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AN IRISH SCIENTIST is to lead a major research project which explores how people can be encouraged to change risky or unhealthy personal behaviours.
The impact of such interventions could be widespread and life-saving, according to researchers.
The group, led by Dr Molly Byrne, a health psychologist and lecturer at NUI Galway, will first focus on designing ways to encourage change in lifestyle which are related to diabetes and heart disease.
Speaking today, Dr Byrne said that it is clear that an increasing number of health problems in Ireland and internationally are linked to unhealthy behaviours.
She said:
There is powerful evidence that changing people’s health-related behaviour for example, smoking, poor diet, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, failure to screen for illness and risky sexual practice, can impact positively on leading causes of mortality and morbidity, such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
The project will be a multi-agency one, using resources and research from experts in the National Clinical Care Programme in Diabetes, the HSE Health and Social Care Professions Education and Development Unit and University College London’s Centre for Behaviour Change.
Funding for the project was announced today by the Health Research Board as part of a €9 million investment into health research leadership in this country. Five other projects “which address strategic gaps and leadership capacity in population health and health services research” also benefit and 22 new research jobs will be created.
All the projects are intended to give medics and health service providers new approaches and evidence to deliver better care to Irish patients.
The other five issues being tackled by those who received funding awards include:
Eat less s***te and buy yourself a pair of walking shoes and get moving !
I pass a Well known Fast Food Outlet nearly every Sunday around 2 o Clock. Restaurant is always full and there is a massive queue for the drive through. Growing up myself Sunday Dinner was always the best meal of the week. Going out to eat junk food would of been unthinkable.
Squishy peas yummmmmmmm……………………………
Your health insurance company should make a contribution towards gym membership. That would help with a persons health I reckon.
Waste of money, plenty gym outside
gyms are gimmicks and are not needed, we can walk we can run, before gyms people used their own body weight to build muscle as in push ups, pull ups, suats, iron spine etc, the human body is the best gym in the business and all the exercises can be done at home. check out the following
i do 1900 push ups a day in the space of an hour
Agreed. Madness paying to rent a conveyorbelt to run to nowhere on when there is plenty space outside
They are not gimmicks and not all exercise can be done at home. The people in your link are not very big and in order to get bigger and stronger you need a gym or home gym. Home gyms can be expensive and you need space so that not an option for most people. You can’t bench 120 or 140 kg at home. Plus my gym membership is only €200 a year for something I use 5 days a week I think I got my money’s worth.
It’s not about getting “bigger”, It’s about optimal condition for life. I’ve read and do practice the plan in that book.
Cool!
Problem with the convict workout is getting someone to teach you the right technique. I lack that. It’s never about bigger that’s for protein heads. Just about optimal performance, conditioning and health
Have you read the book, Kevin?
That main picture of the woman with the fag and can is shocking
And she’s pregnant!
And its a bottle
And she’s single (no rings)… Or a lesbian writing on a referendum
Lads, have you never seen a crab ladder?
Excellent pseudonym Richard. Funny propic too. Lol!
I would prefer if they gave me some of the money to change my lifestyle.
I hope the research team are suitable to the cause, example: what O’Reilly is to Health.
And not just €9million fat-cats.
So….. They’re telling us that they’ve discovered that smoking, drinking too much, eating a fatty diet and not taking exercise is causing bad health? Really? This doctor is telling us this? Well that’s great. We had no idea before now. Now we know. Why didn’t someone mention it before?
Actually they’re not telling us yet, that’s what they’re going to research and all a snip at €9 million! Can’t wait for what are sure to be ground breaking discoveries!
Ted,
Actually, it appears the 9M will be spent trying to figure out how to force you not to drink, smoke, eat fatty foods without the government suffering a legal backlash…
Hello Nanny State!
9 million given I can guarantee to you it will be 9 million for info we all ready know.
Why is therea pic of a half naked man with a beer and a ciggie?
