Millions suffer from this simple issue with their ears. Failing to tackle it puts your mental and physical health at risk - so why has the NHS stopped offering treatment to all who need it?
This wasn't due to physical infirmity or depression: it was all because of a build-up of earwax.
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Retiring NHS England boss says cancer treatment on ‘cusp of golden era'
Cancer treatment is on the 'cusp of a golden era', according to the outgoing national medical director of NHS England. Professor Sir Stephen Powis said he expects the development of drugs harnessing the body's immune system to fight the disease will bring 'great advances in cancer survival'. In his final interview before retiring, Sir Stephen, 64, told The Times: 'We are at the cusp of a golden era in terms of the way we treat a range of cancers. 'For many cancers now, people should be confident that it's not a death sentence and that more treatments will become available.' He said the rise in people living longer and surviving cancers would continue, alongside cures for some forms of the disease. 'Our understanding of the genetics of cancer, of the way we can target cancers with particular drugs, and how we can use the body's own immune system to target cancers itself, is being revolutionised,' he said. He compared the progress made in treating cancer with the success in developing HIV/Aids treatments since he qualified as a doctor 40 years ago. He also said an increased focus on prevention will help eliminate certain types of cancer. 'We can't prevent all cancers, but there are cancers that we can certainly prevent,' he said, adding that he hopes lung cancers will become 'a lot rarer'. Cancer treatment, he said, would be 'driven by genetics' to become more individualised with the increased ability to pinpoint mutations in cells. His comments come as experts warned of a 'postcode lottery' in cancer services that focus on improving patients' quality of life and providing urgent care for people with the disease. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP), the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR), the UK Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (UKASCC) and the Association for Palliative Medicine (APM) have called for urgent investment in supportive and acute oncology. Sir Stephen warned the biggest challenge facing the NHS was the rise in elderly people and the economic pressure that is putting on the younger generation and the economy. Last week, Sir Stephen warned the British Medical Association (BMA) to 'think really hard' about whether industrial action by resident doctors – formerly junior doctors – planned for later this month is justified. He told The Times the walkout would cause 'tens of thousands of appointments and procedures' to be cancelled. The kidney specialist has served as national medical director since January 2018 and held the role throughout the Covid pandemic.
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Gastroenterologist: The maximum amount of time you should sit on the toilet for
The common yet unhygienic habit of scrolling your phone while sitting on the toilet has been slammed by a gastroenterologist. A holistic health content creator asked 'What is the one thing you would never do as a gastroenterologist?' in a new Instagram video which has been viewed over 2.2million times. An unnamed gastroenterologist swiftly responds: 'Never sit on the toilet with your phone.' 'If you have the urge, go. When you're done get out of there,' he added. The video, created by detox advocate Danica Walker, then asked the medical practitioner a follow-up question about the ideal length of time to be doing your business. 'What is the maximum number of minutes one should be sitting?' Danica asked. The doctor responded: 'I say five minutes. Get it in, and get out.' Danica cheekily concluded the viral video by saying directly to the camera: 'Okay people, send it to your husbands!' The comments section was filled with remarks from stunned video viewers who were deeply wedded to the practice of using their mobile phones while on the toilet. 'At this point in my life, I'm not sure I have the ability to poop without my phone,' read one reply. 'Watching this as I sit on the toilet,' added another. '[B]ut it's the one place I can find peace,' commented a third person. There were also numerous comments about Danica's final pointed remark in the video - with many confirming they intended on sharing the clip with a partner who spends lengthy amounts of time in the bathroom. However, the video also sparked curiosity about what problematic digestive health issue could arise from sitting and scrolling on the toilet - aside from the well-known potential for bacteria contamination of your device. An explanation can be found in another video previously shared by gastroenterologist, Dr Joseph Salhab. The expert previously confirmed that prolonged sitting and straining on the toilet - perhaps elongated by using your phone in the bathroom - can lead to an increased risk of developing haemorrhoids, also known as piles. In a video shared to his @thestomachdoctor TikTok account, the doctor explained: 'Straining and prolonged sitting when you're trying to use the restroom puts you at risk for developing haemorrhoids which can be painful and bleed.' His video also provided several tips on how to reduce time doing a number two, one of which included limiting your mobile phone use. 'Definitely try to limit your phone use while you're using the bathroom, and you can use a stepping stool,' he added, 'because when you raise your feet it allows easier passage of stool - which is really beneficial.' Another piece of advice he gave was to make dietary changes to 'increase your fibre...