Voices in Health and Wellness

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Anxiety, low mood, sleep problems, confidence that never quite arrives: what if the real issue is not the symptom you can name, but the experience you never processed? I’m joined by Lynne Douglas, founder of Healthy Minds for You, to unpack how trauma can sit underneath everyday struggles and why EMDR therapy can help people move past “coping” towards genuine change.

We start with Lynne’s path through mental health nursing, CBT, and the moment she realised she was spending too much time firefighting. From there, she explains EMDR in refreshi...

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Drill and fill is not the only story dentistry can tell anymore. We sit down with Dr Roumiana Tzvetkova, a dentist and practice owner with a prevention-first philosophy, to talk about what it looks like to preserve natural teeth in the real world, especially when patients arrive carrying years of delay, anxiety, and limited dental benefits. If you’ve ever wondered whether modern dentistry can be gentler, clearer, and less reactive, this conversation brings practical answers. 

We dig into two game-changers reshaping clinical decisions and patient trust: AI in dentistry for ear...

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Perimenopause is hard for most women, but for many neurodivergent women it can feel like someone turned the volume up on everything: emotions, sensory load, anxiety, fatigue, brain fog, sleep problems, and the everyday friction of ADHD or autistic traits. We sit down with Dr Sarah Secor-Jones, an integrative and functional medicine physician and founder of Left Lifestyle, to unpack why this happens and why so many patients are misdiagnosed, dismissed, or treated with a one-size-fits-all plan that never quite fits. 

We talk candidly about what clinicians often miss when they f...

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Feeling “just tired” should not be the reason a heart problem gets missed. We sit down with Dr Hwaida Hannoush, a specialist in metabolic cardiology and functional medicine and the founder of Pressi Med Clinic, to unpack why women’s heart disease is still under-recognised and under-treated, even when the stakes are life-changing.

We talk about the real-world ways women present differently, from fatigue and breathlessness to vague chest pressure or stomach discomfort, and how that can lead to delayed care. Dr Hannoush explains why women’s cardiovascular risk is more complex...

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“Everything looks normal” can be one of the most discouraging lines a patient hears, especially when the fatigue, brain fog, gut symptoms, or weight loss resistance are very real. Dr Megha Mohey joins me to unpack why that mismatch happens and how integrative and functional medicine aims to close the gap by looking for root causes and patterns, not just isolated lab values.

Dr Mohey is board-certified in internal medicine with advanced training in integrative medicine, functional medicine, and medical acupuncture. She shares her journey from nearly two decades in traditional prac...

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A decade of chronic pain and chronic fatigue with “normal” results is not just a medical problem, it is a systems problem. I’m joined by Dr Dacon Knight, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia, to unpack why hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and related connective tissue disorders still slip through the cracks, even when the signs have been there for years.

We explore what clinicians should look for beyond a single aching joint: instability, subluxations, dislocations, fatigue, and the way connective tissue can affect multiple organ systems from gut to...

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Dementia is one of the biggest fears people carry quietly, and the hardest part is not knowing what to do with that fear. We sit down with Dr Ashanthi Gajaweera, a neurologist with more than two decades in traditional practice, to unpack why she stepped outside the insurance-based model and founded HealthSpan Neurology, a preventative neurology clinic built around cognitive longevity and dementia risk reduction long before symptoms show up. 

We talk through what a real dementia prevention programme looks like when you finally have time to do it properly: longer v...

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When depression does not lift with medication, people often assume the next step is simply “try another tablet” and wait. That waiting can cost years of energy, work, relationships, and self-belief. I sit down with Dr Scott West, Chief Medical Officer at Nashville Neurocare Therapy and a board-certified psychiatrist with over 30 years of experience, to talk plainly about what options look like when standard care stalls and what modern neurocare is doing differently.

We dig into transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS therapy) as an outpatient neuromodulation treatment, how it moved from early rese...

