Are health scares a help or hype?

Aug 17 2008 Sunday Sun

ARE you struggling to decide what to eat, drink, or what “vice” or treat to give up next, thanks to the never-ending stream of confusing health scares?

It seems that never a day goes by without another warning we’re urged to heed if we want to live longer, healthier lives, but the advice can often appear contradictory.

Dr Peter Marsh — co-director of the Social Issues Research Centre — says people can become so accustomed to this advice that they become de-sensitised by unfounded scares and “eventually pay no attention at all” . . . even to important health-related information.

Women are particularly vulnerable to fretting about health risks.

Recent research suggests that thanks to lower levels of a brain enzyme called COMT, women are hard-wired to worry, whereas, in general, men are less anxious about life.

It’s time to take a deep breath while we sort out fact from fiction and present some calming advice . . .

V ALCOHOL: Warnings about excessive binge drinking abound but many “social drinkers” like to comfort themselves by constantly claiming that wine — particularly red — may reduce the risk of heart disease.

The reality is that, in 1997, the World Health Organisation calculated that the reduced risk of coronary disease was found at the level of only one drink consumed every second day.

Drinkers may point to a new “wonder” drug mimicking resveratrol — a compound found in the skin of red grapes — which is now in development. It may eventually hold back the ageing process, help prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.

But, before you start cracking open a case, research shows that to get similar benefits you’d have to drink around 1000 bottles of wine.

V WHAT’S THE ANSWER?: Moderation. Current medical advice shows men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day and women not more than two to three.

“Regularly” means drinking every day or most days of the week. Consistently drinking more than these amounts risks damage to health. The danger increases the longer drinkers continue and the more they consume.

Different strengths of drinks and sizes of glasses can be confusing. As a guideline, a pint of typical strength bitter contains about two units, while a glass of wine can be anything from around 1.5 to three units.

V WATER: We’re all encouraged to drink two litres — eight glasses — of water daily to replace what we lose through normal bodily functions. It’s been argued that coffee and alcohol don’t count as they act as a diuretic, squeezing water from cells so that more is lost than taken on board. Too little may lead us to feel tired and struggling to concentrate, but excessive water intake can be dangerous.

There have been recent reports of people dying of water overdose, or hyponatremia, which occurs when water consumption dilutes vital salt and mineral levels in the body.

V WHAT’S THE ANSWER?: “As an absolute minimum we should aim for one litre a day,” said kidney specialist Professor David Oliveira. “That figure’s calculated on the basis that, daily, we lose about 100ml of water breathing out, 500ml sweating and another 500ml in urine.”

While it’s sensible to drink up to two litres a day, he says that food can provide around 20pc of our water intake. Some foods have a higher water content than others. For instance, a cucumber has 96pc, a tomato 94pc, onions 89pc, while a plate of cooked pasta and grilled chicken has around 70pc.

Caffeine addicts could take cheer from a recent study which found that coffee drinkers had the same level of hydration as those who stuck to water. It seems that any water lost as a result of the caffeine was just a fraction of what can be gained from drinking it.

V EXERCISE: While being unfit carries a similar risk of heart disease to smoking 20 cigarettes a day, the latest research on exercise is optimistic. You do not need impractical levels of exercise to be healthy, according to Paul Clayton of the Royal Society of Medicine.

He points out that benefits kick in from quite a low-level programme. That means moderate exercise three times per week for 20 minutes, at a rate that raises the heart rate by 30pc, makes you sweat and raise your breathing level.

That’s enough to begin to lower harmful cholesterol and raise protective cholesterol, to lower blood pressure and improve muscle tone.

V WHAT’S THE ANSWER?: Shopping till you drop or jogging could be good ways to keep fit.

Women burn off more than 12,000 calories each year just by shopping, according to the latest UK research. On an average trip, a female shopper will cover more than two miles and, on five trips a month, can clock up around 121 miles a year. Unsurprisingly, men don’t have as much stamina and, with fewer and shorter trips, lose only around 9000 calories a year.

However, if you’d rather protect your cash, you’ll be pleased to know that running may be a more effective way to slow the effects of ageing.

A 20-year study of people aged 50 and over by the University of California found that elderly joggers remained fit and active for longer than non-runners.

V SALT: We all know that eating too much of the white stuff is bad for us, but Britons are still eating too much salt, resulting in an estimated 14,000 premature deaths a year.

Food watchdog the Food Standards Agency, FSA, found that adults are eating an average 8.6g of salt a day . . . 44pc more than the recommended daily level of 6g.

Eating too much may lead to high blood pressure, then heart disease and strokes.

V WHAT’S THE ANSWER?: We shouldn’t cut salt out completely. Some sodium is needed for the body to function. It helps to regulate fluid balance and is needed for nerves and muscles to work.

Many of us are unaware how much salt is present in our food. Bread is the single biggest source of salt in the nation’s diet. Sliced loaves have already been made less salty, along with breakfast cereals, soups, cooking sauces, biscuits and cakes, and the FSA is calling for more.