As I punched and shouted, I knew I didn’t have to be demure, delicate or diplomatic. I could be as fierce as I wanted. Those three minutes set me free

On meeting me, you would never guess that I used to be an angry person. I’m talkative, sociable and self-possessed – but for nearly 20 years I lived with a quiet fury. It started with my parents, whose strict conservatism restricted everything in my life: what I ate, what I wore, where I went, what I thought. As immigrants from Bangladesh, they believed that control was the best way to protect their daughters, but it suffocated me.

I had to fight to go to university – for all the things that men in my community were given as a right. At first, my anger felt ambient – mild and ever-present – but it became something harder, more bitter, when I was pressured into an arranged marriage at the age of 24.

MPs urged to slash bureaucracy preventing dentists from abroad plugging huge gaps in dental care

Overseas-trained dentists are working in McDonald’s and other takeaways in the UK even though millions of patients are finding it impossible to get NHS dental care.

The disclosure comes in a new report being sent to MPs on Wednesday, which urges ministers to slash bureaucracy stopping dentists from abroad plugging the huge gaps in NHS dental care.

Experts say research from University of Toulouse raises ‘serious questions’ about health risks of cannabis

Cannabis use may double the risk of dying from heart disease and increase the risk of stroke by 20%, according to a global review of data.

The number of people using cannabis and cannabinoids has soared over the past decade. While previous studies have linked cannabis use to cardiovascular problems, the scale of the risk has until now not been clear.

While parliament was moving towards more liberal abortion laws more women were being arrested or investigated

• MPs vote to decriminalise abortion in step forward for reproductive rights

Calls for decriminalisation of abortions have been growing louder in recent years – in line with a growing number of women being prosecuted for terminating their pregnancies.

Until 2022, it is believed that only three women had ever been convicted of having an illegal abortion in the 150 years since 1861, when the procedure was made illegal under the Offences Against the Person Act.

Amendment to crime and policing bill will change law to end prosecution of women who terminate pregnancies

British MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion, marking the biggest step forward in reproductive rights in almost 60 years.

In an amendment to the government’s crime and policing bill, parliament voted to change the criminal laws that govern abortion in England and Wales so that women procuring a termination outside the legal framework cannot be prosecuted.

Metabolic syndrome – popularized by two architects of Maha – is a real health issue, but messaging can take a turn toward scienceploitation

Metabolic syndrome is trending online. On TikTok, thousands of videos dissect the subject, also referred to as metabolic dysfunction or disorder. These often come with claims that healing mitochondria, often called the “powerhouses of cells”, is key to restoring metabolic health.

The concept was popularized by Calley and Casey Means’ bestselling book Good Energy. Some consider the Means siblings – Casey is Donald Trump’s surgeon general pick, and Calley is an entrepreneur and lobbyist – architects of Make America Healthy Again.

Anti-oestrogen medication is the penicillin of oncology, but not enough attention is paid to the living horror that many patients experience as a side-effect

“Doctor, stop!” she abruptly commands me. “I can’t process a thing.”

I halt mid-sentence, and in the pause that follows, watch the evolution of a hot flush (also called a hot flash) in real time.

Parliament set to vote on decriminalising abortion, with rival amendments submitted by two Labour MPs

Parliament is set to vote on whether to decriminalise abortion on Tuesday, in what would be the biggest shake-up to reproductive rights in England and Wales in almost 60 years.

Fierce battles have been fought behind the scenes, with Labour backbenchers Tonia Antoniazzi and Stella Creasy lobbying in an effort to have their rival amendments taken forward for a vote.

We go to all sorts of lengths, often unconsciously, to hide from what has hurt us. But only by attuning to pain can we hope to heal

We can try as hard as we like to build a better life for ourselves and our loved ones, but the truth is that sometimes things happen that are very difficult to recover from. Terrible, traumatising, crushingly painful things. If you are someone who has experienced abuse; lost a loved one too young; lost a baby or a child; wanted a child and not been able to have one for whatever reason; suffered irreparable injury to your body and your mind; or survived any tragedy that has left you drowning in despair, a better life may feel absolutely and irredeemably out of your grasp.

