On a day of remembrance for those who lost their lives in the London ‘7/7’ bombings, the BBC recalls the events that saw doctors caught up in the bus bombing right outside BMA house.
GPs – who were congregating at BMA headquarters for a meeting – rushed to the scene to care for the injured and direct rescue operations.
Dr Andrew Dearden recalls that ‘in a day of awfulness, we were lucky to be able do some good’ – but insists that despite the coincidence that saw one of the bombs go off outside a building full of doctors, the anniversary is not about them, but ‘about the people who were injured and killed that day’.
The Daily Mail features a call for doctors to face annual weight checks, with fat doctors to be struck off for setting a poor example to patients.
Elsewhere, researchers believe they may have found a way to slow down memory loss, reports The Guardian in what is described as a ‘breakthrough’ in dementia research.
The scientists found that blocking production of a brain protein – beta-2-microglobulin B2M – in mice seemed to stop their memories declining with age as fast as it did in other mice.
Lastly, confirmation that people age at vastly different rates according to research reported in the BBC.
A team tracked traits such as weight, kidney function and gum health in a group of 38-year-olds and found that while some appeared not to have aged much beyond their 20s, others were ageing so much their ‘biological age’ was on the cusp of retirement.
Lead author Professor Terrie Moffitt from Duke University in the USA, said: ‘Any area of life where we currently use chronological age is faulty, if we knew more about biological age we could be more fair and egalitarian.’
