Miscellaneous

Today’s the day I rush up to Barclays and jab my mighty right forefinger in their corporate rib cage and bellow “Oi! Barclays! No! What are you thinking?”

Apart from ‘ooo….. money’ and ‘cooo….. profit’ that is?

CR-UK has released some non-riot news into August – some polling yet again, on  the unfortunate British and their ‘fear of cancer’. I’ve been here twice before, just like CR-UK, in a couple of posts from 2010.  

Goodness knows if anyone has researched the anthropology or sociology of British women’s engagement with breast screening. I don’t feel inclined to search literature today to find out if they have, so I’ll stick with pondering, for now. 

Now I’ve tried to open a debate  - with myself, I realise, but an occasional blogger can dream - I’m setting off into boggy ground. Whilst being positive about the expertise of experts in my immediately previous post, I do know doctors and scientists can get it wrong. We still need to work on avoiding the automatic deferential respect of their expert position.

Overrated? Dangerous?  Sometimes, yes. Advocacy by people and patients with a personal connection to a health issue is not an unequivocal good. The public interest is not always well served by involving patients/sufferers in health lobbying.

This is an ‘equal opps’ blog entry. There’s a report on the BBC website about Zam Zam holy water from Mecca, contaminated with arensic and being sold in the UK.

I recently received this invitation to take part in some research. The bone fides are sound, though goodness knows what the research question really is – or what significance will be ascribed to the potential findings.

Whilst engaged on a totally different and deeply serious search for data on infant mortality and morbidity I came across some rather more Dadaist health statistics. They were diligently recorded and coded by NHS back office staff, counting hospital admissions as part of the 2009-10 Hospital Episode Statistics for England. Normally you'd think it'ud just be dull old heart attacks and strokes but no! Look a little further .........

The dogs are back! I love this story. The media love this story and the public do too. Dogs that can sniff out cancer. This time it's Japanese dogs and bowel cancer but it's been skin cancer, bladder cancer and also prostate cancer, where I made my own little contribution to the romance of it all, some years ago. I landed up in a BBC news studio with a golden retriever called Bliss.

Recent news has re-ignited fevered debate about for the ideal length of time babies should be exclusively breast fed. Current advice recommends (it’s advice, not a rule) that six months is an ideal time. The news covered research that came up with a new suggestion.