The risk of new mothers developing postnatal depression is cut if health visitors are trained to spot signs and offer psychological help, a study says.
Health visitors were trained to spot symptoms of depression six to eight weeks after birth.
Women who were then given psychological support by health visitors, rather than the usual process of being referred on to a GP, fared better.
University of Sheffield researchers looked at 4,000 women.
At the six or eight-week check, 600 women were found to have signs of postnatal depression.
A third were offered the usual care of a GP referral, while the rest were offered eight sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy, which aims to change behavioural responses, or person-centred therapy where the patient is encouraged to discuss their feelings about their situation.
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Dr Cindy-Lee Dennis |
Both forms of psychological support led to a reduction in depressive symptoms when compared with women in a control group who received the usual level of care.
A third of women who had been given therapy still had symptoms of depression six months after their baby's birth, compared with just under half of those in the control group.
The difference in outcomes remained when women were assessed again at 12 months.
Mothers' help
Writing in the BMJ, the researchers led by Dr Jane Morrell, said: "Training health visitors to assess women, identify symptoms of postnatal depression, and deliver psychologically informed sessions was clinically effective at six and 12 months postnatally compared with usual care."
In a second study published in the journal, University of Toronto researchers examined the effectiveness of telephone support to prevent postnatal depression.
Seven hundred women who tests showed were at high risk of developing the condition either received telephone support from volunteer mothers who had experienced postnatal depression themselves, or could seek help from health professionals themselves if they felt it necessary.
Those who were supported were around half as likely to develop postnatal depression 12 weeks after birth.
Around 13% of women are thought to experience postnatal depression following the birth of a child but it is often undiagnosed and untreated.
Antidepressants have been shown to be an effective treatment, but many women are reluctant to take the drugs, especially when they are breastfeeding.
Writing in the BMJ, Dr Cindy-Lee Dennis, who led the study, said their work and that of the UK team provided more evidence that postnatal depression could be effectively treated, and possibly even prevented.
But she said the condition was still undiagnosed and untreated in many women.
"Only by overcoming the barriers to treatment, providing comprehensive screening programmes, and ensuring the delivery of appropriate and timely care will we effectively prevent and treat postnatal depression."
People who get less than seven hours of sleep per night appear about three times as likely to develop respiratory illness following exposure to a cold virus as those who sleep eight hours or more.
Experimental studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation results in poorer immune function. However, there is little direct evidence to back up the theory that sleep affects susceptibility to illness.
Researchers from America interviewed 153 men and women (age range, 21-55 years) daily for 14 consecutive days regarding how many hours they slept per night, what percentage of their time in bed was spent asleep and whether they felt rested. The study subjects were then quarantined and administered nasal drops containing the common-cold-causing rhinovirus.
It was found that the less an individual slept, the more likely he or she was to develop a cold. Lower sleep efficiency was also associated with developing a cold - men and women who spent less than 92 percent of their time in bed asleep were five and a half times more likely to become ill than those whose sleep efficiency was 98 percent or more. Feeling rested was not associated with colds.
The above data supports seven to eight hours of sleep as a reasonable target. However, even a minimal habitual sleep disturbance (sleep losses of 2 percent to 8 percent, 10 to 38 minutes for an 8-hour sleeper) is associated with 4 times the risk of developing a cold.
Do you hate wearing bathing suits and skimpy clothing because you're unhappy with the way your breasts look? You're not alone. Millions of women feel the same way. That's why breast enlargement surgery is so incredibly popular. But surgery is expensive, painful, and can even be dangerous. Instead, many women have turned to natural breast enhancement products such as Breast Actives to make their breasts bigger and firmer.
Breast Actives enhancement cream is made with a variety of herbal ingredients that increase the body's production of human growth hormone. This hormone then tells your glands to start creating more breast tissue. This is essentially the same thing that happens during puberty. Breast Actives enhancement cream is safe to use and you won't gain weight. You just rub the cream onto your breast every day.
You'll also need to take the herbs orally as well. It's just like taking a vitamin. This supplement will boost your body's production of estrogen, which also tells your glands to create more breast tissue. So the cream makes your breasts bigger and firmer from the outside of your body, while the supplement works on them from the inside.
Breast Actives enhancement cream takes about six months to work fully. Patience is advised. And six months of cream can get a little expensive, but it's not nearly as expensive as implant surgery. And your breasts will look better than surgically enhanced breasts because they're real. Breast Actives enhancement cream is highly rated because it uses a superior grade of herbs in a sufficient dosage.
