This week (12-18 November 2018), Action on Sugar is hosting National Sugar Awareness Week. Over the course of the week, organisations are joining Action on Sugar to raise awareness of the health impacts of consuming excess sugar (and calories) with the hope of educating the public to help them to reduce their consumption. This year's theme will be "Eating Out".
John Moriarty on a study of NHS consultants, which looks at psychosocial work characteristics, burnout, psychological morbidity symptoms & early retirement.
Anyone worried that the price of their sausages is about to double can probably relax.
This research investigated the potential effect of a proposal based on a modelling exercise and is not a government policy.
But it does highlight the potential health risks of eating processed and red meat, especially in high-income countries like the UK.
The study shows the big impact that factors like smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes can have on the chances of having a heart attack.
While the risk increases for women are bigger than for men, the risk increases for men are still substantial. The study underlines the importance of not smoking and of keeping blood pressure and diabetes under control, for both women and men.
Free access. I walked through a supermarket recently and saw candles saying “Wine not?”, greeting cards with “On your marks, get set, prosecco!”, and t-shirts emblazoned with “You've got to be gin it to win it.” When I reached the pharmacy, I saw a sign saying that alcohol is the leading cause of ill health, disability, and death among people aged between 15–49 years in the UK.
Health and social care teams across Shropshire are urging those who care for an older person, or person with disabilities, to protect themselves and the person they care for, by getting their flu vaccine.
A healthy diet is likely to improve diabetes control, but this study does not show convincingly that a vegan diet is superior to other healthy diets for people with diabetes. And you don't have to go vegan to improve the quality of your diet.
Headlines like the one in the Mail Online, saying that "men should start a family before they are 35 to avoid their children having birth defects", are not just scaremongering, but wrong.
The study found a small increase in some risks to babies born to fathers over 45, and didn't look at birth abnormalities.
The study's main strength is its size and the amount of information available to researchers. But it has some limitations.
The study provides a valuable insight, but medical records may not have provided the full picture – they may not have captured all the reasons why a tonsillectomy was performed.
The findings highlight a need for clearer and more up-to-date guidelines for GPs to follow about when to refer children for tonsillectomies.
Dr Bov Jani, Consultant Paediatrician and RCPCH Officer for Professional Development, talks about the latest initiatives to improve the wellbeing of doctors and the factors impacting on the success of these.
Reports in the UK media were broadly accurate and balanced, although the headlines didn't make it clear that the study was carried out in mice, not humans.