Health and lifestyle

Fighting all Cancers Together (FACT) is a support organisation based in Gateshead. It was founded by Joanne Smith, who was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago, when she was 34 years old – on her daughter’s second birthday. Having received the diagnosis, Joanne went home and hosted her daughter’s birthday tea party, proving just how brave and resolute are people when faced with such terrible news.

Joanne’s cancer was aggressive, HER2 positive, for which she had a double mastectomy, six months of chemotherapy and a year taking Herceptin; followed by a series of breast reconstructions. When she began to feel stronger she decided to create something positive out of such a devastating experience. She recognised how lucky she was to have had the support of family… Read More

A dog can be a wonderful addition to a human household, but it can also be a liability. “Bad” behaviour,  such as barking, chewing, chasing and even aggression are common reasons for dogs not fitting in well with their human hosts: the most common cause of death in a young male adult dog is euthanasia because of unacceptable behaviour.

There’s a simple answer to this problem: dog training. There are two difficulties with this answer.

Firstly, it’s time consuming to train a dog. It’s been said that a dog needs to be trained for fifteen minutes a day for up to two years before it’s likely to be “permanently” well behaved. Obviously, remarkable results can be obtained by good trainers in a… Read More

There is confusion over the promise – made by the last Labour government – that all patients, whose GP suspects they might have cancer, would be guaranteed an appointment with a specialist within two weeks. David Cameron seems to think that this target is unworkable and that some cancer patients need to be seen more quickly and others more slowly. Simon Burns, Minister for Health, was then quoted as saying (if you can make sense of this!):
The decision on targets was taken on which ones were not clinically justified.  It was quite clear that the cancer one was clinically justified and is being kept.  There is no question of it going.
Earl Howe, Health Minister in the House of Lords, confirmed Burns’ statement.

Do we believe them? I am not… Read More

The ultimate fried snack? Here judge Gary Huddleston takes a bite of Deep Fried Butter at a food fair in Dallas last year (Picture: AP)

A chip shop in Eccles, Greater Manchester, has started selling deep-fried Eccles cakes – currants encased in puff pastry – as part of a local food festival. Bridget Benelam of the British Nutrition Foundation tells the Mail that she’s concerned: “Eccles cakes are already likely to have a… Read More

Donna Simpson, world's biggest woman, enjoys a McDonalds at her home in Old Bridge, New Jersey (Photo: Barcroft)

Earlier in the year this blog highlighted the case of Donna Simpson, the planet’s fattest woman, who was eating herself to death despite the fact that she has a three-year-old daughter and a son of 14 to look after. To give you an idea, she weighed roughly as much as two elephant calves.

Now it seems we in Britain have a woman who’s practically as big. The unnamed woman lives in Essex and weigh… Read More

We all deal with illness in our own way and this was reflected strongly in the stories of two women I heard recently, both diagnosed with breast cancer and both determined not to let the disease overcome them.

Jane Furnival, aged 51, was diagnosed with a form of breast cancer – Lobular – which had spread to 24 or her 28 lymph nodes.  She had a mastectomy, then chemotherapy, radiotherapy and was taking Letrozole (which lowers the oestrogen levels in the body).  The MRI scan revealed that, at that moment, there were no secondary tumours but  – to be on the safe side – Jane asked for her ovaries to be removed, because it is in these organs that secondary tumours are most… Read More

Molly is a young, healthy Boxer, in her prime, with bright clear eyes and a shiny coat. But her good looks have been spoiled by an obvious problem: baldness. Large irregular patches of hairless skin have appeared on both sides of the mid-section of her body. Molly seems very well in every other way, but the hair loss is dramatic.

Baldness can affect animals of all types and all ages. The technical term for baldness is ‘alopecia’, which literally means ‘without hairs’. Alopecia is a common reason for owners to bring their pets to the vet.

Animals are not vain – they do not worry about their appearance like humans. However, owners of balding… Read More

Andrew Lansley, Health Secretary (Photo: Andrew Crowley)

As someone who routinely dithers in the milk aisle of the local supermarket (organic, Cravendale, semi skimmed, one per cent?) I can well believe that too much choice makes you miserable. Psychologists at Stanford University proved it earlier this year, showing that if we have too many options we become paralysed with indecision, and ultimately less satisfied with the choices we make.

So the news that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wants to “put patients right at the heart of decisions made about their care” isn’t filling me with joy. In the middle of a… Read More

Steak: as recommended by Dr Atkins (Photo: Andrew Crowley)

The Medical Research Council suggests that Weight Watchers courses should be offered on the NHS. And that seems like a good idea. Weight Watchers doesn’t cost much. And if Weight Watchers might work as a longer-term way of addressing of addressing obesity, I think the reason will be that the classes have an educative component. Education is the surest way to tackle the problem of our society getting bigger and bigger. Most people you talk to, even well-educated types, don’t have the slightest idea about food. They barely know what a carbohydrate… Read More

A friend of mine, whose partner has just died after fighting cancer for ten years, asked us not to send flowers to his funeral but to donate to the Cancer Counselling Trust, which had been of enormous help to the family.

Logging onto the website, in order to give my donation, I read an announcement stating that, in August, the charity will be forced to close. After ten and a half years of counselling cancer patients, their families and friends – most of whom are referred to the Cancer Counselling Trust by the NHS or by other cancer charities – the money has run out. I rang the Trust and spoke to Dilys Stinson, Head of Clinical Services.  She told me that she and six other… Read More