The good, bad and the healthy

There have been some recent health updates that everyone should find of interest. I will include as many as I can in today’s column.

People who attend church most Sundays have been found to have lower blood pressure- Kathryn Borg

• Last year I wrote about the full-body X-ray scanners being introduced in the US and in some European airports. Since then the EU has decided that these scanners are dangerous to health and could cause cancer. So travellers arriving at European airports will not have to go through these full-body scanners.

The scanners use ionising radiation, which can damage DNA. Early studies suggested that out of the millions of air passengers scanned by the devices every year only a small number of cancers are likely to be triggered.

The scanners were introduced to detect explosives by revealing the entire body underneath clothing and are already being used in hundreds of airports across the US.

European airports will, instead, be introducing body scanners that use radio-frequency waves, which are believed to be a safer alternative and are still able to detect explosives being carried on to aircraft.

A trial of these scanners is taking place at some UK airports. When the trial is complete the machines will only be utilised as a secondary security measure, and only when conventional metal detectors observe something suspicious.

More information is available at www.propublica.org/article/europe-bans-x-ray-body-scanners-used-at-u.s.-airports/single.

• There has been massive media coverage of the safety of certain breast implants recently. This subject warrants a much longer article and this will come at a later date.

However, for now it has become known that the UK’s healthcare regulator knew about the potential dangers of these implants five years ago. Even as late as last December the UK’s Medicines and Health-care Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) was still in denial and calling for further evidence.

Surgeons had first informed the MHRA of their concerns in 2006 and were also writing reports which were published in medical journals.

One surgeon noted that silicone from one of these implants had migrated to a lymph node. Initially the implants were approved in 2000 provided they used medical-grade silicone. This condition was not observed by the manufacturer.

Holland’s health regulator, however, had not been so relaxed and called upon all women to have their implants removed immediately. It backed up the call by claiming that the implants had a high risk of rupturing.

The company involved had also been warned by the US health authorities more than 10 years ago regarding its substandard manufacturing practices, a fact that has been revealed in recent reports.

Hundreds of thousands of women throughout the EU and Latin America have had these implants.

• People who attend church most Sundays, or at least once a week, have been found to have lower blood pressure readings than those who attend rarely, or never go at all. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology say they were “really surprised” by their findings.

Their discovery is based on data collected by three studies carried out from 1984 to 2008, of the lives and habits of 120,000 residents living in one county in Norway. In previous studies the researchers had discovered that having a sense of humour and being socially engaged also had a positive impact on health.

• Much has been written about the dangers of the mobile phone. Canada has now joined Russia, Israel, Belgium, Germany, India and France in issuing a warning about the possible cancer-causing effects of mobile phone use, especially among the under-18s.

It transpires that both phoning and texting may be dangerous, especially if used constantly for a lengthy period of time, say researchers from Health Canada, the country’s health regulator. In a new Canadian report also states that the phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.

The Russian health authorities have already warned all adolescents under the age of 18 against using the phones, while in France their use has been banned in kindergartens and junior schools.

The new bans and cautionary warnings follow a study that discovered that the brain showed metabolic changes following 12 months of use, although researchers were unable to confirm whether the devices actually caused cancer.

• More research and good news about the Mediterranean diet, which consists mostly of vegetables and fish. It has been estimated that sticking to it, as a lifestyle choice, adds three years to your life and increases your chances of living longer by 20 per cent. This estimate was concluded by scientists at the Sahlgrenska Academy in Gothenberg, Sweden. It comes from the H70 study, which studied the lifestyles of thousands of 70-year-olds for more than 40 years.

The beneficial effects are not confined to the older generation. One study involved children who also appeared healthier than their counterparts who ate a diet of mostly meat and dairy products.

• More research is confirming that yoga is good for us. This time for back pain, especially chronic lower back pain. It eases the worst symptoms, and a new study has discovered that pain killers are no longer required.

Researchers at the Group Health Research Institute evaluated the benefits of Viniyoga compared with stretching exercises in a group of 228 adults. They found improvements, reductions in medication and improved health.

kathryn@maltanet.net