It's been a good week for ...
veg
The five-a-day mantra must be rubbing off on us. Vegfest is coming to Glasgow.
The city is to be the epicentre of a new week-long festival called The Only Way Is Ethics, which will culminate in a two-day celebration of veganism.
Ethics festival organiser Craig Tannock (not Tunnock, that's a whole different Scottish celebration) said: "It is not just a vegan event but about using all sorts of entertainment and media to celebrate ethical choices."
It's bound to get pulses racing.
It's been a bad week for ... GPs
A survey has highlighted the rising trend for self-diagnosis among internet-savvy patients.
The Astellas Innovation Debate revealed that three out of four GPs had noticed a substantial increase in the number of patients self-diagnosing from the internet over the past year, with one in five (21%) seeing an increase in patients pitching up at the surgery with information generated from health apps and smart devices.
This has prompted the medical defence organisation MDDUS to issue advice to doctors, saying they should not dismiss or feel threatened by the practice.
It may be tempting to label them cyberchondriacs or the worried well, but MDDUS points out that some patients who are anxious about their health use the internet to diagnose themselves with everything from brain tumours to exotic diseases such as dengue fever.
And you know what they say about a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
Medical adviser Dr Greg Dollman said: "Some doctors may feel anxious, intimidated or even threatened by web-wise patients arriving at their practice armed with a dossier of medical information."
But he advises doctors to listen to what every patient has to say, including carefully considering information gleaned online.
There are, of course, many GPs who have already got to the bottom of this widespread condition. A patient soon realises who's in the know once they have been unnerved by a doctor in turn consulting the internet to "make" a diagnosis.
A taste of their own medicine is often the best cure for patients with Googlitis.
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