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Women's Health

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Bones, Joints & Muscles

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Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat

Urinary & Kidney

Infections & Fever

Allergies & Immune System

Sleep & Fatigue

Children's Health

Travel & Preventive Health

All conditions, A to Z

Acid Reflux

Common and treatable — but persistent reflux over 55 needs investigating, not just suppressing.

Acne

Prescription treatments work far better than anything on a shop shelf — and scarring is preventable.

Adult ADHD

What we can and cannot do — stated plainly, because a lot of clinics are not clear about this.

Allergic Rhinitis

Year-round nasal symptoms — usually dust mite or pets rather than pollen.

Altitude Sickness

Common above 2,500m and usually mild. The two dangerous forms kill quickly, and going down is the only thing that reliably works.

Anaphylaxis

A medical emergency. Adrenaline first, lie flat, call 999 — and never stand someone up.

Angina

Chest tightness on exertion, eased by rest. Predictable angina is managed; new or changing angina is urgent.

Anxiety

Treatable, common, and worth addressing long before it starts limiting what you do.

Asthma

Most people with poorly controlled asthma are using the wrong inhaler technique, not the wrong inhaler.

Athlete's Foot

Simple to treat, easy to get wrong — and it spreads to the nails if left.

Atrial Fibrillation

The commonest sustained heart rhythm problem, and often silent. Finding it matters because of stroke, not symptoms.

B12 Deficiency

Fatigue and nerve symptoms that can become permanent if it is left too long.

Back Pain

Most back pain improves. Staying active does more than resting, and imaging usually does not help.

Bacterial Vaginosis

The commonest cause of unusual discharge — and very often mistaken for thrush.

Balanitis

Soreness and redness of the glans. Commonly thrush or soap irritation — and if it recurs, a reason to check for diabetes.

Bedwetting

Common and involuntary. Constipation is the most commonly missed cause, and shame is the most common mistake.

Bell's Palsy

Sudden facial weakness on one side. Time-critical — steroids work best started within 72 hours.

Bladder and Kidney Cancer

Visible blood in the urine — even once, even painless, even if it clears — always needs investigating.

Blepharitis

Chronic inflammation of the eyelid margins. Managed with lid hygiene rather than antibiotics — and it is a long game.

Bloating

Usually benign. Persistent bloating in a woman over 50 is the exception that must not be missed.

Bowel Cancer

The symptoms that need checking, and the fastest route to being seen. Bowel screening is free and it saves lives.

Breast Cancer

The changes that need checking urgently, and why a lump needs an in-person examination rather than a video call.

Bronchitis

A chest infection of the airways, not the lung tissue. Usually viral — and the cough outlasts what most people expect.

Burnout

Exhaustion, detachment and a sense that nothing you do is effective. Recovery takes longer than a week off.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Waking with a numb hand and shaking it out is the symptom that gives it away.

Cellulitis

A spreading bacterial skin infection. Treatable with antibiotics, but one that needs watching closely from hour to hour.

Cervical Cancer

The one screening test that prevents cancer rather than only detecting it — and the symptoms that need checking between smears.

Chalazion

A firm, usually painless lump in the body of the eyelid. Slower than a stye, and treated differently.

Chest Infection

Most are viral and need no antibiotic. Knowing which are not is the point of the consultation.

Chickenpox

Usually mild in children. Two things matter: avoid ibuprofen, and know who around you is at real risk.

Chlamydia

The commonest bacterial STI in the UK, usually silent, and easily cured.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

A serious long-term neurological condition. The old advice to exercise your way out of it was withdrawn for good reason.

Chronic Kidney Disease

A frightening label for something usually mild and stable. The urine ACR predicts risk better than eGFR alone — and is often not done.

Coeliac Disease

Around 1 in 100 people have it, and most are undiagnosed — often labelled as IBS for years.

Cold Sores

Timing is everything — antivirals work best at the first tingle, not once the blister forms.

Colic

Prolonged crying in a well, thriving baby. Most remedies do not work — and looking after the parent matters as much as the baby.

