Jo Waters

The Covid pandemic is sparking fears of a rise in suicide and suicidal behaviour. Journalist Jo Waters asks who are the groups most at risk and how can CPs best support them.
Mental health charities have reported more people seeking help for suicidal thoughts after Covid-19 created a perfect storm for mental illness.
During the first month of lockdown, nearly one in five people reported thoughts of self-harm or suicide, according to research published in June by University College London (UCL...

The number of people living in cities is projected to rise from 55 % to 68 % of the world’s population by 2050, according to the United Nations. Strong leadership and multi-sectoral planning can make our cities far healthier for human habitation
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The novel coronavirus and fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change are the two biggest challenges the world faces in mid-2020. Both are acutely apparent in cities. The covid-19 pandemic has hit densely popu...

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The world is getting heavier, with obesity spreading at an alarming rate across the globe. Worldwide incidence of obesity tripled between 1975 and 2016. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) most people on the planet live in countries where they are more likely to die because they are overweight and obese, than because they do not have enough to eat.
“Obesity is a gateway disease for other chronic conditions,” says Ximena Ramos-Salas, policy and resear...

Gemma Towle was just 16 when she had her first sunbed session. 'I was desperate to look 'healthy' and tanned ready for my school prom,' she says.
'I didn't want to look pale beside my friends, who were using sunbeds.'
Despite it being illegal to use sunbeds at tanning salons below the age of 18, Gemma, from Blackpool, found a way around it.
'My friend's parents hired a sunbed at their home and I used it,' she recalls.
'I knew about the sun and the risk of skin cancer, and knew I was at higher...

Hearing loss isn’t just something that strikes in old age: you may be surprised to learn that more than 40 per cent of the over-50s are affected.
Yet it’s a problem many sufferers don’t want to admit to. Around three million people with hearing loss severe enough to be classed as disabling have not sought help, according to a report by the British Irish Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association in 2019.
Most people wait ten years on average before they seek help.
Quite apart from affecting...

For seven years, Sue McDonagh struggled with agonising gout attacks so intense, it felt as though shards of glass were pressing into her right big toe, and at one point had her begging for an amputation.
‘Each attack caused me excruciating pain,’ says Sue, 62, an artist. Then, three years ago, in 2017, she finally got her symptoms under control.
Rather than a case of misdiagnosis, she had simply not been given the right treatment. Taking the correct drug, two tablets daily, has changed her li...

Last week I was sitting in glorious isolation in my consulting room at St Peter’s Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, in what felt like a ghost town.
There was a deserted waiting room, and outside was a virtually empty car park. My only contact with patients was via the telephone on my desk.
Along the corridor, the dermatology, ophthalmology and other outpatient consulting rooms also stood empty.
PLAY Top Articles by Daily Mail Rare group of HIV patients don't need drugs to suppress the virus
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Louisa Batista is justifiably proud that in five decades she's never taken a single day off sick — for it's an extraordinary 50 years since, at the age of 18, she began working at St Thomas' Hospital in London.
During the height of the pandemic, when lots of staff were off sick, Louisa was there — standing in at a moment's notice to cover the absences.
She was also with her colleagues working through the night to make sandwiches for emergency workers during the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005....

They’re the over-the-counter remedies relied upon by hundreds of thousands of Britons to ease digestive problems, but now new restrictions on laxatives mean many people may struggle with symptoms, and some could end up in hospital as a result.
That’s the warning from a world-leading expert on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) following changes to the rules regarding the sale of laxatives.
Stimulant laxatives can rapidly ease the constipation experienced by an estimated 1.5 million IBS sufferers ...

After months of unexplained violent seizures, where his limbs jerked multiple times a day, Andrew Hill was desperate.
The self-employed plasterer was having up to 60 seizures a week since falling from scaffolding on to a concrete floor three years before, injuring his ribs and head.
But despite tests and scans, doctors found no brain injury or epilepsy — the most obvious causes. At one point a nurse in A&E suggested they were simply panic attacks.
‘I felt I wasn’t being believed and the sympt...

The proportion of the UK population who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual increased from 1.5% to 2% between 2012 and 2017: around 1.1 million people (Office for National Statistics, 2019). In addition, it is estimated that up to 500,000 people identify as transgender (Government Equalities Office, 2018). The LGBT+ community is growing fast. The term LGBT+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, plus a number of gender- and sexuality-based identities: for example queer, pansexual...

Do you know a Health Hero? The Daily Mail, in partnership with eBay and NHS Charities Together, wants you to nominate special people in the healthcare sector who have made a difference to your life, or to a loved one’s life.
The winner of the award will receive a £5,000 holiday. To make a nomination, fill in the form below.
Here, Jo Waters tells the story of a nominee who goes the extra mile for mental health patients...
Hayley McLellan is well known for being able to fix things. Last week, s...

Do you know a health hero? The Daily Mail, in partnership with eBay and NHS Charities Together, wants you to nominate special people in the healthcare sector who have made a difference to your life, or to a loved one’s life. Seven finalists will get an all-expenses-paid trip to London for an awards ceremony. The winner will receive a £5,000 holiday. To make a nomination, fill in the form below right. Here, JO WATERS tells one nominee’s story...
Working flat-out as a GP, Dr Haider Ali was cert...

Covid-19 has put unprecedented pressures on the mental health of millions of people in the UK – including young people, new mothers and healthcare professionals. Journalist Jo Waters looks at the impact, now and moving forward, plus what’s needed to help.
Levels of loneliness, depression, harmful alcohol and drug use, self-harm and suicidal behaviour have been predicted to rise as a result of living through the Covid-19 pandemic, especially from the effect of quarantine on normal life (WHO, 2...