Check out our new weight checker widget.
It's courtesy of the US CDC.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Let's Talk About Food
#BAD11 #worldfoodday Sometimes in medical reporting it feels as if that's all we do talk about. Food. It's good for you, bad for you, keeps you alive and kills you all at the same time.
Cynics say people end up getting a confused message. Well it's not our job to tell you how to live your life. Your doctor will do that. But if you're reading this you're old enough to make up your mind about certain things.
Our feed on diet and nutrition on this site - just a fraction of the reports we do on the topic - gives a flavour of the choices you can make. In a way the message is straightforward. Too little is bad for you, too much is bad for you. Even too little of some of the things we regard as unhealthy may be bad for you - but don't take my word for that. The experts seem to thing the artificial fats you find in cheap food are universally bad for you.
And if you do eat quite a lot, because you live in a rich country or a cold one, maybe you can help yourself by getting the balance of food right. Lots of vegetables and fruit. We don't often get a report saying this will cause a health problem. Not too much sugary stuff. As for whether you want to take your protein as meat or peanuts - we'll leave that one for you.
Today is World Food Day and Blog Action Day - which has been organised by a number of charities to focus on those who don't get enough food in this world. In the rich world there's so much focus on what foods are bad or apparently poisonous, it's easy to forget thousands suffer from malnutrition - and for these people the food rejected by the wealthy will indeed be healthy.
They've made #BAD11 a celebration. We're allowed to talk about what we enjoy. And that's exactly what Stacey Collins at Womens News UK has done. She's shared, yet again, her passion for chocolate, celebrating that here's something that isn't as bad as once was made out - maybe!
Cynics say people end up getting a confused message. Well it's not our job to tell you how to live your life. Your doctor will do that. But if you're reading this you're old enough to make up your mind about certain things.Our feed on diet and nutrition on this site - just a fraction of the reports we do on the topic - gives a flavour of the choices you can make. In a way the message is straightforward. Too little is bad for you, too much is bad for you. Even too little of some of the things we regard as unhealthy may be bad for you - but don't take my word for that. The experts seem to thing the artificial fats you find in cheap food are universally bad for you.
And if you do eat quite a lot, because you live in a rich country or a cold one, maybe you can help yourself by getting the balance of food right. Lots of vegetables and fruit. We don't often get a report saying this will cause a health problem. Not too much sugary stuff. As for whether you want to take your protein as meat or peanuts - we'll leave that one for you.
Today is World Food Day and Blog Action Day - which has been organised by a number of charities to focus on those who don't get enough food in this world. In the rich world there's so much focus on what foods are bad or apparently poisonous, it's easy to forget thousands suffer from malnutrition - and for these people the food rejected by the wealthy will indeed be healthy.
They've made #BAD11 a celebration. We're allowed to talk about what we enjoy. And that's exactly what Stacey Collins at Womens News UK has done. She's shared, yet again, her passion for chocolate, celebrating that here's something that isn't as bad as once was made out - maybe!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Australia joins Europe
Australia's leading online physician community joins European Alliance
International growth of Networks in Health creates broad geographical physician engagement opportunity
30 June 2011, Oxford: Networks in Health, whose online communities already comprise over 600,000 physicians across Europe, has announced that the leading independent network of medical professionals in Australia has joined the Alliance.
e-healthspace.com.au, which launched less than 12 months ago, has an active membership of over 9,000 physicians - approximately 45 per cent of the entire general practitioner population. Usage of the community is high, and some 40% of members interact with the extensive clinical content, discussion forums, education modules and sponsored resources on a regular basis.
The Australian community, which initially sought to attract GPs, is now rapidly expanding its membership among secondary care physicians from key specialty groups, including oncology and cardiology.
Networks in Health was formed by Doctors.net.uk, the UK's largest online network of medical professionals, in May 2011. It is a unique international alliance of online physician communities which, having established strong affiliations across Europe, is looking to grow by recruiting further communities in key international healthcare markets.
