Obesity linked to soaring cases of potentially fatal womb cancer

Rising levels of obesity are being linked to a soaring number of women being diagnosed with womb (uterine) cancer.

Alarmingly, past studies have led researchers to previously predict that if trends continues, up to 48% of men and 43% of women in the UK could be obese by 2030.

In statistics published on Wednesday, Cancer Research have now warned that ever-increasing levels of obesity amongst UK women are helping to fuel the 54% rise in womb cancer rates within the last 20 years.


In the early 1990s, it was calculated that an estimated 19 women in every 100,000 developed the potentially deadly disease, but by 2011-13 the figure had jumped to around 29 women in every 100,000 – and obesity has been the probable primary factor.

About 20 years ago, there were approximately 4,800 new cases of womb cancer diagnosed each year in the UK, resulting in 1,500 deaths. However, this has now shot up to 9,000 women being diagnosed with the disease, and around 2,000 deaths.

Professor Jonathan Ledermann, director of the Cancer Research UK and UCL Cancer Trials Centre, said: ‘It’s worrying that womb cancer cases are going up so sharply.

“We don’t know all the reasons why. But we do know that about a third of cases are linked to being overweight so it’s no surprise to see the increases in womb cancer cases echo rising obesity levels.
“The good news is that thanks to research and improved treatments, survival has improved.

“In the 1970s, almost 6 in 10 women diagnosed with the disease survived for at least 10 years. Now almost 8 in 10 women survive.

“But we need more research to understand the biology of the disease better and to know more about how it is caused so that we can improve the treatment of these women as well as preventing more cases.”

It was only back in January that Cancer Research UK warned that being overweight or obese could be responsible for nearly 700,000 extra people developing cancer in the next 20 years.

Obesity is consistently linked to a whole range of serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many more. Moreover, at least 10 types of cancer can be caused by extra weight.

The 10 cancers caused by obesity are cancers of the bowel, breast, gallbladder, kidney, liver, oesophagus, ovarian, pancreas and prostate.

Cancer Research UK state that it is now fully clear exactly how being overweight or obese causes cancer to develop, but it is believed to be related to the excess fat resulting in the hormones and growth factor molecules encouraging cells to divide. This then causes tumours to form.

Less major factors linked to the risk of developing cancer of the womb include age, genetics, lack of exercise and if the person is on hormone replacement therarpy (HRT).

If womb cancer is spotted at an early stage it can be treated with a hysterectomy. Symptoms of the disease can include abnormal vaginal bleeding (particularly in post-menopausal women), blood in the urine and abdominal pain.

Obesity may be passed on through the father’s sperm

During pregnancy – and maybe even whilst trying for a baby – most sensible women will usually decide to stop drinking and quit cigarettes in a boosted attempted to conceive, and then protect the health of the baby whilst in the womb.

However, new research has suggested that men may also need to watch what they eat and drink, following advice usually reserved for women, for an obesity risk may be passed on to children through the father’s sperm.

The Danish scientists involved in the new study discovered a series of genetic markers in the sperm of obese men, which have the chance of altering brain development and appetite control. It is interesting to note that these same changes were not present within the sperm of lean males.
Although more research is clearly needed in order to confirm such a theory is definitive, the tentative finding – if confirmed in much bigger studies – could lead to pressure on overweight men to lose weight and get in shape prior to starting a family, which may boost the chances of a healthier child.
“We don’t yet know if this is important. But if what we’ve found is transmitted to children and is doing something negative, it raises new questions about what do we need to do, and how long we need to do it before we conceive,” said Romain Barrès who led the study at the University of Copenhagen.

Past studies have demonstrated that obesity risk is strongly linked to both their inherited genes and their surrounding environment. The combination of factors leads to childhood BMI increasing line with parental weight, whilst previous analysis of twins found that as much of 70% of the differences between people’s fat mass can be attributed to DNA.

Researchers in the Danish study decide to look at the ‘epigenetic information’ found in the sperm of 10 obese men and 13 lean men. This information isn’t encoded in DNA, but is contained within other chemicals that work with DNA. One such example is the methyl molecules that can attach to specific genes and silence them.

Epigenetics can function in different ways, by changing the the protein that wraps DNA (adding or removing chemical “tags” that alter the structure of DNA), or via genetic molecules called small RNAs.

Reporting their findings in the journal Cell Metabolism, the researchers analysed the epigenetic marks on sperm from the two groups of men, formulating what they argue is a “distinct epigenome that characterises human obesity.” A few of the changes found change behavioural genes and eating “and could participate in predisposing the offspring to obesity”.

The researchers next decided to study the epigenetic information contained in the sperm of 6 morbidly obese men both prior to, and after undergoing gastric bypass surgery. A week after surgery, the epigenetic markers on 1509 genes had found to be changed in the sperm, increasing to 3,910 after a year. Over half also differed between obese and lean men.

It is uncertain if the epigenetic markers discovered are passed onto offspring, in addition to the extent of the effects if they indeed are passed on. Although a small proportion survives, the majority of such epigenetic information transmitted by sperm is eradicated during fertilisation. Barrès said added that the next step will be to conduct studies to investigate the sperm from obese fathers and IVF embryos they have donated after completing their families.

Wolf Reik, head of epigenetics at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge said that studies in animals have shown that changes in nutrition can alter the epigenetic markers carried by sperm. “It’s totally unknown what happens to these marks after fertilisation. In some ways the signals need to survive the global wipeout system, which is why it’s even more remarkable,” he said. “How strong the effects are in human populations is totally unknown. It’s impossible to tell at this point. That’s why the study is provocative, but much more needs to be done.”

Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at Sheffield University, commnted although the study was intriguing and could warrant further investigation, it is too early to say what the observations meant for human health. “Until we know more, would-be parents should just aim to be as healthy as possible at the time of conception and not be drawn to faddy diets or other activities in order to try and influence the health of their children in ways we don’t properly understand.”

European alcohol, smoking and obesity rates are ‘alarming’ says WHO

The United States is often branded the fattest country in the world (technically true depending on which statistics are used), however Europe is doing its best to take over this unwanted mantle from America, with “alarming” rates of drinking, eating and smoking found throughout Europe in a new report conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In the United States, a staggering 78 million people, or 33% of the adult population, are classified as obese, whilst 74.1% of the people aged 15 and over are either overweight or obese (i.e. with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or above).

However, health officials have now stressed that Europe has the world’s highest rates of drinking and smoking, with more than half of people now fat, which could ultimately lead to a whole number of serious health problems such as asthma, cancer, heart disease, osteoarthritis and stroke.

