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A pill costing less than £1.50 a day has the potential to save the lives of thousands of heart failure patients, medical trials suggest.

The drug, ivabradine, is already available in the UK to treat angina.

Prof Martin Cowie, who led the UK-based part of the study, said it could save up to 10,000 lives each year.

The trial involved more than 6,500 people in 37 countries who already used standard treatments such as beta-blocker drugs.

Over a typical study period of two years, ivabradine cut the risk of death from heart failure by 26%.

It had a similar impact on the likelihood of patients being admitted to hospital.

The research findings were presented at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Stockholm.

More than 700,000 people over the age of 45 are thought to live with heart failure, which occurs when damage to the heart leaves it too weak to pump blood efficiently round the body.

Heart failure uses up 1% to 2% of the total NHS budget and direct medical costs alone amounting to £625m each year.

Unlike other treatments, such as beta-blockers, ivabradine lowers the number of heartbeats per minute without also reducing blood pressure.

Prof Cowie, a consultant cardiologist at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital, said estimates that 10,000 deaths could be prevented in the UK by prescribing the drug to eligible patients were conservative.

He said: “The evidence represents a significant clinical breakthrough in the management of heart failure and is incredibly important information for patients with this condition.

“We now know that more lives can be saved and improved simply by adding ivabradine to their current treatment in order to take some of the strain off the heart.

“It is vital that the results of this study are implemented and ivabradine is used as part of standard heart failure treatment as soon as possible.”

Although ivabradine is already available in the UK for angina – the pain caused by insufficient blood reaching the heart – it is only prescribed to about 10% of patients with the condition.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Smoking cannabis from a pipe can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients with damaged nerves, a study suggests.

A small study of 23 people also showed improvements with sleep and anxiety.

Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the researchers said larger studies using inhaler-type devices for cannabis were needed.

UK experts said the pain relief seen was small but potentially important, and more investigation was warranted.

Around 1 to 2% of people have chronic neuropathic pain – pain due to problems with signalling between nerves – but effective treatments are lacking.

Some patients with this type of chronic pain say smoking cannabis helps with their symptoms.

And researchers have been investigating whether taking cannabinoids – the chemicals within cannabis that effect pain – in pill form could have the same effect.

But the team from McGill University in Montreal said clinical trials on smoked cannabis were lacking.

The study used three different potencies of cannabis – containing 2.5%, 6% and 9.4% of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol – as well as a placebo (dummy version).

Under nurse supervision, participants inhaled a single 25mg dose through a pipe three times a day for five days followed by nine days off, for four cycles.

Those given the highest dose had significantly reduced average pain compared with the placebo as well as less anxiety and depression, and better sleep.

Study leader Dr Mark Ware said: “To our knowledge, this is the first outpatient clinical trial of smoked cannabis ever reported.”

He said larger more long-term studies with higher potencies of cannabis were needed to further test the findings and to better assess safety.

Clinical trials using inhaler-type devices for delivering measured amounts of cannabis should be carried out, he added.

Professor Tony Dickenson, an expert in pain medicine at University College London, said a lot of patients with this type of pain say they benefit from cannabis but there were clearly health issues associated with self-medicating in this way.

He also said the pain relief seen was quite small but could make an important difference to patients who often suffer sleeplessness and depression because of their condition.

It was also worth investigating whether inhaling the drug was a more effective way of getting it into the body than taking it orally, he added.

“It may be important in the future to find patients who respond particularly well because it may be that it is not suitable for some groups, such as older patients,” he said.

“They didn’t get as many patients in the trial as they wanted and it shows that this sort of research is very difficult to do.”

Dr Peter Shortland, a senior lecturer in neuroscience at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said: “Importantly, smoking the drug did not produce the psychoactive effects commonly associated with full strength cannabis.”

He added the trial was “an encouraging step forward” but further large-scale clinical trials were warranted.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Mount Sinabung volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has erupted again, sending ash and smoke several kilometres into the atmosphere.

Thousands of people living near the mountain evacuated their homes to stay in government-provided shelters.

