Health
Antidepressants and our ‘Brave New World’
It is hypocritical beyond belief selectively to say that NHS homeopathy is a waste of money and should be stopped when the cost of NHS antidepressant use (which may be no better than placebo in the majority of cases) is going through the roof. Read more »
Alcoholism isn’t a Drug Addiction or is it?
A provocative look at alcohol, alcoholism and Prof. David Nutt’s recent statement about alcohol being more dangerous to society than heroin or crack cocaine. Read more »
Comedy Revolution in Politics? Now for Medicine!
Comedians are suddenly influencing American politics. The power of satire has been officially recognised by the political authorities. Can the medical authorities be far behind? Probably yes. Read more »
The ‘English Disease’ is no joke
Giving diseases a national identity, an inanely xenophobic practice at best, is now regarded as politically incorrect. Referring to rubella as ‘German measles’ might still be considered merely naïve, but any mention of ‘mongolism’ (once a widely used synonym for Down’s Syndrome) is likely to be met with severe censure. The term ‘French letters’ has [...] Read more »
Less fun for girls?
Just returned from holiday and glancing at the headlines saw this one warning all women to ‘Cut food and drink to avoid breast cancer’. The Daily Mail headline is explained further by the subheading ‘18,000 women a year could be saved by exercise and dieting’ Here’s the thing: Research by none other than the World [...] Read more »
Obesity: The way the West will be lost?
As a physician, I’m aware of the dangers of obesity to health of course. But never in my wildest dreams did I suspect that obesity could be the cause of the decline of Western civilisation? Did I even think that it could be a reason why we could lose the struggle in Afghanistan, a place [...] Read more »
OFFICIAL NEWS: Size Matters – In Chocolate.
In one of the most innovative and enterprising moves to stop the obesity endemic in its tracks ever made by a nanny state, a prescient quango known as the Foods Standards Agency (FSA) has advised/warned chocolate manufacturers to keep the size of their chocolate bars down. Hapless confectioners have been told that chocolate will be [...] Read more »
Give me a doctor partridge plump!
I switched on the radio this morning and immediately heard extremely important news from America. Apparently the President had appointed a very FAT doctor to the most heavyweight medico-political job in the country – surgeon general. Across the media and the blogosphere, self-righteous commentators were self-righteously condemning the Chosen One for sending out the ‘wrong [...] Read more »
Dangerous New Syndrome!
Red Alert! Half of the planet’s people are at risk of a new epidemic called ‘Cell Phone Elbow’ This is not a joke! We are talking about 3 billion people at risk of suffering from Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, the latest form of overuse injury which may be even worse than Blackberry Thumb. This is how [...] Read more »
Acupuncture works! But still they whine about ‘theatrical placebo’…
In a strangely incoherent article in The Mail yesterday, the journalist, Daniel Martin, epitomises the current confusion about alternative medicine that reigns in the UK and its NHS. This time it’s acupuncture that gets it in the neck – or perhaps in the back as the article speaks a lot about back pain. Calling acupuncture [...] Read more »
