Britain has gone against international trends, with deaths from liver disease doubling in the past 20 years

Up to 250,000 lives could be lost over the next 20 years if the Government fails to introduce tougher policies to curb excessive drinking, experts say today.

Deaths from liver disease, mostly caused by alcohol, have more than doubled in the UK in the past 20 years while those in Sweden, Norway, Australia and New Zealand – countries with similar cultures, genetic backgrounds and drinking styles – have remained low.

Deaths from liver disease in France, where there has been greater awareness of the link between drinking and cirrhosis, fell from 30 to 10 per 100,000 between 1986 and 2008, while in the UK they increased from 4.9 to 11.4 in the same period.

The experts – who include the former president of the Royal College of Physicians, Sir Ian Gilmore – say reversing the rise will require radical measures including the introduction of a minimum price of 50 pence a unit for alcohol, and tighter restrictions on sales and advertising. “Currently the UK drinks producers and retailers are reliant on people risking their health to provide profits,” they write in a paper in The Lancet, adding that existing plans to restrict sales are “inconsequential” and “suggest that the Government is too close to industry”. Sir Ian said: “We already know from the international evidence that the main ways to reduce alcohol consumption are to increase the price and reduce the availability of alcohol, yet the Government continues to discuss implementing marginal measures while ignoring this evidence.”

Professor Jon Rhodes, the president of the British Society of Gastroenterology, said: “This paper highlights the stark future we face if the Government continues to pander to the agendas of the drinks industry.

“It needs to act quickly to take some serious steps to tackle this growing problem.”

The outspoken attack will embarrass the Government, which has brought drinks industry representatives into the policy process in defiance of widespread criticism, including a scathing report last month by the Commons health select committee.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, chairs a responsibility deal board which oversees the policy and includes representatives from Diageo, Tesco, Asda and the Wine and Spirit Association.

But its plans to ban the sale of alcoholic drinks below cost (duty plus VAT) and to increase the duty on beer that is over 7.5 per cent in strength have been dismissed, because they would affect only a tiny fraction of sales.

source: www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/250000-may-be-killed-by-alcohol-warn-doctors-2220651.html

The number of people admitted to hospital in the UK because of problem drinking could rise to 1.5 million a year by 2015, a charity says.

Alcohol Concern estimates that it will cost the NHS £3.7bn annually if nothing is done to stop the increase.

It wants alcohol specialists to be employed in all hospitals and GP practices.

The Department of Health said it would publish a new alcohol strategy in the summer.

Thousands of people die each year as a result of their drinking, mostly as a result of alcoholic liver disease.

Drinking is also associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke and some cancers.

Growing problem

The charity says the number of people being treated in hospital for alcohol misuse has gone from 500,000 in 2002-3 to 1.1 million in 2009-10.

It states that 1.5 million people will need treating every year by the end of the Parliament, if there is no new investment in alcohol services to stop the rise.

The report calls for specialist alcohol health workers to be employed across the health service.

It claims this will in fact save the NHS £3 for every £1 spent.

Don Shenker, chief executive at Alcohol Concern, said: “With the prime minister saying that NHS is becoming ‘increasingly unaffordable’, we can show how billions can be saved simply by introducing alcohol health workers in hospitals to help patients reduce their drinking.

“As problem drinking costs the country so dear, a modest investment in supporting problem drinkers will lead to a three-fold saving, surely a necessity in an economic downturn.”

Primary care trusts in England, which are being abolished as part of government changes to the health service, are criticised in the report for not dedicating enough of their budgets to alcohol problems.

The authors identify the transfer of powers to GPs as an “ideal chance” to transform alcohol services.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: “Misuse of alcohol can cause significant harm and the government has wasted no time in taking tough action to tackle problem drinking, including plans to stop supermarkets from selling alcohol below cost and working to introduce a tougher licensing regime.

“It is clear we need a bold new approach to tackling this and other public health issues because so many of the life-style driven health problems are already at alarming levels.

“That is why the newly published strategy for public health sets out plans to ring-fence public health spending, devolve power and budgets to local communities, and work across areas from behavioural science to education to improve public health.

“We will also be publishing a new alcohol strategy to follow on from the Public Health White Paper in the summer.”

source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12428856

Diets high in fats, sugars and processed foods have been linked with slightly lower IQ in young children, a study has found.

A predominantly processed food diet at the age of three is directly associated with a lower IQ at the age of eight and a half, compared to children who eat a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, according to a Bristol-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), which is tracking the long-term health and well-being of around 14,000 children.

