Paul Singer

Location: United Kingdom

Profession: GP

About

I enjoy going to work even after serving the same community for 30 years, I have held management leadership roles and engaged with national and international health leaders but still most appreciate the 10 minutes behind a closed door when you’re attempting to relate to and in some way assist another individual. Whilst currently the senior partner in my practice, I have, in the past been able to indulge in a range of approaches to improving healthcare including medical hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming. Both approach medical care from an evidence based but novel angle which is a feature I’m happy to maintain and progress and which I feel complements the BaLM approach to preventative care. Whilst I’m no cook, I do enjoy fine dining both in the UK and abroad and have been fortunate to experience amazing cooking in a range of environments.

My Work

Surgery is predominantly in the centre of Luton known as a “northern” town close to London with some of the highest deprivation levels in the country and a diverse population from a wide range of cultures . We provide primary care services to 50k people both in Luton and central Bedfordshire. We also provide the main NHS counselling service to all of Hertfordshire. We have a wide professional skill mix but in particular our community outreach workers run two small community gardens enabling some of our patients to grow plants and vegetables which they can then use for their own cooking and healthy eating. Engaging with a diverse community many with social problems, presents numerous challenges and we continuously require a range of techniques with which to exemplify means of health improvement of which healthy nutrition is one significant factor. We attempt to provide a sensitive, high quality service which gives satisfaction to our large team as well as our population and are proud to have been recognised with an outstanding rating from the care quality commission which is a significant rarity amongst practices serving deprived populations.

Passionate about Baking as Lifestyle Medicine

My passion is for preventive healthcare as the only solution to maintaining an affordable health system. This requires a range of social and personal population behavioural changes to be achieved amongst which the adoption of BaLM has the potential to improve both mental and physical health with persistence. Baking is a fundamental activity in all cultures and home baking can offer real savings in these challenging times for many people. The benefit of also creating a delicious sourdough loaf just adds to the passion.
For me personally the uncertainty of how your next loaf will turn out adds an excitement which maintains my interest and passion. The underlying scientific basis also provides the structure for continued curiosity of the complexity of the relationship between food, gut and brain.

My Community

I think I operate across several different communities. As a practice we embrace a range of methods of improving healthcare including medical and social and work closely with neighbourhood organisations so have the potential to be willing participants and proponents of BaLM. The communities I work with are diverse and culturally varied so I would need to look at how baking as lifestyle medicine would be applied for their needs. Part of the interest of baking in lifestyle medicine is how varied presentation of problems and diagnoses are with gut biome as the fundamental common feature needing therapy. I can rigorously reflect my own belief in the requirement of high fibre in the diet for maintaining health in my increasing understanding of the fundamental characteristics of BaLM which in themselves still require much study and research. Helping even one person overcome their sleep or concentration or bowel or skin problems is transformative for that individual and I would appreciate being able to discuss with likeminded colleagues how those benefits could be offered to wider numbers.

How I use BALM Protocol

At least a little I hope. Like the baking itself the process of adopting BaLM needs to be understood at a fundamental level and then implemented appropriately in a way which will have the maximum effect. I would probably start by working closely with other team members and one or two patients to see how the knowledge is most appropriately shared.