The Wellness Scoop - How to elevate your health

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

This week I’m joined by Doctor Will Bulsiewicz, author of the NYTimes best-seller Fibre Fuelled. Will is passionate about ditching fad diets, focusing on our overall mental and physical health, how our diets effect our mental health and the need to bring self-compassion to the conversation about long-term change.     We discuss: The fact that there is no such thing as perfect: no perfect diet, no perfect approach to health. Why we should ditch fad diets  Biohacking trends How our diet effects our mood  What does stress in the mind and body  Gut health   Each week I unpack a wellness trend with GP Gemma Newman. This week on Fact or Fad we’re looking at infrared saunas.    More about Will : Fibre Fuelled https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fibre-Fuelled-Plant-Based-Optimise-Microbiome/dp/178504415X/ref=asc_df_178504415X/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=570366460068&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8486528419909222261&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045997&hvtargid=pla-1638747391678&psc=1&th=1&psc=1         Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, hi there! I'm Norma, the unofficial mayor of the Town of Destiny. Speaking of, FanDuel's Kick of Destiny 3 is happening live Super Bowl Sunday. You should watch. It's gonna be a hoot! While you're at it, download FanDuel, North America's number one sportsbook. You can bet on touchdowns, turnovers, heck, even total kicker points, don't you know? Anywho, enjoy your podcast or whatnot. Please play responsibly. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling

or the gambling of someone close to you, please go to connectsontario.ca. Wellness. What on earth does it mean? And why would we need to unpack it? With over 58 million hashtags on Instagram, the topic has really never been more prominent. But, and there is a but here,

three in five of us feel that wellness is incredibly confusing. We want to feel healthier, we want to feel happier, but we have no idea what's clickbait and what's genuinely health enhancing. Who's an expert and who's peddling absolute nonsense and look I am right here with you on this at times I've also found this world really hard to navigate. So welcome to Wellness Unpacked our new podcast hosted by me Ella Mills author entrepreneur and founder of Deliciously Ella. This series aims to do just as it states, unpack the world of wellness with expert guests. These guests will be sharing with me and with you their three pieces of advice for a better life, to feel healthier and happier. This is a show and a conversation that's about progress it is not about perfection it's about

helping you make small simple sustainable changes and within that I'm going to be testing out a different wellness trend every single week intermittent fasting celery juice, collagen, ketogenic diets, CBD, you name it, I'll try it. I'll then unpick the trend, separating fact from fad, with my friend and NHS GP, Dr Gemma Newman. And together we'll be equipping you with the tools that can genuinely make a difference to your life and well-being, and equally helping you potentially put to one side the trends that may make a little bit less difference. So are you ready for episode 14? This is the final episode of this series of Wellness Unpacked and our 14th guest is Dr. Will Bolshevitz and I truly cannot think of a better person to round off this series. Will's holistic approach to well-being really brilliantly sums up so many of the key messages

that we've explored so far in this series. Fundamentally that health is a journey and it's a very deeply personal exploration that is going to look different on all of us. But the one thing that I think we should and could all have in common is this focus on simple daily tools. And it's these simple daily tools that Will talks about so passionately. It's not about fads or trends, but actually so much more of a back to basics approach, which I have to say feels especially appropriate in the current climate. There was an extraordinary statistic I saw recently where almost 60% of people under 40 are deprioritizing their health at the moment because of the cost of living. I certainly found it quite reassuring Will's approach in terms of those simple, mostly free daily tools that we should be thinking about. And Will's been on a

very personal journey himself with his own health, which I certainly felt mirrored a lot of what I've been through. And I'm sure lots of you will feel the same. And one of the things I think you'll all enjoy, and I certainly enjoyed in this episode, is the need to focus on progress over perfection. Again, seeing our health as a nonlinear, very long term journey. So let's get into the show. Well, Will, thank you so much for joining me today. Welcome to the show. Oh, thank you, Ella. It's a privilege to be here. Excited to be here with you. So I was just telling you, I've been a big fan of your work for a while and been following a lot of

what you say. And I think we'll get into this, but I think what's so powerful is that you take a lot of complicated concepts and make them very applicable to people every single day. And I think our listeners will take a lot from you with that today. But I wondered if we could kickstart with the question that we ask everybody first, which is what does wellness mean to you? You know, I think we tend to associate it exclusively with health. I think that there's so much more to it. I think that it's when you are fully aligned in your true authentic self. And when you get to that place, there is like physical health. There's also emotional health and you're just, you're happy and you're enjoying your life. And

that's, that's, I think where we all dream of being. And, you know, part of the challenges of being an adult is it doesn't always come along as easy as we wish it would, but that's what we're striving towards. I love that. And I also love the caveat, the fact that it sounds easier than it is in real life and it's not always a linear journey. And I'm really curious, what's that journey look like in your own life to getting to that definition and that sense of well-being in yourself? Very imperfect, a lot of stumbling, a lot of falling.

