Examples in my first one

Botox injections in forehead change brain activity linked to emotions

The key to better sleep might be a high-protein diet

This week, New Scientist has temporarily made seven previously paywalled articles about physical fitness free to read for registered users, to celebrate the launch of our latest New Scientist Essential Guide – Exercise: The real science of physical fitness.

I was struck by how many of the articles overturned widely believed myths. It seems physical fitness is fertile ground for encouraging the spread of false beliefs. Our promotion lasts until the end of Sunday 26 March, so if you get cracking, you may be able to read them all over the weekend. Here is what’s available:

Why doing more exercise won’t help you burn more calories

Sea salt better than 'normal' salt

Swapping table salt for potassium alternative cuts blood pressure and risk of heart problems

"A study in care homes found that preparing meals with potassium-enriched salt, instead of regular salt, lowered the blood pressure of people aged over 55 and reduced their risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes

By Alice Klein

13 April 2023

People aged over 55 may be among the most at risk of the effects of high blood pressure – and could have the most to gain from switching to low-sodium alternatives

Replacing regular table salt with a potassium-enriched substitute reduces blood pressure and the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes, among people who are over 55 and living in care homes.

Salt contains sodium, which can increase blood pressure. Salt substitutes that replace some of this sodium with potassium may lower blood pressure, however, few studies have shown their effectiveness among people over 55. Our blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular events increases with age, so these people may have the most to gain by making the swap. There are also concerns that these substitutes may cause high levels of potassium in the blood, called hyperkalemia, which can lead to serious heart problems in some cases.

In a clinical trial made up of 1612 people who were living in 48 care facilities in China, meals were prepared with either regular salt containing 100 per cent sodium chloride or with a potassium-enriched salt substitute containing 62.5 per cent sodium chloride and 25 per cent potassium chloride, alongside other flavourings. Some of the participants also ate meals with just less salt in general. The participants were all over 55 years old, with an average age of 71.

At the start of the study, the average blood pressure of the participants was 137.5/80.5 millimetres of mercury (mmHg), with the higher number representing systolic blood pressure – the force at which your heart pumps blood around your body – and the lower number showing diastolic blood pressure – the resistance to the blood flow in the blood vessels. An ideal reading is usually considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg.

Almost two-thirds of the participants had high blood pressure at the beginning of the trial.

Over two years, those living in facilities where the potassium-enriched salt substitute was introduced had an average reduction in systolic blood pressure of 7.1mmHg and in diastolic pressure of 1.9mmHg, compared with those in the regular salt group.

“This is an impressive fall in blood pressure – it’s at least what you’d expect to get if you gave everyone a [blood pressure-lowering] drug,” says Bruce Neal at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, who was part of the research team.

The reduction in blood pressure was associated with 1.5 fewer heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events per 100 people in the salt substitute group, compared with the regular salt group.

In contrast, no reduction in the average blood pressure or number of cardiovascular events was seen in the group living in facilities that simply reduced the salt content of meals. This may be because these participants didn’t like the taste of the reduced-salt meals and therefore added salt themselves, says Neal.

The researchers also found that while those in the salt substitute group had increased blood potassium levels, this wasn’t associated with any safety concerns.

Salt substitutes are only marginally more expensive than regular salt and most people can’t taste the difference, says Neal.

“If you look at the totality of the evidence, if everyone switched from regular salt to potassium-enriched salt, we could prevent millions of premature strokes and heart attacks around the world each year,” he says.

Journal reference:

Nature Medicine DOI: 10.1038/s41591-023-02286-8"

Me too
Nice to have it confirmed as a good thing
The only salt I add to food is in the home made bread.

Thanks Pete
I'll check mine

Ex gf always used Himalayan pink salt. Had me thinking it was healthier option. But wow she used a lot of salt.

This sea salt looks better option.

Fair enough. Tbh I never got so much into salt. It was sugar that was a drug to me.

I'm trying to quit again and one lucky break I caught recently is that I was gifted a jar of Beetroot salad with peppers and it seems to take the edge off. Every few hours I have two scoops of it and have managed to not buy a sugary product since then.

Tbh sliced beets in a jar and this beetroot salad are actually quite tasty even. I was also given a jar of sauerkraut. It's not tastey but I eat a few scoops then chase it with the beets.

Reverse type 2 Diabetes

Low-calorie diets

Time-restricted eating

Weight loss drugs

"The health news that caught my eye this week was a study showing that people with type 2 diabetes can go into long-lasting remission, just by losing weight.

While the link between obesity and type 2 diabetes is well-established, until recently, it was usually seen as a permanent condition, caused by the body’s cells becoming resistant to the blood sugar-regulating hormone insulin.

The latest finding comes from a five-year follow-up of a trial that aimed to test the effects of people with type 2 diabetes losing a significant amount of weight. They were supported to go on a very low-calorie diet – 800 calories a day for three months – and were then given weight maintenance advice and coaching.

Those who managed to keep the weight off certainly achieved an impressive result: staying in remission from type 2 diabetes for the full five years, as defined by not having high blood sugar and not needing to take diabetes medication. The results, not yet published in detail but summarised here, have led to enthusiastic news coverage of how health services should encourage more people to follow this method.

Reality bites
Unfortunately, what got less attention was how small a proportion of the people who started the trial managed to keep the weight off. After five years, only 1 in 10 were still in diabetes remission. The results illustrate just how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off.

Low-calorie diets have long been seen as the only medically sanctioned route to weight loss, but there has been growing awareness recently that other approaches can work too. One alternative is a low-carbohydrate diet, in which people avoid sugary and starchy foods and fill up on high-protein and high-fat foods, such as meat and dairy, without counting calories.

Randomised trials have shown that this “low-carbing” is at least as effective as low-calorie diets for weight loss, possibly more, without raising the risk of heart attack. Such diets are now backed by several professional bodies for obesity or diabetes specialists.

Another kind of diet growing in popularity is time-restricted eating, also known as intermittent fasting, when people try to keep all their food intake within, say, an 8-hour window. Even though this can go against mainstream advice to never skip breakfast when trying to lose weight, some people find this an effective weight loss strategy.

Weight loss drugs
More recently, there has been an explosion of interest in a new breed of weight loss drugs that mimic the actions of a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1). Normally released when we eat, GLP-1 slows food digestion and so these medicines, such as one with the brand name Wegovy, help to reduce our appetite.

Most countries have authorised medicines such as Wegovy, given by a self-administered injection once a week, only for people above a certain weight. In most of the UK, it is approved for people with a body mass index (a measure of weight in relation to height) of 35 or over, or of 30 or more if someone also has a weight-related health condition.

These medicines aren’t a magic wand, as people are still supposed to combine their use with eating healthily and taking regular exercise. In some, they cause side effects such as nausea, which is unsurprising seeing as the drug slows stomach emptying. And when the medicine is stopped, the weight usually returns, which could leave people feeling like they are stuck needing these jabs forever.

But the arrival of any new kind of weight loss drug that is safe and effective heralds a genuine paradigm shift in the obesity field. The old idea that low-calorie diets are the only way to lose weight is going to have to be jettisoned. It’s hard to know exactly what the future of weight loss management will look like, but we could be in for a real upheaval.

My take is they had success with just obese people
Easy wins with low hanging fruit maybe

Report of the particles put out by gas cookers paints a bad picture. "Worse than city streets"
January 2023

Research ongoing but look to see all gas appliances banned in the not too distant future

Pain for me with a gas hob and gas boiler

In the meantime vent, extract or open a window when cooking a good idea
Easy in the warm weather not so good in the cold

If you needed a nudge towards an electric hob here it is