Dr Punam

Welcome to Proper Mental Episode 18!

My guest today is Dr Punam!

Dr Punam Krishan is an NHS GP in Glasgow, a medical educator and Director of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine.  She is also a TV broadcaster on the BBC, a writer and podcast host. 

Her specialist interests also include public health, women’s health and mental health and wellbeing and her passion is to prevent chronic disease through prescribing lifestyle and educating about root cause medicine.

Dr Punam joined me via Zoom to talk, amongst other things, about medication.  I wanted a guide through this conversation as there is a lot of misinformation around the topic and it does invoke some strong opinions.

I wanted to outline the basic information about medication and break down some of the stigma to give anyone listening the information they need to make an informed decision.

It’s not a recommendation or promotion, just a discussion with someone who has over a decade of experience in general practice.  The idea being, that once you have all the information, you can make the right choice for you regarding using medicine for your mental health.

It’s a great conversation and as well as medication we also talk about our own experiences with mental health and why the statistics seem to be moving in the wrong direction.  We chat about juggling family and modern life, life style medicine, self-care and the importance of “mental health snacks”.

If you follow Dr Punam on social media, you will know how busy her life is.  She is a Mum and a Wife as well as a doctor, she sees over 30 patients a day when in clinic and balances this with her television commitments, newspaper articles and a podcast!  I was so grateful to her for giving me an hour of her time on a precious weekend and it just shows how passionate she is about mental health and how committed she is to her work.

You can connect with Dr Punham via Instagram @DrPunamKrishan or Twitter @DrPunamKrishan.

Her podcast, The Medic Mum, is available on all podcast platforms.

If you would like to connect with me about this episode or any others then @propermentalpodcast on all social platforms is a good place to start.

Thanks for listening!  Enjoy!