UK Health Radio - Medical News Update on the Hour - Gracie on Puberty in Girls

UK Health Radio - Medical News Update on the Hour

Puberty - Girls

Puberty is when a girl grows up into a young woman. Every girl goes through it. 

People say you start changing when you’re 10, but it happens to some girls earlier than this and to others a bit later. The most usual age is between 8-13. Your body starts when it’s ready.

Don't worry if you put on a bit of weight, as your body needs it as an energy store before it can cope with the changes. It’s not bad for you.

You might be the same age as your friend, but it doesn't mean that you'll grow at the same time. Everybody starts at different times.

Here's a list of growing up changes in the order they normally happen. It doesn't matter if the order is different to you.

You'll get taller, broader and heavier, Your boobs start to grow bigger, Your face gets longer, Your pubic hair starts to grow, Hair grows under your arms, You sweat more, skin and hair get greasier, your sex organs develop and then your periods start.

It can take up to 3 1/2 years from the very first changes of puberty to starting your periods.

Some girls get an ache in their tummy at the start of a period. Doing exercise often helps. If the pain is too bad then you could try a hot water bottle.

Gracie Timms

UK Health Radio - Medical News Update on the Hour

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UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - New Device to Control High Blood Pressure

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

An interesting report from the BBC has revealed that a device the size of a paper clip inserted in the groin has shown promising results in lowering blood pressure, scientists say.

In a study of 83 patients, published in The Lancet, those who received the device experienced an immediate reduction in blood pressure. But one-third also developed swelling in their leg that needed treatment.

High blood pressure affects one in three adults in the UK, with around 5% of this group suffering from resistant hypertension, which does not respond to medication. It is dangerous because it causes strain on the vessels carrying blood around the body.

This can cause vessels to become clogged up or to weaken, which can cause damage to the heart or brain. High blood pressure also increases the risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure, kidney damage and eye problems.

The device, called a coupler creates a chamber between the artery and vein in the upper thigh which appears to help lower resistance and bring blood pressure down.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, which led the study, tested the device on 42 patients with high blood pressure that had not responded to at least three types of drug treatment.

They compared the effects with 35 patients who were given the standard medical treatment for uncontrolled high blood pressure.

For patients in this group, there were fewer hypertensive complications and fewer hospital admissions for high blood pressure emergencies and those with the coupler inserted were also able to reduce their medication.

However, there were some side-effects. In around 29% of patients, swelling developed in the leg in which the coupler was inserted that was simply treated with a stent and was probably due to turbulence caused by the device in the thigh.

Lead author Dr Melvin Lobo acknowledged there was more to learn about the device. "We need more research to explore the long-term effects of the coupler, better understand its safety and understand more about how it works within the body. We must find better means of treating high blood pressure as drugs do not work for everyone and the coupler is a big step forward in our search for alternative treatment."

Prof Tom MacDonald, president of the British Hypertension Society, and professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Dundee, said the device could be "a fantastic thing for patients. It's another potentially great advance in the treatment of hypertension. It's not without its problems, but the beauty of it is you can reverse it, and it can be given to people on top of hypertension medication. We now need more rigorously controlled studies and a definitive trial before it can be funded for the NHS."

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

Kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - A&E Wait Times Improve

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

Better news this week for waiting times in A&E units in England as the BBC report that they have improved to their best level since November – although the target is still being missed, figures show.

A total of 92.4% of patients were seen in four hours in the seven days up until Sunday. The target is 95% and has been missed on a weekly basis since the start of October. But until this latest week performance had dropped to its lowest levels since 2010. That record low is now over.

In the first week of January, the BBC reported that performance was lower than 87% - the worst it has been since weekly records began in 2010.

During the latest week, the NHS seems to have been helped because the number of attendances has fallen.

It has been suggested that some of the information about and general pleas for people to visit hospitals only in emergencies, after weeks of bad headlines, has had an effect.

But Dame Barbara Hakin, of NHS England, said that while demands had "eased" the NHS was still facing "huge pressures on its frontline services".

