#230: Dr. Gemma Newman - The Six Habits You Need to Get Well and Stay Well Now
Dr. Gemma Newman is the Plant Powered Doctor
Rip welcomes Dr. Gemma Newman, the Plant-Powered Doctor, to discuss her new book, Get Well Stay Well - The Six Healing Health Habits You Need to Know.
Inspired by a real patient story, Gemma introduces her GLOVES acronym, which serves as the framework for her six healing habits.
Gratitude
Love
Outside
Veggies
Exercise
Sleep
This uplifting and approachable book is the antidote to pills and prescriptions. Dr. Newman’s holistic prescriptions found in the book are accessible, evidence-based, and have profound impacts on mental and physical health.
Get Well, Stay Well: The Six Healing Health Habits You Need to Know is being released in the US in hardback on March 7th, so you’ll want to pre-order it now. Inside, you’ll find pages for journaling and personal reflection, along with follow-along exercises.
This year, let’s all put on our GLOVES and practice these six healing habits - gratitude, love, being outside, eating our vegetables, exercising, and getting great sleep.
That sounds like the perfect prescription for happiness and health this year from the plant-powered doctor, Gemma Newman.
Episode Highlights:
0:09:45 Dr. Gemma’s Health Journey -Taking Control of My Health with Exercise and Diet
0:18:24 The Power of Consistent Lifestyle Changes
0:29:14 The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19
0:32:58 Introducing GLOVES and the Power of Gratitude
0:40:51 Love: The Power of Self-Talk
0:45:06 The Impact of Past Experiences on Self-Perception
0:48:03 Self-Love: Embracing and Adoring Ourselves
0:51:24 Transition to the Benefits of Being Outside and in Nature
0:59:33 Recognizing Self-Worth and Intelligence
1:03:16 The Importance of Active Listening in Tailoring Advice for Patients
1:05:24 Building Connection with Clients and a Full Lifestyle Approach
1:07:02 Why Movement is a Key Habit
1:14:42 Practical Tips for Healthy Sleep
1:19:18 Challenges of Sleep Patterns as a Parent and Shift Worker
1:23:41 The Impact of Screens on Sleep Patterns
About Dr. Gemma Newman
Dr Gemma Newman is a British family doctor with twenty years of experience. She is also a Reiki healer, a member of The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine and is on the board of Plant Based Health Professionals UK. She is passionate about treating body, mind and spirit to beat disease. She is regularly invited to teach other doctors and the general public about the benefits of plant-based nutrition via training programs, podcasts and medical conferences. She has been featured on ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky News Sunrise as well as BBC Radio. She has also spoken on many podcasts including The Rich Roll podcast, Feel Better Live More with Rangan Chatterjee, and Wellness Unpacked with Deliciously Ella. She also hosts The Wellness Edit podcast with Holland and Barrett which was nominated for Podcast of the Year by the PPA Awards. Her first bestselling cookbook was The Plant Power Doctor. Get Well Stay Well is her second book.
Find Gemma on Instagram and Facebook @plantpowerdoctor
The hardcover of Get Well Stay Well is being released on March 7th, 2024 in the United States. Pre-order today!
Episode Resources
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The six healing health habits that can help you on your PLANTSTRONG voyage can be as simple as wearing gloves.
Say what? All that and more in my interview with Dr. Gemma Newman that starts right now.
Welcome to 2024, my PLANTSTRONG champions.
If you're just tuning into the PLANTSTRONG podcast, I want you to know that I welcome you wherever you are on your PLANTSTRONG journey, and that we have lots and lots of resources to help you along the way.
For those of you that have been with us for a while, can you believe that we are now on our sixth year of the PLANTSTRONG podcast?
[0:45]Sixth! Thanks to you, we've now amassed over 10 million downloads, and I'll go out on a limb and say that we're just getting started sharing the good news about plants.
We're also being downloaded in over 175 countries, including Greece, Brazil, Italy, Denmark, Poland, Slovenia, and of course, the UK, Australia, Canada, and the good old United States of America.
I am so, so grateful, which is why I could think of no better way to start the year with a huge, powerful dose of gratitude with the plant power doctor herself, Dr. Gemma Newman.
Gemma's latest book, Get Well, Stay Well, The Six Healing Health Habits That You Need to Know is available now in the UK and the hardcover is coming to the United States on March 7th.
So you're gonna wanna be sure to order this gem from Gemma today.
This was such a fun episode.
[1:47]In fact, I don't think I've laughed this hard during a conversation on the podcast ever.
And we did it multiple times. How could it not be a blast when you're talking about living with gratitude and love, getting outside and exercising, eating your fruits and vegetables, and getting quality sleep?
As Dan Buettner says, this book is the equivalent of a warm hug.
And so is this uplifting and inspiring conversation.
[2:20]Please welcome Dr. Gemma Newman back for her second appearance on the PLANTSTRONG Podcast.
Gemma Newman, what's a-shakin' across the pond? Hi Rip, how are you?
[2:37]Well, I'm good, I'm good, but I don't care about me, I want to talk all about you today. How are you?
I'm feeling fabulous, I'm happy, I'm excited, and I'm thrilled to be chatting to you.
Well, now you have to tell me, that is such a delightful background that you have there.
[2:57]Where are you and how did you get such an impressive background studio well it's my husband's studio he runs a communications company and so he wanted to have all these gorgeous bowls and books and in fact that's my book i don't know if you can see that those are two those two are my books plantpowerd doctor get well stay well so yeah i'm sort of sneaking into his studio and using it whilst he's out. Uh-huh.
Uh, so you are officially interloping. Good for you. I am been a bit sneaky. Yeah.
And because it's kind of the evening time there, what are the chances of one of your children knocking on the door and coming in and, uh, and interrupting us?
Honestly, the chances are quite high. My nine-year-old especially, and probably my little little dog as well.
She, she pines me when I'm not there. She's like my shadow.
Um, so yeah, she might be, she might be scratching at the door any minute as well. Yeah.
Well, for everybody listening, I want you to know that, um, we had Gemma on the PLANTSTRONG podcast once before she was episode number 77, which seems like ions ago, Jenna, Gemma, we're up to gosh, maybe 230.
[4:14]230, 240 now.
So lots has happened. You have become like this plant-based guru, like studettes.
I mean, you are rocking it.
I mean, congrats on what you've been able to do.
I mean, your book, The Plant Powered Doctor did incredibly well. You know, I just saw you, everywhere. Everybody was talking about you.
And so like, what is, I mean, how has your life changed since your first book came out and, uh, you know, in social media and your new celebrity status?
Oh, well, I might be Zed list celebrity at the moment was Z list.
[5:02]Yeah, no, my life has is much the same in the sense that I'm still working in the national health service. I'm I'm still a general practitioner.
I've got my patient lists. I've got nearly 3,000 patients that I look after.
And I absolutely love still doing that as my day job.
But I have to say, there's been some lovely opportunities over the last couple of years.
[5:23]And I don't know if you know, but there was an amazing film called Eating Our Way to Extinction that I was in. And Kate Winslet was the narrator.
So I was really excited about that. And that was talking all about sustainable diets and how we can, you know, eat better better for our planet.
And just recently, I had the amazing opportunity to speak to the European Commission about sustainable diets as well, which was a huge opportunity.
And it actually felt as though I was kind of creating change, which I think sometimes you'd like to think that you are, but you don't obviously have tangible proof that you are.
But when I was stood up there in Brussels, in the European Commission building in front of the commissioners, I thought, yes, yes let's let's make a change wow were you nervous when you were speaking in front of them or how'd you feel you know it's really interesting I wasn't that nervous I felt you know what I do when I'm going to do a big speech like that and presentations and things like that obviously you get a little bit of butterfly feeling I think that's natural but I tend to focus on the message you know I think.
[6:35]Interestingly, when you get nervous, it's like your ego in reverse.
So, you know, when I say ego, people usually think of, you know, you think you're all that and you think you're amazing, but it's your ego that also makes you feel really self-conscious as well, because you're thinking more about what other people think of you than what you're actually trying to say.
So when I'm in that kind of situation, I like to think about the message and what I'm hoping to give rather than worrying about what they think of me.
And then it kind of helps me flow a lot better and then I get less nervous.
