Emdoc Health, Suite 6 Beacon Consultant Clinic Sandyford Dublin 18, Dublin (2026)

13/03/2026

Hangovers Cures? Let's bust some urban myths!

Drinkaware .fides

13/03/2026

So let’s bust some hangover urban myths:

1 You can’t “detox” after alcohol excess: vitamins, fasts, cleanses, smoothies, “soakage” meals, supplements, IV drip bars. It can’t undo any damage.

2. Hangovers aren't just feeling bad: Few people are aware that they are actually somewhat impaired the next day – even after their blood alcohol has returned to undetectable. In studies with pilots, drivers, skiers, they had poorer coordination, altered perception, slower brain waves for up to 16 hours AFTER blood alcohol went back to 0.

3. Making someone suffer with hangover symptoms will NOT prevent them from drinking again. Oddly - studies show those with worse hangovers are actually MORE likely to do it all again!.

4. There is NO magic hangover cure.

5. It's more about the "how much" than the what: Drinks that contain “congeners” like brandy, wine, tequila, whiskey, dark spirits can cause worse hangover BUT…more than 5 to 6 units for a man or 3 to 5 units for a woman cancause hangover.

So, you’ve over-indulged - what does work? Hydration. Your usual over-the-counter headache medication (discuss with your chemis if any questions). Some non-diabetics have low blood sugar with hangovers, so food can help.

However, your best bet is low-risk alcohol intake. Calcuate your intake .ie

.fides

12/03/2026

Your kidneys are awesome. Full Stop.

Everyday - along with your lungs and liver - they are "detoxing" you and making sure that you are not too acidic or too alkaline. Yes- all that expensive stuff in the health store -- your kidneys are already doing it all, every day, 100% naturally and for free.

So, let's show 'em some love.

♥Get your blood pressure and blood sugar checked.

♥Don't smoke or v**e.

♥Don't misuse painkillers. Make sure if you are using anything for pain more than a couple of days you talk to your doctor or pharmacist and never use someone else's prescription medication.

♥Eat well, hydrate and exercise (yes, that boring stuff works when looking after our vital organs!)

♥If you have even mild kidney disease, make sure you talk to your doctor or registered pharmacist before taking supplements, herbals, or vitamins.

One in 10 of us will develop kidney disease. Let's not take these hard-working organs for granted!

.fides Irish Kidney Association

11/03/2026

A few months ago, a parent contacted me asking if I would help them access testing and leucovorin for their child with autism. They weren't my patients, but I took quite a bit of time to write them back on the science because the next person they ask might not have my ethics.

Due to an FDA decision today in US that leucovorin is not an approved treatment for autism - we will probably more discussion. A paper in the Lancet this week shows that people are listening to influencers - including the US president - on bad science. Worrying because autism rhetoric in the US has become more politicised and often ableist in past year. We import this media here.

Apart from cancer, autism is the other disease I have seen targeted by so much predatory bad science. Families are often - understandably - frustrated when there aren't good answers. This can create openings for predatory clinics to sell expensive tests, treatments. This can do real harm, whether its direct harm from the treatment, delay in accessing more effective treatment, heart-break, or financial ruin. Sadly - in one case that has stayed with me for 15 years - it was all of it. I'll stand by this: it's NEVER okay to exploit a family's desperation for political or financial gain.

The decision by the FDA (which ONLY applies to US!) today is - scientifically speaking - the right one. The science isn't there. There will be alot of conversation in global autism communities - so I'm writing about it today.

False information provides false hope. It does not empower patients. It is frustrating when we don't have the answers. I struggle with this daily in my clinical practice, working with diseases that don't yet have cures. It is what drives us as doctors and scientists - and humans - to work, research, and learn. But promising false hope or taking short cuts - we risk real harm.

For more on the science of autism, I cannot recommend this book enough on the genetics and causes of autism: "Vaccines did not cause Rachel's Autism" by Prof. Peter Hotez, paediatrician, researcher, and father of Rachel, who has autism.

