Walking The Dog with Emily Dean - Dr Amir Khan (Part Two)

Episode Date: October 21, 2026

In part two of Emily and Ray’s walk with Dr Amir Khan, Amir opens up about the pressures and pleasures of life as an NHS GP, and why, despite his increasingly busy television and writing career, he has absolutely no intention of giving up his Bradford practice.He shares what makes being a doctor so rewarding, the challenges facing those working in the NHS and why the relationships he's built with his patients mean so much to him.There's also more about the formidable Mama Khan, whose cooking inspired Amir's new book, The Doctor Will Feed You Now. He reveals more about the family recipes that shaped his childhood and how his mum's influence continues to play such an important part in his life.If you haven't already, catch up on part one of Emily's walk with Amir, where they discuss his upbringing in Bradford, his journey into medicine and his rather magnificent family of cat lovers.The Doctor Will Feed You Now is available to pre-order now, ahead of its publication in February. You can also listen to Amir and Cherry Healey on their podcast, No Appointment Necessary.Follow Emily:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilyrebeccadeanX: https://twitter.com/divine_miss_emWalking The Dog is produced by Will NicholsMusic: Rich JarmanArtwork: Alice LudlamPhotography: Karla Gowlett Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to part two of Walking the Dog with the wonderful Dr Amir Khan. You can listen to his brilliant podcast with Cherry Healy, no appointment necessary. And you can also pre-order his forthcoming new book, The Doctor Will Feed You Now. And do remember to give Walking the Dog a like and a follow so you can catch us every week. Here's Amir and Ray Ray. You then become a GP as you say and you decide to go to Bradford. Yes. Where you grew up.

Yeah. So you're known in the community, presumably. Yeah, yeah. I grew up in that community. I know them all, you know, we've, well, not all, but, you know, I know many of the families. I've been to a lot of their weddings and all of that stuff and their houses and that kind of thing. So yeah. And you wrote a brilliant book, which I listen to you actually, because I like you telling the story. I find your voice very comforting. It's called The Doctor We'll See You Now. That's right. And it was about your sort of experiences as a GP. It starts from when you first really got into it. And there was quite a few. wake up calls and bizarre goings on. That's the thing about medicine. You never know what's going to happen every single day. Well, there was one woman who said she was a virgin. She didn't pronounce it virgin.

No, she did it. And she, you had this awful thing where you discovered she had chlamydia. Yeah, yeah, from her, from her boyfriend, which she failed to disclose because she kept telling me. Every time I told her her symptoms were in keeping with a possible sexually transmitted illness, She kept calling me very rude and that she was a virgin and I didn't know what I was talking about. So we did some swabs, nevertheless, and it came back positive for chlamydia. And then I bought her back in and I asked her again. I said, look, are you sexually active?

She was like, no, you're very rude again. And I was like, okay, I said, because one of us in this room is not telling the truth. And it's not me. And then I showed her the results. And the first, rather then say, oh my God, she just, she says, am I allowed to swear on here? Oh yeah. She went,

That bastard. That was the first words I came out of the mouth. And then she completely ignored me, got out her phone and started screaming down the phone to this poor man who had given her the clap.

Yeah. And so, and then I said, look, can I just pause this conversation for a second so we can treat this? And I'll refer you to the sexual health clinic because you need a full screen. And she just kind of,

she took the prescription and the referral. and stormed out. It's difficult. I know what I'll do. I'll take his harness off because that's making him hot. I'll take your harness off now. Ray, Ray.

I think it's also, I think what I really got the impression from that book is that it's hard, isn't it? Because you've got to strike the balance between sort of you have situations like that where, you know, somebody's literally about to give birth

and just thinks they've got a stomachache and you have to break that news. Then you have situations where really heartbreaking situations with young kids where the blood tests have come back and things are not looking great. That must be the toughest part of the job, I guess, is being the person, the breaker of the news.

