Wise Health News & Topics

From birth until it reaches sexual maturity at about six weeks, a hamster doubles its weight each week.

From birth until it reaches sexual maturity at about six weeks, a hamster doubles its weight each week.

As many as one in 50 teenagers still wet the bed, research has suggested.

When Hong Kong scientists quizzed 16,500 children aged five to 19, 3% reported bedwetting at night, one in five of whom had daytime incontinence.

The British Journal of Urology study found bedwetting was less common as children got older, but the proportion with severe problems grew with age.

Some 82% of young people aged 11-19 with problems wet the bed more than three times a week.

This was double the rate seen in children aged five to 10.

Bedwetting, or primary nocturnal enuresis, has various underlying causes – such as a small bladder capacity, instability during sleep and a failure to wake up when the bladder fills up.

The joint team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Prince of Wales University Hospital said children and adolescents who wet the bed at night also showed a similar pattern of daytime incontinence.

Some 32% of 11-19-year-olds with problems reported daytime incontinence – almost double the 15% rate seen among five to 10-year-olds who said they had a problem.

But overall, by the age of 19, only 3% of boys and 2% of girls were still wetting the bed.

Lead researcher Professor Chung Yeung, who is also president of the International Children’s Continence Society, said: “Bedwetting showed a general reduction as children got older.

Interventions

“However, this reduction was much greater in those with mild symptoms who wet the bed three or less times a week, compared to those with severe problems who were wetting the bed every night.

“Just over 14% of five-year-olds who wet the bed did so seven nights a week.

“By the age of 19, severe bed wetting accounted for over 48% of teenagers who were still wetting the bed.”

He said the findings challenged the myth that bed wetting always gets better as the child gets older.

The research paper said that in China, as in western Europe, bedwetting is considered normal up to the age of five and parents do not tend to seek medical advice unless it continues to a late age.

However, this may be too late for some children with persistent problems.

‘Medical advice’

“These latest findings underline the importance of seeking help for children with severe bedwetting problems, especially if they continue into adolescence.

“If these individuals are left untreated, the evidence suggests they will continue to experience ongoing problems when they become adults,” said Professor Yeung.

The paper added that bed wetting was as prevalent in western youngsters is it is among Hong Kong Chinese schoolchildren.

An expert in the field, consultant clinical psychologist Dr Richard Butler of Leeds, said the figure of one in 50 teenagers wetting the bed was a high one.

He said that in Britain studies had shown around 2.5% of younger children regularly wet the bed.

Dr Butler said: “I completely agree that there are actions and interventions that can be taken at a young age.

“But most things that parents try to do, like restricting drinks, do not seem to work.

“If parents work on encouraging their children to drink more and work on regular toileting in a planned way, this tends to be more effective.”[1. 500 internal server error] [2. mcnabb redskins] [3. san diego earthquake] [4. enuresis] [5. neil diamond]

As many as one in 50 teenagers still wet the bed, research has suggested.

When Hong Kong scientists quizzed 16,500 children aged five to 19, 3% reported bedwetting at night, one in five of whom had daytime incontinence.

The British Journal of Urology study found bedwetting was less common as children got older, but the proportion with severe problems grew with age.

Some 82% of young people aged 11-19 with problems wet the bed more than three times a week.

This was double the rate seen in children aged five to 10.

Bedwetting, or primary nocturnal enuresis, has various underlying causes – such as a small bladder capacity, instability during sleep and a failure to wake up when the bladder fills up.

The joint team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Prince of Wales University Hospital said children and adolescents who wet the bed at night also showed a similar pattern of daytime incontinence.

Some 32% of 11-19-year-olds with problems reported daytime incontinence – almost double the 15% rate seen among five to 10-year-olds who said they had a problem.

But overall, by the age of 19, only 3% of boys and 2% of girls were still wetting the bed.

Lead researcher Professor Chung Yeung, who is also president of the International Children’s Continence Society, said: “Bedwetting showed a general reduction as children got older.

Interventions

“However, this reduction was much greater in those with mild symptoms who wet the bed three or less times a week, compared to those with severe problems who were wetting the bed every night.

“Just over 14% of five-year-olds who wet the bed did so seven nights a week.

“By the age of 19, severe bed wetting accounted for over 48% of teenagers who were still wetting the bed.”

He said the findings challenged the myth that bed wetting always gets better as the child gets older.

The research paper said that in China, as in western Europe, bedwetting is considered normal up to the age of five and parents do not tend to seek medical advice unless it continues to a late age.

