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Category Archives: old age
Covid-19 – lockdowns go on and on. What should we do?
The decision to impose a second lockdown in England is polarising people to a much greater extent than it did in March, as it seems obvious that this virus is not going away and we are going to have to … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Health Delivery, Health Management, Health Policy, hospital beds, old age
Tagged Covid-19, economy, Lockdown, mortality
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The real meaning of Coronavirus
Well, we are in a mess. We have an ordinary sort of virus (whose closest relative is the common cold), which mostly causes a severe flu, from which most people recover without any complications. Admittedly it has a death rate … Continue reading
Posted in Coronavirus, Health Delivery, Health Management, hospital beds, Medicine, old age
Tagged Coronavirus, Covid-19, intensive care, nursing homes, pandemic, the elderly, ventilators, virus
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Why do parts of the media really enjoy criticizing the NHS in Wales?
It is generally considered that the NHS in Wales performs much worse than the English NHS. The Daily Mail is always saying so and many other commentators too. So when Theresa May recently asked – “If the Labour Party have … Continue reading
Posted in Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, old age, Sir David Attenborough
Tagged end=of-life drugs, health, health service, UK
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Virtual Beds anyone?
The current crisis in the NHS is wearingly familiar. There is talk of patients waiting, and occasionally dying, on trolleys before being admitted, ambulances waiting for hours outside hospitals with paramedics before A&E have the space to take over their … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Health Delivery, Health Management, Health Policy, hospital beds, Medicine, old age
Tagged health service, Trolleys, winter crisis
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Assisted dying.
I wrote in my last blog that recent advances in treating dementia have shown promise. I said, “Drugs are being developed to target monoclonal antibodies against amyloid β, the protein that seems to be awry in Alzheimer’s disease”. However since … Continue reading
Old Age part 4 – Losing it
– Dementia and its prevention Having decided that everlasting life is impractical, we can still use existing knowledge to improve our survival. But we want our extra years to be enjoyable, and that won’t be the case if our brains … Continue reading
Cheating Death
Ageing Most people do not want to talk about death and human life is held up to be absolutely sacrosanct; any death is a tragedy. There seems to be a taboo about admitting that we will all have to die … Continue reading
Posted in Medicine, old age, science
Tagged Ageing, Calorie-restricted diet, Death, DNA, Telomeres
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Old age doesn’t come by itself – part 3
It seems characteristic of older people these days that we think of ourselves as much younger than these old people we see around us. This because inside we still think of ourselves as being youthful if we feel well, even … Continue reading
Posted in Backache, Health Delivery, Health Policy, Medicine, old age, Physiology, sexual relationships
Tagged Alzheimer's disease, behaviour, dementia, exercise, health, heart attack, old age
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Elen Samuel, doctor and writer 