The long burden of COVID-19 lockdown
For those of you that have been following me for some time will know, my father was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. His management including radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery and the management of subsequent complications also took place during both UK COVID-19 lockdowns. He then died last summer as the […]
Long acting progesterone contraception and teenage acne
Dermatologists have long recognised that progesterone-only hormonal contraception is associated with new or worsening acne in up to one third of adult patients. [Lortscher D, Admani S, Satur N et al. Hormonal contraceptives and acne: a retrospective analysis of 2147 patients. J Drug Dermatol 2016;15(6):670-674.] On the other hand, combined oral contraceptives (COC) that contain […]
DEET or not to DEET?
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. […]
Gene editing skin creams
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 […]
An allergic dermatitis to swimming pools
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 impressed. It was with some interest then that I […]
The bug in the bed that bites
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 October. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67284766] [https://time.com/6322485/bed-bugs-paris-other-cities/] What is a bed bug? Cimex lectularius is the common bed bug. They are […]
House dust mites and vitiligo
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 Journal […]
A new multi-cancer busting drug
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 […]
A vaccine for melanoma
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 […]
The benefits of blue
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 atmosphere. Because blue […]