High blood pressure: who is at risk and why UK children are getting it

High blood pressure was long considered a health problem of middle age, but rates are increasing in children and adolescents, with doctors reporting a surge in strokes among people of working age.Hypertension is the medical name for high blood pressure. It arises when blood pressure in the arteries, the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the brain and around the body, is consistently above a healthy level. It is often called a silent killer because it causes damage throughout the body without producing obvious symptoms.Blood pressure is usually measured with a blood pressure monitor, which wraps an inflatable cuff around the arm

Call for routine high blood pressure testing of UK children as cases almost double

Leading doctors have called for a national UK programme to monitor schoolchildren for high blood pressure amid concerns that rising rates in adolescents will increase cases of organ damage, strokes and heart attacks.Rates of high blood pressure have nearly doubled among children in the past 20 years, but no routine testing is performed in the UK, leaving doctors in the dark about the extent of the problem and which children need most help.Identifying teenagers with high blood pressure would enable GPs to intervene early and reduce the risk of organ damage and potentially life-threatening cardiovascular disease as people reach their 30s and 40s, doctors said.“We need to find out how bad the problem is, and that means finding a way to measure blood pressure in children who are still at school,” said Prof Manish Sinha, a consultant paediatric nephrologist at the Evelina London children’s hospital, Guy’s & St Thomas’s foundation hospitals NHS trust.“The fundamental issue is that people don’t recognise that hypertension can be a childhood problem

UK ministers face increased pressure to restrict gambling ads

Ministers will come under mounting pressure to introduce curbs on gambling advertising this year, as MPs and campaigners latch on to polling that indicates widespread public support for tougher restrictions.Policies affecting gambling have been the subject of fierce debate over recent years, leading to stricter regulation of the £12.5bn-a-year sector and higher taxes announced in November’s budget, despite intensive lobbying by the industry.But, while successive governments have brought in measures such as lower stake limits on online slot machines and a statutory levy to fund addiction treatment, gambling advertising has remained largely unaffected.New polling, shared with the Guardian, indicates strong public backing for a much less permissive approach to gambling ads, which have exploded in volume since deregulation by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2005

Hundreds of Blackpool families to be evicted in ‘mass dispersion’ of vulnerable people

Hundreds of families in one of England’s poorest neighbourhoods will be evicted under a £90m plan described by critics as a “mass dispersion” of vulnerable people.Four hundred homes in Blackpool will be bulldozed this summer and replaced with 230 new properties under levelling up proposals signed off by Rishi Sunak’s government. The area has more than 800 people – about 250 of them children – who are in the poorest 10th of the population of England, according to official documents.The Rev Matthew Lockwood, the leader of Beacon church, said residents were “bewildered, angry and distraught” and risked being made homeless in a “mass dispersion of statistically some of the most vulnerable people in the country”.Chris Webb, the Labour MP for Blackpool South, is understood to have raised concerns about the scheme after an angry and emotional public meeting last month

Ethnic minorities in England less likely to have access to diabetes tech – study

People from ethnic minority backgrounds in England are less likely to have access to the latest diabetes technology, despite being more likely to live with the condition, according to analysis.Devices such as a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) can help people check their blood glucose levels in order to better manage the disease.Without this technology, people with diabetes are left with much less efficient and inconvenient ways of managing their blood sugar levels, such as through finger pricking.The study, published in the journal Diabetic Medicine, found significant disparities in access to continuous glucose monitors, with people from black and south Asian backgrounds facing lower prescribing rates per 1,000 people.People from ethnic minority backgrounds made up 17

Children in England to be offered vaccines in their own homes

Health visitors will be sent door-to-door to deliver vaccines to children in England amid alarm that one in five start primary school with no protection against deadly diseases, the Guardian can reveal.The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that at least 95% of children should receive vaccine doses for each illness to achieve herd immunity. However, not a single one of the main childhood vaccines in England hit the target in 2024-25. There were also sharp differences in uptake across the country.In an effort to tackle the crisis, health visitors will begin offering a range of life-saving jabs to children in their own homes as part of a £2m pilot scheme starting in January