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Everyone knows that smoking is bad for them, but No Smoking Day has been established to remind people about the serious health risks of lighting up.

The campaign, which was launched in 1984, is aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of quitting smoking, not only for smokers themselves but for their loved ones.

Although it encourages people to ditch cigarettes for one day, its intention is to show that smokers can quit for good if they take it step by step.

And the biggest incentive to stop smoking is to reduce the risk of serious health complications.

The health risks of smoking

According to a study published in the journal Addictive Behaviours, which was conducted by the University College London, the University of Bristol, and King’s College London, together with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), one in 20 people still risk their wellbeing by smoking.

Additionally, smokers are now more likely to drink higher quantities of alcohol that risks their safety. This figure rose from 21 per cent in 2019 to 30 per cent in 2022.

Furthermore, smoking doesn’t just have physical complications, but it impacts smokers’ mental health. For instance, the report revealed half of those who smoke and drink at risky levels have had psychological distress in the last month.

Almost as many (45 per cent) have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

The health risks of smoking include an increased likelihood of developing cancer, as well as having a heart attack, stroke, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and erectile dysfunction.

It can also affect fertility for both men and women; worsen respiratory problems; and make it harder to recover from surgery.

Indeed, deputy chief executive at ASH Hazel Cheeseman, said: “Smoking steals on average ten years of life.”

Increases risk of dementia

Additionally, it increases the risk of developing dementia, which, according to Alzheimer’s Research UK, is the most feared health condition for the over-55s.

Smoking is such a big risk factor for dementia that if everyone stopped, this could either prevent or delay up to 40 per cent of cases.

Despite this, only 18 per cent of smokers are aware that cigarettes increase the risk of developing dementia.

How to quit

Of course, quitting is easier said than done, and those who don’t want to increase their chance of getting seriously ill could benefit from the No Smoking Day campaign’s key messages.

These reminders include quitting doesn’t have to be painful; quitting isn’t always easy; and No Smoking Day is the perfect time to start.

There are lots of stop smoking aids available from local pharmacies these days, including nicotine replacement therapies like patches or gum, e-cigarettes, and medication.

Gadgets such as breathing necklaces or fidgets could also help smokers to break the habit of puffing or holding something in their hands.

Many people also find vaping as an effective way to help them quit, as it allows them to carry out the same actions as smoking but without the harsh effects of tobacco consumption.

In an attempt to relieve pressure on GPs and hospitals, seven additional conditions can now be treated at local pharmacies.

Instead of booking an appointment with your doctor if you have a minor health complaint, patients can go straight to their chemists to receive medication, as part of the new Pharmacy First system.

What are the seven conditions?

The seven ailments pharmacies are now able to treat include sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles, and urinary tract infections, as long as they are not complicated.

The extended care has been on offer since the end of January, and the NHS has recently launched a campaign, entitled Help Us, Help You, to raise awareness of the additional services.

Dr Claire Fuller, NHS England medical director for primary care, said: “The changes that the NHS has made to community pharmacy services mean that people now have a new easy and convenient way of managing and treating many common illnesses.”

Pharmacy First 

The NHS recently released adverts on TV, radio, bus stops and billboards to make the public more aware of the new Pharmacy First services, reminding people they do not have to call their doctors for certain conditions.

This comes after a recent Ipsos Mori study revealed one in five people do not normally contact or visit a community pharmacy. Therefore, raising awareness of Pharmacy First could encourage more people to take advantage of their local services.

Free up GP appointments

One of the major benefits of seeing a pharmacy instead of ringing the doctors is it is expected to free up around ten million GP appointments every year.

Many people struggle to get through to their GPs, as they are in such high demand, so Pharmacy First could mean it is easier for those who really need to see a doctor to be able to do so.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “This bold new approach will free up to ten million GP appointments per year, helping to cut waiting lists and deliver our long-term plan for the NHS.”

Get help quicker

What’s more, as patients do not have to join long waiting queues to see their GP, they can receive treatment earlier and start recovery sooner.

Mr Sunak added: “It will also save people time and hassle to get the straightforward medication they need quickly, because there’ll be no need to call ahead and no need to make an appointment.”

Patients will still be seen in a private consultation room and checked over by pharmacists, who have had to train for five years in a clinical setting, so they can be reassured they will receive the care they need without having to wait a long time for their appointment.

Should they feel like the patient needs further medical assistance, they can signpost them to the service they require.

The process of developing new medications is exceptionally long, involving several phases of clinical trials and years of work in laboratories, meaning that many medicines available in your local pharmacy have taken decades to become available.

This process, which at a minimum involves extensive peer-reviewed lab testing, clinical trials, licensing approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, approval from the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

It is a rigorous approval process that ensures that any medicines are safe, effective, meet quality

standards and meet the needs of those who take them.

