Joseph Fiennes is to play England men’s football manager Gareth Southgate in a new play about the pressure of penalties at the National Theatre.
Writer James Graham said Dear England would highlight the “gentle revolution” in the team’s culture under Southgate.
It is inspired by Southgate’s journey since his infamous penalty miss for England in 1996, and how he has fed into changing notions of masculinity.
Graham hopes to examine “the identity of a football team and the country”.
“I think what has happened to the men’s England football team over the past six years has been quietly extraordinary,” the award-winning writer said in an interview.
“It’s been humming along in the background, but we’re only starting to really understand now Gareth’s gentle revolution.”
Shakespearean story
Southgate took on the role when the England team was at its “absolute lowest ebb” in 2016 amid an “existential crisis about why we’d lost our way” and against the backdrop of the Brexit vote, Graham said.
The new manager, with the help of psychologist Pippa Grange, began to “ask big questions about identity” and about how his players could free themselves of the burdens of the past, particularly regarding England’s awful record in penalty shoot-outs.
“What makes it Shakespearean obviously it goes back to his moment in [Euro] 1996, when he felt all the weight of that history and the pressure and expectations on the moment that he missed that penalty,” the writer said.
“Cut to 22 years later, he is the one who breaks the penalty curse for the English football team, allowing them to win a World Cup penalty shoot-out for the first time.”
Dear England, which takes its name from an open letter written by Southgate to England fans in 2021, will also touch on some of the “ghosts and demons” of the recent past, Graham added, with reference to the racist abuse suffered by England players who missed penalties at Euro 2020.
The play will open at the National’s Olivier Theatre in June.
While the parts of players like Marcus Rashford and Harry Kane are yet to be cast, the producers have called up one big international name, in the form of Hollywood star Fiennes.
A new study has suggested that people who drank two or more cups of coffee per day had significantly lower systolic blood pressure than those who did not.
The World Health Organisation described hypertension also called high or raised blood pressure, as a condition in which the blood vessels have persistently raised pressure.
The global health organisation acknowledged that hypertension is a serious medical condition that can raise the risk of developing heart, brain, kidney, and other diseases, adding that it is a leading cause of premature death globally, affecting up to 1 in 4 men and 1 in 5 women, or more than a billion people.
However, a recent study reported by Medical News Today found a correlation between regular coffee consumption and reduced blood pressure across a number of measurements.
The study, which was published in MPDI Open Access Journals, also found a link between drinking more cups and lower peripheral pulse pressure (PP), among other blood pressure measurements.
The new study evaluated the health data from 720 men and 783 women from the Brisighella Heart Study (BHS), a study that began in 1972 and involves the rural population of Brisighella, a small town in Northern Italy.
The study clinically assessed the participants every four years. In their analyses, the researchers compared various measures of blood pressure with self-reported coffee consumption.
At the end of the clinical trial, the researchers discovered that those who drank two cups of coffee per day or more than three cups had significantly lower systolic blood pressure than non-coffee drinkers.
The researchers, led by Prof. Arrigo Cicero of the University of Bologna in Italy, noted that while caffeine may raise blood pressure, the number of bioactive substances in coffee appears to balance this effect, resulting in a final neutral-to-positive effect on blood pressure.
The researchers also revealed that one of the primary compounds responsible for the potential BP-lowering effect of coffee is chlorogenic acid, which is the most concentrated polyphenol in coffee beans and for which the bioavailability is inversely proportional to the coffee bean roasting time.
They noted that Quercetin, even if characterised by low bioavailability, could also contribute to the positive vascular effect of coffee.
Reacting to the study in a chat with Medical News Today, Dr. Yu-Ming Ni, a cardiologist at MemorialCare Heart and Vascular Institute at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Califonia, United States, said those drinking two cups of coffee had 5-point lower blood pressure on average than those who didn’t drink coffee.
coffee consumer
He said, “The effect was higher for those drinking more than 3 cups of coffee, with a 9-point lower blood pressure on average compared to those who didn’t drink coffee. This trend towards lower blood pressure with more coffee consumption persisted for different types of blood pressure measurements, including an estimate of a more reliable blood pressure measurement called central blood pressure.
“A recent meta-analysis of four similar studies demonstrated similar findings, so this study adds to an existing body of evidence suggesting a relationship between more coffee intake and lower blood pressure.”
