Despatches from Derbyshire Ice Field (2)

  0610 GMT  04/12/10   Minus 15 with precipitation!  Visibility 200 yards.  Ice!  Transport held fast.  Frost forming on rigging.  Troops down in mouth.  Fog freezing on beards!   Try to encourage.  ‘Chin up!’  But supplies low.  Half rations. Last banana.  No brandy.  Fear mutiny.  If no improvement, will try dash to base camp tomorrow   Scott, i/c expedition. Read more »

Emotional upset determines the persistence of gastroenteritis after the infection has gone

About 10% of people develop persistent diarrhoea after an attack of gastroenteritis even though there is no evidence of an infective agent. Studies conducted by Dr Kok-Ann Gwee in collaboration with Drs Mike McKendrick and Professor Steve Collins from McMaster University in Ontario revealed that anxiety, depression and life trauma... Read more »

Small Intestinal Transit and Motility

A collaboration with Dr Immanuel Bergman from the Safety in Mines Research Establishment in Sheffield led to the development of a simple device for measuring breath hydrogen, which we exploited for the measurement of small intestinal transit time. The combination of this with scintigraphic measurement of gastric emptying and radioopaque... Read more »

Rectal Sensitivity

Irritable Bowel Syndome (IBS) is characterized by increased sensitivity of the rectum. We showed that rectal sensitivity is quite variable and identified how stress, inflammation and sleep deprivation could enhance sensitivity while hypnosis, relaxation and a new class of drugs that blocked serotonin receptors could diminish it. The latter became... Read more »