Health News

Becca Bundy's daughter had a seizure at home in Bearsville, Minnesota in 2016. Bill Cox responded to their 911 call, and his kindness moved Becca. When they met again in 2018 and she heard he needed a kidney, she didn't think twice. Bill was born with just one kidney, it was failing, and his prospects for survival on dialysis were bleak. They underwent surgery in February 2019, and both are now doing well.

The TV presenter is currently training for a 10K run, hits the gym three times per-week and is lactose-intolerant. She also suffered with postnatal depression. Here, she tells us all about her heath and well-being.

Lavinia Newlands, from Amberley, West Sussex, is one of thousands to have dangerous sun damage - including the general type (1), more severe damage (2) and pre-cancerous changes (3), but a single treatment of Daylight PDT could be the answer. It is based on a principle known as daylight photodynamic therapy (daylight PDT). It contains aminolevulinic acid (ALA), which harnesses the body’s immune system to kill the pre-cancerous cells, and is activated by sunlight. There may be tingling for a few days and some crusting, which peaks within a week and clears within a fortnight.

Landscape architects Adam White and Andree Davies are the two professionals behind the Royal Horticultural Society's Back To Nature Garden – co-designed by the Duchess of Cambridge. They invited The Mail on Sunday for an exclusive preview ahead of the grand opening. Pictured: Kate helps Adam White and Andree Davies create their Back To Nature Garden.

A 26-year-old woman has claimed how she relieved her severe period pain by rubbing menstrual blood on her face during a ritual meditation. Yazmina Jade Adler, from Melbourne, said she was suffering from excruciating cramps but was advised by doctors to 'go on the pill'. She said she stumbled across the unusual remedy when she met a shamanic womb woman who encouraged her to 'connect' to her blood. Appearing on SBS's show Medicine or Myth? , which premiers on Monday night, Yazmina claimed she noticed instantly her cramps were gone when she started meditating in a sacred space about a year ago.

A simple hour-long operation could be ‘life-changing’ for the thousands of Britons left permanently disabled due to damaged nerves. The procedure can banish the crippling, constant pain which sufferers describe as being like lying on broken glass, scorched by a flame or stung by bees.

SERENA LIPSCOMB, now 23, was five years old and living in Essex with her mother Melanie and father Ian when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. She was given the all-clear aged eight, but Serena reveals how she is still impacted both mentally and physically by the toll it took on her small body all those years ago. Pictured left: Serena today. Right: Aged five with mother Melanie.

Oliver, eight, and Amelia Carroll, six, of Poynton, Cheshire (pictured left), suffer from fatal neuro-degenerative condition Batten disease. There is no cure for the condition, meaning Oliver and Amelia are unlikely to live past the age of 12. Their plight captured the hearts of the nation in 2016 after a striking image emerged of Oliver being cradled by Prince Harry in hospital (see right). Oliver and Amelia currently receive access to a specialist treatment as part of a trial, but the pharmaceutical company has said it cannot fund the drug indefinitely. Health regulators have decided that the drug cannot be used on the NHS, leaving mother, Lucy, and father, Mike, devastated.

The increasingly popular cosmetic surgery is a growing concern among experts due to an 'alarming' number of deaths, including Miami mother Danea Plasencia, 29, last week (pictured). By injecting the fat into the muscle - rather than just beneath the skin - the fat cells are able to enter the bloodstream, the study by Boston researchers found. They could cause a blockage to the arteries in the lungs, which is life-threatening due to reducing blood flow. Although they suggest there is a 'safe' way to administer the injections, British experts are not convinced.

Medics at King's College Hospital led the procedure to correct the defect in a baby being carried by a woman who was 27-weeks pregnant. Sherrie Sharp, 29, refused to abort her son, Jaxson, when she discovered he had the defect at her 20-week scan. Instead, she opted for the pioneering procedure, which took three hours to repair her unborn son's bulging spine. Ms Sharp told the BBC: 'I wanted to do the best for my baby, I wanted him to have a better life and there's nothing wrong with that.'

Sima Davarian thought she had piles when she saw bright red blood in the toilet while 35 weeks pregnant. But a hospital examination revealed a small lump in the then 34-year-old's rectum, with a biopsy confirming she had stage-three cancer. Just five days after her devastating diagnosis, Mrs Davarian, of Plymouth, gave birth to her daughter Mathilda on September 7 2015 via C-section. She was given a few weeks to recover before having chemo (seen right), radiotherapy and surgery to remove her colon, leaving the English teacher with a stoma bag. Although cancer-free, radiotherapy triggered an early menopause, leaving the mother-of-one unable to have any more children. Mrs Davarian is pictured left the day before her C-section, and in the inset with her now three-year-old daughter and husband Michael, 43, on their way to the Canary Islands.

