Inside Health Folgen

Over half of all blood clots are acquired during hospitalisation, particularly for surgery, so prevention is key. Deep vein thromboses - DVTs - typically occur in the veins of the leg and central to prevention is the need to assess individual risk, while taking steps like special stockings, leg massagers and anticoagulant "blood thinning" drugs to mitigate them. But there are concerns in some quarters - particularly among orthopaedic surgeons - that the drive to protect patients against clots has exposed them to risks of bleeding and that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Three leading specialists discuss the issues. And iron deficiency, a very common problem, but what is the best way to treat it? New research from Switzerland unexpectedly suggests that giving less iron, less frequently, leads to more absorption. Plus, what's in a doctor's bag?

About six thousand people in the UK lose a leg every year from amputations due to vascular problems, trauma and disease. Others are born without limbs. Standard prosthetic knees often meant frequent falls and stumbles as well as the need to use two sticks. But microprocessor power is set to change all that. A new generation of intelligent joints is now available for the first time on the NHS in England - you can already get them in Scotland and Northern Ireland - and they adjust the knee stiffness to match the individual's weight, gait and activity and they even have anti-stumble software. Dr Mark Porter joins Dr Imad Sedki, consultant in rehabilitation medicine at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore at a retrofitting clinic, where patients like Naitik Patel are fitted with these new smart knees.Almost a decade ago, researchers in Scotland coined the term "The Glasgow Effect" after they exposed the shocking fact that premature deaths were 30% higher in Scotland's biggest city compared with cities with similar histories like Liverpool and Manchester. Since then studies have highlighted a toxic combination of social, political and economic decisions which adversely affected the health of Glaswegians. Sir Harry Burns, the former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, now Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Strathclyde, talks to Mark about why the phrase "The Glasgow Effect" has fallen out of favour and what he thinks should be done to address continuing health inequality.Glasgow - in fact the UK as a whole - has one of the highest rates in the world of mesothelioma, a cancer which attacks the lining of the lung and which is directly linked to the breathing in of asbestos fibres. From her home city, Inside Health's Dr Margaret McCartney reports from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Glasgow, which is a specialist centre for patients with this cancer. She talks to Robert Henderson, who contracted mesothelioma fifty years after working as an apprentice electrician and to 68 year old Boyd McNicol, who worked as an art teacher in a school full of asbestos when he was in his 20s. Their doctor, Kevin Blyth, is a respiratory consultant who coordinates a mesothelioma service across Western Scotland. He tells Margaret that the 20, 30, 40 and even 50 year time lag between exposure to asbestos and a diagnosis of mesothelioma means that the cancer will still be claiming lives for many years to come and urgent new treatments are needed. Producer: Fiona Hill.

News that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has pulled out of research into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease is casting doubt over the future of long promised breakthroughs in this area. Mark Porter hears from two leading experts who explain that due to the complexity of the disease the pharmaceutical industry's single agent 'magic bullet' approach needs to change. And while over the last 15 years nearly every trial into new treatments for Alzheimer's has ended in failure, lifestyle and medical prevention are starting to make a difference. Plus clarity on headlines that women who've had the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer will need far fewer smear tests in future. But how will the national screening programme know for sure who has been vaccinated - and who hasn't? And Margaret McCartney's thoughts on other news that women treated for breast cancer who carry the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations that dramatically increase the risk of developing the disease, are just as likely to survive their illness as women who don't.