#73 The Cancer Series (3 of 3). My Cancer Journey with Dr Lauren Macdonald
The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast
Dr Rupy Aujla
4.7 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2020
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode I’m joined by Dr Lauren Macdonald, who worked as a doctor in Brighton for several years before being diagnosed with aggressive stage 4 cancer in 2014.
The years that followed gave her a deep understanding of what it is to face a life-threatening illness. Consequently, she became fascinated by the emotional experience of illness, the mind-body connection, and the body’s ability to self-heal.
To optimise her chance of survival she explored Integrative Medicine, specifically focusing on nutrition, the gut microbiome, and stress management techniques, alongside conventional medical treatment. She achieved complete remission in 2016 and has gone on to study vedic meditation, Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Ashtanga yoga.
We talked about:
- Her cancer journey, what is like to be a doctor with cancer and her experiences within the NHS system
- Stress and inflammation in disease
- How she was able to overcome trauma in her life
- Gut health and its importance during therapy
- Her experiences of yoga and learning more about surrendering herself to the universe
- The power of nature as a healer
- Her personal use of psychedelics and her thoughts on its potential use in medicine
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is sponsored by Zoe, the nutrition program that starts with an at-home test. |
| 0:06.6 | I was really excited to get my Zoe at-home test kit in the mail. |
| 0:10.3 | It comes complete with an easy-to-apply, blood glucose monitor to give me real-time analytics |
| 0:16.0 | on how my body responds to different foods, a gut health test and, of course, the famous muffins |
| 0:22.5 | to determine how my body responds to sugars and fats. |
| 0:26.1 | I downloaded the Zoe app, which took me through the program and I was on my way. |
| 0:30.1 | And I was pleasantly surprised to find that as a healthy eater myself, my sugars were pretty stable |
| 0:36.3 | and my gut was healthy and all my favourite foods were suggested in my personalised scores |
| 0:42.3 | like edamame beans and broccoli. |
| 0:44.3 | If you want to feel more energetic, improve your gut health and reduce your risk of long-term disease |
| 0:50.3 | it all starts by understanding how you eat for your body. |
| 0:54.6 | Professor Tim Specter and the scientist that Zoe run the world's largest in-depth study of nutrition |
| 1:00.8 | and their biggest learning is that we all respond to food very differently. |
| 1:05.4 | They've turned their research into a personalised nutrition program that gives you insights into how your body responds to food |
| 1:12.2 | and how to eat for your best health, which all begins with an at-home test. |
| 1:16.0 | Discover what eating for your best health really looks like. |
| 1:19.5 | Go to joinzoey.com and use kitchen, temper a 10% discount, that's kitchen, |
| 1:23.9 | temper all one word for a 10% discount. |
| 1:26.5 | Doctor's Kitchen |
| 1:28.5 | Recipes, Health, Lifestyle |
| 1:31.5 | It wasn't until I'd come through it that I realised just how numb and probably depressed really I was. |
| 1:37.5 | Looking back, I wish I could tell my younger self to go and seek some therapy |
... |
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