The scientists who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, emphasised however that they could not say for certain that processed foods are the cause of lower IQs as other factors such as social class and educational upbringing may be implicated.

Parents were asked to detail the types and frequency of the food and drink their children consumed when they were three, four, seven and eight and a half years old. A diet rich in processed food at aged three was linked with an IQ that was 1.67 points lower on the IQ scale, where a score of 100 is average intelligence. “This suggests that any cognitive/ behavioural effects relating to eating habits in early childhood may persist into later childhood, despite any subsequent changes to dietary intake,” the scientists said.

Figures also revealed that 157 vulnerable pensioners died of malnutrition in the same period, while nearly 2,000 passed away from superbugs Clostridium difficile and MRSA.

It is feared the totals may be higher because care home residents who die in hospital are not included in the statistics.

Commenting on the figures, Neil Duncan-Jordan of the National Pensioners Convention, said: “The fact that people are dying from these sorts of causes is absolutely shocking in the 21st century.”

The Office for National Statistics compiled the figures after analysing death certificates of care home residents in England and Wales between 2005 and 2009. The totals cover both underlying causes of death and contributory factors.

Analysts found there were 667 victims of dehydration, 157 of malnutrition and 1,928 deaths linked to superbugs.

Some 1,446 died suffering with pressure ulcers, otherwise know as bedsores, while 4,866 died with septicaemia, or blood poisoning. Another 4,881 had fatal falls.

According to the figures, the number of deaths linked to dehydration doubled, while those involving superbugs rose sevenfold during the previous Labour government’s rule.

Speaking in The Daily Mail, Mr Duncan-Jordan added: “What it shows is that a significant number of older people in our care homes are getting substandard, third-rate attention. Yet the cost of staying in a care home is huge – the average is between £600 and £800 a week.

“And yet for that, no one helps you eat your meals, no one ensures you are properly turned in bed, and no one makes sure you have had enough to drink.

“All of us would want higher standards of service for £800 a week.

“These people in our care homes will have seen a lot in their lifetime. For them to be treated in that way is nothing sort of scandalous.”

Figures suggest that more than 20,000 people have to sell their homes every year in order pay residential care fees.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow, said: “It comes as a shock for many that care is not free – and never has been – and without advanced planning it can be very expensive.

“Having sorted out the family finances to pay for care there should at least be the comfort of knowing that their loved one will receive dedicated, expert care.

“But while there are excellent homes it is simply unacceptable that people still die undignified deaths from wholly avoidable causes.

The Liberal Democrat put the present “broken care system” down to the previous Labour government.

“Labour let people down by failing to reform the way we pay for care,” he said.

“They kicked it into the long grass for nearly 13 years and failed to deliver a settlement.

“Before this Parliament is over we will have reformed both the law and funding of social care putting in place a firm foundation for a fairer care system.”

source: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hundreds-have-died-of-dehydration-in-care-homes-2199192.html

Drugs used to treat breast cancer may also be useful in tackling lung cancer, according to research in Switzerland.

The study, published The Cancer Journal, showed that anti-oestrogens reduced the number of deaths from lung cancer.

The authors said the research, if backed up, could have substantial implications for clinical practice.

Cancer Research UK warned that large scale clinical trials were needed before any conclusions could be made.

Hormones have long been associated with some forms of cancer.

Tamoxifen, which cancels out the sex hormone oestrogen, was first used to fight breast cancer more than 40 years ago.

Some studies have shown that increasing levels of oestrogen, through hormone replacement therapy, increase the risk of lung cancer.

The researchers at the University of Geneva asked if increasing oestrogen increased cancer deaths, would reducing oestrogen have the opposite effect.

Preventing deaths

They analysed data on 6,655 women diagnosed with breast cancer between 1980 and 2003. Just under half had been prescribed anti-oestrogens.

There was no significant difference in the number of women developing lung cancer, but those on anti-oestrogens did have a lower death rate.

Dr Elisabetta Rapiti, who lead the study at the Geneva Cancer Registry, said: “Our results support the hypothesis that there is a hormonal influence on lung cancer, which has been suggested by findings such as the presence of oestrogen and progesterone receptors in a substantial proportion of lung cancers.

She said: “If prospective studies confirm our results and find that anti-oestrogen agents improve lung cancer outcomes, this could have substantial implications for clinical practice.”

Lung cancer is the second most common form of cancer in the UK and is strongly linked with smoking.

