The Method - Health in the Real World

Dr Greg Potter compares BuzzBalls to matcha to decide the healthiest drinks for your lifestyle. How does a Coca Cola compare to a Diet Cola? Or a lager, to a 0% Guinness? Greg and Charlie consider sugar, caffeine, alcohol, hydration and real world use.

*NEW* Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themethodpod

Key Moments:
00:00 Welcome to The Method
01:06 A cup of water
01:42 Tea and coffee
13:11 Coca Cola vs Diet Coke
18:36 Poppi
22:14 The healthiest drink?
27:26 Trip
31:07 Beer and Wine
36:04 An explosion!
47:43 Dr tries a Buzzball for the first time
50:11 Energy drinks
52:01 Electrolytes
57:39 Huel

📧 Send us your health questions for future episodes, by email or voice note [email protected]

About Thriva:
Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan - how long we're living - and healthspan - how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body - and what to do about it - before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

Why are we hungrier in the winter?

This week, Dr Greg Potter and Charlie Edmondson unpack the everyday science of winter health, exploring why some of us feel hungrier in the winter, less energetic and less motivated to move.

They discuss why the humble boiled potato deserves a rethink, and how soups, seasonal vegetables, mushrooms and spices can support a balanced winter diet. Plus, they look at this year’s trend of fibremaxxing, explain why more is not always better and share practical ways to keep exercising when mornings are cold and evenings are dark.

*NEW* Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themethodpod

Key moments:

00:00 - Welcome to The Method

01:18 - Why are we hungrier in the winter?

04:44 - The most filling food

29:41 - Fibremaxxing

37:36 - How to keep moving when motivation drops

📧 Send us your health questions for future episodes, by email or voice note [email protected]

About Thriva:
Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan - how long we're living - and healthspan - how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body - and what to do about it - before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

What makes a morning routine useful? Dr Greg Potter and Charlie Edmondson put celebrity habits under the microscope. They compare Victoria Beckham's apple cider vinegar to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's five-hour training ritual. They explain how timing, fasted cardio and food choices can shape performance and wellbeing. Plus, they discuss why shorter, darker days can leave us feeling lower, how daylight affects the body clock and whether SAD lamps are a practical substitute when getting outdoors is difficult.

*NEW* Watch full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themethodpod

Key moments:

• 05:55 - Victoria Beckham and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Morning Routines 
• 19:31 - Why Winter Can Make Us Feel Worse 
• 31:05 - Do SAD lamps work? 

📧 Send us your health questions for future episodes, by email or voice note [email protected]

About Thriva:
Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan - how long we're living - and healthspan - how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body - and what to do about it - before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

Greg answers the health questions that you've been asking.

We revisit some of the lessons from earlier conversations, before responding to some listener questions about shifting an extremely early body clock, the relationship between sleep and dementia and whether you should be using the Wim Hof method.

If you'd like to send us your health questions for future episodes, you can email us a voice note or write in at [email protected].

To Explore Further:

• Reason & Wellbeing Episode with Mike Tipton: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cold-water-immersion-kill-or-cure-a-true-expert/id1690563973?i=1000631665085
• Greg Potter - Website: https://gregpotterphd.com/
• Greg Potter - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregpotterphd/
• Thriva - Website: https://thriva.co/

Key Moments:

• How can an extreme early bird shift their body clock later? (07:21)
• Does regularly sleeping four or five hours increase dementia risk? (21:57)
• Are Wim Hof breathing and cold-water practices beneficial or risky? (36:33)

About Thriva:
Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan - how long we're living - and healthspan - how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body - and what to do about it - before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.
To learn more about Thriva's values and services, visit https://thriva.co/

What is insulin resistance and what can you do about it?

In this episode, Greg and Charlie speak with Dr Lucas Denton about insulin resistance: how insulin manages energy, why cells become less responsive to it, which clues may suggest a problem and the practical habits that can improve insulin sensitivity. Lucas also shares the changes he made to his own lifestyle after recognising signs of metabolic syndrome in his own results, which led to him to losing 30kg and bringing his abnormal blood markers back into the normal range.

