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Health Check: 31/08/2011

31/08/2011

BBC World Service - Health Check, 31/08/2011

An emergency doctor in Tripoli tells Health Check about the latest medical situation.

The latest healthcare situation from Tripoli; A new way to save lives after a heart attack by arm squeezing and could learning to show a little more kindness improve your mental health?

LATEST HEALTHCARE SITUATION IN LIBYA
As well as helping those injured in the fighting, hospitals in Libya are beginning to catch up with the backlog of patients, some of whom have been waiting months for medication for chronic serious conditions. Medicins Sans Frontiers – or MSF - now has 14 international staff in Tripoli and medical supplies are finally getting through. Mohamed Dalwai is one of MSF's emergency doctors and gives Health Check an update on the latest medical situation.

COMPASSION-FOCUSED THERAPY
Compassion for your fellow human beings is something that has long been taught by different faiths and traditions around the world. But could it be used as a tool within therapy to improve mental health? There is a growing interest in compassion-focussed therapy where you learn to develop compassion and understanding for others, but crucially, also for yourself. They are skills that can be learnt by anyone and the small studies that have been done so far show good results. Claudia Hammond speaks to Jo, someone who has experienced this approach to therapy and Paul Gilbert, Director of the Mental Health Research Unit at Derbyshire Mental Health Trust in the UK.

ARM SQUEEZING TO PROTECT THE HEART
After a person has a heart attack, and the blocked artery has been treated with drugs or through an angioplasty, the patients' blood starts flowing back through the heart again. Unfortunately though, sometimes the restoration of the blood flow can cause further damage to tissues in the heart. Now it is hoped that a very simple method could prevent this. If, following a heart attack, the patient's arm is squeezed using a blood pressure cuff to cut off the blood supply, it is believed that this prompts the body to release substances which trigger the heart to protect itself from damage. It is a technique known as conditioning. Dr Glen Rodrigo is a lecturer in Cardiovascular Sciences at Leicester University and has been studying this technique.

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