Monthly Archives: May 2013

Malnutrition among older people: A lack of food and thought

There are an estimated 3 million people in the UK suffering from malnutrition but, despite the public health implications, the issue receives very little attention. So how can awareness be raised?

Denis Campbell
The Guardian, Wednesday 29 May 2013

 

Domestic carers who only visit an old person’s home once a week may not realise the person they look after is not eating enough. Images Group Editorial
Malnutrition among older people

Domestic carers who only visit an old person’s home once a week may not realise the person they look after is not eating enough. Photograph: BSIP/Universal Images Group Editorial

For some people the word “malnutrition” inevitably conjures up mental images of starving children in Africa. But it is also an issue much closer to home, here in the United Kingdom. About 3 million people in the UK are estimated to either suffer from malnourishment or be at risk of becoming underfed. The resulting problems are believed to cost the public sector several billion pounds, for example from avoidable hospital admissions and extra GP visits for treatments of the range of illnesses malnutrition can cause. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has identified better nutritional care as the sixth-largest potential source of savings in the NHS.

Dementia care given priority in new NHS training guidelines

Department of Health training blueprint promises to give NHS education unprecedented focus and importance

Andrew Sparrow
The Guardian, Tuesday 28 May 2013

Tackling dementia and encouraging medical students to become GPs are among the priorities under a new framework for NHS training.

At least half the number of medical students must go on to become GPs, and much more should be done to increase awareness of dementia, an NHS training blueprint will announce today.

Getting more nurses to train in the community is also a priority under a new framework for NHS training.

Stroke patients see signs of recovery in stem-cell trial

Trial patients will get progressively higher doses of stem cells

Foetal blood stem cells

Five seriously disabled stroke patients have shown small signs of recovery following the injection of stem cells into their brain.

Prof Keith Muir, of Glasgow University, who is treating them, says he is “surprised” by the mild to moderate improvements in the five patients.

He stresses it is too soon to tell whether the effect is due to the treatment they are receiving.

The results will be presented at the European Stroke Conference in London.

Complete paralysisBBC News has had the first exclusive interview with one of the patients involved.

They are taking part in a small clinical trial involving nine patients in their 60s, 70s and 80s at Glasgow’s Southern General Hospital to assess the safety of the procedure which involves injecting stem cells into the damaged brain part.
It is one of the first trials in the world to test the use of stem cells in patients.