I've been taking acid reflux pills and have developed a cripping side-effect that's ruining my life: DR MARTIN SCURR reveals the answer... and what to do next
Lynda Hammett, Peterborough.
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The Independent
4 minutes ago
- The Independent
Newly qualified doctors face ‘recurring cycle of debt', BMA warns
Newly qualified doctors are having to take part-time jobs to make ends meet as they face a 'recurring cycle of debt ', the British Medical Association (BMA) has said. Some doctors are driving Ubers and working in bars in order to get additional income, the union claims. It added that students from poorer backgrounds are hit hardest and has now called on the government to address the funding gap and make a career in medicine accessible to as many people as possible. Students in their final undergraduate year, along with those in the later years of a post-graduate medical degree, get a reduced student loan alongside an NHS bursary. This leads to a £3,674 drop in funding on average, according to the BMA. Sophie Mitchell, deputy co-chair (finance) of the BMA's medical students' committee, said: 'A lot of people are using these loans in previous years to either pay their rent and to live off. 'Losing out on a significant portion of that is meaning that students are struggling. 'We've got people maxing out overdrafts, we've got people maxing out credit cards. 'We've got people going into very significant debt just to actually finish this degree.' The average medical student faces 12 months of this reduced funding. However, some post-graduate students, along with those on six-year degree programmes, face up to three years, Ms Mitchell said. Some are them are also faced with relocation expenses ahead of starting their first job in the NHS. 'The issue with that is most academic years or final years start in around the middle of August,' Ms Mitchell said. 'You are then having this reduced rate of funding until you then get paid at the end of August the following year. 'I know that a lot of my colleagues have had to get loans to pay their rent, or they've had to get credit agreements so that they can pay their rent. 'Also then having to relocate to a new place where you're getting this reduced rate of funding has been a struggle for a lot of people. 'A lot of my friends were already graduating, maxing out their overdrafts, and then they've had to get overdraft extensions to help them live until they get paid at the end of August. 'It's creating this recurrent cycle of debt that people are really struggling to get out of until that first paycheck.' Ms Mitchell said she knows of new graduates stewarding football matches or taking zero hours bar work to get by. She added: 'We have people working behind bars. 'We have people stewarding. 'One of my friends is actually working for Uber at the moment, because it was the only work that she could get that meant that she could get some employment in the area that she's in.' Ms Mitchell is heading the BMA's Fix Our Finance campaign alongside co-chair Henry Budden. 'Quite a common thing that we've heard about the campaign is 'every student gets a job, why are you guys complaining so much?',' she said. 'But I think what people maybe aren't so aware of is actually how intense our course is. 'You're training for that role that you're about to start. 'You're in hospital Monday to Friday, nine to five. 'Some universities make their students do night shifts. 'Some universities make their students also do weekends on top of this. 'And then on top of that placement, where you're learning to be a doctor, you're also having to revise for your exams.' The BMA is calling on the Government to ensure medical students receive full student finance maintenance for the entirety of their course. The union claims this would cost the Treasury £24 million and just 0.12% of Student Finance England annual lending. Ms Mitchell and Mr Budden warned the 'situation isn't sustainable' and 'does nothing to help those from poorer backgrounds or improve participation in medicine'. 'Medicine is longer than many other degrees for good reason; because we want to ensure doctors working in the NHS have the best possible training,' they added. 'It is only right then that they should receive the appropriate funding to see them through the entirety of their course.'
