doctor

Loved ones and healthcare workers gathered for the burial of a doctor who died after treating Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fears among frontline medical teams are growing as the outbreak worsens, with more than 900 suspected cases of the virus.

WASHINGTON  — Louisiana’s state attorneys on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to stand aside for now and to uphold an appeals court ruling that would stop the mailing of abortion pills nationwide.

They blamed former President Biden for undermining the state’s strict bans on abortion and the Trump administration for slow-walking a study on the federal regulations that permit sending the pills through the mail.

The justices are likely to act soon on emergency appeals filed by two makers of mifepristone. They argued the pills have been shown to be safe and effective for ending an early pregnancy.

But last week, the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled for Louisiana and revived an earlier regulation that would require women to obtain the pills in person from a doctor.

The three-judge panel also took the unusual step for putting its order into effect immediately. On Monday, Justice Samuel A. Alito, who oversees the 5th Circuit, issued an administrative stay that will keep the case on hold through Monday.

The justices have to decide whether Louisiana had standing to sue over the federal drug regulations, and if so, whether judges have the authority to overrule the Food and Drug Administration.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court by a 9-0 vote dismissed a similar challenge to the abortion pills that came from the 5th Circuit. And Chief Justice John G. Roberts has said in the past that judges should usually defer to the federal agency that is responsible fo regulating drugs.

In response to anti-abortion advocates, Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. agreed to have the FDA review the safety record of mifepristone.

It was approved in 2000 as safe and effective for ending early pregnancies. And in the past decade, the agency had relaxed earlier restrictions, including a requirement that pregnant women visit a doctor’s office to obtain the pills.

But the FDA said last month its review is far from complete.

In October, Louisiana Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill decided to bypass the FDA review and went to federal court seeking a ruling that would prevent the pills being sent by mail.

A federal judge refused to decide on the issue while the FDA was undertaking its review. But the 5th Circuit chose to act now. The Louisiana state attorney put the focus on the Biden administration.

When the Supreme Court was considering the Dobbs case, which overruled Roe vs. Wade and the right to abortion, “the Biden Administration was preparing a plan that predictably would undermine that decision,” she wrote in Thursday’s response.

“Although Louisiana law generally prohibits abortion and the dispensing of mifepristone to pregnant women, out-of-state prescribers—freed from the in-person dispensing requirement — are causing approximately 1,000 illegal abortions in Louisiana each month by mailing FDA-approved mifepristone into the state,” she said.

The Trump administration has yet to tell the court of its views on this case.

BBC Morning Live’s legal expert, Gary Rycroft said he thought he was suffering from asthma

A BBC star has explained how he was horrified to be ‘hours’ from a potentially lethal heart attack after undergoing a surgical procedure. BBC Morning Live’s legal expert, Gary Rycroft, told hosts Rick Edwards and Helen Skelton that he had been suffering from a few chest pains, but put it down to just getting older.

He decided to do the Couch to 5k challenge – and said he had never felt better in many ways. He said: “I think it’s typical of dare I say men of my age, where we ignore things. We think we’re getting old. I didn’t wear glasses till I was 50. My hearing really is not as good as it used to be.

“So when I started to get chest pains walking my dog, I live on top of a hill, so I’m up and down the hill two or three times a day walking to work, walking my dog, and I’d say every fortnight or so I’d get a chest pain and it would it would pass really quickly. So I didn’t really think anything of it. I put it to the back of my mind as people tend to do.”

Mr Rycroft said whatever people do they should get any symptoms checked out. He only got it checked out because he was doing the Couch to 5k and thought he’d like to hear from a doctor.

He said: “I actually did feel a lot better and I lost quite a bit of weight. So, I was feeling really good, but I’d started this diagnostic journey with my GP. So, I’d had an ECG. They checked out the electrics of the heart. That was fine. And then in January, I went to have a cardiac CT scan, which is kind of an X-ray of the heart to check out the structure and check out the plumbing.

