GoToSee has won the industry respected Experian Hitwise Awards for 3rd consecutive year and been named one of the UK’s highest ranking traffic websites within the Health & Medical sector for 2012.

The annual Experian Hitwise Awards recognises the 10 most popular (highest traffic volume) websites in the UK across 160+ categories and is based on annual market share of UK internet visits.

It does this by measuring over 25 million web users enabling them to understand internet behaviour and competitive activity.

Overview

“It’s been another great year for GoToSee.co.uk. With over six years online, we are one of the longest established health and therapy sites and a market leader in the Health & Medical sector.

We are continuing to grow very fast in a very competitive sector. It’s great to be recognised for all our hard work and have our status so comprehensively underlined by the Hitwise team.” said David Fox, GoToSee’s Operations Director.

Advertising on GoToSee is a proven way of getting your therapy business noticed online. All our advertising packages are backed up with a return on investment guarantee that gives members some extra peace of mind when allocating their valuable marketing budget.

To find out how GoToSee could help your Practice, Therapy Centre or College please click here

The Foundation for Holistic Spirituality (F4HS)

NATIONAL WELL-BEING CONSULTATION DEADLINE 15 APRIL 2011

The UK Government is undertaking a consultation on measuring national well-being as part of its Big Society agenda. This will influence government policy on education, healthcare, social services etc. F4HS has been instrumental in the last few weeks in getting a section on faith and spirituality so that we can raise awareness of the benefits of a holistic approach to health and spirituality. You might like to consider submitting your own response via the Government website here

UK CENSUS ON 27 MARCH 2011

The UK government sends out a Census every 10 years. One of the questions on the census on 27 March is “What Is Your Religion?” F4HS is running a campaign which suggests that people who are not aligned to any religion might consider writing ‘holistic’ in the Religion Box — the word ‘holistic’ being shorthand for an approach that is open-hearted, open-minded and respecting the essence of all spiritual traditions. If the same word is used it will be possible to create a new and useful voice for the benefits of holistic healthcare, spirituality and well-being.

The purpose of this campaign is to support, for example, all those teachers and healthcare workers whose basic approach is spiritual but not religious, but who do not have any backing from those decision-making bodies which determine policy in healthcare, religious education and pastoral care.

Using the term ‘Holistic’ does not mean the creation of another religion, but is an approach that reflects the feelings and thoughts of an increasingly large proportion of the population who are currently unrepresented. F4HS understand that ‘holistic’ may not represent your therapy, but because of the way in which the government will analyse the statistics, it is important that the same word is used.

In the House of Lords, Lord Stone who used to be CEO of Marks and Spencer, and Lord Lucas who publishes the Good Schools Guide, have expressed their support.

Professor David Peters of the School of Integrated Health at Westminster University is also a supporter of the campaign and comments:

‘It’s 21st century common knowledge that everything connects to everything else; that our Universe was pregnant for 15 billion years before giving birth to humans, and loves complexity. If you grasp the implications of this and you feel awe at the wonder of creation, then you have a holistic spiritual attitude. I am one of those people and as the Campaign progresses I intend to declare it at every possible opportunity!’

For more information visit www.whyholistic.org or join the web seminar on 9 and 16 March at: www.lifechangesecrets.com/whyholistic/

Researchers from Germany, the Netherlands and the Institute of Psychiatry in London examined data of over 1,900 people aged 14-24 and found that those who did not use cannabis at the start of the study but went on to use it developed a higher risk of psychotic symptoms. Those who used the drug from the start of the study and continued to do so had an increased risk of psychotic experiences.

The findings, which were published in the British Medical Journal, concluded that cannabis was a risk factor in development of incident psychotic symptoms but there was no evidence found to suggest that psychotic symptoms led to later cannabis use.

More about helping cannabis addiction

Psychiatrists have predicted a shift away from traditional male roles in Western society due to altered social and economic factors and this will affect male self-esteem.

Currently, women are twice as likely to develop depressive disorders as men but experts believe that is likely to change in the coming decades as traditional male careers in manufacturing and labour are being lost or moved abroad.

The article also states that the main breadwinner in the family is likely to be female in the coming years as more women are likely to attend university and go on to develop well-paid careers. This perceived “failure” to fulfil the traditional male role of provider is associated with greater risk of depression and relationship problems.

Previous research has already proved that unemployment and redundancy has a bigger impact on men than women due to male identity and social networks being based around the work place. Losing a job can lead to feelings of isolation and depression (read our articles on counselling your man through redundancy and tips for helping your relationship through redundancy).

Experts also warned that men fail to seek professional help when depressed and were more likely to drink or self-medicate as a way of coping.

In many parts of the world such as Africa and India, eating baked clay is an ancient tradition and the sikor tablets can be found in UK ethnic stores. The clay is ingested for medicinal and nutritional reasons but experts have discovered high levels of toxins such as arsenic, cadmium and lead in tablets imported from Bangladesh.

While these toxins can cause cancer, kidney damage and brain damage, lead in particular can potentially result in pregnant women suffering a premature delivery, stillbirth or miscarriage.

