Medical news, blogs & case reports round-up

Sleep well to fight colds: Science confirms what our grandma’s have been telling us for years! A team from Carnegie Mellon University found that sleep deprivation can treble your risk of catching a cold.

Does mouthwash cause cancer? The latest cancer scare story to hit the papers suggests that using mouthwash can lead to oral cancer. Cancer Research UK analyse the paper that sparked the press headlines and compare mouthwash use to other risk factors.

Oestrogen causes DNA mutations – is this how it fuels cancer? Although there is sufficient evidence to suggest that oestrogen is involved in cancer, there are few ideas as to how the hormone causes cells to replicate and proliferate. Could the answer lie with this theory, proposed by Cancer Research UK scientists?

[Case Report]: Baby girl born to ‘dead’ mother: Two days after an ice skating star died of a brain hemorrhage doctors managed to successfully deliver her 25 week premature baby by cesarean section.

Antipsychotics raise death risk for Alzheimer’s patients: Published in Lancet Neurology, this study suggests long-term treatment with antipsychotics nearly doubled patients’ risk of death.

Telling lies to your doctor, and how it can kill you: 13% of us ‘bend the truth’ when quizzed by our doctor. This article explores how those little white lies can have rather substantial consequences.

[Case Report]: Vicks VapoRub may harm infants: Published in Chest, an 18-month-old girl with a common upper respiratory infection suddenly developed severe breathing problems after the application of Vicks VapoRub to her nose.

The English surgeon: Here is the trailer for a film about London based neurosurgeon Dr Henry Marsh and his Ukrainian colleague Igor Kurilets. The film documents Dr Marsh’s visits to Kiev and his attempts to improve upon the ‘medieval brain surgery’ he witnessed there on his first visit.

and if a docu-film on surgery isn’t cultured enough for you….

Skin Deep: taking opera to the cutting edge: ‘Skin Deep’, an adventurous opera that addresses the subject of plastic surgery opens its curtains to the UK this week. In this article, the Telegraph talks to both creators about the collision of opera and operating table.