Neurologists discover new way to predict Alzheimer's decline
Research indicates that a simple blood test, the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, could identify Alzheimer's patients at a high risk of cognitive decline.
Neurologists at the University of Brescia in Italy found that non-diabetic Alzheimer's patients with mild cognitive impairment and high TyG scores experienced cognitive decline four times faster.
The TyG index, a readily available marker for insulin resistance, showed this link specifically in Alzheimer's patients, not in those with other neurodegenerative conditions.
It is believed that insulin resistance impairs glucose uptake in the brain, contributing to inflammation and amyloid build-up, both linked to Alzheimer's progression.
These findings could lead to earlier identification of high-risk Alzheimer's patients, allowing for more targeted clinical trials and interventions to improve insulin sensitivity.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Reform the NHS, not our shopping baskets
This week, the NHS will publish its 10 Year Health Plan. The most we can expect from this exercise in Soviet-style planning is tinkering around the edges of an edifice that was erected when Joseph Stalin ruled in Moscow. By 2035, the end date of this 10-year plan, the country will almost certainly be unable to afford the NHS in its present form – if, indeed, it hasn't collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions by then. Unable to address the fundamental problems of the NHS, the dirigistes of Whitehall have come up with a new plan to direct us how to lead our lives – telling us what we should or shouldn't be allowed to choose to put in our shopping baskets. Supermarkets will be expected to cut 100 calories from the average shopping basket by limiting sales of sugary and salty snacks or other 'junk food'. Ever since Napoleon Bonaparte sneered at England as 'a nation of shopkeepers', we have worn his insult as a badge of honour. We are proud to be a people who earn our living by trade and we cherish the liberties that are the glory of a commercial society. Even those of us who are not shopkeepers are at least customers. So little does this Labour Government know the British people that it is about to resort to distinctly Napoleonic measures to punish both retailers and consumers. Yet previous attempts to control consumption have never succeeded in changing enduring patterns of behaviour rooted in human nature. It is outrageous that officials feel empowered to tell us what we can, and cannot, eat. The public is being infantilised and robbed of agency. Centuries have passed since Parliament abandoned sumptuary laws that prohibited the lower orders from imitating the luxurious dress of the aristocracy. But the bureaucratic mind is obdurate in its disdain for popular tastes in food and drink. Combined with Labour's instinct to meddle, along with its insatiable fiscal appetite, it is no surprise that, as we report today, a modern version of the sumptuary laws is about to land on an unsuspecting nation. Obesity is a genuine and growing problem, but, hitherto, all attempts to address it by fiscal means have failed. The latest obesity tax – supermarkets will be fined if they don't reduce the nation's calorie intake, and this will inevitably be passed on to consumers – now emerging from the bowels of the Health Department and the Treasury, claims to be aimed directly at our waistlines. In reality, like all its predecessors, it will target our wallets. There is a certain grim irony in the fact that this policy should have been adopted at the same time as the decision by the NHS to prescribe the weight-loss drug semaglutide (contained in Ozempic and Wegovy). It is fairly obvious that the underlying rationale of the new regulations is less about obesity than about the Government's failure to control spending. No doubt figures will be trotted out about how many lives will be saved by cutting consumption of ultra-processed foods or any other category of comestible that attracts the ire of the health bureaucrats. But the truth is that new rules are being concocted because the Government is running scared of its own MPs, who have effectively imposed a veto on cuts in welfare spending. What would genuinely make a difference to life expectancy and health outcomes would, of course, be a radical reform of the NHS, a more active population, and a reduction in the numbers wasting their lives on benefits. Rachel Reeves has just poured another £29 billion into the health service, without any clear cost-benefit calculation. Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, is intelligent enough to know that he has inherited an obsolete behemoth that is crying out for root-and-branch reform. But building a new consensus for a new NHS would require the Labour Party to rethink its assumptions about the social contract, as well as the role of insurance and individual responsibility. The original 1946 NHS Act created 'a comprehensive health service designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and Wales'. Today, the nation's health is not safe in the hands of a dysfunctional Labour Party that would rather do anything – even introducing an assisted-dying service – than take on the overdue task of making the NHS fit for purpose. These new directives are at best a displacement activity, at worst an act of fiscal condescension. A nation of shopkeepers deserves better than to be bossed around by its own government.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Frogs in boiling water: Creep of extreme heat events
