It criticised the Government’s focus on binge drinking because it ignored the “very strong correlation” between binge drinking and overall alcohol consumption.More than six million men and women drink more than the maximum units of two to three a day for women (up to 21 a week) and three to four for men (up to 28 units). The average drinker consumes more than 50 per cent more alcohol than in 1970, driven by a 50 per cent fall in the cost of drink, relative to incomes.Heavy drinking has fuelled a rise in crime, injury and death caused by alcohol over the past three decades. Excessive drinking has caused a nine-fold increase in cirrhosis deaths among young men and women since 1970 and is responsible for 150,000 hospital admissions a year and up to a third of all accident and emergency cases.Drinking has risen from an annual 7.1 litres of pure alcohol per head in 1970 (equivalent to eight or nine glasses of wine or five to seven pints of beer a week) to 11.1 litres in 2000 (equivalent to 13 or 14 glasses of wine or nine to 11 pints of beer.A report published by the Academy of Medical Sciences in March this year called for swingeing price increases and restrictions on the availability of drink to halt the rise in alcohol-related problems. A unit is half a pint of ordinary beer, a small glass of wine or a standard measure of spirits.The Government’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy, published this year, recommended voluntary codes of practice to encourage bars, clubs and brewers to promote sensible drinking but it was widely criticised for being too cautious.The NHS faces an annual bill of £95m to treat alcoholism and related diseases but the total cost of alcohol misuse is estimated at £20bn a year.SMOKINGSmoking is the single biggest preventable cause of ill health, claiming 1,600 lives a week in England. Although we are eating 750 fewer calories a day on average compared with 20 years ago, activity levels have fallen by 800 calories Out of this small imbalance has come the wave of obesity. Numbers have trebled since the 1980s with 22 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women now classed as obese – with a body mass index of 30 or more. Almost two thirds of men and more than two thirds of women are overweight – with a body mass index of 25 or above – 24 million adults in total.The ill effects of being overweight or obese are estimated to cause 30,000 deaths a year Obesity reduces life expectancy by nine years.

OBESITY
British waistlines are expanding so fast that three quarters of the population could suffer the ill effects of excess weight within 10 to 15 years, and obesity could overtake smoking as Britain’s single biggest preventable killer.Rising rates of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other chronic conditions linked with being overweight threaten to overwhelm the NHS, the Commons Health Select Committee warned six months ago.The cause of the crisis is an imbalance between the calories people consume and the energy they expend. Employers will be urged to help people change their lifestyles and assist the return to work of the long-term sick, to avoid the development of chronic problems. Measures to combat binge drinking, improve sexual health and reduce obesity will be included.But ministers look certain to come under fire for failing to impose a ban on smoking in public places. A spokesman for the British Beer and Licensing Association said it believed it had secured agreement from ministers for a voluntary arrangement under which smoking would be banned from eating areas in pubs and restaurants within 12 months and extended to bar areas in three years. Within four years smoking would be restricted to designated rooms..

British waistlines are expanding so fast that three quarters of the population could suffer the ill effects of excess weight within 10 to 15 years, and obesity could overtake smoking as Britain’s single biggest preventable killer. There will be new measures to help consumers identify foods high in fat, sugar and salt, possibly based on a traffic-light labelling system.A health MOT will be offered to patients and a personal health plan drawn up with health advisers appointed in deprived communities to offer help with changing diet or improving fitness. “Activity is needed on a wide front to help individuals to take responsibility.”Mr Reid is determined to avoid charges of nannying people and instead help people to lead healthier lives by providing them with the information to make healthier choices.He is expected to call for voluntary curbs on television adverts for junk food before 9pm, when children are watching, backed by the threat of an outright ban if food companies do not comply. The prize would be a £30bn a year saving on the annual cost of the NHS in 20 years’ time.

“Individuals are primarily responsible for their own health and their families’ health but the Government has a major role in the process by providing the necessary framework for success,” the report said. They suggested that the optic nerve in short-sighted people might have a structural condition that renders it more susceptible to computer stress than non-myopic eyes.. A white paper on public health billed as the best chance in a generation to turn the NHS from a “sickness” service to a health service will be published today. It will set out the Government’s plans for tackling the growing threats to health from rising rates of obesity, drinking and sexually transmitted infections as well as tackling the single biggest cause of ill health – smoking. The causes are unknown, but potential risk factors include smoking and high blood pressure.Opticians had discounted the possibility that computer use could be linked to glaucoma and several studies had suggested that there was no connection between intensive computer use and glaucoma. Although poor computer screens can cause eye strain, that was not believed to be a precursor to the problem.For male office workers, the work is a second alarm bell over glaucoma; last year a study suggested wearing a tie too tightly could also lead to the disorder.The investigation by the Toho University researchers found that 522, or 5.1 per cent, of the workers had “visual field abnormalities”, which can be a precursor to the full-blown condition – which normally affects 0.74 per cent of the population.

Further tests on the 522 subjects found that 165 (32 per cent) had suspected glaucoma.The researchers also found a significant statistical link with heavy computer use among short-sighted workers. “In the next decade, therefore, it might be important for public health professionals to show more concern about myopia [short-sightedness] and visual field abnormalities in heavy computer users.” Visual field abnormalities are distortions or gaps in the field of view.”Myopic workers with a history of long-term computer using might have an increased risk of visual field abnormalities, possibly related to glaucoma,” said Dr Masayuki Tatemichi, who led the team. The work was reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.Glaucoma is more common in old age, and happens when the optic nerve in the eye is damaged, possibly by high pressure inside the eye. Researchers aim to replicate the study to confirm the findings.The results emerged from a study in Japan of 10,000 workers with an average age of 43. It found a statistical link between heavy computer use and eye problems that presage glaucoma. “There’s the possibility of the phage being mopped up by the immune system or causing an allergic response,” warns Geoffrey Hanlon of Brighton University.There is a nice symmetry about the notion that an alliance between the principles of Florence Nightingale and a revamped bit of Russian health care may eventually roll back the advancing bacterial hordes..