Men’s Health Matters: Dr. Will Robertson’s Interview on Jorvik Radio

Nick Love (0:00)
You’re listening to Love in the Morning on Jorvik Radio, staying alive by the Bee Gees, which is probably quite a nice way to come into a health special. And joking aside, we are going to be tackling subjects relevant to you. Movember and seasonal flu. And we’ve got lots of information and advice from an expert, and it’s Dr. Will Robertson. He’s a GP within the NHS, as well as Clinical Director at Stonegate Medical Practice, and he joins us now. Good morning, Dr Will, how are you?

Dr. Will Robertson (0:25)
Morning, mate? How are you doing?

Nick Love (0:26)
Yeah, very well. Thanks. Very well indeed. Now appreciate you’re very busy, so we do appreciate your time and help in getting these messages out to people. What we’re going to do, we’ll start with Movember, and we’ll talk about that for a bit and some of the key messages, and then we’ll break for a song, and we’ll talk about seasonal flu as well, which is expected to be worse than normal. So with Movember, what are the main health issues Movember focuses on?

Dr. Will Robertson (0:50)
Well, it’s actually a great thing to talk about. And you know, whilst it is taking time out my day, I think these are the messages that we really do need to get out, from a private and an NHS perspective. Your listeners can’t see me right now, Nick, but I am sporting a particularly horrendous Movember tash myself. So, Movember was started back in Australia, way back in 2003 and I think so a lot of us have grown up with it, and it has gone through periods of being almost a fashion statement or a bit of fun, but it comes from a really, really important message that all of men’s health needs a massive, massive shot in the arm. And now, you know, over 20 countries and millions of people for one month per year – and this is a big part of what we need to speak about – it needs to be more than that. Think about men’s health, the whole broad church of it, and let’s really shine the light on that.

Nick Love (1:40)
Which is important really. I mean, there are some sort of key messages running through that. So we’ve got prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, suicide prevention, which is obviously particularly prevalent within young men, and with regards to these things, then, I don’t know, but we as men don’t tend to talk as much as we should, and we’ve had  brilliant help on encouraging people to talk about that, but we’re very human. We tend to delay seeking medical help as well. And what impact does that have on health outcomes?

Dr. Will Robertson (2:07)
Well, it’s huge. I mean, in terms of why men don’t seek help, we could spend hours talking about itself. And you know, you can’t paint everyone with the same brush, but if we talk about some key points, – it’s lack of understanding, it’s the concept of masculinity, you know, is it weak to get help? Is it weak to get checked? And then for plenty of men it’s fear. You know that the concept of being sick is something that scares us all. And the best advice I ever got as a Doctor was, remember, the patient is always scared. And I think as men, it’s sometimes hard to admit that. Because you spoke about a couple of things there. Could I give some sexy facts for our audience to really put it in perspective? Because, again, I don’t sometimes think Movember puts across the importance of men’s health. Is that? All right?

Nick Love (2:50)
Absolutely do. Yes.

Dr. Will Robertson (2:51)
Okay, so I’m going to give you the the articles in the in the age of disinformation and rubbish on the internet. I’m going to provide you with the articles that this information comes from for your listeners so it can be fact checked and properly reviewed. But, when we look at male versus female deaths, we believe 36% of all preventable deaths are men and 18% are women. So we are far, far and away in the group that should be getting more deaths prevented. If we talk about some facts and figures, one in five men in the UK die before 65. Let me land that again, one in five men in the UK will still die before 65.

Nick Love (3:29)
That’s startling, isn’t it?

Dr. Will Robertson (3:30)
That is startling. Women live on average, four years longer than men in all of the UK, and there’s a big disparity between North and South. Men in the North live even less between 2018, and 2020, men’s life expectancy in the UK went down! – Down, as we’ve got more up to date with our medicine, three out of four premature cardiac deaths and men, erectile dysfunction in men, for anyone listening, has the same the risk profile for a heart attack as smoking. So if you’re the fittest bloke in the world and you’re starting to have some problems down below, but you you’ve never touched a fag in your life, it’s the same kind of factor. So again, we want people to come forward. You’ve touched on mental health, we are four times more likely to die of suicide as men, and one in eight of us – one in eight – will get prostate cancer. So Movember does look great, and it’s a fun talking point, but men’s health really is about all of that. Men are far more likely in the UK to die, and we must, we absolutely must tackle that as a group.

Nick Love (4:36)
And if we have friends and family, and if we are listening and we’re a girlfriend, we’re a wife, we’re a partner, and we have somebody that we love, that we suspect is holding something back or is scared to take it further. We can help, can’t we? And we can help break that stigma.