Networks in Health's current partner communities include Egora and LaRevue du Praticien in France, Medcenter in Spainand Portugal, coliquio in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and MedUniverse in Sweden. Further announcements regarding new partners joining the Alliance are likely.
Gareth Thomas, development director of Networks in Health, said: "The launch of this 'network of communities' is answering a real need, especially for organisations wishing to research and engage with physicians internationally. We've been approached by many global pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations to talk about the unprecedented access to physicians now offered."
Kamalesh Goswami, Director of Online Solutions of e-healthspace.com.au, said: "We are now able to offer clients a single access point to a huge international physician audience. It opens up enormous opportunities, with international communications, marketing, education and research programmes all capable of being managed and measured in a fully integrated way."
Networks in Health is supported by medeConnect, its market research and insight partner, and independent division of Doctors.net.uk. community-based research - an approach which allows us to reach a broader cohort of physicians than ever before - medeConnect offers a range of new, digitally-based qualitative and quantitative methodologies for gathering insight from these communities.
Note: Englemed is the news provider for Networks in Health
International growth of Networks in Health creates broad geographical physician engagement opportunity
30 June 2011, Oxford: Networks in Health, whose online communities already comprise over 600,000 physicians across Europe, has announced that the leading independent network of medical professionals in Australia has joined the Alliance.
e-healthspace.com.au, which launched less than 12 months ago, has an active membership of over 9,000 physicians - approximately 45 per cent of the entire general practitioner population. Usage of the community is high, and some 40% of members interact with the extensive clinical content, discussion forums, education modules and sponsored resources on a regular basis.
The Australian community, which initially sought to attract GPs, is now rapidly expanding its membership among secondary care physicians from key specialty groups, including oncology and cardiology.
Networks in Health was formed by Doctors.net.uk, the UK's largest online network of medical professionals, in May 2011. It is a unique international alliance of online physician communities which, having established strong affiliations across Europe, is looking to grow by recruiting further communities in key international healthcare markets.
Networks in Health's current partner communities include Egora and LaRevue du Praticien in France, Medcenter in Spainand Portugal, coliquio in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and MedUniverse in Sweden. Further announcements regarding new partners joining the Alliance are likely.
Gareth Thomas, development director of Networks in Health, said: "The launch of this 'network of communities' is answering a real need, especially for organisations wishing to research and engage with physicians internationally. We've been approached by many global pharmaceutical companies and healthcare organisations to talk about the unprecedented access to physicians now offered."
Kamalesh Goswami, Director of Online Solutions of e-healthspace.com.au, said: "We are now able to offer clients a single access point to a huge international physician audience. It opens up enormous opportunities, with international communications, marketing, education and research programmes all capable of being managed and measured in a fully integrated way."
Networks in Health is supported by medeConnect, its market research and insight partner, and independent division of Doctors.net.uk. community-based research - an approach which allows us to reach a broader cohort of physicians than ever before - medeConnect offers a range of new, digitally-based qualitative and quantitative methodologies for gathering insight from these communities.
Note: Englemed is the news provider for Networks in Health
Thursday, June 16, 2011
iphone app
Our news service provided to Doctors.net.uk has been on an iphone app available to doctors for some time now.
I have found this review of the app here:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/medical-news/id339774460?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
We'll be launching our own apps for the general public in the near future, for Android and other systems. Watch this space!
I have found this review of the app here:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/medical-news/id339774460?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2
We'll be launching our own apps for the general public in the near future, for Android and other systems. Watch this space!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Site locked!
We've been locked off our site since the weekend because of engineering problems - so no updates here I'm afraid.
Our professional newsfeeds are not affected. You can find updates today at www.doctors.net.uk , www.uknursing.net, http://www.staffnurse.com/nursing-news and www.bloodmed.com. However unless you're a member of doctors.net you will have to wait to read one or two juicy news items that I haven't seen anywhere else today.
