GrumbleSmiles

“Don’t Fall Asleep”

Posted on May 28, 2013 by john graham

My friend Pilly Galore would be delighted to read that GPs are continuing to prescribe lots of sleeping pills to elderly people. (See my earlier blogs by clicking in the TAG CLOUD on PILLS).

Around 10 million sleeping pill prescriptions are issued every year. I think it is the “go away” pill for GPs who don’t take the time to find out why people are not sleeping. The problem is that these pills don’t just make you sleep, they can also lead to increased falls and fractures. They are intended as a short-term intervention but up to 30% of patients remain on them for the long-term.

Two thirds of insomnia sufferers have never had their drugs reviewed, nor have they been offered alternative treatments such as relaxation techniques, sleep education or psychological therapy.

80% of insomnia patients, half of whom were over 65, rated their quality of sleep while taking sleeping pills was bad or very bad and half reported suffering from tiredness during the day.

The NHS spends £50 million every year on sleeping pills !

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged "A Health Ladder", "Pills" | 1 Comment

“Pensions Black Hole”

Posted on May 26, 2013 by john graham

When I left university in 1979, my first job was working for a Local Authority in Nottingham. It was a great job to start out my working career but in my early twenties, I certainly was not thinking about retirement. Luckily I was enrolled in the public sector pension scheme without me really realising it. I was not hoodwinked, it was a paternalistic gesture and almost everybody accepted joining, even though you paid a small amount of your salary into the pension each month. Now 40 years later I am glad I did, it pays me £10,000 a year! ( for ten years of hard work — not a great return, but better than a kick in the pants ! )

BUT —- I am soon to become a pariah. A burden on society. Nobody told me that the Government who promised me the pension, was not actually saving any money towards it. Now the current working generation of taxpayers are going to have to pick up the tab. I may not be able to walk down the street without feeling guilty.

From April 2011 to April 2012, the total cost of the state pensions was £8 billion. Obviously I don’t receive all of it. By 2017/18 this figure will have risen to £16.2 billion. I am in for a BONANZA !

I got these figures from the Government Office of Budget Responsibility. Sadly this new office was only formed a few years ago and before that previous Governments did not act responsibly towards pensioners. Promising things they could not afford to pay for.

Local Authority pensioners may well be castigated for years to come for their “gold-plated pensions”. Unless of course the next Government raises the state retirement age to 90 and solves the problem at a stroke !

P.S. The report that inspired this blog came from a think tank called the C.P.S. — Centre for Policy Studies, and they ominously forecast that by 2018 the full cost of public sector pensions will be £39 bilion. Maybe the C.P.S. should really by the Crown Prosecution Service. They could seek to convict all current public sector workers of fraudulently extracting money from the taxpayer. Retired public sector pensioners, like me, could all be prosecuted for receiving stolen goods.

HAPPY DAYS AHEAD 😀

Tagged "A Wealth Ladder" | 3 Comments

” Disappearing G.P.’s “

Posted on May 19, 2013 by john graham

Years ago, or maybe it is just in my rose-tinted imagination, I seem to think that if you wanted to see your Doctor, your own personal Doctor, you just turned up at the surgery and after a little wait, ……. there he was !!!! What is more, if you were too ill to visit the surgery, he would come out and see you in your own home !!!! NAH I must be dreaming.

Then things got a bit busier and GP’s all huddled up in group practices. So you did not always see your own Doctor. Also to keep the patients in order, they appointed security guards, called receptionists, who were especially recruited for their customer-not-friendly skills. Their main job seemed to be to hold back the tide of ill patients wanting to see the Doctor.

It wasn’t long before the hard pressed receptionists and their over-worked GP’s came up with another wheeze to keep the irritatingly ill patients at bay. The Appointments System, other wise known as “now see if you can get through the door”. With this new approach most people got better before they managed to see the Doctor. Sadly a few didn’t make it at all.

The next big advance in patient care was the appointment of Locum Doctors to cover out-of-hours calls. They were selected because of their complete lack of knowledge of the patients. This enables them to take an entirely independent view of whether you are wasting the Doctors time. If not they will frequently send you off to A&E, which must partly explain the significant rise in people turning up at hospitals unannounced.

Then the Government stepped in with a big “we must cut the waiting time boot”, and banned appointment lists. Now all you had to do was ring up first thing in the morning and ask to see the Doctor. Along with the other 550 ill people who wanted to see the Doctor on the same day and were also ringing in. After hanging on the phone for an hour or so, you eventually got through to the security guard, who told you that all the appointments were taken and you should ring back first thing tomorrow.

This system didn’t work very well, so they have come up with a new idea. It is called ……..

An appointment system !

But at least now the GP’s have the weekends off and are not disturbed in the night. Eventually patients will learn not to get ill at these inconvenient times .

Posted in HEALTH, N.H.S. | Tagged GPs | 5 Comments

“A Fishy Tale”

Posted on May 12, 2013 by john graham

A serious study of 2,700 retired Americans for over 16 years, eventually came up with some good advice to reduce the risk of heart disease and coronary problems.

Just take:-

Docoshexaeonic Acid
Docospentaeonic Acid
Eicosapentaeonic Acid

or put more simply, eat more oily fish, like Salmon, Mackerel or Herring.

The researchers at Harvard and Washington Universities found it could increase life expectancy by more than two years.

Now all I need is a recipe for oily fish and strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cranberries.

