How do you get someone to use their disabled arm after a stroke? Why, put the other one out of action. Not all the time of course, but for periods of repetitive exercise. It’s a pretty basic idea, but successful enough to justify the trial eponym – EXCITE. It’s a lot more exciting than yet another unsuccessful neuroprotective agent for stroke (see this week’s Lancet).

In the days when I was an active member of the British Society for Heart Failure (most of whose members are actually against heart failure), I attended a conference which featured a seemingly passionate debate about the benefits of statins in heart failure. I say “seemingly