A Brutal “On Call” Shift From Home…

I’m writing this with shaky, slightly crampy fingers.

I spent the best part of 12 hours signing 4000 pages for my upcoming book.

In an ideal world I would have done it over several days but due to travel / work commitments I only had this weekend to deliver..

and the deadline to give it to the publishers was Monday!

Just a small but heartfelt thank you to all of you who engage with my content whether you’ve pre-ordered my book or not.

Your mere presence and interaction with my videos have made all of this possible.

If you have pre-ordered my book an extra special hi-five!

Pre-ordering means a lot for an author as it helps the book get more traction and the publisher ramps up the printing and distribution so it can reach more places (and helps to spread my health messages more!).

The Plural of Uterus

You’re probably thinking uteri.. not uteruses right?

Well technically both are correct. Sort of.

The most grammatically correct would actually be uteruses.

Let me explain.

You might think a typical Latin word ending -us should have -i as it’s plural, e.g alumnus/alumni.

However Uterus isn’t a simple Latin word.

It’s a latinised form of the Greek word hystera which means womb.

Furthermore it’s then been adopted as an English word so it takes its plural form as a typical English word would, ie Uteruses.

Same goes with octopus. Octopi and octopuses are both correct.

Gender & Pain

Pain perception is weird.

Gender in particular has a strange influence.

New research from Lund University in Sweden showed that male participants needed stronger pain stimulation to reach a set point when the scientist delivering the pain was female.

Additionally male patients recovering from surgery tended to report less pain when questioned by a woman. 

Why is this?

Simple answer is we don’t know yet. One hypothesis is that women on average tend to have a greater capacity for empathy than men (smiling more or maintaining eye contact) which could affect a patients’ experience of pain.

Limited research even suggests patients experience better surgical outcomes when operated on by female surgeons!

Is Decaf Coffee Better?

I’ve personally never had decaffeinated coffee and you might think it defeats the purpose of coffee but let’s dive in…

Firstly, removing caffeine while keeping a coffee bean’s aroma and flavour intact isn’t a simple task.

There’s lots of different ways this is done (which I wont go into)

but essentially Decaf coffee is made by stripping green, unroasted coffee beans of their caffeine content and relies on the fact that caffeine dissolves in water.

There may be a change is flavour because some of the aromatic elements may be extracted alongside the caffeine..

Decaf also isn’t 100% caffeine free although the concentration is very modest.

You’d probably need to glug down at least 10 cups of decaf to get one caffeinated equivalent!

And now the most important bit…

The health benefits of drinking decaf coffee are similar to that of caffeinated coffee, including a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, some cancers and overall mortality.

This is likely because most of the health benefits from coffee comes from the prebiotic fibre beans and polyphenols…Not the caffeine!

Plus decaf likely means less caffeine induced anxiety and negative effects on sleep!

Life Updates:

What my next week looks like…

3 days of operating next week, 2 clinics and one 13 hour shift.

Then appearing on ITVs This Morning on Friday and a trip to a random village where the entire village works for the printing factory printing my book!! Mad.

A busy week but a quiet weekend required after that! Time is flying.

My New Challenge:

Before I went on my travels at the end of October I had a good few weeks of going to the gym. The last 2 weeks have been inconsistent due to work & being ill but I’m finally back on the pilgrimages to the iron sanctuary.

To that end, to reinforce my vows to do daily prayers to the iron gods and the muscle martyrs …

I’m doing my “30-30-30” challenge to keep myself accountable.

30 minutes of exercise every day at least

30g of fibre a day.

30 minutes of switching off mentally per day (mindfulness, meditation, walking in the garden.. whatever!).

I plan to do the above for 100 days so it becomes routine.

Join in!