Health News

CHRISTINA PATTERSON: Every time I looked in the mirror, I felt sick. Acne was the first thing I thought about in the morning, and the last thing I thought about at night as I slathered ointments on my sore, weeping skin. Many people think acne is a teenage problem that passes, but it isn’t. ‘Half the patients I see are adults,’ says Professor Tony Chu, a dermatologist and founder of the charity Acne and Rosacea Association UK. ‘I see patients in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. I had one patient who was 85 and fed up with being told she would grow out of it.’ (Christina Patterson, pictured left, is author of The Art of Not Falling Apart, right)

IBS is unpleasant to say the least and affects nearly half of us. But Dr Simon Smale, a consultant gastroenterologist at Manchester University, says we needn't suffer in silence. He recommends taking up yoga (top left) and getting plenty of sleep (top right) to combat stress levels that worsen symptoms. Opting for herbal tea (top centre) over fizzy drinks can help with bloating and choosing red wine (bottom centre) over spirits 'feeds' our gut bacteria. Ditching garlic (bottom left) and sprouts (bottom right) can also help prevent flatulence.

Having a couple of crackers with cheese or dips may seem innocent enough. But these moreish savouries can add hundreds of calories as well as a substantial amount of fat and salt to your diet. There are now many ‘healthy’ versions on the market but do they offer any real nutritional benefit? Here, dietitian Kajsa Ernestam of Stockholm-based healthy lifestyle app Lifesum assesses 12 popular options. We then rated them. Pictured, top left to top right: Genius Carb Cutter Bread Crisps, Rude Health Buckwheat and Chia Crackers, Ryvita Protein Red Quinoa and Sesame. Bottom left to bottom right: Peter's Yard Sourdough Charcoal and Rye, Millers Harvest Three-Nut Crackers, Nairn's Ancient Grain Oatcakes.

Natalie Brown, 38, from East Sussex tried French diet meals delivery service Dietbon, which has just launched in the UK, in the hope of losing her 'mum tum' (left). She followed the plan for 28 days, eating 1,200 calories a day, with meals such as crêpes for breakfast (inset), pasta for lunch and roast chicken for dinner. After 28 days (centre and right), she had lost two inches from her waist and dropped a dress size.

Jackson Kuhn was born with skin covering his anus, requiring seven surgeries. Imperforate anuses affect 1 in every 5,000 births, disproportionately boys. It dealt a tough blow to his fragile body, leaving him routinely sick. He's now home but he still needs a colostomy bag and has to wait to grow before he can have reconstruction surgery. His parents say every minute with him is worth it but they are 'stressed and depressed' by the onslaught of medical concerns and medical bills. Click here to donate to their GoFundMe.

A 100-year-old yoga instructor has no plans to stop practicing and teaching. On a spring day in Hartsdale, a northern suburb of New York City where she leads her classes, Tao Porchon-Lynch said she first encountered the ancient practice at age seven in her native India.  Strolling along a beach, she was transfixed by a group of boys doing yoga poses. When her aunt told her the movements were 'not ladylike,' she responded, 'If boys can do it, I can do it.'

Emily Piercell (pictured) had to go through chemotherapy (left), a double mastectomy and radiation to treat her breast cancer at just 27-years-old. She found a lump in her right breast in 2015, but her doctors in Ontario, Canada, refused to biopsy it because Emily was so young. But the time she was finally diagnosed, Emily's cancer had reached stage three. Now, after battling the disease (right), she has become an advocate for breast cancer awareness, encouraging young woman like herself to stand up to doctors and get the tests they need when they know something is wrong.

Cleo Keenan, of Blackpool, suddenly developed an abnormal swelling (seen left and right) in her midriff earlier this year, which doctors put down to a hormone imbalance she has suffered from before. It was not until she endured severe abdominal pain that a CT scan revealed the two-year-old is suffering from stage three adrenal carcinoma, which affects the outer layer of the adrenal glands. Following her April 1 diagnosis, Cleo started chemotherapy and blood transfusions. And she requires more treatment to shrink the tumour before surgery to remove it. However, her parents Shannon Latham, 23, and Ryan Keenan, 26, have been told their 'little warrior' has just a 25-to-35 per cent chance of surviving, with the tumour returning in 80 per cent of cases. Ms Latham is pictured in the inset with Cleo, and her other daughters Emelia, five, and Ellie-Mae, four.

