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Laterlife Healthwise - 63
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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 63. 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. For previous articles in the healthwise series visit 'more healthwise' Don't forget to take a look at Helen's separate talkback page too.
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HEALTHWISE by Helen Franks Brain scanning techniques were used to demonstrate acupuncture’s impact is more than just a placebo by researchers at the University of Southampton and UCL. The results showed that real acupuncture elicits a physiological response in the brain and it’s distinctly different from expectation or belief in the treatment. The patients, all suffering from painful osteoarthritis, were divided into three groups: One group was touched with blunt needles, with the participants being aware that this had no therapeutic value and that the needles would not pierce the skin. The parts of their brain linked to the sensation of touch were activated. The second group was treated with special needles which only ‘appeared’ to pierce the skin. This group of patients believed that the treatment was real and the brain scans showed that an area of the brain associated with pain relief was activated. The third group of patients received ‘real’ acupuncture. The area
associated with pain relief was activated but in addition, a part of
the brain thought to be involved with pain modulation and a pathway
associated with acupuncture was also activated.
www.acupuncture.org.uk . Around 16 per cent of Britons say that they regularly wake up feeling as bad as they did when they went to bed, a condition that specialists call 'nonrestorative sleep' (NRS).More Britons suffer from NRS than people from six other European countries who were surveyed in a recent study involving 25,580 individuals. The lowest incidence of NRS was recorded in Spain where just 2.4 per cent of the population suffers from it. The causes of NRS were various, and ranged from a stressful life, anxiety, or bipolar and depressive disorders, and physical disease. NRS isn't the same as having difficulty sleeping or waking early. For these people, sleep is usually restorative even if it isn't for the usual seven-hour quota. By comparison, NRS sufferers – who may sleep throughout the night –
complained of being irritable and experiencing physical and mental
fatigue during the day. They were also much more likely to see a
doctor about their sleep than sufferers of a more recognized sleep
disorder, such as insomnia. Whether they were helped, the report
didn’t say.
An innovation to help women detect changes to their breasts, called the Liv Kit, has been launched with the
It’s filled with a non-toxic lubricant which reduces friction, allowing fingers to glide smoothly across the skin. Sensitivity is magnified, so that even very small lumps are much more noticeable. It acts like a magnifying glass for your fingers. When using Liv Kit regularly, women get to know what is normal for them. This then helps them recognise any breast changes very quickly. The earlier changes are detected, the better the chance of survival. The Liv Kit is available from Good for Health or from the Nutri
Centre, priced ?19.95. Visit
www.nutricentre.com Eating out is one of life's great pleasures, but for the UK's estimated 750,000 individuals with coeliac disease (pronounced seeliac), it can prove incredibly frustrating trying to find a places where they can eat safely. Coeliac UK is encouraging restaurants, hotels and eating establishments to sign up to their database to provide their members with an easy to use information resource of gluten-free friendly venues. Coeliac disease is caused by an intolerance to gluten, a protein found
in wheat, barley, rye - some coeliacs react to oats too - yet it can
be treated very successfully by excluding gluten from the diet. The
disease can lead to far more serious conditions such as osteoporosis,
infertility and gut cancer if left untreated.
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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Most victims are overweight men aged 40 plus. Alcohol and medications such as sedatives and muscle relaxants can worsen the condition, which can result in increased risk of heart failure, often fatal, if untreated. The favoured treatment is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). It involves wearing a mask attached to a machine beside the bed that provides pressurised air to keep the airways open. Not exactly inviting. There are other options like losing weight, avoiding alcohol or using
an oral appliance. The important thing is that if you or your partner
suffers from sleep apnoea, get medical help. Screening for polyps in the colon of people who have colon cancer in their family is of great importance says Dr Perminder Phull of the Gastrointestinal and Liver Service, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. It is particularly valuable in high-risk and moderate risk patients in the 50-plus age group.
When polyps are discovered, they can be removed during the screening, so that they cannot become cancerous. Colonoscopy may be a little uncomfortable, but is usually not painful. Patients can even watch the process on a screen. In a trial involving 150 men and women, with 51 were in the high-risk group and 99 were in the moderate risk group, Dr Phull and colleagues found no actual cancer. But in the moderate risk group, 17.5% of those aged 50-plus had potentially dangerous polyps. This compared to 8.5% in the under 50s. In the high-risk group, 25% of those younger than 50 and 15.8% of those older than 50 had polyps. The researchers conclude that this is a big problem across the country. Funding would be needed on a national scale. For some people after a colostomy or after an operation for Crohn’s disease, there’s no choice but to live with a stoma, a bag stitched to the gut that serves as an opening. A new publication is available for patients called The Guide: An
Introduction to Living with a Stoma. It is published by ConvaTec and
is available through www.convatec.com
Various natural remedies can interact with anaesthetics, so it’s a
good idea to stop taking them before you have surgery. In edition 62:- n edition 62 of healthwise Helen covers 6 new topics: Three drinks warning (Men only) If you consume three or more alcoholic drinks a day you could be at risk of a stroke.
The Arthritis painkiller Bextra is now being withdrawn...
Taking these antioxidant vitamins had a positive effect on body strength.
Horse-chestnut seeds for varicose veins Extracts of Horse-Chestnut seed can be just as good as compression stockings for varicose veins, according to a report in the Lancet.
That`s the name of the newsletter of the Sexual Dysfunctional Association, a tactful way of saying there`s a lot of it about.
Women in the UK tend to live five years longer than men....
Index to all previous Healthwise editions For books on Health visit the Amazon Family and Health Section. Don't forget if you buy books or videos from Amazon by linking from laterlife, you generate money for Charity.
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