Nursing care for people with dementia is in need of a radical overhaul, a leading think tank has warned.

The King’s Fund says people with Alzheimer’s and dementia in England are having NHS-funded care withdrawn in the later stages of their illness.

It says relatives have to pick up the bill for additional nursing support.

The government says the number of people receiving continuing care has risen by almost two-thirds in the past three years.

There are 820,000 people living with dementia in the UK and that number is set to rise as the population ages, according to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

Social needs

Christophe Grillet, from Cambridge, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 17 years ago, was receiving round-the-clock health care from the NHS at home but as his condition became more advanced, he was reassessed and the continuous care was withdrawn.

His wife Kate said: “They say his needs are primarily social care needs – washing, dressing, feeding and that he’s relatively easy to deal with.

“The country is full of people, including my husband, who are having their support taken away and left to try and fund whatever care they can get themselves.

“This doesn’t take into account when you have Alzheimer’s your health needs are even more, you don’t get better.”

Mrs Grillet said she felt excluded from much of the decision-making regarding his NHS-funded care and now her husband is in a home which costs them £600 a week.

“Because we didn’t get the support we needed, we are separated, and that is the biggest problem,” she added.

The government has issued guidelines to primary care trusts (PCTs) on how they should assess the continuing care needs of people with dementia but campaigners say funding cuts mean many PCTs just ignore them.

Barbara Pointon, from Dementia UK and the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “What’s happening with NHS continuing health care is it’s getting more and more difficult to get in the first place, and when people with dementia move into the advanced stage and need more care, it’s being taken away from them.”

The King’s Fund is calling for a shake-up of the system that differentiates between health care, which the NHS pays for, and social care, which local authorities and individuals have to fund.

Richard Humphries, from the health think tank, told the BBC: “The system is increasingly broken and it will struggle to cope with the rising tide of people with dementia and people will become more dissatisfied with it.

“We desperately need a radical overall to bring more fairness and more funding into the system.”

Jo Webber, from the NHS Confederation, which represents the majority of NHS organisations, said the service did not have an “infinite pot of money”.

“Over the next 30 years the number of people with dementia will double, so we do have to find different ways of delivering services,” she said.

“I don’t underestimate the anxiety and the worry at the moment for people who are having these issues but we can’t go on this way.”

A Department of Health spokesman said continuing health care is a package of care – health and personal care and accommodation costs – arranged and funded solely by the NHS for people who have been assessed as having a primary health need. It can be provided in a range of settings, including care homes or a patient’s home.

He said since the introduction of the national framework for PCTs, the overall number of people receiving NHS-funded continuing care had risen from just under 31,000 at the end of March 2007 to about 51,000 at the end of September.

“The national framework has started to reduce the regional variation in who gets care and there has been an overall increase in the numbers of people in receipt of NHS continuing health care,” he added.

Mr Grillet’s PCT says it followed the government’s guidelines but health care needs change.

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Article Source: BBC News UK

Babies are exposed to hormones in the womb

The length of a man’s fingers can provide clues to his risk of prostate cancer, according to new research.

A British Journal of Cancer study found men whose index finger was longer than their ring finger were significantly less likely to develop the disease.

Researchers made the discovery after comparing the hands of 1,500 prostate cancer patients with 3,000 healthy men.

The length of the fingers is fixed before birth and is thought to relate to sex hormone levels in the womb.

Being exposed to less testosterone before birth results in a longer index finger and may protect against prostate cancer later in life, say researchers at the University of Warwick and the Institute of Cancer Research.

One of the report authors, Professor Ros Eeles, said more studies would be needed, but if these confirmed the findings it could be used a simple test for prostate cancer risk.

She said: “This exciting finding means that finger pattern could potentially be used to select at-risk men for ongoing screening, perhaps in combination with other factors such as family history or genetic testing.”

The study was funded by the charities Prostate Action and Cancer Research UK.

Emma Halls, chief executive of Prostate Action, said: “This research brings us another step closer to helping determine risk factors for prostate cancer, which is possibly the biggest issue in current thinking about preventing and treating the disease.

“However, we are still a long way from reducing the number of men who die of prostate cancer every year and need more research and education in all areas to achieve this.”

Dr Helen Rippon, head of research at The prostate Cancer Charity, said the research added to growing evidence that the balance of hormones we are exposed to before birth influences our health for the rest of our lives.

But she said men with shorter index fingers should not be “unduly worried”.

“They share this trait with more than half of all men and it does not mean they will definitely develop prostate cancer in later life.”

