Bonus For GPs If Patients Join Drug Trials In Plan To Lure Firms To NHS
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
This is the sub-heading.
£650m boost for medical research after number of participants slumps
These three paragraphs outline what is to be done.
Tens of thousands more patients will be signed up for clinical trials as ministers promise drug companies better access to the NHS to expand the economy and develop cutting-edge treatments.
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is promising a £650 million package to boost life sciences as he attempts to lure pharmaceutical giants to Britain.
GPs will be offered financial incentives to recruit patients into trials of new treatments and hospitals will be given research targets under plans to reverse a slump in clinical testing while the NHS struggles with the backlog from Covid-19.
It all sounds good to me.
I have been involved in several trials and medical research projects.
- As part of my coeliac disease diagnosis, one endoscopy was performed by Rebecca Fitzgerald at Cambridge, as she was taking samples of bile fluids for her research into Barrett’s esophagus.
- After the death of my wife, I was interviewed by PhD students in the Psychology Department at Liverpool University for their research into widowhood.
- Oxford University interviewed me on diet for their coeliac disease research.
- After my stroke, I spent an entertaining afternoon at the University of East London doing balance tests by computer. Their aim was to develop a reliable balance test for stroke and other patients, that could be carried out by physiotherapists quickly, than by more expensive doctors.
- I have also been on a drug trial at Queen Mary University, but that drug was useless and had no good or bad affects, so the trial was halted. However, it did lead to other enjoyable activities in the field of patient relations with treatment and research.
As a confirmed coward, I should note that with the exception of the drug trial, all of the other projects were low risk.
I should say, that I also sponsor pancreatic cancer research at Liverpool University, in memory of my son, who died from the disease. I wrote about the first Liverpool project in There’s More To Liverpool Than Football And The Beatles!.
A Database Of Projects Open For Volunteers
I believe that this is needed, so that those like me, who like to contribute to research can volunteer.
Perhaps some of the £650 million, that has been promised by Jeremy Hunt, could be used to create the database.
I also believe the database could be used for other non-medical research.
The Lady In A Sari With A Fag
She was standing in Leicester Square watching people with a partner.
It just didn’t go!
Simon Reeve’s South America
I am just watching episode two of this television series on BBC2.
It is definitely a must-watch. You can watch it here.
Interestingly, the program was giving a similar message about the rain forest, that I talked about in The Enforcer From The World Bank.
Is Putin Coeliac?
Under Construction
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – More Research Needs To Be Done
More Research Needs To Be Done
I am inevitably lead to the conclusion that more research needs to be done.
Gluten-Free Hospital Food
I have discussed possible research routes with friends, who are research doctors and I feel, one piece of research that could be done, would be to look at how many gluten-free meals are served on wards, where covid patients are treated.
- I have been into hospital several times since I was diagnosed as a coeliac and there has been a couple of problems.
- But like all coeliacs, I complained and got what I need.
- By looking at the food, you would also pick up those, who hadn’t got a gold-standard diagnosis, but went gluten-free for good personal reasons.
- I used to monitor a forum for coeliacs and there were a lot of complaints about hospital food.
I believe that monitoring gluten-free food on wards, where covid patients are treated, could give a good insight into how diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet respond to the covids.
It is also something that could be applied easily at a hospital.
Testing Covid Sufferers For Coeliac Disease
This is supposedly a true story.
- A lady in Hampstead, wakes up one morning and she’s gone yellow.
- She phones her GP, who says she better come in to the surgery.
- The GP phones the local Royal Free Hospital, who are London’s experts on livers and they advise the lady to come straight in.
- The hospital say, it looks like her liver is packing up and she will need a transplant.
- So a doctor showed the lady a series of tests they would be doing.
- The last one was for coeliac disease and she said. “Why that? I can eat anything I want!”
- The doctor replied. “With 1-in-100, that is the cause of your liver problem!”
- She tested positive for coeliac disease and went gluten-free.
Last heard of, she was running a B & B in Corfu.
Given what I said in Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Long Covid, where there is circumstantial evidence linking undiagnosed coeliac disease to long covid, if it works in a proportion of cases, why shouldn’t it be tried?