09/03/2026

Listen Live tomorrow Tuesday 10 March LMFM at 3.15pm.

I'll be back as a guest on the Late Lunch with Gerry Kelly talking about how to spot those red flags 🚩🚩🚩🚩 in advertisements for weight loss services and products.

.fides

08/03/2026

This International Women's Day, An Post has launched a series of stamps celebrating women medics. I was delighted to be invited to the event this week.

It's really important because the impact of women medics goes beyond the accomplishments of pioneering and extraordinary women, beyond the best of us.

We now have over quarter century of data on how readmission rates and overall outcomes, including surgical outcomes, are better for women patients of women doctors.

Women physicians are more likely to order more preventive tests for women patients, more likely to discuss their whole person needs. The increase of women physicians in different specialities has been a factor in bringing to attention the persistent gender gaps in medical research. Most importantly, research has shown that women doctors have a different communication style and this may be becoming even more critical in an age where medical misinformation - that disproportionately targets women - is a growing problem that does real harm. The role of patient education, health literacy, and patient empowerment in moving towards equity in healthcare has never been more important. While women live longer than men, on average they live more of those years with chronic disease burden.

On international women's day, access to healthcare is a right. Access to good communication and correct information about health and science is a right. Shared decision making in healthcare is a right. And we need women as an equal part of the healthcare provision, the health education, and the health communication.

07/03/2026

This week, was .

As we round up this week, let's take a moment and just pick some of the online ads targeting patients with obesity.

Misinformation has potential to harm patients.
Misinformation can worsen weight stigma/weight bias.
Misinformation and disinformation can exploit patients who cannot access obesity care.

Misinformation takes away a patient's ability to make an informed choice based on real evidence.

Let's be clear: bariatric surgery is a wonderful treatment for obesity, but it is not a cure and should be part of ongoing whole-person treatment, something that is not going to happen if you fly into Turkiye. And you should have a robust ongoing followup plan in place to keep you healthy - not expectations of a cure.

Swipe through gallery above where I have fact checked some online claims that have been sent to me last few days from followers.

05/03/2026

I was delighted to be invited to attend the event this evening celebrating Women in Medicine - on stamps! - for international womens day. An Post
Dr. Rhona Mahony Prof. Janice Walshe and posthumously (if long overdue!) recognition for Dr. Kathleen Lynn and Dr. Emily Winifred Dickson.

04/03/2026

What's the error in this post? Can you spot it?**

I was delighted to speak today at the IPHA on misinformation and disinformation and how it impacts health. I'm pretty passionate about it - if you follow, you know it's the entire reason I set up this project in 2018: to empower patients with correct information.

Just one of the reasons health misinformation spreads so quickly is that science wasn't everyone's subject in school. Whether you hid during chemistry (no judgement) or just never got the opportunity, if you aren't savvy in science it can be one reasons it's harder to spot when wellness influencer is posting epic nonsense.

**I've picked this one since it one of the amount of harmful misinformation that directly targets patients and families with cancer. Many wellness influencers advocate alkaline treatments for various things (they don't work) but many of them add lemon to their alkaline (sodium bicarbonate, for example) When you add an acid (lemon) to a base/alkaline (bicarb), they basically cancel each other out producing water, a salt, and some carbon dioxide gas. It's not alkaline anymore.

.fides

02/03/2026

Today is the Jewish Fast of Esther. It's also Lent and Ramadan right now -- so the time of year fasting comes up in clinic. But fasting is, of course, a wellness trend right now.

Fasting has been part of religious observance for thousands of years. So, if you ask your doctor about guidance, we are going to help. Most faiths exempt those with certain health conditions, but some people with chronic disease want to fast anyway. And your doctor can be help guide you if it's important to you.

If you are fasting for health, you should be happy that you do not any health conditions or medications that require that you eat regularly. You should have a good relationship with food, and not be stressed fasting.