This was not always the case, and there are some treatments and medicines in an age before the modern regulatory system that are unfathomable.

Soothing Syrup

Infamously nicknamed “baby killers” by the American Medical Association, Mrs.Winslow’s Soothing Syrup and other similar patent medicines were marketed as teething pain relievers, alongside a raft of exceptionally dubious claims.

The problem was that its active ingredients were morphine and alcohol in obscenely dangerous concentrations; it contained 20 times the amount of morphine as laudanum (or Dropizol) with recommended dosages that would invariably kill children via overdose.

They would eventually be withdrawn from the market, but even in an era of cocaine cough drops and heroin being marketed as the “safer” alternative to opium, any “soothing syrup” was a deeply irresponsible product.

Milk Transfusions

Thanks to advanced knowledge about blood and blood types, transfusions are a safe, life-saving procedure to help people who have lost a lot of blood or are suffering from a condition that

affects how their cells function.

Prior to this knowledge, however, blood transfusions were seen as so risky that doctors were more willing to inject another substance into the veins instead: milk.

The theory was that the fat cells in milk would form white blood cells and serve as a safer alternative to the risks of blood transfusions in that era. Instead, the results were exactly what one would expect.

Most died soon after being injected, one woman only avoided immediate death by being injected with a mixture of morphine and whiskey, and once safe blood transfusions existed, the concept of milk injections was thankfully left in the past.

Radioactive Medicine

The destructive qualities of radiation are very commonly used in cancer treatment, but before the true nature of radioactivity was known and appreciated, there was an entire medical generation of quackery that believed radiation would heal cells and tissue.

Whilst there were many strange products from uranium cereal bowls to radioactive toothpastes, the most infamous case was that of Radithor and its most famous victim, Eben Byers.

An amateur golfer and socialite, he started taking the radioactive tonic on the recommendation of a doctor who received a kickback from inventor and Harvard dropout William Bailey.

After taking 1400 doses of radium water, his body started to disintegrate, and the shocking tale of a healthy man whose body fell apart due to radioactive medicine ended the era of its popularity.

Mr Bailey had no remorse for Mr Byers’ death, claiming that he had never suffered any ill effects from his radium water before dying of bladder cancer in 1949.

There have been discussions about the place and purpose of medicinal cannabis for decades, and since doctors have been given the ability to prescribe it starting in 2018, these discussions have intensified.

In the first two years of its approval, despite the demand for medical cannabis, just 12 NHS prescriptions were approved, along with less than 50 private prescriptions, according to a 2020 study.

Part of the reason for this is that cannabis, along with cannabinol, resins and oils, are all Class B drugs and this legal status has significantly affected the ability to prescribe it as a medication and undertake meaningful research into its effects and potential benefits.

As a result of this, the answer to when it can be medically described is split between the very limited number of conditions for which it is approved for NHS use, and the conditions which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has suggested medicinal cannabis can help.

NHS Approved Treatments

The approval of medicinal cannabis started with the stories of Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley, two children who suffered from rare and extreme forms of epilepsy but had found a rare reprieve through cannabis-based treatments.

These severe epileptic conditions, such as Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, are two of the primary reasons why an NHS prescription for medical cannabis will be provided, but they are not the only ones.

A cannabis spray named Sativex will also sometimes be prescribed for people suffering from multiple sclerosis to help with the spasms and stiffness caused by the condition that cannot be treated in other ways.

Finally, it can be used to help people suffering from nausea caused by intense chemotherapy treatments, but only when other treatments have been found to not be enough to help completely treat the condition.

Other Recommendations

These three cases are the times that patients in the UK are most likely to get a prescription on the NHS but that still does not make it especially likely.

However, there are other circumstances where medicinal cannabis might be a recommended treatment option and would be prescribed by a doctor, either via a private prescription or through a clinical trial.

Whilst there has been a lot of discussion about the potential for cannabis to treat chronic pain with some evidence to support these claims, neither NICE nor the NHS are in a position to prescribe it for pain relief.

However, someone who has been entered into a clinical trial to determine the effects of various cannabis-derived medicines on pain relief would have access to a prescription, with the scope of potential benefits being so high.

There are a lot of different types of cannabis medication, dosages and potential for its use in a lot of different treatments, but one of the reasons why the recommendations are currently so restrictive is because of a chicken-and-egg issue surrounding medical research.

Because cannabis is also a Class B drug, it makes clinical trials more complex to set up and because of that, there is limited high-quality research outside of the three main treatments the NHS and NICE recommend, although this is very slowly changing.

The emergency contraceptive pill has been available in pharmacies for the last 40 years, helping people avoid unwanted pregnancies after having unprotected sex. Yet, many people still do not know everything about hormonal contraception.

