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Healthwise is a regular column written
especially for laterlife.com members and
visitors by Helen Franks, journalist and author.
Welcome to healthwise 87.
For previous articles in the
healthwise series visit
'more
healthwise'
Helen Franks
Helen has specialised in writing about health and
ageing and is a member of the Guild of Health Writers. She has
written for a variety of newspapers and magazines including the
Guardian, Times, Observer, Woman, Family Circle, Vogue and
Choice.
Helen has also written several books including
Getting Older Slowly Your Guide to Successful Ageing and
Bone Boosters
co-authored with Diana Moran of TV Green Goddess fame.
Don't forget to take a look at Helen's separate
talkback
page too.
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Cancer and domestic pesticide
A new study reporting to have found a link between domestic pesticide use
and the skin cancer-type cutaneous melanoma, has been played down by Cancer
Research UK. Experts warned that the study was too small to draw any
meaningful conclusions and exposure to the sun is still by far the greatest
contributory factor to skin cancer.
The study by researchers at the a Clinical Epidemiology Unit, at the
Istituto Dermopatico dell'Immacolata in Rome asked around 290 people with
skin cancer if they could remember how often they had used pesticides in the
past, and compared their answers with a similar number who had not got skin
cancer.
By far the major risk factor for malignant melanoma is overexposure to
strong sunlight. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is thought to cause
about 90% of all skin cancers. If people are worried about their risk of
skin cancer they're better off putting on a t-shirt and sunhat, and not
chucking out the bug spray.
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Virtual-reality video game helps depression
Scientists are using a virtual-reality, three-dimensional video game that
challenges spatial memory as a new tool for assessing the link between
depression and the hippocampus, the brain's memory hub.
Spatial memory is the memory of how things are oriented in space and how
to get to them. Researchers found that depressed people performed poorly on
the video game compared with nondepressed people, suggesting that their
hippocampi were not working properly.
Results were published by National Institute of Mental Health researcher
Neda Gould and colleagues in the March issue of the American Journal of
Psychiatry. Earlier studies showed that people with mood disorders tend
to have smaller hippocampi than nondepressed people.
Previously, the scientists had given the same people a two-dimensional
memory test traditionally used in such studies, in which they were asked to
remember the locations of objects on a computer screen — similar to what
they would have seen on paper.
This two-dimensional test was not able to detect differences in spatial
memory that the new video game was able to detect. The reason, Gould
suggests, is that the virtual-reality, three-dimensional aspects of the
video game engage areas of the hippocampus that the two-dimensional test
does not.
The game was developed by scientists at the University College of London
and may point the way to new treatments for depression. With further
development, it could help scientists track genetic and other biological
factors, as well as environmental factors, that play a role in the illness.
Phone-based therapy eases depression
long-term
When people receive brief telephone-based psychotherapy soon after starting
on antidepressant medication, strong positive effects may continue 18 months
after their first session. So concludes a Group Health study in the April
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
“With close to 400 patients, this is the largest study yet of
psychotherapy delivered over the telephone,” said Evette J. Ludman, PhD,
senior research associate, Group Health Center for Health Studies, the
paper’s lead author.
Long-term positive effects of initially adding phone-based therapy included
improvements in patients’ symptoms of depression and satisfaction with their
care, said Ludman. At 18 months, 77% of those who got phone-based therapy
(but only 63% of those receiving regular care) reported their depression was
“much” or “very much” improved.
Those who received phone-based therapy were slightly better at taking
their antidepressant medication as recommended. And effects were stronger
for patients with moderate to severe depression than for those with mild
depression.
Patients and therapists never met face to face, only over the phone, said
Ludman. Therapists followed a structured protocol for psychotherapy. They
encouraged the patients to identify and counter their negative thoughts
(cognitive behavioral therapy), pursue activities they had enjoyed in the
past (behavioral activation), and develop a plan to care for themselves.
Why mouth-to-mouth resuscitation may be
wrong for heart attack
What’s the first thing you do when someone has a suspected heart attack? The
answer is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But it dramatically increases the
chances of the person dying, The Lancet reports.
Doctors recommend mouth-to-mouth as part of first-aid care for heart
attack patients. Someone who has almost drowned or taken a drugs overdose
may look like a heart attack victim. In these cases, the victim has usually
stopped breathing, and so mouth-to-mouth resuscitation combined with chest
compression is the right thing to do.
But most heart-attack victims are still breathing very lightly, or gasping,
and so mouth-to-mouth is not only unnecessary, it may also increase the
chances of death.
Meditation reduces blood pressure
It’s been known a long time. A dramatic reduction of blood pressure levels
is gained just by meditating. Patients who used the mantra-based
Transcendental Meditation technique also reduced their insulin resistance,
says the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Meditators saw a significant reduction in their blood pressure without
losing weight, changing diet or altering their medication over a 16-week
programme. The study involved 52 heart patients, who were taught meditation
techniques, and whose progress was compared with 51 non-meditators.
Healthcare watchdog survey of patients
on diabetes check-ups
The majority of people with diabetes say they receive annual check-ups to
assess whether their condition is under control, according to the findings
of a survey released by the Healthcare Commission.
However, the findings also showed that people with diabetes need to be
offered more help by local services to manage their diabetes themselves,
particularly through access to education courses and while in hospital.
The survey, carried out last autumn, is the largest ever of people with
diabetes - over 68,500 people responded from across England. It also
involved the participation of 1,500 general practices and all 152 primary
care trusts (PCTs).
This included checking blood pressure (98%), long-term blood glucose
levels (91%), weight (91%), and cholesterol (89%). These are positive
findings, but others areas show room for improvement.
The survey shows that only 11% of respondents had attended an education
course on diabetes and how to live with the condition, yet one in four
people who had not been on such a course said they wanted to attend one.
The findings of the diabetes survey can be found on:
http://www.healthcarecommission.org.uk/patientsurveydiabetes-2006 .
Drug cuts hip fractures
Osteoporosis, bone thinning, is a problem for many post menopausal women.
But now, a new drug could cut hip fractures by more than 40%. The drug is a
once-yearly treatment, and could prevent an estimated 60,000 hip fractures a
year.
The drug was tested over a 3-year period on around 8,000 women and
reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Two Useful websites
http://www.carehomes.co.uk : care home index
www.endo.org.uk :
all about endometriosis
If in any
doubt about any of the information covered in
healthwise articles and it's relevance for you, consult
your GP.
IN THE PREVIOUS EDITION
HRT in
the headlines
If you take HRT for
more than 5 years you may be at risk from ovarian cancer
Keep on taking Gingko Bilopa
It may offer
longer life
Dairy-free alternative
An oat-based
alternative to cream has been launched
Making Alzheimer's worse
Drugs such as the antipsychotics and sedatives speed up the progress of
Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found
Value of folic acid
A
supplement can help protect your hearing
as you age
NHS stop
smoking service
Quitters can also sign up to a new website...
Useful websites
More useful health
related websites
The
complete family health guide
 Essential medical reference that's a must for every home. Published
in association with the BMA, it includes comprehensive coverage of
every important aspect of health and medicine, as well as
user-friendly charts for at-a-glance information and easy reference.
Also lists the best medical websites...
 Maximise your memory
This work provides detailed instructions, illustrations and sample
exercises that show the reader how to build a system of personalized
frameworks for storing and recalling information on demand.
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