MEDICAL MATTERS

[Marilyn]

We have a new threat here due to heavy Spring rains...Mosquito borne viruses.
None to speak of where we live in our coastal location, but our two days away in the van was a different story. I sprayed regularly and applied topical repellant. The van was fine...but stepping in to the showers at the ablutions block was a different story. They were thick there. All over the tiles as you showered.
In and out and dressed as quick as you please, shaking towels and garments....but who knows. Luck of the draw. I am not aware of any bites. Fingers crossed.
News has it there are three major virus strains from Mosquitoes in these parts at present that all end in Chronic Fatigue type syndromes.

[Tizer]

EDIT: When I wrote this message Marilyn's message wasn't showing on my screen although it's timed at about 2.5 hours earlier than mine. Is that something to do with the UK-Aus time difference?

Yes, there was a programme on the radio some months ago about it but we're far behind some other countries who have been using phages for decades now. A major problem in the West has been that drug companies aren't interested because they can't patent phages, so they've ignored the therapy. In places like Russia where the government has more control they chose to spend money on it. (There's a lesson there for those who want to leave everything to the market.) Also they were behind in the early development of antibiotics. It's only recently when Western politicians have begun to accept how serious is the antibiotic resistance problem that they've begun to push for more research. But it's still not enough (as with climate change) and as Stanley has just written they're too distracted with other things.

There's a Nature article here from 2014 that has useful information: Nature
Also there is the Phagoburn Study funded by the European Commission's R&D programme which is looking at the use of phages in burn wounds infected with bacteria. Phagoburn

Studies are in progress in UK universities, for example at Nottingham, Leicester and Oxford. This OXford Uni blog page has an interview with one of the researchers: Land of the bacteria-eaters

[Stanley]

I think Sue is right and only the other day I heard a report on phages and came to the same conclusion as Tiz, that there is much to be said for state intervention in cases where the development of a treatment carries no financial advantage for the drug companies. This is the reason why there has been no significant research into this subject for over 60 years. Meanwhile our leaders, shackled to outmoded monetarist views assure us that the market knows best.... Wait until one of them is affected by an increasingly deadly problem and is denied an operation because we can't control subsequent infection.....
Meanwhile, closer to home, I'm happy to report that my chesty cold is a thing of the past, my immune system has triumphed. I wish Ian the same result......

[PanBiker]

Much the same recovery Stanley, thank you, coughing better as the saying goes. Just an odd involuntary cough now and again but not producing any more muck. Sally has had a variant as well, hers symptoms subsided and went out with bang with a blinding 24 hour headache which seems to have abated now.

We need to be upstanding, it's our neighbour Jean Clark's funeral tomorrow. Duxburry's then Gill.

[Big Kev]

Ouch is all I can say Epididymitis
Kidneys have a lot to answer for...

[Stanley]

If that means you.... You have my deepest sympathy Kev. Some things are even more painful than childbirth! Been there, got the tee shirt.

[Big Kev]

If that means you.... You have my deepest sympathy Kev. Some things are even more painful than childbirth! Been there, got the tee shirt.

It is indeed and not the first time either

[Tizer]

That sounds very unpleasant Kev, I hope it clears up quickly.

The NHS has warned of a nasty phone scam affecting people with pacemakers and remote heart monitoring. The scammer phones the patient pretending to be from the company providing the service and tells them the digital equipment needs an update. They work on the patient to get their trust and then sell them insurance (for a couple of hundred pounds) claimed to provide cover for emergency replacement of equipment.

[Big Kev]

That sounds very unpleasant Kev, I hope it clears up quickly.

Me too

Very impressed ith Barnoldswick Medical Centre this morning, phoned at 9am and got an appointment for 11am. 10 day course of antibiotics should hopefully sort me out I was offered an alternative to paracetamol but codeine gives me hallucinations and I flatly refused tramadol. I'll limit movement and stick to paracetamol .

[PanBiker]

Sounds nasty Kev, all the best with your recovery, does Dr Flemings still work for you?

[Stanley]

Kev, I didn't have exactly the same thing but the effects were the same. Try a hot water bottle between your legs when you are sat down, it helped me.....

