The Irish Balance Podcast

Episode 52: COVID-19 and Keeping Our Schools Safe with Dr. Abigail Collins

I'm delighted to be joined in this week's episode by Dr. Abigali Collins, Consultant in Public Health Medicine with the National Cancer Control Programme. Dr Collins immediately re-deployed back to the frontline in Public Health in the Midlands when COVID-19 reached Ireland and provided the consultant leadership for several large and difficult residential care facility outbreaks. Subsequent to this work, she was asked to take on a national role in the Covid-19 outbreak response and has been a fantastic public health leader on the national public health response to COVID-19 in educational settings. I'm so grateful to Dr. Collins for giving some time out of her very busy schedule to have a chat with me on the podcast. 

In this episode, we discuss the key points on COVID-19 and schools - how we can all help keep our school communities safe, what is involved in the public health response to a case of COVID-19 in the school setting, and a little bit about what happens if someone is identified as a close contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19. 

I really hope you enjoy this conversation and learn something from it! 

 

Episode 51: COVID-19, Pregnancy and Vaccines with Dr. Sarah Murphy

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast! In this episode I am delighted to be joined by Dr. Sarah Murphy (@drsarahjmurphy on Instagram), who is an Irish doctor specialising in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. We speak on this episode about Sarah's career to date, and then discuss COVID-19 and pregnancy, COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy and the importance of smear tests as part of cervical screening. We also chat a little bit about being doctors on social media. I so enjoyed chatting to Sarah and I hope you guys enjoy this episode!

 

Thanks for listening! 

Episode 50: Sports Nutrition, Performance and Social Media with Kate McDaid

In this week's episode, I am delighted to be joined by Kate McDaid, who many of you will know as @nutrikate on Instagram. Kate studied Food Science at the University of College Dublin before following her ambition and moving to the UK to complete an MSc in Sports and Exercise Nutrition at Loughborough University. She secured a position in a nutrition consultancy over there, progressing to Senior Health and Performance Nutritionist. Back in Ireland, she founded NutriKate, which is a high performance nutrition consultancy that is based in Dublin. Kate’s love for sport is clear - she has captained the Irish basketball team and continues to play basketball competitively in the Super League with Trinity Meteors – and I’m pretty sure we played against each other way back when! She is also a lecturer in Applied Nutrition at TUD, and a fluent Irish speaker, having previously featured on shows like the ‘Underdogs’ and BBC’s ‘An Focal Scoir’ as well as being a contributor to Radio na Gaeltachta and Radio na Life.

 

We had a great conversation about nutrition for performance and sport, myths and misinformation about nutrition online, and balancing social media across professional and personal lives. I hope you enjoy our chat as much as we enjoyed recording it!

 

As always, if you enjoyed listening to the podcast let us know! Tag us in your Instagram stories, send us a DM, leave a comment on the podcast, get in touch! And if you'd like to leave a review of the podcast that's always appreciated too.

Episode 49: Sport, Psychology and Pursuing Medicine with Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh

Today I am so delighted to be joined by Máire Treasa Ní Cheallaigh (@mairetnc on Instagram), who is a fully accredited Sport Ireland Institute Sport and Exercise Psychologist, bilingual television and radio presenter with RTÉ TG4 and Newstalk, and also current medical student! And she's a Galway gal too! I'm really excited and grateful to have MT on the podcast today – we had a fantastic and interesting conversation about her experience in media and medicine so far, her background in sports psychology, and the relationship between sport, exercise and mental health. 

 

As always, if you enjoy the episode, let us know - tag us in your Instagram stories, send us a DM, comment on the podcast, get in touch! And if you'd like to leave a review that'd be awesome too - thanks gang!

Episode 48: Intuitive Movement and Training Happy with Tally Rye

Please note - This podcast includes conversation about diet culture, our relationships with food and exercise, body image and weight. If you don't feel that's something you are comfortable listening to right now, maybe save this one for another time. 

In this episode, I was so delighted to sit down and have a chat with personal trainer, fitness instructor, author, podcast host, content creator and all round good egg Tally Rye (@tallyrye on Instagram). Tally is a definite game-changer in the fitness industry, particularly on social media, sharing her own personal journey with health and fitness, promoting the concept of intuitive fitness, and prioritising our happiness, health and well-being in the face of diet culture and a pervasive weight-centric narrative

We spoke about Tally's journey with food and movement, diet culture, obsessions with health and fitness, social media and comparison, and, my favourite part of the episode, intuitive movement and the Train Happy ethos Tally created and follows. If you haven't, definitely check out Tally's book Train Happy, and her awesome podcast, The Train Happy Podcast - it's a favourite of mine, one I look forward to each week. 

As always, let us know if you enjoy this episode - tag myself and Tally on social media, leave a comment, send a DM, whichever, I'd love to hear your feedback! Thanks for listening. You can find Tally's website here - https://tallyrye.co.uk/about/ . 