To find out how it works and how to use it, read on:

What is the emergency contraceptive pill?

The emergency contraceptive pill is available in two brands, Levonelle or ellaOne.

Levonelle works as it contains a manmade version of the hormone progesterone, which is called levonorgestrel.

As progesterone is released during the beginning stages of pregnancy, levonorgestrel convinces the body it does not need to produce an egg. This delay of ovulation means an egg cannot be fertilised.

This form of contraceptive is best to take within 72 hours of having unprotected sex, whether the patient did not use protection, missed their pill, was sick after taking the pill, or their condom broke.

Even the most careful couples may need to take the ‘morning after pill’, if they are worried their usual contraception is no longer effective and they want to protect against a pregnancy.

EllaOne works differently from Levonelle, as it contains ulipristal acetate. This stops progesterone from working, and prevents or delays the release of an egg.

This contraceptive pill is better for those who have not managed to get to their local pharmacy as soon as possible after sex, as it is still effective within 120 hours of intercourse.

With both, the effectiveness of the drug declines the longer the patient waits to take it. Therefore, it is advisable to have emergency contraception as soon after sex as possible.

Can anyone take emergency hormonal contraceptives?

The good news is that most women are fine to take emergency hormonal contraceptives, and it is even available for girls under the age of 16 from contraception and sexual health clinics.

Even those who have trouble with regular hormonal contraception are able to take ellaOne or Levonelle, though it is sensible to speak to your pharmacist first.

It is also worth noting that women who have severe asthma or allergies to any of the ingredients may not be able to have these drugs.

Those who are on St John’s Wort, medication for epilepsy, HIV or tuberculosis, omeprazole, and some antibiotics will not be able to take ellaOne. However, they may be able to take Levonelle, but at a higher dose.

Women who are breastfeeding are also able to take Levonelle, as it is not harmful to the baby. On the other hand, there has not been enough research done on the effects of ellaOne on breastmilk, which is why it is advisable not to breastfeed for one week to be on the safe side.

What are the side effects?

Like all drugs, there are likely to be side effects when taking emergency hormonal contraceptives.

They are both known to cause headaches, abdominal pain, and nausea. They might also affect your next period, such as disrupting the cycle or making it heavier or more painful than it typically is.

Women who are physically sick within two hours after taking the pills should ask their pharmacist for advice, as they will need to take another dose.

Anyone turning on the TV and seeing highlights of the Australian Open tennis may have two thoughts; one is that there are plenty of places in the world that are a whole lot warmer than snowy Britain just now. The other might be the lack of any controversy over the presence of Novak Djokovic.

Things were very different a couple of years ago, when Djokovic was extradited from Australia after trying to find a loophole to enter the country – and the tournament – despite declining to be vaccinated against Covid.

Such entry requirements are no longer an issue down under, with similar mandates having been dropped all over the world.

That means if you do fancy a sunny winter getaway instead of waiting months for the British weather to warm up, you won’t need to visit a travel vaccine clinic to get a Covid jab, or carry a certificate to show you have previously had one. But that does not mean you don’t need any vaccinations at all.

While you could visit lots of countries with no jabs at all, including Australia, there are some places in which it is either mandatory or at least highly advised to get a vaccination for particular common diseases.

For example, there are many countries in the topics where yellow fever is an issue. This includes much of sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South America, Central America and the Caribbean island of Trinidad. In some cases, a certificate to show you have been vaccinated is mandatory when entering a country. The vaccine gives lifelong protection.

The virus is a nasty one that occasionally causes death, but always very unpleasant illness, including fever, nausea, vomiting and sometimes jaundice, which is where the name comes from.

Caused by mosquito bites, so it is clearly important to avoid it if at all possible, although there are people who cannot get the jab, such as the very young, those with weakened immune systems and those with allergies to the egg-based ingredients.

Other common vaccination requirements include hepatitis A, which is a water-borne infection commonly found in some countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. While most people who get it do recover within a few months, the symptoms in the meantime – fever, tummy trouble and muscle aches to name but there – mean this is another to avoid.

Typhoid is a high risk in the same parts of the world as hepatitis A, with Britons who go abroad being most likely to contract it from visits to South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. If untreated, the fever can worsen and become life-threatening.

There are two types of typhoid vaccination, one of which is given in pill form (no doubt to the relief of anyone scared of needles). You can also get a combined typhoid/hepatitis A vaccine.

In a world where vaccine scepticism has been dangerously high in recent years, it is vital to take these health threats very seriously, even if not all the at-risk countries you might visit make vaccination mandatory. Wherever in the world you plan to go, it is important to check what you may need to take.

