The NHS advises people to eat at least two portions of fish a week, yet a recent investigation revealed toxic metals, including mercury, could be lurking in cans of tinned tuna sold in the UK. However, it may be easier than you think to strike the balance between eating enough fish to reap the benefits and avoiding heavy metals.
One Brit has already been sickened by a strain never seen in this country before. The mutation, dubbed clade 1b, was only caught after the unidentified patient travelled to the UK from a holiday in Africa on October 21, before developing symptoms a day later.
Yesterday, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) bosses revealed they don’t know how the person caught the the strain but investigations are ‘underway’. They urged Brits not to panic and said the threat clade 1b poses to the public was ‘low’. Yet, experts told MailOnline today it was ‘inevitable’ the strain would spread through Europe and it was ‘very likely’ it had gone undetected in the UK for weeks.
Tests on almost 150 tins purchased in France , Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain, found all ‘were contaminated with mercury’. Exposure to the metal can impair brain development, trigger life-threatening lung damage and has been linked to some cancers. Researchers claimed the probe showed the product was ‘a colossal risk to public health’ and urged Governments to take ‘urgent’ action. Karine Jacquemart, CEO of consumer rights organisation Foodwatch France – one of the two groups behind the report, said: ‘What we end up with on our dinner plates is a colossal risk to public health that’s not considered seriously.
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- 121 shares British food staple is ‘colossal risk to public health’
It comes as stark figures yesterday revealed that nationwide, women are having fewer babies than at any time since the 1930s, laying bare the reality of the ongoing crisis that threatens to cause economic turmoil. For a population to sustain itself, the total fertility rate – the number of babies each woman has in her lifetime – must exceed 2.1. But in 2023, England and Wales recorded an average of 1.44 children per women of childbearing age. Numerous factors have been blamed for why fertility rates have collapsed in modern Britain. Some have cited how women are simply enjoying the independence society now offers them compared to a century ago and are choosing not to have children. Other experts, however, claim it is men, not women, who are the problem.
Suicides following surgery overseas have come into focus following the news that a French man took his own life following a botched beard transplant in Turkey. Mathieu Vigier Latour (left), 24, travelled to Istanbul in March for the transplant, which cost him €1,300 – a fifth of the price of the procedure in France . But the treatment saw him lose 1,000 grafts of hair, while having 4,000 transferred from his head to his face. Following the operation, the business student’s beard was left irregularly shaped, growing at an unnatural angle and leaving it ‘hedgehog’ like, his father said. His is not only suicide linked to surgery in Turkey. Tim Castell (bottom right) son Jack died in what is believed by his family to be a suicide following cosmetic procedures on his face. Another British family blighted by the far-reaching consequences of surgery in Turkey are the Cambridges. Craig Cambridge (far left on the top right) died by suicide following the death of his daughter Leah (centre of the same image) who died during a BBL in Turkey.
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- 331 shares Kate Beckinsale sparks Ozempic, plastic surgery rumors
Steve Pritchard (top right), 43 from Pudsey, Leeds said his daughter, Matilda,11, had gone to bed ‘normally’ on the night of April 2 this year, showing no sign she was unwell. But on the morning of April 3, 2024, Steve and his wife, Anna, 43, discovered Matilda had suffered a cardiac arrest in her sleep. Despite the best efforts of paramedics who rushed to the scene, she was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. Mr Pritchard, a company director, said it was later revealed that Matilda had an undiagnosed heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. This is a genetic defect that causes the heart muscles to be weaker than normal and thus have to work harder to pump blood, which can result in cardiac arrest. The gene that causes arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy occurs in about one in 1,000 people, though not everyone who carries it will develop the condition. Both Mr and Mrs Pritchard as well as Matilda’s older sister Olivia have now had several tests to find out if they also have the condition.
Lauren Gill was sipping white wine as she caught up with friends after work when she felt a searing pain shoot through her neck and shoulders. ‘It started on the right side of my neck and quickly spread to my right fingertips, like pins and needles,’ says Lauren, 30, a podcast host from St Albans, Hertfordshire. ‘I’d been spending a lot of time in the gym, so assumed I’d pulled a muscle.’ The pain disappeared after 20 minutes so Lauren stayed for a couple more drinks and forgot all about it.