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Image and Article Source: BBC UK

By Sara Novak of Planet Green and Jake Richardson of Care2 Green Living

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Once in a blue moon, I’ll hear some positive news on the healthy eating front and dark chocolate has time and time again come out on top. This along with the antioxidants in wine is enough to make you jump for joy. We know that this delectable sweet treat provides a wealth of health benefits, but how much is too much?

Recently, Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen, authors of YOU: On a Diet, answered some important questions on the specifics of dark chocolate consumption. According to the article in the Sun Setinel, you don’t need a whole bar to get a healthy dose of antioxidants. The flavonoids in dark chocolate are so powerful that a daily piece the size of a Hershey’s kiss can lower your blood pressure.

While this is an ideal size comparison, it’s not a good quality comparison because the chocolate cannot be milk chocolate. The chocolate should be fair trade, organic, and at least 70 percent cocoa. Avoid any filling like peanut butter, which could be laced with hydrogenated oils.

Dark chocolate and heart disease

According to a study published in the European Heart Journal and reported on CBS News, German researchers found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day (one square of a chocolate bar) had a 39 percent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke.

Dark chocolate and stroke protection

I wrote about another study published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. This new study found that dark chocolate can provide protection after a stroke has already occurred.

A specific chemical found in dark chocolate called epicatechin appears to do the trick. We already know that it can prevent strokes from happening and now we know that it can provide protection against stroke damage.

Meanwhile, according to the website, Nutritiondata.com, a one ounce serving of dark chocolate contains 19 percent of the US RDA for iron. Yet an ounce of beef sirloin only contains 3 percent.

Is dark chocolate really that high in iron? Why hasn’t anyone told me this?

Data from USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference shows: Chocolate, dark, 70-85 percent cacao solids, value per 100 grams is 11.90 milligrams of iron. Beef, bottom sirloin, tri-tip roast, separable lean and fat, trimmed to 0″ fat, all grades, cooked, roasted, value per 100 grams is 1.66 milligrams of iron. Beef, ground, 70 percent lean meat / 30 percent fat, crumbles, cooked, pan-browned, value per 100 grams is 2.48 milligrams of iron. So these two information sources state that dark chocolate does contain more iron than some cuts of beef, and not just a little more.

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Image Credits: Define Body

Article Source: Green.Yahoo Blog, Care2GreenLiving

GENEVA (AFP) – – The World Health Organisation said on Thursday that the number of cases of tuberculosis worldwide had levelled off last year, with lifesaving inroads against the disease especially in China and India.

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An estimated 9.4 million people contracted the disease in 2009, the same number as the previous year, the WHO’s annual report, “Global Tuberculosis Control 2010″ found.

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The WHO said the incidence of tuberculosis was stable or falling in all 22 countries with the highest burden of the infectious disease except South Africa.

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However, it warned that despite significant and lasting improvements in the quality of TB care since 1995, especially in poor countries, overall progress is still far too fragile.

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“There are still 1.7 million deaths a year from a disease that is perfectly curable in 2010,” said Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO’s Stop TB unit.

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“At this pace it will take millennia to get rid of TB,” he told journalists.

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The global death rate has declined by 35 percent since 1990, with six million lives being saved a year compared to 1995, while detection of tuberculosis was improving, according to the report.

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The report showed that when the best practices were put in place with proper funding and government commitment, “then the tide in the epidemic can turn,” Raviglione added.

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He highlighted the experience of India, the hardest hit country with an estimated two million cases of the infectious disease a year.

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“India is the country that has seen the most spectacular increase in doing the rights things in TB control,” Raviglione said, pointing to a shift from sparse detection and treatment 10 years ago to nationwide coverage today.

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Death rates in China have been halved over the past decade, as well as in Brazil and Cambodia compared to 1990.

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But the WHO emphasised that some of the most populous countries also faced “the biggest challenge of them all,” an estimated 440,000 multidrug resistant (MDR) strains of tuberculosis a year which are both hard to detect and to treat.

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“The main issue is in Russia, China and India where most of the global (MDR) burden lies and this is where we expect great progress in the future,” said Raviglione.

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In India about 1,000 cases of MDR tuberculosis are uncovered every year, compared to an estimated total of 100,000 such cases in the country. The global detection rate is about five percent.

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Source: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101111/tts-health-who-disease-tuberculosis-c1b2fc3.html

Author: AFP - Friday, November 12

WASHINGTON (AFP) – – People who sleep more or fewer than seven hours a day, including naps, are increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, a study published Sunday shows.

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Sleeping fewer than five hours a day, including naps, more than doubles the risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke, the study conducted by researchers at West Virginia University’s (WVU) faculty of medicine and published in the journal “Sleep” says.

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And sleeping more than seven hours also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, it says.