Our professional newsfeeds are not affected. You can find updates today at www.doctors.net.uk , www.uknursing.net, http://www.staffnurse.com/nursing-news and www.bloodmed.com. However unless you're a member of doctors.net you will have to wait to read one or two juicy news items that I haven't seen anywhere else today.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Plain red meat?
Talk about plain speaking - the British government's campaign to shock, or nudge, the people into taking action against cancer got off to a bad start.90g of red meat a day is dangerous, we were told. But how much is 90g? Who measures their meat in grammes when they eat?
If you go to a cheap restaurant you can buy steaks of six ounces, eight ounces, ten ounces even more. Surely a small steak is okay?
We posted a calculator on this blog sometime ago and we are able to establish rapidly that 90g is no more than a little over 3.5 ounces. The recommended daily limit of 70g is just 2.5 ounces.
No wonder the government press release did not mention steak. It did mention two beefburgers or a single lamb chop. Was it too much to ask that somebody could do the conversion into the traditional British measurement? After all there is not a lot that is more traditional than British roast beef.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis?
There's a serious point to this question. We were intrigued by the research linking high-living (up a mountain) with mental health problems.
So when writing the story, our writer tried to google some facts, ie this question: which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis? You'd think it was the sort of strange fact you'd find on wiki-answers - but, no, it was not there.
We knew that Denver was high - and sure enough it is in fact about a mile above sea-level. Ben Nevis in Scotland - the highest mountain in the UK - is just 4,409 feet high - well below a mile high.
The US research linked high living to suicide risk and the researchers were not just talking about loners living in shacks on mountainsides. They had also taken in statistics from cities such as Denver.
The findings are interesting but may well not apply to the UK, where the population mostly lives a lot lower than Colorado. In fact there must be a whole clutch of cities on the Rocky Mountains higher than Ben Nevis. How many? Does anyone know?
In fact it's hard to think of any British cities with any sort of altitude at all. There are many very hilly cities, such as Edinburgh, Bristol and especially in Yorkshire. But they all cluster on river beds or on the coast. I've googled cities such as Bradford in Yorkshire and the altitude is clearly so unremarkable it does not even appear on Wikipedia.
So here's another question for anyone interested. Are there any British cities 2,000 feet above sea level?
So when writing the story, our writer tried to google some facts, ie this question: which US cities are higher than Ben Nevis? You'd think it was the sort of strange fact you'd find on wiki-answers - but, no, it was not there.
We knew that Denver was high - and sure enough it is in fact about a mile above sea-level. Ben Nevis in Scotland - the highest mountain in the UK - is just 4,409 feet high - well below a mile high.
The US research linked high living to suicide risk and the researchers were not just talking about loners living in shacks on mountainsides. They had also taken in statistics from cities such as Denver.
The findings are interesting but may well not apply to the UK, where the population mostly lives a lot lower than Colorado. In fact there must be a whole clutch of cities on the Rocky Mountains higher than Ben Nevis. How many? Does anyone know?
In fact it's hard to think of any British cities with any sort of altitude at all. There are many very hilly cities, such as Edinburgh, Bristol and especially in Yorkshire. But they all cluster on river beds or on the coast. I've googled cities such as Bradford in Yorkshire and the altitude is clearly so unremarkable it does not even appear on Wikipedia.
So here's another question for anyone interested. Are there any British cities 2,000 feet above sea level?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Losing weight
Here's a great video just released by the American Heart Association on losing weight. If it's your New Year resolution, take a peek!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Facebooking
Our Facebook page is picking up - after being in the doldrums for quite a while. Stories from this site and one or two of our related sites now feed into it automatically. It's building up a base of fans.
It's a great way to comment on stories, to follow our feeds and to rate them. And two or three postings a day is not intrusive on your Facebook feed. You can find the Facebook page here.
It's a great way to comment on stories, to follow our feeds and to rate them. And two or three postings a day is not intrusive on your Facebook feed. You can find the Facebook page here.
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