cavan health
Lymington
I am an experienced consultant endocrinologist. I specialise in diabetes and
have expertise in all areas of diabetes management. My particular interests are
in supporting lifestyle change to manage and reverse type 2 diabetes, and in
intensive management of type 1 diabetes including insulin pump therapy. I
actively promote self-management and have been closely involved in the
development of education programmes for people with diabetes. I am the author of
several books on self-management of diabetes. I qualified from Southampton
Medical School in 1985 and after a variety of junior hospital posts, I spent
three years as a Medical Research Council Training Fellow at the University of
Birmingham, undertaking studies to help unravel the complex genetics behind type
1 diabetes. While fascinating, the truth was that I was not particularly suited
to laboratory research, and I concluded that I wanted to devote my energies to
helping solve the problems faced by people living with diabetes now, rather than
research the underlying genetics that might take some years to yield real
results. After working at St Thomas’ Hospital in London for three years, I moved
to Bournemouth in 1996 to work as a Consultant Endocrinologist at the
Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrine Centre. I stayed there for 17 years, working
with an incredible team. During that time I developed my interest and expertise
in self-management for people with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and oversaw
the development of education programmes for people with type 1 and type 2
diabetes. I also helped develop a structured educational approach to the
management of people starting insulin pump therapy, as well as the first (and I
think still the only) open access online programme for people with type 1
diabetes, recently relaunched as BertieOnline. Around 2010, I began to explore
the potential of low carbohydrate diets in people with type 1 and type 2
diabetes, and this forms the basis or much of my current work. By 2013, I was
ready for a new challenge and left the UK to work for three years as the
Director of Policy and Programmes at the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)
in Brussels. The IDF is a global federation that represents over 230 national
diabetes associations. In my role, I was responsible for overseeing a range of
projects and programmes that addressed the various needs of people with diabetes
at a global level. In 2014 I published my first book, ‘Reverse your diabetes:
the step by step plan to take control of type 2 diabetes’, aimed at providing
people with type 2 diabetes with the information they need to make lifestyle
changes to achieve better control of their condition, and possibly to reverse
it. This was followed in 2016 by ‘Reverse your diabetes diet’, providing 60
recipes to help people better manage type 2 diabetes. In 2018 I published 'Take
control of type 1 diabetes' and, together with Emma Porter, 'The low carb
diabetes cookbook'. In 2022, I published my latest book, 'Busting the diabetes
myth' that provides practical advice on reversing type 2 diabetes and
prediabetes, backed up by the latest evidence from around the world. I am based
in Dorset (southern England) and divide my time between clinical work (at the
private London Medical clinic and the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Diabetes
Clinics), international project work (currently in Bermuda and Kenya),
professional training and writing. My aim is to reduce the impact of diabetes
for individuals who have, or are risk of developing diabetes, as well as on
communities by supporting projects that help improve diabetes services.
