Student BMJ subscription

I've just paid for the printed student BMJ to be delivered to my house, I also get access to all BMJ articles and blogs :)

I enjoy reading the online articles, particularly the monthly 'eyespy' pages. After studying stess and memory in AS psychology, I found an interesting article on stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline). A British neuroscience review has concluded that these hormones help the brain store memories more effectively by a process called epigenetic modification. This is where the hormones alter the function of genes in neurones to enhance learning ability. However extreme stress can be damaging and can lead to persistent, traumatic memories which can contribute to mental illnesses.
Maybe this could explain why nerves before a drama performance or an exam can make you feel more alert. Sometimes when you're in exams you can think of things that you didn't think you knew, this could be due to the stress triggering your active neurones involved with memory? This could link to EWT too, about how a moderate level of fear can heighten the accuracy of people's accounts of an event to a certain level (I remember looking at a correlation between fear and memory).

It's nice being able to read articles about subjects I have studied because it adds a real life perspective to the topic. Also I understand how cortisol and adrenaline affect the body in stress pathways (fight or flight responses) and how fear can enhance memory. This has allow me to piece the article together around my prior knowledge to make good sense.

http://student.bmj.com/student/view-article.html?id=sbmj.d3639

Gay men can now give blood!

The ban since 1980 preventing men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood will be lifted in November. The Department of Health has announced that men can give blood as long as they have not had anal or oral sex with a man in the past 12 months and meet the other general donor selection criteria.This ban had been put in place to stop the spread of blood-borne viruses, it has now been considered safe to reduce the regulation. There is still a 12 month ban because sexually active gay men are at a higher risk of accumulating sexually acquired viruses. NHS blood and transplant hope that this will increase the number of blood donors in the future.
Article information and photo sourced from BBC News

'Time to Change' Survey shows our fathers are the last people we talk to about mental health

The 'Time to Change' campaign about the discrimination and stigma against people with mental health found that we are less likely to talk to our dads about mental health problems we suffer from. 26% talked to their GP first before telling their families and 37% of people talked to their partner before sharing their problems with parents and siblings. Only 1% of people would tell their dad first.
Charities 'Mind' and 'Rethink' are promoting a discussion of mental health to try and get people talking more openly about their problems. This is a national campaign which is touring up and down the country to try and reduce the stigma. The campaign, 'It's time to talk, it's time to change' aims to "break down those barriers and empower families to speak out so that people’s attitudes change towards mental health.”
I have ordered the annual review from the website so I can learn about the progress which has been made towards ending the discrimination of those suffering from mental illnesses. I am hoping to attend a lecture on mental health provided by SEPT at the end of the month (providing I get the day off work!).

Can food thoughts make you thin?

As reported in the Guardian, psychologists have proposed that thinking about high calorie food such as chocolate, can make people lose their appetite and help them to lose weight.
In small observational studies using cheese and M&Ms, ppts were asked to think about the food before consumption. Those who thought about the food for longer, consumed less after the session of thought.

Although this study shows positive results from mental thoughts towards dieting, it is important to remember this was only a set of small studies and may not be generalise to all food products and populations.
Many newspapers are oversimplifying the results and suggesting that mental imagery leads to weight loss, which is certain it this stage.

Daily Aspirin dose for all over 45 yrs

A small daily dose of Aspirin is considered to help protect those aged 45 and over against heart disease and cancer.
The Lancet study has shown that an increased use of Aspirin could save thousands of cases of bowel cancer, alone. research is also looking to see whether it is as successful against othet types of cancer. A professor at Newcastle University, is worried that if everyone was prescribes the drug we would see the side effects. At the age of 45 and above the risk of bowel cancer increases; a stratified approach would be to only advise those at a greater risk to take Aspirin daily.

Some experts have suggested that it would not be advised for everyone over 45 to take Aspirin, as a preventative against cancer.

New cervical cancer test could save thousands

The Cobas test costs as little as £15 per test and is hoped to be available in Doctors surgeries within a year. The test would replace the smear, which fails to detect cancer for 1 in 3 women, and will return test results to the patients the same day of testing. The Cobas test looks for HPV (which causes uncontrollable cell division) rather than the smear which looks for abnormal cell growth.

In a trial of 47 000 women, aged 30+, 10% were detected with HPV after the getting the 'all clear' from the smear test. this trial suggest success, however further testing is needed before it is to replace the smear and be available on the NHS.

Dangerous Superstrain bacteria C. Difficile

In the UK the strain 027 Clostridium Difficile, causing fatal diarrhoea and vomitting, has been found to be the highest proportion of cases in Europe. The cause of spreading has thought to have been from the overuse of antibiotics and poor hygeine.
At Strathetyde University, they have found that using HINS-light they are able to kill the bacteria by exciting the molecules within the bacteria which produces highly reactive chemical species that are lethal to them. This new discovery gives hope as an answer to this super-strain, however the cause of spreading needs to desparately be addressed.

16th November The Daily Telegraph

Blood Test can spot heart risk 15 years in advance

As reported today in the Daily Telegraph, researchers at the University of Maryland, USA, have found a new way of detecting the risk of future heart failure. 720 000 people in the UK suffer from heart failure with 11 500 dying every year. A protein called Troponin T has been found to be a long term predictor found in the blood.
This new test can detect Troponin T twice as weak as before. Those with high levels of Troponin T are at higher risk of suffering from heart failure int he next 10 years or of dying from cardiovascular disease.

If people then know that they have high levels of Troponin T they can adapt their lifestyle e.g. diet and exercise levels to reduce the risk of heart failure.

Fat gene identified

Researchers at Oxford university have found a direct connection between the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene and increased body weight. Scientists bred mice with an extra copies of the FTO gene and found that these mice, although they were healthy ate more and put on more weight that those without the extra genes. This has supported the 2007 finding that the FTO gene is linked to the likelihood of obesity in humans.

The researchers are now confident that the FTO gene is important and contributes to obesity. There can now be research into various drug therapies which hope to work by turning down the effect of the FTO genes in an anti-obesity pill, however there is no certainty that this will be a success, it is an exciting prospect.

If having this gene predisposes individuals to put on weight and eat more, can we justify thinking that obesity is a seft inflicted illness?


The Daily Telegraph 15th Nov

Homeopathy works- consultations on remedies

Homeopathy is based on the theory that by using substasnces that cause symptoms in a healthy person can be diluted and used to treat sick patients.

Daily Telegraph reported today that sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis who visited a homeopathic doctor experienced significant reductions in pain and inflammation, regardless of whether they received the genuine homeopathic medicine or the placebo. The patients who were given the remedies but not the consultations did not improve. The study suggests that talking and listening to patients could significantly assist their health.

It was also suggested that conventional doctors have some important lessons to be learnt in patient-centred care and how the consultation process can have a huge effect on the patient's health. This could have positive implications on how doctors are trained and how they communicate with patients more effectively as there is always room for improvement.