| 03/02/2010 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Blood test for cot death risk |
| Scientists hope to develop a blood test to identify babies most at risk of cot death after finding changes in the way some infants sleep. Research has suggested that babies who died of cot death have low levels of the hormone serotonin in their brains. The hormone controls sleep and breathing patterns. Researchers at Harvard Medical School said babies with low serotonin levels may not wake up or change position when their breathing is impaired, by sleeping on their front for example. Serotonin levels were 26 per cent lower in the babies who had died of cot death compared with those who died of other causes. |
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| 03/02/2010 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| "The super-pill that could help you live past 100" |
| Scientists are on the verge of developing a pill that could help people live past 100, according to experts. The drug, which is designed to mimic the actions of three genes that aid longevity, could be ready for testing within three years. Two of the genes increase the production of so-called good cholesterol in the body, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke, while the third helps to prevent diabetes. People with the gene variants are also 80 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's, studies indicate. |
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| 03/02/2010 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Children's health worse now than a decade ago |
| Children aged under five have worse teeth, and are more likely to be overweight, than they were a decade ago, despite nearly £11 billion of investment, a study has found. Dental health has worsened and obesity rates have risen. The average five-year-old in 2005 - 2006 had 1.47 decayed, missing and filled teeth, compared with 1.43 in 1999 - 2000. Childhood obesity rose from one in 10 to one in seven between 1995 and 2008, although the rate of growth may now be slowing, the report said. |
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| 03/02/2010 |
| Daily Telegraph |
| By: Presswatch |
| Dementia is nation's greatest health challenge, warns charity |
| Dementia is the greatest health challenge of our generation, a charity has warned. More than 820,000 people have the condition, costing the economy £23 billion a year, according to a report from Oxford University, which also found that dementia costs more than heart disease and cancer combined. The study, commissioned by the Alzheimer's Research Trust, found that despite this fact, Britain spends £590 million a year on cancer research and £169 million on heart research while dementia only receives £50 million. |
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| 03/02/2010 |
| Financial Times |
| By: Presswatch |
| Lancet retracts MMR link to autism |
| The research paper that triggered claims linking autism to the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella was yesterday formally retracted by the Lancet, a week after the GMC ruled that its author, Dr Andrew Wakefield, had breached ethical guidelines. Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, said he had decided in 2004 not to retract the paper after an investigation by the Royal Free Hospital concluded it was "entirely satisfied" with its ethical scrutiny. "The big flaw is that everyone takes the whole system on trust and if trust breaks down, everything collapses," he said, adding that the Lancet now imposed much tougher peer review on controversial papers, withholding those judged likely to spark public misinterpretation. |
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| 03/02/2010 |
| Daily Express |
| By: Presswatch |
| NHS and Health Sector News |
| Tough new tests to ensure that foreign doctors can speak good English and understand British medicines will be introduced for every doctor who provides night-time and weekend cover, reports The Daily Express. Doctors who fail these tests will have their details passed on to regulatory bodies, so that future employers are made fully aware of their shortcomings. Separately, fewer than one in five stroke patients is moved to a dedicated unit within the recommended time, a new report has warned. Access to brain scans and clot-busting drugs was limited on weekends and evenings, meaning some patients had to wait too long. |
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