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My Health Focus

My Health Focus

Von: Editorial Team - My Health Focus
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My Health Focus provides a wide range of health educational information through podcasts and articles, interviewing both patients, carers, healthcare professionals and charities. My Health Focus provides information to allow you to make an informed decision on your health choices, along with offering a pathway to take part in future health research such as clinical trials.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My Health Focus Hygiene & gesundes Leben Seelische & Geistige Gesundheit
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  • The Getting of Resilience: Sally Baker on Health Anxiety

    The Getting of Resilience: Sally Baker on Health Anxiety
    Aug 8 2026
    Senior therapist Sally Baker returns to talk about resilience, not as bouncing back or staying relentlessly positive, but as something pragmatic that can be learned at any age, whatever your upbringing.Sally and Catriona talk through why toxic positivity is exhausting rather than helpful, the "game show noise" technique for interrupting anxious rumination, breathing as an early signal of overwhelm, and the havening technique for calming the nervous system. They also cover emetophobia, the fear of vomiting, and how it can shape a life long before anyone names it.1. [02:30] Resilience is not about being massively positive all the time, it is exhausting being positive when you are feeling fearful, anxious and not very well → Sally challenges the common misconception that resilience means forced positivity, which is a relief for anyone struggling with chronic health anxiety2. [04:15] All of the overthinking is like a vine in your hand, the more attention you pay the seed of these worrying thoughts, it gives it energy, as if you are growing a seed with water and sunlight so that eventually your thoughts become completely overwhelming → This is Sally's signature metaphor for how rumination spirals, and it helps people understand why their anxiety keeps growing3. [05:20] The game show noise technique: when you find yourself ruminating about your health, say the game show noise, it goes uhhhh, that's an unhelpful thought, and break it, break the thought pattern → Sally gives a concrete, memorable tool that clients and their families can use immediately to interrupt health anxiety spirals4. [10:45] Resilience is developed in the crucible of the family, if you are raised in an environment where you are loved, honoured and adored, you will develop natural resilience, but what is great about resilience is that you can learn it as an adult later in life → Sally explains the origins of resilience but emphasises hope, this is not a life sentence, adults can build resilience even if they did not develop it as children5. [13:30] Health anxiety becomes a problem when it interrupts you living your life as best as you are able to, poor health can already make our life small, but then anxiety on top of that means we are spending all our time and energy ruminating → Sally defines the tipping point clearly, this helps listeners recognise when health anxiety has become a genuine problem rather than a normal worry6. [14:50] The period of waiting for a diagnosis is almost harder than being given the most terrible news, because even when the waiting is endless, it is an abstract, no one knows what is going to happen, and as soon as you have had the news, there is a palpable release, at least now I know what I am facing → Sally validates the experience of waiting for results, which many listeners will find deeply relatable and reassuring7. [16:30] The music box metaphor: when you are winding yourself up with anxiety and ruminating, you are in effect winding up the music box, and when the music box is completely wound up, it can only play one tune and it can only do one dance → Sally uses a physical prop to demonstrate how rumination locks you into a single pattern, making the abstract concept tangible8. [19:00] Havening is a great technique, you start with your hands on the top of your shoulders and you slowly stroke down, what you are doing is you are calming your parasympathetic system → Sally introduces a self-soothing technique that listeners can practise immediately, with clear physical instructions9. [26:15] Emetophobia, the fear of vomit, is the queen or king of all phobias because the threads of it impact on so many different aspects of life, it can stop someone going to university, make people agoraphobic, lead to orthorexia and even anorexia → Sally explains a less well-known phobia that affects mostly women and girls, showing how health anxiety can infiltrate every area of lifeMy Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    25 Min.
  • Geoff Rollason: Why Pharma Still Talks Patient Engagement - But Doesn't Do It

    Geoff Rollason: Why Pharma Still Talks Patient Engagement - But Doesn't Do It
    Aug 1 2026

    Geoff Rollason spent nearly 20 years in the NHS and a decade at Pfizer UK Oncology leading patient experience work. Now living with prostate cancer himself, he shares what really happens when industry tries to involve patients and why it so often falls short.


    5 Key Takeaways:

    1. Pharma still talks about patient engagement but rarely follows through because there's no short-term ROI and the driver is stockholder returns, not patient experience.

