Vitamin E could be key after attack
A KEY bridge along the $117 million Drysdale Bypass is beginning to take shape with the road on track for a mid 2020 opening.
The 25m long and 7.8m high overpass across the Bellarine tourist railway will eventually allow more than 10,000 trucks and cars to use the bypass between Jetty Rd and Whitcombes Rd.
Project director Tim Price
said the community will be given better access to High St, Drysdale once the road is complete.
“It will increase access down to the Bellarine Peninsula significantly and will reduce the traffic through the township of Drysdale,” Mr Price said.
“It will give High St back to the community for local use as compared to through traffic or commuter traffic down to the Bellarine Peninsula, particu
larly through the summer period, it’s quite con congested through that area. area.” Onc Once complete the 6km road th that will have an 80km/h speed li limit will include roundabouts at Whitcombes Rd, Murrad Murradoc Rd and Princess St; one lane in each direction plus overtaking lanes and traffic lights at the High St-Grubb Rd intersection
A 6km shared path will also be built along the road linking to the Lake Lorne Recreation Reserve and onto the Bellarine Rail Trail.
A pedestrian underpass linking to the shared path will also be built at Andersons Rd.
In coming months crews will fill over the arch along the Bellarine railway line, that was built after 24 segments were craned and bolted into place, to allow the road to pass over.
The base for sections of the 22m-wide road will be laid in coming months as it is linked into the existing road network.
Bellarine MP Lisa Neville said the bridge over the railway was factored into the project following concerns from the community.
“This project is going to be a win for the Northern Bellarine. (It is) a state of the art road with bike access (that will lead to) faster travel times and safer travel,” Ms Neville said. “(The project) will free up (High St) to be something for the locals to love, not just a thoroughfare for cars and trucks.” VITAMIN E could be used to save muscle dying after a heart attack and prevent secondary heart failure.
Researchers from Melbourne’s Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute believe an overthe-counter vitamin E tablet could reduce inflammation and stop the immune system killing damaged heart cells.
The cheap tablets could be administered in ambulances or emergency departments, as well as in the days after lifesaving procedures to clear blockages.
The institute’s Professor Karlheinz Peter said researchers estimated that the antiinflammatory and antioxidant vitamin could prevent as much as half the damage normally suffered in a heart attack.
“People often think that heart attacks are a solved problem,” he said.
“But a lot of people still die of heart attacks and have longterm effects, such as heart failure, that prevent them from going back to a normal life.”
Heart attacks killed one Australian every 67 minutes in 2017, with survivors twice as likely to die prematurely compared with the general population.
Procedures to clear blocked arteries in the wake of a heart attack, such as ballooning or inserting stents, can cause inflammation and tissue damage, and lead to heart failure later in life. There is currently no drug available to reduce heart damage caused by the overshooting inflammation, Prof Peter said.
A study, published in Redox Biology, found vitamin E reduced inflammation in mice and prevented the loss of heart function.
Prof Peter said he hoped a two-year clinical trial would be approved within 18 months.
“While a successful outcome of our trial is not guaranteed, we have to test this,” he said.