Modern Wellness Podcast

It’s summertime in the UK and social media is awash with influencers airing their concerns about sunscreen. Too much exposure to the sun has traditionally been seen as a danger. Now claims that sunscreen is toxic flood the internet. What does the science say?

Next up, we look at Conde Nast’s recent article “Forget hotel gyms – the latest luxury is wellness delivered straight to your room” From Peloton bikes and LED masks to minibars stocked with CBD drops and sleep patches, the world's best hotels have turned your bedroom into the ultimate fitness sanctuary. Is this the kind of thing that might get you booking?

And lastly, in trending, Adrienne brings iron to the table. We’re seeing it everywhere, from supplements to food, but what’s the deal with it?
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On today's special episode of The Modern Wellness podcast, Adrienne speaks with Gopal Kumar, General Manager & Director of Wellness Development at Kamalaya Koh Samui.

Visiting wellness retreats has become increasingly popular, but what makes Kamalaya in Koh Samui, Thailand stand out? In this episode Adrienne reflects on her visit along with Gopal, who explains what makes Kamalaya's approach to wellness so unique.

Kamalaya Koh Samui is a multi-award-winning Wellness Sanctuary nestled within a lush tropical landscape on the southern coastline of Koh Samui, Thailand. Kamalaya offers a synergistic wellness experience to help people reconnect to life’s potential and achieve optimal wellbeing.

The cuisine, service style, natural surroundings, and even the architecture have been thoughtfully designed to support and enhance the wellness therapies and services. The land itself is a powerful part of the healing journey, allowing guests to experience the restorative power of nature firsthand. At the heart of Kamalaya lies a centuries-old cave, once used by Buddhist monks as a place of meditative retreat, where Guests are welcome to enter the sacred space for quiet reflection and meditation.

Find out more at kamalaya.com

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We start with news that Apple is scaling back plans for a virtual health coach, code-named Mulberry, as part of an effort to rethink how the company approaches the market for wellness services. The company now plans to take some of the features it had planned for the artificial intelligence-powered offering and roll them out individually over time within its Health app. This may comes as a surprise, but Apple is facing tougher competition in the health-tracking market, with rivals including Oura and Whoop offering more compelling and useful features, particularly through their iPhone apps. Read more here.

Next up we’re looking at Energy Drinks. Are you a fan? Verywell have published an article that lists the potential dangers that come from consuming these. The list includes… drinking energy drinks can increase your heart rate and blood pressure. Energy drinks can cause anxiety, insomnia, and restlessness. And dental health isn’t untouched either… regular consumption of energy drinks may lead to tooth enamel erosion. Read the article here.

And in Trending… Adrienne reckons pilates is on the decline. Have you been seeing the backlash against Pilates? Online it seems that the conversation is that it’s no strength training, but is this unfair?
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Today on the show the brilliant Alex Zatarain (@alexzatarainj) is our guest, cofounder of Eight Sleep. She joins Oli to discuss all things sleep!

Eight Sleep’s revolutionary Pod 5 uses a sensor-embedded mattress cover to track biometrics (including heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate and sleep stages) and then actively improve sleep by adjusting bed temperature in real time, waking users during lighter sleep, and optionally mitigating snoring via an adjustable base that elevates to open airways.

Alex explains why temperature is a key sleep signal, how our modern indoor environments disrupt regulation, and how Eight Sleep's Autopilot mode uses algorithms and new AI capabilities to respond to, and predict, sleep needs using tags like alcohol, late meals or stress, alongside large-scale data.

It's mind blowing stuff, and as we say all the time on the show - sleep is so important, and yet so often overlooked. So get ready to chuck out your old pillows.
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We start with the news that as individuals, we bear at least 80% of the responsibility for our ill health in old age, according to a report aimed at challenging the belief that physical decline is either inevitable or primarily the responsibility of the state.

The report, launched at the Smart Ageing Summit in Oxford last month, argues that individuals have far greater control over their longevity than is commonly understood. The authors call on the government to take legislative action on alcohol comparable to restrictions on smoking. Read more on The Guardian.

Next up, neurowellness is moving from niche to mainstream as people realise one of their biggest health bottlenecks isn’t willpower, it’s nervous system overload. Sleep has become the on-ramp. Wearables turned a private struggle into a daily metric: “What’s your sleep score?” When scores stay low, the message is clear: the autonomic nervous system is stuck in low-grade fight-or-flight, showing up as fragmented sleep, anxiety, inflammation, brain fog, hormonal disruption and burnout.

And in trending, Adrienne looks at the rise of Pro-aging. People embracing old age, and the changes to the body that come with it. From grey hairs, to laughter lines, why shouldn’t we be proud of how our body looks, even in later life?

A message from Sammi:
I’m taking part in a fundraising challenge this week for CALM (suicide prevention), in memory of our friend Dan who passed away in 2019.

6 of us (friends of over 30 years) are attempting to cross every vehicle chain ferry in the UK - in an electric car - in under 24 hours.

It came from a line in Dan’s eulogy about a conversation on the Cowes chain ferry. Felt like something he would have loved.

The BBC are filming it and the Royal Navy are getting involved so it’s turning into a big one.

Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 and young people aged 15–39 in the UK, so it’s a cause that really matters.
If you’re up for supporting, here’s the link: https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/donate-to-calm-and-win

(You can also guess our finishing time + win a piece of art)

You can check out everything about the challenge here:
https://www.chainferrychallenge.com/home

Thank you 🙏
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