If you'd like to send us your health questions for future episodes, you can email us a voice note or write in at [email protected].

To Explore Further:
• Dr Lucas Denton - Personal Health Journey https://thriva.co/hub/community-health-insights/a-gps-perspective-on-practising-what-i-preach
• Greg Potter - Website: https://gregpotterphd.com/
• Greg Potter - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregpotterphd/
• Thriva - Website: https://thriva.co/

Key Moments:

• What does insulin do? (03:03)
• What is insulin resistance? (07:03)
• The clues to look for (20:43)
• Lucas' Personal Health Turnaround (30:18)
• What to do about it (37:20)

About Thriva:

Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan - how long we're living - and healthspan - how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body - and what to do about it - before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

To learn more about Thriva's values and services, visit https://thriva.co/

We talk about resilience all the time, and yet that term still seems elusive. What does it mean in biological terms? Is it a sense? A neurological process? An emotion? Can we get better at being resilient? And more importantly: can we use resilience as a tool to live better and longer?

In this episode, Greg and Charlie sit down with Dr. Elaine Lee, Professor of Molecular Biology and Applied Genetics at the University of Connecticut, where she also directs the Human Performance Laboratory. Elaine's research focuses on the physiology and genetics of resilience; how our bodies respond and adapt to stress, and how we can enhance our capacity to cope with it. Her work spans exercise, heat stress, human performance, and she has a particular interest in translating the science into tools for everyday life. This is why we wanted her to join us on the Method.

In our science segment today, Elaine explains how resilience works in our body. It doesn’t just mean “bouncing back”, but getting better at coping. Greg and Elaine will discuss the concept of hormesis: the idea that by microdosing stress, we could train our bodies to recover better, and be less susceptible to panic. Elaine will also delve into the science of heat acclimation and the remarkable changes the body undergoes when exposed to heat regularly. We will then discuss how softer and less biology-oriented factors like relationships or positive self-talk can play their part too.

In the practice segment, Elaine, Greg, and Charlie get into what this means for daily life. Including:

• Why recovery matters to build better resilience day-to-day (21:32)
• Signs that you’re pushing your body beyond its stress capacities (24:00)
• How to use a wearable to enhance resilience (27:22)
• How to build heat tolerance using a sauna or steam room if you've never tried it before (28:34)
  
  

Finally, in the experience section, we turn to your listener questions. We hear from listeners who are trying to bring more mindfulness into a busy life, who are trying to make new habits stick, or who need advice to better prevent or recover from burnout. 

If you'd like to send us your health questions for future episodes, you can email us a voice note or write in at [email protected].

To Explore Further:

• Elaine Lee - University of Connecticut faculty profile: https://kins.uconn.edu/person/elaine-choung-hee-lee/
• Elaine Lee - STEM-Talk podcast appearance: https://www.ihmc.us/stemtalk/
• Greg Potter - Website: https://gregpotterphd.com/
• Greg Potter - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregpotterphd/
• Thriva - Website: https://thriva.co/
  
  

About Thriva:

Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan — how long we're living — and healthspan — how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body — and what to do about it — before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

To learn more about Thriva's values and services, visit https://thriva.co/

A wave of nausea mid-run, the urgent dash to the loo before or during a competition, a stitch that stops you in your tracks… Ever wondered why your gut turns against you during exercise?

In this episode, Dr. Patrick B. Wilson helps us reconcile with our gut when we work out. An Associate Professor of Exercise Science at Old Dominion University and registered dietitian, Patrick has dedicated his career to answering burning gut questions. He is also the author of The Athlete's Gut - the only book written specifically on how exercise, diet, and psychology interact with gut function.

In our science segment, Patrick walks us through what the gut is and why it's so much more than a digestive tube. He explains what happens when blood rushes away from the gut toward muscles, why some forms of exercise (like running) tend to cause more symptoms than others, and how hormonal changes across the menstrual cycle shape what the gut does during exercise.

