Twitter Conference: Charing Cross Vascular Symposium #cx2017 Day One

Since my paper is being presented and I am unable to be there, I will be 'attending' the Charing Cross Vascular Symposium through the wonderful medium of twitter. Following the hashtag #CX2017  I hope to catch as much as possible here on my blog.

#timelapse at the very busy #CX2017 @CXSymposium pic.twitter.com/Ob8w7NfqbN

— BIBA MedTech (@BIBAMedTech) April 25, 2017

The first day was all about peripheral artery disease and the audience were asked some interesting questions regarding the their views on PAD, here are the results:

Dr Hauton alongside Dr Mastracci with her wonderful video in my last post addressed concerns on radition exposure, pointing out that 1 DSA image is roughly equal to 500 fluoro images:

 Mr Weinberg posted the following, pointing out that PAD patients receive better outcomes when combining exercise with revascularisation (linkhere):

Lucky man Dittmar Bockler loves his DynaCT:

What about smoking cessation in vascular patients, try try again:

 Dr Anders Wanhainen on the need for a disease specific solution for type B dissection.

Currently watching closely the twitter-web today, following todays focus on Abdominal aortic aneurysms... watch this space. 

Thanks to @PereAltes @Angiologist @CXsymposium @CookEVAR @ozvascdoc 

The perfect diet

"The perfect diet does not exist because you wont be happy on the perfect diet"

Said my flatmate this evening after a long discussion on diet.

I was trying to tell him about the benefits of a plant based diet, Having watched all Dr Gregers talks I posted previously. The problem is, having been a regular meat eater all my life and probably iced donuts number one fan in the world (so tasty), suddenly converting to near veganism is downright miserable. Nothing against my culinary skills, I'm becoming quite the stirfry and cauliflower rice expert actually. I just really miss bacon sandwiches and poached egg breakfasts. 

The benefits of a plant based diet are incredibly clear, almost to the point of a miracle cure. Reversing diabetes and reducing athersclerotic plaques to name a couple. Patients all over the western world would benefit hugely from this incredibly non-invasive and 'simple' change (its really not that simple though is it).

How can i expect my future patients to adopt the diet if i continue to munch on burgers and kebabs. Doctors are meant to role models, much like the smoking doctors of the 60's and 70's, how can you expect patients to stop smoking if you are puffing on one in front of them or posing for cigarette ads (see picture below). 

So anyway to the point, I'm all torn up about plant based diets and their medical applications. Huge numbers of patients could benefit, millions of pounds could be saved and the environment would benefit a huge amount as well. Shouldnt every patient have a plant based diet subscribed? 

Doctors own reluctance to try them themselves and lack of exposure to the evidence may be some of the reasons.