She added: "For the second successive week there has been an improvement in A&E performance. It is encouraging. But I want to pay tribute to out staff for the excellent job they are doing in continuing to provide an incredibly robust response."

Nonetheless, only 29 of the 140 major hospital trusts - the overall figures include walk-in centres and minor injury units actually met the target.

There was also a rise in delayed discharges - this is where a hospital is unable to release a patient despite their treatment being completed because a lack of support available in the community.

The problem has been highlighted as a key reason for hospitals struggling in the New Year as the delays mean the flow of patients through the hospital system slows.

Other parts of the UK are also struggling. The target is being missed in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales - with the latter seeing the worst waits since the current way of measuring it began in 2009.

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

Kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - Hibernation and the link to Alzheimer's

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

The BBC have run a very interesting report that neurodegenerative diseases have been halted by harnessing the regenerative power of hibernation, scientists say.

Bears, hedgehogs and mice destroy brain connections as they enter hibernation, and repair them as they wake up.

A UK team have discovered "cold-shock chemicals" that trigger the process. They used these to prevent brain cells dying in animals, and say that restoring lost memories may eventually be possible.

Experts have described the findings as "promising" and "exciting". In the early stages of Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative disorders, synapses are lost. This inevitably progresses to whole brain cells dying.

But during hibernation, 20-30% of the connections in the brain - synapses - are culled as the body preserves precious resources over winter. And remarkably those connections are reformed in the spring, with no loss of memory.

In experiments, non-hibernating mice with Alzheimer's disease and prion disease were cooled so their body temperature dropped from 37C to 16-18C.

Young diseased mice lost synapses during the chill and regained them as they warmed up.

Old mice also lost brain connections, but were unable to re-establish them.

The study, that was published in the Journal Nature, found levels of a "cold-shock" chemical called RBM3 soared when young mice were chilled, but this was not  the case in old mice.

It suggested RBM3 was key to the formation of new connections. In a further set of tests, the team showed the brain cell deaths from prion disease and Alzheimer's could be prevented by artificially boosting RBM3 levels.

Prof Giovanna Mallucci, from the MRC Toxicology Unit in Leicester, told the BBC News website: "This gives us a target to develop a drug in the same way paracetamol is used for a fever rather than a cold bath. Memories can be restored during hibernation as only the receiving end of the synapse shuts down.”

It is still only an interesting concept, but has attracted some praise.

Dr Doug Brown, the director of research and development at the Alzheimer's Society said: "We know that cooling body temperate can protect the brain from some forms of damage and it's interesting to see this protective mechanism now also being studied in neurodegenerative disease. While we don't think body cooling is a feasible treatment for long-term, progressive conditions like Alzheimer's disease, this research opens up the possibility of finding drugs that can have the same effect. We are very much looking forward to seeing this research taken forward to the next stage."

Dr Eric Karran, the director of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said the study was "promising" and "highlights a natural process nerve cells use to protect themselves".  He added "a future treatment able to bolster nerve cells against damage could have wide-reaching benefits".

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

Kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - New Plastic Surgery Regulation Proposed

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

As programmes such as ‘Botched Up Bodies” pepper the TV schedules the Royal College of Surgeons have said that doctors should be prevented from performing cosmetic surgery outside their speciality.

It told the BBC the current rules potentially allow "GPs to do nose jobs" and that was "a big problem" for patients. The organisation wants a new system to certify surgeons for each procedure.

Bodies that represent aesthetic plastic surgeons say that they support the idea but it will only help patients if it is "mandatory and policed".

The whole industry has been under intense scrutiny since it was discovered that thousands of women had been fitted with sub standard breast implants made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP). Ministers described it as a "cowboy industry" of "murky practices".

The Royal College of Surgeons  has launched a consultation on ways of cleaning up the industry. One suggestion is a register of certified surgeons to help the public make an informed decision about the quality of their surgeon. Doctors would have to be a proven specialist in their field and provide evidence about their success rates.

