Health
What I learned while nearly dying
There’s some journalistic research you’d really never do by choice. Spending four days in an NHS hospital with a life-threatening…
Spectator Christmas letters: from Daesh to zakuski
Just call them Daesh Sir: I was interested to read Sam Leith’s article in which he appears to argue that…
Jeremy Hunt is spoiling for a fight. He’s picked the wrong one
Jeremy Hunt is right to fight for NHS reform. But he’s going after the wrong people, on the wrong issue
I’m a junior doctor and I used to trust the Tories. Not any more
Like many of my fellow junior doctors, I trusted a Conservative government with the NHS. If it’s to stay strong…
The ME lobby is just a symptom of our stupidity about mental illness
Do you ever wake up worried that you have tiny fibres growing beneath your skin, all along your spinal column?…
Make-up, chocolates, deodorant and sand: two weeks in cancer scares
Killer facts The World Health Organisation added processed meats to its list of ‘known’ carcinogens. A few of the other…
One in ten British babies will soon be born via IVF. So why is it taboo?
Pretty soon, one in ten British babies will begin life in a Petri dish. So why is it still such a taboo subject?
Paula Radcliffe is a victim of our hypocrisy and confusion about drugs and sport
Do you want to see Paula Radcliffe’s blood? If so, you’re not alone. Radcliffe, three-time winner of the London Marathon…
A licence to kill - the slippery slope of 'assisted dying'
If you don’t think legalising ‘assisted dying’ is a slippery slope, you haven’t been paying attention
Not just a fad: the dangerous reality of 'clean eating'
The ‘clean eating’ revolution is more likely to make you ill than healthy
Dear Mary: Is there a tactful way to tell a dear cousin she needs a lump removed from her face?
Q. How can you tactfully tell someone that the large skin tag or blob they have grown in the centre…
Is medical screening bad for your health? Michael Mosley dons a pair of ‘dignity shorts’ to find out
When the link between tobacco and lung cancer was first established in the early 1950s, one obvious question arose: should…
My eco-home nightmare
Buying an eco-home? Expect stifling springs and summers
The joy of anti-psychotic drugs
The doctor eyed me suspiciously as I walked into her consulting room. ‘Ye-es?’ she said, nervously, eyeing me up and…
Living next door to someone rich, and beside a motorway, makes you fat and your blood pressure soar
I wrote last week about a swarm of bees that had attached itself to a wall of my house, as…
Of course you can choose to get up early (and maybe you can choose to be gay)
‘Oh, I’m an owl,’ said my friend Nick. ‘You’re probably a lark.’ I raised an eyebrow. He explained. Apparently all…
The real reason GPs are grumpy: the robots are coming for them
There’s something wrong with the relationship between patients and their GPs. I’ve spent much of this winter in my local…
In praise of cyberchondria
There’s something perversely satisfying in discovering that your children have inherited your vices. That’s why I was so quietly pleased…
How France’s left-wing government learned to love austerity
How France learned to love cuts
Spectator letters: Bereaved parents against press regulation, and a defence of Tony Benn
Why we need a free press Sir: As bereaved parents and (to borrow from some signatories of last week’s advertisement)…
When posters told us our place
As a sign of the way things have changed, nothing could better this. Hester Vaizey, Cambridge history don and ‘publishing…
Jeffrey Archer’s diary: My personal trainer only smiles when I’m in pain
The week leading up to publication is a strange time for any author. You subject yourself to doing everything from…
Would you let parents destroy ‘gay’ embryos?
Because I’d like to have a child, and I’m getting on a bit, my husband and I have spent time…
Penelope Lively’s diary: My old-age MOT
My surgery has been calling in all those over 75 for a special session with their doctor — a sort…
Clarissa Tan's Notebook: Why I stopped drinking petrol
Florence was in fog the day I arrived. Its buildings were bathed in white cloud, its people moved as though…
