Publisher Health

Few things are more important to your overall health and longevity than exercise. Improving your fitness level can have a significant effect on mood, sexual health, energy, even immune function and cancer prevention.But getting started can feel overwhelming. How much do you really have to exercise? Should you stretch first? And what the heck is a burpee anyway?Let’s start with the basics.Now it’s time to get the heart going. Any fitness routine should include both cardiovascular activity and strength training. The cardio element, meaning any exercise that elevates your heart rate, also strengthens your immune system and improves mental health.Next up is strength training. Most experts recommend at least two days per week, especially as you get older. It’s essential to build strong bones, protect your joints and reduce falls. Yoga, Pilates or bodyweight exercise can help. But for the best results, use weights.You’re just about there. You have done your warm-up, your cardio and your strength training. Let’s try a couple more quastions.

Published51 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy David Deans & Antonia MatthewsBBC WalesDisappearing messages were used during the pandemic by Wales’ health minister, the Covid inquiry has heard.The limited amount of messages disclosed showed Welsh government senior special advisors deleted communications, Nia Gowman said.Ms Gowman, speaking for the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, said reminders were sent to “clear out WhatsApp chats once a week”.The timing of the government’s response to the virus also came under scrutiny. Tuesday was the first day of the UK-wide inquiry sitting in Cardiff, with Welsh ministers and government officials set to give evidence over the next three weeks on the Covid response in Wales.Evidence heard included how Health Minister Vaughan Gething turned on disappearing messages, and a deputy minister called it “odd” that Welsh Labour cancelled its conference but allowed 20,000 Scottish fans to travel to Cardiff for a Six Nations game.Image source, Getty Images”We have made it clear that we continue to engage fully with the inquiry to ensure all actions and decisions are fully and properly scrutinised,” a Welsh government spokesperson said.Asked if he had deleted Whatsapps at a TV debate last week, Mr Gething said: “Everything I have got I have provided to the inquiry.”Despite telling the Senedd he did not use Whatsapp, First Minister Mark Drakeford was regularly using it to discuss policy announcement and seek clarifications on the rules, Ms Gowman said.She said any government “would be hard pressed to match the shocking display of arrogance and central government toxicity within Westminster at that crucial time”.But she said the Welsh government “must be judged not solely by comparison to what was happening in Westminster, but by its own standards”.She said the group remained “bitterly disappointed” at the lack of a Welsh inquiry.’One-month delay’The Welsh session also focused on the timings of lockdowns and the rationale for doing things differently to the UK government.The Welsh government’s cabinet did not discuss coronavirus until a month after the UK government did at the beginning of 2020, the Covid inquiry heard.Coverage on Tuesday at the Covid inquiryCovid in Wales: What do the stats tell usIs Covid now just a regular winter bug?Counsel to the inquiry Tom Poole set out the core questions the Welsh government will have to answer over the next few weeks.One will be whether the government took the threat seriously enough, or believed the UK government had things under control.He said Wales’ Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton had given advice on 24 February there was a “significant risk” the virus would arrive in Wales.Image source, Getty ImagesMr Poole said the Welsh government’s cabinet did not discuss Covid until 25 February, “a whole month later” than the UK government.Setting out one of the many questions the inquiry will be asking of Welsh government decision making, Mr Poole said: “Does the fact that Covid was not discussed by the Welsh cabinet throughout January indicate the threat posed by the virus was not taken as seriously as it ought to have been?”Or did the Welsh government [think] the UK government had things under control and there was no need to take independent action?”In his opening statement, he revealed that Lee Waters, deputy minister for transport, said in a WhatsApp message that he thought it was “odd” that Welsh Labour had cancelled its 2020 conference but not the Wales versus Scotland Six Nations match.The match was in the end cancelled the day before by the Welsh Rugby Union, but not before 20,000 Scottish fans travelled to Cardiff. The handling of mass gatherings is one of the issues being examined.Mr Poole said that hundreds of messages have been disclosed to the inquiry but that some have been deleted. It is not clear who has deleted them – and whether they are officials or ministers.On the day lockdown was announced in March 2020, Vaughan Gething emailed himself an account of “chaos” in a Welsh hospital from a consultant.”No protection for nurses, very low morale as being asked to care for