However, this may be too late for some children with persistent problems.

‘Medical advice’

“These latest findings underline the importance of seeking help for children with severe bedwetting problems, especially if they continue into adolescence.

“If these individuals are left untreated, the evidence suggests they will continue to experience ongoing problems when they become adults,” said Professor Yeung.

The paper added that bed wetting was as prevalent in western youngsters is it is among Hong Kong Chinese schoolchildren.

An expert in the field, consultant clinical psychologist Dr Richard Butler of Leeds, said the figure of one in 50 teenagers wetting the bed was a high one.

He said that in Britain studies had shown around 2.5% of younger children regularly wet the bed.

Dr Butler said: “I completely agree that there are actions and interventions that can be taken at a young age.

“But most things that parents try to do, like restricting drinks, do not seem to work.

“If parents work on encouraging their children to drink more and work on regular toileting in a planned way, this tends to be more effective.”[1. 500 internal server error] [2. mcnabb redskins] [3. san diego earthquake] [4. enuresis] [5. neil diamond]

Morgan Brenton-Davies is a bright and engaging five-year-old.

He has lots of friends, loves Bob the Builder and playing with his train set. But the one thing he really wants is a brother or sister.

And that is not an easy decision for his parents to make.

Morgan has a rare and serious genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS).

All the joints in his body dislocate so frequently, it makes tasks such as walking or holding things very difficult.

His father, Dean, has given up work to take Morgan to his frequent hospital and physiotherapy appointments.

EDS comes in several different types and, because of the extent and severity of his symptoms, doctors still aren’t sure which one Morgan has, and what the chances are of his parents having another affected child.

They have been struck by how judgemental some people have been about what they should do.

“You do get family members that were… surprised that we would consider having more children.” says Dean.

“That’s a bit upsetting really.”

‘Easy for others to judge’

But those views are not uncommon.

John Harris, an ethicist at Manchester University believes we have “moral reasons to avoid bringing inherited conditions into existence where we have that choice”.

But what exactly does choice mean?

Scans and blood tests on the developing foetus can sometimes detect when things aren’t quite right, but the only way to guarantee a child free of a particular condition means terminating an affected pregnancy.

Many people find the idea of abortion difficult – and it can seem like a very personal judgement about the quality and value of that person’s life.

But EDS, like many conditions, cannot currently be detected before birth.

Jennifer and Dean therefore have to decide whether to take the chance of having any more children, as they would have to wait until the baby was born to see if the gene had been passed on.

Jennifer says: “I think it’s easier for other people to judge without having to really think about it.

“Wanting to have a child is a very strong emotion and it’s not something we take on lightly either, we’ve really thought about it.

“We’ve also talked about the possibility of living with the decision not to have more children and that’s just as hard, you know, could we live with it?”

For Dean, the not knowing, is difficult.

“I wouldn’t want to get to the age of 60 and then start thinking well what would have happened if we’d had another child.”

Jennifer decides to find out as much as possible and takes advice from Professor Mike Pope at London’s Chelsea and Westminster hospital.

After going over the family history he concludes that the chances of Morgan’s condition recurring in another child are around 10%.

“It’s not insignificant,” he cautions, and asks Jennifer how she’d feel if she were told she had a 10% chance of winning the lottery. 10% in that scenario would sound quite high odds.

Jennifer and Dean have a difficult decision to make.

“If we have another child like Morgan then we’ll love him like Morgan,” she says. “We’ll just have to live with the guilt.”

‘My Baby: A Life Worth Living’ will be broadcast on BBC Two at 2320BST on Wednesday 24 May, 2006. It was originally shown on BBC Four on Wednesday 26 April.

A dose of aspirin may be able to prevent liver damage caused by paracetamol or heavy drinking, suggest researchers.
The Yale University team, writing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, found aspirin cut death rates in mice given a paracetamol overdose.

‘Khat’ is a popular stimulant chewed across east Africa. Now it is crossing cultural divides and becoming a drug of choice for an increasing number of young people in the UK.

The khat plant,

Catha edulis

, has been chewed by east Africans for hundreds of years and plays a large part in the social lives of both men and women.

It is banned across America, Canada and most of Europe, but remains legal in Britain.

Khat user Steve [not his real name] is a philosophy student. He is one of an increasing number of students who are taking up the habit.

Steve, who is 22, comes from a good middle-class family and in a slightly apologetic tone he tells me he was drawn to the leaves because they looked harmless.

