News.Scotland.Org

June, 3

Alcohol is once again in the big picture this time with its current dip in prices making it far easy for even children’s to buy. This cut in prices of alcohol is said to be due to the on going price war of the supermarkets in Scotland which is selling cans of alcohol from 25p and also branded beverages like Tennent’s from 44p. Such cut in prices of alcohol has again created a fear of children buying such hard drinks affordably.

This cut in prices of alcohol by supermarkets has raised a serious concern for the sake of young kids who can be easily driven by this cheap availability of alcohol. Though this drop in prices may be a cashing in time for these supermarkets, but on the other hand its giving sleepless nights to many parents who fear the impact of this price war on their kids.

Taking a stern stand on the issue supermarkets have come up with a strong refusal to act, claiming that if they will take a stance the trade will just go elsewhere. Talking on this serious issue Peter Crory, the National General Secretary of YMCA Scotland said, the prices of drinks should rise in order to prevent children from developing alcohol problems. He further says YMCA in Scotland had seen a large number of young teenagers whose lives could be ruined by drink before they were even legally old enough to purchase it.

Many other intellectuals have also agreed that supermarkets are contributing to the growing alcohol problems in Scotland. For just a mere £2 you can get a two litre bottle of strong cider which can be easily affordable for children’s. Scotland is still recovering form the serious problem of under age drinking and this new issue is adding more salt the wound.

This is the right time for the government to act for the sake of the community and society or else the problem will become scarier. Now they themselves have to decide which is more necessary public health or profits of these supermarkets.

May, 31

It was a one-in-a-million miracle when a baby girl was delivered successfully despite growing in her mother’s ovary rather than the womb. This miraculous delivery of the girl was said to be one in 100,000 successfully deliveries in which babies grows outside the womb. The baby spent almost nine months inside her mother’s right ovary and was delivered successfully after a Caesarean.

The doctor Andrew Miller who operated Durga the miraculous baby said, its an extraordinary and unusual delivery which has been successfully taken out, its really very rare if anyone would have seen a ovarian pregnancy as we have here. The baby was born healthy weighing 61b 3oz.

Medical experts also said that such Ovarian Pregnancies are one of the rarest variations of ectopic pregnancies and also have a risk of loss of life for the mother. Due to this undue risk in most of the cases pregnant women opt for abortion. It was shocker for all when doctors found that the baby squeezed into the right ovary and was growing in the ovary. It was a miraculous moment and happy when the baby finally was delivered live and healthy.

May, 30

If you are an expectant then try to beat your stress before it gets worse. In a new research it was found that stress during pregnancy can double the risk of having a stillbirth. The study has also found that stress may directly lead to stillbirths which have been seen in many cases.

In a test done on monkeys it was seen that stress hormones might reduce the blood flow to the placenta, thereby restricting the supply of oxygen to the foetus. Doctors have suggested that one should give proper attention towards the emotional health of pregnant women’s and always try to keep them in a stress free mood.

Even those women’s who are in the professional front should be given flexible working hours, so that they don’t over stress themselves during pregnancy period. Though in this fast and furious life, stress has become a part and parcel of everyone’s life, but sometimes this stress could ruin one’s dreams and expectations.

What is Stillbirth?

A stillbirth means “quiet birth” which occurs when a foetus which has died in the uterus or during labor or delivery exits a woman’s body. The term is often used in distinction to live birth or miscarriage. Most stillbirths occur in full term pregnancies.

Scotland, May 29: In what could be considered as a healthy move the health secretary of the UK, Alan Johnson, encouraged the move to ban the open display of cigarettes in Scottish shops. He opined that we should not encourage children to take up smoking habit right from the tender age.

Last week the minister put forth plans to control the tobacco sale as an initiative to minimise the smoking habit. Smoking is considered as Scotland’s biggest killer. Other proposals on the anvil include tobacco licensing and promoting plain packaging for cigarettes. The minister also said that the UK government is also considering similar moves.