The NHS advises parents to take children to the dentist as soon as a milk tooth appears. However, data analysis by the University of Birmingham found the majority are failing to do so. One of the lowest rates of dental attendance was in West Berkshire, where under one per cent of children aged one had seen the dentist. But deprivation in the area is ranked low, compared to South Tyneside, one of the most deprived local authorities in England. The authority recorded the highest rate of attendance in children aged under one - 12.3 per cent.

Erin Rollins, 33, of Chicago, was driving in November 2014 when she was involved in a collision that paramedics said she was lucky to survive (pictured inset, in hospital after). The shards cut holes into her bowel, causing internal bleeding which needed emergency surgery, and paralysis from the waist down. Over the next few years, she had to re-learn how to walk with the loving support of her husband, Dennis, 39, and endure a total of eight surgeries (pictured right, on their wedding day in October 2016). Despite her life and health being permanently damaged (pictured, left, with the assistance of a wheelchair), Mrs Rollins forgave the drunk driver on the day of her sentencing, hugging her in court.

US women's tennis star Nicole Gibbs, 26 (left and right), went to the dentist one month ago and he found a growth on the roof of her mouth. She said it had been there for years, but he encouraged her to get it biopsied. Results showed she had salivary gland cancer, a rare form of cancer that forms in the tissues of the glands that make saliva. Gibbs is undergoing surgery on Friday and will likely not need further treatment. She was forced to withdraw from the French Open but hopes to return to the court in June to compete in qualifiers for Wimbledon.

Blake Mompher, five, from Prospect, Ohio, was diagnosed with spina bifida before he was born. Spina bifida is a birth defect that occurs when the spinal cord doesn't form properly, which can cause walking and mobility problems. Blake was practicing walking in fall 2018 but had a setback after he was hospitalized with two separate infections in November and December. He began practicing again three weeks ago and used a walker at his preschool graduation ceremony on Saturday (left). None of his classmates or their parents knew and Blake received a standing ovation as he received his diploma.

Kaia Ettingoff, five (left and right), of Wayne, Pennsylvania, began getting rashes all over her body in summer 2016 at age two. After five months of doctors' visits and tests, she was diagnosed with juvenile dermatomyositis in January 2018. JDM is a rare autoimmune disorder that's triggered by the sun and leaves sufferers with skin rashes and muscle inflammation. Kaia currently receives high doses of steroids, a small dose of chemotherapy and a treatment made from donated blood that contains healthy antibodies.

When doctors at Kingston Hospital in London first treated the man, they didn't deem it necessary to remove the tiny bone and he was discharged. However, her returned two months later with sudden pains and a fever, when it was discovered that the same chicken bone had continued to injure his bowel. The patient underwent various surgeries while in hospital for 45 days, as the offending chicken bone caused a cascade of problems. (Pictured, the scans from the holes in the abdomen from the first hospital admission, left, and the second admission, right).

The maps lay bare how the virus could spread across entire cities if current jab rates dropped from 95 per cent to 80 per cent. The simulation, developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, projects the infection rate across every major city in the US over a six-month period. They begin with a single child contracting measles and show the possible spread of the disease. Red dots highlight infected people and blue dots represent recovered patients. The simulation includes two maps - one that assumes that 80 per cent of children six-months-old to 15 are vaccinated against measles. In the other, it is assumed that 95 per cent of children 6 months old to 15 years old are vaccinated against measles. In most cases, the difference between the 80 per cent coverage map and 95 per cent map is dramatic.

The youngster, who has not been named, was bluelighted to The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto with the pencil still lodged in the left side of her neck (seen left). A CT scan revealed the pencil was completing obstructing her left common carotid artery (pictured right) from providing blood to her brain. The girl was taken for surgery, where doctors managed to remove the pencil. After an 'uneventful recovery', she was discharged two days later and is doing well three years on.

English speaking countries led the way for how often their citizens get drunk, with the US, Canada and Australia closely following the UK at the top of the global rankings. The results go against a decade of major reports showing a steady fall in alcohol consumption in the UK. Researchers from the Global Drugs Survey, based in London, surveyed 5,400 people from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and more than 120,000 globally.