Patrick, Greg, and Charlie will then go on to discuss how we should eat and drink around exercise in practice. Including:

• The basic foundations of a gut-friendly exercise diet (21:15)
• Are probiotics a valuable food supplement? (23:08)
• What is the role of carbohydrates during exercise? (27:10) 
• How to approach hydration for 90+ minute workouts (29:20)
• When to consider a low FODMAP diet (32:50)
  
  

Finally, in the experience section, we hear from listeners with their own gut dilemmas: how to know when sodium and hydration actually start to matter; what to do when the heat makes your usual run feel impossible; how to minimise nausea at max effort; and is running fasted before breakfast actually recommended?

If you'd like to send us your health questions for future episodes, you can email us a voice note or write in at [email protected]

To Explore Further:

• Patrick Wilson - The Athlete's Gut
• Patrick Wilson - ODU Faculty profile
• Greg Potter - Website
• Greg Potter - Instagram
• Thriva - Website
  
  

About Thriva:

Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan – how long we're living – and healthspan – how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body – and what to do about it – before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

To learn more about Thriva's values and services, visit https://thriva.co/

Type 2 diabetes is a disease on the rise. It affects over 4 million people in the UK, with many living with it undiagnosed. So how can we recognise the signs, reduce our risks, or better live with it? 

This week, Greg and Charlie put these questions to Dr. Naveed Sattar, Professor of Cardiometabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow and one of the world's most cited researchers in diabetes and obesity science. With over 1,400 peer-reviewed publications, a career spent working directly with patients, and his own first-hand experience of living with an elevated risk of diabetes, Naveed is a voice to be reckoned with on this subject.

Starting with the science, Naveed will explain what happens inside the body when we develop type 2 diabetes: why it’s different from type 1, and how ectopic fat (fat that gets stored around our middle and in non-fat organs like the liver or pancreas) hinders insulin production. We talk about the genetic and environmental factors that heighten our risks, and about why certain populations are more vulnerable. 

You will see that when it comes to diabetes, the science has changed over the last decade: moving away from focusing on sugar, toward prioritising weight loss instead, with GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy playing a part.

In our practice segment, Naveed, Greg, and Charlie get into what this all means for day-to-day life. Including:

• How Naveed changed his lifestyle after being diagnosed at risk (23:21)
• Screening and testing for diabetes (27:33)
• The role of movement in reducing risks (30:05)
• Where and how GLP-1 medications get factored in (33:39)
  
  

Finally, in the experience section, we turn to your listener questions. We hear from those navigating gestational diabetes, and from people who have been living with type 2 diabetes or are trying to lower their risks.

If you take only one thing away from this episode, remember that a type 2 diabetes diagnosis is not the result of lifestyle choices. This episode is for anyone who wants to make sense of a disease that has been driven by socio-economic factors, and moves faster than most of us realise.

If you'd like to send us your health questions for future episodes, you can email us a voice note or write in at [email protected]

To Explore Further:

• The Diabetes Risk Score Test from Diabetes UK  
• The Diabetes Prevention Programme Study from the US National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases  
• Sattar N & Buse JB - "Why Early, Large-scale Weight Loss Is the Future of Type 2 Diabetes Care."  
• Sattar N & Gill JMR - "Type 2 diabetes in migrant South Asians." 
• Naveed Sattar - University of Glasgow profile
• Greg Potter - Website
• Greg Potter - Instagram
• Thriva - Website
  
  

About Thriva:

Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan — how long we're living — and healthspan — how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body — and what to do about it — before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

To learn more about Thriva's values and services, visit https://thriva.co/

Downward dog, warrior pauses, vinyasa flows, hatha breathing, or the calming and restorative savasana… Time to dive into the world of yoga. 

This week, Greg and Charlie sit down with Dr. Tina Cartwright, reader in Health Psychology at the University of Westminster, leader of the Applied Yoga Research Group, and a qualified yoga teacher with over 20 years of practice. 

Tina is known for evaluating the first yoga social prescribing programme in the NHS, and has spent her career asking a simple but underrated question: what can yoga actually do for us, and who is it for?