I understand this. I have seen it many times in my consulting room, and although I have been very fortunate in my life, I have also known that feeling of certainty that there are some traumas that you just cannot recover from. When you’re in the middle of it, or stuck in its aftermath, that is all there is.

In my teenage years I had an eating disorder and a voice in my head criticised everything I did. But then I took control

I wish I could say that if my teenage self had a window to the future, she would be proud of the person I’ve become. But, in truth, I think she would dislike me just as much as she disliked herself. Back then, I could have spoken for hours about all of the reasons I hated the person I was. And that wasn’t something I believed would change. I used to be all-consumed by my inner critic: the critical voice in my head was much louder than any rational thoughts or words of affirmation others offered me.

I had an eating disorder. Each day was a monotonous cycle of exercising as much as possible and eating as little as I could get away with. I was miserable, and it was all because of the cage I’d built within my own mind. This is not something unique to people with eating disorders. I’ve realised, after sharing my story online, that so many people have this unkind voice in their heads, critiquing their every move. And that when you start to talk back, your life improves in ways you wouldn’t expect.

Women will really have the right to choose if politicians vote to revoke this Victorian-era legislation

The NHS Business Services Authority contacted me even though I had paid the fee that was due

Last Christmas I was prescribed antibiotics for a post-operative infection. The pharmacy assistant insisted, despite my questioning, that I was exempt from prescription charges.

Two weeks later I returned with another prescription, and was told that they had made a mistake and I was liable for charges after all. I paid the outstanding fee on the spot.

Patients in England will be matched with studies and encouraged to take part via smartphone notifications

The government is aiming for a significant expansion of clinical trials in the UK, and plans to use the NHS app to encourage millions of people in England to take part in the search for new treatments.

Patients will eventually be automatically matched with studies based on their health data and interests, via the app. The plans envisage alerting them to the trials using smartphone notifications.

Combination of two targeted drugs found to produce better outcomes and was more tolerable than chemotherapy

A groundbreaking UK-wide trial has found a chemotherapy-free approach to treating leukaemia that may lead to better outcomes for some patients, with the results being hailed as a “milestone”.

Led by researchers from Leeds, results from the Flair trial, which took place at 96 cancer centres across the UK, could reshape the way the most common form of leukaemia in adults is treated, scientists said.

Tony Wright says that the government must show people what it stands for; Michael Foster says it should fund local authorities properly; and Mike Scott raises the dire state of the NHS

Martin Kettle quotes a former Whitehall mandarin saying that “the government has still not made clear what kind of Britain it is trying to create” (Rachel Reeves seized her moment – whatever the future brings, Labour’s economic course is now set, 12 June). He has a point, not wholly answered by Rachel Reeves. It’s the vision thing, and the ability to communicate it. It’s about describing what Labour is for, in a general sense, beyond a list of policy deliverables. Growth is important, but only as a means, not an end. “Securonomics” is interesting, but has no public resonance.

If people are now unsure what Labour stands for, it is because the task of ideological self-definition has been neglected. This is unlike 1997, which was preceded by a process of rethinking that produced New Labour and the “third way”. Something similar is needed now. There is a rich tradition of social democratic thinking in Britain to draw on, including RH Tawney’s argument for equal access to what he called “the means of civilisation” as the basis for a common culture.

Readers on how care homes and regulatory bodies have failed their families, in response to an article on The Firs in Nottinghamshire, which was closed by the Care Quality Commission

The situation at The Firs care home in Nottinghamshire, which was shut down in April, is dreadful for patients, families and staff (‘How did it get to this?’ What happens when care in a residential home breaks down, 7 June). But the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is not the only body to blame for failings like this.

It can’t investigate individual complaints – this is mostly down to the local government and social care ombudsman (LGSCO), but also the parliamentary and health service ombudsman (PHSO). It depends on who funds the care; in theory the same care home could be dealing with two ombudsman staff unaware of each other. Both are equally damned on Trustpilot with overwhelmingly negative reviews.

