Resources

This article focuses on the benefits of physical activity for people with a common long-term condition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It highlights the evidence and explains the importance of both increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary time for health. The availability of brief interventions for physical activity in primary care vary widely and therefore this article offers some suggestions about how to close that gap and broach the subject in practice. It introduces some free new resources for people with COPD to support them to become more physically active.

The Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet) is one that has been followed by certain populations from warmer climates for thousands of years. Many of these people seem to live in good health to an advanced age. Is this due to where they live and maybe a more laid-back lifestyle, or is their diet also responsible for this rude health? More recently, the popularity and publicity on the MedDiet seems to have grown exponentially

While most people breathe without thinking about it — it just happens automatically — there are considerations as to why it is better to breathe through your nose than your mouth. Here, Alexandra Murrell, nurse lecturer at Kingston University, explores some of the literature around some of the causes of mouth breathing and why general practice nurses (GPNs) should be alert to signs of mouth breathing in both adults and children.

Covid-19 was a healthcare emergency that affected everyone in the UK to varying degrees. Even leaving out the tragic number of deaths and long-term effects of the infection itself, the restrictions and isolation measures led to huge changes, some of which have continued to echo throughout our lives. Many of us have yet to resume a full social life through anxiety or losing touch with friends, and businesses — particularly those in the hospitality sector — have yet to fully recover, and many workplaces have yet to welcome workers back.

Dermatological conditions are notoriously difficult to spell! Psoriasis with its silent ‘P’ and eczema without an ‘X’. But how about hidradenitis suppurativa (HS)? Hard to spell, hard to pronounce but, more importantly, really hard to be a patient with the condition.

The Asthma+Lung UK helpline takes more than 1,000 calls a month from people who are struggling with their asthma and need advice and support to manage their symptoms. Asthma is a common lung condition affecting 5.4 million people in the UK, and is more prevalent among women than men (https://ukdataservice.ac.uk). The charity’s recent analysis finds that women are, shockingly, almost twice as likely to die from an asthma attack than men (Asthma+Lung UK, 2022).

#AskAboutAsthma is an annual awareness campaign that takes place in September. Now in its sixth year, the campaign is about making simple changes to children and young people’s care that will make a big difference to how they experience their asthma. Primary care clinicians are critical to making these changes, with general practice nurses (GPNs) playing a vital role.

The National Paediatric Respiratory and Allergy Nurses Group (NPRANG) was formed 27 years ago as an asthma group for nurse specialists, with the first meeting taking place at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool. The group met annually before becoming part of the Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN) Respiratory Group when they had independent learning groups. However, when the learning groups within the RCN merged, NPRANG became an independent group with members from all fields of respiratory and allergy medicine.

Early prostate cancer does not usually have any symptoms. So, when discussing with men the pros and cons of having a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, it is important to consider the risk factors.