Real Health with Karl Henry

On this week’s show, we are keeping on the Christmas theme, but it’s a slightly different approach than usual. While many of us are looking forward to the Christmas season, for some it’s a time of year that can be really challenging. From staying with family, to avoiding challenging conversations around the dinner table it’s not always the picture-perfect time it's made out to be. Here to help us navigate some of the more complicated sides of Christmas is Psychotherapist and owner of Maynooth Counselling, Helen Vaughen.Helen says people can come under serious pressure to make Christmas like that in the TV ads. Instead, she says you need to focus on what you want out of the holidays: “One of the things I generally say to people around Christmas is try not to pressure yourself to do things you don’t want to do or buy things you don’t want to buy...don’t be afraid to change traditions.” The extra time with family over the holidays can be a great way to catch up. However, spending lots of extra time with relatives can test your patience. Helen’s advice for getting through what can be an intense time is to make sure you try and be as mature as possible: “If somebody is trying to parent you or give out to you about something, try and act like an adult and either agree with it or disagree with it...Try not to slip into child mode subconsciously and start giving out.”For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christmas is fast approaching and many of us are looking forward to some time off work, eating our favourite festive foods and indulging a little more than usual. With that in mind, I thought this week is the best time to bring you some of my top tips to surviving the season. I’m going to teach you all the tips and tools that I can, to get you through the festive period in the healthiest way possible while also enjoying yourselves. Staying healthy over Christmas does not mean you have to be the Grinch! You can absolutely have a drink and go back for a second round of Christmas dinner. Instead, my tips will help you keep that balance between staying on track and having fun. It means that by the New Year, you won’t feel exhausted by all the socialising and the dinners that people normally do. So get your pen and paper out, don your Christmas jumper and join me as I take you through my 10 top tips for surviving the Christmas season. For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday over and done with, Christmas is well and truly underway. So, this week we’re going festive bringing you a Real Health Christmas gift guide.Struggling to find the perfect gift for your fitness fanatic friend or family member? Well, we have everything you need right here. From recovery boots to fitness wearables, we have presents at all price points. It’s not all about fitness though. This gift guide will give you some great suggestions for the best tech presents and perfect stocking fillers. There’s something here for everyone. Joining me to bring you their top suggestions are Adrian Weckler, Irish Independent’s Technology Editor and Suzie O’Neill, owner of Irish cosmetics company Ayu. For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Real Health, I’m doing a follow on from last week’s show, where I gave you top tips to measure your health. For this episode, I’m looking at the best tests and screenings you should be getting that will tell you where your health is at. From skin checks to diabetes screenings, we have it all here. Joining me to take us through his top health checks that could save your life is Professor Carl Vaughan, Consultant Cardiologist at CUH, Mercy Hospital and Bons Secours.Professor Vaughan says health checks are important because we can’t always rely on symptoms to tell us something might be wrong: “I think symptoms are very important and they are a great driver...but a lot of what we screen for are for things that won’t present with symptoms until late.”Professor Vaughan says scheduling a health screening is something people can do, to ensure they stay well: “it's not necessarily just a search for diseases. It is a search for wellness as well as disease. You can identify something that may be incubating in your body for the future and head it off before it becomes an advanced disease or does damage that cannot be subsequently fixed in future years.”One of Carl’s top health screenings is a blood pressure check, something he says is important to have tested: “Blood pressure has no symptoms. You can’t guess what it is. You have to measure it and it can be done in five minutes. It's an example of a simple health check that can be done by anyone themselves or in a doctor’s surgery, pharmacy or clinic.”For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s show, I’m bringing you the best ways to measure your health. It’s possibly the most overlooked aspect of health and wellness. In this politically correct age, measuring your health in some respects has become a bit of a taboo topic. Some people recommend that you don’t do it at all. However, it's something I feel very strongly about. Having worked in the fitness industry for over twenty years, working with people on all aspects of health, I genuinely believe the most important thing for life long health is to measure some aspect of it. By measuring something, you can see progress. Even if you don’t improve, being aware of it means you are already that little bit healthier. So, get your pen and your paper out, because this week’s top tips episode is possibly the most important one, we’ve done to date. I’ll be going through things like resting heart rate, measuring your waistline and the best ways to determine body fat and muscle. For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s Real Health episode, we’re going back to basics bringing you the best tips and tricks you need to make cooking at home hassle-free.  To chat us through her top tips for making cooking as easy as possible, I’m joined by food influencer Sarah Butler. Her new book, Home Cooking, Simple Food For Busy Lives is about helping people get out of their food rut and develop cooking skills, all while covering the basics.  Sarah says during lockdown, lots of people chose to move away from ready meals and opted for cooking from scratch. “People learnt how to cook through lock down because they had time. They grew their confidence. I think confidence was a big issue with people, they feel like they can’t cook or don’t know how to do it. So, with that little break in lockdown...they really learnt to cook.” While recipes and techniques are crucial to making a great meal, Sarah says getting the right preparation done is as important for making cooking easy. “Your food shop is a massive thing...Don’t just go in and buy a random food shop. Have a plan, make a list of your dinners and then do your shop based on the ingredients you need.” We also talk about how to change up your old reliable dinners, the best ways to use up leftovers and improve lunch time favourites like sandwiches.  