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 possibly life-threatening – if a part breaks off and blocks blood flow to the lungs.

While traditionally treated with blood-thinning medications to reduce the blood’s ability to clot, 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 how 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, this means that blonde heads can have up to 20 percent more follicles.

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

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

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

How obese women ‘pay more for IVF’

British women could pay more for fertility treatments (stock image)

British women are said to be paying too much for fertility treatment because of their weight.

A survey of 32 fertility clinics found that their BMI cutoff for going through treatment ranged between 20.9 (a healthy weight) and 40 (extremely obese).

However, private centers had higher limits than NHS clinics, forcing many larger women to pay more expensive bills for their fertility treatment. About 44 percent of women of childbearing age in Britain are obese, with a BMI of 30 or more.

Dr. Lynae Brayboy from Ovom Care – the fertility clinic that carried out the research – said: ‘The discrepancy in BMI cut-offs for private and NHS-funded patients is glaring.’

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

Speech-impairing aphasia affects a third of people with a stroke and can also limit victims’ reading and listening skills.

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 be available for download soon.

About 100,000 people are affected by strokes in Britain every year. They usually occur when the blood supply to the brain is cut off by clots.

They can cause devastating speech problems and paralysis on one side of the body – symptoms from which recovery can take a long time.

A dose of cowpox… from your cat

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

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

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

Coincidentally, she said her cat had sores on its paws and head, which led doctors to test for orthopox virus, a family of viruses that includes smallpox, which affects cows, cats, rodents and, rarely, humans can infect.

The patient required a long course of antiviral medications and surgery to remove dead tissue around her eye, but after six months she made a full recovery.