Degrees of Health

Health optimisation isn’t about chasing trends. It’s about understanding trade-offs, context and biology. In this episode, Ben Hopkins is joined by James O’Hara to explore what really lies beneath today’s biggest health conversations, from GLP-1 drugs and testosterone decline to peptides, diet, recovery, and ageing. Drawing on personal experience and emerging research, they unpack why population d...

Obesity isn’t just about willpower. It’s biology and it’s been hacked. In this episode, Dr. Richard Johnson (Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado) joins Ben to explain why your body still thinks it's living in the wild and how the same survival switch that once kept us alive may now be quietly driving obesity, diabetes, dementia and addiction. From fructose and uric acid to GLP-1s,...

What if the root of mental illness isn’t all in your head but in your cells? Dr. Ana Andreazza is leading one of the most exciting shifts in psychiatric science: away from neurotransmitters and towards the mighty mitochondria. In this episode, she and Ben explore the metabolic foundations of mood disorders, how lactate and ketones impact the brain and why most psychiatric medications only form par...

Forget everything you thought you knew about biology. Dr Nirosha Murugan takes us way beyond molecules into the world of light, electricity and the energetic language of life itself. Here we explore a radical new lens on human health: one where energy, not just chemistry, drives disease, healing and even consciousness. From the role of light in cancer and red light therapy, to cells that 'think' w...

🧬 What does it take to age slower than more than 99.9% of the population? Meet Annie who is currently ranked #2 in the Rejuvenation Olympics, measuring the slowest biological aging in the world (second only to Bryan Johnson). But Annie’s not a billionaire with a team of scientists. She’s a self-experimenting New Yorker who figured out what works for her and it’s more simple (and more joyful) than...

Your brain runs on what you eat. So what happens when you fuel it with fat instead of sugar? Drew Decker and Ben join together to discuss his study on the ketogenic diet and depression in college students and how a simple dietary shift led to a 70% reduction in depression scores. No tracking apps, no dieticians, no hand-holding, just students with a budget, a plan, and a mission to feel better. Dr...

Most people who end up in Jessica Turton’s health clinic have already tried everything from calorie tracking, low-fat, fasting, moving more, eating less… and still nothing works to shift weight. So what’s going on? Ben sits down with Jessica - dietitian, nutritionist, researcher - to talk about what happens when your body’s been stuck in energy deficit for years, and how the real issue for many pe...

What if your muscles could talk to your organs and maybe even prevent cancer? Here, Ben sits down with world-renowned exercise scientist Professor Mark Febbraio to dismantle the science behind myokines - molecules released by muscle that signal throughout the body. Insights covered in this episode: 🧪 Myokines and inter-organ communication 🦠 Exercise’s role in cancer prevention 🧬 Inflammation, c...

Keto doesn’t have to be complicated. Yep, you heard that right. Nutritionist and author Amy Berger joins us to unpack the chaos of keto culture and how a once-simple metabolic switch has turned into a jungle of macros, misinformation and food fear. Amy cuts through the noise and brings keto back to what it was always meant to be: a simple, flexible, effective way of eating. Together with Ben, she...

What if we’ve been treating eating disorders the wrong way? In this deeply personal and provocative episode, registered dietitian Michelle Hurn shares her journey from severe anorexia and psychiatric medication to ultra-running and mental clarity through a radical change in nutrition. Ben and Michelle unpack the broken foundations of dietetics, why metabolic health is inseparable from mental healt...

Dr Adrian Soto-Mota, MD, PhD is one of the clearest and most curious voices in metabolic research and he’s not afraid to say what doesn’t make sense anymore. Dr Adrian is an internal medicine physician and metabolic researcher based in Mexico City. In this conversation, we go deep on the limitations of RCTs, why calorie logic keeps breaking down, what lean mass hyper-responders teach us about lipi...

📲 Why do we keep chasing things that never quite satisfy? We’re joined by The Molecule of More co-author Michael E. Long to unpack dopamine and why our brains are wired to want more, not to enjoy what we already have. From doomscrolling to dating apps, productivity obsessions to endless self-improvement, we explore how dopamine fuels craving and not contentment, and what we can do to stop living...

