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Home / Critical illness cover / - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Definition
A diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease supported by evidence of progressive loss of the ability to:
- remember;
- reason; and
- perceive, understand, express and give effect to ideas.
What does this mean?
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a degenerative organic brain disease which may be inherited or acquired. There is a progressive degeneration of the nerve cells of the central nervous system which will result in defective muscular control and dementia. There is no cure.
NEWS
Sweeteners could increase your weight, research claims
11 February 2008 17:10:47
Research by scientists in the US suggests eating artificial sweeteners could lead to weight gain - which could impact upon life insurance policies.
According to the research, laboratory rats given food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more calories than their counterparts whose food was sweetened with normal sugar.
Scientists suggest that a sweet taste may cause animals to anticipate the calorie content of food.
Eating artificial sweeteners with little or no calories undermines this connection and leads to an energy imbalance by increasing food intake or reducing energy expenditure.
One group of rats was given yogurt sweetened with glucose, and the other group was given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin.
The rats that had the saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, put on more weight, gained more body fat, and did not cut back on their calorie consumption.
Drs Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson, psychologists based at Purdue University in Indiana, who led the research claim that by breaking the link between the sweet taste and the anticipated high calorie food, the saccharin changed the body's ability to control food intake.
"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," they said.
The UK's Food Standards Agency carries out work on sweeteners to ensure that they do not compromise food safety.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
Breast cancer survival rates up
24 July 2007 11:57:33
New research has shown the introduction of systemic drug therapies in the 1990s has improved the survival rate of sufferers of metastatic breast cancer.
A study by scientists at the University of British Columbia reveals that survival rates have improved by 30 per cent since treatment using aromotase inhibitors was introduced.
It is thought that the drugs have played a significant role in increasing the average survival time of metastatic breast cancer patients from its 1980s average of 18 months, to its current average of around 24 months.
Dr Stephen Chia, lead investigator on the study, said that the improved survival rates were almost certainly due to the introduction of systemic therapy.
"Our population-based study of a large cohort of women with a recent diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is the first to demonstrate a significant improvement in survival over time," he commented.
"While the study does not definitively attribute these improvements to a single therapy, the greatest differences in survival were associated with the introduction of the aromotase inhibitors, docetaxel and trastuzumab in the later two cohorts."
The figures confirmed recent Cancer Research UK statistics, which found that the estimated relative twenty-year survival rate for breast cancer sufferers had increased from 44 per cent in the early 1990s to around 64 per cent of late.
Childhood Diabetes cases on the increase
23 June 2008 17:27:02
The number of children being admitted to hospital for emergency care as a result of complications from diabetes has risen, the latest figures show.
Diabetic ketoacidosis is a potentially coma-inducing complication from diabetes. The BBC reported that hospitals in the UK saw 3,317 patients admitted with the condition last year, compared to just 2,617 in 2002.
If left unchecked, the symptoms can worsen and "eventually lead to coma and death".
Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: "The number of children being rushed to A&E with such a life-threatening complication is shocking."
Mr Smallwood suggested that parents needed to be given better educated so that they could spot the signs of the condition sooner.
He continued: "With increased awareness and more investment, the number could be dramatically reduced."
There are three main forms of diabetes meelitus as recognized by the World Health Organisation (WHO): type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes (occurring during pregnancy).
11 February 2008 17:10:47
Research by scientists in the US suggests eating artificial sweeteners could lead to weight gain - which could impact upon life insurance policies.
According to the research, laboratory rats given food sweetened with artificial sweeteners ate more calories than their counterparts whose food was sweetened with normal sugar.
Scientists suggest that a sweet taste may cause animals to anticipate the calorie content of food.
Eating artificial sweeteners with little or no calories undermines this connection and leads to an energy imbalance by increasing food intake or reducing energy expenditure.
One group of rats was given yogurt sweetened with glucose, and the other group was given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin.
The rats that had the saccharin-sweetened yogurt consumed more calories, put on more weight, gained more body fat, and did not cut back on their calorie consumption.
Drs Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson, psychologists based at Purdue University in Indiana, who led the research claim that by breaking the link between the sweet taste and the anticipated high calorie food, the saccharin changed the body's ability to control food intake.
"The data clearly indicate that consuming a food sweetened with no-calorie saccharin can lead to greater body-weight gain and adiposity than would consuming the same food sweetened with a higher-calorie sugar," they said.
The UK's Food Standards Agency carries out work on sweeteners to ensure that they do not compromise food safety.
Direct Life and Pensions Services Ltd are one of the UK's leading providers of life insurance, term life assurance, mortgage protection, critical illness and life insurance advice online
24 July 2007 11:57:33
New research has shown the introduction of systemic drug therapies in the 1990s has improved the survival rate of sufferers of metastatic breast cancer.
A study by scientists at the University of British Columbia reveals that survival rates have improved by 30 per cent since treatment using aromotase inhibitors was introduced.
It is thought that the drugs have played a significant role in increasing the average survival time of metastatic breast cancer patients from its 1980s average of 18 months, to its current average of around 24 months.
Dr Stephen Chia, lead investigator on the study, said that the improved survival rates were almost certainly due to the introduction of systemic therapy.
"Our population-based study of a large cohort of women with a recent diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer is the first to demonstrate a significant improvement in survival over time," he commented.
"While the study does not definitively attribute these improvements to a single therapy, the greatest differences in survival were associated with the introduction of the aromotase inhibitors, docetaxel and trastuzumab in the later two cohorts."
The figures confirmed recent Cancer Research UK statistics, which found that the estimated relative twenty-year survival rate for breast cancer sufferers had increased from 44 per cent in the early 1990s to around 64 per cent of late.
23 June 2008 17:27:02
The number of children being admitted to hospital for emergency care as a result of complications from diabetes has risen, the latest figures show.
Diabetic ketoacidosis is a potentially coma-inducing complication from diabetes. The BBC reported that hospitals in the UK saw 3,317 patients admitted with the condition last year, compared to just 2,617 in 2002.
If left unchecked, the symptoms can worsen and "eventually lead to coma and death".
Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: "The number of children being rushed to A&E with such a life-threatening complication is shocking."
Mr Smallwood suggested that parents needed to be given better educated so that they could spot the signs of the condition sooner.
He continued: "With increased awareness and more investment, the number could be dramatically reduced."
There are three main forms of diabetes meelitus as recognized by the World Health Organisation (WHO): type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes (occurring during pregnancy).