In what is the first study of its kind for three years, the European Health Report 2015 looked at 39 countries including European Union member states, in addition to former Soviet republics, to see if the WHO’s ‘Health 2020’ targets are being met.

It was discovered that the average life expectancy for men and women can drastically vary, ranging from 71 years of age in Belarus, Moldova and Russia, to 82 in France, Italy and Spain, according to figures from 2011. Overall, life expectancy for Europeans has risen from an average of 73.2 years back in 1990, to 76.8 years by 2011.

“There is a very real risk that these gains will be lost if smoking and alcohol consumption continue at the current rate. This is especially relevant to young people, who may not live as long as their grandparents”, said Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO’s regional director, speaking to the Guardian.

WHO noted that many European countries seemed to have lower risk factors for premature death, the rates of obesity, tobacco use and alcohol consumption “remain alarmingly high”. The United Nations health agency calculated that in the previous four years, a growing number of Europeans are now classed as either overweight or obese, with 58.6% of Europeans overweight, and 23% suffering from obesity.

The report states that obesity is “one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century”, which “drastically increases a person’s risk of developing several [diseases], including cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes mellitus”.

There is also a great deal of concern about Europe’s drinking and smoking habits. Although between 2005 and 2010, total alcohol consumption lowered by 10% in Europe, the continent still has the highest drinking rates across the globe.

Europe has the world’s highest prevalence of alcohol dependence (4%) according to the report, as well as the highest prevalence of alcohol-use disorders (7%). It is estimated that an average of 11 litres of pure alcohol are consumed per person every year, whilst around 30% of Europe uses tobacco.
“Europeans live long lives and healthy lives. We are the longest living region in the world,” said Claudia Stein, a senior WHO director for Europe.

She continued: “The differences in health status between European countries are inexplicably wide.
“If rates of smoking and alcohol consumption and obesity do not decline we may risk the gains in life expectancy we have seen — which may mean that the next generation may lead shorter lives than that we do.”

Stein warned that this could have the most serious impact on younger people, since their lives may be shortened unless action is taken to bring down consumption levels of tobacco, alcohol and calories.

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.

National Obesity Awareness Week 2015 encourages small changes now for long-term gains

Monday saw the beginning of National Obesity Awareness Week 2015, a campaign that aims to take back control of the nation’s spiralling obesity crisis, and, as many of us will have ‘weight loss’ as one of our New Year’s resolutions, there is no better time to act than now.

Alarmingly, around 25% of adults are deemed to be obese. According to NHS Choices, a BMI of 30 to 39.9 means you are considered obese, and the government claims that unless the problem is tackled, 60% of men, 50% of women and 24% of children will be obese by the year 2050.

Clearly, obesity is an incredibly serious problem that needs fighting. It effects not only our personal health – increasing the risk of problems including heart attacks, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes and arthritis – but can have a detrimental impact to society.

McKinsey and Company produced a report last year documenting the country’s various yearly outgoings, with their economic analysis estimating that the fight against obesity is costing the UK even more than tackling armed violence, war and terrorism. According to their calculations, the problem of obesity costs the UK in excess of £46.5bn ($73bn) a year, in comparison to the £43bn ($67bn) it costs the country due to armed violence, war and terrorism. The biggest social cost to the country though – and by some distance – remains smoking, with the impact from smoking costing a staggering £57bn ($86bn) in 2012.

On a global scale, armed violence, war and terrorism is costing the economy $2.1 trillion a year, and obesity isn’t too far behind, at $2 trillion, with the following social burden being alcoholism, costing $1.4 trillion.

Unfortunately, obesity appears to be a growing problem. Almost a quarter of children are considered to be obese upon leaving primary school, in addition to the one in four adults also obese. Over 12,000 hospital appointments are made each year because of health issues associated with obesity, placing further pressure on an already stretched NHS budget.

However, this is where National Obesity Awareness Week comes into play, aiming to promote the various methods how the government, businesses and us as individuals can implement positive steps to boost our health, with the information and resources from the campaign enabling a long-term positive change. This doesn’t mean people have to make astronomical alterations, but smaller, manageable and sustainable changes that can be kept up beyond National Obesity Awareness Week – this might be cutting down on sugar in your diet, reducing alcohol intake, or increasing the amount of exercise you do.


The campaign encourages everyone to get involved, whether it is events, activities and promotions taking place around the country, or people can even organise their own event with the online supporters’ pack.

The National Obesity Awareness Week website is also full of fantastic, useful information, such as exercise tips to help successful weight loss, an explanation of calories and the number of calories expended in an hour of doing various exercise such as running or swimming, why low-fat diets don’t always work for those trying to lose weight, healthier cooking recipes, a breakdown of the vitamins and minerals we need in our diets and their purposes, how to stay active during pregnancy and much more.


So, whatever it is you decide to do to take part, why don’t we all commit to making 2015 the year we take action with manageable and sustainable changes to turn the obesity crisis around before it is too late.

Medical Specialists® Pharmacy can also help those trying to lose weight, with our fantastic range of obesity treatments such as Xenical and Orlistat. Used in conjunction with a balanced diet and exercise, these treatments are very effective and can help people regain their confidence to enjoy a happier and healthier 2015!

Prescription drugs now taken by nearly half of adults

According to the latest report published by the Health Survey for England by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), around half of women and 43% of men are now taking prescription medications.

The new study – the first of its kind – probed into our nation’s pill-popping habits, discovering that the most commonly prescribed medicines are cholesterol-lowering statins such as atorvastatin and pravastatin (taken by 16% of men and 12% of women), and drugs for high blood pressure (hypertension) come in at a close second in the most often prescribed drugs list (taken by 14% of men and 15% of women).

The HSCIC report represents the very first nationwide representative assessment of medicines taken by people in the community, as opposed to within the healthcare system. It includes both those on long-term drugs and those taking a short course of antibiotics.

The report states that there were an average of 18.7 prescriptions administered per person in England during 2013, which reportedly sets back the NHS more than £15 billion each year.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, the new figures show that there are generally more prescription drugs taken by people as age increases, with over half of those aged 65 or over taking three or more medicines and over a third aged 75 or over take at least six.

Dr Jennifer Mindell, reader in public health at University College London and one of the authors in the report, argued the statistics should be taken in context due to the fact people are in better health than previous times and generally live longer in the modern day, primarily because of drugs for prevention and treatment of disease.

Dr Mindell commented: “That half of men over 65 are taking cholesterol-lowering medicines reflects the high risk of cardiovascular disease in this group. Stopping smoking, being a healthy weight, eating more vegetables and fruit, and being physically active reduce people’s risk of these diseases, for people who want to avoid taking medicines.”

