Category Archives: Britain

Britain, Health, Medical, Science

The effects of sunshine could cut the risk of having a heart attack…

CARDIAC HEALTH

Scientists have found that a little sunshine could be good for your heart.

Even a short, sharp blast from a tanning lamp can cause blood pressure to fall, a study has shown.

The results suggest that well-meaning advice to avoid the sun to protect against skin cancer may in fact be raising the odds of heart problems.

With high blood pressure trebling the chance of heart attacks and strokes, researchers believe the benefits of sunlight may outweigh the risks of skin cancer.

The study carried out by researchers at Edinburgh and Southampton Universities exposed the skin of 24 healthy young men to a sun lamp for 20 minutes and measured their blood pressure.

Diastolic pressure (the lower of the two figures in a blood pressure reading) dropped significantly and remained low for at least 30 minutes after the lamp was switched off. Studies into sunlight usually credit Vitamin D with any health benefits, but in this case a different compound was found to be at work.

It is thought the UVA rays emitted by the lamp triggered the release of a compound called nitric oxide from the skin. This then travelled to the blood vessels and relaxed them, causing blood pressure to fall.

The researchers first wrote in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology and stated that even a small drop in blood pressure can cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

The findings could be significant as they could help explain why rates of heart disease go up during the winter months and why cardiac health is worse in countries further from the equator.

Professor Martin Feelisch, from the Faculty of experimental medicine at Southampton University, said it would be important to check to establish whether the benefits are not just limited to a quick blast of UV light in a laboratory but whether they persist in the real world too.

If the sun’s rays do prove to be beneficial for the heart, health advice given on tanning is likely to be reviewed.

Despite the concern about skin cancer, heart disease is a far bigger killer. In Britain, skin cancer kills 2,800 people a year while heart disease and strokes claim more than 160,000 lives annually and every seven minutes someone in the UK dies from a heart attack.

Professor Feelisch said that fear of skin cancer has left some people scared of the sun. Others may not be getting enough sunlight because they spend their work and leisure time indoors.

He added:

… Avoiding excess sunlight exposure is critical to prevent skin cancer but not being exposed to it at all out of fear, or as a result of a certain lifestyle, could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

… We are concerned that well-meaning advice to reduce comparatively low numbers of deaths from skin cancer may inadvertently increase the risk of death from heart disease and stroke.

Meanwhile, sunshine can also ease the early stages of multiple sclerosis, a separate study found.

MS is a neurological condition affecting around 100,000 people in the UK, causing problems with vision, balance and the bladder.

Research by Harvard School of Public Health found that boosting vitamin D could reduce the severity of MS.

Alberto Ascherio, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard, said:

… Because low vitamin D levels are common and can be easily and safely increased, these findings may contribute to better outcomes for MS patients.

Standard
Britain, Foreign Affairs, Government, Syria, United Nations

Syrian refugees in need of much better support…

Intro: With Syria’s troubled neighbours being forced to cope with unprecedented levels of refugees crossing their borders, the time has come for the West to do more

The sheer scale and numbers of people fleeing Syria’s civil war is an exodus that requires repeating.

Estimates of refugee movements vary, perhaps for obvious reasons, but many more than two million people have left the country since the conflict began.

Many in the West often assume that it is our countries that routinely absorb the largest numbers of refugees, but a glimpse of the facts reveals a far different reality. Undoubtedly, it is Syria’s closet neighbours that have borne the greatest burden – countries that, politically, already have enough problems to deal with.

Consider Lebanon, for example. It has taken more than 800,000 refugees displaced as a result of the civil war, a figure that is almost a fifth of its entire population. In relative terms, that’s the equivalent of the UK experiencing 12 million starving and impoverished people – men, women and children – flowing across its borders. Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq (including the autonomous Kurdish region in the north) have taken substantial numbers, too. To date, the most generous destination for Syrian expatriates has been Sweden, with more than 15,000 given safe haven.

The UN’s plea that the West accommodates an additional 30,000 has to be seen in the context of this vast and escalating humanitarian catastrophe. Anyone who has read the first-hand accounts, or seen media pictures of these desperately beleaguered people seeking to find shelter, and the basic necessities of life, will come to understand the scale of the tragedy that has affected so many families and individuals.

Estimated refugee movements in Syria.

Estimated refugee movements in Syria.