That is such wonderful advice. Did you get any of that from your husband since this is what he does? He coaches people on public speaking.
Yeah, he's amazing, actually. Richard Newman and his book, Lift Your Impact, which I think is actually probably behind my head. Yes, it is.
I don't know if you can watch in the video, you can see Lift Your Impact.
[7:31]Yeah, he taught me that. And he has spent his entire career studying how to help people use their voice, how to help people lift their message, because he wants to help people communicate.
Okay, that's his raison d'etre.
Yeah. Well, what's so interesting to me as well about what you just said is when we first talked –, um gosh well over a year and a half ago you mentioned to me that one of the hardest things for you when you and your family decided to go plant-based was oh my gosh what in the world are our neighbors gonna think yeah we're worried about what your neighbors were gonna think and that you would never get invited over for like dinner again yeah it's true because i'm i'm much much more of a social butterfly.
And I think for me, it sounds like a silly thing to worry about, but I'm sure other people must have the same ideas, you know, when they make a big shift in their dietary patterns.
And it's something that people can sometimes feel a little bit defensive about as well.
And so, yeah, it was a big worry of mine to start with, but thankfully, you know, we've still get the occasional invite here and there.
[8:46]I'm not a complete social pariah, thankfully. yeah well you what happens is you typically you you make new friends yeah there's no doubt about it the number of dinner invitations goes down dramatically yeah less invites for dinner and yeah but more friends like you say you know it's the there's there's ups and downs but uh yeah no and also you can invite people over more right you know if you've got some amazing recipes you you want to share, then people usually don't say no to a delicious meal. No, no.
[9:19]So since it's been a while since you've been on, I'd love for, and we have a lot more listeners, I'd love, let's just really, really briefly touch upon your voyage into plant-based.
Could you start by giving us kind of the abbreviated version of what happened with Richard and the marathon and tell us also So a little bit about your.
Taking Control of My Health with Exercise and Diet
[9:45]Family history with heart disease? Yes.
So way back when I was a young doctor and I was getting really exhausted, I thought, well, I need to try and make sure that I'm well enough and able to keep this as my career because I was doing lots of late nights and I was doing lots of long shifts and I was exhausted.
And so years and years ago, I thought, right, I need to get fit.
So I was doing doing loads of exercise.
And I decided to start running back then as well. And I was eating lots of chicken, lots of fish, lots of salads.
And I was able to feel more energized and I was able to lose weight.
And I was reaching a lot of my sporting goals. However, I had a lot of pain in my knees when I ran.
And when I was at my peak of physical fitness in my late 20s, I decided to get a blood test. And it showed that I had a raised cholesterol.
And I realized that that was probably probably part of my family history, because my grandfather died suddenly of a heart attack whilst playing tennis.
And at the time, it hadn't yet happened.
But sadly, my father also died 59 years of age of a heart attack.
Again, it was a big sort of sudden death, collapsed heart attack die.
[10:57]And so when I realized that my cholesterol was high as well, at that time, I thought, well, it's just my genetic destiny.
You know, I just have to put up with it. The fact is, I'm doing everything I can. And I left it at that.
Fast forward a few years, and my husband decides he's going to start running marathons.
And he was getting a lot of inflammation, a lot of pain.
[11:18]And he was looking at his running technique, he was changing his footwear.
And in the end, he thought, well, hang on, what about what I'm eating? What about my fuel?
So he started to look at all of the ultra athletes that he'd been reading about people like Rich Roll, obviously, Yisley and Brendan Brazier and Scott Jurek.
And he thought, oh, they're all eating plant-based.
Maybe I should do the same.
And I was quite skeptical, as you've rightly remembered. I'm like, we'll never get an invite to anyone's house. People are going to think we're strange.
[11:48]And he thought he might have some nutritional deficiencies. Yeah, I thought, oh, no, he's going to have a protein deficiency.
But I watched along and I I was curious and I'd already read a lot of the environmental research about the benefits of plant-based eating so I knew that that was you know a good thing but to my mind it was miraculous he stopped getting a lot of inflammation and injury and he was running faster he was stronger he was able to improve his marathon running time between the first and the second marathons he ran by an hour and 10 minutes and I thought wow this is really something so I began to look into a lot of the data at hand and, I realized that there were some amazing benefits for my patients.
[12:32]So I decided to give it a go myself.
And I was a little bit sneaky. I thought, I'm just going to do it without telling anyone because I'm worried that if I don't quite manage it, then I'll lose face.
So I started to cook plant-based.
And maybe about a month or so in, I said to my husband, Richard, I said, oh, you know what?
I've been fully vegan for the last month. And he hadn't realized he was really excited.
And then I checked my cholesterol again and amazingly it had completely normalized and this was you know well over a decade after the first time I had it checked and I was I'd had two kids I was less physically active you know all of my other health parameters would seemingly have been worse and yet I was still able to have a normal cholesterol reading and the other great thing was was that, you know, with my running, I ran two marathons after that, and I didn't have any knee pains. So that was fantastic.
[13:28]And my patients, of course, that's the real, that's the real change.
Plant-Based Diet Success Stories with Patients
[13:32]That's the magic. Because, you know, when my patients have started to eat more plant-based, they've been seeing amazing results as well, as I'm sure you've probably heard many times on your podcast, people are able to reduce their blood pressure and improve their digestive health and their hormonal health and all sorts of things. Yes, absolutely.
Another, I think, very important thing about Richard and his marathon was his marathon after we went plant-based, he dropped his time an hour and 10 minutes.
Yeah. Yeah. That's like crazy, crazy. I know.
I know. It was incredible. I thought that's what really got my attention. Yeah.
And then one more story I'd love for you to tell, and then I'd love to move on with the new exciting thing. And that is.
[14:21]So I think it's incredible how over there with your practice at NHS, you see a whole wide range of patients as kind of a family practitioner from like children all the way to geriatrics, right?
Right. I see newborn babies. I see women needing contraception.
I see elderly frail who need home home visits.
I see everything, anything and everything.
So you, I mean, you really are a Jack of all, you know, Jack of all traits here, but there was one story that you told about somebody.
He worked in the airport. He had high blood pressure. He was a driver.
He was at risk of losing his job. He came in, I think this is before you were completely sold on it.
Can you, can you share that story about what happened with that patient?
Cause it's so profound. out.
Yeah. So he came in to see me and he had this ashen look on his face and he slumped into the chair.
And I said, what's wrong? Like what's happened?
And he said, I've been told to go home from work and I need to make sure that I see you.
Otherwise I might lose my job. And I said, what has happened?
And he said, my blood pressure was massively high.
I had a spot test medical and I need to be able to drive for my job.
He works at Heathrow Airport.
[15:43]And I can't do that anymore because my blood pressure is dangerously high.
And they told me I had to come straight to you and they revoked my license.
And I said, okay, okay.
[15:55]And this gentleman, you know, he was really into his meat.
He loved eating meat and he would have meat with pretty much every meal.
And we talked about his options And of course, I offered him medications and I explained that there was going to probably be at least three different medications that he would need, likely at low to mid dose, in order to get him from where he was to where he needed to be.
And his blood pressure was up over 180, over 100 millimeters of mercury, which, I mean, just to give you an idea, a normal blood pressure reading, a perfect sort of blood pressure would be about 120, 80 or less.
[16:35]So he had a lot of work to do and he said well do I have to be on these tablets forever and I said, Well, yeah, because, you know, that's the half-life of the tablet.
You have to take one each morning. And if you don't take them, then your blood pressure goes up.
And he said, I don't want to be on tablets for life. I said, are you willing to do anything to not be on tablets for the rest of your life? He said, anything.
I will do anything. I said, okay, well, let's talk about your diet.
And he was quite shocked when I explained to him that eating a whole foods plant-based diet would have such an impact on his blood pressure.
And to be honest, I wasn't sure if it would have enough of an impact.
Myself, but he was committed because he loved his job and he didn't want to be on tablets forever.
So he decided to give it a go.
And incredibly, it was a really short space of time.
[17:24]Maybe just over a week or so, less than two weeks later, he was able to come back to me and his blood pressure had completely normalized, completely normalized, which I was completely completely shocked by because it is such a big dramatic change from 180 over 100 back down to 120 over 80 I thought it was a mistake I said this can't be right I'm going to check my machine.
