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The Tail and the Dog: Cause and Effect in Medicine
Does the tail ever wag the dog? Is an issue ever so compelling that cause and effect are reversed? Or at least suspended..? Sorry, I wonder about such things. I remember reading a book many years ago by the British philospher A.J. Ayer called The Problem of Knowledge. In it he discusses a religious sect…
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Nudging Childhood Obesity
When I was a kid, obesity was not the norm. Admittedly, this was a long time ago, and no doubt I only remember brief and highly selective snippets of the time –modified, no doubt, to serve whatever demands are required in the present. But in these unexpurgated, sketches, I have memories of labeling the occasional…
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Menstruation and Sports
Okay, time to cross the line again. I’ve written about this before (see Menstrual Taboos https://musingsonwomenshealth.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/menstrual-taboos/ ) but the issue keeps popping up. In the recent 2015 Australian Open, the top ranking female tennis player in Britain, Heather Watson, suffered a first round defeat. In the subsequent interview, as she was being grilled about what might…
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The Peanut Trap
You know, there are times when the cart should precede the horse and not follow blindly behind it along the same old paths. We are too often seduced by the roads that others have made simply because we know where they go and what we might reasonably expect to encounter along the way. The problem,…
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Depression and Inflammation
The practice of obstetrics and gynaecology is normally a kaleidoscope of colours –from the pale red blush of an embarrassed face, the bright green flash of twinkling eyes, to the panoply of skin colours proudly arrayed like just-washed clothes in the waiting room. There is no rank to the colours, no special prize for the…
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The Tampon Tax
I have to admit that I am sometimes puzzled. Not, you understand, to suggest that I am omniscient at other times, but merely that I, too, am apt to get lost in the various back alleys of our government. They seldom come with maps; they are not meant for untroubled navigation. In fact, I suspect…
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Elder Gynaecology
I love old people. Sounds a bit patronizing I suppose but I’m becoming one of them, so I have vested interests. And anyway, even the most reticent among them have had a unique, personal view of history. A well tested perspective of Time and its evolutionary ravages. They have grown an almost uncanny ability to…