The Health News United Kingdom October 30 2017

• According to Loughborough University researchers, marriage and having close friends may help protect against dementia. The study, published in Journals of Gerontology, followed 6,676 adults for just under seven years. The study suggested that single people had twice the risk of developing dementia during the study than those who were married. The Alzheimer’s Society said it was essential to help patients to maintain “meaningful social connections”.
• An NHS Trust has apologised to a transgender woman whose medical records were sent to another patient by mistake. Imperial College Trust admitted it had breached patient confidentiality after records belonging to Sarah Preece, a patient undergoing gender reassignment surgery, were placed in the wrong file.
• The clocks go back this weekend, meaning we get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning. But, changing to and from Daylight Saving Time could cause heart attacks, weight gain and mental health impacts. Swapping from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, and vice versa, impacts the body’s circadian rhythm – our ‘body clock’.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 30th of  October 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-41780686

According to Loughborough University researchers, marriage and having close friends may help protect against dementia. The study, published in Journals of Gerontology, followed six thousand six hundred seventy seven adults for just under seven years. The quality of a person’s social circle appeared more important than the overall size, the research team said.

The Alzheimer’s Society said it was essential to help patients to maintain “meaningful social connections”. None of the participants had dementia at the start of the trial, but two hundred twenty were diagnosed during it. The research group compared the traits of those who did and did not develop dementia to find clues as to how social lives affect risk. The nine factors that contribute to dementia risk are mid-life hearing loss, failing to complete secondary education, smoking, failing to seek early treatment for depression, physical inactivity, social isolation, high blood pressure, obesity & type two diabetes.

The study also suggested that single people had twice the risk of developing dementia during the study than those who were married. Doctor Doug Brown, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This amounts to about one extra diagnosis in each one hundred unmarried people.” As the study only follows people over time it cannot prove cause and effect.

Dementia is known to start in the brain decades before it is diagnosed and some of these early changes may affect people’s ability to socialise. Either way, Doctor Brown said loneliness was a real issue in dementia.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/28/nhs-trust-apologises-transgender-womans-medical-records-sent/

An NHS Trust has apologised to a transgender woman whose medical records were sent to another patient by mistake. Imperial College Trust admitted it had breached patient confidentiality after records belonging to Sarah Preece, a patient undergoing gender reassignment surgery, were placed in the wrong file. Miss Preece only learned of the mistake when another patient wrote to inform her that she had received files containing highly sensitive information, including details of her surgery.

Miss Preece said she had been “shocked” to receive the letter, adding that the Trust had failed to confirm whether her files had been sent to other patients. To compound the issue, Ms Preece said that the Trust had learned of the mistake more than a month beforehand, but had failed to notify her.

It comes two years after an NHS clinic in London was forced to apologise to hundreds of patients with HIV, whose names and emails were sent out in a newsletter.
The controversy forced the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to launch an inquiry into how the NHS handles confidential medical information, amid concerns that highly sensitive patient data was being mishandled. A spokesman for Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “The Trust takes the protection of patients’ confidentiality extremely seriously.

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/871968/clocks-health-time-sleep-heart-mental-daylight

The clocks go back this weekend, meaning we get an extra hour of sleep on Sunday morning. But, changing to and from Daylight Saving Time could cause heart attacks, weight gain and mental health impacts. Humans need a few days to realign themselves to the new clock cycle,  according to a psychological doctor. Swapping from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, and vice versa, impacts the body’s circadian rhythm – our ‘body clock’. It’s been linked to a rise in heart attacks when we get one less hour of sleep, as we’re being active when we should be asleep. Changing our circadian rhythm also impacts our ability to think clearly, solve problems, and even affects our happiness, the doctor added.

“Going to bed at the same time is a good thing, but when the clocks go back, we end up sleeping at different times,” said Doctor Mark Winwood, Director of Psychological Services for AXA PPP Healthcare. He told Express.co.uk: “We’re becoming increasingly aware that we’re sleep deprived; we’re the only animals that restrict our sleep.

We get less daylight during the winter months, with some areas of the UK not even managing six hours of sunlight on some December days. Less access to sunlight can impact our mental health, and mean we’re persistently feeling low, irritable and inactive. The condition – Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD – is sometimes known as winter depression, according to the NHS.
Sleep expert Doctor Nerina Ramlakhan has recommended people eat breakfast and drink water during the day to give them a better night’s sleep.