Health assessment is often reactive, focused on looking for problems. It’s a copy of the standard hospital approach of finding conditions for medication or surgery. It can feel like a tick-box exercise rather than a tailored approach seeing you as an individual.
Muscle is the biggest organ in your body. Vital to blood sugar and protein levelss. It is key to your functional health now and in the future. Our MRI scan offers cutting-edge insight into muscle health giving you the chance to make the changes relevant to you.
VO2 Max testing is a way to assess how well your heart, lungs and cells can use oxygen. It combines so many aspects of health and is now recognised as the single most accurate predictor of how long we live. The test also shows us our anaerobic threshold which is a measure of our exercise efficiency. Together these values can also be used to guide exercise training and to track long-term health.
As well as the usual tests that might be recommended by your GP or a specialist clinic our panel includes these important assays.
In the follow-up consultation you will have time to go through these results with Dr James in detail and understand them for yourself. For those interested in Longevity and the work of Dr. Peter Attia, these closely replicate the panel he advocates in his “Early” program.
Our at home sleep tests linked to the Sunrise Sleep App are easy to use and provide high quality information to detect serious sleep issues like sleep apnea. Together with a detailed sleep history Dr James will be able to work with you to improve both the quality and quantity of your sleep. This often the biggest win for our clients.
While there is no formal measure of stress or emotional health, this aspect very much forms a central part of the assessment process and health programs. Our mind-state determines so much of what we experience and the impact on our health. We will take time to understand you with an in-depth questionnaire and the “no rush” consultations that you will have with Dr James. All the test results will be seen in the context of your unique life experience. This is personalisation.
David Tilston, our expert personal trainer, will assess your strength and stability and provide you with a personalised plan to supercharge your strength. For many clients this involves developing joint mobility and confidence with more complex exercises. Time is also a crucial factor to work with. Many of our clients are very busy and need to have a very concise program. David specialises in creating the most time-effective programs. Our goal is your long-term functional capacity but appreciate the desire to look good and feel good in the short-term.
Insulin resistance is probably the biggest single factor behind the development of heart disease and dementia but have you ever discussed it with your doctor? You might have heard that it is central to type 2 diabetes but it also plays a big role in high blood pressure, obesity and poor cholesterol. When we look at your metabolic health it is key to determining a healthy future. Therefore it’s important to know if you have insulin resistance and how to reverse it. We can do this with blood tests and with tracking your body’s glucose levels using a monitor you wear on your arm. Tracking glucose for a few weeks allows you to understand your body’s unique way to handle glucose. Insulin resistance can be changed through your nutrition, body composition, exercise and many other ways.
If you are ready to not just learn more about your health but change it, then a Health Program with Dr James will bring the results you seek. The Health Programs start with a Health Assessment and then continue on.
Dr James’ broad experience in cardio-metabolic health, sleep medicine, nutrition, exercise physiology and psychological health means he is uniquely placed to guide you through the process.
Ready to move from a "balanced diet" to one that enhances your health and body composition? You'll get expert guidance on how to optimise how you eat, ease gut issues and raise energy levels. You will develop a step-by-step plan that allows you to understand and introduce the changes you need. We aim for a long-term nutrition strategy with enough flexibility for your life.
You know how important a good nights sleep is but are you able to get it every night? Good sleep is central to the restoration of our energy levels, for the removal of brain waste products and for learning. But sleep is also important for blood pressure control, appetite regulation and much more.
First your sleep history will be discussed together with your circadian rhythm. This is then combined with data from your sleep studies. This may detect issues like sleep apnea or insomnia which have often gone undetected.
When you improve your sleep, every system in your body benefits.
Move beyond self-criticism and frustration. Discover how prioritising your health has a positive impact on others as well as yourself. Emotional health is central to the choices we make. You know how vital your emotional health is to your well-being. Health Programs put it front and centre.
Stress isn't all bad. In fact, in the right dose it's the best way to develop and get more resilient, as long as it comes with enough recovery. Chronic stress however, leads to chronic inflammation. This is now understood to be key in cardiovascular disease and dementia.
So stress is a balancing act where nuance matters. Small changes can lead to big differences. Stress is multi-factorial and can be optimally addressed in a health program.
The choice of supplements is so huge these days many people find it overwhelming. Dr James will create a personalised plan for you where you will get the most return for your needs. You'll also be able to discuss your medication with Dr James.
Disease develops over decades and can be detected at a variety of different stages. The early stages in particular, before scarring or fibrosis have occurred, are also reversible.
Look in depth at your total health so that you can intervene early and make changes. Steer towards health by heeding the early warning signs.
