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Overweight teen boys have increased risk of stroke in later life
Conclusion The findings of this large longitudinal cohort study seem to demonstrate a link between being overweight aged 20 and an increased risk of stroke. This risk was regardless of whether the boy had been overweight aged 8 or not. There seemed to be no increased risk for boys who were overweight aged 8 but were a normal weight by the age of 20. The study was conducted before the obesity epidemic, and might be even more relevant today. But there are a number of considerations to take into account before we draw any conclusions: Participants were followed up until they were 52-68, so all the strokes occurred at a r...
Source: NHS News Feed - June 29, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Obesity Pregnancy/child Source Type: news

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

High-dose painkiller heart risk: small but significant
Conclusion This large review adds to, and expands on, the current evidence on the risks of vascular disease and gastrointestinal complications for different NSAIDs. It largely concentrates on trials of high doses of NSAIDs that can only be prescribed by a doctor. It is unclear from this study whether there is any risk from taking lower doses available over the counter. While most experts advise that low-dose NSAIDs, taken occasionally, are safe for most people, an accompanying editorial points out that there are still “large gaps” in evidence on the risks with lower doses of NSAIDs. While the risk to individuals is sma...
Source: NHS News Feed - May 30, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Painkiller use linked to irregular heartbeat
ConclusionThis prospective cohort study claims an association between NSAIDs usage and developing atrial fibrillation. However, there are many limitations to this research.Despite this being a large prospective cohort study that followed people over a period of time, the assessments within it were predominantly cross-sectional. That means it assessed the person’s current or recent prescription of NSAIDs at the time they were diagnosed, but this cannot prove that using NSAIDs caused atrial fibrillation. A better method may have been to assess the use of NSAIDs in people without atrial fibrillation at the start of the stud...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 9, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Older people Source Type: news

Anti-inflammatory drug may help prevent heart attacks
Conclusion This well-conducted study shows promising signs that canakinumab may reduce the risk of future heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in people who've had them in the past. But before any changes are made to the current licensing of this drug, further research is needed to confirm the beneficial effects and the optimal dose. Most importantly, researchers will need to focus on the observation that the drug lowered white blood cell counts and increased the risk of fatal infection. They estimated around 1 in every 300 people taking canakinumab would die of a fatal infection. This number, while low, is sti...
Source: NHS News Feed - August 30, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Women who spend too long sitting may die earlier
Conclusion This cohort study looking at the link between sedentary time in postmenopausal women and their risk of death, benefits from its large sample size of almost 100,000 women, and 12 year follow-up. It finds, as previous research has found, that increased sedentary time is generally associated with increased risk of death. The main risk was for women with the highest sedentary time (greater than 11 hours sitting per day) who were at increased risk of death from any cause and deaths from heart disease or cancer compared with women sitting for less than four hours a day. The links were less clear for women sedentary ...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 17, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Heart/lungs Source Type: news

Vegetarians have 'poorer quality of life' study claims
Conclusion Despite the media headlines, the results from this Austrian cross sectional survey provide no proof that vegetarians are in poorer health than meat eaters. The study has simply compared a group of people with a “vegetarian” diet with three different groups of people following “carnivorous” diets on a range of different health and lifestyle measures to see if any differences are observed. The study has numerous limitations: The cross sectional study cannot prove cause and effect and that the dietary pattern is responsible for any of these self-reported differences. In fact it is possible the associat...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 4, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Lifestyle/exercise Mental health 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

Even 'light' smoking may raise women's arthritis risk
Conclusion This research indicates that a relatively low level of smoking (one to seven cigarettes per day) is associated with an increased risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis compared with women who had never smoked. This adds further knowledge to previous research that has suggested that cigarette smoking is directly linked to a higher risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis. While this study is relatively robust and its results believable, it does have limitations that should be considered. It was not clear how many women dropped out of the study. If this was a large proportion of the women who started, it could si...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 23, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news

Cherry juice touted as treatment for gout
ConclusionThis small study found that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day temporarily lowered the blood uric acid levels of 12 young healthy volunteers without gout, up to eight hours after they consumed the drink. The levels began to increase back to the starting levels after 24-48 hours. The researchers and media extrapolated this finding to mean that the drink may be useful for gout, which is caused by an excess accumulation of uric acid crystals.Based on this study alone, we cannot say that drinking cherry juice helps prevent the onset of gout, or the recurrence of gout in those who have had it before. The study did...
Source: NHS News Feed - September 29, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Medication Source Type: news

People with gout have lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease
Conclusion This population-based study has found that people with gout had a 24% reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It was a well-designed study, in that there were large numbers of people in each group and multiple potential confounding factors were taken into account. The validation of the study was also valuable in showing the expected lack of a link between osteoarthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. However, there are some limitations with this type of study, with a major one being that it cannot prove cause and effect. While some potential confounding factors were accounted for in the statistical analysi...
Source: NHS News Feed - March 5, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Neurology Older people 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

Warning about middle-aged drinking and dementia
"Middle-aged people should curb their drinking to reduce their risk of developing dementia, new guidance suggests," reports the Daily Mirror. The new guidance highlights that people aged 40 to 64 who regularly drink alcohol have an increased risk of dementia. Who produced the guidance?The guidance was produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). NICE is a government body that provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. What issues does the guidance look at?The guidance is based on the well-established principle that positive lifestyle changes tha...
Source: NHS News Feed - October 21, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet QA articles Older people Neurology 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

Gum disease bug linked to rheumatoid arthritis
Conclusions This research aimed to investigate a possible bacterial origin of rheumatoid arthritis and found one potential candidate – Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aα). It seems these bacteria could cause the high levels of citrullinated proteins which are known to trigger an immune reaction in people with rheumatoid arthritis. However, it's important to put these findings into the right context. Though antibodies against citrullinated proteins, anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP), are one of the possible diagnostic findings in people with rheumatoid arthritis – not everyone with rheumatoid arthri...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 19, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medical practice Source Type: news