A few bits of news

As I haven't updated in a while here's a few health related stories from our friends in the media biz.

US senators have passed the final Senate version of a historic healthcare reform bill.

The bill aims to cover 31m uninsured Americans and could lead to the biggest change in US healthcare in decades.

President Barack Obama welcomed it as offering "real and meaningful" reform, saying it was the most important piece of social legislation since the 1930s.

"With today's vote, we are now incredibly close to making health insurance reform a reality in this country."

As a nation, the US spent some $2.2tn (£1.36tn) on healthcare in 2007. That amounts to 16.2% of GDP, nearly twice the average of other rich, industrialised countries.

As costs have spiralled, millions of Americans have found themselves unable to afford health insurance and the cost to the government of providing care for the poor and elderly has risen hugely.

Tea and coffee drinkers have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a large body of evidence shows.

And the protection may not be down to caffeine since decaf coffee has the greatest effect, say researchers in Archives of Internal Medicine.

They looked at 18 separate studies involving nearly 500,000 people.

This analysis revealed that people who drink three or four cups of coffee or tea a day cut their risk by a fifth or more, say researchers.

The same amount of decaffeinated coffee had an even bigger effect, lowering risk by a third.

Fancy a cuppa?

Think small on new year's resolutions

Millions of people fail to fulfil their new year's resolutions because of a faulty approach, suggests a new study.

Prof. Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire conducted a study of 700 people who aimed to achieve several resolutions, such as losing weight, quitting smoking and improving their job qualifications.

He found that only 22 per cent were successful. Those who used commonly recommended approaches such as focusing on the negative implications of not succeeding, removing temptation, having a role model and visualizing about being successful, tended to be unsuccessful.

"Many of these ideas are frequently recommended by self-help experts, but our results suggest that they simply don't work," Wiseman said in a release.

Conversely, people who attained their goals thought small, rather than big, dividing up the steps to achieving their goals into small manageable chunks.

A little bit of something non-medical.

This is somewhat overdue but made me smile when I saw it. The evening before I started my course at medical school (That's right- the night before, my first class took place at 8am the next day) I sang in Handel's Messiah at the BBC proms with a choir I am very proud to be a part of - the RSCM Millennium Youth Choir.

In the audience for this event was one mister Stephen Fry and in the only review that mattered to us that evening posted on his twitter page "Just emerged from triumphant prom Messiah at the RAH. Fabulous young chorus, wonderful. Walking on air"

This was pride enough but even better was a few weeks later when another tweeter (morganritchie) made a drawing several of Stephen's tweets including this one from the 6th September 2009)


You too can follow stephenfry on twitter or visit his website at http://www.stephenfry.com/. Not a bad way to start a medical career methinks - it certainly gave a few talking points for the first week.

The Millennium Youth Choir will next be meeting in February to sing for the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace and then at Easter in Sussex to sing a number of events and record choral evensong for BBC radio at Arundel Cathedral.

A new year.....

The mini-medic has not vanished into oblivion! She has simply been adapting to the perpetual balancing act that is lifeand work as a medical student. As I revise for the first set of practical and written exams in a few weeks time and wave goodbye to the rollercoaster year that was 2009- it seems a good time to pick up the blogging 'pen' and reflect on my first 4 months in medic-land.

Referring to the title of this blog:-

LIFE - well yes, life goes on. Despite the temptation to disappear into a medic shaped bubble- relationships (of every sort- good, bad, romantic, family, new, old, local, long distance) and 'normal' activities (for me it's trampolining, choir singing, and ice skating) will continue and help to keep you sane- mostly!

THE UNIVERSE- Both in the medical world and also in all things, we must look beyond our own doorstep (ok not to the universe perhaps, but nationally and internationally times are a'changin). I still spend a great deal of time keeping up with the new health stories in the news. Swine flu has not wiped us all out as we seemed to expect. The new president is making headway to free healthcare for people in the USA and we'll see on our side of the pond how the NHS will change as a result of the economic state of the world and the effect of a 'possible' new government....