You know, people may be surprised that I feel like sometimes people lift me up as being ambassador for healthy eating. And yet of my 42 years, the vast majority of them I spent eating junk food and so an important part for me is connecting with people on their level and I feel like I understand where they're coming from because I was there and I always sort of feel like the message that I put out whether I'm speaking on social media or in my books or wherever it may be. I feel like I'm talking to the version of myself from 10 years ago. I love that. It's funny. It actually makes me feel quite emotional because I very much resonate with that. Before I started Delicious the Ella, the idea of meditating would have seen so alien, such a waste of time. I hated healthy food. I loved sweets and chocolate and all that sort of thing.

And I had this moment recently actually where I thought, gosh, it's all been really worthwhile. It's not been perfect and it's not been linear by any means, but I'm happier in a more consistently contented, peaceful way. And, you know, when you're making that decision, it's quite intimidating. And I think knowing that it will be worthwhile in the end is quite reassuring hearing that from you. Yeah, I think it is intimidating. You know, if you said to me in 2012 that I would be vegan or anything sort of like that's important to me in the position that I am is to present a path for people that is not overwhelming and intimidating, but instead is a celebration of just taking that small little dinky step and recognizing that, frankly, you deserve it, that you deserve to feel better, to feel well. And every step on that path is worth celebrating because it's a beautiful thing. And was there one particular moment in your life that made you think,

right, I've got to make a big change? It feels like there was this moment, Ella, where I was looking at myself in the mirror and the man that I saw in the mirror didn't come out of nowhere. This was the consummation of years of working too hard and deprioritizing myself in the interest of trying to accomplish my professional goals. And during that time, you know, really, we're talking about my medical training. My medical training in the States was 16 years. And I was grinding the whole time. I mean, I was basically working the whole time. And fast food fit so perfectly.

It tasted good. It made me feel good for like a quick second, not a couple hours later, but it was cheap. It was easy. So it's like everything that I needed, it could fulfill except for the fact that I paid a price, but that price was delayed later on. And I feel like I woke up one day and I looked in the mirror and I'm in my early thirties and I'm just like, who is that guy? This is not the guy that I remember from high school, from college, and he doesn't look well. And I was in a place where my health was compromised by my choices and I was having medical problems. I was also depressed. I was anxious and I had extremely low self-esteem and

which I may shock. Like if a person knew me in that moment, they would say you're accomplishing all of your professional goals. How could you possibly feel that way? That's how I felt. And so I knew something needed to change. And I was looking for that solution. And the irony of it all, this is not a slight against the healthcare systems that exist in the US and UK or against doctors because I am one, but I didn't want my own medicine. I didn't want pills. I didn't want to just cover it up. I wanted a real solution. I just didn't know what that was. I hadn't yet been taught. Before I move us on to our first piece of advice, because I think there's such richness in there. I'm just curious, was there anything in particular or any tools that

you felt really helped you build your self-esteem to help you on that trajectory to improving your total overall health? It's a great question. So I think, you know, I'm just going to speak for myself here. This is not necessarily something that's been scientifically validated. I think that part of it is the maturation process that you independently go through. So I feel like I was an extremely insecure 20 something male. And when I got into my thirties, I started to feel like I was finding and understanding myself, strengths and weaknesses and all. And that was part of what helped me to get there. I think some people get there at a much younger age. So that's part of it. I think that taking steps that are challenging and persevering through them,

demonstrating to yourself that you can do it and that there's a reward on the other side, to me, that really helped to build my self-esteem, my self-confidence. So yes, exercise is good for you, but also exercise is challenging. And if you can get yourself to go and do it, and then you feel that benefit and that reward, that is part of what I think pulls you to a better place. And so for me, it was partially exercise, then it was transforming my diet, and then just kind of seemed to open up. And then you saw the benefits kind of build up over the last 10 years. Absolutely.

And I think that part of it too was that being in a state of feeling unwell, I didn't feel good. I was sick. And when you can lift yourself out of that, which for me was through a diet and lifestyle, the difference in how you feel is enough to start to feel good about yourself because you've drawn yourself to a better place. You've managed to get there. And so I think that to me was a big part of this was just kind of overcoming those challenges that I was struggling with. And I think the sense that that's been a kind of 10-year process leads us on so brilliantly actually to your first piece of advice, which is something I absolutely love, which is to focus on progress over perfection. And when you're thinking about your diet, it's the overall dietary pattern versus exactly what you do on a minute by minute basis that matters. I think it's very important to understand this. No one meal will make or break

your health. And there is no such thing as perfect. There's never been the perfect human with the perfect diet. Even though there are these beautiful Hollywood people and whatnot, they have their challenges too. And so I think it's important to see that ultimately what matters is the bigger picture and not those small choices. And you are entitled to pick the food that Dr. B says is not necessarily the most healthy food on the planet and enjoy it. Because I do too. There's nothing wrong with that. But understanding that in the grand scheme of things, your broad diet, a diet that really should be built on abundance. And what we would love to see is eating more plants in variety.

And when you do those simple steps, you start to move yourself towards a diet that I believe is going to make you feel well and is going to elevate your health and there are many benefits that come from that I found it very insightful well that you said go and eat the thing that's not kind of inherently on the good for you list and enjoy it and it was the enjoy it bit that I really wanted to pick up on because I think as I guess leads on to a second question actually certainly where I sit I feel like we have a very binary very kind of black and white look at the way that we eat and we're kind of being good or we're being bad and so I think so often people don't actually enjoy it you know there's a big piece of chocolate

cake or you're out for dinner and you know you, you're having fries and all the rest of it. But you don't actually enjoy it because you sit there and people feel so guilty about it. And I'm really curious your take on that, because my sense is that exactly what you're saying, you know, a healthy diet is something that you can sustain for decades, not for days. And it's that, you know, mostly plant rich diet that you can adjust and flex to suit your lifestyle, but then keep coming back to lots of plants. But I just feel that people really, really struggle with that. It sounds like a simple premise, but in reality, I think there's just so much guilt laden with not being quote unquote perfect.

I think it's just part of striking that balance. Yeah. No, I totally agree. And I just, I find it a real shame that we've almost lost the enjoyment of the balance because we have this diet culture so ingrained in our society. And I guess as part of that, I know you talk about kind of a health hype train and the dangers of that, of the fact that there's always what feels like a kind of new fatty diet, whether that's the keto diet or the Atkins diet or the Dukin diet and so on. And I'm quite curious your thoughts on all of that.

I can find something good in literally every single diet, no matter which one it is. Like even the carnivore diet, which I categorically disagree with, at least they're eliminating certain foods that are unhealthy. So at the end of the day, though, speaking to these specific sort of dietary patterns, I think it's about creating a lifestyle that just feels very natural to you and doesn't require such rigorous, strict effort. Because when it's so strict and so effort-based, it feels like ultimately it's a setup for failure. And when you fall off the bandwagon, that's when the problems start to show up. So I prefer things like, I think that sustainable is an important word when it

comes to dietary choices. And so rather than shoehorning yourself into some specific pattern that you heard was the way to go and it's trending or whatever it may be, I instead think that it's better to just start to make small, simple, sustainable choices that you can get on board with, that you think are great, not four weeks, but given months, given years, like we're talking about my 10 years experience, given years that this can get you to a better place. Right. And I guess it would be fair to say that sticking to say a ketogenic diet for 10 years would be quite tricky and might detract some enjoyment from your life. Cause as you said, it's just so rigid rigid but I'm also curious what you think that's obviously a big trend at the moment about measuring your blood sugar there's so

many devices around that I've seen people wearing obviously I'm not talking about for patients with diabetes obviously it's a different kettle of fish but it feels to me like again the diet trends moved to so far that we're kind of taking very medicalized diets like the keto diet or this blood sugar control and then translating it to all kind of healthy adults which feels a little bit misrepresentative to some extent potentially i think you're right so i guess real quick a comment on the ketogenic diet or you know fad diets more broadly there are definitely people there is no doubt there are definitely people who have health-related issues consuming a standard US or standard British diet. And they move towards, for example, a ketogenic diet and actually improve their health.