[Tizer]

Two weeks ago I reported that I'd been told there was at least a 36-day waiting list for NHS hearing assessments, so I was pleased to receive a letter inviting me to an appointment at the beginning of December. Then I saw it was for a time when I'd already told them I wouldn't be available. I rang to get another date and they apologised and there was a lot of `Oh Dear' etc while they tried to find another date for me. Then the lady came up with another appointment on the same day but a different time and at a GP's surgery in the same town as I'd originally asked for. Wonderful! But that surgery wasn't on the list of options in the original letter otherwise I could have chosen it...

[Stanley]

I hope it works out OK Tiz!

[Tizer]

I've had my NHS hearing assessment today and now have two aids, both new. They are temporary and I'll be given new smaller ones in January - they wanted to make sure I could hear the Christmas festivities! I can hear much more clearly now. It's not only a matter of communication and enjoyment, there's also a safety aspect. When your hearing fails you can miss the sound of a car approaching and that's especially important on our local narrow lanes. You might not hear equipment running that could injure you. You don't hear the hissing of boiling water. The only downside is that now I can't pretend to have missed hearing Mrs Tiz when she wants a job doing!

[Stanley]

Yes you can! Tell her your batteries are low......

[Stanley]

See THIS for a Guardian report of the successful treatment of a severe and debilitating shake in a man's arm by non-invasive surgery with sound waves. I saw the report on the news last night. Instant permanent cure and he walked out of hospital as soon as they were sure he was OK. Nearest thing to a miracle I have ever seen.

[PanBiker]

Described as a game changer by the neurosurgeon leading the treatment method, I reckon he has it about right. I was shocked by the number of folk that they said developed symptoms of tremor. Can be used for Parkinsons disease sufferers as well.

[Stanley]

I immediately wondered if it could be used on tumours.....

[Tizer]

Here's a typical example of how the newspapers report medical developments in isolation without putting them into context...
Express, Friday 9th Dec, 2016
`Cancer metastasis breakthrough: High-fat diet causes aggressive disease to spread' LINK 1

Express, Sunday 11th Dec, 2016
`Eat up, FAT is good you [sic], says new dietary research' LINK 2

After the ultrasound therapy for Parkinson's here's a new potential flashing light therapy for Alzheimer's:
"A flashing light therapy might help ward off Alzheimer's, say US scientists after promising trials in mice. The Massachusetts team found shining a strobe light into rodents' eyes encouraged protective cells to gobble up the harmful proteins that accumulate in the brain in this type of dementia. The perfect rate of flashes was 40 per second - a barely perceptible flicker, four times as fast as a disco strobe. The researchers say the approach should be tested in humans. They are already seeking permission from the US regulator, the Food and Drugs Administration, and have set up a commercial company to develop the technology." LINK 3

When I hear success stories like these it always makes me think of that bloke who used to post on OG and tell us that scientists were a nuisance, responsible for all that's bad in the world!

[Whyperion]

I always thought the 100Nz/50Hz flicker from badly set up florescent tubes was bad for ones eyes

[Whyperion]

See THIS for a Guardian report of the successful treatment of a severe and debilitating shake in a man's arm by non-invasive surgery with sound waves. I saw the report on the news last night. Instant permanent cure and he walked out of hospital as soon as they were sure he was OK. Nearest thing to a miracle I have ever seen.

One study is trying this out with watches doing a on arm sound wave blocking/modifying nerve signals

[Stanley]

Ahh.... Hartley of blessed memory. He got fed up with us taking no notice of him in the end......

[Tizer]

Perhaps there is such a thing as a `man cold'!
'Gender-biased infections' may exist
"Viruses can evolve to become more aggressive in men than in women - at least in theory, a study suggests. The report, published in Nature Communications, argues there is a benefit to a virus "going easy" in women as it helps it spread. Some infections are known to be less deadly in women, but this is largely put down to differences in the immune system." LINK

[Stanley]

I always knew there was a difference.....
Remember me saying that I had ditched using a pillow and used a folded towel instead? Dangerous to trumpet any success but I have not had any back pain since doing it. Fingers crossed! I have never missed my pillows.... Anyone with a bad back might give it a go, you never know and it certainly can't do any harm.

[Stanley]

Have a look at THIS for the Guardian report of the young women who was made infertile by chemotherapy when very young but doctors first took parts of her ovaries, froze them and implanted them in her alter. The implantation succeeded and restored her fertility. That's a modern medical miracle!!