“And when I got the result of that a couple of weeks later, it was really quite bad news which floored me, which was actually the main artery to your heart is pretty much blocked. And of course, you start googling and it was called the left anterior descending artery. Not very helpfully on the internet, it’s often referred to as the widow maker. So, suddenly I was in quite a dark place to be honest, and it was quite stressful for my partner Jenny and the kids.”

It was when he had the straightforward operation to put in a stent that the full extent became clear. Gary said: “The next thing to do is called an invasive angiogram, where they put a little tube up your wrist, and they fit what’s called a stent.

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“So, I had that procedure. It was all done in about 40 minutes. It was pretty remarkable. And you know, thank goodness for medical science. When I came round from that, the cardiologist was kind of, you know, you’re a very lucky person, because you were probably hours or days from having a massive potentially fatal heart attack. So, that was that was quite a lot to take in.“

Doctor Xand van Tulleken said: “If you’ve had this procedure I mean they are safe. They are very common and Gary’s risk you know it is traumatic having these things. You get much closer to death than you would want to. But if you can manage your blood pressure, your cholesterol, quit smoking, manage your risk factors, your GP will help you with all of that afterwards, you you you know Gary’s life expectancy is pretty much the same as it was before the procedure, which is fantastic. That’s the reason to go and have it done.

Gary added: “This is a silent killer for people in their 50s and 60s and people will have lost people. And I wanted to talk about this because I wanted to say to people, don’t wait as long as I did. I had a very close shave. Don’t wait as long as I did. And if you’re living with someone who’s concerned, encourage them to have that conversation. If something’s not quite right, it’s well worth checking it out.”

Meghan Trainor is turning off the microphone.

The singer announced in an Instagram Story that she is canceling her Get in Girl tour. “This is the right decision for my family and me right now,” Trainor explained Thursday, saying that the decision came “after a lot of reflection and some really tough conversations.”

“Balancing the release of a new album, preparing for a nationwide tour and welcoming our new baby girl to our growing family of five has just been more than I can take on right now, and I need to be home and present for each and all of them at this time,” Trainor wrote.

Trainor apologized to her fans, but promised that she will be “back soon.” She also shared that she “can’t wait” for fans to hear her new album, “Toy With Me,” which will be released April 24.

“I know this will come as a disappointment to my fans, and I am so sorry to let you down,” Trainor said. “I’m endlessly grateful for your love and support always.”

Trainor announced the Get in Girl tour in November and was set to kick it off June 12 in Clarkston, Mich. The tour included stops at Madison Square Garden in New York City and the United Center in Chicago and was to conclude at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles.

Social media users speculated that the tour’s cancellation was due to low ticket sales, with Ticketmaster seating charts in some stadiums showing very few seats sold. Influencer and Trainor’s close friend Chris Olsen took to TikTok to push back against the “predictably vicious” online comments about the tour.

“This is a bigger conversation than just her and people’s feelings toward Meghan,” Olsen said. “The question that always comes up for me is ‘Why? And what is the end goal?’”

The singer welcomed her third child with her husband, Daryl Sabara, via surrogate in January. Trainor, who has been candid about her struggles during her first two pregnancies, explained on Instagram that she was “forever grateful to all the doctors, nurses, teams who made this dream possible.”

“We had endless conversations with our doctors in this journey and this was the safest way for us to be able to continue growing our family,” Trainor wrote.

Dr Xand van Tulleken told viewers ‘it can be like a heart attack for your legs’

A BBC doctor has given a worrying update for anyone who has woken up in the morning with a pain in the leg. Appearing on BBC Morning Live, Dr Xand van Tulleken told viewers they should ‘never’ just write symptoms off as what happens due to ageing.

Many people get aches and pains, but specific discomfort in the legs should be investigated, he said. Host Helen Skelton said: “We’re looking at protecting our health now, though. And if you started this morning with a pain in your leg, you’re not alone.

“It’s thought that one in five people over the age of 60 is living with a blood vessel disorder.“ Dr Xand said “It’s really important that no one should ever regard any symptoms they have as just part of getting older. If you have a symptom and you don’t know why you have it, you need to get an explanation.

