Smoking cessation programmes in combination with financial incentives have shown to increase quit rates in smokers, but it is not clear which elements of this intervention help smokers to succeed in their quit attempt. The aim of this study was to explore the view of successful and unsuccessful quitters about which factors had affected their ability to quit smoking. Open Access Article
Based on a growing body of epidemiological and biomedical studies, physical activity (PA) is considered a cornerstone in type 2 diabetes treatment. However, it is also a practice embedded in daily life and, as such, may produce certain frictions as a topic in health care. The aim of this article is to give in-depth insight into experiences of health care professionals with the delivery of PA counselling to people with type 2 diabetes.
Improving transport infrastructure to support walking and cycling on the journey to and from work – active commuting – could help to promote physical activity and improve population health.
“One 60-minute run can add 7 hours to your life” claimed The Times last week. The story was based on a new review in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases that concluded that runners live, on average, three years longer than non-runners and that running will do more for your longevity than any other form of exercise. But there’s more to running than its health-enhancing effects. Research published in recent years has shown that donning your trainers and pounding the hills or pavements changes your brain and mind in some intriguing ways, from increasing connectivity between key functional hubs, to helping you regulate your emotions. The precise effects sometimes vary according to whether you engage in intense sprints or long-distance running. Here, to coincide with a new feature article in The Psychologist – “Minds run free” – we provide a handy digest of the ways that running changes your mind and brain.
However, as is often the case with health news that sounds too good to be true, the research is not particularly persuasive. People who ate chocolate less than once a month were also more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease; all of which are risk factors for atrial fibrillation. So they may have been avoiding chocolate for health reasons.
It's possible not all of the available evidence was considered, and this may have influenced the findings. The findings should therefore primarily be considered to be the authors' opinion following their review of the evidence.
A systematic review of high-quality studies is needed before we can draw any firm conclusions.
The researchers concluded that these results add to the body of evidence that fortifying widely eaten foods with vitamin D would improve public health.
But this opinion is not shared by all experts in the UK. Professor Louis Levy, head of nutrition science at Public Health England (PHE), said: "The evidence on vitamin D and infection is inconsistent, and this study does not provide sufficient evidence to support recommending vitamin D for reducing the risk of respiratory tract infections."
As this debate is ongoing, it would seem sensible to stick to the relatively new guidelines about vitamin D – that is, everyone should consider taking supplements during the winter months.
Professor Jebb gave a fascinating presentation on her research into brief interventions on weight loss in the primary care setting and we have produced an accompanying webinar which we hope will be of interest to those practitioners, CCGs and other providers.