Yeah. You know, the messenger. It is tough. It is tough. And there are certain consultations that take longer and are much more emotionally challenging, I suppose. But in a way, you are trained to do it. but it doesn't take the human side of it out and when you see patients responses to bad news

you always try and put yourself in their position and how they would feel and what they need to hear and that takes a lot of a lot of energy the hardest thing is not giving them that energy or giving them that support that they need because that's your job the hardest thing is resetting after they've left so you can bring that same level of to the next of care, yeah, to the next patient. And when you're seeing patients every 10 minutes, it's a lot of giving energy resetting, giving energy, resetting. And that, that would make me impatient to me and you're very patient because if I just had to tell a child's parent and a child, listen, the blood tests have come back and it's not good news. And then I had someone who is maybe

a hypochondriac or, do you know what I mean? Sorry, we say health anxiety now, I know, but you know someone who was maybe coming with you know saying I've got a bit of a cold or something I would feel really impatient and and the quality of you know you you judge a consultation on you know not every consultation I do is perfect and so the ones where I know I need to give that quality of care I will give and there are other ones where I just think right okay we can move through this quicker because I ran late on the last three because they needed the time this person doesn't it is just a viral infection, we can get through it quicker. I'm actually quite grateful for those people because it helps me catch up a little bit. And I go, because when you have one very complex consultation after

the next, that is what really drains you for the entire day. You need those UTIs, you need those coughs to kind of break up the day. But more and more in general practice, and this is why loads of GPs are burning out and moving to other things, is because we're getting other healthcare professionals who are amazing, like the physiotherapist, like the nurse practitioner, and paramedics coming in and pharmacists coming into general practice and a lot of those consultations I'm not saying they deal with just the trivial stuff they often deal with very complex things as well but a lot of those things get weeded out from the GPs and they're way we are left with you know an old person with dementia who's not coping or someone who's

had a bereavement someone who's suicidal all of these things one after the next and that has really changed in the years I've been in general practice so you're you're each one of those patience is a challenge. Yeah. And do you find now, I mean people must recognise you when you come in. So I suspect, you know, when you go onto your practice page, I imagine there's a lot of people clicking on, yes, I would like Dr Amir, please. Well, you're the Harry Styles of the practice. Let's be on it. I think what it is is most people just, what an appointment with a GP. They might prefer a certain GP,

but that isn't always possible. And that's the same in every practice. And yes, some people may say, oh, I think I've seen him on TV and he's the person I want to talk to. Which doesn't always, the two things don't always marry up, because there are doctors in our surgery who specialise in different areas.

And they are much better suited. Do they ever say when they walk into your room, though, do they go, oh my God? Some, very rarely, because I was there. before I was on TV so they've known me from before so to them I am theirs rather than television television is just kind of I's a secondary thing for them yeah but they're just happy to get an appointment with whoever it is to be honest I think that's a state of play at the moment and if they get me then yeah they might be

happy but but they're just happy to see anyone and I have to say you know I always say to the look if you've got back pain you were often an appointment with a physiotherapist they are much more suited to this than I am they know more about your back than I do. And it's the same with GPs with special interest in women's health or neurology or whatever. Go and see them. They are better than I am. I might talk nicely, but they know more about this than I do. People always say, don't they? One of the things people always say, and I have doctor friends myself, and I'm terrible because they are, I call them all the time. But I wonder, that's obviously a hazard of the job with you. You get it all the time.

when you arrived here I started telling you about my migraines within about 22 seconds. You must get this constantly. You've had some really weird impromptu consultations though, haven't you? Is one at a garden centre? We're at garden centre. I think that was really early on in my television career. And it was a man who I love gardens and garden centres. It's like my favourite place to frequent. I just buy everything. And so our local one, which is my favourite one, no longer. Is this in Bradford?

It's in Leeds. I live in Leeds, yeah, right. And so I went there and a man came up to me and he went, you're that fella off the TV, you're that doctor off the TV and I went, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And he went, let me show you something. Can you tell me what this is? And he pulled down his pants and underwear. In the garden centre?

In the garden centre? Willie flapping around and he had a rash in his groin. And he went, what do you think this is, Doc? Like completely normal. And then within about 30 seconds, we were both escorted off the premises. Why were you practised? I don't understand. I think they thought we'd arranged to meet there.

It was a date. Like a grinder, maybe. I'm sorry. You were an innocent party dragged into this. I was. And I was just there to buy delphiniums. That was the only thing I wanted. I didn't even get there.

Did you say I'm a doctor? I tried to. But honestly, this guy was so furious with us. He was like, this is not that kind of garden centre. I don't know what arrangement you two have made, but this is not the place for it. I was like, I'm just here to buy flowers. I would never go back there if I were you. I've never been back.

Never. Your name is mud there. I travel miles to the next card and said it's so inconvenient. But you must get this a lot. You know what? I genuinely, you know, some doctors do mine. You know when they're like, oh, I'm off duty, don't ask me. Yeah.

I'm not that person. I think if you, like on the train, it happens a lot because I get a lot of trains down to London. Sometimes I will volunteer information once I saw. A person with a suspicious skin lesion on the back of their neck. Where were you? On a train. You weren't at that golden centre again. No, God, I've never been back.

