UK National Childhood Obseity Week 2012

National Childhood Obesity Week runs from 2-8 July 2012. 

Organised by MEND – Mind, Exercise, Nutrition… Do it! – its aim is to raise awareness of the dangers of being above a healthy weight during childhood.

This year MEND is working with netmums to publish the findings of the ‘Let’s talk about weight’ survey. This will show the experiences of parents when it comes to bringing up the topic of weight with their child and the challenges they face.

Visit the website to find out more about the many awareness-raising activities that will be taking place and how to get involved.

NHS Live members have registered a number of projects related to obesity on the NHS Live project directory. Simply click on 'advanced search' and enter the keyword ‘obesity’ or any other topic area you're interested in.

Essex Health Expo a great success

Clacton Radio report that a successful Health Expo ‘Your Life, Your Health’ was hosted recently by Community Voluntary Services Tendring and held at Clacton Town Hall, Essex in the UK.

The event, sponsored by Colchester Catalyst Charity, was initiated in response to the many enquiries from members of the public who have, over the years, contacted CVST in search of information about local support services.

There were 30 exhibitors in attendance whose services help prevent and treat illness and disease and support people to manage their long term health conditions. They gave demonstrations, leaflets and information about their health services to the general public.

Many people who attended stated that the demonstrations on the stage were excellent and provided people with an illustration of the various activities available in the area including Zumba, Bockra, Kickboxing and Pilates.  

The majority of visitors to the Health Expo said that they would be making changes to their lifestyle by taking up more exercise, changing their diet or seeking alternative therapies.

CVST’s Chief Officer Sharon Alexander said, “The event was the first of its kind in the area and was long overdue. People not only found out about the many traditional services available but also got the chance to try out alternative health therapies. Often people say they don’t know which way to turn when they need help – this event not only provided answers to questions but also pointed people in the right direction”.

Steve St Clair reflects on the impact of a Euro collapse

Steve St Clair at Enerfood has pubslished an article reflecting on the impact of the possible Euro collapse on people's health and wellbeing.

Steve believes that a collapse of the Euro will have far reaching effects on everyone financially and this will ultimately impact our health.

He suggests that the large capital outflows (that could be translated to say bank runs) in several EC countries, namely Greece and Spain, and the billions that the EU is spending to save them and the billions more that will be required will ultimately lead to a total collapse of the Euro and the EC.

Steve encourages us to really take a look at the situation in Europe and not just read the what the "main stream machine" is putting out trying to quell our fears. This is real and is definitely going to have a real impact on all of us.

Check out this article Steve wrote by clicking here.

NHS Innovation Challenge Prizes 2012 entries close shortly

UK Health Radio reminds listeners that the countdown to the final submission date for entries to The NHS Innovation Challenge, established to recognise and reward ideas that tackle some of the most challenging areas in healthcare, is imminent.

Now in its second year, this innovative scheme not only rewards the tremendous pool of talent that exist in the NHS with well-deserved recognition, but also provide successful applicants with prize money – their biggest winner to date received £100,000!

The NHS Innovation Challenges provides an opportunity to reward clinical advances such as new treatments for life-threatening conditions, which may take a number of years to solve, as well as innovations in delivering care and promoting healthy living, aimed at achieving new levels of performance in more immediate time frames.

If you are involved with the NHS and have a ground-breaking idea you wish to share with other - and maybe need some funding - you can find out more about the NHS Innovation Challenge at:
http://www.challengeprizes.institute.nhs.uk/the-list-of-challenges/

Are low fat foods making you fat?

UK Health Radio guest presenter and blogger, fitness and diet guru Rebecca Lane (pictured), shares her personal thoughts on a key topic for debate amongst dieters:

I wonder how many of you buy low-fat products in the hope to lose weight.

There are so many companies out there claiming that their products help people to lose weight. According to research Americans eat the most low fat and fat free foods, but somehow they have the highest rate of obesity in the world!

People of all generations before us were not struggling as much as we are today with weight. What was it that was different? Well, they certainly didn’t have low fat or fat free foods, so if they didn’t have those foods to “help” them, what was it? Simply, they didn’t have low fat or fat free foods! That’s why they were not struggling with their weight!

Low fat and fat free foods do not help you to lose weight!

First off, foods with fat tend to taste better than their low fat or fat free. When companies reduce or take out the fat, the taste goes with it. In return large amounts of sugar is added resulting in a huge insulin spike. Low fat and fat free foods contain so many extra fillers that it’s scary! Included are huge amounts of salt and sugar along with bulking agents, flavor enhancers and artificial flavoring. However, it does the trick to making low fat and fat free foods tastier.