[17:47]You're going to have to come back I did it on three separate occasions just to confirm that the readings were correct and he was absolutely thrilled you know I gave him some advice about whole food plant-based eating I also advised him to have at least a couple of tablespoons of flax flaxseeds every day.
I talked to him about the benefits of hibiscus tea, of beetroots, all the things that you do to open up your blood vessels and increase the nitric oxide in your blood vessels so that you've got nice, supple, reactive blood vessels.
And he did the whole lot. And yeah, he never looked back. He was really thrilled.
And I was able to give him a medical and he was able to go back to work.
The Power of Consistent Lifestyle Changes
[18:24]Wow. And then you were like, like this really, there's something to this. Yeah, exactly.
At that point, it was wonderful for me because it put theory into action and it allowed me to really understand how powerful it could be because I still think that many doctors and many people in the wider public don't really get that it can make a big difference.
And obviously it's not a panacea, you know, we still can get sick.
And of course we will all die, but it's amazing to think how much of a difference this can make if done consistently and, you know, jump, jumping all in.
You said something interesting. I just want to ask you a question about it because you hear so many people like at our retreats and stuff say that they went to the doctor and the doctor said, yeah, you're going to be on these blood pressure medications or, you know, these, these diabetes diabetes medications for the rest of your life.
[19:22]And, and you said that's because the half-life of the medicine is you just have to keep taking it, I guess, in order to get the, the results.
[19:31]And is that because with, I just said, let's just say, traditional medicine, and because they're not prescribing food as medicine, you're never actually ever getting to the root causation of the illness to begin with. Is that accurate?
[19:50]I think so. But you know what? Sometimes the root cause is not always that obvious as well.
So I think my way of practicing is always to look for what is it in the person's lifestyle that could be contributing and what is it that they are able to and willing to change given their background their finances their mental bandwidth like what what can they do to empower themselves without blame um that's how i see it because there's lots of different people in this world that have very challenging situations that they live through and that they were born with and that they can't change but it's lovely to know that there are a few things you could do if you you are able to, that can really make a difference.
And I think, you know, when I talk about half life of medicines, I guess in a way, you could also think about the half life of the food, right?
Like if you, if you eat healthily for a week, it doesn't mean that you are going to maintain health for the rest of your life.
If you take blood pressure tablets for a week, it doesn't mean that your blood pressure is going to be normal for the rest of your life.
It's about consistently doing something to maintain health and hopefully happiness lifelong.
And it's those habits that are sometimes hard to break, but are really important.
Great. I love that answer. And I think it's the perfect transition into your new book, right?
[21:18]Get well, stay well. the six healthy habits that you need to know.
Now, obviously, you put a lot of time and energy and blood, sweat, and tears into this book.
When did you start writing it?
I was like, well, this book has my absolute heart because I started writing this book at the same time that I started writing The Plant Powered Doctor.
Because there was just so much that I wanted to say about life, about what it was like to have 20 years in clinical practice, all of the patients that I've seen, all of the life experiences that they've shared with me.
And all of the things that I really wanted people to know about the psychology of lifestyle change, as well as, of course, nutrition.
So the first book was very much naturally nutrition focused because people don't often understand the power of food on their plate.
But I really also wanted to have, so this book also has a whole chapter on nutrition and why it's important.
But it also to have so many other things. And yeah, I think for me, it was, it was a real passion project and I really love it. Honestly, I love, love, love this book.
[22:37]Well, you were, you were kind enough to send me over a PDF and it is just, it really is chock full of just so much incredible information and it is so, um, beautifully written.
You, um, you have an acronym that you kind of ingeniously came up with.
And I think you said it was Millie that kind of helped you with the acronym and it's gloves, which is the acronym that serves for your six, your six healing health habits.
How did you come up with gloves? Yes.
You know, I use gloves a lot in my clinical practice, as I'm sure many doctors do for intimate examinations, for infection control.
[23:25]And many times I'm taking them off and I'm putting them on.
And I was in clinic one day and I was seeing a patient of mine who you've mentioned, and she's a nurse and she has to wear gloves a lot too.
[23:38]And sadly, she came in to see me with a latex allergy.
So she had really nasty eczema on her hands as a result of having to wear gloves all the time and you know her hands have got very sweaty and she developed an allergy to latex so she was in a really bad way and what was required of me in that consultation was to give her some moisturizing creams maybe give her some steroid creams and to advise her to start using non-latex gloves right those are the things that were required and she would have gone away perfectly happy with that but you know when it comes to understanding a little bit more about someone's life it's always helpful to kind of take a little bit of a scratch below the surface so in Millie's case you know she was living in a house share a flat share and she was really busy as a nurse she would work hard she would play hard she was out at weekends drinking alcohol quite frequently lying in not really looking after her nutrition she'd grab food on the go you know she would like get a croissant and a coffee on her way into work she'd she wouldn't have time to sit down and eat.
Same for lunch. She'd maybe have a ham and cheese sandwich.
She would get a takeaway meal in the evenings. She'd scroll through social media to help her relax, maybe watch a little bit of Netflix.
And then that was her routine. And she was exhausted. You know, she was really tired.
[24:58]And I noticed that she also had other.
[25:02]Um risk factors for immune issues for example things like asthma and seasonal hay fever and she always had a bit of thyroid dysfunction so we talked a bit more about her lifestyle and, between us we came up with a a three-pronged strategy that the three things that she felt she could do to improve her lifestyle which were to batch cook a little bit on a sunday so that she She had a few meals for the week, which meant that she wasn't getting a takeaway.
She was able to, she decided that she would prioritize sitting down to eat breakfast, sitting down to eat lunch.
[25:40]Sounds simple, but it's an important thing to help your digestion.
[25:45]To help your enzymes in your mouth, the amylase, digest the sugars that you're eating and allow you that moment of calm, allow your gut microbes to start kicking in.
They've got their own circadian day night rhythm as well by the way and the third thing that she decided that she was going to do was she was just going to um uh what was it now i forgot what she said she was gonna back on a sunday she was gonna sit down to eat oh yes that's right it was about sleep she was going to ensure she set an alarm on her phone to go to bed an hour earlier than she was before and wake up at a consistent time that was those were the three things she was going to do and when I saw her I think it's about three months later she was thrilled because she was able to actually cut back on her asthma medication her issues with her skin hadn't come back thankfully and her skin overall had improved and also her thyroid regulation had improved as well and these are things I couldn't possibly have known for sure but it's.
[26:46]Amazing how simple lifestyle changes done consistently can have a fantastic effect on our overall health so that got me thinking I was thinking gloves for her were obviously the precipitant of her issues but she was willing to take the gloves off and get the work done and I thought it also is the perfect acronym for the six things that I think are crucial for our well-being and the things that are completely free and easy to access so this is not an expensive plan you don't need a ton of of supplements or, you know, biohacking tools.
[27:17]You just need these six habits in your day-to-day life and you'll do well.
So do you want to know what they are, Rip?
[27:25]I absolutely do, but not yet. Not yet.
I want to tease our listeners just for a little bit longer because you say that the The body, mind, and the soul are not separate.
And I think that intuitively, I think we all know that, but I don't think...
[27:47]And I'll speak for myself, that as many people engage in those three things, like body, mind, soul, and this kind of big holistic overview that is so important and obviously is what you are, that you've done here with your new book.
Yeah, I think it seems so obvious when you say it, but actually you can't really separate body and mind and soul because to me they are all part of the one that is us and every patient that I think realistically that I've ever seen who is living with a chronic condition is all too familiar with the fact that their mood and their ability to to have autonomy and a feeling of safety in their lives has a direct impact on their perception of pain and their ability to effectively live with their chronic disease.
Like it's very, very much connected.
And in order to really look after the physical body, some people need to look after their mental health first and vice versa.
Somebody could have the healthiest diet you could possibly imagine, but still suffer with crippling anxiety, which completely derails their life.
The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19
[29:15]And so, I just think it's really important to recognize that as humans, we're multifaceted, and we need to look at all of the parts of the whole, not just one.
Yeah. And you mention in the book as well that.
[29:29]When COVID hit, didn't you see a whole new level of kind of anxiety and mental kind of illness that presented itself?
