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

Regular activity may help some people stay 'fat and fit'
Conclusion As people often say, if exercise was a medicine, it would be hailed as a miracle cure. This study suggests that what we already know about the benefits of exercise may extend to reducing risk of cardiovascular disease for middle aged and older people, even if they are overweight or obese. But the study has some limitations. This type of study can't prove that one factor – exercise – is responsible for the lower risk of heart attack and stroke among overweight or obese people who exercise more. It's possible that other factors are important – for example people's income may be linked to their opportuniti...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 2, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Obesity Lifestyle/exercise Heart/lungs Source Type: news

UK 'among worst' for cancer linked to obesity
Conclusion This international study has shown alarming increases in cases of cancer that can be attributed to high BMI. Overall, they estimated that 3.6% of cancers in adults (aged over 30 years) worldwide are caused by high BMI, with the proportion attributed to obesity slightly higher in women than in men. In the UK, 4.4% of all cases of cancer per year in men and 8.2% of all cases of cancer per year in women, were estimated to be attributable to obesity. The research focused on cancers that the WCRF has already established are linked to high BMI. When looking at these cancers, the UK was joint second highest in the worl...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 27, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Obesity Source Type: news

Being overweight, not just obese, still carries serious health risks
Conclusion This impressively large global study demonstrates that the prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide among both children and adults. It supports what has long been thought, that increased body mass index (BMI) contributes to a range of illnesses and is ultimately responsible for a large number of deaths, particularly from cardiovascular disease. One potential limitation is the use of self-reported BMI or health outcome data in some of the studies, although the majority used a specific independent measurement so this is unlikely to have biased results too much. It is also always difficult from observational d...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 13, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Obesity Source Type: news

Hard times in Cuba linked to better national health
Conclusion This is an interesting study that appears to show that modest weight loss within a relatively short period across the whole population is associated with a downward trend in diabetes and reductions in death rates from both diabetes and heart disease. Similarly, weight regain was associated with an increase in diabetes incidence, prevalence and mortality as well as a slowing down in the decline of cardiovascular deaths. This type of study draws on many different data sources and, as such, there is a possibility of error. Also, as the authors point out, data was missing on diabetes incidence during the crisis year...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 10, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Diabetes Source Type: news

Diabetes drugs may be linked to pancreatic cancer
Conclusion This article presents important concerns that glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists and dipeptidylpeptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors could potentially increase the risk of inflammation and cancerous changes in the pancreas. The agencies that regulate medicines in Europe and the USA are aware of these issues, and told the BMJ that their analyses show increased reporting of pancreatic cancer among people taking these types of drugs. However, the agencies note that it has not been established whether these drugs directly cause the adverse effects seen in the pancreas. Both agencies are reviewing emerging eviden...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 10, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Diabetes QA articles Source Type: news

NICE: 'Obese should be prescribed slimming clubs'
“GPs told to prescribe £100 slimming courses for millions of obese patients,” the Daily Mail reports. The news is based on new guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) that aim to encourage sustainable weight loss in the obese; “lose a little, and keep it off”. The guidance is mainly aimed at commissioners (who plan and agree which services will be provided in the NHS and monitor them), health professionals and groups who provide lifestyle weight management programmes. The recommendations may also be of interest to members of the public, including people who are overweight or o...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 28, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Food/diet Obesity QA articles Source Type: news

Becoming healthier may motivate your partner to join in
Conclusion This cohort study has found that individuals with unhealthy behaviours such as smoking, being inactive or being overweight are most likely to change these behaviours if their unhealthy partner also changes these behaviours. Having a partner who has consistently healthy behaviours was also associated with a greater likelihood of change in smoking and activity compared to a consistently unhealthy partner, but less so than having a partner who changed behaviour. There were some limitations to the study, including that: The study took into account some confounders, such as age and some health conditions, but oth...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 20, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Food/diet 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

Sugary drinks linked to increased fat levels around vital organs
Conclusion This US cohort study found drinking sugar-sweetened beverages on a daily basis is associated with the highest increase in fat accumulation around the abdominal organs, compared with people who do not consume them. But there was an average increase in the amount of this fat in all people who took part in the study, although this was lowest in people who never consumed sugar-sweetened beverages. The study was prospective, which limits some sources of bias, but it has some limitations. For example, the food frequency questionnaire was only conducted once, at baseline. The results are therefore reliant on the p...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 12, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Diabetes Heart/lungs Obesity Source Type: news

Exercise 'most proven method' to prevent return of breast cancer
Conclusion This was a helpful summary of recent research into how lifestyle changes impact on the risk of breast cancer returning, but it does have some limitations. Researching lifestyle factors separately is always difficult as they tend to clump together, making it difficult to pick apart individual factors. For example, people who are more physically active tend to have a healthier diet and are less likely to drink excessive amounts of alcohol or smoke. While the researchers say many studies attempt to make adjustments for these confounding factors, it is difficult to know which studies did this and how successful they...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 22, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer QA articles Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news