Monthly Archives: August 2011

Opticians ‘should offer blood sugar checks’

This would capture people who do not routinely visit their GP, experts say

31 August 2011 Last updated at 00:12

 
A finger prick test checks for high blood sugar but does not diagnose diabetes

Opticians should offer blood sugar checks alongside eye tests to help spot patients with undiagnosed diabetes, experts propose.

A simple finger prick blood test in this setting could identify hundreds of thousands of people with type 2 diabetes, according to researchers.

Norwich study into how dehydration harms the elderly

Often elderly people do not feel thirsty in the same way that someone younger does

By Lucy Clapham
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
3.55 PM

Researchers in Norwich are hoping to reduce hospital admissions among the elderly after launching a study into dehydration.

 A team from the University of East Anglia (UEA) will be working with residents in care homes across Norfolk and into Suffolk to help identify the early stages of dehydration and prevent the serious problems it can lead to.

Older people suffering from dehydration can become confused and fall, which can make a sudden trip to hospital more likely.

Father diagnosed with Asperger’s ‘failed by system’

Only recently he was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Asperger’s Syndrome

6:00pm Tuesday 30th August 2011

By Frances Leate

A FATHER who spent most of his childhood in care says he has been let down by the system after only just being diagnosed with a series of severe behavioural disorders.

Robert Joyce, 47, of Buntingford Road, in Monkwick, Colchester, was taken into foster care at five because his parents couldn’t cope with his behaviour.

In trouble at school and with the police, he ended up committing crime and spent much of his young life in and out of youth detention centres.