Statins - Good or Bad For Your Health?

Recently I did a quick survey of my friends to find out how many were taking statins for high cholesterol. 3 of the 5 friends I asked said yes. That is 60%! I admit I was surprised at this as certainly 2 of these friends seem very fit - exercise regularly, profess to eat a healthy diet that excludes things such as chocolates, biscuits and booze and weight wise - well they seem to be spot on perfect to my unqualified eye!

Whilst trawling the net for information about these so called life-saving, wonder drugs (statins) I came across some interesting information with regard to a possible link between low levels of LDL (the bad) cholesterol and cancer. You can read a short article published in JACC - the Journal of the American College of Cardiology here

Interesting don't you agree?

My late husband took statins for just under 3 months. For him those 3 months were - painful. The statins (and he tried 2 different ones) caused multiple muscle pain and an increasing weakness and difficulty in walking. He had not gone to his GP to get his cholesterol checked but for a routine BP check. Yet his GP looked at him and decided that he presented as a perfect example of a man who probably had high cholesterol - weight increase centred around his middle despite taking exercise on a daily basis. This middle body weight increase can be the sign of other problems too, such as diabetes, but with a pre-existing blood pressure problem (well controlled for 20 years) high cholesterol was the GP's first suspicion.

My husband previously had been an avid cyclist as well as a walker, often cycling 10/15 miles a session and consequently he made the decision to stop taking statins. For him it was a no brainer - take the statins and live a sedentary lifestyle or stop the statins and continue with something that gave him so much pleasure - walking and cycling. He saw this as his lifestyle choice. Additionally, he also reviewed his diet and made any appropriate changes.

Despite the readily available health advice, people who may have high cholesterol still aren't proactive in going for an assessment, often being prone to think 'it won't happen to me.' That can be a very fatalistic approach. Everyone should at least know where they stand - or sit - on the cholesterol scale, so they can make an informed decision. Not least to look at their current lifestyle - do they eat poorly, fail to exercise regularly, drink too much alcohol and not enough water, breathe shallowly from their chest, and take multiple drugs and other toxins. Generally lead a very stressful life.

Recently I came across a blog written by man who thought along similar lines to my husband, a man who is a healer, a chiropractic and is a prominent chiropractic sports physician in the USA - Dr Nick Campos. Dr Campos opinion on statins is in line with my husbands and he has written a very informative article relating to the use of these drugs  - and the possible link between low cholesterol levels and cancer. To read it follow the link below.

Dr Nick Campos

Ibiza Mules

It would be very easy to say 'here we go again' as a couple of young women have once again found themselves caught up in the illegal drugs trade in foreign climes. This time in Ibiza. Just how are we, the general public, to know whether to rally to their defense or leave them to reap what they have sowed. Just how do we decide if these ladies were plain foolish, to young to be let loose in the wide world, very naive and somewhat immature for their ages, (early 20's), or know exactly what they were doing but never thought it wouldn't happen to them, they wouldn't get caught, their plan was foolproof. 

The girls claim they were kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to take this trip to Peru to smuggle drugs. Now, I can't claim that if this had happened to me I wouldn't have at least tried to escape or leave clues or smuggle messages to people I came into contact with on my trip, because you don't know how you would act until it does happen to you. I find it difficult to think that I would be on a plane, stay in a hotel, take sightseeing trips as the girls say they did, without finding a way to bring to the attention of anyone, my predicament. It would cross my mind, even as a 20 year old, that if someone with a gun was threatening to harm my family if I did not do what they wanted, that this same unscrupulous person might also kill me in the near future, without much thought. What, therefore, would I have to loose by drawing attention to my plight. It is very easy for me sitting here in the comfort of my lounge, to imagine all the possible ways I could have done this. 

Handing a note to a waiter when I paid for a drink or meal. Casually leaving a bag or jacket with a note in the pocket asking for help - get the police. At least talking to another English speaking tourist on a sightseeing trip giving them enough information to back up any future claims I made should I get caught by the police. The possibilities seem endless - from the comfort of my lounge.

Although it is difficult to imagine that these two young ladies had not seen recent news regarding other drug smuggling men, women and young girls getting caught, shipped off to inhospitable prisons, trials being held in non-English speaking Courts, it is plausible to imagine yet another two young women being foolish enough to think that they look plausible enough to not get caught and to be swept up in the moment.

