Cholesterol tests - During a general check-up, most doctors recommend that you undergo a cholesterol test to determine whether you are at risk of heart disease. The test...

Cholesterol tests should be stopped - Universal screening for cholesterol should be abandoned, the powerful American College of Physicians (ACP) has decreed. Those aged over 75 can safely...

Cholesterol tests - What to do instead - A high cholesterol count will almost certainly send you down the road of a lifelong prescription of statins and a criminally low-fat diet.

Panel calls for rethink on the use of ritalin - An expert panel from the National Institutes of Health in America has called for a urgent review of the use of Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride)...

Blood tests - What is a 'normal' blood test, asked a reader last week. Several readers point out that there are so many different types of test, and the laboratory...

The best alternative treatment for . . . stopping smoking - What to do instead - * Hypnotherapy and acupuncture may be able to help with smoking addiction (Med Clin North Am, 2004; 88: 1607-21) * Take Rhodiola rosea, a plant is...

In defence of the so-called bad fats - The world of dietary fats is a complicated alphabet soup of names and numbers, and our understanding of how each type of fat works in the body - for g...

New cholesterol reducing drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) - Is it really a wonder drug? - Q-I am anxious to know whether the new cholesterol reducing drug Lipitor (atorvastatin), by Parke-Davis/Pfizer, is a new and different form of calcium...