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Dentists are asking schools in England to go sugar-free

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Dentists in England want schools to cut the sugar in school meals and have more supervised tooth brushing - let us know what you think!

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Heart wrenching Channel 5 documentary The Body Donors, which followed the lives and ultimate dissection of terminally ill cancer patients by Liverpool students, has won a Royal Television Society Award

The documentary featured staff and students from the University of Liverpool and was filmed in the Liverpool Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC).

Watch: The Body donors

The graphic two-part series followed the story of two terminally ill people both before and after their deaths. It won Best Factual Series at the Royal Television Society Awards.

Terminally ill patients Mike Bowyer, 77, from Wales, who suffered from leukaemia and Diana King, 55, from Lancashire, who suffered from breast cancer, had chosen to donate their bodies to medical science.

The documentary followed the pair through the last months of their lives and after their death gave insight to the donation process.

The programme provided unprecedented access to the donation process, which has never before been recorded on television, and depicted the emotional experience of body donation from the perspectives of the donors themselves and Liverpool Anatomy students and surgeons.

Before his death, former marine archaeologist Mr Bowyer said he took part in the experiments in the hope that his body might help provide a cure for leukaemia.

He said: "I have no future but 30 years down the line something might happen."

The two part series showed Mike and Diana undergoing the bizarre experience of preparing for their death and meeting the anatomy students who would later be dissecting their bodies.

Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Liverpool, Jim Gallagher, said: "We are delighted to have won this award. We would like to dedicate it to our staff and students, and most importantly the lives of our two donors and their families who so bravely took part in this series."

The documentary featured graphic images of the embalming process and dissection.

University of Liverpool Anatomy students were filmed and interviewed over the course of their first year, with film crews looking into their study and lives outside of the University.

Kate Jaggers, a second year Anatomy student said: "For me the program highlights the importance of body donation and what it achieves, allowing people like me to learn the anatomy of human body in the way that diagrams can not accurately teach you."

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Would you volunteer to be dissected on television?

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Heart wrenching Channel 5 documentary The Body Donors, which followed the lives and ultimate dissection of terminally ill cancer patients by Liverpool students, has won a Royal Television Society Award The documentary featured staff and students from the University of Liverpool and was filmed in the Liverpool Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC).

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'I am not good at yoga" is the main thought I have in any yoga class. I am definitely thinking it today. My warrior II would have been discharged from military service. My eagle pose looks like a cheese plait. It is not even clear I can lie on the floor properly. Sweating, shaking, constantly on the verge of toppling over, at least here I can partially blame the fact that the room keeps changing hue.

That is because I am trying a 90-minute Spectrum yoga and meditation session, conducted in a special colour-shifting studio in Whitechapel, east London (available via a MoveGB membership, £19.99 a week). On the wall at the front of the class are panels of large bulbs, emitting bright light. It is very Sunday Night at the London Palladium. I feel as if I am dying, but at least I am in good company.

This variety of yoga was created by Mandy Jhamat, my tutor today, who developed the concept with Pierre Van Obberghen, a "colour expert". The class is based on vinyasa flow, incorporating salutations, standing poses and balances - or, in my case, a blancmange of all three.

We start with the room full of white light (which contains all the colours of the spectrum) before moving into aquarium turquoise, buttery yellow and breakdown-at-the-nuclear-plant red.

The flicker-free, deep-colour immersion is striking: it is as if I am in a music video or a Tate Modern installation. It is pretty cool - or would be if I could remove my knees from my ears. I am not sure the colours are aiding me, but I am too all over the place to be sensitive to it.

The connection between colour and energy is plausible, though. Colour has a biochemical, psychological, emotional effect on us. Think about food, or art, or the eyes of your beloved. The inside of McDonald's isn't bright red and yellow because it was designed by a clown; it is because those colours make us feel hungry and eat quickly, encouraging a high turnaround. (Actually, the seating these days is soft green and lower-lit. Nudging our minds to believe they are in Starbucks, perhaps? Why are you so stupid, mind?)

After the yoga, there is a 25-minute guided meditation, in which we lie on the floor. This will, I think, be a better way for me to experience the vibrational potentialities of colour and focus on Jhamat's concept. We are offered the option of a blanket or a weighted eye mask, the latter of which surely defeats the point of bathing yourself in a colour field. Jhamat leads us through a guided meditation exploring our chakras, each of which - according to tantra - has a corresponding colour. We start bathed in red, the root chakra, before the bulbs soften into the orange of the sacral chakra and lighten into the yellow of the solar plexus chakra, the best chakra. "Team Plexus for the win!" I chuckle inside my head, because I have difficulty controlling my stupid thoughts.

Meanwhile, Jhamat is having trouble controlling the lights. They are meant to move through the spectrum, but are stuck on the green of the heart chakra. She is talking about the blue of the throat, the purple of the crown, but it doesn't match the mossy light filling the room. It is like being inside a faulty traffic light. Imagine if all traffic lights were stuck on green, I think, struggling to focus on "the indigo of my third eye". That would be the same as having no traffic lights. I see cars piling up on one another; twisted metal. This is not the class's intended effect.