The figures show that almost a third of prescriptions were for cardiovascular disease, with in excess of 65 million prescriptions given to combat either high blood pressure, heart failure or high cholesterol, but excludes the number of people using contraceptives and smoking cessation products, such as Champix.

The most single prescribed drug was Simvastatin – a cholesterol lowering treatment – with a staggering 40 million prescriptions given, followed by aspirin (31 million).

Antidepressant drugs were found to be taken by over one in 10 women – this is double the figure for men. These types of drugs were often taken by middle-aged women and those from the poorest regions of the country. It was found 17% of the poorest women were on antidepressants compared to 7% of the richest women.

Dr Sarah Jackson, at University College London, said: “It’s well known that rates of depression are much higher among women than men, so I am not surprised to see that antidepressant use follows the same pattern in this study. People with depression are less likely to be in regular employment, and people who are unemployed or in low paid jobs are more likely to have depression.”

In addition, the reported highlighted the fact that overweight and obese people were more probably going to be taking prescription medication, with over half of severely obese people across England taking at least one prescription drug and a third taking at least three.

Sue Faulding, a pharmacist and programme manager of prescribing and primary care services at the HSCIC, commented: “Obesity is often associated with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, joint pain and depression. Lifestyle changes are always recommended in the first instance, but medicines can help to address the symptoms and this study shows that medicine use increases steadily with body mass index.”

Junk food diets could stop people craving healthier food

Scientists warn that a diet full of fatty junk food and sugary treats could actually work to destroy our urge to consume healthy food products.

An Australian study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology with rats found that not only did the rats gain significant weight eating junk food, it seemed to kill any desire for them to eat healthier food. This could perhaps help to understand behavioural changes in people that regularly eat ‘bad’ foods and appear to exhibit low willpower, putting them at risk of overindulging and obesity.

The researchers believe that by consistently eating junk food, this has a big impact on the reward circuit areas of animals’ brains. One such part affected they say is the orbitofrontal cortex, an area associated with decision-making. The experts involved in the study say the findings may have implications for a human’s ability to limit eating certain foods due to the fact the reward circuitry is similar in every mammal.

Professor Margaret Morris, from the University of New South Wales, said: “The interesting thing about this finding is that if the same thing happens in humans, eating junk food may change our responses to signals associated with food rewards. It’s like you’ve just had ice cream for lunch, yet you still go and eat more when you hear the ice cream van come by.”

For two weeks the team involved in the study fed one group of rats healthy rat food, with a second group being access to unhealthy human foods such as pie, dumplings, cookies and cake.

All of the rats were given cherry and grape sugar water to drink. The rats eating junk food were consuming 150% more calories and their weight had increased by 10% after the fortnight.

Within one particular experiment, scientists managed to teach the rats certain sound cues to link to either drink. Interestingly, if the rats given healthy food had heard the sound cue for grape sugar water after already just drinking it, they would not drink any more of it. Meanwhile, the junk food-fed rats responded different to the sound cues.

Even if they had just drank a lot of the grape sugar water, the sound cue for said drink would still somehow make them drink more of it. The same pattern was found for cherry sugar water.
Therefore it would seem that junk food-fed rats responded to sound cues and were unable to comprehend they had just overindulged in something (in this case the flavoured sugar water).

Basically, their natural preference for novelty had vanished and no longer avoided sounds linked to an overfamiliar food or taste, happy to continue indulging on what they were already eating.

This was even apparent for a significant period of time after the rats went back to a healthier diet. In comparison, the healthy rats were found to actually stop responding to the food they had just consumed.

“We know a lot about food and nutrition and what we should be doing, and yet we’re getting fatter and fatter,” Morris says. “Our sort of diet appears to override an animal’s ability to know it’s just eaten something—they’re just eating indiscriminately, if you will.”

Dr Amy Reichelt, lead author of the paper, commented: “As the global obesity epidemic intensifies, advertisements may have a greater effect on people who are overweight and make snacks like chocolate bars harder to resist.”

How an obese sibling can leave the other at risk

Contrary to popular belief that a child’s obesity risk is more determined by their parent’s weight, it could be true that siblings have more of an impact on their brother’s or sister’s chance of becoming obese. This is according to the findings of a new study carried out in the US.

The research analysed information extracted from the national Family Habits Survey, finding that kids with obese siblings were five times more likely to be obese themselves, whereas children with obese parents were only twice as likely to also be obese.

“When you look at a two-child family, a child’s obesity status was more strongly related with their sibling than with their parent,” commented Mark Pachucki, a researcher with the Mongan Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and leader of the research.

According to the NHS, you are considered obese if you have a body mass index (BMI) reading of between 30 and 39.9. Becoming obese is basically the result of a calorie imbalance; gaining a large amount of weight from taking in more calories through your diet than you are burning from physical activity. However, the risk can increase through a combination of different factors such as genetics, the environment and lifestyle choices.

Previous research has found links between parent’s obesity and their children’s weight, but there has been little in the way of assessing the role of the weight of one sibling effecting the other’s obesity risk.

“This is really the first project to come out the bigger study, in which we are actually merging about 10 years of families’ food purchases with information about their health,” Pachucki said.

The research comprised of 1,948 families – 807 families with two children and 1,141 with just a single child. Eating and exercising were looked at, in addition to height and weight data to determine who was obese.

Around 12% of the only children could be classified as obese, with nearly a fifth not being physically active and over a third consuming fast food on two or more occasions each week.

A similar pattern emerged for those households with two children, but only 8% of the elder children could be classified as obese, in comparison to 12% of their younger brother or sister.

“We looked at one-child and two-child households, and in one-child households having an obese parent made a child more than twice as likely to be obese themselves,” Pachucki said.

Unsurprisingly, if the parents of an only child had a large intake of junk food, this led to a higher chance that the child would be obese, with a lesser risk if those children were involved in vigorous physical activity.
 
For two-child families, having an obese sibling led to a risk that was in excess of fives time of that than if the brother or sister wasn’t obese.

It was also found that if both children in a two-child family were the same gender, the elder sibling being obese resulted in an even heavier likelihood of the younger child being obese.

Girls with an older sister who was obese were 8 times more at risk of being obese themselves compared to girls with an older sister of a healthy weight, whilst boys with an older obese brother were a staggering 11 times more at risk.

“Parents are often very explicit models of behaviour; they do the food purchasing, and they control a lot of aspects of their children’s lives,” Pachucki said. “I was expecting there to be a stronger correlation with parents’ obesity, but I was surprised that the siblings were stronger.”

