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Thank you for downloading the more or less podcast. We are weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Hartford.

Here in the UK, the health news has been bleak with non-stop coverage of the difficulties of the National Health Service.

So let's mix things up because a new medical study also conducted in the UK has generated some very positive headlines in the last week or so.

Law T-Card data could help spot a variant cancer cases sooner.

Your boot's card could help spot a variant cancer.

Yes, according to these headlines, whipping out your loyalty card at the supermarket or the pharmacy could be the key to diagnosing serious conditions such as cancer.

In this case, a variant cancer.

The study was widely reported last week involving scientists from several British universities, Imperial, UCL and the University of Birmingham.

It was funded by Cancer Research UK.

The researchers looked at purchases of painkillers and indigestion treatments recorded on store loyalty cards from Tesco and boots to major UK retailers.

Those purchases were higher among women who were subsequently diagnosed with a variant cancer.

Dr. James Lannigan from Imperial College London led the study.

With indigestion medication in particular, we're observing an increase in purchases about nine months before diagnosis for these indigestion medications.

We compare that to when patients first recognize that they had symptoms, which is around about four and a half months before their diagnosis.

And they typically visited their GP for the first time around about three and a half months before their diagnosis.

Many patients have many GP visits before they get to their diagnosis.

And what we're seeing with the data is that they're treating these symptoms or managing these symptoms with these products many, many months beforehand.

So how useful could this be for detecting cases of a variant cancer much earlier than is currently the case?

Who else could we possibly want to talk to here at Morales, than friend of the show and all around superstar Professor Hannah Fry?

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