Health

Health

Wednesday

15 Jun 2022
Alex Barton
The dangerous rise of Elf Bars

Have you seen the colourful sticks with blue lights hanging out the mouths’ of most teens and many adults? Elf Bars are the colourful and sweet disposable vapes causing a wave of dependence across all age groups.    While the government is looking to rid the nation of tobacco smokers, electronically delivered nicotine is becoming a new frontier.   People who have not smoked before are getting addicted to Elf Bars. And ex-smokers are turning back to cigarettes to wean themselves off the potent pens.  Costing between £4 and £12 depending where you buy them — they are cheap. Watermelon, Grape, Cola and Cotton Candy are a few of the 28 flavours on offer, and each user knows the flavours they love and the flavours they hate.

The dangerous rise of Elf Bars

Thursday

2 Jun 2022

Wednesday

6 Apr 2022
Jessie Inchauspe
Why vinegar could be the key to losing weight

We all know about the perils of sugar. 90 per cent of us suffer from glucose (blood sugar) spikes every day. You may have even contended with the symptoms without recognising the cause: fatigue, cravings, mood swings, poor energy, bad sleep, acne and, crucially, weight gain. But what if you could mitigate the effects of glucose without forgoing sugar and carbohydrates completely? Starchy and sugary foods turn to glucose as we digest them. The resulting glucose then enters our blood stream. If too much glucose arrives too quickly in the bloodstream it causes a glucose spike. These spikes bring with them consequences: inflammation, premature ageing and fat storage. Many diets suggest cutting out sugar and carbohydrates completely.

Why vinegar could be the key to losing weight

Wednesday

23 Mar 2022
James Innes-Smith
The truth about the anxiety epidemic

Knots in the stomach? An overwhelming sense of despair? Nervous, restless and tense? That'll be the anxiety talking and for good reason. What with the financial crash, austerity, Brexit partisanship, climate change catastrophising, social media derangement, pandemic pandemonium and now the possibility of a third world war, I'd be concerned if we weren’t all feeling a tad anxious. Indeed NHS leaders are now urging ministers to tackle what they are calling a 'second pandemic' of depression, anxiety, psychosis and eating disorders, brought about by recent events. Indeed, one study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found that diagnoses of anxiety had tripled in young adults since 2008. It's right that we take mental illness seriously.

The truth about the anxiety epidemic

Wednesday

3 Nov 2021
Spectator Briefings
Lessons from the pandemic: collaboration in healthcare
27 min listen

Over the past months, under the weight of a global pandemic, scientists and medical professionals have had to rethink the way they do things. We found not one - but numerous - vaccines within the space of a year; new treatments have been discovered, some repurposed from existing drugs; and manufacturers and politicians alike have had to think creatively to plug the gaps of the pandemic. There must be lessons we can learn from this experience - things that big pharma and scientists can do better in the future, having this time round done so in emergency circumstances. That’s the topic of this special episode of The Spectator’s podcast, sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Novartis. I’m delighted to be joined by a panel of expert guests.

Lessons from the pandemic: collaboration in healthcare

Monday

4 Oct 2021
Dr Nick Fuller
The science behind why diets don’t work

For decades we have been told that it’s all our fault; that the reason many of us don’t manage to lose weight is a lack of willpower. But there’s a bigger cause behind our failure to shift the pounds and it’s certainly not due to floundering commitment. It’s down to a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. In fact, there are several well-researched biological pathways that protect our body from weight loss and ensure our weight rebounds each and every time we attempt to slim down. Research shows that in order to lose weight and make it stick, you must eat well and exercise for a month – then have a month off. Ever since obesity became a problem in the 1980s we have been led to believe that the best way to lose weight is by continuously cutting the calories.

