April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month. Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, with 36,600 cases diagnosed each year. Dr Pete Holloway is cancer lead for the CCG; read his blog here

This week is National Obesity Awareness Week (9 Jan - 15 Jan). In Suffolk, we have a huge problem with the incidence of obesity being higher than any borough in London. The numbers have trebled in the last 25 years and is reaching epidemic proportions.

Physical inactivity is the greatest public health problem of the 21st century. Twice as many people die from inactivity than obesity every year. 63% of the UK population is  inactive compared with 18% in Holland. It costs the NHS £8.2bn per year. In October 2014 Public Health England launched the national activity framework ‘everybody active every day’. It included a key domain for action on ‘Moving professionals’ to engage professional networks to support understanding and awareness of and greater engagement in physical activity among the wider public.

Articles in The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and other newspapers have recently revealed to a wider audience an academic paper published by The Royal Society.  Dr Kathryn Arnold and others from The University of York, looked at the effects of the antidepressant Fluoxetine (Prozac) on the behaviour and weight of common Starlings. 

With winter nearly upon us, there is more likelihood of catching a cold or ‘flu.  That means asthma sufferers will have more difficulty breathing. Now I know we will all be exposed to these types of viruses – it is difficult not to be in a room between November and February where someone has something!