Because of the limitations of the study, it can't be concluded that tight underwear causes infertility.
But if you're trying for a baby, it can't hurt to try switching to boxers.
Other ways men can increase their chances of conceiving include moderating their alcohol consumption, stopping smoking, exercising regularly, and having a healthy, balanced diet.
This study alone doesn't explain the potential role of irisin.
The research did find that restoring irisin in Alzheimer's mice, including by daily swimming, can boost memory and nerve connections.
But we don't know that the same effects would be seen if people with Alzheimer's were given an exercise programme, for example.
We also don't know if any attempt to increase irisin levels through drug-based treatments (as some in the UK media suggested) would be either effective or safe, as no studies have been carried out in people at this stage.
Obese people who were metabolically healthy – the "fat but fit" – had a 28% higher heart disease risk than their normal weight, metabolically healthy counterparts.
There is no evidence that people exposed to the viral genetic material went on to develop an infection. That said, the researchers' suggestion that people should be encouraged to use alcohol hand disinfectant before and after security checks, to minimise the risk of infection, is sensible advice.
However the connections between diet, lifestyle and cancer outcomes are complex, and while the researchers attempted to adjust their results for other factors, we cannot say with certainty that energy dense foods increase your cancer risk.
The analysis was limited to postmenopausal women and did not consider drink intake, such as sugary drinks and alcohol, which can also be high in calories.
Limitations aside, there is a robust body of existing evidence that shows that regular consumption of sugary drinks can increase the risk of a range of health conditions, from tooth decay, to diabetes, to heart attacks and stroke.
If you are a night owl, there's no need to panic about the study. The usual rules about a healthy lifestyle – including getting sufficient sleep, at whatever time you choose to get it – still apply.
This study supports earlier studies that the MMR vaccine has no link with the risk of autism.
It follows a 2014 review that pooled the results of 10 observational studies on childhood vaccine and found no evidence of any link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
The strength of this study is that it follows a large number of children. This makes the findings more reliable when assessing a fairly rare outcome like autism, and reduces the possibility that the findings are down to chance.
This study finds very little hard evidence supporting the beneficial effect of vitamin D on neurodegenerative diseases.
That said, it's still a useful piece of research as it demonstrates the need for further studies in this area.
So, should people wanting to lose weight try to avoid PFAS? That would be difficult, and we don't know whether it would help. We don't know what levels of PFAS chemicals people in the UK have in their bodies. We don't know whether using non-stick cookware, or avoiding food packaging made using PFAS chemicals, would reduce PFAS levels in the body. Without this information, attempting to avoid PFAS chemicals does not seem practical or advisable.
While the conclusions – that children need time to work things out for themselves – may be correct (at least for some children), headlines blaming mothers for children's difficulties at school can be discouraging and unhelpful.
The research shows that joint injections of relaxin at high or repeated doses may prevent the build-up of scar tissue in the joint.
But it's currently not certain whether this could lead to a safe and effective new treatment for humans.
The study involved rats who'd had a surgical procedure to restrict their range of limb movement.
This is not necessarily the same as a person who's developed frozen shoulder after an injury or for an unknown reason.
The dietary approach definitely shows promise, but there are several reasons to be cautious at this stage. This sort of intensive calorie restriction wouldn't be suitable for everyone and should only be conducted under careful medical supervision. One person also developed severe abdominal pain, related to gallstones, thought to be caused by the intervention. The diet needs further study to ensure it's safe and suitable for widespread adoption.
Despite limitations, this trial does provide evidence that both web-based and telephone-delivered CBT are better than usual treatment.
But the results do not give us any practical information about what elements of the therapy helped control or reduce symptoms of IBS.
This could have been the result of changes in diet, reduction in stress, improved sleep or other factors.
The study doesn't provide firm evidence that using e-cigarettes will lead to smoking. What it does show, as would be expected, is that it's very rare for non-smokers to use e-cigarettes.
Children have already exceeded the maximum recommended sugar intake for an 18 year old by the time they reach their tenth birthday, according to Public Health England (PHE). This is based on their total sugar consumption from the age of 2.