I peek to see Jhamat fiddling with the control box, then turning one of the light panels off and on, then giving up. I feel for her. She continues to talk to the class in a measured way, as if nothing is wrong. Behind me, someone is snoring. It has been an excellent yoga class, followed by a strange meditation experience with some gorgeous nu-rave colours. But I am not sure how much can be said for Spectrum, at least when the equipment isn't working properly. I am not convinced. Perhaps someone greenlit this too soon.

Studies have indicated that if we got rid of traffic lights, there would be fewer accidents.

Yellow? Is it me you're looking for? No. 2/5
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Spectrum colour yoga and meditation - like being stuck inside a traffic light

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'I am not good at yoga" is the main thought I have in any yoga class. I am definitely thinking it today. My warrior II would have been discharged from military service. My eagle pose looks like a cheese plait. It is not even clear I can lie on the floor properly.

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At 18, Finn James went to get a tooth removed, and the anaesthetic failed to mask the pain. "The dentist just kept going," says James. "I didn't go back to the dentist for decades after that."

Dental anxiety is one of the most pervasive phobias in Britain: almost half of UK adults have a fear of the dentist and 12% of these experience extreme phobia, which often leads to avoiding the dentist altogether. For James, it meant spending two years with a potentially dangerous, searingly painful abscess. Then he came across a website advertising cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and neuro-linguistic programming methods for anxious patients. "That really changed my life. I just wanted someone to treat me as a person and work with my fears. The first time I saw my new dentist, we spoke for an hour and that really put my mind at ease. For a lot of people like me, the biggest struggle is the shame we feel about letting our teeth get to this state, so we need to be helped without judgment."

Dentist Gordon Laurie says the treatment of dental anxiety has long been neglected. "I qualified in 1982 and dental anxiety wasn't something that was taught then," he says. "In extreme cases, we would refer people for sedation, but those referrals required a long waiting time - often when the patient was in increasing pain - and the referral centres are still few and far between." Laurie has personal and professional experience of dental phobias. "I've had patients who hadn't seen a dentist for 40 years who would take their own teeth out. My late mother-in-law was an example. She'd do anything to avoid the dentist. She used to put mustard powder into her cavities to burn out the nerves rather than get toothache. At that point, it's just self-abuse."

There have been numerous recent studies on the success of CBT in reducing dental anxiety - a step-by-step approach is used to explain each part of the treatment clearly; there is prior agreement of signals, if the patient needs the treatment to stop; and plans are made for follow-up appointments. Another option for anxious patients is hypnosis, although this is relatively uncharted territory.

In 2009, Emma Carey, a dental hygienist, retrained to become a hypnotherapist and now runs private clinics for anxious patients in a practice in Wetherby, West Yorkshire. She gained her qualification after a six-week diploma course at the London College of Clinical Hypnosis and charges up to £90 for an appointment. "With clinical hypnotherapy, we're accessing the unconscious mind to bypass our critical faculty," she says, "allowing the anxious patient to become deeply relaxed. We all go into a daydreaming state naturally several times a day, but with hypnosis it's a much deeper level of trance that we're trying to access. We give patients the tools to do this at home, so they can reach this deep state of relaxation easily and then take it into the treatment room." Often Carey needs to see patients for only three or four sessions before they acquire the skills to relax themselves for treatment.

John Bailey, a full-time hypnotherapist specialising in dental anxiety, noticed that many of the phobias he sees stem from childhood. He says parents say things like, "Don't worry, it won't hurt", conditioning the child to believe the dentist is something to be wary of. "The child thinks, 'Why should it hurt?' and that maybe then it will."

Specialist treatments for dental anxiety are still accessible only to those who can afford them; the scarce options available on the NHS are subject to a "postcode lottery", according to Charlotte Waite, chair of the England Community Dental Services Committee. Keerut Oberai, a recently qualified dentist, says: "While we're much more aware of treating patients holistically, and it's now incorporated into our university studies, in an NHS practice we're often really pushed and it can be difficult to take the time to speak to the patient and use these different techniques. But we're here to make sure the patient is healthy and so we need to be doing whatever we can to make sure they feel comfortable. We need to work at getting rid of the stereotype that dentists are to be feared. We're actually all pretty normal and very nice."
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'I've had patients take their own teeth out': dental anxiety and the treatments that can help

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At 18, Finn James went to get a tooth removed, and the anaesthetic failed to mask the pain. "The dentist just kept going," says James. "I didn't go back to the dentist for decades after that."

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Scientists say they have finally cracked the problem of repairing tooth enamel.

Though enamel is the hardest tissue in the body, it cannot self-repair. Now scientists have discovered a method by which its complex structure can be reproduced and the enamel essentially "grown" back.

The team behind the research say the materials are cheap and can be prepared on a large scale. "After intensive discussion with dentists, we believe that this new method can be widely used in future," said Dr Zhaoming Liu, co-author of the research from Zhejiang University in China.

Tooth decay is extremely common: according to 2016 figures about 2.4 billion people worldwide live with caries in permanent teeth, while 486 million children have decay in their milk teeth.

At present, materials such as resin, metal alloys, amalgam and ceramics are used to repair damaged tooth enamel but they are not ideal.