The science behind why diets don’t work

Wednesday

22 Sep 2021
Simon de Burton
Since when did running become so exclusive?

Many of us have reached the conclusion of late that the world has gone mad, so it will come as no surprise to learn that it's now possible to sign-up for a run with an entry fee that's proudly claimed to be 'the second highest in the world'. To those who have long regarded running as a) something that you would pay not to do or b) an activity that's appealing because it's one of the few things left in life that's free, entering the four-day 'Highland Kings Ultra' might seem like an odd way to blow £15,499. But, according to organiser Primal Adventures, 'a significant number' of the 40 slots for the April 2022 event are already filled. Running has moved on a bit since Oxford medical student Roger Bannister became the first to crack the four-minute-mile at the Iffley Road track in May 1954 without the aid of a FitBit, running App, a single bit of Lycra or even ergonomically-designed shoes that make Jimmy Choos seem like a bargain (although Bannister's brittle leather GT Law and Son running spikes did fetch £266,500 at Christie's back in 2015).

Since when did running become so exclusive?

Monday

16 Aug 2021
Dr Roger Henderson
The myth of the middle-aged spread

I plead guilty as charged m’lud. For the last four decades I have been telling patients who have been losing the battle with waistline spread that it’s their body's metabolism causing all the problems. This was conventionally believed to start to steadily slow year on year from the mid-30s onwards, meaning it became trickier to shift those stubborn pounds as time went by. It was also assumed that hormonal changes such as occur in pregnancy or the menopause further impacted on how quickly we burnt off calories, all adding to the struggle to keep weight off. Well, it now seems that, along with the rest of my medical colleagues, I was probably doing those patients a disservice. A landmark international study just published in the journal Science looked at more than 6,000 people from 29 countries over 40 years and found that our metabolism peaks around the age of one, when babies burn calories 50 per cent faster than adults.

The myth of the middle-aged spread

Monday

26 Jul 2021
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman
The strange obsession with having the right ‘kit’

Have you got what it takes to go 'wild swimming'? No, not so much the hardiness or the love of sinking your feet into the boggy bottom of a lake or feeling something brush against your ankle that could be a fish, a plant or something more sinister. Have you got the right kit? Outdoor swimming - or open-water swimming, wild swimming, 'in-my-day-we-just-called-it-swimming', whatever you want to call it - is enjoying a swell in popularity, and alongside what is supposed to be a simple pursuit is a growing obsession with having the latest equipment. It's not just wetsuits - which a lot of purists eschew on the grounds that you don't get the same sensation of being in the wild water when insulated by neoprene - the kit list goes far beyond that.

The strange obsession with having the right ‘kit’

Tuesday

20 Jul 2021
Dr Roger Henderson
The dos and don’ts of staying cool

Britain isn't a country geared up to deal with extreme heat. We lack cool spaces to retreat to; our homes and gardens are often better suited to rainy winters than the hot, balmy summers we associate with the med. But with an extreme heat weather warning issued by the Met Office and with large parts of England and Wales being affected in the coming days, it's wise to take precautions. People vulnerable to extreme heat are likely to experience 'adverse health effects', while the rest of the population could suffer heat exhaustion and other heat-related illnesses that are not usually visited on these shores.These conditions – unsurprisingly - often arise in connection with physical activity in hot weather and loss of fluid as a result of sweating.

The dos and don’ts of staying cool

Tuesday

29 Jun 2021

Saturday

26 Jun 2021

Friday

25 Jun 2021

Monday

21 Jun 2021
Coffee House Shots
What’s the plan for planning reform?
13 min listen

With the Conservatives still taking stock after their loss in the recent by-election, it seems the governments ambitions for planning reform are now firmly under the microscope. 'When you speak to these MPs... they are absolutely convinced that planning reform is dead' - Katy Balls And on what would have been 'freedom day', there are reports that the powers at be don't think they'll have to extend restrictions again (we've heard that one before). 'If they don't hit July 19th they would have major political and I would suggest economic problems too because I think that would create a real loss of confidence about when the UK would ever re-open fully.' -  James ForsythIsabel Hardman is joined by James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

What’s the plan for planning reform?