Concussion

Most settle within two weeks. Prolonged complete rest slows recovery, and returning to sport too early is the real risk.

Conjunctivitis

Most cases need no antibiotic. Knowing which red eyes are not conjunctivitis matters more.

Constipation

Usually simple to fix once the right laxative is used the right way.

Contact Dermatitis

Skin reacting to something it touches — and finding the trigger is most of the treatment.

Contraception Advice

An unhurried conversation about which method actually suits you, not just what is quickest to prescribe.

COPD

Not reversible, but very much treatable — and stopping smoking is the only thing that changes its course.

COVID-19

Endemic now, but not trivial for everyone. Antivirals have a five-day window and a long interaction list nobody mentions.

Crohn's Disease

Can affect anywhere from mouth to anus. Diagnosis is frequently delayed, and stopping smoking genuinely changes the course.

Croup

That barking, seal-like cough. Usually mild and steroid-responsive, but noisy breathing at rest is a 999 call.

Cystitis

Bladder inflammation — usually infective, sometimes not, and the difference matters.

Dandruff and Scalp Conditions

Persistent flaking that shampoo does not fix usually is not ordinary dandruff.

Deep Vein Thrombosis

One swollen, painful calf is a same-day problem. Not because of the leg, but because of the lung.

Depression

Not the same as feeling low. Persistent, treatable, and worth being honest about.

Diarrhoea

Most settles in days. Diarrhoea lasting beyond two weeks is a different question.

Diverticular Disease

Pouches in the bowel wall, present in most people over 70. Common, usually silent, and widely misunderstood.

Dizziness

The commonest cause takes about ten minutes to fix — once it is correctly identified.

Drug Allergy

Over nine in ten people labelled penicillin-allergic are not. That label follows you for life and makes your care worse.

Dry Eyes

Gritty, burning or paradoxically watering eyes. Common, treatable, and occasionally a clue to something else.

Ear Infection

Painful, common in children, and most clear without antibiotics.

Earwax Build-Up

Blocked, muffled hearing from wax. Softening it at home usually works — and there are things you should never put in your ear.

Eating Disorders

Treatable, and treated earlier they do considerably better. A confidential first conversation.

Eczema

Most eczema fails to improve because it is under-treated, not because treatment does not work.

Endometriosis

Average time to diagnosis in the UK is around eight years. It should not be.

Erectile Dysfunction

Common, treatable, and sometimes the earliest warning sign of heart disease.

Essential Tremor

The commonest movement disorder, far more common than Parkinson's — and treatable with a tablet most people have heard of.

Fatigue

Tiredness has causes. Most are findable with the right blood tests.

Febrile Convulsions

A seizure with a fever in a young child. Frightening to watch and usually harmless — and paracetamol does not prevent them.

Fibroids

Very common, usually harmless, and a leading cause of heavy periods and iron deficiency.

Fibromyalgia

A real condition with a real mechanism. Diagnosis requires excluding what mimics it.

Flu

If you are wondering whether it is flu, it probably is not. Antivirals help a narrow group, within a narrow window.

Folliculitis

Inflamed hair follicles — usually not an infection needing antibiotics, and usually caused by something you can change.

Food Allergy

Genuine allergy is less common than the testing industry implies. Which tests mean something, and which mean nothing.

Frozen Shoulder

Progressive stiffness and severe night pain. It does resolve — but the timescale is measured in years, not weeks.

Fungal Nail Infection

Slow to treat and worth confirming before you start — half of thickened nails are not fungal.

Gallstones

Most gallstones never cause trouble. The ones that do have a characteristic pattern.

Gastritis

Inflammation of the stomach lining — and the condition most often treated with a long-term PPI when it should have been tested for H. pylori.

Gastroenteritis

Usually viral and self-limiting. The risk is dehydration, not the infection itself.

Genital Herpes

Extremely common, entirely manageable, and far less consequential than its reputation.

Genital Warts

Caused by HPV, harmless in themselves, and treatable in several ways.

Glandular Fever

The fatigue outlasts the sore throat by months, and that is the part nobody warns you about.

