Young Professor dies from Lung Cancer....

University professor, 37, dies from lung cancer after string of doctors dismissed symptoms as 'anxiety and depression'

• Lisa Smirl, 37, saw three doctors with a range of symptoms over a year
• Had been suffering from shortness of breath, weight loss and arm pain
• Despite this, doctors dismissed her symptoms as psychological
• By the time cancer was diagnosed it had spread throughout her body
• Cambridge-educated lecturer died last month, a year after being diagnosed

By Anna Hodgekiss
PUBLISHED:11:24 GMT, 8 March 2013| UPDATED:15:56 GMT, 8 March 2013

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A university professor died of lung cancer aged 37 after doctors repeatedly dismissed her illness as 'purely psychological'.

Lisa Smirl, 37, saw three different doctors with a range of symptoms over a year-long period but they were dismissed as anxiety and depression.

By the time cancer was finally diagnosed it had spread throughout her body and was terminal.
Dr Smirl, who was married to a medical doctor and lived in Leeds and Brighton, kept a heartbreaking online blog about her treatment.

Misdiagnosis: Despite Lisa Smirl seeing three doctors with symptoms, her lung cancer was repeatedly written off as 'anxiety and depression'

 

 

 

Shortly after her diagnosis, she wrote: 'How is it possible that a 36-year-old, health [obsessed] conscious, occasionally social smoking, middle class, fiance of a doctor can develop metastatic lung cancer unnoticed. How?!?

'What the consultant told us was that not only was it the c-word, but that it was everywhere.

'My brain, my bones, my liver. While in some ways this was a terrible surprise, in another it was a huge relief.

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'For the last year I'd been battling a range of bizarre and seemingly disparate symptoms that had forced me in September 2011 to go on sick leave from my job as a lecturer (assistant professor).

'The diagnosis at the time was anxiety and/or depression. And while I was both anxious and depressed, this was due to the increasingly disabling symptoms that my doctor kept insisting were purely psychological.

'So I was actually grateful for a medical diagnosis that confirmed there were objective, physical reasons behind my illness.'


Cambridge-educated Dr Smirl, who was originally from Canada, wrote how she first experienced shortness of breath and wheezing in late 2010, which was wrongly diagnosed as asthma.


  

Not psychological: Lisa Smirl said in her blog she was relieved to have a concrete diagnosis even though it was of cancer

 

 

In spring 2011, she was referred to a physiotherapist for shoulder and arm pain and started experiencing 'visual migraines' - losing her vision for half an hour - in June.

By September 2011, Dr Smirl was so sick she was forced to leave work, having been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and put on anti-depressants.

But despite a dramatic weight loss, she claimed three different family doctors refused to consider her symptoms in connection with each other.

Relief: Dr Smirl wrote a blog on her diagnosis, saying she was 'actually grateful' for a medical diagnosis that confirmed there were 'objective, physical reasons' behind her symptoms

 

 

She wrote: 'Still, despite my pleas, and a dramatic weight loss, none of my doctors (and I saw three different family practitioners) would consider my symptoms in conjunction with one another - insisting that they were all common, unrelated problems (migraines, asthma, depression, back pain).'

In November 2011, she misread her asthma prescription and took ten times the recommended amount - but the drug made no difference to a violent cough.

Her doctor finally sent her for a routine X-ray and within hours, she was given the devastating news that she had cancer.

On her blog, called Stage V - as stage IV of cancer is considered terminal - she describes her journey from 'a woman diagnosed with "anxiety" to one with metastatic cancer'.

Dr Smirl wrote: 'I can't prove it, and this is just my opinion, but I have no doubt in my own mind that my misdiagnosis was in large part due to the fact that I was a middle aged female and that my male doctors were preconceived towards a psychological rather than a physiological diagnosis.

'It is so easy to say that someone's symptoms are "anxiety" related if they are a little bit complicated, unclear or unusual. Don't repeat my mistakes.

'You know when something is wrong. Find another doctor that you connect with and who takes your concerns seriously. Get referrals. Get tested. Refuse to be dismissed.'
Dr Smirl worked in the global studies department at the University of Sussex between 2009 and 2012, but took early retirement.

Despite battling the disease, she maintained an honorary lectureship in the department until her death on February 21.
She also completed a Great North Run to raise funds for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation in November 2012.

 

 

A blog post from November 3 2012, marking the one year anniversary of Lisa's lung cancer diagnosis

 

Professor Richard Black, head of the school of global studies at the University of Sussex, led tributes.

He said: 'Lisa was a fantastic colleague and friend, a great teacher and researcher and truly inspirational in the way she dealt with her illness.'

Professor Justin Rosenberg, head of international relations, added: 'Lisa was an outstanding colleague who shared her intellectual and personal vivacity with academics and students alike.'

West Sussex PCT and the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust were unable to confirm that they were involved with Lisa's treatment.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2290128/University-professor-37-dies-lung-cancer-doctors-dismissed-symptoms-anxiety-depression.html#ixzz2N3H63CWE
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How to lower your cholestrol....