I was on a tray. And I was uming and aring all the way down thinking, do I tell this person? They may have someone looking at it already. And am I just being like, you know, just being too intrusive? And then when we were getting off in London, I just said, look, I really don't mean this. The wrong way. I hope you don't mind. You've got a pigmented lesion on the back of your neck. If I saw that in my surgery, I am a doctor, by the way, I would refer that to dermatology and get it checked.

What did they say? They were really grateful. And then six months later, they messaged me on Instagram, and it was a melanoma. And so, yeah, so I think those kind of things are, I think if you're in a position where you might be able to help someone or reassure someone or tell someone, yeah, actually you should go and see your doctor for that, it takes a few minutes, right? And it could make all the difference. It never, ever bothers me, never. And people ring me all the time. I think you feel safe. I would feel safe.

I had a situation. My sister died that she had colon cancer. That was the primary. And so we've got a thing, you'll understand this, but there's a sort of, I have to have regular colonoscopies as a result of the genetic thing. And do you know, I had an experience,

you can judge whether to keep this in and whether it's too much. I'm really comfortable saying it because I think people should be aware of this. I had a thing that things looked a bit weird down there. Yeah, yeah. But you know what I did? Because of my sister and she died young,

I started, I didn't want to think about it. And I couldn't really tell my friends because I thought it's too emotionally laden for them. They watch my sister die. They're terrified. If I say I found a lump or something, just been through all this drama as a family, you know, losing one. And I told Adam Kay, who is a friend of mine,

he's not a doctor anymore. He hasn't been a doctor for ages. But I don't know why, Amir. I just felt he was a safe space. And I felt he wouldn't react emotionally. And he didn't because he's a surgeon. So I just called him. I said, I don't know what to do.

And he was so pragmatic. He knew the story, but he just said, okay, you have to get this looked at. That's non-negotiable. I said, I don't want to go back to this hospital. My sister died there. He said, you don't have to. This is what you do.

They will absolutely listen to that and understand. You go to this one, you go to St Mary's, blah, blah, blah. Got it looked at all sorted. And from then on, and maybe we should keep this in, I don't know, because actually it made me realise go to your GP. Always. And you know what? There is nothing nicer in a consultation than telling someone it's not cancer.

Do you know what I mean? Someone comes to me and goes, God, I've been really worried about this. Can you tell me that is my favourite consultation. You don't need to worry about it. You can get on with your life now. I would much rather people come and see us and worry about things at home. And it really impacts almost every part of your life, right, when you're concerned about something that's serious. So, yeah, always coming.

Oh, I wish you were my doctor. It's nice, you know, it's nice, you know. It's nice, leads. I honestly would. I honestly would. If you could be my doctor. You just have to sign up as a little chest practice. I don't get a choice in the matter.

No, my doctor's very nice, I should say. But I just, I don't know. I think it would be something special to walk in and see you. Not even because you're famous. That's irrelevant. It's just, I think there's a warmth to you. I'm so kind. And it's so important to say, it feels really nice to hear that because you don't know how you come across to patients, right? But it's nice to hear that. Well, I'm not your patient, but I may as well be because I've told you about 15 very intimate things about my body and health. Like most people, even though I've only known you now, I want to talk. We've talked about your brilliant book that was out a few years back now.

It was a Sunday Times bestseller. Yeah, I don't know how that happened. That was, yeah, surprised as all. I do. You also wrote, there was a fiction book you did. Yeah, novel. How Not to Have an Arranged Marriage. How Not to Have an Arraged Marriage, yes.

Which was based sort of just on your experience of that. The circuit. That circuit. Yes. Is that what you call it, the circuit? Honestly, people think of arranged marriages as some kind of like archaic system. It is not. It is like a modern day dating world.

where introduction agency it's an introduction agency so parents are like the the keepers of these agencies they find suitable matches they put you together and then you have a limited time to get to know each other you can go on multiple dates you can do whatever you want it's like taking a cooling off period with a credit card where you can make your mind up exactly that and then if that doesn't work out you move on to the next person you move on to the next person and did your do some of your sisters have that my two eldest ones did yeah yeah and they are happily married

And because your dad presumably wasn't around. No. Were you sort of helping, you know, do the introductions and things? No, God, no. The only thing I did do was, you know, it's like this weird bit where, because the first introduction is done in the home of the girl. Oh, is it? So the boy's family will come over with the boy.

