Raise a glass - 19 Jan 2009[Bridget Farham] Let's start the week on a cheerful note. One of today's articles shows that if you marinate steak in red wine or beer you reduce its carcinogenic potential - what good news! In this land of red meat and braaivleis yet another use for red wine and beer can only be welcome. Consuming regular braai meat is associated with an increase in stomach cancer - something that seems relatively prevalent in the South African community. read more Into the new - 12 Jan 2009[Bridget Farham] As we enter 2009 we can look forward to much change - both internationally and locally. President Elect Barak Obama takes office on Tuesday next week - and his presidency will hopefully see the end of the anti-science approach of the Bush administration. For medical science this should mean that stem cell research will once again be adequately funded. read more Impaired driving - 8 Dec 2008[Bridget Farham] December is the month of year-end parties, general festivities and often - major overindulgence. At this time of the year the police are particularly diligent about road blocks and frequently increase the haul of impaired drivers as a result. But, impaired driving on South African roads is not just something that happens around the end of the year. read more Irrational approached - 1 Dec 2008[Bridget Farham] Today is World AIDS Day. Today, and for the rest of this month, the media will highlight one of the worst pandeimics that the world has seen. read more The horror continues - 24 Nov 2008[Bridget Farham] I received an email this week from someone who has been involved in the refugee camps that were set up to deal with the recent xenophobia crisis in South Africa. The camps are now closing, but that doesn't mean that the problem has gone away. read more Medical management - 17 Nov 2008[Bridget Farham] In today's newsletter there is an item that suggests that actually listening to patients and them examining them carefully may provide more information on the condition of their cardiovascular systems that putting them on a treadmill and looking at their ECG. The study showed that the predictive value of the exercise stress test - in the participants in the study - was no better than a good history and examination. read more Diabetes month - 10 Nov 2008[Bridget Farham] November is Diabetes Month - dedicated to raising awareness of this debilitating disease that affects millions of people around the world. Type 1 diabetes - which generally starts in childhood and requires daily insulin injections for life, while a relatively common and serious disease, has been outstripped by type 2 diabetes. read more Shame on you - 3 Nov 2008[Bridget Farham] Today's newsletter carries a story published by IRIN News - an organisation that concentrates its efforts on the developing world - about exploitation of children in the Gambia by tourists. Specifically - sex tourism. Most of the clients are apparently Western men - out of their own countries and apparently forgetting that sex with children is illegal - wherever it is practised. read more Who is research for? - 27 Oct 2008[Bridget Farham] Friday's newsletter carried a story that suggests that a well-known and best selling drug that reduces lipid levels may have been inappropriately advertised by the manufacturer. The problem, according to the two professors who authored the study, is that the advertising highlighted the drug's ability to lower the risk of heart attack - but did not say anything about the fact that this risk reduction was not found in women, only in men. read more The cost of poverty - 20 Oct 2008[Bridget Farham] My husband recently passed on a lovely little snippet for me to add to a school science magazine that I edit. The figure of $700 billion has been bandied about a lot recently as the amount of the US bailout of banks and financial institutions. read more (1 Comment) Continuing inhumanity - 13 Oct 2008[Bridget Farham] As the refugee camps around South Africa are closed, the foreigners who have lived in them since May this year are dispersing. Many have been refused asylum on the grounds that they are 'economic migrants' - not a UN asylum category. read more Morality among scientists? - 6 Oct 2008[Bridget Farham] There are two items in today's newsletters that call into the question the morality or otherwise of certain medical professionals and scientists. The first is the complicity of medical researchers in helping the tobacco companies cover up the serious health consequences of smoking for so many years. read more Time for change - 29 Sep 2008[Bridget Farham] Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for has come. Manto didn't jump - she was pushed. read more All change - 22 Sep 2008[Bridget Farham] This weekend Thabo Mbeki made South African political history. He did the right thing and is intending to resign in the wake of allegations of political manipulation of the NPA over the Jacob Zuma corruption case. read more Eat, drink and be merry - 15 Sep 2008[Bridget Farham] Eat, drink and be merry is a common approach to life, but all too often it is the wrong sort of eating and drinking! We have known for some time that a Mediterranean style diet - rich in vegetables, fruit, olive oil and a moderate amount of red wine - appears to have health benefits. Now, a meta-study, published in The British Medical Journal seems to say that this is uneqivocal. read more |
