Health inequalities. Why?

World Health Day this year is April 7th.
The World Health Organisation has created a short factfile showing the stark reality of health inequalities around the world.
Each year a different area of public health concern is selected and this year focus will be on the topic of blood pressure. A third of the world's adult population have raised blood pressure bringing with it the associated health risks of heart attacks and strokes and added complications eg. diabetes. The British Heart Foundation website has an informative page on identifying and dealing with raised blood pressure.

Acute Kidney Injury (AKI)

The abstract of an 'ahead of print' article in Kidney Int. 2013 'Acute kidney injury: global health alert' highlights the need for vigilance in detecting Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). The article advises preventive strategies and early identification are needed in developing and developed countries to address this increasing health issue.

The elderly are identified in the Journal of Nephrology article as the highest risk category. ‘Acute kidney injury in the elderly population’

AKI was also the topic of a seminar reported in The Lancet December 2012 issue.

 

Obesity linked with Vitamin D deficiency

A further reason to eat healthily and be active is suggested in a new report on the link between obesity and vitamin D deficiency.

 It seems that vitamin D, which is stored in fatty tissue, may be prevented from circulating within the body because of the increased storage capacity in obese bodies.

The study linked each 10% rise in body mass index to a 4% drop of available vitamin D in the body.

The functions of vitamin D are listed on the NHS Choices website

Fair Air?

 “Traffic fumes linked to lower birth weight” is an article in today’s BBC News reporting on a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. Its conclusion is that babies born to mothers living anywhere with measurably poor air quality are at risk of low birth weight. These babies may only be a little low in birth weight but in adult life are at increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. The study looked at data from nine nations and concluded that the problems were common to all.                                                                                                                                        

Comment on the report from The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is that though air quality in the UK is "generally good, more needs to be done, especially in the cities, to reduce the harmful effects of air pollution". Action is called for in the 2012 London Assembly paper reporting on the high percentage of deaths attributed to air pollution in London boroughs.

London is among the worst in Europe for air pollution. A report Great Smog 60 years on makes interesting reading about the past and present air pollutants in the city.

Scotland's ‘top 10’ polluted streets were named in a report revealing their high nitrogen dioxide levels. Using the EU and UK standard of 40 micrograms per cubic metre of nitrogen dioxide, Glasgow returned the worst readings. 

Smoke & Ash

A study led by Dr Michael Thun and published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that women who smoke are at far greater risk of dying now than they were in the 1960s. This appears to be due to the current generation of women smoking more cigarettes and starting to smoke at a younger age. The study, based on 2 million American women, reported that the changes in women’s smoking habits over the last 50 years has brought women’s risk of lung cancer and resultant death rates up to the same level as men’s. These findings were reported in a number of news media including Science Daily.

According to a study published in The Lancet, based on more than a million women in the UK, lifelong smokers died a decade earlier than those who never started. Women who give up smoking by the age of 30 will almost completely avoid the risks of dying early from tobacco-related diseases. Lead Researcher Prof Sir Richard Peto, at Oxford University, said "If women smoke like men, they die like men."

An additional fact noted in the American study is that smokers who switched to cigarettes labelled as ‘light’ or 'mild' may have made the situation worse because the smoke had to be breathed in more deeply to achieve the nicotine levels of standard cigarettes. Those labels are now banned.

Just a few of the chemicals in cigarettes:

• Nicotine - immediate physiological effects include increased heart rate and a rise in blood pressure
• Ammonia - also found in toilet cleaners
• Acetone - found in nail varnish remover
• Cadmium - a highly poisonous metal used in batteries
• Vinyl chloride - used to make PVC
• Napthtalene - used in moth balls
• Carbon monoxide - poisonous gas that is commonly given off by exhausts and gas fires, fatal in large amounts
• Tar - thick brown stuff in cigarette smoke that stains fingers and teeth a yellow-brown colour and which deposits in a smoker's lungs, clogging them up
• Cyanide - a lethal gas used in Second World War gas chambers
• Formaldehyde - used to preserve dead bodies
• Arsenic - poison