There is no doubt. But the problem is sustainability. It's a very restrictive diet. And the vast majority of people who attempt to follow a ketogenic diet don't actually get themselves into ketosis. So, you know, again, I feel like there are choices that exist that are more sustainable, that are just as if not more enjoyable, and that don't require you to make compromises that could potentially be problematic. When it comes to some of the trends of biohacking... Will you just expand on biohacking for anyone who doesn't know exactly what that term means? Yeah, so biohacking is sort of the idea of finding tricks to improve your body's performance

or physiology or whatever it may be. And in many cases, it involves wearable technology or other sort of technology-based tools that provide some sort of insight that you would use to make your choices. And in this conversation about continuous glucose monitors, let me say that there is a role for continuous glucose monitors. It's not to say that there is no role. For example, I'm involved with a company named Zoe. And part of what we do is we use continuous glucose monitors, but it's also important for people to understand we do much more than use continuous glucose monitors. We also use microbiome and we use food logging app and your blood lipids. Right now, we're just going to focus on the glucose monitor. People are plugging this in and what it does is it tells you what your blood sugar is around the clock. It's definitely interesting. You have a meal and you can see what your blood sugar does after that meal. The problem is that you are taking your health and your choices and you're distilling it down to one variable, blood sugar, as if this one variable is the principal determinant of human health during your lifetime. There is no one variable that is the principal determinant of human health during your lifetime. And when we oversimplify it like that, we're asking for trouble because these choices that

you make, you will accidentally get tripped up on choices that are good for this one variable, but actually are compromising the bigger picture, which is your health. And there's examples that we could cite. The example that I would cite is applicable to both the use of these glucose monitors and also to the ketogenic diet, which is that they would motivate you to say, I should not consume fruit. Fruit is incredibly healthy. It's actually been shown to reduce your risk of obesity, to reduce your risk of diabetes and many other diseases. Yet, if the principal concern was carbs, such as in a ketogenic diet, or if the principal concern was what does it do to my blood sugar, you would exclude fruit from your diet. And I see this as inappropriately vilifying a healthful food based upon some sort of rule or standard or metric

that actually is missing the big picture, which is your health. It feels to me, certainly, that all of these sort of trends, if you just want to compile them all together, I think the biggest challenge, as you said, is that yes, there can be benefits, but ultimately, they're all quite reductive. They're all massively simplifying something incredibly complex and removing all nuance, which I think generally in life is not the best approach in my view. But what I'm curious about is, do you feel that reductivism is so tied to the fact that we're desperate for a magic answer? We all want a silver bullet, you know, one thing we can do that will change our health. And because we're so drawn

to that, we quite want one pill we can take or one superfood powder or one multivitamin or one diet we can follow. And sort of that is that case closed. Yeah, I think that's true. We've seen this time and time and time again. And, you know, I think it's kind of interesting when you think about this within the context of, for example, how the healthcare system has evolved. So, I mean, if we went back to World War II and penicillin gets invented for the first time, that really is what created the healthcare system that we have because that pill was so powerful, so seductive that we discovered that you could use pills to treat medical problems. And then we built an entire healthcare system around that. And we lost track of the bread and butter basics that grandma taught

us. And grandma was right. You have to eat a balanced, clean diet. You have to exercise. You have to get a good night's rest. You have to pay attention to your mood. And it's unfortunate that we have lost that from our healthcare system. And part of the reason why we have lost sight of our ultimate path is because we've been seduced by pills or by the powder or by the blood sugar. What you get back to is the simple stuff. It's kind of boring, but the simple stuff, it really works. I was just going to say on the simple stuff, it's kind of boring, but the simple stuff, it really works. I was just going to say on the simple stuff, I always say the same thing. If you're going to really think about your health, it's about eating more carrots and more lentils. And these things

are so unsexy. They just don't get massive kind of media pickup versus things that are trends or gadgets or gizmos. And they just they just need yeah they need a bit of promoting those simple simple tools I think that leads us on nicely to your second piece of advice which is the importance of nurturing the mind gut connection will you tell us a little bit more about why this was so important to you to include in your three pieces of advice It's kind of shocking. The connection that exists between our gut microbiome and our brain and our mood, you would think of these as separate things. And yet they are completely intertwined, completely connected. They're talking to one another literally as we speak. And one affects the other and vice versa. And so the reason why I bring this up

is that for part of what I've done as a gastroenterologist is care for people who have complex medical issues and they're not getting better. And many of them, they do everything right. They eat a clean diet. They sleep. They exercise. And there's something invariably that's holding them back. And what I've discovered, Ella, in my professional experience is these people where it just feels like they're not where they need to be, yet they're trying and they're doing everything right.

Many times it comes back to the gut brain connection. And if there's something in their life that is distressing them or troubling them, it may be conscious, it may be unconscious. They may not even like be fully aware that this is there, but it's there and it's activating this connection between the brain and the gut and ultimately restricting their gut health and so a quick example i'll help you don't mind is i had a patient recently who she had um ulcerative colitis and was suffering for basically years in and out of flares. And we were trying everything. We were doing diet, lifestyle. We had our good medication. And this just felt like such a struggle. We were both frustrated. And then everything changed when she left her job. She didn't realize that it was the work that she was doing and the stress that she felt

around that work and the way that her boss was treating her that was impacting her in such a negative way that it actually was manifesting through her ulcerative colitis. And when she had the audacity to leave that job and find a new job, she went into remission almost instantly. And so it's, I think one of the powerful parts of our life, which is that we need to tend to our mood and how we feel, be very conscious of this and nurture it. Because this ulcerative colitis example through this patient of mine, this is just her story. This is just one example. I think every single one of us has a story to tell in how our mood affects us and our health more broadly. It's amazing. It's such a powerful

example. I remember actually quite early on in the podcast, probably a few years ago, but we were talking to a gut health specialist here and her saying very similar types of stories where so many patients, they were just so focused on their diet. What can I get right in my diet? What can I get right in my diet? And seeing little reprieve in their symptoms this was particularly with IBS and then addressing their stress and their mental health suddenly all their symptoms changed and what I wanted to ask Will because I think sometimes stress feels like a really intangible concept it's obviously a word that we all hear all day every day there's a lot of headlines around stress but I think it'd be really helpful actually for listeners just to almost give us a 101 on

what does stress do in the mind and the body because I think in the kind of hustle harder culture of the western world there's this sense of like oh what doesn't kill you makes you stronger you know stress just part of life, got to just get on with it. And actually not realizing that it's not just around us or just in our minds, not that that's a just living in your minds, but actually it really kind of proliferates all around the body and can have profound effects, especially over time. Yeah, that is so true. I think we need to separate out the type of stress that can be beneficial to us because it's a challenge that our body or that we can rise to and then grow stronger from. So like an example of this is exercise, right? So exercise is a stress on the body, but because you go through that stress, you actually become fortified and become more capable. You grow stronger. So this is not an argument against things that are challenging. Things that are challenging are actually incredibly important

in our life. And you and I, we were talking at the beginning of the podcast about how facing challenges and persevering through them is actually part of how you build self-esteem. But that's different than a perpetual state of distress or duress where you feel like you are being closed off or boxed in in a way by things that are happening in your life. And when that happens, it's activating certain physiologic responses that we have in our body that were designed for us to like, you know, in the moment that we need to rise to a challenge, we can rise to that challenge. But instead, we're just activating those responses perpetually. And it's things like, for example, the brain will release a hormone called corticotropin releasing hormone. and it's connected to our sympathetic nervous system so people hear about sympathetic versus parasympathetic parasympathetic by the way is

like a relaxed state so it's like the way that you feel when you're ready to go to bed or when you're relaxing on the couch digesting a delicious meal right it's a different place or how you feel like the Zen-like feeling of a good session of yoga, as opposed to the sympathetic nervous system, which is our fight or flight nervous system. It's like our adrenaline rush. It's the part of us that needs to get something done and to step up. When the brain in the setting of stress releases this hormone called corticotropin-releasing hormone, or CRH, it spreads throughout the body and initiates a cascade, a cascade of events where multiple steps are happening, activating the sympathetic

nervous system. And if you follow that waterfall down to the bottom, the part that gets affected at the end is your gut microbiome. And so there's a compromise that we make in order to activate this part of our body. You can't just turn into a superhero and not have to pay some sort of price for this. And so when we activate this, ultimately it manifests through our gut. And there are many examples in the real world that we encounter where, for example, you're getting ready to speak publicly and it makes you nervous. is actually manifesting with some queasiness or a little pit in your stomach, or that ball, that pit starts to grow and become bigger and becomes actually something that's more painful and uncomfortable. Okay. So we've all been there and experienced that. That is the manifestation of this stress response. But what if we were activating that 24 hours a day? And that's kind of what we're referring to here is that when we activate this part of our body excessively, particularly when it's an ongoing situation where we feel uncomfortable,

that is where we get into things that can have negative consequences in terms of our broader health. And if people are wanting to nurture this mind-gut connection and really look after that microbiome, what would be the key tools that you would suggest become part of a daily-ish slash weekly routine? I think that there's a number of different tools that we can apply. Some of them have literally nothing to do with what you eat. So as an example, like literally getting a good night's rest can be absolutely huge. And being attentive to the hours that lead up to when you're going to bed, because it's during that window of time that we can do things that potentially could disrupt our sleep.

So eliminating caffeine and alcohol later in the afternoon or late in the evening, and being very cautious about our exposure to bright light, particularly light from electronics. Those lights can actually suppress the hormones that are associated with sleep like melatonin. Melatonin supplements, by the way, have become very popular, but we shouldn't have to supplement with melatonin in order to get a good night's rest. Our body produces it. And so it's important to get away from those bright lights. So like, for example, they're super nerdy. I don't have them in the room here with me right now, but I have these blue light blocking glasses. They're very orange. And I'll typically wear them for two hours prior to going to bed. And I've found them to be very helpful. Like I can actually sense the quality of my sleep because I have really deep dreams when I wear these glasses. So getting a good

night's rest is one thing. Physical movement is another. Just getting outside and some exercise, as simple as going for a walk can be difference making. And when it comes to our food, I see it as we should eat in a way that elevates both our mood and our gut microbiome at the same time. We can rise the tide. And the way that we do this was actually demonstrated by Professor Felice Jaka in a clinical trial called the SMILES trial. In the SMILES trial, it's an interesting name for a study, they were treating people who had major depression, moderate to severe depression, with a dietary change. And they gave them a plant-centered Mediterranean diet

and found that it significantly improved that underlying issue. Now, they didn't measure the microbiome in that study, but I'm quite sure that if they did a plant-centered high fiber Mediterranean diet, they would discover that part of what was happening was we were benefiting the gut. And part of what was happening was we were also lifting up our mood through this brain gut connection. Yeah, her work is absolutely extraordinary. Actually, a couple of my colleagues went to a seminar that she did a few weeks ago, and we're just absolutely shocked at the data, really just backing up all the things that we've talked about today with this mind-gut connection and the fact that the way that you live your life

has such a profound impact on your mental health and I think that's something yeah often we go through life and we don't necessarily realize what's making us feel a certain way or think there's not as much we can do about it and I think as you said just to go back to words you were using earlier it's very empowering actually to start to piece this all together and I guess in piecing it together I know very passionate about lifestyle medicine and I think it's very powerful for these words to come for a doctor to say yes your diet's important but so is the whole of the rest of your life and the way that you take care of your mind and your body and I feel that links up very well with your third piece of advice,

this idea of service with a purpose. What did you mean by that? Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. endorsements, or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's B-O-B at L-I-B-S-Y-N.com.

Okay, so I'm going to step away from being a medical doctor for a moment, and I'm just going to come to you as Will. I'm a guy. I got three kids. I'm a dad. I'm a proud husband. And what are the things that I've learned in my life that like, let's pretend Ella that I'm sitting down with my son who's six years old and I want to teach him. I'm dad and I'm having a conversation with my son

about the lessons that I think are really important that I've discovered that I wish I had known. I think service with a purpose is incredibly gratifying. And part of coming back to building that self-esteem that you and I were talking about in the very beginning, to serve others, to elevate them, to invest into their wellbeing. The beautiful thing about it is that we are such social creatures. We need one another. We can't do it without the support and love of others. I would be nothing without my family backing me up. And I'm quite sure you would say the same. Definitely. And so recognizing that part of getting that support where we lift one another up comes from taking that step forward to serve first. So I'm a big believer that when you give,

others give you back so much more. And then service with a purpose. Purpose. I've witnessed this in my professional career, but I've also just felt this myself, which is that we need to feel like we're working towards something. And so I think it's really important as humans. And this is part of, you know, I kind of feel like what happened for me as I left my twenties, getting into my thirties is starting to figure out like, what do I want to do? What is my life about? And there should be a theme and it could be one of many different things or a couple. It could be family. It could be something professional. It could be a hobby. There are a lot of great options out there, but find what it is that defines you and do it and enjoy it. And when you align your life around that. So I've been very fortunate that my career has fallen into place, not by my planning, but

just sort of, I've been very lucky. My career has fallen into place where the things that I get to do on a daily basis are the things that are my passion. And it gets me excited and it brings out the best in me. And that to me is a big part of what has contributed to the satisfaction that I have in my life. So I think it just comes back to investing into those relationships and doing the things that you're passionate about and making sure that you build around that North Star. I agree wholeheartedly with that. And it's actually interesting. I feel that sense of aligning your life with your values is a story and a message that just keeps coming up time and time again from so many different professionals whether it's you as a doctor I know

you're speaking as as well as a whole rounded person but it's just interesting also from a psychologist and a neuroscientist and from a whole multitude of different people coming at the topic of health and well-being from different angles and yet that message continues to stay the same which I think is so interesting and I guess guess as a closing question, I almost just really want to rewind it. You know, you were talking about being in your shoes 10 or so years ago when you weren't where you wanted to be in your life. You didn't feel you were really recognizing yourself. I'm sure there's people listening who are thinking, great, but I don't really know what my purpose is. You know I'm I'm not that happy I really

want to be happy but I'm not very happy I feel quite stuck I feel quite rudderless I feel quite lost what words would you have for them the first thing that I would say is I want you to know that you are loved there are people in your life who love you they care about you deeply I think it's important for all of us to acknowledge that. That may sound a little corny or cheesy, but that's like, I think part of feeling good about ourselves is feeling loved by others. And it's something that exists for all of us. You deserve to feel well. You deserve to feel good about yourself. You deserve to love the person that you see in the mirror. And part of feeling that way is to just accept the things that you're passionate about. It's okay whether it's popular

or not popular, whatever it may be, it doesn't matter. Just be, just be, just be happy. Just do the things that bring you great joy. a perfect perfect moment to end on and well i really can't thank you enough for taking the time to share so much valuable insight and information with us i really really respect and appreciate your very holistic take on health and well-being and i hope it's been helpful for listeners to move away from a very kind of singular path or reductive way of looking at their health and kind of appreciate all facets of it and all facets of who they are. So just a massive thank you so much. It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. Thank you for everyone who listened.

And I guess I'll leave it at that. Well, what a pleasure to speak to Will, who truly radiates a sense of calm and positivity and reassurance that I think is often missing in this very confusing world of wellness. So I hope you took as much from that conversation as I certainly did. And I feel very lucky to have been able to finish the series with him.

It feels like it's bore so many of the different themes that we've explored together and for our final fact or fad the part of the show where Dr Newman and I test out all sorts of wellness trends we're going to be looking at infrared sauna blankets so let's find out what Dr Gemma Newman things. So Gemma today we have a topic which I'm fascinated to hear what you think we're looking at infrared saunas it's quite an Instagram trend I'm sure we've all seen it I bought one in lockdown best purchase ever I just love it it's so cozy there's something that makes me feel so relaxed and calm at the end and I'm very curious if there's any evidence behind it but before we start looking specifically at infrared saunas could you just give us a kind of top line what's the difference between a sauna obviously has an

extraordinarily rich long-lasting cultural history particularly in the Nordic countries yeah and then an infrared sauna which feels very kind of 21st century yeah no you're right so sauna or sauna as they say in finland has been around for a long long time and it was a great way to bring communities together and it's essentially a way of heating your body from the outside you know they'll use hot coals and things to heat the body and there's lots of reported health benefits over the years but the infrared sauna that's more of a kind of a heating the body almost from the inside out it's a safe kind of radiation that essentially increases the core body temperature like you would if you were exercising or if you were in a sort of normal outdoor sauna but it uses infrared electromagnetic frequencies to do that.

And why may that be good or not good? So it's good. So the top line is it can have some good health benefits, but there's also a huge amount of claims online that there are no evidence for. So it's kind of a bit of a mixed bag. The idea is that it's going to be great for things like skin health and joint health and detoxification and weight loss and it can help your mood and all sorts of other things and there are some studies to show that it can help with some of those things. So we've got evidence to show that it could be beneficial for joint health and recovery, specifically studies on rheumatoid arthritis, for example, as well. There are some study evidence to show that it can be really beneficial for your mood,

reducing things like anxiety and depression. Not sure why. Might be something to do with the fact that it's supposed to help reduce oxidative stress. There's some moderate evidence to suggest it's good for your cardiovascular health as well. Again, not really sure why, but it may be to do with nitric oxide release from the electromagnetic frequencies that you're exposed to. It does seem to be able to reduce your blood pressure and your blood vessel flexibility, which are two important things for maintaining cardiovascular health. And there is some moderate evidence that it might improve performance and recovery. I'd like to see more evidence on those things. And we don't have any evidence really that it can help with anything like detoxification or weight loss or your skin health or cancer. There's even been cancer claims online. We have no evidence for any of those. I think the main thing that would really sway a lot of people would be weight loss or detoxification. Those are the things that I think people think,

oh, this might be quite good for, but we don't really have evidence for it. I mean, sweating does reduce water retention. So you may find that you weigh a bit less after a sauna session, but that's more to do with the water that you've lost from the body. And then it will just come back when you rehydrate. Yes, that's one of the biggest sort of fallacies that I found. And then when it comes to things like detoxification, the idea is that we build up certain chemicals and heavy metals in our fat cells. And if you go to a sauna or you have an infrared sauna,

that sweating can actually somehow get rid of those toxins. But because you're not increasing your metabolic rate or you're not really inducing fat burning, then there's not really any evidence for toxin elimination either. But yeah, I'm excited to see that there is some pretty good research on things like joint health, mood and reduced oxidative stress. So it's a sort of exciting early stage research happening. Yeah.