Secondly, now that companies have been successful in making low fat and fat free foods tasty, people tend to think that since they taste good and are low fat, then it’s okay to eat even more of these foods than regular full fat foods. This is actually very bad! It’s bad because if you eat more, you end up eating more of the chemicals they pump into these foods! And those chemicals are bad for your body.

Statistically speaking, when you eat low fat or fat free foods, typically everyone will end up eating 28% more calories than regular full fat foods! Can you believe that? So by eating more of these low fat or fat free foods that are artificially tasty, you’re actually eating more calories than you should be, than you would be if you were eating full fat foods!

Now, that doesn’t mean that if you just eat less of the low fat or fat free foods, then these will be healthy for you because they really aren’t.. That also doesn’t mean that you’re free to eat fatty, greasy foods either because fried foods are never good for you. What you should be eating are foods that are high in good fats. These include olive oil, avocadoes, nuts, seeds and oily fish, like salmon and tuna.

Successful weight loss begins with making good health choices and sometimes it may mean making a healthy lifestyle change. But the key is to keep all of your health decisions in your hands. So keep learning about foods and make sure to keep your health is your focus and you’ll quickly be able to lose weight successfully!

Follow Becky at @beckyfitness

Detox versus calorie counting

UK Health Radio guest presenter and blogger, Rebecca Lane (pictured), a health and fitness expert, shares her personal thoughts on the detox versus calorie counting debate.

Most people associate losing weight with counting calories. This is not the best and ideal way to achieve your weight loss goals and here is why:

When a person counts calories their aim is to create a calorie deficit. For example; consume 1,200 calories but use 2,000 calories will create an 800 calorie deficit. Then at the end of the week will result in a few pounds lost. This is great for a short while but your body will start to conserve that energy and become wise. It will notice that not much food is entering the body and will switch on the fat storing hormone and you will plateau.

I used to work in an office of women and we were rubbish at keeping to diets, we constantly spoke about food and we binged uncontrollably. One of my colleagues used to have a can of diet coke to keep her hunger at bay. Before I started in the fitness industry I never really thought about why she did this. The reason for this was because it was curing her sweet fix for a short period of time but what she didn’t realise and probably still doesn’t today is that these drinks are crammed full of toxins which slows down metabolisation and in fact make you hungrier.

Diet drinks are full of aspartame, which is a lethal synthetic chemical combination found in thousands of foods and drinks and is dangerous! Stay away from the diet cokes.

So, what is the difference between traditional and fad diets…

Fat is stored to protect our bodies from impurities. When someone goes on a fad diet (calorie counting, points, shakes) the body becomes smaller but because the body hasn’t been detoxed there is an increased amount of impurities within the body. Skin will be bad, lethargy will be present. The body knows there is an increased amount of toxins so will go into emergency fat production – known as rebound where the fat goes back on.

When we nutritionally cleanse (aka detox) – the impurities are released and the body will shed fat at the same time. You will feel grotty when you start on a nutritional cleanse, my detoxers will tell you this! But after a few days – one week they feel fantastic and will have an increase in energy. This is because there are less impurities and therefore better overall health, less fat and more lean muscle.

Follow Becky at @beckyfitness

Chris Walker joins the UK Health Radio team

Thursdays on the new health radio station for the UK, UK Health Radio, includes two new jazz programmes including the highly acclaimed Chris Walker Show.

Chris was born in 1939 and took up playing clarinet at the age of 15, having been a member of the school recorder band since he was 11. After leaving school he played regularly around the London jazz scene, as a member of The Freddy Shaw Jazzmen, before becoming a professional musician with The London City Stompers and, later, with the Mike Daniels Big Band and Colin Kingwell’s Jazz Bandits.

Chris moved to Hampshire in 1969 and, since then, he has worked with most of the local jazz personalities, was a member of The Real Ale & Thunder Band for 18 years, and has run his own highly successful 5-piece ‘Swingtet’ for the last 21 years.

Whilst with the Real Ale & Thunder Band, Chris was, in 1987, the musical director for an historic BBC “Songs of Praise” from The Maltings in Farnham and, between 1980 and 2007; he has produced a series of music and information based jazz programmes for BBC local radio all across the South.

In addition to managing and fronting ‘The Chris Walker Swingtet’, Chris has, for P&O Cruises, co-ordinated Jazz Themes aboard nine highly praised cruises on board Canberra and Oriana, Aurora and Artemis. He also acts as jazz advisor to Portsmouth City Council for their Jazz Day every summer on Southsea seafront, helped set up the original concept for the Chichester Real Ale & Jazz Festival, and now, annually arranges and hosts the jazz programme for the Reading Real Ale & Jazz Festival and the Lyme Regis Jazz Festival every July.

NHS Leadership Recognition Awards 2012

UK Health Radio News is delighted that 2012 is an exciting year for leadership in the NHS with the creation of the new centre of excellence, the NHS Leadership Academy, and the continuation of the prestigious NHS Leadership Recognition Awards.

