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HEALTH ZONE - Summer Health Introduction |
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| Holiday makers are now traveling
further and more than ever, which
increases their chances of picking
up new illnesses
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Proprietary Association of Great Britain
Information on over-the-counter (OTC) medicines from the Proprietary Association of Great Britain...
http://www.pagb.co.uk/media/
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As the days grow warmer and longer, our thoughts turn to outside activities and holidays. But not everyone looks forward to the summer and trips abroad. Sun burn, allergies, and illnesses picked up in foreign countries all cause real health problems and may do more than just spoil your holiday.
Travel health
It seems that every time we turn the television on we are being told of a new disease that we can catch from just going on our holidays. In 2001, Foot and Mouth disease swept England, which meant that tourists could not explore the English countryside. In 2003, travelers were warned not to go to China due to the outbreak of SARS. Bird Flu, became a serious worry in 2005, as it spread the globe killing hundreds of people. Stories are always emerging of people who trek through the jungles of South East Asia and come out the other side with malaria or Dengue Fever due to infected mosquitoes.
For a lot of us, it seems as if it's always someone else who gets these diseases and we find ourselves saying "it will never happen to me". However, all of these diseases are very real and could in fact affect any of us, be it directly or indirectly.
Thankfully, medical research has made great progress in protecting us against many of the infectious diseases that has made such adventurous traveling dangerous in the past. Progress continues against long-term human foes, such as malaria, as well as against relative newcomers like SARS. The medical trial participants are the real key to combating the many diseases that are prevalent in today's society. Without medical research volunteers, there would be no medical research and without medical research there would be no breakthroughs, new vaccines or better understanding of diseases.
Allergies
 As many as one in five Britons suffer from hay fever and around one in two hundred are allergic to insect stings. But there is now a vast range of medications to alleviate symptoms. Most are available without prescription. In 2003, the demand for over-the-counter hay fever remedies grew 13.5% from the previous year. Clinical research using animals continues to provide insights into the causes of allergic reactions and to suggest new approaches to treating these conditions.
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Sun safety
 Over exposure to the sun causes premature aging of the skin and increases the risk of developing skin cancer. Each year in the UK, around 7000 malignant melanomas - the most serious form of skin cancer - are diagnosed. Medical research volunteers, either with or without skin cancer, help in the development of understanding the sun's effects on the skin and help in the progression of new skin care products by participating in medical trials. Other researchers are studying skin cancer growth to develop better treatments - the more research conducted, the more likely they are to find a cure!
Summer Health - Sun safety
Sunlight is essential for good health, but it can also cause disease.
With most things in life, it seems, not enough and it's bad, too much and it's bad but if done in moderation, it's usually good. The sun is the same. We all need the sun as it supplies our body with vitamin D, which is required for healthy bones. Without it we could develop bone diseases such as Rickets. However, too much sunlight burns the skin, causes wrinkles and can lead to skin cancer and eye damage
Most skin cancer is caused by damage from UV (ultraviolet) rays in sunlight and while our understanding of skin cancer is on the up, unfortunately so is the disease itself. Since the 1980s, diagnosed incidents of skin cancer have more than doubled in the UK alone. Winter sun holidays can be even more harmful than summer ones because the skin hasn't had a chance to build up its own natural protection in the form of a tan.
There are two main types of skin cancer. One type - malignant melanoma - causes most skin cancer deaths. These cancers are more dangerous than the other types of skin cancer - non-melanoma skin cancers - because they tend to spread rapidly around the body. Non-melanoma skin cancers are much more common than malignant melanomas but are often slow growing, and while they need to be removed, they are unlikely to be life-threatening.
As well as exposure to sunlight, genetic factors may contribute to the development of melanomas. Research suggests that fair-skinned people, particularly those with occasional, high exposure to sunlight (especially if it leads to sunburn), are most at risk.
Have a Good Holiday - Thanks to Medical Research!