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Should Newborns Be Tested For Coeliac Disease?
Should Newborns Be Tested For Coeliac Disease?
This article on the BBC is entitled Newborns To Get Rapid Genetic Disease Diagnosis.
This is the sub-heading.
Rare genetic disorders will be diagnosed and treated in babies thanks to a project to sequence the complete DNA of 100,000 newborns.
These are the first four paragraphs.
It should spare hundreds of families in England months, or years, of anguish waiting to find out why their children are ill.
The project is the first time that whole genome sequencing (WGS) has been offered to healthy babies in the NHS.
It will screen for around 200 disorders, all of them treatable.
The Newborn Genomes Programme, to begin next year, is thought to be the biggest study of its kind in the world. If successful, it could be rolled out across the country.
- My family have suffered greatly because of coeliac disease, as I related in Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – The Pain Of Coeliac Disease.
- Coeliac disease affects at least 1-in-100 of the UK population.
- The test is not difficult to perform.
I believe that for these reasons, coeliac disease must be one of the diseases that are tested for in the Newborn Genomes Programme.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – A Whack-A-Coeliac Policy
A Whack-A-Coeliac Policy
Note that this page is an updated version of Should The NHS Adopt A Whack-A-Coeliac Policy?, which I wrote in July 2020.
Because of the high number of diagnosed coeliacs in the Cambridge area, I believe that I was diagnosed to be coeliac, by possible use of a Whack-a-Coeliac policy at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, in the last years of the Twentieth Century.
- I was suffering from low B12 levels and my GP sent me to the hospital to see a consultant.
- It was only a quick visit and all I remember, is the speed with which the nurse took my blood.
- A couple of days later, I received a letter from the hospital, saying it was likely I was a coeliac and it would be confirmed by an endoscopy.
- A point to note, is that I had my endoscopy with just a throat spray and this must have increased the efficiency and throughput and reduced the cost of the procedure.
The only way, I could have been diagnosed so quickly would have been through an analysis of my genes and blood. But I was never told, what method was used.
I have a few further thoughts.
My Health Since Diagnosis
It has undoubtedly improved.
Cancer And Diagnosed Coeliacs On A Gluten-Free Diet
Joe West of Nottingham University has shown, that diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a 25% lower risk of cancer compared to the general population.
That is certainly a collateral benefit of being a coeliac. But is it being a coeliac or the diet?
I’m no medic, but could the reason be, that diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a strong immune system?
Coeliac Disease Is A Many-Headed Hydra
I have heard a doctor describe coeliac disease or gluten-sensitivity as a many-headed hydra, as it can turn up in so many other illnesses.
Type “coeliac disease many-headed hydra” into Google and this article on the NCBI , which is entitled Gluten Sensitivity: A Many Headed Hydra, is the first of many.
This is the sub-title of the article.
Heightened responsiveness to gluten is not confined to the gut
My son; George was an undiagnosed coeliac, who had a poor diet consisting mostly of Subways, cigarettes and high-strength cannabis. He died at just thirty-seven of pancreatic cancer.
Did George have a poor immune system, which was useless at fighting the cancer?
Undiagnosed Coeliac Disease In The Over-Sixty-Fives
In A Thought On Deaths Of The Elderly From Covid-19, I used data from Age UK and Coeliac UK to estimate the number of coeliacs in the UK over the age of sixty-five. I said this.
Age UK has a figure of twelve million who are over 65 in the UK. If 1-in-100 in the UK are coeliac, that is 120,000 coeliacs over 65.
But some research shows that the number of coeliacs can be as high as 1-in-50.
If that 120,000 were all diagnosed, I would have several coeliacs amongst my over-65 friends. I have just one and she is self-diagnosed.
Are all these undiagnosed coeliacs out there, easy targets for diseases like cancer and COVID-19?
The Ease Of Testing For Coeliac Disease
I was worried that my granddaughter was coeliac and I asked my GP, how difficult a test is to perform.
He said, that a genetic test is usually quick and correct and only a few borderline cases need to be referred to a consultant.
Diagnosis has moved on a lot in twenty years.
