Daily Mail - 13.08.2019

Page 38 Daily Mail, Tuesday, August 13, 2019

AVOID e-cigarettes as an aid for

quitting smoking: they’re twice as

addictive as traditional cigarettes,

according to research published

in the International Journal of

Environmental Research and

Public Health. Nicotine dependence

levels were found to be more

than twice as high in e-cigarette

users compared to traditional

tobacco smokers aged under 25.

TINY

TWEAKS

By ROGER

DOBSON

CETRABEN Natural Oatmeal Cream contains

colloidal oatmeal, which has been shown to improve

skin dryness and itch intensity. Suitable for people

with eczema, it can be used on babies, too.

n£6.99 for 190g, boots.com

TRY THIS...

THIS week: Actress Julianne

Moore’s shoulders

A DAZZLING bright orange dress

with cutaway arms accentuated

actress Julianne Moore’s toned

shoulders on the red carpet.

The 58-year-old maintains

her figure with a combination

of light weights and ‘a lot of

jumping around’, she has said.

WHAT TO TRY: The breast stroke

arm exercise works shoulders

and upper arms. Stand with

your feet together and knees

bent, hinging forward from the

hips. Bend your elbows and tuck

your arms close to your body,

palms facing the floor.

Raise your hands so that your

arms are level with

your shoulders.

From there, reach

your arms straight

upwards. Then circle

your arms outwards

so that they come

down by your sides,

as if swimming.

Bend your elbows

and return to the

start. Perform for

60 seconds — try to

repeat three times.

NUTRIENT

STEALERS

EVERYDAY things can

‘rob’ our body of nutrients.

This week: Excess bread and

pasta steal omega-3 and iron

OUR diet typically has high levels

of grains from processed bread,

pasta, biscuits, cakes and cereals.

This means we may be getting

too much omega-6, a fatty acid

found in grains and plant oils.

Omega-6 inhibits the absorp-

tion of omega-3, which is found

in oily fish, walnuts

and soybeans and

is important for

blood clotting

and building cell

membranes in

the brain. If a diet

is low in omega-3,

this may lead to

inflammation of the blood vessel

walls, which can cause clots.

Iron helps make red blood

cells, which carry oxygen

around the body. However,

wholegrains contain phytates,

which inhibit the absorption of

iron from food — so it’s best to

avoid wholegrains at the same

time as iron-rich foods such as

liver, leafy veg and nuts.

Control diabetes to

lower dementia risk

Heart disease link

to antibiotic use

TREATING type 2 diabetes could lower the

risk of dementia.

When researchers looked at the effects

of diabetes drugs in nearly 300,000 type 2

patients aged 60-plus, they found that,

while 20.3 per cent developed dementia

over 11 years, there was a 20 per cent lower

risk in those who took diabetes medication.

The South Korean researchers, writing in

the journal Diabetes Research And Clinical

Practice, reported that treating type 2

with a combination of the drugs sulphonyl-

urea, metformin and DPP4 was associated

with a 63 per cent lower risk of dementia

than treatment with sulphonylurea alone.

Long-term use of antibiotics after the age

of 40 may increase the risk of heart disease

in women.

the results of a study, which monitored

around 36,000 women for eight years,

conducted by Harvard medical School in

the U.S., showed that using the drugs for

longer than two months increased the risk

of cardiovascular problems by about a third.

the greatest increase — 32 per cent — was

seen in women aged 60 and over; for women

aged between 40 and 60, the risk increased

by 28 per cent.

the researchers, writing in the european

Heart Journal, suggested it may be due to

antibiotics disrupting gut bacteria, leading to

weight gain — a risk factor in heart disease.

Wrinkle jab could

treat the prostate

JabS of ‘botox’ — commonly used to prevent
wrinkles — may shrink an enlarged prostate.
In a new study reported in the journal
Prostate, 45 men with the age-related con-
dition benign prostatic hyperplasia (bPH),
who had failed to respond to drugs and did
not want surgery, were given injections of
botulinum toxin into the gland.
results show that symptoms — such as
frequent urination or difficulty urinating
— decreased by around 35 per cent after a
period of two weeks and nearly 40 per cent
after three months.
Prostate size also reduced, say the urologists
from Cairo University and other centres, who
suggest that the drug may act on nerves to
contract or shrink enlarged tissue.

A (fake) belly laugh a day

keeps the doctor away

LAUGHTER is the best med-

icine, research confirms.

But the catch is that it

needs to be fake laughter,

which was found to be

more effective than the

real thing for improving

depression, anxiety and

stress, reports the journal

Social Science & Medicine.

Previous studies have

shown laughing boosts

the intake of oxygen,

stimulates the heart,

lungs and muscles and

increases the production

of endorphins.

