May we wish all our readers a very happy Christmas.
#xmas #christmas
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Have they cracked the secret of a healthy lifestyle?
In the last few days we've had the ideal body weight and the ideal diet. All we are waiting for is the perfect exercise regime - and we probably had that a few months ago. Are researchers really fine-tuning the secrets of healthy living?
This is a personal opinion - that we are actually a long way off. These major global studies give average results. They mix men and women. They may give good guidance - but may also mix individual factors that are critical to my - or your - health.
The Danish diet findings are intriguing. Intuitively they feel right: eat lean protein, whether meat, fish or something vegetarian, because they make you feel full, saturated. Avoid carbohydrates and eat low-sugar vegetables and fruit. It is a healthy version of the Atkins low-carb diet. But the results of the study barely back it up - they show is that this is a good way of keeping your weight down once you've been on a crash diet. And healthy diet is about more than weight, isn't it? It can have a direct impact on risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses - possibly.
So what about the distinction between meat and fish. Is that important? Or meat and soy? Or one kind of fat and other?
In some ways the US study of perfect body weight backs the Danes. The researchers say that if you live a healthy lifestyle, then there is a perfect body mass index to aim for. But talk to a health adviser and they may prevaricate. Does this "healthy lifestyle" include being fit or superfit? Body mass may be fat or may be muscle. Doesn't that make a big difference?
We know that weight, diet and fitness all go together. But isn't a little frustrating when sometimes we are told it's the weight you have to get right, sometimes it's the diet and sometimes it's the fitness? Of course the answer is a bit of each - and it's worth paying attention to all these bits and pieces of research. But do we really know why homo sapiens in a large chunk of the world is living for a lot longer than ever before?
Perhaps what we need is a study that tells us whether being a vegetarian bantam-weight body-builder really is the secret of long life and health.
This is a personal opinion - that we are actually a long way off. These major global studies give average results. They mix men and women. They may give good guidance - but may also mix individual factors that are critical to my - or your - health.
The Danish diet findings are intriguing. Intuitively they feel right: eat lean protein, whether meat, fish or something vegetarian, because they make you feel full, saturated. Avoid carbohydrates and eat low-sugar vegetables and fruit. It is a healthy version of the Atkins low-carb diet. But the results of the study barely back it up - they show is that this is a good way of keeping your weight down once you've been on a crash diet. And healthy diet is about more than weight, isn't it? It can have a direct impact on risk of heart disease, cancer and other illnesses - possibly.
So what about the distinction between meat and fish. Is that important? Or meat and soy? Or one kind of fat and other?
In some ways the US study of perfect body weight backs the Danes. The researchers say that if you live a healthy lifestyle, then there is a perfect body mass index to aim for. But talk to a health adviser and they may prevaricate. Does this "healthy lifestyle" include being fit or superfit? Body mass may be fat or may be muscle. Doesn't that make a big difference?
We know that weight, diet and fitness all go together. But isn't a little frustrating when sometimes we are told it's the weight you have to get right, sometimes it's the diet and sometimes it's the fitness? Of course the answer is a bit of each - and it's worth paying attention to all these bits and pieces of research. But do we really know why homo sapiens in a large chunk of the world is living for a lot longer than ever before?
Perhaps what we need is a study that tells us whether being a vegetarian bantam-weight body-builder really is the secret of long life and health.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Quality charter
I have just reviewed our quality charter, which was drawn up nearly a decade ago.
I am pleased to say that only one thing has changed substantially in all those years - the address. Memo to me - change it, ASAP!
To be frank - one other item may have changed. The charter states we do not sell items - it is strictly correct, we do not currently sell directly but we do subscribe to a number of affiliate schemes, which we believe offer appropriate goods; and we do support some local historians who sell their own books. We are also considering selling second-hand books. But that is a story for another time.
I am pleased to say that only one thing has changed substantially in all those years - the address. Memo to me - change it, ASAP!
To be frank - one other item may have changed. The charter states we do not sell items - it is strictly correct, we do not currently sell directly but we do subscribe to a number of affiliate schemes, which we believe offer appropriate goods; and we do support some local historians who sell their own books. We are also considering selling second-hand books. But that is a story for another time.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Free services
Our web-site manager is at Glastonbury and the rest of us are concentrating on a major new contract. So apologies that free news feeds are not currently running on their normal daily basis.