Due to this, as part of their ongoing One You campaign, Public Health England (PHE) has launched an app called Active 10, designed to encourage at least 10 minutes brisk walking a day.
While this is below the current minimum guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, 10 minutes per day can still bring health benefits, and may serve as "baby steps" along a road that leads to more exercise and better health.
Blog post. The idea that stress increases the risk of breast cancer is a persistent one, despite a number of major large-scale findings to the contrary. By Emma Young
This study confirms that the most accurate way to measure blood pressure is using a 24-hour monitor. But that's not to say that the standard blood pressure test you have at the GP surgery isn't useful.
Most people would only be referred for 24-hour monitoring if they had discrepancies between different clinic readings or if clinic readings were high.
Guidelines for UK doctors recommend that people should have 24-hour blood pressure monitoring to confirm a diagnosis of high blood pressure.
The 4-7-8 breathing technique, or relaxation breath, is a method for reducing anxiety and promoting sleep. This article covers how to do it, its uses, and apps that can help people practice it.
Blog post. When you’re in the middle of a gruelling long-distance run and the pain and fatigue is becoming overwhelming, an obvious strategy is to try to force the subjective experience out of your mind, for example by thinking nice thoughts or focusing on the environment around you. The trouble is, as the physical struggle intensifies, the distraction strategy becomes harder and harder to pull off. According to a new paper in Motivation and Emotion, an alternative approach that holds promise is to practice “cognitive reappraisal” – don’t ignore the sensations as such, but try to view them in a dispassionate way, as if you are a scientist studying running or a journalist reporting on the experience.
There's no need to panic if you get a sore throat. The vast majority of sore throats are caused by colds or infections. They pass quickly and often need no treatment. Sore throats, ear aches and other symptoms of infection are particularly common in children and young people. Even among older adults, the proportion of people with a sore throat or other symptoms who will be found to have laryngeal cancer is still very low.
However, people should get persistent symptoms – alone or in combination – checked out, especially if they last longer than you'd expect from a cold or chest infection.
The Healthy Weight Initiative for Nurses (WIN.) developed interventions that nurses can use to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Stemming from this, a new Smartphone application (app) was launched earlier in the year. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
BPS blog post by Christian Jarrett. Perhaps the most important lesson from this review is that we need more research into how different types and intensities of exercise affect our mood.
Blog post. The researchers said men with imposter syndrome may particularly struggle to cope with the cultural expectations that they be competent. By Christian Jarrett
Within high income countries, mental health is now the leading cause of long term sickness absence in the workplace. Managers are in a position to make changes and decisions that have a positive effect on the wellbeing of staff, the recovery of employees with mental ill health, and potentially prevent future mental health problems. However, managers report addressing workplace mental health issues as challenging. The aim of the HeadCoach trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of a newly developed online training intervention to determine whether it is able to build managers’ confidence to better support individuals within their teams who are experiencing mental ill health, and the confidence to promote manager behaviour likely to result in a more mentally healthy workplace.
Blog post. According to statistics published by the British Heart Foundation, we spend 76 days per year, on average, sitting. The World Health Organisation describes physical inactivity as a “global public health problem” that contributes to millions of deaths each year.
You might not be surprised to hear about the harmful health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, but perhaps less obvious is that physical inactivity is also associated with unwelcome changes in personality over time. Previous research has documented these effects over periods of four and ten years. A new paper in the Journal of Research in Personality has extended this, finding that greater physical inactivity at baseline is associated with deterioration in personality two decades later, even after accounting for any differences in initial personality.
As temperatures will potentially rise this weekend, health experts across the county are advising people to stay safe and well during the hot weather.
Shropshire’s Council’s Stay Safe and Well this Summer webpages offers a host of advice for people young and old, to help keep cool and hydrated throughout the hot weather.
As temperatures rise, health experts across the county are advising people to stay safe and well during the hot weather this week.
Shropshire’s Council’s Stay Safe and Well this Summer webpages offers a host of advice for people young and old, to help keep cool and hydrated throughout the hot weather.
These limitations mean we cannot say for sure that pollution causes dementia. However, the study findings are important. If air pollution does increase dementia risk, measures to reduce pollution could have a big impact on the overall numbers of people getting dementia each year. And we already know that air pollution worsens heart and lung health.
