My jeans were too tight!
Back in January, I thought that my washing machine was playing up, and shrinking my jeans! But then I realised that I was using a different hole on my belt buckle, and that actually, all of my clothes were too tight. Oops – too fat! Time to lose weight. Two months later, and I had […]
Cup of tea?
I was about to go for a run and then come back and have a cup of tea, but then I read this article in the BJSM about the effects of caffeine on sports performance. It was a very powerful piece of research, pulling together the results of many other research articles. ….and the result? […]
I was an addict….
Bizarrely, when I was 18yrs old, I found that running kept my eczema at bay. It was great to feel that simply by going running, my eczema got less troublesome. I became addicted to running…. \’Runners high\’ is the sensation of going running as one person and coming back from your run as another (much […]
An unusual cause of neck pain and headache
‘Eagle Syndrome’ is a rare condition first described in 1937 by an American ENT specialist, Dr Watt Weams Eagle (great name)! It sometimes starts after surgery to the tonsils, strangely. A case was written up recently in the British Medical Journal. In cases of Eagle Syndrome, the styloid bone is too long and pokes into […]
Come and visit Tanzania!
When we ask our patients in the clinic to pop into the loo and do a ‘wee’ sample for us, it is taken for granted that the loo is clean and well-lit, and disposes of the waste safely. Furthermore, there is hot and cold running water to wash your hands and individual hand towels to […]
She died….I cried….
When I was nine years old (admittedly, that was a long time ago), my pet hamster died. I cried and cried.. Vets tell us that pet owners cry more for their pets than they do for their family. That\’s weird! Grief sometimes manifests itself as physical symptoms, and probably all practitioners see patients with symptoms […]
If you get stronger, will you live longer?
There was a great piece of research published last year in the BMJ, about the correlation between grip strength and various health outcomes, including mortality. Yes, mortality. It seems that higher strength is associated with health and with living longer. No real surprise there. What interested me, particularly was that grip strength is a good […]
Here are some new push-up ideas!
Do you like to do push-ups? They can be a great way to strengthen your shoulder and arm muscles! I was chatting with my colleague Ed Marshall the other day about push-ups. We were discussing how changing the hand position can completely change how a push-up feels and changes the way that the shoulder and […]
She just coughed…..for two months!
Have you heard people say things like \’I just coughed, and my back went\’? Well this case is not quite like that, the lady involved had been coughing hard for two whole months – non-stop! She developed back pain. Have a look at this video (it\’s only 1 min) and see why she was getting […]
Did I tell you about my tennis career?
I have loads in common with Andy Murray…. I’m Scottish -well, half-Scottish anyway. (By the way the Burns night went really well, thanks). My Mum loves us both and I’m also called Andy by my pals. (For some reason I’m always called Andrew at work, I’m not sure why)!. I used to play tennis too, and […]