And it's all so awkward because nobody knows anyone. And we all know what you're there for. And it's all a bit awkward. And so they usher us all in to make a good impression. So one after the next, we have to come and like, oh, hello, how are you? Did you have a little suit on? I had a smart shirt on it, it's a parallel shorts. No, that's the cutest thing I ever heard.

It was awful. And then you have to kind of sit there in awkward silence, you know, like, and it's just horrendous. And then someone will say, why don't you two to the people go in the other room and just talk? It's so awful. And then they go and then what will happen after that first introduction is they will decide whether they want to meet up alone somewhere later. And so that first introduction is like a family thing though. And it is awkward, but it's also full of comedy. And so writing about it was hilarious.

And I think you also, people tend to hear arranged marriage and confuse that for forced marriage, which is something entirely different. Yeah, yeah, illegal. Arraged marriage is just like, right, do you like to look at this fella? No, okay, what about this one? No, okay, what about this one? Do you know what? And it's interesting. It's something that's been going on in the British aristocracy for centuries.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one married. Do you know what I mean? It's like there have been some good examples of that. Your mum's cat was the less good example perhaps in terms of the happiness levels she experienced. True. If you didn't hear the beginning of this podcast, we are talking about Amir's mum's cat who is named after Princess Diana. But yeah, there have been examples where it was kind of and it's really interesting Amir because don't you think anyway, a lot of that goes on a lot of the time with dating that what you sometimes like is thinking, is things that you recognise in other people. It's shared values or shared sort of backgrounds or... Totally.

And I think, I mean, there's two aspects of that. First of all, it gets rid of the whole, will my family get on with their family? Because that's already done. That's already decided. You've already met the mother and not. It's fine. So they've already okayed that bit.

But the second thing is dating now, thankfully I'm out of the scene, but it is like the Wild West, right? It's the Wild West. So having someone who has got, your best interest at heart saying, oh, I've got this selection of people you can choose from. But it seems a lot out of it. I love this. Yeah. Yeah, because it's better than swiping right or left on an app, right, and hoping for the best or getting dodgy phones. I think what's quite nice

about it is the idea that there's a sense that they might be more inclined to behave better. They can't ghost you or just. Do you know what I mean? They're not allowed to ghost you. They're answerable. Yeah. If they, and it's very clear, if they are not interested, what is actually quite nice for the person who's not interested it they don't have to have the conversation you then tell I know this sounds awful but you tell your mum or dad and they will ring their mum and dad that doesn't sound awful that's the dream it's the dream it's the absolute bad it gets you out of an awkward conversation but then you hear the bad news from your mum and it's like right but then your mum

will go forget that one here's another one next Saturday we've got this fella coming over do you know what hurt would be doing the breaking the news if it was in your family because I've been told I've got auntie energy I don't know what that means. Yeah, yeah, love anti-energy. Oh, is that good? You're like the huns of the Asian world. Yeah, that's what I've told.

A few people have said, you've got real anti-energy. And I said, does that mean I'm interfering? Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, in the best possible ways. So what is that Asian auntie sort of... So Asian antis antis are like a gaggle of women around your mom's age or older that spend all their time judging you, gossiping, but also like,

try to tell you what they think is best for you. Yes, I do that. I have so many Godkids and I take on this kind of role. Like it's almost like I overstretch my role. Is that an auntie thing as well? Pretty much. Oh God, I am. Yeah, yeah. I love it. And there's like an anti hotline in Bradford where if one auntie finds out something, every auntie knows in the space of about 10 minutes. And when my mum gets off the phone to an auntie, I'm like, I need a full debrief. From that, it's like, right, who's shagging who? And my mum will be like, right, sit down.

Guess who we saw in Tescom doing one. It's great. I love anti-energy. We're going to get on famously then. But I want to take us forward. We were talking about your books. And I want to bring us forward because very excitingly, you have a new book coming out.

It's coming out in February. So you'll be able to pre-order it now. And I will be. And so will Raymond. Oh, thank you. Because this one centres around diet and food, doesn't it? It does. Yes.

So it's called the Do. doctor will feed you now and I am a bit of a foodie I like to cook on my socials I make kind of I'm vegetarians I make lots of vegetarian food but growing up food was a huge part of our our culture as Mama Khan a good cook she's the best cook she's the best cook so half the book is all her traditional kind of South Asian recipes and then the other half is my kind of vegetarian health based recipe and what does Mama Khan think of your recipes she actually likes them so did you have any

disagreements with her making this book. So because I had to get all her recipes out of her, that was like we almost divorced, honestly, because she cooks, like, lots of experienced cooks. They don't measure anything, everything's done by taste and just kind of a feeling. And that's what she kept saying. I was like, right, Mom, so how much of that are you putting in?