The vice president of the college, Stephen Cannon told the BBC News website: "Operating outside of speciality is a big problem in private practice as money is involved, so we hope to rectify that. There will be no concerns if you're already an established surgeon doing extremely well.”

We really need it to be mandatory; we need every plastic surgeon and cosmetic surgeon to be involved in it and be regulated and certified to stop all that cowboy behaviour which goes on."

The Royal College of Surgeons advised people to look beyond the bill when picking a surgeon.

 Have you had a problem with plastic surgery procedure?  Let us know on the blog.

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

Kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com

UK Health Radio - Medical News Update on the Hour - Gracie on Cyberbullying

UK Health Radio - Medical News Update on the Hour

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is when children or teenagers use the internet, or mobile phones to threaten, tease or embarrass another.

Often bullies set up a website or group on a social website like Facebook and then ask other people to join in and comment about a person or pictures of them.

But can include things like emailing someone a virus on purpose, posting personal information where it shouldn't be or calling them names when playing a game together online.

Bullies on the Internet can't cause physical pain, but because of the way we now live our lives, with mobile phones and lots of Internet use, they can be very hard to avoid.

Online bullying is hard to work out who the cyber bullies are, they can hide behind fake names.

The best advice is to stay away from websites they use and block email addresses or mobile numbers that send nasty messages.

Find the 'report abuse' or 'block sender' options on your favourite websites.

Changing your username may also help and don't ever give out personal details such as your mobile number, address or email online.

You should also report the bullying to the people running the website. Keep evidence - callers and emailers can be tracked. And as with all bullying, telling an adult it's happening is REALLY important.

Gracie Timms

 UK Health Radio - Medical News Update on the Hour

kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour - Teen Sleep is Important to Avoid Bad Behaviours.

UK Health Radio – Medical News Update on the Hour

The BBC has carried an interesting report that said that poor sleep in teenage years could be an early warning sign that alcohol problems, illicit drug use and "regretful" sexual behaviour, might follow, research suggests.

US scientists found adolescents with bad sleep habits were more likely to engage in risky behaviour in the years to come than those who slept soundly. They say parents should pay closer attention to teens' sleep schedules.

Other research suggests a good night's sleep is key to making good judgements.

Most of the time we don't think sleep is important but these results appear to show that sleep is a good marker of some serious later problems according to the report in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research where scientists analysed data from more than 6,500 adolescents in the United States.

They tracked sleep patterns, alcohol and drug use through a large nationwide survey conducted in three waves between 1994 and 2002.

People who slept badly when first questioned were most likely to have alcohol and drug problems at that time.

But researchers also wanted to tease out whether poor or insufficient sleep were independently linked to the development of such problems in later life.

Teenagers who reported trouble going to sleep at least once a week were more likely to binge drink, engage in sexual behaviour that they later regretted when drunk or take illicit drugs in the years to come.

And the worse the sleep problem, the stronger the link seemed to be. Those who found it difficult falling sleep almost every day were 33% more likely to experience these issues than teenagers who found it easy to drift-off.

But an extra hour of sleep seemed to offer some protection - each additional hour was linked to a decrease in the odds of binge drinking.

Prof Maria Wong from Idaho State University, who led the project, told the BBC: "Most of the time we don't think sleep is important. But our results show sleep is a good marker of some serious later problems.

"A lot of parents don't monitor their adolescents' sleep schedules and let them make their own decisions about when to go to bed.

"But parents need to start talking to their teenagers, not just about grades and extra-curricular activities but about sleep too. And they must get help if needed."

Independent sleep researcher Dr Neil Stanley, said: "Even without a medical condition such as insomnia, many teenagers get less sleep than they need each night just because life - computers etc. get in the way.

"But this study builds on previous research that shows a lack of sleep can seriously impair judgement.

"And this is particularly important for adolescents who are more prone to risk taking and willing to experiments with alcohol and drugs."

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio Medical News Update on the Hour

Kindly sponsored by 1-stop-health-shop.com