Category: Health

You receive a phone call: the results from routine blood tests show a “low white cell count”. Your doctor explains that more investigations are necessary, perhaps a referral to the haematologists. This might represent something concerning. But what if this “low white cell count” were completely normal for you, because of a harmless genetic variant […]

Semaglutide, the drug behind the blockbuster weight-loss jabs Ozempic and Wegovy, does not slow cognitive decline in people with early-stage Alzheimer’s, according to two large new studies. The results close the door, for now, on hopes that a treatment for diabetes and obesity might also help protect the brain. The evoke and evoke+ trials tracked […]

Drug use appears to be changing in England – both in the types of drugs people take and their potency, according to our latest survey of adult mental health and wellbeing. The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) began in 1993 and is the longest running mental health survey series in the world. This national study […]

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 […]

Officials said global outbreaks are accelerating as millions of children remain under-immunized following years of COVID-19 pandemic-related disruption. “Measles remains one of the most contagious respiratory viruses,” said Dr. Kate O’Brien, WHO’s Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals. “One person can infect up to 18 others. Many people think measles is not serious – but […]

The NHS didn’t receive a great deal of specific attention in Rachel Reeves’ budget. She mentioned it, but in fairly general terms around plans to invest and cut waiting lists. But the overall plan presented by the chancellor effectively incorporates the NHS into a high tax, high spend economic model. Those revenue-raising taxes include a […]

Bird flu viruses are a particular threat to humans because they can replicate at temperatures higher than a typical fever, one of the body’s ways of stopping viruses in their tracks. This is according to new research led by the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow and funded primarily by the Medical Research […]

Government Approval Secured Minister for Mental Health Mary Butler TD has secured Cabinet approval for more than 300 proposed amendments to the Mental Health Bill 2024, which will now proceed to the Seanad for Committee Stage debate on 2 December 2025. The legislation, containing over 220 sections, is described as person‑centred and designed to safeguard […]

For anyone facing cancer, the treatment options can feel brutally familiar: surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of them all. But a new approach is beginning to offer something very different. By using nothing more than precisely controlled sound waves, histotripsy can destroy tumours without cutting the skin or burning healthy tissue. Histotripsy uses technology […]

Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas recently revealed that she’d “thought that was it” after a fish bone became lodged in her throat. Ballas’s terrifying ordeal lasted for 20 minutes, with the judge struggling to breathe until her hair and makeup artist managed to dislodge the bone using the Heimlich manoeuvre (also known as abdominal […]