Alphawave agrees £1.8bn takeover by America's Qualcomm
Outrage as boy, 8, turned away from treatment at London NHS clinic 'because he attends private school'
Outrage as boy, 8, refused NHS treatment 'for going to private school'
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Evening Standard
an hour ago
- Evening Standard
Fern Britton reveals what she did to lose five stone
'So I started the Couch to 5k, took about 80 per cent of the sugar out of my life and started to think about what I was eating, which I had never done before.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE UFC fighter loved by Donald Trump reveals 'miracle' $1 weight loss drug helped her cut 30lbs
UFC Champion Kayla Harrison revealed she used Zyn nicotine pouches to help with her brutal 30-pound weight cut. The $1 pouches have been hugely popular among young people and TikTokers for their appetite suppressing effects. But they've since entered the mainstream, capturing the attention of athletes and politicians. Harrison, 34, credited Zyn pouches with helping her cut down from 165lbs to 135lbs for her championship fight at the weekend. She secured the world title this weekend after tapping out her opponent, before wrapping the belt around President Donald Trump's waist in a viral photo. Harrison, who has historically struggled with weight cutting, has been vocal about her grueling regimen, which includes six miles of biking, running and swimming a day and eating only foods made by a professional chef. But days after her victory, the mixed martial artist revealed it wasn't just cardio or dieting that won her the title. She wrote on X: 'Shoutout to @zyn for getting me to 135. I'm not sponsored but I wanna be.' Zyn is a brand of tiny nicotine pouches no larger than a thumbnail that has emerged as an unlikely weight loss secret weapon. It's well known that nicotine suppresses your appetite by sending satiety signals to receptors in the brain, convincing your brain that you don't need to eat. It also ramps up your heart rate and sends in a flood of adrenaline, which activates the body's 'fight or flight' response. In this state, the body doesn't want food. For this reason, cigarettes have long been linked to weight loss, but the risks of lung cancer and heart attacks far outweighs the benefits. The same thing happens with Zyn, but the science is much murkier. After being inserted between the lips and gum, Zyn releases nicotine into the bloodstream slowly, with effects lasting up to an hour, compared to just minutes for cigarettes. This could stave off hunger for much longer than smoking. Experts told that while the $1 pouch can ward off hunger, it still contains highly addictive nicotine, which attacks arteries and increases the risks of heart attacks and stroke. It's also been shown to lead to gum disease and oral cancers, which are on the rise in the US and UK. Tucker Carlson launched his own brand of nicotine pouches called Alp. Health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr was also seen popping what looked like a Zyn during his confirmation hearings. The FDA approved Zyn as a smoking alternative earlier this year, citing evidence it would help wean smokers off traditional tobacco. So far, 10 flavors have been approved in the US, including coffee, cinnamon and menthol. However, the pouches have been available for over a decade, leading young people to boast improvements to their fitness, energy and sexual performance. Gen Z has also dubbed them 'O-Zyn-pic,' a reference to it being a significantly cheaper Ozempic alternative for weight loss. A pack of 15 Zyn pouches sells for $5-$10, whereas Ozempic can run up to $1,000 a month without insurance. The nicotine in Zyn is thought to activate the α3β4 receptors in the brain, which send signals promoting fullness, even if a user is actually hungry. It may also increase the production of leptin, a satiety hormone, and boost the body's ability to burn fat. There's little evidence on the long-term effects of Zyn, but the risks of nicotine have been well documented. Dr Hector Perez, lead bariatric surgeon at Renew Bariatrics, told 'I think it's safe to say that using Zyn as a weight loss drug is like using a chainsaw to slice bread. Yes, Zyn contains nicotine, and yes, nicotine is a known appetite suppressant. 'But let's be clear: using Zyn or any nicotine product as a weight loss tool is not safe, sustainable, or smart. To lose 30 pounds in a few months with nicotine as the main strategy would likely require near-constant dosing, and that's a chemical crutch verging on addiction, not simply hunger control.' Though Zyn doesn't contain tobacco, it still has highly addictive nicotine. Roughly 24million Americans over 12, nine percent of the population, are dependent on nicotine. Nicotine addiction leads to withdrawal symptoms like irritability, cravings, restless legs, anxiety and trouble sleeping. The adrenaline rush caused by nicotine also increases heart rate and blood pressure as part of the body's 'fight-or-flight' response. While this gives users a burst of excitement, repeated stress on