Oliver Childs, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s possible that breast cancer drugs like Tamoxifen could also have an effect on lung cancer, but we can’t draw firm conclusions from this study alone – the number of women who developed lung cancer was small.

“Evidence from large-scale clinical trials is needed before we know if these drugs could also be used as new treatments for people with lung cancer.”

source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12243206

Britain’s beleaguered organic sector receives a boost today with a study that suggests organic milk is healthier than the ordinary variety.

The European Union-funded study analysed 22 brands sold in supermarkets and found that organic milk had lower levels of harmful saturated fats and more beneficial fatty acids than conventional milk.

While the Newcastle University study stopped short of saying that consumers should switch to organic milk, the lead researcher, Gillian Butler, made that recommendation when discussing her research.

The peer-reviewed paper said the health benefits were present all year round rather than just during the summer, as indicated by research carried out by the same team three years ago into the quality of milk on 25 farms.

It contradicts the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) verdict four years ago that organic milk could contain higher levels of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids but that they were of “limited health benefit” compared with the long-chain acids found in oily fish.

Last year an FSA-funded review by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that organic food, produced without chemical fertilisers and pesticides, was no healthier than conventional produce.

Consumption of organic food in Britain has slumped in the past two years amid the economic downturn.

The new study, published in the Journal of Dairy Science, sampled 22 brands, 10 of them organic, between 2006 and 2008. Mrs Butler, the livestock project manager for the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group, said: “We wanted to check if what we found on farms also applies to milk available in the shops. Surprisingly, the differences between organic and conventional milk were even more marked. Whereas on the farms the benefits of organic milk were proven in the summer but not the winter, in the supermarkets it is significantly better quality all year round.”

She linked the lower quality of conventional milk to a lower reliance on grazing and chemical fertilisers’ suppression of clover. Conventional milk also varied more in nutritional content.

“The results suggest greater uniformity of feeding practice on farms supplying organic milk, since there were no brands which differed consistently in fat composition,” said Mrs Butler. “We were surprised to see obvious differences between the conventional brands, with the more expensive ones not necessarily better.

“Switching to organic milk and dairy products provides a natural way to increase our intake of nutritionally desirable fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants without increasing our intake of less desirable fatty acids,” Mrs Butler said. “By choosing organic milk you can cut saturated fats by 30-50 per cent.”

source: www.independent.co.uk/news/science/organic-milk-is-better-for-you-say-scientists-2186302.html

Including too many ready-made items in a Sunday roast could lead to excessive salt intake, says research from a health charity.

In a survey of 600 supermarket products, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) found that unnecessary amounts of salt are being hidden in certain items of prepared food.

But cooking and preparing fresh food reduces levels dramatically, it says.

UK supermarkets say they are leading the way in salt reduction in Europe.

Consensus Action on Salt and Health (CASH) said a family Sunday roast can be a “balanced and healthy” meal.

But it found that choosing all ready-made products for a typical Sunday lunch – meat, vegetables and condiments – could result in nearly 10 grams of salt being consumed.

An adult’s daily maximum recommended salt intake is 6g.

But if people read the labels and buy fresh meat and veg, it is also possible to cook a roast dinner with less than 2g of salt, CASH says.

This salt content is almost six times less than the total for the saltiest products.

Some of the saltiest products CASH found were a peppered beef brisket joint with mustard and pepper stuffing from Asda (2.3g per 212.5g portion), Tesco Finest root vegetable mash (1.6g per 250g portion) and Sainsbury’s red cabbage (1.01g per 150g portion).

A portion of Morrison’s English mustard contains 0.5g of salt, as much as a packet of crisps.

Just a trace

However, CASH’s survey also found many pre-prepared products which were low in or contained only a trace of salt.

Asda’s butter-basted chicken breast joint contains only 0.3g of salt per portion.

And it found Sainsbury’s buttered green vegetables and Tesco Value Yorkshire puddings contained just a trace of salt.

Sarah Cordey from the British Retail Consortium said the survey disregarded the large amount of fresh food customers use when preparing a Sunday meal.

She said the big supermarkets are doing “all they can” to reduce salt content.

“Our members are Europe’s leaders in salt reduction and have made excellent progress in the last decade.

“The Food Standards Agency has found supermarkets’ own-brand goods contain less salt than their branded equivalents,” she said.

RECOMMENDED DAILY SALT LEVELS

• Age 1-3 : 2g
• Age 4-6 : 3g
• Age 7-10 : 5g
• Age 11+ : 6g

“Stores are keen to help customers achieve healthier diets.

