“The clinical management of hypertension is one of the most common interventions in primary care, accounting for approximately £1 billion in drug costs alone in 2006” (NICE, 2011).

Nevertheless, according to the British Heart Foundation there are an estimated 7 million people in the UK living with undiagnosed high blood pressure. This is a concern as high blood pressure may give no symptoms but increases the risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke, dementia, kidney failure, diabetes and peripheral vascular disease.

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In this week’s article we provide a roundup of some of the most recent health and nutrition related articles to be in the news, five items comprising:

• Obese women more likely to have babies with serious birth defects, says study
• Curcumin touted for metabolic benefits in people with fatty liver disease
• Teenagers’ sleep quality and mental health at risk over late-night mobile phone use
• The role of vitamin A in Diabetes
• Astaxanthin supplements may improve heart rates during exercise

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Balancing your client’s omega-3 and omega-6 intake can be a task and a half. Science comes to the rescue by revealing another variable in the equation: recent studies show that certain gene variants impact omega-3 and omega-6 conversion in the body.

This week’s blog has been written by Dr Eve Pearce (PhD), an experienced geneticist and myDNAhealth’s Scientific Officer. Dr Pearce talks about how understanding your client’s essential fatty acids metabolism genotype can offer insights when balancing optimal omega ratios.

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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating neurological condition which affects about 1 in 1000 people in the UK. Although MS is rarely fatal it can often be disabling with a third of patients losing the ability to walk 15 – 20 years after onset. In this week’s blog, we look at the nutritional interventions for MS.

Initially, the condition can be relapsing and remitting and therefore patients can have periods of feeling reasonably well, however 50% of patients will enter the progressive phase of the disease 10 to 15 years after onset. It is therefore important to support MS sufferers as early as possible in order to help prevent progressive decline of the condition and the disability associated with this.

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According to the NHS, age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) affects 600,000 people in the UK and this figure is expected to rise to over 700,000 by the year 2020. ARMD is a visual impairment that is so significant it is second only to cataracts in people over 65.

In this article, we will look at the different causes, who is most susceptible and how we can protect our eyesight to reduce the risk of developing this condition.

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