with 19% who had moderate test and 10% who had good test scores.
Issues like smoking habits, nutrition, poverty, overall health and age were taken into account, despite this the researchers found adults who had the worest sense of smell were still the most at risk.
Prof Jayant Pinto, said: "We think loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine.
"It doesn't directly cause death, but it is a harbinger, an early warning system that shows damage may have been done.
source:http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29441323
Sep 07, 2014
Survivors speak about their battles with Ebola
Survivors Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol speak about their battles with Ebola.
Sep 07, 2014
MP advises man not to 'publicly comment' on issues if he has mental health problems
Dylan Barlow who has Asperger’s Syndrome said he was shocked at being told that he should maintain a dignified silence on political matters lest he "create problems" for himselfby the Conservative MP for Aberconwy, Wales, Guto Bebb.
The comments were made to Mr Barlow after he enquired about foreign affairs matters.
“If you have mental health issues then you should possibly refrain from commenting in the public domain since it might create problems for you,” Mr Bebb advised.
He also said Mr Barlow’s Asperger’s was a “sob story”.
Medical experts from Germany will be travelling to West Africa to give training to the local hospital staff. With the goal of stopping Ebola spreading.
Health Minister Hermann Gröhe said to the German daily Rheinische:
"With help from German experts, medical staff at hospitals will receive training on how to deal with highly infectious diseases, such as Ebola."
"The goal is to recognize Ebola infections quickly, get patients the right treatment and make sure the virus is not further transmitted."
A report on Taser use in Staffordshire, England, found that they have been used a number of people who have mental health problems.
On over one hundred of the six hundred and nineteen occasions when officers pulled out their Tasers they were on people who have mental health difficulties.
The report was commissioned by Matthew Ellis, crime chief, the report suggested more work was needed within to help officers de-escalate and negotiate situations involving people with mental health problems.
Mr Ellis said: "The review from the ETA Panel did just that and provided fresh perspective and more detail than the Independent Police Complaints Commission's report, which did not differentiate between Taser use as a deterrent without discharge and actual discharge of Tasers.
"Unfortunately it meant the IPCC report allowed for a misleading picture of Taser use in Staffordshire to be portrayed. I'm satisfied that police in Staffordshire keep the discharge of Taser to a minimum and in very specific circumstances. The use of Tasers acts as a deterrent and reduces potential violence."
Clinic under investigation after Joan Rivers death
Yorkville Endoscopy, the Manhattan clinic where Joan Rivers went into cardiac arrest, is now under investigation by the New York State Department of Health.
Vladimir Duthiers from CBS news reports.
Sep 05, 2014
Va lawmaker stabbed by son urges mental health reform
Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds said that life changed for ever when his son stabbed him and then committed suicide.
He called on the congress to fix the crumbling mental health system, so that more tragedies could be prevented.
He told 1,700 mental health advocates at the annual meeting of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Washington, "we cannot afford to wait for another crisis or tragedy." He added "too many lives have been lost, too many families changed forever."
Advocates say that no major steps have been taken by lawyers to help families or patients in nearly two years since the mass shooting incident in Newtown, Conn.
In the Philippines, people living with HIV are worried about running out of antiretroviral drugs.
1000 boxes of the drugs have been held by the Bureau of customs for a month but they may be released soon.
Documents were filed to release the drugs the drugs on Wednesday by the Department of Health.
BOC spokesman Charo Logarto said:
“They are filing the import entry only now as we speak, and as we all know, we cannot begin jurisdiction over any importation or any shipment until the importer, consignee, or legal representatives has filed the import entry and submitted other documents.”
current supplies will run out this week.
Artemus Arojado supplies will run out in a few weeks he is executive director of Project Red Ribbon, the HIV advocacy group.
Arojado said:
“What if I run out of these medicines and Customs fails to release the shipments? Where will I get my supply?
I am holding on to what I told people around me that I will not surrender to this disease.”
Gay people more likely to have mental health problems, survey says
According to of the largest surveys in England of homosexuals Cambridge University researchers found that 12% of lesbians and around 19% of bisexual women reported having mental health problems, compared with 6 per cent of heterosexual women.