Gonorrhoea

Often silent, especially in women and in throat and rectal infection. Needs an injection and a follow-up test, not tablets.

Gout

Excruciating, and one of the few forms of arthritis that can be prevented almost entirely.

Hair Loss

Some causes are entirely reversible. Working out which you have is the whole task.

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Common, viral and self-limiting. The thing to watch is fluids, because the mouth ulcers make drinking hurt.

Hay Fever

If shop-bought antihistamines are not working, there is a great deal more available.

Headache

Most headaches are benign. Medication overuse is the cause more often than anyone expects.

Head and Neck Cancer

Three weeks is the threshold — for an ulcer, for hoarseness, for a neck lump. Your dentist finds more of these than anyone.

Head Lice

Common, harmless and treatable at home. For most families this needs a pharmacist rather than a GP appointment.

Heart Failure

A misleading name. The heart has not failed, it is pumping less efficiently and modern treatment works well.

Heat Exhaustion and Heatstroke

Heat exhaustion responds to cooling and fluids. Heatstroke is a 999 emergency, and confusion is the dividing line.

Heavy Periods

Heavy is not the same as normal-for-you. It is treatable, and most people wait far too long.

High Blood Pressure

Almost always symptomless, and one of the largest preventable causes of stroke and heart attack.

High Cholesterol

Total cholesterol alone tells you very little. The breakdown and your overall risk are what matter.

Hives

Itchy weals that come and go. Most chronic cases never have an identifiable trigger — and that is normal.

HPV

The commonest sexual infection there is, and usually harmless. What matters is screening — and the vaccine.

IBS

A real condition with a real mechanism — and a positive diagnosis, not a label for when tests are normal.

Impetigo

Very contagious, common in children, and clears quickly once treated.

Indigestion

Usually benign — but it is worth knowing which features mean it is not.

Insect Bites and Stings

Most settle on their own. The useful skill is telling a normal reaction from infection or true allergy.

Insomnia

Sleeping tablets are not the answer. What actually works is well established and rarely offered.

Intertrigo

A raw, moist rash in the skin folds. The treatment is as much about keeping the area dry as it is about any cream.

Iron Deficiency Anaemia

You can be iron deficient long before you are anaemic — and ferritin is what shows it.

Jet Lag

Roughly a day per time zone crossed. Getting the light timing right speeds it up; getting it wrong makes it worse.

Joint Pain

Distinguishing osteoarthritis from inflammatory arthritis matters — the second is time-critical.

Kidney Stones

Severe loin-to-groin pain. Anti-inflammatories work better than morphine, and half of people get another within a decade.

Knee Pain

From wear and tear to sports injury. What the pattern of pain tells you, and when imaging is genuinely worth having.

Long COVID

Symptoms lasting beyond 12 weeks. How mild your original infection was tells you nothing about your risk.

Low Testosterone

Correctly diagnosed it is worth treating. Incorrectly diagnosed, treatment causes real harm.

Lung Cancer

A cough lasting three weeks needs assessing — and a normal chest X-ray does not settle the question.

Lupus

Multi-system, frequently missed, and diagnosed late. A positive ANA on its own means very little — the pattern is what matters.

Lyme Disease

If you have the rash, that is the diagnosis. Blood tests are often negative early, and private overseas tests are not reliable.

Lymphoma

Most swollen glands are infection. The pattern that matters is painless, persistent, and with night sweats or weight loss.

Malaria

A fever after travel is an emergency until a blood test says otherwise. Most UK deaths are in people visiting family abroad.

Menopause

The symptoms, why they happen, and what actually helps — with an honest account of HRT risks and benefits.

Migraine

A neurological condition, not a bad headache — and there are far more treatment options than most people are offered.

Molluscum Contagiosum

Harmless, self-limiting, and usually best left alone — which is not what most people are told.

Motion Sickness

Travel sickness in cars, boats and planes. The medication only works properly if you take it before you set off.

Narcolepsy

Far more than being tired. Diagnosis is frequently delayed by a decade, and it needs a sleep specialist.

