Painkiller that’s all in my mind

EVER heard of the ‘gate control’ effect in medicine? I hadn’t either until I crashed my bike the other day and fractured my elbow. Boy, did it hurt.

The pain started to subside after a few days and that’s when my other injuries — hands and hip — started to kick in. I joked to my doctor that my brain had been kind and blanked out the lesser pains so I could deal with the bigger one. No joke, he told me. Apparently, special nerves that do not transmit pain signals are activated and they ‘close a gate’ to the other sources of pain.

I asked him what lesson I should take from this. His answer? ‘Cycle more carefully.’

Now there’s a man blessed with common sense.

EDWINA Currie is plotting a political comeback at the age of 74 – after being inspired by Joe Biden.

The former Tory health minister, pictured, described the US President as a ‘true hero’ and said his victory over Donald Trump roused her to stand again for election.

But she is setting her sights slightly lower – a seat on Derbyshire County Council. Mrs Currie said she wanted to be ‘doing something more than just watching TV’ – but was ‘quite excited and slightly scared’. Mrs Currie’s career in frontline politics ended in 1997 when was ousted as the MP for South Derbyshire. She had represented the seat from 1983. Mrs Currie is standing in Whaley Bridge against Ruth George, 51 – the sitting Labour councillor and former High Peak MP who lost her seat in December 2019.