Inside Health Folgen

Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking freefall from the edge of space was witnessed online by 8 million people around the world this week. The jump was well-planned and included equipment to enable him to breathe at high altitude and low pressure. Dr Kevin Fong is the Wellcome Trust Public Engagement Fellow, and Associate Director of the Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine at University College London. He says that a pressurised suit would prevent his blood from "boiling" at the so-called Armstrong line - where pressure in the atmosphere means that boiling point of water is the same as body temperature. A previous attempt in the 1960s almost failed - when the pressurised suit leaked, causing swelling in one hand. The chances of surviving a common type of emergency abdominal surgery are lower if you have the operation at night or over the weekend. The first report produced by the UK Emergency Laparotomy Network shows that the odds of survival vary tremendously between hospitals too - from a 96% chance of pulling through in the best units, to just 58% in the worst. The study involved 2,000 patients who had undergone the surgery at 35 different NHS hospitals. The patients who need this operation are often very sick - with a blocked bowel or suspected bleeding in the abdomen. Mike Grocott, who's Professor of Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Southampton believes that this type of case should be given the best care possible - by a consultant surgeon and consultant anaesthetist. The published results are anonymised - but Dr Dave Murray who's a Consultant Anaesthetist at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, says data will be collected nationally and published in 2015, including the names of the hospitals. One listener - a former artist and puppeteer - emailed Inside Health about his recent diagnosis of essential tremor. He's finding the shaking of his hands embarrassing and wonders what can be done about it. Professor Leslie Findley, who's Consultant Neurologist at the Essex Neurosciences Unit at Queens' Hospital in Romford, describes the options - from beta blockers to deep brain stimulation. If you've ever spent time in hospital you may have worn an open-backed hospital gown - which often gapes in an undignified manner. But if you are a man on the urology wards at Solihull hospital in the West Midlands then you are in for a treat - pyjamas designed by the staff to preserve dignity and reduce the likelihood of complications. Consultant urological surgeon Mr Dev Sarmah is one of the team who came up with new design in response to a spate of blocked catheters in patients wearing conventional pyjamas.

As the Nobel Prize for Medicine announced this week recognises stem cell research, Dr Mark Porter asks if it's already making a difference to patients.And imagine waking up with numbness in your face, by the end of the day with paralysis in your leg, all tests are normal and there's no apparent cause - Margaret McCartney reports from Edinburgh on a burgeoning field of medicine - functional disorders.Plus an Inside Health listener who has been taking epilepsy treatment for 35 years asks when is it safe to stop taking her medication? And do 'stop-smoking' campaigns really work? Kamran Abbasi looks at the evidence.

The latest addition to the burgeoning ranks of health magazines on the newsagent's shelves is called What Doctors Don't Tell You. The headlines on the front of this month's edition promise to help you sunbathe your diabetes away, end your child's wheezing without drugs, reverse bone loss for good, and avoid hysterectomy by changing your diet. Lynne McTaggart who edits the magazine with her husband responds to the views of Inside Health's resident GP, Dr Margaret McCartney. The commonest cause of hepatitis in the UK isn't A,B or even C - it's Hepatitis E. Although it may not have the profile of the better known strains it is causing more than its fair share of problems. Dr Harry Dalton who's a consultant gastroenterologist at The Royal Cornwall Hospital is a senior lecturer at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health and a world authority on Hepatitis E. He says we still don't fully understand what the long term effects of hepatitis E may be, particularly on the brain and nervous system. A listener contacted Inside Health about unpleasant dizziness that happens when she turns over in bed or straightens up after bending down. She wanted to know whether it was likely to be low blood pressure, or a problem with her ears. Dr Mike Jeffreys, a Consultant physician in the Department of Healthcare for Older People at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital explains how benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, or BPPV could be behind her symptoms. And how it can be effectively treated with a simple series of movements to the head called the Epley manoeuvre.