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Category Archives: Wellness Live
Digital imaging cuts waiting times for skin cancer
A digital imaging service has reduced waiting times for patients with suspected skin cancers.
New plan will fundamentally rewire NHS, says PM
But nurses, doctors and health experts say that more funding and extra staff are needed to make it a reality.
Covid care home policy was ‘least worst decision’ – Hancock
Former health secretary Matt Hancock denied claims the government’s attempt to throw a protective ring around care homes in early 2020 was empty rhetoric.
Trump White House Halts Weapon Shipments To Ukraine To ‘Put America’s Interests First’
Donald Trump’s administration has halted weapon shipments to Ukraine, sparking major concern in Kyiv – but delight in Moscow.
The White House said the move followed fears that the US is facing stockpile issues with its arsenal after a recent Department of Defence review.
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The US has subsequently decided to “put America’s interests first”, according to the White House.
The Pentagon allegedly chose to halt shipments of critical US Patriot air defence systems and other precision weapons in June but the decision only came to light overnight.
The White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly batted away suggestions this threw America’s military into question, saying: ”[The decision] was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe.
“The strength of the United States armed forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran.”
Ukraine said it did not receive any official notification from the US over the suspension of the military aid.
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“Ukraine has not received official notices regarding the suspension or revision of the delivery schedules of agreed defense assistance,” the Ukrainian defence ministry said in a statement.
Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even claimed on Wednesday that “deliveries continue”.
He added: “It would look very strange and inhumane to stop supplying missiles for Patriot systems that protect Ukrainian civilians.”
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Ukraine’s foreign ministry has subsequently summoned the US Charge d-Affaires John Ginkel over the reported pause.
Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Mariana Betsa also warned: “Any delay or hesitation in supporting Ukraine’s defence capabilities will only encourage Russia to continue war and terror, rather than pursue peace.”
But Russia was delighted by the news. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “The fewer weapons that are supplied to Ukraine, the closer the end of the [war].”
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Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine in recent months, launching a record 5,337 drones in June – the highest total since Vladimir Putin first invaded in 2022.
The Russian president also claimed “all of Ukraine is ours” just last week, suggesting his land grab is far from over.
Bob Vylan Frontman Speaks Out After Band Is Dropped From Manchester Music Festival
The punk rap duo Bob Vylan have spoken out after it was reported that they had been dropped from a music festival in Manchester.
Over the weekend, the band caused controversy when they led the crowd at their Glastonbury set in a chant of “death to the IDF”, in reference to Israel’s army.
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After facing condemnation from UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, the BBC – which broadcast the set live and uncensored on its iPlayer service – and Glastonbury’s organisers, it was revealed that a criminal investigation was underway following sets by both Bob Vylan and fellow performers Kneecap.
On Wednesday, BBC News reported that, in the wake of the controversy, Bob Vylan had been dropped from the line-ups of Radar Festival in Manchester, and Kave Fest in France.
Reacting to the news, frontman Bobby Vylan wrote on Instagram: “Silence is not an option. We will be fine, the people of Palestine are hurting.”
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“Manchester we will be back,” he then vowed.
Instagram/Bobby Vylan
Bobby previously addressed the Glastonbury furore in an Instagram post captioned: “I said what I said.”
He and bandmate Bobbie Vylan then released a joint statement which read: “We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine. A machine whose own soldiers were told to use ‘unnecessary lethal force’ against innocent civilians waiting for aid. A machine that has destroyed much of Gaza.”
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Referring to the activist group Palestine Action and fellow Glastonbury performers Kneecap, the duo continued: “We, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story. And whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction.
“The government doesn’t want us to ask why they remain silent in the face of this atrocity. To ask why they aren’t doing more to stop the killing. To feed the starving. The more they talk about Bob Vylan, the less they spend answering for their criminal inaction.
“We are being targeted for speaking up. We are not the first. We will not be the last. And if you care for the sanctity of human life and freedom of speech, we urge you to speak up, too.”
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Avon and Somerset Police said on Tuesday: “Video footage and audio from Bob Vylan and Kneecap’s performances at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday has been reviewed.
“Following the completion of that assessment process we have decided further enquiries are required and a criminal investigation is now being undertaken. A senior detective has been appointed to lead this investigation.”
The Jokes Write Themselves As Clip Of Starmer Stumbling Before PMQs Emerges
Keir Starmer’s critics are having a field day online after a clip emerged of the prime minister tripping up outside the steps of No.10 today.
The footage, shared by Sky News’ Serena Barker-Singh, shows the PM stumbling across the pavement as he walks out of the front door of 10 Downing Street, and reaching for the railings to steady himself on the way to the car.
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It is only a six-second clip of Starmer heading out on his usual ride to the Commons for prime minister’s questions, but the timing of the footage is deeply unfortunate for the PM.
It comes amid the greatest crisis his premiership has faced yet.
On Tuesday, his government was forced into a last-minute U-turn over welfare reforms to avoid a humiliating defeat in the Commons.
