Laterlife Healthwise - 34         
Jan 2003

New treatment for deep vein thrombosis

Hot news from the US, where a recent conference reported on a  new anticoagulant for the long-term preventative treatment of deep vein thrombosis and stroke. The product, marketed under the name of Exanta, is showing excellent results in trials, and is tipped to be the treatment of the future for thromboembolic disease, though it is not yet available for general use.

 It is taken orally and reports show that it can safely be prescribed for long term treatment. Current anticoagulants are usually prescribed for only 6 months because of side effects. 

Thrombosis is one of the major causes of disease and death in the western world, with nearly 4 million cases of thromboembolic disease (which includes stroke, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and heart attack) in the EU and Japan.

 How are your veins?

‘Take Care of Your Heart’s Little Helpers’, is the rather twee name for a campaign to help detect and prevent venous disease in legs (spider or thread veins, DVT, aching legs and varicose veins). Your heart’s little helpers are your calves and calf muscles. They assist the heart by acting as pumps to return blood back to the heart.

To launch the campaign, a team of NHS nurses will be touring Superdrug and National Co-operative Chemists during January and February offering a free test which will comprise a thorough leg examination to check for the signs of venous disease. They’ll throw in a Doppler test, which is a blood pressure test in the legs to check that the blood flow is normal.

The campaign is run by Activa Compression Hosiery and the Association Of Tissue Viability Nurse Specialists.  Compression hosiery can reduce the signs of venous disease which include such painful conditions such as aching, tired legs, swollen ankles, bulging veins or a wound that is difficult to heal.

Compression hosiery does not rate high in glamour stakes, but Activa point out that it has in fact reached the 21^st century and is not to be confused with old fashioned surgical stockings.

Their compression hosiery is available as knee highs and tights, “using the latest smooth stretch of lycra and ultrafine tactel to produce high denier fashion hosiery in glossy black that breathes with your body.” They have also provided the following hints:                            

Dos

Walk and exercise regularly    

Watch your weight      

Regularly moisturise your legs

Put your feet up       

Don’ts          

Cross your legs  

Stand for long periods  

Have very hot baths

lgnore sores or irritations

Retraining the bladder

In the UK, 3 million people, young and old, have bladder problems and too many of them suffer in silence though there are effective ways to treat them.  Women are particularly vulnerable, often after childbirth, though the problem may be something they inherit. The unlucky minority find they leak when they cough, laugh or sneeze, or even when doing light exercise.

These symptoms are described as stress incontinence, and they can continue for years, getting progressively worse.The problem is loss of tone in the pelvic floor muscles. 

Overactive bladder is the name for another kind of incontinence. It means there is a sudden urge to get to the toilet even when the bladder is not full.  This may happen after a stroke or other medical conditions and it’s due to an erroneous message to the brain.

And then there’s cystitis, which is said to affect 1 woman in 5 at some time.  Symptoms here are constantly wanting to empty the bladder, but never feeling this had happened, accompanied by an intense burning sensation. The cause is thought to be a urinary infection which may recur occasionally or regularly.

What to do? For stress incontinence, there are the famous pelvic floor exercises, which don’t work overnight, but do if you keep at them for weeks or months. Pilates exercise workouts include pelvic floor exercises. Worst case scenarious may require surgery.

Overactive bladders may need other kinds of retraining. This could include cutting down on caffeine and alcohol and resisting the urge to go to the loo, starting with a delay of 2 minutes and building up, perhaps with the help of pelvic floor exercises.

Cystitis responds to drinking more water, plus cranberry juice and, if the infection is persistent, a course of antibiotics.

Contacts: 

www.continence-foundation.org.uk

www.Incontact.org                         www.angela.kilmartin
.dial.pipex.com  (for cystitis)                         www.ichelp.org

Product:the PelvicToner, a small device inserted into the vagina to speed up the effect of pelvic floor exercises and, makers claim, to improve sex life. Price £29.99. website: www.pelvictoner.co.uk

Thermal underwear or  heating allowance?

Professor Bill Keatinge, University of London, thinks that the Brits are very bad at taking care of themselves in the cold. We have more cold-related deaths than any other developed country, and the cause is not usually hypothermia but a heart attack. 

Exposure to even quite mild cold causes the blood to become stickier and more concentrated, leading to increased risk of clotting. In older people chances of heart attack are increased by 30 per cent when the temperature drops.

Other countries are much better at keeping warm. In Russia, apparently, death tolls don’t rise till the temperature drops to -29C. In the UK, the risks start at around 18C. And the main reason seems to be that we are always unprepared for a cold snap and don’t wear the right clothes.

Should pensioners be given thermal underwear rather than a heating allowance?  Not really. The best plan is to have both. Professor Keatinge warns of the dangers of poor public transport with long waits at bus stops, pointing out that patient passengers are more likely to die a couple of days later in a warm house so the connection isn’t made.

Global warming could halve our death rate from the cold, but while we’re waiting for that, it helps to keep moving, walking up and down and shaking arms till the bus finally comes. A warm overcoat helps too.

Why you probably won’t get Alzheimer’s

Most people who live long enough stand a good chance of developing Alzheimer’s, or so it seems. You might start losing your memory, forgetting where you left things, or perhaps can't recall faces and names quite so readily.
Alzheimer's apparently affects over 50 per cent of the elderly, and the figures are markedly higher among the over 80s. No one can deny that the sufferer is suffering some kind of memory loss, but how can we be sure it's Alzheimer's?
The condition was unheard of until 1907 when Alois Alzheimer discovered it during a post mortem examination. He found abnormal formations of plaque on nerve endings in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that affects memory and intellectual function. This was a condition quite different from standard senile dementia, sufferers of which displayed none of the plaque buildup of an Alzheimer's victim.
 Alzheimer's is a highly specific brain condition, and it's untreatable.
There's a range of powerful drugs that can slow its progress, but they have side effects which can cause restlessness and shaking.
Now, some specialists are saying that Alzheimer's is being overdiagnosed by at least 40 per cent. They claim that it's a convenient catch-all definition, and if it isn't Alzheimer's, it's probably senile dementia, which is treatable, and in some cases reversible. ( Ironically, before Alzheimer’s was widely recognised, the opposite was true, with people misdiagnosed as having senile dementia.)
Senile dementia in up to 20 per cent of cases can be treated with good nutrition and medical supervision. New and better forms of diagnosis for Alzheimer’s are being developed, but meanwhile, if you have a relative with the condition, a review of the situation might be useful.

If in any doubt about any of the information covered in healthwise articles and it's relevance for you, consult your GP.

In edition 33:-     

Improving eyesight

Health supplement Lutein is now recognised as a major protection against Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

Stress through the ages

Older people have more stress-free days than younger ones

Help slow down Parkinson`s

An over-the-counter antioxidant may help to slow down the progress of Parkinson`s Disease, according to a new study.

Do you suffer from Syndrome X?

If you are one of those unfortunate people who cannot lose weight even though you eat a low-fat diet, you may be suffering from Syndrome X

A teaspoon of honey

Ounce for ounce honey provides the same amount of antioxidants as fruits and vegetables.

And a nice cup of tea 

can work wonders against gingivitis...

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