"The resin-based material still cannot adhere well on enamel, and they will get loose after around five years," said Liu.

While scientists have been chipping away at the issue for years through a number of approaches, they have encountered problems - not least that it is difficult to reproduce the complex structure of natural tooth enamel.

The researchers behind the latest study, published in the journal Science Advances, say they got around this problem by developing a way to produce tiny clusters of calcium phosphate - the main component of enamel - with a diameter of just 1.5 nanometres - far smaller than those previously employed.

That was managed by preparing the clusters in the presence of a substance called triethylamine that prevented them from clumping.

To test their clusters, the team used crystalline hydroxyapatite, which is similar to natural enamel. The results showed the clusters fused on to this material and formed a layer with a much tighter arrangement than previous, larger clusters.

The team says this is important because it means that as the new layer transforms and becomes crystalline over time, it extends the underlying structure in a continuous manner, rather than forming many crystalline regions.

The team then applied their clusters to human teeth which had been exposed to acid. They discovered that within 48 hours the clusters had given rise to a crystalline layer, about 2.7 micrometres thick, with the complex, fish-scales-like structure of the underlying natural enamel.

The repaired enamel had a similar strength and wear-resistance to natural, undamaged enamel.

Dr Sherif Elsharkawy, an expert in prosthodontics at King's College London who was not involved in the work, praised the research and said he found the approach very exciting.

"The method is simple, but it needs to be validated clinically," he said, adding that it could be several years before the method be used in dental practices.

Elsharkawy said layers would need to be scaled up to 0.5 to 2mm in thickness to tackle cavities.

While Liu and colleagues agree that the thickness of the layer is a limitation, they are working on ways to improve this. Liu said the team hoped to use it in a trial in humans in one to two years.
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Scientists discover way to 'grow' tooth enamel

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Scientists say they have finally cracked the problem of repairing tooth enamel. Though enamel is the hardest tissue in the body, it cannot self-repair. Now scientists have discovered a method by which its complex structure can be reproduced and the enamel essentially "grown" back.

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Dentists urged to ditch single-use plastic

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"I've never seen this many different plastics in one place," chemistry professor Tony Ryan says.

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Two pro-meat protesters have been fined after eating raw squirrels at a food market.

Deonisy Khlebnikov, 22, and Gatis Lagzdins, 29, ate the still fur-covered dead animals in front of members of the public, including young children, outside a vegan stall in Soho, the West End of London.

The pair were asked to stop by onlookers, including the parent of an upset child, but continued their protest at the Soho vegan food market in Rupert Street on 30 March, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

They were found guilty of a public order offence at City of London magistrates court on Monday.

Natalie Clines, a senior CPS prosecutor, said: "Deonisy Khlebnikov and Gatis Lagzdins claimed they were against veganism and were raising awareness about the dangers of not eating meat when they publicly consumed raw squirrels.

"But by choosing to do this outside a vegan food stall and continuing with their disgusting and unnecessary behaviour despite requests to stop, including from a parent whose child was upset by their actions, the prosecution was able to demonstrate that they had planned and intended to cause distress to the public.

"Their premeditated actions caused significant distress to members of the public, including young children."

The pair denied using disorderly behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress at a trial but were both convicted.

Khlebnikov, from Westminster, was fined £200 plus costs and a surcharge, while Lagzdins, from Ealing in west London, who did not attend the hearing, was fined £400 plus costs and a surcharge.
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Pro-meat protesters fined for eating raw squirrels at vegan stall

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Two pro-meat protesters have been fined after eating raw squirrels at a food market. Deonisy Khlebnikov, 22, and Gatis Lagzdins, 29, ate the still fur-covered dead animals in front of members of the public, including young children, outside a vegan stall in Soho, the West End of London.

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'Fluoride is so toxic it is considered hazardous waste by the US Environmental Protection Authority.' 'Fluoride calcifies the brain.' 'Fluoride was used by Hitler in concentration camps to sedate prisoners.' 'Fluoride has been added to the drinking water by the Illuminati as part of a government-backed conspiracy to control our minds.'

These are just some of the more outlandish claims that you can find online about fluoride, the surprisingly controversial mineral most commonly found in toothpaste. As practising dentists, we've been advocating the benefits of fluoride to our patients for decades, and so remain somewhat baffled - not to say mildly alarmed - that one of modern dentistry's key weapons in the fight against tooth decay is surrounded by a swirl of rumour, half-truth and hare-brained conspiracy theories.

So for anyone worried that Theresa May is controlling their minds through the medium of drinking water - or just intrigued to know what all the fuss is about - here is a common-sense guide to fluoride that aims to separate the interesting facts from the freaky fictions, allowing you to make up your own mind about whether we should be adding a "chemical" to our drinking water.

What is fluoride exactly?

Fluoride is a mineral derived from fluorine, which is the 13th most abundant element in the universe. (The three most abundant, since you ask, are hydrogen, helium and oxygen.) Fluorine is found naturally in air and water, but because it is highly reactive and forms strong bonds with other elements, it is most commonly found in nature as the compounds fluorite, fluorapatite and cryolite.

Fluorine compounds are all around us and can be found in everything from refrigerators and non-stick frying pans to dental floss and Prozac.

