Lazy Brits are not exercising enough, study finds

New research has painted a damning picture of Britain’s adults…Almost half of us are simply never doing any exercise.

The British Heart Foundation carried out a study and made the alarming discovery that a shocking 44% of adults do not engage in any form of moderate-intensity exercise, meaning British activity levels are shamefully amongst the worst across Europe.

An estimated five million adults are sat down for over a third of the day (8 hours), whilst around one in ten Brits say they are never walking anywhere for more than ten minutes at a time.

Britain is three times less active than our Dutch counterparts over in the Netherlands and overall ranks at a dismal 16^th place in a table of 28 European countries for fitness levels. This means we are on an equal inactive level with Slovakia, Romania and Ireland.

According to the NHS physical activity guidelines, adults aged 19-64 should be aiming for at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per day to stay healthy, which includes cycling or fast walking every week and muscle-strengthening exercises on two or more days each week that are making all the main muscle groups work. However, less than a third of women and less than half of men are actually reaching 150 minutes of the moderate-intensity exercise.

The study has resulted in further warnings about an increasing problem of obesity, which needs to be properly tackled sooner than later.

Catherine Kelly, director of prevention, survival and support at the BHF, commented: “The figures are a worrying indication of the overall picture of our nation’s heart health.

“Alongside funding research into improving outcomes for heart patients, we need to create environments that make it easier for people to better understand and cut their risk of heart disease.

“Research has shown that even making small, more active changes to your daily routine can improve your heart health.

“With the warmer nights and lighter evenings, the summer is the perfect opportunity for people to start making these changes.”

The new worrying statistics were amassed by researchers at Oxford University, who analysed previously conducted national surveys covering exercise levels and sedentary behaviour.

The surveys show that a mere 10% of UK adults are involved in a sport or physical activity on a regular basis or physical activity. This is in comparison to a slightly better rate of 15% in Sweden, Spain and Slovenia. In addition, 9% admitted to never walking for over ten minutes at a time.

In 2014, NHS officials warned that an insufficient amount of exercise could be attributed to around one in six deaths – i.e. fatalities from conditions such as cancer, stroke and heart disease, this is comparable to the death rates from smoking. They stressed that inactive lifestyles are not only to blame for obesity, but for problems such as muscle and joint complaints, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease, dementia, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Male impotence drug Viagra makes it hard for Malaria to spread

The hugely popular erectile dysfunction medication Viagra (sildenafil citrate) has been taken by men all around the world for over 15 years to help stiffen erections for sex, and it seems this very stiffening prowess has been found to be the key element in aiding a decreased risk in the transmission of the mosquito-borne malaria parasite Plasmodium from humans to mosquitoes. In turn, this would then prevent a further passing of the virus to other people.

The findings have been laid bare in a study conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in collaboration with the CNRS, INSERM, Université Paris Descartes at the Institut Cochin and the Institut Pasteur.

How the malaria transmission can be blocked through then use of Viagra was explained by study co-author David Baker, Professor of Malaria Parasite Biology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He said: “In this new study we show that Viagra, a drug shown to be safe in humans, can make the sexual forms of the malaria parasite stiff.

“This causes them to be inactivated in the spleen and so prevents transmission of the sexual malaria parasites to mosquitoes. This is an interesting proof of concept which gives us hope that new drugs could be developed that specifically target the malaria parasite phosphodiesterase enzymes and block malaria transmission,” he added.

Plasmodium falciparum is one of the parasites that triggers the infectious, and sometimes deadly disease malaria. This parasite isn’t always easy to treat, with experts believing the single celled organism is evolving to become more resistant to the most commonly prescribed antimalarials. It is this reason why researchers continually look for other ways to fight the disease.

The parasite develops in a person’s red blood cells, which are emitted by bone marrow into the blood stream. Should a mosquito bite somebody that is already infected, it will extract some of the parasites within the blood and there is a risk that the mosquito could then infect another person by biting them.
As the blood circulates, stiff, old or abnormal blood cells are taken in by the spleen, with the healthier normal cells left to travel around. With the Viagra though, the infected red blood cells are taken in by the spleen – meaning they are not available for mosquitoes to get after biting someone. Sildenafil maintains a signalling pathway within the red blood cells, which results in the molecule cAAMP becoming more concentrated and the cells stiffening.

So far, tests have only been conducted using test tubes and there will need to be carried out with animals. If those show signs of success the next trials will need to involve humans before any medication can be approved for the use of malaria prevention.

Obesity crisis could be worsened by our drinking habits

The European Parliament will decide in the future if all alcoholic drinks should be sold bearing the calorie content of the drink printed on its label.

Experts have argued that many drinkers are completely unaware of the amount of calories in the drinks they are consuming, and that the listing of calorie content on all drink labels is vital to try and put a halt to the increasing problem of obesity.

Calorie content for food items is already printed on labels, but most alcoholic drinks are currently from this policy. Any drinks that contain over 1.2% of alcohol by volume are currently exempt from EU regulations on nutritional labelling that came in to force in 2011 covering all food and soft drink.
However, later today MEPs will deliberate on the issue and come to a conclusion on whether or not calorie labelling for alcohol drinks should be implemented or abandoned. If the proposals are voted in favour of, it could still be several months or even years before such proposals become fully-fledged legislation.

Glenis Willmott, MEP for the East of England, is strongly supporting the plans for mandatory alcohol labelling, highlighting the fact that many European countries are amongst the heaviest drinkers in the world.

She said: “Europe is still the heaviest-drinking region in the world but many people don’t realise that a large glass of wine contains the same number of calories as a slice of cake.

“In order to reduce the burden of alcohol-related harm, we must make sure people are given clear information to enable them to make informed choices.”

The debate on labelling calorie content on alcoholic drinks comes in the same week a study was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on the connection between alcohol intake and obesity.
Professor Fiona Sim, chairman of the Royal Society for Public Health, argued that a recent growing trend of places such as bars and restaurants of serving much bigger glasses of wine and drinks comprising of a higher alcohol content is hindering the efforts to control an ever-growing obesity epidemic.

In the report published in the BMJ, Professor Sim says that for adult drinkers, roughly 10% of their daily calorie is derived from alcohol.

In the BMJ Dr Sim commented how a recent survey by the Royal Society discovered that around 80% of the 2,117 adults involved in the survey were clueless to the calorie content in most of the common drinks at pubs.

Moreover, the majority of those quizzed didn’t actually know that alcohol was included in the total amount of calories they consume, but positively, most agreed with calorie content being shown on drink labels.

However, it is clear that alcohol is certainly playing an important role in our increasing waistlines, and Dr Sim says: “Hardly anyone interviewed seemed to know much about the calorie content of alcoholic drinks, and most wanted more information. It is impossible to ignore our failure to deal with obesity. Daily, in clinical and public health practice, we see its cost to individuals and society. Drinking alcohol is common and, in excess, harmful. To what extent do the calories consumed in alcohol contribute to the obesity epidemic?”