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Is Paracetamol merely a Worldwide Placebo Effect?

Does paracetamol actually work? Or is the paracetamol placebo effect a real thing? It’s a question we all thought had long been answered. Doctors recommend paracetamol as a first choice for pain relief all over the world. Here at MedicineHow, I’ve recommended it as the first option for many types of pain. It lines the shelves of pharmacies […]

Putting a Value on Life: Is the new Hepatitis C drug worth the dollar?

Is the new $1000 a pill Hepatitis C drug worth the dollar? It certainly makes us reconsider the value. How much is a year of healthy life worth? Unfortunately, this isn’t a rhetorical question. I’m looking for concrete answer here. For a public health representative, this is a real question that needs to be dealt with every day. […]

How Normal Cells Become Cancer Cells (A Simple Explanation)

Let’s be straight here. This post isn’t going to tell you how and why cancer cells start growing. No one really knows that for certain. And I don’t think it even comes down to one reason; there’s a myriad of them. What it is going to do, is help you to understand how it works. It’s not a direct […]

Ginger: Does it really help to reduce nausea?

Perhaps you’ve heard somewhere that ginger can help to reduce nausea. Morning sickness in pregnancy, seasickness, migraine-related nausea, even nausea from chemotherapy – there are whispers that ginger can help all sorts of nausea. But is there any truth to it? We’re going to get to the bottom of it right here (at least, as deep […]

Medication Madness: How to Stay Organised With Multiple Drugs

Multiple medications is a common problem in today’s society – something I’ve written about before. Often we don’t even know exactly why we need each one – it gets to a point where we just trust the doctor to make the decisions and try to remember to take each one at the right time. But sometimes it is […]

Why do cancer patients take drugs that give them cancer… again?

When you finally reach the end of the tunnel after a tough few months or even years of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and countless hospital visits, the last thing you want to hear is your doctor explaining that the medication he wants you to take puts you at risk of getting cancer. One of the drugs […]

Heartburn: The Role of Diet and Antacids

Do you suffer from heartburn? It’s not a nice thing to experience, with burning pain working its way up your oesophagus and sometimes causing coughing or irritation in the throat too. Interestingly, heartburn is not actually related to the heart at all. It is caused by acids escaping from the stomach and reaching up to the […]

A Simple Trick to Lower Blood Pressure

Would you believe me if I told you there was one simple trick that could help to lower your blood pressure? At first, I’d be a little skeptical. It sounds like a bad gimmick: one simple trick and all your dreams will come true. But it’s not quite like that. There’s a whole host of […]

An Over-Medicated Society in a Band-Aid World

There’s no denying it. We live in an over-medicated society, a world where we look into the medicine cupboard to find the cure at the first hint of sickness or pain. And at least in part to blame is a mentality ingrained into us as children.

Type 2 Diabetes and Oral Medication

For people with Type 2 diabetes the first and most important thing to consider is possible lifestyle changes to help manage the disease but sometimes these changes alone are simply not enough. Fortunately for people with Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas is still functioning and producing insulin; there are just problems with how effective it is. This is […]