HEALTH NOTES: New drug to dissolve blood clots in your legs for people with deep vein thrombosis

Scientists are developing a new way to dissolve blood clots in people with deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

The painful condition occurs when a clot forms in a vein, usually in the leg. It can become dangerous (and potentially fatal) if a part breaks off and blocks the blood supply to the lungs.

Although traditionally treated with anticoagulant drugs to decrease the blood’s ability to clot, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer is testing a new type of drug, called anti-alpha 2 antiplasmin antibody, that can dissolve clots.

It is hoped that the drug will help regulate the way blood clots are broken down so that this can be done safely.

your amazing body

Natural blondes are hairier. Because light-colored hairs are finer than dark hairs, blonde heads can have up to 20 percent more follicles.

A typical blonde has between 120,000 and 140,000 hairs on her head, while a brunette has an average of 100,000 to 110,000 and redheads have only between 80,000 and 90,000.

Hair color comes from melanin, which is also responsible for skin and eye color. Less melanin means finer strands but more hair.

Only two percent of the world’s population is naturally blonde and the hair color is due to a genetic trait.

How obese women ‘pay more for IVF’

British women could be paying more for fertility treatments (file image)

British women could be paying too much for fertility treatment because of their weight.

A study of 32 fertility clinics found that their BMI limits for moving forward with treatment ranged from 20.9 (a healthy weight) to 40 (extremely obese).

However, private centers had higher limits than NHS clinics, forcing many older women to pay higher bills for their fertility treatment. Around 44 per cent of women of childbearing age in the UK are obese and have a BMI of 30 or more.

Dr Lynae Brayboy from Ovom Care, the fertility clinic which led the study, says: “The discrepancy in BMI limits for private and NHS-funded patients is worrying.”

Stroke survivors are using a specially developed phone app to help them communicate better.

Aphasia, a disease that impairs speech, affects a third of stroke sufferers and can also limit victims’ reading and listening abilities.

But using the iTalkBetter app, developed by researchers at University College London, for 90 minutes a day for six weeks increased 27 testers’ ability to name common items by 13 percent through games and feedback. It will soon be available for download.

Strokes affect around 100,000 people in the UK each year. They occur most often when clots cut off the blood supply to the brain.

They can cause devastating speech problems and paralysis on one side of the body, symptoms that can take a long time to recover from.

A dose of cowpox… from your cat

‘Has anyone else’s cat ever come home with a strange message on its collar?’ she asked (values)

A British woman almost lost her sight due to cowpox, a rare viral infection she contracted from her cat.

According to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the woman, 28, had suffered discharge from her right eye for five days. Her symptoms worsened despite antibiotics and antiviral medications, and doctors worried she would lose her vision.

By chance, she said her cat had sores on its paws and head, prompting doctors to test for orthopoxviruses, a family of viruses that includes smallpox, which can infect cows, cats, rodents and, in rare cases, sometimes, to humans.

The patient required prolonged treatment with antiviral drugs and surgery to remove dead tissue around the eye, but after six months she had made a full recovery.