Category Archive

Could sleep disruption be linked to Alzheimer’s disease, an ­illness which affects more than 500,000 ­people in Britain and 5.7 ­million in the US? It’s possible, because a study has found that going short on sleep increases levels of a … Read More

Hip fractures affect 75,000 ­people a year in the UK. They can, however, be difficult to treat, mainly because they tend to occur in elderly patients whose bones have been softened by osteoporosis. The traditional way to fix these ­fractures … Read More

Could regular use of aspirin or ibuprofen boost survival rates from head and neck cancer? It seems it’s possible. In recent research, the common painkillers were found to treble the chance of survival (from 25% to 78%) for patients with … Read More

Now here’s a reversal of previous thinking: all children born to healthy parents in clean ­environments develop at approximately the same rate, with genes accounting for as little as 10% of their development. The nature versus nurture debate has raged … Read More

When I first started to fight the anti-vaxxers who were led by Andrew Wakefield in 2001 it was a straight-forward job. The whole medical profession agreed MMR vaccination wasn’t hazardous. At the time, millions of children had been vaccinated without harm and … Read More

Four pints a day? Doesn’t sound like much does it? Yet despite NHS guidelines, it’s adults who regularly drink this amount that are at risk of needing a liver transplant due to ­alcoholic cirrhosis. Experts at the Royal Free Hospital … Read More

Where did this fad for veganism come from? ­ Vegetarianism is an age-old rejection of eating meat but still eating milk and eggs. But with veganism we’re talking about the ­rejection of any food of animal origin. And yes, I … Read More

The new reclassification of ­cannabis for medical use means it can be prescribed on the NHS. If only that were ­entirely true. The reality is few people are likely to get a script for medical cannabis, according to a BMJ … Read More

We all know our motivation to lose weight is high when we manage to lose weight quickly, and we can do this when we replace meals with diet drinks, shakes and soups. So could doctors use this high ­motivation in … Read More

It seems that baby boomers, born and raised during the hippy era of free love, dropping out and turning on, are still at it despite their age. Among the over-50s the ­latest statistics reveal the number of people receiving hospital … Read More