The NHS is changing rapidly in a creative and focused way redesigning its services and developing its workforce to provide improved experiences and outcomes for all our patients. Real change takes good leadership at every level of the system and everyone working for or on behalf of the NHS has a crucial role to play in this endeavour. The NHS Leadership Recognition Awards show us by example how the very best leaders and leadership practice makes change happen.

Outstanding leaders already exist in the NHS but making them the norm still requires a further shift in thinking and action. There have also been great strides in supporting and developing high quality leadership over the last few years including the NHS Leadership Recognition Awards. The awards affiliation to the NHS Leadership Academy aligns them with the Academy's ambition of supporting leadership development, setting national standards, and raising the profile of leadership.

The NHS Leadership Recognition Awards aim to recognise outstanding leadership practice focused on improving quality of care for patients. They celebrate leaders working at every level of the system and help foster the leaders of the future from all backgrounds.

To find out more, please visit here: http://www.nhsleadershipawards.nhs.uk/about-the-awards.aspx

Papaya & Pomegranate Probiotic formula for digestive and immune health!

The latest 1 Stop  Health Shop Newsletter suggests that many of us overlook the importance of the digestive system.

Many do not realise that the digestive tract plays a vital role in overall wellbeing; in the absorption of nutrients as well as acting as a first line of defence against ingested micro-organisms.

The intestinal immune system plays a very important role in our overall immune system.

Some physicians attributed diseases of aging to the build-up of waste products or putrefaction in the colon, ultimately leaking toxins into the bloodstream. Lined with over 500 different species of bacteria, the intestinal tract keeps the balance between healthy and harmful bacteria. Unfortunately, many of us have poor diets that disrupt these healthy bacteria. Stress and especially antibiotics can damage these healthy bacteria so that we experience symptoms like gas, bloating, diarrohea and abdominal cramping/pain.

In short, a digestive system with good microflora serves a protective barrier against harmful bacteria. But how can one have a healthy intestinal flora? The answer is Probiotics.

To read the news letter in full - please click this link to the 1-Stop-Health-Shop Newsletter and listen to our regular blogs on UK Health Radio

International nutritionist and academic joins UK Health Radio

UK Health Radio welcomes Dr. Gary Mendoza PhD., BSc. (Hons), RNutr to its team of guest presenters contributing articles for publication on the station’s website and a regular audio blog to be broadcast.

The health radio station for the UK broadcasts from London 24/7 with a mix of health, wellbeing, fitness and nutrition news, advice, product information and ‘gossip’ with terrific specialist music programmes.

Welcoming Dr Mendoza to the team, UK Health Radio’s Station Director, John Hicks, said: “Gary’s background was initially in personal training where he worked with many individuals helping them achieve their personal goals during which time he achieved a first class honours degree in Applied Human Nutrition from the University of Wales.”

“After moving into training trainers, he developed a very successful nutrition and weight management course. This course formed the basis of his doctoral research for which he was awarded a PhD in nutrition, specializing in a multi-dimensional treatment for overweight and obese males.” added John.

The weight loss course that Dr Mendoza developed has been adopted in New Zealand by the Manawatu Regional Health board as their treatment of choice and his research shows that it works.
Dr Mendoza’s other key area of interest is sports nutrition. Whilst lecturing in nutrition at Massey University in New Zealand he trained with Sports Dietitians Australia (SDA) and was programme leader for sports nutrition and advanced sports nutrition at Massey University. Gary has a wide range of experience in many sports. In 2005-2006 he was the academy nutritionist for Nottingham Forest FC. He also worked with a Commonwealth Games weight-lifter during this period. Whilst in New Zealand he worked with Western netball teaching nutrition to aspiring Silver ferns (the NZ national netball team). He also worked with a national level swimmer and an international mountain biker. He is currently working closely with a professional cage fighter, as well as a national level mountain biker.

John said: “This lecturer in nutrition for sport and exercise at Bath Spa University and Cardiff Metropolitan University brings a wealth of academic and practical experience to our health radio station for the UK and we are honoured that Dr Mendoza has kindly agreed to contribute to our work. Listen to Gary here on UK Health Radio”.

Dr Mendoza’s website contains articles and tips for weight loss and sports nutrition. This can be found at www.nutritionforsportandweightloss.co.uk

You can also join the Nutritional Academy on that website. I set this up to disseminate sound evidence based nutrition advice. For the price of a cup of coffee (£2.50) you get regular articles, there are forums on all matters nutritional and finally you can submit questions directly to him whenever you want.

UK Health Radio presenter, Dr Gary Mendoza, regularly tweet hints and tips on nutrition so you can follow him @Drgarymend