Total Health's blog

New research has shown that the way in which the NHS purchases products wastes up to £500 million of taxpayer’s money each year.

The spending by 10 NHS healthcare trusts was analysed by accountants Ernst & Young. They discovered that procurement is extremely fragmented and that many trusts are paying too much for everyday items. The report looked at 11 everyday products and found that the difference between the minimum and average price has increased from 18% to 20% in the two years since the National Audit Office initially raised concerns about wasteful procurement in the NHS.

Research carried out by the University of Manchester has identified further genes that can lead to rheumatoid arthritisA type of autoimmune arthritis featuring chronic inflammation of the small joints, especially in the hands and feet, and eventually leading to joint destruction and deformity and could also explain why three times more women than men suffer from the condition. 

It is believed that both environmental and geneticRelating to the genes, the basic units of genetic material. factors determine whether a person will suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, which affects more than 400,000 people in the UK. 

…Is chemoinformatics the science of producing addictive food? Probably.

Scottish mums-to-be are at greater risk of vitaminEssential substances that cannot be produced by the body and so must be acquired from the diet. D deficiency than their more southerly sisters. This is probably an obvious observation as the best source of vitamin D is sunshine and in the UK, the further north you go, the less sunshine you'll be exposed to. In order to compensate for this, the equally obvious answer is to take more vitamin D supplements. Prof Paul Haggarty, and his team from the University of Aberdeen recommend that more should be done to improve the uptake of current advice on vitamin D supplements, but they also suggest that promoting safe sun exposure and access to green spaces in summer could be a useful additional strategy, even in the north of Scotland.

A picture "can tell a thousand words", and in the same way infographics are a concise and user-friendly way of presenting medical information. In response to the increasing demand from patients for authoritative, accessible information, totalhealth.co.uk are releasing a series of consultant-led infographics that have been specially designed to get to the heart of each therapeutic area and to explain the most important facts. 

According to a census conducted by ERIC (Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence), bedwetting affects over a million children and young adults in the UK. This is despite the fact that in many cases an appropriate treatment can be found.

According to new research from The University of Texas, for the majority of older, early stage breast cancerAbnormal, uncontrolled cell division resulting in a malignant tumour that may invade surrounding tissues or spread to distant parts of the body. patients the need for mastectomy can be reduced through the use of radiationEnergy in the form of waves or particles, including radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays. therapy following breast conserving surgery. This is important because these findings are contrary to the current treatment guidelines.

There seems to be a bit of a debate about whether or not chocolate is good for you. On the one hand there is increasing evidence that the substances found in cocoa called flavonoids, seem to be protective, but on the other hand, cocoa is so bitter that there has to be a lot of sugar and fatOne of the three main food constituents (with carbohydrate and protein), and the main form in which energy is stored in the body. added to make it palatable. So, much will naturally depend on how you consume it.

The fact that broken bones can now be fixed using pulsed ultrasoundA diagnostic method in which very high frequency sound waves are passed into the body and the reflective echoes analysed to build a picture of the internal organs – or of the foetus in the uterus. is really quite extraordinary, especially if it replaces the need for surgery. The theory is that low-intensity pulsed ultrasound waves stimulate bone healing through promoting the production of growth factors and proteins which increase the removal of old bone, and increase the production of new bone.

A big longitudinal study headed by University College London's Dr Mark Hamer over a number of decades has shown that consistent moderate to brisk exercise during middle age is the key to remaining healthy. The study measured the biochemical markersCertain substances found in the blood or other body fluid that indicate a disease when detected. in relatively sedate people compared with physically active participants.