More than 40 years ago an advertisement appeared in the classified section of the Times (8 January 1964). It read: “Consultant surgeon, 43, approaching career peak, but irritated beyond endurance by ‘administrators’ has reluctantly decided to abandon medicine and enter another field. Is particularly interested and reasonably knowledgeable in antiques, but is catholic in taste and venturesome and would consider anything in which enterprise is encouraged and in which it is reasonable to anticipate a just reward for hard work.” No change there then.

It's not just lack of physical activity and poor diet that produces overweight children; the relationship children have with their parents also has a role. A longitudinal study over nine years, from birth, found that overweight parents beget overweight children, that parents with a desire for thin children may be so overly controlling that their children fail to learn self control around food, and that children who throw tantrums over food may be overfed in an effort to reduce the tantrums (Journal of Pediatrics 2004;145: 20-5).

An emergency medicine specialist on a mountain hike came across a man with chest pain and a history of supraventricular tachycardia. When carotid sinus …