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Study participants who said they slept nine hours or longer a day were one-and-a-half times more likely than seven-hour sleepers to develop cardiovascular disease, the study found.

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The most at-risk group was adults under 60 years of age who slept five hours or fewer a night. They increased their risk of developing cardiovascular disease more than threefold compared to people who sleep seven hours.

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Women who skimped on sleep, getting five hours or fewer a day, including naps, were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to develop cardiovascular disease.

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Short sleep duration was associated with angina, while both sleeping too little and sleeping too much were associated with heart attack and stroke, the study says.

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A separate study, also published in “Sleep”, showed that an occasional long lie-in can be beneficial for those who can’t avoid getting too little sleep.

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In that study, David Dinges, who heads the sleep and chronobiology unit at the University of Pennsylvania school of medicine, found that 142 adults whose sleep was severely restricted for five days — as it is for many people during the work week — had slower reaction times and more trouble focusing.

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But after a night of recovery sleep, the sleep-deprived study participants’ alertness improved significantly, and the greatest improvements were seen in those who were allowed to spend 10 hours in bed after a week with just four hours’ sleep a night.

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“An additional hour or two of sleep in the morning after a period of chronic partial sleep loss has genuine benefits for continued recovery of behavioral alertness,” Dinges said.

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In the study about sleep and cardiovascular disease, researchers led by Anoop Shankar, associate professor at WVU’s department of community medicine, analyzed data gathered in a national US study in 2005 on more than 30,000 adults.

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The results were adjusted for age, sex, race, whether the person smoked or drank, whether they were fat or slim, and whether they were active or a couch potato.

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And even when study participants with diabetes, high blood pressure or depression were excluded from the analysis, the strong association between too much or too little sleep and cardiovascular disease remained.

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The authors of the WVU study were unable to determine the causal relationship between how long a person sleeps and cardiovascular disease.

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But they pointed out that sleep duration affects endocrine and metabolic functions, and sleep deprivation can lead to impaired glucose tolerance, reduced insulin sensitivity and elevated blood pressure, all of which increase the risk of hardening the arteries.

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The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that most adults get about seven to eight hours of sleep each night.

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Shankar suggested that doctors screen for changes in sleep duration when assessing patients’ risk for cardiovascluar disease, and that public health initiatives consider including a focus on improving sleep quality and quantity.

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“Sleep” is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

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Source:

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100801/tls-health-science-sleep-heart-stroke-aeafa1b.html

Busy with work? No time for exercise because you are too bent on making money Please don’t walk your way towards donating all your money to hospital bills. You’ll end up poor while your doctor shows off his brand new Mercedes Benz. If you’ve got no time, make time! Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is why we ought to take good care of it.

In response to the e-mails that we have received regarding HIV and since it is a rising issue and point of argument every February, we have decided to republish this fact sheet that’s originally prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to correct a few misperceptions about HIV.

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Research has revealed a great deal of valuable medical, scientific, and public health information about the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The ways in which HIV can be transmitted have been clearly identified. Unfortunately, false information or statements that are not supported by scientific findings continue to be shared widely through the Internet or popular press.

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How HIV Is Transmitted

HIV is spread by sexual contact with an infected person, by sharing needles and/or syringes (primarily for drug injection) with someone who is infected, or, less commonly (and now very rarely in countries where blood is screened for HIV antibodies), through transfusions of infected blood or blood clotting factors. Babies born to HIV-infected women may become infected before or during birth or through breastfeeding after birth.

In the health care setting, workers have been infected with HIV after being stuck with needles containing HIV-infected blood or, less frequently, after infected blood gets into a worker’s open cut or a mucous membrane (for example, the eyes or inside of the nose). There has been only one instance of patients being infected by a health care worker in the United States; this involved HIV transmission from one infected dentist to six patients. Investigations have been completed involving more than 22,000 patients of 63 HIV-infected physicians, surgeons, and dentists, and no other cases of this type of transmission have been identified in the United States.

Some people fear that HIV might be transmitted in other ways; however, no scientific evidence to support any of these fears has been found. If HIV were being transmitted through other routes (such as through air, water, or insects), the pattern of reported AIDS cases would be much different from what has been observed. For example, if mosquitoes could transmit HIV infection, many more young children and preadolescents would have been diagnosed with AIDS.

All reported cases suggesting new or potentially unknown routes of transmission are thoroughly investigated by state and local health departments with the assistance, guidance, and laboratory support from CDC. No additional routes of transmission have been recorded, despite a national sentinel system designed to detect just such an occurrence.

The following paragraphs specifically address some of the common misperceptions about HIV transmission.

