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Healthy older people who take regular aspirin to prevent stroke may actually be increasing their risk.

In the past 25 years the number of strokes associated with blood-thinning drugs such as aspirin or warfarin has risen seven-fold, a UK study found.

The risk is particularly high in the over 75s and aspirin may do more harm than good in healthy older people, The Lancet Neurology paper reported.

However, people advised to take daily aspirin by their GP should not stop.

Researchers at the University of Oxford compared figures on intracerebral haemorrhagic stroke - a type of stroke caused by bleeding in the brain - from 1981-85 and 2002-06.

They found that the number of strokes caused by high blood pressure had fallen by 65%, which in the under 75s meant the overall rate of strokes had halved.

But in the over 75s the stroke rate remained the same over the 25-year period.

A closer look at the data showed there had been an increase in the number of strokes in patients taking blood thinning drugs, known as antithrombotics.

In the first study the proportion of stroke patients on antithrombotic drugs was 4% but two decades later this had risen to 40%.

Lifestyle choice

People with cardiovascular disease, who have a high risk of blood clot, are prescribed drugs like aspirin to thin the blood and reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke.

But many healthy older people also take a regular aspirin in an attempt to ward off a stroke.

Study leader, Professor Peter Rothwell, said the increasing use of drugs such as aspirin may soon take over high blood pressure as the leading cause of intracerebral haemorrhagic stroke in the over 75s.

He warned than in healthy older adults the risks of taking aspirin may outweigh any benefits.

"GPs have been treating high blood pressure very aggressively and that is bringing dividends but there are other causes of stroke in the elderly which have become important.

"There are good reasons for taking aspirin or warfarin but there are elderly who take aspirin as a lifestyle choice and in that situation the trials have shown there's no benefit.

"And what our study suggests is that, particularly in the very elderly, the risks of aspirin outweigh the benefits," he said.

Dr Peter Coleman, deputy director of research and development for The Stroke Association said aspirin had gained a reputation of being part of a healthy lifestyle.

"However, this evidence indicates that if you are healthy and have a low risk of heart disease or stroke and unless advised by your GP to take aspirin on a daily basis then the increased risks from the side effects of aspirin are likely to outweigh the benefits of preventing a stroke."

He advised people to lower their risk of stroke by having regular blood pressure checks, eating a healthy diet, stopping smoking, only drinking alcohol in moderation, reducing salt intake and taking regular exercise.

The age at which a woman had her first period can help predict her children's risk of obesity, say UK researchers.

A study of 6,000 children found those born to mothers with an early puberty were more likely to grow rapidly as babies and be overweight as children.

This faster growth pattern is also linked to obesity in adulthood.

The findings could help identify children at risk of weight problems early on, the Public Library of Science Medicine (PLOS) report concludes.

It is already known that age at which a girl has her first period - or reaches "menarche" - is largely inherited.

And women who start their periods early are at increased risk of obesity in later life, and are likely to be overweight even before puberty.

In the latest study, mothers who began their periods before age 11 were five times more likely to be obese than mothers who had their first period after the age of 15.

Children of mothers who had early first periods were taller by the age of nine and weighed more. Girls were also more likely to start their periods before the age of 11.

Those whose mothers had their first period under the age of 11 were three times more likely to be obese than those who started their periods after the age of 15.

The researchers also looked in more detail at growth measurements from birth to nine years in 900 children, and found that mothers' age at first period was associated with faster growth in weight and height in children up until the age of two years.

Children who have a fast growth pattern tend to start puberty earlier, but stop growing sooner - so they may not be particularly tall as adults.

Lifelong pattern

Lead researcher Dr Ken Ong, paediatric endocrinologist at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, said it was now clear that this growth pattern starts at birth.

"Beyond links to early puberty, most importantly this growth pattern appears to lead to an increased risk of obesity that lasts from childhood through to adult life."

He added there could be a genetic link - perhaps related to appetite - or that the findings may be explained by feeding behaviours or patterns that run in families.

"Knowing that rapid infancy weight gain, early puberty and obesity run together in families may help us identify which children to best target our efforts at right from birth."

He added that parents should be encouraged to breastfeed rather than bottle-feed.

The team are also beginning a study to look at trying to avoid excessive calorie consumption in babies who are formula fed.

Dr Tabitha Randell, consultant paediatric endocrinologist at University Hospital Nottingham, said the big point was that heavier mothers had heavier children.

"Age at menarche is strongly related to your weight and it's well recognised that it's getting earlier and earlier."

But she said that environmental factors were just as important as genetics.

"It would be very interesting to have a look at the effect of breastfeeding.

"It sets up feeding patterns. You lay down your number of fat cells in the first couple of years of life," she said.

Scientists say they have successfully made immature sperm cells from human bone marrow samples.

If these can be grown into fully developed sperm, which the researchers hope to do within five years, they may be useful in fertility treatments.

But experts have warned the findings from the German study should be interpreted with caution at this very early stage.

And proposed new laws would ban their use in fertility treatments in the UK.

How sperm is made from bone marrow tissue?

The government's recent fertility White Paper proposes a ban on using artificially created sperm or eggs in assisted reproduction.

The researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Münster and the Medical School of Hannover isolated adult stem cells - cells that have the ability to become many types of tissue in the body - from bone marrow samples taken from male volunteers.

Spermatagonial cells

Normally these stem cells from the bone marrow would develop into the different cell types in muscle tissue.

But the researchers induced a small number of them to develop into what appeared to be spermatagonial cells - cells found in the testes which would normally develop into mature sperm cells.

This is the first time human spermatagonial cells have been made artificially in this way.

