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BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Hereford man living with MS to take part in triathlon challenge
A man living with multiple sclerosis (MS) who is preparing for a triathlon has said he tries to "keep a positive outlook and make the most of every opportunity."Richard Rudd, from Hereford, was diagnosed with MS at the age of 21, when he was working as a machine driver in Birmingham, with dreams of becoming a had always been "very hands on", his carers said, with hobbies including fishing, clay pigeon shooting, motorbikes and greyhound racing – but he still enjoys laser clay shooting and Rudd, 54, has written on his fundraising page how MS could make daily life unpredictable and physically challenging. He now takes part in laser clay shooting because it is more accessible, and he goes fishing at Andy's Fishing Lake, near Hereford, with his carer – he said he liked the ambience there. On Saturday, he will take part in the Superhero Series Triathlon at Dorney Lake in Windsor, an event designed for people of all abilities, including a swim stage, bike stage and a push or run Superhero Series was founded by Paralympian Sophia Warner in 2016 so everyone could be active and take part in a large-scale sporting event has no cut-off times or equipment restrictions and people can team up with family and friends and do as much or as little as they wish. Mr Rudd is raising money for the Oxygen and Wellness Therapy Centre which he attends in supports people living with long-term health will take part in the challenge with the help of carer Wendy Wait, her daughter Emma and Samantha Stacey from the centre, and has been training for a year to prepare. Ms Wait said they had trained on gym equipment twice a week to prepare for the challenge, and Mr Rudd had been taking part in dance activities to keep Rudd, who uses a wheelchair, said the dance sessions were "groovy" and kept him "out of trouble".In his appeal for donations, he wrote: "Thank you for reading my story, and for cheering me on - every bit of encouragement helps. I'll do my very best to make you proud." Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Medical News Today
2 days ago
- Medical News Today
Subtle signs of multiple sclerosis may appear years before onset
Research is ongoing regarding when multiple sclerosis develops and strategies for prompt diagnosis. A recent study found that people who went on to develop multiple sclerosis had a much higher use of medical services up to 15 years prior to multiple sclerosis onset. The results suggest that multiple sclerosis develops earlier than researchers thought in the past, and could help with earlier management of the condition. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 'multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic neurological disorder.' There are multiple types, and people can experience symptoms like cognitive changes, vision changes, and even paralysis. A study recently published in JAMA Network Open looked at the use of healthcare services in the 25 years before MS symptom to a matched cohort of participants without MS, participants with this condition used healthcare services more than their peers in the 15 years before MS were able to identify specific visit reasons in certain timeframes, with mental health concerns and ill-defined signs and symptoms being some of the earliest results suggest that MS starts earlier, which may help with diagnosis and early intervention for the condition. What does medical treatment look like before MS diagnosis?For this research, experts wanted to learn more about the prodromal phase that may happen in MS, particularly looking at even earlier data than what has been previously studied. The study was conducted in British Columbia, Canada, and researchers used insurance data. They looked at hospital and doctor visits. They used the British Columbia MS clinical database to learn when participants first had MS symptoms. Researchers also had access to data on filled prescriptions and population data. Researchers were able to look at data from 2,038 participants with MS, as well as a matched cohort of 10,182 participants who did not have MS. After looking at the doctor visit rates each year in the 25 years prior to MS onset, researchers honed in on the 15 years before. This was when changes in health care visits the 15 years before MS onset, researchers identified more visits from MS participants for ill-defined signs and symptoms. In the 14 years before MS onset, researchers identified an increase in doctor visits, doctor visits related to mental health, and injury-related visits. The elevation in mental health visits was significant for most of the 14 years prior to MS onset, with the exception of years 7, 5, and 4. Overall, mental health visits were up 76%. Twelve years before MS onset, there started to be an increase in psychiatric visits, and this remained significant except in years 6 to 8, and year 4 before MS onset. Overall, the increase in psychiatric consultations was 159%. Increase in ophtalmology, nervous system-related doctor's appointmentsOphthalmology visits were increased 9 years before MS onset, except at year 6 and year 2, with the highest increase the year right before MS onset. In the 8 years before MS continued to be high prior to MS onset except at year 7 and year 5. The greatest spike was in the year right before MS onset. Visits for musculoskeletal-related problems were increased in the five years before MS year four and in the year leading up to MS onset, there was also an increase in visits for nervous system conditions, with a greater increase in the year before MS onset. Visits to the emergency room were greater 5 years before MS onset, radiology increased 3 years before, and internal medicine and neurosurgery increased one year before. Many healthcare visit upticks peaked in the year right before MS onset. For example, doctor visits and visits for injury, ill-defined signs and symptoms, sensory-organ concerns, and musculoskeletal-related problems peaked in the year before MS onset. Other types of visits were affected in specific years. For example, endocrine visits increased in year 9 prior to the onset of MS. At the same time, visits related to pregnancy and childbirth decreased to a significant level in years 2 and conditions also had distinct increases prior to MS onset. For example, researchers observed increases in anxiety and depression at years 4, 3 and 2. In the 2 years before MS onset, there was an increase in problems like dizziness and the year before MS onset, there was an increase in migraines and specific eye problems, such as retinal detachment. This data supports the idea that MS may start much sooner than experts previously believed and indicates the need for more research. The authors suggest that psychiatric and mental health concerns may be early features of the prodromal phase of MS, because these concerns started years before increases in visits related to the nervous system. Risk of MS overdiagnosis?While this research did allow for extensive follow-up, there are still limitations. First of all, researchers did not have data on some clinical information details. Instead, they had information on why participants sought out health care services. Second, there is some risk for misclassification or