Listen to your Granny’s advice - Medical Matters with Derry GP Dr Tom Black
I have noticed over the last decade or so that people seem to have a disconnect in their brains between their actions and the consequences, a mistake their grannies wouldn’t make.
My father Tom Black died at the age of 27 in a car crash on the Glenshane Pass. He was unusual for a young man in the 1950s in that he didn’t smoke. Apparently this was because his Granny O’Connor told him not to. She was a formidable Rosemount woman who took in washing and kept a pig in the backyard and she had highlighted to him the risks of smoking. She probably told him to drive carefully as well, but there’s no accounting for a lorry meeting you on a bend in the road.
There’s a common misconception that the most important thing in life to get on well is to do the smart things right. When you work as a GP you quickly realise that the trick is actually to avoid doing the stupid things and this is where your granny comes in. Sensible advice and precautions early in life when young people lack the insights and experience is vital and that advice traditionally came from grandparents, particularly grannies.
If you hang out with people your granny doesn’t approve of you’ll be lucky to avoid trouble. Your granny doesn’t approve of these people because experience tells her they’re best avoided.
Young women seem to be obsessed, doom scrolling to see what type of cancer they’re going to get. I try to put into context how small the risk of cancer is in young people compared to for instance car crashes. I say that to them, that the greatest risk to their well-being in the next decade is getting into a car driven by a young man that their granny doesn’t approve of. They always laugh because they understand the scenario immediately.
As we know obesity is a big problem. ‘Is Mounjaro on the prescription yet?’ they ask me. ‘I can’t take exercise because of my pains and what I eat wouldn’t feed a sparrow!’ At times like this I quote their granny to them. What would your granny tell you to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and they quickly understand the advice.
To some extent we have a problem with the very existence of the NHS as we’re now into the fourth generation of people being looked after by it and it has to some extent undermined the role of granny wisdom. Easy, free access to doctors and nurses reduced our reliance on grannies, although we seem to be going the other way now with our underfunded NHS.
So we should listen to our grannies. They have knowledge, skills and experience that are of great value to young parents and children. They know what the right thing is and understand the pitfalls in life that should be avoided.
I had this conversation with a middle-aged man last week when I told him to pretend that his granny was in charge of his diet. ‘Doctor do you not remember who my granny was? I’ll not sleep tonight’. I looked at him and remembered his granny very well. A formidable Derry granny with a very sharp tongue still influencing him from the grave!