Why is fluoride good for your teeth?

Within the field of dentistry - the focus of this article - fluoride has scientifically proven benefits in helping your teeth combat tooth decay.

Dentists used to think fluoride strengthened the enamel when the teeth were still growing in the jaw (i.e. before they start protruding through the gums), but we now realise that the most important way in which fluoride strengthens the surface of the tooth is after the teeth have emerged into the mouth. This is because tooth decay is caused by the removal of minerals from the surface of your teeth - and fluoride stabilises and enhances the replenishment of these minerals, in a process known as remineralisation.

Is there a downside?

Although the wilder conspiracy theories quoted at the start of this article have little to no scientific basis, it is true that fluoride can have negative side effects, especially if it is swallowed (which we call a 'non-topical' application) rather than being applied to the surface of the tooth (a 'topical' application).

Swallowing and ingesting fluoride can lead to a lack of mineralisation of the tooth's enamel known as 'fluorosis', which gives teeth a brown or white mottled appearance that is unfortunately permanent. (To give a sense of the scale of the problem, among populations whose water supply has been fluoridated, 12.5 per cent of people exhibit degrees of fluorosis that are of 'aesthetic concern'.)

Although this mottling only affects the surface of the teeth, we dentists still consider it a serious side effect, not least because today, perhaps more than at any other time in human history, having a bright, confident smile is seen as an indicator of someone's wider health and wellbeing.

Credit: Teresa Short

When and why was fluoride first added to the water supply?

Two pioneering American dentists working in the first half of the 20th century - Dr Frederick McKay and US Public Health Officer H Trendley Dean - are largely credited with determining both the beneficial and harmful effects of water fluoridation. In 1901, while working in Colorado Springs, McKay noticed that some of his patients' teeth had signs of a condition known locally as "Colorado brown stain". After further investigation, he found that their tooth enamel was hypocalcified, which means that it had a lower than expected mineral content. Normally, you would expect the enamel's low mineral content to be linked to a greater susceptibility to tooth decay. To McKay's surprise, this didn't seem to be the case in Colorado Springs.

This intriguing combination of dental characteristics - stained teeth, a lower than expected mineral content in the enamel and yet no evidence of increased levels of tooth decay - was seen in children born within similar geographical areas, leading McKay to suspect that these geographical groupings were due to differences in the local water supply. Similarly, a change in the water supply in the Arkansas town of Bauxite caused an upsurge in mottled enamel and when the water supply was analysed a high level of fluoride was found (14.7 parts per million of fluoride). Other places in America showed the same correlation between instances of mottled teeth and high levels of fluoride.

Although McKay had started to connect the dots between the levels of naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water, the mottling of tooth enamel and related rates of tooth decay, it was only in the 1930s that Trendley Dean was able to demonstrate a clear cause-and-effect relationship between the levels of fluoride in drinking water and the mottling of tooth enamel. His research culminated in the famous (if you're a dentist) "21 City Study" which reported a 50 per cent reduction in tooth decay when fluoride levels in water were increased to one part per million (ppm).

As a result of McKay and Trendley Dean's pioneering research, fluoride was first added to the public water supply in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1945, to compare the subsequent levels of tooth decay in Grand Rapids to those in nearby and non-fluoridated Muskegon, which acted as a control. At the start of the study, both cities had similar rates of decay. But after six years with fluoride at 1ppm added to the water, the citizens of Grand Rapids had just half the levels of tooth decay experienced in Muskegon.

Fluoride was then added to the water in Muskegon to prove the point conclusively: adding fluoride to drinking water really did help take better care of people's teeth.

However, many things have changed in the last 70 years, so should we still be adding fluoride to our water today?

Is fluoride being added to the UK water supply?

After those first successful trials in the 1940s, fluoride was added to water more widely across the United States and around the world. Today, just under 60 per cent of Americans receive fluoridated water yet, globally, the figure is far lower, at just under six per cent.

Many of the patients we speak to assume that fluoride is being added to their drinking water but, although fluoridation trials were conducted in the UK in the 1950s, just 10 per cent of the water supply across England and Wales contains between 0.5 and 1ppm of fluoride, either because the fluoride is naturally occurring or as an additive.

Today, 1.5 million people in England and Wales receive water from the ground that is naturally high in the mineral and another five million in parts of the West Midlands, Yorkshire and Tyneside receive artificially fluoridated water.

Fluoride is not added to the water in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. You can see a map illustrating the extent and levels of water fluoridation across the UK here.

So why do so many people object to fluoride being added to their water?

The major overarching objection is ethical: water fluoridation is, after all, a rare instance of government-orchestrated mass medication, in which citizens aren't asked for their consent or able to opt out (except by drinking bottled water). Fluoride is effectively being added to drinking water as a medicine, and has been legally recognised in the UK as such. Imagine the public outcry that would follow if the government started unilaterally adding other medicines (such as statins, for instance) to our drinking water.

