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Winter pressures - "You run the risk of dropping the ball"

Winter pressures on NHS services have kicked in a little bit earlier than usual. So here to discuss that, and also the issue of how local NHS leaders can support staff in times of extreme pressure. Discussing that with Rebecca Coombes, The BMJ’s head of news and views, are Matthew Inada-Kim, a consultant in acute and general medicine at...




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Virginia Murray - the science of disaster risk reduction

Virginia Murray, public health consultant in global disaster risk reduction at Public Health England, was instrumental in putting together the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction - an international agreement which aims to move the world from reacting to disasters, to proactively preventing them. In this podcast, she explains what they...




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The tone of the debate around assisted dying

Bobbie Farsides is professor of clinical and biomedical ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. She’s been described as one of the few people that is acceptable to “both sides” of the assisted dying debate. This week she joins us to talk about the way in which the debate on euthanasia has played out in the UK - and hear why she thinks it’s...




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"We don't really know the impact of these products on our health": Ultraprocessed food & cancer risk

A study published by The BMJ today reports a possible association between intake of highly processed (“ultra-processed”) food in the diet and cancer. Ultra-processed foods include packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy drinks, sugary cereals, ready meals and reconstituted meat products - often containing high levels of sugar, fat, and salt, but...




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Unprofessionalism - "blaming other people, I put that at the top of the impact list"

That’s Jo Shapiro is a surgeon and manager in Brigham and Women’s hospital, she’s also director of the Center for Professionalism and Peer Support, and has written an editorial for The BMJ on tackling unprofessional behaviour. In this discussion, she and I talked about what she thinks (beyond the illegal) are the most damaging behaviours seen...




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Your recommended dose of Ray Moynihan

Ray Moynihan is a senior research assistant at Bond University, a journalist, champion of rolling back too much medicine, and host of a new series “The Recommended Dose” from Cochrane Australia. In the series, Ray has talked to some of the people who shape the medical evidence that underpin healthcare around the world - the series aim is to...




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What does the public think of the NHS?

It’s been quite a year for the NHS - it just turned 70, had a winter crisis like never before, got over junior doctor strikes, but then was hit by a series of scandals about breast screening, and now opiate prescriptions. At the same time, we’ve seen demonstrations in favour of the service and even widespread public backing for more money. So...




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The diagnosis and treatment of dyspareunia

Dyspareunia is a common but poorly understood problem affecting around 7.5% of sexually active women. It is an important and neglected area of female health, associated with substantial morbidity and distress. Women may be seen by several clinicians before a diagnosis is reached, There are also specialist psychosexual clinics, where men and women...




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How often do hospital doctors change long term medication during an inpatient stay?

More than ½ of patients leave hospital with changes to four or more of their long-term medications - but how appropriate are those changes? New research published on bmj.com looks at antihypertensive medication prescription changes to try and model that - and found that more than half of intensifications occurred in patients with previously well...




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Don't save on transport at the cost of the NHS

Last week we heard about how evidence in policy making is imperilled - but today we’re hearing about a plan to make evidence about health central to all aspects of government. Laura Webber, director of public health modelling at the UK Health Forum, Susie Morrow, chair of the Wandsworth Living Streets Group and Brian Ferguson, chief economist at...




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UK children are drinking less and the importance of a publicly provided NHS

Brits have a reputation as Europe’s boozers - and for good reason, with alcohol consumption higher than much of the rest of the continent. That reputation is extended to our young people too - but is it still deserved? Joanna Inchley, senior research fellow at the University of St Andrews, explains new research on decreasing drinking -...




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The counter intuitive effect of open label placebo

Ted Kaptchuk, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical school - and leading placebo researcher, has just published an analysis on bmj.com describing the effect of open label placebo - placebos that patient's know are placebos, but still seem to have some clinical effect. Ted joins us to speculate about what's going on in the body, what this means...




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Nasal symptoms of the common cold

The common cold is usually mild and self limiting - but they’re very annoying, especially the runny nose and bunged up feeling that form the nasal symptoms. A new practice article, published on BMJ.com looks at the available evidence for treatment of those nasal symptoms - both pharmacological and alternative. In this podcast we're joined by...




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How does lifestyle affect genetic risk of stroke?

Cardiovascular factors are associated with risk of stroke - and those factors can be mediated by lifestyle and by genetic make up. New research published by The BMJ sets out to explore how these risks combine, and we're joined on the podcast by two of the authors - Loes Rutten-Jacobs, senior postdoctoral researcher at the German Center for...




