The People Behind These Leaflets

Every page on this blog starts with a small, practical question and ends as an article you can read in a few minutes. In between, it passes through more hands and more drafts than you might expect for a short piece about toothbrushes. This page shows that process, and introduces the people behind it.

The writers

We are three writers who publish under pen names. Keeping our real names off the site lets us write freely about everyday bodies and habits, and it keeps the focus on the information rather than on us. None of us is a doctor, dentist, nurse or pharmacist, and we never write as if we were.

• Bea Thistlewood looks after oral care and the pregnancy pieces. She is the one who times her brushing and owns too many interdental brushes.
• Joss Penhallow covers smoke-free living and the home. A former smoker, Joss writes the guides he wishes he had read earlier.
• Rafe Marrow handles pharmacy and clinic visits, and the articles on self-image and marketing. He reads patient leaflets for fun, which the others find alarming.

From question to published page

1. A question arrives. Most topics come from reader emails, search questions people ask, or something one of us got stuck on in real life.
2. We read the official guidance first. Public health bodies, professional associations and the information leaflets that come with products are our starting point, not forums or adverts.
3. We write a plain draft. Short sentences, everyday words, and a clear answer near the top.
4. Someone else checks it. A second writer reads every claim, removes anything that sounds like a promise, and asks "how do we know that?" wherever needed.
5. We add the "when to get help" part. Every health article ends by pointing to the right professional for situations a blog cannot handle.
6. It goes live, then gets reread. Older pages are reviewed and updated when guidance or practice changes.

Rules we hold ourselves to

• No dosages, no diagnoses, no treatment plans.
• No statistics unless we can trace them, and no invented studies or quotes.
• Balanced coverage of smoke-free products for adult smokers, without pretending any of them is risk-free.
• Brand names, where they appear, treated as information rather than a recommendation.

When we get something wrong

It happens. If you spot a mistake or something out of date, tell us through the Get in Touch page. We check every report, correct the article, and change the date at the top so you can see it has been revised.

For the reasoning behind the site as a whole, see About Inside Schizophrenia. For the limits of what our articles can do for you, read About Our Health Articles.