Freelance health journalist for the Telegraph, Guardian, BBC, Wired, New Scientist & others. Former University of Cambridge neuroscientist and mental health researcher. Contact: dcwriter89@gmail.com
Not brushing your teeth and the other causes of rising cancer in the under 40s
Last year, speakers at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting – the most eminent cancer conference in the world – came with a dire warning.
Rates of colorectal cancer were rapidly increasing in the under 40s, they said, so much so that cases are expected to double in this age group by 2030, with the disease set to become the number one source of cancer deaths in 20-to 49-year-olds by the end of the decade.
“Studies are showing this increase in early onset colorectal cancer,”...
‘The cost of dealing with disease is growing all the time’: why experts think sugar taxes should be far higher
Lying in the shadow of Table Mountain, a short drive from the sprawling vineyards that help generate so much of South Africa’s tourism revenue, is Langa. In the city of Cape Town, this is the oldest example of a township, settlements originally created to segregate the black African community from urban areas. Today, Langa is home to just under 90,000 people, many of whom live in wooden or corrugated iron shacks.
But while Langa and South Africa’s other townships have traditionally suffered f...
The Scottish and Malawi universities teaming up to tackle public health
Malawi’s Kamuzu University’s new clinical research partnership with the University of Glasgow will see experts from each country sharing knowledge on cardiovascular disease, vaccines and more
On the face of things, there might not seem a lot in common between the west of Scotland and Malawi, a landlocked east African country traversed by the Great Rift Valley, one of Earth’s most renowned geographical wonders.
But the two nations share a past and concerns for the future. They are linked by a ...
Can a pill really reverse ageing in dogs? Don't get your hopes up yet
A trial suggests that giving older dogs a supplement makes them cognitively sharper, but some scientists stress that pet owners should lower their expectations
Separating a potentially effective drug from background noise is a challenge in any medical field, but perhaps particularly in the much-publicised longevity industry. In one of its most recent ventures, researchers have claimed that a supplement given to ageing dogs can reverse some of their cognitive decline. But before ...
Brain gain: Hope rises with new dementia treatments
A new blood test to detect early signs of Alzheimer’s is being developed with the help of Irish scientists and could be on the market by 2026. This breakthrough is one of several significant advances in the battle to slow the progression of the debilitating disease
COULD a blood test for Alzheimer’s be within reach? Experts predict that it might be a reality within two years, since it has become possible to pinpoint the accumulation of toxic molecules in the brain through changes in the blood...
Keeping waking in the middle of the night to pee? Here’s why – and what to do about it
Male or female, young or old, a surprising number of us can’t make it till morning without a toilet break. Some simple changes could help
Every week, Hussain Al-Zubaidi, a GP, will see at least one patient who suffers from nocturia, the medical term for needing to get up in the night to pee. A weak bladder has long been known as a side-effect of getting older, and nocturia has been found to affect between 69% and 93% of men over 70. It is often related to benign prostatic hyperplasia, the swe...
A genetic quirk protects some people from norovirus. Can vaccines help the rest of us?
The winter vomiting bug is highly infectious and fast to evolve, but can we learn anything from groups of people who are unusually immune to the virus?
When it comes to surviving in the environment, few pathogens are more resilient than norovirus. This gastrointestinal bug induces nasty bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting in around 685 million people globally every year, often in hospitals, nursing homes, jails, schools and cruise ships.
The latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Contro...
‘It feels like we’ve been lobotomised’: the possible sexual consequences of SSRIs
Long-term sexual dysfunction is a recognised side-effect for some patients who take these widely prescribed antidepressants, and can leave sufferers devastated. So why is there so little help available?
During Melbourne’s strict lockdown of 2020, Rosie Tilli, a then 20-year-old nurse living and working in the city, began to experience growing anxiety and depression.
Visiting her GP, she was quickly prescribed escitalopram, a commonly used drug from a class known as selective serotonin reuptak...
Why don't some countries vaccinate against chickenpox?
For decades, it was thought that not vaccinating children against chickenpox would reduce the risk of adults developing shingles – but now this is being questioned.
On Easter Sunday 2009, Angie Bunce-Mason noticed that her three-year-old daughter Elana had developed a rash on her body – the tell-tale sign of chickenpox, the common childhood infection which is caused by the varicella-zoster virus.
Her older brother, then six, had contracted chickenpox a week earlier and recovered normally. A...
Why your risk of cancer changes as you age – and what to look out for at 40, 50, 60 and beyond
A cancer diagnosis is perhaps one of the most devastating events which can occur within your lifetime, but the varying forms of cancer which might strike depends very much on your age.
Research from Cancer Research UK shows that a third of all cancers are diagnosed in over 75s, but the type of cancers which impact us in old age tend to affect different organs and have very different underlying causes, compared to the ones which strike people in their youth.
“People who carry a particular gene...
Baroness Twycross: ‘I thought I had a brain tumour, but it was encephalitis’
When I was 13, I began to develop a strange constellation of symptoms, following a mild case of mumps: a viral infection that causes swelling in the sides of your face. Suddenly, I found myself experiencing severe headaches, mood changes, distorted vision and extreme exhaustion.
At the time, my parents initially assumed I was a bit bad-tempered because I was reaching adolescence, but I was convinced I had a brain tumour. As a family, we’d recently had a friend who had died of brain cancer and...
Your questions on Alzheimer’s answered – by a neurodegeneration specialist
A breakthrough new drug to treat brain disease is always welcome news. Last summer, the performance of the drugs donanemab and lecanemab in clinical trials was a landmark moment for scientists because it was proof of principle that we can slow Alzheimer’s disease by between 27 and 35 per cent. That’s the first time this has been demonstrated.
However, with a decision on the approval of the drugs in the UK from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) expected soon, there...
How your sex affects your behaviour and health – according to science
The assertion that men are from Mars and women from Venus has long been derided as a trivialisation of complex biology. Scientists have argued for decades over whether the well-known stereotypes of men being bad at multitasking, and women being more nurturing and better communicators, reflect innate biology or if they’re more a consequence of social norms and expectations.
But in recent years, various studies have begun to tease apart some subtle and previously little understood variations be...
Pet dogs smell Parkinson's disease with almost 90 per cent accuracy
Pet dogs of various breeds can be trained to detect scents linked to Parkinson’s disease with nearly 90 per cent accuracy. With further research, this may be a relatively conclusive and inexpensive way of diagnosing the condition that enables earlier access to treatments.
People with Parkinson’s disease have hundreds of ...
How bubonic plague rewired the human immune system
Bubonic plague is still found in scattered locations around the world, but thanks to modern antibiotics it is far easier to treat than in the past. Yet, the disease may still have left its mark on humankind.
Under the microscope, Yersinia pestis doesn't look particularly special. It's a fairly standard shape for a bacterium – a sort of short, round-ended rod – and relatively immobile. But it is responsible for a disease that once wiped out a third of Europe's population and caused millions ...