I should say that given I'm a medic, this review will most likely be very medicine-centred. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading all the other bits, just that I have something more tangible to say about medicine. You know us medics, it's always about medicine. I am a former NHS midwife. I gave up practising due to the negative impact on my mental health. What’s the most important factor in retaining obs & gynae doctors and midwi ves? Avoid aspartame, saccharine, and sucralose. These artificial sweeteners have been shown to modify bowel flora and increase potential for prediabetes, helping explain why sugar-free soda drinkers are no more slender, even heavier, than sugared soda drinkers. 23 Choose natural and benign sweeteners instead, such as monk fruit, erythritol, and stevia.

Coming out to his family (I was confused about this because I thought he had already come out and that H, his partner from This Is Going to Hurt was a man, I think I probably got the TV show mixed up) I remember trying to get help for loads of mental health stuff through the medical school. To be fair, they are doing a lot more than your average med school but it was excruciating when the lady who was "screening" me asked whether I was exercising and socialising and eating and sleeping well. I was so ready to blow up in her face, "No shit those things help, that's why I've been doing them and that's the reason I'm seeking help--because they're not working!" And even people close to me succumb to comments like, "Why don't you just stop counting?" Gee, I wish I had thought of that. I think there's been some improvement in the attitude towards medics having mental illnesses. That doesn't mean we don't still have a long way to go. I think the chapter about Adam's conference presentation is a great example of this. He essentially bared his soul to a room full of doctors about why training needed to change and become more supportive. He was invalidated by the president of the Royal College. I understand that medicine is a demanding job. However, is it so much to ask to have a good life? I remember in my first year when I expressed concerns about not having a work-life balance to an OBGYN, she laughed me right out of the room and told me I shouldn't have applied for medicine if I expected that, that I had made the wrong choice and it wasn't too late to switch. That was probably one of the most disheartening talks I ever received from a doctor. The thing that I thought as soon as I started watching the rushes come together, and then a bunch of doctors have said to me, is I can’t believe they’re not actually doctors, midwives and nurses, because they just embodied it so well. I think Ambika in particular, for someone who had basically done practically nothing on-screen before – she’s just such an intelligent, nuanced actor.’ It’s a very big question, and it’s a bigger question than ever. When I left medicine, I was the first or second person in my cohort of hundreds to leave. And these days, I can’t think of the last time I spoke to a doctor who wasn’t talking about their plan B, whether that was going part-time or moving to another country or working in a different industry entirely. But all I’ll say is, being a doctor is an amazing, brilliant, precious career. But if you’re struggling, and if you’re not enjoying it, you can’t do the best for your patients. And there are lots of people who say, “Oh, you must stay in the job no matter what”, and that’s unhealthy and unhelpful. Just work out what it is you want to do. Diabetes and much of heart disease are caused by a poor diet, yet we spend the rest of our lives on an expensive medication.I wrote This is Going to Hurt with a beginning, middle and end. I wanted it to be about the mental health of healthcare staff. I did what I set out to do and made a taboo subject an unmissable conversation. I have no plans for a second series, I’d hate to do one for the sake of it. But I am in the early stages of a new project which will hopefully become something, and, if it does, will be very different but, hopefully, people will watch it. That being said, I really did like this book a lot and think the future of health-care has got to move us away from traditional care by doctors and hospitals. I am convinced that the best way to stay in optimal health is to avoid doctors as much as possible. Every time you see a doctor, you risk an intervention that was not needed that will probably cause more trouble than it fixes. Doctors (and patients) have trouble doing nothing, but time fixes many medical problems. Corn is also a prominent trigger for allergies. As many as 90 percent of people who deal with cornstarch in the pharmaceutical industry (as filler in pills and capsules), food production, or agriculture develop allergic responses to corn over time. 43 Magnesium is the most commonly depleted mineral from prior grain consumption—with restoration yielding substantial benefits. We aim for a daily magnesium intake of 400 to 500 milligrams of elemental magnesium. When I was writing her dialogue, I had Harriet Walter in my head. I didn’t actually think that Harriet would say yes, because she’s Dame Harriet Walter!’