(See my earlier blogs on healthy eating advice by clicking on “FRUITFUL RESEARCH” in the TAG CLOUD).

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged "A Health Ladder", research | 2 Comments

“Have N.I.C.E Approved Apple ?”

Posted on May 5, 2013 by john graham

I have written a lot about older people’s over reliance on pills. (Click on “PILLS” in the TAG CLOUD). My favourite cartoon character in the GrumbleSmiles blog is “Pilly Galore” who is an elderly lady whose life revolves around pills. To her they have become a badge of importance, but also a point of contact with a lonely outside world. Pilly read in the newspaper about a new pill that is becoming very popular. In fact 128 million people around the world use them. One of the most popular varieties is made by a nice sounding company name APPLE. Pilly is going to see her friend and favourite GP tomorrow to see if he will prescribe her an apple tablet. It could turn out to be the best cure she has ever given her to treat her loneliness.

Tablets better than pills

Posted in HEALTH | Tagged "A Health Ladder", "Pills" | 2 Comments

“The Bald Truth”

Posted on April 28, 2013 by john graham

A shocking study by the University of Tokyo was published recently about balding men. I am sure there is no truth in it. I would not be surprised if the research was commissioned by the Japanese Association of Hairdressers out of sheer spite.

According to this dubious research, men who go bald on the crown of their head, have a 50% increased risk of heart disease. Those with receding hairlines only had a 22% increased risk. Alarmingly, those with receding hairlines and a bald crown top were 69% more at risk. It is all to do with testosterone.

No wonder Wayne Rooney, Shane Warne and Graham Gooch spent all that money on hair transplants.

I prefer the research that says men with high levels of testosterone are great sportsmen and great lovers.

But I might buy a wig tomorrow just in case there is any truth in the research :-).

Posted in SMILES | Tagged Strokes | 1 Comment

“Stay in the Town”

Posted on April 21, 2013 by john graham

I am sitting in my village home. It is a long time ago that I wrote about a survey suggesting that living longer was related to living in the country. (See “76th Birthday? Move to the Country” by clicking on May 2010 in the Archive).

Now a recent survey by property agents Rightmove of 40,000 homeowners, identified 10 locations where people were happiest to live. Harrogate in Yorkshire topped the list and generally Northerners were happier than people who live in the South. Although Truro, Exeter and Bath as well as St Albans, Ipswich, Kingston upon Thames, Bromley and Worcester were also in the top ten. Hereford was regarded as the safest place to live.

The key issues in determining their popularity were safety, neighbourliness, property condition and recreational opportunity.

The lowest rated locations were mainly in the Greater London area, probably because living spaces were smaller and as a result of safety fears.

The lesson from this survey for older people is not really about where to live because most people in retirement don’t want to move anywhere. They would prefer to stay living in their own home, or if they do move then they wish to stay close to their roots. A move away to the country or a new location altogether is only for the few.

What makes for an Age Friendly location is your family, your friends, your neighbourhood and the roots you have put down. It is about emotion not property and the truth is you can be happy in any location if it feels like a safe and secure home.

In retirement, new horizons don’t have to mean new locations, just a new outlook on life.

Tagged "A Horizon Ladder" | 6 Comments

“Retirement Aspirations”

Posted on April 14, 2013 by john graham

After a recent survey of 623 retired people, a spokesman for the Skipton Building Society, with more Yorkshire grit than silky P.R. talk, said “years ago the general perception was that once you had given up work and entered retirement, you had pretty much had it”.

The good news is that the survey feedback was much more positive ————– here are some of the findings about people in retirement:-

50% exercise more than in their twenties; hiking, swimming, cycling;
50% are doing things they didn’t have time for in the past;
29% travelled more, taking on average three holidays a year;
76% stay as active as possible;
40% are “reliving their youth” with former hobbies;
10% had gone back to school to evening classes or higher education;
11% planned to learn a foreign language;

On average retired people had four very close friends and spend two days and one evening socialising over dinner, in the pub or at coffee mornings.

80% of people are treating retirement as a new beginning.

Tagged "A Horizon Ladder", Retirement | 5 Comments

“Expensive Cure”

Posted on April 7, 2013 by john graham

Here is a piece of research which is unlikely to be acted upon quickly, even though it is rather stating the obvious.

Researchers from the University of California – who swore on oath that they had not been inhaling any unusual substances recently – found that there was a link between low wages and high blood pressure, particularly in women and people aged between 25 and 44.

In a study of over 5,000 households, they found that those on double their wage compared to the start of the three-year study, had a whacking 16% decrease in the risk of hypertension.

That’s the answer then, double everyone’s wages and we will reduce high blood pressure. Or we could all go on the Wacky Backy.

Posted in HEALTH | 3 Comments

” An Epitaph for Mid-Stafford NHS “

Posted on March 31, 2013 by john graham

A man of great detail and Queen’s Council precision,

A million coldly clinical words too late.

About 1200 elderly deaths too many.

290 belated recommendations of regret,

Put sticking plasters on a very ill NHS.

But is this a case for sticking plasters,

When the infection has already spread,

Through burdensome elderly no-care wards,

Or does this epidemic need more radical surgery ?

Precision is not a substitute for vision,

But when Francis was commissioned,

Did the Government want him to see,

The awful and shameful bigger picture ?

Lack of money and courage,

Is what causes Political myopia.

By examining the patient through a microscope,

You do not see the whole person.

Posted in HEALTH, N.H.S. | Tagged "Francis Report" | 1 Comment