Meningitis in babies

The autumn and winter are the high season for meningitis so let’s have a look at the most vulnerable group, babies under 12 months of age.

You may not know it, but this group run 38 times the risk of meningitis than children over one and adults. Every year over 1000 babies contract meningitis and one in four are left with after-effects sometimes as severe as deafness, brain damage and amputations and sadly one in ten will die. At present there is no vaccine against meningococcal B – the strain of meningitis responsible for the majority of cases of meningitis in the UK. .

I am not generally a fan of antibiotics, but meningitis can be prevented in newborn babies by giving antibiotics to at-risk mothers during labour. This recommendation has been in place several years, but many ‘at-risk’ mothers are never offered this option and it is believed that half of the current cases of Group B Strep in newborns could be prevented if guidelines were followed.

It can be very difficult to spot meningitis in babies because the symptoms are much less obvious than in older children and adults but the following list is a guide. Remember that babies can deteriorate very fast so if in any go to hospital immediately:

• Tense or bulging soft spot

• High Temperature

• Very sleepy/staring expression/too sleepy to wake up

• Vomiting/refusing to feed

• Irritable when picked up, with a high pitch or moaning cry

• Breathing fast / difficulty breathing

• Blotchy skin, getting paler or turning blue

• Extreme shivering

• A stiff body with jerky movements, or else floppy / lifeless

• ‘Pin prick’ rash / marks or purple bruises on the body

• Cold hands and feet

• Sometimes diarrhoea

• Pain/ irritability from muscle aches or severe limb/joint pain

The Meningitis Research Foundation provide very good information free on their website at www.meningitis.org or Freephone helpline 080 8800 3344

Ten tips to live to be 100

12 Surprising Signs You’ll Live to 100

Tip 1 – Get out there and socialise because outgoing people are 50 percent less likely to develop dementia. Sociability means resilence and that means lower levels of cortisol – a stress hormone – which is good because too much of it can inhibit brain cells’ communication.

Tip 2 – Haul on your trainers and walk fast or run for 5 hours a week (40 mins a day or find some enjoyable exercise that you will maintain life long. Doing this means you get less heart disease, cancer, neurological diseases, and infections than your non-exercising friends. .

Tip 3 – Have a fibre rich diet as it helps reduce cholesterol, improve insulin sensitivity, and boost weight loss. Plus the usual sound advice to eat naturally and avoid processed foods and additives!

Tip 4 – Whatever your age, see yourself as least ten years younger than you actually are. This gives you greater optimism and motivation to overcome challenges – both of which are immune system boosters.

Tip 5 –Don’t be afraid to Twitter because keeping up with new technology helps keep brain cells stay young and healthy. Stay connected to friends, family, and current events through email, Facebook and so on as that helps you feel vital and relevant.

Tip 6 – Keep counting the calories as research showed that people who limit their daily calories to 1,400 to 2,000 were literally young at heart because their hearts functioned like those of people 15 years younger.

Tip 7 – Keep an eye on your heart rate and aim for a healthy 15 times in 15 seconds, or 60 beats a minute if you prefer at rest. Average resting rate is between 60-100 bpm, and the closer to the low end the better it is. A slower pulse means your heart doesn’t have to work as hard and socould last longer.

Tip 8 – Don’t snore! This could be a hard one to manage but snoring is a major sign of obstructive sleep apnoea, a disorder that causes you to stop breathing briefly because throat tissue collapses and blocks your airway. Sleep apnoea can cause high blood pressure, memory problems, weight gain, and depression. (oh, and sometimes divorce as well)

Tip 9 – Manage your stress in whatever way works for you because you can then avoid many of the major life threatening conditions. Yoga and Tai Chi or Salsa Dancing and Cake Decoration – whatever helps you relax.

Tip 10 – Breathe, and then repeat! . One 30-year long study found that the most significant factor in your health and longevity is how well you breathe and it is the cheapest health aid ever. Breathing properly means you are oxygenating your body which has a direct effect on your nervous system. Try Dr Andrew Weil’s tip breathing in for a count of 4, hold for 7 and breathe out for 8. Just practice until it feels natural – very useful when stuck in a queue and nobody knows you are doing it!

