NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

Report highlights lapses in patient care

9th November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

The Patients Association has today published a report highlighting poor cases of NHS care. The charity’s report provides detailed accounts of patients’ negative experiences, which include elderly patients not being given pain relief, assistance when eating or access to toilet facilities. The report has been given high-profile press coverage. The report itself does not provide statistics on the overall standard of care in England’s hospitals or on how common such experiences are. However, nearly all of the NHS trusts involved have provided responses to these accounts and, in many cases, they have acknowledged failings and suggested ways to prevent these ...

Scientists create light-activated cancer drugs

8th November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

A new type of light-activated cancer drug could target tumours and leave healthy tissue unaffected, BBC News has today reported. The broadcaster says that researchers have found a way to modify drugs so that they stick to tumours, but only become activated when hit by specific waves of light. The news is based on a study in which researchers developed a new type of drug that combines a light-sensitive chemical with antibodies that are attracted to proteins commonly found at high levels in cancer cells. The researchers then tested two drugs of this type in cancer cells and in mice ...

Do big babies turn into obese kids?

8th November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

“Bigger babies are more likely to become obese,” exclaims the Daily Mail, also reporting that parents should not assume their overweight children “are going to grow out of it”. This study measured the weight and length of over 44,000 infants at six-monthly intervals between ages one and 24 months. Children who moved up more than two weight categories in early life were more likely to be obese at age five and 10. These children were more than twice as likely to be obese by age five compared to those who experienced less change in weight categories. They were also 75% ...

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7th November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

Public urged to donate more kidneys

4th November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

Increasing the number of kidneys that are donated to strangers could save both lives and money, a new charity has said. Several media sources have highlighted the campaign by Give a Kidney – One’s Enough, which aims to increase the number of “altruistic” kidney donations, where people offer one of their kidneys to help a stranger. The charity has highlighted the severe shortage of kidneys available for transplants, and that thousands of people are currently waiting for a transplant. Each year, around 300 people die while waiting for a donor. The charity argues that if more people considered altruistic donation, ...

‘English’ diet could save lives in rest of UK

3rd November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

“Thousands of Welsh, Scottish and Irish lives could be saved” by following the average English diet, reported the Daily Mail. The newspaper also said that “as many as 80% of preventable deaths from the biggest killer diseases would be eliminated if the rest of the UK followed England’s nutritional habits.” Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are known to have higher rates of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer than England. This news story is based on a study that estimated how many excess deaths from diet-related illnesses could be prevented by changing eating habits to those of England. Using survey ...

New pill to halt ageing, papers claim

2nd November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

Scientists may have “found a cure for ageing”, the Daily Mirror reported. According to the newspaper, the answer could lie in a “forever young” drug that will allow us to grow old gracefully. However, this seeminly marvelous news is based on a small study which looked at an extremely rare form of a genetic condition called progeria. This causes children’s bodies to rapidly age and leads to a number of physical health problems, limiting their lifespan to an average of around 13 years. The researchers examined the cells of people with the condition and found that, compared to cells from ...

Yoga 'helps chronic lower back pain'

1st November 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

“Yoga may work better for lower back pain than conventional treatments,” The Guardian reported. It said that a trial has found that people with back pain had greater improvements in everyday physical tasks if they did weekly yoga sessions. This trial enrolled 313 people with chronic low back pain and gave them either a three-month yoga programme or usual care for back pain. They completed questionnaires on the level of disability they had from their low back pain at the start of the study, and at three, six and twelve months later. While there was minimal change in disability scores ...

Do statins cut breast cancer recurrence?

31st October 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

“A daily dose of drugs designed to lower cholesterol could also slash the risk of breast cancer recurring,” the Daily Mail reported today. The news is based on the findings of a large Danish study that looked for an association between the use of statins and the recurrence of breast cancer. Researchers followed 18,769 women, for an average of 6.8 years, who had previously been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Of these, 17% had ever been prescribed statins. Compared to non-users, women who took simvastatin and other “lipophilic” (fat-soluble) statins were less likely to have breast cancer that reoccurred. Those ...

Alzheimer’s, yeasts and other animals

28th October 2011

NHS Choices: Behind the headlines

“A major breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research holds out hope not only of early detection of the crippling brain disease but also potential new treatments,” reports the Daily Express. The headline is based on research into a peptide (small protein) called amyloid beta that is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. This protein is found in plaques (deposits) in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, and according to one theory is responsible for the disease. The researchers created a genetically modified yeast model and used it to screen for genes that could modify the toxicity of amyloid beta. They found that the genes they ...