Long-term daily drinking linked to stiffening of the arteries in men
Conclusion
This prospective cohort study aimed to look at the relationship between long-term alcohol patterns and stiffness of the arteries as a potential indicator of cardiovascular health.
The researchers found men who were stable heavy drinkers had stiffer arteries compared with stable moderate drinkers.
Male former drinkers also had increasingly stiffer arteries over the following four to five years compared with consistent moderate drinkers. There were no significant findings seen for women at all.
But this study does have limitations:
This type of study is not able to prove drinking causes stiffness of the arte...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 21, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Food/diet Source Type: news
Worrying about work out-of-hours 'may be bad for the heart'
Conclusions
This research lends support to the theory that people who persistently worry about work may be less relaxed in the evenings compared with those who don't think about work once they've left the office.
However, before we conclude too much from this research, there are several limitations to consider:
This is a very small, selective sample of 36 people working for a company involved in banking and financial services. They were part of a much larger cohort and were selected for this sub-study because they were identified as being the highest or lowest ruminators, and furthermore had full data available. They m...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 20, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Heart/lungs Lifestyle/exercise Mental health Source Type: news
Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing by online pharmacies 'reckless'
Conclusion
Worryingly, most of the online pharmacies had no evidence of the registration required by current UK and European legislation.
This could be because some of the operators were based outside Europe – but regardless of where they are based, they are still subject to UK legislation if selling to the UK public.
The study raises concerns about the effectiveness of current UK legislation and the regulation of companies selling antibiotics over the internet.
This research does have some limitations, however:
Google and Yahoo searches are not identical when different browsers are used or when searches are pe...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 17, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Medical practice Source Type: news
Could brain scans be used to screen for autism?
Conclusion
This early-phase research suggests there may be brain changes associated with ASD, and MRI scans could potentially be used to aid earlier diagnosis.
However, we don't know if these changes are present in all children with ASD. Much larger studies would be required to see if this is the case.
The researchers suggest these findings may have implications for the early detection of and intervention for ASD.
However, any such test would need to have a high degree of accuracy to avoid over- or under-diagnosis of ASD in infants. Even if this test was well validated, it would probably be just the start of a process ...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 17, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Pregnancy/child Mental health Source Type: news
'Add vitamin D to food to prevent colds and flu', say researchers
Conclusion
This was a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the use of vitamin D supplementation as a way of preventing acute respiratory tract infections such as flu, bronchitis and pneumonia.
The study found vitamin D supplementation to be useful in the prevention of acute respiratory tract infection. People who are very deficient in vitamin D and those receiving daily or weekly supplementation without additional large one-off doses had a larger benefit.
This study has both strengths and limitations. It is very well designed and includes high-quality evidence. The researchers made efforts to reduce the risk ...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 16, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Medication Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Heading footballs 'linked to brain damage in professional players'
Conclusion
There is growing concern that repeated concussion in contact sports like American football and rugby increase the risk of CTE, which was first found in boxers.
This study raises questions as to whether less severe but repeated head impacts, such as those sustained by heading a football, could lead to brain damage later in life.
All six of the retired footballers who had a post-mortem showed features of CTE, but the study is not able to show that this was a result of heading footballs.
As CTE can only be diagnosed at post-mortem, it has been difficult to study the progress of the condition with any degree of ...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 15, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Neurology Older people Source Type: news
GPs 'failing to prescribe tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer'
Conclusion
This large survey shows around half of GPs surveyed were unaware of the benefits of tamoxifen: namely, that the drug can reduce the risk of breast cancer in women with a family history of the condition. Only around a quarter of GPs surveyed were aware of the current UK guidelines.
Researchers found GPs were more likely to feel comfortable carrying on a prescription initiated by hospital doctors, rather than being the one to take the decision to prescribe.
This is perhaps unsurprising given that the drug is still not licensed for the primary prevention of cancer. NICE currently recommends prescribers need to ta...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 14, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Medication Medical practice Source Type: news
Online reviews of health products 'are misleading'
Conclusions
This unique study suggests that, in general, online medical product reviews may give a distorted and enhanced perception of the effectiveness of the product compared with that actually demonstrated in randomised controlled trials.
The author discusses potential theories around this. For example, it may reflect the fact people are more likely to post a review if they found something good than if the benefit they found was not that remarkable or there was no benefit at all.