"They looked really natural, not like a normal drug and they were all wrapped up in this really shiny banana leaf."

Crossing divides

Chewing khat according to those who do it, gives them a mellow high. Some describe it as a cross between cannabis and cocaine.

"You’re really alert," says Steve, "but at the same time you have a bit of the feeling you have on cannabis… not hallucinations but going that sort of way."

In Somalia, khat is popular among taxi drivers and farm workers – people who have to stay alert while the rest of us are tucked up in bed.

In the UK, some students are using it for the same reasons, saying it helps them stay up all night studying.

It is relatively easy to get, and it’s cheap too – your average bundle costs about £3 ($.4.20).

When I went in search of some for this piece, I was pointed in the direction of an Ethiopian butchers in north London.

They had sold out, but assured me they were expecting a fresh batch to be delivered in a couple of days.

The woman behind the counter suggested I try down the road.

Next stop and sure enough there it was, nestled innocently between the cucumbers and courgettes.

"Aren’t you worried about selling it," I ask.

"No, why should I be?" The store owner asks, with a slightly bemused look on his face.

"Its legal, we pay taxes and people want to buy it, so I sell it."

Controversial status

But there growing concern that khat houses are trying to appeal more to younger users.

And that according to Asha, a teenager we meet at a community centre in east London, is setting a dangerous precedent.

"I see so many kids who…start because they just want to try it, but then they end up going there 24/7," he says.

"I know [people who] have ended up dropping out of college because they’ve been up chewing all night and can’t get out of bed. Plus you get people selling other harder drugs in there."

But it’s not just the impact on academic results critics are concerned about.

Psychiatrist Dr Eleni Palezido reckons that khat can be a catalyst for mental health problems.

"When you stop taking khat all the dopamine (a chemical associated with feelings of pleasure in the brain) leaves your system, so people get depressed, they can get paranoid, hear voices and it can lead to a full blown psychotic state."

Cathinone and cathine are the main ingredients of the plant. Both are class C drugs in the UK, but the plant khat itself is not classified and can be bought openly in shops.

Cathinone is almost identical to amphetamines and it is this that creates a high. It’s known to cause mental health problems like psychosis and depression.

And that is one of the reasons why some in the medical profession, like Dr Palezido, are worried.

"Young people have no idea about the dangers, they think because it’s legal it must be ok, but it’s not."

So far, the Government has been reluctant to introduce a ban on khat.

Although, the Home Office told us they were "continuing to monitor the situation."

Around seven tonnes of khat arrives at Heathrow every week from Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen.

The fact that it is legal here has meant the UK has become something of an international hub for illicit trade in khat to other countries where it is banned.

There are no official figures on how many young British people are using khat, but Asha reckons the politicians should act now before it’s too late.

"The government should be doing something about it. They think it’s just Somalis who are doing it but it’s not….everyone’s now getting involved."

khat drug http://buzzfollow.com/23469

Police are trying to trace the relatives of a couple found dead at a house in Greater Manchester.Officers were called to Tig Fold Road in Farnworth late on Wednesday night and discovered the bodies of a man and woman, both aged in their 40s.

Police are trying to trace the relatives of a couple found dead at a house in Greater Manchester.Officers were called to Tig Fold Road in Farnworth late on Wednesday night and discovered the bodies of a man and woman, both aged in their 40s.

This week, cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins have become available to buy at UK pharmacies.

Doctors have known for a long time that statins reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease – the biggest cause of death in the UK.

Studies show they can cut the risk of a heart attack and stroke by a third.

Statins are given to patients who are known to be at high risk of heart disease, such as those with inherited high cholesterol or people who have already had a heart attack.

This is called secondary prevention.

Increasingly, doctors are suggesting statins should be given to people with risk factors but no obvious disease, which is called primary prevention. This is to prevent disease occurring in the first place.

But is the threat of cardiovascular disease so great that statins may as well be added to the water supply?

This was the debate held recently by doctors at the annual meeting of Heart UK – a patient and science charity for cholesterol.

Mass treatment

Dr John Reckless, chairman of Heart UK and a consultant endocrinologist at Bath University, put forward the case.

“The whole point of the debate is to bring out the fact that we are under-treating and the fact that a lot more people could benefit.

“The whole population should be following diet, lifestyle and weight loss measures. We shouldn’t have our high- fat meals and we shouldn’t lounge around, we should all be taking exercise and so on.

