Thursday 7 December 2017

"stark" increase

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There is a "stark" increase between the ages of seven and 11 in the proportion of children in the UK who are overweight or obese, new data suggests.

The study of nearly 12,000 children found 25% were overweight or obese at age seven, rising to 35% at 11.

Between 11 and 14, there was little change, however, which researchers say may be because children of this age are making more of their own food choices.

Campaigners are calling for more action on weight issues in younger children.

Mothers' education

Researchers from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Institute of Education analysed information on nearly 12,000 of the children taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study, who were born in 2000 and 2001 and have had their weight and height measured at the ages of three, five, seven, 11 and 14.

Rates of excess weight varied by nation, with nearly 40% of young people in Northern Ireland obese or overweight compared with 38% in Wales and 35% in both Scotland and England.

The levels showed little change up to the age of seven, but then made a big jump in the next four years.

At the age of seven, 25.5% of the boys were overweight or obese - but this proportion rose to 36.7% four years later.

With the girls, 23.7% were carrying excess weight at seven - but 33.9% were overweight or obese at 11.

However, at 14 the boys' proportion had dropped to 34.1%, while the girls' had risen slightly to 36.3%.

Bar chart of levels of overweight/obese children

The data, which was collected between January 2014 and March 2015, also revealed a link between young people's weight and their mothers' level of education.

Nearly 40% of 14-year-olds whose mothers had no qualifications above GCSE level were overweight or obese, while the proportion was 26% among those whose mum had a degree or higher qualifications.

Also, children who were breastfed as infants, and those whose parents owned their own home, had lower odds of carrying excess weight at 14.

Dr Benedetta Pongiglione, co-author of the study, told the BBC that while it did not investigate the reasons for the levelling off in rising obesity in 11- to 14-year-olds, trends suggested why this had occurred.

"We know that that age of early to mid adolescence is a time where children start to make more decisions on their own, which can imply different... physical activity, diet and other choices," she said.

"Peer pressure also plays a bigger role in their lives.

"From what we observe, maybe the time between seven and 11 is when parents take most of the decisions."

Prof Mary Fewtrell, nutrition lead at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and Caroline Cerny, from the Obesity Health Alliance, both called for restrictions or a 21:00 watershed on junk-food advertising.

Prof Fewtrell said a range of measures should be considered, including "statutory school-based health education in all schools and robust evaluation of the soft drinks and sugar reduction programme".

Ms Cerny said it had to be made "easier for families to make healthier choices".

She added: "Children can see up to nine junk-food adverts in just 30 minutes while watching their favourite shows, and we know this influences their food choices and how much they eat."

Prof Emla Fitzsimons, another co-author of the study, said: "Children who are overweight or obese face an increased risk of many health problems later in life, including cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes.

"There is still a worryingly high proportion of young people in this generation who are an unhealthy weight."

The government has plans to try to cut childhood obesity, with a tax on sugary drinks coming into force on 1 April 2018.

Independent think tank the Centre for Social Justice has suggested it follows the example of Amsterdam, which is the only European city to have lowered obesity rates in the past five years with a variety of programmes - mainly through schools.

Childhood obesity rates have also fallen in New York after a poster campaign on the subway system.

Friday 11 August 2017

How safe are Dutch eggs to eat?

About 700,000 eggs have been sent to the UK from potentially contaminated Dutch farms, up from an early estimate of 21,000, the food watchdog has said.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was very unlikely that there was a risk to public health.
However, 11 products containing egg - including sandwiches and salads - have been withdrawn from supermarkets.
Dutch police have now arrested two people suspected of using the insecticide fipronil.
The FSA said the 700,000 figure represented 0.007% of eggs eaten in the UK each year.
What do we know about the Europe egg scare?
It added that in the UK, the Dutch eggs were not sold as shell eggs but used in foods with many other ingredients - mostly sandwich fillings or other chilled foods.
It said traces of fipronil - which can be harmful to humans - were mixed with other eggs so chemical residues would be "highly diluted".
The British Egg Industry Council said shell eggs on sale to consumers in the UK were not affected.
It said: "All major UK retailers stock British Lion shell eggs and tests have shown that there is no risk from British eggs."

