Chewing Gum Enhances Bowel Recovery After Bowel Surgery

Researchers from the Department of Biosurgery and Surgical Technology, Imperial College London, St Mary's Hospital, London report that chewing gum aids in bowel function recovery after bowel surgery.

Their study published by the Archives of Surgery states that Chewing gum appears to speed up the return of normal bowel function by stimulating nerves in the digestive system.

In each study, a group of patients chewed sugarless gum three times per day following surgery for a period of five to 45 minutes and were compared with patients who did not chew gum.

Patients who chewed gum passed gas and had a bowel movement sooner than those who did not chew gum - signs that their bowel function returned sooner.

Any type of abdominal surgery can slow down or halt bowel function - a condition known as ileus, which can cause serious complications.

Good for the chewing gum manufacturers and for the patients who have had Ileus.

All they have to do now is chew gum, instead of having Naso-gastric tubes put in.


On a serious note, Chewing is a bit like eating and it starts peristalsis, which is the movement of the bowel. There is some evidence that chewing gum might help, but not enough that bowel surgery patients are routinely being advised to chew gum.

Free Hicham Yezza!

This post is not about health BUT is in support of a Reseacher at Nottingham University, called Hicham Yezza.

Hicham Yezza (nicknamed Hich) was arrested at his office at the University of Nottingham under the Terrorism Act 2000 on May 14, 2008, along with his friend Rizwaan Sabir, a postgraduate student researching terrorism in the university’s Politics and International Relations department.

His crime possession on his office computer an open-source, edited version of a document called ‘The Al-Qaeda Training Manual‘, which Rizwaan had downloaded from the U.S. Department of Justice website and passed on to Hich, who was helping him draft his PhD proposal.

According to Rizwan, he had forwarded the document to Hich - as he wanted to print the document ( 140 page) cheaply.

You can hear Rizwan's statement here




I am told that the alleged document is here.

Now, the same document or rather a more detailed version of the same document, is available to buy in book form on Amazon.co.uk

These unjustified arrests led to the biggest demonstration in the University of Nottingham's history - this can be viewed below.




This is a serious threat to Academic Freedom.

His friends and bloggers have taken up this with a zeal and have launched a site Support Hicham Yezza and press reports and others can be read here, here and, here


How can you help!

1. Donation
2. Join Facebook support Group
3. Sign an iPetition

Hello Health!

A new health care delivery model based on the net has been introduced by the makers of Hello Health.

They are a introducing a Web 2.0 concept to health care and making patients take charge of their own health. This is what they say about Hello Health :-

"Hello health was announced at the Health 2.0 conference in San Diego. hello health is the consumer brand of healthcare delivery powered by the Myca platform. It’s Geek Squad with doctors and a Netflix-priced monthly membership subscription fee — it is a branded healthcare “experience” that mixes “concierge service for all,” with house/office calls and web visits via email, IM, video chat, and text messaging. It’s Fed Ex, Apple, Whole Foods, Amazon, Toyota, Fresh Direct, and Geek Squad all applied to healthcare delivery."


According to their website - this is their story

"Once upon a time, going to your doctor was simple. You knew his first name, or perhaps just called him “Doc.” He lived just down the street and made house calls. And if you were sick, you would see him that day, because, well, you were sick.

Then things started to change. Although medicine has made some amazing advances in keeping us healthy, we now have to contend with dietitians, insurance premiums, running shoes, deductibles, HMOs, OTC drugs, specialists, fat-free salad dressing, and therapists. Daunting, isn't it?

But don't worry, we've made going to the doctor easy again. Hello Health serves as your old-fashioned neighborhood doctor, remodeled for today's lifestyle— an experience found nowhere else in health care. And, on top of being accessible and affordable, we focus on you, as a real live, busy person. "

At the moment they are only able to offer their services at Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY.

Hello Health is located in Williamsburg, at 105 Berry Street between North 7th and North 8th Streets. Membership and services are available to anyone in the New York City area. House calls are only available to anyone living in the 11211, 11222, and 11206 zip codes.


So it is very limited at the moment, but as more and more doctors sign up - they will be able to offer their services to other area's as well.

All the best to the Hello Health Team.

The Story of Stuff

Whats the Story of Stuff? Listen and see the excellent video above to see the TRUE story of stuff with Annie Leonard.

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

See the Story of Stuff website for further details.

Highly recommended!!

GP Trainee.Org

Lets talk about GP training!

The above photo taken from the photo- blog of Rajat Srivastava gives a rare glimpse into the life of a GP trainee!

An excellent website, called GP Trainee, made by one of my friends Dr. Rajat Srivastava as a GP specialist training resource is making news in the ranks of GP trainees.

