Door to good healthA new health portal has been set up to provide medical information over the Internet. Medical Pages offers a directory of Irish doctors, broken down by speciality. It also offers information on medical and health matters. The new facility, accessible at www.medicalpages.ie, joins www.irishhealth.com, the well-established Irish patient website, a source of independent electronic health information.
Diet advice
A private nutrition service, Dublin Nutrition Centre, has just opened. It has been set up by Aveen Bannon, a fully qualified dietitian who says that, until now, dietetic advice was generally available only in hospitals and clinics. "Now you don't have to wait to be ill to get nutritional advice," she says. You can get more information by phoning 01-6398852.
Dealing with head lice
Almost half of Irish families - 45 per cent - have been affected by head lice, with 60 per cent of these the victims of more than one infection. Research suggests that outbreaks in Ireland are increasing rather than decreasing. The peak time for infection - August to November - unfortunately coincides with back-to-school time. In an effort to help parents and teachers cope with this problem, a leaflet on head lice is now available. It contains valuable information on what head lice are, how they spread and how to recognise and control an outbreak. For a free copy of Head Lice: Myths, Facts And How To Treat Them,
write to The Head Lice Information Bureau, PO Box No 7808, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.
Effects of healthcare
The Cochrane Library provides a unique source of reliable and up-to-date information on the effects of health treatments. The library is based on systematic reviews and wide-ranging analysis of all studies on a particular medical subject. Compiled by international experts working in collaboration, it is available free of charge to Internet users here as a result of the all-Ireland Cochrane initiative. To access the information, log on to www.hrb.ie and click on the Cochrane Library icon.
How to live for longer
We could all live longer by tackling 20 common but avoidable risk factors, according to the Lancet. Almost half of the world's premature deaths and more than a third of diseases - including almost 95 per cent of cases of diarrhoea and more than 70 per cent of lung cancer and stroke - are caused by poor nutrition, lack of exercise, dirty water, unsafe sex and similar problems. The researchers claim that removing these risks would increase global healthy life expectancy by 9.3 years - or 17 per cent - ranging from 4.4 years (6 per cent) in the developed countries of the western Pacific to 16.1 years (43 per cent) in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. It would also close the gap between life expectancy in the First and Third Worlds.
Lifelines is compiled by Dr Muiris Houston and Sylvia Thompson
lifelines@irish-times.ie