Some conditions mean that patients can be thirsty and hungry but feeding can be difficult due to medical complications. A disease which can prevent you from feeding when you are hungry is Alzheimers. Campaigners are working to make sure that no one dies because of hunger or dehydration.

The Patients Association chief executive is Katherine Murphy who has said, “The NHS needs to improve its care of people who could be suffering from dehydration or malnutrition. It is entirely possible that these deaths are avoidable if patient care is increased. Monitoring of patients who are vulnerable to these conditions needs to be made systematic and hospital boards need to accept responsibility for this and prevented from happening in the future.”

The figures are not just for the NHS but also privately run hospitals and interestingly, in the last decade, the number of deaths associated with starvation or dehydration has increased. In 2000 nearly 900 people died when suffering from dehydration or malnutrition, although this was not the primary cause of death. 10 years later the figures have increased and nearly 1300 people have dehydration or starvation as a contributory factor in death.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health has stated, “Most of the people who are suffering from these conditions have a severe underlying condition, such as cancer, and this makes them much more susceptible to these kind of nutrition problems. That said, patients have a right to expect that they will be helped to drink and eat enough to ensure they are comfortable no matter what.”

The Prime Minister has recently said that he wants to see the number of rounds nurses are doing in hospitals increased, so that the standard of care for patients improves. David Cameron commented, “There should be more rounds conducted by nurses making sure that each patient is hydrated, fed and comfortable. Everyone being treated by our health service deserves respect and dignity.”

He made his comments after a report by Care Quality Commission which stated that, in general, nursing standards in the NHS were not compassionate enough. A report by the organisation last year found that when visiting 100 hospitals, patients were only being checked to make sure they had enough food and water in 50 percent of cases.

In some cases doctors had to go to extreme lengths to make sure that their patients were getting enough water from nurses, some even went so far as writing it up as a prescription. There are also concerns that some patients who might struggle to feed themselves, such as the elderly, are not being given the assistance they need to make sure that they are eating well.

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Oestrogen has a central role in the progression of breast cancer and with this chemical it is speculated there might be an increased the risk of the disease. Despite the correlations between these two factors there has never being a causal link approved.

Parabens are capable of mimicking an effect by oestrogen but it has a far smaller effect than the oestrogen that has been naturally produced by the body. The chemical is not only found in artificial products and is naturally occurring in blueberries and similar foods.

Research which has come out of theUniversityofReadinghas shown that 99 percent of samples taken from women’s breasts who had breast cancer contained at least one paraben. In 60 percent of the samples over five parabens were present.

Another author of the study is Mr Lester Barr from the University Hospital of South Manchester who has commented, “We have shown that there is no simple causal link between breast cancer and products that contain parabens. Parabens are very often present in underarm deodorants and it was thought for a long time that using them would increase the number of parabens that entered your system.

“However, in our study we found that even those women who were not using underarm deodorant had parabens present in their tissue samples. This raises the complex issue of where these parabens came from if they had never used chemical products that contain them.”

Dr Philippa Darbre, from the University of Reading commented, “It is also important to realise that just because there are parabens present in the samples of tissue that we took from women with breast cancer this does not mean they have necessarily come from the products that contain them.

The fact that we have seen them present in so many samples does mean that the relationship should be investigated further but right now we cannot confirm any link between the products and instances of breast cancer.”

Catherine Priestly is from Breast Cancer Care and she has recently responded to the study saying, “This debate has been going on for a very long time and this report really shows that there should be more scientific research into the link between breast cancer and parabens.

“We know there are many risk factors associated with breast cancer and right now we cannot conclusively say that parabens are one of them. Family history, gender and age are all more currently reliable risk factors that we are aware of. People should be aware of the risks of breast cancer and they should make lifestyle choices to reduce the likelihood of developing this type of disease.”

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The author of the study is also Dr Gene Bowman, from the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, and he has said it is very exciting news to discover that by adjusting their diets, people can potentially keep their brains sharp and stop them from shrinking

104 people with an average age of 87 took part in the study, and the levels of various nutrients in their blood were tested, as well as their thinking and memory skills. The brain volume, or grey matter, was also measured in 42 people using MRI scans, and the study found that those whose diets were high in Omega 3 and vitamins B,C,D and E were less likely to have brain shrinkage; a reduction in the volume of grey matter.

These subjects also had much higher mental performance scores that those who had diets that were low in the aforementioned nutrients. Vitamin D and Omega 3 Fatty acids are primarily found in fish, while the vitamins B,C, E can be obtained from fruit, vegetables and meat. Overall, 7% of the study participants showed a deficiency in Vitamin B12, whilst 25%  had a vitamin D deficiency, the journal ‘Neurology’ revealed.

Dr Bowman’s team also believe that the levels of nutrients found in the blood accounted for around 37% of the variations between brain volumes, and 17% of the thinking and memory scores. Other factors, including blood pressure, age and number of years they sent being educated accounted for 36% of the variations in the test scores.

