A doctor writes: cervical and endometrial cancers are two distinct diseasesDr Muiris Houston explains differences in the detection, investigation and treatment of the cancersThu Nov 22 2018 - 18:05
How to become the patient Vicky Phelan wants you to beIt’s time we saw critical thinking as an essential life-skill to be taught in schoolsTue Nov 20 2018 - 08:01
Antibiotics: When the drugs don’t workWhile the discovery of a new antibiotic is rare and welcome, the focus must remain on tackling the rising rates of resistance to the drugsMon Nov 12 2018 - 06:01
Varadkar insists lack of staff in hospitals at Christmas results in delayed treatmentTaoiseach said his experience working in various hospitals helped form his viewsFri Nov 09 2018 - 22:00
Anatomy of a Dublin hospital that reaches back to 1703A new book chronicles the history of St James’s, which started out as a workhouseTue Nov 06 2018 - 05:01
Caesarean sections: ‘Too posh to push’ or ‘too poor to choose’The time has come to increase the percentage of operative interventions for women who are treated in the public systemMon Oct 29 2018 - 06:01
No cause for alarm but check your child’s polio vaccination up to dateDr Muiris Houston: Symptoms include loss of muscle tone, facial droop, slurred speechTue Oct 23 2018 - 02:00
Are you allergic to penicillin? Are you sure?There’s an 80 per cent chance that they have been incorrectly labelledMon Oct 22 2018 - 06:01
Danger of a catastrophic influenza pandemic far from overOn the centenary of the Spanish flu epidemic, a worldwide authority on infectious diseases issues a timely warningMon Oct 15 2018 - 05:01
‘If I was a 3 glasses of wine a week person, I wouldn’t stop in the face of recent scare stories’So what does the new information really mean for moderate drinkers?Mon Oct 08 2018 - 06:01
Dr Muiris Houston: Got kidney stones? Hop on a rollercoasterThe ‘Ig Nobel’ awards honour achievements that make people laugh – then thinkMon Sept 24 2018 - 06:01
‘Rx’, ‘Po’ and ‘alt die’: the doctor’s indecipherable prescriptionDoctors are being asked to ditch Latin terms and use language patients understandMon Sept 17 2018 - 07:01
Muiris Houston: Scally report signals deep problems in Irish healthcareCommunication and disclosure are key flaws among CervicalCheck’s systemic deficitsFri Sept 14 2018 - 01:00
How important is taking time off work? VeryDon’t think having an otherwise healthy lifestyle compensates for working too hardMon Sept 10 2018 - 06:22
What is the CPE superbug that is present in Irish hospitals?Dr Muiris Houston: CPE is the latest bug that is hard to kill with antibioticsTue Sept 04 2018 - 06:00
Dr Muiris Houston: I fear we are witnessing a resurgence in measles infectionIn the cot was an eight-year-old boy: he could not swallow and was almost completely blindMon Sept 03 2018 - 06:00
Doctors who trust their gut, vs doctors who order more testsStudy highlights the important role human intuition plays in medical decisionsMon Aug 27 2018 - 10:25
I’m not joking: laughter really is the best medicineA belly laugh is good for the heart, clears up rashes and lowers blood sugar in diabeticsMon Aug 20 2018 - 06:01
Study linking e-cigarettes to lung function adds to concerns over vapingSmall study in ‘Thorax’ medical journal adds to growing body of research on e-cigarettesTue Aug 14 2018 - 00:35
When a sudden descent is too much for the eardrumAfter a dramatic change in cabin pressure passengers can experience bleeding and intense painMon Jul 30 2018 - 06:01
‘I would be horrified to see tattoos or a nose ring on an attending doctor’There was a huge response to a column on presentation and professionalismMon Jul 23 2018 - 06:01
Why you should hug your doctor the next time you see themResearch shows if you see the same doctor you are likely to reduce your risk of deathMon Jul 16 2018 - 06:01
Would you care if your doctor had a ‘Mad Max’ tattoo?Research into doctors’ appearance finds body art doesn’t affect patient trust. But piercings ...Mon Jul 09 2018 - 06:01
Anabolic steroids and adolescents’ culture of invulnerabilityDr Muiris Houston: Risks associated with sex, dosage and duration of administrationFri Jul 06 2018 - 01:53
Dental neglect: A painful reality for 37% of Irish children37% of HSE dentists see children with neglected dentition at least daily, study findsMon Jul 02 2018 - 06:01
