Hot flushes during the menopause may be a minor inconvenience for many women, but a significant proportion of women, typically around 45 to 55 years of age, suffer from more severe episodes that can have a major impact on their quality of life. Hot flushes can lead to clothes and bed sheets drenched with sweat […]
Populations around the world are ageing due to increased life expectancy and falling fertility. These shifts have been driven by improved healthcare, better infrastructure and medical innovations. But why do so many people struggle to see this as a good thing? The WHO’s recent World report on ageing and health recasts the “problem”. Rather than pointing the finger at older people and […]
The Patients Association welcomes the ‘Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View’, and will work with NHS England to help ensure it is delivered successfully and engages with patients nationally and locally. This is essential both to ensure that the importance of change is understood by everyone, and to get input from patients […]
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As the NHS approaches its 70th anniversary the health service has published the plan setting out how it will deliver practical improvements in areas prized by patients and the public – cancer, mental health and GP access – while transforming the way that care is delivered to ease pressure on hospitals by helping frail and […]
Terrorism takes a physical toll, not just on those who are unlucky enough to be directly affected. In a world with a 24-hour news cycle, we are struggling to manage the information overload. Millions of people watched last week’s tragic events in Westminster unfolding via news websites and TV in real time and shared a common sense of outrage […]
Is birth by pre-labour Caesarean an extreme example of stress deprivation? In the framework of our cultural conditioning, ”stress’ has a negative connotation: we must avoid stressful situations. Meanwhile, in the current scientific context, it appears that stress hormones have multiple roles to play and the concept of ”stress deprivation” has recently emerged in scholarly […]
We are living in The Aluminium Age. Throughout the history of humankind we have lived through various ‘metal ages’ including the Iron Age and the Bronze Age. Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was arguably one of the most important technological advances of the modern era. A method was developed to make aluminium […]
Face blindness, or Prosopagnosis, is a common condition that affects around two in every 100 people in the UK, but relatively little is known about why it occurs and the psychological effect it has on people’s lives. Researchers at Teesside University are hoping to raise awareness about this developmental disorder, which is an inability to recognise […]
When I had my double mastectomy in February 2015, following a diagnosis of breast cancer, there was very limited information out there about how diet and nutrition could aid my recovery. The whole focus was on taking drugs to reduce pain and swelling. There is a still a dearth of facts about how you can […]
Patients with musculoskeletal conditions causing pain do not currently have direct access to physiotherapy on the NHS, but perhaps they should. A new pilot trial at Keele University in the UK has found that patients who can arrange to see physiotherapists without going through their GP (the current situation) reported benefits without overwhelming the service. […]