patients admitted to orthopaedic wards by medics with respiratory symptoms, masks not being released,” it read.At the start of the hearing Baroness Hallett acknowledged that some had hoped for an independent Welsh inquiry.She said that was not a decision for her, but she promised that the UK inquiry will do its utmost to “investigate and analyse fully and fairly the most significant issues that concern people in Wales”.The inquiry showed a video of testimonies of those impacted by Covid.The emotional video detailed delayed diagnosis of cancer, the experience of trying to see relatives in hospital, and of patients catching Covid when they were admitted for other conditions.More on this storyThe timeline of the Covid-19 pandemic in WalesPublished11 hours agoCovid families want lessons learned from pandemicPublished3 hours agoGething cleared of code breach over £200k donationPublished3 hours ago

Cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches sold in grocery and dollar stores last year poisoned hundreds of American children with extremely high doses of lead, leaving anxious parents to watch for signs of brain damage, developmental delays and seizures.The Food and Drug Administration, citing Ecuadorean investigators, said a spice grinder was likely responsible for the contamination and said the quick recall of three million applesauce pouches protected the food supply.But hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The New York Times and the nonprofit health newsroom The Examination, along with interviews with government and company officials in multiple countries, show that in the weeks and months before the recall, the tainted applesauce sailed through a series of checkpoints in a food-safety system meant to protect American consumers.The documents and interviews offer the clearest accounting to date of the most widespread toxic exposure in food marketed to young children in decades. Children in 44 states ate the tainted applesauce, some of which contained lead at extraordinarily high levels.Time and again, the tainted cinnamon went untested and undiscovered, the result of an overstretched F.D.A. and a food-safety law that gives companies, at home and abroad, wide latitude on what toxins to look for and whether to test.“It’s amazing in a bad sense what a catastrophic failure this was,” said Neal Fortin, director of the Institute for Food Laws and Regulations at Michigan State University. “Largely, the food supply regulatory system is based on an honor system.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Hundreds of children sickened from high levels of lead in applesauce pouches last year put a spotlight on lapses in the food-safety system.A recent outbreak of lead poisoning from cinnamon in applesauce has drawn attention to the toxic effect the heavy metal can have on children. The cinnamon in the applesauce was believed to have been intentionally contaminated, possibly to add to its value as a commodity sold by weight. It had unusually high levels of lead.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 400 children were poisoned in the applesauce outbreak. Their median blood lead levels were six times higher than the average seen during the height of the Flint water crisis, the C.D.C. said.While such poisoning cases are rare, lead is a widespread contaminant and has been under increasing scrutiny. Here’s what you need to know.How do children get exposed to lead?Paint is one of the most common and well-known sources of lead. Children can also be exposed by drinking water that flows through old lead pipes.Lead poisoning through food is less common but does occur. Lead can get into food at low levels when plants draw it up from the soil. For instance, a study about baby foods found that sweet potatoes had some of the highest levels of lead among the products tested.A lead-based pigment is sometimes illegally added to spices to bulk them up or make their color pop. The Food and Drug Administration suspects that the additive caused the applesauce contamination last year.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Piranha PhotographyCopyright: Piranha PhotographyBoris Johnson, the prime minister
throughout Covid, launched a public inquiry to look into the UK government’s
handling and decision-making during the pandemic.Inquiries respond to “public
concern” about events and are established and funded by government – led
by an independent chair.In this case former judge and
crossbench peer Baroness Hallett, who previously led the inquests into the 7
July London bombings, is in the chair.Inquiries can demand evidence and
compel witnesses to attend. No-one is found guilty or innocent, but conclusions
are published. The government is not obliged to accept any recommendations.When Johnson announced the
inquiry, the former PM said the government’s response would be “under the
microscope”.Lady Hallett promised the
inquiry would be “thorough and fair”.The Covid inquiry began on 28 June
2022. There is no specific timescale for how long it will last, but Lady Hallett
does not expect the public hearings to run beyond summer 2026.Earlier this month the inquiry was
in Scotland, now it is in Wales before going to Northern Ireland in April.