Beyond this ethical dilemma and the aesthetic issue of fluorosis (teeth mottling), there are a number of other reasonable medical objections to water fluoridation. These include: that the doses of fluoride individuals receive cannot be controlled, and go to everyone using the water supply, regardless of their age or state of health; that fluoride accumulates in the body over time, especially in the bones and the pineal gland in the brain (which regulates the release of some hormones, including melatonin); that fluoride can affect the functioning of the thyroid gland; there is also some academic research to suggest that fluoride may damage the brain and lower IQ levels; fluoride has also been linked to occurrences of bone damage, arthritis and cancer.

(If you would like to find out more about these and other objections to fluoride, Dr Paul Connett has compiled a comprehensive though unashamedly crusading 50 reasons to oppose fluoridation.)

Most of the scientific studies and academic research investigating the wider effects of fluoride on humans are complex and their conclusions remain the subject of ongoing debate. Very few experts would claim that water fluoridation is a major public health risk but it is easy to see how legitimate research into fluoride's potential side effects, when combined with the fact that water fluoridation schemes are typically imposed top-down by governments, has sown the seeds of the wilder conspiracy theories about fluoride found online.

So why is only 10pc of the UK drinking fluoridated water? What about the rest of us?

There is a simple, one-word answer to explain why water fluoridation has not become a universal practice in the developed world: toothpaste. Fluoride was first added to toothpaste in 1914 but it was only in 1955 that the first commercial fluoride toothpaste (Crest) became available. Most toothpaste now contains fluoride, and its widespread use is the main reason for the significant decline of tooth decay in the developed world over recent decades. We now recognise that the protection that fluoride provides teeth is best achieved by lifelong topical applications - i.e. brushing your teeth - while also limiting the risk of toxicological side effects, such as dental fluorosis.

Fluoridated water supplies in developing countries where people do not have access to fluoride toothpaste can still play a positive role in tooth care. But a government's ultimate goal should be improving access to affordable fluoride toothpaste, as this is where topically applied fluoride is at its most effective.

(For more information about brushing, including practical tips, read our guide to the best way to brush your teeth.)

How can I take care of my teeth without exposing them to fluoride?

The most recent major national dental health survey (conducted in 2009) found that 94 per cent of adults in the UK used fluoride toothpaste - which leaves six per cent, or around four million people, whose teeth aren't being exposed to fluoride on a regular basis.

If you are reluctant or resistant to the idea of using fluoride, there are other steps you can take that will also have a positive impact on your dental health. These include: going for regular check-ups with your dentist and hygienist; adapting your diet, especially to reduce your intake of extrinsic sugars (i.e. those that aren't derived from fresh fruit or vegetables); and using dental health products that contain Xylitol, a natural sugar-free sweetener that reduces the build-up of plaque on the surfaces of teeth. (Xylitol can be used in toothpastes but is most beneficial when taken in regular doses throughout the day in the form of sugar-free chewing gums or mints.)

However, none of this is to downplay the importance and effectiveness of regular brushing. We can only hope that this article has persuaded you of the benefits of using a toothpaste containing fluoride - without us dentists having to slip something into your drinking water.
Dr. Mike Heffernan and Dr. Toby Edwards-Lunn are practising dentists with more than 50 years' combined experience. They are also the inventors of Dr. Heff's Remarkable Mints, a sugar-free mint that cleans and restores teeth and is endorsed by Toothfriendly International

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A common sense guide to fluoride, the great dental conspiracy magnet

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'Fluoride is so toxic it is considered hazardous waste by the US Environmental Protection Authority.' 'Fluoride calcifies the brain.' 'Fluoride was used by Hitler in concentration camps to sedate prisoners.' 'Fluoride has been added to the drinking water by the Illuminati as part of a government-backed conspiracy to control our minds.'

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People who struggle with sleep might be at greater risk of developing cardiovascular problems, research suggests.

Scientists have found that people who are genetically predisposed to insomnia have a greater risk of heart failure, stroke and coronary artery disease.

Researchers say the study backs previous work that has found links between poor sleep and cardiovascular problems, with the latest study supporting the idea that insomnia could play a role in causing such conditions.

"If that really is the case, then if we can improve or reduce sleep disturbances, that might reduce the risk of stroke," said Prof Hugh Markus, co-author of the research from the University of Cambridge.

The new study relies on previous findings that there are about 250 genetic variants, each of which slightly increases the risk of someone having insomnia.

"Most people don't have all of them, people will have a number of them, a few or many of them," said Markus.

The crucial point is the way the genetic variants are inherited. Whether an individual carries them is random: their presence does not depend on the rest of that person's genetic makeup or environmental factors, such as where they live, their wealth or how much they exercise.

That means it is theoretically possible to look at whether an increased risk of insomnia could play a role in causing stroke, heart failure and coronary artery disease, while reducing the impact of other factors that can muddy the waters. This is a different approach to previous studies which could only show association, not causation.

Writing in the journal Circulation, researchers from the UK and Sweden report how they harnessed this approach by drawing on health and genetic information within a range of large-scale databases.

For each cardiovascular condition, data from hundreds of thousands of individuals was examined - for investigations into heart failure the team used data from almost 400,000 participants in the UK Biobank study alone.

While Markus noted it was not yet clear whether improving insomnia would improve cardiovascular health, he said there were interventions that could help those who struggle to sleep, including cognitive behavioural therapy.

