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Talking Points
Why are so many people popping Vitamin D?
There is mostly no reason for the patients to receive vitamin D tests. Yet US patients are demanding them and many physicians are initiating...
Why I gave my kidney to a stranger — and why you should, too
Becoming part of a chain of donations can unlock literally dozens of life-saving interventions. Dylan Matthews explains in Vox why he donated his kidney...
Motsoaledi wants private healthcare forced out for the NHI
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has been tasked with an important aspect of the 'radical economic transformation' agenda, and that is to nationalise healthcare in...
With HIV, no need to embellish achievements or to diminish challenges
A culture of chicanery, subterfuge and sycophancy now permeates all the factions in government, writes Fareed Abdullah, a medical doctor and former CEO of the South...
Should doctors breach confidentiality when a patient is unfit to drive?
Should healthcare professionals breach confidentiality when a patient is unfit to drive, asks Daniel Sokol, medical ethicist and barrister, in the British Medical Journal?
He...
Determining a perceptual threshold for artificial looking lips
Recognising the perceptual threshold for when lips appear unnatural is important to avoid an undesirable outcome in lip augmentation. A study in JAMA Plastic Surgery...
Social grants not winning the child malnutrition battle in South Africa
Social grants are a crucial component of South Africa’s fight against poverty and hunger. But they aren’t high enough, and social grants alone are...
Older men turning to health-threatening steroids to stay young
Growing numbers of middle-aged men are turning to anabolic steroids to make themselves look and feel more youthful and boost their sexual performance, The...
AIDS denialism spreads in Russia through online social networks
Aids denialism is not limited to South Africa, write Russian researchers for The Conversation. The rise of the internet and social media have given...
Serious lack of info on the impacts of Cuba-trained doctors
Reports of misbehaviour by South Africans studying medicine in Cuba have focused attention on the programme to alleviate rural doctor shortages. Chris Barron of...
More fruit and veggies may protect smokers against COPD
For current and former smokers, eating more fruits and vegetables may lower the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, a Swedish study...
Positive changes in the brains of retreat participants
More Americans than ever are turning to spiritual, meditative and religious retreats as a way to reset their daily life and enhance wellbeing. Now...
Trial to test dogs' ability to detect bowel cancer
A Daily Express report says Medical Detection Dogs has been given the green to begin the first colorectal cancer trial in the UK using...
Little or no weight gain from light to moderate drinking
Despite thousands of studies spanning decades, Jane Brody writes in The New York Times that alcohol remains one of the most controversial and confusing...
Ebola nurse's death to be investigated among claims of treatment being refused
The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak killed 11,310 people. Liberian nursing assistant Salome Karwah was not one of them. The disease that tore through...
Implications stemming from evolving definitions of 'safe sex'
Evolving definitions of what is ‘safe sex’ has implications for treatment as prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), says Martin Holt of the University of...
Oxford college accused of 'lending credibility to quackery'
An Oxford University college has been accused of inadvertently 'lending credibility to quackery' by agreeing to host a conference on the 'alternative therapy' of...
Time to encourage safer alternatives to smoking – tobacco control expert
The regulation of tobacco and nicotine products has become less straightforward, writes David Sweanor, an adjunct professor of law at the University of Ottawa...
Academics who were challenged by Noakes' respond in SAMJ
Academics from the universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch who were criticised by low carb-high fat champion Prof Tim Noakes for advocating a balanced diet,...
100 years later: Controversy still clouds the Rorschach test
The open-ended Rorschach inkblot test has survived a century of controversy and scorn. Is it hocus-pocus pseudo-science or does it have a role to...
Trump's policies set to damage health and science, journal warns
The BMJ warns in an editorial that US President Donald Trump’s administration 'is acting in ways that will suppress research and limit communication on scientific...
HIMI: Need for accessible info for healthcare service comparisons
Fear of public hospitals, high medical bills and family responsibilities are often the underlying motives for those who become medical aid members. Furthermore, there...
