Archive for 2015

Current Posts – 18 May 2015

by / on 18 May 2015, / in editorial

Doctors take on prevention is […]

Your indispensable guide through the health advice jungle

5 by / on 7 May 2015, / in evidence based medicine

We are being doctored to death. GPs’ surgeries and public health bodies routinely warn of hazards lurking all around us. They tell us sunshine is bad. Drinking alcohol is bad. Cholesterol is bad. Saturated fat is bad. Being overweight is bad.

Current Posts – 8 May 2015

by / on 7 May 2015, / in editorial

‘Health and safety gone mad’ […]

Lazy and irrelevant research used to smear vitamins as dangerous. Not again!

8 by / on 28 Apr 2015, / in vitamins

Yet another round of media stories this week picking up on an “expert’s” claim that vitamins are ineffective and dangerous. They are the medical equivalent of blaming immigrants or single mothers for various social ills; scare stories that spin the data and draw totally unjustified conclusions.

Current Posts – 28 Apr 2015

by / on 28 Apr 2015, / in editorial

 Anyone who works seriously with […]

Governments are spending hundreds of millions researching cancer genes. Is it all a big waste of time?

7 by / on 2 Apr 2015, / in cancer

There is a powerful myth, widely believed by cancer patients and their doctors, that soon a greater understanding of genetics will provide the tools to defeat cancer. Unfortunately this optimistic scenario is in serious trouble, yet few are aware of what has been happening.
The data coming out of the latest American genetic screening program, a 500 million dollar project called The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) launched in 2006 – has revealed that the gene changes within the cells of individual tumours are far more complicated and chaotic than anyone had anticipated.

Current Posts – 02 Apr 2015

by / on 2 Apr 2015, / in editorial

How are we going to […]

Cuddly dietitians in cosy embrace of industry fat cats

9 by / on 16 Mar 2015, / in Vested interests

If this blog included cartoons, the one illustrating this post would show a small mouse-like dietitian held in the fearsome claws of a vast and grinning fat cat wearing a suit covered in brand names such as Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestlé, Unilever Foods and WK Kellogg Institute.
The dietician’s speech bubble would read: ‘It’s OK I’ve got it under control.’ It would be captioned: ‘The delusion of the dietitians’.

Current Posts – 16 March 2015

by / on 16 Mar 2015, / in editorial

Dietitians are the people we […]

The Myth of ‘False Hope’

28 by / on 12 Mar 2015, / in cancer

As a 48 year old wife and mother with late stage cancer in my lungs, lymph nodes, bones and brain I had been quietly hoping that Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill would make it through the House of Commons – unusual as that outcome may have been for a private member’s bill. But hey, he got it through the Lords, had The Telegraph backing his cause and won considerable support in the country, so there was some cause for excitement.

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