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The benefits on low blood pressure

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If you were born with blood pressure on the low side, that’s good news – but there are still a few things worth knowing about this condition.

Having low blood pressure in your genetic make-up means you don’t face the risk of developing heart problems or having a stroke as a result of high blood pressure. However, a sudden drop in blood pressure can indicate something more serious.

What is considered low blood pressure?

Low blood pressure, or hypotension, is a blood pressure measurement of 90/60mm Hg* or below. A normal or ideal blood pressure reading is between 120/80 and 90/60mm Hg. Blood pressure can vary considerably over short periods, depending on:

    • body position
    • stress levels
    • physical conditions
    • medication
    • diet
    • time of day – usually lowest while someone sleeps.

Most people with chronically low blood pressure aren’t even aware of it, and if you have
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Catastrophic antibiotic threat from food

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The greatly excessive use of antibiotics in food production in recent decades has made many bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that antibiotic use in animal husbandry, poultry farming and aquaculture in the US is over four times USDA recommended levels. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has estimated that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the USA are used on animals.

Cheap antibiotics prone to abuse

Antibiotics are used to ensure better health and survival of animals bred for food, but they are also believed by many farmers to promote growth. As prices of antibiotics remain attractively low, they offer the prospect of higher earnings from greater output at low cost. Hence, there is little or no market incentive to reduce excessive, if not indiscriminate use, and hence the abuse of antibiotics. Thus, such efforts to increase farmer incomes and pro
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Therapy For Breast Cancer Is No Longer Cut And Dried

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High-profile media campaigns have made most South African women aware that breast cancer poses a very real risk. But the message that really needs to be conveyed is that the disease can affect anyone and that most women who get breast cancer do not have risk factors.

In addition, more and more young women are presenting with breast cancer. “The implication for South African women is important: we should be taking proactive steps for women to be ‘breast aware’ from a young age. The earlier it is detected and treated, the better the prognosis,” says specialist surgeon and breast disease specialist, Professor Carol Ann Benn, who established the Netcare Milpark Breast Care Centre of Excellence.

International accreditation

The facility, which was the first breast care centre of excellence to be established in the private sector in South Africa some 16 years ago, has been granted a three-year, full accreditation by the National Accreditation Programme f
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R127-million allocated to demolish Kempton Park Hospital

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The DA said it was shocked to learn that over R6-million has been spent on security at Kempton Park Hospital since its shut down in 1997.

This was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Infrastructure Development, Jacob Mamabolo, in a written reply to the DA’s Kempton Park constituency head, Refiloe Nt’sekhe.

“According to MEC Mamabolo, R6 932 541.35-m has been spent by the department on guarding this defunct hospital,” Nt’sekhe said on Monday.

In addition, the MEC confirmed that the hospital would be demolished and the process will begin in September at an estimated cost of R127-m.

This hospital should never have been shut down in the first place, Nt’sekhe added.

“By having kept this hospital open, there would not have been as much pressure on Tembisa Hospital, which is clearly not coping with the influx of patients. Residents in this area are forced to make use of only Tembisa Hospital.

“R127-m is a lot of money to be allocated to the demol
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Deputy principal of Joburg High School addressed the issue of “white privilege – but what about “black privilege?

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Deputy principal of Joburg High School addressed the issue of “white privilege - What Bollocks!

The deputy principal of the Jeppe Boys High School in Johannesburg delivered a speech to the pupils last week in which he addressed the issue of “white privilege.”

Amongst other things, mr Kevin Leathem said:
“Imagine playing a video game where the save function was disabled and you were unable to accumulate experience points. That’s what it was like being black during apartheid. No matter how hard you worked, or how much money you earned, you couldn’t own land, businesses, or homes. You couldn’t buy your kids a safer suburb to grow up in or buy them a better education. Every generation started back at zero. Being white was like being the only one with a save function.
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History will now become a compulsory subject in High School – Will it be abused as a political propaganda tool?

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History will now become a compulsory subject in High School – Will it be abused as a political propaganda tool?

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will on Thursday release the ministerial task team report into the possibility of introducing history as a compulsory subject in grades 10‚ 11 and 12.

At present‚ pupils take history to grade 9 and are permitted to drop it in grade 10.

The plan has been criticised in some quarters‚ with some fearing that history will be abused as a political propaganda tool‚ as in Zimbabwe‚ where the history syllabus in government schools is reportedly biased in favour of the ruling Zanu-PF.

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VIDEO: Footage of assault at local primary school shocks parents

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The incident in which a group of pupils kicked another learner lying on the ground, happened last year.

A violent altercation among Laerskool Bergland pupils, captured on video last year, has recently gone viral on social media.
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Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga Survives Hijacking

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Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga Survives Hijacking

Robbers made off with Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga, Mercedes-Benz early on Saturday morning. Msimanga was targeted while leaving a restaurant in Midrand.

