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Syringes Beat Spoons for Children’s Medicine

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Parents should avoid using household teaspoons to give children medicine as sizes can vary widely, leading to both under- and overdoses, a study warns…….click & see

US and Greek researchers looked at teaspoons in 25 households and found that the largest was three times the size of the smallest.

They also found that when asked to use 5ml medicine spoons, people poured in varying quantities.

To avoid dosage differences, the team urged parents to use syringes.

The study in the International Journal of Clinical Practice looked at more than 70 teaspoons collected from 25 homes in Greece.

Low risk
The team from the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Athens suggested that a parent using the largest domestic teaspoon would be giving their child nearly three times as much medicine as the smallest.

Most households in the study had between one and three different teaspoons, but two women had six.

“We not only found wide variations between households, we also found considerable differences within households,” said Professor Matthew Falagas, the lead author.

In addition, when they asked five people to measure out medicine in a calibrated 5ml spoon, they found that only one gave the correct dose.

Syringes are increasingly given out with over-the-counter medicines such as child paracetamol and ibuprofen.

The risks of harm occurring as a result of parents giving too much of these products in a single dose is thought to be very small indeed.

A spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said: “In the UK medicines for children are sold with a spoon, or sometimes a syringe that allows parents and carers to measure and accurate dose.

“People collecting NHS prescription medicines for children will be supplied with either a spoon or syringe to allow an accurate dose to be given.

“Pharmacists would always recommend that parents and carers only use spoons or syringes which are designed for the administration of medicines if they are giving liquid medicines to children.”

Source : BBC NEWS:July.14.2010

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News on Health & Science

Scientists in Sleeping Sickness ‘Breakthrough’

Scientists say they have identified a potential treatment for sleeping sickness, a killer disease that infects about 60,000 people in Africa a year.

CLICK & SEE

British and Canadian experts say drugs could attack an enzyme the parasite causing the illness needs to survive.

They say the orally-administered drug could be ready for human clinical trials in about 18 months.

The disease, spread by the bite of a tsetse fly,(CLICK & SEE) is caused by a parasite attacking the central nervous system.

It has similar symptoms to malaria, making it difficult to diagnose. Left untreated, it moves to the spinal column and brain, resulting in mental confusion and eventual death.

Fatal side effects
The “breakthrough” came at the University of Dundee in Scotland, where scientists were funded to research diseases neglected by major drugs companies.

Professor Paul Wyatt, director of the programme, said: “This is one of the most significant findings made in recent years in terms of drug discovery and development for neglected diseases.”

He said the research, published in the journal Nature, represented “significant strides” in the development of a full blown drug against the disease.

The World Health Organization estimates there are between 50,000 and 70,000 cases of the disease a year, with a further 60 million people at risk of infection.

The research in Dundee was backed by partners at the University of York in England and the Structural Genomics Consortium in Toronto, Canada.

The two drugs currently available to treat sleeping sickness both have associated problems.

One is arsenic-based with side effects that kill one in 20 patients and the other – eflornithine – is costly, only partially effective and requires prolonged hospital treatment, the scientists said.

You may click to see:->

Breakthrough in sleeping sickness

Sleeping sickness test ‘promising’

Source: BBC NEWS:March 31st. 2010

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News on Health & Science

Hypnotherapy ‘can help’ IBS

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Greater use of hypnotherapy to ease the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome would help sufferers and might save money, says a gastroenterologist.

…………..CLICK & SEE

Dr Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology, said of the first 100 of his patients treated, symptoms improved significantly for nine in 10.

He said that although previous research has shown hypnotherapy is effective for IBS sufferers, it is not widely used.

This may be because doctors simply do not believe it works.

Widely ignored
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gut problem which can cause abdominal pain, bloating, and sometimes diarrhoea or constipation.

Dr Valori, of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, said the research evidence which shows that hypnotherapy could help sufferers of IBS was first published in the 1980s.