11% of gay men and 15% of bisexual men reported mental health problems, compared to 5% of heterosexual men.
Gay and bisexual women and men were 50% more likely than heterosexuals to report their negative experiences with primary care services.
Professor Martin Roland, director of the Cambridge Centre for Health Services said:
“The survey shows that sexual minorities suffer both poorer health and have worse experiences when they see their GP”
A 10 year old manual has been removed from the Toronto Public Health website after they received a complaint that the manual was racist because “Chinese-style foods” was singled out as potentially a cause of food poisoning.
The co-director of Food Forward,a food advocacy group and founder of CaterToronto, a community-based catering network, Vanessa Ling Yu looked at the Toronto's health Food Handler Certification online training manual, when she saw two references to “Chinese-style foods, rice” caused bacterial intoxication.
The manual was published in 2004 and Chinese food was the only ethnic food referenced.Yu said:
"Identifying a particular culture’s food as being prone to illness is inappropriate and racist. The document shamed Chinese tradition and culinary practices by singling out its cuisine"
Three billion people are putting themselves at risk of an early death or ill health by burning fuels like wood and charcoal indoors, according to new research.
In the Lancet Respiratory Medicine Commission, the researchers analised the evidence of the effects of those kinds of household air pollution.
Proffessors William Martin from Ohio State University and Stephen Gordon from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in the U.K. and their team estimated that somewhere in the region of 600 to 800 million people are at risk of contracting illiness like pneumonia, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder asthma.
The Lancet editors said they that they hope the reaserch "will provide the impetus to drive change and tackle what is a preventable, but devastating, burden on the health of the world’s population, not least in terms of the morbidity and mortality associated with acute and chronic respiratory diseases."
I also hope the research will provided the impetus to change things but I don't think it will.
After all it is not really rocket science to conclude that if you cook with fuels like wood and charcoal indoors you're at risk of ill health and death.
It has been known for a long time but nobody as done anything about it and I don't expect it to change now.
A pilot study has found that it might be possible to rewire the brain so that the body wants healthier food by changing your eating behaviour.
In the study thirteen obese and overweight people were divided into two groups: a experimental group and a control group.
Both groups had their brain activity response to photos of different foods recorded.
The experimental group took part in a behavioural intervention program, that included support group sessions and portion-controlled menus.
Everybody was asked to reduce calorie intake 500 to 1,000 calories everyday and follow a high-protein and high fibre diet to help prevent cravings and hunger.
After 6 months, the experimental group lost 14 pounds and the control group lost 5 pounds.
Senior author Susan Roberts, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Energy Metabolism Laboratory, said;
"We don't start out in life loving french fries and hating, for example, whole wheat pasta.
This conditioning happens over time in response to eating repeatedly what is out there in the toxic food environment."
A study has found that people admitted to hospital in England due to skin cancer has gone up by 41% in the last 5 years, a lot of the increase is because of GP practice changes
The number of people being admitted for melanoma has gone up 30%. For non-melanoma skin cancer there has been a 43% increase.
Julia Verne of Public Health England said;
“The increase in hospital admissions for skin cancer is due to a number of factors.
Skin cancers in general are increasing as a result of an ageing population, but also there was a change in the Nice guidelines to GPs which has caused an increase in hospital referrals.”
A study conducted by University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggest that playing violent video games for more than two hours a day can cause depression in preadolescent children.
Previous studies showed how agression was connected to video games but this was the first study to analyse the connection between violent video games and depression, saidSusan Tortolero, Ph.D., principal investigator and director of the Prevention Research Center at the UTHealth School of Public Health.
The study described the symptoms as the following;
Beijing schools and nurseries have been promoted mental and physical health since 2012. The first mental health law was passed last year. Paediatricians have been told to screen patients for warning signs.
Foreign psychotherapists have been enlisted to help increase awareness and train specialists.
Dr Zheng Yi, deputy director of Beijing Anding Hospital at Capital Medical University and president of the Chinese Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry said:
"The government is paying a lot of attention to psychological health"
Research preliminary results that Dr Zheng has overseen shows of research he has overseen, children have mental health issues.