While an estimated 500g per day is consumed by people practising ‘geophagy’, researchers from De Montfort University in Leicester calculated that just 50g of sikor per day can cause three to six times tolerable daily exposure to arsenic and lead.

“Geophagy has been in existence in virtually all societies since ancient times and is still prevalent in many parts of the world and the availability of sikor in the UK shows that pregnant women are still taking part in the practice,” said Dr Parvez Haris, head of the biomedical and environmental health group at De Montfort.

“Tests on the sikor from Bangladesh reveal that it contains a cocktail of toxic chemicals that are known to be harmful to humans. This is hugely worrying not only for pregnant women in the UK consuming the material, but for women in India and Bangladesh who may be drinking arsenic-contaminated water as well.

“It is vital that the composition of geophagy substances are thoroughly characterised to safeguard health and well-being of the consumers. Clay used to make sikor may be derived from polluted areas, containing bacteria and highly toxic chemicals which may further damage the health of a mother and her child.”

The study involved 680 patients aged 35 to 74 years-old. All patients received a risk assessment and were advised by doctors on lifestyle changes. Around half of participants also received six counselling sessions by phone over a two month period. Sessions were carried out in small groups of 4-8 people with one counsellor.

After six months, both groups showed improvements to their heart disease risk, but a higher percentage in the phone counselling group kept to their diet and exercise programs. The counselling group also showed decreased blood pressure

While general advice was the same – eat more fruit and veg, cut down on salt and get some exercise – delivering and maintaining the healthy lifestyle message still requires intervention along the way and phone counselling could be an effective way to do this.

Researchers believe some people have difficulty getting to a counselling clinic so phone sessions provide a simple and cost-effective way of getting the message across.

Research has shown that taking even a brief stretch of the legs away from your desk can mitigate the ill-effects of sitting for too long.

A new study of 4,757 workers found that people who spend most of the day sitting down at a desk job had smaller waists and better heart health the more breaks they took, even if the break was just for one minute.

Results showed that some people took up to ten times more breaks than co-workers with the most breaks at 1,258 over seven days. The least amount of breaks taken was just 99.

Increased rates of obesity and diabetes have been attributed to society’s increasingly sedentary lifestyle and careers that involve being sat down for most of the day.

The study published in the European Heart Journal examined associations of sedentary time and breaks with cardio-metabolic and inflammatory risk biomarkers.

“Our research showed that even small changes, which could be as little as standing up for one minute, might help to lower this health risk. ‘Stand up, move more, more often’, could be used as a slogan to get the message across,” said Genevieve Healy, of the University of Queensland, Australia, who led the study.

Recommendations in the report include:

• Standing up when taking a phone call
• Walking to see a colleague rather than phoning or emailing
• Having standing meetings
• Placing rubbish bins and printers in a central location so workers have to walk to use them
• Using toilets on different levels of the building and using the stairs rather than the lift to get there

Chairman of the Eyecare Trust, Dharmesh Patel has commented that if overweight, you run the risk of suffering a sight-threatening eye condition and people should eat healthily and manage their weight to reduce the chances of developing vision loss.

The claim comes after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States gave approval for human stem cell treatment for patients with dry age-related macular degeneration.

Being overweight can cause a variety of health problems. Learn more about weight management here

As many as eight million people in the UK are believed to suffer with chronic pain and the Patients Association ‘Public Attitudes to Pain’ report says the Government must take action to help patients understand how to manage their pain effectively.

The study of around 4,400 people found a third of the 1,200 who suffer with long-term pain were not taking prescribed medications or did not understand how to take the medicine while 57 per cent were unaware of the potential side effects of the drugs they were taking.

The report also found there was only one pain specialist for every 32,000 chronic pain patients with a quarter of people surveyed unaware that specialist pain services exist. Only 23 per cent had been referred to a specialist.

Long-term pain is thought to account for 4.9 million sick days per year with an estimated £5 billion cost to the economy.

“This report reveals the shocking disparity of pain management services across the UK. With a lack of robust information, patients must rely on GPs and healthcare professionals who are often not equipped to deal with the specific problems that chronic pain can present,” said Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association.

“We need better information for patients to be able to make informed choices and complete decisions about their care.”

Learn more about chronic pain and therapies that can help here

Previous beliefs were that body fat could protect against the condition but a new study shows that a build up of fatty tissue around the waistline close to internal organs can lead to bone thinning in women.

Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston studied 50 obese women who were pre-menopausal, measuring their levels of abdominal under-skin fat and deeper fat around the organs. Bone density and bone marrow fat were also assessed.

Those with higher levels of deeper belly fat had increased bone marrow fat and weaker bones. However, no significant correlation between under-skin fat and bone density was found.

“We know that obesity is a major public health problem,” said lead researcher Dr Miriam Bredella

“Now we know that abdominal obesity needs to be included as a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone loss. Our results showed that having a lot of belly fat is more detrimental to bone health than having more superficial fat or fat around the hips.

“It is important for the public to be aware that excess belly fat is a risk factor for bone loss, as well as heart disease and diabetes.”