Senior therapist Sally Baker returns to talk about resilience, not as bouncing back or staying relentlessly positive, but as something pragmatic that can be learned at any age, whatever your upbringing.

Sally and Catriona talk through why toxic positivity is exhausting rather than helpful, the "game show noise" technique for interrupting anxious rumination, breathing as an early signal of overwhelm, and the havening technique for calming the nervous system.

They also cover emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, and how it can shape a life long before anyone names it.

1. [02:30] Resilience is not about being massively positive all the time, it is exhausting being positive when you are feeling fearful, anxious and not very well

  → Sally challenges the common misconception that resilience means forced positivity, which is a relief for anyone struggling with chronic health anxiety

2. [04:15] All of the overthinking is like a vine in your hand, the more attention you pay the seed of these worrying thoughts, it gives it energy, as if you are growing a seed with water and sunlight so that eventually your thoughts become completely overwhelming

  → This is Sally's signature metaphor for how rumination spirals, and it helps people understand why their anxiety keeps growing

3. [05:20] The game show noise technique: when you find yourself ruminating about your health, say the game show noise, it goes uhhhh, that's an unhelpful thought, and break it, break the thought pattern

  → Sally gives a concrete, memorable tool that clients and their families can use immediately to interrupt health anxiety spirals

4. [10:45] Resilience is developed in the crucible of the family, if you are raised in an environment where you are loved, honoured and adored, you will develop natural resilience, but what is great about resilience is that you can learn it as an adult later in life

  → Sally explains the origins of resilience but emphasises hope, this is not a life sentence, adults can build resilience even if they did not develop it as children

5. [13:30] Health anxiety becomes a problem when it interrupts you living your life as best as you are able to, poor health can already make our life small, but then anxiety on top of that means we are spending all our time and energy ruminating

  → Sally defines the tipping point clearly, this helps listeners recognise when health anxiety has become a genuine problem rather than a normal worry

6. [14:50] The period of waiting for a diagnosis is almost harder than being given the most terrible news, because even when the waiting is endless, it is an abstract, no one knows what is going to happen, and as soon as you have had the news, there is a palpable release, at least now I know what I am facing

  → Sally validates the experience of waiting for results, which many listeners will find deeply relatable and reassuring

7. [16:30] The music box metaphor: when you are winding yourself up with anxiety and ruminating, you are in effect winding up the music box, and when the music box is completely wound up, it can only play one tune and it can only do one dance

  → Sally uses a physical prop to demonstrate how rumination locks you into a single pattern, making the abstract concept tangible

8. [19:00] Havening is a great technique, you start with your hands on the top of your shoulders and you slowly stroke down, what you are doing is you are calming your parasympathetic system

  → Sally introduces a self-soothing technique that listeners can practise immediately, with clear physical instructions

9. [26:15] Emetophobia, the fear of vomit, is the queen or king of all phobias because the threads of it impact on so many different aspects of life, it can stop someone going to university, make people agoraphobic, lead to orthorexia and even anorexia

  → Sally explains a less well-known phobia that affects mostly women and girls, showing how health anxiety can infiltrate every area of life

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoff Rollason spent nearly 20 years in the NHS and a decade at Pfizer UK Oncology leading patient experience work. Now living with prostate cancer himself, he shares what really happens when industry tries to involve patients and why it so often falls short.

5 Key Takeaways:

1. Pharma still talks about patient engagement but rarely follows through because there's no short-term ROI and the driver is stockholder returns, not patient experience.

2. Patient insights panels fail when commercial colleagues aren't involved from the start and when the work is treated as a project rather than business as usual.

3. Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can cause crushing fatigue, loss of body hair, and profound changes to self-image that aren't adequately supported.

4. Geoff received just 43 minutes of clinical input over six months, highlighting the gap between keeping patients alive and supporting their quality of life.

5. Real patient-centricity means changing what marketers and commercial teams do in response to patient insights, not just collecting data.