Withdrawn egg products

Sainsbury's ham and egg salad (240g) use by 9-14 August 2017
Sainsbury's potato and egg salad (300g) use by 9-14 August
Morrisons potato and egg salad (250g) use by up to 13 August
Morrisons egg and cress sandwich (sold in Morrisons Cafe only) use by up to and including 11 August
Morrisons cafe sandwich selection (sold in Morrisons Cafe only) use by up to and including 11 August
Waitrose free range egg mayonnaise deli filler (240g) use by 13 and 16 August
Waitrose free range reduced fat egg mayonnaise deli filler (170g) use by 14 August
Waitrose free range egg and bacon deli filler (170g) use by 14 and 16 August
Asda baby potato and free range egg salad (270g) use by 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 August
Asda spinach and free range egg snack pot (110g) use by 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 August
Asda FTG ham and cheddar ploughman's salad bowl (320g) use by 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 August

Source: FSA (10 August)

Scandal 'isn't over'

Twenty tonnes of insecticide-tainted eggs have been sold in Denmark, the country's food safety authority says.
Denmark is believed to be the tenth country to be affected, with Romania and Luxembourg among the latest to report finding contaminated products.
Supermarkets in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have withdrawn millions of eggs from sale.
In the UK, processed foods containing eggs, including sandwiches and salads, have been recalled from Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda.
The FSA initially thought far fewer eggs - 21,000 - had been distributed to the UK from implicated farms between March and June this year.
Prof Chris Elliott, of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast, said it was not surprising that the figure had increased by so much - and warned "the scandal isn't over yet".
"Often when these food scandals start to break, you start to get dribbles of information," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
"And as the authorities in Belgium and Holland get more information they pass that onto our own Food Standards Agency.
"The potential is that number of 700,000 could increase quite a bit yet," he added.

Should I stop eating eggs?

By James Gallagher, health and science reporter, BBC News
Fipronil should not be allowed anywhere near food.
But the risk from eggs is thought to be low, because the number of contaminated eggs is also low.
While 700,000 eggs sounds like a lot, it is worth remembering we eat 34 million every single day in the UK.
It is why the Food Standards Agency says it is "very unlikely" there is any health risk.
Many of the affected eggs will have already passed through the food chain before anyone was aware of the scandal.
And the FSA has now pulled egg sandwiches and egg salads off the shelves that were made while contaminated eggs were still being imported.
It insisted there is "no need" for people to stop eating eggs.

Fipronil, which is used to kill lice and ticks on animals, can damage people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands if eaten in large quantities.
Heather Hancock, FSA chairwoman, said it was not "something to worry about" and that any health impact was unlikely.
"These aren't eggs that are in people's fridges in the UK, these are eggs that have gone into the food chain and the level of risk to public health is very low," she told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.

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How safe are Dutch eggs to eat?

In an update on Thursday, the FSA said: "Some of the products made from these eggs will have had a short shelf life and will have already been consumed, however, we identified some that were still within the expiry date."
The FSA said decision to withdraw the products was not due to food safety concerns but based on the fact that the pesticide is not authorised for use in food-producing animals.
It added: "While in some European countries eggs containing fipronil residues have been sold as fresh eggs, in the UK this is not the case."
Aldi and Lidl stores in Germany are among the supermarkets to remove eggs from their shelves, in a move Aldi described as "purely precautionary". Eggs sold in its UK stores were British, Aldi said.
It follows a joint investigation by Dutch and Belgian police of several premises thought to be using the substance, which can harm humans and is banned in food production.
The Netherlands is Europe's biggest egg producer - and one of the largest exporters of eggs and egg products in the world.
The problem first surfaced earlier in August, when Aldi withdrew all its eggs from sale in Germany.
It has since emerged Belgian officials knew about the contamination in June, but did not make the information public.
More than 100 poultry farms have been closed during the investigation, and 26 suspects identified and evidence seized from their companies.
It is thought that fipronil was added to disinfectant used on some chicken farms.
The UK produces 85% of the eggs it consumes but imports almost two billion annually, the FSA said.

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Some university students receive so little tuition they pay the equivalent of £1,000 an hour for contact with academic staff, researchers say.

