Post Archive by Year

When I first qualified, we were saying periods were arriving early and we’ve continued to say that over several generations. But now Harvard University in the US is telling us, in more detail, how it’s changing puberty. Researchers point out that the average … Read More

Up to 1,000 children in the UK are living with a potentially fatal hereditary heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes thickening of the heart muscle. There’s currently no cure and, although rare, it can cause sudden death in children and young … Read More

Living with inflammatory bowel disease isn’t easy. It’s ­unpredictable, with attacks of ­inflammation striking out of the blue, bringing severe pain and ­traumatic toilet visits. It can be a ­condition that never leaves – ­grumbling on day by day with … Read More

The leading cause of vision loss among older adults is age-related macular ­degeneration. Affecting the central vision of the eye, around ­200 million people worldwide suffer from it and this number is expected to rise to 288 million by 2040 … Read More

Problems ­controlling emotions – which can be expressed as ­depression, anxiety and ­explosive outbursts – may be a core symptom of attention deficit ­hyperactivity disorder, Cambridge ­scientists have shown. The team found as many as half of all children with … Read More

Recently I wrote that I felt personalised nutrition is better for health than general diet advice and I said I’d return to it. PN is the brainchild of Professor Tim Spector and he has set up the ZOE foundation which runs the largest PN … Read More

You know when your partner concentrates on their phone, ignoring you in the process, something called “phubbing” (phone snubbing)? Well, it doesn’t just stop you connecting with each other and strain your relationship. Much worse, it affects women’s creativity while … Read More

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body is triggered to see its own organs or tissues as foreign, and so the immune system attacks them. In rheumatoid arthritis it’s mainly the joints. And in lupus it’s the skin, and many other organs including … Read More

This image is part of new research illustrating how our amazing immune system tackles cancer. B cells, like their first cousin T cells, are part of the immune system, helping the body to fight infections as well as cancer. They … Read More

Spinal injuries can cause profound disability and paralysis – but a tiny, flexible electronic device that wraps around the spinal cord could give us a new approach to treatment. A whole team of engineers, neuroscientists and surgeons from Cambridge University … Read More