New Anticoagulants – No More Blood Tests?

Anticoagulants are medications that are prescribed to prevent blood clots from forming in blood vessels of the heart. When a blood clot forms in a blood vessel like a large vein in the leg (this is called a deep vein thrombosis), it can block the blood flow, causing swelling and pain. Blood clots can also […]

Valve disease treatment options

Up until around five years ago if you suffered a heart condition called aortic stenosis (where one of the heart valves does not open properly and blood flow is reduced), or a related problem called ‘regurgitation’ (where a heart valve ‘leaks’), your only option was open heart surgery, a procedure referred to as SAVR or […]

World’s Smallest Pacemaker About A Tenth The Size Of Predecessors

US medical manufacturing company Medtronic has created what is the world’s smallest pacemaker – the Micra Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS). It addresses two main issues with traditional pacemakers, which are… 1) The need to create a ‘surgical pocket’ under the skin size of a 50-cent coin but roughly three times at thick. This component must […]

Causes Of Chronic Cough In Adults

Coughing itself is a reflex stimulated by ‘afferent’ nerves in the airways which carry a message of airway irritation or restriction to the brain stem, which in turn sends a message to muscle tissue to contract to create a cough via the ‘efferent’ nerves. The afferent nerves are sensitive to a range of both chemical […]

Is Gluten Bad For Me?

A couple of scientific studies have come out recently indicating that perhaps following a gluten free diet for general health reasons may not be the way to go. The number of people following a gluten free diet has risen dramatically over the past few years, as a number of popular dietary approaches have recommended cutting […]