He refers to health care in the USA as an organization motivated only by profit. Of course, many people within the health care system are caring, loving professionals who honestly do want to help their fellow man. However, the system they're in bondage to is the same system we are in bondage to. Health care? Nay. Profiteering from our illnesses is more like it. Greed seems to run rampant throughout our healthcare system. As a matter of fact, the term "healthcare" seems to be a misnomer, for in reality it should be renamed "symptom care." If probiotics and fermented foods are the seeds for bowel flora, what are the “water” and “fertilizer” that nourish them? These are called prebiotic fibers , fibers that you ingest but cannot digest, leaving them for microorganisms in the intestines to consume. Some call prebiotic fibers resistant starch since they are impervious to human digestion and digested by microorganisms. Getting prebiotic fibers is crucial to your health and the success of your diet. Kay is known for being active on social media and remains a big supporter of the NHS and its staff. At the end of the book, reflecting on it, I enjoyed it more than I did actually reading it. That's the second time in a row I've had that experience - yesterday it was with Sorry For Your Loss: What Working with the Dead Taught Me About Life so I can't tell if it's the books or me! If you enjoyed This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor you might enjoy this one. It's quite different, a whole lot more introspective, and much less episodic. Enjoyable, without a doubt. How can we better support struggling NHS staff and prevent real-life cases of suicide like Shruti’s [Mod played junior doctor Shruti Acharya in the TV version of This is Going to Hurt ]?

On a more serious note, he reveals that the point where Whishaw as Adam goes infront of the General Medical Council and quotes the statistic that one doctor every three weeks in the UK takes their life, he is using Kay’s exact words. It’s difficult not to despair but is there anything in the current situation with the NHS that gives you hope? Our medical system is a bloated monster designed to generate profit and patients and our society pay the price. I was the same way in school. I will say that a lot of it was self-imposed because I intentionally put my life on hold by saying that I'd find friends in medical school who were like-minded. I came and there wasn't much of a difference in the type of people; worse, because we weren't forced into close proximity for eight hours every single day, it was harder to make friends. I do consider myself relatively proactive and I did make friends (though I often do still feel lonely). However, when hanging out with people, I catch myself falling into the same trap of "oh my Gods, I have work to do and I can't afford to become besties with this person if they expect me to hang out with them every weekend." My first thought is always how little time I will have left to study. Kay is still a big supporter of the medical community, despite having hung up his scrubs (Picture: Dusty Miller)

Adam writes about how there's a certain homogeneity among medics. He explained how one of the consultants during placement forced him to cut his hair short and wouldn't allow painted nails. You're not supposed to stand out in a hospital. There's a certain image doctors are meant to project and medical students are held to the same standard--formal clothing in GP surgeries, scrubs (but NEVER outside a hospital because god-forbid how patients would react to that...okay, also because of infection control and all that), no outrageous coloured hair, no painted nails, formal footwear, no jewellery. I do think the rules are relaxing a bit. I know one girl in my year who dyed her hair red and I don't think she's faced any disciplinary action. There are also more tattoos among doctors and nurses! Though my own tattoos have been frowned upon by some elderly patients. One of my closest friends left medicine school after 3 years and it is funny how the society looked at him as if he was doing the biggest atrocity out there while everyone in the school itself were pretty sure it was the best decision -and they were all a bit envious- When I ask whether there remain any closed doors within his narrative, he talks about how his comic gift serves him: “I still hide behind humour. It’s my coping mechanism.” At school, he was the class clown: “It was a way of being popular when I wasn’t the most friend-forming child.” In medicine, it became his “shield – effective but not healthy and not enough to deal with the bad stuff that happens”. In “real life”, he uses humour as “an excuse not to answer questions. When you were asking me emotional questions earlier, it was taking everything I could not just to think: what’s the glib line that will make you laugh and shut it down, move it on?”MORE : Simon Callow reflects on the enduring popularity of Four Weddings and a Funeral: ‘The cast knew it would be our fault if it wasn’t a success’