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The bone crushing nausea of hyperemesis

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy affects around 70% of pregnancies. It is mild for around 40% of women, moderate for 46%, and severe for 14%. By contrast, hyperemesis gravidarum is a complication of pregnancy rather than a normal part of it and occurs in around 1.5% of pregnancies. The psychosocial burden of HG can be heavy for women and their...




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Diabetes Insipidus - the danger of misunderstanding diabetes

Diabetes is synonymous with sugar, but diabetes insipidus, "water diabetes", can't be forgotten. Between 2009 and 2016, 4 people died in hospital in England, when lifesaving treatment for the condition was not given. In this podcast, we hear some practical tips for non-specialists to aid diagnosis, and how patients should be managed during...




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Passing on the secret knowledge of loop diuretics

In every generation there are a few that know the secret; the counterintuitive effects of loop diuretics. In this podcast Steven Anisman, cardiologist at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, joins us to explain about the threshold effects of these drugs, and why that might change the way in which you think about...




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The sex lives of married Brits

The National Surveys of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles is a deep look into the sex lives of us brits - and has been running now for 30 years, giving us some longitudinal data about the way in which those sex lives have changed. The latest paper to be published, based on that data, looks at the frequency of sex - how often different groups are...




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Tech and the NHS - A tale of two cultures

The NHS is about caring for people, free at the point of care, creating a safety net which catches the most vulnerable. Tech has been defined by the facebook maxim "move fast, break things" - looking to disrupt a sector, get investment and move on.  We want to be able to harness the potential utility of digital tech in the NHS - but how can those...




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I have never encountered an organisation as vicious in its treatment of whistleblowers as the NHS

Margaret Heffernan has thought a lot about whistleblowing, and why companies don't respond well to it. She wrote the "Book Wilful Blindness: Why We Ignore the Obvious at our Peril". In this podcast she talks about how culture, and groupthink, leads to a culture where whistleblowers are ignored, and why the NHS needs to change the way it treats...




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Cancer drug trials used for regulatory approval are at risk of bias

Around half of trials that supported new cancer drug approvals in Europe between 2014 and 2016 were judged to be at high risk of bias, in a new study. Huseyin Naci,assistant professor of health policy a the London School of Economics joins us to talk about why potential bias may mean potential exaggeration of treatment effects, and could be...




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Nudging the calories off your order

There has been a lot of noise made about calorie counts on labels - the idea being it’s one of those things that might nudge people to make healthier choices. So much so that in 2018, in the USA, it became mandatory for food chains with more than 20 outlets to label the calories in their food. But the effectiveness of that is hard to gauge -...




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Editors pick of education in 2019

If you’re lucky enough to not be back at work, you might be feeling like you need to quickly refresh your medical knowledge - and this podcast the BMJ’s education editors take you on a whistlestop tour through the BMJ’s education articles of 2019. Tom Nolan (GP in London) is joined by Navjoyt Ladher (GP in London), Anita Jain (GP in India) and...




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Prevalence and treatment of precocious puberty

Precocious puberty, that is puberty that starts before age 8 in girls and 9 in boys seems to be on the rise, but whether that’s because of an increase in incidence, or greater attention is unknown - what we do know that precocious puberty in girls is commonly idiopathic, while in boys is a red flag for pathology. But either way ther first point of...




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David Williams - everyday discrimination is an independent predictor of mortality

There comes a tipping point in all campaigns when the evidence is overwhelming and the only way to proceed is with action. According to David Williams, it’s time to tackle the disproportionate effects of race on patients in the UK. David Williams, from Harvard University, developed the Everyday Discrimination Scale that, in 1997, launched a new...




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Born equal - the launch of The BMJ special issue on race in medicine

Last week the BMJ published it’s first special edition into Racism in Medicine. The issues tacked ranged from differential attainment in medical school, to the physiological effects that experiencing everyday discrimination has. The issue was guest edited by Victor Adebowale, the Chief Executive of the social care enterprise Turning Point, and...




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Feeling the fear with Iona Heath and Danielle Ofri

A new podcast from The BMJ, to help GP's feel more connected, heard, and supported. Subscribe on; Apple podcasts - https://bit.ly/applepodsDBI Spotify - https://bit.ly/spotifyDBI Google podcasts - https://bit.ly/googlepodsDBI This week, our topic is fear: we try to get a better understanding of fear, how it affects all of us as clinicians for...




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Talk Evidence covid-19 update - lack of testing transparency, how to give good debate

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing. We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you...




