Filtered By:
Source: NHS News Feed
This page shows you your search results in order of date. This is page number 15.
Order by Relevance | Date
Total 273 results found since Jan 2013.
NICE publishes new draft guidelines on statins use
"Millions more people should be put on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs," BBC News reports. Draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that the drugs should be given to people with an estimated 1 in 10 or more risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes conditions such as heart disease and stroke.
Statins are medicines that can help lower rates of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (so-called "bad" cholesterol) in the blood. High rates of LDL cholesterol can lead to hardening of the arteries, a risk factor for CVDs.
At present,...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 12, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication QA articles Source Type: news
Female stroke survivors’ quality of life investigated
Conclusion
The study suggests that women have a lower quality of life than men three and 12 months after they have been discharged from hospital after experiencing a stroke or mini-stroke.
While the results were statistically significant, the relative differences appeared small. For example at three months (where the largest difference was found) the average difference in quality of life score between men and women was 0.036 points. This is on a quality of life scale that ranges from 0 (death) to 1 (perfect health). The quality of life difference at 12 months was 0.022 points. Whether these small differences are clinicall...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 10, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Female stroke survivors' quality of life investigated
Conclusion
The study suggests that women have a lower quality of life than men three and 12 months after they have been discharged from hospital after experiencing a stroke or mini-stroke.
While the results were statistically significant, the relative differences appeared small. For example at three months (where the largest difference was found) the average difference in quality of life score between men and women was 0.036 points. This is on a quality of life scale that ranges from 0 (death) to 1 (perfect health). The quality of life difference at 12 months was 0.022 points. Whether these small differences are clinicall...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 10, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Can pain be 'switched off'?
Conclusion
This study adds to the scientific knowledge about which genes play a role in pain response. The study shows an association between a low pain threshold and reduced gene expression in nine locations on the DNA.
This means that researchers have found changes not only in genes already known to be involved in pain response, but in other genes as well. As the study was conducted in identical twins, the researchers have also been able to identify that the gene responses started off the same but have become different for some reason.
The study shows that there is an association, but it does not provide information abo...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 5, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Genetics/stem cells Medical practice 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
'Good' cholesterol can turn 'bad', study finds
Conclusion
This research has underlined the fact that the distinction between good and bad fats may be oversimplistic. But it does not change the standard healthy eating message that we should try to prevent the formation of plaques in the first place.
We can do this by limiting the amount of foods we eat that are high in saturated fats, such as processed meats, as they increase LDL levels, while making sure we eat foods high in unsaturated fats, such as oily fish and nuts, as this should help increase your HDL levels.
This research could potentially lead to more effective tests and treatments for cardiovascular diseases ...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 27, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news
Little proof sunbathing cuts heart attack risk
Conclusion
This laboratory study has found that UVA exposure caused a short-term drop in blood pressure and an increase in blood flow. The researchers believe that this is as a result of nitric oxide being released from the skin into the bloodstream.
However, the researchers' assertion that this study "has significant public health implications" is open to question. Such a bold statement should probably only be made if further controlled studies are carried out to see whether UVA exposure can reduce the risk of death as a result of cardiovascular disease, and whether UVA exposure can reduce blood pressure in peo...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 21, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Cancer Source Type: news
Wine and chocolate may not 'beat diabetes'
This study does not give the green light to drink red wine above the recommended levels or to consume chocolate often – any potential benefits of diabetes prevention are likely to be overshadowed by the already known risks of excessive sugar, fat and alcohol consumption, including liver disease, cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer.
Links To The Headlines Chocolate And Red Wine 'Can Beat Diabetes'. Sky News, January 20 2014
Chocolate and red wine can help stave off diabetes: High levels of antioxidants can regulate blood glucose levels. Daily Mail, January 20 2014
Red wine 'protects against diabetes' - and cho...
Source: NHS News Feed - January 20, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Diabetes Food/diet 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
Walking reduces heart disease in people at risk
Conclusion
This study of adults at high risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease has found that every 2,000 steps they normally took each day was associated with a 10% lower risk of a cardiovascular event. And 12 months later, each extra 2,000 steps per day people did beyond their original number of steps was associated with an additional 8% difference in the cardiovascular event rate.
This large study recruited participants from around the world and the researchers adjusted for a number of potential confounders.
However, the study had a number of limitations, including:
A large amount of information on the number of s...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 23, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Stroke risk 'higher at start of warfarin treatment'
Conclusion
This study has found that warfarin was associated with an increased risk of ischaemic stroke during the first 30 days of treatment. After 30 days of treatment, warfarin was associated with a decreased risk of stroke.
However, this study has a number of limitations that should be considered:
All information was from patient records, which means that it wasn't subject to recall bias, but the information may not be complete – we do not know if, for example, people took the medication they were prescribed.
There may be other factors (confounders) that explain the association seen. In particular, the ba...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 19, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Source Type: news
Test could give two-year warning for Alzheimer's
Conclusion
The researchers suggest that Alzheimer's disease can be predicted with an accuracy of 87.5% when thinning of the cortex in the right anterior cingulated gyrus is seen on MRI, alongside test results suggesting problems with recall and recognition.
This research does not indicate a new "test", as MRI and psychological testing are standard procedures when investigating the signs and symptoms of dementia. What is novel in this approach is looking at a specific combination of results as a potential way of predicting which people with MCI may develop Alzheimer's disease.
While this form of testing would be b...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 9, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Source Type: news
Study may bust myth of 'fat and fit' healthy obesity
Conclusion
This meta-analysis provides further evidence about the known risk factors for cardiovascular disease and mortality.
What this study adds is the indication that people who are metabolically unhealthy regardless of their weight are at increased risk.
However, interestingly, no increase in risk was seen for the category of people who are metabolically healthy though overweight.
A strength of this meta-analysis is the large sample size. However, the results should be interpreted with caution as:
The studies did not use the same criteria for assessing metabolic status.
The studies did not use the same criteri...
Source: NHS News Feed - December 4, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Lifestyle/exercise Obesity Source Type: news
High salt levels in soluble drugs may raise heart risk
Conclusion
This large case control study suggested that people who had experienced disease of the heart and blood vessels were more likely to have taken sodium-containing medicines than people without cardiovascular disease. Put in other words this can be interpreted that people who took sodium-containing medicines were at a higher risk of experiencing cardiovascular disease than people who took the same medications in formulations free of sodium. The increased risk appeared to be driven mostly by an increased risk of hypertension and to a lesser extent, non-fatal stroke.
The study has some strengths including its large s...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 27, 2013 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medication Medical practice Source Type: news