A third of adults in England now ‘on cusp of diabetes’

Over one in three adults are on the brink of developing type 2 diabetes, according to the findings of new research.

The British Medical Journal have published alarming findings that show there has been an “extremely rapid” increase in the cases of pre-diabetes since 2003.

The authors of the study discovered that in 2011, there had been a triple increase in the number of people confirmed with having pre-diabetes, rising from 11.6% in 2003 to a staggering 35.3% by 2011. To come to this judgement, the authors looked at data comprised from the Health Survey for England for the years 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2011, which included information about the blood samples of thousands of people.

The authors said: “This rapid rise in such a short period of time is particularly disturbing because it suggests that large changes on a population level can occur in a relatively short period of time. If there is no coordinated response to the rise in pre-diabetes, an increase in numbers of people with diabetes will ensue, with consequent increase in health expenditure, morbidity and cardiovascular mortality.”

Researchers determined an individual to have pre-diabetes if they had not been previously diagnosed with the condition, and their glycated haemoglobin – a measure of blood glucose control – was found to be at a level between 5.7% and 6.4%.

If the findings were amplified for the rest of the UK, it could suggest there are now an estimated 15 million adults that are pre-diabetic, with a further 4 million actually suffering from diabetes.
Nine tenths of all cases of diabetes are type 2, often occurring in mid-life and heavily linked to weight gain, and worryingly, as a nation we are simply getting fatter.

During the last 20 years there has been almost a double rise in the number of obese adults, soaring from 13.2% amongst men in 1993 to 24.4% now. Women show a similar pattern, increasing from 16.4% to a whopping 25.1%.

Pre-diabetes previously went by the name of ‘borderline diabetes’, and is the term given when someone has glucose levels that are in the very high end of what is deemed ‘normal’, but not yet high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes – a condition that can lead to other complications such as heart disease or stroke, and is particularly common in men with suffering with erectile dysfunction.

Most people in this ‘grey area’ between normal blood sugar levels and diabetic levels, often do not display any symptoms associated with type 2 diabetes, which usually include: urinating frequently (commonly at night), feeling very thirsty, loss of muscle bulk, weight loss and feeling very tired.

However, pre-diabetes is a very serious warning to take heed of and certainly an important stage in the development of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes has been strongly linked with both genetics and ethnicity, but an incredibly large percentage of cases of type 2 diabetes are caused by poor diet that leads to being overweight or due to obesity. With early enough lifestyle changes such as improving your diet, regular exercise and weight loss, it may just be enough to slow down or even prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes.

Barbara Young, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, commented: “Unless we make people aware of their risk of type 2 diabetes and support them in changing their lifestyles, we could see an even greater increase in the number of people with the condition than we are already expecting. A tenth of the NHS budget is already being spent on diabetes and unless we get much better at preventing type 2 diabetes this spending will soon rise to unsustainable levels.”

Mental Health Awareness Week highlights Britain’s anxiety woes

Monday saw the beginning of Mental Health Awareness Week which will run until the 18 May. Ran by the British charitable organisation Mental Health Foundation, this year’s specific theme is a problem that is spiralling all over the UK; anxiety.

Anxiety is a problem has that has got progressively worse over the last few decades and is recognised as one of the leading causes behind mental ill-health all around the world. With this week it is hoped more awareness is raised about anxiety, the leading causes of the condition and what steps you can take to live more easily with it.

The majority of us will experience some form of anxiety during the course of our lives. The stresses at work, or raising a family, trying to ride through the recession, or preparing for a job interview will all result in some degree of anxiety.

In addition, Medical Specialists™ Pharmacy have spoken to thousands of patients who are suffering with severe anxiety caused by health issues that have a huge detriment to their confidence and self-esteem. Problems such as erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, hair loss, acne, obesity and much more can all result in long-term anxiety without the necessary treatment(s), which can all be obtained from Medical Specialists™.

When anxiety becomes excessive, persistent and overwhelming, this is when it becomes so problematic that your daily life is effected and is also the primary symptom of a number of conditions, including phobias, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety disorder (social phobia).

According the Mental Health Foundation, levels of anxiety are on the rise. Currently around one in five in the UK feels anxious most or all of the time. A survey carried out by the charity also found nearly half of Brits now feel more anxiety than they did in the past. The survey defined anxious as “generally feeling worried, nervous, or uneasy”.

An estimated three-fifths of the 2,330 British adults questioned by YouGov admitted they feel anxious on a daily basis and 7% would not hesitate to see a GP due to their feelings of anxiety. Just one in 20 say they never feel anxious.

So what exactly is on the nation’s mind and causing us sleepless nights? Well, perhaps unsurprisingly given the state of the economy, money problems were cited as the main cause of anxiety.

Of those polled, 45% said money/finance/debt was the main cause, 36% said the welfare of their children and loved ones, whilst 27% said work problems – i.e. long hours – were causing the most anxiety.

Older people were found to be less worried about finance, but women and older people were more concerned for loved ones. Even though there are a large number of people battling anxiety, almost a fifth of respondents admitted to doing nothing to deal with it.

“Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems in the UK and it is increasing, yet it remains under-reported, under-diagnosed and under-treated,” said Jenny Edwards, chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation.

“A good ability to cope with anxiety is key to our resilience in the face of whatever life throws at us. However, experiencing it too much or too often means we risk becoming overwhelmed. Anxiety at this level can have a truly distressing and debilitating impact on our lives and impact on our physical as well as mental health. As individuals and as a society we need to be more anxiety aware. If we truly recognised the cost anxiety has on society, as well as the mounting distress it causes to individuals, communities and employers, we would act now.”

To help people understand anxiety in greater depth, the charity has compiled a new guide titled Are You Anxiety Aware?, which explains the different types of anxiety, the main reasons that can result in feelings of anxiety, in addition to the physical signs that could occur with anxiety (fast breathing, sweating, rapid and/or irregular heartbeat, etc.).

Change4Life aims to get the nation happier and healthier!

Obesity in the UK is a major growing health concern and is consistently found to be one of the leading causes of preventable death in Britain. In 2007 Forbes listed the UK as number 28 in the fattest countries in the world and other estimates predict that half the population could be obese by the year 2050.

Earlier this year, statistics were released that show the total proportion of people in areas across England are either overweight or obese, and it is an alarming similar trend around the country:

By region

1. North-east (68%)
2. North-west (66%)
3. West Midlands (65.7%)
4. East Midlands (65.6%)
5. Yorkshire and the Humber (65.4%)
6. East of England (65.1%)
7. South-east (63.1%)
8. South-west (62.7%)
9. London (57.3%)

Clearly the problem of managing the nation’s weight is something that needs to be tackled in the current day and not only taken seriously 36 years into the future.

