Skin, lifestyle and diet. Perhaps some of the commonest things I get  asked about by patients, the doctor’s kitchen community and honestly one of the least understood at this point. In today’s episode we dive into acne, a bit about the gut skin axis, we also talk about Dr Harriet’s background in science from the lab to the plate or pill as well as our thoughts on collagen! Make sure you listen to  the end because I summarise my thoughts on diet, lifestyle and supplements for healthy skin, so you don’t want to miss that.

It’s always a pleasure having Dr Harriet on the pod. Her experience as both a frontline clinician, scientist and registered nutritionist really shows and I love chatting to her.

Dr Harriet Holme is a Registered Nutritionist (AfN), and former experienced paediatrician. After studying at Cambridge University, she worked as a doctor in the NHS for over a decade before focusing on nutrition. She has a PhD in genetics and is a lecturer in nutrition. 

Dr Harriet has authored two books 'Eating During Pregnancy', that she wrote to provide mums to be with credible information on pregnancy nutrition and ‘Postpartum Nutrition: An Expert’s Guide to Eating After a Baby’, to support new mums, and their journey through motherhood and weaning. Dr Harriet also has a number of virtual courses on nutrition on her website https://healthyeatingdr.com, the links to which are on the podcast show notes.

There’s also an article to support today’s podcast that  you can find on www.thedoctorskitchen.com website which lists some of the evidence base used for the recommendations and I hope you find it a useful resource.

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I’m super excited to have Poppy Jamie on the show this week. She is such an inspiration to all entrepreneurs out there and has accomplished so much in the space of just a few years of hard graft. As you will hear on the pod she has a beautiful way of translating wisdom for a wider audience and our conversation touches on William James, Carl Jung, Shakespeare, Viktor Frankl and many more. There is so much to learn from history and if we can find a way to be just that little bit more aware everyday, the benefits accumulate. 

Poppy launched the Not Perfect podcast and the Happy Not Perfect app after four years of aggregating behavioral studies and developing the app with neuroscientists, researchers, and her psychotherapist mom. 

Her debut book, “HAPPY NOT PERFECT: Upgrade Your Mind, Challenge Your Thoughts, and Free Yourself from Anxiety” is a best seller and it’s here that she introduces an approach to stretch our minds that she calls “the Flex”. And this is in order to create new, healthy thought habits and overcome challenges, whilst making us a bit more “psychologically bendy”.

Poppy was also appointed as the youngest member of UCLA’s Stewart and Lynda Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital advisory board to consult on the wellbeing of students. She’s taken part at the first mental health talk series at Cambridge University, lectured at the UCLA Wow Summit on brain health, and delivered a TEDxTalk titled,“Addicted to Likes” about the psychological impact of social media and technology and how to reverse the damage which I recommend checking out.

I know you’re going to  love this one and do check out this week’s “Eat, Listen, Read” newsletter, that you can find on www.thedoctorskitchen.com, 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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My producer was complaining about having to edit 2 scary pods back to back (one about the rise of fertility problems and the other about how machines will take over the world), so I thought I’d take a break from the frightening realities and bring some humour and personality back into the pod this week!

Feedback from the 100th episode was really positive and lots of you have  asked about me doing some more solo ones .. so here goes!

Today I talk about:

My information diet including the 1-2 books I read a week, podcasts I listen to and how I keep diversity in my content consumption

My hack for reading really fast

A review paper  I read about how to use microbe focused treatments to combat depression

Dairy fat in cheese and why it’s been paradoxically linked to better  cardiovascular disease

And if you liked this episode, you’ll love  my newsletter “Eat, Read, Listen” that you can find at www.thedoctorskitchen.com

Links to topics discussed in the episode:

Tech and ideas podcast - https://www.mfmpod.com/

How to take over the World - https://www.httotw.com/

The Brain health revolution podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/mk/podcast/science-under-attack-the-battle-between-past/id1474018356?i=1000449556409

