The health of the Irish

Irish people rate their personal health highly.
New research shows that Irish people are very positive about the state of their health, despite statistics that show Ireland has one the highest rates of cancer and heart disease in Europe.
The average Irish person rates their health at nearly eight out of ten, according to the Pfizer Health Index. A third of respondents said they would not want information on conditions they were at risk of developing.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) says the study shows the importance of putting a greater emphasis on health promotion and prevention. The HSE says more supports need to be put in place to help people to improve their health as well as focusing on issues like housing, education and environment that have a major impact on peoples' wellbeing.

Cases of cancer have increased almost 3% every year since the mid 1990s. The hike is due to the country’s ageing and growing population, according to the National Cancer Registry’s 1994-2005 review. It said the risk of developing the potentially fatal condition, while small, continues to increase, but death rates remain the same as those in 1994 and the risk of dying is dropping by 1.5% annually.
Prostate cancer was the most prevalent form of the illness for men, with numbers diagnosed growing 7% annually.
Kidney, uterus, breast and lung cancers were the most common forms of the condition in women.
“There is no single explanation for these trends, Of concern is the continuing upward trend in lung cancer in women, which is due to smoking. equally worrying are the trends in melanoma of the skin, which is related to sun exposure. It is striking that a number of these cancers, those of the kidney, breast and uterus, have all been linked to excess weight and obesity, which are rapidly increasing in Ireland" a National Cancer Registry spokesman said.
The Registry said the hike in prostate cancer diagnosis was down to the use of PSA blood tests, widely used by health professionals to detect the condition.

The risk of dying from most cancers is falling, but for melanoma of the skin, cancer of the kidney, in men, and cancer of the rectum, the risks are increasing.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) announced it plans to review centres providing breast cancer services across the state.
It comes after Barringtons Hospital in Limerick was last week ordered to suspend its breast cancer treatment services after concerns were raised about the care given to at least 10 patients.
Thousands of scans carried out on breast cancer patients who attended Portlaoise’s Midland Regional Hospital over an almost four-year period are also to be reviewed, it emerged yesterday

HIQA Chief Executive Dr Tracey Cooper said: “In light of recent events that have given rise to anxiety and concern regarding the quality of symptomatic breast disease services in Ireland, it is important that we can assure that, regardless of where a woman receives care for symptomatic breast disease, she is receiving the highest quality of care as laid out in the standards. “It is also important to reassure people that there are a number of high quality facilities already providing this level of care within Ireland and a quality review programme will ensure that this is the case across the country,” she said.
The Minister for Health Mary Harney yesterday defended the Government's failure to implement a plan over the last seven years which would have seen safer breast cancer services put in place for patients.

There is some good news on the state of the nations health.
Heart Attacks Tumble After Irish Smoking Ban, Say Irish Doctors based at Cork University Hospital.
Edmond Cronin and colleagues at Cork University Hospital said an analysis of people admitted with heart attacks to public hospitals in southwest Ireland showed an 11 percent fall in the year after the ban came into effect in March 2004. "This should further encourage health authorities to look at more smoking bans around the world," he said in an interview at the annual European Society of Cardiology congress, where the data was presented.
Smoking, which leads to heart disease as well as lung cancer and other serious respiratory conditions, is the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide.
More recent research also suggests that inhaling tobacco smoke, either directly or passively, can trigger a heart attack.
The World Health Organisation called in May for a global ban on smoking at work and in enclosed public places, arguing there was no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.
The International Union against Cancer estimates that recent anti-smoking legislation in some European countries and parts of Australia, Canada and the United States now means that around 240 million people worldwide are protected by smoke-free rules.
Amazingly other research presented at this week's cardiology congress showed that while the dangers of smoking are becoming ever more clear, one in five patients diagnosed with heart disease still continue to smoke.

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The health of the Irish