Latest news with #Faragher
BBC News
09-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Isle of man school meals report branded 'meaningless' by MHK
A report on school meals on the Isle of Man that saw redactions on more than 80% of its pages has been branded "completely meaningless" by an MHK The document, published in March, looks at areas such as the operating model and costs saw large sections of the text and in some cases full pages blacked Faragher MHK said the review had a "significant level of both political and public interest" but "no one can get any information" out of what has been Minister Daphne Caine said while the report had not been produced "in a way that could made public", the details were "informing policy" on the issue. The 2023 School Meals Review, originally drafted for internal use by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture (Desc), confirmed £2,522,000 was spent on the service in the academic year 2022-2023. But the publicly available version of the document has removed a list of 24 recommended improvements to the service, considerations of a new model and the details of potential alternatives, and a suggested five-year on more than 120 pages of the 147-page report can not be viewed. 'In development' In Tuesday's sitting of the House of Keys, Lawrie Hooper MHK said: "The fact the department has decided to redact everything related to the development and formulation of policy is somewhat absurd."He asked how Tynwald members were expected to engage with the review all politicians could see was "pages upon pages of blacked out text".Tim Glover MHK said the "excessive redactions" undermined public scrutiny and called for the minister to explain what steps were being taken "by the secret squirrel department" to improve transparency on the publication of official told members the report had originally been produced to "inform department policy" and as such "prior to its publication it was treated as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request".In line with FOI exemptions on formulation of policy, conduct of public business, personal information and commercial interests, aspects of the report has been removed, she minister told members school meals policy was "very much in development" and therefore it would be "inappropriate and a bit irresponsible to put that in the public domain" before the details had been she said key areas of focus for Desc would be a reduction in the use of ultra-processed food, using more local produce, reducing food waste and conducting parental and student surveys on meal choices, which had been outlined in the annual departmental plan. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Don't follow healthy aging tips from 100-year-olds, a longevity scientist said. These 4 things could help you live 14 years longer.
A researcher of aging said we shouldn't listen to centenarians' longevity advice. Richard Faragher said that centenarians live to 100 because of luck and genetics. His tips for living longer include eating fruits and vegetables and exercising. Centenarians may have plenty of wisdom to share, but an expert on aging said you shouldn't take their advice on how to live past 100. Richard Faragher, a professor of biogerontology at the University of Brighton, UK, told Business Insider that 100-plus-year-olds don't have the key to long lives — "they're just incredibly lucky." He explained why and shared four lifestyle choices people should follow instead for healthier lives. There are two reasons a centenarian may have lived so long, Faragher said: luck or genetics. This can be explained by the concept of survivorship bias, he said. Centenarians were the outliers who weren't affected by the diseases, stresses, or bad luck that other people in their generation died from. So to find out how to live longer, we're better off studying why people who didn't live to 100, and trying to combat those causes, not looking at the people who have been lucky in life or genetics. He gave the example of the 100-plus-year-olds from Blue Zones, areas of the world where people live longer on average and tend to eat traditional Mediterranean diets. People assume that they live longer because of their diets, "but if you look at Irish centenarians, their 'recipe for success' is pints of Guinness and Irish stew," he said. "So why are we ascribing meaning to the Mediterranean diet and not the Irish one?" Essentially, he said, eating a Mediterranean diet doesn't guarantee that you'll live as long as the centenarians in Sardinia, or Ikaria — they live longer because of their genes or luck, not because of their diets. Their diet is correlated with their longevity, not necessarily the cause of it. But that doesn't mean eating nutritious food isn't beneficial to our health or help us live longer. Faragher's point is that people with unusually long lives are "substantially genetically different." And although the longevity of Blue Zones residents is likely down to the combination Faragher described, growing evidence suggests a person's lifestyle could offset the influence of their genes — by 62%, according to one 2024 study. Faragher said research suggests four things could help you live longer (even if they don't guarantee you'll live to 100). Not smoking Doing enough exercise (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week) Eating five fruits and vegetables a day Drinking moderately (which the CDC defines as two drinks or fewer for men and one drink or fewer for women per day). Drinking any amount of alcohol can increase cancer risks, according to a recent advisory by the former US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy. But if you want to drink, do so in moderation, an expert in alcohol risk previously told BI. "The difference between someone who does all four of these things, and somebody who does none of them is about 14 years in terms of life expectancy," he said, referring to a 2008 study published in PLOS Medicine. It tracked the health of over 20,000 people aged 45 to 79 for an average of 11 years. He added: "the best kind of exercise is the exercise that you can actually do." This chimes with what Nathan K. LeBrasseur, a physiologist, previously told BI: pick an exercise you enjoy because you will be more likely to do it regularly, he said. If you can, he recommended doing a mixture of cardio and strength training. Faragher added: "The thing that really matters is to do the best you can." Read the original article on Business Insider
BBC News
31-01-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Patients 'in limbo' over Manx Care cuts to services, MHK says
Patients who have had non-urgent procedures cancelled as part of cost saving measures by Manx Care have been "left in a limbo situation", an MHK has Thursday, reductions to some on-island elective surgeries and the cancellation of all non-urgent procedures in Liverpool and Manchester until 31 March were Faragher MHK said some constituents had been left "extremely worried" about their health issues and when they might be Minister Claire Christian apologised for delay in making the details public, but said her department had been working to secure funding to reduce the cuts. The island's health care provider has been tasked with making efficiencies in a bid to keep its budget deficit to no more than £15m this financial said her department called for a planned release of a list of cuts to be postponed in mid-January while further conversations about the impact of plans, including cancelling all elective surgery on the island, could be original proposals were released by former health minister Lawrie Hooper MHK, who said he believed it was "in the public interest".But Christian said that move had "caused unnecessary alarm" as an extra £800,000 was subsequently made available to Manx Care by the Treasury to reduce some of the previously planned reductions in on-island procedures. Faragher said constituents had approached her about cancellations before the plans were unveiled and that had "left people in a limbo situation" creating an "information vacuum" that was "unforgivable"."It was so irresponsible not to explain to MHKs and the general public that this was going to take place... and the truth of the matter was that cuts were being proposed and the minister was trying to mitigate," she plans were an "incredibly irresponsible and short-sighted way to deal with the budget restraints" and "someone will have to pick up that tab in future", she Care has been contacted by the BBC for a comment.