Aid agencies and charities working in the field have written to the British Government asking that the UK accept a proportion of the refugees. The plea clearly has a moral underpinning that is overwhelming. Though families in the UK may well be feeling the effects of austerity, most would find the suffering that many of these innocent civilians have undergone difficult to comprehend. Taking in our fair share would only amount to a small proportion of the total. More important, however, has to be the provision of fuel, food, water, shelter and sanitation to those tens of thousands struggling to survive in camps across the near east.

As we have come to realise there are many arguments, both for and against, about international aid. In the recent past, for example, there has been the issue over the Indian space programme and the substantial amount of British taxpayers’ money that goes towards it. Resisting that has been the vocal minority of Conservative MPs who would like to see aid given to that project drastically cut. Yet, both the Prime Minister and Chancellor have resolutely stood firm against the instincts of those on the Tory backbenches.

But we have an opportunity now for them to once again to show moral leadership by impressing on the country and international community. By demonstrating magnanimity of outlook and common humanity, the British Government should be forthcoming and welcome a fair quota of Syrian refugees who are in desperate need of help and assistance. It should also consider allocating more funds for the requisitioning of necessities for the refugee camps, as part of a co-ordinated international effort.

As peace talks over Syria will be held this week in Geneva, the Western partners at these talks should surely be able to collaborate and agree on such a plan of action. It is unlikely the war being waged by Bashar al-Assad on his own people will end anytime soon.

Like the conflict that prevailed in Lebanon, the bloodshed in Syria could drag on for many more years. The desperate plight of many Syrians needs to be supported for as long as it takes.

Standard
Britain, Government, Human Rights, Legal, Media, Society

More transparency needed for the Court of Protection…

COURT OF PROTECTION

Intro: A court which has the power to jail people and make life and death decisions in secret could be made more transparent

The highly sensitive work of the Court of Protection often sits uneasily with the notions of freedom and transparency upon which the state rests. Judges sometimes make decisions on behalf of those individuals incapable of running their own affairs. The right to a dignified private life for society’s most vulnerable must certainly be protected, but the default position in which hearings are conducted behind closed doors and in secret does not reconcile with the central tenet of the law in Britain being based upon open justice.

The Court of Protection has made advances in recent years. Successive presidents of the Court have, for example, acknowledged the need for a special register in which nominated journalists become more acquainted with the workings and decisions of the Court – decisions which range from care arrangements to family access and to the disposal of assets.

The test case for others to campaign was in 2010, when the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the media to have access to hearings about whether a blind and profoundly autistic pianist, Derek Paravicini, should continue to perform. That case set legal precedent, and since then access has been granted in a handful of other cases. However, it is still only in instances involving invasive medical treatment or a life-and-death decision that the presumption applies. Even then, the press and public are often not acquainted with the case until the hearing has already been heard.

Last May, the case of Wanda Maddocks sparked a national debate about transparency after she was sent to prison for five months after she tried to remove her 80-year-old father from the care of Stoke on Trent city council. Ms Maddocks had not been present or even represented in court.

She was thought to be the first person to be imprisoned by the court, which settles the affairs and appoints deputies to act on behalf of people who are unable to make decisions about their personal health, finance or welfare.

The current Court of Protection president, Sir James Munby (Lord Justice Munby), has been working tirelessly to resolve the issue. During the summer of 2013, he issued draft published guidance for judges in which he explicitly stressed the need for ‘greater transparency in order to improve public understanding and confidence’. Sir James also resolved that, as far as is possible, the Court of protection should be governed by the same rules that apply to the family courts (of which he is also president). In a written ruling on a long running case last week, Sir James put the theory into practice; he said the judgement would become public, but the family would not be named.

Despite the welcome steps forward that have been made, there is still much to be done. Sir James is due to release a second tranche of guidance, expected imminently, and it can only be hoped this will go further, by giving accredited reporters automatic access to the Court of Protection as they have in the family courts. If permitted, the usual proviso of cases being aired publicly being subject to negotiation with the presiding judge would apply.

There are wider issues, too. Leading lawyers, for instance, are warning of a ‘marked variation’ in the willingness of judges to talk directly to those who are the subject of proceedings as well as to the appointed solicitor representing their interests. This not only raises concerns over the possibility of human-rights violations, but questions of judicial consistency also arise.

The Court of Protection delivers rulings on some of the most difficult, sensitive and contested questions of modern life, and makes decisions that may define the course and circumstances of a person’s life. Public confidence is needed in such a powerful institution, and to ensure that happens the procedures and practices must be standardised and applied with uniformity and better consistency. The justice the Court dispenses must be as open as it can be.

Standard