A new year provides a new perspective, and many people choose the start of January as a time to make a commitment to improve their health and leave this year in a more positive place than how they entered it.

This approach is not always effective for everyone and often takes very different forms, but there is a reason why a lot of people commit to losing weight and start to take steps to change their lifestyle for the better.

Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to losing weight, nobody loses weight at a consistent rate and in some cases, it does not even equate to improved health.

As concepts such as the summermatter cycle suggest, some people may not necessarily lose weight through diet, and successful weight loss is gradual and typically not the aim of a healthy living programme.

In some cases, however, additional interventions are needed, and this often takes the form of weight loss medication available on prescription after consultation with a GP or specialist doctor from a local pharmacy.

There is a wide range of weight loss medications, although only a few of these have been approved to be prescribed or purchased over the counter at a pharmacy at lower doses, with the most recent recommendation being for semaglutide in 2023.

Despite this range, weight-loss medications tend to work using a combination of these three methods.

The first system, as is seen with the medication Orlistat, stops certain nutrients from being absorbed from food, which in most cases is fat. This remains undigested and passes through the body, meaning that fewer calories are absorbed.

This, in combination with a proportionate amount of exercise and a focus on a low-fat diet, can help maximise its effectiveness whilst avoiding the side effects that come from the oil passing through the system.

It may also require additional supplements to offset the potential deficiencies in vitamins such as A, D, E and K, all of which are often best absorbed with fat.

The next system of functionality is metabolic boosters, which cause the body to burn more fat, which increases the level of weight loss alongside effective exercise and a suitable diet.

Whilst some available medications have fat-burning aspects to them, there is no approved prescription medication where the primary action is fat-burning or increasing the expenditure of energy, although several clinical trials are taking place for medications such as those reliant on fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21).

Finally, and most commonly, many weight loss medications work through appetite suppressing; they make people feel more full quicker, so they will eat less. These include medications such as liraglutide (sold under the brand name Saxenda) and semaglutide (Wegovy).

They are typically prescribed to people over a certain body mass index (BMI) who have certain additional health issues that have emerged as a result of this weight, such as high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol.

As with other forms of weight loss treatment, they will work very well for some people and not for others, and it is essential to seek advice before taking any new medication.

Most people start the new year feeling bloated and sluggish after tucking into all those chocolates and mince pies over Christmas, so don’t beat yourself up about carrying a few extra pounds in January.

At the same time, more than one-third (35 per cent) of Brits have put weight loss as their main new year’s resolution for 2024, hoping that this will be the year they achieve their health goals.

However, one in five people who make resolutions last less than one month, so here are our tips to help you stick to your weight loss goals for the year.

Get over the Christmas bloat

The first hurdle is to get back into normal eating habits after Christmas. Most of the extra weight gain over December will be from excess salt and alcohol, which can make us feel bloated and heavier.

Therefore, it is sensible to avoid the scales until you have resumed eating normally without the extra evening treats and calorie-laden drinks.

After a few days, you will be in a better position to start your healthy eating regime properly and have a more realistic picture of what goals you want to accomplish.

Slow and steady wins the race

It is important to remember that weight loss should be slow and steady, and you should not beat yourself up if you haven’t lost a certain amount in one week.

Often, it takes months to see a significant difference in the scales, and the more weight you have to lose, the longer it will take.

If you try to deprive yourself too much, you are less likely to stick to your goals and will revert back to old ways. What’s more, calorie restriction and bingeing can slow down your metabolism, which means it’ll be even harder to lose weight in the long-term.

What to eat

Instead, focus on what you should eat, instead of what you shouldn’t. Fill your plate with plenty of vegetables, a good portion of protein, and some carbohydrates, as these will provide you with the nutrients you need, give you energy, and will keep hunger at bay.

As long as you eat three good meals a day, and snack on healthy foods, such as nuts, seeds, yoghurt and fresh fruit, you will not feel the need to indulge in sugary, calorific foods that will not satisfy your appetite like sweets, chocolates and crisps.

Muscle and Fitness recommends eating low-fat protein, such as chicken, Greek yoghurt, salmon, and turkey breast.

It states: “Opt for protein during all meals going forward and you will cut excessive eating that often happens when not feeling full.”

Weight loss support

The advice to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet is not new, but many Brits still struggle with their weight every day.

That is why having support from a weight loss clinic might be just the thing they need. This can tell them about supplements that may be helpful, give them information about meal replacement programmes, prescribe medication, and simply help them change their lifestyle and eating habits.

It might be as simple as getting help making a meal plan for the week, so they aren’t tempted to buy processed meals, or they might need advice on getting into exercise, which will support their weight loss and boost their cardiovascular health.

Having this extra support is also likely to make them more accountable for their weight loss, which will make them try harder and not give into old habits as easily.