Episode 47: Medical School, Dermatology, & Skin Cancer Prevention with Dr. Ciara Drumm

The podcast is back with a brand new episode! After a break over the summer, I'm delighted to be back recording again. Today's episode is a conversation with one of my best friends and fellow doctor (based in Dublin), Dr. Ciara Drumm. Ciara and I were in medical school together and have been great friends ever since - while I have pursued public health, Ciara, having worked as a doctor in Ireland and Australia to date, has been navigating a path she is equally passionate about, into dermatology. In this episode, we discuss our experiences of medical school, junior doctor life, and finding our way to different medical specialties. We also discuss an area where our specialties overlap - skin cancer prevention, and Ciara is a wealth of knowledge on this important topic. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Ireland – with two main types; non-melanoma skin cancer, melanoma skin cancer. We discuss both, plus the risk factors for skin cancer, how to protect our skin, and how to regularly check our skin too. 

 

As always, if you enjoy this episode, let us know! Tag myself (@theirishbalance) and Ciara (@drummci) on Instagram when you listen in - we'd love to hear your thoughts on the episode. 

Episode 46: Podcast Q&A - Habits, Public Health and Finding Balance

Hi guys! Another podcast Q&A style episode with me. This week, I've sat down and recorded a chat answering your questions submitting to my Instagram last week. I discuss how my most important habits, public health and my favourite aspects of it, balancing work and study, and finding balance itself. The questions were quite diverse - thanks to all who submitted questions to me! I asked you guys on my Instagram last week if you'd like a Podcast Q&A episode and the resounding answer was yes, so here you go!

Enjoy - as always, thanks for listening and let me know if you liked this week's recording. Leave a comment, send me a message on Instagram, or tag me in your Instagram stories if you tune in!

Episode 45: Podcast Q&A - How Are You?, Motivation, Balance & Yoga

Welcome back to another episode of The Irish Balance podcast! This week, I've sat down and recorded a chat answering your questions submitting to my Instagram last week. I discuss how I'm coping with COVID-19, balancing blogging and my work as a public health doctor, motivation and how I got started with yoga. The questions were quite diverse - thanks to all who submitted questions to me! I asked you guys on my Instagram last week if you'd like a Podcast Q&A episode and the resounding answer was yes, so here you go!

 

Enjoy - as always, thanks for listening and let me know if you liked this week's recording. Leave a comment, send me a message on Instagram, or tag me in your Instagram stories if you tune in!

You can find my blog at www.theirishbalance.com . 

Episode 44: Staying Active While Staying Home with Nathalie Lennon

This week on the Podcast, we're talking about staying active while staying at home, and using staying home as an opportunity to figure out ways to move and exercise that are both enjoyable and sustainable. My guest is personal trainer, fitness influencer and nutrition coach Nathalie Lennon (@nathalielennon_ on Instagram), who is also a good friend of mine and an all round positive, inspirational powerhouse of a gal! Nathalie's message is centred around focusing on the mental and physical health benefits exercise can bring us, and ensuring the activity we do is enjoyable and sustainable. 

We discuss different ways to be physically active while following current public health advice and the importance of movement for enjoyment. I loved having this chat with Nathalie and I hope you guys enjoy listening!  If you enjoy this Podcast, as always let myself and Nathalie know - get in touch via Instagram, tag us in your Instagram stories or leave a comment on the Podcast here! 

Episode 43: Looking After Your Heart and Redefining Health with Dr. Nikki Stamp

Welcome back to another episode gang! This week, I am joined by Dr. Nikki Stamp, an Australian cardio-thoracic surgeon (@drnikkistamp on Instagram). Nikki trained throughout Australia and holds a Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Medicine with Honors. She also holds a Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in cardiothoracic surgery, and her research is widely published in various medical and surgical journals. Her research includes mentoring and gender in surgery, improving the patient journey and outcomes after cardiac surgery and the way plaque or atherosclerosis forms in our arteries. Her first book, Can You Die of a Broken Heart? has been translated into seven languages and Her second book, Pretty Unhealthy, was released in 2019, and I devoured it this year when it was finally released in Ireland and the UK!

In this episode we discuss heart health, navigating social media and challenges in finding work-life balance as doctors, and, in my favourite part of the episode, we chat about Nikki's latest book Pretty Unhealthy, discussing how we can rethink and redefine what health looks like, while avoiding the health myths and misinformation out there. This was one of the best conversations I've had on the podcast to date, and I hope you enjoy this as much as we enjoyed recording it! Tag myself and Nikki in your Instagram stories if you tune in! Nikki's website is http://www.drnikkistamp.com/. As always, subscribe to the podcast if you enjoy it and leave a review if you like! Thanks for listening.