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Talk evidence covid-19 update: natural history of covid, include patients in guidelines

For the next few months Talk Evidence is going to focus on the new corona virus pandemic. There is an enormous amount of uncertainty about the disease, what the symptoms are, fatality rate, treatment options, things we shouldn't be doing. We're going to try to get away from the headlines and talk about what we need to know - to hopefully give you...




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Glucose-Induced Reactive Oxygen Species Cause Apoptosis of Podocytes and Podocyte Depletion at the Onset of Diabetic Nephropathy

Katalin Susztak
Jan 1, 2006; 55:225-233
Complications




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Prospective Analysis of The Insulin-Resistance Syndrome (Syndrome X)

Steven M Haffner
Jun 1, 1992; 41:715-722
Original Article




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C-Reactive Protein Is an Independent Predictor of Risk for the Development of Diabetes in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study

Dilys J. Freeman
May 1, 2002; 51:1596-1600
Complications




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The Effect of Thiazolidinediones on Plasma Adiponectin Levels in Normal, Obese, and Type 2 Diabetic Subjects

Joseph G. Yu
Oct 1, 2002; 51:2968-2974
Obesity Studies




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Moving GLUT4: The Biogenesis and Trafficking of GLUT4 Storage Vesicles

Shane Rea
Nov 1, 1997; 46:1667-1677
Perspectives in Diabetes




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High Incidence of Metabolically Active Brown Adipose Tissue in Healthy Adult Humans: Effects of Cold Exposure and Adiposity

Masayuki Saito
Jul 1, 2009; 58:1526-1531
Metabolism




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Endothelial Progenitor Cell Dysfunction: A Novel Concept in the Pathogenesis of Vascular Complications of Type 1 Diabetes

Cindy J.M. Loomans
Jan 1, 2004; 53:195-199
Complications




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Thiazolidinediones in the Treatment of Insulin Resistance and Type II Diabetes

Alan R Saltiel
Dec 1, 1996; 45:1661-1669
Perspectives in Diabetes




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Relation Between Antioxidant Enzyme Gene Expression and Antioxidative Defense Status of Insulin-Producing Cells

Markus Tiedge
Nov 1, 1997; 46:1733-1742
Original Article




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Are the {beta}-Cell Signaling Molecules Malonyl-CoA and Cystolic Long-Chain Acyl-CoA Implicated in Multiple Tissue Defects of Obesity and NIDDM?

Marc Prentki
Mar 1, 1996; 45:273-283
Original Article




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Cell-Permeable Peptide Inhibitors of JNK: Novel Blockers of {beta}-Cell Death

Christophe Bonny
Jan 1, 2001; 50:77-82
Islet Studies




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Inflammatory Cytokines and the Risk to Develop Type 2 Diabetes: Results of the Prospective Population-Based European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam Study

Joachim Spranger
Mar 1, 2003; 52:812-817
Pathophysiology




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Intramyocellular triglyceride content is a determinant of in vivo insulin resistance in humans: a 1H-13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy assessment in offspring of type 2 diabetic parents

G Perseghin
Aug 1, 1999; 48:1600-1606
Articles




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The Effect of Insulin on the Disposal of Intravenous Glucose: Results from Indirect Calorimetry and Hepatic and Femoral Venous Catheterization

R A DeFronzo
Dec 1, 1981; 30:1000-1007
Original Contribution




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NCEP-Defined Metabolic Syndrome, Diabetes, and Prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease Among NHANES III Participants Age 50 Years and Older

Charles M. Alexander
May 1, 2003; 52:1210-1214
Complications




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Mechanisms of Pancreatic {beta}-Cell Death in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes: Many Differences, Few Similarities

Miriam Cnop
Dec 1, 2005; 54:S97-S107
Section III: Inflammation and beta-Cell Death




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Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Feature of the Metabolic Syndrome

Giulio Marchesini
Aug 1, 2001; 50:1844-1850
Pathophysiology




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Tumor Necrosis Factor {alpha}: A Key Component of the Obesity-Diabetes Link

Gökhan S Hotamisligil
Nov 1, 1994; 43:1271-1278
Perspectives in Diabetes




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Intrauterine exposure to diabetes conveys risks for type 2 diabetes and obesity: a study of discordant sibships

D Dabelea
Dec 1, 2000; 49:2208-2211
Articles




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Evidence for 5'AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Mediation of the Effect of Muscle Contraction on Glucose Transport

Tatsuya Hayashi
Aug 1, 1998; 47:1369-1373
Rapid Publications




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Insulin Action, Diabetogenes, and the Cause of Type II Diabetes

C. Ronald Kahn
Aug 1, 1994; 43:1066-1085
Banting Lecture