A survey has revealed which areas across England have the highest levels of binge drinking. Data was collected by Ipsos MORI from 25 local authorities to cover all regions and all types of local authority. The figures also show the number of people who abstain from alcohol. Public Health England (PHE) said there is a lack of reliable information about alcohol consumption, primarily due to the cost of collecting the data. Rates of frequent drinking, considered to be drinking on four or more days a week, varied from 9% in Peterborough to 22% in West Berkshire.
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We often think of alcohol misuse in terms of dependence and the conditions associated with heavy drinking like liver disease and pancreatitis. But, as last year’s Chief Medical Officers’ new guidance indicated, lower levels of alcohol misuse can contribute to a wide range of conditions not so readily associated with alcohol. Is it therefore worth considering how alcohol could be affecting the health of a wider range of patients and not just heavy drinkers?
Intermittent fasting has been a popular diet plan since the 5:2 diet, where you eat normally for 5 days and fast for 2, hit the headlines.
But intermittent fasting is not safe or suitable for all people, such as those with long-term health conditions or a history of eating disorders.
And the researchers involved in this study made the point of warning that alternate day fasting should not be tried without medical advice. Speak to a GP for advice before starting.
Importantly, these results come from data from an observational study that was not set up to look at this question, so it cannot prove direct cause and effect between coffee drinking and mortality.
It's not possible to fully rule out the influence of other dietary, health and lifestyle factors, and participants' responses on coffee intake may also have been inaccurate, as they were self-reported.
A final point is that the participants were over the age of 40. The results may have been different if a younger population had been studied.
Honey and over-the-counter remedies should be a patient’s first point of call to treat a cough, not antibiotics, says NICE and PHE in new draft guidance.
In most cases, acute coughs are caused by a cold or flu virus, or bronchitis, and last around three weeks.
Clinicians are advised in most cases not to offer antibiotics as they make little difference to a person’s symptoms.
In lower-income countries, it's possible people are generally less likely to do recreational exercise but more likely to have physically active lifestyles involving manual work. The aim was to see if this sort of day-to-day activity could be just as beneficial as any other type of exercise.
The main finding was that it made no difference. Physical activity of any type – whether it was walking or doing household chores – was clearly linked with a lower risk of death or heart disease and stroke.
The growth of crowdfunding websites has opened up the possibility of private or alternative medical treatment for people who would not otherwise have the money to pay for it. Many people, including friends, family and strangers, are moved to donate when people plead for "another chance" of a cure for terminal cancer.
People may look for alternatives after being told there is nothing further that the NHS can do for them and that all proven treatments have been exhausted. Not surprisingly, they may be willing to try any treatments that might prolong their lives, even if there is little or no evidence to prove that they work.
This research provides some evidence that glass sizes have increased over the years, which may have led to greater alcohol consumption.
But it only looked at glass size, not the amount of alcohol drunk, so can't prove that the increase in glass size has directly led to higher rates of alcohol consumption. The Mail Online's headline is therefore misleading.
This informative blog highlights how having regular short 15 to 20 minute naps can help to combat fatigue, improving a persons ability to function thereby leading to less errors.
This study is valuable in improving our understanding of diabetes. For example, the researchers found that people who had cluster 2 or 3 diabetes had a higher risk of kidney disease or vision problems (retinopathy) than people in the other clusters.
However, the diagnosis and management of diabetes isn't going to change overnight. Further research is needed to see whether these 5 clusters hold true for non-Scandinavian populations.
These are self-reported symptoms of depression. The participants have not been clinically diagnosed as depressed.
This means it's not clear from the study if these slightly higher levels of depression symptoms had any impact on the women's daily life and wellbeing.
As working patterns and depression symptoms were measured at the same time, we do not know if the long hours were the cause of the symptoms. Many other personal, health and lifestyle factors may be involved.
Shropshire Council’s public health team is encouraging families to take part in the programme, which uses the excitement of Star WarsTM and its characters – alongside Double Olympic Gold medalist, Jade Jones – to encourage children to ‘Train Like A Jedi’ and is designed to increase levels of physical activity amongst children in England.