GRAY'S ANATOMY- well, all I can say for starters - there's a lot of it! Our anatomy professor gleefully informed us in week 1 of med school that we were going to double our vocabularies in 3 years with new medical words. In the first lecture alone we began to 'learn the lingo' with around 100 anatomy terms. Add to that all the biochemistry, embryology, and statistics jargon we've had thrown at us this term, the muscles, arteries, veins and nerves of the GI tract which by now should be old hat and I'm starting to believe that professor. Hopefully my brain doesn't have a finite capacity for new words - There's still a LONG way to go...

Oh yeah and then there's GREY'S ANATOMY- I started watching this a few years ago- long before medicine became a realistic possibility, soon to dismiss it as another american soap only loosely rooted in reality. However - looking for a mind-numbing release my boyfriend and I revisited it a few months ago and found it not only enjoyable but also occasionally poignant.
Sure the scripts may wander a little from medical fact but here are a few Grey's anatomy 'truths' that we have found.

• We too are at the bottom of a very long food chain.
• Consultants are there to make our lives hell - but only so we learn from it!
• As mentioned- you can't shut out the real world- personal and professional lives will intertwine in hopefully not too messy way!
• Everyone is keen to get into the 'real doctor stuff' asap - but equally terrorfied killing someone!
• Yes - most doctors are in a relationship/married to doctors!

Gotta love a bit of mindless soap sometimes :-)

The End................or The Beginning?

Thursday 25 of June 2009 was a very good day.

After a rather nervous morning spent pacing around my flat, packing and watching anything I could find online to take my mind off what might be. I headed upto campus for my department's degree results lunch...

Maybe I shouldn't have worried- 1st Class honours and a department prize :-)A small collection of very happy (and relieved) Natural Scientists celebrating with the department head (2nd from Left) and office staff (standing behind). I would like to thank these ever generous people to whom I owe so much and congratuate my fellow students.

Of course the best part about this is that my medical school place is now confirmed and I can enjoy a (relatively) relaxed summer before heading back to student life in September. Next week the med school is hosting an acceptance lunch so I am really looking forward to meeting the other students and staff.

Congratulations to all university graduates this year and best of luck for the future!

A few 'Quite Interesting' news stories

Until I get back to the UK and have something more relevant to report, here are some recent stories spotted by the elves at BBCs Qi site. Qi stands for Quite Interesting and began life as a TV gameshow where the questions (asked by Stephen Fry) are so hard that contestants gain points for interesting (if not necessarily correct) answers. However, they also lose points for being wrong and obvious.



Anyway, for your reading pleasure are a few interesting news snippets from around the world:-

Japanese Hay Fever Sufferers turn to Robots

Robots are now being used around Japan in order to detect pollen levels, in order to help those with hay fever.

500 small, globe-shaped robots produced by Japan's Weather News information company have been produced. The robots are installed in home across the country and gauge the amount of pollen in the air to give suffers warnings, based on a scale from one to five. This information is collected by the company and posted on the internet.

Spokesperson Naoko Tani said: "You cannot really see pollen, but these detectors help you find out the exact pollen levels at a particular location at a particular time."

According to experts, changes in lifestyle and housing environments have caused an increase of hay fever sufferers. Most of pollen in Japan comes from cedar trees, which cover over 10% of the country. Symptoms of hay fever include sneezing, headaches and watery eyes.

Polio Sufferer wins $22.5 million lawsuit

A man from Staten Island, New York has won a lawsuit after he contracted polio 30 years ago from his daughter's oral vaccination.

Dominick Tenuto, 61, won $22.5 million from Lederle Laboratories who manufactured "Orimune", a polio vaccine that was given to Tenuto's 5-month-old daughter, Diana, in May 1979.

The following month, Tenuto, who was a supervisor for a Wall Street securities firm, contracted polio and lost the use of legs. He claimed that the vaccine, which contained a live virus, passed through his daughter's body and she excreted it. As a result, he is now in a wheelchair.

After the ruling, Tenuto said: "I've got some measure of relief that the truth finally was told in an open court of law." He said of the money that, "it doesn't change the way I live my life. It's still going to be hard."

Tenuto had also tried to sue the state of the late paediatrician Dr. Leroy Schwartz, but only Lederle was held liable. Lederle is planning to appeal.

Americins has truble spelin

A new study has shown the Americans are worse at spelling in the English.

The study, carried out in the US last month and based on one performed in the UK last April, 62% of Americans could not spell "embarrassed" correctly, compared to 54% of Britions.

Other words that American adults had trouble with included "millennium" (52% of Americans, compared to 43% of Britons), "liaison" (61% compared to 54%) and "accommodation" (42% compared to 36%). The only words out of the study that the Americans did better than the British were "definitely" and "friend".

Professor Edward Baranowski of California State University said that the results were a reflection of the "horrific" drop-out rate in US high schools. He said: "This certainly puts an eventual strain upon the universities, which must devote lots of resources to remedial education."

The research was commissioned the research. Jack Bovill, a member of the society said that the high inaccuracy rates in both UK and the USA showed the English spelling system to be modernised to improve literacy. The Society wants a cross-party committee of MPs to promote spelling reforms. Bovill said: "When asked, only a quarter of adults thought they had a problem with spelling. The answers in the test prove that this is far from the case. What is holding the UK and the USA back is the irregular spelling system."

Failure to Blog!

Greetings! Sorry for my terrible failure to update this blog recently, First I was buried with exams and since then I have been on vacation in Canada. More updates will be up soon (I promise!). Next week it's back to old Blighty for degree results, graduation and then I expect some serious book buying for September.

I've also added a twitter link in the hope to add to this page more regularly

In the mean time, a few pretty pictures from my vacation...

Pig-Flu Parties?!

Is now a good time to get swine flu?

WHO, WHAT, WHY? The Magazine answers...

No worse than a bad cold, say many of the Britons diagnosed with swine fever. So is it time for pig flu parties, to spread a mild version to build immunity?

As this is a new strain of H1N1, we have no herd immunity

Dotted up and down the UK, Tamiflu has been dispensed to swine flu sufferers and those who may have been exposed to the highly contagious virus.

Some fret about taking the powerful antiviral drug - with its unpleasant side effects - and wonder if it might be wiser to catch swine flu now, priming our bodies to fight back if a more vicious form surfaces in winter.

"It would be quite a dangerous thing to do," says John Oxford, professor of virology at St Barts and the Royal London Hospitals, Queen Mary College.

"The scenario is that you get your mates together to spread swine flu. But then you take it home. Perhaps you take your dear old granny a cup of tea. She catches it. And dies."

THE ANSWER You might recover fast, but those you expose might not It's highly contagious, with the potential to infect many people Anyone can develop serious complications Swine flu could hit one in three

For this new version of H1N1 is highly contagious. Someone in rude health might recover quickly, albeit after enduring a fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. But they might pass it on to someone less able to fight it off - someone with diabetes, asthma or a weak immune system.

"A swine flu party would only work if you all then put yourselves in quarantine, or returned to your hermit hole, and did not touch anyone for at least 10 days."

Spreading germs

And while chickenpox or rubella parties were once popular as these illnesses are more straight-forward in childhood, swine flu is in a different league, warns Professor Oxford.

Chickenpox can be fatal - but that is rare

Although chickenpox can be fatal - that is rare. Dangerous complications can happen in a small number of healthy children or those with other chronic health problems.

People have died from swine flu and less is known about the current strain. Health authorities don't yet know enough about it to predict how it will affect individuals, how it will mutate and whether it will come back.

The effects have so far been less dramatic than initially feared - Mexico has scaled back its death toll from 159 to 56, and precautions such as school closures seem to have slowed its spread.

But it has "full pandemic potential", the World Health Organization says. A pandemic occurs when a new flu virus appears against which we have no immunity, resulting in outbreaks worldwide. Already cases have been confirmed in 30 countries, from Mexico to New Zealand, Canada to Thailand, Germany to the UK.

