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26/10/2009
Daily Telegraph
By: Presswatch
Take heart Exercise boosts the over-65s
Three months of exercise is enough for elderly type 2 diabetes sufferers to improve the health of their heart, a study has shown. Pensioners aged from 65 to 83 saw improvements in the elasticity of the blood vessels around the heart after a three-month exercise programme. Dr Kenneth Madden, a geriatric specialist at the University of British Columbia, said: "The theory is that aerobic activity makes your arteries less stiff and makes artery walls more elastic. There was an impressive drop in arterial stiffness after just three months of exercise. In that time we saw a 15 to 20 per cent reduction." Dr Madden said that under the right conditions almost all older people can exercise safely.
 
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26/10/2009
Daily Express
By: Presswatch
Surgery ends migraine hell for third of sufferers
Surgery could be the answer for millions of migraine sufferers, a study shows. A five-year study carried out at the University Hospital Case Medical Centre in Cleveland, Ohio found that nine out of 10 patients who had surgery responded positively - and nearly one in three of them said their pain had disappeared altogether. The operation involves removing muscle groups or bunches of nerves from "trigger sites" around the head. According to British charity Migraine Action, migraine affects more than six million people in Britain and costs about 25 million work or school days each year.
 
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26/10/2009
The Times
By: Presswatch
NHS endorses exercises in video game
The Nintendo Wii Fit Plus has become the first computer game to be endorsed by the Department of Health, which has allowed it to use the NHS's Change4Life logo in its advertising on television and in shops when it goes on sale on Friday. A spokesman for the Department for Health said that it was not endorsing a video game, but rather an exercise. "Active video games, where kids need to jump up and down or dance about as part of the game, are a great way to get kids moving," he said.
 
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26/10/2009
Daily Mail
By: Presswatch
Herbal drug crackdown
Patients could lose access to safe herbal medicines under EU rules, it was claimed yesterday. Sales of all herbal remedies, except for a small number of products for 'mild' illness, will be banned to the public under the new law to come in in 2011. Almost 2,500 UK qualified herbalists and Chinese medicine practitioners will also lose the right to supply a wide range of herbal medicines, because they are not signed up to a statutory regulation scheme.
 
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26/10/2009
The Times
By: Presswatch
Gene disease cancer link
Scientists believe they have moved closer to understanding why older fathers are more likely to have children with certain genetic diseases by finding a link between benign testicular tumours and several rare growth disorders. The cells that form these tumours also produce sperm with mutant genes that cause serious inherited diseases, according to research at the University of Oxford and Copenhagen University Hospital.
 
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26/10/2009
Financial Times
By: Presswatch
US faces test as swine flu surges
Under a declaration of "national emergency" signed by Barack Obama, US hospitals have been granted a freer hand to treat patients with swine flu, as a surge in infections provides a tough test for the country's fragmented health system. The H1N1 virus is widespread in 46 of the 50 states and has killed more than 1,000 people.
 
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26/10/2009
By: Presswatch
NHS and Health Sector News
The Guardian reports that a study by the National Childbirth Trust, the country's biggest parenting charity, has found that only 4.2% of pregnant women across the UK can choose whether to have their baby in hospital, at a birth centre or at home. The Department of Health disputed the NCT's figures. The Financial Times reports that increasing numbers of patients are choosing private hospitals for their NHS treatment, latest figures from the Department of Health show. The Daily Mirror reports that a boss at a hospital where 1,200 patients died in appalling conditions has landed a senior "development role" job with the NHS. Dr Helen Moss was in charge of nursing and governance at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust when shocking care and a severe lack of nurses led to higher-than-normal death rates.
 
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