Breast cancer survivors are not exercising enough, according to a report in the BBC this morning.
According to a US study, only around a third of women who have had breast cancer are taking recommended levels of physical activity to help prevent it recurring and improve their chances of survival.
Caroline Dalton, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, commented: ‘Physical activity after a breast cancer diagnosis has been shown to improve a patient’s chances of survival and there is also some evidence that it may help to reduce the risk of breast cancer returning.’
She added: ‘Although this study was conducted in America rather than the UK, the results suggest that women who have received a breast cancer diagnosis need better support to keep active.’
Elsewhere the Daily Mail warns that the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has reached an all-time high.
Apparently four million people now have the disease and the Department of Health predicts that the proportion of people with diabetes will jump from 7.3 per cent of the population in 2012 to 8.8 per cent by 2030.
Public Health England (PHE) is highlighting this as part of a Diabetes Awareness week – and encouraging people to go for an NHS Health Check to pick up more cases.
Professor Kevin Fenton, the PHE’s director of health and wellbeing, said: ‘With Type 2 diabetes becoming more common, the NHS Health Check presents an opportunity for individuals to take steps earlier, such as weight control, to prevent or even reverse diabetes in its early stages.
‘It is important that those eligible take up the offer of an NHS Health Check so their risk of serious, but potentially avoidable conditions, can be assessed, leading to early intervention.’
Lastly The Telegraph has more evidence of the psychological determinants of heart disease, with a report showing poverty and depression ‘can cause heart attacks’.
The paper says cardiologists at the University of Atlanta have used heart-scanning techniques to demonstrate that psychological stress can cause Mental Stress Induced Myocardial Ischaemia (or MSIMI).
Professor Matthew Burg of Yale University, writing in Psychosomatic Medicine, said that this provides further evidence ‘important psychosocial factors such as poverty and depression have adverse health outcomes’.
