‘My body was either too sick or too exhausted to process the idea of flavour': Jack Burke reveals how three rounds of chemotherapy destroyed his love of eating
I'd just checked in to London 's Royal Marsden for a three-night stay, surely the world's most depressing mini-break. I was 26, recently diagnosed with stage 3 testicular cancer, and about to begin three rounds of chemotherapy. I arrived on the ward, one bollock lighter, with a freshly inserted PICC line and a naïve sense of optimism.
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Times
4 hours ago
- Times
‘Functional beverages' are booming — but is it all hype?
Before you take that magnesium supplement or sit down to meditate, what if a drink could help you relax? Enter 'functional beverages', drinks that claim to possess additional health benefits beyond those of a standard fizzy drink or fruit juice. Functional drinks are surging in popularity, with supermarkets in Britain seeing sales increase by 24.5 per cent in the past year, according to Worldpanel by Numerator. The market research firm also said that almost 30 per cent of UK households now purchase functional drinks. However, Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a dietician with more than 15 years of clinical experience in the NHS, has warned that she 'wouldn't rely on them [functional drinks] for measurable health benefits'. Ludlam-Raine, who now works privately and is the author of How Not to Eat Ultra-Processed , said: 'Functional drinks containing ingredients like CBD [cannabidiol], lion's mane [a type of mushroom], and ashwagandha [a herb typically used in ayurvedic medicine] are part of a growing wellness trend, but the science isn't as strong as the marketing.'
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on regulating cosmetic procedures: rogue operators must be tackled, but aren't the only problem
The enormous popularity of beauty treatments, including dermatological fillers and Botox injections, is not solely an issue for health regulators. Changing norms and aspirations about appearances, and the way that these are marketed mainly to women and girls, are a cultural and economic phenomenon that requires wider consideration. While attitudes to these procedures and aesthetics vary, many people – including some cosmetic surgeons – are concerned that younger women account for a growing share of a highly lucrative and growing market. The death last year of 33-year-old Alice Webb in Gloucestershire, after a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift, as well as multiple reports of injuries, and the deaths of at least 28 women who have travelled to Turkey for cosmetic treatments, have increased the pressure on ministers to tighten the law. Wes Streeting's announcement of new licence requirements for UK businesses, and tighter regulation of higher-risk treatments, is probably overdue. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute recently warned that untrained people have given cosmetic injections in public toilets and hotels. Altering the law in order to exclude such 'rogue operators' ought to make high streets and the internet – where many clinics advertise – safer. Talking about the risks, as the health secretary has been doing, and holding a consultation on proposed changes, may have the beneficial effect of raising awareness even before changes are introduced. But councils will need resources if they are to be expected to enforce new rules by issuing licences, checking premises and so on. As in many other areas of economic activity, the law on its own is unlikely to be enough. Mechanisms are needed to ensure that businesses comply. It is already illegal to administer Botox or dermal fillers to children in England – although, worryingly, it is still allowed in Wales and Scotland. Mr Streeting's announcement that rules regarding children will be tightened further is particularly welcome. Strenuous efforts should be made to place them off limits for the industry as a whole. The reported preoccupation of some children with anti-ageing products is not healthy and should be discouraged. Mr Streeting did not refer to the cost to the NHS if cosmetic procedures go wrong, when announcing plans to tighten the law. But Karin Smyth, one of his ministers, has raised this. And Prof Sir Stephen Powis, who was NHS England's national medical director until last month, made the same point specifically in relation to butt lifts – the cosmetic procedure with the highest death rate of all. Ministers should expect pushback even though many experts, including plastic surgeons, favour tighter rules. The pro-growth mood of the Treasury means proposals for new regulations are unlikely to be smiled upon there. The more restrictive approach being proposed for England will also do nothing to prevent surgical tourism and could even increase it, if tighter regulation of the domestic industry results in higher prices. The gap in safeguards that allows foreign cosmetic surgery providers to market directly to the public needs to be addressed separately, which the government has begun to recognise. There is no single or instant fix. But by cracking down on cowboy operators, ministers will send a message that appearance-altering injections and other invasive treatments must be treated seriously. They are a different order of activity from applying makeup or painting nails. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Sky News
5 hours ago
- Sky News
Remaining hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed with malnutrition cases
In the Al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza City, nine-year-old Maryam Dawas is wasting away. WARNING: This shows people suffering from malnutrition which you may find distressing Her malnutrition is so severe, she can no longer eat. Her tiny ribcage juts out of her chest. Her upper arms are thinner than her wrists. Every blink looks like it's a struggle. Her eyes are tired and sad. "What is your dream now?" a family friend who's filming asks her. "To go back to the way I was," she whispers back. Maryam Dawas used to weigh 25kg (3st 9lb). Now she weighs nine (1st 4lb). That's about the weight of a baby that hasn't yet reached its first birthday. Her medical records say she has functional diarrhoea, unspecified intestinal malabsorption and unspecified severe protein-energy malnutrition. "Maryam suffered from malnutrition ever since we were displaced from the north to Rafah," her mother explains. "Because of the famine that was in the south, we went through a famine, but it wasn't worse than the one we are in now." Maryam's case is hardly unique. The latest report on Gaza from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that almost 13,000 new admissions of children for acute malnutrition were recorded in July. The latest numbers from the Gaza Health Ministry are 251 dead as a result of famine and malnutrition, including 108 children. "I went to multiple hospitals in the last week and every one of them is overwhelmed with malnutrition cases, severe malnutrition - children, teenagers, you name it," OCHA Gaza representative Olga Cherevko tells me. "And whether it's a pre-existing condition or malnutrition on its own, the fact that it's in the state that it is means that it exacerbates whatever condition exists on top of it." Israel's coordinator of government activities in the territories (COGAT) claimed on Tuesday that Hamas was inflating the numbers of people in Gaza dying of malnutrition, and that most of the children who had died had pre-existing health conditions. But that is the thing about famine. It seeks out the vulnerable first and then it settles in, ingraining itself with the weak and the poverty-stricken, exacerbating their problems. In his book Poverty and Famines, the Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen writes as his opening line: "Starvation is the characteristic of some people not having enough food to eat. It is not the characteristic of there not being enough food to eat." 3:08 Aid not getting to the most weak and vulnerable There is now a trickle of aid getting into Gaza, but it is getting to those who are strong enough to fight for it. Siphoned off from aid points and sold on the black market, it is getting to the few who still have some money to pay for it. It is not getting to the weak, the vulnerable and the poor, though that describes the majority of Gaza's 2.1 million residents. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (ICE) which measures food insecurity and famine, 81% of households in Gaza reported poor food consumption in July, up from 33% in April; 24% of households experienced very severe hunger in July, compared with 4% in April; and nearly nine out of 10 households resorted to "extremely severe coping mechanisms" to feed themselves. That huge hike in food insecurity follows on directly from Israel's total blockade, which began on 2 March and ended on 19 May when Israel began a limited resumption of food supplies. Eleven weeks in which nothing at all came in, compounding almost two years of war and a partial blockade of Gaza ongoing since 2007. The UK says it plans to evacuate more injured and critically ill children from Gaza "at pace". For children like Maryam, that could not happen soon enough.
