In late July 2016 the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) and Public Health England (PHE) announced new recommendations on vitamin D. SACN reviewed the evidence at the request of the Department of Health, which asked whether the previous recommendation, that most people would get enough vitamin D from sunshine alone, was still appropriate. Some people have asked whether the […]
John Davies: The Olympic Games opening ceremony in an occupied city
Over the weekend, downtown Rio was like an occupied city. Traffic was diverted from whole streets so that military lorries could park en echelon, guarded at each end by squads of soldiers, while the nonchalant Cariocas, Rio’s residents, walked by. The biggest street of all, the Avenida President Vargas, normally four carriageways with a total […]
Richard Smith: Preparing to be demented
My mother who is 86 has had no short term memory for nine years. She’s been in a nursing home for three years. My grandmother was also demented and died in a nursing home. My mother was 22 when I was born, so perhaps my dementia is close. I need to prepare myself. My mother […]
Lee Schroeder, Timothy Amukele, and Madhukar Pai: Why the world needs an essential diagnostics list
Without diagnostic tests, medicine is blind. And yet, diagnostics receive much less attention than vaccines and drugs. Imagine a sick infant with bacterial sepsis in sub-Saharan Africa. Without diagnostics, they will likely get incorrectly treated for malaria. Every year, one million patients with TB in India are either not diagnosed or not reported. Pregnant women […]
Alex Scott-Samuel: Tory plans for NHS privatisation released during parliamentary recess
July 2016 saw the very quiet publication of two key documents charting the route to the privatisation of the NHS in England. Firstly, from NHS England, came Strengthening Financial Performance and Accountability in 2016-17. This is the latest set of instructions on the implementation of NHS chief executive Simon Stevens’s Five Year Forward View (5YFV). The 5YFV […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . “The pharmaceutical industry”—the definite article
A colleague recently asked me to point him to “an authoritative definition of ‘pharmaceutical industry’.” The term is one that few have tried to define, perhaps thinking that there is no need. I have searched the many books on my shelves that deal with the iniquities of drug companies, and the few that praise them […]
Diana Quirmbach, Laura Cornelsen, Richard Smith: The rise of soft drinks—sugar is not the only concern
While sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) are increasingly being targeted by governments in their efforts to halt and reverse rising levels of obesity, energy drinks in particular have been singled out as a soft drink category that might constitute a double whammy for health. First of all, they contain high levels of both sugar and caffeine, […]
Richard Smith: What if everyone over 55 was offered a pill to prevent heart attacks and strokes?
The NHS, like other health systems, is facing huge financial pressure. Bold thinking is needed, and the King’s Fund, a British health think tank, has commissioned a series of articles asking authors to explore radical questions of “What if . . .” All of the articles can be accessed at The NHS if—essays on the future […]
David Payne: Medical stuff at Edinburgh’s festivals 2016
For the first time in more than a decade I’m skipping Edinburgh in August with its international, fringe, and book festivals. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The fringe grows ever more unwieldy, accommodation is scarce and expensive, and I’ve gained a week to explore more destinations in the UK or overseas. […]
Ahmed Rashid: Medical careers—it’s what you make of it
The first year of medical postgraduate training, known in the UK as foundation year one (or previously as the “pre-registration house officer” year), is a decisive time for junior doctors. Like most of my colleagues, I was inspired by lots of physicians and surgeons during this year and was regularly wowed by seemingly brilliant diagnoses […]