Although the organ (pictured) is only the size of a cherry and cannot pump blood, experts said its creating is a 'major medical breakthrough'. The heart is believed to the be the first ever to have been printed with cells, blood vessels and chambers. Although the hearts will need more work before they can pump blood, the scientists hope to begin animal trials within a year. Professor Tal Dvir is pictured holding the heart, main.

Charlie Stephenson, nine, showed no other symptoms and his parents Tony and Soeli Stephenson suspected he would just need corrective glasses. But the couple's world came crashing down in February this year when Charlie, of Norfolk, was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). Doctors have said he has nine to 12 months to live with no guarantee, leaving Mr and Mrs Stephenson feeling 'empty'. (Pictured left, the family together, and right, Charlie with a lazy left eye)

The South London and Maudsley NHS trust is trialling an online test designed to spot early signs of dementia by seeing how quickly and accurately people can identify photos of animals. People doing the 'quick and easy' test are shown 100 photos and have to decide whether or not there is an animal in the picture. Some have obvious creatures, while others have hidden animals or no animals at all. If people are slow to respond or incorrectly identify the animals it could be a sign their brain function is reduced – potentially signalling a dementia risk. In the sample pictured, the image on the left has no animal, while the other two have a pig and a marsupial in.

Experts at McGill University in Montreal studied more than 90,000 people's reactions to find women's attitudes are affected by fat-shaming such as that directed at Adele (pictured left). A fashion critic said of Mad Men star Christina Hendricks (middle left) that 'You don't put a big girl in a big dress'. The Canadian researchers searched for articles on fat-shaming from magazines, newspapers and internet blogs between 2004 and 2015. These included coverage of singer Kelly Clarkson (middle right) being told by a television anchor to 'stay off the deep dish pizza'. And reality television star Kourtney Kardashian (right) was told by her husband she needed to lose her baby weight faster.

Bethan Simpson, from Essex, gave birth to baby Elouise after a team of 20 medics cut open her womb to operate on the child's spinal cord during her pregnancy. Elouise had been diagnosed with spina bifida, but mother Bethan was discharged from hospital last week with her child showing no signs of the condition, which could have left her with lifelong disabilities. Despite enduring 20 hospital visits, Mrs Simpson, 26, and her husband Kieron, 28, (both pictured right) are so in love with their baby that they are determined to have more children. Inset: Baby Elouise in the womb.

The treatment involves inserting a stent, a tiny, ball-shaped wire cage into a blocked vein. Once in position, the collapsible cage is expanded and ‘catches’ the clot. When the device is pulled out, the clot comes with it. A 55-year-old woman from London has become the first patient in the world to benefit from the procedure, called a Vetex Thrombectomy Catheter, and specialists hope it will become available throughout the NHS. A DVT is a blood clot that occurs in the veins of lower limbs.

Having won two gold medals in the 2017 under-18 kayaking world cup when she was just 15 (left), it’s fair to say Georgia Carmichael was in peak condition. But just months after the event, she had suffered a devastating seizure, leaving her paralysed from the waist down and reliant on round-the-clock care (right, this year). The only possible cause, she believed, was a bump to the head weeks earlier, following a minor fall in the changing room at her school. But as Georgia, from Marlow, Buckinghamshire, later learned, this seemingly insignificant knock was enough to trigger a crippling neurological condition that would change her life for ever. Georgia was – eventually – diagnosed with functional neurological disorder, or FND. It affects the central nervous system – and, for decades, has been dismissed by doctors as being ‘all in the mind’. And that leaves FND patients’ fighting to be taken seriously, in a similar way to those with chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME.