Natural stress beaters

When I was writing my book ‘How to Cope Successfully with Stress’, it was actually a stressful process in itself to meet the publisher’s deadline and so I put together a ‘stress kit’ for myself. I thought you might also find it useful, so here is what I used:

First of all a really good multivitamin to fill nutritional gaps and counteract the negative effects of unhealthy stress on the body and a separate B-complex as it helps balance mood and calm the nervous system. I have already mentioned the benefits of Omega-3 and a deficiency here is associated with increased anxiety and depression.

Stress can often prevent you getting off to sleep, and the herb Valerian is helpful here due to the essential oils that the root contains. Again to help you sleep, you need calcium and magnesium as they are involved in calming those thoughts running round your head, can relax your muscles and so help you sleep better.

Finally, a natural alternative to antidepressants in keeping your mood stable is St. John’s Wort as it helps boost mood and maintain a healthy emotional outlook.

Celery juice lowers blood pressure

As someone who much prefers juicing vegetables to actually eating them, I am always on the lookout for news of a new benefit, and here is one for you.

If you want to lower your blood pressure then get some organic celery and put the juicer on standby. Celery is very high in potassium and magnesium as well as containing 3-n-butyl-phthalide, a compound that relaxes the smooth muscle cells in the arterial walls. This allows the arteries to dilate and lowers blood pressure.

The recommended ‘dose’ is to juice one head of celery a day for about a month and test your blood pressure at the start and end. Oh, and as celery on its own can be bitter, I would split the head and juice each one for morning and evening drinking. I would also add an apple and carrot to the mix for some sweetness and flavour – and you get more vitamins as well!

If you don’t have a juicer, then look for cartons of Low-Sodium V8 Juice as it has a high dose of potassium to help keep blood pressure in check and it is an effective blood thinner, which further contributes to its antihypertensive effects. Must be the low-sodium version though, not the regular one, and you would drink about 12 ounces a day.

Late night eating piles on the pounds

Regular mealtimes are not just something your mother insisted on, they could also be a good way to help you lose weight, and with currently more than 300 million obese adults worldwide every little can help.

A Northwestern University study has found that eating at irregular times, especially late at night, does affect weight gain. Night time is when your body uses sleep to regulate many of your bodily functions and eating before bedtime puts an extra strain on that system. That means that digestion of your food gets put on hold, as it is not so important to the body as the maintenance and repair of more essential functions.

Our circadian clock, or biological timing system, governs our daily cycles of feeding, activity and sleep, with respect to external dark and light cycles. Recent studies have found the body’s internal clock also regulates energy use, suggesting the timing of meals may matter in the balance between caloric intake and expenditure.

Your body’s own circadian rhythm dictates those bodily functions so losing weight may not just be as simple as calories in and calories out. It could also be as simple as changing the time of your main meal.

Shift workers are particularly vulnerable to weight gain because their schedules force them to eat at times that conflict with their natural body rhythms, but all of us could benefit from moving that evening meal to no later than 8pm, and no late night snacks.

Ayurvedic health tips for autumn

Our ancestors knew that autumn and winter were the seasons of hibernation and restoration, something that many animals do instinctively, and yet we keep up the same pace year round. This does not allow us time to slow down and recharge. In the Ayurvedic system from India, autumn is the time to deal with ‘Kapha’ accumulation, which is all the negative influences on our vitality, by supporting our immune system through this transition.

Recommendations
During the autumn and winter months it is best to avoid eating late, as the body will naturally slow down its digestion – something that is ‘scientifically’ proved in my next item. It is also advisable to stay clear of deep fried foods and cold food and drinks and if you want to aid your digestion and feel less lethargic then you also need to eat less dairy, cheese, red meat, shell fish and mushrooms.

So what should you be eating? Your body will benefit from eating warm cooked food during the cold winter months, and it is more important than ever not to skip meals and stay away from canned or processed foods that contain additives and chemical preservatives. Eat pure, fresh foods and cook with spices, so go for soups made with mung bean, adzuki beans, pumpkin, carrot, ginger and chicken. To keep your skin lovely and untouched by those sharp winds, add soaked and blanched almonds and walnuts to your morning muesli or porridge.

Good energising and digestive herbs and spices to use in autumn are ginger, mustard, cumin seeds, cardamom, black pepper, basil, turmeric and sesame seeds. Sweeten your tea (herbal for preference) with honey and make sure you are getting enough Vitamin C, and a good source of antioxidants as they all boost your immune system.