Yeah, of course. It was a very challenging time. And I still see that now.
I see we have increasing rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, feelings of social isolation and loneliness, increased rates of autoimmune diseases.
Diseases even in young people increased rates of things like bowel cancers and inflammatory bowel disorders uh fibromyalgia um post-covid syndrome we have a whole generation of people who i think feel let down by life chances let down by maybe the health care system let down by.
[30:18]What's been happening in the world recently and of course things like eco-anxiety are a big thing now as well it's very real to consider you know that we don't have the same kind of world for our children and grandchildren to grow up in as perhaps we had and these are all things that feed into each other and in fact the the lancet report was amazing at actually giving that name it's a global syndemic you know we have increased rates of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer and diabetes in tandem with increased risk of undernutrition, increased risk of infectious diseases that are fueled by the animal agriculture industry and our overuse of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance.
And of course, a lot of the existential crises that we now face as a result of climate change, that's called a global syndemic, which I think is something that we now really need to focus our attention on. And- What I aim to do in this book, rather than focus too much on all of the things that we can't control, this book is really to help empower people to feel as though there are things that they can do that they can control.
[31:26]So you said two things, eco-anxiety, I think you said, and you said global syndemic.
Yeah. What is a syndemic? I don't know that word. A syndemic is where you have health parameters that are affecting huge swathes of the population.
So, for example, an epidemic you'd know, you'd be familiar with in terms of, we usually refer to infectious diseases as becoming epidemic.
But of course, in popular parlance, we now talk about how chronic diseases as a result of overnutrition or poor nutrition can also be thought of as an epidemic.
And a syndemic is where the different kinds of epidemic interact with each other and enhance the effects of each other.
So when we talk about climate change and the effects of the animal agriculture industry, we see that these epidemics of chronic disease, obesity and undernutrition and infectious diseases interact with each other and are enhanced by one another.
That's why it's called a syndemic, because they are synergistic. Got it.
Man, you are a great teacher. Oh, thank you.
You're a great explainer. That was really great.
[32:50]Okay, I think it's time. Let's let everybody know what GLOVES stands for and why everybody needs it.
Introducing GLOVES and the Power of Gratitude
[32:58]It gloves stands for gratitude love outside veggies exercise and sleep.
[33:09]That's delicious to me. Yes. Now, it's a bit strange, I know, when you hear doctors talk about gratitude and love, but there is a lot of science behind the book.
As you will have seen, you know, there's a ton of references there.
It's so crucial for us to be able to.
[33:28]Understand the concepts of looking after ourselves and each other and how that can be done and practically, and focusing on the things that make us feel good and that give us a sense of community and connectivity as a way of boosting our health.
And that's why, I mean, fortunately, the first two letters of gloves, which is very handy, because I do think that they're the first two things that I think of when I think about what it means to get healthy and stay healthy.
Because when you are living a life filled with gratitude practices, and when you are living a life, where you are mindful of what your values are and how you want to give to your family, your friends, your wider community, it's much easier for you to have the self-compassion that it takes to maintain healthy dietary and movement habits.
So when it comes to gratitude, are there any exercises that you recommend that the listener starts to engage in just to kind of.
[34:29]Because I, I know, I know a lot of people that never express gratitude.
It's just not part of their, it's not part of their makeup.
And I, I am trying to get much better at it.
Is there a way that you recommend us, um, express gratitude or how do we start if we're not good at I love that question.
And in the book, I have made a table, which if you're watching this, you'll be able to see it's the gloves daily action guide.
And you can see each of the categories.
[35:09]You can see practical things that you can do that will actually boost your ability to feel gratitude.
So, for example, I've got something called the Meaning Maker Exercise, which I can talk you through, which is quite nice.
But also there are other techniques that will allow you a lot more peace with where you're at.
So I've encompassed a few things in the gratitude chapter because, I mean, the truth of human existence is that we will all experience some form of suffering and that we will all experience pain.
[35:46]And it's often how we process those experiences that can really feed into the quality of our lives and, The the role of the gratitude chapter is not to try and always think positive and push down negative emotions because that doesn't work.
[36:06]But I think it's important to have a positivity slant and also have a sense of acceptance of where your emotions are going.
A feeling of understanding yourself and why you get into some sort of negative rumination patterns and then actively seek to move through them and um take in some more positive habits so if you are struggling to know where to begin you can do something simple which is a reframing exercise um which basically means when something that you have decided is bad happens happens, take a moment, pause, and think about the ways in which you have learned something from that experience.
[36:53]And again, it doesn't minimize the experience or make someone get away with something that they may have done to you.
But it just allows you a moment to think, is there something that I could have done differently in that moment?
Is there something that I have learned about myself that I'm proud of because of what happened?
And to journal, I'm a huge fan of journaling.
Not everybody is. And if it's not somebody's habit, then you won't necessarily start with that. But it really helps me to write these things down.
Because in fact, there's a study, which I will share with you, about the power of gratitude, even if you are feeling low.
So the study took people who were requiring counseling for low mood, and they split them into three different groups.
You had a group that was asked to write a gratitude diary of things that they felt grateful for, things that they'd noticed.
And it doesn't have to be a lot. You could be grateful that your lungs breathe, grateful that your arms move, or, you know, whatever.
[37:52]The second group wrote down the things that were on their mind, the things that had been bothering them.
And the third group was a control group, and they only had the therapy.
So all three Three groups had therapy, I should say.
And what was interesting is that all three groups improved, but it was the group that wrote the gratitude journal that improved the most significantly of the three.
And it's something about being able to reframe your experiences with an awareness of what you could take from them that really helped to empower people and make them feel better psychologically and, of course, physically too.
What's the last thing that you can remember where you express gratitude for something?
[38:40]Well, just before I came in here, I told the boys that I was so grateful that they were going to behave themselves once they finished their dinner.
I was like, it was actually, to be honest, that was more of a behavioural control point. I'm like, I am so grateful that you boys are so responsible.
You know, when I come back in, I'm so grateful because I know that you're both going to be in your pyjamas.
So actually to be honest if i'm being brutally honest that's a an expression of gratitude with a hope that they would actually do what i asked them to do yes yes but for me honestly i have found it transformational in my life because i know that when i when i feel grateful for every single thing that i currently have in my life which is a hard thing to do because you don't always want everything that's in your life.
And I know a lot of people have very challenging circumstances.
[39:34]But for me personally, it really helps to shift what I notice.
And I think that that's true for everyone because our brains work in an interesting way.
If I told you, Rip, to not think about pink elephants, you don't think about pink elephants, please don't think about pink elephants, you're going to start thinking about pink elephants.
And in a way, it's similar Similar with gratitude, if you start to notice the good things that people do, the smiles that you receive, the compliments that you receive and say thank you rather than pushing them away or trying to minimize them or trying to immediately think something negative, then it makes you more compassionate person.
Not only towards yourself, but towards other people as well, which is another way of enhancing your quality of life. Yeah.
[40:25]What I love, too, is you talk about it in the book, how much we will how the radical transformations that you've seen, not only with your patients, but also in your family and yourself.
So these are things that you're actually doing at home with you, with yourself and Richard and your lives and having really wonderful results. So cool.
Love: The Power of Self-Talk
[40:51]Let's move on. Can we move on to love? love of course um yeah so like i know you kind of mentioned it you kind of grouped it in there with gratitude but i'm wondering if specifically we want to address anything more on love so in the love chapter i talk about a lot of different things but in terms of practical things that your listeners might be interested in for this conversation i talk about um that our self-talk the things that we say to ourselves when we're by ourselves and you know we can't ever escape ourselves and what i've noticed over the years of my patients is that they can sometimes be their own absolute worst critics and they would never dream of saying the things that they say to themselves to their friends or loved ones and yet they feel as though you know they deserve to have have a constant barrage of negativity in their own minds.
Why are we so hard on ourselves like that? Why do you think that is, that most people are like that?
Well, I think there's not one straight answer.
[42:02]There's probably lots of things that contribute to that. I think sometimes, you know, when you have a busy mind, you tend to believe all the things that you hear yourself say, whether it's in your own head or out loud.
And people tend to believe themselves when they say certain things, but they sort of forget that they don't actually have to believe every single thought that they have.