He says he was confronted by two armed men and that he wasn’t with his bodyguards.
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8 Symptoms of Endometriosis Many Doctors Don’t Recognize

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Endometriosis is one of the least understood female conditions.

Despite the fact that roughly 1 in 10 women of reproductive age suffers from endometriosis (equivalent to 5 million women in the United States and 176 million women worldwide) very little is known about the condition (1,2).

Worse yet, about three-quarters of these women experience pelvic pain and/or painful periods as typical symptoms of endometriosis.

What is Endometriosis?

According to WebMD: “Endometriosis occurs when tissue that should line the inside of your uterus, the endometrium, grows outside of it instead. Even though the tissue is outside of your uterus, it still acts like it should during your menstrual cycles. That means at the end of your period, this tissue will break apart and bleed.”

“However, the blood from this tissue has no place to go. Surrounding areas may become inflamed or swollen, and scar tissue and lesions can develop. The most common site fo
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What a disgrace -Only one drug testing kit left in Gauteng

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What a disgrace -Only one drug testing kit left in Gauteng

Out of the 143 police stations in Gauteng, only one has a drug testing kit.

From Actonville SAPS to Zonkizizwe Police Station, there are roughly 143 police stations in Gauteng, according to the SAPS official website.

Only one of these stations is equipped with a drug testing kit. This is according to MEC for community safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, Kempton Express reports.
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Robber’s chilling words – ‘I will shoot you. It is a job’

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Robber's chilling words - 'I will shoot you. It is a job'

“I will shoot you. It is a job. It is how we eat to get bread on the table.”

Those were the chilling words of a former armed robber who was interviewed on M-Net’s Carte Blanche programme which aired on Sunday.

If I see a gun I will run out‚ or if I have mine‚ I will shoot you first. I am not going to hesitate I will shoot you first.
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Disastrous antibiotic hazard from food

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The greatly excessive use of antibiotics in food production in recent decades has made many bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that antibiotic use in animal husbandry, poultry farming and aquaculture in the US is over four times USDA recommended levels. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has estimated that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the USA are used on animals.

Cheap antibiotics prone to abuse

Antibiotics are used to ensure better health and survival of animals bred for food, but they are also believed by many farmers to promote growth. As prices of antibiotics remain attractively low, they offer the prospect of higher earnings from greater output at low cost. Hence, there is little or no market incentive to reduce excessive, if not indiscriminate use, and hence the abuse of antibiotics. Thus, such efforts to increase farmer incomes and profitabili
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Demarcation regulations: In whose best interests?

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Are the demarcation regulations a means for the department of health to erode the private healthcare system in preparation for NHI, or is opposition to its implementation merely an attempt by insurance companies to protect their bottom line?

The Free Market Foundation (FMF) supports the theory of the former, using the argument that come 1 April, when the regulations kick in, 2m poor people will lose the only healthcare cover they can afford, namely primary healthcare insurance products.

“The final demarcation regulations show a blatant disregard for ordinary people’s right to access healthcare and are based on the unsubstantiated claim that health insurance products are harmful to the medical schemes industry,” it says in a statement.

Drawing a line in the sand between medical insurance products and medical schemes the regulations come into force on 1 April 2017 and eliminate existing policies from 1 January 2018.

Limited gap cover and hospital cash
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Why healthcare is so expensive in SA

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Some of the most significant contributors to soaring healthcare costs are fraud, waste and abuse. These are difficult to detect, monitor and prevent because the perpetrators are at every level of the delivery chain from healthcare providers at the top to policy holders at the bottom with many abusive acts playing out under the radar, for months, even years.

“It is estimated that healthcare fraud costs the sector between 5% and 15% of total pay-outs,” says Lynette Swanepoel, healthcare and insurance forensic specialist at the SA Fraud Prevention Services (SAFPS).

“Fraud is definitely a serious element, but on top of that the healthcare industry also has to contend with waste and abuse of benefits,” she says. One example of healthcare fraud is collusion between the policy holders and healthcare service providers such as doctors and pharmacists, where some doctors or pharmacists will supply non-covered items such as toiletries and baby products, falsely clai
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Cancer crisis: Where are South Africa’s radiation oncologists?

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Everyone knows about KZN’s cancer crisis but no one is talking about the other provinces that operate on just one radiation oncologist – or less…

There is not a single radiation oncologist left in Limpopo or Mpumalanga, according to an annual survey conducted by the South African Society of Clinical and Radiation Oncology.

In fact, half the country’s provinces may be relying on just nine radiation oncologists in Gauteng as cancer services in five provinces buckle.

Gauteng has long been a beacon of hope for cancer patients, catering for the sickest of the sick from across almost half the country — but what happens when Gauteng oncology services begin to fail?

Meanwhile, a lone specialist in the North West caters for 3.7-million people as four provinces are forced to send patients to Gauteng.
There is not a single radiation oncologist left in Limpopo or Mpumalanga, according to an annual survey conducted by the South African Society of Clinical and Rad
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