What You Should Watch:

“ironlungman” on TikTok

Paul Alexander, one of the last people to live inside an “iron lung” has recently joined TikTok and is using the platform to share fascinating stories from his unique life and answer people’s questions.

Paul has had polio since the age of 6 (in 1952!) and the poliovirus attacks the central nervous system leading to paralysis temporarily and in some cases irreversibly

(and in the case of Paul, his chest muscles were paralysed)

To overcome this, he was placed in a negative pressure chamber called an iron lung to assist his breathing.

5 Lessons I’ve Learned Over The Years:

These are some of the ways I’ve changed my mindset just through getting things horribly wrong and life experience at work and personally.

You might relate to one or all of these!

1.     I no longer worry about being right. It’s far more important to focus on finding the truth.

2.    I don’t require external validation from anyone. I walk my own path.

3.    I try to limit how much I worry about things outside my sphere of control. These are inevitable. I focus instead on what I can do.

4.   I don’t make excuses based on my own self-limiting beliefs. There are many things I can’t do and always have been…but crucially those are things I can’t do…yet

5.    I have no more desire to boast about my accomplishments or embellish them. I am confident in who I am.

Is Salt Causing Your Bloating?

Bloating is a very ambiguous symptom and the list of causes for it are numerous.

It could be down to something as simple of constipation or as complex as a chronic bowel condition.

However, a very easy low hanging fruit.. or seasoning in this case to look for could be salt.

There is evidence suggesting high salt intakes can influence your gut microbiome. Over time this can potentially affect the way your body metabolises different types of food.

This also means that a high salt diet consumed chronically could result in chronic bloating.

Adults should aim to have less than 5g of salt per day (2g sodium). It’s worth checking the nutrient labels – for example a food containing more than 1.5g salt is considered high.

Naturally there are lots of potential dietary and lifestyle triggers for bloating – salt being just one of them.

If you have burdensome bloating, you should see your healthcare professional but either way it is useful to keep a food / lifestyle diary to see if anything obviously seems associated with your bloating symptoms.

Life Updates:

Time seems to be racing through. I feel like I’ve just sent you a newsletter and now you’re reading another one.

I’ve been intermittently wiped out with a virus last week for a couple of days but am slowly feeling better despite my voice still sounding nasally.

The next week is pretty boring for me – or routine rather… boring isn’t quite the right word for surgery!

My book slipped just out of the top 10 best seller in the charts due to a raft of new books by established authors that have been published but it’s still in the top 20! If you haven’t grabbed a copy of the hardback but you enjoy the information I provide – consider getting it so book sellers and stockists continue to stock my book so it can reach more people!

I’m slowly realising how the publishing world works – more interest and sales means more bookshops will order more copies for their stores and display them more prominently! Ultimately this means science can reign supreme and hopefully have a positive ripple effect on people’s health!

You can grab your copy of my book here, you won’t regret it:

What You Should Listen To:

“History Lessons For Misanthropes”

If you’re interested in history that is dark, weird, strange, sometimes upsetting or just bizarre then this might be up your street.

Very educational and entertaining, I recently listened to an episode entitled

“The Dark Side of Coco Chanel” – All about the iconic 20^th century couturier who created many of the fashions of the modern woman. This is a hidden story about her role as a German spy in World War 2…

Why Are Wisdom Teeth Called Wisdom Teeth…

It turns out the etymology is because they come later in your development supposedly when you're more wise….

However the really interesting thing is just how many different languages called them something associated with wisdom, like tooth of wisdom or tooth of the mind..

Romance languages, Germanic languages, Slavic languages, Arabic  (molar of the mind), Hebrew (tooth of understanding), Vietnamese (wisdom molar).

However there are also languages where they have nothing to do with wisdom…for example Japanese term literally translates to:  “the teeth of not knowing your parents”. Supposedly because they  developed after you left home and you're not seeing your parents as often.

In Turkish it's the “teeth of your 20s” because they start developing in your 20s,

in Polish its “eight”  because it's the 8th tooth from the centre of your mouth.

Languages are fascinating and weird.