The Health News Australia August 31 2017

Overview

• Scottish ministers were accused of failing to tackle a mental health crisis among children as it emerged more than 250,000 youngsters have no access to counsellors in school.
• Middle-aged men who throw themselves into fitness can halve their risk of strokes. Scientists said those with sedentary lifestyles had been able to transform their heart health in just 7years – protecting them 3 decades later.
• Patients should be given regular urine tests to ensure they are taking medication after a new study showed it identifies those who are ignoring prescriptions and encourages greater compliance.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 31st of August 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health New

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/846894/childrens-mental-health-care-Scotland-crisis

Ministers were yesterday accused of failing to tackle a mental health crisis among children as it emerged more than two hundred fifty thousand youngsters have no access to counsellors in school. New figures showed that  fourteen local authorities had no on-site support, while provision was patchy in other council areas. Charities have warned that youngsters are being left in distress and at serious risk. Some children with mental health problems are waiting more than a year for help. The figures, obtained by the BBC, showed school counsellors dealt with thousands of cases, including substance abuse, self-harm and depression in the past year.

A Scottish Government review into services is under way after Mental Health Minister Maureen Watt told MSPs “a mental health link person is available to every school”. But Labour’s inequalities spokeswoman, Monica Lennon, said access “should be available to all pupils.
She added: “There is a growing child mental health crisis in Scotland and a lack of ambition on the part of the Scottish Government to respond, so we share the frustration of charities, parents and teachers.”

Statistics showed on-site services were present in only forty percent of secondary schools – or ten percent of all primary and secondary schools. Miss Watt said the government mental health strategy would improve early intervention and provide better access to services.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/29/men-get-fit-middle-age-can-halve-risk-strokes/

According to research, middle-aged men who throw themselves into fitness can halve their risk of strokes. Scientists said those with sedentary lifestyles had been able to transform their heart health in just seven years – protecting them three decades later. Norwegian scientists tested the fitness of one thousand four hundred men who were in their  forties and fifties at the start of the trial. Most became less active as middle age set in, but one in three upped their efforts.
Some of the best results in the trial were achieved among those who started out as couch potatoes.  The group with the biggest increase were fifty six percent less likely than the group which slowed down the most to suffer a stroke in later life. Overall, one in eight had a stroke in the following twenty eight years, the study by the University of Oslo found.
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Many people assumed that lifestyle changes were only likely in the young, but the study found that almost of half of the men had changed their habits over the seven years – becoming more or less active. More than one hundred thousand Brits have a stroke each year and it is one of the leading causes of adult disability.

There are over one point two million people living with the effects of the condition – which costs the NHS around three billion pounds a year. Nine in ten strokes are preventable, scientists believe, with the majority linked to lifestyle factors such as diet, obesity and fitness.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/08/28/test-patients-urine-make-sure-taking-medication-says-new-study/

Patients should be given regular urine tests to ensure they are taking medication after a new study showed it identifies those who are ignoring prescriptions and encourages greater compliance. Researchers from the University of Manchester tested two hundred thirty eight patients with high blood pressure and discovered that nearly one third were not taking tablets on a regular basis to lower their blood pressure. However following testing, more than eighty percent started taking their medication correctly, leading to an average drop in blood pressure by between twenty and thirty mmHg between the urine test and the final clinic visit. Regularly screening patients to find out whether or not they are taking medication could save lives, and bring big cost savings for the NHS.

Professor Tomaszewski, of the University of Manchester said that the urine test creates an opportunity for patients and their doctors to discuss the barriers to regular taking of blood pressure lowering medications and the blood pressure drop we see as a result of this test being used in clinical practice is likely to save lives. It is also likely to have an important impact on health economy if this test is used routinely. Coronary heart disease is responsible for nearly seventy thousands deaths each year in Britain, an average of one hundred ninety people each day.  Likewise strokes kill forty thousand people annually in the UK.  High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is responsible for a large number of cases as it places a constant train on the heart and blood vessels. The study suggests that thousands of people could be saved if regular urine tests were brought in to make sure people were complying with medication.