Join us for a relaxed round up of recent Red Whale primary care Pearls of wisdom. This month, Nik and Caroline discuss: 

• Healthy ageing: adding quality to years? What does ‘healthy ageing’ look like? What are the 3 trajectories of ageing? How can we work as a primary care team to promote the basics that increase the chance of healthier ageing?
• Preventing breast cancer: what’s our role? The MHRA are now licensing anastrozole for primary prevention of breast cancer in postmenopausal women at moderate to high risk. We discuss our article on Breast cancer: genetic risk, and explore how to assess risk, the evidence for preventative medication and some of the side-effects people taking it may experience. 
•  Acute retention: sort the catheter… then think: why?  A Danish study showed that those who go into acute retention are at an increased risk of being diagnosed with genitourinary cancers in the following 12 months. How much should we worry about this?
• Self-harm: creating a safety-plan. The UK has one of the highest rates of self-harm in Europe and whilst it can occur at any age, it is most common in young people and females. The 2022 NICE Guidelines on self-harm recommend that whilst we are waiting for CAMHS support and assessment, we can help by encouraging the young person to develop a safety-plan. Would you feel confident to do this? 

And hear about a colleague’s car-tastrophe…

NICE patient information leaflet - familial breast cancer:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg164/ifp/chapter/About-this-information

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Disclaimer: We make every effort to ensure the information in this podcast is accurate and/ correct at the date of publication, but it is of necessity of a brief and general nature, and this should not replace your own good clinical judgement, or be regarded as a substitute for taking professional advice in appropriate circumstances. In particular, check drug doses, side-effects and interactions with the British National Formulary. Save insofar as any such liability cannot be excluded at law, we do not accept any liability for loss of any type caused by reliance on the information in this podcast.