The Laura Dowling Experience

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Meghan O'Neill, online content creator and mother of two explains how she holds firm boundaries for herself, then how she is teaching her young children about consent, from everyday moments like a kiss or a tickle through to the bigger conversations about porn and never being with someone who is drunk.What if the most important thing you teach your kids about sex has nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with the word no?🔑Key Points• Meghan will not be pressured into anything; she can walk away right up to the last moment if something does not feel right• She wants her kids to know porn is not real, because no one ever told her that• At home, her kids can say no to a kiss or a tickle, and that no is respected straight away• She is direct with her son: never sleep with someone who is drunk, because they cannot consent🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

#AD - This episode is sponsored by AstraZenecaDr Tonya Leonard was a GP when she found a lump she was sure was a cyst. By half past nine that morning, she was being told it was breast cancer and asked to decide by the following week whether she had finished her family. Her twin boys were just 18 months old.Sixteen years, a second primary cancer and a diagnosis of advanced breast cancer later, Tonya joins Laura alongside Helen Forristal, Director of Nursing Services at the Marie Keating Foundation, for an honest conversation about living with advanced breast cancer.They discuss metastatic or secondary breast cancer, breast cancer recurrence and the signs and symptoms women should be aware of, alongside treatment, scans, scanxiety, cancer fatigue and the difficulty of planning life beyond the next result.Helen explains why advanced breast cancer remains largely invisible in Ireland, with no official count of how many women are living with it, and discusses the importance of specialist cancer support. Tonya shares the reality of living life in three-month segments, navigating mental health after diagnosis and learning that palliative care does not only mean end-of-life care.The conversation is part of Living Loudly, Dying to be Heard, a campaign by AstraZeneca and supported by the Marie Keating Foundation, highlighting the experiences of people living with advanced breast cancer.🔑 Key PointsAdvanced breast cancer means it has spreadThe cancer has moved from the breast to another organ; in Tonya's case, to lesions on her lung and under her arm.Life in three-month segmentsWith a scan every three months, Tonya finds it hard to plan past the next result, the anxiety Laura calls scanxiety.Fatigue is not the same as tirednessTonya describes cancer fatigue as like an injection of horse tranquilliser: once she feels it rising, she has minutes to lie down.Women are living longer with itHelen calls it the long middle, moving through lines of treatment; one woman in her group has lived with advanced breast cancer for 21 years.Nobody is countingRecurrences aren't recorded the way first diagnoses are; Helen's estimate is around 30% of women with primary breast cancer, and a University of Limerick project has started counting.Know the signs of a recurrenceSymptoms depend on where it spreads, from a cough and breathlessness to weight change or bone pain; if something hasn't settled in three weeks, ask your doctor, "Could this be cancer?"Mental health support needs to be specialistTonya waited eight weeks to see a psychologist; psycho-oncology services now run in Ireland's eight cancer centres.Palliative care is not only for the end of lifePalliative teams help manage symptoms and support families, and the CLIMB programme supports children aged 5 to 12 who have a parent with cancer.📚 ResourcesLiving Loudly. Dying to be HeardA campaign by AstraZeneca and supported by the Marie Keating FoundationPositive LivingThe Marie Keating Foundation's support programme for people with advanced cancerCLIMBThe HSE programme for children aged 5 to 12 affected by a parent's cancer⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Welcome01:52 — Helen Forristal and the Marie Keating Foundation02:51 — Dr Tonya Leonard’s breast cancer diagnosis06:21 — Advanced cancer support and Positive Living09:28 — Scanxiety and living between results12:08 — Living longer with advanced breast cancer17:14 — Cancer fatigue22:58 — Fertility and “Have you finished your family?”29:17 — How many women are living with advanced breast cancer?30:41 — Signs and symptoms of recurrence37:57 — Mental health and psycho-oncology46:45 — What palliative care really means51:40 — Family, milestones and living with uncertainty56:28 — Advice for young people

