SIMON CROMPTON, Medical editor
1.Happiness makes you healthy. It's trite-sounding, but supported by health
behaviour experts and mounds of research. If you're happy with life, and
have a healthy self-esteem, you'll be less stressed and less likely to
develop bad habits that lead to health problems. It's a message politicians
don't like as it doesn't allow for quick fixes.
2. Look after your teeth. Having a healthy, sparkling set of gnashers does
wonders for your self-esteem and quality of life as you get older. But
there's also increasingly persuasive evidence (and I started out a sceptic)
that the bacteria that lurk in unhealthy teeth play a part in prompting
heart disease and stroke. They may also be linked to some cancers and auto-
immune diseases such as diabetes. Even if it's not true, it won't kill you
to floss.
3.There's not much that exercise won't improve. We're bombarded with health
education messages about everything from heart disease to cancer, but unless
you have significant joint problems, one single piece of advice will help to
prevent or treat most malaises you can think of: exercise more than you are
at the moment. Finding time and motivation is the tricky bit.
4. Medicine is a hesitant science. You wouldn't believe it from the strident
cure and scare stories we read every day, but medical science moves forwards
at a shuffle, a step forward, a step back, with a never-ending debate
resulting in temporary consensus about one thing working better than
something else. That's the way it should be.
5. Your own impressions matter. The NHS is based on the laws of averages for
populations - a drug or test is commonly used because it tends to work best
for most people. That doesn't necessarily mean it's best for you. The reason
why alternative (and private) medicine is so popular is that it trusts the
subjective impressions of each patient.
VIVIENNE PARRY, Science writer
6.I was always a liability on a bike. But a day's course with Eric Gauster of
Cycle Training UK for the “What a difference a day makes” feature last
January banished Mrs Wobble. Now I cycle almost every day.
7. I know that counterfeit medicines affect Britain. In 2005 when I wrote
about fake drugs I assumed it was largely a problem in the developing world.
Since then there have been discoveries of fake Lipitor (a
cholesterol-lowering drug) and other non-abuse clinical drugs.
9. I know some extraordinary science, thanks to writing about the science
behind the headlines in Body&Soul. The most bizarre request from the
editors? In the week of Max Moseley's trial: “We'd like you to do the
science behind S&M, please.”
9. I know what the future can bring. The most intriguing science for me was
gene editing and, specifically, zinc finger proteins (inset). These
projections of protein are held in shape by a zinc molecule. They can be
configured to “look” for a particular genetic sequence in the cell nucleus
and snip it out or switch it off or on. Human trials for immune disorders
and sickle cell disease look promising.
10. Health is full of fascinating trivia. For example, people used to be
buried and then dug up and their bones removed to an ossuary so someone else
could be buried in their grave. It'll take me far.
DR COPPERFIELD, Health columnist
11.The internet is a dream and a nightmare. If I'm faced with a media-scared
patient when I haven't heard the news, the internet is a joy - with one
click, I'm Dr Informed. If you hit on some dodgy medical sites, the opposite
applies.
12.Empowerment often achieves the opposite. The received wisdom is that the
more information the public have, the better: think screening, self-testing.
All too often patients simply end up confused and anxious.
13.Health policy is health whimsy. Electronic care records? Walk-in centres?
They have little to do with the health needs of patients and everything to
do with the health wants of politically driven focus groups.
14.Big pharma are not the good guys. Every company pays men in suits to
prolong the life of their blockbuster drugs' patents. Old drugs are
repackaged or have their molecules tweaked just enough to allow them to be
marketed as “new and improved”.
15. The great thing about “real” medicine is that the research bandwagon never
stops. Procedures and drug treatments that have been trusted for decades are
continually re-examined and, if found wanting, discarded. Everything I know
or do is wrong. But frankly, I don't mind. Compare that approach to your
friendly neighbourhood alternative therapist.