Nasal Congestion

A persistently blocked nose has a cause — and decongestant sprays are frequently it.

Neck Pain

Common, usually mechanical, and better treated by moving than by resting — with a short list of genuine red flags.

Norovirus

Brief, brutal and extremely contagious. Hand gel does not work against it, and the 48-hour rule is not arbitrary.

Nosebleeds

Usually harmless and easily stopped, provided you do it the right way round. Most people are taught wrongly.

Obesity

A medical condition with medical treatments — not a failure of willpower.

OCD

Far more than tidiness. Highly treatable, and most people wait years before asking.

Oesophageal and Stomach Cancer

Difficulty swallowing is never normal — and long-term reflux medication can mask the symptom that would have raised the alarm.

Osteoarthritis

Not simple wear and tear, and not a reason to stop moving. The most effective treatment is the one people are most afraid of.

Osteoporosis

Silent until something breaks. Which is precisely why risk is assessed rather than waited for.

Otitis Externa

Infection of the ear canal — painful, itchy and often triggered by water or cotton buds.

Ovarian Cancer

The symptoms are vague, persistent and easy to mistake for IBS. There is no screening test — which is why symptoms matter.

Ovarian Cysts

Most come and go with the cycle unnoticed. Sudden severe pain is the exception that matters.

Overactive Bladder

Urgency you cannot defer. Bladder training beats going straight to tablets, and one widely used drug is a poor choice after 65.

Overactive Thyroid

Anxiety, palpitations and weight loss — often mistaken for a panic disorder.

Pancreatic Cancer

Vague symptoms, late diagnosis — and two specific patterns that should never be watched and waited on.

Panic Attacks

They feel like a heart attack. Understanding why is a large part of the treatment.

PCOS

The commonest hormonal condition in women of reproductive age — and one of the most poorly explained.

Pelvic Floor Problems

Extremely common, rarely mentioned, and genuinely fixable in most cases.

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Infection of the womb, tubes and ovaries. The single thing that protects fertility is treating it quickly.

Perimenopause

The years before periods stop — when symptoms start but the connection often isn't made.

Period Pain

Pain that stops you functioning is not something to put up with.

Peripheral Arterial Disease

Calf pain on walking that stops with rest. The leg is the messenger — the real issue is arteries everywhere.

Peripheral Neuropathy

Numbness, tingling or burning, usually starting in the feet. Finding a treatable cause is the priority.

Piles (Haemorrhoids)

Extremely common and usually easy to settle. The risk is not the piles — it is assuming that is all it is.

Plantar Fasciitis

Stabbing heel pain worst on the first steps out of bed. Treatable, but measured in months rather than weeks.

Pleurisy

Sharp chest pain that catches when you breathe in. The pain is the easy part; finding the cause is the point.

Pneumonia

One of the few things we will not manage remotely. It needs a chest listened to — and often an X-ray.

Premature Ejaculation

The commonest male sexual difficulty, and effective treatments exist.

Prostate Cancer

Why there is no national screening programme, what PSA actually tells you, and who should be testing earlier.

Prostate Enlargement

Very common after 50, usually benign — but the symptoms overlap with prostate cancer.

Prostatitis

Common in men under 50, often mismanaged, and frequently not an infection at all.

Psoriasis

A whole-body inflammatory condition, not just a skin one — which is why the joints and heart matter too.

Quinsy

An abscess beside the tonsil. Not something to treat remotely — it needs draining, and the same-day warning signs matter.

Raynaud's Phenomenon

Fingers that go white then blue in the cold. Usually benign, but the features that suggest otherwise are worth knowing.

Restless Legs

Often caused by low iron — and correcting it properly resolves a great many cases.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

The window for treatment is measured in weeks. A normal blood test does not rule it out, and waiting for one costs joints.

Ringworm

Nothing to do with worms. A common fungal infection with a distinctive ring-shaped rash.

Rosacea

Frequently mistaken for acne or sensitive skin, and treated quite differently.

Scabies

Intensely itchy, especially at night, and treatment has to cover everyone in the house at once.