The whole point of a holiday is to have a great time. We all like to over indulge on food and drink and lounge around on a beach under the sun. A bit of sun burn is usually not thought of as being too serious as there is a wealth of over-the-counter skin care products to ease the burn and cool the skin. Also, thanks to advances in medical research, and in particular due to the good vaccines that are available for many diseases, few travelers contract serious infectious diseases while abroad. Nevertheless for people traveling to developing countries, some threats still remain: cholera, malaria and Dengue fever amongst others.
Malaria, for example, kills more than 1 million people in the developing world each year and contributes indirectly to many more deaths, particularly in children. But travelers, by following medical advice and taking care with hygiene, can largely protect themselves from the risks of malaria and other developing world diseases.
However, from a scientific point of view, medical researchers are striving to eliminate the disease completely. It is very difficult to develop an effective vaccine as the malaria parasite is constantly changing. To understand the complex immune responses that some humans have against malaria, researchers need to conduct medical trials. These medical trials or clinical trials can sometimes provide the key to a vaccine. Malaria is not just contracted by people living in the countries with a high malaria risk; it can also be contracted by tourists traveling to high risk countries. Medical research plays a vital role in understanding malaria and hopefully, with enough participation in medical trials, will eventually lead to a 100% effective vaccine.
Sneezing, Watery Eyes, Runny Nose…It's Summer Time!
The sun is shining, the trees are green and the grass is blowing gently in the wind. However, unfortunately for some, that gentle wind is carrying pollen which can cause an allergic reaction. The medical term is Allergic Rhinitis, but it is most commonly known as Hay Fever.
There is currently no cure for hay fever but there are ways to control the symptoms. Sufferers of hay fever can use antihistamines, decongestants, anti-allergy products homeopathic products and allergy filters. These are the sort of treatments that some of us may take for granted as they are usually easily accessible. However, it is only through medical research that these treatments are allowed onto the market. Clinical trials make it possible to test the safety and effectiveness of a new vaccine or drug.
Medical Research Allows Us to Travel safely.
The world is getting smaller and places are becoming closer. Not literally of course, but due to cheapened air-travel, people are jet-setting around the world more than ever. However, many of the exotic destinations tend to be in and around developing countries. This means that a lot of travelers are leaving countries with high sanitation standards to visit countries with low sanitation standards. This means that travelers can be vulnerable to such risks as, yellow fever, hepatitis A, typhoid, tetanus, malaria, rabies etc.
It has now become routine that before you embark on a journey around the world, you visit your doctor to arrange your jabs. You will be asked to provide your travel itinerary and then it will be assessed for high risk areas. You will then have a couple of jabs to keep you safe from infections.
These jabs are only available because medical research has allowed scientists to understand the diseases and the body's reaction to them. By volunteering to take part in medical trials, participants become catalyst in discovering new treatments.
So, How Can You Help?
Vaccines, medicines and treatments don't just come from nowhere. A disease or an infection needs to be understood before a researcher can even begin to think of a treatment. To understand a disease, medical researchers need to study someone who has the disease (patient volunteer) and then compare them to someone who hasn't got it (healthy volunteer) by conducting a clinical trial.
The reason we have so many vaccinations and over-the-counter products to treat colds, rashes, allergies etc is because of the medical trial volunteers who give up their time to help in the development of medicine. So if you want to help, or if you want to find out more about some of the medical trials available, then visit our study section and browse through some of the medical trials currently recruiting in your area.
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 Parts of this information has been generously supplied to the BioTrax Volunteer Support Group by the :
Coalition for Medical Progress
Medical research studies may be conducted and are carefully designed to answer specific medical questions while protecting participants´ safety. Well conducted medical trials or clinical trials are the fastest and safest way to find improved treatments and preventions for diseases. Medical trials or interventional trials determine whether experimental preventions, treatments, or new ways of using known therapies are safe and effective under controlled conditions. Observational or natural history studies examine health issues and disease development in groups of people or populations. For more information on current medical trials or to register on the BioTrax database, view the study section at
www.biotrax.com .
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