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At an event which took place in Cardiff, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed that it is to roll out the new National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harms after joining forces with partners in Wales, including charity organisations, regulators, local health bodies and businesses.

This is a three-year strategy that is aimed to drive the Commission’s work in Wales and the other regions in the UK and is unveiled as part of the regulator’s efforts to bring a long-term impact on reducing negative consequences associated with gambling. The last few years have seen gambling-related harm become a much-discussed topic due to constantly rising gambling addiction rates, so the main gambling regulator in the country has been engaged with taking proactive measures to tackle the problem.

The effect of our sedentary lifestyles is starting to have serious and expensive consequences.

A team of scientists have claimed the amount of sitting down we all do is linked to around 50,000 deaths per year in the UK and costs the NHS at least £700 million.

What do they mean when they say sedentary lifestyle? Well, if you’re sitting down for six hours or more each day (whether at home or at work) you’re in that bracket.

The latest Health Survey for England (published December 2018) found that the overwhelming majority of adults are so unhealthy they are actually putting their lives at risk. The survey questioned 8,000 adults and 2,000 children about a variety of topics including obesity, smoking and drinking.

Despite Government warnings about the risks of obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, waistlines continue to expand. Just over a quarter of adults are now classed as clinically obese and, according to a House of Commons briefing paper, one in 10 children is obese by the age of five years, rising to one in five by the age of 11 years.

Like most students heading off to university, Emily Proctor, 19, felt apprehensive. But it wasn’t just the thought of leaving her family and making new friends that caused her to be anxious; Proctor was concerned about how she’d fit in as a teetotal student.

“I was worried as I knew that much of university life involves going out drinking, especially in the first year,” explains Proctor, who is studying law at Swansea University. To help alleviate her concerns, she signed up for the university’s alcohol-free accommodation. “I didn’t want to be around people who were partying constantly and coming home drunk,” she says. “I wanted to be around similar people who I could chill with instead of going out every night.” Proctor, who doesn’t drink alcohol as it’s never appealed to her, says that decision has proven to be a wise choice. “It worked out well in the end as I have friends that I stay in with and we might play cards, or go to the cinema or out for meals.”

The government has ordered a review of over-prescribing in the NHS to improve the safety of patient care.

The review, which will be led by Keith Ridge, NHS England’s chief pharmaceutical officer, will also look into improving the efficiency of patient handover notes between primary and secondary care and will investigate the role of digital technology in reducing over-prescribing.

In a statement, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the review “will look at addressing ‘problematic polypharmacy’ — where a patient is taking multiple medicines unnecessarily”.

MORE than four million children are now living in poverty - an increase of 500,000 in five years, the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation has claimed in a landmark report.

The charity calculates that in a typical classroom of 30 children, nine are now living in poverty.

The state of the nation report, UK Poverty 2018, examines how poverty has changed over the last 20 years, and is said to provide the most comprehensive and up to date picture of the challenges and prospects facing low income families.

More than 500,000 British workers have been swept into working poverty over the past five years, according to a report that shows the number of people with a job but living below the breadline has risen faster than employment.

The benefits of taking an outdoor winter walk are enormous, both mentally and physically! Fresh air, sunshine and movement are all beneficial to your overall health and wellbeing.

A Labour MP says stigma in Parliament towards mental health is still prevalent and has called for more to be done to tackle it.

Andrew Gwynne MP says that while laws around mental health may have changed, the ‘stigma is still there.’

In its weekly epidemiological bulletin of February 19th, Santé Public France took stock of the consumption of alcohol and its consequences for health in our country. One figure in particular is attracting attention: 10% of 18-75 year olds drink 58% of the alcohol consumed in France alone.

This report has important implications in terms of prevention policies.

NB This article is French - if you open it in Google Chrome, you can receive an automatic translation.

A landmark report on the state of ageing in Britain has warned that a significant proportion of people are at risk of spending later life in poverty, ill-health and hardship.

Britain is undergoing a radical demographic shift, with the number of people aged 65 and over set to grow by more than 40% in two decades, reaching more than 17 million by 2036. The number of households where the oldest person is 85 or over is increasing faster than any other age group.

A study undertaken by researchers at King's and the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre suggests that people living in London and the south have more negative attitudes towards people with mental health problems than those living in other areas of England.

New statistics that show a third of children are living in poverty have been declared an “outrage and a scandal” by Labour MP David Lammy.

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation revealed half a million more people are “trapped” in poverty than five years ago, with 14 million people living in poverty across the whole of the UK.

Over half of those classed as in poverty are working age adults, alongside 4.1 million are children and 1.9 million are pensioners.

The report, which comes just weeks after the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in the UK, also stated that in-work poverty had started rising in 2011/12 and is continuing to increase faster than employment.

More than four million children in the UK are growing up in poverty as a greater number of parents are “pushed to the brink” despite being in work, a major report has revealed.

An investigation by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that in-work poverty has risen faster than employment in recent years, with working parents the hardest hit.

“Too often men stay quiet about their own mental and physical health issues. They must talk to someone.” – Christian Fuchs

November, also known as ‘Movember’, is a month associated with raising awareness for men’s health. People are growing moustaches left, right and centre in order to promote healthcare for men and raise funds for various associated charities. However, did you know that Men’s Health Awareness Month is actually in June?