A Microbiome-Driven Approach to Combating Depression During the COVID-19 Pandemic

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.672390/full?&utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_campaign=Email_publication&field=&journalName=Frontiers_in_Nutrition&id=672390

Biomarkers of dairy fat intake, incident cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality: A cohort study, systematic review, and meta-analysis

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003763

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You might have noticed over the last few episodes that I’ve been keen to discuss subjects slightly leftfield of nutrition and what I’ve traditionally talked about, but fascinating nonetheless. And I hope you as a listener, who’s time and attention I value so greatly, will trust me as I take you on a  bit  of a ride. Because ultimately, I hope you agree that the topics I share are always very important.

Mo Gawdat, who you may remember from episode #91 Solving Happiness is a person who I cherish and with whom I had a very impactful conversation with, on a personal level. He was the former Chief Business Officer of Google [X], which is Google’s ‘moonshot factory’, author of the international bestselling book ‘Solve for Happy’ and founder of ‘One Billion Happy’. After a long career in tech, Mo made happiness his primary topic of research, diving deeply into literature and conversing on the topic with some of the wisest people in the world on “Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat”.

Mo is an exquisite writer and speaker with deep expertise of technology as well as a passionate appreciation for the importance of human connection and happiness. He possesses a set of overlapping skills and a breadth of knowledge in the fields of both human psychology and tech which is a rarity. His latest piece of work, a book called “Scary Smart” is a timely prophecy and call to action that puts each of us at the center of designing the future of humanity. I know that sounds intense right? But it’s very true.

During his time at Google [X], he worked on the world’s most futuristic technologies, including Artificial Intelligence.  During  the  pod he recalls a story of when the penny dropped for him, just a few years ago, and felt compelled to leave his job. And now,  having contributed to AI's development, he feels a sense of duty to inform the public on the implications of this controversial technology and how we navigate the scary and inevitable intrusion of AI as well as who really is in control. Us.

Today we discuss:

Pandemic of AI and why the handing COVID is a lesson to learn from

The difference between collective intelligence, artificial intelligence and super intelligence or Artificial general intelligence 

How machines started creating and coding other machines 

The 3 inevitable outcomes - including the fact that AI is here and they will outsmart us

Machines will become emotional sentient beings with a Superconsciousness 

To understand this episode you have to submit yourself to accepting that what we are creating is essentially another lifeform. Albeit non-biological, it will have human-like attributes in the way they learn as well as a moral value system which could immeasurably improve the human race as we know it. But our  destiny lies in how we treat and nurture them as our own. Literally like infants with (as strange as it is to  say it) love, compassion, connection and respect.

Full show notes for this and all other episodes can be found on The Doctor's Kitchen.com website

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“For our children and grandchildren” was the dedication at the start of my next guests book, Countdown, by Dr Shanna Swan, and since reading the book I now understand why. Because a man today has only half the number of sperm his grandfather had. Essentially a 50% drop in sperm counts over the past four decades. But, as you will hear, this isn’t just affecting male fertility.

Dr Shanna H. Swan, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologists. She is Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City where is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Center on Early Environmental Exposures and the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute.

After reading a controversial paper reporting the decline in sperm quality in 1992 by Carlsen and colleagues, and being part of a group tasked with ratifying the results, Dr Swan has gone on to further study this dramatic decline in sperm count around the world.

And for over twenty years, Dr. Swan and her colleagues have been studying the impact of environmental chemicals and pharmaceuticals on reproductive tract development and neurodevelopment. Her July 2017 paper “Temporal Trends in Sperm Count: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis” ranked #26 among all referenced scientific papers published in 2017 worldwide and shook the world with media outlets declaring “Who is killing our sperm”.

Today’s podcast is controversial and unpopular, but I can’t hide away from this subject matter for fear of scare-mongering because it’s one that could actually affect me personally. I’m yet to have children myself and the data is frankly scary. And if there are pragmatic decisions to make at an individual level, such as reducing exposure to plastics, petrochemicals and pesticides then I’m lucky to be in a position to actually do something about it and I’ll share that with you the listener as well.

