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BAPEN Conference Chaired Poster Reception


The first day of conference ended with a Chaired Poster Reception. Drinks helped provide a convivial and relaxed environment. Delegates had the opportunity to talk to the authors of the posters about their research and clinical audit which created hubs of discussion and information exchanges. There was much critical debate, sharing of ideas and best practice, networking and planning for future research projects, in addition to ongoing discussion from some of the day’s symposia.


Home Parenteral Nutrition: The Collaboration between Secondary and Primary Care – An established model


In this session, which was chaired by Liz Evans, Chair of the National Nutrition Nurses Group, Dr Simon Gabe explained how home parenteral nutrition (HPN) should work and gave an overview of the history of funding and service developments. Simon then explained the national HPN tender process and the planned launch, outlining the role of the National Commissioning Board, the new streamlined patient pathway and the vision for more shared care and patients to have records held at home. Anne Bradley, who herself has had HPN for


30 years, discussed the issues to be considered when PN is being set up at home, looking at the information and health education that is required to enable discharge to be safe and effective, highlighting the need for reassessment of aseptic techniques and checking for bad habits that may have developed over time. Chris Shaw then described the journey from designing pathways to ensuring that patients are as independent as possible before Stephen Cook provided the patients perspective and talked about the importance of flexibility to find what works best for the individual patient, bearing in mind that what works for one patient doesn’t necessarily work for another patient.


Muscle Wasting with Age – A New Challenge in Nutritional Care REPORTED BY DR ALISON CULKIN


Ageing and Taste DR LISA METHVEN, University of Reading


Dr Methven introduced the concept that diminished taste occurs as a result of ageing and is influenced by illness and medications all of which can contribute to a reduced appetite and food intake, which could lead to malnutrition. Zinc deficiency is also linked to altered taste. Lisa gave a short description of the tastes of salt, sweet, bitter and sour plus umami. Umami is known to stimulate saliva and gut transit and is therefore beneficial for constipation. Previous studies have shown that using monosodium glutamate increases hospital food consumption but there is an unwanted side effect of increased sodium


7 BAPEN In Touch No.63 January 2012


intake. Lisa outlined the focus of her research which attempted to increase the amount of umami containing foods occurring naturally (such as mushrooms, marmite, soy sauce and tomato concentrate) without increasing the amount of sodium in the diet to avoid possible hypertension. The study involved older hospital patients who were found to have higher taste thresholds than healthy volunteers for salt, umami and bitter. The results implied that it is ill health and medication rather than age which have an effect on taste. Of umami containing foods to the hospital menu, umami containing meat was preferred and liked compared to the usual hospital diet although no differences in consumption were noted. The take home message appears to be that by utilising umami containing natural foods can improve taste perception but that this did not achieve an effect on nutrients consumed.


Ageing and Muscle


PROFESSOR STEPHEN HARRIDGE, King's College, London


This lecture demonstrated the importance of activity on maintaining muscle mass and function and at the opposite end of the spectrum illustrated the negative effects of being sedentary. Healthy elderly people have similar muscle function as younger people but this is reduced significantly during periods of immobilisation, hence sarcopenia is not just age related. Old age is also associated with a reduction in function and loss of force which is attributable to loss of type II fibres. Causes of muscle loss include anabolic hormones, metabolic changes and inflammation. Anabolic exercise can increase muscle mass and function after only a 12-week exercise programme. There is some animal work to suggest that it is the muscle


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