However, the latest study had limitations including that it only looked at genetic predisposition to insomnia, rather than how much sleep individuals actually managed per night, and that the majority of the data was gathered from people with European ancestry.

Michael Holmes, of the University of Oxford, who is an expert in using genetics to unpick disease risk, urged caution, saying it was not clear whether sleep loss arising from the genetic variants increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, or whether the link was down to the genetic variants triggering other effects.

He said: "This study doesn't allow us to conclude that insomnia causes cardiovascular disease. Rather, all we can say is that individuals carrying genetic variants linked to a higher risk of insomnia also have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease."

Prof Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: "People who suffer from insomnia or disturbed sleep are often at increased risk of coronary heart disease - the leading cause of a heart attack. But it's hard to know whether there's a direct connection or if this is down to other behaviours that are common among people who struggle to sleep, such as a poor diet or living with high blood pressure.

"This study suggests that people whose genetic makeup predisposes them to insomnia also have a slightly increased risk of coronary heart disease. If this connection is proven in further research, it could pave the way for more precise ways of lowering the risk of heart disease in people who suffer from insomnia."
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Cardiovascular disease risk greater in people prone to insomnia - study

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People who struggle with sleep might be at greater risk of developing cardiovascular problems, research suggests. Scientists have found that people who are genetically predisposed to insomnia have a greater risk of heart failure, stroke and coronary artery disease.

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Celebs caught smoking weed? Scandalous - even Snoop Dogg? Say it ain't true! It's 2019 and people have finally started to catch on...

As we know, smoking does nothing but bad things for you - yes? No? We would like to think so, anyway....It rots your teeth, clogs up your lungs and gives you bad breath.

Over the years people have called for the legalization of marijuana and even Seth Rogan has even decided to launch his own cannabis company! Famous actresses such as Drew Barrymore, Charlize Theron and Cameron Diaz have also confessed to a love of weed.

It might be looked at as a dirty habit and not one that you openly air to the world, you might find yourself discretely shuffling off to the smoking shelter to quickly get your fix, you might even find yourself feeling ashamed at your habit...But when you're a high profile celeb, you unfortunately don't have the luxury of keeping the habit under wraps. As soon as you spark up, so do the paps.

With high times a flowing, sit back and enjoy this list of celebrities who smoke weed (which you maybe didn't know about...) whilst feasting your eyes on some unsightly pictures because- let's be honest - nobody (except Audrey Hepburn) can possibly look good whilst taking a drag.

Lady Gaga

She's known for her outlandish style ( that meat dress) and behaviour, and apparently also her smoking habit...

Where's the pap, paparazzi?

Speaking of her marijuana habit, Lady Gaga admitted to smoking saying that:

"I want you to know it has totally changed my life and I've really cut down on drinking. It has been a totally spiritual experience for me with my music"

Miley Cyrus

She tried her very best to shed the girl next door image painted of her by the Disney Channel series: Hannah Montana...

She's a wrecking ball...

And boy did she do just that! You'll all remember the days when Miley could rarely last a performance without lighting one up...

But, she recently came back on the rails; in June 2017 she admitted her smoking marijuana days were over. Phew!

Cheryl Cole

Ex Girls Aloud-er Cheryl has always been partial to a cigarette, even before she found fame.

The Geordie lass might be one of the most glamorous ladies on our screens, but this is the side we don't see as often!

Katy Perry
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Gotcha! Not Katy's best look- a far cry from her 'California Girls' squeaky-clean music video looks!

Barack Obama

The former President has actually smoked for more years than he's not, but when his wife allowed him to run for President...

Being President can take its toll...
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...He agreed to kick the habit in return. But it seems the new job role was even more demanding than imagined, and despite chewing Nicorette chewing gum, he still has the odd puff.

To our surprise, Obama also used to enjoy a joint in his college days and still sticks by his opinion that it's less harmful than alcohol:

"In terms of its impact on the individual consumer."

Rihanna
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Riri is a symbol of her native roots, being open about her love for marijuana.

The Rastafarian community, which was popularised by icons such as Bob Marley, made the the smoking of weed culturally symbolic.

Prince Harry

You could say that Harry is the most relatable royal of them all, especially back in this youth...

Anything for you, Princess
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The Prince's smoking and drinking habits were plastered across front covers- the tabloids never gave him a break!

But, it seems Megs has persuaded her man to kick the habit before she'd start a family with him. And he must have done just that, judging by the happy news recently!

Holly Willoughby
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Holly Willoughby smoking...surely not?! National sweetheart Holly and 'This Morning' presenter might seem the image of health with that youthful complexion of hers.

But what you maybe didn't know is that she has a filthy habit, which defies her clean- cut image. Naughty Holly!

Justin Bieber

He might be good at singing, but word on the street he's also very god at smoking...

Like a chimney...
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Having all the money in the world, from finding fame as a baby faced teen, he's bound to have picked up some bad habits along the way...

Biebs is known for his rebellious attitude and is often pictured partying and smoking. Maybe his new wife Hailey Baldwin will calm his antics down...

Mila Kunis

Mila can pretty much pull off any look with a face like hers! But we think this one might be pushing it...

