breakfast helps avoid heart attack
Men who regularly start the morning without a meal are 27 per cent more likely to suffer a heart attack or develop fatal heart disease, researchers found.
The link could be explained by problems like obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes which are more common in those who miss breakfast and can lead to heart problems. People who skip breakfast are more likely to smoke and drink alcohol and tend to be younger, unmarried and less active than those who usually eat a morning meal, researchers explained. The study, published in the Circulation journal, tracked the health of 26,902 men aged 45 to 82 over 16 years, during which time 1,572 developed heart problems.
Epilepsy brings death closer
People with epilepsy are 11 times more likely to die prematurely than the general population, the largest study of the condition has found. Nine per cent of people with epilepsy died young compared with just 0.7 per cent of those without the condition, the 41-year research discovered. And the findings, published in The lancet, showed that people with both epilepsy and alcohol or drug disorders were 22 times more likely to die than someone who did not have either. Someone who has epilepsy is also four times more likely to commit suicide than someone who does not, the team from Oxford University said. Dr Seena Fazel from Oxford University, who led the study, said standard checks could help reduce the risk of premature deaths in people with epilepsy.
Recession takes three years of life
Babies who were born in the economic downturn will lose up to three years of their healthy lives because of the recession. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) in UK said that babies born between 2007-10 will become seriously ill or disabled at an earlier age. They will suffer poorer health compared to those born in 2003-06 in almost every income group, with those in deprived areas suffering the most. In the most disadvantaged areas, the average boy can expect to live until the age of 55 free of illness and disability, almost three years less than in 2003-06.
Even in the least deprived areas, men could expect to remain healthy until they were 69, just over six months less than those born in 2003-6. The figures mean that people are spending up to 20 years of their lives in poor health.