In this episode, TJ is going to walk us through a single day in the life of your brain through the lens of 4 neurochemicals - dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins. 

From the moment you wake up to the way you wind down at night, TJ will guide us through the incredible influence of our brain chemistry and how simple, everyday habits can reshape our mental and physical health.

TJ’s new book, The DOSE Effect, shares practical tools to unlock the power of your brain chemistry and create a happier, healthier, and more connected life. Available in all good book stores.

We talk about the importance of “fasting” from your phone

The impact of nature on our brains

Push up challenges to boost endorphins

How doing hard things changes our physical brain and can help us stay more disciplined and motivated

Cold and Heat therapies

TJ is a renowned neuroscientist, international speaker, and co-founder of Neurify, an organisation dedicated to transforming mental health through accessible, science-backed strategies. He’s worked with 1000s of people helping them break down the barriers between modern lifestyles and optimal mental well-being.

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Something I’ve become a lot more knowledgeable about after my training as a GP, is cholesterol. It’s probably the most important measurement every primary care doctor should know about, along with measures of metabolic health like weight, insulin resistance and blood pressure, but perhaps the least well understood.

On today's episode we do a deep dive into all things cholesterol and cardiovascular disease with Professor Kausik Ray, Professor of Public Health and Honorary Cardiologist at Imperial College London and President of the European Atherosclerosis Society, and perhaps the most knowledgeable person I could talk to on this subject who has both research and clinical expertise in this area. 

We define exactly what we’re referring to when we say cardiovascular disease (CVD) and atherosclerosis. What that entails and why it’s important, being the leading cause of death globally. 

We discuss the importance of cholesterol in the body. Without cholesterol there is no life. Cholesterol is the precursor to our hormones, it forms the structural components of our cells, and most of our cells are able to create the cholesterol we require hence why there is no nutritional need to consume cholesterol.

And, hopefully at the end of this episode you’ll learn more about why the trifecta of high cholesterol, inflammation and damage to the arteries leads to disease, what blood measurements we should all have to calculate our risk, including apolipoprotein-B containing lipoproteins, Non-HDL and Lp(a), as well as the strategies to reduce risk with drugs and lifestyle.

I’ve done other episodes on specific foods and dietary patterns to reduce cholesterol, but this I think is a necessary episode to give the backdrop to why this is important for everyone to know their numbers.

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Going into 2025, we all want to make changes. But instead of focusing on new goals, and perhaps stacking more habits on top of ones that you’ve already got, or failed at before, maybe it’s time to break free from habits that hold you back? Perhaps this is the reason why you struggle to make changes that last?

On today’s episode,  Dr Rangan and I unpack some of the concepts in his latest book “Make Change that Lasts”, diving into topics like minimal reliance. Rangan questions whether reliance on things like comfort, being liked and even experts, is actually holding us back from our true selves.

You can grab a copy of his book online and in good bookstores.

We explore concepts such as reframing, not taking offence and even the courage to be disliked, which incidentally is the name of one of my favourite books by Ichiro Kishimi, which explains Alfred Adler's philosophy of not living to satisfy the expectations of others.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee is one of the most influential doctors in the UK with over two decades of experience as a GP. He now hosts Europe's biggest health podcast, Feel Better, Live More, he is the author of 5 Sunday Times bestsellers.

I think this is going to be a powerful conversation to hear and I hope you enjoy it!

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Welcome to this quarterly review episode with Sakina, science writer & researcher at Doctor’s Kitchen. Every quarter, we pull together insights from recent expert-packed podcasts into one episode - to make it easier to take action.

👉 Tell us what you think & ask questions here.

Today, we dive into pain, which affects so many of us – whether it’s back pain, joint pain, headaches, IBS or chronic conditions like fibromyalgia and endometriosis. Even menstrual pain, often brushed off as “normal”, can significantly disrupt daily life. This episode is all about giving you tools and ideas to feel better.

 We cover:

• Invisible pain: Why it’s not just in your head and what you can do about it
• Anti-inflammatory foods: Easy swaps to ease pain & what to keep in your kitchen
• Daily wins: How small habits, like a 30-minute walk, can make a big difference
• Beyond willpower: Why healthy eating isn’t just about personal choices and how changes in our food system could make it easier for everyone to eat well

If you want to dive deeper into the full episodes:

• #276 How the immune system, nutrition and mindset affect pain with Prof. Dr Deepak Ravindran
• #271 Why Prescribing Food Could Fix the Healthcare Crisis with Jonathan Pauling

Papers we referenced:

• Chronic pain prevalence: Zimmer et al., Pain. 2022
• Nociplastic pain: Fitzcharles et al., The Lancet. 2021
• Anti-inflammatory diets and pain: Field et al., Pain Medicine. 2021
• WalkBack study: Pocovi et al., The Lancet. 2024

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Dr Mindy Pelz is back on the show talking about what foods to break your fast with, the fat burning potential of specific ingredients and how she thinks about cooking food for health and vitality.

