Chlamydia testing leads to safer sex amongst young adults

If young adults are offered the chance to undergo a chlamydia test, this has positive ramifications for their sexual health and motivation to seek out healthcare in the future, according to a new report by Public Health England.

Contraception schemes – such as the providing of condoms – in addition to chlamydia screening, apparently can encourage safe sex behaviour for the future in young adults.

Testing for the highly common sexually transmitted infection (STI) chlamydia is normally advised on a yearly basis, or for sexually active people upon meeting a new partner. Screening for the disease is often implanted through primary care (general practices and pharmacies), community sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services (including termination of pregnancy services) and GUM clinics.

Not many realise it but in fact pharmacies such as Medical Specialists™  are at the forefront of providing sexual health services to the millions who require it.

This is not only vital to adults in the UK, but indeed the world, and include things such as medicine supply; this could be chlamydia treatment, genital herpes treatment, or treatment for gonorrhoea.
Also Medical Specialists™ can provide almost 100% accurate pregnancy tests to be used in the privacy and comfort of your own home, a wide variety of condoms to suit different preferences, emergency hormonal contraception (morning after pill), other contraceptive pills, and even a chlamydia test you can take at home and post off for a quick analysis and result, saving you the time and embarrassment of having to personally attend a clinic for a check-up.

The PHE report showed positive findings, discovering that 62% of respondents to an anonymous web survey claimed they were more likely to use condoms with a new partner after previously having a chlamydia test, with 66% even saying they would probably get tested again for it in the future.
For those who answered the PHE web survey, nine out of 10 stated they have received sexual health advice when they had undergone their previous chlamydia test.

Dr Anthony Nardone, consultant epidemiologist at PHE, commented: “Our survey of young adults found chlamydia screening has a positive impact on both health-seeking and sexual behaviour, and provides an important channel for the delivery of safer sex messages to young adults. This enhances the cost effectiveness of chlamydia screening, offering value beyond that of the testing itself.”

Simon Blake OBE, chief executive of Brook, said: “Young adults remain the age group most at risk of STIs in England. C-Card schemes are an effective way to help young adults take responsibility for their sexual health; providing them with easy access to free contraception, education about sexual health and wellbeing, and are an opportunity to signpost to related services.”

Smokers warned they are 45% more at risk of dementia

It isn’t the first time the two have been linked together, but more research has shown a clear association between smoking and the onset of dementia.

Despite the fact anybody can develop the debilitating disease, research released by the World Health Organization (WHO) working together with Alzheimer’s disease International (ADI) has highlighted a link between smoking and dementia risk.

The report warns that smokers are putting themselves at a staggering 45% increased risk of developing dementia compared to non-smokers, and the more someone smokes, the higher the risk goes.

The experts involved in the report believe 14% of all cases of Alzheimer’s cases around the globe are because of smoking and WHO state that even those exposed to second-hand smoke (known as passive smoking) can still have an increased risk of developing dementia.

Shekhar Saxena, director of the Department for Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the WHO, said: “Since there is currently no cure for dementia, public health interventions need to focus on prevention by changing modifiable risk factors like smoking.

“This research shows that a decrease in smoking now is likely to result in a substantial decrease in the burden of dementia in the years to come.”

Serge Gauthier, chair of Alzheimer’s Disease International’s medical scientific advisory panel, added: “The research also shows that quitting smoking later in life might be beneficial so encouraging and supporting current tobacco users to quit should be a priority.”

Doug Brown, director of research and development at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This shocking estimate that so many cases of Alzheimer’s may be linked to smoking surely means we must count the global burden of the condition alongside the millions of deaths we already know are caused by tobacco.

“With 44 million people worldwide living with dementia, it is now time to rank the condition alongside others like cancer and heart disease when we talk about tackling smoking.

“With no cure yet for dementia, we need more research to gain a better understanding about how lifestyle factors can increase risk and a significant public health effort to attempt to reduce the number of future cases of the condition.”

Dementia is a term used for a group of symptoms that are the result of one of a number of brain diseases, with Alzheimer’s being the most common by far. When somebody develops dementia, it is not only tragic for the affected person, but for all friends and family of that person.

