29th June 2026 Newsletter Monday The app will see you now Hello Reader, I’ve been thinking about an announcement that landed in my inbox this week. It will undoubtedly be the source of a lot of headlines for slow news days. The government has announced £85 million to fund twelve projects exploring new ways to tackle obesity, with artificial intelligence playing a central role in several of them. One of the projects is here on my own patch in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, looking at...
12 days ago • 4 min read
22nd June 2026 Newsletter Monday Tea anyone? Hello Reader, There’s a BBC news article this week suggesting that some supplements may be doing more harm than good. That headline won’t surprise my regular readers. I’m hardly known for my enthusiasm when it comes to expensive powders, miracle capsules or anything that claims to optimise your mitochondria while simultaneously detoxifying your liver and balancing your hormones. But it did get me thinking. The problem isn’t that all supplements are...
19 days ago • 3 min read
15th June 2026 Newsletter Monday Lower isn't always better Hello Reader, How often have you been carried along by momentum? We usually think of momentum as a good thing. This week, I started wondering whether that’s always true. I was visiting some patients in the community hospital to oversee their move there from the main hospital. While I was in the office, an emergency buzzer sounded and without giving it a second thought, I ran, like everyone else, to the emergency. Afterwards I kept...
26 days ago • 3 min read
8th June 2026 Newsletter Monday What music can you hear? Hello Reader, On my shift this weekend, I found myself explaining something to a trainee GP that I’ve seen play out countless times before. It’s an example of the 'after effects' of communication in healthcare that I’ve seen before, many times in fact. We saw a man at home who has been losing weight steadily since his surgery at the end of last year. The operation on his bowel was planned and resulted in a section being removed and a...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
1st June 2026 Newsletter Monday Is this normal doc? Hello Reader, A BBC article today reports that heart screening checks had identified almost 200 young women with previously undiagnosed heart conditions, including some at high risk of sudden cardiac death. It caught my eye too, because I was talking to this charity a couple of weeks ago. On the face of it, it sounds like a straightforward success story. A simple test. A serious condition. A life potentially saved. And of course, if you were...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
25th May 2026 Newsletter Monday Leave me alone Hello Reader, A local newspaper story caught my eye this morning. A young man who had previously survived cancer reportedly died after taking part in a detox ritual involving a substance derived from an Amazonian tree frog. The details are tragic and still unclear, so I’m not going to sensationalise them further. His mum has spoken to the journalist hoping to raise awareness about this, though exact cause of death is still unconfirmed. But the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
18th May 2026 Newsletter Monday I am more than just my oil Hello Reader, A few people messaged me this week asking for my thoughts on the “new fish oil research.” I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Which probably tells you something about modern health news. If you take your eyes off it for 72 hours, apparently omega fish oil capsules go from “essential for longevity” to “possibly causing atrial fibrillation.” Normal service resumed. The paper people were referring to...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
11th May 2026 Newsletter Monday Not available in an NHS clinic near you Hello Reader, I read an article this week by a man who nearly died from sepsis after a private varicose vein procedure. What struck me wasn’t really the complication itself. Complications happen everywhere in medicine. NHS. Private. Fancy hospitals with scented hand soap. Humans remain stubbornly biological despite premium branding. What interested me was what happened afterwards. According to the article, when things...
2 months ago • 3 min read
4th May 2026 Newsletter Monday Charging at 80% Reader Red light therapy is having a moment. Masks. Panels. Beds. All promising some version of: “skin rejuvenation” “faster healing” “joint recovery” It’s one of those trends that starts small… and then quietly expands its job description. Way back when... It reminded me of being a kid around 1987/88, I’d have been about 9 or 10. My brief quest to be a gymnast and follow in the footsteps of Nadia Comăneci (having watched the film Nadia, on a...
2 months ago • 2 min read