Does educating people work?

[Oneeyedvic]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7506157.stm

Earlier this year a good night out for Stewart Burton started on a Saturday afternoon in his home town of Brighton and could easily carry on for 18 hours, all the way through to Sunday.

Stewart, 25, would get through up to 60 cigarettes, down nine bottles of beer, followed by several shots, and more beer. He would also dabble in drugs.

That was a good night out for Stewart - but he was starting to notice his nights out were having a detrimental impact on his body.

He wasn't as fit as he used to be and he often shunned the healthy food in his fridge for yet another take-away.

Stewart was often drinking more than a 100 units of booze a week.

The government recommends men should drink no more than 21 units a week.

......

With his relationship on a knife edge, Stewart put himself forward for Make My Body Younger's Living Autopsy.

Every inch of Stewart's body was examined and his vital organs were tested.

He even had a fertility test, but he felt confident about the outcome.

"I know I've got no problems," he said.

"I've got a daughter all ready. I know everything is working properly."

At his Living Autopsy, Stewart was laid out on the gurney and the first 'incision' was made in front of girlfriend Donella, Stewart's mum and his brothers.

It was a demanding and emotional time for all involved as presenter George Lamb and Dr Andrew Curran revealed Stewart's results.

The two most shocking moments for Stewart, Donella and his family was when Stewart's brain age was revealed.

Stewart is only 25 but all his hardcore partying resulted in a brain age of 68.

Donella's shock at him "having the

[Oneeyedvic]

Donella's shock at him "having the brain of a pensioner" was something his entire family shared.

Fertility under threat

But for Stewart the greatest surprise was the state his sperm.

Due to his excessive partying lifestyle, Stewart's fertility test showed his sperm had 91% deformed heads.

This left a serious question mark over his fertility as normal fertility allows for less than 70% deformed heads.

Stewart was left stunned by the news. "The sperm one was shocking, really bad," he said. "I was close to tears."




Stewart and Donella found the early days a struggle and had a few rows.

But slowly Stewart started to feel the benefits of not drinking or smoking so much.

After several weeks, Stewart was back in London being retested and it was time for him to find out his new biological ages of his key organs and the state of his sperm.

Due to Stewart's improved lifestyle his new brain age came in at 18 years, a massive drop and a testament to Stewart's hard work.

But probably the best news for Stewart and his girlfriend Donella is that his fertility test results showed the level of deformity of his sperm was back within the normal range.

Stewart was relieved by the results: "All the hard work has definitely paid off."

[squarebear]

If prats like that are unable to reproduce then I see no problem.

[Gromit]

Might have been easier to post the link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7506157.stm

It's on telly tonight or you can watch it on the iPlayer after that.

[China Doll]

Erm... Is this a trick question?

It sounds like this Stuart person has significantly improved their lives and has a higher expectation of himself which as far as I can see means that his learning can only be a good thing.

[Oneeyedvic]

I did post the link (at the top) - but I find a lot of people can't be bothered or can't access the page, hence I took out the pertinent points.

[Gromit]

Sorry, missed it.

[jake-the-peg]

are we all done talking in Italics?

[Gromit]

No, I'm in bold italics

[jake-the-peg]

Bum! thought an end italics might fix it but no such luck!

Educating people is a numbers game

If you can get a few percent to kick it you've done a lot of good.

Sadly there will always be those that drink themselves to an early grave..

Then like Richard Burton or Dylan Thomas we put them on a pedestal! (Or is that just if they're Welsh?)

[R1Geezer]

Yes vic on occasions education works, however in the vast majority of cases it does not. It may have a short term effect but usually the person will slip back into their old ways. Look at the whole smoking thing, numerours governement ad campagns, hard hitting, remember the woman smoker on oxygen, no word spoken by her at all, the punch line "enough said". People are starting smoking every day, ditto boozing. So overall I'd say, no unfortunately education doesn't work. The guy in question has had a shock, I wonder if his new life style will stick or will he drift back into his old one again.

[jake-the-peg]

So why are there so few smokers in the UK these days compared to 30 years ago if it's not education?

[jno]

how do you reverse brain age? Any tips on how to do it for the rest of the body would also be welcome.

[Gromit]

jno

Just a guess, but maybe the alcohol was killing brain cells faster than his body could replace them. Laying off the booze for a while gave his body time to regenerate. Brain age probably refers to the physical condition of the organ rather than mental age.

[China Doll]

I thought brain cells couldn't be replaced? (Something which bears up under scrutiny if you examin CB on a weekend night).

[Gromit]

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/31 7/7168/1272

Though, I am now having second thoughts about my answer.

[Gromit]

Hmm...

http://longevity.about.com/od/mentalfitness/a/ alcohol_brain.htm

[China Doll]

Damn.... I'm not getting enough red wine a day!

[ruby27]

I think that avoidable health problems such as smoking, excessive drinking obesity etc are more wide spread in socio economic terms in the lower classes. One of the significant reasons being that people in higher socio economic groups have greater access to education. So education does work in health prevention programmes, although not universally successful.