I love talking to various thought leaders across the health and wellbeing space, which is why I’ll speak to a professor of immunology, a psychologist and a chiropractitioner all on the same podcast. You don’t get many people in the nutrition space willing to engage people from other disciplines that they don’t get along with.

I’ll be honest, some of the terminology I hear online like detox, fat burning and immune boosting does get my back up. But it’s also the simple way people think about complex subjects. In a similar vein you still get medical doctors referring to cholesterol as good and bad, which is completely incorrect. So we can’t be too judgmental.

I love chatting with and hanging out with Mindy Pelz, she’s full of energy, motivational and has helped countless women around the world take control of their health. Her new book, “eat like a girl” is a fantastic recipe book that dives into what and how we should be eating whether or not you choose to fast. We also cooked one of her recipes in the kitchen which was awesome.

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Today we’re diving into how nutrition intersects with the complicated world of pain. Today I have former guest and colleague Prof. Dr Deepak Ravindran to talk to us about how our immune system can impact our perception of pain, the different types of pain patients and how we can do better as medical professionals in the management of chronic pain.

This topic covers IBS, pelvic pain, chronic cystitis, fibromyalgia, migraine, functional gut disorders, long covid and more. Pain cannot be explained by a singular pathway, and I think there is so much we could all learn from Deepak's insights on this topic.

We discuss the different types of pain patients, how the immune system trains our responses to pain, how trauma in childhood can impact our responses to pain and why food plays a pivotal role.

Deepak is Honorary Professor at Teesside University and has worked as an NHS Consultant in Pain management, he’s author of the “Pain Free Mindset” a fantastic book that I recommend to both patients and medical colleagues. His new role is Director of Lifestyle Medicine for a primary care network (PCN) of GP practices in Reading, UK, working upstream to bring these insights early in the chain of pain management.

We talk about the use of fasting, anti-inflammatory diets, the importance of gut supportive diets and key ingredients that could be useful for chronic pain sufferers.

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*The Doctor's Kitchen App gives you access to all of our recipes, with specific suggestions tailored to your health needs and new recipes added every month. We’ve had some amazing feedback so far and we have new features being added all the time - check it out with a 14 day free trial too.

Do check out this week’s “Eat, Listen, Read” newsletter, that you can subscribe to on our website - where I send you a recipe to cook as well as some mindfully curated media to help you have a healthier, happier week.

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I’m often asked by colleagues and patients for a full breakdown of what I say in clinic with patients with type 2 diabetes or who are at higher risk of this condition to help them better manage it before medications. But it takes time. And no GP in the NHS or elsewhere has over an hour to explain this in enough detail such that people can understand how to take action themselves.

The recommendations for medical professionals is for them to explore diet and lifestyle options before turning to pharmaceuticals for the management of type 2 diabetes. But with less than 10 minutes per appointment, this is an impossible task.

This is the basis of today's podcast. If I had an hour with you, or your loved one, this is how I would explain what type 2 diabetes is, why sugar control is so important and what things you can do to prevent or better manage the condition and even potentially put it into remission.

I would love to know your comments and feedback on today's episode, so if you have any suggestions, please leave a comment on YouTube and do share this with anyone who you feel could benefit from the information.

🎬 Watch the podcast on YouTube here

📱 Download The Doctor’s Kitchen app for free*

🌐 View full show notes, including guest details, on our website

*The Doctor's Kitchen App gives you access to all of our recipes, with specific suggestions tailored to your health needs and new recipes added every month. We’ve had some amazing feedback so far and we have new features being added all the time - check it out with a 14 day free trial too.

Do check out this week’s “Eat, Listen, Read” newsletter, that you can subscribe to on our website - where I send you a recipe to cook as well as some mindfully curated media to help you have a healthier, happier week.

🥗 Join the newsletter and 7 day meal plan

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We would love to get your feedback on the subject matter of these episodes - please do let me know on our social media pages (Instagram, Facebook & Twitter) what you think, and give us a 5* rating on your podcast player if you enjoyed today’s episode

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Six conditions cause the majority of deaths in the world, these include dementia and cardiovascular disease. Traditionally, we’ve looked at these conditions through the lens of what goes wrong individually, such as blocked arteries around the heart or tangles of proteins that impair electrical signalling in the brain. But the common denominator is actually ageing.

As grandiose and esoteric as that sounds, ageing and the processes that govern ageing are what we need to be tackling if we want to better manage or even prevent these conditions of older age.

And with me to discuss why and how we age is Richard Faragher. He’s Professor of Biological Gerontology at the University of Brighton, and has dedicated his career to understanding the ageing process and what we can do to improve this inevitable phase of life.