“Of course we all need that. But on the other hand, rather more people do need statins than are currently getting them.

“So maybe people should be able to have their statin, perhaps if not in their drinking water, with their drinking water.

“The issue is how far we should be encouraging wider use,” he said.

How far?

Dr Reckless said preventing cardiovascular disease was important across the board – in the elderly and the young, in men and women, and in those with diabetes or high blood pressure or any of the other conditions that might go along with it.

“We’ve long known that the evidence is really that you should be treating way down to really quite a low risk.

Doctors are advised by the Joint British Societies, which includes Diabetes UK, the British Cardiac Society, Heart UK and the Stroke Association, to treat people whose 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease is 20%.

This risk means two in every 10 such people would have a cardiovascular event over the space of 10 years if they were left untreated.

Dr Reckless said studies in the UK and Scandinavia had shown very clear 30-40% reductions in risk of cardiovascular disease when a person’s overall risk was only 6% or 9% over 10 years.

“It is clearly effective and safe to treat with a statin at really quite low levels of risk. That doesn’t mean to say we are going to treat everyone but you could do,” he said.

But Professor Tom Sanders, a nutritionist at King’s College, London, and nutrition director for Heart UK, disagreed.

He said although statins were good for people at very high risk of cardiovascular disease, serious side effects made statins unsuitable to be used routinely in those at lower risk.

“It’s about balancing the side effects. A public health intervention must have no significant side effects and statins do have significant side effects,” he said.

“All the trials are really being done on high risk groups – the elderly, people with diabetes or people with heart disease. The benefit is really confined to people at high risk. We have no trials on low risk groups of exposure.

“At the age of 40, your risk of having a heart attack is below one in 1,000, so any reduction is really quite miniscule in terms of benefit.

“The analogy I use is alcohol. Alcohol saves lives from heart disease at older ages but it’s very clear that in people of a younger age who are not at risk it causes more harm than it does good.”

What dangers?

Professor Sanders said: “There are serious side effects with statins. One is myositis, in particular rhabdomyolysis – a muscle-wasting disease. It’s a very nasty side effect. It can kill you. It occurs in about 0.5 to one in 1,000 people treated and that’s with screening. Without screening the incidence might be higher.

“You would not allow something that gives an effect in one in 1,000 people to be added into food.”

He said the other worry was the harm it could cause to unborn children.

“It causes limb defects and for that reason you could not put it in the water supply,” he said.

But Dr Reckless said: “You might well have statin-free baby water so that babies and others not at risk don’t take their statin.”

He said similar arguments had occurred when people suggested aspirin use should be widespread.

“I certainly wouldn’t agree with that, but quite a lot of people who ought to take aspirin don’t. Statins are actually substantially safer than aspirin.

“If you put the average older patient on aspirin in one year, one person in 262 would have a significant gastrointestinal bleed in that one year. The risk with a statin of getting acute myositis to be sufficiently concerned is one per 100,000. So statins are very much safer.”

For deaths, he said: “With aspirin it’s one in 2-3,000. The number for statins is about one in a million.”

Pill popping culture

But Professor Sanders said giving drugs was not the answer. He said it was important to focus on diet and lifestyle.

He said: “It’s really a lifestyle disease. Rates have tumbled in the UK by about 35% over the last 20 years and if you look at why the changes have occurred it’s been in those who are better off.

“What that tells us is it’s a constellation of factors – housing, smoking, bad diets – in those social groups.

“The other thing is people do not always drink water out of the tap. It would not be universal,” he said.

He is concerned blanket treatment of everyone would give out the wrong message.

“Most cardiovascular disease could be managed by lifestyle changes. The implication is that diet doesn’t matter. I can take a pill for it and it will all get better. It undermines lifestyle changes.

Labelling people as patients

“Putting drugs in the drinking water is medicalisation of human activity. It’s wrong. You convert people into patients,” said Professor Sanders.

Dr Reckless said: “People vary very much in their approach to prevention and treatments. Some people don’t want a doctor near them and others want to maximise their gain.

“Very clearly, you’ve got to be careful when you treat someone with their first tablet. That can be for some people psychologically quite damaging because you convert them from a person into a patient. That’s not good.

“But on the other hand you have the person who goes away and says my doctor won’t treat me and I’ve got a high cholesterol and then gets worried because no one is treating them. Those are an overlapping group of people.

“Perhaps these days where choice is the buzz word, there should be some choice.”
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