Scarlet Fever

Sandpaper rash, strawberry tongue, sore throat. One of the few childhood rashes that genuinely needs antibiotics.

Sciatica

Most sciatica improves without surgery. The red flags are what a consultation is really for.

Sepsis

A medical emergency where hours matter. Learn the signs — and know that asking "could this be sepsis?" is a reasonable thing to say.

Shingles

The 72-hour window is the whole game. After that, antivirals do considerably less.

Shoulder Pain

Most shoulder pain is rotator cuff related and responds to the right rehabilitation — but it takes longer than people expect.

Sinusitis

Most sinusitis is viral and needs no antibiotic — but there is plenty that does help.

Skin Cancer

The ABCDE rule, what a changing mole means, and how to take a photograph a doctor can actually assess.

Sleep Apnoea

Substantially underdiagnosed, and treating it changes how people feel more than almost anything else.

Sore Throat

Most are viral and settle in a week. A scoring system tells us which are not.

Stress

Normal in short bursts. Damaging when it never switches off.

Stroke and TIA

A TIA is a warning shot. Symptoms that resolved still need assessing within 24 hours, because the next one may not resolve.

Stye

A tender red lump on the eyelid margin. Most settle within a week without antibiotics — here is what actually helps.

Syphilis

Entirely curable with penicillin, and seriously damaging if left. A blood test settles it.

Teeth Grinding

A guard protects your teeth but does not stop the grinding. The cause is usually stress, sleep or medication.

Teething

Real but over-blamed. Teething does not cause high fever or diarrhoea, and some teething products are genuinely unsafe.

Tennis Elbow

Pain on the outside of the elbow when gripping. Slow to settle, and the treatment is loading rather than resting.

Testicular Cancer

The most common cancer in men aged 15 to 49 — and among the most curable, even when it has spread.

Testicular Lumps and Pain

Most causes are benign. One is not — and it is the most curable cancer there is when found early.

Threadworms

Extremely common, harmless, and not a sign of a dirty house. Treat everyone at once and follow the fortnight of hygiene.

Thrush

Straightforward to treat — but recurrent thrush usually means something else is going on.

Tick Bite

Most tick bites are harmless. Removal technique and knowing the rash to look for are what prevent the small number that are not.

Tinnitus

Extremely common and usually benign — but one-sided tinnitus is a different question.

Tonsillitis

Painful, usually viral, and worth documenting properly if it keeps coming back.

Tonsil Stones

Harmless calcified debris trapped in the tonsil crypts — and the commonest cause of unexplained bad breath in someone with good dental hygiene.

Travellers' Diarrhoea

Affects up to half of travellers to high-risk regions. A standby prescription is worth having.

Trigeminal Neuralgia

One of the most severe pains in medicine, and one of the most treatable once correctly identified.

Type 2 Diabetes

Often silent for years. Prediabetes is the stage where it is still genuinely reversible.

Ulcerative Colitis

Inflammation of the colon causing bloody diarrhoea and urgency. Calprotectin is the test that separates it from IBS.

Underactive Thyroid

Fatigue, weight gain and cold intolerance that get attributed to everything except the thyroid.

Unexplained Weight Gain

Weight gain without a change in habits usually has a reason — and it is worth finding it.

Urinary Incontinence

Common, treatable, and not something to live with. Supervised pelvic floor physiotherapy is free and dramatically under-used.

Urinary Tract Infection

Treated quickly it resolves fast. Left too long it reaches the kidneys.

Vaginal Dryness

Extremely common after menopause, rarely raised, and one of the most treatable things there is.

Varicose Veins

Common, usually harmless, and occasionally not. The referral criteria are clearer than most people are told.

Vertigo

A spinning sensation with a specific set of causes — and a specific set of warning signs that need emergency care.

Vitamin D Deficiency

Extremely common in the UK, easily corrected, and worth measuring rather than guessing.

Warts and Verrucas

Most clear on their own eventually. Treatment speeds it up, with realistic expectations.

Womb Cancer

Any bleeding after the menopause needs investigating — however light, however brief, however long ago.

Conditions we can help with

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