Live Well .. Eat Well .. Be Well

If most of us are interested in answering questions and acquiring knowledge concerning the observable universe, then science must surely be important to us? We’re curious beings, ambitious to know and understand more than we did before and science provides us with both the means to investigate the world, as well as the ensuing results that impact so significantly on what we believe and how we behave. If you think I may be building science up only to knock it down.., no, absolutely not. I’m definitely a fan. But there is something I would like to question which is less about science itself, and more about our relationship with it. Have you heard of opiorphin? Possibly not, and if you were reading any scientific papers prior to 2006 then definitely not; there was no such thing. Well, actually that’s hugely inaccurate, it’s likely to have been in existence for … who knows? Thousands of years? But if it hasn’t been discovered, does it exist? (I still don’t know if a falling tree makes...

With a UK General Election just one week away, I’ve been encouraged by the level of appreciation for the National Health Service, first launched in the summer of 1948. It strikes me as a mark of a civilised and compassionate society that values the cradle-to-grave care of all of its citizens, knowing that in doing so, the financial burden must be shared. But what do we do when this much loved institution is in crisis? Is it exclusively a political matter that will be resolved if we make the ‘right’ choice at the ballot box next week? It is my fervent hope that our votes will support the continuation of our universal free healthcare system, but this can only be part of the response to the crisis alluded to above. My affection for the NHS is at odds with my views on how we ‘do health’. Our medical care responds exceptionally well to acute conditions and emergencies, however, as a nation, we don’t prioritise health, but rather wait for disease and chronic conditions to take hold and ...