Category: Health

  • When health scares have wider consequences

    The MMR scare strikes again. From the Brighton Argus: Nine children at two Hove schools have been diagnosed with the potentially fatal infectious disease in the past couple of weeks – more than the entire number of cases in the whole of Sussex last year. …In some cases babies too young to be vaccinated have contracted…

  • Arguing with RJ Ellory

    I don’t usually edit or remove posts, no matter how much of an arse they make me look, but I’m making an exception this time: I went off the deep end about a series of tweets by the novelist RJ Ellory, and in doing so I made an arse of myself. The tweets were about…

  • The downsides of stopping smoking

    Robyn Wilder’s description of being an ex-smoker is perfect. I am a retired cigarette enthusiast, which brings with it the following woes: Getting up from my desk at the end of the day and all my joints cracking at once because cigarette breaks are the only breaks I know Dreaming that I had a cigarette, and…

  • “This website, and any page on the website, is based loosely off a true story, but has been modified in multiple ways including, but not limited to: the story, the photos, and the comments.”

    I hate pop-ups in general, but I particularly hate pop-ups that pretend to be real articles in order to flog quackery. we here at The Consumer Reporter London Online News are a little skeptical and aren’t sure that we’ve seen any real proof that these pills work for weight loss. So we decided to put these…

  • Two years without a cigarette

    I stopped smoking two years ago today. I don’t miss the cigarettes, but I do miss being thin.

  • Now wash your hands

    Probably not one for lunchtime, but here’s one for the men: why one man has decided that he’s going to start washing his hands after he urinates. Fidopiastis says he’s heard all of my hand-washing protestations before, and to all of them he has the same response: “Perianal sweat.” Fidopiastis’s message isn’t getting much attention,…

  • A more sober analysis of the WHO/phones/cancer story

    The tabloids are leading with headlines of the MOBILE PHONES WILL EAT YOUR FACE variety, but the WHO/phone/cancer story is something of a non-story. Here’s what Cancer Research has to say. It is understandable that people are concerned about mobile phones, especially because they are so widely used. But so far, the published studies do…

  • Mobile phones and brain cancer

    There’s an excellent feature about the cellphones/cancer controversy in the New York Times magazine. Executive summary: there’s no persuasive link yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a link; conversely, there may be no connection at all. If you’ve even a passing interest in things that may or may not cause cancer, the article’s well…

  • Google thinks you’re fat

    Well, perhaps not. But it is steering you towards low-calorie options when you search for recipes. Nicholas Carr on recipes, bias and search engine optimisation: When you’re looking for a good recipe today, you probably don’t reach for Joy of Cooking or Fannie Farmer or some other trusty, soup-stained volume on your cookbook shelf. You probably grab…

  • Quitting cigs is hard. Let’s not pretend otherwise

    On Radio Scotland earlier there was a discussion about stopping smoking. Every single person I heard said how easy it was. Pick a date, get a wee bit hypnotised. No cravings. No irritation. No nothing. Amateurs! Proper smokers don’t quit like that. When proper smokers quit – and by proper smokers I mean two lighters…