Dr Ben Sinclair, Founder – Dr Finlay’s Private Practice
Award-winning GP Dr Ben’s Top 10 Tips on how to…
Boost Your Health to Grow Your Wealth in 2024
Are you wondering: ‘What innovations can I bring to my life and business in 2024?’.
I’m Dr Ben Sinclair, founder of Dr Finlay’s Private Practice supporting men, women and teams to prioritise health in balance with their business / working life. It’s not easy. Lots of our patients struggle with work-life challenges.
We encourage entrepreneurs and directors to “enjoy the ride, maintain good health, and arrive alive” – to enjoy the fruits of their labour in retiring well. Sadly, many people become successful through punishing work hours – at the expense of their health.
After GP training in Yorkshire, I took an amazing gap year with my wife across Asia, taking in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. I volunteered as Medical Director with an NGO in Northern Cambodia delivering primary-care services and health training to remote jungle villages.
Back in the UK, I found I needed longer than the NHS 10 minutes to delve deeper into patients’ lifestyle habits, and prevent the diseases I saw time and time again as a GP. I moved to Birmingham and set up an integrated private practice delivering the type of prevention strategies I believed busy working people actually needed.
Founding Dr Finlay’s, we reached out to the business community because I realised they understood the need for high performance, valued the “Time is Money” equation, and wanted to balance their work and life in productive ways. Later, we were honoured to win ‘Business of the Year’ at the Phoenix Business Club Awards.
It’s because of our close-working relationship with the business community, in Birmingham, across the Midlands and latterly in Yorkshire, London and nationwide, that we’re especially proud, for the first time this year, to be sponsoring the prestigious Signature Awards in Birmingham and London.
At our London clinic, we tell patients our name is a tribute to the fictional BBC TV doctor in ‘Dr Finlay’s Casebook’. Like his, our service is based on the good old-fashioned GP/patient relationship, combined with today’s cutting-edge technology.
My Top 10 Tips for Goal-Setting in 2024:
1. Start Planning & Journalling
People with a plan are more likely to succeed. What if yours included prioritising disease prevention, aiming for optimum performance? Some people engage a life strategist, I recommend starting with a journal. Putting pen to paper brings benefits in psychological wellbeing, habit-tracking and goal-setting, capturing ideas, reflecting on emotions and dreams strategically – while identifying what’s holding you back.
2. Book A Health-Check
Imagine your captain saying: “We’re set for take-off, climbing towards 37,000 feet, but I’m not sure we’ve enough fuel.” Scary?! We love being co-pilot on your health journey. Climbing into the business world delivering high performance without bits falling off the machine at top speed requires ‘pre-flight checks’ ensuring mind, body and habits are aligned.
3. Reduce Your Inflammation
You may have seen relatives, colleagues and friends diagnosed with cancer, Dementia, Diabetes or heart disease. To cut your risk of such preventable diseases, aim to reduce levels of inflammation while increasing energy and stamina.
Focus on improving nutrition. Increase healthy gut bacteria with fermented foods like Kefir and Kimchi. Reduce alcohol, caffeine, sugar. Increase healthy fats; avoid processed food. Many patients lost key friendly bacteria through Covid infection. Dr Finlay’s hosts what we believe is Britain’s first online Long Covid recovery clinic. Our nutritionists use a Microbiome test to guide treatment plans.
4. Optimise Sleep
High-performers prioritise deep, restorative sleep. Optimal sleep hygiene includes breath-work, meditation and journalling. Blue light from devices stimulates the brain into wakefulness, so switch off screens two hours before attempting to sleep.
5. Balance Hormones
Perimenopause is recognised as a major challenge to females in business, Many middle-aged men may suffer the effects of undiagnosed low testosterone. Our consultation and blood test identify hormone imbalances, which can be addressed through diet and lifestyle, nutritional supplements and medication, such as HRT for women or TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) for men.
6. Try Red Light Therapy
CEOs and Olympians use PBM (or Photobiomodulation) to boost recovery and performance. Thousands of laser-like LEDs zap the body activating the Mitochondria. PBM can speed recovery from illness, injury, intense training, jetlag or stress, relieve inflammation and pain. Tom Cruise sped his recovery with PBM after breaking his ankle filming ‘Mission Impossible’ in London. Our clinic uses a NovoTHOR ‘Whole Body Light Pod’ to aid healing and promote recovery in 20-minute sessions.
7. ‘Prime’ Your Brain
Many high-performers identify goals, then practise regular visualisation to “prime” the brain’s reticular activating system. This causes the subconscious to search for solutions, overcoming barriers to success.
8. Ringfence Mini-Breaks
When 2024 planning, pre-book quarterly mini-adventures in your diary to reset and refocus. You’ll work in 12-week blocks with regular breaks. Creativity and problem-solving in business spring from a fresh, well-rested mind.
9. Breathe Better, Chill Out
Many ancient meditative practices included breath-work, calming the nervous system and encouraging creativity. Breath-work reduces stress, inflammation and Cortisol levels. Power up by combining cold-water immersion, stimulating a high-performance / healing state. Optimum benefits are achieved at 3 minutes. Keep water 10°C below air temperature. Chill 2-3 times weekly to lower blood pressure, release endorphins and feel amazing.
10. Embrace Wearables
Use wearable technology such as Oura Ring or WHOOP Wristband to monitor sleep, strain and recovery. I recommend wearables for tailoring training schedules more effectively by tracking statistics like steps, heart-rate variability, and effort during exercise.
11. Bonus Tip: Follow My New Podcast
The health-versus-wealth balance is the focus of my new podcast, ‘Health v Wealth With Dr Ben’. The business and life stories of my guests, busy working people, including CEOs and entrepreneurs, make fascinating listening. Want to feature on the show? Please email podcast@drfinlays.co.uk.
Here’s wishing you a prosperous and, above all, healthy year ahead.
* To contact Dr Finlay’s Private Practice, please visit;
Website: www.drfinlays.co.uk
Phone: 020 7871 3626
Address: Clinicity, 36 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 8BQ
Email: team@drfinlays.co.uk