Category Archive

We know children brought up in deprived environments generally don’t do as well in life as those who enjoy a more comfortable upbringing. But I confess I was deeply shocked by research showing premature babies from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely … Read More

Early diagnosis of cancer is so important, so it’s cheering to hear of a study that could lead to faster treatment – and save lives. It involved a blood test for more than 50 types of cancer, which then correctly … Read More

Should performance-related pay schemes come with a government health warning? A study led by Aberdeen University suggests they should – it found that ­workers who rely on performance-related pay (PRP) are at a higher risk of chronic stress, heart ­disease and poor mental health. The study … Read More

Back pain blights the lives of many people, especially as they get older. So I’m ­delighted to hear about BOOST – Better Outcomes for Older people with ­Spinal Trouble – one of the most joined-up projects I’ve come across recently. Exeter … Read More

Given the lives we lead it’s ­impossible to avoid stress ­altogether, but up to a point stress can improve our ­performance. When stress is ­unremitting, it’s another story. “On short timescales, the stress response restores the body’s balance. Over longer … Read More

Now, here’s an interesting one. The detection of bowel cancer is increased to almost 100% by testing for it twice, rather than just once. The simple faecal immunochemical test, or FIT, is used to detect blood in bowel movements that isn’t visible to the … Read More

The menopause can be hugely ­disruptive and damaging for women and their families, and cause issues with their work life too – yet there is still a ­frightening lack of information about what people should expect. In 2019, the Department … Read More

With Alzheimer’s and ­Parkinson’s we often refer to the brain cells “communicating” with each other through connections, and how that communication ceases when those connections are destroyed. But what if they actually “talked” to one another? Researchers claim that listening to the “conversations” of … Read More

The original research into the effect that weight loss had on type 2 diabetes was startling – it cured it! Hardly believable. Now researchers have gathered data from a three-year extension of that landmark Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT) and it’s thrown … Read More

Dementia comes in different forms but a common feature is the build-up in the brain of clusters of abnormal proteins which leads to the eventual death of brain cells. One of the ways our body rids itself of these toxic … Read More