the cardiovascular system makes the heart have to work harder to pump blood. The weaker the heart and its surrounding arteries get, the more likely they are to become blocked, leading to a heart attack. Nicotine also attacks the lungs and reduces their function, which could prove detrimental for elite athletes like Harrison. Dr Perez said: 'Zyn is the Wild West. You're playing with your heart rate, blood pressure, and potentially your long-term brain chemistry.' Nicotine may also lead to lasting dental issues. Dr Pia Lieb, cosmetic dentist at Cosmetic Dentistry Center in New York City, told 'Using [Zyn] more long term, users are putting themselves at risk of developing gum disease, as nicotine is a vasoconstricter.' This means is reduces blood flow to the gums, leading to swelling and bleeding. 'This can lead to gum recession, which can expose the roots of teeth, making them more vulnerable to decay and sensitivity,' Dr Lieb added. She also warns nicotine is still a carcinogen linked to oral cancers, which strike 60,000 Americans a year and kill 13,000.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Doctor who has performed hundreds of autopsies reveals how people 'unknowingly' die of cancer
In 2025, it is predicted that more than 600,000 people will die of cancer in the United States - but within that is a small number who don't even know they have it. While many of these people are treated after their cancer is detected, a pathologist has revealed that he has come across several who unknowingly passed away from the deadly disease. Dr. Wolfe, who has performed numerous autopsies to determine people's cause of death, recently posted a shocking TikTok sharing three stories from within the last few months. In the video, he explained that whilst it is not common, he has performed several autopsies on people - of all different ages - finding their cause of death is not what medics originally thought. The doctor began by discussing how one man had complained of a chronic cough before he died which he had blamed on his smoking. 'He finally gets so severe, where he can't stop coughing. Now, he's coughing up blood, he gets taken to the ER and they do imaging and he has a complete white out on his lungs,' he explained. 'He then codes and dies,' he continued. 'He comes to the autopsy table and I find he does have a horrible pneumonia - one of the worst pneumonias I've ever seen in my career - but as I went through the lung I realized the reason why there was pneumonia. 'It was because there was a cancerous tumor, a small cell carcinoma of the lung that was encasing the airway,' he explained. 'So what happens is it grows into the airway and closes the airway off and causes a pneumonia behind that, it's called the post obstructive pneumonia secondary to malignancy.' He added that pneumonia is not the cause of death, but the 'end point' of the actual underlying cause, which is cancer. 'Without the cancerous tumor blocking the airway, you wouldn't have had the pneumonia,' Dr. Wolfe explained. The doctor then listed another example with a younger patient, who was a man in his early 20s. '[He had] had several months of abdominal pain, weight loss and fevers, also night sweats, and he refused to go to the doctor to investigate this.' 'Then the pain became so intense that he finally did go to the ER and they thought it was going to be some kind of appendicitis or ruptured organ,' the medical professional continued. Sadly, the young man didn't even make it to the CT scanner before he passed away. 'He wasn't able to be revived,' he somberly recalled. When the man was taken to Dr. Wolfe to perform an autopsy, he found him riddled with cancer. 'I opened him up and found cancer in essentially every organ from his clavicles to his pelvis, also in the abdominal wall and the omentum [tissue that drapes over the intestines],' he recalled. The doctor said it was a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma case, explaining: 'The tumor burden just gets so high it messes up the electrolytes for the patient and then they develop cardiac arrhythmia.' The last patient was a 65-year-old man who had colon cancer symptoms, but passed away before he could have a colonoscopy. 'I [did] the autopsy to determine the cause of death and it turns out he did actually have stage four colon cancer that was metastatic widely throughout his abdomen, and also into his lungs and had basically grown through the wall of the colon,' he shared. As per Healthline, there is no definitive length of time someone can have cancer without knowing it, explaining that some cancers can be present for months or years before they're detected. According to a 1990 report from the National Library of Medicine, 11 percent of patients over a 25-year period died from cancer without it being diagnosed. As per the report, over 20,000 autopsies were carried out over a 25-year period, with 700 cancers (11 percent) were found in patients in whom the diagnosis of cancer had not been considered relevant clinically. Doctors always recommend regularly visiting a doctor for health screenings.