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In a world’s first, the team at Muenster University in Germany, headed by Prof Stefan Schlatt, were able to grow sperm from germ cells. These are the cells that are present in testicles and responsible for the production of sperm. The scientists managed to grow the sperm by surrounding the germ cells with a special compound known as Agar Jelly, which created an environment similar to that found in the testicles.

Professor Mahmoud Huleihel, who headed the team that grew sperm in the Ben Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel, said that he believed that it would eventually become possible to grow human male sperm routinely and to order by extracting tissue that contains germ cells from male testicles and stimulating the production of sperm under laboratory conditions.

Th results of the sperm trials have been revealed in an important scientific journal that is published by Nature. Now those scientists who first made these discoveries have begun further experiments that they hope will lead them to the ‘Holy Grail’; growing human sperm outside of a man’s body.

Stephen Gordon is a leading infertility consultant with the NHS, and he praised this breakthrough, saying that this was an amazing development that could result in male fertility treatment becoming completely revolutionised and allow every man to become a natural father. He added that it was natural for infertile men to want to father their own children, at present they have to accept this won’t happen, but it is now a possibility in the future.

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Some people who suffer a brain injury remain in a minimally conscious state, which is different to those in a vegetative state, who have no conscious awareness. The people in this minimally conscious state are sometimes able to sense and respond to their environment and these responses can be detected through measuring brainwaves with an EEG.

This additional information has led to some remarkable discoveries about what may bring those in a coma out of it. Rather unusually, a prescription sleep medication can help those who are minimally conscious. This is a paradoxical effect of the medicine that was first recorded in the late 1990s, where a coma patient in South Africa was prescribed sleeping medication to stop him suffering from insomnia.

When the medication was given to him he started to achieve consciousness and even began to talk and move. The medication only lasted a short time but at any time that he was given it he would come out of his vegetative state.

Similar reports of this waking up of coma patients were reported by doctors who are trying the medication on people in a similar state. The medication was certainly not effective in all cases but in many patients woke up and achieved consciousness for the first time in years, although the consciousness only generally lasted for a few hours at a time.

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Anti-abortion campaigners have struck back at the findings, claiming that the review has sought to make light of the psychological effects that terminating a pregnancy can have on a woman. Experts from NCCMH, the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health used the same research methods for this study as they use to assess the evidence about other mental health issues for NICE.

This work, which was funded by the Dept. of health, came about after concerns were raised that having an abortion may have an adverse effect on the mental health of the woman involved. The usual risk if a woman suffering a common disorder like depression or anxiety is around 11-12%, but the researchers said that this rate was almost three times higher in those women who were suffering from an unwanted pregnancy.

Professor Tim Kendall is the director of NCCMH, and he has said that it could well be that these women already had mental health problems before they fell pregnant. He added that in those women considering having an abortion, mental health would not be an important consideration, but on the other hand the problem could be the unwanted pregnancy itself.

He went on to say that there was also the possibility that both of these could be true, and although we couldn’t be sure from studies that this was the case, common sense says that it is quite likely to be both. What the evidence does show, however, is that whether these women chose to abort or carry on the pregnancy and give birth, the risk of them developing mental health problems does not increase.

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The researchers claimed that cheese should be downgraded in its health concerns to the same level as butter. The study is being conducted at the University of Copenhagen and people were given cheese and then have their cholesterol levels checked. The measurement of cholesterol level was of LDL cholesterol, which is the bad type. The study found that those consuming the extra cheese had the same level of cholesterol as they had before the cheese eating began.

The study involved 50 people and it is recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The entire diet of the volunteers was controlled and the amount of cheese that was given to the subject was set at a specific level.

The study was made up of several six-week intervals and these were separated by a two-week periods to clear the system of any additional cholesterol. After the switch the cheese eaters return to a normal diet and there was also another group that were eating butter to see whether the cheese had an equivalent effect to it.

Those on the cheese diet were consuming a larger amount of fat than is normal but it was found that there cholesterol levels did not increase. Interestingly, the group that we eating butter had their cholesterol levels increased by nearly 8%.

Cholesterol is a lipid which is a fatty substance the liver makes after processing fatty foods and it is essential for our body to function in a normal way. It is used in the body to form the outer layer of the cell as well as making hormones that aiding digestion. However, having high cholesterol levels can increase the risk of stroke and heart attack as it narrows the blood vessels that run throughout the body.

It was found that those eating cheese caused a fall in the level of good cholesterol that they had. The researchers at the University wrote in the paper, “Compared with eating butter, cheese lowers the level of LDL-cholesterol in subjects. Additionally, it does not increase the level of LDL-cholesterol compared with the normal diet.”

The study comes to no conclusive reason why the cholesterol levels are lower for cheese than butter but they did say they detected more fat in the faeces of subjects when they were eating cheese. However, these amounts were not statistically significant and so do not suggest why the level was lower than with butter.