Some people find health through green smoothies. Others find it in 3 kilos of steak cooked in ghee. Dr. Anthony Chaffee is a neurosurgical registrar and ex-professional rugby player who’s been running on nothing but animal products for years. No salads. No supplements. No exceptions. In this conversation, we get into the weeds of his theory, that many modern illnesses (autoimmune conditions, metab...

'High-protein diets hurt your kidneys!'. 'Once kidney disease starts, it only gets worse'. Heard something similar? It's just not the whole picture and also showing to be quite far from the truth. Dr Thomas Weimbs, PhD is a Professor of Bioengineering at UCSB where his lab has spent over 20 years studying chronic kidney disease. What they found, mostly by accident like all great science, changed t...

Cancer treatment isn’t one disease = one drug. It’s thousands of different stories playing out at a molecular level and yet when it comes to care, we’re still treating most of them the same way. Padman Vamadevan and Ben Whately, co-founders of Astron Health, are rethinking oncology from the ground up. Here we explore why recurrence is such an under-addressed problem, how AI can help oncologists cu...

What if everything we learned about water was missing its most important piece? In this episode, we speak with Professor Gerald Pollack - biomedical scientist, professor, and author of The Fourth Phase of Water - whose research reveals a side of water that’s been hiding in plain sight. From how cells create energy to what actually drives chronic disease, this conversation turns biology inside out...

Most of us were never taught what hormones actually do. We just noticed things getting weird - heavier periods, brain fog, random mood swings that made us question our entire personality. And when we asked for help, we got vague answers. A prescription. Maybe a “come back in 6 months.” That’s why we sat down with Pauline Cox, a functional nutritionist who’s actually good at explaining this stuff....

We all age. But what if we could slow it down, reshape it, or even pause it altogether? After connecting over one of our most viewed episodes with Dr. Glen Jefferys, we got to hear from scientist and relentlessly curious longevity researcher Dr. Michael Lustgarten. He’s been tracking over 50 biomarkers for nearly a decade and has reduced his biological age by more than 20 years. In this episode, w...

PART 2! If you missed it, we highly recommend checking out Part 1 before listening to this episode. We all age. But what if we could slow it down, reshape it, or even pause it altogether? After connecting over one of our most viewed episodes with Dr. Glen Jefferys, we got to hear from scientist and relentlessly curious longevity researcher Dr. Michael Lustgarten. He’s been tracking over 50 biomark...

We talk a lot about nutrition, movement, and sleep when it comes to health. But there's a missing piece in most conversations: light. In this episode, we sit down with Bjørn Ekeberg - philosopher of science turned founder of Recharge Health - to explore how red and near-infrared light can support recovery, improve energy, and help us reconnect with our biology. We unpack what red light therapy is,...

We know health isn't just about the food you eat or the supplements you take. But do we really understand the other elements that are so crucial - the light we see, the water we drink, and even the way we think? Sara Pugh, PhD, Quantum Biologist and Ketogenic Coach shares how she has brought together physics and wellness. She explains why light and water are key players in how our bodies works and...

This one’s for anyone who’s ever wondered: Are we really safe in a wireless world? What if the invisible forces all around us - your phone, your Wi-Fi, even your toothbrush - were quietly shaping your health and the planet’s health too? In this conversation, EMF researcher Olle Johansson shares his decades of experience researching the health impacts of electromagnetic fields - the kind you can’t...

What happens when your body completely crashes and you have no energy to get off the couch? For Julie Gibson Clark, that moment became the turning point. After being diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning, she began a journey that would transform not only her health, but how she thinks about aging, wellness, and self-discipline taking her to the leaderboard of the Rejuvenation Olympics worldwide (a...

If you've ever felt like your anxiety was swallowing you whole - like something was broken inside but like you have to suck it up and get on with it anyway - you've got to know you don't have to stay there, and this episode might help to see how. In discussion here with leading expert in trauma-informed clinical psychology and holistic medicine for anxiety and panic, Dr Nicole Cain unpacks with us...

Here, heart surgeon Dr Philip Ovadia dismantles decades of medical dogma around cholesterol and heart disease. Once morbidly obese and pre-diabetic, Dr Ovadia shares his transformation and exposes why the traditional cholesterol-focused approach to heart health is failing millions. He speaks about the real root causes - insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction, and inflammation - and explains why...