Today you’ll learn about

• The 1% effect
• The rise in testicular cancer, miscarriages, infertility as well as the reduction in sperm count and testosterone
• Endocrine disrupting chemicals and their lack of regulation
• Body Burden
• Whether phthalate or BPA free actually mean anything?
• What is the threshold for these chemicals and cumulative impact?
• The impact on menopause, erectile dysfunction, virility 
• What do we need to be talking about and campaigning for

Find out more about the book at thedoctorskitchen.com/podcasts, plus links to the studies and books mentioned in the show and sign up to the newsletter for a free 7 day meal plan.

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Can we beat ageing?  This is the topic of today’s discussion and whilst you might think this is yet another dive into our narcissistic tendency to want to live forever and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, the field of ageing and how to reverse it ( known as biogerontology) is actually about beating cancer, dementia, strokes and all the things that become exponentially more likely after the age of 50. 

Dr Andrew Steele PhD is a scientist, writer and campaigner based in London, and author of Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old. After a PhD in physics from the University of Oxford, he decided that ageing was the single most important scientific challenge of our time, and switched fields to computational biology.

His latest book, dives into the history of ageing research, what we understand about ageing today as well as why in as little as the next few years, I as a doctor, might be able to prescribe a suite of anti-ageing drugs.

Today we talk about:

• The 10 features of ageing
• How we measure ageing
• Senescence, Autophagy, Fasting, Mitochondria, DNA damage
• Anti-ageing drugs and why senolytics are so exciting
• Metformin
• The supplements people are currently using for ageing
• Gene and Stem cell therapy

Do check out Andrew’s book, Ageless, and thedoctorskitchen.com for links to his YouTube channel and further work in the field of ageing.

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Today I am joined by Barbara Bray MBE- a TEDx speaker and director of Alo Solutions - a consultancy driving and delivering food safety in food supply chains and that helps develop sustainable nutrition strategies for food businesses.

Prior to consultancy Barbara worked in the Ugandan agri-business sector after graduation and then spent fourteen years in the chilled foods sector in the UK and France. Her roles covered food procurement, technical innovation and implementation of food safety systems.

As well as being a registered nutritionist, she is; Co-founder of the multi-disciplinary platform Healthy and Sustainable Food; Director of the Oxford Farming Conference; Member of the food and nutrition group at the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST); and Trustee of the Nutrition Society. In 2019 Barbara was awarded an MBE for services to food nutrition.

As part of her Nuffield farming scholarship her project ‘Vegetable Production For Specific Nutritional Need’ looked at international food policies and private initiatives to promote consumption of vegetables which benefit our health. 

On the show today we talk about:

• Regenerative farming
• Organic vs Inorganic
• Better farming techniques and the use of Agrichemicals
• What healthy sustainable diets look like in other countries
• How we can shape our food landscape
• The role of government versus the consumer

Check out The Doctor's Kitchen website for full show notes on this and all other episodes

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On today’s podcast we’re taking a step away from the usual conversation and you’re going to hear a story. A story about a young man called Raphael Rowe and his career that was born as a result of spending 12 years in a British prison for crimes he did not commit.

This story will be triggering for a lot of people. Despite a history of criminality, theft and violence, Raphael found himself a victim of institutional racism that led to his wrongful sentencing and incarceration.

This story has somewhat of a positive outcome, however, it pains me to think of how many people are in the same situation as him. With no means of escape.

You may recognise Raphael Rowe from his many TV programmes that he has filmed since his release including the highly popular Netflix series “Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons”. Raphael visits high security prisons around the world, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Brazil, Ukraine to name a few. Inside he films with some of the world's most dangerous prisoners, guards, prisoners' families and politicians and talks to them about crime and punishment. 