Why not a woman, this is sexist, in fact there’s no need for a pic at all.
And he’s white…
I didn’t give the journal permission to use my picture.
Main picture is a man
You only make that mistake once…
No really, whistlestop?! So that was the reason for the hairy belly button!
A major breakthrough.
wtf is with the picture? I thought it was the usual bashing of haring a good time. We take freedom of choice from people we may as well just give up. If that’s okay with all ya’ll.
In fairness it’s a good point though!
Treat them the same as you would treat the local junkie… It’s a choice so let them die…. Or as some jokers on another article said, has the all… We only want perfection….
Fascist
Sugar is the biggest culprit when it comes to high cholesterol! I know that for a fact!
Sugar has no influence on levels of cholesterol in the blood.
There’s debate whether cholesterol even plays a role in heart disease.
It’s been rightly pointed out that plaques in blood vessels only occur in arteries, not in veins.
Which leads some to believe that it is infact the natural progression of ageing, with some factors making slightly better or worse.
One hypothesis is that the pressure in the arteries is damaging over time causing this build up as a response, accounts for why it doesn’t happen in veins.
I would put it down to what sugar you use. Refined sugar is bad yet natural sweetener salvia is good
Jamie! How would you explain the reduction in Cholesterol in my blood from 4.9 to 3.8 after only eliminating granulated sugar from my diet!! I read about granulated sugar and brown sugar being just as lethal and decided to put it to the test!! Te results really woke me up!!!
I think what you should be saying is the people differ when it comes to Cholesterol problems and causes but I certainly know what worked for me!! :)
Whether right or wrong eliminating refined and brown sugar is the way to go!
Jamie, I think you may have made a very valid point.
My husband who is in his mid 50′s recently suffer a minor heart attack (we thought it was indigestion) then two days later suffered a massive heart attack, he survived with minutes to spare, all thanks to the remarkably prompt action of the ER doctors (no paramedics as I drove him to the hospital myself, even Lewis Hamilton would have had problems keeping up with my ’00 micra).
His cholesterol was 3.7, he is a big man yet he is not obese, that is according to the docs, and rarely drinks alcohol.
We always home cook with fresh produce, takeaways are non existent, but, we do like butter, cream and bread.
The cardiac care doctors and nurses determined the main reasons:
Age.
Family history – his dad and 2 uncles died from a heart attack at the same age.
High blood pressure.
Stress – we run our own business.
Because of family history and other reasons his cholesterol has to be half that of normal.
We get older, things start to wear down, you should eat more oily fish, less fat, less salt, take more exercise, manage your stress where possible, and at least once a year have a full medical checkup.
Just be sensible.
Geralyn, ever think because often what’s high in sugar is also high in fat?
I implore you to spend 5 seconds googling it.
Cholesterol isn’t this mystical thing that’s totally different to everyone.
Jamie! A reduced sugar diet reduced my cholesterol level! I exercise a lot, I don’t eat pizzas, butter, cakes or biscuits because I am gluten intolerance. I watch my intake of chocolate but I do eat over a bar a day!!
I simply gave up putting sugar in my tea and my cereal and substituted it with honey! Hey pesto!
No it didn’t.
The chemistry does not work like that.
Sugar is a carbohydrate, cholesterol is a derivative of fat. They are not interchangeable.
Given excessive alcohol can lead to risky sexual practice there’s two birds one stone (also a risky sexual practice)
I think it is completely bonkers to spend this much money on research of behavioural interventions in health when there is extensive research worldwide that can be utilised on the exact same topics. I know….i just spent the last 4 yrs studying & utilising it to gain an MSc & develop a private practice. Use the money instead to develop existing services within the HSE that can influence these behaviours. Typical Ireland….always last to the race, wasting money on regurgitating something extensively researched worldwide.
Exactly Helena. There is an excellent post cardiac care outpatient rehab programme at my husbands hospital, they have tailored his physio, dietary and medicinal needs specifically to him.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison, so to speak.
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