medical matters

    •Human sperm cells created
BBC medical correspondent
Scientists in Newcastle claim to have created human sperm in the laboratory in what they say is a world first.
The researchers believe the work could eventually help men with fertility problems to father a child.
But other experts say they are not convinced that fully developed sperm have been created.

Writing in the journal Stem Cells and Development, the Newcastle team say it will be at least five years before the technique is
perfected. They began with stem cell lines derived from human embryos donated
following IVF treatment. ...................
•Exercise Programs Keep Elderly out of Hospitals
One in five Americans over the age of 65 suffers from sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss. In 2000, the direct cost of treatment was estimated at more than $18.5 billion.
As the number of Americans older than 65 doubles by the middle of the century, those costs will increase accordingly.
A new study finds older adults who have greater strength, better physical function and higher muscle density are about half as likely to be hospitalized as their less fit counterparts......................
•World Arthritis Day, Monday 12th October 2009

‘Let’s Work Together’: Arthritis Care urges bosses to act on survey and keep people with arthritis in work
Employer support is a key deciding factor in helping workers with arthritis to keep their jobs, reveals a new survey by UK charity Arthritis Care for World Arthritis Day (Oct 12th).
Where bosses fail to offer supports like flexible working and an accessible environment, the snapshot shows that employees with arthritis too often end up leaving their jobs. Of the respondents still in work despite having arthritis, an emphatic 75% said their employer had provided reasonable adjustments when requested. But of the respondents not now in work, only 39% said they had received such adjustments.
‘Arthritis Care’s poll shows an inescapable link between an employer’s support for someone with arthritis and their ability to stay in work. Arthritis is the UK’s biggest cause of physical disability, and more must be done to enable people with the condition to have a full working life, not existence on disability benefit by default’, says Rachel Haynes, Arthritis Care’s director of public affairs.
A worrying 70% of the survey’s non-working respondents directly blamed leaving their job on their arthritis. Almost two-thirds of these (64%) said they had requested reasonable adjustments from their employer but only one in three of these (36%) got them.