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The young people’s sexual health charity Brook has teamed up with the NHS and the laboratory testing company Preventx to offer free chlamydia testing kits through the post. By using the Freetest.me website, young people between the ages of 16 and 24 can order a postal home testing kit, return their urine sample or vaginal [...]
A new study of more than a million transplant recipients has found that rejection rates are lower in patients who receive two organs at once than in those who receive a single organ. The study, published in Annals of Surgery, found that the rejection rates for organs cotransplanted with a donor-specific liver, heart or kidney [...]
The British Heart Foundation has launched a petition to ban the sale of cigarettes from vending machines in the UK. The charity hopes that banishing cigarette vending machines will reduce the number of under 18s who take up smoking. In the UK you need to be at least 18 years old to buy cigarettes from [...]
A study by Finkelstein and colleagues published recently in Kidney International has found that as many of a third of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) claim to know nothing about their disease or about their treatment options when their kidneys ultimately fail. CKD encompasses many types of kidney damage and is characterized by the [...]
A considerable proportion of women – between 25% and 53% in fact – suffer from sexual problems, with libido taking a nosedive after the menopause as estrogen levels drop. Although low libido isn’t a health problem per se, it has been shown to have a negative effect on sexual relationships and overall wellbeing. It has [...]
Tomorrow the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is leading World Diabetes Day, the primary global awareness campaign of the diabetes world. World Diabetes Day is celebrated annually November 14th, the birthday of Frederick Banting, who in 1922, along with Charles Best, conceived the idea that led to the discovery of insulin. The theme for this year [...]
The publication this week in New England Journal of Medicine of the JUPITER trial – which found that the statin rosuvastatin reduces the risk of heart attack and other cardiovascular events in people with normal cholesterol levels – has cause quite a stir. The likes of the BBC and the Daily Mail squealed that statins [...]
This evening I attended The Nature Debate: Enhancing the Body at King’s Place in King’s Cross, north London. Today’s discussion is the second of two panel events on “the risks, benefits and extent of how far research can extend our mental and physical abilities”. Chaired by Kerri Smith, Nature Podcast Editor and presenter of Nature [...]
Caffeine has been proposed to have all sorts of effects on health, both good and bad. Just in the last few months, it has been reported that caffeine can help repair damaged blood vessels, protect against cataract formation, and even shrink women’s breasts. Now new research published in the British Medical Journal has found that [...]
This week the Office for National Statistics released the results of their 2007/08 contraception and sexual health survey, which was undertaken as part of the National Statistics Omnibus Survey. Over four months, 1,164 women aged 16-49 and 1,543 men aged 16-69 completed a questionnaire on contraception use, sexual health, and knowledge of sexually transmitted infections [...]