A weekly round-up of news affecting your health.
KNOW YOUR BONES
Australians can find out their risk of bone fractures through a new online self-assessment tool.
It summarises your risk by assessing age, gender, weight, history of fracture, bone mineral density, and history of falls and lifestyle factors over the past year.
Risk of fracture over five and 10 years respectively, is assessed for people aged 50 and above, and a general, actionable summary is provided for all adults for further discussion with their GP.
The Know Your Bones tool is an initiative of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Osteoporosis Australia.
Millions of Australians have brittle bones, while researchers have estimated that more than 155,000 fractures will occur across the nation this year, with a bone broken every 3.4 minutes due to poor bone health.
Visit www.knowyourbones.org.au
KIDS AND ANTIBIOTICS
Doctors can stop antibiotics sooner in children enabling them to leave hospital earlier, say Australian experts.
They found many traditional courses are too long which keeps kids in hospital unnecessarily and can lead to antibiotic resistance.
The study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, looked at 36 bacterial infections in children, representing most infections needing antibiotics.
Senior author Associate Professor Penelope Bryant, from Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, says the study has helped to form national guidelines around the duration of IV and oral antibiotics for children with bacterial infections.
"We have provided practical and evidence-based advice on when doctors can shorten courses of antibiotics to help in the fight against resistance," she said.
BREAST CANCER
Women with few qualifications are less likely to recognise potential breast cancer symptoms than those who went to university, new research suggests.
University of Surrey researchers surveyed 961 UK women, with differing levels of education, who had never been diagnosed with breast cancer.
They found those who had fewer qualifications were less likely to regard symptoms such as nipple rash or a lump in the armpit as signs of breast cancer.
Less than three in 10 mentioned breast cancer when asked what a nipple rash could be caused by, while six in 10 thought an armpit lump could be a sign.
But among women with a university education, four in 10 mentioned breast cancer in relation to a nipple rash and seven in 10 women thought an armpit lump could be a symptom.
The study, funded by Cancer Research UK, was published in the journal Psycho-Oncology.
DEMENTIA SITE HELPS KIDS
Twelve-year-old Izzy Bolt Gardener now understands why her grandmother acts differently than she did in the past.
"I get now that when she says strange things or forgets things that its a problem with her brain and she can't control it," the schoolgirl said at the launch of a new website by Alzheimer's Australia Vic.
The interactive, age appropriate site gives children the opportunity to learn more about dementia, watch other children share their experiences in videos, play games and share their own stories.
For pre-schoolers, there's an online audio book: Brains, change and big long names.
Izzy says she wishes she had the book when she and her brother were younger, to help them understand what was happening to their grandmother when her behaviour started to change.
Go to www.dementiainmyfamily.org.au.
WHOLEGRAINS BENEFITS
A higher intake of wholegrains is linked with a lower risk of death from heart and circulatory disease and cancer, says a new study.
Published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, the study found that each additional serving of wholegrains cut cardiovascular disease-related death risk by 9 per cent and cancer death risk by five per cent.
Another review, published in The BMJ, found that increasing wholegrain intake even slightly may lower the risk of death from heart disease.
