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Total 20 results found since Jan 2013.

Does coffee make you live longer?
Conclusion This study, conducted on a large number of people across Europe, was backed up by similar findings in the US. It appears to show some association between people who drink higher amounts of coffee and a reduced risk of death. But the "potentially beneficial clinical implications" need to be considered carefully for a number of reasons: Although the analyses were adjusted for some confounding variables, there may be a number of other factors that differ between the groups that account for the differences in death, such as socioeconomic status, family history, other medical conditions, and use of medic...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news

Two older drugs could be 'repurposed' to fight dementia
Conclusion This early stage experimental research has demonstrated a beneficial neurological effect of trazodone and dibenzoylmethane on mice with diseases mimicking neurodegenerative diseases. It is important to acknowledge that this is animal research and therefore the drugs might not have the same effect when they are trialled on humans. That being said, trazodone is already an approved drug for depression and sleep problems and has therefore already passed safety tests. If the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in humans and mice are similar, it is possible trazodone could be used in the future in treating Alzheimer's and...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 20, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Older people Neurology Medication Source Type: news

A pattern of brain activity may link stress to heart attacks
Conclusion This intriguing study sets out a possible pathway by which the effects of stress on the brain could translate into inflammation in the blood vessels, and so raise the risks of cardiovascular disease. This would help to explain why people living in stressful situations, or with illnesses such as depression and anxiety, are more at risk of heart attacks and strokes. However, there are important limitations to the study which mean we should treat the findings with caution. The main study of 293 people was relatively small for a long-term study looking at cardiovascular disease, and only 22 people had a cardiovascul...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Mental health Source Type: news

Behind the Headlines 2016 Quiz of the Year
In 2014, Behind the Headlines has covered more than 500 health stories that made it into the mainstream media. If you've been paying attention you should find this quiz easy and fun. Why not test your knowledge of 2014's health news with our month-by-month quiz? Answers are at the foot of the page (no peeking!).   In January 2016's health news... In a controversial study, monkeys were genetically engineered to develop what disorder? 1) Sex addiction 2) Bi-polar disorder 3) Autism In a similarly controversial study, what psychological condition was dismissed as a "myth" 1) Seasonal affective disorder...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 5, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Special reports Source Type: news

Are broken bones, loneliness and poor sleep really hidden killers?
Conclusion As the researchers say, the WHO definition of health encompasses physical, mental and social wellbeing – not just the presence or absence of disease. But how often are these extra dimensions taken into account when assessing a person's health status? In this sample of older adults, just looking at their disease status puts the majority of them into an apparently "robust" health group. Yet when you consider the additional dimensions of psychological health and wellbeing, you seem to get a much better indication of those who were at higher or lower risk of dying or being incapacitated in the coming...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 18, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Medical practice Source Type: news

The idea you can be fat but fit is 'a myth' study argues
ConclusionThis was a large prospective cohort study from Sweden, which was carried out in young adult males who were then followed for a period of around 29 years. The study found that lower levels of aerobic fitness were associated with risk of early death, but that this risk of death was greater for those with a high BMI, even if they had a high level of aerobic fitness. This study has a number of strengths and limitations. The limitations are that a large number of participants had missing smoking data and therefore it was not possible to control for the confounding effect of smoking. The lower fitness level group with...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 21, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Obesity Source Type: news

Being happy 'won't help you live longer' survey finds
ConclusionThis large prospective study aimed to assess whether happiness or related measures of wellbeing are associated with risk of death, after allowing for the influence of the poor health and lifestyles of people who are unhappy.The study found poor health was linked with unhappiness in middle-aged women. However, after allowing for this association and adjusting for the influence of other factors that may be associated, such as smoking and poor socioeconomic status, happiness and related measures of wellbeing do not appear to have any direct effect on death. This suggests that, as has sometimes previously been specu...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 11, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Mental health Source Type: news