Starting with the science, Tina walks us through what a yoga practice is made of and why the combination matters of breath work, mindfulness and movement is beneficial for us. She explains how yoga interacts with the nervous system, and what the research shows about the mental and physical changes people experience over time. Greg will also dig into the details on hot yoga and injury rates, to compare and contrast yoga to other sports.

In the practice segment, we get into what a yoga practice looks like for real people. You’ll get to hear about:

• A breathing practice you can do at home or on the go (22:07)
• Why men don’t pick up yoga and how we can lift barriers to access (25:39)
• Which styles of yoga are best for stress and nervous system regulation (30:55)

Finally, in the experience section, we hear from listeners with a wonderful range of questions: someone who's lost their yoga mojo after years of practice and wants it back; a 60-year-old who is "yoga curious" but intimidated by walking into that first class; and questions about yoga with hypermobility or conditions like osteoporosis.

Namaste everyone! Enjoy this week’s episode, and as always if you'd like to send us your health questions or voice notes for future episodes, email us a voice note or write in at [email protected]

Tina’s research:

• Yoga in the UK survey (BMJ Open, 2020) 
• Yoga on social prescription in the NHS (2022)
• Online yoga during COVID-19 (PLoS ONE, 2026)

Links:

• Tina Cartwright’s Website
• Tina Cartwright’s University of Westminster profile
• Greg Potter’s Website 
• Greg Potter’s Instagram
• Thriva’s Website
  
  

About Thriva

Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan — how long we're living — and healthspan — how well we're living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what's going on inside your body — and what to do about it — before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.

To learn more about Thriva's values and services, visit thriva.co

Conversations on health often centre around what to eat, how to move, when to sleep… But there’s a health lever most of us tend to overlook: social connection. 

In 2016, the Frome Project, a Somerset-based research initiative, found that we could reduce emergency hospital admissions by 14%, not with a miracle drug, but with more intentional community connections. 

This week, Greg and Charlie sit down with one of the minds behind this project: Dr. Julian Abel. Julian has spent his clinical career as a palliative care consultant, sitting with people at the very end of their lives, an experience that set him on a path to lead remarkable research into how relationships can measurably improve our health. Today, he is the director of a charity called Compassionate Communities UK and a public health specialist on the science of social connection.

In this conversation, Julian shares the story behind the Frome Project, and helps us understand how compassion can be a tool to improve the healthcare system and our social life more broadly. The science section takes us deep into the biology of social connection: how loneliness and social isolation change our gene expression, suppress our immune systems, and drive inflammation. You’ll also find out how relationships can reverse that process.

In the practice segment, Julian turns the tables and asks Charlie and Greg what their relationship to community is. They discuss the every day activities that bring them joy, and Julian demonstrates how new connections can be woven into existing routines. We get into:

• What connection feels like and how to magnify it in existing habits (25:53)
• Is modern life getting in the way of building meaningful relationships? (30:18)
• Why third spaces and organised group activities are fertile grounds for social connection (32:35)

Finally, in the experience section, we hear from listeners navigating some of the most sensitive versions of this challenge. A mum in London who has watched her social world shrink since the pandemic; a full-time carer who is struggling to maintain a social life; and how to reconnect with community during a period of grief. 

If you’d like to send us your health questions for future episodes, remember to email us a voice note or write in at [email protected].

Sources

• Julian Abel’s Book - The Compassion Project 
• The Frome Project Research - British Journal of General Practice
• Julianne Holt-Lunstad’s Meta-analytic Review: Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality
• Steve Cole’s Research on Human Social Genomics
• Greg Potter’s Website
• Greg Potter’s Instagram
• Thriva’s Website

About Thriva
Thriva is a proactive health platform built for the modern age. The promise of longevity often comes with years spent in poor health. We want to bridge the gap between lifespan – how long we’re living – and healthspan – how well we’re living. We combine powerful at-home blood testing with wearable insights and expert guidance. So you can know exactly what’s going on inside your body – and what to do about it – before issues arise. With this podcast, we hope to bring listeners confidence in everyday health decisions.
To learn more about Thriva’s values and services, visit thriva.co.