M E N T O R

References
Making the same mistake twice: 1. International centre for evidence in disability (London school of hygiene and tropical medicine) “The Zika babies what do we know and what should be done?” 2. BBC News Health: Zika outbreak:
What you need to know 31 August 2016 3. Spain registers first Zika microcephaly birth in Europe 25 July 2016 4. Zika vaccines show early promise 4 August 2016 5. Zika outbreak: ‘Small number’ of cases found in Scotland 4 Augut
2016 6. The Guardian: Scientists edge closer to creating effective Zika virus vaccine 4 August 2016 7. The Guardian: World Health Organization declares Zika virus public health emergency 1 February 2016 8. The Guardian: Zika
virus spreading explosively, says World Health Organization 28 January 2016 9. ScienceMag WHO director calls emergency zika meeting 28 January 2016 10. News medical life sciences: Researchers estimate total number of people
who may become infected by Zika virus 26 July 2016 11. WHO: Factors that contributed to undetected spread of the Ebola virus and impeded rapid containment January 2015 12. NBC News: Experts Urge Quicker Action on Zika
27 Jan 2016 13. The Telegraph: Science News: Zika outbreak is now a global emergency, says World Health Organization 2 Feb 2016 14. UK Reuters: U.S. researchers call for WHO to take rapid action on Zika 27 January 2016
15. PBS News HEALTH: Why is Zika virus spreading so quickly? 28 January 2016
Keep me alive // Let me live: 1. The Other Side, Kate Granger 2. The Price of Life, Adam Wishart https://vimeo.com/4796083 [Accessed 19th November 2016]
How do you work out a QALY: Material is entirely original, but inspired by an online e-learning module, Valuing Health, produced by the University of Sheffield on futurelearn.com [Accessed 19th November 2016 with permission
from the University of Sheffield]
Idiosinkratic [artwork]: Artwork by Jamie Crawford. More artwork can be viewed at facebook.com/idiosinkratic or idiosinkratic.wordpress.com
No shame in fat shaming: 1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-37265752 [Accessed 19th November 2016] 2. https://www.b-eat.co.uk/about-beat/media-centre/information-and-statistics-about-eating-disorders
[Accessed 19th November 2016]
Write for us
All of the articles, photographs and illustrations included in this magazine were submitted by medical students or
sixth formers. Your past experience should not dissuade you from contributing; I can assure you, first drafts rarely
resemble the final, printed piece. We are here to help you develop your writing ability, all that is required is enthusiasm
and dedication. The two are usually linked.
We have produced a writing guide to aid authors, as well as a list of article suggestions for those struggling for ideas.
Both are available from the Medic Mentor website group, Magazine Contributors. Sign up now and give them a read
before you start work, http://medicmentor.co.uk/groups/magazine-contributors-28021278/
If you want to see your work in the next issue of Medic Mentor, please get in touch.
No shame in fat shaming [artwork]: 1. Meghan Trainor, All About That Bass 2. Image taken from Kumar and Clark’s Clinical Medicine Eighth Edition
mag@medicmentor.org
The articles printed do not necessarily reflect the views of Medic Mentor, its staff, or even the authors themselves.
From the editor’s desk
In September 2017, Medic Mentor will launch the Mastering Medical School Conference, and students will attend
from a range of ages and stages of life. For those who are yet to even get an offer for medicine, but are attending
a workshop on how to make the most of their time at university, it will doubtless end up redundant. They will, of
course, hear excellent ideas from inspiring speakers, but the kind of student who thinks that far ahead needs little
more than a gentle nudge in the right direction - the first domino.
By the end of the first half of the year, I will have sat my final medical school exams and there will be nothing to
prevent me from graduating and claiming the title, Dr The Editor. It may seem like that is a very long way away
for many of you, in the same way that it may seem like an awful lot of hard work to write two thousand words for a
magazine. Allow me to convince you otherwise.
I commenced university in 2011, and that plant in the background picture to the left was half its current size. I
had never considered writing an article, let alone running a magazine; in fact, I thought that magazines were a big
waste of money and largely ethically disastrous. A few magazines have maintained that impression. I was a scientist
through and through, and my first university essay assignment (on the history of medicine) was an awful disaster. If
it was submitted to me as an article now, I can imagine I would have my work cut out in editing it.
My family were not particularly surprised when I came to them with my concerns regarding the career choice I had
seemingly made too young. They were hugely supportive of me taking an extra year to complete university, even
though that meant living in London and the financial support this necessarily entailed. I think they were behind me
because they could see that I was doing something I genuinely enjoyed and was putting all of my energy into. They
will, however, be hugely relieved when all of this is over, I’m sure. That extra year was the beginning of my realisation
that it is not enough to just get on with what you are told to do, and allowed me to see the parts of medicine
that I could genuinely love.
