Published 30 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2647
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2647

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From the Frontline

Cooking the books

Dad read out the menu: "Prawn cocktail, melon, Brussels pâté, gammon with pineapple rings, cheese vol-au-vents, and puddings." We salivated (not in a pre-emetic way), for this was living, our first meal out in a posh restaurant. The dinner suited waiter with a Brummie-French accent recommended a Liebfraumilch to my father. We were allowed to taste its warm vinegary sweetness and felt it loosen our dental fillings. But times change. Now we have new fresh food, new ideas, and antipodean waiters in jeans. The medical menu has changed too. Tuberculosis and rheumatic fever have disappeared. These scourges of humanity fell away partly because of better medical treatment but mainly because of factors unknown.

Vascular disease is another plight in a steady trajectory of decline. Today cardiovascular deaths are at a third of 1970 levels and almost half those of 1990. It has been suggested that this decline is due to . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Booking the Cooks

L Sam Lewis
bmj.com, 4 Jul 2009 [Full text]

The wrong Ingredients ?

Des Spence
bmj.com, 5 Jul 2009 [Full text]

The flip-flop rhythm of medical science

Mark Struthers
bmj.com, 6 Jul 2009 [Full text]

The Question of Our Time

Des Spence
bmj.com, 28 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Right Ingredients, Wrong Recipe ??

L Sam Lewis
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Occam’s razors are simply too blunt for banana splitting

Mark Struthers
bmj.com, 21 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Re: Occam’s razors are simply too blunt for banana splitting

L Sam Lewis
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2009 [Full text]