The founder of Manhattan Cardiology, Medical Offices of Manhattan, and co-founder of LabFinder, Dr. Robert Segal, also told Medical News Today that regular coffee consumption can result in a slight drop in blood pressure, even though caffeine can momentarily raise blood pressure.
He said, “Caffeine in coffee can temporarily increase blood pressure by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, but in the long term, regular coffee consumption can lead to a small reduction in blood pressure due to improved insulin sensitivity and antioxidant effects.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reassured Nigerians and the international community of free, fair and credible elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu gave the reassurance when he received Commonwealth Election Observer Mission to Nigeria, led by former South Africa President, Thabo Mbeki, at INEC headquarters in Abuja on Monday.
”INEC understands the enormous benefits of conducting credible elections, not just in Nigeria but the African continent.
“Election in Nigeria is huge and we understand. As I said, the responsibility rests on our shoulders.
“We also understand the benefits of credible elections. It will not only bring peace and good governance to our country but the positive effects on our sub-region.
“I want to assure you that we will never let Nigeria and the international community down,’’ Yakubu said.
Yakubu also commended the Commonwealth Observer Mission’s contributions to the development of Nigeria’s electoral system.
He said that Nigeria had benefited a lot from the Commonwealth through the implementation of recommendations in its reports on Nigeria’s previous elections.
“We have benefited from your previous election observation reports. So many of the innovations introduced over time are benefited from your observation reports.
“We don’t take your observations lightly,” he said.
He said that INEC looked forward again to the mission’s robust reports on the 2023 general elections.
Earlier in his remarks, Mbeki said the mission was in Nigeria to observe the country’s election and in the end make it report.
Mbeki expressed confidence that Nigeria would achieve credible and successful elections.
“This is the seventh elections since independence. Nigeria is a very important country with huge impacts on itself and on the continent.
“So, it is always very important that as commonwealth we should come and be with you as you hold these important elections and to observe same.
“Of course, we come very hopeful and very confident that we will have successful elections, peaceful elections and intrusive elections and at the end hopefully there will be no complain,’’ Mbeki said.
He said the mission was at the INEC headquarters to listen to the level of preparations and render assistance for the commission to achieve its mandate.
Mental health experts have urged Nigerians addicted to gambling to seek help, noting that gambling addiction should not be ignored because it could lead to depression and mental health problems.
Gambling addiction, they warned could trigger depression and anxiety, adding that it could even spark suicidal thoughts.
Gambling, especially sports betting, has become more popular in Nigeria, in recent times, with the establishment of many sports betting companies. Many Nigerians, both young and old have now embraced sports betting.
The experts noted that unknown to many people gambling addiction may have dire mental health consequences if not properly and promptly addressed.
They explained that gambling addiction is often fuelled by the quest for a shortcut to wealth due to a lack of the tools for upward social mobility, adding that it usually becomes a habit over time.
They also explained that there are people who engage in compulsive and social gambling. Compulsive gambling, they said, stemmed from addiction while the latter is just a harmless social habit, adding that gambling addiction could be influenced by parents, friends, peer pressure, and could also be triggered by some medications.
According to a corresponding source, the experts, United Kingdom-based Psychiatrist, Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Dr. Jide Jeje, and Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Registrar, Redeemers University, Joshua Ogunsemi, said that it is in the best interest of the society to address the remote and immediate causes of gambling addiction and them.
Speaking with Newsmen, Dr. Jeje said that sometimes people gamble because they are hoping to hit the jackpot and provide a better life for themselves and their families without consideration for their present socioeconomic position.
He said, “It may be just a chance of winning big money. Some, however, gamble because it is fun and they use that avenue to socialise with friends and peers. People who see gambling as fun could also maybe describe it as exciting and thrilling. It can equally be a hobby or a pastime for some people and can be used to escape boredom while some people gamble to escape stress.
“However, compulsive gambling or gambling addiction is usually when the habit of gambling becomes largely uncontrollable and compulsive and it causes financial distress with potential sociological complications like getting into debts that they cannot repay”.
While noting that there can be more than one reason why people gamble, Dr. Jeje reiterated that having close relatives, especially parents who gamble, can encourage people to go into gambling at a very young age.
The consultant psychiatrist added that while peer pressure from friends can spur interest in gambling, some medications can also trigger gambling behaviour, disclosing that examples of these medications include steroids and drugs for treating Parkinson’s disease.
Gambling, Jeje said, affects the part of the brain that releases a ‘feel good’ hormone called dopamine which creates a feeling of pleasure and reward.