MARK HENDERSON, Science editor & junk medicine columnist
16. Personalised medicine is closer than you think. Within a few years, it
will cost less than £10,000 to map an individual's entire genome. The
benefit should be drugs matched to our genes, rather than today's
one-size-fits-all approach to medicine.
17. Homoeopaths on the whole don't care about science. They say they value
research, but are only really interested in studies that reach conclusions
they like. Most have simply ignored several authoritative papers showing
that homoeopathic remedies are nothing more than placebos.
18. There probably isn't an autism epidemic. Autism is more prevalent than it
once was. Yet this almost certainly reflects changes in diagnosis. Children
who would have been labelled mentally retarded are now identified as
autistic. This should be reassuring: medicine is getting it right more
often.
19. It's worth worrying about bird flu. Since 2003, 243 people have died after
contracting H5N1 flu. It hasn't started a pandemic, but that doesn't mean
that we can be complacent. At some stage, a flu virus like H5N1 will mutate
so it can pass from human to human. How well the world copes will then
depend on how well it has prepared.
20.Scientists are learning how to win arguments. Once the favoured response
was to run away and hide. Just think of the MMR vaccine. Yet now, they are
coming out fighting. By explaining human-animal embryos, they have changed
the Government's mind, turning a possible ban on promising research into
active support.
ANNA SHEPARD, Eco-worrier
21. Leave the light on only if you are going to be out of a room for less than
five minutes. The rest of the time, flick it off. This is the same whether
you are using energy-saving light bulbs, conventional bulbs or even
fluorescent strip lights.
22. Only human waste and loo roll should go down a toilet. Anything else -
including earbuds, tampons and condoms has to be fished out later on at the
sewage works, where it will have to be cleaned before being sent to
landfill, a chain of events that requires considerable energy.
23. The best way to deal with a recycling query is to phone your council.
Services across the country vary so widely, it is the only foolproof method
of finding out exactly what is available in your area.
24. Swapping to a renewable electricity tariff (such as Good Energy or
Ecotricity) should not be any more expensive than a conventional tariff, so
long as you install energy-saving
light bulbs in your home and become a more vigilant consumer of energy.
25. If going green isn't saving you money, you're doing it wrong. Concentrate
on good, old-fashioned thriftiness, rather than splashing out on snazzy
eco-products. Whether using leftovers in the fridge, growing a row of
rocket, or leaving the car in the garage and taking the bus, it is the best
possible lifestyle if you're feeling the pinch.
AMANDA URSELL Times nutritionist
26.Anything to do with dieting that sounds too good to be true - 99 per cent
of the time it is too good to be true and is best ignored. The first thing
to check when you see something that comes into this category is who has
written/funded/or gets profits from you going for it hook, line and sinker.
Then step back and resist the temptation to fall for it.
27. People never change their way of eating until they really want to. They
usually need a “trigger” to get them to change. It is possible to help them
reach this point by, for example, suggesting a cholesterol or blood pressure
test.
28. It is helpful if people see their health as holistic. In other words, that
eating well is part of the bigger picture. Any small changes should be
encouraged because these are things that are the easiest to keep doing.
29.Ditching the on-off diet mentality is a big step towards a happier future.
Accepting that changes need to be for the long term can help to achieve this
and liberate you from the damaging self-loathing that yo-yo dieting brings.
30. Parents have a huge responsibility for their children's attitudes towards
food. If you don't want to eat healthily for yourself, do it for your
children. What you eat at home, keep in your cupboards and put in your
shopping trolley truly will shape their future health.
MATT ROBERTS Fitness expert
31. Looking great comes from feeling confident. While body shapes can lose or
gain weight, to look truly great you have to carry yourself with confidence.
32. Your body doesn't mind when you work out, as long as you do. You need to
raise your heart rate to a good working level four times a week for 30
minutes to make changes, whatever time of day that is.
33. View any “fad” as part of a routine, not as the routine itself. Techniques
and activities such as vibration training, Pilates and yoga all have a place
in a routine. However, just like running or weight training, they can't be
effective if used in isolation.
