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Care home budgets cut, HIV pill successes and the perils of drunk tweeting

Our round-up of the health headlines on Thursday 14 July.

No more posting pictures of planking or telling the world over Twitter you're dying of a raging hangover. The BMA has released guidance warning all doctors and nurses of the dangers of posting on Facebook and other social network sites.

According to the BBC Dr Tony Calland, chair of the BMA's medical ethics committee, said: ‘Medical professionals should be wary of who could access their personal material online. How widely it could be shared and how it could be perceived by their patients and colleagues.'  In other words, don't be telling your patients via Twitter you've been out all night necking Tequila, doctors.

Go to the dentist, avoid coughs and colds and get your eyes checked to help avoid dementia, is the advice being offered up by the Mail today. Scientists claim that getting regular check-ups and staying as healthy as possible could help prevent dementia and other illnesses later in life.  Who would have thought having check-ups and keeping healthy would help prevent illness? Revolutionary advice from the Mail as always.

The paper also reports today that one in four Britons will get cancer at some point in their life. Research published by Macmillan Cancer Support says that 42% of Britons will get cancer at some point in their life compared to 32% 30 years ago. The main cause is thought to be our unhealthy lifestyles of drinking, smoking and obesity..

Britain's elderly could be put under even more strain after it emerged most councils in England have frozen or cut their care home budgets. The Telegraph paints a depressing picture of gloom for the elderly in the wake of the Southern Cross closure, which was announced yesterday. It said care home operators will see a 2.5% fall in their margins and while some will cope by cutting staff, others could see their business collapse.

The Independent writes today that a new pill which could help prevent the spread of HIV, has been hailed a breakthrough. The once-a-day pill that costs just 15 pence was tested on 5,000 Africans over three countries, involving one partner with HIV and the other without. The negative HIV partner taking the pill had their chances of contracting the killer disease reduced by between 62-73%.

10 million people will feel the pain today. Not by the riggers of work or tolerating your over-bearing boss, but by various body aches and pains including headaches (the latter of which could be brought on by your boss though). The findings were part of a BMJ study involving 32,000 Britons and revealed those taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were 40% more likely to have abnormal cardiac rhythms.

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