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One in 10 men aged 50 'have the heart of a 60-year-old'
"One-tenth of 50-year-old men have a heart age 10 years older than they are," BBC News reports. This is the finding of an analysis of 1.2 million people who used the NHS Heart Age Test. The principle behind the test is that you can "age" your heart through unhealthy behaviour such as smoking and being obese. Underlying conditions like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which often have no noticeable symptoms, can also age the heart. An obese smoker in their 50s who has high blood pressure and high cholesterol could have the heart of a 60- or 70-year-old. The quick and simple test tells you the...
Source: NHS News Feed - September 4, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Some types of vegetarian diet can raise heart disease risk
Conclusion This large pooled cohort study seems to demonstrate an association between a healthy plant-based diet and reduced risk of coronary heart disease, and an increased risk of heart disease with an unhealthy plant-based diet. This adds to the evidence base supporting the possible benefits of healthy plant-based diets in protecting against certain illnesses. However there are some limitations to the research: The cohort included only health professionals from the US so might not be representative of wider populations in the UK or elsewhere. The study can't provide information on the benefits or otherwise of this d...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news

Sugar intake linked to heart disease deaths
Conclusion This study used dietary information from a large group of US adults to show that greater added sugar intake was linked to a higher risk of death from CVD. The study has many strengths including recruiting a large number of people and obtaining information spanning a relatively long time – average 15 years. The cohort in question was representative of US adults. Despite some ethnicity differences between the US and UK population that may influence the results, the main link between sugar and CVD death is likely to apply to UK adults. It wasn’t possible to estimate the absolute risk differences of dying from ...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 4, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Brits eating too much salt, sugar and fat
“Too much sugar, salt and fat: healthy eating still eluding many Britons,” The Guardian reports, while the Daily Mail rather bizarrely warns of a “fruit juice timebomb”. Both papers are covering a major survey that looked at the nation’s eating habits over recent years.The survey found that, overall, adults and children are eating too much saturated fat, added sugar and salt. We are also not getting the recommended levels of fruit, vegetables, oily fish and fibre that our bodies need. Who produced the survey?Public Health England, an agency of the Department of Health, has released data from the National Diet an...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 15, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet QA articles Source Type: news

'Fat but fit' people may still be at risk of heart disease
Conclusion This large, valuable study confirms that – as has long been thought – an increased BMI is linked with an increased risk of heart disease. It shows that people with an obese BMI had a higher risk of heart disease, even if they didn't have other risk factors like high cholesterol and high blood pressure, proving that body fat is an independent risk factor. That said, this study does have some limitations. For example, definitions of being metabolically unhealthy aren't entirely consistent with other definitions of metabolic syndrome. This was also only assessed at the start of the study, and risk factors may...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 15, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Obesity Source Type: news

Results of global fats and carbs study not very relevant for UK
Conclusion The results of the study have been presented in the media as if they overturn all current dietary guidelines. In the UK at least, that is completely misleading. The study results support the UK guidelines, having found that people who get around 50% of their calories from carbohydrates and 35% from fat, as recommended by Public Health England, were likely to live the longest. There are some limitations to the study, not least that observational studies cannot prove cause and effect. For example, the very low fat and high carbohydrate levels of diets found among some participants in the study might simply repres...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 30, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news