“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention … has confirmed that the Zika virus causes severe birth defects,” BBC News reports. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that “a causal relationship exists between prenatal Zika virus infection and microcephaly”, where babies are born with unusually small heads and brains. The media coverage explains that despite Read More

“You can die of a broken heart, study indicates,” The Guardian reports. The study found that people who lost a partner – especially if the death was unexpected – had an increased risk of developing an irregular heartbeat up to a year after the death. The study specifically looked at a type of heart condition called atrial fibrillation that causes an Read More

“Food and drinks should carry labels showing how long it would take to walk or run off the calories, a leading health expert suggests,” the Daily Mail reports. In an opinion piece in the British Medical Journal, Shirley Cramer, chief executive of theRoyal Society for Public Health, argues that the current “traffic light” food labelling system is not promoting positive changes in Read More

“Daily fresh fruit lowers heart death risk as much as statins,” The Daily Telegraph reports. A study of over a half a million Chinese people found that a diet rich in fresh fruit was linked to a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases. But don’t ditch the statins in favour of an “apple a day”, if they have been recommended for Read More

“Abnormal cells not a sure sign of baby defects,” reports The Telegraph following the publication of a study on the development of healthy embryos. Embryos containing cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes can still develop into healthy babies, according to researchers from the University of Cambridge. Embryo cells with too many or too few chromosomes can give rise to Read More

“The anti-diabetic drug pioglitazone raises the risk of bladder cancer by 63 per cent,” The Daily Telegraph reports. While the actual increased risk in real-world terms is small, the results may help to inform prescription decisions for both doctors and patients. Pioglitazone is a drug that helps people with type 2 diabetes by making their cells more sensitive to insulin. Some Read More

“Women who take HRT drugs soon after going through menopause are ‘less likely to suffer heart disease’,” the Daily Mail reports. A new study found that early adopters ofhormone replacement therapy (HRT) might slow their progression towardatherosclerosis (hardening and thickening of the arteries) which can increase the risk ofheart disease, heart attacks or strokes. However, the study in question did not follow Read More

“One-fifth of adults worldwide will be obese by 2025,” The Guardian reports, while The Sun warns that the “UK’s population to be fattest in Europe” by the same date. These are just some of the conclusions of a major modelling study of global obesity trends. The study used data covering 19.2 million adults in 186 countries, which was then used to Read More

“Man flu really does exist,” reports the Mail Online in a massive leap from the results of a small study that didn’t look at flu at all. The study actually looked at why women are more likely to have autoimmune conditions such as lupus. Autoimmune conditions are when the immune system wrongly starts attacking healthy tissue. So, despite the suggestive headline, the Read More

“Meditation could ease the agony of back pain, a study suggests,” the Daily Mirror reports. A US study compared a technique called mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) with usual care and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for long-term non-specific lower back pain. The term “non-specific” refers to when there are no obvious causes, such as a slipped disc. MBSR is based on yoga Read More