Are We Getting Closer To A Cure For Skin Cancer?!

A phase 3 trial for a personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma skin cancer is currently underway with 1000 participants worldwide.

The trial in previous phases has already seen encouraging results.

The vaccine is designed to be given alongside an immune system modulating drug.

Previous results indicated this combination led to a 44% reduction in recurrence or death 18 months after surgical treatment.

This mRNA skin cancer vaccine works by showing the body’s cells proteins from each individual’s cancer cells called neoantigens (highly personalised vaccines).

The vaccine essentially makes the body prepared against those specific cancer proteins from the patient’s own cancer

This is just the start for cancer vaccines… the next step will be proving success in these 1000 participants and longer term studies before rolling out to potentially other cancer types!

Why Women Have Different Sleep Requirements To Men…

Let’s be honest – there is stark lack of research specifically when it comes to women’s circadian rhythms (their sleep clock).

This is problematic since there is a growing body of evidence suggesting their sleep requirements are unique.

Some recent studies suggest that women’s sleep-wake cycles and clock are shifted earlier to men.

This means their core body temperatures drop quicker at night and they get an earlier rise of the sleep hormone melatonin.

On average, women may feel sleepy earlier in the day and be more at risk of the consequences of staying up too late.

As a a result their biological clocks may be more likely to be in conflict with lifestyle and modern shift work patterns that further disrupts sleeping patterns.

Are Anti-Nutrients In Plant Food Harmful?!

Anti-nutrients are things like lectins, tannins, phytates and oxalates.

These are chemicals found naturally in plant foods like wholegrains, legumes, tea, coffee, fruits and vegetables and

they can block or limit the absorption of nutrients like calcium and iron.

Now this does sound alarming but they are NOT something you should avoid.

Unless you consume these in unrealistically high amounts (like 20 bowls of spinach in a day), they’re unlikely to cause real issues with nutrient intake.

These anti-nutrients are found often in high fibre containing foods so further reasons you shouldn’t miss out.

Additionally they have their own benefits, e.g. phytates lower cholesterol.

Tips to help:

1) pair iron containing foods with sources of vitamin C to enhance the absorption of iron

2) consider picking products fortified with calcium

3) try fermented foods like sourdough bread, the fermentation process increases the bioavailability of various nutrients

A Week of Updates…

I only ended up working 4 days this week and thankfully had Friday off but I still managed to rack up some pretty impressive (and tiring hours in those 4 days). I suspect I was still recovering from the jet lag after a week of night shifts the week prior.

This is something I’m terrible at.. booking holidays and rest days.

I haven’t had a proper break for a number of months now. The last dedicated holiday I took was last April when I went to India. I’m feeling the itch to go away again… somewhere random like Bhutan! (apparently the happiest country in the world!)

In other news I was surprised to learn that my book “This Book May Save Your Life” is completely sold on Amazon UK! We are almost 4 months post-publication and it’s pleasing to still see this level of interest so many months after!

I’ve been trying to call my publishers to let them know about this so hopefully they can re-stock on Monday!

If you haven’t got it already you can grab one here:

(if you’re outside the UK, then stocks should be available still)

I also can’t believe it’s under 2 weeks till my live show! Very excited to bring you a medical education / comedy stand up fusion thing!

Friday 10^th May in London… if you’re interested then grab tickets here:

Keep Doing The Grunt Work…

One thought I had about longevity in career or business is doing the dirty work, the grunt work.

This is the difference between one person thriving in their business long term versus fading (in my opinion)

The grunt work are the small things that seemingly can be easily delegated (talking to customers, spending time on details, testing and trialing, doing things that can’t scale)

It’s all too easy to drop all of this once you’ve tasted some success and leave this dirt and grunt wort behind never to get your hands dirty again!

In fact the New Zealand All Black rugby team – the captains of the team clean up the locker room after the game. Literally getting their hands dirty.

Basically, you are never too big to do the small things in life.

This same concept applies to almost all aspects of life.

Relationships – still do the small acts of kindness even years in..

Health— still make sure you do the hard stuff

The boring stuff, the basic stuff is what made you successful, don’t lose sight of it.

What You Should Watch

The Antisocial Network – Netflix

This is an interesting one as someone who is pretty active on social media.

This documentary charts the impact of a social media platform/community known as 4chan. It starts off as an innocent community for people with shared interest to come together.

This eventually snowballed into vitriol, hate trolling and more, and being corrupted in such a way it led to real world consequences.

Worth a watch!