Good Life Letter > General Health
General Health
Why is this Type of Cancer Rising In Younger People? There’s a cancer trend on the rise… But this time it’s not affecting the very old among us… It’s hitting people under 50 — sometimes even in their 30s or late 20s. Early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) used to be rare in younger people. But it now accounts for about 1 in 10 new cases worldwide. According to the current predictions, that number could more than double by 2030. So what’s…
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I’m always reading reports and newspapers. So I’m bombarded with stats and facts every day, pretty much. It all comes with the territory! But even so, I still get surprised by the occasional curveball. For instance, recently, I read that British men are dying a lot earlier than in many other developed, wealthy countries like Australia, Switzerland and Austria. And we’re dying from preventable or treatable illnesses, too, like type 2 diabetes and heart disease, The statistic that really made…
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Have you been enjoying the Olympics? I do admit to getting a bit hooked on the track-and-field events, and so I’ve got into some of the action this week. I’m one of those people who – when they see something inspiring on telly – immediately want to start doing it themselves. If I watch a Kung-Fu movie I instantly turn into Bruce Lee. If I watch the rugby, I’m taken instantly back to my youth, and begin ducking and diving…
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Last month, the inventor of statins died. His name was Akira Endo, a Japanese biochemist. He moved to New York from Tokyo in 1966 to work at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Arriving in the USA, he remarked upon the large number of overweight people, and elderly people with coronary heart disease. When he went back to Japan, he started looking into the link between cholesterol levels and heart problems. Thus began his quest for a drug that blocked…
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Here’s the weird thing about science. The more we discover, the more we realise what we DON’T know. The strange effects of quantum mechanics where particles act like waves when they’re not being observed… The bizarre invisible dark matter and energy that seems to be gluing the cosmos together. The mysteries of black holes, which are not even holes, but concentrations of matter packed into a tiny space. It’s the same for questions of health and illness. For instance, despite…
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I often rail about the unnecessary prescriptions GPs give out. Drugs with side effects are dished out to masses of patients, when a lot of these people could have found other more natural preventatives and remedies. And I’ve long promoted the idea that by making some lifestyle changes, especially dietary ones, we can reduce or avoid a lot of serious health problems. So I was not at all surprised by the results of an ‘innovative’ pilot scheme in Tower Hamlets…
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