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.

An Overview Of High Blood Pressure

There are many chronic long term medical problems affecting the western world and they are rightly regarded as a ticking health time bomb. Hypertension, obesity and diabetes are all rapidly increasing in incidence year on year.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a condition that millions of people have, often without knowing. It causes few if any signs or symptoms and is often found by chance during medical check ups for other things.

Your blood pressure readings are best thought of as how hard your heart is working to drive the blood round your body. If you think of a tap. When it is turned on with a low flow the pressure is also low. Turn it up and the water pressure also rapidly goes up.  In your body the blood leaves the heart and is pumped through your arties to all your vital organs and muscles. If the arteries are stiffer than they should be higher pressure is needed.

It is expressed as 2 numbers such as 120/80. They are known as the systolic and diastolic pressure respectively. A simpler way of thinking about it is 120 (systolic) is the highest pressure as your heart beats. 80 (diastolic) is the pressure in between heart beats.

The figure generally regarded as normal is 120/80. It is measured with a cuff round wither your upper arm, wrist or even finger, although this is not as accurate. If it is above 140/90 it is considered high and needs treating.

High blood pressure readings greater than 140/90 need treating because it is associated with a much higher risk of other illnesses such as angina, heart attacks, strokes and kidney problems.  The causes are varied and include being overweight, unfit, smoking, diabetes and family history. In addition there are a whole host of lifestyle factors that are thought to affect it including stress, anxiety and lack of sleep.

Treatment for hypertension depends on how high your blood pressure readings are. If they are slightly raised it is a good idea to change your lifestyle to lower it. So lose weight id you are obese, stop smoking and start doing some exercise. The exercise can start with a simple 30 minute walk daily and then be built up.

Change your diet considerably. Junk food and ready meals have to be ditched in favour of healthier fresh foods. Fizzy drinks are very high in sugar so must be cut out. Salt intake has to be decreased, which is easy to achieve when eating a healthy diet. Most processed and junk foods are full of salt.

If these lifestyle approaches don’t work it may be time to take prescription drugs as recommended by your doctor.