Although he said the results compared favourably with a rate of about 20% elsewhere, he noted that problems, like anxiety disorders are on the increase.
A breastfeeding handout which condemned formula feeding has been removed from circulation by the British Columbia health authority.
The handout contained warnings about formula feeding.
The claims include that babies that are not breastfed are at a bigger risk of getting diabetes, suffer sudden infant death syndrome and childhood cancers.
Another claim is that children that are not breastfed could score lower on IQ tests.
Additionally it stated there is a greater risk of developing ovarian cancer, breast cancer and type 2 diabetes in mothers that formula feed.
Fraser Health hospitals asked mothers delivering babies to sign a form acknowledging that are aware of the risks involved.
Tamara Van Tent, Fraser Health's maternity director said:
"We're sincerely sorry for the offence it has caused, it was not our intention.
I think we've determined that some of the language could be softened a bit."
Pam Owen, beaten mental health worker, doesn't blame attacker
CBC news report on Pam Owen, a mental health worker who was badly beaten by a patient.
The senior managers were particular criticised WorkSafeBC, I noticed that Kate Dickerson, the executive director of Workplace Health at Vancouver Coastal Health when asked if there would be any consequences for the managers? Just avoided answering the question.
I can't help feeling that if staff lower down the food-chain had been negligent, they would be gone.
Aug 21, 2014
Ebola crisis: Liberia police fire at Monrovia protests
The residents of West Point slum area in Monrovia, Liberia have said the blockade of barbed wire prevents them from working and buying food.
Last weekend the residents attacked a quarantine centre, looted mattresses and helped suspected Ebola patients to escape, which means potentially the virus could spread to other parts of the city.576 people have died so far in Liberia.
The W.H.O (World Health Organization) released figures which showed there were 106 deaths and 221 new cases in West Africa between 17 and 18 August.
The Liberian president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said:
"We have been unable to control the spread due to continued denials... disregard for the advice of health workers and disrespect for the warnings by the government.”
In England, Norman Lamb the care and support minster has said the mental health services for young people are stuck in the dark ages and need to be brought into the modern age.
He wants to launch a task force to see how services can be improved.
There has been an increasing number of young people getting treatment in adult wards and travelling long distances to receive treatment.
A survey by the charity Young Minds found that services were being cut by councils.
A NHS England report done last month acknowledged they had no clue to what extent young people were affected by their mental health problems.
source:http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28851443
Aug 13, 2014
Depression is a disease
The great comedian and actor Robin Williams commited suicide yesterday.His death has brought depression and mental health back into the news.
In this video the experts talk about depression.
Aug 12, 2014
NI health minister sees 'merit' in A&E fees for drunk patients
A parliamentary group says that there should be health warnings on all alcoholic drinks.
The group wants political parties on all sides to implement ten recommendations to cut down alcohol related problems. One of the recommendations is to cut the drink drive limit.
The conservative government say they are working to cut down excessive alcohol consumption and tackle the cheap alcohol sales.
Chairwoman of the parliamentary group and Conservative MP Tracey Crouch said:
"The facts and figures of the scale of alcohol misuse in the UK speak for themselves - 1.2 million people a year are admitted to hospital due to alcohol; liver disease in those under 30 has more than doubled over the past 20 years and the cost of alcohol to the economy totals £21bn."
My opinion:I don't think there is anything wrong with putting health warnings on alcoholic drinks but I don't believe it would make people think twice about drinking.
As for cutting the drink drive limit, I always say that if you going to be driving don't drink at all.
I would prefer to look at the reasons why people are binge drinking and deal with those problems and tackle them, then people won't feel the need to escape through drinking.
Aug 07, 2014
California parents threaten to sue over controversial health textbook
California parents have voiced their displeasure about a health book for ninth graders which includes references to oral sex, vibrators, bondage, where to buy a condom and how to use it and sexual anatomy.
The book is called Your Health Today which covers everything from nutrition to fitness.
However the parents have found the sex section so disturbing that they have created a petition which has already been signed by six hundred people which wants the Fremont school board to stop teaching pupils from the book.
Asfia Ahmed who is a parent said:'I feel that it's not age appropriate for these kids.
