Science of aging knowledge environment : SAGE KE
-
Sci Aging Knowledge Environ · Mar 2006
ReviewSmall-fiber neuropathy: answering the burning questions.
Small-fiber neuropathy is a peripheral nerve disease that most commonly presents in middle-aged and older people, who develop burning pain in their feet. Although it can be caused by disorders of metabolism such as diabetes, chronic infections (such as with human immunodeficiency virus), genetic abnormalities, toxicity from various drugs, and autoimmune diseases, the cause often remains a mystery because standard electrophysiologic tests for nerve injury do not detect small-fiber function. ⋯ Infrequently, the underlying cause of small-fiber dysfunction is identified and disease-modifying therapy can be instituted. More commonly, the treatments for small-fiber neuropathy involve symptomatic treatment of neuropathic pain.
-
A new International Research Centre for Healthy Ageing and Longevity (IRCHAL) has been created in Australia with initial funding from a philanthropic family--that of John and Noah Weller. This center will be akin to the Center for Advanced Study at Stanford University where scientists and clinicians/geriatricians can spend extended time periods interacting and doing their research. ⋯ At the heart of this new organization are annual international scientific conferences. The next meeting (third in the series) will be held in Melbourne, Australia, on 28 to 30 April 2006.
-
A meeting entitled "The Art and Science of Anti-Aging Therapies: Convergence of Theory and Practice" took place on 18 and 19 March 2005 at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The symposium was held for health care professionals, researchers, and consumers to provide them with information about current trends in anti-aging therapies. The program, which combined medical, surgical, and nonpharmacological approaches to healthy successful aging, gave attendees the opportunity to make sense of the issues at hand and to sort out safe treatments from perilous quick fixes.
-
Peripheral nerve damage results in loss of sensation in the affected region of the body. Oaklander and Brown now report that, in the rat, transection of a peripheral nerve in only one side of the body also results in profound loss of the innervation of the same region on the opposite side of the body. Peripheral nerve damage may also produce persistent (neuropathic) pain conditions that are presumed to arise from maladaptive reorganization of the central nervous system. Thus, the possibility that comparable bilateral changes occur in patients and that such changes contribute to neuropathic pain conditions must be considered.