Initially the brains of Conservative Alan Duncan and Labour’ Stephen Pound were scanned by Geraint Rees, from University College London’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. The research was continued with replicationanother 90 participants; the scan showed an association between thicker areas within the brain and Liberal and Conservative attitudes. Following a repeat of the study researchers found that they were able to predict political leaning from a brain scan with 72% accuracy.

“It is a useful contribution because it builds on and extends previous work.” This is is a quote from New York University’s Professor John Jost, one of the world’s leading authorities in political psychology.”It will probably be several years before we understand the full meaning of these results. In the meantime, the field of political neuroscience could do worse than having Colin Firth as a scientific ambassador.”

The long term impact of smoking, from heart disease to a range of cancers, is well known. This study suggests the damage begins just moments after the first cigarette is smoked.The researchers looked at the level of chemicals linked with cancer, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), in 12 patients after smoking. A PAH was added to the subject’s cigarettes, which was then modified by the body and turned into another chemical which damages DNA and has been linked with cancer.

The research shows this process only took between 15 and 30 minutes to take place. Professor Stephen Hecht, from the University of Minnesota, said: “This study is unique, it is the first to investigate human metabolism of a PAH specifically delivered by inhalation in cigarette smoke, without interference by other sources of exposure such as air pollution or the diet. The results reported here should serve as a stark warning to those who are considering starting to smoke cigarettes. Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), said: “Almost everybody knows that smoking can cause lung cancer.

“The chilling thing about this research is that it shows just how early the very first stages of that process begin – not in 30 years but within 30 minutes of a single cigarette for every subject in the study. “The process starts early but it is never too late to quit and the sooner you quit the sooner you start to reduce the harm.”

The Conservatives asked hospitals to provide data on their use of these wards under the Freedom of Information Act.We expect assessment units to be used to improve patient care, not as a ‘holding area’ or to avoid breaching the A&E four-hour standard. The units are commonly known as emergency assessment or clinical decision units. They effectively act as a half-way house between A&E and hospital to allow patients to continue to be monitored before a decision is taken to continue treating them or discharge them.

Many are mixed-sex and do not have proper beds, leaving patients to rest on trolleys. Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Labour complacently claim that they have abolished long waits for patients being admitted to hospitals, but these figures show that all they have really done is fiddle the figures.

It is not the first time the way the target is being met has been criticised. Both the British Medical Association and academics at London’s City University have raised concerns over the last few years about the use of assessment units. John Heyworth, from the College of Emergency Medicine, said the four-hour target, introduced in 2004, was not working as well as people believed it was. “There is a continuing amount of gaming going on,” he said. “We know these areas are being used frequently purely to admit patients to meet the target and quite often they are not properly equipped or staffed.” He adds doctors would like to see more flexibility in the target to allow them to continue monitoring patients for longer than four hours when appropriate.

Nigel Edwards, policy director of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospital trusts, said it was likely patients were being moved to provide more time for tests, as the four-hour target did not give medical staff “very much leeway”.

Health minister Gillian Merron pointed out before Labour came to power patients were facing long waits. She said the Tory figures were “misleading” as some of the units were observational wards which had been designed and equipped to care for patients for a while. But she added: “We expect assessment units to be used to improve patient care, not as a ‘holding area’ or to avoid breaching the A&E four-hour standard.”

It would seem that the NHS is under so much pressure to change to many things at once, no wonder they are overstretched due to the sheer number of people they have to see when they have a mountain of paperwork to complete. So we shouldn’t blame them for attempting to modify procedure so that they appear to conform to the standards set by the government as they are aware that they risk funding being reduced if they don’t conform.

But the Human Tissue Authority said it was “alarmed” about public calls for practitioners to break the law.
The Human Tissue Act requires that appropriate consent is in place before the tissue is removed from a deceased person. During the implementation of the Coroners and Justice Bill we will consider the additional procedures that might be required to enable families’ wishes in this respect to be achievedquote here
Ministry of Justice spolesperson

Dr Mary Sheppard, of the Royal Society of Medicine’s pathology section and a leading expert on Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), said some coroners did ask relatives already but others felt it was not part of their remit. She said: “If coroners routinely requested consent from the family to retain material for DNA testing at autopsies we would be able to find out far more about how the person died and possibly prevent other deaths in the same family.” She estimates that every year roughly 800 young people under the age of 35, apparently fit and healthy, die suddenly from unsuspected heart disease or without explanation.