Cambridge, Oxford and Covid-19
Six weeks ago I wrote Oxford And Cambridge Compared On COVID-19, to try to find out why the number of Covid-19 cases are so much lower in Cambridge than Oxford.
Checking today, the rate of lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents is as follows.
- Cambridge 336.6
- Oxford 449
So why the difference?
In the related post, this was my explanation.
Is the large number of diagnosed coeliacs around Cambridge, the reason the area has a lower COVID-19 rate than Oxford?
It sounds a long shot, but it could be a vindication of a possible Whack-a-Coeliac policy at Addenbrooke’s in the last years of the Twentieth Century.
Or were the hospital testing the genetic test for coeliac disease? Perhaps, in conjunction with Cambridge University and/or the Sanger Centre.
Conclusion
I believe the NHS should seriously look at a Whack-a-Coeliac policy!
- The health of a large number of people would improve.
- There would be less cancer in the UK.
- A better combined National Immune System might help in our fight against the next virus to follow COVID-19.
It would be a very simple testing program, that would be mainly in the hands of the GPs, their nurses and the testing laboratories.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – The Pain Of Coeliac Disease
The Pain Of Coeliac Disease
Celiac disease has caused a lot of pain in my life.
My Unhealthy Childhood
I was a very unhealthy and sickly child and all that was done was to remove my tonsils.
I also don’t think that London’s filthy air of the 1950s helped.
Certainly, my parents’ retirement to Felixstowe in Suffolk and then studying at Liverpool University in the 1960s, seemed to improve my health.
But if I’d been diagnosed as coeliac, would I have been so unhealthy.
Bullying At School
I was very small at school, due to my inadequate non-coeliac diet and at both Primary and Grammar School, I was bullied.
The bullying only ended after, my left humerus was broken in an incident, when I was fourteen.
Would I have been so small, if it had been known to be coeliac and was eating accordingly?
The Early Death Of My Paternal Grandfather
Whether he was a coeliac, I not know, as he died in 1929 and I never met him! But he died at 51 of pneumonia and acute asthma. My father told me he was a very heavy drinker.
The Early Death Of My Father
My father died at 69 of a stroke and I am certain he was coeliac, as he was so like me at fifty.
My father after the problems his father had with drink, made certain, that my drinking habits were similar to his, which were a few units a week. Although we shared a habit of drinking lots of tea.
My Granddaughter Was Born With A Congenital Hernia Of The Diaphragm
My granddaughter; Imogen, who is not coeliac, was born with a congenital hernia of the diaphragm.
Imogen was operated on within a couple of days at the Royal London Hospital and recently celebrated her twenty-first birthday. She hopes to go to University in the Autumn.
By chance, in my volunteering at the William Harvey Centre, I met one of the nurses, who had looked after Imogen twenty years ago. She told me, that they had given her no chance of survival. Miracles do happen!
The Early Death Of My Son
Imogen’s father was my son George, who like our other two sons refused to get tested for coeliac disease, after I was diagnosed in 1997.
This is recommended by the NHS and this page on their web site says this.
First-degree relatives of people with coeliac disease should be tested.
George died of pancreatic cancer in 2010. I wrote about George’s death in The Death Of My Son George.
Would he still be alive, if he had been diagnosed as the coeliac, I believe he was and had followed a more healthy lifestyle?
My Stroke
Like my father I had a serious stroke.
Mine was in 2011, whilst I was on holiday in Hong Kong.
Doctors, say I made a remarkable recovery.
Could this be because I am coeliac and Addenbrooke’s prescribed three-monthly B12 injections, which I still have?
In the United States B12 injections are used for stroke recovery. But not in the UK!
My Cataracts
Ceoliacs can suffer from cataracts. I had mine removed in 2022.
My Gallstones
Ceoliacs can suffer from gallstones. I had mine removed in 2022.
No Female Born Into My Father’s Male Line Has Ever Successfully Had A Child Since 1800
Even my sister, who was born in 1950, never had a child.
Other Coeliacs
I used to monitor an on-line forum for coeliacs and I’ve heard so many strange tales and pain caused by coeliac disease.
Conclusion
My life would have been so different, if I had been tested for coeliac disease as a child.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Long Covid
Long Covid
In Should Those With Long Covid Be Checked For Coeliac Disease?, I wrote this.