According to airport officials, some domestic flights in the region have been affected by the volcanic ash.

Mount Sinabung, long considered to be inactive, erupted for the first time in 400 years in the early hours of Sunday.

Mr Surono, a government vulcanologist, told the BBC that the volcano erupted again early on Monday, spewing black ash and soot two kilometres (1.24 miles) into the air.

He said the eruption was bigger than Sunday’s.

The eruption has affected some local flights.

An official at Medan Airport, the biggest city near Mount Sinabung, told the BBC that domestic flights that were due to fly over the volcano have been suspended until further notice.

Meanwhile, relief workers are now providing shelter and medical aid to the villagers who have been affected by the volcano’s eruptions.

The majority of villagers within a 6km (3.7 miles) radius of Mount Sinabung have been evacuated.

Red Cross workers told the BBC that more than 18,000 people are now living in camps and government shelters.

Workers say that the immediate danger the villagers face is respiratory problems.

Thousands of face masks have been handed out to protect them from the thick ash and smoke that has permeated the atmosphere.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The fall-out from allegations of a cricket betting scam concerning the Test between Pakistan and England is widely reported in Monday’s papers.

Cricket is “in crisis”, says The Times, while the Sun claims Pakistan “nobbled” the first Test at Trent Bridge in July.

Both the Guardian and Daily Mail front pages feature cricket-related pictures.

The Mail’s headline says cricket has been “shamed” while the Guardian says the claims have “engulfed” Pakistan.

People suffering from heart failure may find solace on the front pages of the Daily Mail and the Daily Express.

The Express says the discovery of a “breakthrough pill” will save the lives of thousands of heart patients.

And the Mail declares the discovery is nothing less than a “wonder drug”.

The paper says doctors are so impressed by the results of medical trials that they have pledged to start using the drug, ivabradine, as soon as possible.

The Independent has a picture of Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband on its front page.

In the newspaper’s interview with the younger of the two Miliband brothers, he said New Labour was “haunted by ghosts of past failure”.

Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph reports on what it calls “bank plans to cap risky mortgages”.

It says the “radical” Bank of England plans would be an attempt to “prevent a repeat of the credit crisis”.

Despite many back pages being dominated by cricket, the Daily Star is more concerned with football.

“Call him careless Tevez,” it says of the Manchester City striker who missed an open goal before the opposition – Sunderland – scored, winning 1-0.

And the Daily Express reports on Fabio Capello’s struggle to form a defence ahead of England’s first competitive game since the World Cup.

It says he has been forced to recall Matthew Upson and Joleon Lescott.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A wave of bomb attacks has hit the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, where police are investigating the mass killing of 72 migrants.

Four devices exploded separately in Tamaulipas in just 24 hours, injuring at least 17 people.

The explosions appeared to target places connected with the probe into the migrant killings.

Police are still searching for a prosecutor involved in the case who has been missing for several days.

Correspondents say it appears that gangsters are trying to stop those trying seeking evidence of the murders.

Three homemade bombs were detonated in the city of Reynosa, in the north of the state, on Saturday, say reports.

One exploded close to a church where a memorial mass was was being held for the migrants, whose bodies were found at ranch earlier this week.

Two other devices were detonated near the morgue where some of the victims’ bodies were being held.

The blast injured a police officer and a civilian and destroyed the guard’s hut in front of the building, a police source told the AFP news agency.

On Friday, two bombs exploded in the state capital, Ciudad Victoria, reports said, targeting a television station and the offices of the transport authorities. There were no reported injuries.

Police have said the attacks are probably the work of the Zetas drug cartel, which has also been blamed for the migrants’ deaths.

One survivor of that incident has told police the 58 men and 14 women were trying to make their way to the US when they were kidnapped by a criminal gang and shot when they refused to work for them.

Mexican prosecutors have said they are deeply concerned for the safety of Roberto Suarez, the prosecutor leading the investigation into the deaths.

He and a police officer travelling with him have been missing since Wednesday.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Mine’s a jellyfish salad… how wildlife decline may affect our food

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.