Not as Wise as It Sounds… When the UK government confirmed that all non-wholemeal wheat flour [including organic] will be mandatorily fortified with folic acid from 2026, the announcement was framed as an unequivocal public health win.1 The stated aim is to reduce neural tube defects [NTDs] such as spina bifida by around 20%, preventing roughly 200 cases per year. Flour is already fortified […]
02
Jan
Jan
Using what you have where you are… We spent Christmas away from home, not only in a strange house but in another country. The routines are different, the food is different and the climate is different. When you get to our age you suddenly realise that you have slipped into the gentle reassurance of your routines, and that change, while enjoyable, […]
26
Dec
Dec
But have I got time? Self-care takes commitment. That, in itself, is not a fashionable thing to say. Commitment implies effort, repetition, and the possibility of failure, which are all awkward companions in a culture that prefers hacks and shortcuts. The real difficulty, though, is not that self-care is demanding. It is that it requires […]
19
Dec
Dec
Doing less on purpose. When winter settles in, it does not do so quietly. It shortens the day without apology, strips the garden back to its scaffolding, and lowers the sky until even optimism feels overdressed. The beds that were once a riot of intention; seedlings, labels, plans now look bereft, as though the land itself has […]
12
Dec
Dec
When the GP isn’t available… I had a phone call from a stranger today; a mother, sounding tired in the way only parents of poorly children can. Her 18-month-old son had developed a chesty cold, and despite trying, she hadn’t been able to get a GP appointment. She wasn’t looking for anything dramatic, just help, and ideally something she could do without dragging a miserable […]
05
Dec
Dec
Most interactions hypothetical … Some of my patients have been warned off medicinal herbs by their GP or Consultant because they ‘may interact with your prescription medication’. This is not untrue, but it is what I would call selective disclosure. GPs could warn patients to never drink coffee because there are 11 major drug interactions with coffee. But, do they? It […]
28
Nov
Nov
Cramming information does not replace learning a craft A quote from How to Read a Book* has been circling my mind lately; “The viewer of television, the listener to radio, the reader of magazines, is presented with a whole complex of elements – all the way from ingenious rhetoric to carefully selected data and statistics – to make it easy for him […]
21
Nov
Nov
Front Lines of Fantasy… I hope I am not being precious. I don’t mean to be. Apparently, there is a short-cut to becoming an expert health coach. In particular, someone who can become a veritable diagnostician of endocrine nuance in two months for less than the cost of a decent tincture press. There was an advert on Facebook [or Insta, or somewhere] which promised […]
14
Nov
Nov
Bitters or Statins? The liver is a quiet workhorse. It does its business behind the scenes, coping with everything from breakfast toast to emotional strain, sorting, neutralising, transforming and sending on its way an astonishing variety of compounds every minute. In herbal practice we often speak of the liver as an organ of decision-making. It is constantly […]
07
Nov
Nov
While we chat over coffee… A friend of mine went to her GP with TMJ disorder because she had been advised to do this by her dentist. She was in pain, eating was difficult and she was asking for help. You may not immediately know what TMJ disorder is, but the doctor should have. She was surprised that he had to go […]