Gamblers on queue
Speaking further on the attributes of a compulsive or addicted gambler, he said they often gamble away more money than they can afford, gamble when they should be working on something more productive and regarded as a stream of income.
He said, “If you feel anxious or stressed about gambling if you find it difficult to deal with your feelings or emotions and the only way you can cope is by gambling if you lie to family and friends about your gambling habits and if you borrow or steal money to fund your gambling habit, or would commit crimes to fund the gambling habit, then you a compulsive or addicted gambler.
“Sometimes people try to go back to win money they have lost and their gambling habit would then goes out of control. Other times people cannot stop thinking about gambling as they cannot stop thinking about the adrenaline rush and excitement that comes with gambling. Some people would have tried to stop gambling and would have made unsuccessful attempts at quitting. There may also have been the loss of a relationship or job due to gambling habits. All these can have adverse mental health effects.
“Gambling can cause low self-esteem, anxiety, stress, depression, and sometimes trigger suicidal thoughts or behaviours. There is a strong link between gambling problems and suicide.
“If you have ever had thoughts of ending your life and you cannot keep yourself safe, please seek support from your family and friends, speak to your doctor for help if you are struggling with low mood, and together formulate a safety plan to keep you safe. Most importantly, people addicted to gambling should seek financial advice, especially when in debt”.
Support for people who are addicted to gambling, he said, varies from country to country.
He, however, noted that actions can help those addicted to gambling despite the lack of infrastructure or services dedicated to helping people with the problem, adding that it is possible to quit gambling addiction.
He said, “Quitting begins with the realisation that there is a problem that requires a solution. Most people will try to seek help when there is financial distress or they have lost a relationship with their significant other or gambling affects their social functioning and they eventually lose their job.
“Support of family and friends is very important. Asking a close family member or friend to help you with your finances such as monitoring what you spend can be helpful. Being accountable can be helpful and patients must know that they have to be truthful about their expenditures and income if they need help with gambling habits.
“Handing your financial cards and uninstalling all financial/payment apps on your devices could also be helpful because of the development in information technology, gambling now occurs both, online and offline, adding that people who have had lived experiences of gambling and have been working towards stopping. If there is no group available one can think about starting the group and looking for like minds that need help”.
He reiterated that there’s evidence that gambling can be successfully treated in the same way as other addictions, adding that a way of permanently kicking the destructive habit when he said:
“There is a kind of talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which is helpful and has the best results. Cognitive Analytic Therapy has also been helpful. Talking therapy deals with the ‘here and now’ and this therapy can be delivered face-to-face or online via several platforms”.
The treatment required, he said, maybe cognitive restructuring as some people may think differently about betting than others. They may believe they are more likely to win when they do certain things that will bring them luck.
“Talking therapy will look at all of these thoughts and behaviours and beliefs around gambling and how to evaluate how these can be changed or redirected to help people eventually stop gambling. The therapy uses a process of exposure to the behavior you want to unlearn and teaches you skills to reduce your urge to gamble.
“The latter part of therapy has to do with maintenance and relapse prevention. People have varied responses to both treatment and stressors. Treatment aims he said, is to ensure that whatever the stressor may be that patients would not go down the slippery slope of gambling addiction.
Also speaking with our source correspondent, Mr. Ogunsemi said that gambling is the act of betting something of value i.e. money on an event with an uncertain outcome with the intent to win more money or things of value than was wagered.
Gambling, Ogunsemi said, involves risking something of value, including money, for the chance of winning more than you risk.
He said that “for adolescents, gambling is viewed as an adult activity that they can participate in fairly easily, such as playing poker for money with their friends, and without upsetting their parents too much”.
This continuum, he noted, is skewed toward most youth gambling rarely or occasionally and some youth gambling excessively.
He reiterated that people are addicted to gambling as a result of an alteration to the brain centre (Dopamine), which are responsible for reward and pleasure. People gamble for several reasons, social, facing financial difficulties, to solve boredom or loneliness, or as an escape from problematic emotions like depression.
He added that it must not be over-emphasised that the mental health effect of gambling ranges from depression, psychoactive substance use disorders, anxiety, insomnia, low self-esteem, and alcoholism.”
He said: “Quitting gambling involves contact with counselors and psychologists or any mental health service provider. The individual need to be helped to understand that gambling is a problem, and find an alternative to it either by, learning how to get involved in other profitable activities or get new hobbies, joining a support group, practicing budgeting, and so on”.
