The content on Patient is peer reviewed by our clinical content team, following the NHS Standard for Creating Health Content.
Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE, FRCGP
Clinical Consultant
MA (Cantab), BM, BCh (Oxon), DRCOG, FRCGP, MBE
After training in medicine at Cambridge and Oxford, Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE became a GP.
She entered partnership in a busy inner city London practice in 1990. She became a GP trainer in 1994, and has trained no fewer than 27 aspiring GPs.
Sarah has been the resident doctor for the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2 for the last 16 years. She has been doctor to the One Show on BBC One for the last 10 years, and also appears on Good Morning Britain on ITV, BBC World News, BBC Radio 4, Radio 5 live, Channel 5 news and LBC. In addition, she writes regular columns in Good Housekeeping and My Weekly magazines. She is the author of six books, including The Welcome Visitor, a book on the ethics of dying co-authored with John Humphrys; Women's Health for Life, winner of the BMA Book Award for best lay publication in 2009; and three books in the popular 'For Dummies' series. Her latest book is the third edition of Diabetes for Dummies.
In 2013, Sarah became clinical consultant to Patient.co.uk, and has continued to write regular blogs for them through their expansion and metamorphosis to Patient.info. In 2017, she made the difficult decision to change her role from GP partner to GP locum, in order to allow her to take up a new role as Clinical Director at Patient.info.
In the 2018 New Year's Honours list, Sarah was awarded an MBE for services to general practice and the public understanding of health.
At heart, Sarah is a GP. It's all she's ever wanted to do since the age of 8, when the GP came to do a home visit and gave her the needle and syringe he'd used when he left. It may be frowned on nowadays by health and safety, but that needle and syringe allowed Sarah to practise injecting her teddy bear with Ribena, and led her to where she is today. Sarah has always been passionate about helping patients to take control of their own health. When she was first training, most of the emphasis was on curing disease - she finds it hugely gratifying to see how much more medicine today is about partnership between patient and doctor, and maintaining good health.
Patients today are under huge time pressure, and it's hard to take in all the information the doctor gives when you're sitting in a consulting room feeling ill or worrying about your health. More and more patients are also living with long-term health conditions, where diet, lifestyle and self-management play a major role in long term outcomes. Sarah has never been more convinced of the need for really high-quality medical information, in a user-friendly format, to allow patients to make the informed decisions they need to be in control of their own health.
That's why she feels she can make a real difference by working with Patient as they undertake a major expansion of their website. Sarah has been using the high-quality information on Patient.info on a daily basis for years, directing patients to the reliable, comprehensive information Patient.info's leaflets offer to help them learn more about managing their conditions. Now patient.info is branching out, to offer more opportunities than ever for people to take charge of their own good health, as well as their illness. Online apps from patient.info offer health information on the move, so hopefully there's no excuse for not being fully informed on all aspects of health and, now, well-being.
Sarah will continue to be writing regular blogs, but will be offering even more frequent and timely summaries of latest medical news in bite-sized chunks.
Sarah’s web presence
Recently contributed to:
Most of us take them for granted - after all, they aren't alive, and you can break one without it hurting. I'm talking, of course, about your nails. But you'd be surprised at how many things they tell you about your general health.
You might think the question 'how much water should I drink?' is a simple one. The trouble is, the question may be straightforward but the answer isn't. How much water you need depends on lots of factors - your age, size, and level of physical activity, medical problems you have and medicines you take. It also depends on how much water you eat through your food. But there are some general tips that can give you an idea of whether you're getting enough of this vital element of life.
Bursitis is a common cause of painful, swollen, and tender joints. It's sometimes caused by repeated movements that place pressure on your joints - like kneeling or elbow-leaning - and can affect different parts of your body.
We hear so much about the importance of a healthy balanced diet - but what does that actually mean? Eating a good amount of fruit and veg goes without saying: they're packed full of vitamins and minerals and because they all have different nutrients, a wide variety gives the best benefits. Almost half of us take at least one vitamin or mineral supplement, but do we really need them?
It's recommended that we all try to eat 30 grams (g) of fibre a day - but most of us only manage about 18g. We should try to eat at least 30 different vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans and pulses every week to meet our fibre needs. Here's why it's important to prioritise a fibre-rich diet.