The condition impairs a person’s ability to think, rationalise things and remember. Memory loss is often viewed as the obvious sign of dementia, but there are other signs to look for such as: changes in personality and mood, speech and language difficulty, delusions or hallucinations, wandering or restlessness, depression or anxiety, agitation and balance problems.

The Alzheimer’s Society say there are about 800,000 people in the UK that have dementia. A third of the over-65s will develop dementia, with two thirds of sufferers being women.

As people are now generally living a lot longer, the numbers will only increase. By 2021, there could be as many as 1 million people living in the UK with dementia.

However, people can act now to help lower the risk of developing the disease, such as: engaging in regular exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight, stopping smoking, sticking to a healthy diet and limiting alcohol intake.

Viagra patent expires in China – Drug makers scramble to release cheap generics

The quality of these new products may be open to question, but the recent expiry of the Chinese patent for erectile dysfunction (ED) drug Viagra has led to a rush of pharmaceutical companies applying to make their own cheaper generic version of Pfizer’s hugely popular anti-impotence treatment for release in China.

It was recently disclosed that the Viagra patent had expired in China on May 12, almost a year after the UK patent had similarly ended for the ‘little blue pill’, and something which led to Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy offering fantastic bargains on UK-produced inexpensive generic versions of Viagra.

For example, Sildenafil Teva and Sildenafil Actavis were initially introduced into Medical Specialists’™ extensive ED medication range, before even cheaper generic sildenafil was then joined with these last month and resulting in a surge in demand.

It is believed that over a dozen drug makers in China have applied to the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) to try and have their own generic versions of Viagra approved for release, with sources claiming many of these actually first began the process around two years ago.

The stigma around erectile dysfunction has been slowly eroded in the 16 years since Pfizer’s Viagra burst onto the scene and more men are now willing to come forward to trusted sources like Medical Specialists™ and seek help. Finally, ED is widely accepted as a genuine health problem that can lead to catastrophic consequences, such as loss of self-esteem, anxiety and even relationship difficulties.
In China alone, the market for ED drugs is now worth an estimated 60 billion Yuan (roughly £5.65 billion) each year.

Also available in China are two of the other most commonly prescribed ED medications – Eli Lilly’s Cialis and Bayer’s Levitra, but Viagra has proved to be the most popular, comprising of over half (58%) of the total sales for ED drugs across 27 major cities in the country last year.

Pfizer China have confirmed they have no immediate plans to release a low-cost version of Viagra regardless of the increase in competition they face.

“For any research-based drug makers, the expiration of a drug patent is a common happening and does not means the end of the world for a product,” Xi Qing, communications director at Pfizer China, said, clearly confident about Viagra keeping a good share of the market in the country.

However, In China about 90% of drugs are generic and it is a market expected to reach 500 billion Yuan by next year. Back in 2011 Pfizer also lost the patent for its money making blockbuster drug Lipitor, which is a commonly prescribed medication for the treatment of high cholesterol.

Lipitor (atorvastatin) brought in staggering revenues for Pfizer that totalled billions of dollars, but that all changed when the patent expired and sales of the branded drug took a serious plunge, and a similar scenario could now happen for Viagra in China.

Is the increasing struggle to see GPs driving patients to the Internet?

What would we do without the internet? You can buy all of your Christmas presents online and even order your weekly food shop to be delivered straight to your door. Moreover, in the present day, many of us choose to ‘Google’ our illness or health problem, its symptoms and relevant treatment(s).

The internet is a blessing in some ways, especially with the news this week that actually being able to see a GP in England is getting more and more difficult to achieve, according to the official patient survey.

The fact so many of us now struggle to actually speak to the receptionist at a doctor’s surgery, let alone arrange a visit to speak to someone about a health problem, could logically drive more people towards the internet.

Here people can undergo online consultations for a wide range of conditions like acne, hair loss, male impotence, etc, and see their medication delivered to their door the very next day. Yes, Medical Specialists™, the UK’s leading one-stop online pharmacy and doctors, can take all of the worry and stress out of trying to see your GP and then onto a pharmacy to go and collect your medications.

A poll comprising of around 900,000 patients discovered that in the last two years, there was a 6% increase in the number of people who reported difficulties getting through to try and arrange an appointment to see a GP, rising from 18% to 24%.