You know, if they can imagine themselves sitting on a park bench and imagine each of their thoughts as a person who just happens to be walking along in the park and they can just watch that person walking along it might be somebody walking their dog some kids hanging out at the play park somebody going for a jog now these are all different thoughts running through their head and they are the observer they don't have to believe every single one of them they're just they're just kind of you know rock on by it doesn't have to mean that that is objective truth about who you are and what you you think and who you who you are as a person so i think once people realize that they are not their thoughts their thoughts are just their brains coming up with sometimes quite random things it doesn't actually have to be an expression of their identity i think that really helps, you made me think of um when we talked about the global systemic maybe it's a self-systemic yes exactly yeah that's a really powerful thought it's actually well the phrase is syndemic, syndemic yeah see look at me.
[43:32]But yeah no i'm so stupid no stop it stop it it's just a thought it's just a thought oh okay you know i mean i think about one of my patients i i it's actually quite a sad story she's a really high functioning person, very intelligent.
And she was struggling with anxiety.
And she's a happily married young professional, she had a lovely little baby.
[44:00]And she was thinking about going back to work. And every time she thought about it, she became crippled with anxiety. And she'd have these horrendous panic attacks.
And I asked her to tell me a bit more about her daily routines and the kind of things that she was doing, trying to unpick, understand why she was feeling this way.
And every time she thought about leaving her baby, she'd start to have these racing thoughts around her daughter's safety and about her ability to be able to get back to work.
And I said, where does this all come from? And then she broke down in tears. And she told me, that the thoughts that she had in her head is that I'm not good enough.
I can't even stop my baby from crying. I'm useless. I'm stupid. I'm pathetic.
I'll be rubbish at my job when I go back. I can't even remember anything.
And the list went on and on. It was literally a barrage of self-abuse.
And, you know, it was quite a shock to hear all this coming out of her mouth because Because I'd seen her many times before and she was always really smiley and hugely, just a lovely, positive person.
The Impact of Past Experiences on Self-Perception
[45:06]And I asked her how she'd feel if she was with somebody who said those things to her.
And she said, oh, well, I wouldn't stay around very long. That's a horrible thing to say.
[45:16]And in her case, she mentioned that when she was younger, her father used to be quite critical.
And he'd say certain things that made her feel as though she wasn't good enough.
And she was doing a lot in her life with hindsight that she thought might impress him in order to seek his approval and gain his approval.
And it was only really in breaking down the ideas that she had about herself through the self-talk that she was subjecting herself to.
And it wasn't even a conscious choice that she could see these patterns and how they played out in her life. And I think that awareness really helped her because she began to understand that it was not an objective truth.
And we did it. You know, there's an interesting exercise in the book that I share that really helps you to get away from those kinds of thoughts, because not everybody has a high, high self-esteem.
[46:09]And you don't necessarily believe it when you start to shift your thoughts.
You know, there's a part of you that thinks, oh, well, that's not true.
Well, that's not true. so for her um there was a lovely exercise where we we talk about um positive role modeling and a good guide which is one of the tenets of um compassion focused therapy uh rather than cognitive behavioral therapy it's slightly different but it allows you to imagine your best mentor and it doesn't have to be somebody who um even exists in real life it could be be somebody from a movie, somebody that you admire from afar.
But imagine what that mentor would say to you when you're struggling, rather than trying to come to your own rescue.
And if you could imagine what they might say to you, then that could be really helpful, again, as a journaling tool, rather than just kind of becoming mired in all of these negative thoughts that you're generating.
I've heard that we have on average something like 60,000 thoughts a day, something Something ridiculous like that.
And of those 60,000, most people, like 90,000 of them are negative, negative thoughts.
Do you feel that way, Rip? I mean, how does this land with you?
What have you noticed about yourself?
It's so funny. I was just going to ask you, but...
[47:29]You know, I would say that I am, I am more positive than negative.
Right. But there's certainly negative that, that is, is, is in there and it creeps up, but I, I really do like myself.
Right. I mean, I love myself and, and I know a lot of people that can't say that about themselves.
Do you love yourself? Yes.
Self-Love: Embracing and Adoring Ourselves
[48:04]How long have you loved yourself oh i adore myself.
The Importance of Self-Love and Childhood Caregivers
[48:11]I love i love that you love yourself i love it so much and i love that you love yourself oh oh my goodness it's a funny thing to say isn't it no isn't it isn't it i almost feel like uh it's a naughty thing to say out loud in front of other people.
[48:31]You're so conceited. You actually love yourself. How dare you?
Oh gosh. No, I, I think, I think it all, all jokes aside, I think it's really important to love yourself and you know, it's very possible to try and shift some of those patterns that we've had for for so long.
This is why I have a huge amount of love and respect for my mum, because all it takes is one loving caregiver, doesn't have to be both parents, doesn't even have to be a parent, but one loving caregiver in your life, ideally, of course, throughout your childhood, but especially in that first year when you're a baby, and you've got all these synapses that are connecting and and growing.
I think it's between 700 and 1,000 new synaptic connections a second are happening in the brains of babies.
And love is truly the main thing other than milk that a baby needs to thrive and for their brains to grow and all those synaptic connections to really take root. And.
[49:43]I felt loved. It was in some ways a chaotic childhood and I won't go into all of that because I'll be here all night.
But I think when you do feel truly loved by at least one person, it helps to give you some emotional resilience.
And there are studies to show that when you experience adverse childhood experiences, then having at least one healthy or happy caregiver giver who gives you love really helps you weather those storms effectively and helps you to feel that you know you can love yourself now we can I truly believe be healers of each other so, if you didn't have that as a child it doesn't mean that you are never going to experience that but it just means that your journey to it might be a little bit more rocky so I feel truly thankful that even throughout what some people on the outside would say was a difficult childhood I did feel truly loved.
And so I feel happy to say that I do love myself. Yeah.
[50:45]Yeah. That's, that's really nice. I feel the same way.
I mean, my mother, Anne was such a loving, wonderful mother to all of her children and had such a great sense of humor and just made us all feel like we were just so perfect and adorable and, um, and, uh, just great human beings.
So yeah, that anyway, that was great. All right. Shall we move on?
[51:17]If you want to, we can still talk about how much you love yourself.
I'm I'm good. If you're good.
Transition to the Benefits of Being Outside and in Nature
[51:24]Yeah. Yeah. So what's that? What's next? Oh, right.
Yeah. I was for outside because I think for many people, yeah, When they have an appreciation of nature and what nature can give us, it allows them to feel a certain amount of respect and connection with the natural world.
And hopefully then would also make them feel more interested in sustaining and protecting it.
So there's an external benefit from being outside and an internal benefit.
And the health benefits to us are pretty remarkable.
And there's some wonderful research into spending time in nature and what it can do, not just for our mental health, but also for our immune system and our ability to weather the coughs and colds of wintertime and such like.
I think it's actually really an underdeveloped area of research that I think is hugely important.
[52:20]Well, you refer to the outside as nature's antidepressant.
And i in coming back to love i love love love love nature and the outdoors and everything that it gives back to me when i take the time to go out and experience it it's just incredible yeah it really is and there are so many potential reasons why that would be even when you look at nature scenes you don't have to be outside although obviously there are some amazing benefits from actually being outside and you can even exercise outside which brings you into the e of gloves as well but just looking at nature scenes has been shown to be beneficial to us in terms of our mental health and there's some great studies on people who were staying in hospital and had a window that overlooked a natural scene or a hospital courtyard how they reported their hospital stay as being more pleasant they required less pain relief on average and they actually had had a shorter hospital stay as a result of just being able to look at a natural scene.
[53:25]And, you know, the same is true of the way that you view the world. So you, there's obviously an evolutionary advantage to the fight or flight sympathetic nervous system response to danger.
But in terms of our longevity and our ability to connect with others and have thoughts and ideas and collaborations, we have to also be able to engage the parasympathetic nervous system.
And we can do that in some ways, even by changing our focus.