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HIV in the Environment

Scientists and medical authorities agree that HIV does not survive well in the environment, making the possibility of environmental transmission remote. HIV is found in varying concentrations or amounts in blood, semen, vaginal fluid, breast milk, saliva, and tears. (See page 3, Saliva, Tears, and Sweat.) To obtain data on the survival of HIV, laboratory studies have required the use of artificially high concentrations of laboratory-grown virus. Although these unnatural concentrations of HIV can be kept alive for days or even weeks under precisely controlled and limited laboratory conditions, CDC studies have shown that drying of even these high concentrations of HIV reduces the amount of infectious virus by 90 to 99 percent within several hours. Since the HIV concentrations used in laboratory studies are much higher than those actually found in blood or other specimens, drying of HIV-infected human blood or other body fluids reduces the theoretical risk of environmental transmission to that which has been observed—essentially zero. Incorrect interpretation of conclusions drawn from laboratory studies has unnecessarily alarmed some people.

Results from laboratory studies should not be used to assess specific personal risk of infection because (1) the amount of virus studied is not found in human specimens or elsewhere in nature; and (2) no one has been identified as infected with HIV due to contact with an environmental surface. Additionally, HIV is unable to reproduce outside its living host (unlike many bacteria or fungi, which may do so under suitable conditions), except under laboratory conditions, therefore, it does not spread or maintain infectiousness outside its host.

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Households

Although HIV has been transmitted between family members in a household setting, this type of transmission is very rare. These transmissions are believed to have resulted from contact between skin or mucous membranes and infected blood. To prevent even such rare occurrences, precautions, as described in previously published guidelines, should be taken in all settings “including the home” to prevent exposures to the blood of persons who are HIV infected, at risk for HIV infection, or whose infection and risk status are unknown. For example,

• Gloves should be worn during contact with blood or other body fluids that could possibly contain visible blood, such as urine, feces, or vomit.
• Cuts, sores, or breaks on both the caregiver’s and patient’s exposed skin should be covered with bandages.
• Hands and other parts of the body should be washed immediately after contact with blood or other body fluids, and surfaces soiled with blood should be disinfected appropriately.
• Practices that increase the likelihood of blood contact, such as sharing of razors and toothbrushes, should be avoided.
• Needles and other sharp instruments should be used only when medically necessary and handled according to recommendations for health-care settings. (Do not put caps back on needles by hand or remove needles from syringes. Dispose of needles in puncture-proof containers out of the reach of children and visitors.)

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Businesses and Other Settings

There is no known risk of HIV transmission to co-workers, clients, or consumers from contact in industries such as food-service establishments (see information on survival of HIV in the environment). Food-service workers known to be infected with HIV need not be restricted from work unless they have other infections or illnesses (such as diarrhea or hepatitis A) for which any food-service worker, regardless of HIV infection status, should be restricted. CDC recommends that all food-service workers follow recommended standards and practices of good personal hygiene and food sanitation.

In 1985, CDC issued routine precautions that all personal-service workers (such as hairdressers, barbers, cosmetologists, and massage therapists) should follow, even though there is no evidence of transmission from a personal-service worker to a client or vice versa. Instruments that are intended to penetrate the skin (such as tattooing and acupuncture needles, ear piercing devices) should be used once and disposed of or thoroughly cleaned and sterilized. Instruments not intended to penetrate the skin but which may become contaminated with blood (for example, razors) should be used for only one client and disposed of or thoroughly cleaned and disinfected after each use. Personal-service workers can use the same cleaning procedures that are recommended for health care institutions.

CDC knows of no instances of HIV transmission through tattooing or body piercing, although hepatitis B virus has been transmitted during some of these practices. One case of HIV transmission from acupuncture has been documented. Body piercing (other than ear piercing) is relatively new in the United States, and the medical complications for body piercing appear to be greater than for tattoos. Healing of piercings generally will take weeks, and sometimes even months, and the pierced tissue could conceivably be abraded (torn or cut) or inflamed even after healing. Therefore, a theoretical HIV transmission risk does exist if the unhealed or abraded tissues come into contact with an infected person’s blood or other infectious body fluid. Additionally, HIV could be transmitted if instruments contaminated with blood are not sterilized or disinfected between clients.

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Kissing

Casual contact through closed-mouth or “social” kissing is not a risk for transmission of HIV. Because of the potential for contact with blood during “French” or open-mouth kissing, CDC recommends against engaging in this activity with a person known to be infected. However, the risk of acquiring HIV during open-mouth kissing is believed to be very low. CDC has investigated only one case of HIV infection that may be attributed to contact with blood during open-mouth kissing.

