Dr Nathan Hudson-Peacock

13/01/2025

Such an incredible honour to be featured on National Geographic today, telling the story of the northernmost caves on the planet and what we can learn from them about the Arctic climate record! Head to the link in my insta to read the full article www.instagram.com/expedition_doctor

12/05/2022

A previous TED talk speaker, 2 speakers with OBEs, the NHS Chief Sustainability Officer and a short documentary screening are some of the highlights from next Sunday's free international conference, certified for 5 CPD points by the Faculty of Public Health.

If you fancy a day out in one of London's most prestigious venues, the Royal Geographical Society, and want to find out from incredible speakers all about the health impacts of the climate crisis and what this means for us as healthcare professionals, we'd love to see you there. There are about 30 free in-person tickets remaining, and unlimited online tickets.

Tickets available at www.EcoMedics.co.uk/2022

After the success of last year's event, we can't wait to show you everything we have in store for 2022. This year, we return both in person and online, and in keeping with our core values, this conference will once again be free of charge, carbon neutral, and totally inspiring!

25/02/2022

Wearing all the blue and yellow today
🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦

I have no words to describe what is going on in the Ukraine. I go from seeing horrible injuries downstairs - accidental injuries - to reading about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on the news, and the bloodshed and trauma inflicted on people - intentionally. I can’t even begin to imagine how or why one could ever begin to justify inflicting this suffering and death. I read this morning about the 13 guards who held their ground against the Russian warship, utterly helpless, before getting murdered in cold blood. I shed a tear as I lay in bed thinking about the loved ones they must be leaving behind, and how men age 18-60 in Ukraine have been banned from leaving the country… How is history repeating itself in this way??

Hundreds dead and injured. Mothers. fathers, sons, daughters, friends, loved ones - human beings. What is the difference between civilian and military anyway? For me, I was rejected from the military due to my nut allergy. We are all people, regardless of our uniform and all human death and suffering is a tragedy.

And now as I am about to start my evening shift in the paediatric emergency department, I can’t help but feel utterly fuming that children today in Ukraine will be injured, killed or psychologically scarred for life as a result of the actions of one man’s greed.

I don’t know what the answer is, but my heart goes out to everyone in Ukraine, and everyone affected by this invasion ❤️

In particular, sending strength and love to all medical professionals and volunteers who, on the back end of two years of horrific conditions dealing with the pandemic, will now no doubt be seeing atrocities we all hope to never witness in our own hospitals. I will be thinking of you all today, from my hospital to yours 🙏 💙 💛

23/12/2021

Ready for vaccines 101? Grab yourself a mince pie🥧

Coronavirus contains genetic info called RNA. Small sections of this RNA, called mRNA, are used to make spike proteins (S proteins) which are tiny fragments found on the surface of the virus. When the virus enters the body, the immune system recognises these fragments as foreign and starts to attack

👀 NB Spike proteins are not dangerous by themselves (in the same way that shark teeth are not dangerous without the shark)

🤔So how do vaccines work?

💉Vaccines work by teaching your immune system to recognise the S protein. Then, if you are exposed, your immune system recognises the S protein & attacks immediately, hopefully before it has a chance to replicate. As a result, you defeat the virus much faster. This means less severe infection & less transmission

💉mRNA vaccines contain artificial mRNA. Our cells use this to produce S proteins, which our immune system then learns to recognise. The mRNA is then destroyed. It can’t get anywhere near your DNA, which is kept inside a cellular bunker called the nucleus. Even if it could reach it, mRNA cannot be used to alter DNA

💉With adenovirus vaccines, RNA is inserted into a harmless virus to allow it into our cells, so they can produce S proteins like above

🤔Why boost?

A while after a vaccine, the immune system starts to forget what the S protein looks like. The booster acts as a reminder

🦠What about Omicron?

The immune system is less good at detecting Omicron as the S protein has been partly disguised by mutations. If it’s been a while since you had the vaccine, your immune system may not recognise the S protein in disguise. However, if a booster has recently reminded your immune system exactly how the S protein should look, then it will recognise it despite the disguise. That’s why we are being told to get the booster

🤔 Isn’t “natural” immunity better?
Evidence shows the vaccine produces immunity more reliably than previous infection. Furthermore, if we aimed for “natural” herd immunity, we would eventually get to the same state as vaccinated herd immunity, except hundreds of thousands more people would have died on the way

13/06/2021

Yesterday, Christian Eriksen collapsed on the football field in cardiac arrest. Today, I am delighted to hear that he is awake in hospital. But why?

In the UK, for every 100 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, only 8 people survive. The number is even lower for neurologically intact survival. So why is it that this 29 year old fit athlete survived to hospital? Yes, he’s young and healthy which helps. But the real reason is because he was given effective CPR immediately.

If you’re reading this, you should know how to give CPR. In this instance, there were medics present who delivered excellent care. However, what would have happened if he collapsed while shopping in Sainsbury’s right next to you? Would you have had the confidence to step in and give immediate and effective CPR?

Immediate bystander CPR and early defibrillation is the first step in the chain of survival. For every 60 seconds this is delayed, chance of survival drops by 10%. In countries where CPR is taught routinely in school, such as Norwegian primary schools since 1961, survival rates are as high as 1 in 4.

