Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish. Yes you have joined us on
Speaker 1: the daily podcast and Body and Soul.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: I am Felicity Harley and joining me today is of course,
Speaker 1: our fabulous digital editor Holly Berkleman. And oh have we
Speaker 1: got some stories for you this week? Yes, we're chatting
Speaker 1: through the three hottest stories in health of Honest this week.
Speaker 1: Oh hey, Holly, welcome to Healthy Ish. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us again on this episode.
Speaker 3: You feel like I've had five million meetings a day
Speaker 3: at the moment that I'm getting through, how about you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, A bit like that at school holidays, and it's
Speaker 1: always an extra juggle. I mean, I also hate lamenting
Speaker 1: how busy busy we are, because we're all busy, but
Speaker 1: it's just that little bit extra, right it is?
Speaker 3: And I do feel like, aren't we meant to not
Speaker 3: be as busy in winter?
Speaker 4: Is that a thing? Oh? No, I feel like summer
Speaker 4: is meant to be busy but.
Speaker 1: Winds into the slowdown, which doesn't really happened.
Speaker 4: Cool.
Speaker 3: Well, I've never been less slow in my life, but
Speaker 3: that's fine.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well hit us up. What's happening in your world
Speaker 2: this week?
Speaker 3: Well, finally, the story that I found the most intriguing
Speaker 3: this week was TikTok's obsessed with high cortisol. But how
Speaker 3: bad is it really? From a personal standpoint? The answer
Speaker 3: is very bad, but let's take a look into it.
Speaker 3: So we spoke with founder of Body Clinic Sydney, Sydney's
Speaker 3: premier health coaching of physiotherapy clinic, Nigel Morgan, who did
Speaker 3: a bit of myth busting on cortisol for us. So basically, TikTok, yeah,
Speaker 3: they don't think that maybe cortisole is as bad as
Speaker 3: people say it is. I tell you straight up that
Speaker 3: it is bad for you to have high cortisole continuously,
Speaker 3: and then.
Speaker 2: Yeah I love that. Just love everyone together and say TikTok.
Speaker 4: Just TikTok people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but for a little bit of a down low
Speaker 3: on cortisol. It's our primary stress hormone and that's what
Speaker 3: kickstarts the fight or flight response when we perceive something
Speaker 3: to be dangerous or threatening.
Speaker 4: But since all.
Speaker 3: Stresses activate the same system, our bodies are not great
Speaker 3: at differentiating between real and perceived threats. So you know,
Speaker 3: something might spike our anxiety, but it might not actually
Speaker 3: be something that we need.
Speaker 4: To stress about.
Speaker 3: As I'm sure many listeners will know and as something
Speaker 3: that I can attest to for sure.
Speaker 4: So is high quartersol really that bad?
Speaker 3: Yes, because it can impact your health quite a bit if.
Speaker 4: It sticks around for long periods of time.
Speaker 3: So it can spike anxiety, it can cause depression, but
Speaker 3: it can also lead to lower immunity and increase in
Speaker 3: IBS symptoms and nutrient malabsorption.
Speaker 4: It can increase your.
Speaker 3: Risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and hard attack. And it
Speaker 3: can even damage to the hippocampus which impacts long term
Speaker 3: memory in your brain.
Speaker 4: Myth past did Hey, yeah, myth is busted. So there are, however,
Speaker 4: some things you can do to lower your quartersole levels.
Speaker 3: So Morgan suggests going out of that fight or flight
Speaker 3: state and into the rest and digest stage, which you know,
Speaker 3: obviously that's what we'd all like to be in, but
Speaker 3: it's a stage where your body is not like trying
Speaker 3: to run.
Speaker 4: Away from that.
Speaker 3: You know, that threat, and is actually able to repair
Speaker 3: itself and actually yeah reset. He also suggests things like
Speaker 3: nasal breathing, slow nasal breathing, and regular exercise and healthy
Speaker 3: living to help reduce your stress response. So we're not
Speaker 3: reinventing the wheel here. But I do think it's important
Speaker 3: when these things come up on you know, social media,
Speaker 3: and it's like, oh, it's not actually that bad, that it's.
Speaker 4: Good to talk to an expert and bust those myths.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. And look, I mean I know you, Holly,
Speaker 1: but often I feel like I'm just living in this.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say higher cortisol stress state twenty four to seven,
Speaker 1: I'd say medium.
Speaker 4: So next time I would say high.
Speaker 1: Is someone on the medium corter cel stress state and
Speaker 1: see if that's going to lead to long term health issues?
Speaker 4: Please a great idea.
Speaker 3: I'll touch base and I'll see how bad quarter levels
Speaker 3: of cortisol are for you, and I'll report back.
Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't everyone else feel like we just live
Speaker 1: in this this medium level cortisole stress state all of
Speaker 1: the time?
Speaker 3: I mean I hate it, Yeah, absolutely, And I do
Speaker 3: think that like so easy to blame things on social media,
Speaker 3: but I think when you're constantly in that state where
Speaker 3: you're scrolling, you're being stimulated, it's really hard to find,
Speaker 3: you know, that state where your brain can actually switch off,
Speaker 3: And so it's so easy to be in that constant
Speaker 3: stress state.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, well, I want to talk about something that perhaps
Speaker 1: might help you well get into the rest and digest state,
Speaker 1: and it's essential oils.
Speaker 2: Do you use the holy Oh I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm essential oil with Jason. I'm just like, I'm not
Speaker 3: hugely into the smell of them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, I kind of dabble here and there,
Speaker 1: but and I often want to do that actually work?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like the idea of them, yes, we do. Well, No,
Speaker 4: I love the idea exactly. Well.
