The Thin End

When should 'high' blood pressure be regarded as 'hypertension'? When should we be looking at some kind of medication? The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) think the current thresholds are too high, and they released new guideline recommendations for hypertension with lower blood pressure values defining elevated blood pressure, and lower treatment thresholds, than those recommended in current guidelines. So, how many people would this affect, and at what cost? Millions would be affected A new study published by the BMJ today shows that adopting the new guidelines would dramatically increase the number of people labeled as having the condition and being recommended for drug treatment.  Millions more would be classified as having hypertension. The findings show that, if the guidelines were introduced in the US and China, more than half of those aged 45-75 years in both countries would be considered hypertensive. So...

Consider this when next you pick up a bar of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut or a Mars bar, conveniently sold cheaply at your supermarket checkout, the amount it costs you is the amount the cocoa picker gets for a whole day's work. In 2014 total global sales of chocolate confectionery reached a staggering $100 billion - an increase of 20 billion from 2012 ( Euromonitor International ). Very little of this money reaches the cocoa farmers and pickers who receive around 1.25 dollars a day for their efforts. They work a whole day for the price of a chocolate bar in the UK or USA. While the profits of multinational chocolate companies have increased since the 1980s, the world market price for cocoa beans has declined by half with the cocoa producers receiving less and less of the massive turnover. Nevertheless, the cost of cocoa can fluctuate in an insecure market affected by weather and harvests. With an increasing demand for chocolate globally most recently chocolate producers h...