In 2016, I was watching the Cambridge half marathon when not one but two people collapsed on the finish line. My housemate and I both stepped in to give CPR within seconds, and both runners survived. We knew what we were doing as we had done a course on CPR. Have you?

*** IMPORTANT ***
Due to COVID-19, there is a small risk of infection. However, this is balanced against definite death if you do not give CPR. As an advanced life support instructor, we follow advice from the Resus Council UK. Swipe right for current advice which is to cover the patient’s face, and start CPR if they look like they are not breathing normally.
• Do not give rescue breaths
• Do not listen or feel for breathing (just look for abnormal or absent breathing without putting your face near theirs)
• Start CPR. The key point is hard and fast, but aim for 5-6 cm and 2 compressions per second.

You NEVER know when someone might collapse next to you. What if it’s a loved one? Are you ready to give CPR? If the answer is no, get yourself trained - and both offer training.

23/05/2021

Raja Ampat is an area in West Papua and part of the Bird’s Head Seascape, the most marine biodiverse area in the world. However, until just 10 years ago, Raja Ampat was subject to terrifying marine biodiversity loss due to illegal fishing - trawlers, cyanide and dynamite were just some of the techniques used to take as much as life as humanly possible from the ocean. Catches were down to just 10% and fish stocks were getting obliterated. The impact of this on fish, on coral and on larger animals was devastating. Even if the animals survived, the trauma from dynamite shockwaves to their extremely sensitive sense organs was catastrophic. And then all that changed. founded the Bird’s Head Seascape initiative, and along with local communities and over 30 NGOs, they have managed to restore Raja Ampat back to its former glory. There are now 25x more sharks here than 10 years ago, and the nesting sites of the critically endangered leatherback turtle are better protected now than ever. In the words of David Attenborough at the end of Coastal Seas (Our Planet), “[Raja Ampat] is one of the few places on Earth where biodiversity is actually increasing”.

I am so excited to be here for the next two months, learning about and contributing to the incredible marine conservation efforts here. Over the next few weeks I’ll share some footage from here in the heart of the Coral Triangle, and share with you some of the incredible things I’m learning.

15/04/2021

Dr Nathan Hudson-Peacock, FEWM

Fellow of Extreme & Wilderness Medicine

Check out extreme-fellowship.com to learn more

🚨 🏔 💉 🚁 ⛷ 🤿

07/04/2021

As healthcare professionals, we come across people facing mental health issues on a daily basis. We often feel pressured into making a diagnosis, making a referral, or prescribing a medication just so we can feel we have DONE something. Even worse, perhaps we might think we only have time to address their blood pressure or chest pain - and therefore we skip over the topic altogether.

For the patient, talking about their mental health may be an incredibly hard thing to do and it is important that we, as healthcare professionals, recognise this and do our best to ensure they feel heard. This means we should stop typing for a moment, make eye contact, and really listen.

This is so important so that patients develop trust, and therefore have the confidence to come back again in future perhaps. If they leave feeling unheard, or dismissed, or like they just had medications thrown at them, they may lose trust. And if they were to fall into a crisis, who do they turn to then, if not a healthcare professional?

So...
Stop typing.
Listen.

***

If you are pressured for time as they are presenting with a different complaint, instead of skipping over the topic or rushing to “do” something, try the following instead:

1) Listen intently with eye contact
2) Explore risk, if appropriate
3) Acknowledge their suffering with an apology for what they are going through
4) Thank them for telling you
5) Offer a genuine apology for the lack of time today but reassure them you want to ensure they get the support they need
6) Signpost next steps taking care not to seem like you are shifting responsibility - eg suggest they come back for a follow up appointment to discuss this further, or that they see their GP, or give them the number for appropriate charities eg Samaritans on 116 123

***

These are my reflections after last night’s incredible TEDxNHS event on mental health with the amazing speaker, Bald Font. Don’t miss the rest of their upcoming talks soon!

23/03/2021

It’s hard to believe a whole year has passed since the first lockdown came into action. So much has happened in a single year - love & loss, hope & grief, laughter & tears... It’s hard to even begin to comprehend what we’ve all been through - what we’re all still going through. All that is certain is that, just as the sun rose over London last May when cases were falling and I took this photo, the sun has risen every single day since and it will rise again tomorrow, and every day thereafter. The days are getting longer, cases are falling, vaccines are being given and with that knowledge, we can remain hopeful and sit tight through the cold dark night knowing the sun will, without a shadow of a doubt, rise again. 🌅

At 12 noon today, we all stand together with a minute’s silence to reflect on the year that has passed. I encourage you to think not just of the hardship, but to reflect on some of the positives from this most difficult year too. I promise you, there will be some positive in there and if you need longer than a minute to find it - take that time. The time is yours to use as you need it.

For anyone who has lost a loved one to COVID, today might feel incredibly painful & I’m so sorry 😞 While nothing can take that pain away, with each passing day, with every sunrise, things will gradually become less unbearable and eventually the sun will rise again for you too.

For anyone feeling lost. Remember, it’s hard to navigate through darkness, but a light at the end of the tunnel gives you something to aim for. And when you reach that light, the way will certainly become clear once more.

Finally, for anyone feeling alone today, one last thing is for certain... With almost 8 billion of us on this planet we call home, no matter how lonely we feel we are never alone and there is always a reason to hope 🙏

Stay hopeful xx