Fortunately the government and the NHS are at the forefront of such measures and there are a number of initiatives that aim to promote healthy lifestyle changes to be sustained in the long-term for you and your children. One of these is Change4Life , an England and Wales public health programme ran by the Department of Health that encourages people to adhere to six healthy lifestyle changes:

• 5 A Day – Advice on how to achieve the recommended 5 daily portions of fruit and vegetables.
• Watch the salt– How to cut down on salt intake and keep it under 6g per day for adults.
• Cut back fat – Information about primarily the saturated fat in foods and how to cut down. It is worth remembering the average male should not consume over 30g of saturated fat per day, whilst it is just 20g of saturated fat per day for women.
• Sugar swaps– Information about sugar in foods and healthier alternatives.
• Choose less booze – Advice on how adults can meet the government lower-risk guidelines, with a free downloadable app to track your drinking.
• Get going every day – The importance of an active lifestyle and how both children and adults can keep active easily and inexpensively.

Those wanting to get involved with Change4Life will receive plenty of useful information, recipes, tools, tips, and games for the kids. After you have registered you will also get a free welcome pack – one for the whole family, or one just for you.

For those unsure where their local groups or clubs are for fun activities that will keep you fit and healthy, there is an excellent facility for finding such activities on the Change4Life website. Here you can tick what specific interests you want to get involved in, such as Adventure/Outdoor (e.g. Archery, Cycling & more) or Watersports (e.g. Canoeing, Diving & more) within a specified distance and the search results will provide an A-Z list of nearby venues to get active.

The NHS Choices website also offer a fantastic comprehensive A-Z guide to common health topics, such as weight loss, within the Live Well area of the website.

In the weight loss area of the NHS Live Well website, you can find information about the many different diet plans out there, such as the 5:2 diet and the Paleo diet, there are tips on how to understand food labels in order to make healthier choices when shopping, a list of the worst culprits for added sugar in our diet and there is also an interactive body mass index (BMI) tool to see if you are a health weight for your height. Those wanting to lose weight can also sign up for free email support and help stay motivated in their goals.

Being sat down for too long each day could prove fatal

Are you sat down reading this? The chances are likely you probably are. However, you may not be sat comfortably for long. According to research, those who are sat down for extended periods of the day are putting themselves at serious risk of a whole host of health problems.

This risk is something that applies to nearly all of us with the average Brit spending 8.9 hours per day sat down; either at home in front of the television, at work, or in their car. Factor in around seven hours of sleep per day and this equates to just a third of our time spent on our feet.

Those spending large amounts of time on their backside are probably more at risk of obesity than others who are active as very little energy will be expended to burn off calories, but the sedentary amongst us are also putting themselves in danger of developing a multitude of other problems.
For example, sat down for many hours each day may actually cause problems such as diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, deep vein thrombosis, brittles bones, depression, dementia and muscular and back problems.

The dangers are serious enough for health experts to brand sitting down for too long as ‘the new smoking’, a time bomb just waiting to explode. In fact, it is so worrying that The World Health Organisation have highlighted physical inactivity as the fourth biggest killer on the planet, even ahead of obesity. Back, neck and muscular conditions linked to a lack of activity are said to cost the UK economy over a staggering £1billion each year from sick days, and is predicted to rise.

This has led to the creation of a new campaign called Get Britain Standing, aiming to get Brits off their chairs, back on their feet moving about, and reduce the number of ailments that are associated from spending too much time sitting down.

Gavin Bradley, director of Get Britain Standing, says: “It’s like smoking during the 1970s and passive smoking during the 90s. We all know a sedentary lifestyle is bad for us, we just don’t realise how bad it is. Spending less time sitting down really can add years to your life. That is the most important message. Unfortunately, it also seems to be the hardest one for people to believe.”

The World Health Organisation say a healthy adult should be at least in engaging in 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week, or 30 minutes on at least five days of the week. This will suffice to receive benefits of regular exercise, but will still not be enough to prevent you from the risks of a sedentary lifestyle if you spend the rest of the time being sat down.

Dr John Buckley, an expert in exercise science at Chester University, says: “A person may have got more than 30 minutes’ exercise by cycling to work and home again, but if they have been sitting still all day they will lose some of those benefits. It is like exercising but then eating an unhealthy diet or exercising and being a smoker. Physical inactivity is equally as important as those other well-known issues like diet and smoking.”

The body’s metabolism is slowed down when we are sat for extended periods and this hampers how enzyme lipoprotein lipase breaks down the body’s fat reserves. In addition, blood glucose levels and blood pressure both increase.

Activity such as even just standing and moving around throughout the day should be enough to reverse this increase. It is believed that 30 minutes of light activity in two or three-minute bursts may be just as beneficial to us a half-hour block of exercise.

Unfortunately, failure to keep active will cause blood sugar levels and blood pressure to raise and cause damage to the inside of the arteries. This in turn increases the chance of developing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Dr Buckley says encouraging people to be active and spend less time sat down is the biggest thing that could be done to reduce the risk of such diseases.

“The human race didn’t evolve to spend so much time sitting down,” he says. “Up until relatively recently we spent much of our time moving around.”

Could diet soft drinks cause heart attacks and strokes?

The diet sugar-free soft drink…often seen as a beneficial tool in the quest for weight loss and a staple in the diet of many people trying to lose weight that may have a sweet tooth. With almost zero calories and apparently none of the spoonfuls of sugar that has been lumped into their full-sugared counterparts, diet drinks are almost too good to be true.

However, this too good to be true mantra, may actually be fitting after the alarming findings of a new study into artificially sweetened fizzy drinks and the impact they can have on our body.

Worryingly, those people who are drinking two or more diet soft drinks each day may be a staggering 50% more likely to die because heart disease. This conclusion was arrived at after health experts looked at the diet drink consumption of nearly 60,000 people taking part in the women’s health initiative, a long-term US study into the cardiovascular health of post-menopausal women.

The average age of the women was calculated at 62.8 and all women must have had no prior history of cardiovascular problems to be involved in the study.

Through a questionnaire, women were asked to document how many diet drinks they drank over a duration of three months, with a drink being taken as a 12oz (355ml) sized beverage including diet soft and fruit drinks.

The researchers tracked the women for an average follow-up time of about 9 years, variety of negative outcomes occurred in 8.5% of those who drank at least two diet drinks each day. These negative outcomes included: coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, heart attack, ischemic stroke, peripheral arterial disease and cardiovascular death.

