Podcast
The Health Review
Hosted by The Health Review · EN
I’m Emily — a TV journalist and presenter on a mission to cut through the noise and find real answers about how we can take care of our health.
After struggling with chronic health issues for years — from recurring infections to gut problems and burnout — I made some big lifestyle changes that completely transformed my life.
Now, I use my journalism background to ask the questions we all really want answered. On The Health Review, I speak to top doctors, nutritionists, and experts to make sense of the science and debunk the endless health myths online.
Subscribe for weekly episodes with incredible health and wellness voices!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
14episodes
Episodes
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Meditation, Spirituality and How to Connect With Your True Essence | Jillian Lavender
May 2700:44:44Tap to summarizeSo many of us think we can't meditate. We've tried it, lasted forty seconds before the to-do list arrived in our mind, decided we were doing it wrong and never went back. But according to today's guest, that experience doesn't mean you failed at meditation. It means nobody taught you how to actually do it.In this episode of The Health Review I sit down with Jillian Lavender — one of the UK's leading Vedic meditation teachers, co-director of the London Meditation Centre and author of Why Meditate? Because it Works. Jillian has been teaching meditation for over 20 years and has helped thousands of people build a practice that genuinely transforms their lives. Her own journey began in the corporate world, exhausted, running on caffeine and wondering why nothing was helping — until a mentor mentioned that meditation had transformed their sleep. What followed changed everything.This is one of the most accessible, myth-busting and inspiring conversations I've had on the show. If you've ever thought meditation wasn't for you — this episode will change your mind.We cover:Jillian's own story — from corporate exhaustion to becoming one of the UK's most respected meditation teachersThe three types of meditation — concentration, mindfulness and Vedic — and why the differences matter enormouslyWhy Vedic meditation is so different — a mantra-based practice the mind loves and that becomes effortless once learnedWhy you can meditate anywhere — on the tube, in a waiting room, between meetings — using either your voice or your mindThe most common myths around meditation — you don't have to clear your mind, sit still for hours or be spiritually inclinedWhy if you can think, you can meditate — and what that actually means20 minutes twice a day — how this practice makes your day so much more productive that you genuinely make back the timeSpirituality, essence and what meditation opens up when you go deeper into the practiceHow to connect with your true self through a consistent practice — and what that feels likeThis episode is for you if:You've tried meditation and given up, you think you're too busy, too restless or too much of a sceptic. Or you're simply curious about what Vedic meditation actually is and why so many people describe it as life-changing.About Jillian Lavender:Jillian Lavender is one of the UK's leading Vedic meditation teachers and co-director of the London Meditation Centre. She has been teaching meditation for over 20 years and is the author of Why Meditate? Because it Works. She teaches people from all walks of life — from complete beginners to seasoned practitioners — and is known for making meditation feel completely accessible and natural.This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your own clinician before making changes to your health.Topics: Vedic meditation | how to meditate | learn to meditate | meditation for beginners | types of meditation | mantra meditation | mindfulness meditation | Jillian Lavender | London Meditation Centre | why meditate | meditation myths | meditation and productivity | meditation and sleep | meditation and spirituality | meditation and burnout | corporate burnout | meditation practice | if you can think you can meditate | meditation for busy people | meditation and essence | spiritual practice | meditation transformation | why meditation worksJillian's website: http://www.jillianlavender.com/The London Meditation Centre: https://www.londonmeditationcentre.com/This week's sponsor, vagus nerve stimulator SONA has offered The Health Review listeners 15% off SONA. Use code THR at checkout or access the discount automatically here: https://sona.help/?im_ref=SkfXugw-kxyZWz0TwYRUY2%3AdUkuReuR-SzLO0Q0&sharedid=&irpid=7022575&irgwc=1&afsrc=1Follow The Health Review: https://www.instagram.com/the.health.review/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →How to Stop Watching Your Life from the Shadows and Become Its Main Character | Simon Alexander Ong
May 2000:44:20Tap to summarizeMost of us are incredibly busy, but busyness and productivity are not the same thing...and somewhere in the hampster wheel of accumulating more, achieving more and doing more, a lot of us have lost the thread back to ourselves.In this episode of The Health Review I sit down with Simon Alexander Ong — life coach, keynote speaker and bestselling author of Energize, published by Penguin and winner of the Business Book Award for Wellness and Wellbeing. Simon's own journey began in the corporate world — until burnout forced him to stop and ask some very different questions about how he was actually living. What he discovered on the other side became the foundation for one of the most compelling frameworks for human performance and personal fulfilment I've come across.This is a conversation about slowing down enough to know yourself, about the difference between a life lived on autopilot and one lived with real intention, and about what it takes to stop watching your life from the shadows, and as Simon puts it, step into it as its 'main character'.We cover:The four dimensions of energy — physical, mental, emotional and spiritual — and how to tap into each of them more deliberatelyWhy being busy has become a status symbol — and why it's one of the most expensive mistakes we makeThe fear of other people's opinions and how it keeps high achievers stuck in lives they didn't consciously chooseThe alter ego technique — how figures like Kobe Bryant and Beyonce used a separate persona to access courage and boldness without self-doubtWhat it means to become the main character of your own life — and the practical steps to actually do itSpiritual practices that work — gratitude, solitude, and the power of spending real time with yourselfHow to get clear on your values, your purpose and what you actually want — and then do something about itAbout Simon Alexander Ong:Simon Alexander Ong is a life coach, keynote speaker and bestselling author of Energize, published by Penguin Random House and winner of the Business Book Award for Wellness and Wellbeing. He works with leaders, entrepreneurs and organisations to help them unlock their full potential through the intelligent management of energy rather than time.This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your own clinician before making changes to your health.Topics: life design | purpose | spiritual energy | four types of energy | energize Simon Alexander Ong | how to find your purpose | becoming the main character | alter ego technique | Kobe Bryant Black Mamba | fear of judgment | high performance | burnout recovery | personal growth | self awareness | productivity vs busyness | slow down | know yourself | life coaching | human potential | energy management | living with intention | autopilot living | fulfillmentFollow Simon: https://www.instagram.com/simonalexanderoFollow The Health Review: https://www.instagram.com/the.health.reviewSign up to The Health Review newsletter: https://thehealthreview.beehiiv.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →A Wellness Editor's Honest Guide to What's Worth Your Money — and What Isn't | Eleanor Hoath
May 1300:44:24Tap to summarizeThe wellness industry is worth nearly $7 trillion. There are supplements for everything, gadgets for everything, protocols for everything. But how much of it actually works — and how much is just very convincing marketing?Nobody is better placed to answer that than today's guest. Eleanor Hoath is a registered nutritional therapist, wellness editor, writer and founder of The Well Edit — a research-led wellness platform bringing genuine editorial rigour to modern wellbeing. She has spent years immersed in this world — trying, testing and writing about everything from gut health to collagen supplements — and she brings something genuinely rare to the conversation: the clinical training to know what the science says and the editorial instincts to call out the noise.This one is fun, honest and packed with the kind of insider perspective you won't get anywhere else.We cover:Histamine issues — why they're far more common in women than most people realise and what to do about themCollagen supplements — does ingested collagen actually reach your skin or is this one of wellness's most expensive myths?Eleanor's favourite wellness products right now — the things she'd genuinely recommend and the things she'd quietly binWhy she's excited about the growth of the wellness industry — and genuinely concerned about the misleading marketing that comes with itGreen time before screen time — the phrase Eleanor coined in 2020 that's taken on a life of its own, and what the science actually saysWhy so many of us are craving calm and focusing on nervous system health in 2026 — and whether the industry is responding wellThis episode is for you if:You love wellness but sometimes wonder if you're being sold to. You want the honest insider view from someone who has tried it all. Or you're simply curious about what a nutritional therapist and wellness editor actually has on her own shelf.About Eleanor Hoath:Eleanor Hoath is a registered nutritional therapist, wellness editor and founder of The Well Edit. She specialises in gut health, skin and women's health and has written for some of the biggest wellness publications in the UK.This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your own clinician before making changes to your health.Topics: wellness trends 2026 | histamine intolerance women | collagen supplements | does collagen work | green time before screen time | nervous system health | wellness industry | red light therapy | wellness editor | nutritional therapist | The Well Edit | Eleanor Hoath | best wellness products | wellness marketing | gut health | women's health | calm in 2026 | wellness sceptic | functional medicine | health trends UK | over optimisation | digital detoxThe Well Edit: https://thewelledit.co.uk/Follow The Health Review: https://www.instagram.com/the.health.review/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →How to Fix Your Nervous System: HRV, Stress & Healing with That HRV Guy (Salim Najjar)
Dec 9Summary readyBefore Salim Najjar became known as That HRV Guy, he was an engineer-turned-entrepreneur pushing his body to extremes — building companies, travelling the world, experimenting with every biohack, and constantly testing his physical limits. From the outside, it looked like peak performance. Inside, he was edging closer to burnout. Eventually, as he puts it, he “broke his body”.That breaking point became the doorway into a completely different way of understanding health.In this episode, Salim shares the story of how he rebuilt himself from the inside out by studying Heart Rate Variability — not just as a metric, but as a mirror reflecting how his nervous system was experiencing the world. He explains how HRV revealed the cost of years spent in survival mode, and how learning to regulate his internal state changed everything.We talk about how stress isn't the enemy — it's the signal. And that the real work wasn’t adding more hacks, but learning how to feel again.Salim explains how every emotion we experience is meant to be processed through the nervous system, and what happens when those emotions are suppressed, avoided or intellectualised instead of metabolised. He shares how unprocessed feelings show up as inflammation, exhaustion, reactivity, and the quiet sense that our body is bracing for impact — even when life is stable.This conversation touches the core of what it means to be human:why our bodies keep score,why connection and co-regulation matter,and why our biology still expects us to live the way our ancestors did — in tribes, outdoors, with long stretches of true rest and shared presence.Salim breaks down how we can train the nervous system like a muscle, learning to move fluidly between sympathetic activation and parasympathetic recovery. When we build that flexibility, stress becomes something we can work with, not something we fear. It becomes a teacher, an ally, even a source of strength.We explore how this adaptability can transform HRV, reduce inflammation, and restore the sense of calm that so many people today have lost.It’s a conversation about reclaiming your internal landscape, listening to the wisdom of your body, and remembering the way humans were designed to live, feel, connect, and heal.Salim's website: https://thathrvguy.com/Follow The Health Review: https://www.instagram.com/the.health.review/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Summary