Dr Michael Taylor

30/08/2026

Thoughts?

29/08/2026

Everyone calls you. Nobody calls to check on you.

You are the one they call when the numbers dip, when the family is in crisis, when the decision has to be made by Friday. You take the call every time.

Then you carry it home and say nothing.

But quietly the physiology is taking note.

Sustained sympathetic load pushes resting heart rate and blood pressure up, destroys sleep architecture and affects glucose and lipids over years rather than weeks.

Quietly.

You will feel capable right up to the point where you are not.

The failure here is structural. You have surveillance on the business, the assets, the reputation.
On you, nothing is measured and nothing is reviewed.

One lever. Book the assessment you keep arranging for everybody else and get the numbers on paper.

So. How are you doing?

28/08/2026

Serial sevens. A hundred down to under fifty, timed.

Neurologists use this test at the bedside to test attention under load.

Most executives run the same test every day without knowing it: page four of a board paper, the third number in a finance update, the clause you read twice.

Where you lost your place is where your working memory ran out of room.
Sleep debt, cortisol and a blood glucose that swings after lunch can all reduce that room before you notice it.

Attention is a measurable variable. It degrades quietly and the person it is happening to is usually the last to notice.

I lost my place at around seventy-two.
Comment yours.

26/08/2026

25/08/2026

Two men. Same lab, same week.
Total cholesterol 5.1 (197mg/dL) and 5.0 (193mg/dL).

Both were told everything is ok.

One of them had his arteries imaged and it revealed a Calcium score of 210. There was moderate level of plaque already there. He is on treatment and he has a number to track and monitor.

The other has a piece of paper and no idea what is inside him.

The standard lipid profile estimates how much cholesterol is moving through the blood. It does that job well. What has deposited inside an artery wall is a different question that the panel was never designed to answer.

ApoB counts the particles.
A calcium score sees the wall.

The difference between those two men was a spare day but the implications of that day can extend for a lifetime.

24/08/2026

CEOs make decisions for a living.

People. Capital. Strategy. Risk. Timing.

But how many have ever actually tested the brain making those decisions?

Executive function, processing speed, attention, working memory and cognitive flexibility all affect how well you operate, especially under pressure.

The problem is that changes can be subtle.

You compensate.

You work longer.

You reread things.

Decisions take a little more effort.

And because you’re still performing, you assume everything is fine.

That’s why having a baseline matters.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

Know where you are. Track where you’re going.