She went, oh, I just, you do it by taste, or I just know when she just pulls it and I went, well, that's a little work. And then so she'd send me off on a little task, like, why don't you chop the onion? I was like, okay, fine. And while I was doing that, she'd sneak all the ingredients in because she didn't have the patience for me to kind of measure everything.

And I was like, Mom, you've made the masala. What? What the hell? And she was like, you're too slow. You're too slow. She said, look at these onions. You haven't cut them fine enough. And I was like, Mom, come on, man. So it took two years to get out those recipes from her.

And each time, because I could only do it in small chunks because I think she wanted to kill me and I wanted to kill her. And so I was like, right, mom, let's just, let's take a break now. So just for that, please buy it because I went through Helen back with it. Well, I mean, of course it's going to be a bestseller. All your books are. But I think it's so great that you're doing that as well. Because I think, you know, it feels like, I mean, I'm obviously a bit older than you

and it feels like it's really fairly weirdly recent that we're starting to make this connection between diet and health and, you know, longevity and all that kind of stuff. And it's, you know, how a good diet can kind of future-proof you in a way. Yeah, yeah. I feel like my parents' generation, obviously, I grew up in the 70s and 80s. It was like, we didn't even make the connection of it. No, but I also think in the 70s and 80s, there was less ultra-processed food around. True.

So you were eating, probably without even realizing, you were eating more whole foods, right? Unless, meals cooked from scratch. Snacks. Yes. I know that sounds weird, but I don't think snacks were available. There was fewer places to go. It was like there was high-end or low-end. There wasn't like this whole choice available.

So it was literally like, yeah, I think you're right. Probably you're having vegetables and without realizing that. Brought from a green grocer as well. Exactly that. Yeah. Whereas now, you know, from the 90s onwards, we've seen this boom of ultra-processed foods being kind of pushed at us. And we all kind of just thought, great, yeah, great, easy to consume tasty food.

And now we've realized that cumulative effect of eating all those ultra-processed foods over time has led to this obesity crisis, this type 2 diabetes crisis. mood issues, cardiovascular disease, you know, the list goes on and on, increased rates of cancer. Do you find that hard? If someone comes to see you in their morbidly obese, let's say, that's a difficult conversation to have, isn't it? Because there are some people that might say, you're body shaming me, or do you know what I mean? Oh, so I think obesity itself is complicated because it isn't as simple as people think. They all, you know, they think, oh, it's just how much you eat and how much you move.

No, obesity is a really complex chronic condition, a large part of which up to 70% is genetic. Is it? Yeah. So that doesn't necessarily mean if your parents are overweight, you're going to be overweight. What it means is you've got the genes that have the propensity to make you eat more, affect your appetite and the way you deposit fat. And that, you know, you cannot control through just lifestyle, things like diet and lifestyle, diet and exercise. you can do a certain amount through that, but you will constantly, anyone who's living with obesity will tell you they're constantly fighting a battle against food noise and their weight.

And, you know, you've got two people who are eating exactly the same things. One person will be slim, one person won't be. And that is because of the genetics and the way that all of that is predisposed. And I think that gets lost in a lot of the polarising conversation around obesity. They're like, oh, well, it's their fault they're overweight. It's not our issue to sort out. have to pay for it. No, that's not true. You know, such a big part of it is things outside of their control and we haven't even gone into things like the menopause and the thyroid and all

those. Nevertheless, that's a hard conversation for you to have. It depends on how you approach it. It really, it really does. How would you approach it? So let's say, for example, they've got type 2 diabetes and part of the management of that is losing weight or getting down to a healthy weight. I would talk to them about, rather than say you need to lose weight, I would say excess weight can make you more insulin resistant and this is how that happens. And one of the ways we can help your insulin become more sensitive is if we get you down to a healthy weight. So you link it to the health benefits? Yeah, I'm not saying your fat, you need to do this. I'm saying, look, this is the condition. This is how we treat the condition.

That is what you said to me when I turned up, though, am I? I did not. I did not. say he didn't say that and I don't deem myself overweight. No, I do not say that. The first thing I know is about you is you've got a jumper with a cat on and I just love cats. The first thing I know it is. I've got a joke on. I've got a way to be BFFs.

That is it. Imagine if you had greeted me by saying that. Well I was going to but then I saw Raymond and that distracted me completely. Well, Mama, can we take a picture to send Mama Clown of the cat jumper? Yes, please. I'm going to call this cat jumper from now on. Princess Jessica, Monica, Princess Diana Khan. From now on?

