Every article written or reviewed by Dr James Coleman — a practising, GMC-registered GP. No affiliate links, no alarmist headlines.
Fatigue is one of the most common reasons people visit their GP. It's also one of the hardest to pin down, because dozens of conditions can cause it and many of them overlap.
Getting a private blood test in London If you're looking for a private blood test in London, you have a few options. Walk-in clinics, home testing kits, and private hospitals all offer some form of blood testing.
Low sex drive is very common and many women suffer in silence. They might think it's stress, or just getting older, or something they should learn to accept. Sometimes those explanations are worth exploring.
If you are considering HRT, one of the first questions you will probably ask is whether you need blood tests beforehand. The answer depends on what the tests are for.
Most of us only think about blood tests when something feels wrong. But by the time symptoms show up, the underlying change has often been building for months or years.
Prostate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in England, with over 58,000 men diagnosed in 2024 alone [NPCA State of the Nation Report, 2025]. Across the UK, the figure is higher still.
Pre-diabetes means your blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes.
When someone visits their GP with low mood, anxiety, fatigue, or brain fog, the conversation often moves towards psychological explanations. Stress, sleep, work pressure, relationship difficulties.
GP-written guide to the 6 blood tests behind chronic fatigue: TFT, ferritin, B12, folate, vit D, FBC. Private kit or clinic, results explained by a doctor.
Fatigue is one of the most common reasons people visit their GP, and one of the hardest to investigate. The list of potential causes is long, and standard blood tests do not always capture the problem.
Between October and March in the UK, the sun sits too low in the sky for your skin to produce any meaningful vitamin D.
Most women I see in clinic who are perimenopausal have already spent months feeling "off" before they book an appointment. The fatigue, the broken sleep, the cycles that suddenly make no sense.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is more common than many people realise, and its consequences extend far beyond fatigue.
Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide, and it's particularly prevalent among premenopausal women in the UK.
Full Blood Count The full blood count (FBC) is the single most frequently requested blood test in the UK. It's included in virtually every routine blood panel and screening assessment.
In March 2026, the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association published their first major update to cholesterol management guidelines since 2018.
Thyroid disorders are among the most common endocrine conditions in the UK, affecting an estimated 1 in 20 people, with women around ten times more likely to be affected than men [1].
A Common Condition Hiding in Plain Sight Coeliac disease affects approximately 1 in 100 people in the UK [1], yet according to Coeliac UK, only around 36% of cases are currently diagnosed [2].
If you're a man in your thirties or forties noticing that your energy isn't what it used to be, you've probably come across the idea that testosterone levels are falling across the population.
Burnout has real physiological consequences. But what can a cortisol blood test actually reveal, and where are its limits?
Why Late Winter Is the Worst Time for Your Vitamin D After months of limited sunlight, your body's vitamin D stores are at their lowest.
Polycystic ovary syndrome is the most common hormonal condition in women of reproductive age, affecting between 10 and 13% of the global female population [Teede et al., 2023].
Bowel cancer is the UK's 4th most common cancer and the 2nd biggest cancer killer , claiming around 17,700 lives every year.
Here's a question that might sound familiar: when was the last time you actually had a proper look at what's going on inside your body? Not because something went wrong.