Being labelled as ‘the fat man of Europe’ is not one of the UK’s proudest moments, but, it’s time to accept some bitter home truths. We are currently facing a public health crisis with an estimated one in four British adults being classed as obese. The UK really is carrying extra weight for Europe with the highest levels of obesity, beating countries such as Germany, France and Spain. No wonder the NHS is under such strain as obesity and its consequences costs £5.1 billion a year. This is only going to increase. New reports suggest that this figure will double by 2030 to an estimated annual cost of £12 billion a year! With 30,000 deaths in adults per year in the UK and an increase of 1.4% in the last decade, the issue is only going to get worse unless a huge change is made. So, with that in mind, we look at the causes, the knock-on effects and what can be done in the future to reduce these shocking statistics. What is obesity? Obesity is a chronic condition in which a person is extremely overweight. It is often caused by excessive consumption of sugar which converts to fat. This fat is stored within our bodies, transpiring into weight gain. There are various different methods that can be used to measure obesity, with the most common method being the B.M.I scale. B.M.I: B.M.I stands for Body Mass Index. This statistical measurement can be used to assess whether your weight is healthy for your age and height. A healthy BMI ranges from 18.5-24.9. A BMI of 25.0-29.9 indicates that you are overweight. Anything over 30.0 suggests that you are obese. Effects of obesity The reason that obesity costs the NHS so much every year is because obesity leads to many other health issues. Some consequential conditions include heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, some cancers, gallbladder disease, gout, breathing problems and osteoarthritis, just to name a few. Most commonly, obesity leads to diabetes where there is an 80-85% risk of developing type 2 diabetes due to the added fat around the abdomen. Damage can also be caused to your mental health. Many obese people suffer from emotional effects such as depression and low self-esteem. What is the cause? Studies suggest that a major reason for the alarming increase in obesity in the UK is due to ‘obesogenic environments’. These are environments which do not promote healthy living through diet or exercise. They are typically ‘urban’ areas, however, our research suggests otherwise. We have created an interactive map displaying the percentage of obese people in different areas across the UK. Scroll over the map and take a look at how obese your local area is: Some of the most obese areas in the UK are found in the North with the Western Isles, Orkney and Barnsley topping the list. Whilst ‘urban’ areas like Richmond upon Thames, Camden and Tower Hamlets ranked the least obese in the UK. Other reasons for this rise in obesity are lifestyle, genetics, lack of exercise and, most importantly, diet. The problem is that many of us Brits consume over half of our recommended daily sugar intake which should be no more than 5%. This equates to a maximum of 30 grams of sugar a day. This could be because many sugary food products are misleading. Brands will claim that the product is low in fat to suggest that it is healthy. What it lacks in fat, it makes up for in sugar. A way around this is to disguise the sugar by using alternative names such as sucrose and fructose. What now? Our over-indulgence of sugar has lead the British Government to announce the introduction of a sugar tax in an attempt to tackle this obesity crisis. This will place a higher tax on sugary drinks from April 2018. The proceeds will be used to double sports funding for schools. You don’t have to wait until then to take this matter into your own hands. Regular exercise, decreasing your daily sugar intake and a healthy lifestyle can significantly improve your health and reduce the risk of obesity. The British Dietician Association offer further information on how to lose weight healthily.

