George Winter

The role of nutrition in bipolar disorder

Loots et al (2021) note that psychiatric disorders comprise 13% of the total global disease burden, with non-adherence to medication ranging from 63–74% in patients with schizophrenia and some 50% in...

Cockroaches and antibiotic resistance

‘Given the relative rarity of cockroaches in Ireland …. at least one avenue of future research will involve tracing the evolutionary paths taken by Pseudocitrobacter and related micro-organisms’.

Hyperinsulinaemia

The idea of type 2 diabetes (T2D) being a progressive illness is almost redundant, with increasing evidence even confirming how T2D remission is possible. For example, Cucuzzella et al (2023: 146)...

Alzheimer's disease hypotheses

‘With Aβ accumulating in the brain through impaired clearance, not overproduction, Berger and Ede (2023) suggest that a possible explanation for this is reduced concentrations of insulin-degrading...

Probiotics and antibiotics

While promoting antibiotic stewardship, alternative antibiotic-free approaches to bacterial infections are being explored, including the use of probiotics, says George Winter

Vaccine safety

Sometimes it is worth stating the obvious: ‘The development of safe and highly effective vaccines during the latter half of the 20th century has been one of medicine's greatest achievements …...

Chronic disease and economics

Chronic diseases are long-term conditions, with Donoso (2023) noting not only that ‘around 50% of people follow long-term treatment recommendations in high-income countries and presumably even less in...

Ethics and pharmacists

According to Singer (1979:2), ‘… an ethical judgment that is no good in practice must suffer from a theoretical defect as well, for the whole point of ethical judgments is to guide practice.’ With the...

Statins and risk

In support of his view that overconfidence could be endemic in medicine, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman wrote: ‘Experts who acknowledge the full extent of their ignorance may expect to be replaced by...

A brief history of handwashing

Obstetrician Ignatz Philipp Semmelweis (1818–1865) was the first person to demonstrate by experiment that handwashing can prevent infections. In May 1847, he instigated a chlorine-based handwashing...

Mask wearing and COVID-19: What does the evidence say?

The risks and rewards of semaglutide in obesity treatment

The connection between the pancreas, the gut and incretins – hormones released into the blood by the intestine in response to food – was established in the early twentieth century (Knudsen and Lau,...

The importance of adhering to regulations in healthcare: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and historical incidents

When it comes to safety in healthcare, rules, regulations and guidance are essential to help secure protection for patients and healthcare workers. For example, the Health and Safety Executive (2023)...

Motor neurone disease

The recent death from motor neurone disease (MND) of former Scottish rugby international and British Lion Doddie Weir OBE (1970–2022) has renewed focus on this neurodegenerative condition.

Serotonin and depression

George Winter discusses the role of serotonin when deciding how to treat depression and how new papers are now disputing the role in plays and whether antidepressants are even the correct treatment...