Thursday

17 Jun 2021
The Edition
The new leviathan: the big state is back
48 min listen

It seems we are in a new President/Prime Minister alliance of big government spending, should we be excited or concerned? (00:44) Also on the podcast: Are the UK tabloids going woke? (15:00)? And in the wake of the pandemic are we ready to have a grown up conversation about death?(31:11)With Spectator Political Editor James Forsyth, Spectator Economics Editor Kate Andrews, former Editor of the Sun Kelvin MacKenzie, former Editor of the Observer Roger Alton, writer A.N. Wilson, science journalist Laura Spinney and Palliative Care Physician Kathryn Mannix and author of a With The End In Mind. Presented by William Moore.Produced by Cindy Yu, Natasha Feroze and Sam Russell.

The new leviathan: the big state is back

Monday

14 Jun 2021

Thursday

10 Jun 2021

Saturday

22 May 2021

Wednesday

12 May 2021
Dr Roger Henderson
Is there a link between Asperger’s and genius?

The world's richest man – who, beyond Tesla and Space X, is known for naming his first child X AEA-12 – generated more headlines this week, when he announced on the American television show Saturday Night Live that he has Asperger syndrome. ‘I know I sometimes say or post strange things, but that’s just how my brain works,' he explained. Asperger syndrome, first described in 1944 by the Austrian paediatrician Hans Asperger, is a lifelong condition that is part of the autistic spectrum. As a child, Hans Asperger appears to have exhibited some features of the very condition named after him, such as remoteness and talent in language.  However, there has also been considerable discussion recently amongst researchers and people with Asperger’s as to whether the name should be dropped.

Is there a link between Asperger’s and genius?

Tuesday

13 Apr 2021
Christopher Snowdon
The problem with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s war on obesity

With his little round spectacles and earnest expression, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is the Penfold to Jamie Oliver’s Dangermouse. Both men have been largely forced out of the restaurant business due to public indifference and now spend their time writing endless cook books and lobbying the government for tougher laws on food that is deemed high in salt, sugar and fat. This is a dangerous game for chefs to play since they use a great deal of salt, sugar and fat at work, but Oliver’s been getting away with it for the last twenty years and neither he nor Fearnley-Whittingstall do much cheffing these days in any case. Jamie’s restaurant empire has been reduced to a few pizza and burger joints in Gatwick Airport and Fearnley-Whittingstall has closed his restaurants in Plymouth and Winchester, leaving him with just the River Cottage Canteen in Axminister.

The problem with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s war on obesity

Tuesday

16 Mar 2021
Dr Roger Henderson
Is the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine safe? A doctor’s view

One of the few positives to have come out of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the remarkable speed at which vaccines have been developed and rolled out in months, rather than the many years that was the previous norm. Their effectiveness is being increasingly proved as more people are vaccinated, and they appear to be extremely well tolerated in terms of side effects.  In the UK at least, vaccine hesitancy does not appear to be as great a problem as was initially feared and no new potential side effects have been reported that were not already known about from the vaccine trial data. It was therefore something of a surprise last week when European Union countries started to suspend the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine, citing concerns about it being linked to reports of blood clots in people who received the vaccine.

Is the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine safe? A doctor’s view

Friday

5 Mar 2021
Dr Roger Henderson
What Gwyneth Paltrow gets wrong about long Covid

As the Covid vaccination continues to roll out across the country with impressive speed and daily numbers of cases continue to steadily fall, the allure of the gradual release of lockdown restrictions into the sunlit uplands of something resembling a more normal existence grows stronger by the day. Unfortunately for many people – latest estimates suggest up to 200,000 in the UK – the long term effects of having been infected with the virus continue. Known as ‘long Covid’ or ‘post-COVID syndrome, it is now defined by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as ‘signs and symptoms that develop during or following an infection consistent with COVID-19 which continue for more than 12 weeks and are not explained by an alternative diagnosis’.