[53:55]So from looking at at something that's very close to you like a computer screen being able to relax your eyes and look out into the distance preferably towards the horizon whatever that looks like for you wherever you are ideally outside you completely shift your nervous system and the way that that your eyes respond to stimuli and it allows you that space um to to feel more calm to feel more connected um and the fractals that you see in nature there's some very specific recurring patterns and fibonacci sequences that you can only really see in natural patterns and they go from things as small as a shell to as large as a coastline or a mountain these incredible recurring patterns that are that have a certain visual resonance that our eyes really respond to and yeah the smells the smells of nature the phyton sites that are released from primarily evergreens that can impact our immune system positively and there's some great studies on that as well um so yeah and of course microbes being a being able to experience a variety of microbes on our skin in our lungs uh are another way of really interacting with nature in a positive of way.
Living Close to Ancient Woodlands in the UK
[55:15]Where do you live in the UK? Do you live in an urban area or are you out in more of a rural area?
[55:22]I feel very fortunate that I am close to London, but that I am also close to one of the very few remaining ancient woodlands in the UK.
We have a real problem with agricultural land and urban areas taking over this tiny island.
[55:41]Only, I think, just over 2% of our landmass remains ancient woodland.
And I am very lucky that I live a short walk to a beautiful, beautiful forest.
And was that intentional on the part of you and Richard?
Yes, it was. I grew up by the sea and I love the sea.
And there are so many reasons why blue therapy, as it's called, is beneficial for us.
And there are lots of health benefits of being near a sea.
But the forest is my second love. And so to live in a village where we are a short walk anywhere in that village to about 400 acres of ancient woodland is a real blessing.
And not everybody has that. And I would say for people who live in cities and in urban environments, do not lose hope because there are plenty of ways that you could bring nature into your environment.
But, yeah, I'm really lucky to live near the woods. And in fact, it has been used for many movies. There are scenes from the Harry Potter franchise that were filmed in our woods and the old classic movie with Kevin Costner, Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
Some of that was also filmed in the woods near my home.
[56:52]Wow. So lucky. Lucky you. Yeah.
You know, I feel the same way. I was out on a mountain bike ride.
This is probably back in 2010 or 11.
And I saw these homes that and their backyards opened up to this vast green space of like 20,000 acres so I went to a real buddy of mine and I said hey if one of these houses on this street ever, facing west ever comes in the market please let me know and he let me know two years later two years later and we were able to get it and so we've been there since 2014 but our backyard literally is nature.
And it is just such, you talk about gratitude every day, every evening, we go for a walk to the aisle house and back.
And every morning we go out and we basically, you know, give thanks to the birds and the greenery and the.
[57:55]Babanachi patterns and the fractals all that stuff oh that's beautiful that is so beautiful yeah and it makes a huge difference to your quality of life i'm sure uh i mean yeah i just uh i feel sorry for people that that don't have a little bit a little bit of nature but to your point if you if you're in in the urban area there's some things that you can do yeah and it's really interesting to learn a bit more about town planning actually when it comes to green spaces and running water and the effects on people's mood when they you know that when they are near a fountain um and you know you've got loads of amazing projects in bringing green spaces back to cities and basically you know you can go to a local park and reap some of the very similar benefits if you don't have a garden or a backyard sorry you know you can go to a park and you can even bring even bringing a few herbs into your kitchen okay you are tending to these herbs and you know you've got these little plants on your windowsill that is in and of itself really helpful people who have house plants tend to have less in the way of moles and bacteria because the plants help to eliminate those and they may also slightly improve the amount of volatile organic organic compounds in the air through things like cooking and other kind of inhalants in the house.
[59:24]So there are benefits anyway, even if you don't have a garden.
[59:27]Wow. How did you get to be so smart and knowledgeable?
Recognizing Self-Worth and Intelligence
[59:33]Well, I read a few books. I definitely read a few books, Rip, and that's very kind of you. Thank you. I don't, you know, it's funny.
I don't feel smart. So it's very nice that you've said that, And I will accept that compliment.
Thank you. Yeah. But so, so if we can go back a little bit to the love, loving ourself. So do you consider yourself like bright or smart?
Because I mean, you really, really are. I'm just wondering if you think that though of yourself.
[1:00:01]I think it's natural for us to compare ourselves to people that we perceive to be more than.
So I sometimes will compare myself to someone that I perceive to be more smart, more clever.
And then I catch myself and think, you know what, you have something very unique to bring to the world.
And you've got a pretty decent brain. But above all else, you're a kind person and you want to do good things for people. And I think that sense of mission makes me feel good about myself.
Well, and you wrap it all up in the most charming package ever.
I mean, it's really delightful.
[1:00:41]Yes. So let's move on, shall we, to vegetables, which I don't know a thing about.
And I know you don't either.
Well, you know, this should have been the easiest chapter. And in a way, to be honest, it was.
But I had to include a nutrition chapter.
Because of my moniker plant power doctor um but also you know it's amazing to think there are just four health conditions that drive 80 of all premature deaths globally um and those health conditions are heart disease lung disease diabetes and cancer and what i find completely mind-blowing is that about 80% of these premature deaths can be prevented by adopting four healthy habits, which are a healthy diet, predominantly consisting of plants, regular physical activity, which is the exercise part, not smoking, and a sensible use of alcohol.
And just the one that has the most out of all of those four is the food.
It's the most impactful of all of those four. So of course I had to talk about it because it's the most obvious thing people can change and not everybody comes at it from a psychological point of view straight away.
So it's a lovely practical inroad into feeling better quickly.
Yeah. And tell me with your patients.
[1:02:08]Uh how do you go about trying to get them to include more vegetables fruits whole grains legumes into their into their life do you have a do you have a uh a tricker or a method yeah my my method i wouldn't call it a trick obviously i corrected myself there yes i love that I love that my method is to listen so what's that you're pretty good at it really you've been listening to me for about god knows how long now yeah you know yeah it's to listen I need to figure out what I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm done I'm done.
The Importance of Changing for Love
[1:02:54]Oh gosh yeah so you know people don't change unless they feel they can change your love you got the giggles yeah so do you yeah uh okay right let's put it together let's compose ourselves Get it together. Yeah.
The Importance of Active Listening in Tailoring Advice
[1:03:16]So, so, so you, so I think that's so incredible. You actually sit back and you listen.
I mean, that is a lost art today.
Day yes yes it is I listen so I need to figure out what's important to them and why they eat the way they do and once I've figured that out and also figured out what they've come to me with I can aim to tailor my advice based on their particular requirements so if somebody's coming coming in to see me because they're getting chest pain, I'll talk to them about how they can create a better future without chest pain, what that might look like for them and what they feel able to and willing to bring into their lives.
And if they've got period pains, I'll talk to them about how it feels to have a pain-free period, what it would mean for them, what they could do day-to-day differently.
And once I have been able to figure out what's important to them and the symptom that they are aiming to ameliorate, I can then focus my advice on that.
[1:04:25]So, you know, talking about studies on period pain or talking about studies for heart disease or whatever it might be.
And then of course, giving them some practical tools if they are able to and willing to, because over the last 20 years of clinical practice, especially because I see so many people that don't come to me specifically.
To want to change their lives. They get a little bit of a shock sometimes when I talk about other things.
[1:04:48]They need to be ready. And you can sometimes plant that seed and the soil might be, you know, full of nutrients and they might've had it watered just the right amount.
And they might've had just the right amount of sunshine and that seed will grow into a glorious plant, but not always.
And sometimes you just plant the seed and then you've got to come back to it later. So would you say that the majority of your 3,000 plus patients know that you are the plant power doctor?
Do they know your bias towards plants?
Building Connection with Clients and Lifestyle Approach
[1:05:24]Not when they sign up. Some of them know because they have gradually followed me on social media or they've seen that I have a book and they want to get the book and they want to talk to me about it. And of course, that's a lovely way in.
But many of them have no idea. And then it's only, you know, when we talk a little bit more about lifestyle and nutrition that they begin to understand a bit more about where I'm coming from. And that's a lovely surprise.
I mean, for some of them, they're not necessarily in the mindset to be able to change what they're doing.
Um and that's okay that's okay um but yeah i would say most of them don't know when they come and see me at least initially do you have your book for sale for them or to to read and yeah we have it to read i don't sell my book at work um yeah i i provide it on a um i guess it's like a mini library basis.
People can take the book and they can read it and bring it back as a kind of like a trust library.
