• Filter By:
• Specialty
• Source
• Condition
• Cancer
• Infectious Disease
• Drug
• Training
• Management
• Procedure
• Therapy
• Vaccine
• Nutrition
• Country

What Prohibition Can Teach Us About Drug and Alcohol Policy Today
It’s widely understood today that drinking while pregnant is harmful for the fetus. But the link between alcohol and the health of infants wasn’t as well known in the 1930s, when prohibition was repealed in the U.S. and all sorts of people, pregnant women included, began drinking again.Because prohibition was lifted on a piecemeal basis across the U.S., some counties continued to prohibit alcohol, or stay “dry,” while their neighboring counties were “wet.” Those conditions created what economists call a natural experiment, and made it possible to track the health impacts of maternal drin...
Source: TIME: Health - August 2, 2023 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Oliver Staley Tags: Uncategorized Public Health Source Type: news

Med diet best for heart disease (but some junk food won’t hurt)
Conclusion This study showed 3% fewer people with CHD, at high risk of major cardiovascular events, who reported eating the healthiest Mediterranean-style diets, had either died, or had a non-fatal heart attack or stroke over a three-year period than those with less healthy diets. Western diet scores were not related to major cardiovascular events. The study was large, worldwide and its methods quite robust, all boosting the believability of the findings. It is possible that unmeasured factors explain all or part of the findings, but the study made a concerted attempt to minimise the chance of this through adjusting for i...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 25, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news

How alcohol intake can change over a lifetime
ConclusionThis research combined information from nine studies, to model how alcohol intake changes over a lifetime in men and women in the UK, and is reportedly the first to do this.There are some points and potential limitations to note: The authors note that the different studies captured information on drinking in different ways, and although they tried to standardise this, they were not able to obtain complete information on drinking patterns. The data on which the models are based come from different periods, when alcohol consumption habits and strength of alcohol available may have differed. The authors looked ...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 9, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Older people Source Type: news

Inactivity 'twice as deadly' as obesity
Conclusion This study’s strengths included its large size and long follow-up period. Researchers also took into account a large number of factors (called confounders) that might have influenced the risk of death, such as diet, smoking history and alcohol intake, although it is still possible that both measured and unmeasured confounders influenced mortality rates. The study had one important limitation. It only measured people’s BMI (calculated by combining their weight and height) and their physical activity once, at the start of the study. It is quite possible that people’s BMI changed over time, and that this wou...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 15, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Parental smoking 'ages' children’s arteries
ConclusionOverall, this secondary analysis study provides preliminary evidence of the effects of parental passive smoking on the artery walls of children and adolescents in adulthood. The researchers attempted to adjust for potential factors that could influence risk (confounders), such as: age sex height weight smoking status physical activity levels alcohol consumption schooling level of the parent(s)In their analysis, they also took into consideration cardiovascular risk factors of the participants in adulthood. There are some limitations to the study, which are worth noting. Parental smoking status was self-re...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 5, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Pregnancy/child Source Type: news

Five-year 'death test' provides few answers
ConclusionThis large population-based study was able to show which people were at increased risk of dying from cardiovascular, cancer or other causes over a five-year period. However, the researchers could not predict which illness a person may be at higher risk of getting or provide an opportunity for targeted prevention or treatment strategies. Strengths of the study include the large sample size and the fact participants were taken from the general population. The results also remained statistically significant after adjusting for age, sex, current disease and many other recognised indicators of chronic disease.However,...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 26, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Cancer Diabetes Medical practice Source Type: news

Mediterranean diet cuts heart and stroke risk
Conclusion The results of this randomised controlled trial appear to confirm previous studies that there are benefits to following a Mediterranean diet. The trial has many strengths, including its large size, long period of follow-up, thorough assessment of medical outcomes (including reviewing medical records and having contact with the family doctor), and careful attempts to assess whether the diets were being followed. As this is a randomised controlled trial, it should also balance out other health and lifestyle differences between the groups that may influence cardiovascular risk. This avoids the limitations of m...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 26, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Source Type: news