I will help professionals & consumers keep up to date with lifestyle research & make sense of it
Smoking simply isn’t sexy any more, is it? There’s been much discussion in the media lately about smoking being increasingly unacceptable and it feels like we have come a long way since men such as Chet Baker and Frank Sinatra were crooning these lyrics: “I dim all the lights and I sink in my chair. [read the full story…]
As we experience the wettest drought on record, I bet lots of you are also having unseasonal colds. Once again, zinc has been in the news as a possible treatment for the common cold. So what does the research tell us? Last year, a Cochrane review of randomised controlled trials comparing zinc with placebo (no zinc) [read the full story…]
This week is Walk to Work Week. Obviously, I always walk to work; what else would I do in a woodland? Ok, I sometimes skip, if I’m feeling particularly cheery. I do use a bike sometimes too, but the choices are limited. The majority of you, though, will get in the car and perhaps you feel that your [read the full story…]
It’s great when we hear about a drug which seems to work but we also need to know whether it might cause us harm. ‘Adverse events’ or ill effects from a drug might be mild nausea, for instance, or something much more serious. Last month I blogged about a major update to a Cochrane review, [read the full story…]
I’m afraid there isn’t really any way to soften this: children who are overweight are at risk of becoming unhealthy adults. A new study from Australia, highlighted in the BMJ, looked at obesity levels in a group of nearly 1200 children, followed from birth. They found that: 14 year olds with lifelong high adiposity (fatness) [read the full story…]
Here we are on Day 3 of Deaf Awareness Week; a good moment to point out that hearing loss due to noise is: permanent irreversible the second most common self-reported occupational illness or injury PREVENTABLE So what’s the size of the problem? And how can we protect people’s hearing in the workplace? Worldwide, 16% of [read the full story…]
Mouths covered by whiskers, hands or masks, tannoy systems, background noise, windows, cubicle curtains, telephone booking systems and lack of awareness. These are just some of the hazards that lie in wait for people with hearing loss engaging with our healthcare system. Challenges for patients with hearing loss and their health practitioners Today sees the start of Deaf Awareness [read the full story…]
“Mr Watson, come here, I want you”. These are the first intelligble words transmitted over a telephone, by Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant, back in 1876. Nowadays, any observer of ears in the street will see a large proportion attached to mobiles; most of us are never far from our phones. Their high accessibility [read the full story…]
We’re celebrating May Day here in the woodland; a day when even normally sane people have the excuse to swap their suits for bonnets, bells and breeches and prance through town and countryside and generally make merry. But if dancing’s not for you, you might consider going for a walk today, for today sees the [read the full story…]
When you’ve got a problem, where do you look for help, support and information? Here in the woodland we have, of course, got a wise owl to consult, but we also love the internet. When it comes to seeking help for health-related problems, it offers many obvious benefits, including anonymity, access to specialist centres regardless [read the full story…]