And there's free resources on my website and some of them will want to buy the book and that's wonderful, but I don't sell it at work.
Yeah. Well, that's, that's so noble of you.
Thank you. Yes.
[1:06:48]Well, I think, I think most of the listeners really understand the importance of vegetables.
So why don't we move on to exercise?
Because...
The Sedentary Lifestyle: Sitting as the New Smoking
[1:07:03]I think as we all know, and this is such an overused quote, but, you know, sitting has become the new smoking.
And it seems like I was talking to somebody on the podcast a couple of weeks ago and she was adamant.
She's like, yeah, I heard a study that most people are sitting 10 hours a day.
I call BS on that. I think it's more like 14 hours.
So exercise, we got to exercise, don't we? We got to move. We've got to move, yes.
And actually, when I think about it, it's probably the pillar that I am less instinctively able to do.
Because for me, especially when I was younger, you know, I don't know if other people feel this way, but I was very, I was an only child for quite a lot of years before my younger sister was born.
And then going through the changes of puberty, you know, I didn't have a sports bra, okay?
I didn't have the things that would allow me to regularly feel as though I could move my body in a carefree way.
And that really, I feel, stifled my desire to move, which is quite sad when you think about it.
[1:08:18]And then it led to many years of physical inactivity for me personally.
You know, it took me a long time to instinctively decide, not even instinctively, it actually took me to telling myself, no, you've got to move to do it because it didn't come naturally to me, um.
[1:08:35]And I want to actually just sort of acknowledge that for many people, it doesn't come naturally.
[1:08:43]And that's okay. But it is important to know the benefits so that you can find ways to integrate it into your life in a way that you can actually enjoy it. So it's not a chore.
And it's something that you can actually benefit from.
And for me personally, I found it really helpful to look at movement in terms of making my body, loving my body, you know, making it strong, making sure that I go into my dotage in years to come with a strong body, one that can get me through anything.
And rather than worrying too much about things like having a nice bikini body, you know, it's more about loving yourself rather than restricting yourself.
Personally, that's how I look at it. Yeah.
[1:09:30]I've heard the term a durable body. It's funny, Gemma, because I have always been active, incredibly active, almost maybe to a fault where if I've got free time, I want to figure out a way I can move, right?
Well, that's a lovely advantage. Isn't that a great advantage to have that as your default mode?
Right. But it's funny because I've had some injuries just in the last couple of years, I broke my ankle mountain biking.
And so I was inactive for, well, I mean, I couldn't, I couldn't walk for almost six months.
And so that was, that was very difficult on me.
Um, yeah, it was, but getting back, it made me so empathetic to people that have a bad shoulder or a bad knee or bad knees or achy knees, because when something thing hurts, you don't want to get out and move.
You're not as, as motivated, motivated or incentivized.
[1:10:34]And, um, and I also find that it's really nice.
You sent at the top of the podcast, you mentioned something about just being consistent, right?
And I have found when I'm, when I consistently swim five days a week, when I play pickleball four days a week, And when I'm doing it and I, it just naturally, it's like this flywheel, right?
That just goes, but if you stop, it's really hard to get back on that flywheel.
Yeah, it really is. And so I think acknowledging how hard it is, is a wonderful way of bringing people in because, like you, I've had times in my life where I've got into the habit of not moving and then.
[1:11:16]To talk yourself into actually getting outside, putting on some sneakers and going for a five minute run even, um, is, is, uh, is a challenge, but it's so crucial.
You know, there are incredible amount of data now to talk about how amazing it is for our mental health and our physical health and our longevity to move our body. We're made to move.
Um, and it doesn't have to be that you have a gym membership it doesn't have to be that you are you know even.
[1:11:48]Considering yourself to be somebody who is athletic you just have to just start somewhere and maybe like little movement snacks you know so if you're waiting for the kettle to boil you might want to grab a couple of cans of baked beans and you know lift them or do some tricep dips or something uh just just to give you a few minutes of movement throughout the day and that's The emphasis in the blue zones is not about having a gym membership or doing high-intensity interval training or whatever it might be.
It's just about maintaining a consistent level of movement or at least making that part of your habits.
So in the E section of the book, I talk about moving your body.
But I also talk about breathing because breathing is one of the few things that you can actively change the way that you breathe and affect your autonomic nervous system.
Whereas there's not many other active ways that you can do that.
So I include breath work in that chapter as well, which I think people might find interesting. Yeah.
[1:12:56]What have you done to move today?
I, well, I went in to see my publisher and I was signing a few of my books.
It was nice to see them, but for the, but properly see the books.
So I was doing a lot of walking on the tube network in London and I decided that I would not stand on the escalators, that I would walk up and down every long escalator I could could find.
And I did very nice.
Yeah. Now are you into counting your steps and wearing like a ring or a watch or anything like that?
I have to say instinctively, I don't tend to use tech that much.
Um, I know some people love it because it's a wonderful incentivizer and I let you know my little story.
I said to my husband, I really wanted one of those rings that I could check my heart rate variability.
[1:13:56]And he kindly bought me one for Christmas. I wore it for about two weeks and decided I didn't want to wear it anymore.
So I think for me, I tend not to be too prescriptive around wanting to count steps and look at my data.
But for some people, that's really helpful and valuable.
And in fact, I wrote in the book about where the 10,000 steps came from.
It's around the time that Japan was hosting the Olympics and the symbol for 10,000 happens to look like somebody walking.
And so that's where it actually came from.
But there is some pretty good consistent data to show that that's a good amount of physical activity as well.
So it's just as well that the symbol looks like a 10,000 and not a five or something. Mm-hmm.
QR Codes for Recipes and Practical Tips for Healthy Sleep
[1:14:42]Hey, one of the things I overlooked from the vegetables section is you have, so many incredible recipes in your book as well. Oh, yes.
And like, for example, from The Happy Pair, I happened to see that one.
I'm like, oh my gosh, delicious recipes.
[1:15:02]No, the great thing. So I've done something quite good with the book.
I don't know if your listeners are watching and they can see it's a journal type book.
So it's like a friend, you know, it's going to guide you through the lifestyle changes that you want to make.
Um but it's not a full color cookbook you know this is not something that you will have all the color images and people get a bit put off by that because they love to see what they're going to make so what i've done is i've added a qr code to the book and so people can just um flash the qr code over their phone and then they'll be able to go to a landing page on my website where all of the recipes have beautiful images so you can decide which one you like most which one you're going to prepare next so it kind of gives you the best of a cookbook um but you've also got the um bespoke journal because it's very practical actually there's a there's a plan that you can make at the back based on your own medical history and your background so um yeah i wanted to make sure people could check the recipes and look at the pictures um without having to have a color book as well.
Yeah. I, um, I used, I did the QR codes. It worked on my PDF and it's just brilliant.
You've done a really phenomenal job with that. Whose idea was that to do that?
Um, that was my idea. Oh yeah. So smart. So smart.
[1:16:30]Thank you. It never stops. All the great thoughts.
Um, All right. Let's talk about sleep because I think more people than I, I, I think this is a full-blown pandemic with people not, not sleeping enough. Would you agree?
I would agree, Rip. Yes, I would.
And it's one of the things again, that people, I think there's two categories of person.
The first category is someone that doesn't really really get how important sleep is and doesn't prioritize it.
And then they just don't realize that it might be negatively impacting their life.
And then you get the second type of person who really struggled with sleep and spend every waking moment wishing they could sleep more and trying every single thing they could possibly think of to get a better night's sleep and still struggling.
So I think the advice for those two types of person is a little bit different, but for those of us who don't.
[1:17:29]Don't really prioritize it then you know the chapter is extremely helpful because it shows you why you need to prioritize it and some practical tips especially for people who are shift workers there's mounting evidence that if you're a shift worker you're going to be at a slight disadvantage when it comes to getting a good night's sleep and the physiological.
[1:17:50]Repercussions of that so I really wanted to provide practical tips for people who can't can't change their shift patterns and, you know, enjoy their jobs and want to keep doing what they do, uh, to maximize their, um, sleep, sleep, wake rhythms and improve their sleep.
Um, so yeah, there's, there's a lot of practical tips there and yeah, it's, it's, it's really important.