    2. Patient insights panels fail when commercial colleagues aren't involved from the start and when the work is treated as a project rather than business as usual.

    3. Hormone therapy for prostate cancer can cause crushing fatigue, loss of body hair, and profound changes to self-image that aren't adequately supported.

    4. Geoff received just 43 minutes of clinical input over six months, highlighting the gap between keeping patients alive and supporting their quality of life.

    5. Real patient-centricity means changing what marketers and commercial teams do in response to patient insights, not just collecting data.


    Geoff Rollason is a patient advocate and former Associate Director of Primary Integrated Care in the NHS. He later led patient experience for Pfizer UK Oncology before retiring and being diagnosed with prostate cancer.


    Follow My Health Focus for more expert health interviews and patient education content.


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    My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.


    JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    25 Min.
  • Living with Genital Herpes: Facts, Stigma & Transmission

    Living with Genital Herpes: Facts, Stigma & Transmission
    Jul 27 2026
    Living with Genital Herpes: Facts, Stigma & TransmissionShow NotesMarianne Nicholson from the Herpes Virus Association and Shingles Support Society returns to tackle the stigma surrounding genital herpes and explain why most people who carry the virus never know they have it. She shares that by age 25, seven in ten people in the UK carry herpes simplex, yet only one in three ever develops symptoms severe enough for diagnosis. This means most transmission occurs from people who are completely unaware they are infected.Key takeaways:1. Transmission most often occurs from people who do not know they have herpes, not from those who are diagnosed and aware2. After two years without frequent recurrences, asymptomatic shedding is no longer a concern according to BASH guidelines3. Women who already have herpes before pregnancy can have normal delivery, even with a recurrence at birth, because baby acquires protective antibodies4. Commercial herpes blood tests give one false positive in ten and one false negative in three, making them unreliable5. Herpes cannot be transmitted through towels, toilet seats, swimming pools, or any object, only direct skin-to-skin contact with frictionMarianne Nicholson has personal experience with herpes simplex and now supports others through the Herpes Viruses Association helpline, where all volunteers also have the condition and have come out the other side.For support, contact the Herpes Viruses Association on 0345 123 2305.1. Peronal. I don't mind having it myself, I just dread passing it on. Now, no one is going to say, I don't mind having cancer myself, I just don't want anyone else to have cancer. It doesn't work like that for anything else, which means that actually it's not the condition that people are worried about, it's the word. 2. Diagnosis]. Only one in three is ever going to get symptoms that are bad enough to get a diagnosis. Others will have little symptoms which they identify as say an infected hair follicle or a little cut or little sore patch, so they never know that their little itchy patch is actually a herpes simplex infection until much later when they've infected somebody. 3. Asymptomatic shedding.The expert doctors of BASH say very clearly that after two years, unless you are getting frequent recurrences, and they define that as six or more per year, you're allowed to forget about asymptomatic shedding. It's just not a thing. 4. Pregnancy.Since babies were first invented, women with cold sores have kissed their new babies 24 times a day. And there is no common knowledge that ladies with cold sores kill their babies. The reason why this is fine is that during pregnancy, baby acquires antibodies for all the things you've got antibodies to. 5. Condom effectiveness .When a man has got it, using a condom is 95% protective. Even when a woman has got it, using a condom is 65% protective to the man. Women are one sixth as likely to infect men as the other way around. 6. Blood tests.The blood tests that are available commercially are going to give you one false positive in 10. Would you buy a pregnancy test that was going to tell you you're pregnant when you weren't one time in 10? And they're going to give you a false negative one time in three.7. Statistics .By the age of 25, 7 out of 10 people in the UK carry this virus. By the age of 35, one in five has got type two. And 85% of women, 77% of men have got type one, which is often genital. 8. [ransmission source. Transmission most often occurs from the people who are not diagnosed. That is a quote from one of the world's top herpes doctors, Dr. Lawrence Corey. The people who are diagnosed are less likely to be passing it on. 9. Myths. The expert doctors categorically say it will not be passed on through any object at all, towels, dirty underwear, anything you can imagine. It can only be passed on by direct skin to skin contact with the affected part when the virus is active with friction.My Health Focus is not a medical service. The information provided is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.JOIN THE MY HEALTH FOCUS COMMUNITY AND SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    27 Min.
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