General Health Articles

Calling all coffee lovers, two cups a day could keep the heart doctor away

It's been long believed that caffeine and heart health aren’t a good mix. However, a new report from the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology says that - if consumed in moderation - coffee can work wonders for your life-span and cardiovascular health. 

449,563 participants took part in the observational study, with some drinking instant coffee, others ground (such as cappuccino or filtered coffee) or decaffeinated coffee and the rest consuming no coffee.

Interestingly, all types of coffee were linked with a reduction in death and cardiovascular disease from any cause. In fact, those who drank two to three cups of ground coffee a day were 27% less likely to die and 20% less likely to develop a heart issue compared to those who didn’t. 

Read more of the report here. 

Want to boost your child’s bone health? Get them into basketball

Okay, this study was performed across the Pond by experts at Indiana University, where basketball is a lot more prevalent than here in the UK. However, swap football or netball into your kids exercise routine and you’ll make their bones stronger and prevent injury.

It’s all about how multi-directional a sport is. The study shows that athletes who participated in both running and multidirectional sports when they were younger had 10 to 20 percent greater bone strength than athletes who solely ran.

Professor Stuart Warden, who led the study, says: "We want to ensure people have better, stronger bones as they grow. Specialising in one sport at too young of an age means they are more likely to get injured and not make it at professional levels."

Read on here. 

Celebrating 30 years of Breast Cancer campaign 

Over the last decade, breast cancer mortality rates have decreased by around a sixth (18%) in the UK, however it continues to be the most commonly diagnosed cancer worldwide with an estimated 2.3 million new cases each year.

This reduction has partly been down to an increased awareness within both male and female populations of what to look out for thanks to Estée Lauder’s Pink Ribbon campaign. Those who see and wear the iconic pink ribbon are reminded to check their breasts and visit a health care professional sooner. 

Celebrate the campaign’s 30th anniversary by getting personal with your boobs. Whether it’s a lump, dimpled skin, change in the colour or shape or the breast, or discharge from the nipple, you can check up on the symptoms here. 

British public rescues NHS blood supplies in 24 hours

On Wednesday this week, the NHS put out an alert  warning that stocks of blood donations were running critically low in England. In a time of crisis, the British public got to work and more than 10,000 appointments to donate blood were booked in the proceeding 24 hours. 

Currently, the NHS only has around two days’ worth of blood to use for operations - it usually has enough for about six days. This lack of blood is due to staff shortages and Covid-19 preventing people from visiting blood donations centres. 

On October 12th, 7,500 people registered as new blood donors, the most in the past 20 years.

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