He further added that, “Banning vending machines is to be considered as it has no control over age of the person who is buying cigarette. Age detection remains as an issue in several other European countries. The children can buy any number of cigarettes as there is no restriction to stop their smoking habit.”

But in the past two years Scotland has turned out as a role model to the UK through its initiatives to ban smoking in enclosed public places and within six months the minimum age for buying cigarette was raised to 18.

The anti-smoking group named Ash welcomed health secretary’s move while the pro-smoking organisation Forest has expressed their disappointment over the minister’s decision.

According to a health estimate 13,000 deaths, 33,500 hospital admissions and an added expense of £200m to the health service incurred due to increasing rate of smoking habit in Scotland.

May, 29

Abortion rates are moving at a great pace in Scotland, last year’s figures have shown a record number of such abortion cases. It is known that in 1968 Britain has legalised abortion, but with the rate at which this trend is moving has soon become a serious issue.

If we look into the figures we can find that about 13,703 cases of abortions were carried out last year, which nears an average of 38 abortions per day. These figures were far more than the figures of previous years. All these figures show how rapidly abortion is becoming a part of the lives for people of Scotland.

The most shocking fact which emerged from these rising abortion cases was that, about 372 patients having abortions were under 16 years of age. Other than that, the rate of abortion was highest among the age group of 16-19 years (24.9 per 1000) and 20-24 years (24.5 per 1000) at the second spot. Among all this, the number of late abortions dropped last year with only 44 terminations carried out at 20 weeks or beyond.

The cases of abortions emerged more in poor areas, with 17.4 per 1000 in such highly deprived areas compared to only 9.6 per 1000 in less deprived areas. Now its a huge ask for the government and health departments to act bravely in order to tackle this growing trend. If this soaring rate of abortion will continue in the same way then soon abortion will become a fashion in Scotland.

Scotland, May 27: A recent alcohol abuse figures of Scotland came out as an eye opener against the increasing rate of habitual drinkers. Strong drinks are considered as the main reason for this.

While Nicola Sturgeon, the Health Secretary opined that, “The government is prepared to handle the changing drinking culture in Scotland. A comprehensive strategy will be formulated and will be published before the coming summer. More people in Scotland began to realize the fact that the drinking habit is just a bit too much. The challenge posed by alcohol has increased greater than we had expected.”

According to NHS Health Scotland figures some men are drinking 35 units a week as against the recommended limit of 21 units.

“Consumption of alcohol is not a serious issue but the increasing rate of alcohol misuse is the grave matter of concern. The government should consider this issue seriously and has to chalk out an effective strategy to tackle this. The statistics has changed our view about the extent of alcohol consumption prevailing in Scotland and it also stressed the need for formulating a new strategy to address the issue. As drinks get stronger the quantity of consumption gets increased,” said Sonnda Catto, public health surveys manager at NHS Health Scotland and author of the report.

The review also pointed out that people’s drinking habit was substantially under estimated. The current health guidelines suggest women to avoid more than three or more units of alcohol a day, while men are allowed to drink four or more units a day. Over consumption of alcohol has to be considered seriously before the situation gets out of control.

May, 22

Scotland is facing a serious drought of epilepsy nurses these days, giving a real tough time for the patients suffering from this disease. Now the situation is such that there is a great need for a better care to these epilepsy sufferers before the situation gets worse.

It was seen that not one health board in Scotland has the required number of specialist nurses. The patients are forced to go for other health boards to get the needed treatment and care. Expressing his views over this serious issue, Susan Douglas-Scott Chief Executive of Epilepsy Scotland said, “Managing epilepsy is hard work and yet Scotland has just 24 nurses who specialises in caring for people with epilepsy”.

These nurses use to treat the epilepsy patients with great care and support when ever a need arises. It is a harsh fact that no health board yet meets the recommended numbers of specialist nurses which is required. These specialist nurses deals with a lot of works relating to epilepsy, from epilepsy management, treatment, pre-conception planning and also deliver training for GPs. As per the Joint Epilepsy Council for the UK and Ireland one nurse is required for a population of 100,000. And to match with this target Scotland would be requiring three times more specialist nurses.