For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/  And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.  Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.  The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With lockdowns behind us and life returning to some form of normality, many of us have found we are carrying a little extra fat than we’d like. So, for this week’s Real Health episode I’m bringing you the top things you’ll need to help you lose fat. I’m delighted to be joined by former Munster and Ireland rugby player Peter Stringer. Now a certified personal trainer, Peter takes me through his top tips for fat loss. This includes things like water intake, how sleep is crucial, and why we need to make sure we have enough protein in our diet, so we achieve the change we want.  Peter says being in a calorie deficit is hugely important to shifting excess fat, as is an understanding of how much we’re eating every day: “The number one thing for fat loss, you need to be eating less than you are burning off...pick two days during the week and one day at the weekend, set those days out to take a look and tot up those calories – so you have an idea of what you’re eating.” He also says while cardio exercises will put you into that all important calorie deficit, we need to make sure that weight training forms part of our workout routine for fat loss: “Ultimately you want to preserve that lean muscle mass when you are dieting. One of the ways to help that is to lift weights. In combination with a high protein diet the idea is to lose as much fat as possible while trying to maintain muscle mass. By doing resistance training, that’ll certainly help.”  For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/ And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from. The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s Real Health episode, I’m delighted to be joined by hotelier John Brennan to discuss lessons he’s learned throughout his life and how he overcame obstacles along the way; from struggling in school to finding his passion for hospitality.  In his new book, My name is Jhon, John writes about his battle with dyslexia, life as an entrepreneur and how a cancer diagnosis wasn’t going to stop him making a new business opportunity a success.   John says being told he had dyslexia when he was younger, wasn’t something that upset him. Instead, he was thrilled with it:  It’s a beautiful word, its exotic and its different. And I’m thinking wow I have that, that’s really great. It was nice to be labelled with something other than stupidity.” We also discuss John’s diagnoses with stage four Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a treatable but not curable form of cancer. Although being told he had cancer wasn’t the only big news he received that afternoon: “At five o’clock that evening I got a phone call from the auctioneer to say we’ve bought Dromquinna, that the bank had accepted our offer. So that’s how you deal with a diagnosis like that.” While some might think the news couldn’t have come at a more stressful time, John says it was the best thing that could have happened: “It focused my brain for the year I was having treatment. I was doing Dromquinna Manor up which was basically an abandoned site for 12 years...that kept the brain focused. You can become very demoralised with a diagnosis like that.”   For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to: www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/  And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.  Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.  The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s show I’ll be looking at how you can achieve your best potential for a healthy lifestyle in your 40s.   I’m joined by Dr Marc Bubbs, naturopathic doctor and performance nutrition lead for Canada Basketball. His new book, Peak 40 looks to give you all the tools you need to reignite your energy and passion at any age, but particularly in your 40s.    Marc says between the age of 41 to 48 many of us hit a low period when it comes to happiness: “There’s that idea that our mindset is being impacted…we know if we are lacking sleep, the kids are at home, work is busy, we might be taking care of ageing parents, there’s a lot going on. That can make it a little more challenging. It might be why we are holding onto a little more weight and the aches and pains begin to act up.”   We also discuss how beneficial exercise and resistance training is for maintaining muscle mass as we get older. Marc says including exercise in your day doesn’t have to mean spending an hour in the gym.   Instead, Marc advises we try fit in “exercise snacks” in our schedules, which he says can make all the difference: “We know we don’t have a lot of time in the busyness of midlife, so let's find 10-minute or 20-minute blocks where we can get that movement in.”    For more episodes, tips and advice from the show just go to:  www.independent.ie/podcasts/the-re…health-podcast/    And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and Twitter and realhealth@independent.ie.    Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe on Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.    The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this week’s show I’ll be talking about sleep, something so many people are interested in - probably because we feel we aren’t getting enough. With many workers having returned to the office, how will this impact our sleep?   
 I’m joined by Professor Andrew Coogan, behavioural neuroscientist who specialises in sleep. He is also the director of the Chronobiology and Sleep Research Laboratory at Maynooth University.  
 Andrew says there are many reasons why we need sleep, including for learning and memory: “Our brains replay the information we have acquired during the day while we sleep. That helps strengthen our memory for the things we want to remember.”   
 We discuss how much sleep we should be getting. While eight hours is often suggested to be the right amount of sleep each night, Andrew says it's not that simple: “The amount of sleep we need changes with what stage of life we’re at...then within that, we are all different as people.  There are probably some people out there that five hours of sleep is enough for them.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.