All posts tagged: Active Health

Quick Question – How do I check my breasts?

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

How do you do a breast self-examination? What should you look for when checking your breasts? What do you do if you find a breast lump? It can feel a little overwhelming so don’t worry if you don’t know where to start. With some simple tips and advice you’ll soon grow in confidence. Thank you for all the comments and shares of my previous blog – How often should I examine my breasts? I explained it was all about being generally breast aware rather than having a set time to do an examination but that routine and reminders can help to avoid the months flying past without you doing a check. A helpful comment from a reader pointed out that the wonderful charity CoppaFeel do a text reminder service so you’ll get sent a monthly message to remind you. No let’s learn how to examine ourselves. First up … Remember that every woman is different and so is every breast. Breasts are made of fatty tissue and fat is lumpy so at first you might …

Quick Question – How often should I examine my breasts?

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

I was examining my breasts the other day and suddenly realised that I couldn’t remember the last time I had done it. Then I felt worried that if I found a lump it could have been there for several months. There’s nothing like the fear of breast cancer to invoke anxiety. Thankfully all was well but it served as a reminder to me of the importance of this quick, simple home check that we can all do. So, how often should you check your breasts? Should you examine yourself every time you get in the shower, once a month or is a quick feel every now and then when you remember enough? Cancer Research UK states, ‘When diagnosed at its earliest stage, almost all (98%) people with breast cancer will survive their disease for five years or more, compared with around 1 in 4 (26%) people when the disease is diagnosed at the latest stage.’ However, not all breast cancers can be detected by breast self-examination. Other methods such as breast screening through mammography are …

New IGTV Channel

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

Twitter has long been my favourite social media channel. It’s played a fundamental role in my change of career. So many connections, opportunities and even the job advert for the post I took as a PHE Physical Activity Clinical Champion have all come from Twitter. Real life friendships have resulted too which is wonderful. I never really ‘got’ Instagram. I posted pictures there, browsed and liked a few things but it was more of a personal photo album for me than anything else. I just didn’t have the time for the crafted posts that filled my feed and seemed to get the most attention, I always felt I might as well have written a blog. Over time however I’ve grown to love Instagram, I’ve found an increasing amount of support, pleasure and diversity. I understand it better and so I’m taking the plunge and embarking on a new challenge. I’ve launched an Instagram TV Channel. I’ve called the channel Active Health because that just really seems to sum up what my work is about. I …

Quick Question – Can I exercise with varicose veins?

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

Varicose veins, a common condition that you might have diagnosed yourself or seen your doctor about. What are varicose veins, why do they happen and how do they link with exercise? Can exercise prevent varicose veins and if you’ve already got them, will exercise make them better or worse? What do you need to be careful of when exercising with varicose veins? I thought I’d pick this for my latest #quickquestion. What are varicose veins? If you don’t have them yourself then I’m sure you’ve spotted varicose veins on other people, usually on their legs. They’re essentially swollen blood vessels seen at the surface of the skin. They’re dark blue in colour as they contain blood that has given away its oxygen (deoxygenated blood) and is on its way back to the heart to get some more. They can be small or large, straight or very wiggly. They might not cause any discomfort at all but it’s common for varicose veins to ache, throb, itch and even bleed. Why do varicose veins happen? Our blood …

Quick Question – How can I stop coughing?

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

Last week’s question covered why and how we cough, now let’s consider how to stop coughing. What can you do to ease a cough when your ribs are aching and your sleep is disturbed? As we discovered, coughing is a reflex designed to protect us and it’s controlled by the coughing centre in the brain which receives messages from receptors in our airways. Because this happens automatically, without conscious thought, it makes it difficult to control. Find out what’s at the route of your cough? The key is to work out why you’re coughing. We usually associate coughing with respiratory infections such as colds, bronchitis or pneumonia but there are many other reasons people cough. Working out the cause helps to find the best way to make it stop. Here are some common causes of coughs which aren’t respiratory infections: Smoking – A major cause of a long term cough. Acid reflux – Stomach acids sometimes sneak past the sphincter that seals off the stomach. This acid can travel upwards and irritate your throat, this …

Coughing woman

Quick Question – Why do we cough?

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

A cough is one of the major symptoms of Covid-19 and a common feature of any respiratory infection but why do we cough and what actually happens in the body during a cough? Coughs are annoying and irritating, both for the person suffering and for those around them (I seem to be as intolerant of listening to coughing as I am of hearing people chew!) They are however a protective mechanism designed to remove foreign particles from the windpipe and lungs. Larger objects such as food that’s gone down the wrong way and smaller particles such as dust, germs and mucous are all expelled from the body through coughing. The lining of our airways contains specialised cells called goblet cells which produce mucous to keep our airways moist and to trap dirt and germs. Alongside them are ciliated cells which have hundreds of tiny, microscopic legs at their surface which wave, waft and move the mucous and trapped particles back up the airways. During an infection we may have a dry cough where little or …

Red blood cells

Quick Question – What are oxygen sats?

Published by Dr Juliet McGrattan

We seem to have developed a range of new vocabulary since the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Suddenly words such as self-isolate, health modelling and social distancing have become the norm. Some of the medical terminology that’s now filling our social media feeds can be unknown and confusing. A question I’ve seen a few times is, ‘What are oxygen sats?’ so I thought I’d answer it in my #quickquestion series. Red blood cells carry oxygen around our body. They pick up oxygen molecules when they travel through the lungs and then transport it around the body attached to haemoglobin, which is a protein in the red cell. Our body’s organs and tissues need a steady supply of oxygen for them to function. Oxygen sats is the short form of oxygen saturation and is a measure of how close blood is to being completely saturated with oxygen. Sats are measured in per cent and the goal is 100 per cent. You might also see oxygen abbreviated to its chemical symbol O2. Healthy people will have …