This site is intended for health professionals only


NHS health checks for over-40s ‘useless’, care homes falsifying medical record… and the singing cure for snoring

NHS health checks are condemned as ‘useless’ on the front page of the Times today, which splashes on claims from researchers at the Nordic Cochrance Centre that the programme ‘operates in direct conflict’ with evidence. It also leads to ‘patients taking drugs they don’t need’, they warn.

Record numbers of care homes have been warned of poor standards which put the health and safety of patients at risk in the past year, official figures show. Newspapers including the Telegraph lead on the statistics this morning, which were released by the CQC, and show breaches such as the falsifying of medical records.

Ingesting too much copper may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, a US study has shown. Copper appears naturally in our diet and is necessary for the body but the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed high levels of copper may cause the brain to struggle to get rid of a protein thought to cause dementia, the BBC reports.

A woman in Australia has been brought back to life almost an hour after being declared dead, the Daily Mail reports. Vanessa Tanasio, 41, suffered a major heart attack at her home and paramedics failed to revive her in the ambulance. However, on arrival to hospital she was attached to a high-tech machine which kept blood flowing to her brain and she could be brought back to life.

And finally, snoring can be cured by singing, a UK study has shown. The BBC reports a clinical trial at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital had patients doing singing exercises for three months to improve the tone of their throat muscles.