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Dr Clodagh Campbell shares two client stories about reclaiming time for yourself, then walks through the Four Ds, a simple way to sort an overwhelming to-do list into what to delete, delegate, delay or do.When your life feels too full, the answer isn't to try harder. It's working out what can give. Psychologist Dr Clodagh Campbell shares two client stories and a simple tool for figuring out what to drop.🔑Key Points• When life feels too full, the question isn't how to cope better, it's what can change and what can give• Alice, a successful business owner, worked herself into the ground out of a deep fear of letting her parents down• By the end of their work together, Alice had hired a manager, taken a three-month sabbatical and learned that rest could be as simple as walks on the beach• Nikki, a mother of three, couldn't imagine one hour a week for herself, until a small boundary around one yoga class let her husband step up too🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Dr Dan McCartney, dietitian, lecturer in Human Nutrition and Dietetics and Programme Director of the Human Nutrition and Dietetics programme at TU Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, joins Laura to discuss the vitamins and minerals many of us simply aren’t getting enough of — and why that matters for our health. Drawing on Ireland’s national food intake data, Dan reveals striking levels of inadequate intake across essential nutrients including vitamin B6, folate, vitamin C, vitamin A, zinc, magnesium and selenium. At least half of the Irish population have inadequate intakes of magnesium and selenium, while more than 40% have inadequate vitamin C intakes. Laura and Dan also discuss the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and proposals to lower or restrict the levels of certain vitamins and minerals available through supplements. Dan questions the rationale for reducing these levels when nutrient intakes are already low, discussing proposed levels for vitamin D, as well as restrictions affecting magnesium and the importance of vitamin C. He explains why he believes a restrictive, one-size-fits-all European approach may not meet the nutritional needs of the Irish population. They also explore whether some recommended daily amounts are focused more on preventing severe deficiency than achieving optimal health, including vitamin C recommendations based around preventing scurvy and vitamin D recommendations historically centred on bone health rather than immune function. The conversation returns to Dan’s early research into vitamin D and COVID-19, before moving into nutrition and immunity, healthy ageing, dementia, pregnancy and epigenetics — and why the nutritional choices we make today can influence our health decades into the future.🔑 Key PointsHalf the population are falling short on key nutrientsDan discusses inadequate intakes of magnesium, selenium, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin C, vitamin A and zinc in Ireland.Why are nutrient intakes so low?Poor diet quality, low fruit and vegetable intake, low wholegrain consumption and highly refined diets.EFSA and proposed supplement restrictionsLaura and Dan discuss EFSA and proposed European changes affecting vitamin and mineral supplements, including vitamin D and magnesium, and why Dan is concerned about further restrictions.Are recommended intakes actually optimal?Dan questions whether some guidelines focus on preventing severe deficiency rather than supporting optimal health.Vitamin D, immunity and COVID-19Dan revisits the research that led him and Dr Declan Byrne to propose a link between vitamin D deficiency and severe COVID-19 in 2020.Nutrition across a lifetimeFrom pregnancy and epigenetics to ageing and cognitive health, Dan explains why nutrition today can affect health decades later.📚 ResourcesOptimisation of Vitamin D Status for Enhanced Immuno-protection Against Covid-19Dan and Declan Byrne, Irish Medical Journal, 2020Vitamin D Deficiency and ARDS after SARS-CoV-2 InfectionFaul et al., Irish Medical Journal, 2020Autocrine vitamin D signaling switches off pro-inflammatory programs of TH1 cellsChauss et al., Nature Immunology, 2022Nutrition, immunity and COVID-19Philip Calder, BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, 2020European vitamin D supplementation trials, meta-analysisRupprecht et al., Nutrients, 2023⏱️ Timestamps00:00 — Cold open02:07 — Meet Dr Dan McCartney04:03 — Vitamin D and COVID-1906:10 — The 2020 research13:49 — Why vitamin D levels run low19:08 — Vitamin D and immunity32:00 — Ireland’s nutrient inadequacies34:02 — Poor diet quality35:09 — Zinc, magnesium and selenium37:24 — Are nutrient guidelines out of date?38:03 — Scurvy vs optimal health45:48 — EFSA and proposed supplement restrictions46:24 — Vitamin D supplement levels50:11 — Magnesium restrictions51:03 — Nutrition guidelines for Ireland54:35 — Primates and vitamin D55:51 — Ageing and dementia57:39 — Pregnancy and epigenetics1:02:43 — Why good habits compound

