Health

Health writing goes wrong in two directions: it either frightens people or it promises them something. This section tries to do neither. The aim is to explain what something is, what usually happens, and what is worth asking a professional, so that you arrive at an appointment better informed rather than more anxious.

The coverage is consumer health rather than clinical medicine. A large part of it explains procedures and conditions in ordinary language, such as what actually happens during a CT scan, what dental crowns involve, or which cataract claims are myths. Another part is everyday maintenance: fitness after forty, routines worth starting in your thirties, sleep, skin, and the evidence around fertility. Nutrition appears mostly as substitution rather than restriction. Mental health runs quietly through the section, including children’s wellbeing and the social habits that shape it. Some articles are written for Indian readers specifically, covering health insurance and locally available products.

A note on how to read it. Nothing here is medical advice, and none of it is written or reviewed by a clinician. Where an article touches something consequential, it says so and points you toward a qualified opinion rather than substituting for one. Where evidence is genuinely contested, we would rather say that than pick the tidier answer.

The archive also has history in it. A number of pieces date from 2020 and 2021 and are of their moment, particularly the coronavirus material. They are kept because they remain a fair record of what was understood at the time, not because they are current guidance.

Related reading sits in Food for cooking and nutrition, and in Lifestyle for everyday habits and routines.

Useful entry points: the habits worth starting in your thirties, supporting a child’s mental health without pathologising ordinary behaviour, and the CT scan walkthrough above if you have a scan booked and nobody has explained it to you.