Speaker 1: So I saw a new systematic review pop up about
Speaker 1: essential oils and I went into a bit of a
Speaker 1: deep dive and I have to share, well what it
Speaker 1: found really because I'm a bit lucky. I think I
Speaker 1: want to use it. Well, I'd like to use them,
Speaker 1: I don't. Do they actually work? Is it worth my while?
Speaker 1: And I've actually seen some products, beauty products specifically, popping
Speaker 1: up with different types of oils, things like rosemary oil
Speaker 1: for hair growth, coriander in face oil, black human seed
Speaker 1: oil for skin.
Speaker 2: So now, oh yes, yeah, have you seen these things?
Speaker 4: Definitely?
Speaker 3: And we all of the ASoP is it parsley seed oil? Yes,
Speaker 3: well that's another lovely yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I mean we all know that essential oils
Speaker 1: have been around for well hundreds and thousands of years,
Speaker 1: if not millennia, and you know they're used in healing
Speaker 1: and bathing rituals across many cultures, so we all know
Speaker 1: anecdotally they can work. You put some but you know,
Speaker 1: essential oils in your bath and you feel amazing. But
Speaker 1: there's certain oils that have been studied extensively as well,
Speaker 1: and they're things like pepmine oil for ibs, lavender for sleep.
Speaker 1: But this new review actually looked at a specific bunch
Speaker 1: of essential oils that perhaps we haven't heard that much about,
Speaker 1: only on products coming out, things like lemon, orange, cuman, cinnamon, coriander, rosemary.
Speaker 2: Thyme, and parsley.
Speaker 1: So interesting what it found. So basically as this I
Speaker 1: can't even s that word systematic, well a system review
Speaker 1: just to give you, you know, remind you what it is.
Speaker 1: It's a mega review of all the studies. So it's
Speaker 1: just been published in the journal frontiersy Medicine, and it
Speaker 1: focused on the anti inflammatory effects the nutrisceutical God, I
Speaker 1: just can't be my ways ound there selling nutraceutical properties,
Speaker 1: antioxidant and antibacterial activity of all of the essential oils
Speaker 1: I just mentioned above, and the researchers looked at things
Speaker 1: like present in your diet, their effect that whether they
Speaker 1: actually can work on your health the most important active compounds. Now,
Speaker 1: the search was actually conducted in the pub Med database,
Speaker 1: which is worth going into if you're into that, if
Speaker 1: you geek out in science, and it looked the last
Speaker 1: twelve years of publications around studies to do with these oils.
Speaker 1: And yes, it found that essential oils do have many
Speaker 1: therapeutic benefits and they are beneficial to human health in
Speaker 1: many ways. However, these particular essential oils such as coriander, parsley, rosemary,
Speaker 1: and thyme need more research so.
Speaker 2: They Okay, they could have potential benefits.
Speaker 1: I'm saying that in air quotes and that comes to
Speaker 1: that's that's actually verbatim from the study. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: Hold up, would you hold off on buying the rosemary
Speaker 1: or shampoof for now?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Maybe not? We still don't know whether it actually works.
Speaker 4: Okay, this was a good deep dive for list.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, so maybe we put a hold on
Speaker 3: how effective we think they are. But they can be
Speaker 3: used still, just if you like a bit of self
Speaker 3: care and you just like the smell of them and
Speaker 3: they're a bit nice.
Speaker 4: There's value in that.
Speaker 2: Too, absolutely and actually interesting.
Speaker 1: I did come, I did do a few other looks
Speaker 1: into other studies in the placebo effect of you know,
Speaker 1: smelling essential oils and using them can actually can vouch
Speaker 1: for a lot for the therapeutic benefits if that's what
Speaker 1: you're using them for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the placebo effect is so interesting. I'm fascinated by
Speaker 3: the power of the human mind.
Speaker 1: Exactly now, just quickly before we go, give us quick
Speaker 1: rundown of most click story of the week.
Speaker 4: This is a pretty grim one, I'll be honest.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: The headline is penis cancer cases are surging around the world,
Speaker 3: is why so if you didn't have spiked cordinal before
Speaker 3: you will now apologies in advance, but this is important
Speaker 3: health journalism. So according to an investigation by the BBC,
Speaker 3: penis cancer is expected to surge a staggering seventy seven
Speaker 3: percent in the next twenty six years. And I know
Speaker 3: it's crazy, like that's a huge jump. And just for
Speaker 3: like comparison as well, cases in Germany alone increased by
Speaker 3: fifty percent between nineteen sixty one and twenty twelve, and
Speaker 3: the UK has also seen a considerable spike, so there's
Speaker 3: been a massive jump over the last Oh god, don't
Speaker 3: make me do the math, but.
Speaker 4: Like fifty one ish years.
Speaker 3: Yep, fifty one ish years and it's going to continue
Speaker 3: growing at an even higher rate. And Brazil is one
Speaker 3: of the countries that has the highest rates of penis
Speaker 3: cancer too, and doctors believe that low HPV vaccination rates
Speaker 3: could be contributing to this interest. However, there are things
Speaker 3: that you can do to lessen the rates and your
Speaker 3: risk factors, which include not having unprotected sex and specifically
Speaker 3: like making sure you're using condoms and you know, just
Speaker 3: looking at your hygiene levels as well.
Speaker 4: Good point, general health and wellness factors do play in Meanwhile,
Speaker 4: other doctors also say that an aging population is contributing
Speaker 4: to these case numbers too, so have a read.
Speaker 3: You can look at the actual data behind it on
Speaker 3: body insol dot com dot au and stay vigilant people
Speaker 3: do your self checks.
Speaker 1: Nice reminder, howe, I think we'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us today on Healthish, and I will
Speaker 1: to all of the above in the show notes. If
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