Monday Blues

A study has found that Monday is the worst day of the week to book an appointment as you are likely to miss it due to the Monday blues.

Dr Rob Jenkins, from Glasgow University and the author of the study, said: “Mondays are worst for missed appointments but over the course of the week attendance steadily improves.  Fridays have the fewest no-shows”.

The team reviewed attendance records for over 4.5million outpatient appointments across Scotland for a two year period between 2008 and 2010.  Dr Jenkins further commented: “Recent psychological studies have shown that different days of the week evoke distinct emotional responses.  Mondays have the most negative response; Fridays the most positive.  And emotional tone brightens steadily over the intervening days”.

Coffee Will Give You a Buzz

New research has revealed that a cup of coffee will give you a buzz and is likely to be more effective than body and mind-enhancing drinks with ingredients like guarana and ginseng.

Scientist found there was an overwhelming lack of evidence to suggest that ingredients like guarana enhance physical or cognitive performance and that it was in fact a generous dose of caffeine which gives people that buzz.

The study, published in the Nutrition Reviews journal, went through various articles which examined the effects of energy ingredients and / or in combination with caffeine and there was little information to support the claims.

Obese Children

A third of all primary school children in year 6 are now overweight and a fifth of those in reception class are also heavier than they should be.

The NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) released figures from the National Child Measurement Programme, which logs the height and weight of over one million children.  Its figures suggest that children living in urban areas are more likely to be overweight than those living in the suburbs, with London having the highest rates.

Anna Soubry, public health minister, says: “Being overweight can do serious damage to our health so we must reduce levels in children to give them the best start in life.  That is why we are taking action to encourage families to eat healthily and get active”.

Tam Fry, from National Obesity Forum, said: “We had been led to believe by the government that the situation was levelling off and improving but these figures show this is not the case at all.  There are now double the number of children aged 11 who are obese than there were when they began school”.

Cancer Child Cured by HIV Virus in US

A little girl in the US has been cured using a disabled form of the HIV virus to reprogram her immune system to kill cancer cells.

Emily Whitehead had been fighting leukaemia for two years but relapsed this year and her parents had 48 hours to decide whether to put her forward for treatment in a clinical trial.  The therapy known as CTL019 uses a disabled form of HIV to carry cancer fighting genes into her T-cells, which fight disease, and would hopefully kill the cancer cells.  With Emily on the cusp of suffering from organ failure, her parents decided to try the radical option and despite an initial bad reaction when the re-engineered cells were injected back into her, she is alive and well today.

Three weeks after the treatment Emily was in remission and she was checked again at three and six months but so far so good. Researchers from the team who treated Emily at University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia presented their findings at an annual haematology meeting and found nine out of twelve responded to the treatment.  Their aim is to treat another twelve over the next year.

Increase in Mothers Over 40

A study by the Health and Social Care Information Centre has shown an increase in the number of mothers over 40 giving birth but the number of teenage mothers falling.

In the last five years there has been a 6 per cent rise in hospital births and approximately a quarter of those delivered by caesarean section.  In 2011-12 over 33,500 babies were born to women aged between 13 and 19, a 22 per cent fall in five years.  Mothers over the age of 40 in London are giving birth at double the rate of teenagers account for one in 20 of all births in the Capital. Numbers for instrumental assisted birth and caesarean delivery have also increased.

Dr Dan Poulter, health minister, said: “It is very encouraging to see teenage pregnancy rates continuing to decline.  They are now at their lowest level for over 40 years.  It is usually safer and more desirable for a women to have a natural birth, but whether to have a caesarean or not is a decision for a woman to make as an individual in consultation with the health professionals providing her care”.