Every year, on the 4th  of February, the continents unite for World Cancer Day. Most people have known someone who has been diagnosed with cancer, and how stressful the experience can be for both the sufferer and the loved one. So charities fight all year round to raise awareness for this cause. But, on this day in particular, charities such as Cancer Research UK, UICC and many more strive to increase awareness. The charities all try to educate individuals about the disease, what you can do to help as an individual and how we can all help collectively. The World Cancer Day website hopes to raise awareness through their “We can. I can.” campaign. In the following post we go into more detail about this campaign and how we can all get involved. I Can. The “I can” aspect of the campaign focusses on things that you can do as an individual. Whether this be supporting others, making healthy lifestyle choices, asking for support if you suffer from cancer or sharing your story. There are many ways you, as an individual, can help. We have outlined 2 of the 10 ways below, but you can head over to the World Cancer Day website to see them all in more detail. Ask For Support If you have been diagnosed with cancer, and don’t know what to do, have no shame in asking for support. And support can come from many places, be it family or trained professionals. A strong support network is vital for any person suffering with cancer, or their carers. If you do need support to get you through this tough time, you can also visit the Macmillan website for more information. Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices It’s been known for a long time that our lifestyle choices have a massive effect on our health. Be in smoking, excessive drinking or just one too many burgers. By now, smoking should be a no-brainer. It accounts for 1 in 4 cancer deaths in the UK, and it is easily preventable. Stubbing your smoking habit out will greatly reduce your risk of lung cancer. But there are other less obvious choices you can make. Overexposing ourselves to the sun’s UV rays can lead to skin cancer. Even if it’s not scorching hot outside, the winter sun can still penetrate your skin. We Can. If one person can do something and make a difference, imagine what we as a collective group can achieve! The “We can.” aspect of the campaign focusses on the things we can do together to help fight cancer. Things like creating healthy environments, challenging perceptions, improving access to cancer care or just inspiring and taking action! There is only so much you can achieve by yourself, so let’s work together. Create Healthy Environments We can all influence each other in creating a healthier environment. Little things such as smoke-free workplaces, and offering healthy school lunches, can help reduce the risk of cancer. These seemingly small changes can make a big difference! Workplaces and schools can help to foster a healthy environment of early detection and cancer prevention. These initiatives will be carried over into people’s personal lives – benefiting everyone around them! Work Together for Increased Impact Many different stakeholders, such as governments, civil society organisations and cancer groups, work together to stop cancer. By uniting together, they can all create one single voice that can increase the impact of their efforts. This key point helps to reinforce the “We” aspect of World Cancer Day’s campaign. As we mentioned before, cancer is a problem that we will all face, directly or indirectly, at some point in our life. But together, we can help each other through the tough times and fight cancer. With great initiatives worldwide, such as World Cancer Day, people are constantly researching and discovering new treatments. So much so, that cancer survival in the UK has doubled over the last 40 years! People donate to cancer-related charities all-year-round. That money is then funding research, efforts to increase awareness, and ultimately, to beat cancer. Cancer is becoming, at a growing pace, a more understood disease. It is only a matter of time until all cancer types out there have a suited treatment. But, until then, we need to keep raising awareness!

Your joints play a vital role in your body. They form the connection between your bones, manage your movement and support your weight. Therefore, when your joints struggle to perform as they should, you start to experience pain. This pain can be extremely debilitating, and for some it affects their ability to do daily activities. For most people this pain seems to intensify in winter. If you’re one of those people that suffers more in winter, keep reading! In this post we outline 3 reasons why your joint pain worsens in winter. So, what changes in winter?   Temperature Change Whilst joint pain is not simply a seasonal problem, the frosty temperatures we face in winter often cause the pain in our joints to intensify. As temperatures drop, our bodies react by restricting the blood flow to our joints. This is because attention is placed on supporting fundamental organs such as the heart and lungs. These organs need extra protection during cold temperatures.  This restriction of blood flow causes our joints to ache and feel tender. Source: unsplash.com   Furthermore, Dr Wright notes: “The soft tissues around the joints are less pliable when cold, so joints feel tight and stiff, resulting in more pain.” For those with arthritis, a condition experienced by 10 million of us in the UK alone, this stiffens joints that are already tight and inflamed. So this can increase the pain usually felt with your condition.   2. Lack of Exercise Another indirect result of winter weather is often a lack of exercise. The shortened days bring around dark mornings and evenings. This change, coupled with the drop in temperature make exercise seem much less appealing. Especially for those of us who already struggle to find the motivation on a sunny day! Lack of exercise, especially for those who experience problems such as arthritis, causes the joints to seize up and stiffen. This reduction in mobility and tightening of the joints leads to further pain. Source: StockSnap   Similarly, exercise is required to strengthen our muscles. And weak muscles surrounding the joints offer little protection. As tempting as it may be to curl up on your sofa on a rainy day, doing just 30 minutes of light exercise can boost your blood circulation, flex your joints and improve your mood. Furthermore, keeping fit helps us to maintain a healthy weight, easing the pressure placed on our joints that support our bodies. So, don’t be a couch potato this winter!   3. Lack of Vitamin D The darker days that winter brings around also means a lack of sun exposure, reducing the amount of Vitamin D absorbed by our bodies. Vitamin D supports your muscle, bone and cartilage function. Therefore a lack of it can impact upon your joints, leaving them weaker and more susceptible to pain. Source: unsplash.com As the sun shines less in the UK, this unfortunately means for most of us in the UK our main source of Vitamin D comes from our food intake. Therefore, a healthy, vitamin-rich diet becomes even more important during the winter months.   Can Joint Pain be Treated? There are many treatments out there to ease and suppress your pain, so don’t suffer in silence! From prescribed medicines, to massage therapy and tailored exercises, there are a variety of treatments to ease pain of varying severity. For further information, we have asked the pharmacist to explain the most effective ways to relieve joint pain. Hopefully this post has clearly described why our joints become more painful during the winter months. Despite the weather,it is essential to maintain a healthy diet and fitness regime in order to boost your immune system and support the function of your bones. Our joints play a vital role within our body and it is important to keep them healthy! Please feel free to comment below if you have any questions.