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Most chronic pain care breaks down at the exact moment it needs to get more precise. When someone has failed back surgery, persistent post-op pain, nerve symptoms that do not match the scan, or years of “nothing worked”, the usual five-minute consultation cannot hold the complexity. We sit down with Dr David Glick, a pain physician with decades of experience, to unpack what changes when you slow the process down and treat diagnosis as the main intervention.

We talk through his method of building a nerve “roadmap” using careful examination, detailed history...

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Primary care is supposed to prevent illness, not just react to it, yet the way healthcare is paid for often pushes doctors into an impossible pace. I’m joined by Dr Frank Okuson Jr, a board-certified internal medicine physician and medical director in Texas, to talk candidly about what it’s like managing thousands of patients with complex chronic disease while trying to do the right thing with diabetes, hypertension, obesity and metabolic health. When the day is built around volume, the “root cause” conversation becomes the first thing to disappear. 

Frank exp...

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Patient experience isn’t a slogan, it’s a system, and most clinics are trying to run a Ferrari on square wheels. We sit down with Karen Farah, CEO and founder of The Melting Pot Studio, to unpack what top medical practices do differently when they want patients to feel safe, supported, and genuinely cared for. 

We get practical about healthcare workflow design and digital transformation, starting where most software projects fail: messy processes, unclear ownership, and poor adoption. Karen shares her four-phase roadmap, from stakeholder interviews and workflow mapping to low-r...

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Your labs can look “fine” while your body feels like it’s falling apart, and it’s not because you’re weak or lazy. We sit down with Dr Negin Rajaipour, board-certified family medicine physician and founder of Vita Rican Medical, to talk about what happens when chronic stress and trauma shape the nervous system so deeply that symptoms become a default setting.

We dig into her E3 Method: Elevate, Embody, Evolve. Elevate starts with the story, shifting the clinical lens from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” and bringing...

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Most people assume rehabilitation ends when the hospital says you’re ready to go home. The truth can be harsher: many families walk into a gap where therapy stops, confidence collapses, and a loved one becomes afraid to move in the very place they’re meant to recover. 

We sit down with Susan Pattison, founder of SP Therapy Services in Greater Manchester, to talk about community rehabilitation, home physiotherapy, and neuro physiotherapy for adults living with stroke, brain injury, spinal injury, MS, and Parkinson’s. Susan explains why practising on a smooth...

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“How much is PRP?” is often the wrong first question. I’m joined by Dr Tammy Penhollow, an osteopathic physician and founder of Precision Med PRP, to talk about why regenerative medicine outcomes hinge on what happens before treatment not just the injection itself. If you’re dealing with spine pain, disc problems, knee pain or shoulder injuries and trying to avoid surgery, her message is simple: you cannot expect great results from platelet rich plasma or bone marrow concentrate if your body is running on chronic inflammation, poor sleep and missing nutritional basics. ...

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Surviving a stroke or traumatic brain injury is only the beginning. The real question is what happens next when someone needs to walk, think, speak, swallow, dress, toilet, work, and live safely again. We sit down with Dr Tanya Harris, a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) physician and medical director of a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital, to pull back the curtain on how recovery is built day by day and why rehab medicine is still widely misunderstood.

We unpack what physiatry actually covers, from musculoskeletal physical medicine to high-acuity rehabilitation...

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If you’ve ever wondered why TMJ pain, headaches, poor sleep, and stubborn neck tension so often travel together, this conversation makes the case that the jaw is rarely acting alone. We sit down with Dr Curtis Westersund, a dentist with 46 years in practice and 25 years focused on functional, systems-based dentistry, to challenge a familiar clinical reflex: treating pain as the main target. Curtis argues that pain can be a poor metric for health because it’s easy to mute while the underlying biomechanics keep pulling the body further off course.

Curt...