In contrast, negative outcomes occurred in 6.9% of the women who drank between five and seven drinks each week, within 6.8% that had drank one to four drinks per week, and 7.2% drinking between zero and three diet drinks each month.

“Our findings are in line with and extend data from previous studies showing an association between diet drinks and metabolic syndrome,” commented Dr Ankur Vyas, of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, lead investigator of the study. The syndrome has been linked to a number of risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity.

“We only found an association, so we can’t say that diet drinks cause these problems,” Dr Vyas added, highlighting there may be other reasons for the link between diet drinks and a risk of heart attack and stroke.

Dr Vyas stressed that the women who had drink two or more diet drinks each day were typically younger in age, more likely to smoke, with a higher prevalence of diabetes, high blood pressure and of being overweight, adding that further research should be conducted to see if there is an actual definite link between diet drinks and cardiovascular risk.

How losing weight helped one woman’s asthma symptoms

Sally, 45, a hairdresser from Aldington in Kent, was horrified when the nurse at her asthma clinic requested that she step onto the scales.

Like many other women, Sally had decided to avoid all scales out of fear, but stepping onto them gave her a startling shock – she could be officially classed as ‘obese’ weighing 11st at only 5 ft 2in tall.

“They saw on my notes that I suffered from asthma, but this was the first time anyone in the medical profession had weighed me”, she says.

“The problem was that I didn’t feel fat because the weight had crept on so gradually during and after my pregnancies. Then when the children left things on their plates, I’d pick at the leftovers.”

As her weight increased, Sally was finding it more difficult to control her asthma symptoms, meaning even doing basic things such as walking  up the stairs and looking after  her children, Maizie, now 12, and Merrin, nine, left her breathless.

What Sally didn’t realise is that weight loss is the key for an overall improvement in health for those overweight or obese, but especially so for asthmatics. Studies have shown that people with asthma who are also overweight or obese could see an improvement in their symptoms if they lose weight and this should be included in any asthma management program.

The asthma clinic nurse that Sally spoke to then recommended she should lose weight and would no doubt see an improvement to her asthma symptoms.

Sally says: “It was a real wake-up call. I knew that I had to do something about it or my asthma would just get worse because I would become more immobile and reluctant to exercise.”

Deborah Waddell, clinical lead nurse at the charity Asthma UK, explains: “Obese people find their asthma much harder to control.”

Asthma began for Sally following a severe episode of flu at the age of 19 – Upper respiratory infections are typically caused by cold and flu viruses and are a one of a number of triggers for asthma.

Her asthma gradually got worse. “Getting up the stairs was very scary because the wheezing was so loud.  And it stayed at the same level in my 30s and into my 40s. I couldn’t run after the children at the park.”

Sally now uses a brown preventer inhaler every morning for protection and a quick-acting blue reliever Ventolin inhaler when symptoms start to arise. Sally’s symptoms worsen during the winter, when feeling stressed, or when coming into contact with pet hair.

Despite the fact many people with asthma tend to avoid all exercise on fear of it triggering an attack, Sally began an exercise regime, which has actually been a huge benefit as asthma can boost the lung capacity in asthmatics.

She now goes running three times a week for four miles, attends a weekly spinning class and cycles for journeys where the car is not a necessity.

“I lost a stone-and-a-half in eight months and it made a huge difference,” says Sally. “It really brought the asthma under control and made the attacks less frequent and less severe – I have just one a month instead of three a week. When I was 11st, my body was struggling to  cope with the weight, especially climbing stairs, but the fitter you are, the stronger your  lungs become.”

Air pollution puts obese children at higher risk from asthma

A new study shows that obese children exposed to high levels of air pollution could be three times more likely to develop asthma in comparison to their peers who are not obese and exposed to less air pollutants.

This conclusion was drawn up by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), who analysed 311 children in predominantly Dominican and African-American areas of New York City.

The air within each child’s home was monitored for a period of two weeks at age 5 or 6, in order to assess that child’s exposure to a type of air pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

In addition, the child’s height and weight were tracked and respiratory questionnaires were asked. It was found that 20% of the children were suffering from asthma and going off body mass index, 20% could be classified as obese.

It was determined that high exposure to PAH exposure was only linked to asthma for the obese children. The link was due to alkylated forms of PAH; released by a variety of things such as candles, cooking, cigarette smoke, incense, and more.

A two-to-three-fold rise in asthma risk was witnessed amongst obese children that were exposed to significant levels of PAH chemicals 1-methylphenanthrene and 9-methylphenanthrene, but just PAH or obesity on their own could not foresee asthma risk.

Lead author Kyung Hwa Jung, PhD, associate research scientist in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, said: “Our results suggest that obesity may magnify the effects of these air pollutants, putting children at greater risk for having asthma.”

The study is useful as it could result in the development of better targeted treatment. “These findings suggest that we may be able to bring down childhood asthma rates by curbing indoor, as well as outdoor, air pollution and by implementing age-appropriate diet and exercise programs,” commented senior author Rachel Miller, MD, Professor of Medicine (in Pediatrics) and Environmental Health Sciences, chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at CUMC, and co-deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Asthma and obesity are two conditions that have been on the increase in recent decades, both in the US and in the UK.

Obviously this study was conducted in the US, where the percentage of American children who are obese has risen from 7% in 1980 to 20% in 2008, while childhood asthma has gone up from 4% in 1980 to 10% in 2009.

In the UK, there are 5.4 million people currently receiving treatment for asthma, of which 1.1 million are children (1 in 11) and 4.3 million are adults (1 in 12). Last year a 11-year-old boy from Manchester hit the headlines after weighing in at a staggering 24 stone.

Over a third of 60-70 year olds are battling the bulge

Scottish researchers claim that despite being a problem mainly associated among younger people, obesity is more widespread than first thought and over a third of 60 to 70-year-olds are now at a dangerous weight level.

The team involved in the new study also discovered that the amount of males aged 18 to 22 with a waist measurement in excess of 40 inches (102 cm), has doubled, increasing from 4.6% to 10.7%.
Meanwhile, the number of women in the same age bracket who have a waist size greater than 34.5 inches (88 cm) has almost tripled, increasing from 9.25% to 24.4%.

The team from the University of Glasgow analysed statistics from the Health Survey of England and the Scottish Health Survey, contrasting information relating to 1994 to 1996 against similar facts from 2008 to 2010.

They found that the total number of people with a body mass index (BMI) reading of more than 30 (I.e. classified as ‘obese’) had risen 5 to 15% on average, with an evident peak at age 60 to 70. Up to 38% were obese over both sexes.

The peak was seen at five to ten years later than what was observed during 1994 to 1996 for men, and but was no different for women.

