John Hemming's Web Log

Taking the figures on 8th June vs 1st June we have: Area 1st 8th England 115 147 East 7 6 London 29 20 Midlands 18 40 North East 17 18 North West 31 43 South East 10 13 South West 3 7 The North west shows a more general recent growth. The figures by trust are only up to 6th June not 8th June. They do show a recent wave of admissions in Bolton peaking at 14 people on 25th May. Manchester also had a peak of admissions on 5th June at 18. Otherwise nationally there have been double digit admissions in the week to 6th June in East Lancashire and Bedfordshire. Both of those, however, reduced from the prior week. Hence the recent growth does appear to be quite localised. However, as the government do not release the figures by trust more frequently than weekly it is difficult to tell precisely what is going on.

Valerian for sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis 2006 - "The available evidence suggests that valerian might improve sleep quality without producing side effects. Future studies should assess a range of doses of standardized preparations of valerian and include standard measures of sleep quality and safety." Valerian for sleep: a systematic review and meta-analysis 2010 - The AMED and MEDLINE databases were searched for primary sources of literature published between 1950 and 2009, using keywords: herbal medicine, medicinal plants, herbal, Valeriana officinalis, valerian, Humulus lupulus, hops, sleep, insomnia. Studies were included if they evaluated the efficacy of valerian or hops in improving primary insomnia in adults: sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Twelve of these found that the use of valerian, on its own, or in combination with hops, is associated with improvements in some sleep parameters (eg. sleep latency and quality of sleep). However, th...