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- 69 shares I thought I had a rugby injury – now I’m dying of cancer
A man has seen his deadly brain tumour shrink by half thanks to a new radioactive therapy, which experts hope will eradicate the disease. Doctors at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) are running a clinical trial to treat glioblastoma. Around 3,200 people are diagnosed every year with the disease, which is the most common type of brain tumour in adults.
Women of childbearing age in England and Wales have, on average, only had 1.44 children each as of 2023, according to a report from the Office of National Statistics. This is the lowest level recorded since ONS records began in 1938. It’s also far below ‘fertility replacement level’ of 2.1 – the amount needed for a population to replace one generation with the next.Society’s which don’t aren’t replacing their population naturally have to reply on migration to ensure there are enough young people to replace those who die. While the total fertilely rate was a record low, some areas of the England and Wales were ‘baby deserts’ with far lower figures. The City of London recorded the lowest fertility rate in the country at 0.55 babies per woman. However, this area is often considered an outlier in statistics due to its low base population. Cambridge recorded the second lowest fertility rate of 0.91, followed by Brighton and Hove at 0.98 babies per woman. By region the biggest drop in fertility rates were in Wales, falling to 1.39 from 1.46 and the North West of England, to 1.46 from 1.53.
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- 649 shares What HAS happened to Lady Gaga’s face?
Studies show that tofersen is highly effective at combating deadly motor neurone disease – but only in those patients who carry a specific gene mutation, called SOD1. This means only about 100 of the 5,000 MND patients in the UK could benefit from it. Experts predict that, for these patients, the £100,000-a-year treatment could stall their disease for several years – perhaps even decades. However, Biogen, its US developer, has decided not to seek approval for tofersen in the UK because they believe the NHS spending watchdog would reject it as the patient group is so small.
In the documentary ‘piece by piece’ Pharrell Williams reveals details of his experience of the neurological condition synaesthesia which allows him to experience music in colours. That means he doesn’t just hear music, to him melodies, choruses and hooks all have a textual rainbow of colours. While many of us can enjoy the beauty of a flower, smell freshly baked cakes or listen to music – the medical phenomenon causes people to experience one sense through another, from seeing music to tasting words and smelling shapes.
As a weight-loss nutritionist, barely a day passes without someone wanting to talk about Ozempic and similar drugs – the fat-loss injections that have taken the world by storm. With celebrities such as Sharon Osbourne and Oprah Winfrey crediting weight-loss drugs for their leaner bodies, people are curious to know more about the ‘miracle’ injections that curb hunger and cravings. However, it’s perfectly possible to mimic the ‘Ozempic effect’ without resorting to the drug. You just need the right diet plan!
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- 31 shares Try my ‘Ozempic-effect’ diet – and lose up to two stone
Abigail Menoret, 34, took her own life while she was an inpatient at an NHS psychiatric hospital, where she was receiving treatment for postpartum psychosis. Abigail had already made several suicide attempts the previous year. And her husband Francois-Marie had raised renewed concerns to staff about her safety in the weeks before her death at Prospect Park Hospital in Reading, Berkshire. At an inquest into her death, a coroner heard evidence of ‘multiple failures’ in Abigail’s care
Charging around the playground, blonde curls bobbing, it is hard to believe that three-year-old Molly Young has been ill for even one day in her life. But just weeks after her birth, she was on the brink of death. Born two months early and underweight in September 2021, she caught a virus soon after arriving home and, when her parents realised she was struggling to breathe, was rushed back to hospital in an ambulance. Doctors diagnosed her with pneumonia and, even more worryingly, life-threatening sepsis – which occurs when the body overreacts to an infection and damages tissues and organs.
Coffee shops belonging to major brands such as Costa Coffee and Starbucks are among those which have failed recent local authority food standards inspections. Local authority officials in England, Wales and Northern Ireland pass the results of their tests to the Food Standards Agency. In Scotland, the data is collated by Food Standards Scotland.