On average, economics undergraduates receive the equivalent of just 26 hours of one-to-one teaching over a three-year course, research published by the journal Fiscal Studies suggests.
Physics students receive almost three times as much for the same fees.
"It seems a bit bizarre," report author Dr Mike Peacey told the BBC.
"It certainly seems like humanities students are subsidising Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] students," said Dr Peacey, an economics lecturer at the New College of the Humanities, in London.
"Really, students are paying a kind of university tax rather than tuition fees.
"Maybe that's what you want, but we should be a bit more upfront and honest about this."
10 charts that show the effect of tuition fees
Leading universities rated 'bronze'
Many English universities now charge UK and EU students the maximum, £9,250 for the vast majority of undergraduate courses.
Using Freedom of Information law, researchers from Bristol University and the New College of the Humanities obtained data from 67 UK universities.
To compare teaching received, for example, by history students in small group tutorials with that received by physics students in a mixture of lectures, seminars and laboratories, they then came up with a measure - total equivalent adjusted contact hours (Teach) - to convert teaching time and class size into the equivalent number of hours of one-to-one contact.
They found that on average over three years:

physics students received 74.6 hours
history students received 32.6 hours
economics students received 26.1 hours

Students in lab — Image caption Science and technology students have traditionally had more teaching time

There were also wide variations within subjects. For example, economics students at the top 10% of universities received almost five times as much teaching as those in the lowest 10%.
"How much students must pay in tuition fees makes no difference to how much teaching they receive," the report says.
"Clearly, some students are receiving much better value for money than others.
"For a market to function properly, participants must be able to compare what is offered by different providers."
The authors suggest their Teach measure could inform the government's new Teaching Excellence Framework, which assesses teaching quality at UK universities by subject.

'Ripped off'

Students studying Stem subjects have always had more contact hours, they add, and increasing the amount of teaching "may not be beneficial for all students - for example, if the cost of extra contact is lower teacher quality".
"Even when quality is held constant, some students may be better off working on their own."
Dr Peacey said: "Lots of people have suspected that there are cross-subsidies between subjects.
"If physics students are receiving much more tuition than history students, it could be that both are paying more than the tuition costs but the physics students are being less ripped off than the history students.
"I think if this measure got taken up and universities were asked to provide this information to students, it might be that different universities might offer differential rates for tuition.
"Maybe universities offering more contact time would charge more in fees."

Lord Adonis “And why did we give university vice chancellors a licence to print money?”

He said: “The greed of the vice-chancellors sealed their fate.
“They increased their own pay and perks as fast as they increased tuition fees, and are now ‘earning’ salaries of £275,000 on average and in some cases over £400,000.”
He also criticised the Government’s “egregious” recent decision to raise interest rates on student loans taken out since 2012 to 6.1 per cent, citing a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that suggested many would never pay them off.
The report, released on Wednesday, said: “The combination of high fees and large maintenance loans contributes to English graduates having the highest student debts in the developed world.”
The IFS also said the interest rates were “very high” at up to three per cent above inflation.

“And why did we give university vice chancellors a licence to print money?”Lord Adonis backs the scrapping of tuition fees despite being instrumental in charges being introduced

Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell DBE DL, Vice Chancellor — “And why did we give university vice chancellors a licence to print money?”Lord Adonis backs the scrapping of tuition fees despite being instrumental in charges being introduced

He declared: “Fees have become so politically diseased, they should be abolished entirely.”
Latest figures show that three in four students paying the highest fee of £9,250 a year will never clear their debt.
While admitting he was “largely responsible” for ex-PM Mr Blair’s education reforms, Lord Adonis said the rocketing bills were mainly the result of “opportunism and greed” of university chiefs.
The Government has said the current system, introduced by the coalition in 2012, is fair and warned scrapping the fees would be “mind-bogglingly expensive”.
But Lord Adonis asked yesterday: “How did we get from the idea of a reasonable contribution to the cost of university tuition – the principle of the Blair reform of 2004, for which I was largely responsible – to today’s Frankenstein’s monster of £50,000-plus debts for graduates on modest salaries?
“And why did we give university vice chancellors a licence to print money?”

Getty Images

Tony Blair hatched the higher education reform in 2004

Friday 21 April 2017

PHARMACY

34 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY xvi

Pearls, writes Jean de Renou (1607), “are greatly cordial and rejoice the heart. The alchemists consequently make a liquor of pearls, which they pretend is a marvellous cure for many maladies. More often than not, however, their pretended liquor is nothing hut smoke, vanity, and quackery. I knew a barber in this city of Paris who was sent for by a patient to apply two leeches, and who had the impudence to demand six crowns of gold for his service. He declared that he had fed those leeches for an entire month on the liquor of pearls.”