[which] can help stimulate bowel movements'. He advised consuming fruits like 'kiwi fruit, dragon fruit, apples, pears, prunes' and also suggested the additional option of 'using supplements such as psyllium husk'. Dr Salhab also reminded people to 'make sure you're drinking plenty of water' as it goes hand-in-hand with digestive health. Outside of the bathroom, another medical expert with an interest in the digestive system recently detailed the four foods she as a doctor would 'never eat' because they posed a bacterial threat to your gut. California-based Dr Jessica Kiss shared a recent TikTok video detailing the things that are off the menu for her: namely, reheated fried rice, stagnant picnic fare, anything containing excessive food colouring and foods from a dented can. She elaborated on each one, kicking off by explaining that fried rice was a 'one-time eat situation' due to the potential for bacteria contamination. 'B. cereus, a type of bacteria, it comes out when boiled rice is left at room temperature for a while and then particularly is reactivated if you reheat it in the microwave not efficiently enough,' she explained. 'That's because it makes spores, so it's just not just as simple as killing the bacteria, you have to kill the spores, too, not worth it,' the doctor continued. Dr Kiss noted that it might be fine to eat fried rice in a rice cooker that's on the 'warm' setting, but to totally avoid consuming it at room temperature. In regard to picnic food 'that's been sitting out', Dr Kiss advised skipping it 'because your risk of foodborne illness is just too high'. Foods that contain obvious food colouring were also best avoided, according to the medical expert. 'This is probably one that's not an absolute for me, but I'd say 99 per cent of the time I'm not gonna eat things that are covered in food dye,' she shared. 'It's just not good for your system, I don't want to be pooping neon for the next week either, so yeah, I avoid that like the plague.' Her fourth food avoidance was eating anything that came out of a can that has been dented, out of fears of botulism. This occurs due to the presence of botulinum toxin and can appear in foods that have been 'improperly canned' or fermented, per the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'If a can is dented and I wasn't the one that watched me drop it like right then and there, I'm gonna be concerned about botulism,' Dr Kiss admitted in the video. 'Botulism is not a fun thing, so yeah, I just won't eat it, it is not worth the dollar fifty if I had means to get a can that is not dented,' she said.
Times
4 hours ago
- Times
Delaying payouts for blood and Post Office victims is scandalous
Tens of thousands of people are thought to have received contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES The familiar truism that justice delayed is justice denied has taken on a morbid sense of urgency for the many victims of the Post Office and infected blood scandals. Thanks to the courageous persistence of campaigners, public officials have been forced to face up to the moral enormity of these past wrongs: respectively, the most widespread miscarriage of justice, and gravest case of medical malpractice, in recent memory. Yet, those charged with remedying these injustices are continuing to drag their feet in awarding victims due redress. It has been estimated that at least 100 further victims of the infected blood scandal have died in the protracted interim between the conclusion of Sir Brian Langstaff's inquiry last year and being invited to apply for compensation. Likewise, some 345 former sub-postmasters are thought to have died before securing any financial restitution. Those still pursuing claims now find themselves caught in an interminable, tortuous, legalistic wrangle: one that seems cynically designed to delay and minimise the total amount of compensation that will eventually have to be paid out. • Keir Starmer: infected blood victims deserve justice now A report published last week into the human toll of the prosecutions made on the basis of the Post Office's defective Horizon IT system was unsparing in its grim detail. Its author, Sir Wyn Williams, concluded that the scandal had driven 13 people to suicide. Many other lives were blighted by addiction, divorce and financial ruin. Yet, the government's declared determination to correct these wrongs is belied by the gross deficiencies Sir Wyn identifies in the remuneration of those harmed. The Post Office compensation programme is byzantine in its complexity, with four separate schemes running in parallel. 3,700 former subpostmasters are yet to receive any payout. Many are locked in a legal limbo while their claims are subjected to excessively bureaucratic and adversarial scrutiny. Claimants are disadvantaged if they can't produce decades-old forms, often long lost. One sub-postmistress claims to have received a compensation offer worth just 0.5 per cent of her original claim. Sir Alan Bates, who championed his fellow sub-postmasters' cause, has fallen victim to what he describes as a 'quasi-kangaroo court', receiving a 'take it or leave it' quote amounting to less than half his submitted claim. Similarly shameful treatment has been meted out to those survivors among the 30,000 NHS patients infected with HIV and hepatitis by contaminated blood products. Last week, Sir Brian Langstaff warned that this compensation system too is creating 'obvious injustice'. Only 460 people have received full payouts, the result of a dilatory process forcing victims to be invited to make a claim rather than initiate one themselves. • Infected blood victims 'left suicidal' by compensation delays It is clear that government officials and civil servants tasked with disbursing payouts are subjecting comparatively powerless individuals to a level of rigoristic penny-pinching they would not dream of applying elsewhere. When set alongside the kind of financial waste casually tolerated within government, from the eye-watering sums sunk into HS2 to the near £2 billion in 'bounce back loan' fraud complacently written off by the very same department of business overseeing appeals by victims of the Post Office, the contrast is galling. Victims of the infected blood and Post Office scandals have had their right to restitution established by due process. Obstructionist officials should not be allowed to deny them justice.