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- 136 shares Is your local coffee shop a food standards nightmare?
Courtney Ingham, 21 from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham suffered with extreme bloating and constipation for eight months and was only able to empty her bowels once every three weeks. It’s left her looking ‘six months pregnant’. Following two unsuccessful operations she is now awaiting specialist treatment and urging anyone experiencing changes in their bowel movements to go to the doctor swiftly.
The drugs, including Mounjaro, Ozempic and Wegovy – have been hailed as a monumental breakthrough in the war on obesity. Yet a concerning new trend has seen postpartum women boast of losing more than 20lbs on the injections or accessing them online by lying about their weight. Jab users have also taken to online forums that have tens of thousands of members sharing how they began the drug just eight weeks after giving birth. Experts however, warned the trend posed a ‘real danger’ to new Mums and urged women against ever taking them while breastfeeding. It is feared the medication could be passed to their newborns risking yet unknown complications.
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- 17 shares Danger as new mums use Ozempic to shed baby weight
Dr Naomi Potter, who has worked with stars like Davina McCall, shared a tip on stopping your hands becoming contaminated with HRT drugs. HRT replaces the hormones that drop naturally in a woman’s body as a consequence of the menopause. One such product is an oestrogen gel which is absorbed through the skin, typically the arm, thigh, abdomen or bottom.
But women who use their hands to apply it need to be careful as they run the risk of passing some of the gel that can remain on their hands to their children or their partners. For this reason, women who use the gel are advised to wash their hands thoroughly after applying the drug. Not doing so carries the risk of children and men experiencing problems like breast development, though the is higher in the former due to their smaller body size meaning the potential exposure is greater.
Kimberley Baggley, from Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, thought little of a migraine that saw her sent home from work. But when the 27-year-old started to experience ‘pins and needles’ in the left side of her face later that day, she rushed to A&E, where she claims she was sent away with painkillers. Four additional visits over the course of week complaining of the same pain also saw the primary school teacher dismissed, she said. It was only after her husband returned home after taking their son swimming, that he discovered her unconscious in bed having had a seizure.
The devices, which come plastered in a rainbow of packaging and in alluring candy-like flavours are the most popular form of vapes among young people. While vaping is considered safer than smoking, this doesn’t mean it’s risk free, and comes with host of potential consequences, especially for children. Multiple shocking cases have emerged of collapsed lungs, fainting or vomiting ominous ‘goo’ among young people. Shocking stats have also shown while one in four children have tried the devices one in 10 use them regularly, rising to as many as one in six among 16-to-17-year-olds. Amidst these statistics are individual cases of young people suffering incredible harm as result of picking up vaping. These include Kyla Blight (top inset), 17, had to be rushed to hospital after her vaping habit caused a hole to burst in her lung and she ended up needing part of the organ removed. Another famous case is that of Ewan Fisher (bottom inset), who at about 16, had to be rushed to hospital after vomiting a neon green liquid and gasping for breath just four months after taking up vapes.
After a recent public appearance the mother of four’s extraordinarily sculpted face sparked speculation she may have sought a little help from the surgeons knife. Attending the Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles this week Kim Kardashian sported glam make up and slicked back hair. Social media users, however, pointed out she was showing ‘virtually no signs of ageing’ and suggested she’d had a ‘tastefully done facelift ‘ – at just 44-years-old. Now, a top UK cosmetic doctor has weighed in – and he agrees Kim’s face bears all the hallmarks of a new cosmetic operation.
Lauren Petrie, from, Northamptonshire first realised she was couldn’t belch when she was 17, and suffered a host of bizarre problems as a result. She said she was left suffering from extreme bloating, cramping and loud saurian gurgling noises coming from her throat for years and would also ‘fart a lot’. But although she had experienced the odd malady for years, Lauren now 34, noticed they had become increasingly debilitating over the last two years, A clip, shared by Lauren shows her opening her mouth and a mini ‘dinosaur roar’-like sound emerging. But she found relief from a bizarre source, Botox .
