Two blogs ago, I mentioned the current interest in cupping among celebrities such as Olympic athletes and actors. There are surely easier and safer ways to obtain a placebo effect. […]
Columnists
William Cayley: Where is our faith?
One of my favorite radio pundits is EJ Dionne, so I was intrigued to read in my morning paper his opinion piece, asking “where are our faith leaders?” In short, he argues […]
Nick Hopkinson: The burden of asthma—how to frame it and what needs to be done?
A study this week from the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research at the University of Edinburgh, widely reported in the media, estimates that asthma costs the UK £1.1 billion/year […]
Richard Smith: Making workplace health work after 40 years of failure
What is it that makes a company successful? Could it be strategy, leadership, funding, great products, luck, or something else? All of those things are secondary to the “essence” that […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Junior
The President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has asked Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for health (the SoSH), in a letter that also dealt with other […]
Richard Smith: In search of scandal in Scotland
I’m on my way to Dumfries to investigate the state of the NHS in that region, and the thought of the town is making me remember when I travelled there […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Cupping
Many celebrities, including Olympic athletes, such as US swimmer Michael Phelps, and actors, such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston, are fashionably subjecting themselves to cupping. So, is “the silliest celebrity […]
Neville Goodman’s Metaphor Watch: Cast iron
The BMJ’s columnist, Margaret McCartney, wrote that we need, “cast iron divisions between healthcare and industry” because their priorities are different. (Being The BMJ, there was no hyphen; but dictionaries […]
Jeffrey Aronson: When I use a word . . . Narcissism
In Metamorphoses Ovid tells us about Echo and Narcissus. He seems to have invented the tale, although the legends from which he weaves it were already parts of Greek mythology. […]
Richard Smith: Preparing to be demented
My mother who is 86 has had no short term memory for nine years. She’s been in a nursing home for three years. My grandmother was also demented and died […]