This in itself posses the question, should they fess-up their crime, plead youth, naivety, sorrow at their foolishness and hope that the Court will be lenient or try to lie their way out and continue to plead their ignorance of the crime right to the moment the cell door clangs shut. The thought of many years behind bars in a very foreign (culture) prison would possibly have made me react differently to the girls. But who really knows......

Read the headlines  here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23737272

The NHS And Alcohol Related Problems

The National Audit Office said local health bosses did not have a clear idea of the scale of the problem and as a result were not co-ordinating services.
In particular, the report called on GPs to take more responsibility as the NHS was struggling to reach those at the early stages of alcohol abuse.


But a Department of Health spokesman said the government was doing "more than ever" to tackle alcohol-related problems.

The NAO said GPs were in the ideal position to help these groups of people through the use of brief advice during consultations on how to reduce drinking levels.

Discuss!

The New Vascular Health Check

Vascular disease affects 4 million people a year, leading to the death of 170,000 on an annual basis. However, research indicates that it is possible to identify risk factors for vascular disease and modify outcomes by early prevention.

I wonder how many families are wondering how different their lives would have been if they had taken note of this advice.....

My father was diagnosed with vascular dementia 2.5 years ago. Fifteen years prior to this diagnosis he had an angioplasty to an artery in his leg/groin due to early vascular disease. At the time the consultant told him the cause was due to his being an ex-smoker - ex being 20 years stopped! I clearly remember my father  being very miffed - 20 years stopped smoking only to still suffer from related health issues.

What prompted this latest consultation and diagnosis? I did and some days I now regret this. Ignorance might well have been better, at least for my father.

My father at 87 years, was still driving. We were at the stage of 'let's use my car dad and save your petrol' or 'would you mind if I drove dad, I feel sick when a passenger!'

It's easy to bury your head and let things jog along. Dad needed to drive because mum would have been housebound if he didn't. Sometimes burying your head makes life easier, especially where changes might impact on your own lifestyle. But then we had a series of mini traumas. 

Viral & Bacteria Meningitis

Meningitis is the term for the inflammation of the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It can take two forms, bacterial or viral. Viral meningitis, sometimes called aseptic meningitis, is an infection that causes inflammation of the layers surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Bacterial meningitis affects the same areas of the body but is caused by a bacterial infection. Both types can be fatal but bacterial meningitis is more likely to quickly become life-threatening due to septicaemia that usually accompanies this disease. No matter which type, being told that someone close to you has meningitis can cause a sense of panic and helplessness. However, when you are the parents of a 2 month old baby your feelings must surely be indescribable.

One such incident touched my life a couple of years ago when my little granddaughter became seriously ill, very quickly. One of the unfortunate things about meningitis is the speed with which it progresses, the speed with which it becomes an emergency situation. A patient can go from feeling generally unwell with headache, sore limbs and sickness, to unconscious within the space of an hour. With very young children it is doubly difficult to establish what the patient may be feeling and the danger is always there that a GP, being the usual first point of contact, will not think past the 'baby temperature/bug/earache syndrome.'

My grandchild's GP was on the ball. Using a simple colour coded tick check list it became obvious, with every tick in the orange line, that our baby girl was dangerously ill. The baby needed to be admitted to hospital - immediately.

In 2005 experts from the Meningitis Research Foundation analysed the care and treatment of some 400 child meningitis cases. One of the aims of the project was to establish factors that could be linked to any deaths amongst the patient sample. The bulk of these patients, children under 16 years of age, had been admitted to hospital via Accident and Emergency. Sadly, 143 of the children died. Yet for every child that succumbed to the disease 3 others in the sample group survived.

The quality of care within the first 24 hours of a patient being diagnosed with meningitis is crucial. My grandchild was fortunate. On admittance she was examined and treated by a paediatric led team. This can be important as junior A & E hospital doctors are often not supervised by consultants, or may be part of a medical team with little knowledge of paediatric emergency care. A young child with meningitis can quickly go in to shock and suffer organ damage. It becomes imperative that treatment is started as soon as possible, often with a cocktail of super-drugs, and that all details however minute are fully documented to allow potential complications to be picked up early.