Prevalence of BMI over 30 has doubled in young English men (to 10.7%) and tripled in young Scottish males (to 12.1%). Women fared worse though with 17.8% in England having a BMI of over 30 and 20.1% in Scotland.

Waistlines are clearly expanding at a fast rate, with researchers finding the percentage of people having a ‘large’ waist circumference – 102 cm/40 inches for men, 88 cm/34.5 inches for women – spiralling from 30% to 70% for men aged 80 to 85 and for women between the ages of 65 and 70.

It seems Scots are gripped in an even worse obesity crisis than their English counterparts as the prevalence of a large waist circumference increased fourfold to 12.7% in young men, and almost fivefold in women, to 28.2%.

Professor Mike Lean, whose research has been published in the International Journal of Obesity, commented: “People are growing fatter later in life, with waist sizes rising more persistently than BMI which may indicate increased loss of muscle mass in old age. Within the 14-year period of this study, we also are seeing more young people entering adult life already obese, and more older people have adverse body composition. The continuing rise of waist circumference in older age groups is evidence of continued body fat accumulation and redistribution into older age, which is a major public health concern. The proportion of people with a ‘normal’ BMI has dropped to only about 15 per cent of UK adults by the age of 65. This rather small proportion now includes unhealthy people who have illnesses that have caused weight loss or prevent weight gain, as well as those who are genuinely healthy and active. So older people with an apparently ‘healthy’ BMI are not all healthy.”

Professor Lean added: “The use of BMI alone as a measure for adiposity in this age group may be misleading and using waist circumference might be better for identifying adverse changes in body composition.”

20% tax on sugary drinks could ease Britain’s obesity crisis

Researchers say that if a 20% tax was slapped onto all sugary drinks then this would help to bring down the total number of obese adults in the UK by an estimated 180,000.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers from Oxford and Reading argue that the 20% tax on Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Fanta and other sugar-sweetened drinks, would help to curb the worrying rise in sales of such drinks which they say is merely adding fuel to the fire of the nation’s obesity crisis.

The authors of the paper have spent time to calculate both the financial impact of introducing a 20% tax, and how much effect it could have in regards to trying to curtail the problem of obesity.

Dr Adam Briggs, lead study author from the Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University, said their research has shown that taxing sugar-sweetened drinks “is a promising population measure”.

He commented: “Sugar-sweetened drinks are known to be bad for health and our research indicates that a 20% tax could result in a meaningful reduction in the number of obese adults in the UK. Such a tax is not going to solve obesity by itself, but we have shown it could be an effective public health measure and should be considered alongside other measures to tackle obesity in the UK.”

Dr Briggs and colleagues modelled the health effects of a 20% by using the information extracted from several separate surveys. These surveys had provided data on the trends of drink purchases, drinks consumption, and the prevalence of obesity throughout the UK.

They calculated that a 20% tax would equate to a 60p can of 330ml Coca-Cola now costing 72p, and help to cut the number of overweight adults in the UK by 0.9% (285,000 adults) and reduce the number of obese adults by 1.3% (180,000) adults. The tax would also result in roughly 40p being added to the cost of two-litre bottle.

The age group most effected would likely be those aged 16 to 29 the researchers say, as these typically consume a lot more sugary drinks in comparison to other age groups.

Because it is merely the over 30s who would be impacted by the introduction of the tax, this has led to some groups arguing that the tax would be misguided and simplistic, not having much of an impact on older people who could actually benefit most from losing weight.

Gavin Partington, director general of the British Soft Drinks Association, argued that soft drinks should not be blamed for Britain’s obesity problems.

He said: “There’s ample evidence to suggest that taxing soft drinks won’t curb obesity, not least because its causes are far more complex than this simplistic approach implies. Indeed, the latest official guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence points to the need to look at overall diet and lifestyle. Trying to blame one set of products is misguided, particularly when they comprise a mere 2% of calories in the average diet.”

In addition, Tom Sanders, professor of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, argued that the findings of the study were somewhat “naive”.

He said: “Most nutritionists agree it would be better to drink water than sugar-sweetened beverages. However, many consumers like sweet drinks and if they could not afford to buy sugary fizzy drinks they can always revert to drinking tea with added sugar as in the past. The cost of sugar-sweetened beverages is currently so low that any price increase would be so marginal that it would be unlikely to affect intake.”

However, the facts do not lie when it comes to fizzy drinks and the fact remains that a typical sugary drink still contains a shocking six to 15 teaspoons of sugary. Just one teaspoon of sugary works out at around 16 calories and 4g of sugar. On top of this, a regular consumption of the drinks has been linked to an increase in the risk of tooth decay and diabetes as well as obesity.

In fact, earlier this year doctors led calls for a tax on sugary drinks, in addition to other recommendations such as the number of fast food outlets close by to schools and colleges to be severely limited and a ban on junk food advertising before the watershed.

Health watchdog warn doctors not to blame obese patients for being fat

Doctors have been warned to refrain from blaming and pointing the finger at patients for being overweight or obese.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have created new draft guidance for tackling obesity, and in particularly the correct manner in dealing with obese patients. In the past NICE have asked doctors to actually stop saying the word “obese” as it may be deemed “derogatory”.

All doctors, GPs and other health professionals should now strive for a more sensitive tone which is “respectful” and “non-blaming” as this will “minimise harm”, according to the health watchdog.
Rather than looking at short-term and temporary weight loss, the guidance on lifestyle weight management programmes will aim to help overweight and obese people to both lose weight and then maintain the healthier weight, focusing on achievable goals, with positive long-term lifestyle changes.

NICE advise that more patients should be referred “lifestyle weight management” programmes such as Weight Watchers as programmes which thoroughly assess their diet, levels of activity and behaviour may save money in the long-term. Specifically, adults with a BMI in excess of 30 kg/m² and those identified as overweight or obese through the NHS Health Check or other services should be referred to these programmes.

Obesity is linked to a huge range of serious health problems such as type-2 diabetes, certain cancers (e.g. breast and prostate cancer), arthritis, heart disease (from smoking and high cholesterol), infertility, asthma, back pain, depression and kidney disease.

NICE say that such conditions, and the many more that have been linked to obesity, place a massive strain on the already stretched NHS, costing an estimated £5.1 billion each and every year and “placing a huge strain on the health service”.

