The medical press is carrying a lot about the latest international arguments about breast screening. The BMJ carried an excellent editorial ‘Mammography wars” highlighting the recent Canadian taskforce on the subject. This called for a halt to routine breast examination, and a starting age of 50 before starting screening mammography, which they recommended to be […]
Continue Reading →More or Less
Little 7 minute section on the placebo effect, acupunture, and ethics. Available on listen again on iplayer, here.
Continue Reading →BMJ and that BJGP acupuncture paper
free link to my BMJ article here. I am wondering if this is the first time the Daily Mash has been quoted in the BMJ, along with the excellent DC, Northern Doctor, and the Quackometer. DC has done a good job with the follow up in the BJGP, which I don’t find satisfactory; see here, […]
Continue Reading →“It is time to stop this screening nonsense”
North America is not catching up: I think they are getting ahead in terms of sense about screening. PSA screening in the UK is available, and meant to be about ‘choice’, even then health charities say they “Supports the right of every man over 50 – and younger men at higher risk – to make an […]
Continue Reading →Osteopathy in the Guardian….
“Asthma is a good example of the kind of condition we can help with….I use my hands to try to find and work on any tensions or misalignments that might be compromising normal motion. In asthma I may use gentle stretches to release the ribs and the soft tissues that are restricting them, or I might […]
Continue Reading →Easy NHS reforms of evidence lacking and expensive healthcare items
Hospital food initiatives Choose and Book Connecting for Health / National Programme for IT http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=17511 Wash your hands campaigns, and associated badges, cut out cardboard nurses, nurses carrying clipboards to see if you washed your hands Management consultants Walk in centres ISTCs and take or pay contracts 4hour waits and associated management to enforce Homeopathic hospitals […]
Continue Reading →“we don’t drink enough water”
Advert on the BMJ website for “Hydration for Health“. It’s well worth noting that the sponsors are Danone Water. Water is a good drink, yes yes, but tapwater in a refilled bottle is far better than expensive bottled water. Also kidneys are excellent at ensuring that your fluid balance is perfect. Your body is pretty […]
Continue Reading →Food for the brain and self administered cognitive tests
Courtesy of the Daily Mail. “An early warning test for Alzheimer’s that can be taken online in 15 minutes has been developed by British scientists. It can spot signs of the debilitating brain disease in people as young as 50. The computer-based interactive quiz provides an instant result and could help delay or prevent the condition […]
Continue Reading →Preventative measures for breast cancer, and how we view risk
The Lancet has run a Consensus Statement about preventing breast cancer. They say “Many risk factors have been established for breast cancer, the most informative of which are family history of the disease, especially at a young age, increased mammographic breast density, some menstrual and reproductive factors, and proliferative benign disease. Various models have been […]
Continue Reading →Flu vaccination and fiction
There are people with complications of flu in intensive care and much publicity; many people seem very anxious to pay for a flu vaccination privately if they don’t fall into the NHS’ ‘at risk’ categories. The chair of the RCGP has called for healthy people not to be given flu vaccination in order to save supplies […]
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