Real Health with Karl Henry

Nutrition and the food we eat is going to be so important over the coming weeks and months. Eating the right foods can help, not just with our overall health, but can also boost our immune system and deal with our gut reaction to stress and anxiety. For this week’s Real Health I’m joined by dietitian and gut expert, Paula Mee to find out what we should be eating and why. Paula has brilliant tips a...

With the schools closed for the foreseeable future it can be a tough struggle for parents trying to keep their kids busy and look after their emotional well-being whilst also, for many, trying to work from home. To help you deal with these issues (and more), my guest on this week's Real Health is Ireland's leading child psychologist, David Coleman, who addresses the most common questions for paren...

If you can control your breathing you can control your stress and anxiety and so this week's Real Health episode is focusing on exactly that. Niall O'Murchu is an instructor in the Wim Hof breathing method and he joins me to explain the breathing techniques you can start using to help with stress relief and introduce more calm into your day. He discusses the Wim Hof Method that he teaches and how...

For the second part of this week's Real Health Coronavirus special I'm joined by Minister for Health, Simon Harris. The Minister talks to me about how he is coping from both a personal and professional perspective, his pride at how people are doing their best to help out and why we still - all of us - need to do more in the crucial next few weeks. Stay healthy and safe and keep in touch with me fo...

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and while we're trying to adapt to the current situation and find ways to deal with it, let's not forget the stresses and strains being put on our mental health, individually and collectively. I’ll be recording my shows remotely for the foreseeable future and in the first of a two-part Real Health special this week, I speak to clinical psychologi...

This week’s Real Health is possibly one of the most important episodes I’ve done to date. With the country engulfed by coronavirus fears midst a barrage of constantly changing news updates every day, I wanted to get some tips and advice from an expert about what to do, what not do, how best to protect yourself and your loved ones and to find out how best to boost your immune system. To help you na...

My latest Top 10 tips episode is how to health-proof your life and get you through the day in a healthy way. The idea is to give you simple, practical tips to improve your life. Over the next seven days I want you to try out at least one of the tips and see what happens and what improvements you feel in your daily life. After all, what have you got to lose and you never know it might work for you!...

With this year’s Operation Transformation reaching its finale I wanted to catch up with the five leaders to find out more about their incredible journey. From their highs and lows, hopes and fears, Andrea and Barry Rea, Lorraine O’Neill, Shane Farrell and Tanya Carroll join me on this week’s Real Health episode. “OT has saved my life and I will never forget that,” Shane tells me and their eight-we...

Most of us at some stage or another feel overwhelmed, over-worked and under pressure, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could take some steps to put everything back into balance through practical and easy steps? Michelle Moroney, life coach, owner of the Cliffs of Moher Retreat and author of the Life Audit, is my guest on this week’s Real Health podcast to help you do just that. We discuss change and...

Through his very popular and accessible infographics on Instagram, the UK's Graeme Tomlinson, aka The Fitness Chef, has built up over half a million followers looking for accessible no nonsense advice around food and weight loss. He’s also got a new book out called ‘The Fitness Chef: Eat What You Like & Lose Weight For Life’ and he joins me on the Real Health podcast this week to discuss easy and...

With Veganuary just gone, being vegan is certainly in vogue but what are the pros and cons of a vegan diet? To find out the truth, the pros and cons of being vegan and whether it is for you, I’m joined on this week's Real Health by professional dietitian, Maeve Hanan. Maeve gives some great tips on making sure your diet is balanced and what kind of foods to focus on - and it's not just about fruit...

For this week’s Real Health podcast I want to discuss nutrition, exercise and lifestyle in the context of long working days and shift work. It can be hard to trying to tick all the boxes between work, family and keeping yourself fit and healthy, but my guest for this episode, Debbie O’Reilly, is an emergency paramedic and former competitive athlete, who knows exactly how hard it can be and has the...

Gerry Hussey is my guest on this week’s Real Health podcast and to call him a sports psychologist doesn’t do him or the topics we discuss, justice. While Gerry does explain the work he does with elite athletes in helping them to succeed, the reality is, what Gerry teaches is applicable to all our lives. It is about making the most from your life, living life fully and asking yourself the hard ques...