I have read the book from first page to last, and most pages talk about college kids. It doesn't relate to these kids at all.'
Doctors are warning that mental healthcare is deteriorating in England, after a survey revealing that 1 in 5 doctors had seen a patient end up coming to harm because they were not able to get specialist help.
Some GPs have reported that some patients were sectioned or committed suicide due the low availability of community mental health services.
More than 8 in 10 GPs believe their local mental health teams are unable to cope with case loads, additionally nearly half of the GPS said in the past 12 months the situation in their locality had got worse.
Policy and campaigns manager at the mental health charity Mind, Geoff Heyes said:
“People with mental health problems can recover, but early intervention is vital.
If the Government is serious about giving as much importance to mental health as it does physical health, we urgently need to see more funding for mental health services.”
A Liberian man has died from the Ebola virus in Nigeria, Lagos.
His case has heightened fears that the Ebola virus could be spreading beyond Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
1,093 people have contracted the Ebola Virus according to the World Health Organization and 660 people have died so far.
The man arrived on Sunday at Lagos airport and was put in isolation at a local hospital after he showed symptoms that were associated with the Ebola virus.
He said that he did not have direct contact with anybody who had the virus nor attended the funeral of anyone who died of Ebola.
Patients have been advised to get testing for any blood borne infectious diseases by health officials after their investigation discovered that syringes and needles had been reused at Valley pain management clinic.
The needles and syringes were used to administer saline solutions and pain medications.
Because of these practices potentially patients have been exposed to diseases like HIV, hepatitis C and hepatitis B.
Health officials said the clinic had failed to cooperate with requests for a patient list, which they need to notify patients.
Doctors in western Australia have shown their support for the suspension Philip Nitschke, a euthanasia advocate over his links to the suicide of a WA man, who was young and healthy.
Dr Andrew Miller, WA branch vice-president of the AMA said that appropriate action had been taken against Dr Nitschke because of his involvement in the build up to the suicide of Nigel Brayley had caused anguish and serious concern.
He added “Nitschke has failed in his duty as doctor. Mr Brayley should have been referred for mental health assessment and support as soon as Nitschke was in contact with him."
div style="background-color:#fff;display:inline-block;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Arial,sans-serif;color:#a7a7a7;font-size:11px;width:100%;max-width:358px;min-width:300px;">
A new review of previous studies has suggested regularly consuming good bacteria otherwise known as probiotics could help to control blood pressure. Probiotics is found in milk, cheese and yoghurt.
Researchers discovered that consuming the right amount of probiotics for around two months lowered blood pressure
Jing sung, one of the researchers on the study said:
"I do not think the general public understands how probiotics might be beneficial to health at this stage.
The challenge to us is to convince patients and clinicians to accept the product in daily life."
CBS report on a historic scientific breakthrough which could pave the way to
Jul 18, 2014
Cherokee Nation negotiates $29.5 million settlement with the federal government for health-support costs that are owed
The Cherokee Nation and the federal government for health-support have agreed a $29.5 million settlement for costs that the tribe were owed for almost a decade.
The Indian Health Service (IHS), the federal health program Alaskan Natives and American Indians did not pay for support costs for things like human resources, finance, information technology and finance between 2005 and 2013.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker said
“The settlement is a major milestone for the Cherokee Nation and our health centers.
Payment of these millions of dollars from the federal government is long overdue, and now these funds will be utilized to provide expanded and improved health care services to our citizens.
We will be able to equip our new centers with state-of-the-art medical devices and technology,”
The IHS runs 8 health centers and one hospital in the Cherokee Nation and more than a million patients depend on their health care.
In Petoria, South Africa, a very sick Somali girl aged 12 will get medical treatment after a settlement was agreed at the high court.
Human Rights lawyers, acting on the girl's family behalf, started an application after it was alleged that she was refused treatment at the Steve Biko Hospital because her family could not pay a R250,000 deposit and because she was undocumented.
The girl travelled on her own through Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania from Somalia on June 25.
Health officials said after an investigation they was no substance in the allegations and denied it.
The brother of the girl undertook to identify members of staff that demanded the deposit, and retract the allegation if he did not co-operate with the investigation.
New! Comments
Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.