Just two days after the end of British summertime, the first snowfall of the year brought a frosty start to the month. Inches of snow fell across the country and even London was witness to a sprinkling of the white stuff - the first time the capital has seen snow in October since 1934. While the unexpected cold snap left many homes without power and caused chaos on the roads, children on half-term holidays celebrated the early arrival of Christmas cheer.

Interestingly, the last time snow settled in London in October, Britain was in the grips of an economic recession. Let's hope both the weather and the economy start warming up soon.

The red hot issue on the other side of the Atlantic has been the US Presidential elections, which has been fought on many issues including health reforms. US voters have elected Democrat Senator Barack Obama as the 44th US President.

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This month saw one new entry, a number of re-entries and climbers, with nutrition stealing the number one spot from cancer. While the biggest climbers this month included pregnancy and smoking-related issues, both heart disease and MRSA fell significantly. Re-entries included breast cancer, stroke, Alzheimer's and skin disease, recreational drugs and fertility and embryology issues.

Below we explore some of the topics that engaged the media during October.

Smoking-related issues. Smoking set the chart on fire by careering up five places this month with news from across the globe. While India introduced the world's biggest indoor smoking ban carrying a fine equivalent to the average person's daily wage, Chinese manufacturers sparked concern among anti-smoking campaigners with the introduction of electronic cigarettes, which heat up nicotine for smokers to inhale.

With smoking now costing the NHS £50 million a week, the UK became the first nation in the EU to introduce graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets. The 15 new images will appear on cigarette packs from 1 October 2009 and include pictures of rotting teeth, the corpse of a lung cancer victim, a tumour growing from a victim's neck and a flaccid cigarette, which experts hope will scare smokers into giving up. Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, said: "Picture warnings are the next vital step in reducing the number of people who smoke and could potentially save thousands of lives.”

Recreational drugs. The trend of addiction continued with a re-entry of recreational drugs, with news that the number of teenagers admitted to hospitals with drug-related problems had soared by 62% in the last five years. Many of the papers reported that cocaine, magic mushrooms and cannabis were found in the blood of 30,000 16-18 year olds in England last year. A further 60,000 children under the age of 16 took their parents medications, while another 20,000 children admitted to hospital with drug overdoses were under the age of ten. Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Unless Labour gets a grip of the situation, and quickly, the cost of drug abuse to society and the NHS is only going to increase.”

While drug use in children and teenagers appears to be on the up, a report in The Guardian highlighted that nearly all parents are convinced that their children have never taken drugs and are woefully unaware of their offspring's lives. The poll, commissioned by the drug and alcohol charity Addaction, indicated that while 22% of parents think children in their neighbourhood take drugs, only 1% think their own children have done so. The survey also suggested that young people have a far better idea of their parent's drug taking history than vice versa and ten per cent of young people said that their parents still take drugs.

Pregnancy went nearly full term with an eight step jump up the charts with news from across the field.
Of the 700,000 births each year, one in four babies is now being delivered surgically - a threefold increase since 1980. The Royal College of Nursing annual congress in Harrogate reported that the current caesarean rate in the UK was more than double that recommended by the World Health Organization.
Louise Silverton, Deputy General-Secretary of the Royal College of Midwives reignited the debate about caesareans in an interview with The Observer, claiming that an increasing number of women under 40 are less prepared to undergo the physical trauma of childbirth than their predecessors, a trend that is pushing up the rate of surgical deliveries. “Society's tolerance of pain and illness has reduced significantly,” she said. “Women are less tolerant of labour pains because they haven't developed tolerance of pain.” Despite the increase in casearean sections, this month's news also reported an increase in home births in an attempt to avoid hospitals wards and the potential risk of infections. A report from the Office of National Statistics showed that the number of women choosing to give birth at home was at its highest for 20 years.

The stress of pregnancy and birth was further highlighted in a report from Bristol University, which suggested that women who are stressed during their pregnancy are more likely to have asthmatic children. Pushing through the doom and gloom of childbirth this month, newspapers also reported on a positive story for new mums-to-be that motherhood can supercharge the female brain, leading to lifelong improvements in mental skills and protection against degenerative diseases of old age. Researchers found that while there was often a decline in mental powers during pregnancy, having a baby produces a sudden surge of memory and learning ability that makes them more vigilant and alert. Craig Kinsley, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Richmond, Virginia, said: “Pregnant women do undergo a phase of so-called baby brain, when they experience an apparent loss of function, however, this is because their brains are being remodelled for motherhood to cope with the many new demands they will experience.” Now we know why mums always know best.

And finally, the Aurora team was pleased to read the news that a Monday lie-in could reduce the chances of having a heart attack. A research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed a 5%  reduction in heart attacks on the Monday after the autumn clock change compared to normal Mondays - some good news to take us into the dark winter months ahead.

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Aurora strives to apply quantitative, qualitative and emotional understanding of health issues to client communication programmes. Dove-tailing informed PR activity with the media's appetite enables us to assist clients with communicating their vision.

To find out more, contact Neil Crump or Claire Eldridge on +44 (0) 20 7424 7940.

The top 20 chart provides our interpretative snap-shot of health stories in the national press and is based upon a quantitative process. Analysis based on news from the 26 September to 25 October 2008.