Cafe MED

Anticholinergics are commonly used for many common conditions. But they are known for their notorious short and long-term potential harms and we are building a case towards a pragmatic solution. Both speakers have extensive experience in dealing with patients who are on these medicines and working with international experts in this area of research.

The pan-Scotland Euan MacDonald Centre carries out research on how motor neurones work, looking at new drug treatments and improving quality of life for people with motor neurone diseases (MND). The Centre’s researchers and clinicians discuss progress and future developments in MND.

Nearly 1 in 3 people in Scotland live with a condition like osteoarthritis or chronic back pain, which often significantly impacts on quality of life. Come and hear the latest scientific evidence around best treatments and symptom management. Learn what resources are available to help those with arthritis live well.

Exercise is a key element for promoting a healthy lifestyle and its benefits are well documented, ranging from weight management to better control of blood sugar. But is all exercise beneficial? Find out what type and how much exercise we should undertake to maintain health.

Our guest speakers discuss the hormone testosterone and how it is a master regulator of several vital processes such as metabolism, reproduction and cancers. They explore how too little or too much of this ‘Goldilocks hormone’ has an adverse effect on health and who is its ‘gatekeeper’.

An unintended consequence of national breast screening programmes is the increase in the detection of pre-invasive breast cancers, called DCIS. This Cafe Med discusses how this presents challenges for doctors and how scientists are tacking this in the laboratory.

Dealing with social media can be challenging, but for young people especially the effects on mental health can be profound. We will discuss positive and negative effects and will focus on eating disorders, as patients with these disorders can be particularly vulnerable to the impact of social media.

In 2018 we celebrated seventy years of our NHS and the award of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for our health services research. Find out how our research has changed healthcare over the last 40 years and the challenges we face in the next 40.

In this talk, we hear about the first five female doctors who graduated from the University of Aberdeen in the early 1900s and discuss the changing medical student population. We consider how some of the challenges these pioneers faced relate to problems we still face today.