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On The Perils of Pill-Boxes...

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Despite the rather arresting title, anyone expecting an exciting cautionary tale about the dangers of World War 2 fortifications and over-adventurous offspring will, I’m afraid, be disappointed.... The Pill-boxes I refer to are those clever little inventions many of us now use to ensure we remember to take our medications at the right time on the right day . Younger readers might think this is a task that should be easy enough for anyone of sound mind; they may even scoff at the need for anything to aid in something so pedestrian, given their only medication they ever need is the occasional paracetamol or ibuprofen for a headache. What we need to remember, though, is that the average age of our UK population is increasing rapidly, and its general health is continuing to decline in the face of a failing health service which is forced to ration its care by availability, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.  As a result, more and more people are being prescribed medication to...
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Weight Loss Therapies using GLP-1 Agonists - Efficacy and The Side Effects

Weight loss therapies using GLP-1 agonists have been implicated in the news recently as causing gallstones, and in some cases more serious gall-bladdder damage.  Should we have expected this, and what might be the consequences ? The short answer to this question is …Yes - this particular side effect was predictable, particularly after longer-term exposure..... To explain this more fully, we first need a little background. GLP-1 agonists are one of the most successful weight-loss inducing agents produced by Big Pharma of recent times. Originally designed and developed as anti-diabetic agents, their ability to suppress appetite soon became the main focus of drug developers, resulting in regulatory approval of the first in class Semaglutide (marketed by Novo Nordisk as Wegovy) and then Tirzepatide (Mounjaro; Ely-Lilly). {Note the parallel here with Viagra, which was originally developed as a heart drug, but quickly morphed into the world's most frequently-used treatment for er...
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UK Student Loans – SB or BS ?

UK Student loans, and more particularly the repayment of them, is a hot topic in the news at the moment.  The student body is clamouring for more favourable terms, given Reeves' recent threshold freeze, the burgeoning cost of living and rises in student fees. There are particular concerns about the affordability of the legacy (i.e. Plan 2) scheme which still applies to all loans taken out before August 2023. The majority of outstanding loan balances currently fall under this plan, and the terms of this loan scheme has resulted in crippling interest rates due to the built-in 3% surcharge above RPI, and the recent and quite prolonged spike in inflation, which resulted in interest rates well over 10%, at a time when most loan balances were still high.  The government is under pressure to act on this, and many are even starting to question whether a university education is really still 'value for money' in the 2020s, given the high cost, and the poor quality of some of the ...
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