34. It is never too late to start. I have clients who have started new
routines in their seventies who, by working on mobility and strengthening
programmes, have improved their fitness and wellbeing immeasurably.
35. Set yourself a goal and give yourself a “prize” for achieving it, and a
“downside” for not. Most people focus on rewards, whereas paying a price for
a failure also works well. This is the “celebrity” mentality - the downside
for a celebrity who falls short is a photograph of them not looking their
best being seen around the world. Think a little like that and you will be
amazed at how focused you can become.
ANDREW G. MARSHALL Relationship counsellor and author
36. Many people overestimate the amount of pain that a relationship problem is
causing and how long the pain will continue. Worse still, they underestimate
the time needed to recover from a relationship breakdown.
37. Relationship problems are universal. When my clients first started saying
to each other “I love you but I'm not in love with you”, I never thought
this would resonate with people all over the world. However, my book on this
subject has been published in 15 languages.
38. By 2009, a single person living alone will be the most common type of
household. We are truly in an epidemic of singletons and not enough is being
done to address the problem or to help people to find lasting love.
39. Our reflex action when someone hurts us is to fight back. This just makes
the problem worse. 40. A good argument is the most intimate thing that you
can have with your partner. It is passionate, it clears the air, brings all
the hidden hurts into the open and offers the prospect of real change.
JOHN NAISH Interviewer and news writer
41. If you want to feel tall (and I'm only 5ft 8in) stand next to someone
famous. A lack of inches is the one frequent common denominator I've found
from interviewing celebs - especially some who appear most scary on the big
screen. Napoleon syndrome exists.
42. Always stress “may”, “might” and “could” in medical-breakthrough reports.
Scientists are keen to hype up their discoveries. Journalists feel tempted
to help them. Sadly, even the most promising potential cures tend to fall at
some hurdle.
43. Your mind constantly tricks you. Reading Cordelia Fine's book A Mind of
Its Own
(Icon Books), meeting Derren Brown and learning bits of neurolinguistic
programming while researching psyche features has taught me to be extremely
wary of my memory, which often fibs to fill in gaps when it wasn't paying
attention.
44. There's something powerful in fruit. Three years ago I wrote about
potentially healthy elements found in fruit - particularly berries - such as
flavonoids called anthocyanins that tend to be marginalised by vitamin
science. Out of curiosity, I started drinking fruit/berry smoothies every
morning. My cold-catching rate has since plummeted to near-zero.
45. Broccoli and green tea are weirdly amazing. Every week my trawl for
medical news turns up another research report extolling a new
health-enhancing power of one of these substances. Now I drink buckets of
green tea. Can't stand broccoli, though.
SUZI GODSON Sex columnist
46. Government health campaigns to educate teenagers about sexually
transmitted infections have inadvertently enabled people over 30 to delude
themselves that they are immune.
47.A surprising number of women still find it difficult to make the direct
connection between clitoral stimulation and penetrative orgasm. They fail to
communicate the importance of clitoral stimulation before penetration to
their sexual partners. This causes all sorts of confusion for both sexes.
48. Male sexual dysfunction has lost a lot of its stigma thanks to the
availability of drugs such as Viagra, Levitra and Cialis. Because female
sexual function is far more complex, there is, as yet, no effective
pharmaceutical solution for vaginismus (tightness or spasm), inorgasmia
(inability to climax), hypoactive sexual desire disorder (lack of arousal)
or dyspareunia (painful intercourse).
49. A much greater percentage of our male correspondents than female
correspondents are involved in bondage, S&M, fetish, threesomes, porn
and using prostitutes. They seem to be able to compartmentalise this aspect
of their sexuality and, in many cases, conduct “regular” relationships with
partners who are oblivious to their alternative sexual interests.
50. Older women are constantly reminded that their libido will decline as they
get older. Our postbag suggests that this “decline” is a myth.
