Improving our chances of a healthier future

What should we do now to improve health in the future? For women with gestational diabetes, adherence to five healthy lifestyle habits over a quarter century of follow-up was associated with a 90% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, when compared with women who had none of these habits (doi:10.1136/bmj-2022-070312).1 Gestational diabetes is a strong marker of future illness, associated with a meaningful increase in later cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. Some though not all of the risk is due to the subsequent development of diabetes (doi:10.1136/bmj-2022-070244).2 Quite obviously, then, women with gestational diabetes are especially likely to benefit from public health measures aimed at helping them implement healthy habits.Despite the need for these and other population level efforts, public health infrastructure in the UK is under threat. “The public is being taken out of public health,” charges Gabriel Scally, pointing to the abolition of Public Health England and its…
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