Since breast enhancement herbs affect the hormones, they can have other benefits as well. For example, many women report that these herbs relieve menstrual cramps. Some even claim they increase libido.
It's depressing when you feel lousy about your appearance. It can negatively affect every aspect of your life--at home and at work. But when you feel confident about the way you look it's a truly great feeling. You want to go out. You want to be around people. And they want to be around you.
Can Breast Actives enhancement cream really help make your breasts bigger and firmer? It already has for thousands of women. Why not you too?
Anxiety is a disorder that can disturb a persons mind to an extent where they lose control over their actions e.g. thinking and decision making. This sense of instability makes it hard for a patient to carry on leading a normal life. When anxiety takes hold it forces the patient into believing that they no longer have any say on matters of importance like decision making etc. All this can have a devastating effect on the sufferer as well as all concerned parties around them.
With the help of modern science we have modern medicine and treatments and if supervised by a governing body of the medical profession along with your modern way of thinking and that is to believe in yourself and recognise your illness then the help out there will certainly give you hope in having a brighter future.
It is no wonder why anxiety is diagnosed as a mental health disorder when it can cause so much havoc in the upper region. Some patients lost hope where they believed their anxiety was beyond repair. Unfortunately they became a victim of their own thoughts that was to give them the only solution to their problem and that was to commit suicide. We all know the feeling of anxiety where the fear factor sets in and we imagine that something awful or nasty is about to happen. If faced with difficult times e.g. like an upheaval in life, divorce or losing someone close are all situations that can be identified to the cause of anxious moments. There are different types of anxiety; therefore the importance of speaking with a doctor is imminent so the right course of medicine or treatment can be prescribed. Mild bouts of anxiety are common and present in a great many of our lives, but for the more severe cases anxiety bouts now become attacks which is a major worry.
Doctors dedicated in this field will diagnose an anxiety disorder if the patients tension level scales to high and stays with the sufferer for several months. If the patient can not pin point a reason behind his anxiety then it is right to stick with the prognosis of it actually being anxiety. The reason being is, depression stands in the way of diagnoses due to similarities of symptoms for both disorders. What the doctor has to decipher is whether the patient has depression with anxiety symptoms or vice or versa as in i.e. is anxiety the cause of their depression.
The effect anxiety has on each individual differs in many ways; some people are prone to the psychological/emotional side of things. When other people are tortured by the effects physically
The Psychological downside to anxiety comes in the form of inability to concentrate along with irritability. A patient experiences constant worry which can lead to sense of fearful anticipation. Lack of sleep is a strong symptom causing fatigue to take the whole body. The Physical effects can be pains where the patient feels tightness in the chest. Breathing is affected. Loss of appetite, sex drive goes down hill and visits to the loo are more frequent (Urinating) sickness dizziness headaches and muscle tension are just a few to mention of the symptoms.
Anxiety if permitted will devour any thoughts you have on leading a normal life. This can be all prevented if you seek advice early on any concerns you may have relating to your health or that of someone close.
Varicose veins are veins that are swollen and agonizing. They can become huge and twisted to look similar to ropes. In the normal vein there are valves that keep blood moving forward toward the heart, but with varicose veins the valves do not perform properly, this permits the blood to pause in the vein and it pools, causing it to enlarge.
Warnings to look for are distress and a feeling of fullness in the legs, visible dilated veins, mild bulging of the ankle and discoloration of the skin around the ankle. If you begin to have a lot of pain, and your veins do not answer to your own healing, you should see a varicose vein doctor. When you begin to have indications, sitting or lounging with your feet tilted may help.
Varicose vein remedy will be conservative at the beginning. Your doctor will probably order you to abstain from standing, especially for long periods of time. Remain off your feet as much as possible, and wear elastic support stockings when you are on your feet.
Should you ensue a sudden surge in pain, swelling, fever, or redness, you should touch base with your doctor directly, as you can develop complications such as soreness of the vein (Phlebitis), leg ulcers, or the rupture of a varicose vein. You can treat your varicose veins for as long as it helps, by keeping your feet tilted, by staying off your feet as much as possible, and by wearing elastic support stockings. Varicose veins, however, will only worsen over time. However, by taking the proper care of yourself, you can hold off the worst for as long as possible.