The researchers, from

Leeds University, suggest

simulated laughter is more

effective, as it can be con-

trolled, done on demand

and does not require an

understanding of humour.

n STATInS lower

the risk of premature

death by a third, a

study found. Almost

20,000 people were

monitored for ten

years from the age

of 65. Those who

took daily statins

had a risk of dying

from any cause

34 per cent lower

than those who did

not regularly take

them, reported the

study in the Journal

Of The American

Geriatrics Society.

Just a sprinkle of spice

mix boosts gut health

mIxed spices in normal

cooking quantities could

help boost immunity and

protect against disease,

reports the University of

California in the U.S.

For two weeks, research-

ers gave healthy men and

women a daily 5g capsule of

cinnamon, oregano, ginger,

cayenne pepper and black

pepper, or a placebo pill.

the results — reported

in the journal nutrients —

showed an increase in

‘good’ bacteria in the gut,

including bifidobacterium,

which is associated with

immunity and reducing

inflammation.

the study is the first in

humans to show that a mix-

ture of spices at culinary

doses affects composition

of gut bacteria, according

to the researchers.

SECRETS OF AN

A-LIST

BODY

A

PatCH worn on the

stomach that generates

1,000 pain-killing pulses

per second could

make menstruation less

miserable for women.

Worn around the clock during a period,

the wafer-thin patch has been shown to

cut pain levels by more than 70 per cent

and, now, the nHS has set up trials.

more than half of women of child-

bearing age suffer from stomach cramps

for two to three days a month.

the pain is caused by the womb tight-

ening and relaxing to help encourage

the lining of the womb to detach — a

process that happens each month as

part of a woman’s menstrual cycle.

If the womb contracts too strongly, it

can press against nearby blood vessels,

temporarily cutting off the supply of blood

and oxygen. Starved of oxygen, the womb

releases chemicals that trigger pain.

Less commonly, period pain, called

dysmenorrhoea, can be caused by

an underlying medical condition.

these include endometriosis —

where pieces of the tissue that

lines the womb grow elsewhere

in the body, including on other

pelvic organs, such as the ovaries

and fallopian tubes — as well as

infections and uterine fibroids

(non-cancerous growths).

O

ver-tHe-CoUnter

pain relievers, such

as ibuprofen, can help

with mild to moderate

pain, and stronger, prescription

nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory

drugs are also available.

the contraceptive pill can be

taken to thin the lining of the

womb, making it easier to shed

and so reducing the strength of

the contractions.

If menstrual cramps are

caused by endometriosis or

fibroids, surgery to correct the

problem might help.

However, an estimated one in

ten women still experiences high

levels of pain. It is hoped that the

4 in circular, stick-on patch from

U.S. medical device manufacturer

bioelectronics will help provide

pain relief.

the battery-operated patch —

known as allay — can be worn for

24 hours a day for five days, before

being peeled off and charged up

ready to use again. When switched

on, a small electric current passes

through a wire loop in the patch,

generating an undetectable

magnetic field that pulses into

the abdominal tissue.

Its maker claims this triggers

the cells to pump out excess fluid,

reducing bloating, pain and swell-

ing associated with dysmenorrhea.

the same kind of electro-

magnetic pulse therapy has been

used for osteoarthritis knee pain

and post-operative pain, where it

is thought to work by blocking

pain signals along the nerves.

Sixty women who have painful

periods are taking part in a two-

month trial at the University of

birmingham and birmingham

Women’s nHS Foundation trust.

research by the manufacturer,

as yet unpublished, has shown

that the patch can be effective,

with pain levels falling by 31 per

cent on the first day of wear and

by 63 per cent by day five.

overall, 77 per cent of the women

had a drop in pain compared with

14 per cent in the control group.

elias Kovoor, a consultant

gynaecologist at maidstone and

tunbridge Wells nHS trust, says:

‘treatments for dysmenorrhoea

include pain killers and hormonal

options such as the contraceptive

pill. these are very effective and

have the advantage of reducing

bleeding. Unfortunately, side-

effects are common, especially

the hormonal ones, which limits

their use in many patients.

‘this patch seems attractive, as

it’s devoid of any hormonal side-

effects, but further clinical trials

are mandatory to assess its safety

and efficacy before adoption into

routine practice.’

n ROSEMARY oil is as effective

as widely used medication

in reducing period pain,

according to research by

Mashhad University of Medical

Sciences in Iran. Eighty-two

women took a daily capsule of

either rosemary or mefenamic

acid, a nonsteroidal anti-

inflammatory drug used to

treat menstrual pain. It was

found rosemary may reduce

production of prostaglandin

— the chemical that triggers

the contractions of the womb

behind menstrual cramps.

Hi-tech patch

to tackle

painful

periods

Picture:

ALAMY