Whether for religious or health reasons, when you break your fast, make healthy choices - those lean proteins, whole grains, and vegetables. Avoid restricting foods or skipping actual food for commercial supplements.

If you break your fast with a binge or thoughts of food are becoming obsessive, this is a sign that fasting for health reasons isn't for you.

What health benefit are you looking for? If it is weight loss - the evidence so far is that just intermittent fasting by itself doesn’t work. At best, just time-restricting food with no other improvements leads to short term loss followed by weight recurrence.

Did you know? Much of the science on intermittent fasting that wellness marketing ads cite was done on animals. If you are a rat, this is great news.

Human studies are still inconclusive. While intermittent fasting does have benefits for cardiac risk factors in some studies, so far it seems that these benefits are no better than if someone made different healthy dietary changes.

Consider the big picture: If you aren’t eating dinner, are you missing connection time with your family? Skipping catch-up lunches? If your children notice you not eating meals, what is the dialogue that you are having? Is it body size/body image or just health?

Fasting for religious reasons? Check out today's Blog for a deeper dive into staying healthy. Link in BIo.

.fides

28/02/2026

This isn't an idle question, by the way. I'd love to hear the craziest health claims or misinformation that you've ever heard.

I will be speaking on a panel this week at one of the two events on health disinformation and misinformation I'll be attending this coming week.

If you've got better things to do with your time than go to meetings this week (which is fair), here are some hard facts (with stats) that I'll be dropping on industry experts.

1. Misinformation disproportionately targets women. It's misogyny - very often masquerading as feminism or empowering when is actually the opposite.

2. Misinformation does real harm - in Ireland, this can often look like delaying seeking much needed medical care.

3. Disinformation is when false health information is circulated with intention - the content creator knows it is false - but is done with intent to profit in some way, such as marketing a product or service or be shocking to gain attention as an influencer.

4. Misinformation feeds into political polarisation

5. It has a real, individual human cost: those affected by vaccine-preventable disease or those who delay seeking life-saving treatment

6. Health misinformation may profit certain individuals -- but actually significants costs us all by increasing health budget costs in the long run.

It has been a health problem for a long time - I started working in this area in 2018, and grew exponentially worse during the pandemic. And for lots of reasons, we can actually expect this to get worse. Now, more than ever, it's important for all of us to critically think, double check with trusted souces, and develop good health literacy.

.fides

25/02/2026

Is all processing bad? The better question: what is processing?

It's a spectrum. And as the online world gets more polarised and extreme, things that are not black-and-white are becoming a problem.

Let's use the example of corn. Fresh corn is not a vegetable in season all year in Ireland. Frozen corn is nutritionally equivalent, reduces food waste -- and allows us to have that variety in our diet, usually affordably. That is entirely different entity than corn that is further ultra-processed and sold as a Dorito (yeah, I know - did you even realise it was corn? No, still not one of your 7 -10 a day)

Both corn. Both processed. Not the same thing.

I'm a huge fan of the work done by EAT Commission. But in the wake of that has come the influencers.

Let's be clear - some processing is necessary for us to have a sustainable, affordable, and SAFE food chain.

And unless you are a full-on tradwife -- milling your own flour before baking your own bread -- we all have some in our kitchen.

I break down some of the healthiest reasons for processing food in the images above.

Excess ultra-processed foods are a problem in the diet, and definitely warrant ongoing public discussion.

But this means every needs to get better understanding where processing and additives are an important part of a safe food chain (nutrient fortification, pasteurisation, freezing)- and where they has become unhealthy (yes - still skip the added palm oil) .

Wanna get smart on food (and get great family snack ideas!)? Do what a doctor does: follow a CORU-registered dietitian. Some of my favourites: .ie .ie .dietitian

Did you know? If you have private health insurance, consultation with registered dietitian is often fully covered and you don't need a referral! As a doctor, here are common reasons I send patients to a dietitian: healthier eating, weaning or fussy eating issues in home, irritable bowel symptoms, supporting weight loss treatment.

.fides

Emdoc Health

13/03/2026

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