The researchers suggested that it might be that the higher level of protein in cheese and the fact that it has been fermented that affects the amount of cholesterol it causes the body to produce. It is expected that this causes a difference in the way the cheese is digested.

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Bupa says  that the UK has the highest per capita rate of alcohol consumption in the entire world, this means it is an ingrained part of our culture leaving huge numbers of people believing that there is little or nothing wrong with excessive drinking.

But according to the International Bupa Health Pulse survey which involved no less than 13,000 people spread across 12 nations, British people are a massive 41% more likely to overindulge than the average in the 11 other countries surveyed. We also have a different definition of what might be called ‘regular drinkers’ than other countries perceive, with 9% claiming to drink every day, which is more than double the number is found in other countries

But despite the proven link between excess* alcohol consumption and a range of life-threatening health conditions, more than 1 in 3 of Brits who drink (38%) say they don’t want to change their behaviour. Internationally, almost 3 in 4 of drinkers have admitted they would like to cut down.

Assistant Medical Director for Bupa, Dr Layla McCay said: “This is a worrying observation which implies that Brits are particularly resistant to change when it comes to drinking habits. Whether that is due to a lack of awareness about alcohol effects or whether we are simply in denial, there is clearly more work to be done to raise awareness of the associated risks and the real impact it can have on lives.

“Excessive drinking carries several health risks, including heart disease, stroke, liver disease, many types of cancer, and even diabetes. Something needs to be done immediately and we need to challenge the social norms – social lives too often revolve around drinking and it is important that we work towards coming up with healthier alternatives. It’s not about total abstinence, but it is about drinking responsibly and being aware of the effects that heavy drinking can have.”

Chief Executive of Drinkaware, Chris Sorek, said: “There is always an excuse to drink but there are plenty of reasons to cut down too. It can be easy to drink more than you intended, by not being aware of the units in your favourite drink or pouring large measures at home. However drinking can affect your sleep patterns, meaning you wake up feeling stressed and tired the next day.

“Regularly drinking over the daily guidelines can lead to more serious health harms including alcohol-related liver disease, which has no warning signs. Alcohol is also the second biggest risk factor for cancer after smoking – responsible for cancer of the breast, liver, bowel and mouth.”

For people worried about the amount they drink Bupa hosts a free alcohol calculator available on its website which calculates how much alcohol an individual consumes and provides alcohol information and support on how to drink less.

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These support staff are known as Emergency Care Assistants and have not had anywhere near the amount of training paramedics have. Paramedics are able to give injections and administer drugs whereas these ECA’s are not able to. They’ve also only been given basic first aid instruction.

Four years ago ECA’s were introduced to ease the strain on paramedics by driving the ambulances and assisting patients going into hospital. Guidance from the NHS states that they should only be used when they’re being guided by a practitioner.

Health experts have recently said that there is now too much reliance on ECA’s and they are being used on the front line to cut the cost of paramedics who earn around £12,000 more than ECA’s. Half the ambulance trusts in the UK are sending ECA’s without paramedics to respond to emergency calls. However, the other half refuse to compromise on patient safety and do not imply any ECA’s at all.

Currently in England there are over 2000 ECA’s and this accounts for around 10% of ambulance staff. They are being used increasingly because budgets are being cut in the NHS and this has lead to an ambulance workers union to say that their increased use brings a considerable risk to patient safety.

A spokesman from the union has said, “The use of ECA’s is gradually increasing and while they can be useful they should not be used when treating people with urgent or life-threatening conditions. They should only be used as a backup to a primary response from qualified paramedics. The way they are currently being used is simply not safe.”

Ambulance trusts have defended themselves by saying that an ECA is only used when the condition is not life-threatening. However, they have admitted that in certain situations, such as if the ECA is closer to the scene, then they might be used. Additionally, there is the problem that a non-life-threatening situation can quickly change and the ECA will find themselves quickly out of their depth.

The Chief Executive of the patients Association is Katherine Murphy and she has commented, “When people call the emergency number they expect a qualified paramedic to come not someone with just a few weeks training. Patients being put at so much risk is simply unacceptable.”

The Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, has criticised the Conservative government saying that they are wasting money on reorganisation and not spending it on the front line where it is actually needed.

Recent cuts announced by the government have meant that over 500 paramedic jobs will be lost in London so that a saving over the next five years of £50 million can be reaped. Ambulance Service Network is headed by Jo Webber and she has commented that, “The different trusts across the UK use ECA’s in different ways, but all trusts have in place procedures that will mean that patients get the most appropriate response to their requirements.”

The Department of Health has commented that, “When someone makes a 999 call their requirements are accessed by the operator and an ambulance is dispatched to their location if necessary. The type of staff who ride in the ambulance will depend on how serious the patient’s condition is. What people can be sure of is that the clinical needs of the patient will be met.”

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