I would suggest that what you do in 2017 is of vital importance. Medical school’s impact on your life is prescribed
only insofar as you are required to pass exams once a year, the rest is open to interpretation. With your free time you
need to find things you’re interested in and pursue them with vigour (and then write an article explaining why we
should all be interested too). It is never too early to start, and your family, whatever form they may take, will support
you in your choices along the way.
The screening paradox: 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072602/ 2. http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2011/11/22/gutjnl-2011-300843.full#ref-7 3. http://gut.bmj.com/content/56/5/677.abstract?ijkey=07da10c991ab026abc43f67e658d9d627f91a3e0&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
4. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/bowel-cancer/survival#heading-Three 5. http://
www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/type/prostate-cancer/about/screening-for-prostate-cancer 6. http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/107/1/dju366.short 7. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2002498/
8. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/563505/nhs_breast_screening_helping_you_decide.pdf 9. http://www.breastcancer.org/research-news/false-positives-may-be-linked-to-higherrisk
[All accessed 19th November 2016]
Unprepared for autopsy: 1. Bamber, A. R. & Quince, T. A., 2015. The value of postmortem experience in undergradutae medical education: current perspectives. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, Issue 6, pp. 159-170.
2. Bamber, A. R. et al., 2013. Medical Student Attitudes to the Autopsy and Its Utility in Medical Education: A Brief Qualitative Study at One UK Medical School. Anatomical Sciences Education, Issue 0, pp. 00-00. 3. Goodwin,
D., Machin, L. & Taylor, A., 2016. The social life of the dead: The role of post-mortem examinations in medical student socialisation. Social Science & Medicine, Volume 161, pp. 100-10
Family.
Dear reader: The retracted article is taken from the Lancet; Wakefield 1998 (full reference as per the image).
Bad parenting: 1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/10880127/Parents-arrested-over-15-stone-child.html 2. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30054-X/abstract 3. Health
and Social Care Information Centre. Health Survey for England, trend tables: 2014. HSCIC, Leeds, 2015. www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/hse2014trend 4. Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kit BK, Flegal KM. Prevalence of childhood and
adult obesity in the United States, 2011-2012. Journal of the American Medical Association 2014;311(8):806-814 5. Steinbeck K. The importance of physical activity in the prevention of overweight and obesity in childhood: a
review and an opinion. Obes Rev. 2001;2:117-130. 6. Sjoberg RL. Obesity, shame, and depression in school-aged children: A population-based study. Pediatrics 2005;116(3):389-392 7. Griffiths LJ, Dezateux C, Hill A. Is obesity
associated with emotional and behavioural problems in children? Findings from the Millenium Cohort Study. Int J Pediatr Obes. 2011;6:e423-432. 8. Bouchard C. Childhood obesity: are genetic differences involved? Amer. J. Clin.
Nutr. 2009;89:1494S–1501S. 9. Hoed, Marcel, et al. “Genetic susceptibility to obesity and related traits in childhood and adolescence influence of loci identified by genome-wide association studies.” Diabetes 59.11 (2010): 2980-2988.
10. Johannsen DL, Johannsen NM, Specker BL. Influence of parents’ eating behaviors and child feeding practices on children’s weight status. Obesity 2006;14;431–439 11. Department of Health. Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our
strategy for public health in England. DH, London, 2010. www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/216096/dh_127424.pdf 12. World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer
Research . Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective. American Institute for Cancer Research; Washington, DC, USA: 2007 13. Carlson SA, Densmore D, Fulton JE, Yore MM, Kohl
HW. Differences in physical activity prevalence and trends from 3 U.S. surveillance systems: NHIS, NHANES, and BRFSS. J Phys Act Health 2009;6:S18--27
Dope article, bro: 1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/players/lionel-messi/10487181/Lionel-Messis-improbable-progression-from-struggling-youngster-to-world-super-star.html [Accessed 19th November 2016] 2.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2010/article-1282961/Gordon-Banks-Peter-Shilton-Jeepers-keepers--I-split-Englands-legends.html
In this edition we are going to explore some issues related to families. They play a huge role in both early life, as
they raise you into the adult you are now, and end of life, when the table is turned and you need to care for your
old and decrepit parents.
I hope you enjoy it. If you have any comments, I would be delighted to receive them, and they may even be printed
as Medic Mentor magazine’s first ever letter.
Michael Houssemayne du Boulay
Editor
Down: 1. Embolus 2. Carcinoma 3. Sputum 4. Alveoli 5. Tachypnoea 6. Inhaler 7. Oxygen 8. Salbutamol Across: 4. Asthma 9. Tuberculosis 10. Bronchi 11.
Cilia 12. C.O.P.D 13. Pulmonary Anagrams: 1. High blood pressure 2. Respiratory rate 3. Gastrointestinal 4. Morphine 5. Asthma 6. Oestrogen 7. Myocardial
Puzzle answers
infarction 8. Nervous system 9. Osteoarthritis 10. Diabetes mellitus
Many thanks to Jennifer. N. R. Smith,
who produced the cover artwork.
www.jnrsmith.co.uk
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