‘Thousands dying of thirst on the NHS’, is the warning on the front page of theDaily Mail this morning.
The paper reports on new NICE calculations that 42,000 deaths a year could be avoided if NHS staff carried out a routine kidney test on patients.
The test would pick up the condition of acute kidney injury, which is common in the elderly and patients with heart disease, diabetes and blood infections and linked to dehydration.
It is estimated 210,000 patients attending A&E each year die from this condition, while one million A&E patients suffer from it.
On a happier note, the Daily Express has also gone for a health story on its front page today, with the news of new hope for a cure for arthritis.
British researchers said that eating broccoli may slow the damage to joints in sufferers, or even stop arthritis developing in the first place.
They put the results down to a chemical in the vegetable called sulforaphane, which they said blocks a key molecule known to cause joint inflammation.
Lead scientist Professor Ian Clark said: ‘The results from this study are very promising. We have shown this works in the three laboratory models we have tried, in human cartilage cells, cow tissue and mice. We now want to show this works in humans. It would be very powerful if we could.’
Meanwhile, too much screen time is causing depression in children, a new Public Health England study has indicated.
The body said there was evidence that children who spend more time watching screens have higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression than other children, the Guardian reports.
PHE used national statistics to show that children who spent less than an hour a day playing computer games were almost three times more likely to say they enjoyed good wellbeing as those who played four hours or more.
Spotted a story we’ve missed? Let us know and we’ll update the digest throughout the day…