All contracted services continue as normal - and in fact are being stepped up.
Normal service will resume after Glastonbury (we hope).
All contracted services continue as normal - and in fact are being stepped up.
Normal service will resume after Glastonbury (we hope).
Friday, April 16, 2010
Fattism or fatism?
A new word surfaced today - fatism. Or is it fattism?
The authors of the word spelt it as above: fatism. We think that would be pronounced fay-tism when they really want a word pronounced fat-tism. In those circumstances English convention is to double the last consonant. For instance "ratting" not "rating" means chasing rats, "matting" not "mating" means making mats and you are "hatted" not "hated" if you wear a hat. That gives us "fattism".
In case you're in any doubt, it means prejudice against overweight people. Here's the story.
Curiously in the age of tweeting, English is becoming more like German with more and more portfolio words emerging. Does it matter? Probably not but we're resisting some of them - like "underway" and "healthcare". We'll generally write "under way" and "health care".
The authors of the word spelt it as above: fatism. We think that would be pronounced fay-tism when they really want a word pronounced fat-tism. In those circumstances English convention is to double the last consonant. For instance "ratting" not "rating" means chasing rats, "matting" not "mating" means making mats and you are "hatted" not "hated" if you wear a hat. That gives us "fattism".
In case you're in any doubt, it means prejudice against overweight people. Here's the story.
Curiously in the age of tweeting, English is becoming more like German with more and more portfolio words emerging. Does it matter? Probably not but we're resisting some of them - like "underway" and "healthcare". We'll generally write "under way" and "health care".
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Citizen news editors?
We've had it in mind for some time - they talk about citizen journalists but what about citizen news editors? The news feels instant these days but much of it takes time to prepare, especially if it's to have any depth and balance. A news editor's job involves selecting the stories worth working on .
The results? In fact, not a large number of votes after the initial flurry. Surprisingly a very small proportion of those who clicked through seem to have voted. I'd like to know if votes weren't being recorded and if there is a problem with the polling gadget on blogger.
Four topics came out level-pegging - medical training, alcohol policy, transplants and psychiatric drugs. We have written up the first three and they can be found on our news feeds. Given the nature of the news, we might not have done alcohol policy and transplants. But we have - and Britain's new alcohol policy is now today's lead item on Englemed and also at doctors.net.uk.
The vote did not dictate everything we did
Why did visitors not vote? It would be interesting to know. There may have been too many topics and they may not have been specific enough.
An exercise which involved a smaller number of very specific stories might attract votes. It would also be a problem. One result would be to tip off our competitors about stories we are working on. It would also mean we could not highlight embargoed reports - and there were plenty of those. We're not ready for that yet.
Could this be done routinely? Probably not. But we'll certainly attempt it again sometime when circumstances seem right. Yesterday it was worth doing - it helped us to see through a great fog of news, much of it with potential and much of it half-formed.
Yesterday seemed the ideal chance to invite the e-world into our virtual newsroom - to help us to select the stories to write up.
There was a flurry of press releases during the morning, some for instant release, some with embargoes attached. There were all on different topics. Quite a few were government announcements - maybe we should just have planned a single story headed "government announcements". By mid-morning it was clear we were in a news fog and that choices would have to be made about the most significant news. What better solution than to ask potential readers?
There was a flurry of press releases during the morning, some for instant release, some with embargoes attached. There were all on different topics. Quite a few were government announcements - maybe we should just have planned a single story headed "government announcements". By mid-morning it was clear we were in a news fog and that choices would have to be made about the most significant news. What better solution than to ask potential readers?
We'd led in the early morning with some big stories on children getting the wrong drug doses, on maternity service problems and on a new meningitis vaccine - and also of course on Haiti. We were not behind with the news but we now found ourselves with many story proposals to sift.
So using the blog and using Twitter we rushed to implement the half-formed plan. The initial story-list had about 16 stories on it. We could not give details of embargoed stories but indicated the topics. What visitors did not know was that some topics included several possible stories - see today's big roll-up on pregnancy and diet.
We invited the world at large to be citizen news editors and help us to decide the most important stories, before we wrote them - even before we did any more work on them in some cases.
