This week the National Institute for  Health and Care Excellence updated its suspected cancer GP guidelines and in doing so hopes to provide GPs with clear guidance to facilitate early diagnosis and  therefore a reduction in cancer deaths.

The guidelines use a new approach that focuses on patients’ symptoms rather than a particular cancer.  This means that patients who have  symptoms that relate to multiple cancers will be  investigated more appropriately as their symptoms will be brought together to determine all the potential cancers it could be rather than just looking at one cancer.

These new recommendations hope to ensure that GPs act faster when a patient has specific types of symptoms and give clear steps on what a GP should do to make a prompt diagnosis.
This is good news for patients as it means that GPs will now look at all symptoms together to get a full picture of what’s happening to their patient rather than looking at symptoms in isolation. Ultimately this should mean less visits to the GP, a quick referral and hopefully an early diagnosis.

On Sunday 14^th June we had the pleasure of delivering a black health awareness workshop at the Right Now Jesus Centre in Catford.  It was wonderful to work with such an enthusiastic, friendly and energetic congregation; it was really a fun two hours, despite the serious topic.

During the workshop we covered type two diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, prostate cancer and fibroids. We talked about what these conditions are, their risk factors and why they are more common in the black community. We also asked the congregation to work in groups to discuss these issues and encouraged attendees to  adopt a healthy lifestyle by eating a healthy  diet and getting active. We went into detail on some of the specific changes that people can make to achieve a healthier lifestyle and finished off the workshop by asking attendees to think about three things that they will change as they work towards a adopting a healthy lifestyle.

This was  really good event and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with such an engaged audience.

“This workshop was beautifully presented!”

 

“Excellent, I learnt a lot.”

 

“Very informative.”

Fifty is a pivotal age. It’s a time when many will be at the peak of their careers, their families will be blossoming and there is a greater understanding of self. It’s also a time when many take stock, analyse their life to date, asses their achievements and start to re-prioritise to ensure that they’re focusing their energy on the important areas in their life. At The Lake Foundation we believe it’s extremely important that this assessment that occurs as we enter a new pivotal decade includes a review of our health.

As we get older our risk of developing a number of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease increases so as we get older we must make our health more of a priority. It’s true that the habits we cultivated when we were  younger and the way we lived our lives prior to hitting fifty will have shaped our current health but we can take steps today to improve our health and ensure we are in the best shape possible going forward and more importantly, we are happy.

In essence keeping healthy as we get older means being proactive and focusing on three main areas: changing our lifestyle (if we need to), being aware and making sure we’re up-to-date with all our relevant health checks and screening.

Changing your lifestyle can seem daunting but it needn’t be. Small changes can make a big difference.  What we’re looking for is for you to be more active, eat a healthy diet and maintain a healthy weight. All of which will make a significant difference to reducing your risk of a number of diseases.

When it comes to diet if you’re not already receiving advice for an existing condition we would recommend that you:

• Eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day
• Reduce your salt, sugar and saturated fat intake
• Reduce your red meat consumption
• Eat more fish – at least two portions of fish a week including one oily fish (salmon, sardines, mackerel etc)
  • Note: Oily fish is a great source of omega-3  fatty acids which research suggests may prevent heart disease
  • Note:  Adults and boys shouldn’t consume more than 4 portions of oily fish a week  whilst women and girls planning to become pregnant in the future shouldn’t consume more than 2 portions of oily fish a week
• Drink less alcohol
• Eat more fibre, it can help to prevent heart disease,  some cancer  and improve digestive health
  • Examples of food that are a good source of fibre include:  brown rice, brown bread, pulses (chickpeas, lentils etc), fruit,vegetables, porridge and bran based cereals

Another aspect of keeping healthy is to get active and this is especially important as we get older.  Being inactive has been linked to a number of health conditions including cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke so by being more active you can significantly reduce your risk of developing these conditions. Exercise also has a number of other benefits such as it strengthens our bones, improves our mood and improves our mobility.

The government recommends that  we do 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week and this can be divided up into 30 minutes of exercise 5 days during the week. Additionally, on two or more days a week our exercise session should include some muscle strengthening exercises that work on all muscle groups (legs, hips, back abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms).

