For years, I assumed I understood health. After all, I had studied it, lived it, and built my career around it.

I grew up academically driven and naturally curious, which led me to complete A levels in chemistry, maths, and biology at grammar school, and then on to University College London. By 2006, I had completed two medical degrees, immersing myself in the science and humanity of medicine. A year later, I secured a highly competitive academic training post in Emergency Medicine, something I was deeply proud of, while teaching at Leicester Medical School and working in A&E. I was firmly on track for a long career in acute medicine.

But in 2008, everything changed.

One evening, out of nowhere, I experienced a spontaneous rupture of my small bowel. I developed severe inflammation and infection in my abdomen and needed emergency surgery. During that operation, I lost 30cm of my small intestine. The diagnosis: severe Crohn’s disease.

Before that night, I’d had occasional stomach discomfort and subtle changes in my body; weight loss and intermittent pain, but I brushed them off. Even as a doctor, I didn’t recognise the warning signs within myself. I didn’t act. And I paid the price.

In hindsight, the signs had been there. I remembered telling my wife Vanessa things like, “We should think about improving our diet,” and “We’re eating too much sugar and processed foods.” But those thoughts never translated into action. I had sensed something was coming, but I didn’t intervene, because like so many men, I believed I could push through it.

It was only after my diagnosis, still in shock and physically fragile, that I began researching every possible way to transform my health without relying on lifelong medication. I studied nutrition, movement, and mindful living. Over time, I became stronger, fitter, healthier, and eventually achieved complete and sustained remission.

My personal experience fuelled a new purpose. I wanted to help others avoid the pain I went through. So, in 2018, I started a postgraduate diploma in nutritional medicine, stepping into the world of personalised lifestyle medicine and chronic disease prevention.

That journey taught me something men rarely admit out loud:

Most of us don’t listen to our bodies until they’re screaming.

In my years as both a clinician and a patient, I’ve observed a consistent pattern:

Women, by contrast, often share their symptoms openly with their friends, family and colleagues. It’s common for a woman I see in my surgery to tell me she’s already discussed her concerns with several other women before booking the appointment.

Men? Not so much. Instead, time and again, I’ve had male patients say:

Part of it is psychology. Part of it is conditioning. And part of it is the modern pace of life, work pressures, demanding schedules and social commitments, making it easy to deprioritise health.

This is why digital and remote consultations have been transformative for men: they remove a barrier. They make accessing help easier, faster, and less confrontational.

But access alone isn’t enough. Because the problem doesn’t start with systems, it starts with culture.

There is a deeply ingrained belief among men that discomfort should be endured, not examined.

A niggle? Push through it.

Indigestion? Take something.

Fatigue? Work harder.

Pain? Ignore it until you can’t.

But ignoring symptoms doesn’t make them disappear. It simply allows them to grow in silence.

I experienced this firsthand. As a teenager, I was admitted to A&E with severe abdominal pain. I was given Pethidine, a powerful opioid, and sent home once the pain eased. No follow-up. No explanation. No deeper investigation into what had caused such significant pain in the first place.

Years later, during a holiday, oil passed out of my bowels while I was in a swimming pool. Embarrassed, I convinced myself it was “just travellers’ diarrhoea.” In reality, it was fat malabsorption, a sign of Crohn’s disease. But I brushed it off. It went away, so I just carried on.

The problem with intermittent or mild symptoms is that they are easy to dismiss, easy to misinterpret, and easy to forget. Well, that is, until they accumulate into something dangerous, and I am not alone in this pattern.

I once saw a male patient who came in with straightforward mechanical back pain. But something about him, and my clinical intuition and experience, made me look closer. I ordered a set of cardiovascular investigations and planned to see him the following week.

His reaction? “What’s cholesterol got to do with my back?”

Unfortunately, he passed away before I could discuss his results. His partner later shared some of his final words:

“There’s that indigestion again.”

But that “indigestion” wasn’t indigestion. It was cardiac pain, epigastric pain, misinterpreted and dismissed by the individual until it was too late.

This is the danger of minimising “small” symptoms. What feels insignificant can sometimes be the early whisper of a serious disease process.

In my case, repeated small symptoms eventually led to a catastrophic rupture of my small bowel, a late diagnosis and major surgery.

Could an earlier investigation have changed the trajectory? Possibly.

And that possibility is exactly why I now speak so passionately to men about their bodies, their mindset, and their health.

We cannot afford to leave these things unspoken anymore.

After years of clinical practice and personal healing, one truth has become crystal clear to me:

Mindset can be the gateway to transformation, or be the barrier that blocks it entirely.

Too many people in the healthcare system, men especially, are conditioned to see health as reactive:

- Get a symptom → Treat the symptom.

- Get a diagnosis → Start medication.

- Get another flare-up → Just repeat the process.

Very little focus is placed on prevention, early intervention, or empowerment.

But lifestyle medicine, when approached holistically, can change lives.

I remember a man who came to see me with prediabetes. As I explained the diagnosis, his options, and how food, movement, and mood could completely transform his trajectory, something clicked in him.

He wanted to change. He didn’t want a chronic disease. His mind was ready.

I spent more than the allotted 10 minutes with him because he was engaged, curious, and motivated. At one of his follow-up appointments, not only had he reversed his prediabetes back to normal, but his wife had transformed her health too. She had lost weight, improved her energy, and reduced her risk of diabetes simply by participating in the changes he introduced at home.

One mindset shift didn’t just change one man; it changed a family's perception of how they looked at their health and wellbeing, not just for now, but for their future lifestyle too.

This is the power of the Mind–Body–Move® philosophy we use at Uniquely Created U.

It isn’t about restriction, punishment, or perfection.

It isn’t about waiting for a disease to appear.

It’s about giving men the tools to:

• understand their symptoms
• trust their instincts
• fuel their bodies intentionally
• move in ways that support longevity
• cultivate a mindset that empowers change

Men deserve a health approach that recognises their reality, their challenges, and the unique psychological barriers they face.

And they deserve a new narrative, one where talking about health isn’t seen as weakness, but as leadership.

My wake-up call came suddenly, violently, and painfully, but yours doesn’t have to.

Most health issues don’t start with dramatic symptoms. They start small:

• a twinge.
• a bit of “indigestion.”
• fatigue that doesn’t make sense.
• pain that comes and goes.
• a pattern you talk yourself out of noticing.

Men have been taught to minimise these things - to stay silent - to push through.

But true strength isn’t in ignoring your body, it's about listening to it, understanding it and acting on it. And doing so early, before crisis forces your hand.

This series is the start of a new conversation for men’s health. A conversation grounded in evidence, lived experience, and a holistic approach that finally puts men at the centre of their own wellbeing.

Because no man should have to wait for a life-changing event to start taking his health seriously.

Your health doesn’t change by accident; it changes when you take action.

If you are ready to understand how your eating habits may be shaping your energy, performance, and long-term wellbeing, I personally invite you to begin with a complimentary 4-day food nutritional analysis.

- Yes, it is just a very small step, and only a small window of time to assess your nutrition.

- And yes, this is only one aspect of assessing if you are living healthily; however, it could be the moment everything starts to shift.

Click here to book a 10-minute complimentary call to access the nutritional food analysis App and start your 4-day assessment. Honestly, what do you have to lose?