,It is on record that Pope Clement VII took 40,000 ducats’ worth of pearls and other precious stones with unicorn’s horn within fourteen days. (See Mrs. Henry Cust’s “ Gentlemen Errant.”)

Emeralds had a great reputation, especially on account of their moral attributes. They were cold in an extra first degree, so cold that they became emblems of chastity, and curious tales of their powers in controlling the passions were told. Moses Maimonides, a famous Jew who lived in Egypt in the twelfth century, in a treatise he wrote by command of the Caliph as a concise guide in cases of venomous bites or poisons generally, declared that emeralds were the supreme cure. They might be laid on the stomach or held in the mouth or 9 grains of the powdered stone might be taken in wine. But recognising that emeralds were not always handy when the need arose, Moses names a number of more ordinary remedies.

Confection of Hyacinth was a noted compound formulated in all the old pharmacopoeias, and regarded as a sovereign cordial, fortifying the heart, the stomach, and 'the brain ; resisting the corruption of the humours and the malignity of the air ; and serving for many oi lier medicinal purposes. The original formula ordered Ih•sides hyacinths (which were probably amethysts), sapphires, emeralds, topazes, and pearls; silk; gold and silver leaves; musk, ambergris, myrrh, and camphor; sealed earth, coral, and a few vegetable drugs ; all made into an electuary with syrup of carnations. A similar compound, but in powder ^form, was known as “ Hungary Powder” and was believed to have been the most esteemed remedy in the Hungary Fever, to which some reference is made in the sketch of Glauber (Vol. I, pp. 260-264). The Emperor Ferdinand’s Plague I’owder was another variation of the same compound. Tliii formula given in Fernery’s Pharmacopoeia orders about twenty vegetable drugs with bole, hartshorn, ivory, and one scruple each of sapphires, hyacinths, emeralds, rubies, and garnets, in a total bulk of about I minces. The dose was from ^ scruple to 2 scruples.

Sir William Bulleyn, a famous physician in the reign of Henry VIII, and said to have been of the same family as the Queen, Anne Boleyn, in his “ Book of Simples,” which was a work of great renown in its day, gives the following recipe for Electuarium de Gemmis. " Take 2 drachms of white perles; two little peeces of nphyre; jacinthe, corneline, emerauldes, granettes, of eiieh an ounce; setwal, the sweate roote doronike, I lie rind of pomecitron, mace, basel seede, of each drachms; redde corall, amber, shaving of ivory, of each 2 drachms; rootes both of white and red behen, ginger, long pepper, spicknard, folium indicum, saffron nmlamon, of each one drachm ; troch diarodon, lignum aloes, of each half a small handful; cinnamon, galinga, /,nruboth, which is a kind of setwal, of each 1|- drachm :

I Inn pieces of gold and sylver, of each half a scruple; iiiii k, half a drachm.” The electuary was to be made

Thursday 20 April 2017

alchemists

34 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY xvi

,It is on record that Pope Clement VII took 40,000 ducats’ worth of pearls and other precious stones with unicorn’s horn within fourteen days. (See Mrs. Henry Cust’s “ Gentlemen Errant.”)

I Inn pieces of gold and sylver, of each half a scruple; iiiii k, half a drachm.” The electuary was to be made

Friday 24 March 2017

Landowners' trees blamed for knocking down Tarr Steps

Rebuilding Tarr Steps — Image captionThe stones, some weighing up to two tonnes, were put back into place on Thursday

Calls have been made for landowners to manage their woodlands better to help prevent the stones of an ancient bridge in Exmoor being washed away.

The Tarr Steps in Exmoor National Park across the River Barle were knocked out of place during storms in November.

Conservation manager Rob Wilson North said the "big problem" was "the water bringing fallen debris from the woodland".

The bridge has now been rebuilt for the second time in four years.

'Jewel in the crown'

Mr Wilson North, who works for the national park, added landowners must share some of the blame and manage their land better.

Tarr Steps is made up of 17 spans and stretches nearly 164ft (50m) across the river.

Its exact age is unknown, with several theories claiming Tarr Steps date from the Bronze Age, while others date them to about 1400 AD.