He also backed therapy for those affected, saying, “Therapy can assist gamblers, for example, Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy could help the individual to identify the irrational thoughts and emotions or beliefs behind his gambling behaviour, and learn ways of disputing the irrational beliefs by adopting a better or healthy mindset, such a person can be free”.
According to a study published by Psychiatric Times, millions of people have gambling-related challenges and many of them will experience substantial financial, legal, relational, and health harm as a result of gambling addiction.
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria has said it recorded a total sales of N819 million in January, across cinemas within the country.
This was made known by the National Chairman of CEAN, Ope Ajayi, during an interview on Monday.
He said, “We had an increase in sales in January with N819,154,913.00, the month was a beautiful one, with 324,408 total number of admissions at the cinemas.
“The top five films for the month of January were: Battle on Buka Street, Ijakumo, Avatar, Black Panther and Plane.
“February promises to be better with thrilling and action packed films for the month,” he said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission has released the full list of polling unit agents submitted by the political parties, five days to the presidential election.
The statistics of agents from the prominent parties shows Obi’s LP (Obi) has 134,874 Agents, ADC (Obi) has 96,034, Atiku’s PDP has 176,974 Agents, Tinubu’s APC has 176,974 Agents and other 14 Parties have altogether 1,081,358.
Recall earlier the ADC endorsed Peter Obi as their candidate which makes a sum of 230, 908 agents working for the LP’s presidential candidate.
The Supreme Court, on Monday, fixed March 24 to decide on the leadership crisis rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
A five-member panel of the apex court adjourned to rule on a motion that was brought before it by a factional National Chairman of the party, Chief Edozie Njoku.
Njoku had in an application he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chike Onyemenam, SAN, urged the apex court to correct a typographical error in its judgement, which he said wrongly handed the leadership of the party to Chief Victor Oye.
The Applicant noted that the Supreme Court had in a letter it wrote to him on January 19, wherein it addressed him as the National Chairman of APGA, asked him to approach it by way of a motion to regularize the said judgement.
Consequently, relying on Order 8 Rule 16 of the Supreme Court Rules, Njoku re-approached the court to correct the typographical error and slip in the lead judgment of the Court in the appeal that was presided over and delivered by Justice Mary Peter-Odili (Rtd), on October 14, 2021.
He is specifically urging the apex court to correct an accidental slip at Page 13, lines 3 to 4 of its judgment, where instead of writing the name of ‘Edozie Njoku’ who was unlawfully removed from his position as the person that was validly elected as National Chairman of APGA at the convention the party held at Oweriri in 2019, mistakenly inserted the name of Victor Oye, who was not a party in the substantive suit that gave rise to the appeal.
It will be recalled that Police had earlier dragged the Appellant before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, alleging that he forged a judgement of the apex court.
Police, in the charge marked: CR/12/2022, told the court that Njoku presented the said forged judgement as genuine, with the intention of misleading the public and ridiculing the judiciary.
He was further accused of forging the letterheaded paper of Justice Odili who had since retired from the apex court bench.
However, the factional APGA Chairman pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as he has approached the Supreme Court to exonerate himself.
The African Democratic Congress has endorsed the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed, for the February 25 presidential election.
According to the post on the official Twitter handle of the party, the endorsement follows the formation of a coalition which aims to propel the duo to the highest office in the land.
The endorsement was held at the River Plate Gardens in Abuja on Monday morning.
The coalition, which is made up of several star alliance partners such as Nigeria Mothers for Good Governance, Fulani United, and League of Imams, among others, said they seek to create a formidable force for the Obi/Datti ticket.
The event was attended by prominent figures such as the ADC National Chairman, Chief Raphael Nwosu, BoT Chairman,Dr Mani Ibrahim Ahmed and Prof Pat Utomi.
The ADC’s endorsement is expected to give a significant boost to the Obi/Datti campaign, as the party boasts a significant following in certain parts of the country.
A new has suggested that in some older breast cancer patients, skipping radiation therapy after they’ve had surgery doesn’t appear to have a detrimental effect on their overall survival.
Skipping radiation after surgery may not affect overall survival for women 65 and older with small hormone-positive breast cancer tumors, provided that they receive five years of endocrine therapy, says the study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. But it may be associated with a higher risk of cancer returning in the same breast.