“Retailers continue to lead the way on providing clear and detailed nutritional labelling on food products to give consumers all the information they need to make the choices that are right for them.”

However Professor Graham MacGregor from the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, and chairman of CASH, said they should do more.

“Unnecessary amounts of salt are still being hidden in our food,” he said.

“This puts both adults and children at risk of developing high blood pressure which causes strokes, heart attacks and heart failure, the commonest cause of death and disability in the UK.

“It is the food industry’s responsibility to take the salt out.”

source: http://medicalnewsonline.net/latest-health-news/high-salt-levels-in-ready-made-sunday-lunch-warning/

Children living in flats have 45% more exposure to tobacco smoke than those in detached houses, a US study says.

Researchers from Harvard and Rochester Universities say that is because the smoke seeps through walls and shared ventilation systems.

They tested cotinine levels in blood samples from 5,000 children across the US for the study in Pediatrics.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said there was a “strong case” for making blocks of flats smoke free.

Researchers limited the sample in this study to children who live in a household where nobody smokes.

They looked for cotinine – a product of nicotine and a highly sensitive marker for tobacco – in the children’s blood.

The study found that 73% of the 5,000 children analysed were exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke.

Overall, researchers found that 84.5% of children who were living in blocks of flats had a cotinine level that indicated recent tobacco-smoke exposure, compared with 79.6% of children who were living in attached houses and 70.3% who were living in detached houses.

Smoke trail

Dr Jonathan Winickoff, study author and associate professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School, said: “If your neighbours are smoking then you are exposed if you live through the wall in a semi-detached house. In apartment buildings this effect is magnified. Smoke contaminates the whole building.”

“This study is the last link in the chain of evidence. It demonstrates the overwhelming need for smoke-free buildings,” he said.

He continued: “In years to come, people will shake their heads in disbelief that there was ever smoking in homes where children live, eat, sleep and breathe.”

Previous research has shown that passive smoking is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, even at low levels of exposure.

Karen Wilson, assistant professor of paediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, said:

“Parents try so hard to protect their children from dangers, such as tobacco smoke. It’s surprising to see these results and realise that too many parents have no control over whether their children are exposed to second-hand smoke in their own homes.”

Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at the UK group ASH, said: “There is a strong case for social and private sector landlords designating some entire blocks as smoke-free to respect the choice and the health of the great majority of their tenants.”

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11969074

Scientists have identified a way of prompting nerve system repair in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Studies on rats by Cambridge and Edinburgh University researchers identified how to help stem cells in the brain regenerate myelin sheath, needed to protect nerve fibres.

MS charities said the “exciting” Nature Neuroscience work offered hope of restoring physical functions.

But they cautioned it would be some years before treatments were developed.

MS is caused by a defect in the body’s immune system, which turns in on itself, and attacks the fatty myelin sheath.

It is thought to affect around 100,000 people in the UK.

Around 85% have the relapsing/remitting form of the condition, in which “flare-ups” which cause disability, are followed by a recovery of a level of the lost physical function.

In this form of MS, there does appear to be some natural myelin repair.

However, around 10% of people are diagnosed with a progressive form of MS, where the decline continues without any periods of remission.

In addition, people with the relapsing/remitting form do often go on to develop what is called secondary progressive MS, which affects them in the same way.

‘Missing link’
Scientists have been looking at how they might develop treatments for these two groups.

In MS, loss of the myelin sheaths which act as insulating layers, leads to the nerve fibres in the brain becoming damaged.

These fibres are important as they send messages to other parts of the body.

This study identified a signalling pathway in the brain which can encourage the brain’s own stem cells to regenerate new myelin.

The scientists believe this will help in identifying drugs to encourage myelin repair in MS patients.

However, much more work is needed – both to test if the mechanism works in people with MS and to see what drugs might be needed to promote the effect.

Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, of the University of Edinburgh’s MS Society Centre for MS Research, said: “The aim of our research is to slow the progression of MS with the eventual aim of stopping and reversing it.

“This discovery is very exciting as it could potentially pave the way to find drugs that could help repair damage caused to the important layers that protect nerve cells in the brain.”

Professor Robin Franklin, director of the MS Society’s Centre for Myelin Repair at the University of Cambridge, said: “Therapies that repair damage are the missing link in treating MS.

“In this study we have identified a means by which the brain’s own stem cells can be encouraged to undertake this repair, opening up the possibility of a new regenerative medicine for this devastating disease.”