Published48 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockBy Henry ZeffmanChief political correspondentThe government is considering announcing a new tax on vapes at the Budget next week. Currently, vaping products are subject to VAT – but unlike tobacco, they are not also subject to a separate levy.Tobacco duty could also increase at the Budget, to ensure that vaping remains cheaper.Ministers fear that the relatively cheap cost of vaping means that the products are more accessible for young people and non-smokers.The government first said it was considering a vaping levy at November’s King’s Speech, citing a “significant differential” with tax on tobacco.According to the Times, which first reported the story, the new duty will be levied on the liquid in vapes, with higher tax rates for products with more nicotine.Hunt must spell out how tax cuts would be paid for – IFSDisposable vapes to be banned for child healthHow dangerous is vaping and what is the disposable vape ban?Treasury analysis suggests the new vaping tax, along with the rise in tobacco duty, could raise around £500m a year. It comes after plans were announced last month to deliver a UK-wide ban on disposable vapes, alongside restrictions on flavours and how they can be packaged.UK government ministers, who are responsible for delivering the ban in England, say they hope to pass the relevant legislation before the next election.The ban would then come into force in early 2025, with retailers given six months to make the changes once the timing is confirmed.The government also plans to increase fines for retailers that sell vapes to under-18s, which is illegal.More on this storyHunt must explain how he would fund tax cuts – IFSPublished2 hours agoDisposable vapes to be banned using devolved powersPublished29 JanuarySmoking age should rise until it is banned – SunakPublished4 October 2023

Jenny ReesHealth CorrespondentPublished26 February 2024Updated 50 minutes agoAccountability is top of the wishlist from the Covid inquiry as it comes to Wales, say bereaved families and those charged with protecting vulnerable people.Over the next three weeks the focus will largely be on the decisions made by the Welsh government during the pandemic.From the timings of lockdowns to the rationale of doing things differently to the UK government, the hearings will scrutinise actions taken in Wales.For many, it will be a chance to hear the justifications for policies that they say left them feeling unsupported and alone.Ann Richards did not get to say a final goodbye to her husband Eirwyn before he died from hospital-acquired Covid in January 2021. Married for more than 20 years, she described the retired pharmaceutical worker as her soulmate.”He was my best friend – and then suddenly he was taken,” she said.”When my parents died people would come to the house and you grieve together, but we couldn’t do that for Eirwyn.”Image source, Ann RichardsAnn still wonders if non-urgent healthcare had been fully up and running, could Eirwyn have been discharged sooner, or perhaps even avoided a hospital admission altogether?Additional rules put in place to reduce the spread of the virus meant there were delays in getting a purpose-built wheelchair – delaying his discharge from hospital.So Ann drove the 60-odd miles from her home in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, to Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf to collect the chair herself.What is the UK Covid inquiry and how does it work?Published31 JanuaryCovid inquiry: The UK pandemic in numbersPublished5 July 2023Covid in Wales: What do the stats tell us?Published3 days ago”I understand there had to be rules in place,” said the youth worker. “But it’s the wellbeing of the patients I think they lost a lot of.”Her family were also left in a quandary when her son on the Welsh border was expected to work for his Bristol employer, despite rules in Wales preventing that sort of travel.”We’re a small island. For Wales, Scotland and England all to have different rules – it’s no good for anybody,” she added.”This was an unprecedented time and it should have been put more on a war footing. So we’re all singing not just from the same hymn sheet but on the same line.”Over the next three weeks evidence will be heard from experts, advisors and those who sat around the cabinet in Welsh government during the pandemic.It will look at things like the relationship with UK government, the timings for lockdowns, the public messaging and the rationale for doing things differently to Westminster.As the manager of two care homes in Wrexham, Gaynor Jones felt her sector was “thrown under a bus by the government” because the advice was unworkable.“For example, you cannot isolate people with dementia, they’re just not safe. And staying six feet away from someone you’re delivering personal care to is impossible,” she said.Instead, from Easter 2020, each care home formed their own bubble, and staff didn’t leave for six weeks.“Within 24 hours I had nine volunteers for each home, they packed their bags and moved in,” she said. It meant the homes didn’t have one Covid-related death during the first wave,” she added.“It’s something I’ll always be proud of.”As officials, advisors and ministers give evidence to the inquiry about the decision making during that time, she would like “someone to be culpable and accountable” for the lack of support, as well as the confusion that ensued.