Category: Health

  • You know you spend too much time on social networks when…

    …you catch a spectacularly minging throat infection and catch yourself thinking “I should post a pic of this!”

  • Light at the end of the carpal tunnel

    I had a meeting with a hand specialist yesterday, and I’m feeling much more cheery as a result: I do indeed have carpal tunnel syndrome but it’s not something I need to worry too much about. I’m going to have a minor operation, probably in August, and I won’t need to take much more than…

  • Breastfeeding and making new mums feel like crap

    I’ve written before about the way new mums are talked down to by health “professionals” – last week on Radio Scotland the NHS Breastfeeding Co-Ordinator spent an entire programme patronising women who dared suggest that breastfeeding isn’t always possible – and other parents, but Zoe Williams expresses it wonderfully in today’s Guardian: the case for breastfeeding…

  • In my sleep I grind my teeth

    UK indie-rock fans of a certain age will be have Therapy?’s “Teethgrinder” in their heads right now, but this isn’t an indie-rock thing. It’s a weird health thing. I appreciate this is a long shot, but does anybody have any idea why I might be tensing up like crazy whenever I go to sleep? I…

  • I have fat knuckles and numb fingers

    I mentioned a while back that I’ve been getting the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: sporadic numbness in my hands, and a feeling that can only be described as “fat knuckles”. My hands feel big and bloated and slow. It’s not very pleasant. I don’t know if it *is* CTS, but the doctor thinks it…

  • Hey! Let’s talk about US healthcare reform!

    Don’t worry, I’m not going to start blogging about politics. But I thought this (via Andrew Sullivan) was an interesting way of looking at things. David Frum writes: There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican…

  • Direct access to physiotherapy is a pain

    As I’ve mentioned, my hands have gone to hell over the last few weeks and my doctor reckons it’s carpal tunnel syndrome – so I’ve been referred to physiotherapy (although as far as I can see, physiotherapy is completely useless in cases of CTS. But I digress). I don’t know what the system’s like in…

  • Ear mutations, why it hurts when I Wii, a completely unbiased review of the new Eels album, and a quick thing about iPhone 3G coverage

    Hello there. Sorry for the lack of blogging recently, I’ve been taking a break from the computer. Here are a few things that have been occupying me lately. First up, headphones and mutating ears. I’ve been reviewing some high-end headphones – in-ear ones – and while I can’t put any details up here until the…

  • Could Apple’s tablet hurt your hands?

    Sorry for yet another tablet post, but it’s the tech that lots of people want to read about right now. It struck me earlier that among all the excited predictions, nobody’s pointing out that it could be an ergonomic disaster area. So I wrote about it. It’s likely, then, that typing on the tablet will…

  • What they don’t tell you about miracle stop-smoking drug Champix

    Once you’ve binned the cigs, you’ll need to bin the Champix – and the withdrawal symptoms of that are pretty similar to the withdrawal symptoms from stopping smoking. Insomnia, strong physical cravings, the inability to handle even the slightest irritation without flying into an Yngwie Malmsteen-esque “fockin’ fury” (linked MP3 NSFW)… better than smoking, I…