Do health charities lobby on behalf of drug companies?
Whether a drug is available on the National Health Service (NHS) here in the UK is essentially decided by an organisation known as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE makes its decisions on drugs based on the cost per ‘quality adjusted life year‘ (QALY). A year in perfect health is 1 [...]
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How hunger can weaken willpower
I do a lot of work with groups in within businesses and organisations designed to help people lead healthier, more balanced and sustainable lives, and improve their energy, vitality and effectiveness as they do this. Early on during a programme, I’ll usually ask people what they’d like to get out of it, and non-uncommonly delegates [...]
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Manuka honey research reveals its potential to promote wound healing
Honey has for a long time been used as a traditional remedy in the treatment of wounds, particularly for the prevention and treatment of infection. Any potential here has real significance these days, at least in part because we’re seeing the emergence of more strains of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. And also because [...]
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Vitamin D deficiency major problem in the UK and is linked with ‘sudden infant death’
The BBC here in the UK has had a recent blitz on stories relating to vitamin D, particularly vitamin D deficiency in children and its potential to cause rickets (and the characteristic weakened, deformed bones prone to fracture). However, some doctors are suspicious that vitamin D deficiency may be an underlying factor in ‘sudden infant [...]
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Blessed are the meek?
I was looking through some photographs from my childhood with my girlfriend earlier today. One is of the day of my first holy communion. This religious rite of passage tends usually happens when a child is 7 or 8. But my mother, in her wisdom, decided that I would do it a couple of years [...]
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Times article highlights role of leptin in fat control
Last Saturday The Times newspaper featured ‘male dieting’, and included a piece from me in which I highlighted the role of leptin in weight control. The Times has a paywall, so unless you have a subscription, you can’t read it. So I’ve stuck it up here. Many men can find their excess fat to be [...]
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Some potentially good news for UK patients: doctors may go out on strike
The UK Government is broke, and is doing it’s best to spend as little money as possible, including on pensions. It’s offered state-employed doctors here a pension deal, but the doctors are not happy about it and now there’s talk of strike action. The situation may seem dire for patients who will not have as [...]
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Don’t believe everything you read (including in scientific journals)
News broke last week (see here for an example) that a University of Connecticut researcher had be found to have falsified data concerning his research into the antioxidant resveratrol (found in, among other things, red wine and red grapes). This week the British Medical Journal reports on the fact that a doctor and flu vaccine [...]
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Aspirin for disease prevention? Not so fast…
Aspirin is a commonly used painkiller, but it has other purported benefits too. One thing it does is reduce the tendency for blood particles called platelets to stick together. This reduces the tendency for blood clots to form. Many ‘cardiovascular events’ such as heart attacks and strokes are finally provoked by the formation of tiny [...]
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I have nothing against vegetarians, but…
I get occasional emails from vegetarians who: 1. object to ‘my meat-based’ ‘diet and/or 2. ask how they can apply the sort of dietary principles I espouse in the context of a vegetarian diet First off, I don’t advocate a ‘meat-based’ diet. I advocate a diet with meat (and/or fish) in it (if you don’t [...]
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