Aurora top 20 – May 2010
Posted on 04. Jun, 2010 by neilcrump in Health, Industry, News, Top 20
As May becomes June, and we all get ready for the summer, 2010 seems to be rocketing along at a formidable pace. Aurora welcomes Emma, a new member of our team this month, which is an exciting development at an exciting time of year. We are all geared up for the World Cup Finals, with our sweepstake underway and our eyes on the England fixtures. You can read Neil’s blog post on World Cup fever or click here for a really cool, intuitive online World Cup wallchart.
The health news in May reflects a wide spread of therapeutic areas, from the usual top runners; cancer, nutrition and heart conditions, to stress, depression and mental health issues and pregnancy and maternity services. Additionally, just when we thought the pigs had flown, swine flu is back in the chart at number five for the second month running.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Nutrition reporting in the news is always interesting to analyse as it varies so widely in tone, (including both positive and negative stories) and content. Nutritional health stories are clearly in high public demand as the subject is invariably in the top two places of the Aurora chart, and is, therefore, clearly a topic sufficient to make a news headline. In addition to this, nutrition is often linked to a number of other therapeutic areas as we are told what to eat, what not to eat, and what conditions we can run the risk of getting if we eat badly.
Processing all this information is no easy task. If we were to list all the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ foods proposed to the public through the media, you might get a bit dizzy. Interestingly, it seems originality is not always a criterion for nutritional health news. Several stories this month have been regurgitated from previously reported news: We have been told to avoid processed meats to stave off bowel cancer and resist highly salted bought curries to reduce damage to the heart. By contrast, purple grape juice was said to keep the heart healthy, lowering blood pressure and the risk of angina and heart attacks.
Pregnant women were provided with several pieces of advice by the health media in May. While the Daily Mirror suggested that drinking too much coffee can cause low birth weights, it was also reported that lack of sunshine, or vitamin D, also affects foetal bone growth. Vitamin D deficiency in the womb has also been linked to an increased chance of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) in later life. Finally, it was reported in The Daily Telegraph that pregnant women consider information gleaned from their own mothers as more valuable than that of medics. Trusted family advice obviously counts for a lot at times of familial importance. Let’s just hope that the mothers of pregnant women don’t suggest drinking excessive coffee or hiding too much from the sun.
Stem cell research is another news topic that has been linked to auto-immune diseases, including MS. According to The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, a University of Bristol study looked at six people with MS between the ages of 30 and 60 who underwent bone marrow stem cell therapy. The trial found that the controversial treatment helped to stabilise the condition. Stem cell treatment has also been reported on this month due to some ground breaking research at the University of Edinburgh, into another auto-immune condition, motor neurone disease (MND). As MND is almost impossible to study in living patients, researchers plan to recreate the brain disease in the lab using stem cells. They hope to find ways of treating the condition to slow, and hopefully even stop, its progression, with the holy grail being to repair and restore lost function.
In other news, a pioneer of stem cell technology, Jamie Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, addressed the controversy around stem cells, suggesting their development will reduce the need for animal testing of new drugs. He claims adult skin tissue can be manipulated to present with the properties of embryonic stem cells, therefore promising an ethical solution, whereby embryos need not be destroyed to provide stem cells for use in research.
And finally, two stories make it into this section for the first time. The first is a heart warming, life affirming health story. Apparently the key to a long and healthy life is having a close network of family and friends. In a study of 188 centenarians, many said their secret has been sociability, open-mindedness and optimism. Click here to read this article.
Finally, finally, and not entirely unrelated, a study has shown that drinking two pints of beer or glasses of wine a day makes you happier and healthier. Click here to read all about it. The researchers, who are French, (I’m saying nothing) say that alcohol thins the blood, improving circulation and wellbeing. The British Heart Foundation added that drinking too much can cause high blood pressure, strokes, some cancers and heart damage. But a few drinks can certainly help with sociability and optimism, so cheers to a long life!
Aurora strives to apply quantitative, qualitative and emotional understanding of health issues to client communication programmes. Dove-tailing informed PR activity with the media’s appetite enables us to assist clients with communicating their vision.
To find out more, contact Neil Crump or Claire Eldridge on +44 (0)20 7424 7940.
The top 20, started in April 2007, provides our interpretative snap-shot of health stories in the national press and is based upon a quantitative process. This analysis is based on news from the 26 April 2010 to 25 May 2010.
