The Health News Australia October 3 2017

Overview

• A new “mega” ageing and dementia research centre aims to dramatically bolster Australia’s response to the rapid rise of the elderly population and growing burden of cognitive decline. Australians age 65 and older will number 8.3 million by 2053, accounting for 1 in 5 of the population, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
• A dangerous new social media trend called “bonespiration” that celebrates skeletal bodies with protruding bones has been slammed by eating disorder specialists. The “bonespiration” phenomenon has dismayed health professionals, concerned that social media is feeding morbid mindsets in kids.
• New South Wales is experiencing the worst outbreak of rotavirus in five years, and parents have been warned the highly contagious gastro-type illness could harm babies. The highest rate of infection was in children aged 2 to 4, and that metropolitan Sydney was the worst-affected area.
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 3rd of  October 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/dementia-shakeup–unsw-and-neura-join-forces-to-form-mega-ageing-and-dementia-reasearch-centre-20170929-gyraq8.html

A new “mega” ageing and dementia research centre aims to dramatically bolster Australia’s response to the rapid rise of the elderly population and growing burden of cognitive decline.
World leader in dementia research Professor Kaarin​ Anstey will head up the multidisciplinary team working to radically change the way Australians think about ageing and tackle dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.The ambitious joint initiative between the Neuroscience Research Australia and University of New South Wales announced on Friday will drive a fundamental paradigm shift from viewing dementia as purely a health burden to exploring ways of boosting “cognitive currency”, and safeguarding the freedom and independence of older Australians, Professor Anstey said. By two thousand fifty, people aged sixty five and over will outnumber youth across the globe for the first time in human history, with double the number of children under five years of age ( fifteen point six percent versus seven point two percent). Australians sixty five and older will number eight point three million by two thousand fifty three, accounting for one in five of the population, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

Up to twenty five percent will have some degree of cognitive impairment, of whom five to seven percent will have a severe cognitive disability, rising from four hundred thirteen thousand Australians today to one point one million by two thousand fifty six. The rising prevalence of cognitive decline among the rapidly expanding ageing population will have massive implications for the workforce, health and ageing services and the basic make-up of Australian communities.
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Middle age was fertile ground for cutting the future rate of dementia, when obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are great risk factors for cognitive decline in later life, Professor Anstey said. Cutting middle-aged obesity in Australia by twenty percent between two thousand fifteen and two thousand twenty five would trigger a ten percent decline in dementia among sixty five to sixty nine years olds, according to two thousand fourteen modelling published in PLOS One.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/bonespiration-social-media-trend-which-celebrates-skeletal-bodies-has-been-slammed-by-doctors/news-story/4342b3c5c71d0af7f09e2c9d700077b0

A dangerous new social media trend that celebrates skeletal bodies with protruding bones has been slammed by eating disorder specialists. The “bonespiration” phenomenon, reported in Journal of Eating Disorders this week, has dismayed health professionals, concerned that social media is feeding morbid mindsets in kids. The world-first analysis on “bonespiration” which is an even more extreme thin body ideal than the Instagram-blocked “thinspiration” — associated it with high risk of developing a clinical eating disorder.

The UK-based study included seven hundred thirty four images on Twitter, Instagram and WeHeartIt. Bonespiration encourages objectifying photos of extremely thin women in skimpy clothing with protruding ribs, collarbones, spines and hips.

An earlier study in Journal of Eating Disorders focused on Australian women using Instagram, comparing those who posted on fitspiration — the internet trend to motivate people to eat healthy and be fit. Even though fitspiration has been found to be much less unhealthy than the latest bonespiration trend, seventeen point five percent of women posting on Instagram’s fitspiration were still found to be at risk of a clinical eating disorder diagnosis. Of the control group, women posting travel photos on Instagram, four point three per cent were considered at risk.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-02/rotavirus-spike-in-nsw-babies-children-at-risk-gastro/9006578

New South Wales is experiencing the worst outbreak of rotavirus in five years, and parents have been warned the highly contagious gastro-type illness could harm babies. Doctor Vicky Sheppeard, New South Wales Health’s director of communicable diseases said  “We’re a little over one thousand two hundred for the year and we haven’t seen this many notifications since two thousand twelve.” She added that the highest rate of infection was in children aged two to four, and that metropolitan Sydney was the worst-affected area. Admissions to the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick were up, too, with babies and toddlers presenting with fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.

“Rotavirus can be really serious, especially in the youngest infants, leading to severe dehydration and even death in some cases,” said Doctor  Brendan McMullan, a paediatric infectious diseases specialist. He said the hospital usually saw two patients suffering from rotavirus each month. The rotavirus vaccine is given to babies at two and four months as part of the routine immunisation schedule. 

Doctor Sheppeard said that in New South Wales ninety percent of children received the vaccine but that it did not offer complete protection. The vaccine also wore after a few years, she said. She added: “This is preventing what we used to see as severe winter gastro, with many children being hospitalised.”