Finally, it’s very important to maintain a healthy weight as being overweight or obese is linked to a number of diseases. Losing weight as we get older can be challenging because our metabolism slows down, i.e. the rate at which we burn the calories from the food we eat slows down. This means that if we continue to eat the same quantity of food that we ate 10 or 20 years ago we won’t be burning the calories as effectively and the excess calories will turn into fat. To combat this we have to look at our portion sizes and make sure we control them. In terms of weight we should all be aiming for a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 to 24.9.

As we get older we must all endeavour to eat healthy, keep active and maintain a healthy weight. This will ensure that we reduce our risk of developing a number of conditions;  we remain fit and mobile;  we improve our mood and wellbeing and ultimately have a better quality of life.

We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded a Support Group Start-up Grant from Macmillan Cancer Support. This grant will help us reach more of our community and ensure that we can help as many people as possible.

Our support group started in June 2014 thanks to a grant from Croydon Council and it’s facilitated by a trained counsellor, Hazel Williams. The group provides an informal, friendly environment to connect with people who have been affected by cancer, share experiences and learn how to cope with a cancer diagnosis.

Our support group members have found the sessions to be very useful and have said the following about the group:

“The facilitator was very insightful and had a lot of meaningful things to say. She gave me a lot to think about.”

 

“The relaxation and mindfulness session was really useful.”

 

“I was feeling very down and really wasn’t going to attend but I am glad that the organisers called me and picked me up. I found the session to be very useful and I am so glad that I came.”

The group meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 4pm – 6pm at 3Space in Croydon. If you’d like more information about our support group or would like to attend please email us at info@thelakefoundation.com or call 07440 146 645.

We’d like to say a big thank you to Macmillan Cancer Support, we really appreciate their support and look forward to putting this grant to good use.

 

In this week’s blog Abi Begho discusses her Walk to Work  Week challenge.

Last week was Walk to Work Week and I got involved by walking part of my journey to and from work all last week. This was a great opportunity to get some much-needed exercise and I was amazed at just how much I was able to achieve by making some very simple changes to my journey to work.

I started off on Monday 11^th May. I was heading to central London and decided to substitute the 7 minute tram journey from Addiscombe to East Croydon train station with a lovely early morning walk.  This was a great way to start the morning, it took about 25 minutes and along the way I had the opportunity to see my neighbourhood in a whole new light; the lovely houses, the cute kids heading to nursery and the shopkeepers getting ready for a day of trading.  When I got to East Croydon Station a quick glance at my pedometer completely shocked me, I had racked up 3,977 steps! Whey hey!

During the rest of the day I made a conscious effort to walk as much as I could so I walked to meetings, took a walk at lunch time, walked up stairs and walked some of my journey back home. At the end of the day a final glance at my pedometer informed me I had walked 12,087 steps! I was  very pleased as the recommended number of steps we should take a day is 10,000.

The rest of the week was much the same although some days were not so good. I peaked at 15,173 steps on 12^th May due to a trip to Birmingham that saw me doing a lot of walking as I opted to walk between train stations and skip the taxis and walk to and from my meeting. My low point was a terrible 3, 268  steps on the last day of Walk to Work Week. On this day I was working close to home and because I was carrying my heavy laptop I jumped on the tram, but I did walk up 5 flights of stairs!

I really enjoyed my little Walk to Work Week experiment and I’ve decided to introduce more walking into my commute to work. I’ll be skipping the tram and walking to East Croydon station from now on. I’m going to force myself to do 10,000 steps a day.

We’re so excited to once again team up with the Cycling Instructor with support from Croydon Council to provide free cycling sessions over the summer. This is a fun way to get fit and active and can be a journey of discovery of the beauty of south London as we cycle through the many hidden green spaces along route 21.

This group has been organised as part of our drive to improve the health and wellbeing of the black community and it aims to: provide members with the opportunity to learn how to cycle; provide tips on cycling technique; improve confidence in cycling; prepare attendees for road cycling; and introduce an enjoyable way for people to get some exercise.

Last year we had a great time with our sessions being led by very experienced and friendly instructors from the Cycling Instructor. Our favourite sessions were the off-road cycling sessions where we discovered beautiful locations like South Norwood Country Park, the Waterlink Way and Riverpool Linear Park.

We’ll be starting on 3^rd July at 6pm at Croydon Arena.  Please do get in touch if you’d like to join us. You can email events@thelakefoundation.com  to book your place and to find out more. Our leaflet below also provides more details.