As you can tell from today's episode, Richard is a passionate advocate for older people and can wax lyrical about the history of the gerontology field.

A few definitions before we dive into the episode I think will be helpful for people who are new to the research.

There are agreed “hallmarks” of ageing that are a description of processes, such as metabolism and DNA repair functions, that go awry as we grow older. Ageing is caused by these changes at the molecular level that lead to downstream effects like disease and degeneration.

Cell senescence is what happens at the end of a cell's lifespan, where they become dysfunctional and need to be removed by immune cells. However in older age, it can become more troublesome for your immune system to clear away these senescent cells and increasing inflammation ensues.

Senolytics are compounds or drugs that have been designed to selectively eliminate these senescent cells. And the hope is that they can mitigate a range of age-associated conditions like arthritis, cataracts, dementia and more.

Trigger warning. We discuss a graphic analogy for senescent cells using suicide, so I just wanted to give a heads up for anyone who might find that analogy uncomfortable.

🎬 Watch the podcast on YouTube here

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*The Doctor's Kitchen App gives you access to all of our recipes, with specific suggestions tailored to your health needs and new recipes added every month. We’ve had some amazing feedback so far and we have new features being added all the time - check it out with a 14 day free trial too.

Do check out this week’s “Eat, Listen, Read” newsletter, that you can subscribe to on our website - where I send you a recipe to cook as well as some mindfully curated media to help you have a healthier, happier week.

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Karen O’Donoghue is a champion for not only better bread, but also better food quality, choices and better growing methods.

We originally recorded this session in the studio as a recipe to be cut down and edited for YouTube. But when I watched it back I thought that this could easily be a podcast episode. The way Karen breaks down in simple terms the benefits of processes like soaking to maximise the accessibility of nutrients in the flour, is perfect for a long form listen. 

You can watch the full episode on YouTube if you’re interested in how this recipe turned out, but I think you’ll be able to imagine just how good it looked, smelt and tasted from our descriptions alone.

Karen and her company, Happy Tummy Co inform people about the need to spend more on health by spending more on better quality food, invest in the soil and re-engage with the food supply. You can check out Karen’s bread, recipes and idyllic bakery in Ireland at www.thehappytummyco.com PLUS, we cook up a bunch of different bread recipes on our YouTube channel, just search ‘Karen’ on The Doctor’s Kitchen to find the videos.

🎬 Watch the podcast on YouTube here

📱 Download The Doctor’s Kitchen app for free*

🌐 View full show notes, including guest details, on our website

*The Doctor's Kitchen App gives you access to all of our recipes, with specific suggestions tailored to your health needs and new recipes added every month. We’ve had some amazing feedback so far and we have new features being added all the time - check it out with a 14 day free trial too.

Do check out this week’s “Eat, Listen, Read” newsletter, that you can subscribe to on our website - where I send you a recipe to cook as well as some mindfully curated media to help you have a healthier, happier week.

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We would love to get your feedback on the subject matter of these episodes - please do let me know on our social media pages (Instagram, Facebook & Twitter) what you think, and give us a 5* rating on your podcast player if you enjoyed today’s episode

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I recently had the pleasure of hosting a panel of experts at London’s Fortnum and Mason's Food & Drink Studio at their Piccadilly store to discuss the wonderful world of mushrooms with Tim Spector, Tom Baxter and Ester Gaya.

We discussed a range of topics including, what nootropic effects we know about with specific mushrooms and what research underpins this understanding. The use of psychedelic mushrooms and their potential uses in mental health and trauma. As well as how culinary mushrooms can enhance our health.

Tom Baxter, founder of The Bristol Fungarium, producing the UK's first organic certified medicinal mushrooms.

Tim Spector is a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, director of the Twins UK study and one of the world’s leading researchers, trained in rheumatology and epidemiology.

Ester Gaya, Senior Research Leader in Comparative Fungal Biology at Kew Gardens, who have a strong track record in fungal diversity research and are home to the largest fungarium in the world, holding over 1.25 million fungal specimens.

🎬 Watch the podcast on YouTube here

📱 Download The Doctor’s Kitchen app for free*

🌐 View full show notes, including guest details, on our website

*The Doctor's Kitchen App gives you access to all of our recipes, with specific suggestions tailored to your health needs and new recipes added every month. We’ve had some amazing feedback so far and we have new features being added all the time - check it out with a 14 day free trial too.

Do check out this week’s “Eat, Listen, Read” newsletter, that you can subscribe to on our website - where I send you a recipe to cook as well as some mindfully curated media to help you have a healthier, happier week.

🥗 Join the newsletter and 7 day meal plan

📷 Follow on Instagram

🐦 Tweet me

We would love to get your feedback on the subject matter of these episodes - please do let me know on our social media pages (Instagram, Facebook & Twitter) what you think, and give us a 5* rating on your podcast player if you enjoyed today’s episode

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