NEWS PAGE

Swine Flu Update

Saturday 9th January 2010

We have offered immunisations to all those at special risk aged six months to 65. 

We are waiting for instructions from our PCT as to when we should start immunising children. 

We have enough vaccine to immunise those over 65 with special risks as well, ask for an appointment with the nurse.

Who should get immunised?

1. Adults and children over six months of age who have a long-term health condition, including:

• Chronic lung disease

• Chronic heart disease

• Chronic kidney disease

• Chronic liver disease

• Chronic neurological diseases

• Diabetes mellitus

• Immunosuppression caused by a disease or treatment for a disease. For example, this may include people who do not have a spleen, and people who are on immunosuppressant treatment or are taking high doses of systemic steroids.

2. Pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy

Being pregnant can put you more at risk of being seriously ill if you catch swine flu. So far, evidence suggests that pregnant women are four times more likely to develop serious complications from swine flu and up to five times more likely to need to go to hospital. The risks of flu are highest at the later stages of pregnancy.

3. People who live in the same house as someone whose immune system is compromised by disease or treatment

If you live with someone who is having treatment for cancer, for example, and you catch swine flu, they might catch it from you and become very ill.

Swine Flu Information

If you think you have flu, don't visit the surgery or hospital, phone the surgery and a doctor will contact you and visit you at home if necessary. This will help to prevent other people from catching it.

For more information on symptoms of swine flu and what you can do to protect yourself, contact NHS direct on 0845 46 47 or go to the pandemic flu website where you can find out if you need Tamiflu

Footpaths around Stock provide a cheaper way of getting fit

If you want to get fitter but don't want to pay for a gym, why not try out the many footpaths round stock. 

You can buy "11 walks around Stock" at the Post Office for £2.00. 

I've had fun exploring the footpaths round Stock and found places I hadn't been to even though I've been living here 25 years!

This is one of the beautiful winter hedgerows this January.

Stock Parish Council also have some free footpath maps for the area.

New pavement constructed at Surgery expense

A footpath from outside the Bakers Arms to the Surgery entrance was constructed by us as a condition for getting planning permission for the new building. We are grateful to the Parish Council who contributed £5,000 towards the total cost of around £25,000.

New telephone number

We have changed our telephone number to an 0844 number. Calls are charged at the standard BT rate for a local day time call. Mobile phone customers will also pay their usual daytime local call rate. We generate some income from this. This only partially offsets the substantial cost of leasing an advanced telephone system. We hope that you will find that you can access the surgery a lot more easily than before. 

There is a queuing system that informs you where you are in the queue. A simple menu allows you to choose whether you want to request an appointment or find out the result of your tests. In a medical emergency your call will bypass the queue if you use the appropriate menu option. (We hope patients will use this facility thoughtfully). 

It was with much soul-searching that we chose this system but we really believe that it will offer a much better service than before. 

Waist to hip ratio is better than weight and height as a predictor of risk of heart disease

A study published in the Lancet on 4th November 2005 confirms previous research about the importance of the ratio between waist and hip measurements as a predictor of the risk of heart disease.  27,000 people in 52 different countries were studied. The measurements of people who had had heart attacks was compared with those of people who hadn't had heart attacks. There was a strong relationship between the ratio of hip to waist measurement and heart disease whatever country the person came from, whether they were Asian, African or Caucasian.

This makes sense because it seems that fat stored in the abdominal cavity is responsible for the changes in metabolism that make a person more at risk of heart disease. So someone with a big tummy but who was otherwise built like a bean pole would be more at risk, despite his low weight in proportion to his height. A 14 stone rugby player however, would be heavy for his height but have a small waist in comparison with his hip size. This would give him a low waist to hip ratio and a low risk of heart disease.

Try our waist to hip ratio calculator and see what your risk  is.

Exercise helps you sleep

Three studies have shown some evidence that exercise can help you sleep better. One randomly selected 43 people with sleep problems to either join an exercise programme or remain "couch potatoes". Those who exercised began to get to sleep more quickly and sleep for longer. Read more on Bandolier's website

New cervical screening programme

The Minister for Public Health has announced the following changes to the cervical smear programme.

• no smears for women under the age of 25

• first invitation will be at age 25

• three yearly screening for women aged 25 to 49

• five yearly screening for women aged 50 to 64

The changes were made for the following reasons

• lots of abnormalities were found when women aged 20 - 24 were screened, but the resulting treatment wasn't of benefit, often it did more harm than good

• women aged 25 - 49 get develop cancers more quickly so more frequent smear test should help detect them earlier

• older women develop cancer of the cervix more slowly, so don't need smears so often

How to live an extra 10 years

50 years ago Richard Doll published the results of research that showed that smokers were more likely to get cancer of the lung. He asked 30,000 male doctors about their smoking habits, and then waited to see what happened to them. Periodically he checked if they were still alive and if not, what they had died from.

He published the results of 50 years of observation of these doctors in the British Medical Journal, were you can read the study.

The results were

• on average men die 10 years earlier if they smoke

• if you stop smoking at 30 you gain 10 years extra life

• if you stop at 40 you gain 9 years

• if you stop at 50 you gain 6 years

• if you stop at 60 you gain 3 years

Men who smoked died earlier because of lung cancer, cancers of the mouth and gullet, chest disease such as chronic bronchitis, heart disease and strokes.

We realise how difficult it is to stop smoking, so if you would like help read more about our smoking cessation programme.

Sedentary life style is a 'health time-bomb' for the 21st Century

“The lack of physical activity is a major underlying cause of death, disease and disability. Preliminary data from a WHO study on risk factors suggest that a sedentary lifestyle is one of the ten leading global causes of death and disability. More than two million deaths each year are attributable to physical inactivity.”
(World Health Organisation, Move for Health, 2002).

About four out of five of us don't do enough exercise, and the situation is getting worse.

In 2001 the National Travel Survey found that in the last 10 years the number of primary school children walking to school had fallen from 62% to 56% and only 2% of secondary school children cycled to school compared with five percent in 1989/91.

Adults haven't been doing very well either, sedentary behaviour, that is being "active" less than once a week is on the increase, women are worse, with 41% being sedentary in 1998 compared with 35% of men.

All this is happening despite the fact that being inactive doubles your chance of a heart disease, possibly trebles your chance of a stroke and may increase your risk of bowel cancer by 40%. The list of other ailments caused by being a couch potato is almost endless, including greater risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, depression, and even falls in older people.