What kills 40 per cent of us despite being treatable at any age? What affects a third of the population yet only a small percentage knows they have it? And what can be accurately diagnosed within two minutes using a machine that costs less than £100?
The answer to all of the above is high blood pressure. The condition is also the biggest cause of strokes and heart disease in the UK and a major factor in heart attacks. It can lead to kidney and lung failure, internal bleeding, blindness and impotence. And yet many people have never even had their blood pressure measured.
This is why the Blood Pressure Association is hosting Blood Pressure Week from September 16 to 22. The charity hopes to make people understand the importance of blood pressure and encourage them find out their own levels. Hundreds of “pressure stations” across the UK will give free blood pressure measurements and advice on what to do if people’s readings are too high.
Do you eat to live or live to eat? Do you turn to food when you’re depressed or anxious? If so, you could be jeopardising your mental and physical health, but there is a way out, and it’s all about breaking the cycle of dependence.
Comfort eating, or overeating, is an extremely easy habit to form and a difficult one to break. Experts readily compare it to smoking and many of the same techniques are used to helping people to give up.
But while smoking may not be exactly natural, eating to soothe the spirit is something we learn from an early age. Dr Linda Blair, clinical psychologist at the University of Bath and specialist in comfort eating, points out that feeding a baby when it cries is a normal response. As children, we are given sweets to cheer us up or as rewards – is it any wonder then that when in need of relaxation or reassurance many of us turn to food?
It may not be the sexiest topic in the world but September 2-8 is Gut Week. Promoted by the Digestive Disorders Foundation, the idea is to get people thinking about their guts. Why? Because they’re behind 1 in 10 doctor visits and 1 in 12 deaths.
Whereas some topics, such as breast cancer, have entered the public consciousness, people remain remarkably ignorant about their intestines. And, despite it being a particularly hardy part of the body, the gut is becoming more important in a modern society that eats badly, irregularly and on the move.
We all know that exercising for 30 minutes a day is a prerequisite to a healthy life, but does it matter when we do it? Well, according to recent studies, timing can make all the difference.
Dr Lygeri Dimitriou from Brunel University in London recently made headlines when he suggested that exercising in the morning carried a higher risk of infection. On top of that, Australian PhD student Leanne Redman says that women can increase weight loss and reduce tiredness by exercising at the end of their menstrual cycle.
Both studies were based on careful observation of chemicals in various athletes’ bodies, although experts remain sceptical of the findings.
The mention of scabies is likely to have most people recoiling in horror. An infestation of small mites that dig under your skin and leave eggs to hatch along the way is hardly attractive.
Unfortunately, it is precisely this stigma that stops many people getting help immediately. As well as prolonging a sufferer’s discomfort, this delay puts friends and family at a significantly higher risk of becoming infected too.
We are just past the peak of a 30-year cycle of scabies in the UK, but despite it being a common complaint, most of us remain hopelessly ignorant of what scabies is, how it is spread and how to treat it.
