Post Archive by Month

Do you think you’re resilient? Able to bounce back after a loss or a bereavement? And how long does it take you to get back to normal? Six months? A year? Longer? Psychologists would define resilience as the ability, after … Read More

What would you do if your child came to you and said: “I don’t want to be a boy any more. I’m a girl.” Change the subject? Hope he wouldn’t ask again? Take him seriously? The last is far and … Read More

There are those who swear by their “10,000 steps a day” to keep the pounds off and wear pedometers to make sure they hit their goal. Well, a piece of research has shown that all those apps for weight loss … Read More

Dementia, including Alzheimer’s, has overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in England and Wales. Its fatal outcome rarely gets attention, but people with advanced dementia die because they can’t swallow food and can hardly move due to … Read More

Migraine sufferers – and I was one for 30 years – will do anything to avoid triggers such as foods, drinks and situations that bring on that unbearable pounding in the head and, if they’re unlucky, unyielding nausea and vomiting. … Read More

Yes, I know I always go on about it. But we need to keep moving or our sedentary life will, not to put too fine a point on it, kill us. The problem is, in our hunter-gatherer days, our bodies … Read More

Though rare, sometimes medical dogma gives way to common sense. A recent example is exposing infants during their first year to potential allergens (things that cause allergies). Previously the received wisdom was that babies must be spared exposure to common … Read More

Some of us will have experienced the weird sensation of travelling long-haul and crossing several time zones. For instance, flying to New York means spanning five time zones so when you arrive in America the time is five hours behind … Read More

With an Arctic blast currently hitting the UK we all need to be on our guard. This winter there will be nearly 25,000 deaths due to cold in the UK and many more across Europe. The death toll from cold weather is … Read More

One of the most common ­complications of a stroke is a paralysed arm and hand, and that’s a serious disability. But help is on the way. Using a device devised by scientists at the University of Newcastle, thousands of stroke patients could … Read More