Dr. Will Robertson (4:50)
I think it’s one of those really interesting questions that we as men, as individual needs to be better. And I think you know, some of the people you’ve had on your show in the past have been brilliant about that. We need coaching. We need mental health support for ourselves, but in these ages of gender wars and Andrew Tate and the toxic masculinity, actually, this is something where we do need the wives, the mothers, the sisters, the girlfriends, the daughters, that actually, for all the reasons, sometimes men can’t come forward that we’ve discussed so far, it is something that we as a society need to address. So, yes, talk, remove the burden, make getting help not about weakness but about strength. It takes a strong person to come forward and say, for my mental health, for my physical health, I think I need some support.

Nick Love (5:39)
And it’s the first step either with, obviously, things such as prostate or testicular cancer and also mental health, getting in touch with your GP?

Dr. Will Robertson (5:47)
Yeah, I think I’d certainly just start men over 40 predominantly, but men over 40 coming on in, if it’s coming to see us at Stonegate Medical, because you want to get a little bit of an extra check, or if it’s coming and seeing your NHS GP, because you just had some questions, the first step is for men to actually start talking about their health.

Nick Love (6:08)
Absolutely that on the upside has awareness and attitudes towards men’s mental health and men’s health in general, since Movember, has it improved?

Dr. Will Robertson (6:17)
Yes, and I want, I want this to be a story of positivity, that actually we are getting people talking, and there are now charities. And you know, I love that it is also good fun and it is a positive message. But I also really, really do want to stress to your listeners and to you, that this is still an epidemic hiding in plain sight. And whilst we are getting better about talking about mental health, we are getting better at talking about, you know us as seeking help. We can’t hide from the fact this is now an absolute priority for the NHS, and the Government has also made it a priority. They’re doing a lot of think tank work at the moment about about how we come forward. So yes, it’s positive, but I want the gravity to come through if you’re a man worried about anything, or if you’re a woman worried about your man? Please, please, please, let this be the radio show that makes you think – we’ll have a chat.

Nick Love (7:07)
Absolutely well done. Yeah, it’s absolutely true. Well, what we’ll do? We’ll take a track, and then we’ll be back with something of equal significance. And this is obviously, we’re into flu season, and we want to talk about that with Dr. Will Robertson, and we will do after a bit of Toto…

Nick Love (7:22)
…It’s Love in the Morning on Jorvik Radio. It’s another of our health specials, and we have Dr. Will Robertson with me, and we’re talking about the issues that are pertinent to you. So we’ve covered Movember, and we now want to talk about seasonal flu, because that started earlier, and it’s expected to be more severe than usual. So with regards to the key symptoms of seasonal flu, Dr. Will, how can listeners tell the difference between that and just a common cold?

Dr. Will Robertson (7:50)
It’s a really great question, and it’s often very difficult to do. I’d probably say that the a couple of key differences are, you should be having a raging fever, muscle aches and feel like you’ve been run over by a bus. So there’s lots of things that are shared. So the cough, the sinus symptoms, you know, feeling a bit of a runny nose, runny eyes, but certainly, flu traditionally makes you ache, has these raging fevers, and again, gives you a sense of fatigue that usually is a bit different from your common cold,

Nick Love (8:19)
And with regards to complications and serious complications of flu, who’s most at risk of that, and why is vaccination so important?

Dr. Will Robertson (8:28)
Can I start with why the vaccination is so important first?

Nick Love (8:31)
By all means

Dr. Will Robertson (8:32)
I think we’re always very quick to just think flu is just one of those things, but using the NHS data from last year, the recorded deaths -so there will be way more that were missed, but the recorded deaths from influenza last year was 7757 that is huge. Again, like the issues with men’s health, that when we hear in the UK that nearly 8000 people are dying it’s preventable, that should get us all to sit up and take note. So on the context of that people most at risk, adults 65 and over, pregnant women, children under five, but especially when they’re under two, they just haven’t developed that immunity at that stage. And then something in the NHS that we really are trying to push is people have comorbidity chronic problems. So if you have heart problems, lung problems, kidney problems, liver problems, diabetes, all of these things that you are seeing a GP for is a chronic disease you are if you are far more at risk, not to mention the people that we all think of with chemotherapy or immunocompromised individuals. So it’s, again, a really broad church, and we want anyone with a chronic disease to be thinking, Should I be getting vaccinated against flu so I don’t end up as one of the 8000?

Nick Love (9:49)
And it’s sobering to think, according to latest stats, that only 30% of people with one or more long term health condition have had the vaccine so far, and there has been an SOS put out with regards to that. Hasn’t there – it is urging people to act before it’s too late.

Dr. Will Robertson (10:03)
Yes, and can I tell you why? If you get vaccinated as an adult, you’re 40% less likely to get the flu and 75% less likely in children. These are, you know, in the words of the Wolf of Wall Street, these are not rookie numbers. So it makes a huge difference to the risk of getting flu from getting vaccinated.

Nick Love (10:25)
And what about guidance with regards to flu vaccines and eligibility? How do you find out about that? And how do you book?