One of my Google Alerts picked up this interesting page on the British Medical Journal.
In response to this paper on the journal, which was entitled Long Covid—An Update For Primary Care, a retired GP named Andrew Brown had said this.
The update reminds us that alternative diagnoses should be considered in patients presenting with long covid symptoms. I suggest that screening for coeliac disease should be added to the list of conditions to look for. Coeliac disease occurs in more than 1% of the population, with many more cases undiagnosed. Typical symptoms of fatigue and GI problems are the similar to those of long covid.
As a non-medical person, I would agree, as after the Asian flu of 1057-58, I was off school for a long time with long covid-like symptoms and my excellent GP; Dr. Egerton White was very worried.
Unfortunately, my medical records from before 1969 have been lost.
But at the time, it is now known, I was an undiagnosed coeliac.
So was my coeliac disease meaning that I couldn’t fight the flu?
I cover the link between coeliac disease and long covid in more detail in Covid Leaves Wave Of Wearied Souls In Pandemic’s Wake.
Coeliac Journey Through Covid-19 – Oxford And Cambridge Compared
Oxford And Cambridge Compared
In May 2020, I had been looking at the statistics of the two cities and the country around them and found that the numbers of Covid-19 cases were twice as high in Oxford, when related to population.
In Oxford And Cambridge Compared On COVID-19, I give my reasons for why Cambridge has lower levels of Covid-19.
Consider.
- Both cities and surrounding counties have a similar character.
- Both have well-respected hospitals, medical schools and medical research.
- Air pollution appears to be low in both areas.
- Both cities probably have a similar ethnic mix and large student populations.
As I used to live near Cambridge, I have my own mad personal theory.
Addenbrooke’s Hospital
I have used several hospitals in my life, but only two changed my life totally.
- I had my vasectomy in the old Hackney Hospital.
- Addenbrooke’s, who with a simple blood test decided I was probably coeliac.
So perhaps, I’m biased.
But consider these possible facts.
- My coeliac consultant at Addenbrooke’s told me, that he had more patients with the disease than any other in the UK.
- The manager at Carluccio’s in Cambridge, told me that they sold more gluten-free food, than any other restaurant in the group.
- In 1997, I was diagnosed fast, because Addenbrooke’s were using a new genetic test. I was later checked using an endoscopy.
Could it be that someone at Addenbrooke’s had decided they wanted to find all the coeliacs in and around Cambridge?
What would be the effects of diagnosing as many coeliacs as you could find in an area?
- A doctor of my acquaintance talked of coeliac disease as the many-headed hydra, as it led to so many other medical problems. So extra diagnosed coeliacs might improve health statistics in an area.
- Personally, I have said good-bye to migraines, nail-biting and lots of joint pains, after going gluten-free.
- I also haven’t had a serious dose of flu since diagnosis. Since 2005, I’ve probably had the flu jab.
- Joe West at Nottingham University, has shown that coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have lower cancer rates than the general population.
Consider.
- Immunotherapy is a medical technique, where the patient’s immune system is activated or suppressed to help them fight a disease.
- Coeliac disease is an autoimmune disease, where gluten causes damage to the gut.
So could coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a more powerful immune system?
Undiagnosed Coeliacs
Coeliac disease is genetic, with mine coming from an Ashkenazi Jewish ancestor from Konigsberg in the Baltic.
- Other roots of coeliac disease are Irish, Italian and black people, who have slaves as ancestors.
- There was no test for coeliac disease in children until 1960.
- There was no genetic test for coeliac disease until the late 1990s.
- Research has shown that coeliacs are at least 1-in-100 of the UK population, but could be higher.
- The NHS quotes the 1-in-100 figure on this web page, which also says reported cases of coeliac disease are higher in women than men.
If coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have a good immune system, do undiagnosed coeliacs have a poorer one?
Oxford And Cambridge Compared
Is the large number of diagnosed coeliacs around Cambridge, the reason the area has a lower COVID-19 rate than Oxford?
Conclusion
What do I know?
I’m just a mad engineer and mathematician with coeliac disease.
The Anonymous Widower 