Help the Aged funds the University of Nottingham to research pain affecting ol...( A little-understood medical condition ...),Health

A little-understood medical condition which affects millions of older people in Britain is to be studied at The University of Nottingham. David Humes of the Division of Gastroenterology, in The School of Medical and Surgical Sciences, has gained funding from Help the Aged and the Royal College of Surgeons to explore how the pain caused by diverticular disease can be reduced. The condition is formed by pouching in the lower gut which can be painful, and, if infection sets in, can also be life-threatening.

Dr David Humes, said: Our aim is to discover whether inflammation of the bowels causes the pain of diverticular disease. We will test new anti-inflammatory drugs to see if they could become a valuable treatment for this condition, which in varying degrees affects as many as two-thirds of the older people in our society.

Dr Lorna Layward, Research Manager for Help the Aged, said: We are delighted to be supporting David Humes alongside the Royal College of Surgeons. This study is elegant and clear-sighted, with the potential quickly to produce real treatments for people with diverticular disease. That would be fantastic news for older people and another great success for researchers at The University of Nottingham.

The project is one of 20 new studies across the UK that have been awarded funding this year by the Help the Aged biomedical Research into Ageing programme, all of which are helping bring better health and independence to older people.

Dr Layward adds: Help the Aged is committed to funding high quality biomedical research through our Research into Ageing programme and we have funded 20 new projects in 2007. Unfortunately for each project we can fund a further four must be turned away, so we need more donations to enable us to fund as many of the best projects as possible. We must prevent a situation that sees much of this life-changing research being consigned to the scrapheap, never to happen.

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Contact: Jonathan Ray
jonathan.ray@nottingham.ac.uk
University of Nottingham
13-Apr-2007