Whether you enjoy ‘rucking’, walking, running or making your own sandbags, life after winding up your monthly membership can be your healthiest and happiest ever

After almost two decades of regular gym-going, I’ve finally cancelled my membership. The reasons for this are many and varied – I’m trying to save money, gym music is terrible these days, everyone seems to have forgotten how to share the equipment – but the main one is, I think it may actually make me fitter.

Working for Men’s Fitness magazine for almost 10 years, I got to try out every trend, workout style and fitness event I wanted, and I noticed something interesting: quite frequently, the people with the fewest resources were in the best shape. I’m not including Hollywood actors in this, but otherwise, it’s often true: powerlifters working out in unheated concrete sheds get the strongest, runners who stay off treadmills get the fastest, and people exercising in basements have a focus rarely seen in palatial upmarket gyms. Browsing through photos from when my own gym membership was (briefly) paused during Covid lockdowns, I look … if not quite like Jason Statham, then at least his off-brand office-party equivalent. I might not have had the best cardio of my life – even social distancing couldn’t convince me to run more than three miles (5km) at a time – but I was certainly lean.

Administration’s actions signal move away from technology as health agencies see vaccine-related shakeups

As top US health officials turn against some mRNA vaccines, experts fear for the country’s preparedness for the next pandemic and worry that other vaccines will be targeted next.

Donald Trump’s administration recently canceled a $766m award to Moderna on the research and development of H5N1 bird flu vaccines, and officials have announced new restrictions and regulations for Covid mRNA vaccines – actions that signal a move away from the breakthrough technology.

Victor Adebowale says failure to detect his mother’s cancer was example of ‘black service, not NHS service’

A senior figure in the health service has criticised it for deep-seated racism after his mother “got a black service, not an NHS service” before she died.

Victor Adebowale, the chair of the NHS Confederation, claimed his mother Grace’s lung cancer went undiagnosed because black people get “disproportionately poor” health service care.

Black British mothers are up to four times more likely to die during pregnancy or within six weeks of giving birth than white mothers.

Those of black and African or Caribbean origin are twice as likely to have a stroke, and younger, than white counterparts.

Black African patients are two and a half times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white British patients.

The Story of a Heart, which won this year’s award for nonfiction, tells how one child saved the life of another. The author talks about the amazing families involved, campaigning for a better NHS, and how being a doctor frames the way she writes

To read Rachel Clarke’s The Story of a Heart, which has won this year’s Women’s prize for nonfiction, is to experience an onslaught of often competing emotions. There is awed disbelief at the sheer skill and dedication of the medical teams who transplanted the heart of nine-year-old Keira, who had been killed in a head-on traffic collision, into the body of Max, a little boy facing almost certain death from rapidly deteriorating dilated cardiomyopathy. There is vast admiration for the inexhaustible compassion of the teams who cared for both children and their families, and wonder at the cascade of medical advances, each breakthrough representing determination, inspiration, rigorous work, and careful navigation of newly emerging ethical territory. And most flooring of all is the immense courage of two families, one devastated by the sudden loss of a precious child, the other faced with a diagnosis that threatened to tear their lives apart.

To write such a story requires special preparation. “I was full of trepidation when I first approached Keira’s family,” Clarke tells me the morning after she was awarded the prize. “I knew that I was asking them to entrust me with the most precious thing, their beloved daughter Keira’s story, her memory.” The former journalist trained as a doctor in her late 20s, and has spent most of her medical career working in palliative care. Subsequently, she has also become an acclaimed writer and committed campaigner, publishing three memoirs: Your Life in My Hands, Dear Life and Breathtaking. She turned to her medical training for guidance when writing The Story of a Heart. “I said to myself, my framework will be my medical framework, so I would conduct myself in such a way that they would, I hoped, trust me in the same way that someone might trust me as a doctor. And if at any point they changed their mind, then they could walk away from the project.”