One of the stereotypes of an alcoholic is that of an overweight individual. There are two main reasons for this The first is that people who spend a lot of their time drinking tend not to be physically active. They sit comfortably at home on a couch with...

Ask anyone with back pain and they are likely to tell you a story about what they were doing when they were "injured". It is often something trivial. I twisted awkwardly as I was getting out of the car or as I was lifting the bag of groceries out of the t...

Getting a good night's sleep is so easy for the majority but, when something goes wrong with this natural reaction to physical tiredness, the way you feel the next day can be serious. It can be simply that you feel excessively tired. You walk around in a ...

Whatever you read about acomplia and weight loss, there is one constant. Acomplia on its own cannot reduce your weight. It is designed to work alongside a low-calorie diet and physical exercise. So what kind of activity should people adopt? The idea of...

There has been a wealth of research into what causes pain. It is a symptom or warning of an underlying medical problem. Researchers can describe in detail how the sensation is transmitted from its source to the brain so we become aware of the problem and ...

Ultram is marketed in some seventy countries around the world for the treatment of moderate to severe pain in multiple dose format. The simple rule is that the dose should be individualised so that each person takes the smallest dose required to produce t...

I am always impressed by a well-rounded acronym. It shows the research team is delighted by both science and language. In this case, we have the cumbersome An International Study of Rimonabant in Dyslipidemia with Atherogenic Risk in Abdominally Obese Pat...

In 2006 in the US, the clinical gold standard for insomnia was controlled-release Ambien. Millions of prescriptions a year were and are written. Moving across the Atlantic, the situation is no less “impressive”. According to the latest figures, there ...

Disability is all in the eye of the beholder. If someone has lost a limb or has some equally visible sign of a physical problem, the reaction is usually sympathetic. But take away the more obvious visual clues, and how the general public will react become...

This is a word of introduction and explanation. “They” thought it should start this way so that you’d all understand how and why all this came to be written. I entered a writing competition. Me? Those of you who know me will be surprised. I’...

When they do not suffer from the disease or disorder, people can be very selfish, not to say, callous. The same problems swirl around the politics of "Libertarianism" in the USA, where some activities such as drug and substance abuse are considered "victi...

Dave was bad-tempered because he took time off work to go see the physician at the hospital. Even though Mike slipped him a few dollars to make up the lost pay, Dave said it was all bullshit. I was perfectly able to give consent to take this Ambien. He th...

This April has been good news month in Philadelphia. According to a report published in Pediatrics, a research project to tackle obesity among children has been a success. Ten elementary schools were chosen, five instituted the weight loss program (althou...

Perhaps I am growing more cynical, but every time I see a new piece of research only lasting one or two years, I wonder why it stopped early. I suppose it is always a balancing act. If you have a specific hypothesis, evidence for or against should be appa...

Looking along my bookshelf, my eye was caught by a title, Triumph Over Fear: A Book of Help and Hope for People with Anxiety, Panic Attacks and Phobias by Jerilyn Ross — originally published by Bantam Books in 1994. When I picked it up again, I was surp...