Few things in life are as simple – or as pleasurable to eat – as a burger. That first bite, the rich, meaty and slightly charred flavours, mixed with smooth, salty cheese, the sharpness of onion and the tang of veg and sauce. But for a long time, Britain's vegans and vegetarians have had to endure flavourless products that are either so dry that they suck the moisture from your mouth, or dissolve into a baby-food-like mush as you eat them. But now, there is a new wave of meat-substitute products said to look, smell and taste just like the real thing (right, the Moving Mountains burger). Some, if you cook them right, even ‘bleed’ like a real burger. But they are 100 per cent vegan. Last week, Burger King (inset top) started stocking the vegan Impossible Burger, and Nestle launched their soya and wheat protein Garden Gourmet Incredible Burger (inset bottom). Mail on Sunday's Barney Calman and Eve Simmons (left) have reviewed the new scientifically created burgers - for taste and for health.

The 25-year-old singer, who has been vocal about her mental health struggles after the terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester, England in 2017, posted the images on her Instagram story, writing: 'hilarious and terrifying.' For context, she also shared examples of a 'healthy' brain and brain 'with PTSD', both of which appeared far more mild than her own. Speaking to DailyMail.com, Dr Daniel Amen, a leading psychiatrist and brain scan specialist who developed the technology used for Grande's scans, agreed that her brain has the hallmark 'diamond' shape of PTSD, and hailed Grande for destigmatizing mental illness.

At least 12 inmates have died after their diabetes-related complications were ignored in Georgia jails and prisons in the last decade, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation revealed - but it is a nationwide problem, according to the American Diabetes Association. When people with type 1 diabetes go without insulin too long, their blood sugar becomes dangerously high and they develop diabetic ketoacidosis. They die horrible deaths, preceded by vomiting, incontinence and disorientation. Wickie Bryant, Esteban Mosqueda-Romero, David Fletcher Jr, Willie Green III, Paul Mullinax and Douglas Brown (clockwise from top left), were all denied insulin in Georgia corrections facilities, and met such horrible ends in the last decade.

Olivia Chicchon (see left), two, of Lodi, California, has a lymphatic malformation, a mass that appears on the head or neck due to an abnormal formation of lymphatic vessels. When doctors spotted it in the womb, parents Ivan and Teresa Chicchon, both 32, were offered to terminate their pregnancy. Instead, they opted to have complicated surgery - called an EXIT procedure - to deliver Olivia (pictured right, in hospital after the birth, and inset, as a toddler). The family are in talks with medics about having treatment they have described as 'ground-breaking'.

EXCLUSIVE: Lottie Provis (right), of Cardiff, was found blue, lifeless and choking on her own vomit in her cot by her parents Kate, 26, and Steve, 31, when she was just 18 months old. The now five-year-old was given fours to live when doctors were unable to put her into a medical coma due to her airways being too swollen for the necessary tube to go down. Medics eventually managed to insert the tube, with Lottie then spending a week in an induced coma (seen left). Thinking she was in the clear, Lottie was sent home, only for another deadly attack to occur just a month later. Over the next year, Lottie was hospitalised nine times, before doctors finally made the connection between her symptoms and the time of year. The youngster is also pictured in the inset with her parents.

The unnamed woman had seen her skin flare up for almost a year before going to see a doctor in Kansas, where she lives, dermatologists at the University of Kansas Medican Centre report in New England Journal of Medicine. Although the rash can be a sign of cancer, this is very rare, experts said. (Pictured left, the rash, and right, after cancer treatment when the rash disappeared).

Elaine Lee-Tubby, 47, from Devon, was taken to hospital amid fears she sustained a brain injury following her accident in 2017. Doctors referred the marketing executive for an MRI scan, which spotted the golf ball-sized mass lodged in her brain. Mrs Lee-Tubby was told it was a low-grade meningioma, and while it is currently benign there is potential it may turn cancerous. Speaking of her diagnosis, Mrs Lee-Tubby said: 'I was stunned by the results of the scan - I had no idea whatsoever that I had a brain tumour.'

