Like transparency, equality and democracy in politics, prevention of disease is a motherhood and apple pie issue in medicine– everyone is in favour of it, so long as it doesn’t involve actually doing anything as committed as mounting a serious public health programme or spending millions on research. This truism takes on a new urgency […]
Cardiologist: time to stop demonising saturated fat
October 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At first sight geology and nutrition have little in common but a major shift in thinking about the surface of earth is a handy way of highlighting a major change in ideas about how to cut the risk of heart disease with diet. Back in the 1920’s a meteorologist called Alfred Wegener came up with […]
The Alzheimer’s charities are in a hole but they keep digging
July 13, 2013 by 11 Comments
Earlier this week I won freelance consumer journalist of the year at the Medical Journalists’ Association awards which was fantastic. You had to send in three features to enter and two of mine each focused on a different non-drug treatment that might help with Alzheimer’s. I mention this because looking at them again I was freshly shocked […]
The link between hurricane Sandy and junk food
November 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
The bitterness of US the election and the damage wrought by hurricane Sandy don’t have an obvious connection. But in the Guardian last week author and activist Naomi Klein argued that one thread linking them was the ability of large corporations to avoid paying for their mistakes. It’s an analysis that also provides a useful […]
Put patients on drug company boards
November 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Your risk of developing Alzheimer’s could be increased by having high levels of glucose and insulin in your blood – one of the results of a diet high in sugar and refined carbs that’s linked with insulin – see my feature in the Daily Mail on Tuesday. But how likely is that to be the subject of […]
Lifestyle alters ageing marker
May 6, 2012 by 2 Comments
Telomeres are the exciting new kids on the ageing block. We all have them and they play a crucial role in protecting our DNA when cells divide. They are linked with ageing because the older you get the shorter your telomeres become. So one big question about ageing is: If I keep my telomeres from getting too […]
Serious doubts on value of clinical trials
May 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
It’s a no brainer that evidence based medicine is a good idea. Who doesn’t want to know that there is is some form of testing going on to find out if your treatment is likely to work? The medical profession, or most of it, confidently asserts that this is the way medicine is done these […]
Should antibiotics be developed by the public sector?
May 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
We are running out of antibiotics raising the terrifying prospect of untreatable STDs, hospital superbug infections or tuberculosis. Yet because these drugs are not profitable enough, development by drug companies has almost dried up. So let the public sector research and develop them says a BMJ article. Good idea and what about doing the same […]
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