Commons painkillers, including ibuprofen, almost doubles the risk of developing atrial fibrillation, a new study has claimed.
The news, splashed across the Daily Express front page this morning, has seen Dutch scientists study the heart health of over 8,000 people during a 13-year trial – concluding that current use of the drugs raised the risk by 76% while those who had taken them in the last 30 days but then stopped had an 84% higher risk.
The British Heart Foundation recently warned that diagnosis of atrial fibrillation has risen by 20% in the past five years to over a million.
Also making it onto the front pages this morning is the news that drug addicts are being given shopping vouchers on the NHS in return for staying clean.
The Independent reports of a trial in 33 NHS and voluntary clinics where users of opiate drugs, including heroin, are given £10 shopping vouchers if they can provide a weekly clean urine sample.
The paper says that the trial, if proven a succes, could ‘radically transform’ the UK’s drug prevention strategy, after a related trial led by the same team of researchers – which incentivised intravenous drug users to take up hepatitis B vaccine – led to ‘striking’ increases in uptake.
Lastly, the latest tech gadget Google Glass is proving useful to medicine around the world.
According to the Telegraph, specialist surgeons in Alabama have helped doctors in El Salvador repair cleft palettes by virtually attending the operation, seeing it through the trainee’s eyes and placing their ‘hands’ in the same virtual picture. Meanwhile, at a Boston hospital doctors were (sort of) given x-ray vision during surgery.
