{"id":709214,"date":"2026-07-24T17:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709214\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T17:51:10","slug":"health-news-round-up-coffee-adhd-prescribing-and-glp-1s-and-hair-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/709214\/","title":{"rendered":"Health news round-up: coffee, ADHD prescribing, and GLP-1s and hair loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first cohort of MPharm pharmacist prescribers received their General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) registration results this week, with an 83% pass rate \u2014 the highest since 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a new health minister<\/a> has taken office and patients in England can now benefit from a \u201clife-changing\u201d multiple sclerosis drug<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Pharmaceutical Journal has also reported on a framework to estimate country-level antibiotic need<\/a>, the GPhC\u2019s new training standards for pharmacy technicians<\/a>, concerns about proposals to reduce internationally qualified pharmacists\u2019 training time<\/a>, regulatory challenges for independent pharmacies<\/a> and a 59% increase in counselling sessions<\/a> funded by charity Pharmacist Support.<\/p>\n

We have also covered a survey that suggests community pharmacists are most confident in prescribing for minor ailments<\/a>, highlighted NHS England guidance that would mobilise community and GP pharmacists in an event of mass casualties<\/a>, and backlash to the exclusion of community pharmacies from business rates reductions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read on for more health news you might have missed this week.<\/p>\n

Coffee and energy drinks<\/p>\n

The American Heart Association has spoken out against energy drinks in a scientific statement<\/a>, warning that doses of caffeine, such as levels found in energy drinks including energy shots, may cause cardiovascular harm.<\/p>\n

However, for most adults, consuming up to 400 mg of caffeine\/day \u2014 around five cups of caffeinated coffee per day \u2014 is safe and appears to be linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease for some individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This month, the UK government announced<\/a> that it would ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under 16s in England, following a public consultation.<\/p>\n

ADHD and mental health medicines<\/p>\n

The results of an Australian study published in the\u00a0Journal of Paediatrics\u00a0and Child Health<\/a> have revealed that dexamphetamine and methylphenidate are equally effective in the treatment of ADHD in children, but greater weight loss was observed\u00a0in children taking dexamphetamine.<\/p>\n

The latest \u2018Medicines used in mental health<\/a>\u2018 report from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) has shown a 40% rise in the number of adults and a 17% rise in the number of children in England prescribed central nervous system stimulants and drugs for ADHD, between 2024\/2025 and 2025\/2026.<\/p>\n

In the same time period, items categorised as antidepressant drugs increased by 3.1%, while items used to treat dementia increased by 5.2%. Drugs for dementia\u00a0remained the only British National Formulary section where the number of identified patients was higher in the least deprived areas, NHS BSA said.<\/p>\n

Do GLP-1s cause hair loss?<\/p>\n

Use of\u00a0glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity\u00a0are associated with an increased risk of hair loss (i.e. alopecia) in adults with T2DM, the results of a study published in\u00a0The BMJ<\/a>\u00a0have showed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After adjusting for potentially influential factors, including age, sex, ethnicity, pre-existing conditions, other medication use and body mass index (BMI), use of GLP-1 receptor agonists was associated with a 37% higher risk of alopecia than use of SGLT-2 inhibitors (6.91 v 5.04 per 1,000 person years) and a 68% higher risk than use of DPP-4 inhibitors (6.53 v 3.89 per 1,000 person years).<\/p>\n

However, the absolute risk remains low, and the association was specific to non-scarring alopecia, which is where hair follicles remain intact, leaving the potential for regrowth, researchers added.<\/p>\n

Marie Spreckley, weight management researcher at the University of Cambridge, commented<\/a>: \u201cThis is a well-conducted observational study that used a target trial emulation approach with active comparator groups, extensive adjustment for measured confounders, and multiple sensitivity analyses, all of which strengthen confidence in the findings. However, as with all observational studies, it cannot establish causality, and the possibility of residual confounding remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authors also note that rapid weight loss is a recognised trigger for temporary hair shedding. Nutritional deficiencies, such as iron or zinc deficiency, may also contribute, although this study was not designed to distinguish between these potential mechanisms or determine whether hair loss resolved after treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diabetes risk and management<\/p>\n

Two people with the same BMI may have entirely different risks of developing T2DM, depending on the underlying biological mechanisms, the results of a study based on UK Biobank data published in Nature Communications<\/a> have revealed.<\/p>\n

A US cohort study<\/a> of adults with insulin-treated diabetes supports the use of continuous glucose monitoring initiated by primary care clinicians, showing clinically meaningful improvements in HbA1c and significant reductions in recurrent hospitalisations and emergency department visits.<\/p>\n

GLP-1RA (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist) medications have been shown to reduce the number of deaths, amputations and hospitalisations among people with T2DM and narrowed leg arteries associated with peripheral artery disease, the results of a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association have showed.<\/a><\/p>\n

For children and young people with type 1 diabetes (n=400, aged 7 to 25 years in Bangladesh and Tanzania), long-acting analogue insulin glargine was associated with less time spent in dangerous hypoglycemia and fewer nighttime low blood sugar events<\/a> than older human insulin \u2014 but these benefits didn\u2019t emerge until a year into the randomised clinical trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many parts of the world, children do not have access to the therapies considered standard elsewhere,\u201d said lead author Jing Luo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings add new data to a global debate over whether health systems with constrained resources should prioritise access to newer insulin formulations despite their higher cost.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first cohort of MPharm pharmacist prescribers received their General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) registration results this week, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-709214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}