The government and health boards have a big ask on their hands to meet the required number of such specialist nurses.

Scotland, May 14: On the backdrop of concerns raised against the skin cancer threat raised by sunbeds the sunbed parlours began to raise their voice in an attempt to register their opinion to lift the ban.

They are of opinion that most of the sunbed parlours do not use coin operated tanning machines that are banned for people under 18 years old. They also opined that the proposed law by MSPs will not bring fruitful results in minimising the threat of skin cancer. The operators will submit their evidence to the health committee at Holyrood.

The main point to be highlighted by the parlour operators is that among 730 sunbed parlours in Scotland, only 32 of them use coin operated machines. They will also suggest the politicians about effective ways to tackle the raising rate of skin cancer, melanoma, by implementing prevailing European guidelines to reduce the emission from sunbeds.

While addressing the committee the Sunbed Association will emphasise on the lack of evidence and the unnecessary ban of 16 and 17 years old from using coin operated tanning machines on the grounds of them being more vulnerable to get affected.

On the other hand, the British Medical Association suggested that the sunbed users are 2.5-times more probable to develop skin cancer and it also supports a licensing system for suntan parlours.

April, 13

Obesity has become one of the scariest things for people of Scotland; this rich country holds a huge number of obese population which has put Scotland in the second spot for being the second obese nation in the world. Many programmes and campaigns have been so far implemented to overcome this vast problem. Moving a step forward a new drive has been launched recently to break this jinx which is haunting Scotland for quite a long time.

This new obesity eradication drive will be focusing specially on children, meanwhile the Mend (mind, exercise, nutrition- do it) programme will focus on to make sure that the children and their families are well aware about the nutritional value of food. Mend has started its initiative in East Ayrshire, in which children and their parents are taking part in two sessions a week for a total of ten weeks. In this educative session they will gain essential information regarding nutritional values, importance of exercise and also will motivate them to stick to a healthy living.

It was also informed that after this informative session gets over in the East Ayrshire region, it will then be launched for other places like Aberdeen, Borders, Glasgow and Edinburgh. This programme which was started to control the growing obesity issue is gaining positive feed backs from many families. People are benefiting from this session and are very excited to move on to a healthy life.

Obesity has not only affected ones physical identity, but also had made them psychologically weak. Obese people have to go through many harsh realities in our society and have to live a discarded life. There are instance when this mental trauma makes them to go for suicidal attempts. Well the problem seems very big and scary, but we ourselves are responsible to develop this fat trouble in a slow course of time. Its better to stick to a healthy diet, so that one doesn’t regret afterwards.

With the active participation by people of Scotland towards these health programmes it seems as if Scots have very well understood the ill-effects of obesity and are desperately looking for a better and healthier tomorrow.

Scotland, May 7: The Health Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government in its report said that the misuse of alcohol in Scotland amounts to £2.25bn per year. The amount is more than double when compared with previous statistics. The study considered cost to business, police, court service and the NHS.

On the other hand the Scottish Beer and Pub Association (SBPA) whose members operate 1500 pubs in Scotland have questioned the reliability of the figures. The Scottish government has allocated £120m for the next three years to restrict the raising problem of alcohol abuse.

According to the report the costs include the £405m spend by the NHS, £170m spend by social work service and £385m spend by the fire service and criminal justice. The wider economic costs were estimated at £820m and the human and social costs were estimated at £470m.

The lower productivity at work and the day off due to hangover is costing £150m for the NHS and the A&E services costs £32.3m.The misuse of alcohol costs £288m for the police as alcohol is believed to be the reason behind 40 per cent of the crimes. Premature death due to regular alcohol consumption costs £328m for Scotland.

While commenting on this Minister for Public Health, Shona Robison said: “The statistics give a clear picture about the huge impact created by alcohol misuse in crucial sectors like the police, courts, the NHS and social services. It has an adverse effect on our economy. Not only the alcohol misuse affecting our services and health but also slows down the potential as a nation.”

Proper awareness to control the over use of alcohol is what needed to check the adverse effects posed by it.