Are you an apple, a pear, or even a melon? Metabolic risk is less if you have the body profile of a pear rather than an apple. If you are […]
Month: November 2009
Richard Smith on promoting health literacy
I’ve just spent five days—yes, five days—talking about health literacy. Before my five day conversation I’d never thought much about health literacy, but now I see myself as an expert. […]
Emily Spry on nursing in Sierra Leone
The nurse steps forward into the circle, putting her hands together. She prays aloud, “in Jesus’ name,” asking that our four day workshop at the Children’s Hospital be blessed, “so […]
Julian Sheather: Should we help people self-harm?
Once in every while an ethical dilemma will swim across the horizon, a dilemma whose wake will induce in me a bout of moral seasickness. My compass spins, my bearings […]
Joe Collier on swine flu and ministries of fear
One thing about the current swine flu pandemic is that it has brought with it a universal sense of fear. As with all fears, individuals respond differently, but we know […]
Emily Spry’s first impressions of working in Sierra Leone
I’m excited to have started at the Ola During Children’s Hospital in Freetown, after hearing so much about it from the Welbodi Partnership, the charity I’ll be working for over […]
Harvey Marcovitch: ‘O wad some power the giftie gie us’
It’s nice to know how others see us. Several weeks ago, a journal editor based in Europe asked my opinion on a contentious paper he had agreed to publish, had […]
Stephen Ginn on David Nutt being sacked
Having been sacked from his position as the chief UK government drugs advisor Professor David Nutt may today be reflecting on the precarious position of anyone who seeks to advise […]
Richard Smith: The beginning of the end for impact factors and journals
Something has just happened that will almost certainly end the tyranny of impact factors and may well mark another step towards the extinction of most scientific journals. Did you notice […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Exercise is medicine
Fergie lost it with the referee. The Manchester United manager’s public criticism of the referee’s fitness in their recent match against Sunderland made headlines. Although subsequently making a personal apology […]