Wishing you and your family a warm and loving Christmas and health and happiness in the New Year. Kayley

A new study investigating the health benefits of moderate coffee drinking brings some Christmas cheer, see exert below. In addition to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties discussed, coffee is known to contain a surprising amount of soluble fiber, an essential dietary component for good health that is lacking in Western diets. For the full story see https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-industry-funded-coffee-fountain-youth.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-nwletter Enjoy! Kayley CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology researchers in Portugal report that regular, moderate coffee consumption (three cups per day) not only contributes to a longer life but also enhances the quality of those additional years by reducing the risk of major age-related diseases and maintaining better overall health Coffee consumption's perception has shifted from potentially harmful to potentially beneficial over the last several decades. Scientific understanding of the underlying mechanisms by which coffee's primary components, namely caffeine and chlorogenic acids, influence fundamental biological processes and are understood to have alertness, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, though how these might be involved in aging remains unclear. Beyond the primary components, coffee is a complex mixture of thousands of potentially bioactive substances, most of which lack comprehensive study of their impact, making it difficult to break down the specific effects of individual components on human health. In the study, "Impact of coffee intake on human aging: Epidemiology and cellular mechanisms," published in Ageing Research Reviews, researchers reviewed over 50 epidemiological studies from different regions and ethnicities, analyzing patterns of coffee consumption and their association with mortality data, healthspan indicators, and various disease metrics withing the combined cohort of nearly 3 million individuals.

The IAA is going to Sportskongres 2025 in Copenhagen! Kayley Usher and Sebastiano Nutarelli have been invited to present talks about the pathology and physiotherapy approaches for treating arthrofibrosis in a special session that begins at 13.15 on Friday the 24th January. Prof Dakin from the UK will also present a talk about her group's research into shoulder arthrofibrosis (Frozen Shoulder). This session will be recorded and live-streamed. A big "thank you" to the congress organisers and to Sara Katrine Jandrup for the introductions! Kayley

The IAA Committee warmly welcomes Jarji Buzariashvili, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician in Georgia, as an IAA Ambassador. We appreciate your passion to help people with arthrofibrosis, Jarji, and we look forward to working with you! Kayley

Thank you everyone for sharing the #ArthrofibrosisAwareness and making the Arthrofibrosis Awareness Day a huge success! Here are some highlights: • There was a lot of interest across our social media platforms with people posting about their experiences and our IAA Ambassadors leaping into action, spreading the word - thank you all! Slides prepared by the immunologist Catherine Nicholas were posted on social media to increase AF awareness. • IAA website visits went up by over 80% over an extended time. • The first international Expert Panel Discussion for physiotherapists was published on our YouTube channel and covered essential information. I'm confident that it will become a widely shared tool that helps physiotherapists and patients globally. Thank you panelists! The Expert Panel Discussion for surgeons is coming up too, so stay tuned for that. • There were more donations (thank you donors!) to share the "Urgent Call to Action for Comprehensive Arthrofibrosis Education for Clinicians" petition on Change.org, resulting in around 150 more signatures. We're closing in on the 1500 target! • People shared their stories about arthrofibrosis for our new "Patent Stories" page. These experiences will educate clinicians and patients and help support people in need. • And we commissioned a short animated video to spread the word. It's available on our YouTube channel - please do share. The Arthrofibrosis Awareness Day has resulted in many more people knowing what arthrofibrosis is and understanding the pathology. Together we can make a real difference and help people everywhere! Kayley

See our new page for patient stories! Thanks very much to the contributors for sharing their experiences. If you would like your story added please send it to iaa.committee@arthrofibrosis.info We will publish it with a different name if you wish. Kayley

News from a highly regarded research laboratory in Ireland who study the effects of cyclic stretch: Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for a full-time fixed position as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Galway, Ireland. Deadline is 23rd August. Anyone who might be interested please see https://www.nature.com/naturecareers/job/12821150/postdoctoral-researcher-actuatable-immune-cell-therapy-1-fte-school-of-engineering-010532/

The IAA Committee warmly welcomes two new IAA Advisors, Dr Luca Deabate and Dr Ralf Rosenberger, and two new IAA Ambassadors, physiotherapists Claudia-Iulia Nedelcu and Toma Vasilescu. We're excited to have them on board and greatly appreciate their generosity and desire to help others.

