Member's Blog

I wanted to write today though about a story you may have seen in the news this week. Davina McCall gave her first interview after having brain surgery to remove a benign growth called a colloid cyst. Whilst benign, these can still cause problems if they grow, by compressing other structures within the brain. Poor […]

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The plan I had for this week’s blog went out the window on Thursday night this week, for what turned out to be a night I shall never forget. Each year, my colleague and I take our amazing Dorset heart failure team out for a Christmas meal, and this year’s event was on Thursday at […]

This content is for members only! Already a member? Sign in to your account.   Need to sign up? Get started here

This content is for members only! Already a member? Sign in to your account.   Need to sign up? Get started here

I always like to include real-life events in my blogs, and this week just such a case presented itself. I trained in cardiology in London, at the Heart Hospital and Bart’s (both now amalgamated on one site). I have fond memories of my training, and got a ‘blast from the past’ email this week from […]

One of our members wrote in with an important point this week. She is 77 and trains twice each week, and wanted to know why the exercise advice petered out for the >60s. She felt ladies >60 may feel it isn’t relevant or important to them. Receiving feedback like this is great for many reasons.  […]

Women typically have higher baseline calorie needs per kg of body weight than men, and much of this is due to the need to regulate hormone levels. I wrote last week about the need to fuel appropriately, and part of the reason for this is to avoid endocrine (hormone) dysfunction. When I speak to patients […]

A very common question I get asked by patients is along the lines of ‘what sort of exercise should I be doing?’ I could talk for hours on this, as there are so many nuances, but I would like to try and outline some key concepts. However the single most important point in my opinion […]

I believe a key quality of a good doctor is to be humble. This can take many forms, but with respect to these coming posts, I mean the following. Humans, and doctors in particular in my experience, tend to become rather tied to their beliefs and convictions, especially as they get older. However, a good […]

I often get asked by patients what time of day is best to take their medication, particularly with respect to blood pressure. There have been a few clinical trials looking at this with slightly surprising results. Two new trials have really put the topic to bed though, and in this week’s research video you can […]

It certainly seems like summer is over now! I’ve packed away the garden furniture, turned our leftover home grown tomatoes into chutney (which is absolutely delicious by the way – tomato, red onion, chilli, paprika, cardamom) and mown the lawn for possibly the last time this year.  It’s been a tough weekend actually. My parent’s […]

Do you take any medications? Or supplements? I do. Perhaps supplements is a post for another time, but I do want to mention something on medication. I take a nasal steroid spray, and have done daily for about 12 years. Truth be told I really should have been on it lifelong, as I have had […]

Today I want to update you about something incredibly common, and will likely have touched many of our lives one way or other: coronary artery disease. There’s so much to say it’s hard to know where to start, as there were so many related sessions presented at the European Society of Cardiology meeting. Let’s start […]

Life is back to normality now having involved a lot of travel over the last few weeks. The European Society of Cardiology meeting last week has provided so much content it will keep me going for a few weeks at least. Now I’ve had time to organise my thoughts, I think breaking the conference down […]

It’s been a working weekend for me, as I have been lucky enough to attend the European Society of Cardiology meeting in London. It’s possibly the largest cardiology meeting in the world, rotating through a number of major European cities each year. There are 10s of thousands of delegates, hundreds of stands and presentation. It […]

Back to work with a bump on Friday morning having got home shortly before midnight. Do you sometimes feel like you need a holiday to get over a holiday? I’m sure I do! Luckily there’s a bank holiday to look forward to. I opened my inbox of 365 unread emails and sighed.  I would like […]

Week 2 in Sri Lanka, and it’s been a fabulous holiday. The people, food and weather have all been amazing. The only downside was some inadvertent gluten for my daughter who has coeliac disease and the poor thing wasn’t well for a day, but overall finding gluten-free options has been fine. I’m writing this blog […]

Greetings from Sri Lanka! I’m away for 2 weeks, but of course that won’t stop me writing my blog, and indeed filming. Do check out this week’s video on polyphenols – what they are, why they are important, and how you can get more of them. I’m a little hamstrung by the hotel wifi – […]

I’m changing tack a little this week for my blog, on account of a couple of different patients I’ve seen which have highlighted what I think is a really common problem, and indeed misconception in my view. Let me explain. The first is a lady in her 80s who has had atrial fibrillation (AF)  in […]

What a beautiful weekend! Shame I’ve been on-call all week and it’s been very busy. At the end of on-call weeks I often like to write my blog on an interesting case I’ve seen, and try to tease out any learning points that are of value to the public. Today is no exception, but there […]

I would say the context I get asked about the menopause most is with regard to symptoms of palpitations, followed by the risk of heart attacks around this time in a woman’s life. More and more women are seeking advice and guidance about these topics as general public awareness grows.  As a 46 year old […]

I have been thinking of writing and videoing about women and the heart for a little while, and a patient I saw this week has prompted me to do so today. She had symptoms that were not necessarily typical for a heart problem and had struggled to get a diagnosis, but when we ran some […]

You will notice that I have a number of videos on cholesterol on my website, which is one of the commonest topics I get asked about. These days though, we have moved well beyond standard cholesterol panels. I discuss such things as Apolipoproteins and Lipoprotein (a) -Lp(a) for short- in those videos, but in brief […]