Amidst all the angst, hand-wringing and gloomy forecasts, a rather encouraging thing is happening in the UK: young people are drinking and smoking less, taking fewer drugs and having fewer babies. In 1998 54% of young people said they had taken drugs; by 2016 this percentage was down to 36%. The use of LSD and …
Five months after Hurricane Maria barrelled through Puerto Rico, much of the island remains “largely unliveable”, says emergency medicine physician Jeremy Samuel Faust. One knock-on effect of this is that America is drastically short of a staple item of hospital equipment: intravenous fluids for use in drips. The shutdown of several Puerto Rican factories that …
Continue reading ‘One reason American healthcare is so expensive’ »
“In “How Men Age” biological anthropologist Richard Bribiescas covers some interesting uncharted territory. This is not a mere description of getting older. Instead, by considering male ageing in the light of natural selection, it aims to answer why men’s lifespans are shorter than women’s, why baldness, prostate disease and erectile dysfunction are so prevalent, and …
Continue reading ‘Is there any point in old men? (Don’t all shout at once!)’ »
The following letter was written in October 2016, but, aware that the opposition to Brexit on this blog can be passionate, to say the least, I think that Epicurean moderation and respect for the opinions of others require me to publicise an interesting pro-Brexit point of view from Angus Dalgleish, a professor of oncology research …
In a world first, the National Health Service in Britain plans to cut prostate cancer diagnosis times from six weeks to a matter of days. Currently a test for men with prostate cancer requires an MRI scan and a biopsy where a dozen samples are taken, requiring multiple hospital visits. But a new “one-stop” service …
