THE POSITIVE PROFESSOR

PROFESSOR KAROL SIKORA

SOCIAL media’s voice of calm Karol Sikora has been signed up by the Daily Express. Readers can now enjoy his soothing advice in these troubled times that have won him hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. If you need reassuring everything’s going to be all right read Professor Positivity.

UNDERSTANDABLY, modern medicine is far more focused on curing disease rather than preventing it developing in the first place. Faced with Covid, preemptive measures have fallen even further behind. It can be seen as a time-consuming, expensive luxury.

It’s also very difficult to measure the benefits, certainly in the short-term.

Other countries have a far more holistic view of medicine than we do.

Through putting more time and resources into preventative measures they benefit in the long run.

Keeping fit and active, eating healthily and taking proper care of your mental health are key.

If we all put more time and effort into doing these things when times are good, then the bad times could be avoided.

It’s an uncomfortable truth and it can be seen as insensitive to talk about it, but obesity is a huge risk factor for so many illnesses including Covid.

Obesity rates in the UK are far higher than we would like and tackling that would solve many health issues in both the short and long term.

It’s the same with keeping active. A recent report from Sport England found that the number of inactive adults rose by 1.2 million during lockdown. Even a small amount of exercise a day has enormous health benefits. Keeping people locked in their homes was always going to have immense negative consequences for the general fitness of the population.

Finally and just as importantly is mental health. I’ve long been a believer in the power of a healthy mind, in the past it has not always been a fashionable view in medicine but happily we are far more open in discussing it these days.

Prevention is far better than treatment – we would all do well to remember that.