News

A heart condition affecting one in a hundred people has been linked to sudden death syndrome. Mitral valve prolapse was thought to be harmless. It happens when valves don’t close properly in the heart. But researchers in Adelaide found that 12 percent of people who die when their hearts stop beating have the condition.

Many older people are advised to take daily aspirin to ward off strokes – but the simple medication could also significantly increase their risk of surviving cancer. Research at Cardiff University found that cancer patients already taking a low dose of aspirin were 25 per cent more likely to be alive at any time after diagnosis. Almost half the studies involved bowel cancer, with breast and prostrate cancers accounting for the majority of the rest.

A study in the British Medical Journal says diet replacement programmes should be a recommended treatment for obesity on the NHS. University of Oxford researchers found people on low-calorie soups and shakes, combined with regular counselling, lost three times as much weight than those given standard diet advice by their GP. But experts said that the programmes, designed for those who are obese or seriously obese, only truly work if the participants’ long-term eating habits changed.