Not her best look...
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We wouldn't expect to see her lighting one up sat on the curb, that's not very A- list of her...

We wonder if she thought those bigger-than-her-head shades would fool us all. It was worth a try...

Angelina Jolie
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Miss Jolie is thought of one of the most beautiful women in the industry - oozing elegance and sophistication.

You would think she only smokes if its required for for a role, but - in fact - Jolie engages in it in her own time too.

Emma Roberts
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The star of 'Wild Child' really got in to character here. It's never a good look for these stars is it!

Jennifer Aniston
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Actress Jennifer Aniston quit for a short period back in 2011, and had to squash pregnancy rumours following it...

After quitting the cigs, the actress admitted:

It's better than a few more dead lung cells though Jen!

Ant McPartlin

The taller half of the dynamic duo 'Ant and Dec' has been dragged through the headlines recently, following scandal after scandal.

Long way from the jungle...
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From his prescription drug and alcohol addiction, to his infidelity...he's had a tough few years.

The ' I'm a Celeb ' presenter is working to tackle those demons, but we hope he can nip this habit in the bud while he's at it!

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Celebs Caught Smoking Weed And Tobacco: You'll Never Guess Who!

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Celebs Caught Smoking Weed: You'll Never Guess Who! Celebs caught smoking weed? Scandalous - even Snoop Dogg? Say it ain't true! It's 2019 and people have finally started to catch on... As we know, smoking does nothing but bad things for you - yes? No?

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Experts are warning about the risks of extreme fussy eating after a teenager developed permanent sight loss after living on a diet of chips and crisps.

Eye doctors in Bristol cared for the 17-year-old after his vision had deteriorated to the point of blindness.

Since leaving primary school, the teen had been eating only French fries, Pringles and white bread, as well as an occasional slice of ham or a sausage.

Tests revealed he had severe vitamin deficiencies and malnutrition damage.

Extreme picky eater

The adolescent, who cannot be named, had seen his GP at the age of 14 because he had been feeling tired and unwell. At that time he was diagnosed with vitamin B12 deficiency and put on supplements, but he did not stick with the treatment or improve his poor diet.

Three years later, he was taken to the Bristol Eye Hospital because of progressive sight loss, Annals of Internal Medicine journal reports.

Dr Denize Atan, who treated him at the hospital, said: "His diet was essentially a portion of chips from the local fish and chip shop every day. He also used to snack on crisps - Pringles - and sometimes slices of white bread and occasional slices of ham, and not really any fruit and vegetables.

"He explained this as an aversion to certain textures of food that he really could not tolerate, and so chips and crisps were really the only types of food that he wanted and felt that he could eat."

Dr Atan and her colleagues rechecked the young man's vitamin levels and found he was low in B12 as well as some other important vitamins and minerals - copper, selenium and vitamin D.

Shocking findings

He was not over or underweight, but was severely malnourished from his eating disorder - avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder.

"He had lost minerals from his bone, which was really quite shocking for a boy of his age."

He was put on vitamin supplements and referred to a dietitian and a specialist mental health team.

In terms of his sight loss, he met the criteria for being registered blind.

"He had blind spots right in the middle of his vision," said Dr Atan. "That means he can't drive and would find it really difficult to read, watch TV or discern faces.

"He can walk around on his own though because he has got peripheral vision."

Nutritional optic neuropathy - the condition the young man has - is treatable if diagnosed early. Left too long, however, the nerve fibres in the optic nerve die and the damage becomes permanent.

Dr Atan said cases like this are thankfully uncommon, but that parents should be aware of the potential harm that can be caused by picky eating, and seek expert help.

For those who are concerned, she advised: "It's best not to be anxious about picky eating, and instead calmly introduce one or two new foods with every meal."

She said multivitamin tablets can supplement a diet, but are not a substitute for eating healthily.

"It's much better to take on vitamins through a varied and balanced diet," she said, adding that too much of certain vitamins, including vitamin A, can be toxic, "so you don't want to overdo it".

Dr Atan said vegans are also at increased risk of B12 deficiency-related sight problems if they do not replace what they can lack when excluding meat from their diet.

"Nutritional yeast is a way of adding B12 to your diet," she said.

Sources of vitamin B12 for vegans include:

breakfast cereals fortified with B12

unsweetened soya drinks fortified with vitamin B12

yeast extract, such as Marmite, which is fortified with vitamin B12

Rebecca McManamon, consultant dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said restricted diets might happen for a range of reasons, including eating disorders, allergies and autism, and need specialist assessment.

"It's also worth noting that since 2016 the UK government has recommended daily Vitamin D supplementation (10 microgrammes/400 International Units) for everyone between October and March as we are not likely to get enough from fortified foods.

"Multivitamin supplementation is recommended for all children up to their fifth birthday."

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Teenager 'blind' from living off crisps and chips

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Experts are warning about the risks of extreme fussy eating after a teenager developed permanent sight loss after living on a diet of chips and crisps. Eye doctors in Bristol cared for the 17-year-old after his vision had deteriorated to the point of blindness.

