It underscores the importance of simple things we can all do  to  reduce our risk of getting a hear attack. If you are a smoker quit today: it will prolong your life and improve your health. Get your cholesterol level and your blood pressure checked regularly. Exercise moderately 3-5 times a week. A brisk 30 minute walk is enough. Think about what you eat- reduce the meat and fat you eat  and increase the amount of fresh vegetables in your diet.  Simple ideas to live longer!

To reserve a place please call Marta on 01642 367418.

The Tees Valley Spinal Support Group will meet between 10am and 12pm at the Teaching Centre, University of North Tees, Stockton on Tees TS19 8PE on Saturday 31st March.  No need to reserve a place –  friends and family welcome too!

The next Spinal Support Group in York will take place on Saturday 17th March between 11am and 1pm at the Nuffield Health York Hospital, Haxby Road, York. YO31 8TA.  No need to reserve a place – friends and family welcome too!

Working in the NHS I know that the quality of care on offer varies a lot, is hard to measure, and efforts to improve it from the top have had  limited success. There are few internal drivers to improve the quality of care . It is very difficult for patients to find out about the results of treatment in different hospitals and to decide where to go. If  money followed patients directly, and they could decide where they went for care, it would make all hospitals  focus on the quality of the patient experience and their clinical results. I do not see the reforms changing this.

The other big factor, which nobody wants to talk about , is that  as a nation we cannot afford  the rising cost of the NHS, given our current finances . Hard decisions will have to be made about where the axe will fall in health care spending. I think that GP’s are closest to the patients and their needs and by devolving spending authority to the GP’s they also want to give them the responsibility of rationing healthcare. I think it’s a fair way to go.

Its time we woke up to the reality that the NHS cannot deliver everything for everyone, and realised  some rationing is essential . We need a national debate on how this is to be achieved. I do not think the reforms go far enough and are a missed opportunity to empower patients, drive quality improvement from the bottom up, decentralise the NHS and free it from all vested interests, central controls, targets and diktats.

Teesside

• Coffee Morning – 12th June 2012; 10am-12pm; Nuffield Tees Hospital
• Spinal Support Group Meeting – 30th June 2012; 10am-12pm Teaching Centre, University Hospital of North Tees

York

• Spinal Support Group Meeting; 16th June 2012; 11am-1pm; York Nuffield Hospital
• Coffee Morning –  26th July 2012; 10am-12pm; York Nuffield Hospital

Harrogate

• Coffee Meeting – 30th May 2012; 12pm-1.30pm; Nuffield Health & Fitness Centre

Please let us know if you plan to attend any of the meetings above by contacting Hannah Meesson 07545 428449 or email marta@spinalsurgeon.com

The incidence of certain cancers is also lower, particularly those of the colon. Vegetarians also have a lower body mass index, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels , less chance of getting diabetes and less obesity. Vegetarians need to have a balanced diet to get all the nutrients needed. One of the problems people face is not knowing what to cook or eat , even if they wanted to increase the amount of vegetarian food in their diet.

The varied culinary influences in Britain make it easy to become vegetarian- Besides a renaissance in British Vegetarian cooking, food from India, South East-Asia and Italy offers many tasty and nutritious vegetarian choices.

Its also well established that in becoming vegetarian , we consume less of the earths resources- and its good for the planet. The German Federal Environmental Agency recommended that Germans reduce their meat consumption to once a week, to reduce global warming . In 2006, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that meat production accounts for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, it estimated that the world’s planes, cars, trains, and boats accounted for 13 percent of emissions.

Having read the evidence I have become vegetarian myself- but please do your own research and make up your own mind.

Professor Mann from the University of California analysed 31 long term studies into long term weight loss after a diet and found that at the end of 2 years, 83% of people weighed more than when they started.- though all lost weight in the short term. The best way to lose weight in the long term is to change your life style- become more active, take up a new sport, eat less food and different types of food, rather than deny yourself .

But exercise could be more important than dieting for good health.

In an important study published in The Lancet in August, researchers found that 15 minutes of moderate intensity exercise daily reduced mortality by 14% from all causes. Each additional 15 minutes a day reduced mortality by a further 4%, and mortality from all cancers by 1% . The current recommendations are that we should all exercise 150 minutes per week.

If you only make one resolution this year for your health- let it be this one- exercise 15 minutes per day!

By creating a vaccine which will train the immune system to attack this protein, they hope to make deaths from malaria a thing of the past. Another vaccine called RTS,S is already effective in preventing malaria in half the people vaccinated. As a surgeon I help one patient at a time, but these researchers, often poorly paid and unrecognized, can help millions with their discoveries.