Here was how the day worked out, with regular updates on Twitter:
- at 1pm we announced the poll and within minutes we'd added a 17th story to the story list;
- several people retweeted the announcement (thanks for the RTs!);
- by 3pm we reported there were enough votes for us to identify a couple of stories for extra work;
- by 5pm we reported the exercise had prompted some people to send us extra material. We added one more topic on GP issues;
- at 6pm we added two more topics on heart care and health-funding.
- At midnight we closed and deleted the poll.
- By 2am some of the selected stories we appearing on our newsfeeds.
The results? In fact, not a large number of votes after the initial flurry. Surprisingly a very small proportion of those who clicked through seem to have voted. I'd like to know if votes weren't being recorded and if there is a problem with the polling gadget on blogger.
Four topics came out level-pegging - medical training, alcohol policy, transplants and psychiatric drugs. We have written up the first three and they can be found on our news feeds. Given the nature of the news, we might not have done alcohol policy and transplants. But we have - and Britain's new alcohol policy is now today's lead item on Englemed and also at doctors.net.uk.
The vote did not dictate everything we did
Why did visitors not vote? It would be interesting to know. There may have been too many topics and they may not have been specific enough.
An exercise which involved a smaller number of very specific stories might attract votes. It would also be a problem. One result would be to tip off our competitors about stories we are working on. It would also mean we could not highlight embargoed reports - and there were plenty of those. We're not ready for that yet.
Could this be done routinely? Probably not. But we'll certainly attempt it again sometime when circumstances seem right. Yesterday it was worth doing - it helped us to see through a great fog of news, much of it with potential and much of it half-formed.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Tonight's story list - quick poll!
We've had a large number of announcements about all sorts of topics today.
So here's your chance to help us decide the priorities for our news feeds and writers. Use our poll on the left to tell us which you think are likely to be the most important. You can cast multiple votes but please don't vote for more than half a dozen.
Don't forget we've already reported some of the stories you may see as headlines today - such as the drug errors that endanger child patients, maternity crisis in Milton Keynes.
Some of the stories on our story-list are embargoed until midnight - so we can only publish scanty details.
The poll will end at midnight, today Tuesday, GMT.
1/ NHS Constitution comes into law
2/ Protection for vulnerable adults
3/ New organ donation drive in Scotland
4/ Government drive against health inequality
5/ Regulation of medical education and training
6/ Psychiatric drug collaboration launch
7/ Personalised care plans announced for cancer survivors
The following topics are likely to be the subject of embargoed press releases about new research findings:
8/ cervical cancer
9/ smoking
10/ pregnancy
11/ nursing practice
12/ heart diagnosis
13/ fall prevention
14/ Benefits of the apple
Some more stories breaking today:
15/ Fitness criteria for assisted reproduction treatment
16/ UK drive announced against alcohol abuse
Slots reserved for more breaking news today
17/ Embargoed story on GP issues
18/ Embargoed story on heart patient care
19/ Embargoed story on health funding
20/
If you know of other news we should be looking at for our newsfeeds tomorrow, use the comment option.
Don't forget we've already reported some of the stories you may see as headlines today - such as the drug errors that endanger child patients, maternity crisis in Milton Keynes.
Some of the stories on our story-list are embargoed until midnight - so we can only publish scanty details.
The poll will end at midnight, today Tuesday, GMT.
1/ NHS Constitution comes into law
2/ Protection for vulnerable adults
3/ New organ donation drive in Scotland
4/ Government drive against health inequality
5/ Regulation of medical education and training
6/ Psychiatric drug collaboration launch
7/ Personalised care plans announced for cancer survivors
The following topics are likely to be the subject of embargoed press releases about new research findings:
8/ cervical cancer
9/ smoking
10/ pregnancy
11/ nursing practice
12/ heart diagnosis
13/ fall prevention
14/ Benefits of the apple
Some more stories breaking today:
15/ Fitness criteria for assisted reproduction treatment
16/ UK drive announced against alcohol abuse
Slots reserved for more breaking news today
17/ Embargoed story on GP issues
18/ Embargoed story on heart patient care
19/ Embargoed story on health funding
20/
If you know of other news we should be looking at for our newsfeeds tomorrow, use the comment option.
* Poll now closed
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)