Statins reduce deaths from coronary heart disease by 28 per cent in men, according to the longest-ever study focusing on men with high levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol and no other risk factors or signs of heart disease. The study, by Imperial College London and University of Glasgow, is published in the journal Circulation today. Previous […]
“Sometimes chromosomes can break and get reattached to a different one in an unusual way. This results in a fusion between one gene and another which makes a new gene, called a gene fusion. Cancer cells often have gene fusions which happen because the DNA in cancer cells is really messed up such as the […]
Drug-resistant gonorrhoea is a major global health concern but a new antibiotic class has now been found to be effective against the bacteria that causes the sexually-transmitted disease in the laboratory. Closthioamide, discovered in 2010, might eventually offer an alternative for current drugs that are becoming less effective against gonorrhoea, according to a paper published […]
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Could pain killers be hiding underlying arthritis? Thousands of patients with an inflammatory arthritis condition might be being mis-diagnosed because the pain killers they take hide the problem from doctors. A new University of Aberdeen study, funded by Arthritis Research UK, aims to see how big a role patients’ medication plays in slowing down diagnosis […]
Community pharmacies play a vital role in keeping local communities healthy, and for some people, the local pharmacy will be their first point of contact, or only contact, with a healthcare professional. With almost 90 per cent of the population living within a 20-minute walk of a community pharmacy, which rises to 99.8 per cent […]
On World Hepatitis Day, Dr Philippa Matthews, a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow, puts the spotlight on neglected viruses including hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Some infections are good headline-grabbers – and alongside headlines, come education, engagement, investment, advocacy and action. On the global stage, these diseases include malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, and at home […]
Worldwide health authorities are being urged to rethink official guidance around vitamin D following the publication of a ground breaking study from the University of Surrey, which dispels the myth that vitamin D2 and D3 have the same nutritional value. In the first ever study of its kind, published in the American Journal of Clinical […]
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Antimicrobial resistance is a growing threat that is responsible for 25,000 deaths and a loss of €1.5 billion in the EU every year. The EU Commission has just adopted an Action Plan to tackle the problem inderpinned by a One Health approach that addresses resistance in both humans and animals. Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health […]
Last week I delivered a keynote lecture at the Public Health Collaboration annual conference in Manchester where I explained to an audience of over 200 made up of doctors and healthcare professionals that we have a complete healthcare systems failure. This failure is rooted in an epidemic of misinformed doctors and misinformed patients relying on biased research and biased […]
As a GP who uses homeopathy in clinical practice I’m often asked when and for what do I prescribe homeopathic treatment? Homeopathy can be helpful for pretty much any condition, whether as the main treatment, as a complement to a conventional treatment to speed up the healing process, or to lessen the side-effects of a […]