Author: David C. Gaze, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Pathology, University of Westminster

Tetiana_Kryvous/Shutterstock.com When Mark Hughes, the former Manchester United and Wales manager, lost his 38-year-old son, an inquest found the cause was sudden adult death syndrome, or Sads. He had appeared healthy. There was no obvious disease. For a family, that combination is almost impossible to make sense of. How can someone die from a heart […]

Microplastics are a big environmental issue. They’ve been found in oceans, drinking water, seafood, the air we breathe, and increasingly throughout the human body, from the placenta to the brain. A new study by researchers in Italy, published in the European Heart Journal, adds another organ to that growing list: the heart’s own blood supply. […]

Dragon Images/Shutterstock Modern breast cancer screening and treatment have transformed survival. Many women now live long and healthy lives after diagnosis, thanks to increasingly effective chemotherapy and targeted therapies: medicines designed to attack particular features of cancer cells. But as cancer outcomes improve, another challenge has become more apparent: protecting the heart from the side-effects […]

A roster of high profile advocates, including sportsmen, actors, two previous prime ministers and over 100 MPs, have recently joined patient groups and charities in calling for a UK national prostate cancer screening programme. However, the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) has announced its draft decision to advise the government against routine population screening for […]

Most of us think of orange juice as a simple breakfast habit, something you pour without much thought. Yet scientists are discovering that this everyday drink may be doing far more in the body than quenching thirst. A recent study has shown that regular orange juice consumption can influence the activity of thousands of genes […]

For generations, medicine treated the heart and brain as separate domains. However, a new study suggests the two are more closely connected than we thought, especially as we age. A 25-year study of nearly 6,000 adults found that subtle heart muscle damage in middle age predicts dementia risk decades later. The research, known as the […]