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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

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 w...
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 d...
Source: NHS News Feed - July 18, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Source Type: news

Daily diet of fresh fruit linked to lower diabetes risk
Conclusion The study findings – that eating fresh fruit every day does not raise the risk of diabetes, and may reduce it – are reassuring and in line with dietary advice in the UK. It's also helpful to see evidence that people who already have diabetes are likely to benefit from fresh fruit as well, because there has not been much research into fruit-eating for people with diabetes. However, it's a step too far to say that fresh fruit prevents diabetes or diabetes complications. Fresh fruit is just one part of a healthy diet, and diet is just one of the things that may affect someone's risk of getting diabetes. This ty...
Source: NHS News Feed - April 12, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Diabetes Food/diet Source Type: news

Five-a-day of fruit and veg is good, but '10 is better'
Conclusion This research supports the idea that the more fruit and veg you eat the better – at least, up to 10 portions (800g) a day. It also suggests the number of people who die early might be reduced if they were to eat more than the current recommended guideline daily amount. However, before we take this at face value, there are some important considerations: There are likely to be many confounding factors that may have affected the results. It might be that people who eat a lot of fruit and veg are also more likely to be physically active, consume less alcohol, not smoke and be a healthy weight, or other facto...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 23, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Heart/lungs Cancer Medical practice Source Type: news

Fruit chemical may prevent organ damage
Conclusion This exciting set of experiments has identified the metabolic driver of tissue injury seen when blood supply is returned after a period of ischaemia. The researchers have also shown this process can be limited by using an injection of dimethyl malonate in mice and rats. It is likely the same increased metabolic processes occur in humans, so there are wide implications for the future, including the potential use of dimethyl malonate injections to prevent tissue damage during surgery. At present it is unclear how this could be used practically during a heart attack or stroke, and this will be one of many issues...
Source: NHS News Feed - November 6, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Medical practice Medication Source Type: news