Geoff Rollason is a patient advocate and former Associate Director of Primary Integrated Care in the NHS. He later led patient experience for Pfizer UK Oncology before retiring and being diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Follow My Health Focus for more expert health interviews and patient education content.

Sign up to my newsletter here: https://bit.ly/3NA40IQ

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Living with Genital Herpes: Facts, Stigma & Transmission

Marianne Nicholson from the Herpes Virus Association and Shingles Support Society returns to tackle the stigma surrounding genital herpes and explain why most people who carry the virus never know they have it. She shares that by age 25, seven in ten people in the UK carry herpes simplex, yet only one in three ever develops symptoms severe enough for diagnosis. This means most transmission occurs from people who are completely unaware they are infected.

Key takeaways:

1. Transmission most often occurs from people who do not know they have herpes, not from those who are diagnosed and aware

2. After two years without frequent recurrences, asymptomatic shedding is no longer a concern according to BASH guidelines

3. Women who already have herpes before pregnancy can have normal delivery, even with a recurrence at birth, because baby acquires protective antibodies

4. Commercial herpes blood tests give one false positive in ten and one false negative in three, making them unreliable

5. Herpes cannot be transmitted through towels, toilet seats, swimming pools, or any object, only direct skin-to-skin contact with friction

Marianne Nicholson has personal experience with herpes simplex and now supports others through the Herpes Viruses Association helpline, where all volunteers also have the condition and have come out the other side.

For support, contact the Herpes Viruses Association on 0345 123 2305.

1. Peronal. I don't mind having it myself, I just dread passing it on. Now, no one is going to say, I don't mind having cancer myself, I just don't want anyone else to have cancer. It doesn't work like that for anything else, which means that actually it's not the condition that people are worried about, it's the word.

2. Diagnosis]. Only one in three is ever going to get symptoms that are bad enough to get a diagnosis. Others will have little symptoms which they identify as say an infected hair follicle or a little cut or little sore patch, so they never know that their little itchy patch is actually a herpes simplex infection until much later when they've infected somebody.

3. Asymptomatic shedding.The expert doctors of BASH say very clearly that after two years, unless you are getting frequent recurrences, and they define that as six or more per year, you're allowed to forget about asymptomatic shedding. It's just not a thing.

4. Pregnancy.Since babies were first invented, women with cold sores have kissed their new babies 24 times a day. And there is no common knowledge that ladies with cold sores kill their babies. The reason why this is fine is that during pregnancy, baby acquires antibodies for all the things you've got antibodies to.

5. Condom effectiveness .When a man has got it, using a condom is 95% protective. Even when a woman has got it, using a condom is 65% protective to the man. Women are one sixth as likely to infect men as the other way around.

6. Blood tests.The blood tests that are available commercially are going to give you one false positive in 10. Would you buy a pregnancy test that was going to tell you you're pregnant when you weren't one time in 10? And they're going to give you a false negative one time in three.

7. Statistics .By the age of 25, 7 out of 10 people in the UK carry this virus. By the age of 35, one in five has got type two. And 85% of women, 77% of men have got type one, which is often genital.

8. [ransmission source. Transmission most often occurs from the people who are not diagnosed. That is a quote from one of the world's top herpes doctors, Dr. Lawrence Corey. The people who are diagnosed are less likely to be passing it on.

9. Myths. The expert doctors categorically say it will not be passed on through any object at all, towels, dirty underwear, anything you can imagine. It can only be passed on by direct skin to skin contact with the affected part when the virus is active with friction.

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Erum Ilyas, dermatologist and author of The No-Nonsense Skincare, dismantles common skincare myths and reveals what actually works. With over 20 years treating patients from infancy to over 100 years old, she's witnessed generations of skin health and knows that great-grandmothers achieved beautiful skin without multi-step routines. In this episode, Dr Ilyas explains the marketing tactics that create disappointing product graveyards under our sinks, why only three ingredients have truly proven their worth in dermatology, and how to distinguish between acne and rosacea to avoid worsening your skin with the wrong products.

