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Berwick Area Heart Support Group
April 2007 newsletter
Next meeting April 4th at the day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm Guest speaker: David Catt from the Borders Organic Gardeners, will give an illustrated talk on growing fruit and other good food in the small garden.
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March Meeting Report
HEART DISEASE – FREQUENTLY FATAL AND MOSTLY PREVENTABLE
Reaching out to Berwick - the focus moves on from stopping smoking to reducing blood pressure.
Dr Mike Lavender, who recently spoke to Berwick Area Heart Support Group, is Director of Public Health with the NHS Care Trust, and is based at Morpeth. His team check the figures and promote effective health initiatives. Prevention is always more effective than cure. When Mike first came to speak to the heart group two years ago in 2005, the ‘stopping-smoking’ campaign was uppermost in his mind. He sees all the death certificates from across the county. We know that smoking, including passive smoking, not only damages lungs but also profoundly increases the risk of dangerous heart events. A reduction in smoking among the middle-aged across England and Wales over the last 25 years has reduced death from ‘heart disease’ by at least a quarter. This is about the same as the reduction from all the improved medical and dietary interventions for heart disease put together over the same period. Government has said that areas most in need must get the special funding for public health outreach in the community. Some parts of Northumberland needed more help than others. The figures showed that there were more casualties from heart and artery disease in the old industrial areas where, also, fewer people were stopping smoking in middle age. However the gap is beginning to close. The south is improving faster now than Berwick.
Stopping smoking rapidly helps prevent fatality from heart disease, but heart disease is still the biggest single cause of death and probably also the biggest cause of disability. (Heart disease is responsible for 27% of deaths in those under 75 years; Berwick is about average). The disease is frequently fatal and mostly preventable. About 50% of the improvement in recent years – measured as postponed deaths – has been the result of improving ‘risk factors’, and another 40% of the improvement has been from deaths postponed by medical treatment. The heart group agreed with Dr Lavender that we have seen our local heart services improve enormously in the last few years. Chest pain clinics now see 100% patients within 14 days. The training of paramedics and the improvement in emergency services has been astonishing. This is critical for us ‘up-here’ in Berwick. As patients and families, we appreciate also the new drug regimes not just for emergencies, but also for follow-on treatments, and importantly for people such as those with ‘late-onset’ diabetes who are at particular risk. The heart group was also able to tell Dr Lavender just how much we appreciate cardiac rehabilitation and the dedicated nurse and the staff at the Swan Centre. The biggest need however continues to be to tackle those ‘risk factors’ that cause the problems in the first place.
Helping people stop smoking is by no means finished, but with the 'smoking in public' law due to come into effect in July this year (it is already in place in Scotland and Wales), the message to both young and old is very clear. There are and will be fewer ‘early’ deaths, and fewer ‘disabled years’. As smoking drops from causing 24% of deaths to causing 11% of deaths in those aged under 75, Dr Lavender is now focussing particular attention on high blood pressure, ‘hypertension’. This mostly preventable and ‘treatable’ condition accounts for about 25% of deaths in the under-75 category. Unfortunately GPs probably have identified as yet only half those who need treatment now. As well as drugs for some of us we all need to stop putting on weight and to exercise more. We need to include our children in this. (This sounds familiar to heart patients in the Berwick Group.)
Can we follow up the anti-smoking campaign? We need the one-stop shop. Local people are being trained as ‘health trainers’, initially in the Blyth area, to support people who need to change habits in order to help reduce blood pressure and other risk factors. These initiatives are proving themselves. Mike Lavender and his team measure the effectiveness. Well-trained health teams need to go where people are – to the social clubs, to companies entering employee’s health promotion schemes, to the street on market days. These very new initiatives on trial in the south of Northumberland will ‘outreach’ as far as Berwick. Watch for the ‘Street Doctor’ coming to a place near you. The Group gave a warm welcome to local GP Dr Wooding who came to Dr Lavender's talk. "
Phil
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Wally’s Yarn
OWE MY MOTHER
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"
4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
" Because I said so, that's why."
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."
7. My mother taught me IRONY
"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
"You'll sit there until all that brussel sprouts are gone."
11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."
12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"
13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."
14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION.
"Stop acting like your father!"
15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."
16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
"Just wait until we get home."
17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.
"You are going to get it when you get home!"
18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."
19. My mother taught me ESP.
"Put your jumper on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"
20. My mother taught me HUMOUR.
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
"You're just like your father."
23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"
24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."
25. And my favourite: My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"
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Recipe of the month
Salmon with Herbs in Newspaper
A copy of The Berwick Advertiser, Berwickshire News (It must be a paper of your choice covering the river Tweed area)
4 large handfuls fresh mixed herbs (dill, basil, rosemary, flat leaf parsley, and fennel tops)
1 (3 1/2 to 4 pound/ 1.5 kilogram) whole salmon, scaled and gutted
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 lemons, thinly sliced
6 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons fennel seeds, cracked
Open out the paper to the middle page, and scatter half the herbs over it. Place the salmon in the middle of the paper and season inside and out and rub with olive oil. Scatter over the lemon slices, spring onions, fennel seeds and remaining herbs, tucking some inside the fish. Drizzle with a little extra olive oil. Wrap the paper around the salmon, securing it well with lots of string. Dampen the paper well under the tap. Place parcel directly on the top shelf of a preheated 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) oven, for 35 minutes, or preferably, cook on the barbecue or on a rack over a campfire for about 25 minutes on each side.
Yield: 6 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
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