Health
Rishi’s smoking ban inspired me to light a cigarette
What has Rishi Sunak’s government achieved in its first year? The highlights include a renegotiated Brexit policy and setting more…
I’ve turned 60 – but all is not lost
By the time you read this I’ll be 60, having passed that milestone on Tuesday. My older friends tell me…
How do I know I’m an adult? I’m given unsolicited feedback
Adulthood was once determined by age, but now we’ve extended childhood far beyond the teenage years. If the government gets its…
Could I be pregnant?
At the age of 59 I thought it was time to get my body thoroughly examined. So last week I…
Why won’t my British friends see a GP?
Having lived in the United Kingdom for almost my whole adult life, I like to think I’m well assimilated. I…
The rise of vampirism in Silicon Valley
The Immortals, which begins on Radio 4 this week, is not for the faint-hearted. While it professes to be about…
Is the glucose monitoring craze really so healthy?
The curious obsession with glucose monitoring gadgets
Wuhan clan: we finally know the identity of the scientists in the lab linked to Covid
We finally know the identity of the scientists in the lab linked to Covid
My life as a meth addict
The highs and lows of being a meth addict
Why Sunak backtracked over fines for missed GP appointments
Not surprisingly, Rishi Sunak has dropped plans to fine NHS patients £10 for missed appointments. It was one of the…
Why can’t I give blood?
I read about the national shortage of blood last week with a feeling of gloomy inevitability. The brains of the…
Smoking is more hassle than it’s worth
I gave up smoking one year ago this week, as part of a series of pitiful capitulations to the forces…
We still love our failing NHS
A new poll about the NHS, the Sunday Times tells us, has discovered ‘a decline in support’ for the National…
How the ancients treated gout
Medical problems come and go in the media, and at the moment the flavour of the month appears to be…
Why I donated a kidney to a stranger
Why I donated my kidney
Yoga has become a hot cultish mess
The dangers and distortion of yoga
How we fell for antidepressants
The French novelist, Michel Houellebecq, with his accustomed acuity about modern culture, titled his last novel but one Serotonin. By…
Finally, some justice for the infected blood scandal's victims
Why has the greatest patient scandal in the history of the NHS rumbled on for so long before its victims…
The small NHS failings that let down patients like my mother
The NHS is letting down patients in small, crucial ways
Why I won’t have a Covid booster
In the news recently, we’ve heard from multiple Britons who’ve lost family members or sacrificed their own health to Covid’s…
Medical emergency: general practice is broken
General practice is broken