Moles can drive you nuts! If you’re like most homeowners, you’re probably confused by all of the conflicting “advice” on mole control. You believe every rumor, home remedy or control method is worth trying. In fact, chemicals and home remedies (including castor oil derivatives like Mole Med and grub controls) are not only ineffective when dealing with moles, they allow the animals time to establish and become real problems. Moles are woodland animals in nature, but can quickly colonize and spread through adjacent residential properties if not handled properly. Since they need a well-established tunnel network to survive, the longer they’re allowed to tunnel, the more habituated they become and difficult to control. Trapping is the only effective method of control. It is literally a war of attrition. Since few homeowners bother to trap moles, large mole populations can develop in residential areas. It seems odd to me that in spite of all knowledgeable sources advocating trapping as the only reliable approach to a mole problem, we’re still pouring on the chemicals, pumping the soil full of gases, snapping up sonic noise makers and trying age old home remedies that never have worked. The common mole is an insectivore, not a rodent. Its diet is restricted to ground invertebrates such as grubs, millipedes, ants and the like. However, the mole’s primary food source is earthworm, so trying to control white grub and lawn insects is no protection from mole activity. The activity …
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Henry The Mole Killer
Cat Health & Medical Problems : Cat Health: Internal Parasites
Potential internal parasites in cats include round worms, tape worms and hookworms. Learn more about internal parasite symptoms and treatments in cats with tips from a veterinarian in this free cat healthvideo. Expert: Tracy Carreiro Bio: Tracy Carreiro is member of The Faxon Animal Rescue League. The League was founded in 1913 to help overworked and abused draft horses. Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso
Republican On Fox News Terrified Of Obama Summit (Video)
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Junior medics ‘leaving training’
Doctors’ working hours have been limited since last summer Nearly one in four junior doctors drop out of their NHS training in England after two years, figures show.
The data from the Medical Programme Board, which oversees training, showed 23% of 6,000 doctors did not apply for the next training stage last year.
Although not all are lost to medicine as some take gaps years or continue working in other parts of the NHS.
Unions said the issue was linked to high workloads, but the government said there was no evidence of this.
It is the first year data like this has been compiled so it is not possible to compare the 23% figure to previous years.
But the board is concerned enough to have launched a review to find out why so many are leaving training at the end of year two when they should be starting to pursue specialities, such as surgery.
Natural break
While they are not applying for the next stage of the junior doctor course, it does not necessarily mean they are lost to medicine.
Some doctors take a gap year, while others end up working for the NHS but in posts that do not count towards their training.
“Understaffing makes our work much more intense and does not go unnoticed by our patients”
Dr Shree Datta British Medical Association
Meanwhile, others head abroad to work in places such as Australia.
The British Medical Association said while for many the end of the first two years – known as the foundation course – may represent a natural break, the demands being placed on junior doctors could still be playing a role.
They believe shifts have become more demanding because of the EU working time directive which was introduced into the NHS last summer and limits the working week to 48 hours.
It ended the era of junior doctors working day and night shifts to staff wards, but according to the union has led to those on shift being stretched much further and thus unable to spend time in areas where they want to specialise.
Dr Shree Datta, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee, said: “Understaffing makes our work much more intense and does not go unnoticed by our patients.”
But a Department of Health spokeswoman said there was no evidence of this.
She pointed out that virtually all the training posts in the NHS were filled – there are always more medics in training than there are training posts to ensure a healthy competition for places.
And she added while the government was looking at how the working-time directive had been introduced there would be no return to “tired doctors working excessive hours”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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Junior medics ‘leaving training’
Bipolar ‘not linked to violence’
EastEnders’ Stacey Branning was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2009 as part of a campaigning storyline People with a severe mental illness are no more likely to be violent than anyone else – unless they abuse drugs or alcohol, a study has suggested.
The relationship between bipolar disorder and violence largely came down to substance abuse, researchers said..
The study compared the behaviour of people with the disorder with their siblings and the wider population.
One of the authors said it was probably more dangerous to walk past a pub at night than a mental health hospital.
The study, led by Oxford University’s Department of Psychiatry, examined the lives and behaviour of 3,700 people in Sweden who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression.
“It is probably more dangerous walking outside a pub on a late night than walking outside a hospital where patients have been released”
Dr Seena Fazel
The disorder leads to sudden and unpredictable mood swings which are more severe than the normal ups and downs of life.
The team, led by consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Seena Fazel, wanted to examine the public perception that there is a link between the disorder and violent crime.
They did this by comparing the experiences of the patients with some 4,000 siblings of people with bipolar disorder – and a further group of 37,000 people selected from the general population.
The research, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found that the rates of violent crime among people who were mentally ill and abused substances were no different to those among the general population who abused substances.
In each group, the rate of violent crime was between six and seven times higher than in the general population.
“Most of the relationship between violent crime and serious mental illness can be explained by alcohol and substance abuse,” said Dr Fazel.
“That tends to be the thing that mediates the link between violence and the illness.”
He said that if the substance abuse was taken away, the illness itself had a “minimal” or non-existent role in violence.
