HEALTH NOTES: Hidden wave of sleep paralysis is caused by pandemic stress, experts claim

Sleep paralysis could be far more common than previously thought.

The condition – in which sufferers are conscious but unable to move or speak as they fall asleep and wake up – ranked third, behind insomnia and sleep apnoea, among Google searches for help with sleep problems compiled from 60 countries. 

It had been thought that only eight per cent of the UK population were affected.

Experts believe it can be caused by irregular sleep and stress.

Last year, a number of British sleep experts warned that the pandemic was triggering a rise in those suffering with the condition.

Kidney patients lack home care

Almost half of cancer patients don’t access vital support services such as psychological therapy and free taxis to hospital appointments, because they don’t know about them, a survey has found.

To help remedy this the Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund, who carried out the survey, has provuides a free, simple to use, online directory of cancer support services, at cancercaremap.org.

Fund chairman Jonathan Dimbleby said: ‘After cancer treatment, you almost always need support.’

NHS doctors will use artificial intelligence to spot the early signs of bowel cancer in a UK trial.

More than 2,000 people will undergo a colonoscopy in the trial at nine hospitals, where a camera inserted in the bowel helps doctors to spot pre-cancerous tissue called polyps. But these images will then undergo further scrutiny from the sophisticated computer program to check what may have been missed.

Early studies have shown that the technology, designed by medical device-maker Medtronic, misses far fewer polyps than the human eye.

Finding polyps is crucial to preventing the spread of bowel cancer, which kills more than 16,000 Britons a year. 

NHS doctors will use artificial intelligence to spot the early signs of bowel cancer in a UK trial

Thousands of Britons with kidney failure are being denied the chance to have lifesaving treatment at home, according to a report.

About 68,000 people suffer kidney failure, which leaves the body unable to remove waste products from blood. They rely on dialysis, either in hospital or at home, which is a device that cleans the blood, taking about fours hours a time, three times a week.

In some parts of the UK just one patient in 25 is offered dialysis at home, compared with a third of patients in other areas, according to NHS data. The locations were not revealed.

Patient advocate Maddy Warren, who co-wrote the report for medical company Quanta Dialysis, says: ‘Relying on hospital dialysis can prevent people from getting a job, seeing family and enjoying life.’