If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
It's a plot worthy of Hollywood - a fatal radioactive poison, secret documents, suppressed information, and drugs. But this isn't fiction. This is the story of the tobacco industry's knowledge, policy and inaction around radioactive material in cigarette smoke.
Today, the Government relaunches its Start4Life (little sister of the Change4Life) campaign to help mothers-to-be have healthier pregnancies. And it is definitely 'mothers' they're out to educate.
HIV/Aids is no longer the death sentence it once was. But while millions of HIV positive people lead healthy and productive lives, we still have nine million people who still cannot access treatment. We also have a long way to go on preventing new infections.
Our late father had a head injury following a brain infection in 1982. He was a highly functioning man at aged 52, a consultant surgeon, who subsequently developed the kind of problems exhibited in many head injured patients - this included behavioural issues, cognitive deficits, psychological trauma and memory deficits.
The General Medical Council has reported that one in six people on prescription medication are given incorrect doses during consultations with their GP. Common errors found include insufficient or incomplete information on the prescription along with dose and the timing of doses, calling for immediate review and monitoring of the current system.
In a bid to mimic the effects of Parkinson's disease, a London medical research team injected 22 marmoset monkeys with a potent brain poison every day for five days. After the last dose, none was able to move. They sat hunched, mute and rigid in their cages, so severely disabled that they had to be hand-fed. The monkeys were then given the illegal party drug Ecstasy in the hope that it might provide insights into chemical pathways within the brain. None of this research proved beneficial to humans; rendering the suffering of the monkeys valueless. This experiment was part funded by the medical charity Parkinson's UK.
The Gen X celebrities who pioneered the use of Botox are now turning to facelifts because of their longer lasting results, natural look and its having an impact on women the same age. Since 2009 I've seen a 225% rise in facelifts in the over 45s and now the facelift is one of the top three cosmetic procedures at my practice along with cosmetic breast surgery and rhinoplasty.
In preparation for her Born This Way Ball world tour, Lady Gaga is apparently following a diet that consists of five small meals a day. Although the tabloids seem to be concerned for the star's rapid weight loss, with headlines such as 'Lady Gaga is Poker thin', the diet plan that she's alleged to be on doesn't strike me as one to cause too much alarm.
Over the long Easter weekend, the daily papers were more than likely read by many over a leisurely breakfast. And for a lot of men, this came as quite good news, as the weekend headlines delivered the latest diabetes risk factor - men who skip breakfast are more at risk of developing diabetes compared to those who routinely eat when they get up.
Even though I'm a hands-on parenting advocate, I accept that motherhood is hard. The hours are long, it's badly paid and it puts demands on you physically and emotionally that would have any other 'employer' up before the International Court of Human Rights. Time-out to 'be yourself' at work breaks up the intensity of full-time parenting.
According to the UK's Mental Health Foundation, one in four of us will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year.
There is growing evidence to show age remains a dominant factor when treatment decisions are made and that many older people who could benefit from treatment, like surgery or chemotherapy, just aren't getting it.
Increasingly hectic lifestyles, anti-social working hours, and unpleasant sleep-disturbing conditions mean that a growing number of couples are sleeping in separate beds or even separate rooms.
Health reform is perhaps the most divisive issue in Britain's government... and there is another health issue that the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary do not agree on: the new Alcohol Strategy, which is expected to be announced any day now. David Cameron wants a minimum price to be imposed on cheap supermarket alcohol, while Andrew Lansley prefers self regulation.
In my opinion, sure, allow people to opt out of donating their organs at death, but the price of that should be that if they ever need an organ transplant beforehand they go straight to the back of the queue.
This week is Tinnitus Awareness Week 2012 and, as ambassador for the British Tinnitus Association, I am bound to tell you that this year our focus is on GPs... there are GPs out there who really need to raise their games when it comes to this condition.
