This week Lifelines gives detials on The Irish Times/Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland leature series; recommendation for the use of asprin; the adverse effects of star anise and caring for carers and family-planning services.
Medical speak
The third lecture in The Irish Times/Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland series is being given by Dermot Kelleher, the new regius professor of medicine at Trinity College, Dublin. His topic is the future of medical education. The lecture is on Tuesday, January 29th at 8 p.m., at the Royal College of Physicians, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. All are welcome.
Aspirin answers
A group of experts has issued definitive recommendations on the use of aspirin and other blood-thinning agents.
After analysing almost 300 trials involving more than 200,000 patients, they concluded that aspirin reduces the risk of a non-fatal heart attack by a third in at-risk patients.
The risk of stroke is reduced by a quarter and death from serious vascular disease by a sixth. In a key finding, the researchers say the benefits of aspirin therapy far outweigh the hazards of taking blood-thinning medications.
The authors recommend 75 to 150 milligrams of aspirin a day as the optimum dose. They found this relatively low dose to be as effective as higher amounts of the drug when used for long-term treatment. In another novel finding, the experts say it is safe and beneficial to start taking aspirin during the acute phase of certain types of stroke.
The authors say the question of whether apparently healthy people should take aspirin each day to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke remains unanswered. Nobody should start aspirin therapy without medical advice.
Not so starry anise?
There have been reports of adverse effects from star anise, according to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
Widely used in Asian cookery, the small aniseed-flavour fruit pods are also used as an infusion, or herbal-tea remedy. There have been up to 70 cases of adverse effects, including neurological reactions and convulsions in infants and young children, in France, the Netherlands and Spain.
Star-anise infusions are used to treat a variety of ailments, including colic. The authority warns that all products containing star anise, either by itself or in a mixture with other plant species, including soluble extracts, are subject to an EU food alert. It advises the public to let it know about any illnesses associated with the use of star anise.
Caring for carers
Very few people set out to be full-time carers. Instead, they become carers because a family member or friend has an incapacitating accident or suffers from an illness or disability.
"Not everyone has the life experiences to be able to cope with these new situations," says Eileen McCaffrey, who is Age Action Ireland's carer-support development manager.
Carers of all ages are welcome to attend an eight-week practical support and training programme, which begins at Clonskeagh Hospital on Wednesday, January 30th, at 10.30 a.m., and in the Adelaide & Meath Hospital, in Tallaght, on Monday, February 11th, at 10 a.m. Each session is two hours long; there is no charge.
More details from 01-4756989, or e-mail info@ageaction.ie.
Pregnant pause
The range of family-planning services available to Irish couples has improved greatly since the early 1990s, according to a review study of family-planning services offered by GPs in the North Eastern Health Board region.
There were strong differences in the variety of contraceptives offered, however. Ninety-nine per cent of doctors who responded to the survey, reported in the Irish Medical Journal, said they prescribed oral and injectable contraceptives; just under 20 per cent prescribed and fitted intrauterine devices (IUDs) or intrauterine progesterone systems (IPS). Eighty-six per cent of GPs offered advice on natural family planning.
The vast majority of doctors offered crisis-pregnany counselling.
Compiled by Muiris Houston and Sylvia Thompson