The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#54 How to Save The Planet at Breakfast with Jonathan Safran Foer May 27, 2020

Show notes

Today I speak with author and activist Jonathan Safran Foer about the current pandemic, how he is coping and an inconvenient problem that dwarfs the impact of Covid. The big C – Climate.

Jonathan is the author of three award-winning and internationally best-selling novels. He won The Guardian Book Prize for his debut novel, was included in Granta’s “Best of Young American Novelists” issue as well as The New Yorker’s“20 under 40” list of the best young writers in the US; and his books are published in over 30 languages

And I know what you’re thinking. Yes it’s important. Yes I know I should be doing more. And no I’m not doing enough. It’s too hard.

In today's espisode we talk about:

How the actions of ordinary people as a collective can have huge impacts
Not to rely on the government for action and how we can act
The simplest most effective solution is diet
How we are all hypocrites and a layer of realism is useful
Why climate change and global warming has a branding problem

Jonathan Safran Foer's book, We Are The Weather, is out now, definitely do go and check it out. Along with another one of Jonathan's books - Eating Animals, it’s certainly one of my must reads for anybody interested in nutrition and how food choices impact the environment.

And don't forget to subscribe to The Doctor's Kitchen newsletterwhere we will be continuing to share weekly science based recipes lifestyle hacks and more tips to help you live the healthiest and happiest lifestyle possible - and please do give us a 5* rating on your podcast player to help support our podcast through this difficult time.

Check out the podcast notes on The Doctor's Kitchen Website for links to more articles and books on this subject.

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#53 The Doctor’s Kitchen LIVE Podcast: Opportunities for Growth Post Pandemic (with a Live Q&A Session) May 20, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to a special episode of The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast - LIVE!

Today’s podcast was filmed recently on Zoom with a live audience of 20 people online - what a great experience and a real pleasure to connect with those in the audience.

Earlier this year, I introduced the idea of what I wanted to create as an immersive Doctor’s Kitchen experience - a supper club event with 3 guest interviews and an opportunity for those attending to ask live questions.

The initial idea revolved around 3 core themes: EAT, MOTIVATE & INSPIRE. Unfortunately, we had to postpone the supper club event for obvious reasons - so I thought instead that I would reflect on a few events of the last couple of months as well as giving an opportunity to those in the audience of the live podcast to ask me anything.

Some of the key topics I talk about today include:

How we cultivate a community that is able to look after itself effortlessly?
How can we grow from this tragic experience?
The renewed realisation of the wider determinants of health, namely community, connection and purpose.
Financial, Environmental and Societal impacts on healthy lifestyles and the responsibility of our government to enhance the resilience of our population

I also pose the opportunity of this current situation as a moment to rethink the immediacy of other looming catastrophes, namely the environment and microbial resistance. And I close with a short discussion on rethinking our food landscape to appreciate the addictive nature of processed foods and the importance of nutritional medicine.

I do hope that you find this episode informative and useful at this time, and I would really love your feedback on the episodes that we are sharing here. Let me know on our Instagram, Facebook & Twitterpages.

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#52 Creating Accidental Activists to Improve Health in a Post Pandemic World with George Monbiot May 13, 2020

Show notes

Today on the podcast I welcome along George Monbiot - who is is an author, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner.

George cowrote the concept album Breaking the Spell of Loneliness with musician Ewan McLennan; and has made a number of viral videos. One of them, adapted from his 2013 TED talk, How Wolves Change Rivers, has been viewed on YouTube over 40m times. Another, on Natural Climate Solutions, that he co-presented with Greta Thunberg, has been watched over 50m times.

As we witness an improvement in the crisis and anticipate the relaxation of social distancing, I wanted to talk about the opportunities to learn and reform our political systems that globally have been woefully unprepared and slow to respond.

As we try to recuperate the losses both emotionally, physically and financially I’m trying to cultivate the opinions of thinkers from around the world who have long documented the unfolding crises in society that have now spectacularly revealed themselves to us.

In this episode, we talk about:

How to harness intrinsic human values of kindness to foster better wellbeing in society
How cooperation and altruism is hardwired in our neurobiology
The evolution of humans would have required community and kindness to survive rather than the prevailing narrative of individualism and inequality
Neoliberalism in politics and how we have evolved over the 20th and 21st century
The impact of immersing ourselves in a virtual world
How we address alienation and loneliness, which are the defining conditions of our time.
The rise in social initiatives and Accidental activists
What will we reward in a post pandemic era? Those with material wealth and social influence or those who seek to build community and foster relationships?
Is this an opportunity to build a doughnut economy?
Big Organising in the wake of the Pandemic

And don't forget to subscribe to The Doctor's Kitchen newsletterwhere we will be continuing to share weekly science based recipes and tips to help you live the healthiest and happiest lifestyle possible.

Guest Social Media Links

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#51 How to Heal a Moral Injury – Helping Healthcare Workers Heal Mental Wounds in the Aftermath of Coronavirus with Dr Dominic Murphy May 06, 2020

Show notes

In today’s episode I talk to Head of Research at Combat Stress, Dr Dominic Murphy.

Combat Stress are the UKs leading charity for veterans' mental health.

For a century they have been helping former servicemen and women deal with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression. Today they provide specialist treatment and support for veterans from every service and conflict to give them hope and a future.

I think it would be a pragmatic choice to start discussing the mental implications of COVID- 19 on healthcare workers that have not only witnessed events but may have been involved in some huge decisions that challenge our moral code.

I'm sure that you will find our discussion today really interesting and thought provoking.

On the podcast, we talk about:

Dominic’s work as a Clinical Psychologist and PTSD with war veterans
The extent of PTSD and predisposing factors
What is a moral injury?
The relationship between moral injury and PTSD
Why look at moral injury - why do some people not respond well to gold standard treatments for PTSD
What are we doing in the UK to explore moral injury
Is moral injury relevant during the current COVID-19 crisis?
Preventative measures with food, alcohol and exercise
The prevalence of PTSD before the pandemic and what needs to change in both the culture of medicine and access to care

Please do be sure to check out the Combat Stress Website where they have some fantastic resources and support available and also look up their social media pages (links below)

You'll also find links on The Doctor's Kitchen Website to the papers that Dominic and I discussed on the podcast.

Guest Social Media Pages:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

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#50 Miracles in Medicine? What We Can Learn About the Science of Spontaneous Remission with Dr Jeffrey Rediger Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

In today's podcast I speak with Dr Jeffrey Rediger where we talk about spontaneous remissions or ‘medical miracles’ that he has been studying for over 15 years.

Dr Jeffrey Rediger is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Medical Director for the McLean SouthEast Adult Psychiatric Programs.

He has a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and publishes in the fields of medicine, psychiatry and spirituality.

He has now released his first book - Cured - the remarkable science and stories of spontaneous healing and recovery.

Conventionally ignored by the scientific literature as outliers, anomalies or likely a result of misdiagnosis, Dr Jeffrey decided to dedicate a large part of his career studying these cases in the hope of trying to find out if there is anything we could learn from them. What he revealed is a fascinating collection of stories that has changed his thinking on medicine and how we practice.

It could be the revolution in medicine many patients and doctors are crying out for. Rather than adding legitimacy to those trying to exploit people's hope and belief, Dr Jeffrey sees a new way of examining unusual cases of remission through the lens of science.

On our talk today we cover the following:

The placebo effect
How belief plays into remission
Putting the body into a “Healing Mode”
Why love, compassion and kindness are key to health and longevity
Negativity bias
The accidents of biology and how they lead to the secrets of health
Flexing your Vagus Nerve
The 4 pillars of healing - Immunity, Stress, Identity, Nutrition

Please do be sure to check out Jeff Rediger's book -Cured (Penguin, 2020) - released this year and available through most good bookstores or online booksellers.

Guest Social Media Links:

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COVID-19 pt 4: Is Basic Income the Answer to Financial and Physical Wellbeing After COVID? With Professor Guy Standing Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

In this weeks podcast I speak with Professor Guy Standing. A professorial research associate and former professor at SOAS University of London and world expert on Universal basic Income.

He is also a co-founder and current co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), an international non-governmental organization that promotes basic income as a right.

In light of the evolving pandemic I wanted to shift the conversation from reacting to the current scenario, to considering what opportunities there are to grow from this.

In the same way the British public and government created a universal healthcare system in the wake of WWII, perhaps our current scenario provides the foundation for even more radical thinking.

Today we discuss Basic Income as a measure that could alleviate societal suffering that started years before the pandemic, but has been extenuated and magnified as a result of the virus.

What we understand more than ever is the inequality within our communities, the effects of which will last far beyond the closure of this health crisis and will continue unless we think more carefully and imaginatively about how we structure our society.

We talk through the following:

Basic constructs of what Universal Basic Income means
The ethical and economic arguments for Basic Income
Ideas and culture shifts in politics and society that need to be in place for basic income to work
Professor Standing's experiences with instituting Basic Income in communities across the world

I hope that this situation has made more of us think more compassionately and kindly toward our neighbours both internationally as well as nationally and that this podcast ignites a different way of thinking even if you do not agree with the notion of Basic income.

Please do be sure to check out Professor Standings book -Battling Eight Giants: Basic Income Now (Bloomsbury, 2020) - released this year and available through most good bookstores or online booksellers.

Guest Social Media Links:

Website

Facebook

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COVID-19 pt 3: A Neurosurgeon On The Front Line with Dr Sheri Dewan Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

Today I chat with the amazing Dr Sheri Dewan - who is a board-certified neurosurgeon, and who was inspired to become a doctor after her mother was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured brain aneurysm.

Dr. Dewan is one of just 219 female neurosurgeons in the United States (there are just less than 4,000 neurosurgeons nationally, in total) - she works at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Chicago and graduated from Northwestern University and completed her neurosurgical residency at the well renowned Brown University.

She specializes in pituitary tumors, gamma knife radiosurgery and minimally invasive degenerative spine disorders and Dr Sheri is a passionate advocate for women's brain health and diet how our lifestyle and the food we eat can impact our brain health.

In today’s episode we talk about the evolving situation with COVID-19 in Chicago and the flexibility of healthcare systems there and nationally in the USA to respond to the unveiling crisis. We also talk about how Dr Sheri’s regular job has changed how she is now gearing up to work in intensive care.

It's really interesting to hear some other stories from the front line and how America is dealing with the situation over there.

On this episode we also talk about the following:

Posture - and working from home, what we can all do to help ourselves and our posture right now including regular movement
Neck flexion and some tips from Dr Sheri on how to make improvements in this area
Degenerative back issues with some tips on how to prevent and manage back pain with exercises and food
How exercises such as Yoga and Pilates can be incredibly beneficial to help with flexibility and core strength
Dr Dewan's incredible experience and career thus far
How females in the medical industry can forge ahead with incredibly successful careers
Dr Sheri’s meditation practice that she has kept up for over 20 years throughout her training
How cultivating self care in our society has never been more important
We end with a positive note on what good can come of this current situation and how to deal with the anxiety of the unknown

Listener Note: In light of the situation, we talk about some distressing facts regarding the fatality of healthcare workers that some listeners may find difficult to hear. Caution is advised.

Guest Social Media Links:

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Instagram

Twitter

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COVID-19 pt 2 - From inside ITU with Dr Attam Singh Apr 08, 2020

Show notes

On the podcast today I welcome along Dr Attam Singh for another special episode relating to COVID-19.

Originally, Dr Singh was coming onto the podcast with me to talk about the use of CBD in healthcare. He is a clinical associate of the London Pain Clinic and a consultant in pain medicine. He qualified in qualified in anaesthesia before becoming professional trained as a Consultant in Pain Medicine.

We were going to talk about all things CBD related with Dr Attam - it's use in pain, anxiety, what CBD is, where it comes from and what the legislation is. He is one of the only medical registered practitioners using CBD in these ways in clinic and would have been an ideal guest to share all of these insights with us - but we will definitely record another episode on this subject in the future.