"What's reassuring is that the UK has stockpiles of antiviral drugs, enough to treat those who contract swine flu or who are exposed to it, and to protect frontline medical staff," says Professor Oxford.

"My daughter's a GP. If [swine flu] takes off and people come in to see her, she can take it prophylatically, one tablet a day for six weeks."

And although swine flu is a new virus, our bodies encounter other strains of H1N1 in the seasonal flu that does the rounds each year.

"We're not as vulnerable as we were in 1957's pandemic, which was a totally new virus. We've come into contact with distant relatives of swine flu before. If you catch it, your body will say 'I know this family, I've fought off its cousin, six times removed' and go to work to fight it off."

Prior exposure, through seasonal flu or swine flu vaccination when one becomes available, prompts the immune system to produce suitable antibodies to fight off the invader.

"And once exposed, you have lifetime memory of those antibodies and can produce them again," says Professor Oxford.

All for a good cause!

The hideout of a wide branch of my family, and our summer holiday destination this year is Gabriola Island, BC, Canada. A small, unsuspecting place- about 9miles(14km) x 3miles (4km).

On Sunday 7 June 2009 the Tour de Gabriola bike ride will be taking place to raise money for a permanent Gabriola health care clinic. Visit the website here.

From the Press Release-
"The sole purpose of the Tour de Gabriola is to raise money to improve primary health care on Gabriola. Raising money has proven to the Vancouver Island Health Authority that Gabriolans care about the condition of services and are willing to work toward improving it. The best way to show how much we care is by continuing to raise money. So far, over $100,000.00 has been donated. This, along with the work of the Gabriola Health Care Society, has caused VIHA to become directly involved in supporting our emergency treatment facility. Continuing this effort is very important. For more information as to the history of this event, please go to the Sounder News article. "

The length of the ride is around 27km, supposedly taking around 2 hours to complete (if we're feeling fit and healthy by then!).



This won't be the first time I've foolishly volunteered for a charity bike ride adventure. In 2006 my Dad and I rode from London to Paris for Adults Affected By Adoption - NORCAP. Oh yeah- and we did so on a TANDEM :-)


First of all we'll have to acquire some bikes. Shouldn't be too hard as they are generally on sale for under $100 at WalMart. Second (and more tricky) we'll have about a week to get back into healthy shape!

I'll keep you posted on more Canadian goings on in the near future....

Dummy Run

Not Sure if these will have found their ways into my med-school by September. Meet SimMan 3G and SimBaby. Computer controlled dummies on which medical scenarios can be run using computer cotrol to test how doctors/med students/paramedics would respond in an emergency.

News articles, with videos can be found here (for SimMan) and here (for SimBaby)

SimMan can breath, cough, wheeze, cry and convulse. He also has a measurable pulse and can simulate a heart attack and reactions to drugs.

The idea of this simulation is to prevent errors in real emergency settings, similar to pilots training on flight simulators. I guess it's better to find out your failings treating a dummy rather than a genuine NHS patient!

Skills for life

Great-grandmother delivers baby

A 90-year-old former midwife from Wiltshire had to step in to deliver her great-granddaughter because the duty midwife was not able to arrive in time.

Margaret Jones, of Malmesbury, who lives next door to granddaughter Kathy Shah, 32, received the call for help 50 years after leaving the profession.

Mrs Jones said: "I did not think I would get down because I have two artificial hips.

"When I got home after, I had a strong cup of tea and put some whisky in it."

Mrs Jones said she had not delivered a baby since 1954

Mrs Shah had just returned from a walk with her husband, Keval, a city banker, and 19-month-old son Dylan when her labour started.

"We came back because Dylan fell asleep," she said.

"If we had not, Carys may have been born outside somewhere.

"My mum first called my gran just to have a look while I was waiting for the hospital midwife."

Mrs Jones ended up delivering 7lb 7oz Carys 20 minutes before the midwife arrived.

"I am close with my gran," said Mrs Shah. "It felt incredible to have her there, she is magical."