A 15-minute daily walk 'will help you live longer' says study
Conclusion This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate whether doing less exercise than the recommended activity levels was still effective in reducing the risk of dying early among adults aged 60 or over. The study found physical activity even below the recommended amount reduced mortality in this group. However, higher levels of physical activity were associated with an even lower risk of dying early. This study has strengths in its systematic review methods, the fact it searched the literature for studies published over 20 years that assessed the effects of physical activity, and that it only includ...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 4, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news

Is there really a middle-class drinking 'epidemic' in over-50s?
Conclusion This study showed that higher-risk drinking was linked to a number of factors the researchers described as "middle-class", like higher educational attainment, being socially active and good ratings of health. Professor Jose Iparraguirre, author of the research, said in the Guardian: "Because this group is typically healthier than other parts of the older population, they might not realise that what they are doing is putting their health in danger". There are a few reasons to be cautious with these findings. The study produced a lot of results, so there is a risk some were chance findings. Thi...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 24, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Older people Food/diet Source Type: news

Five-year 'death test' for older adults launched online
Conclusion This large study has identified numerous risk factors associated with a person's risk of death within five years. Researchers used this information to develop an online tool that predicts someone's risk of death within the next five years. The study's strengths include its large sample size and the prospective nature of the study design. But there are some limitations. There may be some bias in the type of people who volunteered to take part. The death rate was lower than that of the average population in this age group, which may indicate that the participants were more interested in their health and so had he...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 4, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Cancer Lifestyle/exercise Medical practice Source Type: news

Being optimistic after heart attack may help with recovery
Conclusion This well-designed study found that people who have a higher level of optimism are less likely to smoke or have depressive symptoms, more likely to be eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, and have a slightly higher physical health score. It also found that people who have low optimism and depressive symptoms are more than twice as likely to have a major cardiac event than people with high optimism and no depressive symptoms. In many ways the overall findings that a greater sense of wellbeing could be transferred into positive lifestyle changes, which could be linked to lower risk of subsequent he...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 6, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Mental health Source Type: news

Longer sleep linked to stroke
Conclusion This cohort study found that, overall, people who sleep for more than eight hours have a 46% increased risk of stroke. When analysed separately, there was no statistically significant association for men, but a much higher increased risk for women, of 80%. A major strength of the study is the number of potential confounding factors that the researchers tried to account for, including many cardiovascular risk factors. However, it did not account for other illnesses such as sleep apnoea or cancer, which may have had an effect on the amount of sleep and risk of stroke. In addition, the study is reliant on the i...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 26, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Neurology Older people Source Type: news

Type 1 diabetes 'more dangerous' in women
ConclusionThis systematic review suggests that type 1 diabetes is associated with a greater increase in risk of death in women than men.A systematic review is the best way to identify and summarise the best-quality studies available to answer a given question. The pooling (meta-analysis) of the studies' results means the review includes more people than the individual studies, and is therefore better able to detect differences between groups.The figures presented are comparisons of the relative increases in risk of death associated with type 1 diabetes within each gender. As women generally live longer than men, even thou...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 9, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Diabetes Source Type: news

Behind the Headlines 2014 Quiz of the Year
In 2014, Behind the Headlines covered more than 500 health stories that made it into the mainstream media. Test your knowledge of 2014's health news with our month-by-month quiz. If you've been paying attention, you should find this quiz both easy and fun. Answers are at the foot of the page (no peeking!).   In January 2014's health news... What was said to help make bones stronger? 1) Swimming 2) Marriage 3) Listening to classical music Warnings were issued about the possible return of what? 1) Swine flu 2) The Black Death 3) Smallpox   In February 2014's health news... What activity was said to lower your ...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 29, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Special reports Medical practice Source Type: news

Running 7 minutes a day 'halves heart death risk'
Conclusion This well-conducted cohort study found running is associated with a reduction in risk of death from any cause and death from cardiovascular disease during a 15-year follow-up. It calculated running was associated with a three-year increase in life expectancy. The study also found short duration running (less than 51 minutes a week, equivalent to less than approximately seven minutes a day) or running at slow speeds was associated with a reduction in risk. As this was a cohort study, it cannot show running caused the reduction in risk of death. It is possible there were other differences between runners and n...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 29, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news