Dr Fazel said: “It’s probably more dangerous walking outside a pub on a late night than walking outside a hospital where patients have been released”
The study said that people with bipolar disorder were 10 times more likely to abuse drugs or alcohol than those in the overall population because they tended to turn to substances to counter the effects of their medication or to get other relief from their symptoms.
A previous paper on schizophrenia, written by several of the same researchers, came to similar findings.
The findings of both studies support the view of mental health charities who argue that the stigma attached to illnesses is not justified by medical evidence.
In 2009 the BBC joined forces with mental health charities for a story line in which one of the characters in the Eastenders soap came to terms with bipolar disorder.
Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said the research would reassure people with severe illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
“The link between mental illness and violence is often grossly exaggerated when in fact people with mental health problems are far more likely to be the victims of crime than the perpetrators
“This kind of stigma damages lives,” he said.
The charity Sane said it was “surprised” the research appeared to overlook the “realities of severe mental illness”.
Its chief executive Marjorie Wallace said: “We accept that alcohol and drug abuse can exacerbate the more acute symptoms and that such abuse is more widely responsible for criminal acts.
“We also accept that the majority of people with mental illness are never violent and the chances of a member of the public being attacked at random extremely rare.
“However, we do not believe it is helpful to underplay the extreme pain, paranoia and denial of symptoms such as command voices which those with psychosis can experience and which may trigger damaging behaviour.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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Bipolar ‘not linked to violence’
Cancer treatment
German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays in the 1890s Chemotherapy is perceived as the ‘backbone’ of cancer treatments, while radiotherapy is perceived as ’second best’.
But in this week’s Scrubbing Up, cancer specialists Dr Ricky Sharma and Professor Gillies McKenna of the Medical Research Council’s Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology warn that the UK risks falling behind the rest of the world in developing effective treatments for cancer and say funding new forms of radiotherapy must be a priority.
It is over a century since Wilhelm Roentgen “photographed” his wife’s hand, including her wedding ring, with the very first X-ray picture.
Later, the Nobel prize-winning research of Marie Curie and other pioneers demonstrated that radiation could be used not only to diagnose diseases, but to treat cancer effectively, creating the field of radiotherapy – the use of radiation to treat cancer.
Following these discoveries, British scientists and physicians led the world in developing new treatments for cancer.
“The status of radiotherapy as an ‘orphan’ speciality has been made worse by a decline in funding available for research over the last two decades. ”
Dr Sharma and Professor McKenna
Although cancer specialists in the UK prescribe both chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the public has been led to believe that new chemotherapy drugs offer the greatest promise as the ‘magic bullet’ for the effective treatment of cancer.
The reality is that surgery and radiotherapy are the main curative treatments for cancers in adults. Over half a century later, we are still waiting for any chemotherapy to be as effective as radiotherapy for curing cancer.
Despite its effectiveness, the image of radiotherapy has been stigmatised in society. When it is offered, patients often wrongly assume they will be getting ’second best’ and will suffer lots of unpleasant side-effects.
Unfortunately, when radiotherapy does hit the headlines the story is about the very rare occasions when there have been mistakes. In reality, millions of patients are successfully treated each year with few ill-effects.
In fact, radiotherapy has among the highest level of quality assurance of all the medical specialties.
The status of radiotherapy as an ‘orphan’ speciality has been made worse by a decline in funding available for research over the last two decades.
A national report published in 2003 warned that if this situation was not reversed, the study of the biology underlying radiotherapy – radiobiology – would no longer be sustainable as an academic discipline in the UK.
Since this report was published, Europe’s largest charity, Cancer Research UK, and the Medical Research Council have combined forces to inject significant amounts of funding into radiobiology research, particularly at the Gray Institute of Oxford University.
But however successful this initiative might be – and first reports look promising – this fundamental science cannot be translated into a genuine benefit for patients in the NHS unless drastic improvements are made in the delivery of routine radiotherapy in the UK.
In day-to-day clinical practice the UK lags behind other developed countries in delivering radiotherapy that is targeted directly on the tumour and affecting less of the normal surrounding tissue.
This means that the long-term side effects of radiotherapy treatments are worse for many patients than they need be.
“Historically, the UK was a leader in this form of cancer treatment”
Dr Sharma and Professor McKenna
Similarly, particle therapy is a special type of radiotherapy where protons or other atomic ions are used to treat cancer.
At present, adults and children with cancer who need particle therapy have to travel abroad to receive this treatment. Many of these patients are funded by the NHS because this therapy is the best treatment for them.
But they can’t get it in the UK.
As the UK rediscovers the scientific potential of radiobiology, exciting new frontiers of biologically directed radiotherapy treatments are opening up in UK laboratories.
When UK scientists make great leaps forward in the laboratory, we want patients in NHS hospitals to take part in the clinical trials of these new treatments.
We don’t want to see other countries run trials to show that our scientific discoveries are effective treatments for patients with cancer.
The funding provided by charities and research councils for basic science in radiobiology has to be matched by government initiatives to create a clinical trials network which can rapidly convert laboratory breakthroughs into new treatments for NHS cancer patients.
Historically, the UK was a leader in this form of cancer treatment. Now is the time for it to become one again.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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Cancer treatment