Scores of Labour rebels were threatening to vote down the government bill even after the PM had already watered the original proposals down.
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His second set of concessions meant the proposals were voted through – but Starmer has clearly lost his authority over his own party in the process.
It also means his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will have to fill a £5billion black hole in the public finances.
So many people on social media saw Starmer’s fall as a metaphor for the many crises the top of government is facing right now…
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Starmer was not the only Labour frontbencher to go viral for all the wrong reasons today, either.
His chancellor Rachel Reeves appeared to be crying in the Commons today during PMQs after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch asked whether Starmer if her job was safe.
The PM dodged the question, although a spokeswoman for Starmer later said: “The chancellor is going nowhere. She has the prime minister’s full backing.”
When asked about Reeves’ display of emotions during PMQs, a spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “It’s a personal matter, which – as you would expect – we are not going to get into.
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“The chancellor will be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.”
Catherine talks candidly of ‘life-changing’ cancer treatment
Catherine says “you put on a sort of brave face” during treatment but afterwards it can also feel “really difficult”.
A midlife MRI that spots rapid aging and signals disease long before symptoms
Any high school reunion is a sharp reminder that some people age more gracefully than others. Some enter their older years still physically spry and mentally sharp. Others start feeling frail or forgetful much earlier in life than expected.
“The way we age as we get older is quite distinct from how many times we’ve traveled around the sun,” said Ahmad Hariri, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University.
Now, scientists at Duke, Harvard and the University of Otago in New Zealand have developed a freely available tool that can tell how fast someone is aging, and while they’re still reasonably healthy — by looking at a snapshot of their brain.
From a single MRI brain scan, the tool can estimate your risk in midlife for chronic diseases that typically emerge decades later. That information could help motivate lifestyle and dietary changes that improve health.
In older people, the tool can predict whether someone will develop dementia or other age-related diseases years before symptoms appear, when they might have a better shot at slowing the course of disease.
“What’s really cool about this is that we’ve captured how fast people are aging using data collected in midlife,” Hariri said. “And it’s helping us predict diagnosis of dementia among people who are much older.”
The results were published July 1 in the journal Nature Aging.
Finding ways to slow age-related decline is key to helping people live healthier, longer lives. But first “we need to figure out how we can monitor aging in an accurate way,” Hariri said.
Several algorithms have been developed to measure how well a person is aging. But most of these “aging clocks” rely on data collected from people of different ages at a single point in time, rather than following the same individuals as they grow older, Hariri said.
“Things that look like faster aging may simply be because of differences in exposure” to things such as leaded gasoline or cigarette smoke that are specific to their generation, Hariri said.
The challenge, he added, is to come up with a measure of how fast the process is unfolding that isn’t confounded by environmental or historical factors unrelated to aging.
To do that, the researchers drew on data gathered from some 1,037 people who have been studied since birth as part of the Dunedin Study, named after the New Zealand city where they were born between 1972 and 1973.
Every few years, Dunedin Study researchers looked for changes in the participants’ blood pressure, body mass index, glucose and cholesterol levels, lung and kidney function and other measures — even gum recession and tooth decay.
They used the overall pattern of change across these health markers over nearly 20 years to generate a score for how fast each person was aging.
The new tool, named DunedinPACNI, was trained to estimate this rate of aging score using only information from a single brain MRI scan that was collected from 860 Dunedin Study participants when they were 45 years old.
Next the researchers used it to analyze brain scans in other datasets from people in the U.K., the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
Faster aging and higher dementia risk
Across data sets, they found that people who were aging faster by this measure performed worse on cognitive tests and showed faster shrinkage in the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory.
More soberingly, they were also more likely to experience cognitive decline in later years.
In one analysis, the researchers examined brain scans from 624 individuals ranging in age from 52 to 89 from a North American study of risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Those who the tool deemed to be aging the fastest when they joined the study were 60% more likely to develop dementia in the years that followed. They also started to have memory and thinking problems sooner than those who were aging slower.
When the team first saw the results, “our jaws just dropped to the floor,” Hariri said.
Links between body and brain
The researchers also found that people whose DunedinPACNI scores indicated they were aging faster were more likely to suffer declining health overall, not just in their brain function.
People with faster aging scores were more frail and more likely to experience age-related health problems such as heart attacks, lung disease or strokes.
The fastest agers were 18% more likely to be diagnosed with a chronic disease within the next several years compared with people with average aging rates.
Even more alarming, they were also 40% more likely to die within that timeframe than those who were aging more slowly, the researchers found.
“The link between aging of the brain and body are pretty compelling,” Hariri said.
The correlations between aging speed and dementia were just as strong in other demographic and socioeconomic groups than the ones the model was trained on, including a sample of people from Latin America, as well as United Kingdom participants who were low-income or non-White.
“It seems to be capturing something that is reflected in all brains,” Hariri said.
The work is important because people worldwide are living longer. In the coming decades, the number of people over age 65 is expected to double, reaching nearly one fourth of the world’s population by 2050.