What Gwyneth Paltrow gets wrong about long Covid

Sunday

7 Feb 2021
Samantha Rea
How to channel your inner karate kid

'I don’t wear a headband. If you want to, you can!' says karate World Champion Jordan Thomas. 'Don’t disillusion me, Jordan!' I bark, perhaps a little aggressively. I’ve watched three seasons of Cobra Kai in a week and I am all about a karate headband / floppy fringe combo. Kick-ass comedy drama Cobra Kai is a spin-off of ’80s classic The Karate Kid. Resurrecting the original actors, it follows underdog Daniel LaRusso (now 'chopping prices' and 'kicking the competition' as the owner of a successful car dealership) and his high school nemesis, sneering country club bully Johnny Lawrence (now knocking back beer for breakfast). Season three dropped just a few weeks ago, and fans are already clamouring for season four, so I’m clearly not the only one revved up by the Cobra Kai mantra STRIKE FIRST! STRIKE HARD! NO MERCY!  This is why I’ve turned to Jordan, whose karate credentials suggest he knows a thing or two.

How to channel your inner karate kid

Saturday

6 Feb 2021

Thursday

21 Jan 2021

Thursday

7 Jan 2021
The Spectator
What have we learnt from this pandemic?

So great have been the government’s failures over Covid that it would be easy to forget to give credit where it is due. The fact that Britain was the first country to begin a public vaccination programme — and this week became the first to have two vaccines in use — did not come about by chance. It happened because the government had the foresight to pre-order large quantities of promising vaccines and because Britain’s medicines regulator, the MHRA, worked fast and effectively to assess the data from the trials of those vaccines. The vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca underline the lifesaving role played by an often-maligned pharmaceutical industry. But Britain’s head start will count for little if the momentum cannot be sustained.

What have we learnt from this pandemic?

Thursday

17 Dec 2020
Matthew Parris
Matthew Parris
My cure for the common cold

You really don’t want to know about my coughs and sneezes, particularly during the festive season, but bear with me because this it isn’t really about my sniffles. My argument applies to everyone, and it’s cheerful. All of us have a lifetime of experience of seasonal colds and flu, starting with the fact that they don’t always happen in winter. Mine is typical of many. Every year, often about this time, I get a fairly bad cold. Sometimes two in a year. I call it ‘flu’ and women call it ‘man flu’ but let’s not bandy names: it starts with a sudden sore throat and one or two uncomfortable nights. Within a few days this has passed and I feel better — but left with a hacking cough. It sounds dreadful, annoys the hell out of others and lingers for a fortnight or so.

My cure for the common cold

Monday

7 Dec 2020
Dr Roger Henderson
Covid-19: where to get tested

It remains the case that for most people free NHS tests are only available for those taking part in pilot schemes, who have been asked to have one by health professionals, or in people or families showing symptoms of the virus. This means that some people are now looking to private providers to get tested before seeing loved ones and although many such providers are offering tests for a fee now, how do you know which are high quality and which should be avoided? For a start, always look for a home test kit that is CE-marked as this shows it meets the European standards for medical testing and is also approved for sale in the UK – do not use any test without this approval mark.Time your test Remember that, because the virus has an incubation period of up to 14 days, it's possible to receive a negative test result today (and be infectious) and a positive one tomorrow.

Covid-19: where to get tested

Thursday

19 Nov 2020
The Edition
Boris in a spin: can the PM find his way again?
36 min listen

After two of Boris Johnson's most influential advisers left Downing Street last week, can the PM reset his relationship with the Tory party and find his way again? (00:58) Lara is joined by the Spectator's deputy political editor, Katy Balls, and former director of communications for David Cameron, Craig Oliver.A coronavirus vaccine seems to be the only way out of continued lockdowns, so should everyone be forced to have the jab? (13:49) The Spectator's literary editor, Sam Leith, joins the podcast with Professor Mona Siddiqui, who sits on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.And finally, should we start referring to people by their surnames again? (25:30) Historian Guy Walters thinks so, and he's joined by the Spectator's etiquette expert, Mary Killen.

Boris in a spin: can the PM find his way again?