He also suggests people may not wish to dwell on prior periods of ill health, whereas a positive recovery is something they may want to shar...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 13, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Medical practice Source Type: news
Four-in-one pill 'effective' for high blood pressure
Conclusion
The findings of this early-stage study suggest that a quadpill might be an effective way of lowering blood pressure. It might also show fewer side effects associated with taking blood pressure tablets at higher doses, such as dizziness, diarrhoea, or a cough.
There are some limitations to the study:
There were only 18 people included in the study. A bigger trial needs to be undertaken to find out what the results would look like if the quadpill was widely used in the population.
The study was undertaken in an Australian setting where medication and monitoring of blood pressure might differ – therefore r...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 10, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Heart/lungs Source Type: news
'Antibiotics, not surgery, best for child appendicitis' says study
Conclusion
This was a randomised controlled trial (RCT) that compared the removal of the appendix with active observation in children who had previously received non-operative treatment for an appendix mass.
The researchers found that appendectomy could be avoided in many cases.
Perhaps actively keeping an eye on the child's symptoms and only operating on those that develop appendicitis could be an approach worth considering.
This was a well-designed trial and efforts were made to reduce the risk of bias. For example, allocation to groups was concealed at the point of assignment. The trial was also performed at multip...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 10, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Medical practice Source Type: news
Switching to wholegrains may boost metabolism
Conclusion
The suggestion that you can lose weight by simply swapping refined grains like white bread and rice for wholegrains like wholemeal bread and brown rice is attractive if you're planning to shift a few pounds. But there are some things to remember before relying on the study results:
People didn't lose weight during the study. Indeed, it was designed to make sure they didn't lose or gain weight, with a dietitian adjusting their daily calories if they started to gain or lose weight.
The daily extra amount of calories that the researchers estimate people in the wholegrain group lost is modest – the equivalen...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 9, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Obesity Source Type: news
Shift work and heavy lifting may make it harder to get pregnant
Conclusion
Many factors affect a couple’s ability to get pregnant, and the numbers of mature eggs produced by the woman is one of them. This study seems to have found a link between physically demanding work, shift work, and egg production.
However, the study has many limitations.
All the women were seeking IVF treatment, so already knew they had a fertility problem. The numbers of mature eggs, used in the study to calculate the women’s potential for fertility, were counted after extraction during IVF treatment. It’s not clear whether these findings would have applied to women releasing eggs naturally (eggs are usua...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 8, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Lifestyle/exercise Source Type: news
Long-term vaping 'far safer than smoking' says 'landmark' study
Conclusion
This cross-sectional study aimed to assess whether there are differences in levels of nicotine and toxic chemicals in cigarette smokers, and former or current smokers who are also long-term users of e-cigarettes or NRT.
E-cigarettes are designed for users to inhale nicotine without most of the harmful effects of smoking. There has been much discussion over the benefits of vaping over conventional smoking methods and this is the first long-term study assessing these effects.
The main findings are not that surprising – former smokers who have now switched to using e-cigarettes or NRT only have significantly low...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 7, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Cancer Heart/lungs Source Type: news
Harnessing 'brute force' could be key to creating new antibiotics
Conclusions
This laboratory study furthers understanding of the mechanisms by which antibacterial drugs target and destroy bacteria.
The answer seems to lie in how effectively the drug can bind to target molecules on the bacterial surface membrane. When the force of this binding exerts sufficient mechanical strain on the cell surface, then the bacteria breaks apart and is destroyed.
It shows that the strongest antibacterials that we have, such as vancomycin, are currently not infallible.
That we could reach a point where we have bacterial infections that not even the strongest antibiotics are able to fight is a major pu...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 7, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Medication Medical practice Source Type: news
Does eating liquorice in pregnancy raise the risk of ADHD?
Conclusion
This study provides evidence of some link between how much liquorice a pregnant woman eats and earlier puberty in girls, but not boys.
It also shows some association between pregnant women eating liquorice and their children scoring lower for intelligence and being more likely to have ADHD.
However, this study has some limitations to consider:
Glycyrrhizin is found in other food products, such as chewing gum, sweets, cookies, ice creams, herbal teas, and herbal and traditional medicines, as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.
The amount of these products the women ate was not reported, which mean...
Source: NHS News Feed - February 6, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Pregnancy/child Neurology Food/diet Source Type: news
