The Laura Dowling Experience

In early 2020, before COVID had properly reached Ireland, dietitian Dr Dan McCartney noticed that the groups the virus was hitting hardest were the same groups most likely to be low in vitamin D. Within weeks he and consultant Declan Byrne of St James's Hospital had a paper in the Irish Medical Journal, the first in the world to propose the link. It drew a fair bit of blowback.
Dan lectures in human nutrition and dietetics at TU Dublin and Trinity, and he takes Laura through what the research has shown since, from the Dublin hospital data to the immune switch vitamin D helps to flip.
Then the conversation widens. Why a rich country is short on the nutrients that fight infection, why some guidelines were written to prevent scurvy rather than help us thrive, and why he's perplexed by European proposals to cut supplement doses. They finish on ageing, what happens in the womb, and his case for starting good habits early.

🔑 Key Points

The groups COVID hit hardest had one thing in common
Older people, people with darker skin at northern latitudes and people carrying extra weight are all more likely to be low in vitamin D, and that pattern started Dan's paper.

The Dublin hospital data backed it up
At Connolly Hospital and St James's, the patients who developed the most severe disease or died had much lower vitamin D than those who recovered.

Vitamin D helps switch off an immune response that won't stop
Severe COVID was driven by a cytokine storm, and later research showed vitamin D is needed to stand down the aggressive Th1 immune response.

The dose he recommended was well within safe limits
He suggested 20 to 50 micrograms a day, when health agencies agree that 100 micrograms a day carries no risk of toxicity.

You can't get enough vitamin D from food
A typical Irish diet gives two to eight micrograms a day, while summer sun on bare skin once gave us 70 to 120, which we stored for the winter.

We use our wealth in the wrong way
Large shares of the population fall short on B6, folate, vitamins A and C, zinc, magnesium and selenium, largely down to poor diets.

Many guidelines were written to prevent deficiency diseases
Vitamin C targets were set around preventing scurvy, not around what the body needs to function at its best.

Good health habits compound, so start early
In the EPIC study, the benefit of a high-fibre diet on colorectal cancer only became visible after 20 years.

📚 Resources

Optimisation of Vitamin D Status for Enhanced Immuno-protection Against Covid-19
Dan and Declan Byrne, Irish Medical Journal, 2020

Vitamin D Deficiency and ARDS after SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Faul et al., Irish Medical Journal, 2020

Autocrine vitamin D signaling switches off pro-inflammatory programs of TH1 cells
Chauss et al., Nature Immunology, 2022

Nutrition, immunity and COVID-19
Philip Calder, BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health, 2020

European vitamin D supplementation trials, meta-analysis
Rupprecht et al., Nutrients, 2023

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — Cold open: running and a book in the works
02:07 — Dr Dan McCartney, no relation to Paul
04:03 — The vitamin D pattern he spotted early in COVID
06:10 — The Irish Medical Journal paper, April 2020
13:49 — Why some people run so low on vitamin D
19:08 — The cytokine storm, and the switch vitamin D flips
30:41 — Another pandemic is an inevitability
34:02 — A rich country with poor diets
38:03 — Guidelines built to prevent scurvy
45:48 — Europe's plan to cut supplement doses
54:53 — What gorillas tell us about vitamin D
57:40 — David Barker and what happens in the womb
1:02:43 — Compounding: his advice to young people
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Dr Denis O'Driscoll, pharmacist working in the HSE addiction services gives a straight, compassionate answer on how hard it is to come off drugs and stay off, and why staying stable on treatment counts as success too.

Is staying on treatment for life a failure, or is that thinking part of the problem? Dr Denis O'Driscoll gives an honest answer.

