Medicine is both a passport and a visa, permitting access to unknown places and insights into places most will never see. more…

All my working life I have been ashamed at the way the NHS treats sciatica. A person – often a mother with young children, or the main family earner – is suddenly incapacitated with nerve root pain and needs to take morphine and diazepam. more…

Well, blessed are the peacemakers, we must say of Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley, even if they took their time about it. In the meantime, a lot of people in Northern Ireland have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of terrorism and civil disorder. more…

The “senior” medical journals have both published major trials of vaccines against human papillomavirus in the last month, and without pausing for breath the triallists now bring out a combined analysis proving – as we already knew – that the vaccines are likely to lead to a major reduction in cervical neoplasia. more…

A thousand patients have now taken part in 18 studies of bone-marrow derived cells for cardiac repair. This meta-analysis shows definite evidence of a repair effect, more…

The scents of summer are beginning to hang in the warm air – honeysuckle, jasmine, and roses. This wonderful rose offers a fragrance both sweet and fresh. more…