“Smoking cannabis from a pipe can significantly reduce chronic pain in patients with damaged nerves,” reported the BBC. It added that improvements in sleep and anxiety were also seen
“People who suffer from a severe form of migraine are more likely to die of heart disease and strokes,” reported The Daily Telegraph. It said that people who had migraine with aura were 28% more likely to die from coronary heart disease and 40% more likely to die of stroke. The Icelandic study asked people about their migraine history when they were middle aged and then followed them for up to 40 years.
Many newspapers have reported on new official guidelines for how women can manage their weight before, during and after pregnancy. The advice comes from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). The importance of the guidelines is borne out by figures suggesting that more pregnant women than ever are overweight or obese
A cancer drug “could save eyesight of tens of thousands”, says the Daily Mail. The newspaper reported on a trial that has assessed the drug bevacizumab (trade name Avastin) as a potential treatment for ‘wet’ age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a form of the progressive eye condition.
Breast milk is better for babies than formula because it “kick starts their immune system”, The Daily Telegraph reported. This news story is from a small laboratory study testing a new non-invasive method for extracting genetic information from the gut cells found in infant stool samples. The researchers also wanted to compare the intestinal genetic profiles of babies that were breastfed to those of formula-fed babies
Millions of British women face health risks because they are “shunning nutritious foods”, says the Daily Mail . The Daily Express says that the dangers of a love of junk food and obsession with “food fads” even affect their unborn babies. These reports are based on research examining evidence on the quality of the diets of UK women throughout their lives.
“Cancer patients may be offered new hope in the form of a harmless virus which can reverse even apparently untreatable forms of the disease,” The Daily Telegraph has claimed. The study behind the claim was a very preliminary trial, which gave 23 people with advanced, treatment-resistant tumours a combination of radiotherapy and a new drug called RT3D.
“A controversial trial using bone marrow stem cell therapy for MS patients has helped stabilise the disease,” reported the Daily Mail .
Sunbed sessions are “as addictive as alcohol or drug abuse”, according to the Daily Mail. It says that a study has found “that such tanning leads to behaviour on a par with alcohol or drug abuse” and that “heavy users may even need help from mental health specialists to kick the habit”.
The Daily Telegraph reported that a “rise in mouth cancer may be due to sexually transmitted infection”. The newspaper said that there has been a 50% increase in the number of mouth cancers in the last 20 years, and the increase appears to be in those cases related to the human papilloma virus (HPV). The story is based on an editorial in the British Medical Journal by cancer specialists, which highlighted an increase in the numbers of a specific type of throat cancer in the UK