This week doctors representing the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges have written an article in the BMJ about the problem of overdiagnosis which is where “individuals are diagnosed with conditions that will never cause symptoms or death”. The article explains that overdiagnosis is a direct result of the medical profession aiming to achieve early diagnosis but this drive to ensure that we diagnosis more diseases earlier means that in some situations we are creating more harm than good.  Another consequence of endeavouring to ensure an early diagnosis is that many doctors are using treatments where there is no evidence of clinical benefit, just so they are seen to be taking action. All of this means that in many patients are treated unnecessarily, resources are being wasted and we’re increasing patient anxiety, for no reason.

The issue of overdiagnosis has been recognised worldwide with the formation of Choosing Wisely in Canada and the USA which aims to advance dialogue on avoiding wasteful or unnecessary medical tests, treatments and procedures. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges in the UK will be launching a UK Choosing Wisely programme and have put forward to following changes that need to take place if this type of programme is to be successful in addressing over diagnosis and overtreatment.

1. Doctors should provide patients with resources that increase their understanding about potential arms of interventions and help them accept that doing nothing can often be the best approach.
2. Patients should be encouraged to ask questions such as, “Do I really need this test or procedure? What are the risks? Are there simpler safer options? What happens if I do nothing?”
3. Medical schools should ensure that students develop a good understanding of risk alongside critical evaluation of the literature and transparent communication. Students should be taught about overuse of tests and interventions. Organisations responsible for postgraduate and continuing medical education should ensure that practising doctors receive the same education
4. Commissioners should consider a different payment incentive for doctors and hospitals.

The Lake Foundation is happy to see Choosing Wisely being introduced in the UK and we look forward to seeing this project develop over the next couple of years.

For more information read the BMJ article here

Ovarian cancer can be a very challenging cancer to diagnose at an early stage because the symptoms are hard to recognise as they are similar to a number of non-serious conditions and have been described by many as “vague” and “non-specific” symptoms. Additionally, unlike breast cervical and bowel cancer there is no national screening programme for women because there currently isn’t a test that is accurate, specific and sensitive enough to be used as a national screening test.  This means that the majority of patients are diagnosed with late stage disease which is hard to treat.

This week scientists have published very encouraging data from a large 14-year study that shows that a test based on determining a woman’s CA125 (a protein found in the blood) profile is effective at detecting ovarian cancer. In fact it was found to identify 86% of ovarian cancers. This data could mean that we are one step closer to a screening test for ovarian cancer. The full data from the trial will be published at the end of the year and will tell us whether this test actually detects ovarian cancer early enough to save lives.

One of the lead investigators in this trial Prof Usha Menon said:

“These results are therefore very encouraging. They show that use of an early detection strategy based on an individual’s CA125 profile significantly improved cancer detection compared to what we’ve seen in previous screening trials.”

If the full results at the end of the year show that lives were actually saved through earlier detection of ovarian cancer, this will be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the detection of ovarian cancer and would for the first time enable a significant improvement in survival rates.

Friday is World Ovarian Cancer Day and this gives us the perfect opportunity to focus on a disease that gets very little attention.

In the UK, ovarian cancer is considered to be a rare cancer with 7,000 new cases diagnosed every year.  For those affected the statistics are unfairly bleak with only 43% of patients surviving for at least five years compared to 85% of breast cancer patients.  We can improve this by raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and ensuring that women and healthcare professionals take quick action should they recognise the symptoms.

Increased awareness leads to more patients being diagnosed at an early stage and early diagnosis does save lives;  92% of women diagnosed at an early stage will go on to live beyond 5 years.

Black women are less likely to develop ovarian cancer than white women but data does suggest that black women are more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage so raising awareness in the black community is very important.

So, this World Ovarian Cancer Day join the global movement to raise awareness by pledging to tell five women about the symptoms of ovarian cancer.

To sign the pledge and get more information visit the World Ovarian Cancer Day website and for more information about ovarian cancer please visit Ovarian Cancer Action’s website.

May is National Walking Month and organisers, Living Streets, are encouraging the general public to get out of their car, get off public transport and walk everywhere in an effort to get more active this month.

You can get involved in this fun campaign by taking part in the many activities that are planned for this month such asWalk to School Week from 18^th to 22^nd May and Walk to Work Week from 11^th to 15^th May. They have lot of resources to get you started such as a carbon buster calculator, walking report cards, walking tips, posters, flyers and an events calendar. Visit their website for more information.

Get involved for a fun way to get some exercise and improve your health. #WalkThisMay!