Maria Menounos, 40 (left), revealed in an interview on Fox News Radio with Brain Kilmeade that she ignored the symptoms of her brain tumor, including headaches and blurry vision. Doctors discovered the mass in February 2017 and surgeons removed it in June. Her mother, Litsa (right, with Menounos), has been battling stage four brain cancer since August 2016. Menounos said in a recent Instagram post that her mother's cognitive function has declined due to her treatments.

Inside Edition anchor Deborah Norville is recovering after surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid nodule from her neck - which was spotted by a viewer. The 60-year-old host revealed in early April that, when the lump was first spotted years ago, it turned out to be benign.  But recent tests revealed it had turned cancerous and she needed surgery for its removal. 

Ashley Huffman, 32, from Michigan, was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2018. She decided to undergo genetic testing shortly thereafter and learned she had a mutation that gave her a 70 percent risk of developing the disease. Doctors recommended that her twin sister, Danielle Jones, undergo the same testing. Jones decided to get a mammogram in February 2019 to make sure she was healthy - only to learn she also has breast cancer. Both sisters have undergone double mastectomies and are going to remove their ovaries due to their increased risk of developing ovarian cancer. Pictured: Jones (left) and Huffman (right), left and right.

Marcus Albers, five months (left and right), from Waukesha, Wisconsin, was born in October 2018 with Immunodeficiency 47. It's a rare genetic disease that changes the way cells in the body communicate and attacks the liver. Doctors told his parents, Whitney and Anthony, that he needed a liver transplant, but that they only needed 25 percent of a living donor's liver. Last week, it was believed that a donor was found but the match was not perfect. Unless a donor was found, Marcus only had three weeks left to live. He had to be placed on a ventilator before he passed away on April 10.

Danny Bullen (left), who lives in Tenerife with his parents, traveled to the US last month for the treatment. The following day, the 11-year-old's mother Irma Guanche, 45, claims Danny asked her 'dame mas papas, por favor', which translates as 'give me more potatoes [crisps], please'. Danny has allegedly not spoken another full sentence since but his parents claim they have been told it may take several months before they notice big changes. Danny is pictured right in a private hospital last December. He was undergoing a CT scan to find out why he kept hitting his head and was anaesthetised to stop him moving in the machine. He is also pictured in the inset with his mother Irma Guanche and sister Nadia.

When Jane McLelland from Fulham was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer aged 35, doctors gave her a one-in-20 chance of surviving five years. Now in her 50s, Ms McLelland, pictured with her husband Andrew, has been in remission since 2004 and has two sons, Jamie and Sam, inset, who were born with the help of a surrogate, because her treatment left her infertile.

Currently doctors are only able to diagnose the disorder, which struck former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez (inset), after death through brain autopsies. The former players in the study were given positron emission tomography, or PET scans, in which a radioactive tracer is injected that binds to various substances and makes them visible on the scans. Left image shows brain models of the former NFL players in the study, showing build-ups of tau protein in red. The right image shows high levels of the abnormal tau protein in red and yellow patches.

Martin Kaae Kristiansen, 28, used a powerful microscope to discover what lies on the surface of our fresh food. These included mites (top left), tardigrades (top centre), midges (bottom centre), roundworms (bottom right), dead insects (top right) and even organisms he couldn't identify. Most of the organisms are harmless, but Mr Kristiansen said it highlights the importance of washing your veg before tucking in.

Holly McCulloch (right), of Greasby, Wirral, always felt down about her B-cup chest, particularly as she got older. The 28-year-old therefore booked herself into a clinic in Turkey after seeing an advert on Instagram charging just £2,700 for a five-day, all-inclusive stay. After requesting G-cup implants, Ms McCulloch woke in agony and immediately asked them to be removed because her 'chest was on fire'. She then flew back on January 11 to get more natural D-cup implants fitted. Although initially thrilled with the results, Ms McCulloch soon had 'green gung' coming out of chest, as well as a black blister that left a 'huge hole'. Back in the UK the implant began to smell, with doctors warning it had to be removed immediately. This has left Ms McCulloch with an 'uneven' chest (seen left).