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Calls to clean up England's ‘toxic air' as GP visits for asthma attacks rise 45%
The number of patients being treated by GPs for asthma attacks has increased by 45% in a year, prompting calls for urgent action to tackle toxic levels of air pollution. There were 45,458 presentations to family doctors in England between January and June this year, according to data from the Royal College of General Practitioners research and surveillance centre. Across the same period in 2024, there were 31,376 cases. The figures come a week after a damning report by the Royal College of Physicians revealed that 99% of the UK population was now breathing in 'toxic air'. Air pollution was killing 500 people a week and costing £27bn a year in ill health, NHS care and productivity losses, the research showed. New data from the RCGP research and surveillance centre shows the rate of asthma attacks in 2025 has consistently been above the five-year average. Exacerbations of asthma – attacks which cause breathlessness and chest tightness – were, alongside other environmental and lifestyle factors, closely linked to air pollution as patients' airways could be irritated by exposure to harmful matter, the RCGP said. The college is calling on ministers and the mayors of major cities to expand existing clean air zones to combat the health consequences of air pollution. In an interview with the Guardian, Prof Kamila Hawthorne, the chair of the RCGP, said: 'GPs have long been sounding the alarm on the detrimental effects of air pollution on patients' health and these latest figures on asthma exacerbations are extremely concerning. 'Air pollution is a major public health crisis which is often overlooked, but we know it can be responsible for a range of serious physical and mental conditions and will often exacerbate existing conditions in patients. 'We have been very encouraged by the efforts of the mayors in major cities such as Birmingham and London to reduce air pollution exposure through schemes such as the Ulez initiative, which are reporting very positive results. 'But these latest statistics show that we need to go further, expanding the focus on reducing air pollution in the worst affected communities.' The Department of Health and Social Care has said its 10-year health plan, due to be published next Thursday, will shift the NHS from treatment to prevention. Tackling air pollution must be a key part of the plan, Hawthorne said. 'If we don't take measures to address this, it is patients who will suffer the consequences – particularly those in more economically deprived areas with already limited access to healthcare services. 'As well as the devastating human cost, this will ultimately also result in a greater burden on an already overstretched NHS.' Sarah Sleet, the chief executive of Asthma + Lung UK, said the 'huge increase' in asthma attacks was 'extremely worrying'. 'While there may be multiple factors at play, we know that air pollution can be deadly for the millions of people in the UK living with lung conditions like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,' she said. 'It can trigger life-threatening attacks and exacerbate symptoms, leaving people fighting for breath. It stunts the growth of children's lungs, and being exposed to high levels of air pollution over a long period of time can also cause lung conditions. 'Yet still the government has shown no political will to tackle toxic levels of air pollution, which across the UK are much higher than the recommended safe levels set by the World Health Organization.' Prof Steve Turner, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said he was 'alarmed' by the rise in asthma attacks and urged ministers to 'act quickly'. About one in 10 children in the UK have asthma. Previous studies show steep rises in visits to doctors by children with asthma after a week of raised air pollution levels. 'These attacks are distressing, serious and life threatening, but they are also preventable,' Turner said. 'Exposure to high concentrations of air pollution increases the risk of both developing asthma and triggering attacks.' Dr Harry Apperley, a clinical fellow at the RCPCH, said the impact of toxic air on children's health was 'particularly profound' because their lungs were smaller and they breathed faster than adults, so inhaled a larger volume of air in a shorter period. 'In hospital, I'm increasingly seeing children and families living in or near environments that harm their health … Politicians and policymakers need to act. It shouldn't take a clinician's letter, or even a child's death, to make change happen,' he said. A government spokesperson said: 'Air pollution is a serious public health issue, and we are committed to tackling this issue across the country. 'We have already provided £575m to support local authorities to improve air quality and are developing a series of interventions to reduce emissions so that everyone's exposure to air pollution is reduced.'
