Member's Blog

I write a weekly blog for members, on a wide range of topics around health and the heart. Non-members can explore the topics below to see what I write on a week by week basis. If you'd like to join, click here to find out more.

 

Congenital heart disease – an overview

You may know I’m a keen Arsenal fan, so whenever a story crops up involving the club I tend to take a look, and so it was this week with former Gunners mid-fielder Jack Wilshere. He is a British Heart Foundation ambassador, having been on a long journey with his young daughter who had surgery […]

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Dementia part 3

Back to the theme of dementia, and we are at week 3. A question I have asked myself many times is can dementia be prevented? Billions are spent looking for treatments, and hopefully success will come, but what if there were ways we could reduce our risk in the first place? Primary prevention is the […]

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Dementia part 2

For over a decade, scientists have thought that if amyloid protein is the primary problem in dementia, the key to treatment must be drugs which reduce its production or stimulate its clearance from the brain. Initial efforts however, whilst they reduced the amount of protein, did little to improve clinical symptoms and outcomes.  Studies are […]

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Dementia part 1

I’m sure by now you will have appreciated that one of the key messages I try to deliver is that lifestyle changes can drastically move the needle on the risk of developing a wide range of diseases, and maximise the chances of living healthily for as long as possible. You may also think I’m a […]

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A cautionary tale

I hope you’ve been enjoying the sunshine this week? Hasn’t it made a difference?! I expect like many people I’ve taken to the garden, and have been planting plants, cutting grass, and trimming hedges. It’s very satisfying work, and rather nice to be outside and doing something different to my day job. Rather annoyingly however, […]

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Heart ‘accessory pathways’

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The world’s oldest man

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Stress and the heart part 2 – takotsubo cardiomyopathy (broken heart syndrome)

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Stress and the heart part 1

Whenever I go on holiday I always seem to find myself frantically trying to tidy up loose ends beforehand. I doubt I’m alone in thinking there never seems to be enough time to get things done before a break, does that sound like you? At some point though you jut have to stop: the work […]

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DNA & introduction to longevity genes

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Weight loss wonder drugs – GLP1 agonists

I have had quite a few patients ask me recently if I would support them being prescribed semaglutide. You may not be familiar with the name, but you may well have heard of it as a weight loss wonder drug. The reason I thought I would write about it today is that the FDA (US […]

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An unusual cause of a heart attack in a young man

I’ve been on call this week and it’s been rather busy, particularly this weekend, and particularly with patients presenting to hospital with chest pain. Such patients usually have a blood test called a ‘troponin’, which is a blood enzyme which gets elevated in the context of any heart damage or inflammation. As such, we use […]

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Sleep part 2 – members’ questions

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How long should we sleep?

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Medications that can spike blood sugar

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Heart rate variability

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Cardiac amyloid – more common than was thought

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A sad week

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Habit Forming

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CT scanning and the heart

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Research round-up 2023

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Bournemouth Luton

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It’s cold outside

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Atrial fibrillation

I hope you’ve had a good week. It’s certainly a busy time of year for many people, myself included. In addition to Christmas, December brings both my children’s birthdays so added complexity! It’s enough to bring on palpitations! I think this is week 3 now on the subject of palpitations, and whilst they are very […]

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