DEBILITATING nerve damage that affects as many as half the country’s diabetes sufferers could be arrested with early detection, according to a world-first trial at the Prince of Wales Hospital.
Dr Arun Krishnan, a neurologist at the hospital and the study’s lead author, believes nerve excitability testing could be used to detect neuropathy in people before any outward signs of damage are exhibited.
He believes that treatments used only in more advanced cases of neuropathy could be effective in these early cases, although they are not used currently because the nerve damage is as yet undiagnosed.
Mukesh Haikerwal knows all too well the danger of a food allergy. It was 14 years ago that the Melbourne GP and former president of the Australian Medical Association first recognised symptoms of anaphylaxis in his then one-year-old son.
”As a father it was horrendous,” he says. ”You have this child that won’t settle and then you take off his top and he was beetroot red. I knew straight away it was an anaphylactic reaction.”
Convincing others to take his son’s nut allergy seriously was not as straightforward.
THE rate of diabetes has increased by up to 40 per cent over five years in coastal retirement areas of NSW and has reached worryingly high levels in western Sydney – areas of the state least able to deal with the illness.
New analysis shows the incidence of diabetes in NSW has increased by an average of 27 per cent in that period.
”The actual numbers are huge and increasing. Looking at the figures, there’s no sign of it levelling off, which is pretty scary,” Alan Barclay, who prepared the data for the Australian Diabetes Council, said.
”It certainly will require provision of specific health professionals and services.
”We do know that people with diabetes end up in hospital far more often than people without diabetes.”
Food allergies don’t have to leave your child in the cold when it comes to summer camp. You can help them stay safe and healthy with a few simple tips. For parents, there are a few questions to ask.
Summer is about having fun and taking a break from school. For parents, it can mean finding a way to entertain their kids. One alternative is summer camp.
Whether your child chooses a day camp or an overnight camp, if they suffer from food allergies you have a valid concern about the safety of the camp. Here are a few questions to ask of the staff and administration of the camp before signing your child up.
PHILADELPHIA, June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Food allergies don’t just cause a rash or a stomach ache. For some, it’s a life-threatening reaction, and that number is on the rise.
Researchers found that 1 in 12 children are affected by some form of food allergy; 40% of those suffering have a history of severe reactions, according to the journal Pediatrics. The study found that the most common food allergies were peanuts, milk and shellfish.
For parents of children with food allergies, just sending their child to school catapults a fury of anxiety: Will the teacher remember? What if they serve snacks? Do the other children understand? What if they get too close to something in the cafeteria lunches? There’s also the added sense of embarrassment for children and especially teenagers suffering food allergies.
The number of Australian children with type 1 diabetes is already high by international standards, but the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates the number will jump a further 10 per cent by 2013.
The findings come amid calls for annual kidney screening tests to pick up the early signs of kidney disease helping those with type 2 or adult-onset diabetes.
Australian children to the age of 14 already have an unenviable rate of type 1 diabetes. In 2008, 138 children per 100,000 were counted as having the disease.
AIHW spokeswoman Anne-Marie Waters says the situation is going to get worse.
“We’ve also projected the prevalence to 2013 and predicted that it will rise by about 10 per cent by that time, so the rates we are predicting will actually rise from about 140 cases per 100,000 children to about 153 cases per 100,000 children,” she said.
Has your allergic reaction to a medication been properly recorded in your medical records so you are not at risk in future? Health reporter Elspeth McLean has some advice from her own experience of medication that didn’t agree with her.
When you are a health reporter, it is sometimes hard not to be a hypochondriac.
You get to learn a dangerous little about far too many illnesses and, in the middle of the night, it is easy to think any ache or pain is whatever it is you last wrote about.
Death, an urgent hospital trip, or, at the very least, months of debilitating treatment seem imminent. Disease of the week syndrome, I call it. Usually, it is complete nonsense, but in one instance my concern might have been worthwhile.
Parents who feed their infants solid foods or cow’s milk before the age of four months could put them at lower risk for peanut allergy, according to a new study.
Researchers said introducing solids early on could ‘kick-start’ the immune system, making children with a family history of allergies about five times less likely to develop sensitivity.
In contrast, experts generally recommend mothers breastfeed infants for the first six months because it is the best form of nutrition.
The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology last month, was conducted on 594 children, whose mothers were interviewed about feeding practices when they were one, six, and 12 months old.
YARMOUTH — On Monday, hospitals in southwestern Nova Scotia began placing yellow wristbands on patients considered to be at high risk of falling.
The wristbands carry the words “fall risk” in large black letters and will let all health-care providers know that fall prevention cautions should be taken, said Barbara Johnson of SouthWest Health.
For more than a year now, each patient admitted to Digby General Hospital and Yarmouth Regional Hospital, as well as Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, has been assessed to help identify any fall risk.
Records show that 401 hospital patient falls were reported in 2009-10 by the three hospitals.
Mediband, specialists in developing medical ID alert bracelets for Australians, today announced the appointment of Australasia’s largest retail marketing agency CROSSMARK to manage its head office and field operations in pharmacies across Australia.
Mediband’s range of wristbands has been designed to enable people with allergies, diabetes or other medical conditions to have information regarding their condition readily accessible. Should an emergency arise, the medical ID alert bracelets have the capacity to save lives.
The appointment by Mediband is one in a string of new client wins for CROSSMARK’s pharmacy business as it continues to go from strength to strength.
Mediband Managing Director, Michael Randall said: “We were drawn to CROSSMARK for its reach and ability to quickly bring Mediband to market.
“With that reach comes the capacity for the CROSSMARK sales team to interact with pharmacies on a more personal level. Through CROSSMARK it is as though we have an extended in-house sales team that can personally attend to pharmacies on the ground.”
