Daily digest May 13 2015

Coming off antidepressants could lead to a healthier, longer life

People should stop taking antidepressants because the benefits are exaggerated and they would be healthier in the long term without them, a leading scientist has said.

Professor Peter Gøtzsche, director of The Nordic Cochrane Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, said patients could stop taking millions of psychiatric drugs without coming to harm.

Read more on the Daily Telegraph website

Doctors to withhold treatments in campaign against 'too much medicine'

Doctors are to stop giving patients scores of tests and treatments, such as x-rays for back pain and antibiotics for flu, in an unprecedented crackdown on the 'over-medicalisation' of illness.

In a move that has roused fears that it will lead to the widespread rationing of NHS care, the body representing the UK’s 250,000 doctors is seeking to ensure that patients no longer undergo treatment that is unlikely to work, may harm them and wastes valuable resources.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges wants to end a culture of 'too much medicine' in which 'more is better' and doctors feel compelled to always 'do something', often because they feel under pressure from the patient, even though they know that the treatment recommended will probably not work.

Read more on the Guardian website

More die in winter because genes change with seasons

The genes that control our immune system and inflammation work differently in winter, which could explain why people are more likely to die then from conditions such as heart disease and type 1 diabetes.

In a chance discovery, scientists at the University of Cambridge were looking at a set of white blood cells taken from children every three months from birth in the hope of spotting a marker that might indicate if they were going to get diabetes.

(£) Read more on the Times website