I can't believe how well you remember that name. I'm obsessed with it and I'm obsessed with Mama Khan. Are there pictures of her in this book? Oh God, yeah. She came down to London for the photo shoot. Of course she did. Yeah, yeah. And she had a first time in her life,

she's had like her hair and makeup done and she bought multiple outfits. And then all the way through, she was like, take more photographs. And she just kept sending them. Yeah, she kept sending them to her family in Pakistan. She was like, I'm on a photo shoot. this is my hair and makeup lady

and then she was like I mean take a picture of me here to it and I was like mum they're trying to sort out the food can you just like chill and she was like send it to your auntie in Pakistan I was like okay but isn't that lovely for you I suppose I get the sense of and it's a really lovely

thing that you know she went through a lot to get you educated and you know as a single parent for the large part I think isn't that lovely that you get to

give her the benefits of that? Yes. That care and time she put in. Does she know? She went through a lot. What was she saying? She was like, when I say, oh, Mom, I've had a hard day. Nothing compares to the hard day she used to have.

When she worked full time and raised seven kids. That's why she said. I used to get up and 4 a.m. to cook your breakfast. Then I went to work and I'd come back and I have to cook dinner and I got seven children. That is honestly, like every day she'll say that to be. every day I said, oh mum, I'm a bit tired. You're tired. And then at the seven children. Which is a fair point. It's a fair point. It is a fair point. But then also a fair point. My late sister Godlover, she always used to say to my mum, I've given you, and she was an actress,

very dramatic. I've given you the best years of my life. And my sister would always say, what do you want a receipt? And I thought, yeah, she's right. She's right. If I say that to my mum, like my mum broke down. She'll just turn it up ten extra notches. It's just not worth it. So I go, no, you're right, you worked harder. You've had seven children. What can I do for you? And being one of seven, what impact does that have on you as a human being as a person? Because my assumption is that, and it is a assumption, is that partly why you're so gregarious and you find communicating so easy? Has that been a legacy of growing up into my mind a huge family like that? Perhaps I think some of it, but saying that, some of my sisters are not in that way.

So I think part of it, I think I really found myself when I went to university. I wasn't like this at all growing up, I would say. Were you quiet little, Amir? Well yeah, because you're always kind of, not quiet, but like there's a lot to compete with in a family like that. And you see that now when we all get together with husbands and children, you know, when we're all together, there's like 30 or 40 of us. It is. It is. It's huge. My mum loves it, but there's, you know, there could be in excess of 30 of us there on a Saturday, yeah.

And so you see that now, you know, everybody's kind of fighting for their place at that table. But I think, I think, I think only growing confidence once I settled at university, I knew what I was going to do with work and that really, having that friendship circle really changed my life. Yeah, you found out who you were and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. I think it's, I think that is lovely, though, that lots of siblings thing. I think that's a nice, you know, it feels like people that grow up in big families, I don't know, I think there's a resilience to them, a social resilience that I think you can sometimes get, which is you have to. Yeah.

You have to learn conflict resolution, for example, because you're having to use it 50 times a day. Yeah, yeah, very much so. And you learn to kind of just tolerate things without getting stressed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, your mum did a really good job. Thanks. And I can't wait to find out all about her cooking. So I'm going to buy this book.

Raymond, are we going to try some of this book? Oh, you're not here, Raymond. Oh, look at this. The brass band on the way. Oh, wow. Let's have a look. I love a brass band. Oh, yeah, totally.

Are you always impressed by people that can play instruments? Yeah, because I can't at all. Can you not? No, not at all. Maths and music, I always assume goes together. Yeah. I imagine that is the case. No, I, no, I can't sing.

I can't, I'm not particularly, I love music. but I'm not particularly musical but that I mean there's something about it it's a little bit sexy as well isn't it when someone plays an instrument I mean you say that the trombone I'm not so much are you think the trombone is sexy yeah I could work with a trombone yes is that the tuba is it yeah I mean not them particularly but just the fact that someone can play it is yes you're right quite attractive I think that's because you're you like the idea of 10,000 hours because that's what you've done with your life. Do you know what I mean? Yes. Let's not forget these bloody Gucci songs. Can I say Amir has turned up with the most

amazing Gucci sunglasses. I love these glasses. I live in them almost all so. Well I love you to be my doctor. It's going to happen. Let's do it. You can call me any time. You've got we've got to exchange numbers. It's going to happen. I'm jealous of Adam Kay. He beat me in the book sales and now he's beating me in BFF status. So, Our interview is nearly coming to an end, which makes me incredibly sad, because I could honestly talk to you all day. Thank you. I want to know, just in terms of patients coming to see you, what is the thing you wish people would understand when they come into the surgery? I know you've talked about people apologising a lot.

