Our round-up of the health headlines on Friday 19 August.
It's Friday, so it's no surprise that the Daily Telegraph is running ‘booze news'. It's been revealed that British women have come top in a European study of binge drinkers and now are almost as likely to binge on alcohol as men.
Nearly 8% are dedicated ‘ladettes', the survey found, and a GP behind the research, Dr Irwin Nazareth, said doctors urgently needed to start asking patients about their drinking habits.
The rate of British women binge drinking was 7.7%, compared with 8.9% of men. By comparison, in Spain binge drinking was nine times more prevalent amongst men. If you're seeing any ladettes in surgery today, be sure to share this story with them.
The Guardian's got an interesting comment piece on the man jailed for passing herpes on to his lover. ‘How should the criminal law respond to those who pass on sexually transmitted infections (STIs)?', asks Matthew Weait – did David Golding deserve a 14-month sentence for grievous bodily harm?
STIs also make for great souvenirs, the Independent reports. More than one in three Britons (35%) has had unprotected sex with a stranger or new partner while on holiday, according to a poll, with over-50s the worst offenders for eschewing condoms. Surprise surprise – apparently alcohol was one of the factors cited as a reason for a ‘relaxed' approach to safe sex. However, poor availability of condoms also made it difficult to be careful with new partners.
We end on a strange note – and a headline that's made it into several broadsheets this morning. The BBC, amongst others, writes that ecstasy could be used to fight cancer. Modified forms of the drug Ecstasy may be effective against leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma, early research has suggested. Rumours that research was funded by a Dr Ebenezer Goode have been strongly denied.