After they did finally manage to get through, 11% of them were not even able to actually book an appointment, the Ipsos MORI poll for NHS England revealed.

However, 75% did claim that they had a good experience of booking their appointment, and 86% said their overall experience was good when they did manage to see a doctor, or in some cases a practice nurse.

Unfortunately though the fact remains that long waits to see a GP about an ailment will become something of the norm.

Only last week the British Medical Association (BMA) said how patients could expect to be waiting longer to see a GP in the future due to funding cuts and a shortage of doctors.

BMA GP leader, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, spoke at the BMA’s annual conference, warning how waits of one or two weeks would “become the norm”.

Although waiting times were not measured for the survey, it does appear to be that a growing number of people are having difficulty with being able to see GP.

Overwhelming evidence shows statins are ‘very effective and safe’

The benefits of cholesterol-boosting statins far outweigh the risks and the “jury is no longer out”, leading health experts said yesterday.

Six professors from British universities decided to wade into the fierce debate about Britain’s most prescribed type of medication, and said there is now overwhelming evidence clearly demonstrating cholesterol-lowering statins such as atorvastatin and rosuvastatin are “very effective and safe”.

Presently, there are an estimated seven million people prescribed statins in the UK alone, with the drug recommended for anybody who has a one in five or higher risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke in the proceeding 10 years, or who have already had a major cardiac event. However, there have been calls to widen the scope for who is eligible, with many health experts saying there should be more people taking them than the current guidelines recommend.

However, the heart drugs were in the news earlier this year when they made headlines for their apparent dangerous risks. In May for example, researchers involved in a study into statins published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) were forced to backtrack on claims the drugs increased a patient’s diabetes risk, admitting the claims were incorrect.

Professor Sir Rory Collins, head of the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University, said: “Side effects could put off high-risk patients from ­taking their life-saving medication. Major vascular events such as heart attacks or stroke are life-changing events for many people so to avoid these is important. The benefits outweigh the risks. The evidence is substantial that the treatment is safe but it remains a choice but one they can only make if they are not misinformed.”

Professor Collins added that it was not uncommon for older people prescribed statins to have aches and pains, but that these symptoms were just as likely to be suffered by those not taking statins.

George Davey Smith, ­professor of clinical epidemiology at the ­University of Bristol, argued that 25 years of research had showed definitive evidence about the major benefits of statin use. He said: “The jury is no longer out on the cost/­benefit ratio.”

Peter Weissberg, ­medical director of the British Heart Foundation, added: “If you take a statin your risk will reduce of having a heart attack or stroke. If you are at negligible risk all you are doing is exposing yourself to a low risk of side effects.”

So it seems statins are here to stay for the long-term, with their efficacy and safety surely no longer in question.

After the BMJ story was published, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) were quick to publish a rebuttal, issuing a safety update reassuring patients that statins were safe.

They commented that 450 deaths from heart attacks, stroke or vascular failure would be avoided for each 10,000 patients treated, if patients at a 20% or higher risk of suffering one of these over a 10-year period were taking statins for at least five years.

Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy fight the counterfeiters with giveaway Erectile Dysfunction prices!

There’s no two ways about it: counterfeit drugs can kill. They are dangerous. They are poorly produced in disgusting warehouses by crooks with no pharmaceutical knowledge and no regards for your wellbeing.

Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction medication Viagra is amongst the most copied medicines in the world, but counterfeits of the ‘little blue pill’ have been found to contain some shocking ingredients lurking inside.

Fake Viagra pills are usually sent to Pfizer’s laboratory for analysis, and their experts have previously found a wide range of deadly chemicals such as blue printer ink, brick dust, floor wax and even rat poison. Maybe the most shocking of all was one infamous batch of pills being flogged in South Korea, partly made from the remains of human foetuses. Perhaps this will make people think twice before buying cheap knock-off erectile dysfunction drugs from illegal websites.

Taking the fight to the counterfeiters and their illegal websites, Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy are delighted to announce we now offer generic sildenafil (the active ingredient in Viagra) for the staggering cheap price of just £1.35* a tablet! So cheap it is practically a giveaway and therefore there is no reason to look elsewhere and buy cheap dangerous pills from untrusted sources purely for their inexpensive price.