It provides useful links to GP trainee sites, provides calculator tools like cardiovascular risk calculator, eGFR calculator and Growth chart for children.

You can become a member of the GP trainee forums and ask questions and inter-act with fellow trainees.

On the whole, I would say it is a brilliant idea, so go forth and check it out. Well done Rajat!

Hopefully, Rajat will take things further and make it an excellent resource.

Amit Yadav

Dr Amit Yadav, an Indian Doctor employed by the Scarborough Hospital Accident & Emergency underwent a harrowing experience according to his friends.

Apparntly, early on the morning of 23rd of October 2005, a female patient attended Scarborough Hospital A&E with injuries due to domestic violence. She made an allegation against Dr Yadav of conducting inappropriate examination.

The details of the incident can be read on the site made by them Appeal for Dr Amit Yadav.

The friends of the doctor state that he is innocent has been denied justice. He was found to be guilty by a jury on a British court and is currently serving a 2 year sentence in jail. His name has been placed on the Sex - Offenders List and he will most certainly lose his GMC status. They state on their website

"The conviction appears to have rested on forensic evidence which appears highly questionable. Besides the patient was facing certain very serious personal issues and she is likely to have been in a very difficult emotional state at the time."

Going by the messages left for him on the message board, nurses and Doctors working in Scarborough A & E, it seems that he is wrongly framed. many believe it is an instance of justice denied.

The doctor's fault was that he did not take a Chaperone in the room while examining a female patient.

A chaperone is a person whose has a role to witness both a patient and a medical practitioner and to be a safeguard for both parties during a medical examination or procedure.

His friends led a massive Net campaign to raise money with the help of BAPIO and succeeded in raising approximate £20,000/-. This money was used to launch an appeal for Dr Amit Yadav.

Such an outpouring of sympathy and money has been unprecedented. The appeal has been turned down by the Appeal Court.

The poor doctor has to endure the rest of the sentence and can never clear his name. It is just so unfortunate.

Doctor's should have a chaperone all the time when with a female patient, not only for patient safety but also for their own.

Racism in The NHS!

Racism in the NHS is rife, is well known to many of us. We all know that being an Ethnic Minority doctor or a female doctor is bound to get unfavourable treatment in the NHS.
The NHS is famous for its “old boy” network where it pays to know someone higher up. In the past and at present, jobs go to the one with connections, with the right type of skin and with the right name! Read that as if your one of your parents is a consultant in the NHS, you will get a job. If you are a White and if you have a British sounding name, you will get a job.

In fact, one of the doctors I know changed his name to a Christian sounding name and Lo Voila he suddenly gets short-listed for the same Registrar posts, which he was not in the past as he had a foreign sounding name.

In fact a Talk by Dr Aneez Esmail to Greater Manchester SHA 2000, titled Racism in the NHS will open the eyes of those sceptics who believe that racism does not exist in the NHS.

The Guardian published a leaked report Titled "Abscess of Racism in the NHS exposed" which discusses the issue further.

"The NHS is riddled with institutional racism and persistently fails to give patients from the black and minority ethnic communities the services they need and deserve."

Another Doctor's view on Racism can be read on the Student BMJ "Trying to overcome Racsim in the NHS". He had to give up General Surgery and take up Accident and Emergency.

Racism is still rife in the NHS. In fact the Clinical Director of my Unit (a white ) doctor, says that openly and tells that you wont be shortlisted as you are not white.

The BBC's take on this can be read here.

In fact the problem is so rife that The Chief Medical officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson declared last week that ethnic minority doctors in the NHS faced systematic racism, prejudice and harrassment, saying many doctors’ careers have been impeded due to this.

In his annual report on the State of Nation's health, he draws attention to Achieving racial equality in medicine. And this is as recent as the 14th July 2008.

Personnel Today reports in this article that HR teams are allowing a minority of racist line managers to make working life tough for migrant medics.

The GMC admits to the fact that doctors trained overseas were twice as likely to face formal disciplinary hearings once a complaint had been made as those who graduated in the UK.

A General Medical Council (GMC) report showed that less than 16% of complaints against UK-trained doctors resulted in a fitness-to-practice hearing. More than 31% of cases against those trained elsewhere in the EU, and almost 34% of those trained outside the EU, led to a hearing.

That the NHS is racist is a foregone conclusion and with this in mind British Association of Physician's of Indian Origin (BAPIO) was formed.

BAPIO has had a mojor success when it won a Landmark Victory at the House of Lords. The Department of Health guidelines regarding HSMP doctors were illegal.

Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? At present, things look as bleak as ever. Things might improve in the future. Winds of change are gathering momentum and BAPIO is playing its part in helping Asian doctors, but I for one wouldn't hold my breath!