The government has recently set up a database operated by the NHS Information Centre to collect reliable data from pathologists on these deaths.

• Inherited heart problems that can cause SCD:
• Long QT syndrome – a disorder of the electrical activity of the heart
• Brugada Syndrome- irregularities of the electrical activity of the heart
• Inherited cardiomyopathies or heart muscle diseases

Coroners are in charge of inquests and post mortem examinations and overseen by the Ministry of Justice.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “We recognise that some families who lose their loved ones tragically early would want a more extensive post mortem than is usually required by a coroner whose duty is to establish the cause of death. “During the implementation of the Coroners and Justice Bill we will consider the additional procedures that might be required to enable families’ wishes in this respect to be achieved. More generally, and in relation to specific research projects, the new Chief Coroner is expected to issue guidance on the handling for all requests relating to research into the causes of deaths which coroners investigate, and to provide advice to coroners on how they may or may not be able to co-operate.”

Alison Cox, founder and chief executive of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) said: “In the past two years we have seen the coroners taking huge steps to support families after the tragedy of a young sudden cardiac death. “DNA testing is clearly a potential resource for further information when it is possible to obtain it.”

Dr Paul Brennan, a clinical geneticist for the Northern Genetics Service, said there should be a change to coroners’ forms to deal specifically with consent for the pathologist to retain tissue for DNA extraction and storage. He said: “Until then, I would urge pathologists who have not had the opportunity to obtain consent, to think about taking these tiny tissue samples – usually a spoonful of blood or a cubic centimetre of spleen tissue – and then ask the relatives for consent. “If consent is not given, the tissue must, by law, be destroyed. But if it is not even taken in the first place, a huge potential benefit is lost.”

Adrian McNeil, chief executive of the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) said: “The HTA is alarmed about any public statement that urges practitioners to consider breaking the law governing consent and the taking of tissue for DNA testing. “We recognise Dr Brennan’s right, as a senior practitioner in the sector, to propose changes to the current law but cannot endorse what would be a clear breach of the legislation.”

In just over half (53%) of cases there was an apparent lack of input from senior doctors “leading to delays in giving patients timely and appropriate care”, report author and surgeon Ian Martin said. And 30% of the patients were not seen by a consultant within the recommended 12 hours after admission. In a fifth of patients who were not expected to survive on admission there was no evidence of any discussion between the health care team and either the patient or relatives on treatment limitation. Many “do not attempt resuscitation” orders were signed by very junior trainee doctors. NCEPOD chairman Professor Tom Treasure said the report vividly revealed the challenge medical teams face in making the transition between saving life and allowing natural death. “It should be ensured that patients achieve the best quality of life until they die. Effective team working and communication with patients, relatives and carers are fundamental to getting this right.”

Director of the Patients Association, Katherine Murphy, said: “These findings run the risk of undermining basic confidence in the NHS. Some of the examples are shocking. “NCEPOD is the nearest the NHS has to airline ‘near miss reporting’. Its findings must be acted upon, or problems will continue to plague vulnerable patients and their families.” John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said doctors had long been concerned that the loss of team working in hospitals had fuelled the risk of poor communication, and sub-standard patient care. He said the implementation of a 48-hour working week under the European Working Time Directive almost certainly meant that the problem had got worse since the latest study was carried out. Professor Black said the only way to address the problem was to opt out of the directive.

A Department of Health spokesperson said measures had been introduced to improve care – including an end of life strategy – since the report’s survey was carried out. “We are putting in place an extensive programme of health and social care training to support end of life care provision, including pilot projects to support the development of communication skills. He added that evidence from hospitals already implementing a 48-hour week showed a drop in mortality and no evidence of harm to patients. “Working together with the local NHS and the Royal Colleges we have set up a rigorous quality assurance process to give us an accurate picture of how EWTD is being implemented and so we can provide support where it is needed.”

