Nathan Davies

Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds Researchers say low- and no-calorie sweeteners appear to affect thinking and memory in middle age

"Sweeteners can harm cognitive health equivalent to 1.6 years of ageing, study finds"

Or does it? Let's take a look at this "study"...

www.theguardian.com/food/2025/se...

Exciting opportunities to join UK NSC expert groups The UK NSC has 15 vacancies to fill on 3 of its expert advisory groups.

nationalscreening.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/08/e...

Results so stunningly clear they inspired this classic xkcd (xkcd.com/2400/):

Streeting’s bid to get Britain off the couch and save NHS £10bn Health Secretary’s Get Britain Moving campaign could be undermined by difficulty to walk in some areas

It's disappointing that the government's plan to get people moving is focused around "Go for a jog" rather than, as the evidence suggests, building environments that encourage everyday incidental exercise: the ability to walk to amenities
liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/388...

Fixed the BBC headline for them. Not sure why we tolerate the gambling industry in its current form.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Voting carries almost no personal risk (it's putting a piece of paper in a ballot box in a school hall) but will give 16 and 17 year olds a say in the political future of the country they study and work in, leading politicians to assign greater importance to their views and lives.

Alcohol is a mind-altering drug that causes severe health and social problems; its effects are more acute for children. This means exploring greater restrictions on its marketing and availability to young people, not making it more available.

Cigarettes are the most harmful available consumer product, killing 1 in 3 of its users, and are extremely addictive. Most people regret starting smoking.

The smokefree generation law, which will raise the age of sale of tobacco one year every year, will be an effective way of addressing this.

Serving in a combat role is a huge legal and ethical commitment that may involve you risking your own life and taking the lives of others.

Getting married is a huge legal and societal commitment that carries enormous consequences for you and the person you marry for the rest of your life.

To those arguing that votes at 16 means explaining why voting should be set at a different age to marrying, serving in a combat role or buying cigarettes and alcohol (all 18)...

...sure!

Whoever did this is genius

#nffc

Can academics use AI to write journal papers? What the guidelines say When is it acceptable to use AI in academic publishing?

Pretty sensible guide to generative AI use in academic peer-reviewed journals

theconversation.com/can-academic...

Reform UK to accept donations via bitcoin, Nigel Farage says Party leader says he wants UK to be a ‘crypto powerhouse’ during speech at Las Vegas conference

Guess which business Christopher Harborne, the biggest Reform UK donor of recent times, happens to be in? Surprised not to see this mentioned in the story.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Labubus. I mean, at least they aren't Bored Apes?

Mental-health lessons in schools sound like a great idea. The trouble is, they don’t work | Lucy Foulkes All-class therapy sessions don’t help, and may even make matters worse. The evidence shows we need different solutions, says Dr Lucy Foulkes, an academic psychologist at Oxford University

I’m in the Guardian today, arguing that we should stop them all-class mental health lessons in schools

I've thought very carefully about ‘going public’ with this, because it's a sensitive argument to make, especially in the face of so many young people struggling.

(cont 🧵)

tinyurl.com/vun92cz7

You might have struggled to make the case that video games and TV were substitute goods for alcohol 20 years ago!

Alcohol's competitor is Netflix, Netflix's competitor is sleep

This is a genuinely astonishing drop in weekend violence. Check out the magnitude. What brilliant news.

Anecdote klaxon 🚨 I was with someone in ED in Nottingham's main hospital on Friday night and was taken aback by how calm it was. Busy, but calm.

H/T @stevensenior.bsky.social

Call for papers: Ethics, values and law for public health in a world in turmoil There are plans for a special supplement of the Journal of Public Health on ethics, values, and laws for building healthy communities in a world in turmoil. Ar

Paper submissions for the Journal of Public Health’s supplement on ethics and law close this Thursday 15 May.

Areas of interest:

• Moral mandate of public health
• Building capacity and resilience
• Ethical dimensions of climate change, conflict and the polycrisis

academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/p...

Going on LinkedIn used to be like eating at a dessert parlour - nice before the sugary sweetness inevitably overwhelms.

Now it's like ChatGPT has poured a bathtub of full-fat Lucozade over your sundae.

a slide showing the ridiculous process of publishing a journal article, highlighting how universities both pay for the work to be done and then pay to access the work.

Recently did the annual walk through of our totally normal publishing system for my undergraduate research methods students. Never fails to boggle their minds.

Thank you!

Interesting thread Lucy - please could you share those studies?

Does household income predict health and educational outcomes in childhood better than neighbourhood deprivation? AbstractBackground. Public health research and prevention policies often use the small area Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) at neighbourhood level to p

Currently working on a #SystematicReview on #Inequalities- papers often use IMD as a surrogate marker of SEP as its readily available

Interesting paper here 📖 on what *individual-level* household income adds & impact on health. Highlights inequalities within areas
academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/a...

Adolescent researchers: Does anyone have experience of running a study with <18 year olds and collecting data online, directly from them, rather than via schools?

We want to run an experiment with 11-17yo, and are wondering about the logistics of getting parental consent online for 11-15yo...

The key chart right now:

Usually US economic pain is cushioned by falling bond yields and a strengthening dollar, which mean lower interest rates and more spending power for consumers.

This time we’re seeing the opposite, meaning the pain will be amplified.

I like the first quiz a lot, and the second quiz had some really interesting dichotomies (although it felt like the creator's viewpoints strongly influenced the framing for pt. 2!)

New alcohol mortality data presents a bleak picture for England - Institute of Alcohol Studies Alcohol deaths in England continue to rise, with the North East death rate overtaking Scotland's for the first time ever. Colin Angus looks at why this might be and which age groups are particularly a...

Why are deaths from alcohol still increasing in England when heavy drinking since the pandemic has come down?

@victimofmaths.bsky.social explains.

www.ias.org.uk/2024/12/16/n...