Post Archive by Month

Free health information, and easy access to it, is something I’m always in favour of. So a new initiative to provide vending machines offering free sexual health testing kits gets my vote. They’ve been launched in four ­venues across Bristol, North Somerset … Read More

The universality of baby talk has been a favourite topic of mine for decades, and now a study by the University of York and ­Denmark’s Aarhus University has ­revealed that baby talk is the same across 36 languages. ‘Baby talk’, that sing-songy … Read More

There are very few effective treatments for dementia or Parkinson’s disease. Sadly, these conditions are often only diagnosed once symptoms appear, whereas the underlying brain ­degeneration may have begun years – even decades – earlier. This means that by the time patients … Read More

Now here’s an interesting one – people who have nightmares in middle age run the risk of dementia in later life. This surprising news comes from a Birmingham University study and suggests nightmares may be an early warning sign of dementia long … Read More

There is much confusion around ME, a condition that affects more than 250,000 Brits of all ages and backgrounds. ­ Symptoms include pain, brain fog and extreme exhaustion that doesn’t ­improve with rest. The key feature of ME (myalgic ­encephalomyelitis) … Read More

Back in 2015, I first wrote about brain damage in athletes playing contact sports being linked to the early onset of dementia and Parkinson’s, particularly in American footballers. Then, in 2017, I followed up with the same brain disorders among football players, attributed … Read More

When you’re trying to fix an appointment with your GP do you have a preference for a particular day? Or rather is there a day you’d prefer not to see your doctor? Monday? Well, yes, it turns out that few of us … Read More

Without our immune system we are nothing, and the more research we do the stronger this conviction becomes. Dr Alessio Lanna, Honorary ­Professor at UCL and lead author of a new study explains: “Immune cells are on constant high alert, … Read More

People with diabetes are prone to urinary tract infections partly due to a weakened ­immune system, but also by bladder damage making the bladder vulnerable to infection. It turns out that high blood sugar ­lowers levels of a ­protective protein … Read More