Human brown fat deposits and the effectiveness of nicotine replacement therapy are just two of the subjects touched on this week by Richard Lehman in his journal review, which also includes a parody of a T S  Eliot poem read by Dylan Thomas. more…

From bed bugs via the Roman goddess of dawn - complete with Latin poetry - to Siberian bug bane: Richard takes us through the Big Four in his usual inimitable fashion.

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We are very pleased that Richard Lehman is back with us after a break. As before, his ever popular journal blog will be published weekly.  This week, Richard gets off to a splendid start by covering a range of subjects from Greek nymphs to footstools and defecating… more…

A question for all GP readers – where do you keep your paediatric sphygmomanometer cuff? Do you know if your practice actually has one? more…

The world’s largest swede weighed in at 171.56kg, according to a highly entertaining website mocking the rutabaga (which is the American word for this estimable root vegetable); more…

Every week or two we detect an irregular pulse and send the patient off for an ECG, but we’ve never audited how many with ?AF written on the form actually have it. Some researchers in the Birmingham (UK) Department of Primary Care, however, have made something of a specialty of atrial fibrillation more…

Here is a painstaking meta-analysis of trials involving 64,000 people randomised to take calcium, vitamin D (in various doses) or placebo for the prevention of fractures and bone loss in people aged over 50. more…

How grateful we should be for those who delve in the dark places of the earth, bringing up ores and jewels for our use and pleasure. Systematic reviewers share the glory of the mining tribe, and many of its hardships; more…

This big handsome shrub is about to display its flat cymes of dull white flowers, exuding a faint sweetish smell. Clearly it is not for these that we in limy places grow this plant: more…

There aren’t many vaccines which work after the infection has been acquired, more…