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Most women are told to accept postpartum leakage, bowel changes, reduced sensation, or discomfort as “normal”. We don’t buy that, and neither does Dr Troy Hailparn, a board-certified gynaecologist and pioneer in functional and cosmetic gynaecology. She explains how her work began as a response to patients whose concerns were brushed off, and why a better standard starts with one simple habit: ask about bladder function, bowel function, and sexual function, then examine and name external vulvar anatomy with the same seriousness as internal findings.

We talk about procedures that most c...

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Surgery is rarely a single moment in theatre. The real make-or-break work happens in the quieter weeks beforehand, when patients are anxious, deconditioned, undernourished, or simply unsure what to do next. We sit down with Dr Scott Russo, founder of Recover Health and a long-time spine surgeon, to talk about surgical optimisation and why “getting ready” is not a nice-to-have but a clinical pathway that can change outcomes.

We walk through the practical building blocks of prehabilitation: finding a patient’s why, training the mind with breath practice and visualisation, improving sleep...

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A patient can spend years chasing an explanation for arm pain, numbness, tingling, or a shoulder that simply stops working under load, only to be told nothing shows up on tests. That gap between lived symptoms and clinical certainty is where thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) so often falls apart, especially the neurogenic form involving the brachial plexus. I’m joined by Dr Scott Werden, a diagnostic radiologist at Vanguard Specialty Imaging in San Francisco, who has spent decades building better ways to see and explain what is happening at the crowded junction of ne...

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Neuropsych testing looks clinical from the outside, but from the inside it is a high-stakes mix of patient anxiety, complex logistics, and constant financial pressure. We sit down with Tiffany Miller-Bolerjak, Office Manager and Administrator at Dallas Neuro Rehab Centre and the CEO behind a credentialing and consulting firm, to show what it really takes to run a specialist neurorehabilitation and neuropsychology clinic day to day. 

We talk about the patient journey across the lifespan, from children being assessed for ADHD, autism, learning issues, anxiety, and behaviour challenges to older adults w...

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Your blood tests can look perfect while your body feels anything but. We sit down with Dr Jeff Matz, functional medicine practitioner and founder of Via Nova Health, to unpack why that happens and what to do when fatigue, weight gain, low mood, low libido, or brain fog keep showing up despite being told “everything is normal”. Jeff shares how his work evolved from pain management into root cause care built on education, realistic behaviour change, and a plan you can actually stick to. 

We get specific about the patterns he sees...

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A career can be built twice, but it rarely happens without a cost. We talk with Dr Yasmin Areida, who starts out as a plastic surgeon in Egypt, retrains across continents, and rebuilds her clinical life in the US after discovering her credentials are not recognised. That professional reset collides with something even more personal: a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis that forces her to rethink what “getting better” actually looks like when you live with autoimmune disease. 

We walk through the functional medicine and clinical nutrition principles she uses with patients, starting with...

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Healthcare can be world-class and still feel impossible to navigate. When you are bounced between specialities, sent for duplicate tests, or left holding results you cannot interpret, the real gap is often ownership of the journey. We sit down with Dr Michael Averbukh, CEO and managing partner at Serenity, to talk about a practical answer: nurse-led health case management built around patient advocacy, continuity, and clear next steps.

We break down what “dedicated nurse case manager” actually means day to day, from onboarding and clinical intake to planning preventive care, preparing for...

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Imagine adding years to your life by fixing your bite. That’s not hype; it’s the real-world impact of restoring chewing and reducing chronic oral inflammation, and it sits at the heart of our conversation with advanced implant surgeon Dr Mark Whitefield. We connect the dots between teeth, metabolism, and the brain, showing how the mouth acts as the body’s sentinel and why ignoring it can derail health far beyond the jaw.

We dig into the numbers and the mechanisms. When people lose effective chewing, diet quality collapses and malnut...

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What if the most powerful growth strategy for an aesthetics clinic isn’t ads or discounts, but trust? We sit down with Dr Cian McLoughlin, Medical Director at OSO Clinic in London, to unpack how a doctor-led, boutique model can deliver natural results, safer decisions, and stronger patient relationships in a noisy market.