Heatwave health risks: From dehydration to heat strokeA Doctor Writes: Health effects of hot weather linked to the body’s ability to adaptMon Jun 25 2018 - 15:16
Traveller’s diarrhoea: from Delhi belly to the Kathmandu quickstep to Montezuma's revengeIt’s common and it’s unpleasant but it’s usually transient and rarely life-threateningMon Jun 18 2018 - 08:55
Hopefully, you were able to sleep in over the Bank Holiday weekend – your body will thank you‘Short (weekday) sleep is not a risk factor for mortality if it is combined with a medium or long weekend sleep’Mon Jun 04 2018 - 08:01
Six out of every 10 human infections spread by animalsDozens of cases of ebola reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in recent weeksMon May 28 2018 - 06:00
Home-based abortion by medication will become Irish normMethod shown to be highly effective and safe when used up to 22 weeks of pregnancyMon May 28 2018 - 01:10
Pregnant pause: why expectant mothers with medical conditions stop taking medicationThe exclusion of pregnant women from drug trials means there is little drug-safety information for them to rely onMon May 21 2018 - 08:01
Why are some people unaffected by mental health problems?Dr Muiris Houston: Emotional resilience, the ability to deal with difficulty, can be learnedMon May 14 2018 - 07:01
Opinion: Trust in HSE must be earned from ground upThe HSE keeps getting the basics wrong. It’s time for organisational change, writes Muiris HoustonSat May 12 2018 - 00:00
When it comes to health checks, no news is not good newsCervicalCheck tragedy shows risks in communication failures not widely appreciatedMon May 07 2018 - 10:01
CervicalCheck: How did such a huge communications failure occur?Public trust in Ireland’s health service continues to be eroded, writes Dr Muiris HoustonThu May 03 2018 - 21:46
Four months free of chemo or six months with it?Dr Muiris Houston on the big decision faced by many terminally ill cancer patientsMon Apr 30 2018 - 07:01
A doctor writes: Can women trust CervicalCheck?Can women have confidence in the national cervical screening programme?Sat Apr 28 2018 - 01:00
Phelan case: The days of doctor knows best are behind usAnalysis: CervicalCheck review should extend to all screening programmesSat Apr 28 2018 - 01:00
A doctor writes: What went wrong at CervicalCheck in the Vicky Phelan caseDo its labs follow best practice, and why wasn’t a flag raised for three years?Thu Apr 26 2018 - 20:06
Dark humoured doctors need to watch their languageMedical argot, beloved by the profession, can stray into unacceptable territory when carelessly applied to patientsMon Apr 23 2018 - 05:01
Lessons from the great influenza pandemic for today's worldFlu pandemic of 1918 killed only slightly fewer Irish people than four years of the Great WarSun Apr 08 2018 - 07:01
Waking the dead a balm to the grieving processThanks to the kindness of fantastic friends and neighbours, we gave ‘Nan’ a great send-offMon Apr 02 2018 - 06:01
Dr Muiris Houston: Bio-weapons are scarily easy to get and useSergei and Yulia Skripal’s poisoner delivered neurotoxin via air conditioning in victim’s carTue Mar 27 2018 - 06:00
Flu increases heart attack and stroke risk, study claimsRespiratory infections cause inflammation, while the flu virus and pneumonia can damage heart muscleThu Mar 22 2018 - 00:30
Does ‘an apple a day keep the doctor away’ and should you ‘feed a cold, starve a fever’?Sometimes the recommendation contained in the aphorism is worse than the diseaseMon Mar 19 2018 - 09:01
What is bacterial meningitis and what are the symptoms?There are three subgroups of meningococci: A, B and C. Vaccines are available against B and CTue Mar 13 2018 - 01:00
Shift work: bad for your diet and sleep, and raises your cancer riskDr Muiris Houston: A body of evidence links shift work with diabetes, heart disease and cancerMon Mar 12 2018 - 06:01
GPs prescribe antidepressants because therapy isn’t availableDr Muiris Houston: Major new research contains valuable information on antidepressant medicinesMon Mar 05 2018 - 06:00
Shingles: Bring on the vaccine and free us from ‘hell’s fire’Shingles risk risk rises sharply when you hit 50. The pain has been likened to childbirthMon Feb 26 2018 - 06:01
Measles back with a vengeance due to fake health newsNew approach needed to combat false information about vaccinesFri Feb 23 2018 - 01:00