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Biting

In 1997, CDC published findings from a state health department investigation of an incident that suggested blood-to-blood transmission of HIV by a human bite. There have been other reports in the medical literature in which HIV appeared to have been transmitted by a bite. Severe trauma with extensive tissue tearing and damage and presence of blood were reported in each of these instances. Biting is not a common way of transmitting HIV. In fact, there are numerous reports of bites that did not result in HIV infection.

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Saliva, Tears, and Sweat

HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from some AIDS patients. It is important to understand that finding a small amount of HIV in a body fluid does not necessarily mean that HIV can be transmitted by that body fluid. HIV has not been recovered from the sweat of HIV-infected persons. Contact with saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.

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Insects

From the onset of the HIV epidemic, there has been concern about transmission of the virus by biting and bloodsucking insects. However, studies conducted by researchers at CDC and elsewhere have shown no evidence of HIV transmission through insects—even in areas where there are many cases of AIDS and large populations of insects such as mosquitoes. Lack of such outbreaks, despite intense efforts to detect them, supports the conclusion that HIV is not transmitted by insects.

The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person’s or animal’s blood into the next person bitten. Rather, it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant or anticoagulant so the insect can feed efficiently. Such diseases as yellow fever and malaria are transmitted through the saliva of specific species of mosquitoes. However, HIV lives for only a short time inside an insect and, unlike organisms that are transmitted via insect bites, HIV does not reproduce (and does not survive) in insects. Thus, even if the virus enters a mosquito or another sucking or biting insect, the insect does not become infected and cannot transmit HIV to the next human it feeds on or bites. HIV is not found in insect feces.

There is also no reason to fear that a biting or bloodsucking insect, such as a mosquito, could transmit HIV from one person to another through HIV-infected blood left on its mouth parts. Two factors serve to explain why this is so–first, infected people do not have constant, high levels of HIV in their bloodstreams and, second, insect mouth parts do not retain large amounts of blood on their surfaces. Further, scientists who study insects have determined that biting insects normally do not travel from one person to the next immediately after ingesting blood. Rather, they fly to a resting place to digest this blood meal.

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Effectiveness of Condoms

Condoms are classified as medical devices and are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Condom manufacturers in the United States test each latex condom for defects, including holes, before it is packaged. The proper and consistent use of latex or polyurethane (a type of plastic) condoms when engaging in sexual intercourse—vaginal, anal, or oral—can greatly reduce a person’s risk of acquiring or transmitting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection.

There are many different types and brands of condoms available—however, only latex or polyurethane condoms provide a highly effective mechanical barrier to HIV. In laboratories, viruses occasionally have been shown to pass through natural membrane (“skin” or lambskin) condoms, which may contain natural pores and are therefore not recommended for disease prevention (they are documented to be effective for contraception). Women may wish to consider using the female condom when a male condom cannot be used.

For condoms to provide maximum protection, they must be usedconsistently (every time) and correctly. Several studies of correct and consistent condom use clearly show that latex condom breakage rates in this country are less than 2 percent. Even when condoms do break, one study showed that more than half of such breaks occurred prior to ejaculation.

When condoms are used reliably, they have been shown to prevent pregnancy up to 98 percent of the time among couples using them as their only method of contraception. Similarly, numerous studies among sexually active people have demonstrated that a properly used latex condom provides a high degree of protection against a variety of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection.

For more detailed information about condoms, see the CDC publication “Male Latex Condoms and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.“

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CDC’s Response

CDC is committed to providing the scientific community and the public with accurate and objective information about HIV infection and AIDS. It is vital that clear information on HIV infection and AIDS be readily available to help prevent further transmission of the virus and to allay fears and prejudices caused by misinformation.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/resources/factsheets/transmission.htm

As of today, it is estimated that more than 500,000 are already noted dead in Haiti because of the massive earthquake that happened last January 13, 2010. They need our help. If we can be of any help, let’s do it. What if it happened to us or to our country? To know that there are concerned citizens overseas is overwhelming and an act no one can ever pay because it’s coming from our own hearts. Even a prayer would mean a lot. Let’s pray for their economy’s faster recovery and their people too.

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To residents of the United States of America, please send the word “HAITI” to “90999″. For every SMS sent, you will be donating $10 and it will all be gathered by the American Red Cross for rehabilitation of the people in Haiti.

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To people outside US, you can still make a donation to American Red Cross using your debit or credit card accounts. Please go to: http://american.redcross.org/supporthaiti

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For any international help, please go to: http://www.cidi.org/incident/haiti-10a/

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For any Donation/Volunteer Related inquiries, please call: +1 703-276-1914

For any Media-related inquiries, please call: +1 202-821-1983

For any information, please go to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/13/help-haiti