  Those who suffer with joint pain know just how debilitating and restricting it can be. Thankfully, there are a number of ways in which you can ease and treat this pain. Whilst there are various prescription medications available, these should be taken following a consultation with your GP. Therefore, we asked our Head Pharmacist Jagdeesh Cheema for some tips and tricks on other ways in which we can all prevent and relieve joint pain.   Hydrotherapy Treatment Hydrotherapy treatment involves the practice of particular exercises whilst immersed in a warm swimming pool. This is a relaxing yet effective treatment as the warm water alleviates the pressure on your joints, encourages blood flow around the body and stimulates endorphins. This helps to ease pain and relaxes the surrounding muscles. Furthermore, your increased circulation allows blood flow to reach the joints, keeping them strong and healthy. The water also pushes against you whilst you move, building muscle strength to protect your joints.   Massage Similarly, massaging the problem area will release tension within the muscles that surround the aching joint. This helps to reduce the pain, whilst also relieving stress.   Source: Zenspa1 Although the above treatments cannot ultimately cure your joint pain, they do help to ease it. Whether done professionally or at home, these treatments are both soothing and helpful.   Exercise Many people who suffer from joint pain avoid exercise. They fear that it will aggravate their joints and increase their pain. However, this is a misconception. Exercise is vital for building strength and improving the flexibility of your muscles and joints. Still, it is important to ensure you don’t push yourself too hard. Overdoing the exercise can strain your muscles and increase pain within your joints. Source: Free Stock Photos Therefore, you need to find a healthy balance. We recommend you start with gentle exercises and build on this as your fitness level improves. Effective exercises include: Cardio If you are struggling with intense pain, starting off with a gentle walk can help to flex your joints and ease the pain. In time, you can build strength and stamina. Swimming This can be an excellent form of exercise for those suffering with joint pain. Swimming does not require any weight-bearing on the joints. This low-impact sport will also help to increase flexibility. Yoga/Pilates This is another low-impact form of exercise. Yoga stretches and strengthens your muscles to take the pressure off your joints. To get started, check out these five simple yoga poses. Are you still worried about exercise and joint pain? Arthritis Research UK has written a great post detailing joint-specific exercises.   Acupuncture For those who are struggling to manage their joint pain, acupuncture is an alternative pain relief treatment. Acupuncture targets pain in the joints, whilst also reducing the surrounding inflammation to provide further relief and mobility. This procedure involves the insertion of thin needles into the surface of the skin in the pain-affected area. This is believed to correct any disproportion of energy-flow throughout your body. It relieves pain by informing your body of the area of pain, so it can target this area and begin to heal.   Improve your Diet It’s believed that certain foods can help to ease joint pain. This is particularly true for those suffering with forms of arthritis. Vitamin D is needed to maintain bone strength and keep our immune system healthy. One of the best ways to increase your supply of Vitamin D is through your diet. You should eat foods rich in Omega-3 such as Salmon and Cod Liver Oil, along with milk, eggs and pork. This will provide you with the Vitamin D needed to keep your bones healthy and your immune system functioning as it should. However, it is also important to keep fat content in mind and to eat a healthy, balanced diet. Source: puamelia Pain Relief Supplements Tablets There are numerous supplements available to provide pain relief for those with aching joints. Pain relief tablets such as Ibuprofen can target the inflammation surrounding painful joints and offer up to 8 hours of pain relief per dosage. Stronger pain relief supplements may also be available. However, these often need to be prescribed and will require a consultation with your GP. Heat Patches Additionally, for simple, inexpensive pain relief, look at heat patches. They can be very effective in targeting pain swiftly, and patches can be applied directly to the problem area. The heat will boost circulation allowing blood to flow to your joints and ease the pain you are experiencing. Freeze Patches Alternatively, freeze patches also provide pain relief. Rather than boosting circulation, the cold temperature reduces your circulation, minimising swelling at the same time. This allows your joints to flex more easily and alleviates the pain.   Final Thoughts There is no definitive cure for joint pain, but the above treatments will significantly reduce your pain. By effectively relieving joint pain it will allow you to be more active. So, why not try some of these methods out and see what works for you?