Dr. Will Robertson (10:31)
Well, there’s two different ways. So if you are someone that is on the NHS register, by the way, I’ve been asked to name drop Rosie O’Connell, one of the transformation leads that works within my area, just texting, saying about all the hard work we’re doing within my NHS area, South Hambleton and Rydale. But in essence, from September, we were reaching out to people. And it should have been children the schools will have identified, pregnant women that the the antenatal services will have identified, and anyone with a chronic disease your GP Practice will have been reaching out to you. Commonly, that’s a text message nowadays, so people, please check your phones. And also, if you have an elderly relative or someone you know with chronic disease that’s not particularly tech savvy, just check in with them and say, “Has anyone been in contact about getting your flu vaccine?” If people still just want it themselves and they’re not high risk. They just think, you know what, I don’t want to get this in case I bring it to a loved one, or I just don’t want to get it because it’s miserable. You can also get the vaccine privately through pharmacies or other health care providers.

Nick Love (11:33)
Absolutely. And one of the things that is available is you can check your eligibility online as well. All you need to do is put flu vaccination NHS into your favourite search engine, and there is a service there as well. With regards to practical advice for keeping well and preventing flu transmission at home, work, and in the community, what are some of the sensible steps to follow?

Dr. Will Robertson (11:53)
Well, thankfully, it’s very rare that we’d say we’re grateful to Covid for anything, it’s not a usual line into a sentence. But we learned a lot about personal hygiene during Covid. So, get vaccinated if you’re eligible, or if you’re around people that would be at risk. Please get vaccinated. Wash your hands, if you wanted to wear a mask because you think you might be symptomatic, please do. You know, stay at home if you’re really unwell. We have a hair shirt mentality in the UK and a hair shirt mentality within the NHS. But actually, if you truly are going to put others at risk, taking a day is not an unreasonable thing to do.

Nick Love (12:27)
Absolutely and with regards to looking after vulnerable people, we can play our part as well, so that we’re not passing stuff on to them as well.

Dr. Will Robertson (12:34)
I completely agree. So just again, supporting them. So if they’re not very good with their phone, or if you were absolutely spot on about checking your eligibility. If they’re not very tech savvy, please help them out. And if you are a close contact of someone who might be at risk, even if they have also been vaccinated, please get vaccinated yourself.

Nick Love (12:52)
Now, we live in an age, and it’s been mentioned before, of quackery and unqualified influencers. Are there any common misconceptions about the flu vaccine or about flu that you’d like to clear up?

Dr. Will Robertson (13:02)
Yes! But again, we haven’t got enough time. I think vaccination as a concept took a bit of a hit during Covid, very unfairly so. So I think the first and most important thing to say is the history and the evidence of vaccination is unparalleled throughout human history. That is the reason we are, you know, just doing as well as we are, and a huge amount of it is vaccination. So another couple of key ones that the flu jab, will give you flu, it won’t, the vast majority of them inactivated viruses. Some of the nasal flus given to children can can be a milder form, but the flu jab, or the flu vaccination, does not give you flu. Another one is you only need it once, absolutely not, you need it every year. And again. Think back to covid, you get different strains, and you’ve been absolutely right in saying it’s come earlier and it’s come worse this year. So even if you had it last year, you needed it again and every year moving forward. And then the last one is that flu is just a bad cold. I wanted to start with the fact that nearly 8000 people died last year. But I’d also like to end with that, that 8000 people died last year, and these are people’s mothers, brothers, husbands, and we could have prevented so many of them. So flu is not just a bad cold, it is a serious illness that we can totally, totally protect and prevent people from.

Nick Love (14:19)
Yeah. I mean, there’s overwhelming evidence isn’t there against, as I say, the quackery and unqualified influencers. And finally, for anyone feeling anxious about their symptoms and not sure whether to seek medical, medical advice or not, what’s your guidance with regards to that?

Dr. Will Robertson (14:33)
Reach out. So whether it’s in private medicine, or whether it’s in the NHS, there’s there’s always people keen to listen. So we’re always available at Stonegate Medical to talk to people, but within the NHS, people need to understand that the access is still there. It sometimes changes, but it’s still there. So you can call your Practice, you can email your Practice. In certain areas you can walk in and ask, I think there’s this feeling, and it’s certainly quite prevalent amongst the over 65 that they don’t want to waste anyone’s time, or that we’re not there to answer important questions, and that’s just not the case. You know, we are here to support our local populations. We are very keen to do so.

Nick Love (15:09)
That’s reassuring. Well, I really appreciate your time. Dr. Will, you’ve been a huge help, and more importantly, you’ve helped to sort of articulate stuff in an easy to understand way, which is fantastic, so we hope to speak with you shortly.

Dr. Will Robertson (15:23)
Been an absolute pleasure, and I’m a big fan of the show.

Nick Love (15:26)
Many thanks.