miscoding based on the data researchers used. There are also challenges of determining MS symptom onset, and researchers note that this 'may be influenced by recall bias and challenges with medical history taking.' Some participants had a claim for a demyelinating event or MS before the date designated as the 'MS symptom onset date.'It is possible there were some cases of MS that doctors could have diagnosed earlier. It's also possible that participants in the matched cohort had MS, in spite of evidence against this. This data focused on people with MS in British Columbia, Canada, and the majority of participants with MS were female, limiting researchers did not collect data on race or ethnicity, so more data specifying this could be helpful. They only corrected for some factors in the statistical analysis, which could have impacted the results. Burcu Zeydan, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in this research noted the following cautions to Medical News Today: 'We see that healthcare visits in the 'pre-MS diagnosis' period are mainly for rather nonspecific and/or common causes such as headaches, fatigue, and mental health issues. Since most of these individuals will never develop MS, identification of individuals in a possible MS prodrome carries the risk for overdiagnosis and overtreatment as well as a concern for causing unnecessary distress for individuals and families. There is also a possibility of missed opportunities for earlier recognition of MS by clinicians, which is supported by the rise in ophthalmology and neurology visits in the current study as pointed out by the authors. These should be considered in evaluating the MS prodrome.''MS may start earlier than previously thought'The research implies that MS starts earlier and delves into deeper questions about what may cause the condition. Study author Professor Helen Tremlett, PhD, in the Faculty of Medicine (Neurology) at the University of British Columbia, Canada, explained to MNT that:'MS may start earlier than we previously thought, and that is actually really important when we think about what causes MS… Our findings suggest we need to look back much further in time than we do, perhaps currently, to avoid thinking that something might cause MS, when, in actual fact, the disease has already started… There's potential here in the future, not currently, to recognize and perhaps diagnose and manage MS earlier than we can do currently, with the view of course of preventing or slowing progression of the disease.'Zeydan noted that, 'using the observations related to MS prodrome, [researchers] should aim to develop individual-level risk models, possibly a scoring system to reliably identify individuals that are at high risk for developing MS.''Biomarkers (blood and imaging) would be the key to this effort,' she told us. 'Perhaps age and sex differences and tools such as AI can help finetune MS risk prediction models,' Zeydan further hypothesized.'With a potential future multimodal biomarker panel, if people at high risk can be effectively identified in the MS prodrome, individualized disease screening methods can be implemented into MS care for these high-risk individuals,' she concluded.
Daily Record
3 days ago
- Daily Record
Community groups in Lanarkshire urged to apply for a free defibrillator from British Heart Foundation
In Newmains the average retrieval time is 12 minutes 29 seconds. Community groups in North Lanarkshire can ensure they're best-placed to help save a life by applying for a free lifesaving defibrillator from the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The Lanarkshire area has been highlighted as a priority spot, with some of the lowest access to the devices which can be vital in helping save lives in the event that someone has a cardiac arrest. It is vital that all communities have defibrillators, but many areas do not. In Newmains, for example, the average distance to the nearest public access defib is 1065 metres and the average retrieval time is 12 minutes 29 seconds. Quick CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of survival. There are around 3800 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) each year in Scotland, but just one in 10 people survive. Download the Lanarkshire Live app today For every minute without defibrillation and CPR, OHCA survival chances decrease by up to 10 per cent. Installing a defibrillator can help lead to better OHCA outcomes as early defibrillation, particularly within three to five minutes of a cardiac arrest, significantly improves survival rates. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland is inviting applications for its Community Defibrillator Funding Programme and areas with greatest need will be prioritised. A dozen areas across Scotland have been highlighted. Over the past 10 years the BHF has helped fund 415 defibrillators across Scotland with the lifesaving devices being placed in every local authority. Successful applicants will receive a defibrillator and cabinet, with installation costs covered where required. Future replacement parts will be free of charge, when they expire or are used in an emergency, for up to 10 years. David McColgan, Head of BHF Scotland, said: 'Defibrillators save lives and make communities safer. Every defibrillator holds the power to help save someone's life and is crucial in the chain of survival during a cardiac arrest. 'We've made progress in Scotland but there are still some areas without any defibrillators at all, and these communities need them most. 'We are delighted to be relaunching our community defibrillator scheme to reach the areas where we can make a difference and save lives from cardiac arrest.' The awarded defibrillators will be registered on The Circuit, the national defibrillator network, allowing emergency services to locate them when they are needed. There are over 110,000 defibrillators already registered on The Circuit, and the BHF's scheme aims to particularly help those areas that don't have a defibrillator in close range. Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw, visited the BHF store in Motherwell this week. She said: 'New figures reveal that healthy life expectancy in North Lanarkshire is among the lowest in Scotland, just 54.3 years for men and 56.7 years for women. This is a wake-up call for urgent action to improve health outcomes and community safety across Motherwell and Wishaw 'Research also shows that more areas of Motherwell and Wishaw could benefit from life-saving defibrillators, with Newmains identified as a 'defibrillator desert' for registered devices. 'Defibrillators are critical in cardiac emergencies. Every minute without treatment reduces the chance of survival by around 10 per cent. These devices can restart the heart, are straightforward to use, and often make the difference between life and death before paramedics arrive. 'You never know when the day will come when a defibrillator could save a life. It's unacceptable that parts of our community are going without this vital protection. I'm urging every community group: if you have a defibrillator, register it now. If you don't, please apply for funding. Together we can make sure that no one across Motherwell and Wishaw is left without access to this life-saving equipment.' Check eligibility and apply for a BHF-funded defibrillator before February 2026, at:
