Explore every episode of the podcast What is Health?

Women’s health is finally getting the attention it deserves, but there’s still a long way to go. Perimenopause can begin years before periods change, and many women are told they’re “fine” while struggling with anxiety, poor sleep and symptoms that don’t fit a neat diagnosis.

In this episode of What Is Health, Oliver Barnett is joined by two guests with a special interest in women’s hormones: Dr Anu, who runs London Bioidentical Hormones and is co-author of an upcoming book, Nutrition, Hormones and Mental Health, and Daisy, a nutritional therapist at the London Clinic of Nutrition who specialises in immunity, women’s hormones and complex health conditions.

In this episode:

• How women’s health has changed, from “all women do is cry and bleed” to growing attention on research and advocacy
• Why perimenopause is so often missed, and why early signs can include anxiety and insomnia rather than irregular periods
• The “midlife squeeze”: career, young children, ageing parents and unpaid workload, and what that does to stress and hormones
• Why later motherhood is normal, and why the term “geriatric pregnancy” needs to go
• Why mainstream care can be a one-size-fits-all approach, and why testing and individualised support matter
• Bioidentical, body-identical and synthetic hormones explained, and why the labels confuse so many women
• Endometriosis: the roles of gut health, inflammation, immune function and estrogen metabolism, plus the idea of looking after “the house that houses the hormones”
• Acute vs chronic stress, why “cortisol is bad” is too simple, and how to think about it
• Wellness data vs medical-grade data: how far to trust wearables and HRV scores, and when something like a glucose monitor may help
• Why healthspan matters just as much as lifespan

The views shared are those of the speakers, based on their clinical experience, and are not a substitute for medical advice. Please speak to your GP or a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to hormone therapy or supplements.

The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns. If you’re in need of support, find the team at londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk.

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Morning stacks, gadgets, pendants and the next “must-have” protocol. Is any of it really functional medicine?

In this episode of What Is Health, Oliver Barnett is joined by two experienced functional medicine practitioners, Steve Grant and Paul Burgess, to ask where functional medicine is today and how it has drifted from what it was meant to be. With decades of clinical experience between them, they talk candidly about what they see in practice.

In this episode:

• What functional medicine originally was: a process for working with a person, not a qualification or a product
• Why so much of what’s marketed as functional medicine online is a watered-down version
• How social media and influencers spread advice that has been repeated from person to person, often far from the original research
• What to look for in a supplement: ingredients, doses and whether the evidence is for the product or just the individual nutrients
• Why people look for “the pill for the ill” and keep moving to the next protocol when the last one didn’t work
• Why health is rarely down to one factor, and how physical, emotional and social influences all play a part
• How practitioners build trust with people who have already seen many others without results
• The pros and pitfalls of using AI for health advice, including why the quality of what you put in matters, and why they believe it works best as a tool for professionals
• Why they feel the conventional healthcare system wasn’t designed around keeping people well

The views shared are those of the speakers, based on their clinical experience, and are not a substitute for medical advice.

The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns. If you’re in need of support, find the team at londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk.

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You’ve had the tests. Everything came back “normal.” So why do you still feel unwell?

In this episode of What Is Health, Oliver Barnett is joined by Caroline, clinic manager at the London Clinic of Nutrition and the first person most clients speak to when they get in touch. Caroline asks the questions she hears every day from people who have already tried a lot of avenues and are worried the process won’t work again. Oli answers from nearly 20 years in clinical practice.

In this episode:

• What life is like at the front door of the clinic, and why feeling heard from the very first call matters
• Why many people come to us after being told “everything’s normal,” and what to do when tests don’t give an answer
• Why a diagnosis often matters less than understanding the type of person who has the condition
• How standard GP reference ranges differ from the narrower functional ranges, with an iron and ferritin example
• Why the “case history” and the story behind the symptoms are so important, and the intake question that often points to the answer
• How Oli’s approach has evolved, from 500 hours of CPD a year and up to 50 patients a week, to building a team and a “hive brain”
• The role of early life experience and developmental trauma in chronic and complex health conditions, and how Internal Family Systems and body-based enquiry can help
• Why Oli became passionate about relational work and couples therapy, and how stronger relationships can support health
• Why “physical medicine” and emotional work work best together

The views shared are those of the speakers, based on their clinical experience, and are not a substitute for medical advice.

The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns. If you’re in need of support, find the team at londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk.

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.

Autism and ADHD are on the rise, and so are the number of parents looking for answers. At the London Clinic of Nutrition, up to 60-70% of enquiries at times now come from parents of children with autism or ADHD. So what’s going on?

In this episode of What Is Health, Oliver Barnett is joined by Paul Foley, a functional medicine practitioner from the London Clinic of Nutrition with a growing clinical focus on neurodiversity, to explore why diagnoses are climbing and what families can do to support their children.

In this episode:

• Three ways of understanding neurodiversity: trauma and epigenetics (Gabor Maté), genetics (Russell Barkley) and an evolutionary view (Daniel Lieberman), including the “beehive” analogy of scouts and detail-keepers
• Why diagnostic criteria keep widening, and what that says about the society we’re asking children to fit into
• Screens, attention and the difference between true ADHD and attentional problems that develop from overuse
• Why a school system built around sitting still for eight hours may be a mismatch for how children evolved to learn and move
• The role of environmental toxins and why preconception health matters
• Why a diagnosis alone often leaves parents without tools, and how a functional medicine approach can sit alongside therapies like speech therapy and ABA
• The testing Paul often starts with, from gut permeability to mould and mineral analysis
• How attitudes to neurodiversity echo the way depression was once dismissed

The views shared are those of the speakers, based on their clinical experience, and are not a substitute for medical advice.

The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns. If you’re in need of support, find the team at londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk.

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.

We have more health information than any generation in history, yet lifespan has stalled and healthspan is shrinking. So what is health in 2026?

In this first episode of What Is Health, Oliver Barnett is joined by Lelani, naturopath, herbalist and nutritionist at the London Clinic of Nutrition, and Mark, who shares his journey from corporate life to years of travelling the world, a serious health breakdown, and the recovery that led him into the health industry. Together they unpack why modern life has become so disconnected from how we’re built to live, and what you can realistically do about it.

In this episode:

• Why light, screens and indoor living are such a problem for sleep, metabolism and insulin sensitivity
• Lifespan vs healthspan: why we’re living longer but sicker for longer
• How to cut through conflicting advice from influencers, biohackers and “experts” who all have something to sell
• Why real food is the foundation, including the ultra-processed food study that had participants eating 500 extra calories a day
• A simple challenge: one week of real food, nothing out of a packet
• Practical tips on steaming, water quality and what you cook with
• Why the healthcare system is built for acute care, not chronic health, and what the panel would change, from more time with patients to informed consent
• Mark’s “leaky bucket” and “operating system” analogies for why so many protocols and supplements fail to deliver lasting results

We can’t live in a bubble, but we can make better choices in the world we’re in.

The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns. If you’re in need of support, find the team at https://londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk/

Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.

In a world full of fads, myths and biohacking, it’s hard to know what really matters for your health.

Welcome to What Is Health, hosted by Oliver Barnett. Together with his team from the London Clinic of Nutrition and a line-up of special guests, Oli is on a mission to separate the noise from the signal and share the insights you need to optimise your health and help everyone live well.

In this short introduction, Oli shares what the podcast is all about and what you can expect from future episodes.

The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns and reduce the impact of poor health on their everyday lives. If you’re in need of support, find the team at londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk.

Subscribe now so you don’t miss the first full episode.