Autumn treats
Your body will thank you if you put it in the hands of a good massage therapist to help relieve your muscles and joints from tension caused by colder weather. If you are feeling really indulgent then go for a hot stone massage which brings heat in to the muscle tissue and so improves your circulation. In the interests of economy – your own and the global pinch – you can also massage your body with sesame or almond oil before taking a bath and that will keep your body warm and energised.

Omega-3 health benefits for babies

Despite the known benefits of omega-3 for a healthy heart, immune support and guarding against dementia, less than a quarter of British adults fail to reach even their basic requirement needs.

Now it seems that it is even more important for babies, but they need to have their supply from their mother while in the womb. In a detailed review of existing published scientific papers, published in Nutrition and Food Science Journal, leading dietician Dr Carrie Ruxton and Dr Emma Derbyshire, senior lecturer in Human Nutrition at Manchester Metropolitan University, examined the role and scope of omega-3 EFAs on health, as well as the likely intake needed to produce good results.

Baby asthma and eczema can be very distressing for new parents, and one discovery from their research has suggested that women who take fish oil capsules during pregnancy, and while breast feeding, may reduce the risk of asthma and eczema in their babies and aid normal brain and eye development. It also has benefit for the mother as having a good intake of Omega-3 can also reduce post-natal depression.

The benefits for the baby continue into childhood as it seems that children whose mothers had taken cod liver oil capsules (containing DHA and EPA) during later pregnancy scored considerably higher on mental processing tests than children whose mothers had taken a placebo during the research.

You may think you get enough Omega-3 from your diet, but the omega-3 content of certain foods is becoming more limited due to changes in farming practice, and if you eat fortified foods then they contain very little. Additionally, in the UK we are not meeting the Food Standards Agency’s recommended levels of fish intake by a long margin – and that’s another good source of Omega-3. Most adults would benefit from an Omega-3 supplement, and certainly anyone planning a family, or pregnant, needs to be its benefits in mind.

Adult obesity drugs given to children

Drugs that are licensed in the UK to be used only in adults for obesity are apparently being increasingly prescribed for children. Adolescents and children are being prescribed these drugs, and there has been a 15-fold rise since 1999. The fact they are not licensed for children is a cause for concern, but on the upside it seems that most stop using them before they could expect to see any benefit, usually after 3 months.

A recent study, published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, shows under 18′s being given prescriptions for Orlistat, also known as Xenical or Alli. Orlistat has been approved for children as young as 12 in the US, but only for adults in the UK. It’s not known why they stop talking them so soon, but one theory by Russell Viner, one of the authors of the study based at the General & Adolescent Paediatrics Unit at University College London, is either they have excessive side effects or those taking them they could be expecting the drugs to deliver a miracle quick fix and stop using them when sudden, rapid, weight loss does not occur.

One form of Orlistat, Alli, is available now in the UK over the counter as a weight loss aid, but one of the potential side effects that occur is loose, oily stools if the overall fat intake is not reduced. The issue here, particularly for children, is that anti-obesity drugs are not the sole answer; they need to be used as part of a comprehensive weight-loss programme which includes both exercise and good nutrition.

Hard to die from a heart attack today

I have always thought that you have to a touch arrogant to be a consultant, and proof is in this week from Barcelona where the European Society of Cardiology have been meeting. Their President, Roberto Ferrari MD, claimed that adults today can expect to live 10 years longer than the average adult 30 to 40 years ago. Nothing too surprising about that, but he has set the cat among the pigeons by claiming that most of that extra decade resulted from advances in cardiovascular medicine, especially the treatment of heart attacks. Fine if he had left it there, but he went on to say “In cardiology, we have contributed seven of those 10 years of life, while oncologists have contributed 2.4 months,” and we are awaiting a response from the various Cancer Societies in Europe and the USA on that one.

However it might reassure you to know that he is confident that “it is difficult to die from a heart attack today.” Let’s hope his own heart is a strong one or he might keel over from the adverse publicity if he ever did have a heart attack!

Bees can fight tumours

The poor old bees, they are already under threat as their habitat is destroyed and now science has found a new use for them there may be even fewer. It’s down to their sting, because they pump toxic venom into their victims which has been analysed and now harnessed to kill tumour cells by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers attached the major component of bee venom to nano-sized spheres that they call nanobees. Good to know scientists have a sense of humour, bless them, and they found that in mice the bee toxin melittin stopped tumours from growing or shrank them. Hopefully this means they will have a good incentive to also start working out a way to prevent the bees from dying out altogether.

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