“But because we live longer lives, more people are unfortunately going to experience chronic age-related diseases, including dementia,” Hariri said.
Dementia’s economic burden is already huge. Research suggests that the global cost of Alzheimer’s care, for example, will grow from $1.33 trillion in 2020 to $9.12 trillion in 2050 — comparable or greater than the costs of diseases like lung disease or diabetes that affect more people.
Effective treatments for Alzheimer’s have proven elusive. Most approved drugs can help manage symptoms but fail to stop or reverse the disease.
One possible explanation for why drugs haven’t worked so far is they were started too late, when the Alzheimer’s proteins that build up in and around nerve cells have already done too much damage.
“Drugs can’t resurrect a dying brain,” Hariri said.
But in the future, the new tool could make it possible to identify people who may be on the way to Alzheimer’s sooner, and evaluate interventions to stop it — before brain damage becomes extensive, and without waiting decades for follow-up.
In addition to predicting our risk of dementia over time, the new clock will also help scientists better understand why people with certain risk factors, such as poor sleep or mental health conditions, age differently, said first author Ethan Whitman, who is working toward a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with Hariri and study co-authors Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi, also professors of psychology and neuroscience at Duke.
More research is needed to advance DunedinPACNI from a research tool to something that has practical applications in healthcare, Whitman added.
But in the meantime, the team hopes the tool will help researchers with access to brain MRI data measure aging rates in ways that aging clocks based on other biomarkers, such as blood tests, can’t.
“We really think of it as hopefully being a key new tool in forecasting and predicting risk for diseases, especially Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and also perhaps gaining a better foothold on progression of disease,” Hariri said.
The authors have filed a patent application for the work. This research was supported by the U.S. National Institute on Aging (R01AG049789, R01AG032282, R01AG073207), the UK Medical Research Council (MR/X021149/1), and the New Zealand Health Research Council (Program Grant 16-604).
The pandemic pet boom was real. The happiness boost wasn’t
A new study challenges the belief in a universal “pet effect” on human well-being. Using data collected during COVID-19 lockdowns, researchers found no significant change in respondents’ well-being when they acquired or lost a pet in their household. The findings suggest that, even during a time of extreme isolation, human-animal bonds may not be as emotionally transformative as we like to believe.
Humans and their pets, a match made in heaven? Does adopting a new dog make you happier and less lonely? It is now commonplace to associate pet ownership with health and happiness for the human and the animal. Still, science has had a hard time pinning down the ‘pet effect’ — a hypothesised boost in life quality for those who surround themselves with cats, dogs, or other companion animals. Only a few years ago, circumstances presented us with a severe test of the importance of human-animal bonds — a global pandemic, COVID-19, which confined people to their homes, cutting them off from face-to-face contact in both work and personal life.
Researchers at ELTE Eötvös Loránd University have examined how pet acquisition and loss were experienced during the pandemic and the short- and long-term effects of acquiring a pet on the participants. The study was published in Scientific Reports. “Through a collaboration with a psychologist team led by Zsolt Demetrovics and Róbert Urbán, we had access to a unique data set,” explains Eniko Kubinyi, head of the MTA-ELTE ‘Momentum’ Companion Animals Research Group. “During the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, almost three thousand people across Hungary participated three times in data collection, several months apart. We noticed that 65 people acquired a pet and 75 lost one during the study, and decided to investigate how their well-being changed over time.”
The researchers found little support for the romanticised view we hold of pet owners and their emotional well-being. A short-lived boost in cheerfulness appeared after acquiring a dog, however, in a long run, dog owners’ calmness, life-satisfaction, cheerfulness, and activity had gone down. Most surprisingly, the researchers found that losing a pet did not leave a mark on the well-being of their former owners.
Ádám Miklósi, who initiated the data collection on companion animals, emphasises, “We rarely have access to data that documents spontaneous pet acquisition from people unbiased in their attitude toward pet ownership. Usually, pet lovers are identified and studied when the decision to adopt an animal is already settled. It appears that, at least during stressful periods, the average person, who may not be the primary caregiver but simply shares a household with the pet, is not significantly affected by the pet’s loss, nor is their well-being a strong predictor of the decision to acquire one.”
“What surprised me most,’ adds Judit Mokos, data scientist and one of the paper’s first authors, ‘was that a new pet in the household had no effect on the respondents’ loneliness. Dog adoption is often promoted as a solution for elderly and/or lonely people. Shelters and pet food companies promote adoption as a means of alleviating loneliness. However, our research suggests that dogs do not provide a real solution to loneliness; rather, they make the new owners more anxious.”
Kubinyi concludes, “Based on the data, most people, living together with a companion animal, do not seem to experience any long-term ‘pet effect’, nor do they bond strongly with their animal. It is possible that the dynamics of the pandemic have led many to make impulsive choices against their long-term interest, or that only certain groups — like devoted animal lovers or older adults living alone — truly benefit from pets in stressful times.”
It appears that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the emotional bonds people formed with animals often fell short of expectations.