And lead researcher Professor Karim Nayernia, now at the North-east England Stem Cell Institute based at the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne, said he hopes his investigations will mean he might one day be able to treat young men rendered infertile by chemotherapy.

He said: "We're very excited about this discovery.

"Our next goal is to see if we can get the spermatagonial cells to progress to mature sperm in the laboratory and this should take around three to five years of experiments."

He acknowledged that the law may be a stumbling block.

Professor Harry Moore of the Centre for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Sheffield said: "This finding is of interest but we really need to be very cautious about the interpretation."

The changing of stem cell types observed by the researchers, from pre-muscle to pre-reproductive cells, is known as trans-differentiation.

Caution needed

And Professor Moore said nearly all similar observations of trans-differentiation in adult stem cells had not been confirmed when tested rigorously, as the results could be misleading.

He said: "This is a fast moving field but we are still many years away from developing any therapies for infertility using such techniques."

And he warned that manipulating stem cells to develop into mature sperm could cause permanent genetic changes in the sperm, making the cells unsafe to use in fertility treatments.

However, Dr Allan Pacey, secretary of the British Fertility Society, said: "This kind of work will be very useful in helping us understand the biology of how sperm are made.

"That in itself may provide some insight into why things sometimes go wrong and may lead to new approaches to treating male infertility."

The findings were presented at an international fertility conference and are published in Gamete Biology: Emerging Frontiers on Fertility and Contraceptive Development.

1) Stem cells isolated from bone marrow of male volunteers

2) In laboratory, stem cells cultured and identified. Some induced to become spermatological cells - which normally become sperm cells

3) Transplantation of cells into testicle - so far performed in mice

Aspiration pneumonia occurs most frequent in patients that are in a coma or in those who are so seriously ill that they barely breathe. It affects more frequent the elders but it can also occur at other age categories.

Aspiration pneumonia refers to the problem of mouth contents entering the airways instead of going into the stomach. This can lead to an infection of the lungs, fever and breathing problems, even a bacterial pneumonia.

Generally, a person who has a malfunctioning swallowing mechanism, who does not posses a good cough reflex, could develop aspiration pneumonia. Even those patients who are fed with a tube that goes directly into their stomach could develop this problem, due to a regurgitation of the stomach contents into the throat and then into the lungs.

It is highly indicated for such persons to eat in an upright position, and stay in this position for 30 minutes after eating is done. Even the patient's own saliva may get into the lungs, especially if he has an increased production of saliva. To prevent this, cleaning the mouth with a dry bandage and frequent suctioning of the mouth is highly recommended.

Patients who still have tracheotomy should clean the tracheotomy tube of the coughed material, this way preventing mucus and bacteria from being aspirated back into the lungs and causing a bacterial pneumonia which is a serious illness.

There are some methods of keeping the lungs expanded, and so, helping to loosen up the material that needs to be taken out: clapping or cupping the chest, breathing exercises, changing the body's position more frequent, and using a vibrator over the chest.

Aspiration pneumonia can even lead to one's death by chocking with the sucked materials; this is why prevention is so important.

When a lung infection occurs treating it at the right moment and with the right drugs could lead to its cure and save the patient from developing other complications like producing a partial collapse (atelectasis) of the lung.

Signs of installed complications like bacterial pneumonia are: cough with yellow or greenish sputum, high grade fever, chest pains, breathing problems, muscle aches and fatigue. Treatment consists in administering antibiotic drugs, controlling the fever, and most of all, preventing lung aspiration of mouth materials from occurring again.

The treatment of aspiration pneumonia consists in administering oxygen, aspiration of the foreign materials from the airways, and total spell. The therapy will include anti-shock medication and antibiotics.

Surgeons now use life-saving bypass technique in brain tumour surgery.

Everyone’s heard of heart bypasses. But now, interestingly, brain bypass’ operations have also been carried out on patients with life threatening conditions.

The technique – currently, only available abroad-is is expected to help many who suffer from brain tumours or aneurysms.

Just like in a heart bypass operation, the blood supply to the brain is rerouted around the problem area through a piece of grafted vein.

Using the particular method, the bypass can be done without interrupting the blood flow-reducing the risk of stroke.

Christos Tolias, who heads a surgical team at king’s Collage Hospital, London, is one of the few neurosurgeons who have performed such a procedure.

The method involves taking a piece of vein from the patient’s leg and using it to make a new pathway around the tumour or aneurysm, so the blood flow is maintained.

After removing a piece of bone from the skull, the surgeon attaches two pieces of vein either side of the arterial weakness and they are stitched using a metal ring.

A hollow tube is slid into the veins and a laser is used to cut a hole in the artery where the vein is attached. Blood starts flowing into each of the grafts, which are temporarily clipped at the other end.

The two halves of the vein grafts are then stitched together and the clips removed so the blood flows through.

The aneurysm or tumour can then be clipped off and taken out of the brain’s blood circulation. It’s like a piece of hosepipe that takes the blood around the problem-just like a graft is used in a heart bypass,” Tolias said.

It is commonly assumed that people who are slim must be much healthier than those who are obviously overweight. But scientists have discovered that many outwardly slim people are storing up dangerous layers of fat inside their bodies. Their health is often far more at risk than those who are obviously fat or obese. Scientists have named these people Tofi –thin on the outside, fat on the inside.

Thanks to advancements in hi-tech magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) doctors can look inside the human body in far more detail. And they have found that many slim people carry large amounts of fat, rather than the fat around vital organs. It is this fat, rather than the fat under the skin, which can lead to serious health problems.