If you get to the point that your ache is unbearable, you may have to have surgery done. There is a treatment called Sclerotherapy which is executed while the patient is standing. A solution is injected into the vein to cause thickening. This closes off the vein. Afterwards an elastic bandage is wrapped snugly around the leg or part of the body where the varicose vein was situated.
Another remedy is called Endovenous ablation therapy. This procedure uses heat to destroy vein tissue. A slender tube is put into the vein through a small incision under local anesthesia. Then by using laser or radio wave energy the vein is cauterized, closing it off. This is an outpatient procedure.
Surgical vein stripping (or varicose vein removal) is a procedure that is done under general anesthesia. You are asleep and do not feel pain. This is also an outpatient procedure. The doctor makes a cut at the top and the bottom of the varicose vein. A thin, plastic, tube like tool is put into the vein and is linked around it, then when the tube is pulled out the vein is removed with it. The vein stripping is not done as often nowadays as it was in the past, since the Endovenous ablation treatment has been shown to work as well, or better, than the stripping procedure. There looks to be less pain, also, and patients typically recover swifter. These therapy will, more than likely, cause scarring.
Many people proudly announce that they are perfectionists. This condition of trying to do everything perfectly can eventually cause overwhelming anxiety. They may believe that being a high achiever and working so hard at everything they tackle will gain admiration. But it is more likely to result in creating additional insecurity and anxiety in their lives, which drives them to try harder. The anxiety increases stress and begins to affect their lives. If they can lessen the desire to be perfect so their anxiety and stress levels will lessen too. Treating anxiety is a process and here are some basic rules.
1 Accept that the anxiety can be controlled and that you can be in command of it. This is half the battle won. Accept that you have a problem and decide that you are going to control it. Get out of the habit because that is what it basically is.
2 Recognize the symptoms and make a conscious effort to shut them down.A widely accepted aid to help identify the tendency is to wear an elastic band around your wrist. Every time your thoughts begin to dwell on the desire to be perfect, or you feel anxious, snap the band. It reaffirms your determination to not go there.
3 Do not blame others, for the situation you are in or conditions for your anxiety. Blaming others for the situation is just too easy. Life is tough at times and full of knocks and pitfalls, so acknowledge that. Finding a workable solution to your problem is the healthy challenge of life.
4 Take each day at a time. A lifetime of conditioned thinking and reaction is not easy to change. However, it can be done by taking small steps at a time. Take care of yourself by keeping clear of stressful situations and do not take on more than you can cope with.
5 Adopt a positive attitude. Confidence and self worth is what you are after even if do not feel like it. Act the part and eventually you will be the part. You should not believe that you are being judged continually.
6 Seek help. There are many professionals who are well trained and experienced at helping to deal with anxiety once it becomes a real problem. There are also many remedies which help to calm your anxious state. Start with a natural remedy that is not habit forming.
Many high achievers have discovered the African indigenous plant called Kanna for treating anxiety. The remarkable thing about this herbal plant is that it is safe. It is completely non addictive and no severe adverse effects have been documented. Those relaxed, happy ancient tribes had the secret of not only basic survival, but on how to enjoy life. The plant was greatly prized because when chewed they experienced a feeling of goodwill and benevolence. The good news is that it is now available in a natural milled powder form in capsules.
I have suffered the effects of anxiety and stress and vowed no more. I since made an extensive study of the symptoms, the causes, effects and management of stress and have helped countless people turn their lives around If you would like to rid yourself of stress and look forward to each day, go to my website for a FREE guide which sets out the Golden Rules on how to manage stress and anxiety.
About the Author
Philippa has suffered from both anxiety and stress related problems. She decided that enough was enough and decided to research the reasons,causes and management of stress and anxiety related problems. Over the years and as a result of her studies she has helped countless people deal with their stress and anxiety
There is no evidence that products widely promoted to help the body "detox" work, scientists warn.
The charitable trust Sense About Science reviewed 15 products, from bottled water to face scrub, and found many detox claims were "meaningless".
Anyone worried about the after-effects of Christmas overindulgence would get the same benefits from eating healthily and getting plenty of sleep, they said.
Advertising regulators said they looked at such issues on a case-by-case basis.
The investigation, done by research members of the Voice of Young Science network, was kicked off by a campaign to unpick "dodgy" science claims - where companies use phrases that sound scientific but do not actually mean anything.
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Tom Wells, chemist |
They challenged the companies behind products such as vitamins, shampoo, detox patches and a body brush on the evidence they had to support the detox claims made.