Simon Forman (inset, top right) and his protégé Richard Napier (inset, bottom right) paraded through Elizabethan England professing to be able to heal people of anything from witchcraft to 'bloody flux'. Consultation of the stars and a plethora of absurd treatments, including pigeon slippers, deer dung and boiled crab, were prescribed to patients. The pair left behind notes on every one of their 80,000 cases, but it was written in almost illegible writing (main) and has long remained a mystery. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have now deciphered the texts and placed some of the bizarre records online.

Grady Elwell, 42, of Orlando, Florida, was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma - a grade III brain tumor - in March 2018. His wife, Beth Kassab, 40, made an appointment with an ear, nose and throat doctor around the same time due to persistent ringing and ear pain. Four months later, in July 2018, she was diagnosed with meningioma, a benign brain tumor. Last year, Kassab had radiotherapy to remove her tumor while Elwell underwent radiation and chemotherapy.

The 35-year-old woman, known only as Maju, had an incision where the vagina should be before surgeons from the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, inserted a mould lined with tilapia skin. This is then absorbed into the body where it speeds up healing and is transformed into tissue similar to which lines the vaginal tract. Three weeks on, Maju, who works as a florist, is 'thrilled' with the results and finally feels like a 'real woman'. Surgeons even think she may be having sex in just a few months.

Vianey Rodriguez (pictured left before surgery) was morbidly obese after overindulging in pizzas, burgers and fizzy drinks. Deciding enough was enough, the 35-year-old and her husband Allen Lewis, 51, moved from Chicago to Houston to meet Dr Younan Nowzaradan, star of the hit TLC reality show My 600lb Life. Doctors were forced to resuscitate Ms Rodriguez (pictured right being wheeled to surgery) during the operation after her heart suddenly stopped. Thankfully she pulled through, with Mrs Rodriguez (pictured inset as a child) now weighing a healthier 369lbs (26st 5lbs) a year on.

John Sylvester, 44 (pictured, in green), of Minneapolis, Minnesota, met Tessie in 2001. They married in 2004 and had two children, Gus and Freddy. But, in 2012, John was diagnosed with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease in 2012. He died in June 2017 and Tessie received a call the same day from her doctor telling her she had cancer. She was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma, a cancer of the glands that secrete mucus. Tessie, 38, began chemotherapy (inset) two weeks later, but passed away on May 1, 2019. Gus and Freddy are being adopted by Tessie's sister and her husband.

The changes occur during the second stage of labour, when the baby leaves the uterus and is pushed through the birth canal. But, until now, the details of foetal head moulding remained unclear, and only one previous study had captured images of the process. Now, MRI scans captured by French researchers reveal the huge stress that a baby's skull goes through. The baby's head changes shape as it is pushed out by the mother, or when it is delivered by C-section.

Madeyln Frederick, 20 (left and right), from Dallas, Texas, referred to herself as clumsy for years. At age 13, in December 2012, she was rushed to the hospital when her heart rate skyrocketed while running. Three months later, she was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia. FA is a rare genetic disease that affects the nervous system and causes a progressive loss of movement. Frederick now uses a walker and wheelchair as she studies to become a teacher.

Around 56,000 British newborns weighed less than 5.5lbs in 2015, approximately seven per cent of all live births that year. The UK fell behind the likes of Albania, which saw 4.6 per cent of its babies born underweight, Cuba (5.3 per cent) and Turkmenistan (5.6 per cent). The average newborn weighs about 8lbs and anything under 5.8lbs is considered underweight. Older mothers face a higher risk of having a smaller baby.

Geraldine Chingosho, 22, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease soon after meeting Aldo Cataldi in 2017 (pictured left, together after the operation). Ms Chingosho, a trainee nurse, told him they shouldn't pursue a relationship because she'd be in and out of hospital and 'didn't think it was fair to lumber him with a sick person'. But Mr Cataldi (top right, together in hospital before the transplant) stuck by her - and when relatives turned out to be incompatible donors, he came up as a perfect match. Ms Chingosho, from Leicester, said: 'I never would have ever asked or expected my fiance to give me his kidney. I was completely stunned to find that we were even a match. 'Aldo has saved my life and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with him'. Pictured inset: Ms Chingosho's scars where doctors cut her open and connected the kidney to her blood vessels and bladder.

Emma Beckett is an expert in human nutrition at the University of Newcastle in Australia. She explained how much of each of the five foods is needed with an epidemiologist working for a council. It's true many foods contain 'bioactive compounds' – chemicals that act in the body in ways that might promote good health. These are being studied in the prevention of cancer, heart disease and other conditions. But the idea of food as medicine, although attractive, is easily oversold. The pair looked at red wine (left), cinnamon (top centre), turmeric (bottom centre), blueberries (top right) and chocolate (bottom right).