HEALTH NOTES: Could you spot heart disease?  

Three-quarters of Britons would fail to spot the common signs of heart disease.

Pain and numbness in the arm can indicate a heart attack, but only 27 per cent of 2,000 adults polled by supplement brand Comvita were aware of this.

Less than half knew shortness of breath could indicate heart trouble and more than a third were unaware chest pain was a red flag.

The findings echo a 2019 study that found less than 40 per cent of Britons knew their key blood pressure readings and BMI – vital indicators of heart health.

Heart and circulatory diseases cause a quarter of all UK deaths.

Stress epidemic hitting workplace

Half of people in the UK are battling with overwhelming stress, according to a survey of 12,000 people.

Some 96 per cent of those polled experience stress or anxiety on a regular basis, but only half described these feelings as ‘manageable’.

The research, conducted by vitamin supplement retailer Dr Vegan, also discovered that a third of those surveyed had taken time off work for stress-related reasons. Three-quarters said they have avoided social situations as a consequence, too.

A poll of 1,000 British managers in December found that 75 per cent had noticed an increase in stress levels in their employees since the Covid-19 pandemic.

About nine in ten bosses also said that such emotional difficulties affected work performance.

Some 96 per cent of those polled experience stress or anxiety on a regular basis, but only half described these feelings as ‘manageable’.

People conceived by IVF are at no greater risk of suffering fertility problems, it has been found.

Experts had long suspected the problems can be passed down the generations, but a study at Barts Health NHS Trust suggests otherwise. They used data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway to analyse about a million IVF babies conceived between 1984 and 2002 who then had their own children. 

When compared against a group of non-IVF children, they found no difference in risk of congenital defects, miscarriage, low birth weight and admission to neonatal intensive care units. The study noted people conceived by IVF tend to have fewer pregnancies, but this was not a result of fertility issues.

A charity has called on the Government to get more older Britons involved in drug trials.

Over-60s are prescribed more medication than any other age group, yet a third of medical trials don’t include older adults, says the International Longevity Centre. Without them, side effects of certain drugs may be misjudged. Now the charity wants Ministers to issue guidelines to UK researchers telling them to approach older people when recruiting for trials.

‘We need to put age diversity on a par with gender and ethnicity,’ says spokesman Esther McNamara.