Many of you will know that I’m a big of walking as a great exercise for both physical and mental well-being and this week’s guest has certainly taken walking even further with her #100daysofwalking, encouraging anyone that can, to do thirty minutes of walking every day for the first 100 days of the year. Dr. Ciara Kelly, Newstalk’s Lunchtime presenter and walking aficionado, joined me on this week...

There are so many myths and misconceptions around health and fitness at this time of year that I decided, for this week’s episode of the Real Health podcast, to call out the BS around many of the gimmicks and quick fixes being pedalled. They don’t work, they’re not good for your health in the long term and I hope that, through my podcast, people will start understand the truth behind what’s actual...

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year and you’re all set and ready for your resolutions to get healthier in 2020? On this week’s episode I bring you 10 Real Resolutions for 2020 to get healthier this year. Normally people set goals and ambitions that are too big and after just a few weeks they fade away and give up on what they had wanted to achieve. Instead, let’s avoid that by ge...

Christmas is over and I hope you all had a wonderful time with friends and family and didn’t go over-board on the turkey, ham and wine?! The days between Christmas and New Year are a great time to take stock, look back and reflect on the year and life in general, and so for this week’s Real Health podcast, I sit down with one of Ireland’s most famous and controversial journalists who is now the ho...

She may have had to move on from RTE after reaching retirement age, but for presenter Mary Kennedy, her career is anything but over – starting with Dancing with the Stars to look forward to. Before Mary started her rehearsals, she joined me on this week’s Real Health podcast for this week’s ‘Life Lessons’ episode looking back on her career and life, what she learned and would do differently. Plus...

Christmas is just around the corner and the party season is in full swing, but have you been over-indulging and enjoying yourself a bit too much? Have you been hit with the dreaded hangover yet or perhaps not looking forward to it happening? On this week's Real Health I've got the answers for you with Ireland's favourite GP, Dr. Sumi Dunne. Sumi explains what a hangover is, what happens to your bo...

Celebrating ten years presenting Operation Transformation, Kathryn Thomas joins me on this week's Real Health podcast to look ahead to the new series in January. She also tells me what it was like stepping into Gerry Ryan's shoes, why acting was her first love and how she got her break into TV. We discuss the importance of balance and positivity in her life and why finding the thing that you love...

Between Black Friday and the Toy Show, present buying for Christmas is first and foremost on a lot of people’s minds, and on this week’s Real Health, I thought, why not ask two of Ireland’s leading personal trainers what their wish list for Christmas would be? John Belton of No. 17 Personal Training and Paul Moran from BodyRock Performance joined me with their recommendations for training-related...

The next few weeks are going to be busy. Between office parties and family and friend get-togethers, there will be plenty of socialising, eating and drinking over the Christmas period. But, how to make sure all the work you’ve done on your health and fitness throughout the year doesn’t go to waste over the next few weeks? This week’s Real Health episode will help solve that problem. I give you my...

This week I’m finding out all about pilates and yoga, the difference between them, the importance of movement, and the massive benefits that can be had from their practice. To give me insights, tips and advice, I speak to two of Ireland’s leading experts and practitioners, Annie Kirwan and Lee Tracey, who are co-founders of Reformation, a Dublin-based studio. Annie and Lee also reveal how and why...

Unless you've been living under a rock in 2019, my guest on this week's Real Health podcast is known to pretty much everyone in Ireland after winning ITV's Love Island. He was a hugely popular winner and not only is he a proud Limerick man, he is also a very talented international athlete in rugby and athletics. Greg O'Shea joins me on this week's episode to tell me about his Love Island experienc...

In his work with Leinster Rugby and Dublin GAA, elite performance nutritionist, Daniel Davey, has seen how consistently eating good food can help you perform at your highest level. But it’s not just in elite sport that this is true either. Anyone can feel and perform better with the right food choices. A healthy diet with appropriate energy and nutrients will make you feel energetic, positive, hea...