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- 76 shares Woman unable to burp finds a surprising cure
Using the results of a single electrocardiogram (ECG) test – which takes minutes and records the electrical activity of the heart – it is able to detect hidden health issues that doctors might not be able to spot. The programme, called AI-ECG risk estimation or AIRE, has proven in studies to correctly identify risk of death in the 10 years after the ECG, with up to 78 per cent accuracy. The tech will be trialled at two London NHS trusts from the middle of next year, but experts hope it will be used across the health service within five years. Dr Arunashis Sau, a cardiology registrar at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust – one of the two trusts involved – said the aim of AIRE was not to develop something to replace doctors, but to create something ‘superhuman’.
Despite being invented in the 70s and having a minor presence in the party scene since the 90s, the designer drug has only recently enjoyed a burst in popularity driven, in part, by its alluring pink hue. Such a surge has come alongside a number of tragic deaths, with experts telling MailOnline the drug was ‘very dangerous and unpredictable’ as the recipe varies so much. Packets of the drug have been reported by authorities in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as multiple US states, with distribution linked to the sons of former Mexican cartel boss El Chapo But what exactly is pink cocaine? How widespread it is? And what could be some of the catastrophic consequences of taking it? Here MailOnline explains.
A record-breaking 5,448 drug poisoning deaths were recorded in 2023 – a rate of 93 deaths per million people. This is the eleventh consecutive annual rise, up on the 4,907 recorded in 2022, and the most since records began in 1993. Figures show while deaths spiked among middle-aged Brits, fatalities among Gen Z fell for a third year in a row. By drug, cocaine killed a record number of people last year, with annual deaths due to the illicit substance having soared 10-fold in just decade.
For scurvy, a condition historically associated with being out at sea for months, is ‘re-emerging’. doctors said. Medics believe the rise in cases show the grim toll food poverty is taking on people’s health. But they also warned that the situation could get worse, as people are forced to make further cuts amid the cost of living crisis. The condition is caused by a lack of Vitamin C from fruit and vegetables, which is essential to keep skin, blood vessels and ligaments healthy.
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- 28 shares Poor diets mean scurvy is making a 21st-century comeback
Experts have long believed donanemab could herald a new era of dementia treatment, after studies showed it slowed the memory-robbing illness in its early stages. Today it was approved by medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Yet, in a blow to tens of thousands of Brits, draft guidance by the NHS spending watchdog ruled the benefits of the drug could not justify the roll-out cost. It means donanemab will only be available to those who could pay privately every year, unless they are part of a clinical trial.
‘Scromiting’, which gets its name from the sufferers’ trait of both ‘screaming and vomiting’ as they seek medical help is becoming an all-too-familiar site at emergency rooms, doctors say. The condition, known medically as Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS), is still not fully understood but can cause seizures, kidney failure and even prove fatal. Experts believe symptoms appear after people use or consume heavy amounts of marijuana over a long period of time. One doctor has told how medics now refer to it as a ‘bread and butter’ diagnosis. Another said they see it ‘every week, if not every day’.
When Kate Alexander-Dobrovolskaia and Dmitry Shishkin lost their only child, Masha, to a rare cancer in the spring of 2022, their entire world imploded. Only 23 and 22 when Masha was born, they’d been like ‘best friends growing up together’. ‘We never wanted more kids; the three of us were such a perfect balance,’ Kate says. ‘We were unbelievably happy.’
The US has faced many large recalls this year, with more than 19million pounds of meat alone recalled because of potential bacterial contamination. Here, two patients reveal their battle with listeria. Michael Silberman, 86, and from Florida, was hospitalized for three weeks with listeria and had to be sedated because of seizures. He can now only walk with a walker. He says he ate a turkey sandwich (inset) before falling sick. Mother-to-be April Bonham, from Texas, said her daughter was fine at the 36-week scan. But when they returned for the 37-week check, doctors said that she had no heartbeat. The mother was then later told that her daughter may have died from a listeria infection.