And for those who are suffering, for those who are suffering from insomnia, there are some great tips there as well, but it's slightly different, I think, depending on where you're coming from.
Yeah, I can tell you being a full-time firefighter for over 12 years, and we worked 24 on and then we were off 48 hours, being woken up six to 10 times between midnight and 7 a.m. was just brutal.
And so for almost 12 years, I was always trying to figure out my sleep.
And I didn't think I realized what, what kind of, um, what kind of damage it did to my system.
So that's one, one, one, one of the reasons why I'm so grateful that I am not a firefighter.
I miss so many things about it, but, uh, having consistent sleep is something that you can, uh, just love it.
Um, yeah. Tell me this. How do you sleep? Yeah.
Challenges of Sleep Patterns as a Parent and Shift Worker
[1:19:18]I sleep very well.
[1:19:21]I think for me, my problems with sleep in the past have been externally caused because when you are a parent, especially of younger children, then you're not going to be able to control your own sleep patterns as easily because your children dictate your sleep patterns sometimes.
[1:19:39]I mean, you can have a strict routine and you can have ways of doing things where the kids are going to wake you up less.
[1:19:45]But I think especially when they're in the younger years um it's it's completely normal and natural to expect your sleep patterns to be disrupted and that's that's a challenge you know that's a real challenge for let's face it mostly um new mums especially when you're nursing and so on um so i think that that was probably the biggest sleep challenge for me but i used to be a shift worker too and for a long time i would do a full week of nights um long days and um it it wasn't good for me and i'm glad not to be doing it now but i think like you i recognize that um some people don't um have the luxury of not doing shift work and these are the people that keep our society together people like firefighters and nurses and so on so i really wanted to be able to give them some great tips and tools that they can use um to help them feel better and to improve their overall health so yeah it's it's definitely one of those things that that is under thought of and a simple thing to elevate your health well you mentioned how one in three roughly one in three people suffer from bad sleep and i i i mean i just can speak for myself i love the routine that i've gotten into to as of late, right?
[1:21:09]What time I go to bed, how dark I have the room, you know, no, no lights anywhere, the perfect pillow. But so let me ask you this.
[1:21:19]What's the most important thing for you? Would it be like the perfect smooth 2000 count cotton sheets?
Would it be the right pillow darkness or 65 degrees? If you could only take like one or two of those.
The most important factor is a consistent sleep pattern.
So, um, making sure that you don't lie in at weekends or when you think, oh, well, well, I haven't slept well, so I'm going to just have a lie-in.
The most important factor for really improving your day-night rhythm is to make sure that you get up at the same time every day.
And when you do that, it allows your body to recognize when it's time to feel sleepy in the hours to come.
And getting daylight early on in the day as well is really helpful.
So say, for example, you consistently have a habit it where you get up at 6.30am, say, as an example.
[1:22:21]Making sure that you go and look outside, whatever the weather, whether it's raining or snowing, or it doesn't have to be a full sunshine day, but just look at the sky.
It allows you to set your day-night rhythm really well.
You release the right amount of serotonin, and then 12 hours later, a certain amount of that can be converted to melatonin, and that allows you to start to feel sleepy at the right time.
And so it's actually your morning habits that really set you up for good sleep in the nighttime.
Yeah. Would you have any thoughts on napping?
[1:23:00]Napping depends on...
A lot of things. So the length of the nap is important.
And whether you are somebody who suffers from insomnia, if you are someone that suffers from insomnia, daytime napping is not particularly helpful, because it just means that you got less of a sleep drive later on.
However, if you're not someone that suffers from insomnia, and you benefit from a nap, then having a relatively short nap is great, because you don't set yourself up for a prolonged long sleep cycle, and then again, losing that sleep drive later on.
So naps are good if they're taken at the right time of day and for the right amount of time.
What are your thoughts on screens?
The Impact of Screens on Sleep Patterns
[1:23:41]Screens are an interesting phenomenon because we have not had them in our lives for more than really one generation when it comes at least to the high intensity blue light screens that I'm I'm talking about in terms of tablets and phones.
We've had TVs, but that's slightly different because it's further away and it's a slightly different intensity.
So when we're looking at phones and tablets, it can turn off our day-night rhythms, sadly, and it can be a real challenge for us to get that sleep drive back.
[1:24:16]So, you know, it sounds as though you're already aware of that that yourself and you're aiming to avoid screens in the bedroom and keeping it nice and dark, things like that, that's really important.
Interestingly, blue light is vital early on in the day to set that day-night rhythm, but it's also the only light that can actually penetrate the retina.
And I find that quite interesting because we don't really know the long-term impacts of looking at blue light all day, every day, and what that actually does for our vision later on in life.
I'd be really interested to see how it affects people, rates of things like um macular degeneration for example in the next generation because we're just looking at so many more screens and blue lights than ever before so you think it might potentially accelerate those things i've i think so it's the only um frequency of light that can penetrate the retina you see and it's important like it's it's not a bad thing it's just we need to make sure that we don't have it all the time and when we're wanting to try and go to sleep um so yeah yeah Yeah.
I've never heard that term before, penetrate the retina. It sounds very dangerous.
Screen Time and Parenting
[1:25:30]Sorry. It does, doesn't it? So I'm going to, next time my kids are on the screens, I'm going to say, stop penetrating your retina.
I was going to say, maybe I should phrase it slightly differently, but I don't know. I don't think you should.
Let me ask you this. So your kids, your kids are outside right now.
Now they're probably waiting to go to bed. Do you think they're on screens?
No, I told them that there were no more screens after I left.
And you know what? I thought I was only going to be about 45 minutes, but we've been here for an hour and a half.
I know, I know, I know. I'm going to let you go so you can put these guys in and give them the love that only you can.
Oh, absolutely. Oh, they're lovely boys. They really are. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Gemma, before we go, do you, do you love your name? Do you like your name?
[1:26:27]Sometimes I love my name. Now what's interesting about my name is that it became really popular in the UK in the, from the late seventies to the early nineties, maybe no late seventies to maybe maybe late eighties.
And so there are certain names. I know, I don't know how you feel about this in America.
It's slightly different than names that you choose there over the ones that we choose here, but there are certain names that have eras attached to them.
Like for example, in the UK, if you're called Ethel, it's pretty much guaranteed that you were probably born between 1910 and 1930.
So I feel as though my name is, It attaches me to an era of history because nobody's called Gemma here anymore.
Gemma, a Precious Gem with a Unique Name
[1:27:16]I don't know anybody. I don't know anybody in the United States that's called Gemma. I don't. It's very unique.
Oh, good. Well, I'm glad to be unique in the U.S. And I believe it's an Italian name, and obviously it means precious gem.
So, yeah, that's nice. That's nice. A precious gem you are. Wow. Wow.
Well, Gemma, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed this conversation, how much I've loved laughing with you, getting silly with you, all this incredible information, these six.
[1:27:55]Habits that everybody should engage in.
And I love the way you say, all you need to do to begin in is just you have to have a readiness to be vulnerable and then a desire to begin and then get after it a hundred percent and i make it so simple i distill it into three things that you should do and i put so you'll hear you'll see all that when you get the book it's a very practical guide i want everybody to feel that they can give it a go and when they fall down they can get back back up again.
When they feel as though they've not quite got on track, they can just get back on track.
It's a very forgiving book, which I hope people will treat as a friend.
Yeah. Will you hold it up again for everybody?
Yeah. There it is. Here it is.
Get Well, Stay Well by Dr. Gemma Newman.
[1:28:51]Gemma, will you give me a virtual actual PLANTSTRONG fist bump on the way out absolutely there we go all right all the best thank you thank you so much for everything yeah you rock thank you, Get Well, Stay Well, the six healing health habits that you need to know is being released in the U.S. and hardback on March 7th, so you'll definitely want to pre-order it now.
Inside, you'll find pages for journaling and personal reflection, along with follow-along exercises.
This year, let's all put on our gloves and practice these six healing habits.
Habits gratitude love being outside eating our vegetables exercising and getting great sleep that all sounds like the perfect prescription for happiness and health this year from the plant powered doctor herself jemma newman as always i'll link up all the resources in the show notes and once again, happy new year to you.
Thanks for listening and sharing and always keep it PLANTSTRONG.
