The Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal usually has a series of light-hearted articles in it. Last month's copy was no exception. In one of the articles, entitled "Medical myths" (Vreeman & Carroll 2007), the authors wrote "We generated a list of common medical or medicine related beliefs espoused by physicians and the general public, based...

Modest alcohol intake seems pretty harmless and maybe even does a bit of good healthwise. However last month's editorial (Gilmore and Sheron 2007) in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal drummed in points it's important to remember.

Ian Gilmore is President of the Royal College of Physicians and his co-author, Nick Sheron, is a specialist in liver diseases. In the...

6.15am and I'm sitting in front of my computer. Berg's violin concerto is playing on Radio 3 (it's through their "listen again" feature). This seems appropriate as the work is dedicated "To the memory of an angel". The "angel" was a teenager, Manon Gropius. Paralysed by polio at age 17, Manon died the next year. Unhappy and sometimes tragic teenagers - yesterday I...