No two companies seemed to use the same definition of detox - defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the removal of toxic substances or qualities.
In the majority of cases, producers and retailers were forced to admit that they had simply renamed processes like cleaning or brushing, as detox, the scientists said.
Toxins
One researcher investigated a Garnier face wash which claimed to detoxify the skin by removing toxins.
''Your body is the best detox product you have'' - Sense about Science
The "toxins" turned out to be the dirt, make-up and skin oils that any cleanser would be expected to remove, she said.
A five-day detox plan from Boots which claimed to detoxify the body and flush away toxins was also criticised for not being backed by evidence.
Evelyn Harvey, a biologist who looked into the product, said that if consumers followed the healthy diet that was recommended alongside the supplement they would probably feel better - but it would have nothing to do with the product itself.
The researchers warned that, at worst, some detox diets could have dangerous consequences and, at best, they were a waste of money.
Tom Wells, a chemist who took part in the research, said: "The minimum sellers of detox products should be able to offer is a clear understanding of what detox is and proof that their product actually works.
"The people we contacted could do neither."
Alice Tuff, from Sense About Science, added: "It is ridiculous that we're seeing a return to mystical properties being claimed for products in the 21st Century and I'm really pleased that young scientists are sharing their concerns about this with the public."
The Advertising Standards Authority said it would investigate such claims on a case-by-case basis if a complaint was made.
"If a product is making claims not substantiated by the evidence submitted by the company we would challenge that."
A spokeswoman from Boots said its five-day detox plan encouraged people to drink water and includes ingredients that "battle against toxins and help protect from the dangers of free radicals".
And Garnier commented: "All Garnier products undergo rigorous testing and evaluation to ensure that our claims are accurate and noticeable by our consumers."
Thousands of people have expressed concern about pain management in A&E units in a poll of patients.
The Healthcare Commission survey of nearly 50,000 people found less than two thirds felt staff did everything they could to manage pain.
But overall nine in 10 patients said they were happy with the standard of service in hospitals in England.
A&E doctors admitted there were some areas that needed improving, but the government said it was pleased.
In total, 88% of patients rated their care as good, very good or excellent, with the numbers giving hospitals the top score rising slightly since the last survey in 2004.
'Worrying'
But the watchdog said the overall performance could not hide some worrying trends for individual aspects of the care package.
Just 59% of patients said they felt staff did everything they could to manage pain.
One in four people who requested pain relief said they had to wait more than 15 minutes, and 9% said they never got the relief they requested.
Concerns were also raised about the information patients were given.
Only 37% said they were given a complete explanation of possible side-effects of medicine they were given.
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Katherine Murphy |
Another third reported they were not told about the danger signs associated with their illness or injury that they should look out for after being discharged.
The poll also showed slight drops compared to the last survey in the ratings for privacy and respect and the way patients felt they were involved in their care.
And it revealed regional variations in the quality of services with London performing worse on many aspects of care.
The performance of hospitals in the capital has been an issue in previous reports from the watchdog and officials said they were looking into the trend.
Healthcare Commission chief executive Anna Walker said while the overall rating was good, hospitals still had lessons to learn.
"Patients have raised important issues."
And Katherine Murphy, of the Patients Association, claimed patients deserved better, adding: "Pain management is a critical part of care."
The watchdog also highlighted a concern about the four-hour waiting time target.
More than a quarter of patients said they were in A&E for longer than four hours.
Accusation
The Healthcare Commission suggested this could be because patients were being sent to assessment units, a kind of half-way house between A&E and the rest of the hospitals.
Managers have been accused of using these units as a way of getting round the target when they have not been able to treat or admit the individual within four hours.
Time spent in the assessment unit does not count towards the target.
The watchdog refused to get drawn into whether this was a deliberate tactic to hit the target or part of the proper assessment process.
But both the Lib Dems and Tories said hospitals were being pressured into manipulating waiting times.
Martin Shalley, of the College of Emergency Medicine, agreed it was probably happening "in some places".
And on pain he said: "More needs to be done.
"I think it is probably to do with time pressures. Staff do not always have the time to keep asking patients about pain during their visit to A&E. It is something we are trying to improve."
But he added: "Overall, however, we should be pleased with the performance."
Health minister Ben Bradshaw also said he was pleased with the results.
"There has been a dramatic improvement in recent years."