“You are responsible and culpable for the people in your care. That can only be achieved with multi disciplinary health professionals on board,” she said.But with doctors no longer visiting care homes, that support disappeared. “The sector hasn’t recovered from Covid – a lot of people, especially staff who were furloughed, reflected on life and what they did for a living. It’s a hard job and so sadly we did eventually lose a lot of staff.”What will we learn from the Covid inquiry in Wales?Six things we will learn from the Covid Inquiry in Wales over the next three weeks are:The decisions around the actions that rapidly curtailed our day to day activities, like lockdowns, local restrictions and border controls, but also social distancing, household bubbles and face coverings. It will look into the timings of decisions and how reasonable they were, as well as the impact on the most vulnerable. Part of this will also consider the rationale behind the differences in approach between Wales and England. The messaging to the public to try and prevent the spread of the virus. How effective was that, and was public confidence in decision-makers affected? How well did Welsh government understand the nature and spread of Covid in the early days before lockdown? WhatsApp messages from advisors and politicians around the UK have shone a light on their private feelings about some of the decisions made – and the people making them. So just how good/bad were relations between Welsh and UK government? What sort of medical and scientific advice was used and was modelling done to predict the spread of the virus in Wales? Just how good was our understanding of transmission, infection, mutation and death rates? Fines and police stop checks were one element of the new legislation brought in – but how proportional were the new rules?

Cases of this rare, potentially dangerous childhood illness are growing in the U.S. It is often mistaken for scarlet fever, tick-borne diseases or common viruses. Here’s what to look for.Doctors across the United States are seeing a rise in Kawasaki disease, a mysterious condition that primarily affects children under 5. The illness is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children worldwide but it is often unrecognized or misdiagnosed.Kawasaki disease is rare, but cases are climbing in the United States. Here are the important things to know about Kawasaki disease.What causes it?No one knows. Kawasaki disease, also known as K.D., is one of the leading pediatric mysteries. Some scientists believe it results from an environmental exposure or that it occurs after a bacterial or viral infection. Certain genes appear to make some children more susceptible to it.Whatever the cause, there was a lull in cases in the United States during the pandemic, suggesting that masking and social distancing measures might have helped protect children from exposure. Now, cases are climbing, hinting that many children are being exposed to the disease’s mysterious cause for the first time.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

For 40 years, Dr. Jane Burns has been working to find the cause of Kawasaki disease, an illness that can lead to aneurysms and heart attacks. Her work has brought together a most unlikely team.It looked like a scene from the TV crime show “CSI.” Dr. Jane Burns was peering into a multiheaded microscope at the San Diego County medical examiner’s office, scrutinizing autopsy samples from an array of mysterious deaths.This one was from the heart of a 20-year-old jujitsu fighter who was last seen at the gym and was found dead in his bed two days later. There were no signs of foul play or self-harm.The blood vessel tissue on the slide looked abnormal. Dr. Burns turned to the examiner: “I think this was likely one of mine.”Dr. Burns is an expert in a rare childhood illness called Kawasaki disease, which is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children worldwide. It is also one of pediatric medicine’s greatest mysteries: No one knows what causes it.And Dr. Burns, who leads the investigations at the University of California San Diego’s Kawasaki Disease Research Center, has devoted her life to solving that mystery.The condition, which usually occurs in children under 5, is easy to miss: There is no diagnostic test, and its symptoms — a high fever, rash, red cracked lips and a “strawberry tongue” — look to many doctors like scarlet fever, measles or a tick-borne illness, despite its signature distinction of bloodshot eyes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Published3 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBy Daniel O’Donoghue & Scott HeskethBBC North West Investigations Team”Taking medication meant my brain was quiet for the first time; it was amazing, I cried because I was so happy,” Jass Thethi, whose life was transformed after an ADHD diagnosis just over a year ago, told a BBC North West investigation. But the 34-year-old’s joy was short-lived because, like more than 150,000 others who live with the condition and are reliant on medication, Jass has been affected by a UK-wide medicine shortage that started in September. Jass, who lives in Levenshulme, Greater Manchester, said: “When the medication shortage started I had to go back to white knuckling everyday life… I had to take the decision to change things and I had to quit the job I was doing.”The charity ADHD UK said it had recorded