Treatment for Hepatitis C looks as if it is going to be another good news story with oral medications with high cure rates within months of hopeful approval in the USA. Hepatitis C is a disease that you often don’t know you have until you end up with something nasty like cirrhosis or liver cancer maybe 20 years after the initial infection. Once you know you have it is possible to avoid the toxins that make liver destruction accelerate such as alcohol, the possibility of taking substances that may slow destruction down (coffee any body?) There is treatment right now… read more →
If you have a gene does that mean that disease is inevitable? In this short discussion we suggest that some knowledge of genes can be helpful as it allows us to change our lifestyle, diet, give medication or take surgery to prevent disease. However some genetic predispositions only trivially effect disease and so are not useful. Looking beyond the immediate family to be aware of disease especially at a younger age can help to decide who should be considered for such tests.
Doctors often get asked “what is the best exercise for your heart”. The answer is any kind of moderate aerobic exercise is probably the best – which means walking or swimming or playing a sport like tennis. If you are fit and younger you can do a lot more, if you have not been exercising for a while think more long term to reduce minor injuries that can dampen the enthusiasm and can set you back weeks or months. When we think about the word exercise, we perhaps tend to think of sweating in special workout clothes trying to reach… read more →