Hard Evidence is a series of articles that looks at some of the trickiest public policy questions we face. Academic experts delve into available research evidence to provide informed analysis you won’t…
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Health – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 5476 - 5500 of 5616 articles
Infections and deaths caused by superbugs are increasing every year. So the government’s five-year strategy to tackle the problem, if a little tardy, is a welcome step. In January, Chief Medical Officer…
Walking into each room to greet my next patient often reminds me of Forrest Gump: “You never know what you’re going to get.” It’s challenging to have only one chance to get it right but I love being an…
The NHS in the UK has come in for a lot of bashing of late, especially from politicians and the media. The former do so for largely ideological reasons, while I fear the latter often report the exceptions…
The end of the summer holidays mean office workers will be firmly back to the daily grind of attending meetings, sending emails, organising diaries and paperwork, and overtime. But after a number of cases…
According to an experimental study published in Nature Communications, severing key nerves in the neck may provide a new option for lowering high blood pressure. Considering new approaches to treating…
As the civilian death toll from conventional and chemical weapons in Syria mounts, politicians and policymakers around the world are locked in debate about how to respond. Away from the question of military…
Organ failure affects people from a wide range of social, age, gender, educational, cultural, faith and ethnic backgrounds. Minority ethnic groups already experience many health inequalities and transplant…
A recent MIT study claims that total combustion emissions in the US account for about 200,000 premature deaths per year. This enormous figure is not unique. In the UK, roughly 29,000 premature deaths are…
Giving priority for transplants to people who have joined the organ donor register (ODR) isn’t a new idea and is already happening in countries such as Israel and Singapore. In Israel, where a points-based…
Legend has is that the first human transplant took place in the 3rd century AD. The “lucky” recipient was said to be a sacristian called Justinian who received a donated leg from a recently demised Ethiopian…
The subject of mental health and illness often raises philosophical and ethical issues and fundamental questions revolve around the definition of mental illness – how are health and illness defined, who…
Organ trafficking and illicit transplant surgeries have infiltrated global medical practice. But despite the evidence of widespread criminal networks and several limited prosecutions in countries including…
As a young civil engineer in the 1950s, my grandfather was posted to Khartoum in the Sudan, tasked with helping to build a new water supply, drains and sewers for the city. Over the years, this system…
Edible insects are great alternatives to conventional sources of meat as they’re cheap, plentiful and excellent sources of protein and fat, as well as vitamins and minerals. In many countries, eating insects…
It would take a hard-hearted person not to have been moved to tears by the images on our television screens of Syria over the last week - of infants struggling to breathe while their parents looked on…
Chef Jamie Oliver was right to point the finger at ready meals with their high salt, sugar and fat content, misleading labels and hidden calories as a cause of obesity. He was also right to argue that…
We often talk about work-life balance but for most of us it might be more appropriately called work-life imbalance. The recent sad death of a Merrill Lynch intern sparked the company to review working…
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s characterisation of poor people eating “chips and cheese out of styrofoam containers” in front of “massive fucking TVs” doesn’t represent all poor people, working or otherwise…
As we get older, our experience of driving changes, bringing new anxieties and hurdles. But when older people stop driving, their ability to get around decreases significantly. This can have a knock-on…
A new study has suggested that it may be possible to develop blood tests for suicide by identifying biomarkers in the blood. Although it has its limitations, the study is an important step towards a more…
Caffeine is humankind’s favourite drug. It’s estimated to be consumed by 80% of people worldwide, and most of us consume several doses a day. This popularity would appear to be explained in large part…
Obesity is on the increase. And so are the numbers of theories all blaming different offenders. Culprit of the month is sugar, with researchers arguing that high levels of sugar in fizzy drinks, sweets…
Olive oil producers and other European food industry members have said they’re concerned about the UK’s traffic-light food labelling system because their products would be labelled as unhealthy. But nutrition…
Parasites are fascinating. They are uniquely adapted to survive, in some cases through very complex life cycles. There’s also research to suggest that some may even change the behaviour of hosts to assist…