Reports that frequent drinking prevents diabetes are inaccurate
Conclusion
Although this study found an interesting association between alcohol drinking habits and risk of developing diabetes, this study does not present strong enough evidence to recommend adopting a particular drinking pattern to reduce diabetes risk.
This study had a number of limitations that weaken confidence in the results:
People were only asked about their drinking habits and other risk factors at a single time point. The study doesn't tell us whether those habits changed over the period in which people were monitored for diabetes. Most studies related to alcohol consumption also run the risk that people are ...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 28, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Diabetes Food/diet Source Type: news
Questions over advice to finish courses of antibiotics
Conclusions
This narrative review challenges current medical advice that patients should complete their course of antibiotics, by suggesting that concerns around antibiotic treatment are driven by fears of under treatment, when we should instead be concerned about over use.
Professor Peter Openshaw, President of the British Society for Immunology and Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London commented:
"It could be that antibiotics should be used only to reduce the bacterial burden to a level that can be coped with by the person's own immune system. In many previously healthy patients with acute in...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 27, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication QA articles Source Type: news
Eye screening linked to fall in sight loss in people with diabetes
Conclusion
The results indicate that since the introduction of the screening programme for diabetic retinopathy in Wales, the total number and rate of new certifications of sight impairment and severe sight impairment have decreased. This is despite an increase in the number of people diagnosed with diabetes.
The study shows a promising trend and highlights the possible benefit of such screening. However, there are some important considerations:
Reporting of visual loss currently requires a consultant ophthalmologist to complete a Certificate of Vision Impairment, and this isn't compulsory.
Patients may be reluctant ...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 27, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Western sperm counts 'halved' in last 40 years
Conclusion
This research presented a useful summary of existing studies in the area of human sperm count, and presented some interesting findings relating to trends over time.
But this study does have some limitations:
The research was based on a wide range of populations who, in some cases, may only have been assessed once. Following a fixed population over time in a cohort study might have had different findings.
Research that wasn't published in English wasn't included, and there also aren't many studies published before 1985 from countries in the other category. This might have an effect on whether the estimates...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 26, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
'Buying time' and not just things may increase life satisfaction
Conclusion
This large multi-country study on adults of various incomes found that buying time was linked to greater life satisfaction, even when considering a wide range of demographics and spend on other items each month. It also seemed to show that people were in a better mood when buying something that saved them time versus buying something material.
These results are interesting in the busy, time-pressured culture many of us face today. The researchers suggest using money to buy time may reduce feelings of time pressure and buffer against negative effects of time pressure on life satisfaction.
While this may be the ca...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 25, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Mental health Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Snoring link to Alzheimer ’s disease unproven
Conclusion
This relatively large cross-sectional analysis has found a link between certain measures of breathing problems during sleep and poorer cognitive function in middle-aged to older adults.
The strengths of this study include its size and use of a prospective sleep study to assess whether people had sleep apnoea or other problems with breathing during sleep. The use of standard cognitive tests is also a strength.
However, the study does have its limitations:
The study did have mixed findings – while certain measures of problems with breathing during sleep (e.g. oxygen levels) were associated with cognitive outc...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 24, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Could cows be the clue that leads to an HIV vaccine?
Conclusion
This early stage research on cows indicates that they had a broad and quick immune response to HIV infection when given a specific vaccine. Because the immune proteins produced in cows are able to neutralise many different strains of HIV virus, the authors suggest this potentially gives them an edge over the human proteins that have been looked at so far.
As always with animal studies it is important to remember that what works in cows might not work in the same way in humans. Many drug studies that appear promising at first, fall at the first hurdle once humans are involved.
The study was also carried out on ju...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 21, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Source Type: news
Nine lifestyle changes may reduce risk of dementia
"Nine lifestyle changes can reduce dementia risk," BBC News reports. A major review by The Lancet has identified nine potentially modifiable risk factors linked to dementia.
The risk factors were:
low levels of education
midlife hearing loss
physical inactivity
high blood pressure (hypertension)
type 2 diabetes
obesity
smoking
depression
social isolation
However, it's important to note that even if you add up the percentage risk of all of these factors, they only account for about 35% of the overall risk of getting dementia. This means about 65% of the risk is still due to factors you...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 20, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology QA articles Source Type: news
High-dose vitamin D 'doesn't prevent colds and flu in kids'
Conclusion
This study found giving a high dose of vitamin D to healthy children in the winter doesn't reduce their overall risk of upper airway infections compared with the standard recommended dose.
This well-designed study used several measures to ensure the results were robust. For example, researchers:
used randomisation to split the children into groups
blinded parents as to which treatment the child was receiving to make sure this knowledge couldn't affect their perception of their child's health
used laboratory tests to confirm that the child did have a viral infection
There was a reduction in flu with hi...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 19, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Source Type: news
Benefits of artificial sweeteners unclear
Conclusion
The study authors suggest artificial sweeteners may not aid weight loss, despite marketing claims to the contrary, and could actually increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, the results need to be treated with caution, as this review had numerous limitations:
The randomised controlled trials had great variability and few participants, increasing the possibility of the results occurring by chance. They were also judged to be at a high risk of bias – for example, the participants could not be blinded to the intervention, and adherence (drop-out) rates were not provided.
We do not know whether there...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 19, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Obesity 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...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news
'Regular sex keeps you younger' claims are unsupported
Conclusion
Despite the media headlines that regular sex keeps you young, only limited implications can be drawn from this study.
This was a small sample of a specific group of women. All were mothers or caregivers, in heterosexual relationships from one region of the US. About half of them were caring for children with autism spectrum disorders and were perceived to have high stress levels as a result. Therefore they can't be assumed to represent all women.
Researchers only assessed relationship quality, intimacy and telomere length over the space of a single week. This can't prove that intimacy that week directly caused...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 17, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Long working week 'may increase risk of irregular heartbeat'
Conclusion
This study draws together data from a large group of people to investigate whether working hours could be linked to AF.
It found people who work 55 or more hours a week had an increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat.
But before we jump to any conclusions, there are several important things to consider:
The number of people who developed AF during this study was small: only 1.24%. That's the absolute risk of AF. Even if working more than 55 hours a week does increase your risk of AF by around 40%, it would only be increasing it to something like 1.74% – which is still very small.
Only a smal...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
House dust linked to obesity – but only in mice
Conclusion
The main cause of obesity is an imbalance between calories taken into the body and the number of calories used up.
But other environmental causes may also play a part, and we're just starting to understand how certain chemicals affect fat storage in the body.
One area of interest is semi-volatile organic compounds, such as those tested in this study. These chemicals have been linked to hormonal changes, which may in turn affect the way the body processes glucose and stores it. This potentially could impact on the metabolism and increase weight gain.
This study suggests that chemicals already known to affect ho...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Obesity Source Type: news
Face-to-face bullying much more common than cyberbullying
Conclusion
Being bullied is a relatively common and distressing experience for many children and adolescents.
Research in recent years has linked the experience of being bullied as a child to the development of mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
It's perhaps not a surprise that cyberbullying in this study almost always occurred when teenagers were also being bullied offline.
The internet is a tool, not a separate entity from the human world, and people who bully in one part of life may also use internet tools to bully in cyberspace.
If anything, it's surprising how few teenagers reported having experien...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 13, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Mental health Source Type: news
