Collusion, illusion, or delusion?

Fending Off Death 1 by wiebkefesch on DeviantArt Doctors are – in the main – trained to prevent death.  Modern medicine has made huge advances, and life expectancies continue to rise.  However, there remains only one certainty in this life – that we are all going to die. Patients in the last year of life […]

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A disease by any other name…

  As a UK medical graduate, working in a London Hospital, it is fair to say that my CV doesn’t contain a huge diversity of workplaces, or populations served.  However, it is striking how many different levels of health literacy I encounter within the working week. I have had conversations with patients to correct the […]

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I took the road less traveled by…

Picture the scene – it’s the wee small hours, say around 0330, when the energy really ebbs on a night shift – it is still pitch black and the gentle lightening in the east is still at least a couple of hours away. You’ve been on the go since you started your shift at 2030 […]

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Is it all in your head? – not quite…

  A paper in the current issue of the Postgraduate Medical Journal tackles a relatively modern concern: chronic postsurgical pain. With the advent of modern anaesthetics, and advances in surgical technique, the potential for surgical intervention to tackle disease exploded.  Indeed, there is now a whole industry based on surgically changing the way people look, […]

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Exercise in older adults – time for a New Year’s Resolution?

Exercise is good for you – but then we sort of know that already – The Earl of Derby had it right back in 1873 pointing out that ‘Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.’   Take a look at this brilliant […]

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