When was the last time you took some quality time off to do very little except recharge your batteries? Been a while? Feel too guilty? Then think again. According to recent research not taking time out is can have a negative impact on cardiovascular health and some experts, including psychologist Dr. Nava Silton, are even prescribing solo holidays, particularly for busy individuals such as mums, to help us counter daily stresses and recharge batteries. So this month IHS director Suzanne Laurie chats to Wendy Riordan, IHS Nutritional Therapy graduate and founder of Irish based wellness festival ..read more

How many of you made new years resolutions this year? And how many of you have already broken them, are struggling to maintain them or can't even remember what they were? Well – you are not alone! By the end of Jan / early Feb over 80% of us will have ditched our resolutions. We all start the new year with such optimism and energy so where is does it all go wrong?….Lockdown and home schooling will always do a pretty good job of sucking motivation out of you but now more than ever perhaps it’s time to find out why we are all finding it so hard to sustain positive changes in our lives and what w ..read more

Are you suffering from stress related illness or symptoms? Or are you at risk of burnout if something in your life doesn’t change? In the past year in the UK, 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope, and approximately 60% of work absenteeism is attributed to stress and burnout.  This month we spoke to former consultant paediatrician and current Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach, Dr Catriona Walsh, about her own experience of burnout and how individuals can stop themselves becoming another stress related illness statistic. Catriona has founded The Food ..read more

It is now a well-accepted idea that what we put in our body will affect our physical performance, which has lead to ‘sports nutrition’ becoming a huge and lucrative industry. Guidelines have traditionally focused on the intake of protein, carbohydrates and fats with a view to maximising performance and analysing the nutritional adequacy of an athlete’s diet based on training demands. However, little thought is given to the underlying health of the athlete or their general lifestyle and therefore the context into which the exercise they choose to do is being placed i.e. are they already a stres ..read more

Every 3 seconds someone in the world develops dementia with an estimated 50 million people worldwide suffering from some form of cognitive decline. This number is predicted to almost double every 20 years from this point, reaching 75 million in 2030 and a staggering 131.5 million in 2050.  So is there anything we can do, and can nutrition and lifestyle help prevent dementia? That’s what we asked Nutritional Therapist and IHS graduate Edelle O’Doherty-Nickels. Edelle is the founder and director of Personalised Health Clinic, Dublin and specialises in the role of nutrition and lifestyle in ..read more

Mums and dads - Are emotional outbursts a recurring theme in your household? Maybe from the kids...or maybe your you too! Have you ever wished you had practical tools to help you know what to say and do to help them in those emotionally intense moments? Would you love for your child (and maybe even yourself) to have simple strategies in place so that they can find their inner calm more easily? Well this episode is for you as we chatted to Natalie Costa - award winning coach, speaker, author and founder of Power Thoughts (https://www.powerthoughts.co.uk), a coaching service designed to give ch ..read more

It’s mid December already so inevitably our minds are on Christmas and we’re starting to panic about what we’ve still got to organise. Christmas is supposed to be a joyous time but up to 70% of us find our stress levels rising over everything from buying gifts to family issues to organising the dinner. It’s been one heck of a year and Christmas 2020 style may not be what you had in mind, so we wanted to help you make the most of the festivities and enjoy your day. This month we are chatting to IHS's very own Georgie Kavanagh (internal quality assurer,  nutritional therapist, cook and bus ..read more

Do you sometimes find that taking care of yourself – whether physically or mentally – can feel like just another thing on your to-do list? And between work, family and friends it can easily slip to the bottom of your priorities - or even become a stress in itself? Well - maybe it's time to rethink your wellness routine. Of course, an hour-long yoga class or massage can do wonders for our overall health, but sometimes it’s just not possible to fit them in. However, we can all find two minutes right? Well according to Tayyaba Jordan (https://wellnesswithme.co.uk/) - Executive Health Coach, micro ..read more

Struggling to keep all your family happy at meal times and get a variety of healthy foods into them everyday? Then this podcast is for you. If you have a picky eater in the house then you’re not alone, as research suggests between 20-40% of children are considered picky eaters at some stage. This is something that impacts a lot of families and can cause a lot of stress around meals. It can also lead to longer term issues with food and disordered eating throughout life. Picky eating can be associated with underlying concerns such as hypersensitivities but can parents work with their children t ..read more

Most of us are currently housebound due to Covid-19. These are strange and uncertain times but it has never been more important to keep well and look after our mental and physical health.  This month IHS director Suzanne Laurie chats to Gwen Bastion, Nutritional Therapist and IHS team member, about their own experiences of lockdown and how they are applying their knowledge and experience in the wellness field to keep their families safe and well. This Podcast supports IHS’s free online short course ‘ Survive and Thrive @home’ which was launched to help all those isolated to their houses t ..read more