The repair work involved putting the pieces together - with some weighing up to two tonnes - much like a jigsaw as each stone is numbered.

Cabinet member for highways at Somerset County Council, David Fothergill, said: "It is an ancient scheduled monument, it's Grade I listed.

"It attracts huge numbers of people to Exmoor in terms of tourism and the local economy, it's the jewel in the crown for Exmoor and we do need to look after it."

Tarr Steps has been damaged many times throughout its long history, most recently in 2013.

Due to its protected status, the bridge must be put together exactly as before.

The council added that additional work had taken place to repair an upstream "tree protection boom" to prevent trees falling into the river and hitting the bridge.

It also said the Tarr Steps could be better protected if landowners did not stack timber along the river.

Drug 'reverses' ageing in animal tests

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News website

A drug that can reverse aspects of ageing has been successfully trialled in animals, say scientists.

They have rejuvenated old mice to restore their stamina, coat of fur and even some organ function.

The team at Erasmus University Medical Center, in the Netherlands, are planning human trials for what they hope is a treatment for old age.

A UK scientist said the findings were "impossible to dismiss", but that unanswered questions remained.

The approach works by flushing out retired or "senescent" cells in the body that have stopped dividing.

They accumulate naturally with age and have a role in wound healing and stopping tumours.

But while they appear to just sit there, senescent cells release chemicals that cause inflammation and have been implicated in ageing.

The group of scientists created a drug that selectively killed senescent cells by disrupting the chemical balance within them.

"I got very rebellious, people insisted I was crazy for trying and for the first three times they were right," Dr Peter de Keizer told the BBC.

'Crazy'

On the fourth attempt he had something that seemed to work.

He tested it on mice that were just old (the equivalent of 90 in mouse years), those genetically programmed to age very rapidly and those aged by chemotherapy.

The findings, published in the journal Cell, showed liver function was easily restored and the animals doubled the distance they would run in a wheel.

Dr de Keizer said: "We weren't planning to look at their hair, but it was too obvious to miss."

He also said there were a lot of "grey" results - things that seemed to improve in some mice but not all.

The drug was given three times a week and the experiments have been taking place for nearly a year.

There are no signs of side-effects but "mice don't talk", Dr de Keizer said. However, it is thought the drug would have little to no effect on normal tissues.

When asked if this was a drug for ageing, Dr Keizer told the BBC News website: "I hope so, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating as you say.

"In terms of mouse work we are pretty much done, we could look at specific age-related diseases eg osteoporosis, but we should now prepare for clinical translation."

Commenting on the results, Dr Dusko Ilic, a stem cell scientist at King's College London, said: "The finding is impossible to dismiss.

"[But] until more high-quality research is done, it is better to be reserved about these findings.

"Though, I would not be surprised if manufacturers try to capitalise on this and, in a few years, we could buy this peptide as a supplement over the counter."

Prof Ilaria Bellantuono, Professor in Musculoskeletal Ageing, University of Sheffield, called for further tests on "heart, muscle, metabolic, cognitive function" to take place.

But added: "The use of this peptide in patients is a long way away.

"It requires careful consideration about safety, about the appropriate group of patients for whom this peptide can be beneficial in a reasonable period of time so that positive effects can be easily measured at an affordable cost."

mengele plus

Thursday 7 December 2017

"stark" increase

Mothers' education

Friday 11 August 2017

How safe are Dutch eggs to eat?

Withdrawn egg products

Scandal 'isn't over'

Should I stop eating eggs?

How safe are Dutch eggs to eat?

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Some university students receive so little tuition they pay the equivalent of £1,000 an hour for contact with academic staff, researchers say.

'Ripped off'

Lord Adonis “And why did we give university vice chancellors a licence to print money?”

National and international leadership

Current roles include:

National and international leadership

Current roles include:

President and Vice-Chancellor

Professor Dame Glynis M. Breakwell DBE, DL

BA, MSc, MA, PhD, DSc, LLD(Hon) CPsychol, FBPsS, FRSA, PFHEA, HonFBPsS, FAcSS

Friday 21 April 2017

PHARMACY

Thursday 20 April 2017

alchemists

Friday 24 March 2017

Landowners' trees blamed for knocking down Tarr Steps

'Jewel in the crown'

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Drug 'reverses' ageing in animal tests

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