January is over.  Traditionally one of the slowest months, it went really quickly for me this year which is great but then it worries me how fast the rest of the year will go.  We have three milestone birthdays and a special anniversary this year so it is a year we wish to savour.   One … [Read more...] about DEET or not to DEET?

It’s a new year, and I don’t know how your 2023 went, but we could really do with a good 2024 in the Flann household.  Everyone from family, friends and patients had warned us that the first Christmas after a death in the family was the hardest so we prepared ourselves.  I had a little wobbly on … [Read more...] about Gene editing skin creams

December and sub-zero temperatures are not what one would normally associate with pleasurable swimming weather.  However, at a recent working lunch, my bookkeeper Natalie informed us that she was swimming a marathon and was close to completing it.  And the rest of us were extremely … [Read more...] about An allergic dermatitis to swimming pools

The BBC news today reports that a library in Ealing has had to close temporarily due to bed bugs and this, worryingly, comes shortly after a widely reported outbreak of bed bugs in Paris in … [Read more...] about The bug in the bed that bites

Life is always full of surprises, I suppose that is the way it is supposed to be otherwise if everything went always as planned then there would be no innovation.   So it was with surprise that I read an article about house dust mites and vitiligo in the September edition of the British … [Read more...] about House dust mites and vitiligo

With the tumultuous year we have had looking after my father with his multiple admissions to hospital due to the progression of his cancer followed finally by his death a month ago, my own health has taken a bit of a battering.  I’ve now started to take up the rowing I did after all my kids were … [Read more...] about A new multi-cancer busting drug

At the time of writing, my sister and I are in the process of planning my father’s funeral.  We have decided for all donations either to go to my dad’s Buddhist monastery in Wembley in which he played an active part in his retired years or to go to Bowel Cancer UK.  This is because Bowel Cancer UK … [Read more...] about A vaccine for melanoma

Having just returned from a few days in the sun for a dermatology conference, one cannot deny the benefits of sun exposure, especially when one lives somewhere where drizzle is the norm.   We all know that the reason we have blue skies is because the sun’s rays scatter in the Earth’s … [Read more...] about The benefits of blue

Mankind has always been obsessed with eternal youth. In modern times, where we have social media, an ever increasing number of interventions to preserve youthful looks and people living longer than ever, the question as to whether looking younger reflects better health is more pertinent than … [Read more...] about Can looking younger than one’s age reflect better health?

I think if I had my time again, I would love to be a historian or an archaeologist or something like that.  I really love all things ancient, they show us how and why we have ended up the way we are now and in a way, teach us that we are all transient beings, no matter how great or inconspicuous our … [Read more...] about A bathtub diagnosis