Professor Mike Kelly, director of the centre for public health at Nice, said: “Being overweight or obese can have serious consequences for an individual’s health, not only physically with increased risk of high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, but it can also affect their mental health as a result of stigma and bullying or discrimination. Levels of obesity in England are rising, with a little over a quarter of adults classified as obese and a further 41% of men and 33% of women overweight.
Professor Kelly continued: “This is a huge proportion of our population. This new draft guidance focuses on the provision of effective lifestyle weight management services and makes a number of recommendations to ensure that the providers of programmes whether from the private, public, or voluntary sector follow good, evidence-based practice.This draft guidance isn’t about quick fixes, it is about ensuring lifestyle weight management services support people in the long-term. Programmes that address diet, activity and behaviour change can help people who are obese lose weight but they are only cost-effective if the weight is kept off.”

Obese mum loses 10 stone by using her house as an assault course

A mother of three lost a staggering 10 stone after using aspects of her home as an assault course to do exercises each day.

Gemma Howden, 28, was desperate to slim down after seeing her weight spiral to 19 stone, with a dress size of 26.

However, Gemma couldn’t afford an expensive gym membership so decided to be creative in her quest to shed the pounds and used the only means she had – her house, and the objects inside it!

She used an old baby gate placed at the foot of her stairs as a hurdle and jumped back and forth over the gate hundreds of times each day. Gemma also used her stairs as a stepping course and even did star jumps in front of the TV in her living room.

Not owning any weights or dumbbells, Gemma simply utilised tins of baked beans and spaghetti hoops as weights and lifted them during her tough daily exercise regime.

This would be have effective as it is important to incorporate strength exercises into cardio to more efficiently lose weight and tone up as well, and Gemma looks incredible after her impressive efforts.
Reminiscing to her heavier days, Gemma says: “I was absolutely enormous, I couldn’t bare to look in the mirror or have my photos taken. I hated the sight of myself so much I wouldn’t pose for pictures with my kids. To curb my unhappiness I’d stuff myself with a Chinese takeaway for four and then tuck into a giant slab of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.”

Gemma got the motivation to kick-start a weight loss plan and turn her life around after looking through old photo albums and realising she wasn’t actually in many of the pictures with her children.
She says: “I felt so sad and I realised I was too ashamed to be in pictures because I was such a fat blob. I am 28 and I felt 65. I was puffing and panting everywhere.”

Gemma did her punishing exercise regime literally hundreds and hundreds of times to lose weight, beginning by running up and down the stairs. Whilst her children were watching TV in the living she would be jogging on the spot and after putting them to bed she would do hundreds of reps with large tins of beans and spaghetti.

Gemma’s weight loss story should be an inspiration to anyone looking to lose weight and is a shining example that results can be attained with the willpower and motivation to succeed. Weighing at a healthy 9 stone, she has binned her baggy t-shirts and now wears tight fitting dresses.

She added: “I’d pull the curtains to stop the neighbours seeing me in action – it would have been so embarrassing. But the results have paid off and now I’m ten stone lighter. Now I’m no longer the fat mother at the school gates and my kids’ friends don’t make fun of me. I feel absolutely amazing. When I tell people I lost 10 stone after turning my house into a boot camp they don’t believe it. But it’s absolutely true. I’m living proof that you don’t need a gym to shed the weight. A few cans of baked beans and a baby gate will do just the same job.”

If you are motivated by Gemma’s incredible story and want to lose weight, this can be achieved through weight loss aids in addition to adopting a healthy lifestyle. The prescription medication Xenical is suitable for those with a BMI over 27, whereas there are other medications that do not require a prescription such as Alli and XLS-Medical Fat Binder. To be suitable for Alli or XLS-Medical Fat Binder you must have a BMI of over 25. To find out more information on how to obtain them, visit the ‘Obesity’ area of the Medical Specialists Pharmacy website.

Junk food at supermarket checkouts is worsening the obesity crisis

Parents – have you ever been stood in a supermarket shopping queue that seems to never decrease in size, this whilst simultaneously being nagged endlessly by your children for chocolate and/or sweets which are convenient placed right at the end of each and every checkout. If so, you are not alone, and this is the dilemma faced by millions of parents around Britain who are being harassed by their children into buying the unhealthy junk food stacked up at the checkouts.

In fact, a new survey has found that a staggering 90% of shoppers believe this cunning sales tactic is partly contributing to obesity and surely now the Government will be forced to push through legislation aimed at stopping this practice, and easing the spiralling obesity crisis.

On Monday a campaign was launched called ‘Junk Free Checkouts’ which does exactly what it says on the tin – aims to make supermarket checkouts free of junk and help to put an end to the ‘pester power’ of children who almost bully their parents into buying them unhealthy and high sugary treats that are placed near the tills.

The initiative was announced by the British Dietetic Association and the Children’s Food Campaign, following the results of a nationwide survey in which 78% of people complained that junk food at supermarket checkouts is ‘annoying’. Moreover, 83% of respondents said they had been nagged by their children for junk food at the checkouts and 75% have relented and bought junk for their children due to incessant pestering.

There was almost 2,000 people who completed the Chuck the Junk Survey, mainly comprising of women, of which two thirds had children.

Supermarkets have been pressured by health campaigners for a number of years to stop selling unhealthy junk food at their tills as they say it is blatantly targeted at easily swayed children and the promotional offers do not help matters on what has been described as the ‘guilt lanes’.

Speaking on behalf of the British Dietetic Association, obesity specialist Linda Hindle commented: “Retailers are unwilling to stop pushing unhealthy food at the checkout and queuing areas. It may be lucrative for them but, as our survey found, it is deeply unpopular with customers and nudges purchasing behaviour in the wrong direction. If retailers can’t act on their own, then we hope to see robust action from the Government to tackle this problem.”

The issue was raised in Government back in July when health minister Anna Soubry blasted supermarkets for the cynical store layouts which make it particularly difficult for parents with young children. However, she then ruled out any clampdown on the sweet and chocolate guilt lanes in shops and supermarkets, merely days after making a vow to get rid of them.

Some of the worst offenders in this regard have found to be Asda, Morrisons and Tesco, all stocking an alarming amount of junk food at their tills.

Campaigners have hit out at Supermarkets for seemingly not acting on promises to improve their methods in selling confectionery in the wake of a 2003 investigation by the independent watchdog the Food Commission.

There are those who say that stocking checkout aisles with chocolate and sweets is a calculating ploy by the supermarkets to tempt shoppers into a sugar rush after a long, laborious trek around the supermarket.

Professor of marketing at EM-Lyon Business School, Agnes Nairn, said that shoppers could change their buying habits by the point of reaching the checkout. “Consumers are more likely to go for something unhealthy when they are tired because they aren’t able to make the rational decision they would make otherwise,” she said. “Although they all know that a chocolate egg is not as good for them as fruit salad, if you have to do that in a hurry, they make the wrong choice.”