Five key takeaways:

1. Only three over-the-counter ingredients have stood the test of time: petroleum jelly, retinol, and sunscreen

2. Temporary swelling agents create Cinderella effects that vanish by the time you get home after purchase

3. Fairy dusting means premium-priced products often contain only trace amounts of their advertised star ingredients

4. Most anti-aging products contain no active ingredients because no over-the-counter ingredient truly changes skin structure long-term

5. Rosacea is often misdiagnosed as acne, and using acne products on rosacea makes it worse

Dr Erum Ilyas is a board-certified dermatologist with over two decades of clinical experience treating every age and stage of skin health, and author of The No-Nonsense Skincare.

Explore more expert health content at My Health Focus.

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Adam Barsouk, oncology fellow at Johns Hopkins University and author of Outsmarting Cancer: Risk Reduction and the Power of Prevention, joins Catriona Williams to discuss why half of all cancer diagnoses could be prevented and why modern medicine has focused on treatment rather than prevention.

Key takeaways:

1. Obesity is the second leading cause of cancer globally after smoking, contributing to nearly every cancer type through chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction

2. Cancer rates in adults under 50 have more than doubled in the last 30 years, driven by obesity, ultra-processed foods, microplastics, and environmental exposures

3. The HPV vaccine can prevent 98-99% of cancers caused by human papillomavirus, including cervical, anal, and head and neck cancers, yet vaccine hesitancy limits its impact

4. Lung and liver cancers receive less research funding due to stigma, even though many lung cancer patients are non-smokers and addiction is a medical disease, not a lifestyle choice

5. Only 5% of healthcare expenditure goes to prevention despite evidence that prevention could eliminate half of all cancer cases, largely because there is no short-term financial incentive for industry or policymakers

Dr Adam Barsouk is an oncology fellow and researcher at Johns Hopkins University and has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications on cancer epidemiology and treatment.

For more expert health insights, visit My Health Focus.

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people assume clinical trials are purely about testing new medicines. But what if the process of being screened to join a trial could uncover a health condition you didn't know you had?

In this episode, Catriona is joined by Kate Dodd, Recruitment and Engagement Manager at Liverpool's Clinical Research Facility, and Dr Lauren Walker, Deputy Director of the NIHR-funded CRF at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

Together they discuss a research paper exploring the clinically significant findings identified during trial screening, and why that changes the conversation around participation.

They cover:

• What a clinical trial screening actually involves — and why it functions as a comprehensive health check
• The real-world cases their research uncovered, including latent TB, hepatitis B, Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome, and a lymphoma diagnosis
• Why the standard phrase "no direct benefit" doesn't tell the full story
• The data behind the findings: roughly 1 in 17 healthy volunteers and 1 in 25 patients had a previously undetected condition identified
• How they worked with communities to rewrite patient information into genuinely accessible language, reducing the reading age from 14-15 down to the recommended 11
• Their discussions with the Phase One Advisory Group at the HRA, and the goal of making this level of transparency standard across all trials

Whether you've ever considered joining a clinical trial or simply want to understand more about how medicines are developed and tested, this conversation offers a perspective that's rarely heard outside research circles.

Guests:

Kate Dodd, Recruitment and Engagement Manager, NIHR Liverpool Clinical Research Facility

Dr Lauren Walker, Deputy Director, NIHR Liverpool Clinical Research Facility

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Bridget McNulty was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 18 years ago, she felt like the only person in the world it had ever happened to. She later discovered that almost everyone she spoke to had felt exactly the same way.

Bridget is the founder of Sweet Life, South Africa's largest online diabetes community, and a published author. In this episode, Catriona talks to her about why that sense of isolation at diagnosis is so universal, what people with chronic conditions actually need from a community, and why managing diabetes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year is exhausting in a way that's almost impossible to explain to people who don't live it.

