Ageing

The older we get, the more different we become. This is the conclusion of a study that followed people from their 70th to their 90th year of life.'Old people are usually thought of as a rather homogenous group - they are considered to be ill, lonely and unable to take care of themselves. But the truth is that the differences among people grow with age,' says Bo G Eriksson, University of Gothenburg.

Victoria Premier John Brumby's letter to Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asks the federal government to rethink its $50 billion hospitals plan. Besides asking about the commonwealth’s vision for the primary and aged care, Brumby also wanted to know how the proposed reforms would help to put the commonwealth-state blame game to an end.

The main conclusion of this research is that in spite of the noteworthy advances of recent decades, women continue to be the main caregivers for minors as well as for the elderly, disabled or the sick. In general, traditional family care is increasingly more unsustainable, chiefly because of women's incorporation into the workplace and the decrease in the number of housewives, the increase of the aging population, and the increasing age of the caregivers themselves.

Bone stem cells could in future be used instead of bone from donors as part of an innovative new hip replacement treatment, according to scientists at the University of Southampton.

athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of Internet-based business services to physician practices, today announced the launch of athenaCommunicator, a new patient communication service that is fully integrated with athenahealth’s established web-based physician practice management and electronic health record services.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bbd2fd/australia_pharmace) has announced the addition of the "Australia Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q2 2010" report to their offering.

Atrium Innovations Inc., a recognized leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of professionally endorsed, science-based products for the health and nutrition industry, today announced the purchase of the assets of Trophic Canada, a leading manufacturer and distributor of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements in the Canadian Health Food Store market.

A team of North American collaborators from both industrial research centers (Biotime Inc, Mandala Biosciences LLC and Sierra Sciences LLC) and academic institutes (Ontario Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and The Scripps Research Institute) have demonstrated successful reversal of the developmental aging of normal human cells.

The role of selenium in diabetes has been controversial, with some studies suggesting that it raises diabetes risk and others finding that it is protective. Now, research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism, has shown that, for men, high plasma selenium concentrations are associated with a lower occurrence of dysglycemia.