Daily digest September 30 2015

Womb transplants to be available in the UK

The first womb transplants in the UK are scheduled to take place next year.

Ten women have been identified for the procedures, which will take place in London, after successful trials in Sweden.

The transplants will allow women to have a baby if they have been born without a womb or have had their womb removed, perhaps during treatment for cancer.

Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecologist from Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital has been given ethical approval for the project. He said: ‘For many couples, childlessness is a disaster.

'Infertility is a difficult thing to treat for these women.’

Read more on the Guardian website 

‘Wait and see’ approach to MS treatment must end, charity says

The Multiple Sclerosis Society is calling for patients with the condition to be given drug treatments much earlier to improve outcomes.

The charity argues that the NHS’s ‘wait and see’ policy, which leads to treatment being withdrawn during periods of remission, should be changed.

MS Society spokesperson Michelle Mitchell said: ‘Relapsing, remitting MS has been redefined. We now know that the clock never stops with this disease and neither should our fight against it. In the UK, the most common treatment options for MS in its early stages is currently no treatment and this needs to change for the sake of tens of thousands of people’s health.’

Read more on the BBC website 

Diets with fish and meat can be healthy, researchers find

A Mediterranean diet that involves fresh fish and olive oil is just as healthy as a vegan or vegetarian diet provided it involves plenty of vegetables.

Researchers made this conclusion after examining the eating habits of 153 people and monitoring the levels of important metabolites such as compounds called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and trimethylamine oxide. They found that eating some meat and dairy products did not affect the levels of SCFAs provided plenty of vegetables were eaten.

Lead study author Danilo Ercolini, associate professor of microbiology at the University of Naples Federico II, said the study showed that meat was not necessarily bad for us.

Read more on the Daily Mail website