A recent study by BBC Online found that computer keyboards
in this country harbour even more bugs than toilet seats.
Many of us are now obsessed with household cleanliness and get the bleach
and cleansers out every day, like demented extras facing Kim and Aggie from
TV’s How Clean is Your House?
And while most of us eat and drop crumbs at our terminals, few take time to
regularly keep our computers clean and germ free.
This is particularly important for people with compromised immune systems,
including those living with HIV and Aids.
So once a week it is worth giving your computer, mouse and screen a good wipe
to get rid of bugs.
Clean your machine when switched off (otherwise the latter-day Luddites among
us will send obscure emails around the world) and use an alcohol-based cleanser
on a clean, cotton cloth.
My Spanish lover swears by the effective cleaning power of Stolichnaya vodka,
but I consider it a bit of a waste and prefer to use a an old bottle of pongy
aftershave. But my colleague John is driven crazy by its offensive whiff and
has now presented me with a pristine bottle of a specialist screen and keyboard
cleaning fluid.
They say cleanliness is next to godliness so my easy New Year’s resolution
might even bring me closer to my maker - if he or she exists.
A study of 6,000 US adults with liver problems found that
coffee and caffeine consumption reduced levels of potentially dangerous liver
enzymes and improved liver function.
The study looked at people with liver damage due to excessive alcohol consumption,
viral hepatitis, impaired glucose metabolism or being severely overweight.
It found that those who drank two cups of coffee a day had lower levels of
abnormal serum ALT (alanine aminotransferase) activity.
The authors told the journal Gastroenterology: “In this large, national,
population-based study, among persons at high risk of liver injury, consumption
of coffee and especially caffeine was associated with lower risk of elevated
ALT activity.”
And since caffeine levels are even higher in most cups of tea drunk in this
country, the same boost to the liver will also come to regular tea drinkers.
Recent outbreaks of multi-drug resistant bugs like MRSA (methiccin
resistant staphylococcus aureus) in UK hospitals have prompted the Patients
Association to produce advice for patients and visitors.
Suggestions include bringing your own medical wipes and scrubbing up first.
Patients should ask visiting friends to launder their clothes and make sure
they have washed themselves properly before entering the ward.
Visitors, as well as hospital staff, should be asked to wash their hands before
coming near the patients and should collect and dispose of their own rubbish
to cut the risk of infection.
The association made their recommendations to health minister Lord Warner
last month at the Clean Hospitals Summit.
Hygiene in hospitals is a hot issue following privatisation of NHS cleaning
services and is even appearing on billboards in the early skirmishes between
the political parties before the general election, expected by most observers
on 5 May.
Researchers from Taiwan suggest that listening to relaxing
music before bedtime can make for better and deeper sleep.
They found the technique was easy to learn and lacked the side effects of
sleeping tablets and other treatments.
The Journal of Advanced Nursing reports that scientists studied the sleeping
patterns of 60 elderly people and found listening to soft slow jazz, with
around 60 to 80 beats a minute, led to a lower heart and respiratory rate
and deeper and longer night-time sleep.
The study found a 35 per cent improvement in the sleep of the people who listened
to soothing jazz for 45 minutes before bedtime.
