Category: health

Adapted from BMJ 10 January 2026

The National Institutes of Health and Oxford Biomedical Research have found that after GLP-1 weight loss drugs are stopped, rapid weight regain occurs, and it occurs a lot faster than if the weight was lost by traditional dietary methods. The average time to regain the lost weight is 1.7 years.

The research covered 9,341 participants over 37 studies. Two thirds had used weight loss injections and one third had used dietary methods.

Those using the injections achieved a lot more weight loss than dietary methods, losing about 14% of their starting weight, compared to 5% for the dieters.

Currently 40.3% of US adults are obese and 26.2% are obese in the UK. Other countries with high levels include India and Egypt. This leads to higher rates of type two diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia and premature death.

Weight loss surgery seemed to be the most effective option, until the injections came on the scene.

The injections lead to around a 4.6 kg weight loss which is equivalent to lowering the BMI by two points. Although very effective many users stop the injections in the first year of use. The average time of use of the injections is 39 weeks. After stopping, weight gain increases at a rate of 0.4 kg a month. Within two years, the average user is back to their previous weight. Dietary strategies to lose weight have a similar trajectory.

The commonest reasons given for injection discontinuation are cost, side effects and inconvenience. Getting people to commit to healthy diets and lifestyles does work to keep weight off but most people struggle to keep going.

People in the Diabetes Prevention Programme achieved 5-7% weight loss on diet and lifestyle measures alone. Even though they did indeed regain the weight, they did experience less diabetes than the control group. However, one group that did not do as well were the people who had a BMI in the “healthy” range of 18.5 -24.9. They ended up having more diabetes than those who had not attempted weight loss in the first place. It is thought that losing muscle as well as fat was the problem. This can be prevented if people in the healthy range use exercise as the main way to lose weight.

Researchers think that the general public need to be aware that the weight loss injections are not a magic bullet and that healthy diet and lifestyle practices are still relevant and useful. They think that taxation on sugary beverages, clear food labelling and subsidies on fresh fruit and vegetables would improve diet quality generally.

Adapted from BMJ 5 April 2025

Laser induced retinopathy can cause painless blindness. It is a condition characterised by various degrees of retinal injury caused by exposure to laser light. The vision can be reduced generally or by the presence of a central black spot.

Prognosis depends on the extent of the injury. Full thickness retinal damage, macular damage, large range damage and neovascularisation indicate a poor prognosis.

Parents and children should have more knowledge of these risks.

Case study: A child was found to have noticeably decreased vision in his left eye during a routine optometry examination. He had had normal vision six months previously. He had had no symptoms at all. He had been given a green laser pointer six months before and had played with it frequently.

He had looked directly at the light several times while holding it himself. Visible damage to the retina was seem on examination.

My comment: Obviously, don’t shine the laser light into your cat’s eyes either.

Adapted from BMJ 19 April 2025

The Race Associated Cardiac Event Registry in the US indicates that in almost 30 million runners who ran full or half marathons, there were 176 cardiac arrests over the three years from 2020 to 2023.

This was 1.12 per 100,000 male runners and 0.19 per 100,000 in female runners.

The death rate in those who sustained a cardiac arrest is now 34%. This was 71% before 2010.

This information should be generally reassuring to those who are training for marathons.

Adapted from BMJ 8 November 2025

Every so often there are reports of tourists and travellers who become blinded or die from the effects of Methanol poisoning.

Hopefully, going into reputable bars could lessen the risk, but you do not always see what alcohol is being put into your drinks, and you don’t usually see a barman open the seal on the bottle.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office says that these are the countries where most incidents occur:

Ecuador

Peru

Japan

Fiji

Indonesia

Cambodia

Vietnam

Laos

Thailand

Russia

Kenya

Nigeria

Uganda

Mexico

Costa Rica

Turkey

Adapted from BMJ 25 Oct 2025

A systemic review and meta-analysis looked at 217 randomised controlled trials with over 15 thousand participants in order to evaluate different exercise interventions in people with osteoarthritis of the knee.

They found that overall aerobic exercise was the best at improving pain, function, gait and quality of life.

They evaluated several types of exercise including aerobic, flexibility, strengthening, mind-body, neuromotor and mixed exercise.

The outcomes measured were pain, physical function, gait and quality of life.

Follow up was done at 4, 12 and 24 weeks.

Although you would expect improvement with almost all of these exercise regimes, aerobic exercise came out top. So, get your walking shoes on.