Let’s establish a relationship where you are known. Where you have an understanding of what will drive your health. Where you are empowered to adapt and reap the benefits.
Let’s find the troublesome patterns and your unique opportunities to change. Let’s prioritise for the biggest wins and bring about the most long-lasting results. Let’s do it in a way that puts your emotional and cognitive health centre stage.
Your experiences and current life are unique, so a health program needs to be tailored to your bio individuality. What works on average for a population isn’t necessarily the optimal treatment for you.
Recognise the strengths and weaknesses of applying leading-edge research to your life. Respect your individual experience. Weigh up the benefits and drawbacks of interventions in the context of the whole person.
Evolutionary adaptation means our body can respond to particular stimuli with repair, recovery, growth and health. Our biology is inherently intelligent and geared to protect us from harm.
We are working together with market leaders in healthcare. Testing can be arranged locally for wherever you are in the world. Consultations are over video call or in-person in London. All notes are keep on a secure electronic patient record that is GDPR complaint.
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Pricing is personalised to reflect the depth and breadth of services provided.
Health Assessment can start from £1,000 while Health Programs are from £5,000.
If you don’t test you don’t know. And of course the depth of testing matters.
Do you know your HOMA-IR, VO2 Max, level of chronic inflammation, visceral fat volume and muscle health?
Starting early gives a great advantage as subtle changes are easier to reverse.
Dr James specialises in managing patients with multi-system issues that often put them at high risk of future problems. There will be time for your full health history to be taken into account. Dr James and you will come to an understanding of your health and illness journey and work together with other top-specialists as needed.
There is much talk of the genetic causes of disease but the simple truth is that the majority of health is determined by environmental factors. Genes are usually important only when we are exposed, often repeatedly to certain triggers. They are rarely going to cause an issue come-what-may. When you know your own risks it makes it easier to focus on what matters.
This screening process can bring up a number of potential issues. Dr James has an extensive network of trusted specialists that he can refer you to. This includes his consultant colleagues including surgeons and physicians in all specialities and specialists in functional medicine as well as health coaches, physiotherapists breathworkers, psychotherapists and physical therapists.
Many people on the program are busy working professionals who are relatively financially rich but time poor. They may have put their career and family before their own health. Therefore it becomes even more important to get genuinely personalised advice and insights into health so that change can be as effective as possible. As your health improves you will find you have more time and energy for what you want.
From your consultations with Dr Steve James you will know the easiest way to optimise your nutrition. When you understand the strategies for nutrition you can make the choices you need in any situation. We will include how to prepare for travel and advice on what to eat at restaurants.
Yes. All the consultations with Dr James and his team are online. The testing is available in large cities across the world and calls can be conducted at a convenient time. Improved health and specific strategies can also help in reducing jet lag.
If you need any extra equipment or supplements then Dr James and his team will personalise a shopping list for you. We work with only the highest quality supplement manufacturers so that you can be assured of quality.
We use an industry leading electronic patient record. The storage of your data will be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements. You will have 24/7 access to this information and can have full control over your records.
Your health involves all the different tissues and systems of your body so we look at your health from many angles. All the tests are highly predictive of your current health and future health and they are things that you can do something about.
These are the biggest levers, and when you pull on them, things change.
Visceral fat is the fat around the organs in your abdomen. It releases many harmful molecules called cytokines. Some of these such as IL-6 and TNF-α cause inflammation across the body. This sets the body up for metabolic disease. This in turn leads to cardiovascular disease and a whole range of other illnesses. Subcutaneous fat, the type that is under your skin, actually carries little risk of future health problems with it.
You may or may not like the sight of it, but it isn’t really a health concern. There is also ectopic fat, like that around your heart or in your liver. This also indicates an increased risk of certain diseases. BMI, is the standard measure of weight and obesity. It doesn’t pick up this difference and it is one of the reasons why BMI isn’t so good at predicting future problems. Healthy people may have just a few kilos of visceral fat in their abdomen. But you might have 10, 15, or even 20kg of visceral fat and still not be obese according to your BMI! This is why we measure these different fat regions accurately with an MRI.
The dangers of visceral fat were not recognised when most doctors studied medicine. Even today very few are aware of its importance. There is no simple blood test for it, and like many things, when it is more difficult to measure, it gets measured less often. GLP-1 inhibtors do seem to reduce visceral fat for as long as people stay on them. After a year only a third of patients continue taking them, probably due to side effects, costs or a weight-loss plateau. You need other strategies to change the root cause.