Times
21 minutes ago
- Times
‘I thought I was going to die' — the GP who beat extreme stress
The doctors stood at the end of my bed, looking mystified. I was terrified — I thought I was going to die. I'd arrived at hospital three days before with an internal temperature of 42C; now my organs were failing. As a GP myself, I knew how serious my condition was. I was 39 with a wonderful husband, three beautiful children and a successful career but I didn't have an immune system strong enough to fight this fever. After four weeks in hospital I was eventually discharged with the unsatisfactory diagnosis of PUO — pyrexia of unknown origin — which basically means 'you were very hot but we don't know why'. • Read more expert advice on healthy living, fitness and wellbeing This was a life-changing moment. Whatever the diagnosis, the cause was clear to me: burnout. For years, I'd pushed my body to breaking point. Determined to see my children, then aged ten, nine and five, grow up, I decided that I needed to use my medical knowledge to reinvent myself. The biohacks (as the data analysis and habits I deployed to optimise my health are called) have proved so successful that now, aged 53, my biological age — that is, the age of my cells, ascertained with a blood test that analyses protein markers of inflammation, central to ageing — is that of a 20-year-old. Strange as it sounds, science shows we can bring our age down in a measurable way. I'm proof of this. And while biohacking might bring to mind wealthy tech titans trying to live for ever, many of the techniques I now teach clients as a longevity doctor are free, take minutes and can add decades to our lives. • How I got Rod Stewart, 80, fit to perform I believe we should set a goal for how long we want to live, just as we set goals for everything else, and work towards it. I tell clients that, with the right approach, there's no reason they can't make one million healthy hours, or 114 years. Unlikely as it might sound, that's my intention. Certainly, I feel barely recognisable from the partner in a GP practice who was too busy to go to the loo between patients, surviving on biscuits and writing prescriptions into the night after the children had gone to bed. I thought I could manage the juggle, never slowing down enough to notice the warning signs — constantly aching neck, waking up exhausted after four hours' sleep — that I was about to crash. I worked through the fever I developed one Friday morning in 2011 so as to not let colleagues down. But by the following afternoon I was too ill to eat, move or make decisions. My husband, Manish, a dentist who was then 42, rushed me to hospital near our London home where, thinking that my temperature must be caused by a severe infection, doctors put me on a potent intravenous antibiotic drip. • On the paradise island where millionaires go to avoid death (and taxes) When that didn't help they performed emergency abdominal surgery in the middle of the night as they suspected that an abscess in my abdomen could be to blame. It wasn't. Days later, weak from surgery and with my kidney and liver function deteriorating because of my continued high fever, there was still no discernible cause. It was a month before my temperature stabilised and I was able to be discharged. Recuperating at home I realised that my body's low resilience to stress after years of pushing myself to my limit had been to blame. In addition to regaining strength, I prioritised rest, nutrition and movement, which I had long advised patients were essential but had ignored myself. I started with sleep. I set an alarm for 9.30pm to remind me to switch off screens before going to bed at 10.30pm and getting up at 6.30am. Back at work after four months off, I finally learnt to delegate. I filled up on protein and fibre, bought a standing desk, scheduled an appointment with myself at 12.30pm every day to go for a lunchtime walk or run and started lifting weights daily (I kept them under my desk at work). As years passed and I felt stronger I realised there was more I could do to monitor my health than I'd learnt at medical school. I could identify the key factors that influence our biological age and test for them. • Be a super-ager — and join the 'wellderly' These included hormones. I discovered that my levels of the stress hormone cortisol — which contributes to inflammation when raised — still weren't dropping low enough at night to allow for deep sleep. I used light to regulate it, stepping outdoors on waking for a minute, and wearing glasses after 8pm that block the blue light emitted from screens that inhibits the release of the sleep-producing hormone melatonin. A glucose test revealed that my blood sugar levels weren't at optimum stability so I bought a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) — a device you attach to the back of your arm, available from chemists for around £50 — to track exactly what sent my blood sugar levels soaring via an app. Quinoa was an unlikely culprit for me, which certainly won't be the case for everyone, but shows why monitoring individual data is important. A DNA test revealed that my genes for endurance sport are stronger than my genes for strength. As I ran the London Marathon two years ago, I told myself I was 'made for this' — not as a generic pep talk but because I was genetically programmed to keep going. It helped. I numbered my most-used longevity biohacks from 1 to 10, with a correlating activity or time, to make them easier to remember. I don't do all ten hacks every day but focus on a handful at a time, telling my clients that no matter how busy they are, everyone can find 60 seconds. For