Not exercising worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease, study reveals

A new study has suggested that a “sedentary lifestyle is worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease”. The study involving over a hundred thousand patients found that those who did not perform well in the exercise tests “have almost double the risk of people with kidney failure on dialysis”.

The report’s authors have urged people who lead a sedentary lifestyle to “demand a prescription from your doctor for exercise”.

Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/19/health/study-no...

 

NHS should prescribe crash diet replacing meals with shakes and nutrition bars to tackle obesity, scientists say

Back in September, Oxford University researchers reported that “total meal replacement diets helped obese patients lose “nearly four times as much weight as those told to eat healthily and cut calories”.

Past fears of ‘crash diets’ is the notion that fast weight loss will result in fast weight gain. However, this study has suggested that it is possible to keep the weight off. The study involved 278 patients over a 12-month time period. At the end of the scheme, the participants had lost “an average 10.7kg” compared to an average weight loss of 3.5kg for those “who received their GP’s standard weight loss programme”.

Read more:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/crash-di...


Rise in women having induced labours, NHS figures show

Recent figures from NHS Digital have revealed that “nearly one in three pregnant women In England is having labour induced”. 10 years ago, only one in five labours were induced. Experts have commented saying that the “rising numbers of older and overweight women giving birth is behind the trend”

As obesity continues to rise, more women “are likely to have bigger babies” which not only leads to more inductions but are “more likely to have pre-existing problems” such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45978623?intlink...

 

Being too fat or too thin 'can cost four years of life'

A new study - one of the biggest studies of its kind, involving “nearly 2 million people” - has suggested that “being overweight or underweight” could shorten your life by 4 years. However, the author of the report, Dr Krishnan Bhaskaran, has stated that not everybody in the “healthy category is at the lowest risk of disease”.

Body Mass Index (BMI) has been the go-to measurement regarding weight for many years, with this study basing its findings on this index. However, some experts have “questioned” whether “BMI is an accurate way of analysing a person’s health”.

Read more:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46031332