Taking inspiration from the traits of iconic Jedi such as Luke Skywalker and Rey, Train Like A Jedi helps children master six key skills – technique, strength, stamina, speed, agility and mastery.
The Children’s Food Campaign has won a landmark ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to stop Kinder targeting adverts to children via its Kindernauts website, Magic Kinder website, app and YouTube films.
The ruling by the ASA Council agreed that the sites and advergames had broken rules set by the Committee of Advertising Practices (CAP) on the promotion of high fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) products to children under 16 years.
This study adds evidence to confirm what doctors in the UK already knew – that aspirin increases the risk of bleeding and reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The study adds useful information to make clear that people without cardiovascular disease benefit from only a small reduction in risk of heart attack or stroke, while increasing their risk of bleeding.
Because heart attacks are more common than major bleeding, the change to the absolute risk of either event with aspirin is about the same.
Being physically active in mid-life increases the odds of being active in old age. Promoting physical activity in later life might be best achieved by promoting sport participation earlier in the life course.
Open Access Article
This longitudinal cohort study uses data from the Health and Retirement Study to assess whether higher purpose in life among adequately functioning older adults. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
This adds to previous evidence suggesting it's good to consume more of our calories earlier in the day, when we have more opportunities to be active ahead of us. Eating large, heavy meals late in the evening has also been linked with higher body fat.
But as a single study in a small, specific sample of students, this study provides little evidence that lifestyle and eating habits have a direct effect on body weight.
Electrolyte, directed by Olivier award-winning director Donnacadh O’Briain, is written in entirely spoken word poetry and underscored by instrumentalists who seamlessly integrate live music with expert storytelling. The show follows Jessie who having recently suffered a family bereavement meets singer-songwriter Allie. Jessie impulsively follows Allie to London in pursuit of her mother. However, on arrival things aren’t quite as shiny as they seemed and the answers she seeks are buried deeper than she could ever have imagined.
The production focuses on mental health and has an official partner in the Mental Health Foundation after winning the Mental Health Fringe Award last year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Pleasance Best Newcomer Award.
This new research suggests that babies may well sleep better if they start solids a bit earlier, at 3 months.
But parents should bear in mind that the effect was small – on average, babies only slept about 17 minutes longer a night.
Babies who were more able to manage to eat the early solids diet were also better sleepers at the start of the study. This suggests that these babies may have been developmentally more mature.
News from our partners Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin
Local charity Age UK Shropshire Telford & Wrekin will be offering weekly adult ballet sessions as a new activity to complement their Living Well programme for older people.
Energy drinks are consumed by more than two-thirds of 10 to 17-year-olds and they often contain a number of ingredients including amino acids, sweeteners, sugars and caffeine – none of which are necessary or beneficial to their diet. This has sparked concerns across the health and education sector about their safety, leading to calls from Professor Russell Viner, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), for the Government to regulate and educate.
The study shows that bath emollient additives may not be a useful part of eczema care for children.
But it's important to be clear this does not apply to the use of leave-on emollient creams and lotions, or to the use of emollients instead of soap. There's evidence that leave-on emollient creams work, and doctors agree using emollients instead of soap is helpful.
This large study demonstrates that differences between men and women in the quantity and distribution of body fat not only lead to differences in body shape between women and men, but also may have implications for the risk of having a heart attack in later life.
But there are limitations.
Open access. Letter. Imo conducted a systematic literature review of research on the prevalence of burnout among UK medical doctors, arriving at the conclusion that the prevalence of burnout in this population is ‘worryingly high’. Problematically, it turns out that such a conclusion cannot be drawn in view of the state of burnout research. Indeed, there are no clinically valid, commonly shared diagnostic criteria for burnout.2,3
What the research actually shows is that many people from both urban and rural populations in the UK were poor, had little food and were likely to be malnourished. Many relied on white bread, potatoes and some vegetables, with a little meat or milk if they could get it.
There's no new evidence that these people were healthier than the average UK citizen living tody.
Editorial. Write up by Dr Sarah Hallberg following her TEDx talk in Purdue in 2015.
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