With the current dire financial climate and many people out of work, it is completely understandable that many of us wish to save money where we can, but this saved money can’t be taken to the grave with you after you have ingested counterfeit drugs and suffered a fatal reaction.

“I can buy Viagra cheap from my mate down the pub” or “Yes I’ve taken Viagra, I got Kamagra from my mate” are two things Medical Specialists™ often hear from men seeking our help with their impotence problems. Mates down the pub are not doctors, pharmacists, or will enquire about your medical history or what other medications you may be taking.

For instance, Nitrates (taken for angina) can actually react with Viagra and cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, leading to a heart attack. And for the record, bear in mind that Kamagra is not Viagra and is not licensed in the UK. Therefore it is illegal to buy it or be in possession of it.

In-house GMC-registered doctors are available at Medical Specialists™ to carefully review your consultation and suitability for not just ED treatments, but indeed any prescription-only medication. Your health and wellbeing are put first, unlike that mate down the pub who just wants to make a few quid regardless of if you might suffer with heart or brain damage.

The popular Bury-based pharmacy caters for thousands of patients all across the globe, and as such, does not want to see all these unsuspecting men parting with their cash for cheap, dangerous Viagra knock-offs because their budget will just not allow for the ‘genuine’ article – Pfizer’s Viagra or other genuine UK-made sildenafil-based medicines.

In fact when the UK patient expired last year for Viagra, Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy introduced other erectile dysfunction medications that contained sildenafil – for only fraction of the cost! This resulted in a surge in demand for these inexpensive medications that contained sildenafil.

Men suffering from impotence probably thought things couldn’t get any better for their wallet…think again!

There are actually currently 27 UK manufacturers licensed to manufacture sildenafil, including the more well-known Teva sildenafil and Actavis sildenafil, and patients with Medical Specialists™ can now benefit from further slashed prices of generic sildenafil! Yes, all patients old and new can obtain generic sildenafil at rock bottom prices, if they don’t mind which particular manufacturer they receive, but all are UK-produced and contain the exact same active ingredient.

At just £1.35* per tablet of generic sildenafil, this is without doubt a lot cheaper than both buying from your mates and attempting to smuggle counterfeits into the country and if caught, being hit with thousands of pounds in fines and even a prison sentence.

Does malaria make you smell more attractive to mosquitoes?

Malaria parasites could change the way people smell and make them more enticing to mosquitoes, according to the findings of new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University in the US analysed the odour of mice with and without malaria for a period of 45 days.

To their amazement, the scientists discovered that the scent of the infected mice was significantly different to the mice without the malaria parasite.

The infected mice did not have a completely different odour, however the level of compounds already in the mouse odour was altered.

This was more obvious in the mice that were still infectious but not displaying any symptoms of malaria – an important stage of the parasite’s life cycle.

Professor Consuelo De Moraes of Pennsylvania State University and one of the lead authors involved in the research said: “There appears to be an overall elevation of several compounds that are attractive to mosquitoes.”

The researchers say it is likely that infected people smell more attractive but do not have any highly specific body odours, especially as the malaria pathogen can actually have bad effects for the mosquitoes themselves.

“Since mosquitoes probably don’t benefit from feeding on infected people, it may make sense for the pathogen to exaggerate existing odour cues that the insects are already using for host location,” said study leader Professor Mark Mescher.

Most interesting of all was perhaps that the researchers found that the mice that had been infected seemed to have an alteration in body odour – permanently.

Despite these mice no longer showing any signs of the disease, tests on body odour proved they were carriers of the pathogen.

Those involved in study think it is high probable that there is a similar effect in humans and are now recruiting volunteers in Africa to determine if this is indeed correct.

Professor Mark Mescher told the BBC: “One of the major potential values of this research is if it can help us identify people who do not show symptoms of the disease. Without symptoms people carry the disease without treatment and still transmit it.

“But there is still a long way to go. In mice we have a very controlled environment. In humans there are so many different factors at play – from diverse environments to diverse genes.”

As well as hoping to advance methods of preventing malaria transmission by mosquitoes, researchers also hope to find ways of creating non-invasive diagnostic procedures that would enable the efficient screening of populations for the malaria infection, which would find those who don’t necessarily display malaria symptoms but are still able to spread the disease.