Herbal Health Spot

Using scary metaphors for any kind of natural disaster or health scare can not only make people notice it, but it can also spread panic or cynicism among populations, according to a study. “Such terms can make people sit up and listen, but they can also lead to panic or cynicism,” said Professor Brigitte Nerlich, who led the research.

She added: “Recent advice on swine flu has centred on basic hygiene, which makes people feel they can do something practical, instead of being mere victims of so-called “superbugs” or “killer viruses”. But obviously this is easier to do when a disease is relatively benign.”

She pointed out that easier Internet access might also help people to feel in control—an issue that emerged from a previous ESRC project on foot and mouth disease carried out in Nottingham. These days, especially in the context of swine flu, “email, Twitter, and public health sites all give information and advice which can be useful to worried individuals and may dampen down panic. ””But more research needs to be done in this area,” she said.

The research focused on MRSA along with avian flu and was conducted by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in nursing, the social study of health and illness, environmental studies and linguistics. The study compared the language of biosecurity, hygiene and cleanliness used in policy documents and media coverage with the language used by hospital matrons and poultry farmers dealing with the realities of MRSA and avian flu.

“We found that the way people communicate about a threat largely determines how they understand it and behave towards it. Additional findings established that media coverage of hygiene and cleanliness in hospitals tended to portray doctors and nurses engaged in a heroic “battle” against “intelligent super bugs. This was personified by the modern matron wielding the weapon of “cleanliness,” said Nerlich.

After conducting interviews with hospital matrons, the researchers found that a gap between the media portrayal and the reality on the wards. Matrons said that the limitations in their authority over contractors, and time constraints made it impossible for them to spend even half their time as a “visible presence” on the wards.

“This was another example of the control issue. Modern matrons have limited powers to limit the spread of infection or improve hygiene. For instance, they can””t hire extra nursing staff for barrier nursing or deal with problems with cleaning contractors. Our findings highlight the need for policy messages to be translated more accurately into practice,” said Nerlich.

A new study has revealed that common pain relief medication such as morphine can actually encourage the growth and spread of cancer cells.

Opiate-based painkillers have been shown to stimulate cancer growth. Two new studies have shown how shielding lung cancer cells from opiates reduce cell proliferation, invasion and migration in both cell-culture and mouse models.

The researchers focussed on the mu opiate receptor, where morphine works, as a potential therapeutic target.

“If confirmed clinically, this could change how we do surgical anesthesia for our cancer patients,” said Dr Patrick A. Singleton, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center and principal author of both studies.

“It also suggests potential new applications for this novel class of drugs which should be explored,” he added.

A 2002 palliative-care trial showed that patients who received spinal rather than systemic pain relief survived longer. Soon after that, Singleton’’s colleague, anesthesiologist Jonathan Moss, noticed that several cancer patients receiving a selective opiate blocke.

In a revolutionary study, researchers have discovered what makes skin cancer grow – a finding that could lead to new ways to prevent the disease from spreading.

Although skin cancer is easily treated when caught early, it usually becomes fatal if it spreads to other parts of the body.

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK’s director of information, says the findings will provide “new approaches for cancer therapy”.

Scientists made the breakthrough in a study of people with a severe type of the skin-blistering disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex.

It is known that people with that particular strain are more at risk of getting a skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma – but were not sure why.

For the study, researchers at Cancer Research UK’s cell structure group at the University of Dundee compared cells of people with EBS to those without.

When the EBS cells were damaged – or rubbed enough to cause blistering – their structure changed to stop them dying.

The study found that when damaged cells continue to grow, it causes a process that allows a greater number of tumours to grow.

“Even slight damage to the skin of people with EBS can kick-start a signalling pathway which prevents the skin from killing and clearing damaged cells,” the Daily Express quoted Dr David Russell,Cancer Research UK scientist and the study’s lead author, as saying.

“Keeping these cells alive may be the body’s way of preserving the protective ‘barrier’ function of skin. But we have shown that it may also cause cells to turn cancerous which could explain the increased incidence ofbasal cell carcinoma in EBS individuals,’ he added.

The study has been published in Journal of Investigative Dermatology.