Jo Waters

Sitting in an ice bath for three minutes a day, five days a week, is an unconventional treatment that the no-nonsense Holby City character, Dr Jac Naylor, is unlikely to have endorsed.

But actress Rosie Marcel, who played the heart surgeon in the popular BBC drama for 16 years, is a devotee of the freezing dips to tackle the pain caused by her rare autoimmune condition.

'I go numb when I'm in the ice bath - but you quickly get used to it,' says Rosie, 46, who lives in Hertfordshire with her h...

Even as the number of dementia cases worldwide is projected to double to 139 million by 2050, promising new drugs raise hopes of slowing the disease progression. However, stigma and financial barriers continue to impede access to timely diagnosis and treatment.
The introduction of three new drugs may significantly improve the lives of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Photo: Egor Myznik
For nearly 20 years, no new drugs had been approved for Alzheimer’s. The recent licensing of two new medicat...

Could AI enhance your practice and give you more time to spend with clients? Or are there downsides? Journalist JO WATERS reports on the role of AI in the NHS right now, its wider potential – and what it all means for you.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the use of digital technologies to create systems capable of performing tasks commonly thought to require human intelligence – has arrived. It has been accompanied both by doomsday prediction stories and amazing case studies showing how it can...

Plagued by the skin condition psoriasis since her teens, Anna McFadyen knows only too well that her problems go much deeper.
For the psoriasis is linked to her painful joints, as a result of psoriatic arthritis, an inflammatory type of arthritis.
And recently she's learned that the skin condition has raised her risk of another problem, heart disease.
Psoriasis is an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks healthy skin cells, speeding up the rate at which they are renewed, causing...

Running towards a railway line, Ian Moore found himself sobbing hysterically and with his brain feeling ‘like it was on fire’. ‘I just wanted to end it all, I had no idea why, these terrible feelings had come out of nowhere,’ says Ian, 43, a former construction site foreman from Bristol.
Although he had been off work with a suspected prostate infection, he was ‘at the peak of my physical fitness — I love cycling, sometimes doing it every day’.
He was happy in his job and enjoying his life wit...

Hannah Newman-Smith thought she was simply being more clumsy than usual — how else to explain the angry bruises that kept popping up all over her arms and legs.
It wasn’t just that the bruises were more frequent, she’d get them even if she knocked herself slightly. They were also much bigger than normal, says Hannah, 34, a wedding stylist, who lives in Liverpool with her husband Daniel, 36, an office manager, and their two-year-old daughter.
‘One time my daughter caught me above my eye with a...

Arnold Schwarzenegger's son Joseph Baena rings in his 26th birthday with video of him in Speedos at the beach
Game of Thrones star Joseph Gatt appears in court on child sex-offense charge with girlfriend Mercy Malick a year after his arrest
Eight in ten car owners are holding on to their motor for longer and HALF of us are thinking about getting something smaller - here's why Ad Feature
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Travis Kelce's ex Kayla Nicole UNFOLLOWS close pal Brittany Mahomes - after her friend was se...

Dedicated surgical hubs, Community Diagnostic Centres, outpatient clinics in retail units and virtual wards are just some examples of how the NHS is innovating to beat record waiting lists.
Experts Tim Mitchell, Pradip Karanjit, Philippa Slinger and Isabel Lawicka discuss how it’s going.
WORDS: Jo Waters
NHS innovation takes on the waiting lists
Speaking at the launch of the surgical hubs last year, Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay was determined to take on the waiting list of 7...

NHS innovators Dr Layla McCay, John Watkins, Tara Donnelly, Deborah El-Sayed and Gary Ferguson are rising to the challenge of this winter’s upcoming pressures
WORDS: JO WATERS
This Winter’s Tale
By using and adapting existing spaces, utilising a strategic approach to estate space, introducing virtual wards and AI forecasting, experts are showing how we can relieve the pressure for our NHS this winter. How will NHS Trusts rise to the challenge?
Dr Layla McCay, Director of Policy at the NHS Con...

After completing the challenging 73-mile Hadrian's Wall hike in North-East England, physiotherapist Bev Strathearn was feeling on top on the world.
'I felt fit for my age and healthy,' says 56-year-old Bev. Yet only weeks later she found herself in hospital suffering from life-threatening blood clots that had been caused by a foot injury she sustained during the hike.
'I began to sit with my right leg bent back under my chair at work to avoid putting pressure on the sole of my foot,' recalls ...

First described as “shaking palsy” by James Parkinson more than 200 years ago, Parkinson’s was once thought of as just a movement disorder, causing the classic triad of tremor, slowness of movement, and muscle rigidity.
Yet only one-third of people with Parkinson’s ever shake.
Claire Bale is the associate director of research at the charity Parkinson’s UK. ‘People tend to have a very one-dimensional view of what Parkinson’s is,’ she says.‘They think it mainly affects older men and will cause ...

How can the professions convey the breadth and complexity of their role to the public and society-at-large? And what benefits might that bring? Journalist Jo Waters reports…
Mention a midwife and – for most people – a picture of a uniformed woman might spring to mind, holding anew-born baby or squeezing the hand of a woman in labour during the most taxing moments. There are tears of joy, moments of drama and labour pains, of course – but there’s a happy resolution that most parents will remem...

New, more effective weight-loss drugs may soon overtake the current blockbuster slimming injections Ozempic and Wegovy.
The good news is these new drugs not only have fewer gastric side-effects, but some of them also come as pills, rather than having to be injected.
Wegovy (generic name semaglutide) can help obese people lose up to 15 per cent of their weight, and when it was launched in the US for weight loss in 2021 it was seen as a breakthrough in tackling the growing global obesity and ty...

Morgan Lee-Stephens noticed she was becoming increasingly out of puff walking uphill to pick up her grandchildren from school.
She also had some chest pain and felt momentarily dizzy.
'The walk was on a slight incline, but I'm a fit gym-goer — I went three times a week, including a boxing class — so it wasn't normal for me to be so breathless,' says Morgan, 65.
The accommodation advisory consultant, who lives in Loughton, Essex, with partner Lee, 61, a black cab driver, adds: 'I thought I was...

Health expert Jo Waters has been looking through some of the questions readers have about their health conundrums as we go into the summer.
As millions jet off, they're looking for tips on staying hydrated, avoiding sunburn and fixing hangovers.
Here's what she says:
My holiday is coming up but my period is due and I’m not on the Pill. Can I delay it?
If you’re not taking the combined pill and you want to delay your period, talk to your doctor or pharmacist about medication to delay your blee...