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Posts Tagged ‘discoveries’

The credit crunch is biting. Mortgages are hard to come by, house prices have dropped, wages are not rising with inflation and the cost of food has rocketed in recent months. In fact, the food bill is now such an expense every week that banks are lowering the amount they are willing to lend people because of it. It’s not easy to get a carrier bag of food shopping for less than twenty pounds these days and that’s not enough to feed a family for long.

We are constantly advised in the press and from the medical world, how best we can look after our health. The biggest way is by our diet and lifestyle. Sticking to a varied diet of fresh food and staying active is enough to keep our general health in good shape as well as keeping down our life insurance premiums. But how on earth do we do this when food is so expensive?

Help is at hand. The issue of genetically modified food has reared its head again but with a different twist. Back in the nineties, GM food was in the press, hailed as a way of making greedy food manufacturers more money by producing larger crops. These crops were genetically altered to make them resistant to weed killers, which meant that they could be sprayed without harm and they were also made to produce their own insecticide in order to reduce the amount of pesticides needed.

However, even back then, they had a point. The world’s population are living longer with the help of new medical discoveries. The more people on the planet, the more food is needed. With global warming comes our unpredictable weather system and a few days bad weather can wipe out a whole crop, leading to food shortages. Therein lies the argument for GM food.

To take that one step further, food scientists have now found a way to enhance this food with extra nutrients, in effect, giving us all we need for a day in one meal. If the idea takes off it means that not only will the food bills be reduced for everyone, but food will go further round our ever expanding population.

Examples of the new GM foods are potatoes that come with a third more protein content, tomatoes with the inbuilt capability to prevent cancer and peanuts without the allergy causing chemicals. Cassava is one of the top vegetables in the new GM crops with genes that enable it to draw extra iron and zinc from the soil.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what could be achieved through this science. Fighting disease, starvation and poverty can only be a good thing and it might well pay us to give the new crops a chance before we dismiss them out of hand.

If governments allow these GM crops to take the place of ‘normal’ crops it could mean an end to many illnesses, malnutrition and high life insurance premiums. I, for one, cannot see the problem with this.Insurance expert Catherine Harvey looks at the health benefits of GM food and how they could help reduce life insurance premiums.

Cancer, heart attack and organ failure are the biggest and most frequently claimed for illnesses on medical insurance. However, new discoveries are being made all the time and it is hoped that this reduce premiums for medical insurance as these illnesses become more manageable and treatable.

Breast cancer is one of the few cancers that can be linked to genes and one of the biggest illnesses responsible for women making medical insurance claims. However, in medical advances, scientists have identified the key gene responsible for the spread of this devastating disease to other parts of the body.

Apparently, the gene SATB1 controls how more than 1,000 other genes behave within tumour cells and when it is over-activated, this is when the path for cancer is smoothed into other parts of the body. Interfering with this gene through the use of specific drugs would halt the march of cancer through the body, helping over 44,000 women in the UK every year.

Further news from the world of medicine includes news that experiments are being carried out that will cause tiny pieces of skin to grow into the chameleon-like ones in embryonic stem cells. They could then be deliberately formed into heart cells and transplanted onto heart attack victims. This is hoped to prolong the life of tens of thousands of victims every year and improve the quality of their life.

These repair kits could also be used to test drugs on and would also reduce the risk of side effects on treated patients. The patient’s own cells could be used omitting the risk of rejection or a bank of cells could be set up and on standby. Unfortunately, due to lack of testing to date, it is thought that this treatment is still at least a decade away.

When it comes to organ failure claims on the books of medical insurance companies, this is also quite high. But once again, there is good news emerging for sufferers. As with a lot of illnesses and diseases, early detection is the key and doctors are being made more aware of the signs and symptoms to look out for to cope with these problems before they become out of hand.