My little granddaughter was a fortunate child. Despite it being late evening the hospital called in a (female) paediatrician to assess her. It must have been the end of a very long day for her because when she informed the baby's parents that meningitis was suspected, the baby's mother screamed - and the paediatrician burst in to tears.








Advice and support

Meningitis Trust
24-hour helpline: 0800 028 1828
Email: info@meningitis-trust.org
Website: www.meningitis-trust.org.uk

Every Where We Turn - We are a generation who is failing our elderly.

The newspapers and television are full of the dire care dished out to a generation of elderly who find themselves thrown on the will of the state at the end of their fruitful lives.

Day after day we hear stories of elderly refused operations or treatment due to age. Care home residents that are not fed properly, geriatric hospital patients unable to feed themselves suffering weight lose and even death. Incapable or afraid to speak up, not taken seriously when they do ask for help, these are just a few issues on a long and traumatic reading list of failures meted out to our elderly and infirm.

This constant battering of the senses is particularly traumatic if you yourself are caring for elderly relatives - as I am.

Both parents, in their 90's, have different health needs and have developed a strong aversion to care intervention from anyone but immediate family. My mother, suffering from inoperable aortic stenosis and heart failure, insists she watches the 6pm news, news at 9pm and for good measure the 10 o'clock news. The daily newspaper is her gospel and woe betide us if Jeremy Vine broadcasts a discussion on the lack of elderly care, she joins in with gusto to all who will listen.

My father is bewildered, not only with the news programmes which he finds hard to follow, but also with my mothers rants. He has vascular dementia - mid/end stage according to his GP, although my mother is unconvinced this is true. Having suffered with multiple TIA's we are now on a plateau of confusion that is both distressing but sometimes amusing.

I can understand their terror at the thought of being rushed to hospital - never to be fit to leave. I can understand their terror at the thought of assessment for a care home - social services mean separation, care homes mean bullying and a lonely death, all of this a certainty in their minds.

I'm seriously thinking of taking the plug of the television and blaming the dog's obsession with chewing wires. Or I could tell them the newspaper companies have all been closed down by the governement - they had all the journalists arrested. 

Trouble is, is it worth the stress this would cause, to me that is - you see, they can't get out unless I take them so I might have to remove my car wheels and lay the blame at someone making a quick buck to be made in the recession.

Human Rights Fiasco?

After an appeal by the UK Border Agency was rejected, Mohammed Ibrahim has won the right to stay in this country, despite being a previous failed asylum seeker. The courts in their wisdom have stated that his human right to a family life would be violated if he was returned to Iraq - by fathering two children with an English woman he can legally sidestep deportation. However, this is no ordinary asylum seeker.

Today I listened to Mr Paul Houston on the Jeremy Vine show. Seven years ago Mr Houston lost his young daughter Amy in the most appalling manner. She was run down by Mr Ibrahim who was driving with no licence or insurance. Amy, a much loved only child, was left lying under Mr Ibrahim's car wheels whilst he chose to run away leaving her to die.

Mr Houston talked in a passionate and emotional way about the appalling manner in which his daughter Amy died. How the loss of his child has changed his life forever and how being asked to accept that the only penalty Mr Ibrahim must pay for his deed is 4 months in prison.

Since his subsequent release from 4 months of incarceration, Mr Ibrahim has gone on to be arrested for theft, burglary, driving again with no licence or insurance, harrassement and drug taking (cannabis), plus of course, fathered his two children - an act which appears to give him the right to remain in this country regardless of character, morality, or continued criminal activities he may choose to perpetrate.

For Mr Houston this is another slap in the face. A variety of listeners rang and emailed Jeremy Vine with expressions of sympathy, horror, tears and support, not least when we were told that Mr Houston (for medical reasons) cannot have more children.

For me there are some questions I would like answered. Is Mr Ibrahim contributing in anyway to our society - does he work, pay taxes? Any man who is fit enough to commit burglary and drive with such abandon must surely be fit enough for work. Do social services think he is suitable to care for his children or are they on the at risk register? Does he live (permanently) at home with his new family? If the answer is yes to these questions will the courts keep a check on this man to see he continues to fulfil his family duties in a responsible manner after the media furore dies down. After all - children are for life, not just for Christmas.....