Africa needs to look at best practice elsewhere – Novartis SA CEO
The successful expansion of services for HIV/Aids, TB and malaria has highlighted the inadequacy of existing services to deliver interventions for other health needs,...
Current antibiotics guidance is wrong, argue some
It's the accepted position: If taking antibiotics, don’t stop taking them until the pill vial is empty, even if you feel better. But the...
Obamacare repeal will impact on mental health and addiction Tx
The debate over the fate of Obamacare has focused on the lifesaving care brought to people with cancer, diabetes, and other physical illnesses. But...
Cannabis oil: 'Dangerous and unsubstantiated claims being made'
Like most people who value individual freedom from government regulation, columnist Ivo Vegter writes in the Daily Maverick that he approves of the worldwide...
Need for more pragmatism over drug use – SA expert
There is a strong need for greater awareness of pragmatic, inclusive approaches to drug use – which are proven to reduce the negative consequences...
Rural doctors bedevilled by politics
Mseleni Provincial Hospital is in the sticks in a distant corner of northern KwaZulu-Natal, yet this remote state hospital is renowned in specialist medical...
New ACP guidelines on how best to treat gout ignites bitter battle among physicians
A bitter battle has broken out among physicians about how best to treat gout, following new guidelines from the American College of Physicians that...
How Iceland engineered the cleanest-living teens in Europe
The Icelandic model, which has turned around the drug and alcohol behaviour of its troubled teens, could benefit the general psychological and physical wellbeing of...
Harvard dispute over whistleblower allegations turns nasty
A bizarre conflict between a mentor and his student spiralled dramatically out of control, damaging the reputation of a prominent scientist and Harvard University,...
Anti-vaxxer Trump may tap anti-vaxxer Kennedy for panel on vaccination safety
US President-elect Donald Trump opened up a new front in his war on science, according to a Boston Globe editorial, when he appointed –...
Clinical trial with 'young blood' to slow ageing is labelled a 'scam'
A pay-to-participate private clinical trial on the potential of 'young' blood plasma from teenagers and young adults can reverse certain of the hallmarks of...
Research shows superiority of US female doctors
Female physicians tend to provide higher-quality medical care than males, according to Harvard research. And if male US doctors were as adept as females,...
First female doctor in the UK spent 56 years disguised as a man
Dr James Barry, an Irish surgeon who served in the Cape Colony in the mid-1800s, and is credited with a number of medical innovations...
Debate on long-term psychiatric drug use
The benefits of psychiatric drugs have been exaggerated and the harms underplayed due to poor trial designs, argues one expert. But another expert and a patient contend that the evidence supports the use of these drugs, in a debate on the pages of The British Medical Journal.
New guidelines on life-prolonging treatments
The American Thoracic Society aimed has released new guidelines for crucial decision-making for the care of patients with advanced critical illness while preventing conflicts between medical staff and family caregivers.
The pseudoscience of beauty products.
The beauty industry is massive, a huge cultural force in a tight, symbiotic relationship with celebrities and the celebrity-oriented media. So by its very nature, it creates massive problems for anyone seeking to get to the truth about the products it makes and promotes, writes Prof Timothy Caulfield of the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, in The Atlantic.Dr Google may trigger ‘cyberchondria'
Major search engines are providing irrelevant information that could lead to incorrect self-diagnosis, self-treatment and ultimately possible harm, research has found.
Google reports that one in 20 of its 100bn searches a month was for health-related information. Some 35% of US adults go online to self-diagnose a medical condition.Debate around 'excited delirium' diagnosis
Police, medical examiners and some doctors say 'excited delirium' is real and frightening, reports the Washington Post.
Influenced by mental illness or the use of such stimulants, those in its grip often have extraordinary strength, are impervious to pain and act wildly or violently. Then, suddenly, some die. But others say it is merely a cover for the use of excessive force by law enforcement.