The study was funded by the MS Society and the National MS Society in the US.

Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society, which part-funded the research, said: “For people with MS this is one of the most exciting developments in recent years.

“It’s hard to put into words how revolutionary this discovery could be and how critical it is to continue research into MS.”

Pam Macfarlane, chief executive of the MS Trust added: “Exploration of processes that might repair areas of damage to myelin, is another important area of MS research and this may eventually allow people to recover function that has been lost to disability.

“This is still an early study in rodents but it will be very interesting to see how it develops.”

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11913689

Some parents felt their children did not want healthier food at school

Four years on, the images are still shocking. Faced with healthier school dinner options because of Jamie Oliver’s TV series, some mothers began pushing junk food through the school gates.

Others simply swapped the healthier hot dinners for packed lunches. Schools reacted by tightening the rules about what could be put in lunchboxes.

But when children, in turn, responded by spending more on junk food from local shops, stories started appearing about the prospect of bans on take-aways.

In many ways, the pattern perfectly illustrates the challenge facing the government over public health.

Changing behaviour is not easy.

It was a point made by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley at the start of the summer.

His remarks were widely reported as an attack on Mr Oliver and as such the wider message was lost as people reacted with outrage about what was perceived as a criticism of the popular TV chef.

But his underlying message was still valid.

Whether it is smoking, drinking, eating or exercise, most people are aware of what they need to do. And yet they do not.

Take smoking, for example. The link to lung cancer has been clear for decades, while evidence is mounting for a host of other conditions.

From the 1960s to 1990s the numbers fell dramatically. But progress has been much slower since then, with smoking rates hovering stubbornly above 20%.

Obesity rates have risen over the past decade too, with the country on course to have more obese adults than non-obese by 2050.

What is more, an increasing number of Britons are turning to drink. A third drink more than is recommended – with one in 10 classed as “hazardous” drinkers.

The public health white paper, due to be published this week, is unlikely to herald any major initiatives to compare with Labour’s big foray into the arena – the smoking ban.

Instead, it will focus on “nudging” people in the right direction by creating the right environment to allow them to make a healthy decision.

Central to this will be the return of public health to local government. Responsibility currently lies with the 151 primary care trusts, but these are being abolished under the reform of the NHS structure announced in the summer.

Instead, directors of public health will be transferred across to councils along with a ring-fenced budget. That in itself is causing some tensions as the rest of local government is facing funding cuts of a quarter over the next four years following October’s spending review.

But Dr Frank Atherton, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, is optimistic.

“It feels like we are coming home. Most public health directors are comfortable with being back in local government. This is where the power is to influence all those environment factors, such as housing, leisure and transport, lie and so the potential to really make a difference is definitely there.”

He also believes the next few years could be a crucial period in the history of public health. “There is nothing more infuriating than to hear people say public health has failed. Yes health inequalities have not improved, but life expectancy is rising and survival for a host of diseases is getting better. But there is a big challenge now because of the recession.

“During economically tough times smoking and drinking rates tend to rise. Anxiety and stress will be problems as well. We need a good public health service more than ever.”

But the key question, as always, is over money. One of the government’s flagship public health projects, free swimming for children and pensioners, was scrapped soon after the coalition government was formed.

This has prompted fears there will be little money available to push for the local projects, from cycling lanes to cookery classes, that are the bedrock of public health.

While Mr Lansley has said the public health budget will be ring-fenced, what remains uncertain is how much will be handed over. Public health directors are pushing for 4% of the NHS budget – about £4bn in cash terms.

Extra money is also going to be allocated to the poorest areas under a system known as health premiums.

Angela Mawle, of the UK Public Health Association, which has members in both the NHS and local government, says: “It is clear money will be tight. But what is important is that directors of public health are given real power to influence things.

“In the past, there have been examples of good schemes at a local level, but there is no joined up working.

“Local authorities have all too often seen public health as the NHS’s business. Hopefully that will change.”

But Ms Mawle is concerned that the government may be missing a trick if it turns its back on regulation entirely.

Ministers have already indicated legislating for things such as a minimum price for alcohol is out of the question and instead are likely to promise a “responsibility deal” with the private sector to get them on board voluntarily.

Ms Mawle says: “The major advances in public health, such as seat belts or clean air, have been because of regulation so I don’t think we should shut the door on that.

“There is a case for alcohol pricing, but also in terms of the food industry. People can try to make the healthy choice, but that is not always possible when you see the amount of fat, sugar and salt already in some processed foods.”

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11810169