Long-term use of some of the most common drugs prescribed to tackle stomach acid problems may be weakening people's bones. Researchers found a significantly increased risk of hip fracture among UK patients taking 'proton pump inhibitors' for more than a year. They said doctors should consider the risk when prescribing such drugs. The University of Pennsylvania study findings appear in the Journal of the American Association.
Patients with the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer's disease could be diagnosed using an advanced scanning technique. A team at the University of California, Los Angeles, says it has found a way to highlight distinctive brain changes linked to Alzheimer's.
Some women with osteoporosis can stop taking a bone-protecting drug after five years without increasing their risk of fractures, say scientists. The class of drugs, bisphosphonates, are given to strengthen the bones of women who have gone through the menopause and risk fractures.
The manager of a care home has been told she will face a jail term for an "abhorrent" reign of terror over patients in a home. Diane Butler's "despicable" staff - ill-treated mentally and physically patients in their care. One carer tried to stage a fight between a Down's Syndrome patient and another resident with autism. Butler, 47, of St Loys Road, Haringey, north London, was found guilty of one count of wilful neglect.
Hormone therapy might be an effective heart disease treatment, despite a major US study which suggested it caused harm, scientists say. The Women's Health Initiative study was stopped in 2002 amid concerns over raised heart disease and cancer risk. But now other US experts say the WHI may have covered the wrong age group and used the wrong dose of HRT.
Care homes are being warned that they may be breaking the law and putting patients' lives at risk by hiding drugs in food or drink, the BBC has learned. The Mental Welfare Commission is concerned that the practice of giving medicine secretly is being over-used. Under Scots law, medical staff can intervene in a patient's treatment if the person is incapable of acting in his or her own best interests.