Why looking on the bright side of life could lower your cholesterol

• Middle-aged people who are optimistic were found to have better levels of 'good' cholesterol
• Also had lower levels of triglycerides, the fatty molecules involved in hardening of the arteries
• May be due to their tendency to have a healthy body weight and a 'prudent' diet, say Harvard researchers

By Anna Hodgekiss
PUBLISHED:12:52 GMT, 6 March 2013| UPDATED:13:06 GMT, 6 March 2013

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People with a sunny disposition are less likely to have high cholesterol, new research suggests.

Middle-aged optimists were found to have better levels of 'good' cholesterol, which has a protective effect on the heart and helps cancel out 'bad' cholesterol.
They also had lower levels of triglycerides, the fatty molecules involved in hardening of the arteries, said the researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health.

 

Be Happy: Middle-aged people who are optimistic were found to have better levels of 'good' cholesterol, which has a protective effect on the heart

 

 

Part of the reason may be due to the optimists' tendency to have a healthy body weight and a 'prudent' diet, say the researchers.

They analysed data from the Midlife in the United States study, which included phone interviews and lab tests for 990 people aged 40 to 70.

Based on the interviews, participants' levels of optimism were rated on a scale from 6 to 30 depending on their agreement or disagreement with statements such as 'in uncertain times I usually expect the best', and so on.

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People with higher optimism scores also had more high-density lipoprotein (HDL) - the desirable form of cholesterol that is believed to protect against heart disease.
For every increase of five points on the optimism scale, HDL in the blood increased by one milligram per deciliter.
That same HDL increase would translated to a three per cent reduction in the risk for heart disease, the researchers said.

For comparison, regular exercise can decrease heart disease risk by six per cent.

Optimists also have higher levels of triglycerides, the fatty molecules involved in hardening of the arteries

 

But there was no connection between optimism and total cholesterol levels, or to low-density lipoproteins (LDL), the bad' cholesterol.

Lead study author Julia Boeh said: 'It is one additional piece of evidence suggesting that our psychological health and physical health are intertwined, and that viewing the world optimistically may have some tangible benefits for our health.'
Previous research by Boehm and her colleagues had shown a link between optimism and lowered heart attack risk, so they decided to look at whether there was an independent connection between optimistic or pessimistic outlooks and cholesterol, which is known to play a role in heart attack risk.
Franz Messerli, a cardiologist at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, who was not involved in the study, said: 'It's still impossible to say whether optimism causes a change in cholesterol, or cholesterol influences outlook, or both are subject to some third variable.'

The Harvard researchers did try to account for other influences, and when they factored in lifestyles, including diet and alcohol consumption, and body weight - the link between optimism and blood fats became weaker.

That suggests that optimists' tendency to have healthier lifestyles and weight may explain 'in part' the differences in their blood lipids, researchers said.

Conversely, the risk of heart attack and stroke goes up in depressed people, Messerli said. 'But nobody has shown the opposite, that all of a sudden if you go from a pessimist to an optimist your risk goes down.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2289025/Why-looking-bright-life-lower-cholesterol.html#ixzz2Mm8ZcF9E
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Female brains are more efficient.....

Women really do have smaller brains... but they use them more efficiently than men

• Female brains are typically 8 per cent smaller
• However they are more efficient at tracking changes and inductive reasoning

By Neil Sears
PUBLISHED:20:55 GMT, 3 March 2013| UPDATED:23:23 GMT, 3 March 2013

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It's a standing joke among many men... that women have smaller brains.

Now research seems to indicate that while this may be true, it doesn’t matter because women use their brains more efficiently.

A woman’s works more efficiently than the man’s by using less energy and fewer brain cells to achieve the same, or even better results.

 

Smaller brains, greater efficiency: Research has found that despite women having 8 per cent smaller brains this could help it perform quicker

 

 

 

It could be because while men have more of the bundles of brain cells essential for reasoning - neurons - the women have more connections between theirs, enabling quicker thinking despite having less grey matter.

The new research, carried out by University of California neuroscientists assisted by colleagues in Madrid, set out to question why women, with brains typically 8 per cent small than those of men, were of equal intelligence.

It focused on the section of the brain known as the hippocampus - vital for a useful memory and emotions.

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In men, the larger the hippocampus, and the more neurons, the higher the intelligence.

But the researchers found that in women, a larger hippocampus, typically of course smaller than men’s, was no indication of greater intelligence - and even suggested that the smaller the hippocampus, the better.

The scientists carried out psychological tests on 59 women and 45 men aged from 18 to 27.

In line with previous studies they found the women were better at inductive reasoning and tracking a changing situation, while the men showed greater prowess at spatial reasoning.

 

Brain power: Men showed greater prowess at spatial reasoning, but fell behind women on inductive reasoning and tracking changing situations

 

But the women’s brains were the more efficient, suggested the published results of the research, published in the scientific journal Intelligence.

The paper concluded: ‘At this structural level, females might show greater efficiency requiring less neural material for achieving behavioural results on a par with males.’
 
Cambridge University professor of Trevor Robbins said the research was fascinating but required further examination.

Prof Robbins said: ‘The research suggests that, in women, the smaller the hippocampus, the better it works. The size of a structure doesn’t necessarily bear any relation to how well it performs.

‘The smaller size could represent more intense packing of nerve cells or more active signalling between them, meaning they are operating more efficiently.’


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2287523/Women-really-smaller-brains--use-efficiently-men.html#ixzz2MZztgvle
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