Health & illness

When our bodies fail, how can we fight back? Explore our expert views:

Kidney bingoes?

I need money. He needs a kidney. It should be win-win. Is there a case for allowing paid organ transplants?

Walk-ins wounded?

Shirley Reveley wonders if best use is being made of skilled staff in new schemes for polyclinics and walk-in centres.

Slice of audio-visual FMRI [Image: Steve Smith, FMRIB]

Mapping the brain

Taking photos of the brain reacting to external stimuli? Discover how FMRI works.

The smoking ban

Mike’s job in a smoky pub is slowly killing him. But it’s a free country… isn’t it?

Sample example

Does hanging around snooker halls make you a better player? And what does this tell us about medical studies and epidemiology?

Eat yourself fitter

Claims for oranges, omega 3 and priobiotics are over-egged. It's not so easy eating for health.

Vivienne Parry discusses whether BSE causes CJD

Beef on the brain

Can scientists really be sure of links between CJD and BSE?

Body building

A biologist and an engineer combine efforts and set about making muscles.

Snappy solutions

Can modern medicine learn from the secrets of crocodile cures?

Dancing in space

Spinal injuries can respond to treatment given as part of dance therapy.

Valuable space - two nurses by an empty bed

Wastes of space?

A former hospital head explains why it's not so simple dealing with so-called bed blockers.

An alternative vision

Could Healthy Living Centres offer a new way of health by offering prevention over cure?

Choosing the children

If you can predict - and thin out - those predisposed to disease, what does that mean? Can we balance society and genetics?

We are all God now

By placing choices that could shape life as yet uncreated in the hands of parents, science shifts theological debate. One case is the interplay between religion and genetics.

Life in a world we can shape

If we can shape our children to our will, what would that do to our relationships with them? Consider psychology and genetics.

And now, where?

We're already doing incredible things - but what's in the future of genetic testing.

Ronald Reagan, whose widow believes stem cell research could have eased his later years

Blasphemy or science?

The use of stem cells from foetuses has changed the terms of the abortion debate. Make your own mind up on stem cell research.

Internet health check

There's a lot of health information on the net - some of it more useful than other. How can you be sure it's advice you can trust?

Ask a doctor... or nurse... or...

If you want to know, ask an expert. We subject medical specialists to an NHS Q&A.

Suitable cases for treatment?

Complementary and Alternative Medicine comes in many forms - get to know the key features of the big five.

Facing the challenge

Nearly 70 per cent of all people wth HIV/AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Susan Fawssett introduces our exploration of the challenges of HIV AIDS.

Fitter, healthier

Will we have to change society for us all to be healthier?

Saved by the net

Can online medical networks really be lifesavers?

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