example, 1-10 means spending one minute in morning sunlight followed by ten seconds setting an intention for the day; research has found people who have purpose live for seven years longer. Meanwhile, 3-30 involves taking three sips of water every 30 minutes — one study found those with a lower fluid intake have a 21 per cent higher risk of dying prematurely — and 5-50 means holding five stretches for 50 seconds a day, including one related to balance; a study of 1,700 people aged 51-75 found people who couldn't stand on one leg for at least 10 seconds had an 84 per cent higher risk of death after seven years. • I'm healthier in my 60s than I was 30 years ago: here's how The 6-60 entails slowing your breath to less than six breaths a minute for one minute, every hour, as slow breathing has been found to lower our stress response. Some of my strategies might sound extreme. I celebrated my 50th birthday alone and in silence in a cottage in the Spanish mountains for seven days, because silence is shown to lower stress and improve cognitive function. But everyone can achieve seven seconds of silence every 70 minutes (7-70). Paying compliments, meanwhile, is important because it releases the bonding hormone oxytocin, which can help reduce feelings of loneliness. Oxytocin has been shown to light up the same centre of the brain as physical pain and may play a role in reducing inflammation. I incorporate micro movements into my day — calf raises while I'm brushing my teeth, for example — and twice a week I have a sauna, because heat helps skin detox and stimulates the metabolism. I only eat between 10am and 6pm, as fasting encourages autophagy, or cell repair, and twice a year I do a water-only five-day fast, which sounds harder than it is. After three days your body's hunger signals quieten down because it's in clean-up mode. My husband and children — now aged 24, 23 and 20 — are supportive and biohack themselves to a certain extent. They wear smart rings or bands like me to track their sleep data, heart rate and VO2 max, use sleep masks and mouth tape in the night, love exercise and sport, and have tested their gut microbiome and metabolism. They're not fanatical about it but neither am I. Although I no longer drink alcohol, I still enjoy the occasional chocolate. When I started to study longevity I felt I was getting my wrists slapped by colleagues in the medical profession. One GP said that telling people they could hack their health was dangerous. Disturbed by the semantics rather than the science, they thought I was suggesting people take extreme or unsafe measures. But what could be more important than taking control of your health? Another said the role of GPs wasn't to stop people getting sick, at which point, in 2019, I left conventional general practice to set up my longevity business. That was when I started testing my biological age, which has remained at 20 ever since. Helping to prevent people get as ill as I did and reverse ageing by 10, 20 or even 30 years feels amazing. I look younger now — my children joke that I blossomed late — but more importantly I have so much more focus, energy and joy, which I plan to maintain for told to Antonia Hoyle
Times
21 minutes ago
- Times
The 1990s workout we should all be doing for our health (and hips)
Spinning is the workout that pedalled its way into UK gyms in the late 1990s and has never disappeared. As fitness trends have come and gone, the gruelling indoor bike workout that is guaranteed to leave you in puddles of sweat has remained a constant. And a new study is the latest to endorse the health benefits of spinning classes. In the study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and published in Lancet Rheumatology, researchers from Bournemouth University and University Hospitals Dorset revealed that regular spinning could be more beneficial than physiotherapy for patients with hip osteoarthritis, a condition that the NHS says affects 11 per cent of over-45s. Tom Wainwright, professor of orthopaedics at BU and a physiotherapist at UHD, says his study of 221 people in their early forties to late seventies with diagnosed hip osteoarthritis showed that introducing weekly indoor bike classes at a local leisure centre transformed their recovery by reducing pain, improving function and motivating people to manage their hip pain going forward. Participants in the study were split into two groups: the first was prescribed weekly group cycling sessions — 30-minute classes in the early weeks, progressing to 40 minutes by week six — in combination with a brief physio-led education talk before they started pedalling; the other was just offered a standard one-on-one physiotherapy appointment. • Read more expert advice on healthy living, fitness and wellbeing After two months it was the spinning group that reported the best outcomes. In an earlier study by Wainwright, published in Healthcare journal in 2020, a five-year follow-up showed that, of 83 people with hip osteoarthritis who were introduced to a weekly spinning class for six weeks and encouraged to carry on themselves, most were still using self-management strategies to manage their hip pain five years later. Almost half (45 per cent) had not returned to their GP for further treatment of their hip pain once they started spinning, and 57 per cent had not undergone hip replacement surgery. 'The instinct is to stop exercising when something hurts,' Wainwright says. 'But with osteoarthritis you need to do the opposite and keep using your joints in the right way.' Exercise will help osteoarthritis joint pain only for as long as you keep it up. 