The news is dominated this morning by only one story, the death of former South African leader Nelson Mandela, but there still a number of health stories to be found.
The BBC reports that an analysis by the Dr Foster research group looking at knee, hip and cataract operations found that in many areas the NHS appears to be rationing access to non-emergency hospital care. It showed there has been a distinct levelling off in the overall nunber of operations over the past two years, while in 2012-13 the number of knee replacements actually fell for the first time in a decade.
The Telegraph carries data published by Macmillan Cancer Support which suggests that the number of people dying from breast, prostate and bowel cancer will almost halve by the end of the decade. It also found roughly a third of patients with those cancers will ultimately die from the disease, compared to roughly two thirds in 1992.
And finally, we’re always being told to eat healthily - but what happens if you throw all the advice out the window and stick exclusively to junk food instead? That’s the case with 21-year-old Faye Campbell, who was featured in the Daily Mail last month because she never eats fruit, vegetables, fresh meat or fish, and lives almost entirely on ‘processed, salty and fatty rubbish, day after day, all washed down with litres of sugar-packed Lucozade or cola’ - yet remains a ‘size 10-12’.
Well, now the Daily Mail has subjected her to a battery of tests - electrocardiogram, glucose levels, full blood count - and the results make interesting reading…