Today I try and dive into the topic of why people commit crimes, the inequalities that may drive criminality, racism at the highest level and to shed light on how far we need to go to tackle injustice. My overarching feeling after reading Raphael’s book “Notorious” and listening to his own podcast “Second Chance” is one of sincere gratitude for the freedoms we take for granted everyday. I hope you feel the same after reading his tragic story, pandemic or no pandemic.

Raphael is an Advocate for Equality , Justice , Social Reform and Prison Reform. I hope you enjoy his story.

Check out The Doctor's Kitchen website for full show notes on this and all other episodes

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Today I welcome the award-winning science communicator, Professor Jim Al-Khalili to the podcast. Renowned around the world through his writing and broadcasting, he is also a leading academic making fundamental contributions to theoretical nuclear physics and quantum biology as you will hear. He is also host of the long running “Life Scientific” on Radio 4.

Today’s conversation is not just complex, it’s confusing. And you’ll probably gather throughout our chat, I was pretty confused. I do my best to breakdown the science for you as we progress through our conversation, but the validating message that Jim confirms is : “If you’re confused, You understand it!”

We talk about

• Jim’s upbringing in Iraq and what led him to physics
• The Quantum vs Classic systems
• Where Quantum physics has a role
• Life on the Edge - one of the only books detailing Quantum Biology
• Why Quantum Mechanics is so important
• Some weird quantum effects such as entanglement and tunneling
• Why Quantum mechanics has a role in biology
• Heredity and how it is possible that replication occurs with so few errors
• Where the boundary between classical and quantum systems exists
• Quantum mechanics and Photosynthesis 
• Jim’s thoughts on Urban electromagnetic disruption
• Human Consciousness
• AI and humans
• Artificial General intelligence versus machine learning
• Jim’s latest grant to examine the borders between quantum and the classical world

You can read his book “Life on the Edge”, which is a fantastic historical look at how the quantum world has influenced biology and why it’s important.

Check out The Doctor's Kitchen website for full show notes on this and all other episodes

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Watercress! It’s a beautiful ingredient. Peppery, vibrant, grown in the UK and fantastically healthy for you. It’s a vegetable from the Brassicaceae family. That includes other favourites of mine including broccoli, cabbage, sprouts and bok choy and more. A few studies demonstrate their ability to reduce DNA damage which could explain the association between brassica vegetable intake and reduced cancer risk and watercress is also known to be a good source of Lutein, beta carotene and vitamin C.

But is that all? My next guest Dr Kyle Stewart is a GP in South Devon as well as CEO and co-founder of Watercress Research Ltd. He holds an Honorary Clinical Associate Research Fellowship in Theoretical Medicine at The University of Exeter, alongside an NHS England Clinical Entrepreneur Fellowship which is how we were connected.

On today’s show you’ll hear how Kyle’s experience with a young child suffering nappy rash led him to find out more about the wonderful properties of watercress. And how research that has stemmed from this ever so common problem, could also extend to reducing the need for antibiotics, preventing and treating certain cancers and even creating a new form of plant-based protein. Starting off by finding out about the mechanism behind nappy rash and its relationship to ammonia, Dr Kyle discovered that watercress contains urease-inhibiting properties .. but the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper.

We have a wider conversation about the untapped potential of plants in general and how little we know about these incredible ingredients that we consume every day. Considering the success of cardiac drugs like digoxin and blood thinners like aspirin that have all been discovered from plants, why aren’t we aggressively investigating these more?

Using different preparations, experimental methods and a sprinkle of ingenuity could we create a completely new class of plant medications that have the ability to treat everything from eczema to IBD?

As always do us a favour, if you want to support the podcast do subscribe or hit follow on spotify it helps the rankings which means we get more listens and it means I can do more pods!

And do sign up for the newsletter at thedoctorskitchen.com where I send a weekly wellbeing trio of things to do. Something to eat, listen to, watch or read that will brighten up your week.

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