Cian traces his journey from a stretched hospital system to a practice that puts clinical judgment first. We dig into why OSO combines medical aesthetics with IV therapy and diagnostics, and how “inside-out” care tackles root causes like fatigu...

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A surprising path led Jono Goosen from Zimbabwe’s gyms and rugby fields to a chicken farm—and then to a London practice changing how people think about back pain. Along the way, he learned a lesson that now shapes every session: environment and systems govern outcomes. That insight fuels his work with myoreformation, a whole-body manual approach that separates muscles and ligaments, opens joints, resets fascia, and restores blood and lymph flow while guiding the nervous system out of high alert.

We dive into what a session actually feels like, why...

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What if recovery isn’t about the number on a scale—but whether life starts working again?

That question anchors our conversation with Dr. Dany McCurdy-McKinnon, a Los Angeles psychologist who blends neuroscience, trauma-informed therapy, and coordinated team-based care to treat complex eating disorders—and is now developing a carefully designed AI tool to extend support between sessions.

We trace Dany’s path from neuroimaging research to leading a specialist practice and how shifting economics and the closure of academic units forced many clinicians to rethink access. She expl...

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Pelvic health isn’t a niche problem—it’s something most people will face at some point, from teenage athletes and new mums to high-stress executives, ageing men, and cancer survivors. In this episode, physical therapist and clinic founder Laura Bunso explains how a once-undervalued speciality became the centrepiece of a thriving, patient-first practice that quietly changes lives every day.

Laura shares the personal turning point that shaped her mission, then outlines what real pelvic floor care looks like: respectful assessment, clear education, and tailored plans focused on restoring coordination—not chasing...

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Imagine if every patient heard a short, thoughtful message from their clinician each morning—delivered in the doctor’s own voice—nudging healthier choices and reinforcing care plans. That vision sits at the heart of our conversation with Victor Brown, founder and CEO of Xcellent Life, who brings a seasoned engineer’s mindset from the energy sector to the realities of running a modern private clinic.

We dig into why reactive care keeps clinics on the back foot and how proactive, AI-driven engagement raises satisfaction and drives natural referrals without drowning teams in...

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What if most therapy “failures” aren’t about motivation at all, but about a broken first match? Dr Ayelet Hirshfeld, clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and founder of PsyEcology Inc., joins us to unpack the biggest quiet crisis in mental health: early dropout within the first one to two sessions. She explains why private practice tends to keep people longer, how large systems flatten nuance, and why forcing clients to retell their story across multiple starts erodes trust, courage, and outcomes.

We dive into ANNA, an ethical AI platform designed to solve a decept...

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What if healing could be engineered by tuning the body’s software? We sit down with Dr Joe Purita, a pioneer in orthobiologic and regenerative medicine, to explore how a modern clinic moves beyond single fixes and toward systems that reboot health. From his early leap into PRP and stem cells to a clinic built around oxygen, light, ozone, and advanced IVs, Joe explains how to turn mechanisms into outcomes—without the hype.

We unpack hyperbaric oxygen through a different lens: nitric oxide signalling that mobilises stem cells from the bone marr...

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A 50-year career doesn’t just tell stories; it reveals patterns we can finally change. Mike Delaney joins us to trace his path from overcrowded NHS wards and pub-based “supervision” to designing trauma-informed, somatic programmes that work when words fail. After confronting his own addiction in the 90s, Mike returned with a clear insight: most substance use sits on unprocessed trauma. That belief led him to pioneer equine-facilitated psychotherapy in UK rehabs, build LEAP’s traini...

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“There’s nothing you can do” might be the most damaging sentence a person with cognitive decline ever hears. We sit down with Dr Ivan Cichowicz, a board‑certified adult and geriatric psychiatrist, to unpack a more hopeful, practical path: combine the right medications with targeted lifestyle changes, clear education and steady support so patients can feel and function better.

Dr Ivan shares how he moved from standard outpatient psychiatry to a focus on brain health after wave upon wave of anxious, newly diagnosed patients arrived with a prescription and no plan. We...

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Slow regulation and rising de novo autoimmune conditions in younger patients are at the heart of this conversation. Aly’s prescription is practical and empowering: remove common sources of harm (think water filtration, safer food contact, smarter cleaning and personal care), then add what strengthens cells—nutrient-dense food, targeted supplements, quality sleep, movement, and stress relief. No gimmicks, no silver bullets—just steps that stick.

We also go behind the scenes of The Smart Human: why Aly refuses brand deals to keep her message clean, how she rebuilt after a major hack...

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What would change if we stopped chasing comfort and started building function into daily life? That question sits at the heart of our conversation with Dr Michele Bechor, licensed psychologist and founder of Emblem Psychology and Consulting. Michelle shares how a pre‑med start gave way to a career defined by stories, context, and behaviour—where lasting outcomes come from what we practise, not what we promise.

We dig into a practical, behaviour‑first blueprint for treating anxiety, OCD, and body‑focused repetitive behaviours like hair pulling and skin picking. Michele’s framewor...

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Beauty shouldn’t feel like a sales pitch. It should feel like being seen, heard, and guided with care. That’s the spirit Raquel Merlini brings to her aesthetics practice—where combination therapy, honest education, and thoughtful follow-up create results that look real in daylight and last beyond the selfie.

We talk about how a patient-first journey starts at the front desk and continues through tailored consultations, baseline photos, and proactive check-ins. Raquel explains why injectables alone fall short, and how blending neurotoxins, hyaluronic fillers, biostimulators like Sculptra and Radiesse, lasers, and so...

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A night in the ER can teach you a lot about urgency—especially when routine problems arrive because there’s nowhere else to go. That’s where Dr Chereka Kluttz started, and it’s why she added a law degree to her stethoscope: to translate between clinical reality and the rules that shape care. We sit down with Jarika to explore how a physician-attorney can bridge the gap between clinicians, operations, and legal teams to design systems that protect patients, respect providers, and actually move faster.

Chereka shares how leadership roles exposed...

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Neuropathy isn’t a sentence to slow decline. In this episode, we unpack a surprisingly simple truth: in diabetes, nerves swell while tunnels stay tight. Compression—not just metabolic damage—drives pain, numbness, and imbalance. That insight unlocks an actionable plan that starts at the bedside and can end with restored sensation and freedom from burning pain.

Dr. Stephen Barrett, podiatrist, surgeon, and educator, explains the mechanics: glucose-driven sorbitol loading draws water into nerves, enlarging them by ~50%. As they pass through rigid tunnels, nerves get squeezed, starved, and dy...

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A heart patient who became a septuagenarian athlete doesn’t just tell a comeback story—he rewrites how we think about prevention, performance, and purpose. We sit down with Dr Akil Taher to trace his path from stents and a cardiac arrest to plant-powered endurance, deep lifestyle change, and advocacy for a neglected but crucial test: lipoprotein(a).

Akil shares the moment he chose a different ending—promising a half marathon while being wheeled to bypass surgery—and how he rebuilt with simple, repeatable habits. Running became “meditation in motion,” food shifted to w...

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Pain doesn’t always mean damage, and quick fixes rarely change the story. We sit down with Dr Niko Tejada, founder of Kinetic Rehabilitation, to unpack a smarter way to move: a patient‑first model that treats the whole body, builds trust, and uses technology to serve fundamentals rather than distract from them. Niko’s journey—from athlete to clinician to entrepreneur—reveals why he left traditional, high‑throughput systems to craft a lean practice that prioritises time, education, and continuity over volume and gimmicks.

Across the conversation, we explore how psychosocial...