The report claims that hospital care alone cannot solve the problem, but increasing out-of-hospital provision could be more cost effective. This would include GPs screening and counselling their patients on alcohol misuse. Trials suggest that brief advice from a GP, or practice nurse, leads to one in eight people reducing their drinking to within sensible levels. This, says the report, compares well with smoking cessation, where only one in 20 change their behaviour, changing the way alcohol-related services are delivered could save hospitals 1,000 bed days and Primary Care Trusts up to £650,000 a year, experts estimate.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “The nation’s growing addiction to alcohol is putting an immense strain on health services, especially in hospitals, costing the NHS over £2.7 billion each year.” And this sum has doubled in under five years. “This burden is no longer sustainable,” he said. “The role of the NHS should not just be about treating the consequences of alcohol related-harm but also about active prevention, early intervention, and working in partnership with services in local communities to raise awareness of alcohol-related harm.”

Steve Barnett, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “We hope this report helps to outline the scale of the problems facing the NHS and acts as a warning that if we carry on drinking in the way that we are currently, the bar bill will be paid in worse health and a health system struggling to cope.”

Two thirds of PCTs have adopted reducing alcohol-related hospital admissions as a local priority for the first time. “The department is providing Primary Care Trusts with the support, tools and incentives to deliver alcohol services in their own areas effectively according to local needs.”

Some cases that have made it to court got dropped as it was deemed “not to be of public interest”. Surely the medical staff have the same rights as everyone else to go to work and do their job without fear of being attacked. Instead that basic right has been denied. The medical professionals are under enough strain as it is with the potential collapse of the institute that provides them with a job and the fact the NHS is stretched so much that there isn’t enough staff.

More should be done to protect those that provide such a valuable service, saving lives.

The number of Down’s syndrome pregnancies rose from 1,075 diagnoses in 1990 to 1,843 by 2008 in England and Wales. Despite this the number of Down’s pregnancies, the number of babies with Down’s syndrome has fallen by 1%, from 752 to 743. According to the study this is because improved antenatal screening means more Down’s pregnancies are being spotted and more abortions are taking place. Without the improved screening, the number of babies born with Down’s would have risen by 48%.

So what is Down’s syndrome?
A genetic disorder named after the British physician John Langdon Down, who identified it in 1866.
Inhibits the ability to learn and develop mentally.
About 60,000 people have Down’s syndrome in the UK.

Joan Morris, professor of medical statistics at Queen Mary, led the research and she said: “What we’re seeing here is a steep rise in pregnancies with Down’s syndrome but that is being offset by improvements in screening. Doctors told Natasha and Eddie Batha that there was a one-in-170 chance that their daughter Mia, who is now three, would be born with the condition, when it was discovered that Mia did have the condition they realised that it was not as bad as they had feared.

People seem to forget that there is a person behind the label who is just a little bit different, in some cases unless you were told a person has a specific condition you wouldn’t know. It would seem that if people were better informed about things like this then there may be fewer terminations because mothers are led to believe that if their child is diagnosed with something then it is the worst thing ever.

Dr Michael Thase, a psychiatrist from the University of Pennsylvania, said the findings challenged conventional wisdoms and were potentially “paradigm-changing”. “The highest research priority is to confirm that the rapid effects observed in this study are predictive of eventual clinical benefit.”

He said it was possible that switching off the negative thoughts was a crucial part of the therapy.

Alternatively, it might merely be a sign that the drug was beginning to work at the cell level in the brain.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: “This research may contribute to our understanding of how our bodies respond to antidepressants, but the changes recorded can’t always be felt by patients and it can be some weeks before they begin to feel the symptoms of depression easing.

“We must also remember that the side-effects of medication can often be felt straight away long before the benefits really kick in, and this will always affect people’s experiences in the initial stages of treatment.”

• Argentina
• China
• Egypt
• Great Britain
• India
• Mexico
• Russia
• South Africa
• Spain
• USA

Of those surveyed over 7,000 knew of Darwin’s work already. In the survey people were asked which statements were closest to their own opinion about how evolutionary theories should be taught in science lessons in schools. The highest proportion agreeing that evolutionary theories alone should be taught was in India, at 49%, followed by Spain (42%).

Darwinism is a controversial theory as it challenges religious explanation for life on earth. However it seems that alot of people feel that it is good to have the two opposing theories taught alongside each other which would suggest that society has progressed and nows feels that both theories are valid and have equal credibility. It shows a tollerance of differences, this could be due to the fact that due to immigration and now countries are becoming more multicultural, if you attempted to teach all of the religious theories it would take a very long time.