In a report by health provider BUPA it has been found that people's worries are damaging their health by causing sleepless nights, loss of sex drive and erratic eating habits.

The 2007 Worry Report, is the second annual survey carried out by BUPA UK Health Insurance, and it demonstrates that almost one in five people worry constantly about a number of things, and more than half feel they worry more now than five years ago.

Half of those surveyed this year, which is 6% more than in 2006, said they were more worried about their health and their family's health than about issues such as climate change or terrorist attacks.

It seems almost three quarters of people (73%) worry, but 19% admit to worrying all the time or about lots of things.

Dr. Paula Franklin, deputy medical director at BUPA, believes there are many factors behind the growing health concerns and the most important and positive factor is rising health awareness.

Dr. Franklin says many people now want to know more about their health and how to look after it and the evidence for this is seen by the increasing numbers of visitors to health web pages and more people investing in health assessments to monitor their well being.

Franklin says along with a growing awareness of health problems and illnesses such as cancer, heart disease and obesity (the top three health worries identified ), comes a raised awareness of health problems and illnesses.

The report found that 38 per cent worried about cancer, 23 per cent about heart disease, and 19 per cent about obesity.

The report found that more than a third (39%) of worriers experience sleepless nights, nearly half (43%) have their eating habits affected, while 1 in 8 drink more alcohol to help them relax and 1 in 13 lose their sex drive.

BUPA recommends regular exercise, talking to friends about your worries, a balanced diet, and avoiding caffeine as ways to combat anxiety and stress.

The health benefits associated with taking the drugs varied. For example, orlistat reduced the incidence of diabetes in one trial and all three drugs lowered patients' levels of certain types of cholesterol. Adverse effects were recorded with all three drugs, in particular, rimonabant increased the risk of mood disorders such as depression or anxiety. The authors noted that no trials examined rates of death and disease as a result of taking anti-obesity pills. They recommend that trials looking at this should be carried out in the future.

The authors also noted that there were high drop-out levels in all the trials. On average 30 “ 40% of patients failed to complete the trial. They say this suggests that a failure to properly adhere to the treatment could be a major factor limiting the effectiveness of anti-obesity drug therapy.

In an accompanying editorial, Professor Gareth Williams warns of the potential damage to society if anti-obesity drugs are licensed to be sold without prescription. This already happens in the United States, and as Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) has applied to sell orlistat over the counter throughout Europe, it could happen here. He warns:

Selling anti-obesity drugs over the counter will perpetuate the myth that obesity can be fixed simply by popping a pill and could further undermine the efforts to promote healthy living, which is the only long term escape from obesity.

bmj