They also discuss the divide between public and private healthcare in South Africa, why type 2 diabetes carries a stigma that type 1 doesn't, the relief of talking to people who just get it without needing everything explained, and why the language healthcare professionals use around diabetes needs to change.

Connect with Sweet Life: sweetlife.org.za South Africans with Diabetes on Facebook @sweetlife.org.za on Instagram

Follow My Health Focus for more expert health interviews and patient education content.

Article:

Sign up to my newsletter here:

https://bit.ly/3NA40IQ

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Max Draper, author of Testosterone Decoded, joins Catriona Williams to discuss the dramatic decline in testosterone levels since the 1980s and its implications for men's health. After experiencing low testosterone following testicular cancer, Dr Draper changed his career focus to specialise in this overlooked area of men's health. In this episode, he explains how testosterone affects far more than muscles and sex drive, influencing energy, mental clarity, mood, and fertility.

Key takeaways:

1. Testosterone levels have been declining across generations since the 1980s, with each decade showing lower average levels than the previous one

2. Low testosterone symptoms include low energy, brain fog, reduced motivation, mood changes, and reduced resilience to stress

3. Proper testing requires checking both total and free testosterone levels, not just total testosterone alone

4. Lifestyle factors including sleep, exercise, diet, stress management, and body composition should be optimised before considering testosterone replacement therapy

5. Testosterone replacement therapy can complicate fertility and requires careful consideration, particularly for younger men who haven't completed their families

Dr Max Draper is a medical doctor, author, and specialist in testosterone and men's health, bringing both professional expertise and personal experience to this crucial health topic.

Follow My Health Focus for more expert health interviews and evidence-based patient education.

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Living with Gallstones

When Juliet Sullivan collapsed in agony on a pavement in England, she had no idea what was happening to her.

The diagnosis was gallstones, and along with it came instructions to follow a low-fat diet for several months until her gallbladder could be removed. What she could not find anywhere was a practical, accessible book to help her through it. So she wrote one.

In this episode, Juliet joins Catriona Williams to talk through her experience from first attack to full recovery, and shares the dietary wisdom she gathered along the way.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Gallstone attacks are frequently misdiagnosed at first because the pain, though felt in the upper abdomen, can mimic other conditions including appendicitis or cardiac events.

2. A low-fat or very low-fat diet is typically recommended to reduce the risk of triggering further attacks while awaiting surgery, but it is not a long-term solution and healthy fats remain important for overall wellbeing.

3. Keeping a food diary after diagnosis can help identify personal trigger foods, which vary between individuals. Common culprits include oils, butter, avocado, and rich restaurant or ready-made meals.

4. Gallbladder removal is a common procedure, but recovery is a genuine physical experience that deserves honest preparation rather than being minimised by healthcare teams.

5. After surgery, most people can gradually reintroduce a full and healthy diet, though many find their eating habits and awareness of fat content change permanently for the better.

Juliet Sullivan is the author of The Gallstone Friendly Diet, a practical and warmly written guide for anyone navigating life with gallstones before and after surgery.

Find the book online and follow My Health Focus for more conversations on everyday health.

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we are joined by Oliver Rolfe, author of The Addiction Blueprint, to explore a form of addiction that often goes unnoticed — high-functioning addiction.

From the outside, it can look like success: long hours, professional drive, financial achievement, responsibility.

But beneath the surface can sit exhaustion, trauma, stress and emotional disconnection.

Oliver shares his own experience of burnout, the moment he realised something had to change, and what recovery actually involves. We discuss:

• The link between trauma and addictive behaviours

• Why overworking can become socially acceptable avoidance

• The difference between stress and true burnout

• The stigma around the word “addiction”

• The importance of awareness and early intervention

• Why relapse is part of the journey — not failure

This is not a conversation about extremes.

It’s about recognising the quieter patterns many high achievers live with — and understanding that support is available long before crisis point.

If you’ve ever felt you were running on empty, this episode may resonate.

My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.