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Dr Denis O'Driscoll, pharmacist working in the HSE addiction services gives a straight, compassionate answer on how hard it is to come off drugs and stay off, and why staying stable on treatment counts as success too.Is staying on treatment for life a failure, or is that thinking part of the problem? Dr Denis O'Driscoll gives an honest answer.🔑Key Points• Coming off drugs and staying off is never easy, and that is worth saying out loud• Recovery is not one straight line; staying stable on treatment is a positive outcome, not something to be ashamed of• Coming off completely is wonderful when it happens, but it is very challenging, and it is not the only measure of success• Relapse is part of recovery, not a failure, and the priority afterwards is getting people back into support quickly💛 If you or someone you love needs support, the HSE Drugs and Alcohol Helpline is there on 1800 459 459.🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Kenneth Keavey has a PhD in chemistry and spent his early career in pharma and biotech. He now grows organic vegetables on twenty-five acres outside Galway, and he's the first to point out the irony: he was an organic chemist, and now he's an organic farmer.In this episode he takes Laura through what's actually on the food we eat, and how little of it we're told. Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment or another. Citrus is dipped or sprayed after harvest in waxes containing quite toxic, in some cases carcinogenic, chemicals to stop fungus growing on the skin. Most of it is legal, disclosed somewhere, and almost never read.Then comes the detail that stops the conversation. In the EU you're allowed 10mg of glyphosate per kilogram of wheat and 20mg per kilogram of oats — twice as much of a probable carcinogen in your porridge as in your toast. Kenneth and Darina Allen went to the Department of Agriculture to ask why. They were told that people eat less porridge than they do toast.It isn't all alarm. Kenneth refuses to scaremonger and is as clear about what isn't known as what is. He's also quietly hopeful: his own land is full of insects and birdsong, and he has watched how fast nature comes back when you let it.🔑 Key PointsHe was an organic chemist before he was an organic farmerHis PhD is in chemistry and his first career was in pharma and biotech, which is where the caution comes from.Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatmentPost-harvest waxes on citrus contain toxic and in some cases carcinogenic chemicals, and some produce carries up to fifteen applications.You're allowed twice as much glyphosate in porridge as in breadThe EU limit is 10mg per kilogram of wheat and 20mg per kilogram of oats. Kenneth and Darina Allen asked the Department of Agriculture why, and were told people eat less porridge than they do toast.The safety data usually comes from the manufacturersUnlike medicines, pesticide safety data is largely supplied by the companies selling the chemicals, and permitted limits have risen since the 1990s as application increased.80% of the world's insect biomass is goneA test anyone can run from memory: a windscreen after a night drive used to be covered in insects, and now there's virtually nothing on it.Ireland has gone from 600 vegetable growers to about 60The sector has hollowed out in twenty years, we import 85% of our fresh fruit and veg, and vegetables are the one thing that hasn't risen in price — which is why a 39c bag of carrots is a problem, not a bargain.Nature comes back faster than you'd thinkHis farm is full of insects and birds, with nine native Irish honeybee hives that out-produce every other apiary his beekeeper runs.📚 ResourcesGreen Earth OrganicsKenneth's organic farm and nationwide home delivery service in Co GalwaySilent SpringRachel Carson's book on the effects of blanket pesticide use, discussed in the episodeIARC (World Health Organization)The classification of glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans⏱️ Timestamps01:26 — Twenty years of Green Earth Organics02:35 — From a PhD in chemistry to organic farming03:57 — Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment06:34 — Glyphosate, the most applied chemical in history06:59 — Twice as much allowed in your porridge as in your toast07:17 — What the Department of Agriculture said when they asked why10:39 — Silent Spring, and the year the birdsong stopped12:25 — 80% of the world's insect biomass is gone22:15 — From 600 vegetable growers to about 6050:06 — Five summers of farm work, three sheep, and the leap

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Prof Robert Kelly admits he lost his own balance after a TED Talk and book launch, then shares the pillars-of-life exercise and a patient's story that helped him refocus on family and friends.What happens when a cardiologist looks at his own heart health and realises the answer isn't his diet, it's his diary?🔑Key Points• A busy run of a TED Talk, a book launch and Christmas left him with no space in his day for three months• Taking one full week off showed him just how stretched he had become• He learned a pillars-of-life exercise from another doctor's podcast: financial health, family, friends, own health and work• Looking at his own pillars, he realised work was crowding out everything else, especially his own health🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Siobhan Murray, psychotherapist and burnout strategist explains why she has banned the phrase self care, and shares the small daily habits, walks, box breathing and a mindfulness trick called the purple alien, that she uses instead to avoid burnout.What if self care isn't a retreat or a spa day at all, but something you can do in the two minutes it takes to boil the kettle?🔑Key Points• Siobhan bans the phrase self care and replaces it with care of self, something practised daily, not as an occasional treat• A one-off pilates class, a retreat or getting your nails done is maintenance, not care of self• She does four ten-minute walks every day without fail, even in the rain, simply to change her physical state• She practises box breathing, in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, while making a cup of tea🎧 Listen to the full episode here.