After lunch at my mum’s house the other day, my brother and I walked around the corner to visit an old school friend we hadn’t seen for years. Pete had moved back into his childhood home when his parents left for a retirement village. He answered …

An extract from ‘Dear Life: on caring for the elderly’

Do we change our behaviour or wait for a medical breakthrough?

How a gruelling physical challenge became a welcome relief

Practising medicine away from the big cities

Sometimes a doctor can’t help but kill a patient

Does medical screening do more harm than good?

Are GPs prescribing too many antidepressants?

Our obsession with vitamins is getting out of hand

Dying with dignity means different things to different people

What is sickness, and how much of it is in our heads?

How doctors deal with drug companies

Can antibiotics really cure back pain?

Why doctors second-guess themselves

Transplants, out-of-body organs and limits to treatment