Today's big health stories...

1. Cheap alcohol fuelling health crisis in Scotland

It has been revealed the World Health Organisation (WHO) figures that half of men and 30% of women in Scotland drink to excess. The country has the fastest growing rate of cirrhosis.
Alcohol misuse is estimated to cost Scotland £2.25bn per year in extra services across the NHS, police, courts, social services and lost economic productivity. The availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets has been flagged up as a possible cause.

2. Mental health taboo

Research shows that coming out as being gay is easier than admitting to a mental health condition.

A survey commissioned by the Time to Change campaign, found that of 2,000 people across Britain, almost 30% said they would find it difficult to admit publicly to having a mental illness, compared with 20% who said they would have difficulty coming out as gay. Admitting to a mental health condition was also deemed harder than admitting to a drink problem or going bankrupt.

About a third of respondents believed someone with a mental health problem couldn't do a responsible job.


3. Start the obesity battle as early as possible

Department of Health officials have asked experts to develop ways to test children as young as two to determine if they are becoming overweight.

Tam Fry, Chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said it was crucial to be monitoring the weight of children.

He told the Daily Mail: "One reason we have an obesity problem is that for 25 years we have consistently failed to monitor children and their increasing wirght from pre-school, such that we now hat 20 per cent overweight or obese at school."

4. Peanut allergy cure

Good news for sufferers of peanut allergies. In a world first, doctors have managed to cure children with severe forms of the allergy, by using a form of desensitisation treatment.

Doctors at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge gave four children tiny doses of peanut flour every day, gradually increasing the dose. They can now eat ten or more nuts a day.

Previously the children would have been at risk of anaphylactic shock or even death if they accidentally ate even a trace amount of peanut.

5. Work pressure behind binge drinking boom?

Britons work hard and play harder, say psychologists. Bottling up our emotions at work leads us to let off steam by drinking a lot at weekends.

Prof van Wersch said (reported in the Daily Mail): 'Young people go out in large groups for the purpose of getting drunk because they have spent all week working hard and bottling up their emotions. It is an adventure. They do not know where the night will take them.'

She added: 'If people didn't have the 'big night out with friends' to look forward to, what would they do and feel like at the end of the week? We don't want a nation on Prozac, do we?'