Most cancers of the prostate are not life-threatening, and a leading doctor has suggested that only 1 in 6 operations carried out for Prostate Cancer removes a growth which would lead the sufferer to an early death. The other 80%+ are 'clinically insignificant cancers, which would never develop into fatal prostate cancer'.

Some of us are old enough to remember when calculators first appeared. Many people decried the loss of mental arithmetic skills that were entailed in the constant use of those now-ubiquitous devices. In the same way, when your phone can remember all your favourite numbers, and your computer all the many details of daily life, to a large extent we no longer need to remember many things. We just need to know how to find them.

The natural ingredient which gives grapefruit its bitter taste may be able to used to create a diet pill, a study has indicated.

Naringenin, a flavonoid found in citrus fruit including grapefruit, has a affects the liver making it selectively burn fat instead of storing it after a meal. This could mean that without having to change diets or cut out particular foods, a dose of naringenin could prevent weight gain and even help to lose it.

We all know that we feel better when we have a good night's sleep. And the opposite is true too - we struggle through the day if we feel we haven't had enough shut-eye. So much, so common.

But it seems that what actually matters is how we feel about how much - and how good - our sleep has been. The actual quantity and quality of sleep seems not to matter at all. These findings were recently published in the journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, not surprisingly called "Sleep"

There is more evidence that coffee has a beneficial effect on Alzheimer's disease, at least in mice. Previously research from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences has suggested a protective effect from caffeine.

The new research from the University of South Florida Health Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center suggests that drinking coffee could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease. As little as 5 cups of ordinary coffee (or 2 typical lattes from your local Starbucks) would be equivalent to the dosage given to the mice in the study.

The publication of a leaflet by a section of the UK National Health Service has caused controversy in the national press. There is much clucking of tongues over the cost, and the fact it is aimed at people over 60 years old who presumably have some idea of the subject themselves already, given that most have children and grandchildren of their own.

More interesting to me is what the pamphlet, called Ageing Well In Medway, actually says: