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The UK has been chosen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to lead an international network established to tackle global obesity, by cutting sugar and calories in food and drink products.

The new Sugar and Calorie Reduction Network – announced today (Monday, September 13) by chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty at the WHO Regional Committee for Europe – will launch in spring 2022.

The UK government recently announced a package of measures to reform adult social care in England. By capping lifetime care costs and making the means-test somewhat less mean, it promises a re-balancing of financial liability between families and the state that was agreed but never implemented in 2014. In so doing, it will begin to address one of the sources of inequity in the present system, namely the very high costs faced by people unlucky enough to have substantial and prolonged care needs.

The renal denervation devices market is valued at USD 31.01 million in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 193.43 million in 2026, registering a CAGR of 36.89% during the forecast period.

GambleAware has published ‘commissioned research’ to clarify fragmented data, insights and analysis of the UK’s gambling participation and its associated prevalence of related harms.

 The research, undertaken by Professor Patrick Sturgis and Professor Jouni Kuha of the London School of Economics, was commissioned by GambleAware following concerns about discrepancies between a YouGov 2019 survey and ‘2018 Health Survey for England’.

You see them on food packets — red, amber and green colours that are supposed to depict whether the food you are putting in your basket is healthy — or not.

Introduced in 2013 by the Food Standards Agency, the traffic light colours are assigned for levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt.

The NHS website says that if there are a lot of greens on the labels, then ‘you know straight away that it’s a healthier choice’.

WOULD you like to reduce your blood pressure? If so, it could be as simple as turning up the thermostat in your home - or putting on an extra layer. Researchers from University College London explain how.

"Inequality and mental health have been two of the biggest conversations over the past couple months. So it’s fitting that 2021’s World Mental Health Day theme is “mental health in an unequal world”.

Countless studies have found people from the LGBT+ community are more at risk of mental ill-health and suicide compared to the rest of the population.

Earlier this year, a landmark NHS report found lesbian, gay and bisexual adults in the UK face concerning health inequalities in the UK. The report, published in July by NHS Digital, analysed the data from 1,132 LGBT adults who participated in a Health Survey for England between 2011-2018."

A professor suggested that weight loss should be prescribed as a way to reduce diabetes in people with a normal weight.

A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has provided a new perspective to the causes of obesity, ruling out overeating as a primary cause. The authors have proposed an alternative approach towards more effective and long-term weight-loss treatments. They said that obesity is not a direct cause of overeating, instead, overeating can stem from obesity.

The study, titled, 'The carbohydrate-insulin model: A physiological perspective on the obesity pandemic', outlines explanations on what causes obesity and says that the energy balance model which states weight gain is caused by consuming more energy than we spend is problematic.

A new study finds that moderate consumption of alcohol may reduce the risk of recurring cardiovascular events.
It says people with cardiovascular disease who drink may experience a reduced risk of heart attack, stroke, angina, or death from cardiovascular causes if they consume 7–8 alcoholic drinks per week.
People who consumed 6 ounces (oz) of alcohol per day lowered their risk by 50% compared to people with CVD who do not drink.

GambleAware has launched new interactive maps designed to identify the usage of and reported demand for support and treatment, segmented by local authorities and wards across Great Britain.

Based on the responsible gambling charity’s annual treatment and support survey, GambleAware has outlined differences in gambling participation, usage and reported demand for treatment and support, broken down by area.

The popularity of traditional Bingo halls is continuing to decline as audience demographics shift and the popularity of online bingo sites has soared in lockdown. The findings were part of the annual insight report by WhichBingo, the UK’s number one, independent online bingo reviews site, owned and operated by XLMedia, which found a significant shift in the Bingo industry to younger online consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UK charity Gambleaware has published its interim report on the betting habits of a a total of 139,152 active online gambling accounts from the seven largest online operators in the UK.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a rise in people with eating disorders seeking help from charities.