The findings suggest that radiation – which can have side effects such as fatigue, breast pain, as well as the risk of heart and lung complications – may not be needed to extend overall survival among this group as long as they have endocrine therapy. Endocrine therapy – also called hormone therapy – involves adding, blocking or removing hormones as part of a treatment approach for certain conditions, including to slow or stop the growth of certain cancers.
“These data offer a response to the long-standing problem of overtreatment in older women with low-risk breast cancer,” Dr. Alice Ho of Duke University School of Medicine and Dr. Jennifer Bellon of Harvard Medical School wrote in an editorial published alongside the new study.
“The ability to omit radiotherapy is one of many options in a lengthy list that also includes the use of abbreviated radiotherapy regimens and smaller target volumes,” Ho and Bellon wrote. “Pragmatically, radiotherapy can strain time and finances. Therefore, robust data solidifying the option to omit radiotherapy in selected patients are welcome.”
The study included data on 1,326 women with breast cancer who were 65 and older. From April 16, 2003, to December 22, 2009, 658 of the women were randomly assigned to receive radiation therapy across their whole breast, and 668 of them received no radiation therapy. The trial was conducted across 76 centers in the United Kingdom, Greece, Australia and Serbia.
The researchers found that cancer recurrence in the same breast was more common in the participants who did not get radiation; the cumulative incidence of local recurrence was 9.5% in the no-radiation group and 0.9% in the radiation group.
“The incidence of local recurrence up to 10 years among patients who received radiotherapy remained low, whereas that among patients who did not receive radiotherapy continued to increase with no apparent plateau. However, the absolute difference in the incidence of local recurrence at 10 years was modest,” the researchers, from the University of Edinburgh and Western General Hospital in Scotland, wrote in the study.
And overall survival at 10 years was nearly identical: 80.8% without radiation therapy and 80.7% with it, the researchers found. Sixteen deaths in the no-radiotherapy group and 15 deaths in the radiotherapy group were due to breast cancer
Previous research has supported excluding radiation in women older than 70 with small tumors – less than 2 centimeters – but this new study provides evidence for lowering the age limit to 65 and including women with tumors up to 3 centimeters, said Dr. Naamit Kurshan Gerber, a radiation oncologist at NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center in New York, who was not involved in the research.
In the United States, 26% of breast cancer diagnoses are in women ages 65 to 74, according to the study.
“So we’ve had evidence before this paper that in women over 70, adding radiation lowers the risk of local recurrence, but it doesn’t change survival. And this study is really adding to the weight of that evidence, but it’s also, of course, lowering the age from 70 to 65,” Gerber said. “The role of radiation in these women is really reducing this risk of local recurrence, which it does, but there’s really no effect on overall survival.”
Some breast cancer patients might decide to skip radiation for various reasons – including side effects – but others may still choose to have radiation therapy to lower their risk of cancer recurring in the same area.
But Gerber added that for breast cancer patients who are not planning to take endocrine therapy, skipping radiation is not an option.
For doctors and patients, “it’s very important to engage in shared decision-making about what are your values, what are your goals, and sort of explaining the risks and the benefits of radiation therapy and, of course, the benefit is preventing a local recurrence,” Gerber said.
“There are risks, there are side effects, but it’s always a very nuanced discussion,” she said. “There’s no one right answer for every single person.”
The Nigeria Medical Association and Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria say the new naira policy has worsened the healthcare situation in the country as people find it difficult to access services and drugs due to naira scarcity.
The Kwara NMA Chairman, Dr. Ola Ahmed, said this during an interview with newsmen in Ilorin, adding that some patients may die due to the unavailability of cash to pay for healthcare services in hospitals.
He said “patients are in a dire situation as they are unable to buy the required drugs to stay alive.
“A patient that is critically sick and cannot access money to pay for drugs is a terrible combination.
“While the money transfer platforms are not easy to make as services tend not to work, some people use the opportunity to dupe people by sending fake transfer alerts, ” he lamented.
Ahmed, however, said that the Kwara NMA would visit the management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and the Kwara State Hospital Management Board to discuss how best to tackle the situation to save lives.
According to him, the association will also visit both government and private hospitals to find ways to tackle the situation.
On her part, Munirat Bello, the Secretary of the Kwara PSN, said pharmacists have been trying to be humanitarian in the face of the challenge by giving drugs on credit.
She added that “patients who received drugs on credit can refund when they are able to.
“But the risk is that some people don’t come back to pay. However, we will continue to engage with customers and patients to save lives”.
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