Topic: Diet - Primary Care

Obesity is estimated to be responsible for more than 30,000 deaths each year, reducing lifespan by an average of nine years. The links between obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease are well documented, but overweight and obesity also causes 6% of cancers in the UK. These figures have resulted in warnings that obesity is the new smoking when it comes to risks to health and longevity. So the problem is clear. The challenge is to put into action what works.

Consumption of moderate amounts of full fat dairy products is associated with lower risk of mortality and major cardiovascular disease events in a diverse multinational cohort, in a study published recently in the Lancet.

Intensified and multifaceted treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes and poor prognosis due to microalbuminuria extends median lifetime by 8 years compared with conventional therapy, according to a new long-term Danish follow-up study of the Steno-2 trial.

Offering a year-long programme of weight loss classes could prevent an additional 1786 cases of cardiovascular disease for every 100,000 people compared to the existing 12-week NHS programme, according to a new study published in the Lancet.

Stories in this Evidence in Practice include: Health survey for England, 2016: The good and the bad news Healthy lifestyle changes have a long-term benefit for type 2 diabetes prevention Weight loss diets reduce the risk of premature death for people with obesity Very low calorie diet can achieve a remission of Type 2 Diabetes Dash diet plus sodium reduction lowers systolic blood pressure Long-term follow-up underscores benefits of lowering LDL-C in CVD primary prevention Blood pressure self-monitoring is more effective with professional support AF and other chronic conditions = higher risk of death Clinical trials underestimate the real-world impact of Atherosclerotic CVD The burden of heart failure continues to rise in the UK

Management of type 2 diabetes continues to be very challenging. Adherence with therapy is poor, due in part to the number of medications and the high frequency they need to be taken each day. PillTime is a new system which makes managing medicines easier and is ideal for those on multiple medicines and active lifestyles.

A meta-analysis of 189 studies including 3.9 million adults across four continents shows that being overweight or obese is associated with an increased risk of premature death. The risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer are all increased.

The most extensive systematic assessment of effects of omega‐3 fats on cardiovascular health to date suggests that increasing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) has little or no effect on mortality or cardiovascular health.

Two studies highlight the long-term implications of childhood obesity. The first study shows that obese children have increased arterial damage and an enhanced likelihood of pre-diabetes in adulthood which, in turn, increases the chance of developing cardiovascular disease.

Worldwide, there has been a more than ten-fold increase in the number of children and adolescents with obesity in the past four decades, increasing from 5 million girls in 1975 to 50 million in 2016, and from 6 million to 74 million boys, according to a new global analysis of trends in child and adolescent obesity in 200 countries.