Health

A simple blood test could now be used to diagnose sickle cell disease in unborn babies The test is usually performed by inserting a needle into the mother’s abdomen   But now a blood test could be used instead after a study on 64 pregnant women  Test provided conclusive results for 60 of them and was … Read more

Over the past few days, I’ve heard time and again that ‘we are not doing enough’ to protect the nation from the threat of Covid-19. I want to say, hand on heart, that this isn’t true. Quite the opposite, in fact. As a GP who cares passionately about the health of my patients, but also … Read more

A daily pill could bring an end to the most dreaded side effects of steroid medication – including the much- hated ‘moon-face’, where the face swells to such an extreme that it becomes unrecognisable. About two million people in the UK take potentially life-saving steroids to treat chronic conditions including inflammatory bowel diseases such as … Read more

When mother-of-four Kadiatou Diallo set about choosing her burial plot, after being given a diagnosis of terminal cancer, her heartbroken husband Alpha, 45, had just one request. ‘He insisted it be somewhere close to home, so that he and the children could come and visit me often,’ says Kadiatou, 38. It’s the kind of agonising … Read more

A British grandfather-of-nine has become the first person in the world to benefit from a pioneering triple-combo heart-failure treatment. Robert Brind, 63, from Whitstable, Kent, had three new wireless implants fitted over the course of six months to help his heart beat properly again. One prompts the heart to beat at a normal rate, another … Read more