'If you do spinning for six weeks and then stop you'll go back to how you were,' Wainwright says. 'So we helped people to prepare how they would continue with their activity when the study was over.' Hip joints respond well to spinning because they are continually mobilised. 'Your good hip is helping to push through your weaker hip in a cyclical motion,' Wainwright says. 'Typically people do between 60-100 revolutions per minute, which is a lot higher movement dose than exercises traditionally recommended as part of physiotherapy rehab.' He adds that even people who hadn't exercised for years were not put off trying it. 'Spinning is very inclusive — nobody knows what resistance your bike is set at or your cadence [revolutions per minute] so it removes comparisons that create barriers for some people,' he says. 'Swimming and aqua aerobic classes have been advocated for people with joint problems in the past, but not everyone wants to put on a swimsuit or trunks and get in a pool, whereas with spinning you can wear what you like within reason.' • The definitive guide to London's gyms for every personality It was the South African cyclist Jonathan 'Jonny G' Goldberg who came up with the idea of spinning classes and who first lured a wave of body-conscious gymgoers to studios with the promise they could burn up to 600 calories an hour by bobbing up and down in unison to music led by an enthusiastic instructor on custom-designed stationary bikes. A 1997 study commissioned by the American Council on Exercise found that the calories per minute burnt in an indoor cycling class ranged from 7.5 to 19, or 'equal to a 150-pound (10.5st) person running a seven-minute mile'. However, the report highlighted that 'compared to running or step aerobics, indoor cycling is a considerably lower-impact exercise' — suggesting that even back then it was considered good news for those with joint problems. I was an early convert — I tried my first class in 1998 and still do a spin-style session at least once a week and more often in the winter. Spinning is 'a gateway class to many other forms of exercise', says Steve Barrett, head of global fitness for Matrix Fitness and a fitness trends analyst, who was a personal trainer in the 1990s when spinning arrived on the gym scene. Over the decades there have been many spin-offs (excuse the pun) including SoulCycle, 1Rebel and Psycle studios, rebranded classes at gym chains and home versions of bike workouts such as Peloton, but the premise of these remains rooted in the original concept. Barrett believes it has stood the test of time because although the premise is simple it has evolved with fitness technology. 'You can now track metrics such as heart rate, watts, distance and calories used in a session and there's added entertainment value such as in-class leaderboards that connect to bikes and wearables.' That said, you can still go at your own pace. 'You can hold back in your first few sessions and be next to someone who has been doing group cycle classes for 20 years,' he says. Follow your instructor's lead, but adjust intensity as required to stay within your comfort zone as you get used to classes. 'Nobody will be any the wiser if you are easing back a bit — you are in total control of your own bike. If it is your first time you can be really gentle with your resistance and build up in the next class.' • The best 5 exercises for tight hips Spinning really does get you fit. In the original ACE study, sports scientists found the heart rates of each spinning class participant to be between 75 per cent and 96 per cent of age-predicted heart-rate maximum, with most of the time spent at the higher end of the range that, they reported, is 'what makes [it] an effective, rewarding exercise'. What's more, Wainwright's study isn't the first to confirm spinning is good for wider health. A review of health benefits by Spanish exercise scientists reporting in Medicina journal revealed that spinning classes and sessions 'may improve aerobic capacity, blood pressure, lipid profile and body composition' whether they were a standalone intervention or performed in conjunction with other exercise and diet changes. And plenty of research has shown that both regular cycling and intervals on an indoor bike are powerful tools for long-term brain protection. I am certainly still a fan. For me, at 56, spinning offers an unrivalled high-intensity workout that complements my regular running. And Barrett says he can't see it disappearing any time soon. 'There are so many new variables in the group cycle genre and as you get better at it and more powerful, there are performance options for real fans,' he says. 'You are never too old to try it and it's not going away.' • Should you push through the pain barrier? Some spin classes incorporate hand weights, adding moves that are specifically designed to work your biceps, triceps, back and chest at the same time as your legs and glutes, but a report by the US Indoor Cycling Association suggested lifting weights as you pedal 'impedes your ability to pedal while reducing your power output', which ultimately means fewer calories burnt. The heavier the weight, the greater the adverse effect. Given weights of 1-3lb don't add much advantage to a spinning class anyway, consider giving them a miss if you are new to spinning and do a separate resistance session instead. Phil Burt, a cycling physiotherapist and author of Bike Fit, says because of the time spent in one or two positions, 'indoor riding potentially exacerbates any imbalances or tightness' in your muscles and joints. 'Get out of your sweaty kit straight after the session and dedicate some time to flexibility and mobility exercises,' he says.
