After three years of living with the diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, I have begun to formulate some thoughts and suggestions for improving current Parkinson’s services. These suggestions are based on my personal experience as both a doctor and patient, and fit into five main categories: presenting symptoms, specialist referral, secondary care consultation, medical research, and … Continue reading How can current Parkinson’s Services be improved?
Is the recent NHS homeopathy ban a good idea?
In short, I believe it is not. The NHS needs to understand the value of the placebo response and its effectiveness in relieving symptoms. Having said this, I firmly believe that homeopathy should not be offered as a treatment for established disease or to create an immune response when given instead of vaccination. It does … Continue reading Is the recent NHS homeopathy ban a good idea?
The fragmented jigsaw puzzle of today’s NHS General Practice
Patients very rightly protest when a General Practitioner is not paid for carrying out a postnatal examination on a woman at six weeks, presenting with their new baby. This is simply not in the GPs contract! But why has NHS general practice come to this? I recently read a brief letter to the Guardian, from … Continue reading The fragmented jigsaw puzzle of today’s NHS General Practice
Alternatives to drugs for Chronic Pain?
“Deaths jump five-fold as doctors dole out opioids like Smarties” - Sunday Times, August 28, 2019. This blog takes as its theme chronic pain and the experience of novelist Tim Parks. This is a topic dealt with in both my book Reclaim Health (which includes a chapter on breath and its role in healing), and … Continue reading Alternatives to drugs for Chronic Pain?
How do we more fully see the whole person behind the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease?
As a patient I have witnessed the need to bring together a fragmented team to create personalised medicine. My experience of hospital and GP contacts: Long waits! Seeing a consultant neurologist privately – after waiting over 16 weeks for an NHS appointment. August 2017: Brief neurological assessment; blunt ‘you have Parkinson’s Disease’. Medication only offered … Continue reading How do we more fully see the whole person behind the clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease?
Reflections on living with Parkinson’s Disease in the last year
A New Year and ‘I’m still standing’ in the words of the Delta blues singer Mississippi Fred McDowell. The song accompanies me when I do my exercises in the morning. Happy New Year. Looking back I have probably had symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease now for 10 years – marked stiffness around my neck and shoulders … Continue reading Reflections on living with Parkinson’s Disease in the last year
Dr David Beales 