Author: healthprofessionalradio

Overview

• The official data shows the number of drug poisoning deaths reached record levels in England and Wales. Deaths involving cocaine rose by 16% to 371, while overall there were 3,743 deaths from legal and illegal drugs.
• Scientists have discovered that women who have children after the age of 30 face a greater risk of their offspring developing cancer. Experts warn that women who leave it late to have children are at a much greater risk of severe complications.
• Research suggests that up to 3,000 elderly people will not be able to get beds in UK care homes by the end of next year. Increasing demand from an ageing population could see that grow to more than 7,000 beds in 9 years’ time.

Overview

• Florida’s Department of Health has licensed two more medical marijuana treatment centers. The Florida Legislature granted the approval of ten new licenses by the end of the year as part of a bill implementing rules for the state’s medical marijuana constitutional amendment.
• Bernie Sanders is ready to introduce his own solution to this seemingly never-ending US health care debate:  government-run universal healthcare for all Americans. On Wednesday, he launched a six-figure digital advertising campaign on Facebook and Google that encourages supporters to become “citizen co-sponsors” of his plan, which he calls “Medicare for All”, according to Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis, a reference to the public healthcare program for older Americans.
• According to a new government study, the US needs to curb excessive opioid prescribing and improve access to pain management techniques. Researchers found that more than one third of U.S. adults were prescribed the medications in 2015 and many also misused the drugs.

Overview

• General Practitioners in England are being encouraged to keep a register of patients with autism in order to improve the care they receive. Health chiefs say a register would alert GPs to the specific needs of adults and children with autism and help tailor services for them. The National Autistic Society said it would “help improve the health and wellbeing of autistic people”.
• In May of this year, all children in the UK under two years of age had been offered the meningitis B vaccine. Now, as of today, the NHS will be offered a new vaccination as a matter of course – one which immunises also against hepatitis B. So welcome was the vaccine, that a petition was signed to have it rolled out for older children.
• According to a major report barely one in ten Scottish children in the later years of primary school do the minimum recommended hour of physical activity every day. The Scottish Government study found only eleven percent of 10 and 11-year-old children achieve the requirement for at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day.

Overview

• Florida health officials are reporting the state’s first sexually transmitted case of Zika in 2017. According to a Florida Department of Health statement, the Pinellas County resident’s partner showed symptoms of the mosquito-borne virus after a recent trip to Cuba.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of infants born in the U.S. in 2013 ,81.1 % were breastfed — with 51.8 % breastfeeding at six months and 30.7% breastfeeding at twelve months. Women who breast-feed have a lower likelihood of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Women can also maintain their weight and possibly lose weight.
• Search terms relating to “suicide” spiked following the March 2017 release of the popular Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” according to a research paper released Monday. According to new research cumulative searches for suicide-related terms went up 19% . Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, president of the Child Mind Institute, said the study is a unique way of showing how children and teens were affected by the show just after its release.

Overview

• According to Western Australia’s biggest private health fund HBF — which increased its premiums by almost 6% this year — the number of its customers with top hospital cover halved in the past 5 years. Private Healthcare Australia (PHA) has warned that the figure was only going to get worse.
• There has been a spike in flu outbreaks in NSW nursing homes and health authorities are warning visitors who are sick to steer clear. More than 50 aged care facilities have had outbreaks in the past week alone, taking the total number of outbreaks this year in such facilities to around 140.
• A new study has shown that obese people aren’t able to regulate the way body fat is stored or burned because a “switch” in their brain stays on all the time. The brain’s ability to sense insulin and co-ordinate feeding with burning energy is controlled by a switch-like mechanism, researchers from the Metabolic Disease and Obesity Program at Monash University say.

Overview

• U.S. hospitals have set a record for how quickly they open blocked arteries, averaging under 1 hour for the first time since these results have been tracked. More than 93% of patients now have their arteries opened within the recommended 90 minutes of arrival.
• U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Russ Walker has struck down Alabama’s one-of-a-kind law that enabled judges to put minors seeking abortions through a trial-like proceeding in which the fetus could get a lawyer and prosecutors could object to the pregnant girl’s wishes.
• Alaska State Senator Shelley Hughes recently announced that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer but said she’s not going anywhere and promised to continue serving her district.

Overview

• A dedicated mental health service to help people affected by the Manchester Arena attack has been launched. The Manchester Resilience Hub, run by the NHS, will focus solely on helping those directly affected including children and emergency responders
• Scientists fear that sleeping badly could be driving weight gain and after finding that people who slept just six hours a night had waist measurements an inch greater than those who get nine hours.
• Andrew Radford, chief executive of charity Beating Eating Disorders has warned that images of “infeasible” body physiques circulated on social media may be behind a seventy percent rise in the number of men treated in hospital for eating disorders.

Overview

• Research from Cancer Council Victoria suggests that free giveaways like movie character toys have a powerful influence over what kids want to eat and can even make them more likely to choose healthier options. This study involved almost 1,000 Australian children between 5 and 9 years of age, who were offered a number of healthy and unhealthy meal choices after watching a movie trailer followed by a fast food advertisement or leisure activity.
• The weight of a healthy human liver is typically one point five kilograms or less. But for  Fiona Murray, hers weighed 12.8 kilograms. After doctors removed it, Mrs. Murray said it was a “no-brainer” to donate her liver to The University of Queensland so it can be used in medical studies.
• A towering high-rise aged care development proposed in a south-west Brisbane suburb is prompting debate about how high is too high. Provider TriCare is planning to build three glass-panelled towers of 9 to 16 storeys in Taringa, which is double the current heights in the suburb. It is to be fast-tracked for assessment by the Brisbane City Council under developer incentives that were introduced last year to help boost aged care and retirement beds in Brisbane.