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Before Harry Smith, now 12, received professional help for his avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (Arfid), he would eat only baby food. "What we went through," sighs his mother, Angela Smith, 45, from Sheffield. "We had no understanding of what we were dealing with. Nobody mentioned Arfid to us at all. It took 10 years to realise there was something wrong with Harry, that he wasn't just picky ... We thought it was just: 'Harry who wouldn't eat.'"

Angela is a full-time carer to Harry, who is on the autism spectrum. For years, her life revolved around obtaining the foods Harry was willing to eat - HiPP baby food and Heinz toddler meals. Because supermarkets never had enough stock, she would place bulk orders online, purchasing 50 or 100 jars at a time. Harry would take the jars of food to school with him, where staff would heat them up. The other children bullied him. The family sought help from the NHS, but nothing worked. "We had all sorts of suggestions over the years, including starving him, or filling his baby food jars up with adult food to see if he'd eat that," Angela says. "It put a huge strain on my marriage. We eventually separated."

Individuals with Arfid - once known as selective eating disorder - will eat only a very limited range of foods and may have significant phobias around trying new foods. Arfid made headlines recently when it was reported that a Bristol teenager lost his sight permanently after suffering damage to his optic nerves caused by malnutrition from eating only chips, crisps, sausages, processed ham and white bread. The anonymous 19-year-old, who can't tolerate the texture of fruit and vegetables, was given vitamin supplements aged 14, but didn't take them often enough or improve his diet.

Because Arfid was recognised only recently - it was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the pre-eminent resource in the US for diagnosing psychiatric conditions, in 2013 - there isn't adequate data on its prevalence, although it is thought to be more common in people with autism. One study of 1,444 Swiss schoolchildren found that Arfid was prevalent in 3.2% of eight- to 13-year-olds. Prof Keith Williams, a paediatrician who specialises in childhood eating disorders at the Milton S Hershey Medical Center, part of Pennsylvania State University's medical school, believes Arfid is on the rise. "We're seeing it a lot more often. I've been seeing kids for 30 years with nutritional deficiencies, but not as many as we've been seeing in the past few years."

It doesn't affect children alone, explains the psychologist Felix Economakis, who specialises in the disorder and treated Harry. "The older generation say: 'I thought it was just me, that I was set in my ways. I didn't realise I had a phobia towards food.'" Economakis has treated patients with Arfid in their 50s and 60s.

"It's not uncommon for us to see children who have never tasted a vegetable," says Williams. Typically, they get most of their calories from snack foods or "the dreaded chicken nugget". He tells me about one four-year-old boy whose daily diet consists of water, one apple, cheese puffs and Pringles.

When individuals eat such a limited diet, they can become dangerously nutritionally deficient. "When you hear the word scurvy, you think about pirates in the 18th century," Williams says. "You don't think about kids today. But it's becoming more common." He has diagnosed six children with scurvy this year, including the four-year-old boy. Children can also become anaemic or develop pellagra, a potentially fatal disease caused by niacin (vitamin B3) deficiency that was largely eradicated in the 30s thanks to food-fortification programmes. "We saw a kid with pellagra this year," says Williams. "No one sees that." It is not always as simple as prescribing these children vitamin supplements. In many cases, children will refuse to take them.

When you hear the word scurvy, you think about pirates in the 18th century. But it's becoming more common

Prof Keith Williams

The prevalence of junk food in modern diets may be a factor, too. "Junk food is highly preferred, because it's full of salt, sugar and fat," Williams says. Once children start eating junk food, it is hard to wean them off it. "The children resist, object or throw a tantrum, and the parents avoid that behaviour by giving them the diet they want ... It's hard to get out of habits when they have been established."

However, Williams is reluctant to play the blame game. "I don't know how helpful it is to blame the parents," he says. The biggest misconception about children with Arfid is that they would eat properly if they were forced to by their parents - that they are just fussy. "You see a lot of comments like: 'When I was little, you ate what was in front of you,' 'They're all princesses,'" says Angela. She finds it frustrating. "That's why that poor kid's gone blind. It's not that they don't want to eat, it's that they can't eat."

Individuals with Arfid may struggle to be treated on the NHS. While the NHS doesn't publish specific guidelines for Arfid, there are doctors at Great Ormond Street hospital in London who specialise in treating children with the condition. Across the UK in general, the picture may be more challenging. "The NHS is still pretty ignorant about it, to be honest with you," says Economakis. "The specialist eating disorder clinics are only trained in anorexia and bulimia." Cognitive behavioural therapy may be prescribed, but it is ineffective for many with Arfid. Economakis treats patients using an integrated approach including cognitive therapy, neurolinguistic programming and solution-focused therapy. "It's about re-educating the mind about food, not lecturing and saying: 'Vegetables are good for you.' That's not going to work."

After treatment with Economakis in 2014, Harry now eats a range of foods. Angela will always be grateful. "We can sit down now and have a Christmas dinner," she says. "Five years ago, if you'd said that to me, I'd never have believed you."
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The rise of Arfid: the truth about the eating disorder that made a teenager go blind

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Before Harry Smith, now 12, received professional help for his avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (Arfid), he would eat only baby food. "What we went through," sighs his mother, Angela Smith, 45, from Sheffield. "We had no understanding of what we were dealing with. Nobody mentioned Arfid to us at all.