But it may not do everything that instagram's promising you that it will exactly and i would actually be really wary of some of those claims because people will spend a lot of money on these things i was going to say it's really expensive it was a lockdown purchase and as i said i love it i i think i love it for two reasons number one because you're all strapped in you can't use your phone you can't use any devices and so I find kind of in the evening I'll pop something nice on telly and then I'm just generally relaxing like I really am relaxing and all your muscles relax in the in the heat and so I get to the end and I feel I do feel infinitely calmer than if I just watch TV that's good by myself um like sort of

without the blanket um and I love being hot like I love I'm just like a lizard um so in the cold months I look for anything that would turn me into a lizard basically but I can see you could be disappointed because I wouldn't say I've noticed many other changes. No I think it's just important to be aware that the basic foundations of health are going to be the same for everybody you know things like good nutrition and good mental health and sort of prioritizing moving your body and sleep and infrared sauna devices are another interesting addition if you have the money and you'd like to. But yeah, I wouldn't necessarily sack it up against every single claim that's been made out there.

And as this is the last episode and the last fact or fad of the series, I've really, really been reflecting. And if I've taken one thing from every single conversation that we've had, but actually over the whole series of the podcast it really has been that there's so many snazzy things out there but our very normal very natural desire for a quick fix will never be solved and there are so many powders and devices and gadgets and gizmos and diet plans and all sorts of promises and people and gurus but ultimately fundamentally true good health is something that you measure and you look at over decades not even over a year and it fundamentally is made up of time with friends going for a walk can't believe that going for a walk has 90 of the benefit of a marathon that came from our blue zones episode which is extraordinary you know it's sleeping more it's managing your mental health

breathing exercises five minutes of mindfulness and all of these things could have a role in your life if you'd like them to if you enjoy it if you want to be a lizard like i want to be a lizard but they're wholly unnecessary and i think that's been such a helpful message. You know, it's the same even when we're talking about protein powder. Yes, you can buy it. Yes, it could be an easy way to get protein if you don't have time to cook, et cetera, et cetera. But ultimately, chickpeas, tofu, much cheaper, delicious, easy peasy. And actually it is, it's almost quite a a depressing message which is it's putting in it's kind of actually fundamentally it's truly putting in the time every day

isn't it it is and it's the daily-ish habits it's not the one green powder you take in the morning but it's consciously having a few more veggies at each meal or stopping watching Netflix and going to sleep a little bit earlier. And I say that it's depressing only because it's not easy to keep making those decisions every single day. Yeah. And also with reference to the Blue Zones episode, you know, there are so many things that are out of our control, the families that we grew up in and the social determinants of health that we just have no control over that to me is the most depressing part but when you realize that there are incremental things that you can do each

day to help you feel better than you did before then that's that's the gold isn't it that's the real gold of all of these messages it's the things that you've known about forever that your grandma did that your great-grandma did actually it's almost kind of reverting back to that and leaving all the fancy things tap into it if you like it but fundamentally if I've taken one thing from the whole series it's the simple boring everyday supermarket friendly things that are fundamentally going to stack up to shape your health nothing else I agree so wow that's it for this episode for this series and I just can't thank you all enough for coming on this journey to feeling a little bit better with me it's been such a honor to speak to such an incredible collection of guests to soak up all their wisdom I really have implemented quite a lot of what they've said

in my own life and I'm seeing quite extraordinary transformations, but not from the big things, but from the small, simple tools, from changing aspects of my outlook and my nutrition on a day-to-day basis. And it's extraordinary what can happen, I think, when you start to really focus in on it. So I can't wait to see you guys back here. We'll be back in January. Anything you want us to talk about next series, anything you've enjoyed this series, please let us know. Please share it as always at Deliciously Ella on social or podcast at deliciouslyella.com. And just remember, if you're going to make any big changes to your lifestyle, it's always worth consulting your GP. And otherwise, that's it. Just a massive thank you for listening,

a massive thank you for being part of this community, and a massive thank you to Curly Media who have been the most brilliant partners in producing the show this series. You're a podcast listener, and this is a podcast ad heard only in Canada. Reach great Canadian listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one across thousands of shows to reach your target audience with Libsyn Ads. Email bob at libsyn.com to learn more. That's b-o-b at l-i-b-s-y-n dot com.