The Best of Health

Dawn Waldron is an expert in integrative health, specialising in a functional approach to cancer.  This week’s episode is a real treat, as Dawn joins me to talk about what she set up her bestselling Substack account Uncoupling Cancer, and how she draws on almost three decades of personal and professional experience as both a breast cancer survivor and nutritionist in supporting women with cancer. 

We explore and talk in detail about taking a metabolic approach to cancer and surviving cancer, and she talks to me about how we can harness nature's benefits to support recovery. This is a fascinating episode. You will learn a huge amount and you will be so enthralled listening to her, as I was!

If you enjoyed this podcast …… Beginning on Friday 15th November for three consecutive Friday mornings, Dawn is  delivering a webinar series called Dynamic Metabolism, with Emma Beswick, co-founder of LifecodeGx looking at the subject of metabolism and nutrigenomics in the context of cancer: https://www.lifecodegx.com/training

Spending time speaking with Professor Jerilynn Prior is a humbling experience that always gives me new insight - and this week’s podcast episode does not disappoint.

Jerilynn is a professor of endocrinology and metabolism from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and she has dedicated her career to the study of menstrual cycles and the effects of cycles in their changing estrogen and progesterone hormone levels on women's health. In 2002, she founded the Center for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research Center, better known as CeMCOR. And

Jerilynn is also the director of the British Columbia Center of of the Osteoporosis study, which was studying osteoporosis fractures and bone mineral density, and has

In this episode, we focus on discussing osteoporosis. She shares with us her ABCs of osteoporosis prevention and treatment. We also, of course, talk about HRT and why she and I both believe that this term should no longer be used.

We also delve into the misnomers around using DEXA scans to diagnose osteoporosis.

This week, I welcome back to the podcast for the third time, the most world renowned naturopathic doctor Lara Briden. Lara is the author of the Period Repair Manual and Hormone Repair Manual, and in this episode we talk in great detail about her latest book, Metabolism Repair for Women. This is a compassionate science-based guide to balancing insulin, facilitating weight loss, and most importantly, improving and optimising health.

Laura and I first up delve into what metabolism actually means. We discuss metabolic flexibility, how if you have metabolic inflexibility and what this actually means for health. We also talk in quite a lot of detail about what the key movers and shakers are in terms of the metabolic hormones and how you can talk to your doctor or healthcare provider about assessing those. 

This is a really illuminating and fundamental conversation to be having with Lara, and I know that you are going to absolutely love every minute of this episode.

Metabolism Repair for Women is available to purchase here.

Find out more about Lara Briden here.

Perfectly timed for the lead in to World Menopause Day tomorrow, Dr Nicky Keay joins me to talk about her new book The Myths of Menopause - and I can honestly say, this book (I’ve seen the proof) will be a mastery of a resource for women and healthcare professionals. ,

We delve into talking about myth number 1 of many!  - “Menopause only happens in middle-aged women. “ 

Discuss everything from what perimenopause is, how to know if a woman is in perimenopause and about HRT (how could we not)! 

Nicky shares a truly unique perspective as a medical doctor but also as a woman who has experienced the challenges of navigating perimenopause and menopause and leaving with a perspective on how we can help women approach this in a more positive way - to build up women’s confidence.

Myths of Menopause is available for pre order now using  discount code (appropriately) Athena via: https://www.sequoia-books.com/catalog/menopause/ 
To register for the free book launch event at UCL on
4th December 2024 from 6-8pm where YOU can meet some of contributors, ask questions, discuss - book here 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/manage/events/1014503225457/details

There has been so much discussion around this programme aired last week... I taken time to watch myself and bring together my thoughts, shared here with you.

Ultimately we all need to reflect on our working hypothesis and put ourselves in a position to re-learn what we thought we knew and properly advocate for women's healthcare.

The finale of Season 4 with special guest Dr Fiona McCulloch ND features an in depth conversation around PCOS and diagnosis - this is a must-listen for all nutritionists and functional medicine practitioners!

As a woman with PCOS Fiona is passionate about health education and advocacy for women with PCOS, and serves on the medical advisory committee of the PCOS Awareness Association and as an expert on IVF.ca. She is also a medical advisor to Open Source Health and frequently lectures to professionals at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine.

Fiona gives us a unique insight to the PCOS updated diagnostic criteria and practice guidelines as well as her own experience of supporting diagnosis with adolescents and adults.

This week my guest is the impressive Henrietta Norton: nutritional therapist, author of the best selling book: Take Control of Your Endometriosis, founder of visionary food supplement brand - Wild Nutrition, and I’m very lucky to not only count Hen as a colleague but also a friend. 

I couldn’t invite Hen back on the podcast without asking her to share more about her Food-Grown® supplements - which have revolutionised the supplement industry for the better…. We discuss the groundbreaking Perimenopause Report that Hen wrote to change the way our daughters experience perimenopause and this theme continues  throughout the episode discussing perimenopause symptoms and support, the challenges of managing perimenopause as a woman, the importance of education, the art of listening to our bodies, the value of rest in regulating our nervous system.

There are so many wonderful golden nuggets within this podcast episode and Hen is a dream to talk with and so inspiring to listen to.

Have you heard of spermadine?

If not (and even if you have 😉) this week’s podcast episode should be a real educational delight for you. I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with @lesliesnewprime an Oxford-based entrepreneur born in California and a graduate of Berkeley and Harvard Business School. Leslie is founder of Oxford Healthspan, a Longevity Expert with plenty of life experience and evidence-based science as her basis.

Leslie shares her personal story of a diagnosis of an array of autoimmune conditions in the 30’s (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and hypothyroidism) drove to the reject the dire prognosis and instead immersed herself in studying with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition on a quest for a more holistic solution. 

Leslie shares how her specialist interest in spermadine and it’s use in her own journey to wellbeing, developing her brand of spermadine / Primeadine® as well as diving into how our body makes it, and get it from our diet and how it increases longevity and results she’s seen when embraced by women from perimenopause into menopause.

Another incredible podcast episode ready for your listening pleasure this week - Lara Briden was so generous to gift me an hour of her time to talk about metabolism with women in perimenopause and through menopause.

We discuss what effects metabolism - from genetics and weight resistance, to the impact of epigenetics, the relationship of oestrogen therapy and insulin resistance, and how evolutionary mismatch means modern women approaching menopause are not recalibrating our metabolism like our ancestors. 

Lara is a dream to listen to - she effortlessly describes the influence of oestrogen on satiety, what metabolic inflexibility is and provides a really logical approach to the latest intermittent fasting craze.

I honestly cannot recommend this episode enough for practitioners and anyone who was interested in Lara & Nicky Keay’s talk last year.

Back in Season 3 of The Best of Health podcast, I had the first opportunity to feature Dr Mandy Leonhardt in an episode and our friendship and professional relationship has flourished since. 

I was honoured to have Mandy join me on the expert panel at my womens health masterclass last year and I couldn’t help but ask her back on the pod to develop further into understanding POI - Premature Ovarian Insufficiency.

POI is such a hugely complex health condition and women are significantly underserved and dismissed by our existing health system. Mandy’s expertise in POI shines through in this episode and One little golden nugget Mandy leaves with us is if a young woman has a gap of 4 months or more between periods, this need expert health support and investigation. She passionately explains POI, the importance of testing and diagnosis and also the challenges of women with POI getting the right treatment, throughout their life stages. 

We also steer our conversation towards about PCOS and surgical menopause and discuss the reality of PMDD affecting 5% of women and what is happening with chemicals in the brain in women with this mental health condition. 

Plus Mandy gives us a little exclusive to her new book coming out in summer 2024, focusing on hormones, skin and hair.