Cancer concerns, junkie jargon and why greedy friends and a glass of water aids dieting

By Laura Passi

Our roundup of health news headlines on Tuesday 24 August.

‘Why can't we have this drug?' questions the front page of the Daily Mail.

According to the newspaper, the cancer drug, Avastin - which ‘can extend the lives of bowel cancer sufferers by at least two years' - will not be available on the NHS because it is too expensive. The drug, which is ‘handed out in every Western country', may be the first to be funded by the ‘governments new emergency cancer drugs fund' after it has been turned down by NICE.

Sticking with the Daily Mail, we have news that you're going to wish you hadn't read…. ‘One daily glass of wine "can double risk of cancer"' (sorry folks). But hold on, it might not be as bad as the Mail would like us to think.

For middle-aged women who drink over seven units a week, the chance of getting lobular breast cancer doubles, but it has no affect on ductal breast cancer. But it is the latter that accounts for the majority of breast cancer cases, 70%, whereas lobular accounts for only 10-15%.

‘Calling drug users "junkies" hinders recovery, study says'. The Guardian reports that the stigma attached to being a drug user, must be challenged, because it hinders ‘access to treatment, securing work and dousing and rejoining society.'

At last, scientists have proved that drinking water before a meal aids weight loss. The Independent reports that ‘over the course of three months people who sipped two glasses of water before eating lost about 15 pounds compared to the 11 pounds lost by a comparable group of people following the same low-calorie diet.' That's a whole four pounds.

And it makes sense, all those extra trips to the toilet during dinner, give your fellow diners ample opportunity to steal the best bits of food off your plate, resulting in the consumption of fewer calories. Voila!

Spotted a story we've missed? Let us know and we'll update the digest throughout the day...

Daily digest