Health & Beauty

Doctors in Devon are celebrating the 65th birthday of a “national treasure” today – the NHS.

Since the NHS launched on 5 July 1948 it has continually developed and in April this year groups of GPs and clinicians were given the responsibility of buying most healthcare services, including acute hospitals and mental health services.

In Devon, the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is made up of member GP practices, was set up, giving clinicians and patients more of a say in local healthcare development to get services right for their...

Devon County Council has today (Wednesday, 3 July) won an award for excellence for a pilot project to tackle smoking and protect children from harm.

The award from the CLeaR Partnership, which works with local authorities across England to assess progress in reducing smoking, was given for Devon’s pioneering work with children’s centres.

At the seven pilot sites across the county, the Council has installed specially designed signage to advise people not to smoke on site and provided bespoke training for staff to raise the issue with parents and offer support to parents who...

This is an extract from a discussion on my face book page that recently caused some interested debate.

Trainers, coaches and physical gurus that preach ‘natural’ muscle gain / fat loss / performance enhancement etc, really ought to tell their audience if they themselves are ‘unnaturally physically enhanced’. Failure to mention this to their adorning followers and clients leads to unrealistic expectations. In my view it is also vaguely dishonest and misleading.

If people are on the ‘gear’, personally I have no problem with their choice…each to their own I reckon. However,...

Hundreds of thousands of women across England and Wales could be spared the distress and uncertainty of a breast cancer diagnosis by taking a daily pill to help prevent the disease. Updated guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says the NHS should give tamoxifen or raloxifene to particular groups of women with a family history of cancer [1] because the drugs can help stop them getting breast cancer if they are taken for five years.

Roughly 50,000 women and 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK [2], making it the most common...