Today however we are going to be talking with Dr Attam about COVID-19 and his experience thus far - including how he is one of the thousands of doctors who have been drafted straight into emergency rotas staffing intensive care units in the UK, looking after the sickest patients with COVID-19.

I would like to exercise some caution for anyone listening to this episode - the details certainly in the first part of the episode are directly from the front line and are very in depth, so if you are suffering from anxiety or overwhelm at this time, you may wish to listen to the second half of the episode where we talk about the optimistic outcomes and what we can learn from this pandemic going forward, or alternatively have a listen to another of our wonderful episodes.

We talk about the following in our episode today:

The change in Dr Attam's role over the last few weeks
His in depth front line ITU experience with COVID-19
Current pressing issues regarding drugs and the oxygen supplies in the UK
The current treatments for COVID-19
Coping mechanisms for us all at this time
The techniques that Dr Attam uses to remain calm in ITU
Potential positives that can come from the current pandemic
What we have to look forward to in the coming months

Social Media Links:

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COVID-19 pt 1: Special Episode: What You Need to Know, Opportunities for Compassion and Dealing with Media Anxiety Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

On the podcast this week we're taking a slightly different approach - we usually cover topics such as food, medicine and lifestyle, but in light of the current situation I thought it would be pertinent to share something else with you this week.

We're delaying our future episodes for the time being and I wanted to talk to you today about the COVID19 situation - there's a lot of details out there at the moment and it's an incredibly overwhelming amount of information coming from many many different sources, including social media.

This weeks episode is geared toward arming you with the tools to understand the current news, how to contextualise the scary scenarios and what to expect from the numbers over the next few weeks.

So today, I wanted to share with you

My thoughts on 'what you need to know' regarding the current COVID19 situation (as of 28th March)
A 'How to' guide for dealing with quarantine and the positive effects it can have including opportunities for kindness
How you can be supporting your mental health
Ways to look after your physical health and your nutrition intake
The impact the situation may be having on teenagers/students
Tips on navigating social media and the media/news at the current time
My current work within the NHS and ways that you may be able to help and get involved
What we're doing within The Doctor's Kitchen to provide support and information throughout this time

I appreciate that there's a lot of news and information out there at the moment on COVID19, so please do feel free to listen to as little or as much of this episode as you can at this current time.

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Special Episode: Eat For Immunity with Dr Jenna Macciochi Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

In light of the current Coronavirus pandemic - we thought it was a good opportunity for us to re-release a fantastic podcast that we recorded with Immunologist - Dr Jenna Macciochi, who specialises in understanding how nutrition and lifestyle interact with the immune system in health and disease.

There's a lot of information around at the moment concerning our immune health and we thought it would be a great opportunity to remind people just how incredible our bodies are and what we can all do to help ourselves stay well at this time.

For more specific information and a detailed Q&A session that I held recently on Instagram with Dr Jenna - please click this link here to view the conversation on YouTube.

The topics that we covered on the Instagram live recently are still very much current today, with isolation, social distancing and trying to limit any contact all key areas for us all to be focusing on and prioritising right now.

In this episode, we talk about what immune health actually means and where it comes from

What is immunity?
Where does immunity work?
How it’s not as simple as eating to BOOST Immunity
What defines a robust immune system
Foods to support immunity
Lifestyle practices to support Immune health
Vitamin D and it’s impact on Immune health
Autoimmune disease and support
Clock genes and Sleep Hygiene
Is suppressing fever beneficial?
Mitochondrial function and support

Do take some time to listen to this episode in full - there's a wealth of information being shared by the very knowledgeable Dr Jenna and you will find it super interesting, there's something for everyone on this podcast.

And you absolutely must check out Jenna's new book - 'Immunity - The Science of Staying Well' by clicking on this link here - this is a fantastic resource for anyone wanting to understand their immune health in greater detail - it's definitely well worth a read and covers a lot of great content that we didn't have the time to talk through on the podcast too.

All other social media links are noted below here.

Follow Dr Jenna on Instagram and Twitter and find further resources on her website at drjennamacciochi.com.

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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