2019 new Corona Virus (2019-nCoV) – ‘made’ in China

Bismillah, alhamdulillah: with information flying rapidly around from ‘drink water often to prevent the spread of the new corona virus’ to ‘don’t order anything from China as the virus will be spread through the ordered items’, it was time to get some facts from the virus experts at This Week in Virology (TWiV) who interviewed

Hope for Traumatic Spinal Injury with stem cell therapy – Dr Mohamad Bydon

Bismillah, alhamdulillah: this was brought to my attention when I was sent a Whatsapp video clip of a man who had a traumatic spinal injury, was unable to walk, had stem cell therapy and now could walk. Is it true, doctor? The clip came from Good Morning America and shows an interview with a patient

A useful tool for septic v reactive arthritis in kids (Kocher Criteria)

Bismillah, alhamdulillah: A medical student drew my attention to the Kocher Criteria for Septic Arthritis. Great idea: in short if 2 out of 4 are positive the child needs a referral to secondary care to rule-out septic arthritis with a likely joint aspiration. 4 key things to look for: Non-weight bearing Temp >38.5 Celsius ESR

From health to illness

Bismillah, alhamdulillah, great quotation: A healthy man is, above all, a man of this earth, and he must, therefore, only live the life of this earth for the sake of order and completeness. But as soon as he falls ill, as soon as the normal earthly order of his organism is disturbed, the possibility of

Great idea – Allergy House

Bismillah, alhamdulillah When you are in a hurry and need to quickly explain how to reduce allergen exposure to patients with asthma, eczema, and allergic rhinitis have a look at this great resource known as the ‘Allergy House’ https://www.allergyhouse.co.uk/allergy-house-mobile

Efficacy of Surah Al-Rehman in Managing Depression in Muslim Women. – PubMed – NCBI

Bismillah, alhamdulillah Small placebo RCT No=12, very good trial and great research effort. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28900859/

Doctor do I need to take my anticoagulants for my VTE for longer than three months?

Bismillah, alhamdulillah The normal and agreed upon duration of anti-coagulation after an unprovoked venous thromboembolism (VTE), also known as a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), is normally 3 months but would patients benefit by being on anti-coagulants for longer. The BMJ Talk Evidence team discuss the findings of a paper published in the BMJ which finds

How good are the new cancer drugs?

Bismillah, alhamdulillah LSE researchers call into question the trial standards of newly approved cancer drugs. 25% of all newly approved medications are for cancer, the single largest category of newly approved medication. This was based on 54 key trials but only 3/4 of these were RCTs and of this number almost half of these trials

Drug driving – two reminders from the MHRA

Bismillah, alhamdulillah The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), in its August 2019 Drug Safety Update, reminds all doctors that patients taking Naltrexone/bupropion (Mysimba▼) for weight management are at risk of somnolence (common) and loss of consciousness (rare). A risk for driving. It also reminds doctors that it is illegal for patients on certain medication

Can herbs help hypertension? MedRefresh Hypertension Part 4

Bismillah, alhamdulillah There is a growing interest in the use of herbs or plant based treatments for hypertension. The term herb itself refers to the leafy part of plants while spices are used in contrast referring to all the other parts i.e. fruits, bark, stem, roots etc. The WHO itself has shown an interest in