Yes. So it does happen a lot. you know, so a lot of consultations can start with, I'm sorry, I'm wasting your time, or, oh, if I have to examine them, sorry, I haven't waxed or shaved or washed, or I'm sorry, I'm crying. And, like, you don't have to apologise for any of those things. Like, none of those things are on my radar of things I'm bothered about when I'm at work. All I care about when people come in is that they tell me what they're worried about

and their symptoms so we can work together to sort of amount. And the truth, crucially. And the truth. Because let's be honest, that doesn't always happen. No. What do people lie about most? I know what the answer is going to be. Alcohol.

There's always alcohol. How many units are you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you push and push and push it. Eventually you get to the right part. Why do they lie on there? I think they think I'm going to judge them, but I'm really not. Or that I'm going to lecture them in some way, which I'm not either.

Although I've got to be honest, I feel so snug when I go to my doctor because I don't drink anything. Yeah. And they say, how many units? I go, no. done. It's like being pulled over by the police. I really want them to pull me over. I do a breath of light. I start driving a little bit weirdly, a bit erratically so that I can get out the car and say, no, no alcohol. No, fair. Yeah. But yeah, I think that's a human nature thing, isn't it? Yeah, always. I think I think they feel like they have to get a good report from me. Like, I don't drink and I exercise and I don't smoke and I get eight hours of sleep. So,

Yeah, it's none of those things. So, but like, honestly, they're not going to, I'm not, you don't have to lie, you don't have to apologise, just tell me the truth of what you're worried about. And that is the key, key part to all of this. You obviously, in addition to being an incredibly busy GP and you work long hours, I imagine, at the surgery. Yeah, yeah. You're also a sort of resident doctor on Lorraine. Yeah. We love Lorraine. We love Lorraine.

You were doing that this morning in fact. I was, yeah, yeah. Talking about migraines. A sufferer. Yeah. And I've worked out my cures to that. It's got to get minimum of seven and a half hours. Ideally eight. And no skipping meals. Yeah. Those are sleep deprivation and low blood sugars are two of the most common triggers for a migraine. And yeah, so it's part of our, you know, when we do the migraine diaries, we look out all of those kind of things as potential triggers.

but yeah, really common triggers. And in addition to doing Lorraine, you've also got over a million followers on Instagram now. Yeah, yeah. How does that, your very high profile, very visible GP, but you're also juggling that with running your practice. Yeah. How does that work in terms of,

do you ever have to sort of be careful how you navigate that in terms of your profile and do you know what I mean? I do. You know, in my head, in my head, and this is only in my head, the two jobs or the two aspects of my life are very, very separate. So when I come into work at the surgery, the GP, you seeing patients and the TV stuff, I find it really awkward or the social, when people mention it. You know, if a patient says it to me, oh, I saw you on TV, I was like, that's a whole different life. That's nothing to do with what I'm doing now. So I find it really, really jarring and awkward, which is a weird feeling. right but then but then you know when I'm in the studio then I feel very very different again and even when like the people I work with mention anything that

they've seen of me on Instagram or or television I kind of clam up in a really weird way because I feel like that's not what I'm there for at that moment and so yeah I haven't you someone who's quite good at compartmentalising yeah very much so and so so yeah I don't think I navigate it very well I think I think I I could do that better. Yeah. Because I just think what I think what it is, I don't want anyone to ever think my work in the media is negatively impacting my NHS work or I'm distracted in any way or not able to do that job as well as I should be able to do it because of the media work. So I find it really hard to talk about the media work while I'm out the surgery.

Do you? Yeah. Yeah. Are you an extrovert? No. Not at all. No. My favourite thing is just to stay at home. More than time. With watching the pit?

Well, no, not the pit. It's too close to what I do. Graze anatomy? No, never a medical show. Never. Because they do everything wrong. Do you laugh at what they do sometimes? No, I'm like, what is you're supposed to give them? That's the wrong dose. That's the wrong medicine. Casualty?

No, nothing. I don't. I watch like selling sunset. I'm definitely coming over. Yes. Real housewives of everyone else? Real every single real housewives. Yes. Oh my God. Yes.

