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Useful tool for identifying pills

For patients taking multiple medications a day, dosette boxes and pill organisers can be extremely useful. However, if you have carefully separated out all your pills for the month and the doctor then recommends a change in dose, it can be difficult to distinguish one tablet from another. Medscape, a US medical information website, has

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Exercise after Covid-19

For many people exercise is not just important for their physical health but also their mental wellbeing. People who have been hospitalised with Covid-19 or who have been unwell at home for a long period of time will naturally find it hard to return to their normal activity levels, and this is understandably a source

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Living with Long Covid

Over the last year we have heard a lot about the numbers of deaths from Covid-19, and also about the number of patients requiring ITU treatment to help them to survive the infection. What we have not heard so much about is what happens after hospital, when patients are discharged home and how some of

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ACEIs and ARBs in Covid-19

Membrane-bound angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the functional receptor for SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19. Drugs such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) upregulate ACE2, raising concerns about their safety in patients with COVID-19. The BRACE-CORONA trial is the first randomised trial to address the question of whether patients

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Smartphone magnets can inhibit ICDs and pacemakers

Who doesn’t love a shiny new smartphone? They wake us up in the morning, keep us connected to colleagues during the workday and friends and family at weekends, help us get from A to B, and indeed almost live our lives for us. These days there seems to be an app for everything and nothing

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The Covid-19 vaccine and heart disease

With the first patients across the UK now being vaccinated against Covid-19, many people with pre-existing heart conditions are quite understandably concerned about the vaccine and whether or not it might pose a risk to them. The British Foundation has a very useful Q&A page about the Covid-19 vaccine and cardiovascular disorders, which you can

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Back to the new normal

At the time of writing, London is just emerging from the second lockdown of the year and it is fairly safe to say that we are all hoping for a Covid-free Christmas and a 2021 that promises better times than we have seen in 2020. Whether life will ever go back to quite how it

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Cardiac care and Covid-19

2020 has certainly not been the year that any of us expected, and we have all seen monumental changes in the way we live our lives day to day. Delivery of healthcare has seen a complete sea-change, with priorities inevitably evolving to cope with the overwhelming threat of Covid and the risks this poses to

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Grapefruit – the forbidden fruit?

Many people think that a fresh grapefruit for breakfast is a healthy way to kick-start the day, but in fact a single grapefruit or glass of grapefruit juice could have serious consequences for those who take daily medication for a number of causes. The reason for this is that grapefruit contains chemicals which affect the

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Herbs and the heart

Have you ever popped an echinacea tablet at the first sign of a cold or dabbed a spot of aloe vera on a patch of irritated skin? Well, you are certainly not alone. The complementary and alternative medicine market has seen a dramatic growth over the last couple of decades and continues to climb, with

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Business as un-usual

Now that UK lockdown restrictions are beginning to ease and private sector hospitals are starting to resume their pre-Coronavirus services, we are delighted to be back in our consulting rooms and able to welcome patients to our practice once more. The “new normal” has meant a number of noticeable changes to the way we work

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