Your muscle mass and its strength are vital for your wellbeing – it allows you to do what you want to do. But each year it is disappearing. Without resistance training people can lose 30% of their muscle mass between 50 and 70. After 70 the decline only gets faster. This is why at 75 most adults start to experience a significant drop in their function. The process starts quietly, often as fatty deposits. They are the starting point of diabetes and can also go on to become sarcopenia which is muscle loss. This is why we do an MRI because it is the gold-standard way of assessing muscles that are at risk of being lost. Even if you don’t develop diabetes or sarcopenia, you will want to offset this process to maintain your wellbeing. At what age do you want to start?
Your VO2 Max is the maximal amount of oxygen that your body can use. It shows how much “external work” it can do. It combines the function of your lungs, chest wall, heart, vascular system and in particular the mitochondria of your cells. It is a pan-system test. It is widely considered to be the best marker of cardiorespiratory fitness and the best for predicting longevity.
Studies with 100,000s of patients have shown that moving up a fitness group (of five groups) dramatically increases your survival. For example, moving from a level 2 group to a level 3 group (easily achievable in 3-6 months) is the equivalent of TWO times the impact of NOT having diabetes. That’s huge. Your VO2 can be used to calculate your “Fitness Age” which can vary dramatically from your chronological age and will predict how well you age as well. The gold-standard way of measuring this is on an exercise bike or a treadmill with a tight fitting face mask for breath analysis.
We need inflammation to help us fight off infection and to heal wounds but chronic inflammation is a sign that our body is under constant strain. This is like stress, we thrive from some stress and become weak if there is too little. Chronic stress however undermines our health. “Stress” can mean different things to different people but they all end up affecting common chemical pathways in our body. Stress is a key contributor to visceral fat for example and affects sleep which in turn affects our body’s ability to repair. Together with inflammation it is also key to the development of high blood pressure. We can think of different stressors as adding “load” to the total “stress load”.
Factors to identify that can contribute to Stress Load include:
If you don’t wake refreshed it is a sign that the brain hasn’t finished it’s intense overnight metabolic program. Your brain is the central regulator. It controls most of your hormones and your nervous system which regulates your gut. Every system in your body benefits from sleep. If the benefits could be made into a pill it would become the bestseller on the market.
Some of the most common and important problems that can be identifed and dealt with are:
– insomnia
– sleep restriction
– sleep fragmentation
– sleep apnea and other forms of sleep disturbed breathing
– early morning awakening
– restless legs
Sleep is a great place to start with improving health. Sometimes simple changes can bring dramatic changes. And this feeds forwards into food and activity choices the following day.
This privacy policy notice is served by Dr Steve James, under the website https://drstevejames.com
The purpose of this policy is to explain to you how we control, process, handle and protect your personal information through the business and while you browse or use this website. If you do not agree to the following policy you may wish to cease viewing using this website, and or refrain from submitting your personal data to us.
Policy key definitions
“I”, “our”, “us”, or “we” refer to the business, Dr Steve James.
“you”, “the user” refer to the person(s) using this website.
GDPR means General Data Protection Act.
ICO means Information Commissioner’s Office.
Cookies mean small files stored on a user’s computer or device.
Key principles of GDPR
Our privacy policy embodies the following key principles; (a) Lawfulness, fairness and transparency, (b) Purpose limitation, (c) Data minimisation, (d) Accuracy, (e) Storage limitation, (f) Integrity and confidence, (g) Accountability.
Processing of your personal data
Under the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) we control and/or process any personal information about you electronically using the following lawful bases.
We will continue to process your information under this basis until you withdraw consent, or it is determined your consent no longer exists.
We are exempt from registration in the ICO Data Protection Register because we handle personal data only for core business purposes of accounts and record keeping.
Your individual rights
Under the GDPR your rights are as follows.
the right to be informed;
the right of access;
the right to rectification;
the right to erasure;
the right to restrict processing;
the right to data portability;
the right to object; and
the right not to be subject to automated decision-making including profiling.
We handle subject access requests in accordance with the GDPR.
Internet cookies
We use cookies on this website to provide you with a better user experience. We do this by placing a small text file on your device/computer hard drive to track how you use the website, to record or log whether you have seen particular messages that we display, to keep you logged into the website where applicable, to display relevant adverts or content, referred you to a third party website.
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We use a cookie control system which allows you to accept the use of cookies, and control which cookies are saved to your device / computer. Some cookies will be saved for specific time periods, where others may last indefinitely. Your web browser should provide you with the controls to manage and delete cookies from your device, please see your web browser options.
Data security and protection
We ensure the security of any personal information we hold by using secure data storage technologies and precise procedures in how we store, access and manage that information. Our methods meet the GDPR compliance regulations.
