Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is much more common than people realise. We now know that it probably affects around one in 250 people in the UK, which is twice the estimate of a few years ago. To give you a sense of scale, that means it is similar to the numbers of cases of childhood type […]
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Children need to know the warning signs of diabetes, says charity Diabetes UK. Easy to remember, the 4Ts will help them and their parents identify when there may be a problem. […]
Type 2 diabetes is a growing problem. There are now almost 3.8 million people who have been diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and around one million people who are unaware they have the condition. It’s estimated 90% of these people will have type 2 diabetes. We need to use every resource at our disposal […]
Let’s start with the good news. If you are unlucky enough to suffer a major heart attack, you are more likely than ever to survive it. One of the principle reasons is that the NHS in England now has a network of heart attack centres around the country, close to where you live. There are […]
A major weakness in all nutrition and diet studies is that we have no true measure of what people eat. We rely solely on people keeping logs of their daily diets – but studies suggest around 60 per cent of people misreport what they eat to some extent. So although we have big data collections […]
Logically, it seems like a good idea to switch from sugary drinks to versions made using artificial sweeteners. You get the same sugary taste without the calories, which should help you lose weight as part of a calorie controlled diet. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) such as soft drinks, fruit-flavoured drinks, and sports drinks, make up a […]
Yellow, green, brown, blue, pink and black: not the potting order for the coloured balls in snooker, but the colours in some of the worst wounds that I have dressed as a nurse. Dealing with incontinence is not the most gruesome aspect of the nursing role: it can be far harder to stomach wound care. […]
With mistletoe, celebrations and joy in the air, many people consider investing more time into looking their best during the festive season. On average, four patients out of 10 who request non-surgical procedures come to see me for lip augmentation, as they desire fuller lips, contoured edges and a beautiful aesthetic shape. This contributes to […]
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Ten years ago, I was based in South Africa and involved in scaling up treatment for people with HIV. That country has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world – of 38 million people infected with HIV worldwide, around seven million of them live in South Africa. While I was there, I […]
There was a time when infertility was seen as a women’s problem. Not anymore. Older dads are more likely to pass on genetic mutations to their offspring than older mums, according to research. And studies show that male infertility is behind half of all cases where couples fail to conceive after one year. Sperm counts […]