Come over. And I love like married at first sight. I do. We're a marriage made in heaven. We're arranged marriage made in heaven. Why couldn't Mama Khan have introduced me to you? Oh, they're going to put your picture in her catalogue. I'd have her at cap jumper.

Yes. Totally. So that's really interesting. A lot of doctors say that. Yeah. They don't like watching medical dramas. Not at all. I don't like watching anything, like even, I suppose,

even like crime dramas or anything like that. I need to watch something that is just really light and easy. You need to switch off? I need to switch off. Are you, talking of switching off, is that ever tough for you, Amir? You know, you must have days as a GP where there are sort of, you're coming up against life and death, you know, just like you would be in a hospital in some ways.

because you have terrible news to deliver. You're dealing with people who are seriously ill, perhaps don't realise they are. Yeah. How do you process that? I think I'm terrible company at the end of a day's work. So when I go home, I imagine I am terrible company. I'm not talkative.

I'm not interested in explaining how my day has been. I'm not interested in asking how their day has been, which is awful, isn't it? it's awful yeah and I need a good half an hour I would say of you know having a shower getting myself sorted and then I'm ready to engage with the real world again but yeah that after a tough day which which is often now in the NHS that's that's I imagine a lot of people feel that I went to my GP colleagues house once who I work with he's one of the other partners at the practice and he had this gorgeous

fish tank in his in his kitchen he won't mind me saying this because we take the piss out of him for it now. And his wife was telling me that nobody's allowed to talk to him for the first 20 minutes when he comes home while he just stares at the fish. And I was like, wow, that actually sounds amazing. I think I'm going to get a fish tank. And then, so I was like, I know exactly how that feels.

So I imagine there's other people in jobs where you are exhausted that you just need that decompression time. But you know, I get that because I know something Adam Kay, who we were talking about earlier, has always said that it's something that doctors don't, traditionally, haven't really had enough, there hasn't been enough sort of focus on that. Is the mental health side of the job in terms of all that stuff that you're having to absorb? Yeah, I think he's absolutely right.

And, you know, he's a good example of, you know, he burnt out, didn't he? Yeah. And as a result of the pressures, and Obes and Guiney, which is what he was doing, is the by far in a way I would say the most high-pressured speciality of medicine. So yeah I think we're getting a little bit better at it. The thing is it's the well I think the people who regulators, the NHS England GMC have recognised that mental well-being is important but unfortunately now it's just become a tick box exercise for us so there's no scope there's no flexibility in anything we do to for us to to focus on that we just have to as part of our

annual appraisal which we have to have to practice we have to tick a box to say we feel okay and that's the end of that how are you okay great yeah that's it so let's um before i let you go and the reason i have to let you go is because you are going off to record your brilliant podcast now yes i am no appointment necessary with cherry healy who's been on this podcast she has yes she's fantastic and it's really fabulous that podcast i was listening to it and only the other day where you were talking all about, I love that you sort of bust myths. So, you know, all these, I feel like collagen is being really heavily pushed at me, particularly as a menopause or woman. Oh, you must try this, you must, you need magnesium.

And you're like, well, your body actually produces quite a lot of magnesium. Totally. Yeah. The thing about collagen is, it is just protein. And it's something, something I mean people get quite emotional about collagen because lots of women I think historically because women's health and women's well-being has been so just ignored and discarded and not researched so now they are you know hopefully we're talking about it more and getting things done but we've got to be careful in that space in that we don't push things that women don't need but the truth of the matter is you know collagen levels drop after the men are

Pauls. Tell me about it, Amir. Yeah, but you don't need, you don't need collagen powders, you just need protein in your diet, that's all you need. Oh, I'm going to eat loads of protein. Yeah, I love this. Amir, honestly, I can't tell you how much I've loved this. It's been a total joy. Oh, my pleasure. It's made my morning chatting to you and meeting you. I'm such a fan anywhere, as you probably gathered. And also a fan of Mama Khan. Yeah, fair, fair. She's in my life now. Have you enjoyed meeting Raymond? This has been so much fun. Honestly, it's been so much, I'm so glad I did this. It's been so great. Like, holding him and chatting to you has been brilliant. Do you think you might end up getting a Raymond eventually?

I'm going to put in an application for a chit-suit. Don't call him a shitsu. He is a shitsu, but it's a hard one to pronounce. I mean, I almost said it wrong, didn't I? So I'm going to put in an application for a Raymond and see if he gets approved at home. I really hope you enjoyed that episode of Walking the Dog. We'd love it if you subscribed. And do join us next time on Walking the Dog wherever you get your podcasts.