Monday, April 27, 2009

Swine flu alarm


This is a post to allow readers to discuss the swine flu public health emergency.

Here's a list of our reports on this issue to date:

Full story of the swine flu epidemic here:

Early stories:
Complacency warning as swine flu spread slows
Swine flu cases pass thousand
Pigs catch swine flu from man
Hundreds in flu testing
Swine flu alerts raised as spread continues
Swine flu spreads - causes mild illness
Swine flu travels the globe
New flu vaccine hope
swine flu alarm.



Englemed has no more information about this item than is reported in the stories or is available in other related news items and cannot give advice.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Music - the food of the heart

This is a post to allow readers to discuss the item:

Music - the food of the heart

Englemed has no more information about this item than is reported in the story or is available in other related news items and cannot give advice.

Broccoli and the stomach

This is a post to allow readers to discuss the item:
Broccoli fights deadly stomach bug

Englemed has no more information about this item than is reported in the story or is available in other related news items and cannot give advice.

Bananas and blood pressure

This is a post to allow readers to discuss the item
Banana boost for blood pressure

Englemed has no more information about this item than is reported in the story or is available in other related news items and cannot give advice.

Tanning injections

This is a post to allow readers to discuss the news item:

Tanning injections bring health risks

Englemed has no more information about this story than is reported in the news item and cannot give any advice.

Comment

This is a post to allow readers to post comments on the news service in general or ask for a discussion thread on a particular news topic. We're going to set up some discussion threads on some of our most popular news items.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

We're on Facebook!

I've never been sure about this thing, Facebook, but recently took a tentative step into it. On my personal page friends rapidly accumulated and chit chat flowed. So there's now a page for Englemed on Facebook. It brings together some of our material - mainly that of interest to the youngish group who use Facebook - so the emphasis will be on family health news.

We'll also add occasional links to other articles of interest. For instance Andrew Wadge of the UK Food Standards Agency runs an impressive blog - which we link to from here.

You find it simply by searching for "Englemed" within Facebook. If you're a Facebook regular it's an easy way to check out some of our material - stories will simply appear on your "wall" if you sign on as a fan.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April Fools?

So far no sign of a good medical April Fool today. Perhaps everyone has learnt their lessons.

Reading the daily welter of health and medical headlines, you can of course never be sure.

Doctors may be feeling their pay rise announcement is a joke - but strictly speaking that was announced yesterday.  Both our lead stories - an allergenic substance in shampoo and a new treatment for MRSA - were announced yesterday so they also are safe.

There's a welter of announcements from the UK Department of Health to mark the new financial year. I think they are meant to be serious although most wise people are avoiding making announcements today.

The BMJ has published a deadly serious story today - no chance of it being a spoof - and I happen to know that the lead author Chris Ham is a real person.

Aah, now here's a possible spoof on the Beeb: donkey milk and nine other ways to live to 100. The tips include fried egg and sausage sandwich. They've covered themselves by quoting from apparently real centenarians - so no evidence that these diets will help the ordinary Joe Bloggs.