Do Very Low Calorie Diets Work?

Obesity is a major problem and getting worse. Being so overweight has many health implications from the mild to potentially fatal.

When you are fat a lack of energy and increased tiredness are common. Everyday activities are harder. Sleep is poor often with snoring. More seriously problems such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease are commoner. They all shorten life so are best avoided.

Many struggle to lose weight and are attracted by very low calorie diets. These typically allow no more than 600 calories a day for weeeks and even months. But are they healthy?

A study at Newcastle put overweight patients on a very low calorie diet for 8 weeks. The results were impressive. Not only did they all lose plenty of weight, their health markedly improved.

Blood pressure levels dropped significantly and amazingly type 2 diabetes was not only far better controlled but medications were able to be reduced. It seemed the body reset itself and started to correct the insulin problems that cause type 2 diabetes.

So perhaps a short sharp low calorie diet followed by healthy eating at normal calorie levels will become the treatments of choice for obesity and its' complications.

Time To Run Marathon?

Many of us want to get fitter. One of the more tiring ways is to run a marathon.

Of course if you do it as part of an effort to raise money it is a bit easier. Along with the aches and pains you experience as the miles build up is the psychological warmth of knowing you are doing a good thing and helping others.

Paris marathon anyone?

If you are going to undertake the task then maybe it is better to do it somewhere with nice views as you go round. Paris is a beautiful city and they have a marathon usually a week or two after London.

With it being so difficult to gain entry to the London marathon a trip to Pris is a great back-up plan.

Does Being A Vegetarian Lower Your Heart Attack Risk?

For years vegetarians have claimed that their diet is much healthier and good for you. Now scientists at Oxford university have just published a study looking at the vegetarian diet.

After studying more than 40,000 peoples health records they concluded that the risk of heart disease is around 33% less in vegetarians compared to carnivores.

 Easy Falafel

They produced figures for the risk of death or serious heart problems of 6.8% for carnivores and 4.6% for the rest. These were reached after adjusting for all the other well known factors such as smoking, lack of exercise,alcohol, sex, age and social class.

The presumed reason for the difference is the lower obesity levels in vegetarians and beneficial effects on blood pressure and blood cholesterol of a vegetarian diet.

So perhaps we should all turn veggie!

Go faster With Beetroot

All sportsmen and women want that extra edge. Faster, stronger, fitter, winner! A few choose to go down the illegal route of drugs and doping. Now scientists have a better idea - beetroots.

Yes a small study in the UK found that having a glass of beetroot juice each day improved speed and time over a set distance on a static bike.

Making Beetroot Juice

They speculate that it is the nitrates present in beetroot that helps. Nitrates cause dilatation of blood vessels which increases blood flow to muscles, bringing more oxygen for better efforts.

It is early days and more studies will be needed but you can bet that if accurate there will be a boom in beetroot juice sales.

A Cure For Deafness

Thanks to our love of loud music many people are into hearing difficulties as they reach middle and early old age. In addition with repeated ear infections hearing can gradually decline. Up until now this has been thought to be permanent with treatment limited to various types of hearing aids. But nos scientists think they may have found a drug that could reverse deafness.

Some Loud Status Quo!

Harvard medical school are investigating a drug called LY411575. It tricks the inner ear into growing more hairs. Yes, you read that right. But how does more hairs help hearing?

Well sounds are transmitted in the inner ear and hairs play a vital part in the process. Loss of hairs results in loss of hearing.

Early work has regrown hairs in animals so now it needs to be looked at in humans, potentially helping millions of people to hear again.

How To Reduce Your Risk Of Cancer

Every year many hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed with cancer causing huge stress and upset not just for them but also their family. Treatment is improving all the time and survival rates for many cancers are far better than previously.

But prevention is better than cure as the old saying goes. For many of the commoner cancers the biggest factor totally within your control is your weight. Yes being overweight or obese increases the risk of you developing many cancers quite markedly. getting your weight down to more normal levels is one of the quickest ways of getting healthier and living for longer.

Here is a video looking at the whole picture

A Brief Explanation Of Rheumatoid Arthritis

The two commonest types of arthritis are rheumatoid and osteo. They are very different in both the cause, treatment and outcome. This short video exlains rheumatoid arthritis.


Regardless of the type of arthritis you suffer from there are new treatments being investigated and in clinical trials so never give up hope.