Medical Bulletin 24/ January/ 2025 - Video

Targeting nine key health conditions may be crucial for women’s health and add the equivalent of 2.5 healthy days per woman per year, according to new research released at the world economic forum (WEF). The new report shows that compared to men, women live one-fourth more of their lives in poor health. Focussing on the nine conditions, categorised as lifespan and healthspan conditions may be key to boosting their lives and health.

Focused on nine key conditions – breast cancer, cervical cancer, menopause, endometriosis, premenstrual syndrome, post-partum haemorrhage, maternal hypertensive disorder, migraine and ischaemic heart disease – that drive a third of the women’s health gap, the report outlines actionable solutions to address disparities in treatment, care delivery, data and funding. Closing this gap could add almost 27 million disability-adjusted life years annually and $400 billion to global GDP by 2040, and improve the quality of life for women worldwide.

The report introduces the Women’s Health Impact Tracking (WHIT) platform, a pioneering tool to measure and track health gaps for women. It emphasizes five key actions: count women (measure women’s health and health outcomes globally); study women (understand hormonal health and women’s biology); care for women (implement clinical practice guidelines for women-specific conditions and account for sex-specific differences within CPGs); include all women (develop accessible solutions to enable early intervention and treatment for women around the world); and invest in women (boost comprehensive financing for women’s health research and interventions). This blueprint offers a path towards healthier lives for women and stronger, more inclusive economies.

“It is time to count women, study women, care for women, invest in women, and include all women,” said Lucy Perez, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and Co-leader of the McKinsey Health Institute.

Reference: https://www.weforum.org/publications/blueprint-to-close-the-women-s-health-gap-how-to-improve-lives-and-economies-for-all/

A new peer-reviewed highlights the need for a clear framework when it comes to AI research, given the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence by children and adolescents using digital devices to access the internet and social media. The findings published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, calls for a “critical re-evaluation” of how we study the impact of internet-based technologies on young people’s mental health, and outlines where future AI research can learn from several pitfalls of social media research. Existing limitations include inconsistent findings and a lack of longitudinal, causal studies. 

The analysis and recommendations by the Oxford researchers are divided into four sections:  

A brief review of recent research on the effects of technology on children’s and adolescents’ mental health, highlighting key limitations to the evidence. 

An analysis of the challenges in the design and interpretation of research that they believe underlie these limitations. 

Proposals for improving research methods to address these challenges, with a focus on how they can apply to the study of AI and children’s wellbeing. 

Concrete steps for collaboration between researchers, policymakers, big tech, caregivers and young people. 

The authors propose that effective research on AI will ask questions that don’t implicitly problematise AI, ensure causal designs, and prioritise the most relevant exposures and outcomes. 

The paper concludes that as young people adopt new ways of interacting with AI, research and evidence-based policy will struggle to keep up. However, by ensuring our approach to investigating the impact of AI on young people reflects the learnings of past research’s shortcomings, we can more effectively regulate the integration of AI into online platforms, and how they are used. 

Reference: From social media to artificial intelligence: improving research on digital harms in youth, Mansfield, Karen L et al. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, Volume 0, Issue 0

Muscular strength and good physical fitness are linked to a significantly lower risk of death from any cause in people with cancer, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Tailored exercise to boost muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness in patients with cancer may help boost their chances of survival, suggest the researchers

They searched for relevant studies published in English up to August 2023 and included 42 in their pooled data analysis, involving nearly 47,000 patients with various types and stages of cancer. Low muscle strength, using handgrip strength, was classified as either less than 13 kg to less than 25 kg in women, and from less than around 20 kg to less than 40 kg in men.

Cardiorespiratory fitness was assessed using either cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) or the 6 minute walk test (MWT). The pooled data analysis of the study results showed that both muscular strength and cardiorespiratory fitness were significantly associated with the risk of death from any cause and specifically from cancer.

Compared with those with poor muscle strength and low levels of cardiorespiratory fitness, those at the other end of the spectrum were 31%-46% less likely to die from any cause. And this risk fell by a further 11% with each unit increase in muscular strength.

What’s more, this combination of strength and fitness was associated with an 8%-46% lower risk of death from any cause in patients with advanced cancer (stages 3 and 4), and a 19%–41% lower risk of death from any cause among those with lung or digestive cancers.

And each unit increase in fitness level was associated with an 18% lower risk of death from cancer itself.

“Our findings highlight that muscle strength could potentially be used in clinical practice to determine mortality risk in cancer patients in advanced stages and, therefore, muscle strengthening activities could be employed to increase life expectancy,” suggest the researchers.

Reference: Bettariga F, Galvao D, Taaffe D, et al. Association of muscle strength and cardiorespiratory fitness with all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in patients diagnosed with cancer: a systematic review with meta-analysis. British Journal of Sports Medicine Published Online First: 21 January 2025. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2024-108671

Fizzy water might aid weight loss by boosting blood glucose uptake and metabolism—the rate at which the body uses and converts energy—but the effects are so small, drinking it can’t be relied on alone to shed the pounds, concludes a brief analysis published in the journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health.

The author compared the process of drinking fizzy water with haemodialysis, whereby blood is filtered (dialysed) to remove waste and excess water when the kidneys no longer can, drawing on previously published research.

Haemodialysis turns blood alkaline, primarily producing carbon dioxide (CO₂). Similarly, the CO₂ of fizzy water is absorbed through the stomach lining and is rapidly converted to bicarbonate (HCO3) in red blood cells. This alkalinisation process speeds up glucose absorption and use by activating key enzymes in red blood cells, explains the author.

Clinical observations during haemodialysis show that blood glucose levels fall as blood passes through the dialyser, despite a higher glucose level in the dialysate solution to start with, he adds.

While these findings suggest that fizzy water may indirectly promote weight loss by enhancing the uptake and use of blood glucose, context is key, emphasises the author.

During a typical 4 hour haemodialysis session around 48000 ml of blood flows through the dialyser, resulting in around 9.5 g of glucose being used during the session, he explains.

“Given this minimal glucose reduction, the impact of CO₂ in carbonated water is not a standalone solution for weight loss. A balanced diet and regular physical activity remain crucial components of sustainable weight management,” he insists.