The Directors of the IAA have decided that September/October would be a better time of the year to hold the annual Arthrofibrosis Awareness Day. Apologies for not letting you know earlier, due to unforeseen circumstances this notice is late.

The IAA Committee is delighted to welcome Florencia Pistritto and Brigitte Spee as IAA Ambassadors! We look forward to working with you to increase awareness about arthrofibrosis. Kayley

The IAA Committee says a big Welcome and thanks to our first IAA Ambassadors, Sara Katrine Jandrup from Denmark and Barbara Egger-Spiess from Austria for their commitment and passion for spreading arthrofibrosis awareness, supporting people with arthrofibrosis and advocating for education. Together we can make real change! Kayley

Special thanks go to Katrine, for advocating for arthrofibrosis to be included on the timetable of the Scandinavian Sports Medicine Congress, 2024. And many thanks to the organisers who took the request seriously and allowed time for three presenters on the topic. The presenters included Katrine, who explained to the audience of surgeons and physiotherapists what it was like to live with arthrofibrosis, and IAA Committee member and experienced physiotherapist Sebastiano Nutarelli. You can watch Sebastiano's presentation, which was kindly recorded by Katrine, on our blog. This is a huge achievement, well done Katrine! We believe this is the first time that arthrofibrosis has been included as a special topic at a sporting conference, and the Scandinavian Sports Medicine Congress is one of the most important. We hope that arthrofibrosis will become a regular topic on the timetable. Kayley

The IAA has made a proposal to the World Health Organisation to add arthrofibrosis to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) which serves to record and report health and health-related conditions globally. Approval will mean that arthrofibrosis is able to be recorded by clinicians for the first time and treatment guidelines can be developed. This will be hugely important! If you're a clinician please log into the ICD-11, go to Proposals and click "agree". Your support is much appreciated! Thank you Katrine for bringing this essential piece of the puzzle to our attention! Kayley

An IAA member commented that covid has made her AF knee more painful. The knee is settling down now and is expected to make a full return to pre-covid function, but it's a reminder that respiratory infections like covid cause systemic inflammation that affects knees. The impact of respiratory infections can be more damaging in the months following an operation when the body is in an active healing phase and trying to resolve inflammation, so this is a good time to take precautions. Kayley

Thank you ever so much again for such a thorough and caring reply. I will print off those blog papers about the muscle atrophy for my physio. What will happen to my quads though as I am quite thin as it is and they are dissappearing. My physio keeps telling I can’t walk because my quads are too weak but today I’ll show him that paper. Also, how do I know when the inflammation has gone down? Are heel slides acceptable? The pain specialist told me to use a tens machine with the exercises but I’m not sure this is right either. I feel like I need to move my knee even though I can’t that far (80 degrees). It presently feels like my knee joint is a rock though the London consultant says in his opinion that I have a mild form of arthrofibrosis but at the moment it has stripped me of my life and I cry most of the time. Did you have a similar feeling with your knee, like it was cement setting? Did it settle? Sorry, my mind is a boggle and I’m trying to gather as much information as possible. Sent from my iPhone

The IAA is happy to announce a new page with information about the drivers of arthrofibrosis, under "What is Arthrofibrosis". Please see https://www.arthrofibrosis.info/drivers(https://www.arthrofibrosis.info/drivers) Kayley

The IAA warmly welcomes Myra to the Advisory Board. Myra is a licensed psychotherapist with a passion for creating change in arthrofibrosis treatment, and we look forward to working with her. Kayley

In order to help people who contact us, the IAA has begun an online Clinician Checklist. See https://www.arthrofibrosis.info/clinician-checklist Please fill out the checklist and help the IAA to build an international database of clinicians who treat arthrofibrosis. This will be used to identify clinicians whose treatments are based on our understanding of fibrosis pathology. Your contribution will be much appreciated and individual responses will not be published. Clinicians are welcome to complete the checklist themselves. Please understand that this international database will take time to build. We'll start with orthopaedic surgeons. Thank you, Kayley

The IAA warmly welcomes Clinical Ass. Prof. Rob Will and Prof. Tony Blazevicha to the Board. We greatly appreciate the generosity of our Board members who volunteer their time and expertise to help others. Ass. Prof. Rob Will is a rheumatologist who conducts clinical studies in RA, psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritis, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis in Australia. Prof. Tony Blazevich is a Professor of Biomechanics and lecturer in clinical neurophysiology at ECU, Australia. His research interests include neuromuscular adaptations to physical training. Kayley