🔑Key Points
• Coming off drugs and staying off is never easy, and that is worth saying out loud
• Recovery is not one straight line; staying stable on treatment is a positive outcome, not something to be ashamed of
• Coming off completely is wonderful when it happens, but it is very challenging, and it is not the only measure of success
• Relapse is part of recovery, not a failure, and the priority afterwards is getting people back into support quickly

💛 If you or someone you love needs support, the HSE Drugs and Alcohol Helpline is there on 1800 459 459.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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Kenneth Keavey has a PhD in chemistry and spent his early career in pharma and biotech. He now grows organic vegetables on twenty-five acres outside Galway, and he's the first to point out the irony: he was an organic chemist, and now he's an organic farmer.
In this episode he takes Laura through what's actually on the food we eat, and how little of it we're told. Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment or another. Citrus is dipped or sprayed after harvest in waxes containing quite toxic, in some cases carcinogenic, chemicals to stop fungus growing on the skin. Most of it is legal, disclosed somewhere, and almost never read.
Then comes the detail that stops the conversation. In the EU you're allowed 10mg of glyphosate per kilogram of wheat and 20mg per kilogram of oats — twice as much of a probable carcinogen in your porridge as in your toast. Kenneth and Darina Allen went to the Department of Agriculture to ask why. They were told that people eat less porridge than they do toast.
It isn't all alarm. Kenneth refuses to scaremonger and is as clear about what isn't known as what is. He's also quietly hopeful: his own land is full of insects and birdsong, and he has watched how fast nature comes back when you let it.

🔑 Key Points

He was an organic chemist before he was an organic farmer
His PhD is in chemistry and his first career was in pharma and biotech, which is where the caution comes from.

Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment
Post-harvest waxes on citrus contain toxic and in some cases carcinogenic chemicals, and some produce carries up to fifteen applications.

You're allowed twice as much glyphosate in porridge as in bread
The EU limit is 10mg per kilogram of wheat and 20mg per kilogram of oats. Kenneth and Darina Allen asked the Department of Agriculture why, and were told people eat less porridge than they do toast.

The safety data usually comes from the manufacturers
Unlike medicines, pesticide safety data is largely supplied by the companies selling the chemicals, and permitted limits have risen since the 1990s as application increased.

80% of the world's insect biomass is gone
A test anyone can run from memory: a windscreen after a night drive used to be covered in insects, and now there's virtually nothing on it.

Ireland has gone from 600 vegetable growers to about 60
The sector has hollowed out in twenty years, we import 85% of our fresh fruit and veg, and vegetables are the one thing that hasn't risen in price — which is why a 39c bag of carrots is a problem, not a bargain.

Nature comes back faster than you'd think
His farm is full of insects and birds, with nine native Irish honeybee hives that out-produce every other apiary his beekeeper runs.

📚 Resources

Green Earth Organics
Kenneth's organic farm and nationwide home delivery service in Co Galway

Silent Spring
Rachel Carson's book on the effects of blanket pesticide use, discussed in the episode

IARC (World Health Organization)
The classification of glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans

⏱️ Timestamps

01:26 — Twenty years of Green Earth Organics
02:35 — From a PhD in chemistry to organic farming
03:57 — Around 95% of conventional fruit and veg has had some treatment
06:34 — Glyphosate, the most applied chemical in history
06:59 — Twice as much allowed in your porridge as in your toast
07:17 — What the Department of Agriculture said when they asked why
10:39 — Silent Spring, and the year the birdsong stopped
12:25 — 80% of the world's insect biomass is gone
22:15 — From 600 vegetable growers to about 60
50:06 — Five summers of farm work, three sheep, and the leap
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Prof Robert Kelly admits he lost his own balance after a TED Talk and book launch, then shares the pillars-of-life exercise and a patient's story that helped him refocus on family and friends.

What happens when a cardiologist looks at his own heart health and realises the answer isn't his diet, it's his diary?

🔑Key Points
• A busy run of a TED Talk, a book launch and Christmas left him with no space in his day for three months
• Taking one full week off showed him just how stretched he had become
• He learned a pillars-of-life exercise from another doctor's podcast: financial health, family, friends, own health and work
• Looking at his own pillars, he realised work was crowding out everything else, especially his own health

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, Siobhan Murray, psychotherapist and burnout strategist explains why she has banned the phrase self care, and shares the small daily habits, walks, box breathing and a mindfulness trick called the purple alien, that she uses instead to avoid burnout.

What if self care isn't a retreat or a spa day at all, but something you can do in the two minutes it takes to boil the kettle?

🔑Key Points
• Siobhan bans the phrase self care and replaces it with care of self, something practised daily, not as an occasional treat
• A one-off pilates class, a retreat or getting your nails done is maintenance, not care of self
• She does four ten-minute walks every day without fail, even in the rain, simply to change her physical state
• She practises box breathing, in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, while making a cup of tea

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.