He thinks it has been widely ignored because many doctors find it hard to believe that it does work, or to comprehend how it could work.

“It is pretty clear to me that it has an amazing effect”

Dr Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology
He began referring IBS patients for hypnotherapy in the early 1990s and has found it to be highly effective.

“To be frank, I have never looked back,” he said.

He audited the first 100 cases he referred for hypnotherapy and found that the symptoms stopped completely in four in ten cases with typical IBS.

He says in a further five in 10 cases patients reported feeling more in control of their symptoms and were therefore much less troubled by them.

“It is pretty clear to me that it has an amazing effect,” he said.

“It seems to work particularly well on younger female patients with typical symptoms, and those who have only had IBS for a relatively short time.”

Powerful effect:-

He believes that it could work partly by helping to relax patients.

“Of the relaxation therapies available, hypnotherapy is the most powerful,” he said.

He also says that IBS patients often face difficult situations in their lives, and hypnotherapy can help them respond to these stresses in a less harmful way.

NHS guidelines allow doctors to refer IBS patients for hypnotherapy or other psychological therapies if medication is unsuccessful and the problem persists.

Dr Valori thinks that if hypnotherapy were used more widely it could possibly save the NHS money while improving patient care.

Dr Charlie Murray, Secretary of the British Gastroenterology Society, said: “There is no doubt that hypnotherapy is helpful for some patients, but it depends on the skill and experience of those practising it.

“But the degree to which it is effective is not well defined.

“I would support using it as one therapy, but it is no panacea.”

You may click & see also:-
Hypnosis has ‘real’ brain effect
Children can ‘imagine away’ pain
Soluble fibre ‘effective for IBS’
Frontline Gastroenterology

Source  : BBC News: 18th. March, 2010

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Health Alert

Sharing Your Bed May be Bad for Your Health

 

Couples should consider sleeping apart for the good of their health and relationship, say experts.

One study found that, on average, couples suffered 50 percent more sleep disturbances if they shared a bed.

The modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space. Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart.

Source: BBC News , January 26, 2010

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Healthy Tips

What’s in a Healthy Lunchbox?

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Ninety-nine out of every 100 packed lunches being eaten by primary school children are reported to be unhealthy and failing to meet nutritional standards.

click & see the pictures

So what should a healthy lunch contain and what foods should be left out?

According to advice from the Food Standards Agency,a healthy packed lunch should include:

• Meat, fish or a dairy source of protein

• Starchy carbohydrate, such as a wholegrain sandwich, to provide energy

• At least one portion each of a fruit and vegetable or salad

• Water or milk to drink, but diluted fruit juice and yoghurt drinks or smoothies are acceptable

 

The key foods to avoid are:-

• Sweets and chocolate

• Snacks, like crisps, with added salt/sugar/fat

• Sugary and fizzy drinks

• Deep-fried foods and processed meats

• White bread – if children won’t eat brown, try whole white sliced bread

Nutritional standards for school meals were introduced in 2006 and standards for vending machines, breakfast clubs and tuck shops came into force a year later.

In 2008, strict nutrition content guidelines for primary schools were introduced and extended to secondary schools in September 2009.

They include maximum/minimum levels of energy or calories and 13 different nutrients, including fat, salt and sugars.

SUGAR, FAT AND SALT (As per  Food Standards Agency)
Sugar: 15g sugar per 100g is high in sugar, 5g or less is low
Fat: 20g fat per 100g is high in fat, 3g or less is low

Salt: 1.5g salt per 100g is high in salt, 0.3g or less is low


The Schools Food Trust – an independent body set up to advise schools on healthy eating – says there are no plans to issue statutory guidance on packed lunches, but it has produced some sample lunchbox menus

You may click to see:–

SAMPLE MENU  in a packed standard lunch (526.29 K

Children’s lunchboxes ‘unhealthy’
Pupils are to face lunchbox exams
Charity seeks end to lunchbox ham
Food Standards Agency
School Food Trust

Source: BBC News:12Th. January. 2010

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