A recent article in a UK newspaper reported that the National Health Service (NHS) is considering delaying procedures for a particular class of individuals such as the obese and smokers. In the USA, there are rumblings about health care rationing with the Affordable...
Conflicting views have again emerged about statin medications in two leading British Medical Journals. Statins are used to lower cholesterol and have been the best selling drugs of the past 25 years with sales in the tens of billions of dollars. The Lancet published a...
Much work has been done over the last few years on the dangers of sitting. Whilst claims that sitting is the new smoking are way over blown, it is true that in modern western countries many of us spend too much time being sedentary. The human body is designed to be...
I have 4 kids, 3 of whom had their wisdom teeth removed on reaching adulthood on the advice of specialists. I had mine removed in my 30s for some reason and so did my wife. In the US and much of the world this is a billion dollar per year business, with millions of...
Last week saw the passing of comedian Gene Wilder. Although he had not made a movie for some 25 years, he is still regarded as one of the greats of comedy. Movies like Blazing Saddles are classics. When interviewed a few years ago he said that he had stopped making...
Commentator Brendan O’Neill made an interesting point in a recent column in the Weekend Australian suggesting that being “offensive” is a key part of human progress. He noted that Copernicus “offended” the Christian authorities of his day by claiming the earth were...
