News index page

Latest news and blogs

• The psychology of 'normal'

  Mar 30 | Margaret Hensman

  Unravelling the assumptions and emotional causes of health choices. How long does it take to assess someone's health needs?
  

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  NHS pain clinics in Bristol offer Alexander Technique as part of trial

  Mar 28 | FIH

  A randomised controlled trial published in the BMJ has shown that Alexander Technique is both clinically and cost effective. A new trial in the 'real world' of a Bristol pain clinic might be an important step towards wider NHS availability.

• Some happiness doctors

  Mar 24 | Dr Anna Forbes

  Dr Forbes visits several well regarded doctors of 'happiness' and discovers how everyone can positively alter their physiology through breathing techniques.

• Acupuncture and infertility

  Mar 10 | BBC

  The British Fertility Society says there is no case for acupuncture in conjunction with IVF treatment.  FIH says the evidence is unclear - a Cochrane collaboration review in 2008 found benefit if acupuncture was used on the day of IVF treatment.

• Doctors and patients must work together

  Mar 10 | Telegraph/ Michael Dixon

  NHS funding is limited -doctors and patients must work together to find local solutions to problems.

• Harvard medical students award an 'F' to university for pharmaceutical company ties

  Mar 09 | New York Times/ Barton publishing blog

  Students at Harvard Medical School are protesting at the undue influence of  the pharmaceutical industry in their classrooms. 

   

• Professor Ernst damaged by FIH?

  Mar 06 | Times/Guardian

  Is an old row with FIH responsible for the possible closure of the complementary therapy unit at Peninsula Medical School?

• What's realistic for a client with multiple problems?

  Feb 26 | Margaret Hensman

  A single parent with a Body Mass Index of 48 (i.e. seriously overweight) who also has advanced arthritis and is caring for a severely autistic child who never sleeps for more than two hours at a time will find it almost impossible to look after their own health and wellbeing.  

• This homeopathy row has nothing to do with placebos

  Feb 25 | Guardian

   Does the huge row about homeopathy on the NHS have more to do with identity politics than science?

• Is alternative medicine safe?

  Feb 24 | You and yours - Radio 4

  A fifty minute consumer programme talks around the issues of 'alternative' medicine.