“Whether it’s shortness of breath or pain in your legs. There are lots of different causes for pain in your legs, but this morning we’re talking about peripheral arterial disease, which is a sort of intimidating medical term, but really we mean just peripheral, meaning it’s at the outside of your body. It’s in your legs rather than being in your heart or your brain.”

Arterial disease might be the cause – and that’s a condition which can mean there are serious health issues at stake beyond just aching legs. Dr Xand said “Arterial disease is the same problems that gives us heart attacks and strokes. Your blood vessels narrow over time. They can calcify, they harden, they clog up with cholesterol, and you are left with a narrower space for blood to flow through and that means that you’re not getting a sufficient blood supply to your legs and that can give you leg pain.

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“And you can think of it a little bit like in the same way that some people get angina, they get heart pain when they exercise, when they move around. This is a bit like angina for your legs. And sometimes if those blood vessels completely clog off, it can be like a heart attack for your legs.”

The NHS says many people with PAD have no symptoms. However, some develop a painful ache in their legs when they walk, which usually disappears after a few minutes’ rest. The medical term for this is “intermittent claudication”.

The pain can affect 1 or both legs, range from mild to severe, and usually goes away after a few minutes when the person rests their legs.

Other symptoms of PAD can include:

• hair loss on your legs and feet
• numbness or weakness in the legs
• brittle, slow-growing toenails
• ulcers (open sores) on your feet and legs, which do not heal
• changing skin colour on your legs, such as turning paler than usual or blue – this may be harder to see on brown and black skin
• shiny skin
• in men, erectile dysfunction
• the muscles in your legs shrinking (wasting)

The NHS adds: “The symptoms of PAD often develop slowly, over time. If your symptoms develop quickly, or get suddenly worse, it could be a sign of a serious problem requiring immediate treatment.”

Dr Xand added: “The quality of the pain is quite specific. I mean, the way that people describe it and it typically wouldn’t be a pain that you’d get when you’re just sitting still, much like angina. It’s the pain that comes from not getting enough oxygen to your muscles. Those blood vessels aren’t working. And so, people tend to describe a kind of deep, heavy ache, like they’re just not, and you can almost feel that thing of just not getting enough.

“It’s a bit like if you’re lifting weights at the gym, if you go beyond your limits, you know, your muscles really start to hurt. It’s a similar thing. The pain is called claudication, but it’s that kind of pain. And typically, if you rest, it’ll go away again. So, that’s the that’s the kind of pain, but there are other changes that you can look for as well.”

He said people might see changes in their legs which could indicate the problem. Dr Xand said: “If you do look at your legs, you may see some changes if you don’t have a good enough blood supply. So, things like loss of hair on your legs would be an examples. The hair the hair can’t grow anymore because you’re not getting enough nutrients to your leg.

“Cold feet, the warm blood from the middle of your body is no longer reaching your feet. Ulcers or cuts are not healing because your immune system carried in your bloodstream is not reaching those and so you’re getting skin breakdown. You’re not getting antibodies and white blood cells and things like that. Changes in skin tone. So, your skin may look kind of mottled and gray as if it’s not getting enough blood. And then your toenails, you may think, I haven’t cut my toenails in a while. Well, are they just simply growing because they’re not getting the nutrients from the bloodstream that they need. So, those are things that might be a clue.”

Tackling the problem

A main cause is smoking, Dr Xand said, and also making sure people get cholesterol, blood pressure measured and check if you have diabetes. He said exercise is a good way of trying to improve the situation: “This may sound a bit a bit paradoxical, may sound like it’s hard to exercise, you’re getting pain when you exercise, but doing some exercise can stimulate the growth of new blood vessels. It can help those blood vessels open up.

“It will lower your cholesterol. It will lower your blood pressure. It will lower your stress. It will improve your blood sugar. You get so many wins from doing a bit of exercise.”

More information from the NHS here.