Articles

St Patrick’s Day celebrations will, obviously, be very muted this year, courtesy of the Sars-Cov-2 virus – the new strain of coronavirus. It got me thinking about how saints have been linked with diseases, cures and doctors through the centuries. St Patrick is cited as someone to pray to if you have epilepsy. Tradition has…

As the evenings begin to close in and a distinctly autumnal air prevails, the sense of a challenging winter ahead is difficult to ignore. For many patients, an ever-growing concern is being vocalised in conversations with their doctors: how will we know if our annual flu-like illness is influenza or Covid-19? Get swabbed and have…

You go to your GP with low back pain. She organises an MRI scan to check if you have a slipped spinal disc. Your spine is fine, but the radiologist notices an abnormality in one of your ovaries. A surgeon then decides to operate to remove your ovary. However, you develop postoperative bleeding and are…

Known colloquially as “piles”, the exact incidence of the condition is hard to establish as they are reluctantly brought to a doctor’s attention. This probably explains why studies have found a wide variation in the prevalence of haemorrhoids, ranging from 4.4 per cent of adults in the US, to more than 30 per cent of…

Many doctors do a six-month stint in casualty as part of their early medical training. It was my first job post-internship, and one I have fond memories of. The emergency department – to give it its current politically correct moniker – is the quintessential melting pot of humanity. As well as the obvious tragedy of…

Fake health news is a growth industry. The coronavirus pandemic has provided a ready platform for all kinds of myth-making and false news reporting. But there is another aspect to the reporting of health news that deserves our attention. It’s how we report and read about genuine health and medical breakthroughs in mainstream media. Usually…