a “significant decline” in the availability of medicines, with only 11% having their normal prescription in January, a drop from 52% in September.The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said increased global demand and manufacturing issues were behind the shortages.Former charity worker Jass has been without her prescription for six months and told the BBC it had exacerbated her fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that causes pain all over her body. “Not having my ADHD meds means I can’t sleep,” she said. “That means my anxiety is worse and that means the pain gets worse and unfortunately there’s not a lot that can be done as I’m at the top of what they can do for my pain.”There’s not a lot of options at the moment, so I had to take the decision to really change my life and quit the job I enjoyed.”Dr Morgan Toerien, associate specialist in mental health at Beyond Clinics in Warrington, said Jass’s experience was not unique and many patients’ lives had been “completely destabilised”. “You find some people whose lives have been really transformed on medication, in terms of confidence, relationships, self-esteem and you find they’ve been able to go back into work.”It just completely destabilises people and they can literally fall apart if the medication is stopped abruptly.”What is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? (ADHD)Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a condition that affects people’s behaviourPeople with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and may act on impulseMost cases are diagnosed when children are under 12 years old but sometimes it is diagnosed later in childhoodHowever, on other occasions ADHD was not recognised at all when someone was a child and they are diagnosed later, as an adultSource: NHS EnglandDr Toerien explained ADHD medication regulates brain function to help patients “switch on” and “switch off”. “Medication stimulates the nervous system, it penetrates deep into the nervous system where there is a switch, which allows the nervous system to engage and disengage.”Often in people with ADHD when they’re trying to relax, their mind is racing at a hundred miles an hour and then when they’re trying to focus they get distracted and their thoughts are off in other places.”Dr Toerien said proper medication can have a “profound” impact, adding: “Some people find very small amounts of drugs make a significant impact, some have very profound changes and they find that all of a sudden, they are able to do tasks that they were never able to do before.”Jass told the BBC her medication made her feel “free” and “independent”.”Having ADHD is like having six different radio channels on in your brain at the same time and occasionally a couple of them might be in a different language,” she said. “They’re all the same volume, you don’t know where the off switches are and you don’t know which one to listen to and which one to deal with first. “Taking medication meant it was quiet for the first time ever. I cried when I took it because it was quiet in my brain, it was amazing, I was so happy.”She added: “I didn’t know that’s what normal people felt like, I was so confused for so much of my life. I was like how is everyone just getting on with it?”ADHD UK estimated about 150,000 people were currently experiencing issues with their medication.Survey results, published by the charity last month, found that 87% of members agreed that their work had been negatively impacted due to the shortage and 84% of full-time students said their learning had suffered.Warrington MP Charlotte Nichols raised the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions last month and said she was still being contacted by constituents about it.”I’ve been getting more and more contact from people with increasingly desperate stories, people have bene rationing their medication, people have been having to ring lots of different pharmacies, and they have been having to make really huge round trips to get the medication they need,” she said. “It feels like if this is going to be three or four more months of disruption, there is more that could be being done to support people.”Image source, UK Parliament A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have taken swift action to improve the supply of ADHD medications, but we know some challenges remain and understand that this may be distressing to patients and families. “We have well-established processes to prevent, manage and mitigate medicine shortages to ensure patients can continue to access the treatments they need. “We are working closely with the NHS, industry and others operating in the supply chain to help resolve any issues with ADHD medication as soon as possible. “We have also issued advice to healthcare professionals and any patient who is worried about their condition should speak to their clinician.”Why not follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.More on this storyWoman worried after no ADHD medicine for monthsPublished19 FebruaryADHD medicine shortage devastating families – MPPublished24 JanuaryADHD diagnosis ‘helps me to understand my brain’Published22 November 2023Author on how ADHD diagnosis ‘changed everything’Published17 December 2023Seven-fold increase in adult ADHD prescriptionsPublished28 August 2023Around the BBCADHD – BBC NewsRelated Internet LinksADHD UKThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.