Health news

• Portugal shows the way ahead on drugs policy | Letters

  10-12-2017 19:49
  Yasmin Batliwala and Ian McCauley praise Portugal’s non-punitive approach to drug addictionThe driving force behind Portugal’s capacity to rescue itself from the throes of an opioid crisis is an emphasis on personalised care that galvanises the community and functions conterminously with the decriminalisation of all substances (The big fix: Portugal’s truce on drugs, 5 December). Crucially, Portugal’s radical policy has gone some way to eradicate the taboo on drug misuse.
  
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• NHS trust boss resigns in protest over underfunding of health services

  10-12-2017 19:00
  Bob Kerslake quits as chair of King’s College hospital board, claiming NHS funding ‘desperately’ needs rethink amid unrealistic demands for savings• I’m quitting as a hospital boss: dire NHS funding problems give me no choiceThe boss of one of the NHS’s biggest trusts has resigned in protest at what he claims is such serious government underfunding that hospitals cannot perform their key role properly.Related: I’m quitting as a hospital boss: dire NHS fun
  
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• Loneliness is a 'giant evil' of our time, says Jo Cox commission

  10-12-2017 19:00
  Rachel Reeves argues that welfare state architect William Beveridge would add disconnected society to list of challengesOne of the key architects of Britain’s welfare state would have added loneliness as society’s sixth “giant evil” if he were alive today, Rachel Reeves will say after completing a year-long study into the issue.The Labour MP, who co-chaired the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness after her friend and colleague was murdered last year, will argue that the weake
  
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• I’m quitting as a hospital boss: dire NHS funding problems give me no choice | Bob Kerslake

  10-12-2017 18:59
  Our deficit at King’s College hospital, London, means we will be put into financial special measures, while what the NHS really needs is a fundamental rethinkI have this weekend decided to stand down from my role as chair of King’s College hospital, London.This was not a decision that I took lightly. I love King’s and have the highest regard for the people who work there. But in the end I have concluded that the government and its regulator, NHS Improvement, are simply not faci
  
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• Presents to make them sparkle like Meghan Markle!

  10-12-2017 18:13 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  From the ingenious ‘facialist’ tool that might help you look a little like Meghan to the super-smart skipping rope, these are the gifts to guarantee a merry Christmas and a happy New Year...
  
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• Urgent talks over future of Four Seasons care homes in UK

  10-12-2017 14:08
  Creditor H/2 makes concessions amid crisis at health firm caring for 17,000 elderly and vulnerable peopleThe care homes operator Four Seasons Health Care is on course for a stay of execution before a crunch debt deadline, after its major creditor offered to drop demands rejected by directors.Last-ditch talks aimed at staving off the worst care homes collapse since Southern Cross were still taking place on Sunday. Continue reading...
  
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• RCOG doctor says women should take abortion pills at home

  10-12-2017 13:15 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Professor Lesley Regan, who is President of The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), said women should be able to take the drug at home.
  
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• Sex health warning: Dangerous STIs you don’t want to catch this Christmas

  10-12-2017 11:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  SEXUAL intercourse - if unprotected - can bring with it a risk of sexually transmitted infections. Beware these four STIs.
  
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• Want a tip on weight loss? Don’t ask Mick Jagger | David Mitchell

  10-12-2017 11:00
  There’s no point looking to celebrities for dietary advice – they have their own weird reasons for being thinPeople won’t take dietary advice from obese nurses, but they will from stick-thin film stars – with terrible results in both cases. That was the news last week.The first half of the above is an inference from a study in the journal BMJ Open saying that about 25% of nurses in the NHS are obese, a discovery the report’s lead author, Dr Richard Kyle of Edinburgh
  
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• Adam Kay: ‘If I had kids I would put them off studying medicine’

  10-12-2017 10:30
  The comedian’s memoir about his gruelling years as a junior doctor has fired up public indignation over the NHS’s future. Even Jeremy Hunt has heard about it…The morning I was due to interview Adam Kay I awoke with heavy flu symptoms and a painfully frozen neck and shoulder. I was in perspiring agony and, even before I got out of bed, utterly exhausted. But I thought: what would a junior doctor do? Of course, if he or she were suffering from flu, the correct answer would be: n
  
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• Brain drain: our default responses to flu | Daniel Glaser

  10-12-2017 07:00
  What goes on in the hypothalamus when we get a fever?I’ve been laid up with flu and as I return to full cognitive function, I’ve been pondering the neuroscience. A fever’s tweak to your temperature regulation circuits triggers not only shivering, but also indirect loops. ‘Feeling’ cold can make you turn up the thermostat, grab blankets and take to your bed.It’s not clear whether it’s the bug or your defences that are in control, but using your body
  
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• Could your Sunday morning run cause arthritis? Orthopaedic surgeon explains

  10-12-2017 05:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  ARTHRITIS symptoms include joint pain and inflammation. There’s a myth that running and exercising may contribute to joint pain, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, claimed The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy .
  
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• 10 reasons to always take a lunch break

  10-12-2017 03:03 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  As the days get colder, an ‘al desko’ bowl of soup seems all the more appealing. But eating at your desk could put your physical and mental health at risk.
  
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• 600,000 women ditch pill after fears links breast cancer

  10-12-2017 02:46 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Official NHS figures reveal that between 2011 and 2015, the number of women in England taking the Pill fell by almost a quarter.
  
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• Life-changing injection will 'add months' breast cancer

  10-12-2017 02:42 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  The life-changing treatment, taken as an injection every three weeks, offers a last chance for women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) who have exhausted other options.
  
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• Diary of brave mother paralysed in catastrophic crash

  10-12-2017 02:11 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  On the morning of August 9, 2015, my life changed for ever when I broke my back in a horrific cycling accident in West Sussex, writes Amanda Newton for the Mail on Sunday.
  
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• Breakthrough sees new drug for dementia patients

  10-12-2017 01:49 via dailymail.co.uk
  
  Many people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s – the most common form of dementia – suffer from psychotic episodes and terrifying hallucinations that leave them permanently traumatised.
  
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• Scientists trace 2002 Sars virus to colony of cave-dwelling bats in China

  10-12-2017 01:05
  Genetic source found for disease that killed 750 round the worldScientists have pinpointed a population of virus-infected bats, which they have linked to the mysterious outbreak of Sars disease 15 years ago. Hundreds died as the virus spread around the globe but its source was never traced.Now, after years of searching across China, where the disease first emerged, researchers reported a few days ago that they had found a remote cave in Yunnan province, which is home to horseshoe bats that carry
  
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