Kidney failure is often blamed on other things and goes for a long time undetected. But now it has emerged that long term tiredness and being overweight are simple symptoms that should make a doctor sit up and take notice. Tiredness and being overweight are very general symptoms that are frequently put down to lifestyle or the ageing process but it is advisable to get a second opinion if you are not happy.

Always better to kick up a fuss with your doctor than get to a point when claiming on medical insurance is a necessity.

In a record operation, doctors have recently carried out six kidney transplants simultaneously. It took nine medical teams a total of ten hours to perform the transplants on six patients. Friends and relatives of the sick people had come forward and offered themselves as donors but when it was found they did not match their relative, but another of the group, a mass operation was set up.

The operations were done at the same time to avoid anyone backing out once their loved one had received their new organ and so far, all is well. Some of these patients have lived for years on the organ donor waiting list and, unable to work, have survived on medical insurance payouts.Health expert Catherine Harvey looks at the news that should make medical insurance companies happy.

The thought of insuring a child’s life is not something many people wish to entertain.

When it comes to life insurance parents deal with themselves, particularly in advancing years but also especially when they have begin to have their own children.

The parents consider the need to protect their child against financial difficulties should anything happen to them. There are funeral expenses, debts to pay up, homes to secure, education to continue and a lifestyle to fund.

Parents may even plan ahead for the unpredictability of contracting a long term illness to protect the family concerns and ease the burden on their children.
What many parents do not consider though, is the sad but too often occurrence of a child developing a long term illness. In the hopeful event of remission or recovery this will still entail the parent having lots of time off work, travelling expenses backwards and forwards to hospitals and clinics.

Should the unthinkable happen, there are still expensive funeral arrangements to be made. Should the child thankfully remain perfectly healthy throughout their young years, they will then have the added benefit of continued cover, should an illness develop later in life.

However, it is well worth considering that one in every 600 children under 15 contracts cancer in the UK every year. It doesn’t sound like a high risk but it does equate to 1700 new cases every year. That’s 1700 children who need their parents constantly by their side through treatment, not at work trying to keep up an income.

Many parents like to try overseas treatment when new discoveries are made. The opinion is widely held that without a good prognosis any avenue to prolong life has to be tried. However, these attempts are very rarely funded by the NHS. Critical illness cover on a life insurance policy would fund this.

Also to be considered is the fact that many life prolonging drugs new on the market are not available on the NHS. They can be obtained through private doctors but at a price. A price that life insurance would cover.

Fifty years ago, a diagnosis of Leukaemia was a veritable death sentence for children and 95% of them would die. The incidents of childhood Leukaemia have changed little since. However, the good news is that, will all the medical advancements to date, the statistics now show that 75% of children with this disease survive at least 5 years after diagnosis.

One option for parents with a very sick child is hospice care. Contrary to popular opinion, hospices are not sad, depressing places. They are cheerful and full of life. The staff go out of their way to stimulate the child’s senses, keep them happy and comfortable as well as being qualified to administer all medical requirements.

A children’s hospice will also accommodate the child’s family, making them all at home. They know how important it is for a sick child to have their family around them and to continue as near a normal existence as possible. This has the added advantage of boosting the immune system. Counselling is available in hospices for children and family and friends.

All hospices are charitable organisations and run entirely on donations. Virtually no parents would be willing to sit back and watch all this care being ploughed into their child without feeling the type of gratitude that they feel the need to repay.

Having a sick or dying child in the family is traumatic for all. However, when there are siblings involved a degree of normality has to be kept for their sake. Add to this the financial pressures involved and stress levels are dangerously high and the parents are less able to cope. Life insurance for the child with critical illness cover would assist with this.Health expert Shaun Parker looks into the life insurance cover for children. To find out more please visit http://www.theidol.com/

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev (file photo)

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev is calling for sweeping economic, social, political, and military modernization of his country. In his second annual State of the Nation address, the Kremlin leader said Russia must become a society of smart, free and responsible people – instead of an archaic society in which a few think and decide for all.