Short messages on Physical health issues from Respect Yourself, the guidance site for young people to help make good decisions in life.
Before you make an appointment to see your GP, consider the alternatives. The pharmacist behind the counter at your local chemist may be able to give you the help you need, so you won’t have to spend time waiting for an appointment. Pharmacists are highly trained health professionals, and may offer a wider range of health services than you might think.
Kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, pancreas and the small bowel can all be transplanted. Cornea transplants can restore sight if they need to be replaced.
Doctors spend an average of 8-10 minutes with each patient. Once you’ve got an appointment, plan ahead to make sure that you cover everything you want to discuss: what questions you have, what your symptoms are, and what treatment you can get.
The NHS Organ Donor Register is a national, confidential list of people who are willing to become donors after their death. It can be quickly accessed to see whether an individual has registered a willingness to be an organ donor. It can literally be a life-saver. So that in the event of your death there’s a chance that your organs could help someone else to live.
If you want to see a doctor, you’ll usually need to make an appointment. Most GP surgeries operate independently and have their own booking routines. Your surgery should be able to offer you an appointment to see a GP or other healthcare professional quickly if necessary. However, if it is more convenient, you should also be able to book appointments in advance. Familiarise yourself with your GP surgery’s appointment system, and try to plan in advance if you can.
From today, if you are between 28 and 38 weeks pregnant you will be offered a Whooping Cough vaccine through your GP surgery. Your immune system will make antibodies that will be passed onto your baby in the womb, protecting them until they can be vaccinated at two months of age.
Whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the lungs and airways. The condition usually begins with a persistent dry and irritating cough which progresses to intense bouts of coughing. These are followed by a distinctive ‘whooping’ noise which is how the condition gets its name.
About 50,000 people in the UK require some form of ongoing treatment for kidney failure, of which about 7,000 are currently waiting for a kidney transplant. The average wait for a kidney transplant in the UK is 1,000 days.
Between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012, 1107 lives were saved in the UK through a heart, lung, liver or combined heart/lungs, liver/kidney or liver/pancreas transplant.
Sunscreen: SPF 15 filters out approximately 93 percent of all incoming UVB rays. SPF 30 keeps out 97 percent and SPF 50 keeps out 98 percent. No sunscreen can block all UV rays.