Outside broadcasts used to be particularly tricky for TV presenter Steph McGovern, a long-standing sufferer of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). But a chance interview with a guest on her lunchtime Channel 4 show triggered a personal health revolution – and could now also bring wide health benefits to the North East and other parts of the nation.
The North Tyneside based broadcaster, who fronts multi-award-nominated Steph’s Packed Lunch, has invested in Dr Julia Jones’ Kent-based start-up company, Neuron Wellness, which aims to create wellness hubs and live bacteria bars all across the country. The first launched to a packed house in Folkestone this week, and more will hopefully follow soon.
Steph, 40, told how her debilitating gut problems once dominated her life.
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She said: “I’ve had IBS all my life and I’ve always assumed it’s just something I have and there’s nothing you can do about it. For me, it manifests as really bad crippling cramps in my stomach and then having to run to a loo and being in pain with it.
“Whenever I was out and about broadcasting I would have to work out where the loos are, and make sure I hadn’t eaten stuff beforehand, especially when I was doing breakfast telly. If I’d had smoothies, eggs or fruit stuff it seemed to make it worse. I had kind of accepted it, and been to check to see if had intolerances or if I was coeliac, and I wasn’t. I thought maybe it was just the way stress manifests itself in me.
“I did a TV show with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall called Easy Ways to Live Well and I had my gut analysed – I knew nothing about gut health at the time – which basically involves a stool sample and they look at the bacteria in your gut, and it turns out I was in the worst third of the population for my gut health. It was really embarrasing because this was all announced on telly, so I was mortified.
“I thought: ‘I’m a woman who’s got a good job and a good career but I’ve obviously totally neglected my guts’. Soon after all of this I got pregnant, and all that exacerbated my IBS with my hormones. I could barely eat anyway because I had terrible pregnancy sickness. After I had my little girl I thought ‘I need to sort this out’.”
That’s when Dr Julia Jones – otherwise known as Dr Rock – appeared as a guest on her Channel 4 lunchtime show Steph’s Packed Lunch, to talk about her work and her book, Neuron: Smart Wellness Made Easy.
The neuroscientist and entrepreneur regularly works with companies and individuals to help them improve their health and wellbeing. She told viewers how she carried out a year-long programme on her own health that combined simple habits, the latest tech devices and lab tests of gut health and biological ageing speed. At the end of it, she said, she felt renewed, with her sleep, focus and energy all boosted.
Her experiences resonated strongly with Steph.
Steph said: “I stayed in contact with her and got my guts analysed again. They were still terrible, so I went through her programme. It’s all about making small changes in your daily routine and it’s made such a huge difference to the point where my IBS is completely under control. I very rarely now have stomach cramps, and I used to have them three times a week. It’s completely transformed my life.”
She now feels like a new woman – she has more energy, her concentration has improved and as a consequence she has also lost weight. Dropping two dress sizes certainly wasn’t the aim, but it has proved to be a bonus.
The biggest change she has made has been the introduction of intermittent fasting to her routine, on weekdays, where she will only eat between 11am and 7pm.
She said: “Julia explained all the science behind it but essentially it’s about how your body and all the things doing the digestive work need a break to do the ‘housekeeping’. At the weekends I go back to normal, otherwise it wouldn’t be sustainable, but I’m never hungry before 11 when I fast.
“It’s like never having time to do the hoovering because you’re always putting new food in, and constantly having to deal with that food and not getting time to keep the rest of the house in check. It’s made such a difference.
Steph McGovern, left, and Dr Julia Jones at the launch of Neuron Wellness’ new smart wellness hub in Folkestone (Image: Neuron Wellness)“I also have cold showers. That might sound horrendous but I started off with just having a hot shower and then turning it cold for a bit, then putting it back to hot. It’s all about your breathing when you do it, and it’s great for your metabolism, and loads of other sciency stuff she can explain better than me!
“Diversity of food is also important. My issue wasn’t that I was unhealthy – I went to the gym, ate fish and veg, but I was eating the same fish and veg and not mixing it up. It’s not good for your gut to eat the same thing all the time.”
Having seen the changes and “put her money where her mouth is” to invest in Neuron Wellness, she and Dr Jones hosted the launch of the first smart wellness hub together in Folkestone, Kent, last week, opening the UK’s first live bacteria bar, serving kombucha and kefir drinks that boost gut health and improve your chance of a longer, healthy lifespan.
The new company also offers a ‘30 Diversity’ home delivery food box subscription service, a ‘Smart Gut’ health analysis and online wellness tips and webinars. The duo now want to roll out the hubs, with the North East top of the list for the next destination.
Earlier this year a report by Little Village and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation also revealed that almost half of North East families with children under the age of five are living in poverty, with the region having significantly the highest rate in the country.
With rising inflation and cost-of-living issues bearing down on all corners of society and industry, Steph said that healthy changes can be made in an affordable way. Neuron Wellness is also working with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing at Newcastle University on a possible collaboration.
Steph said: “We’ve launched in Folkestone but at the same time we’ve been working with the National Innovation Centre for Ageing in Newcastle. I’ve got a big North Eastern love of this – I want to bring this there. Julia has met with the centre as well, to talk about whether this is something we can bring to the North East as a concept.
“We’re always getting slagged off in the North East for being unhealthy, and I think this is stuff you can do that is affordable. I’m not saying get a gym membership – in fact Julia tells everyone to cancel your gym memberships because it’s not about exercise, and training at the gym all the time.
“We’re not saying pay loads of money – it’s more about the concept that you could bring things into your life that are sustainable. We’re talking to the National Innovation Centre for Ageing about doing the same thing in Newcastle – we want to create a hub, but you can do a lot of these things virtually too.
“I want to do it in the North East because I know there’s a focus on trying to make people healthier in the North East. A big part of this is collaboration, working out the needs of the nation and regional problems, and working with other researchers.
“Julia only found out about the NICA through me, so I said she had to come up to Newcastle and see what’s happening – and she realised there’s so much synergy there. What would be great about working with the Centre for Ageing is bringing it all together and being able to help people with their own wellness.”
Professor Nic Palmarini, director of NICANic Palmarini, director of UK’s National Innovation Centre for Ageing, agreed a similar concept in the North East could be a success.
He added: “We are in discussion to host Julia’s initiative with us at The Catalyst and explore together how we can better promote healthier lifestyles in day-to-day touch points and interactions.
“Her project fits well with NICA’s Longevicity approach and ongoing research, which sees Newcastle as a pioneer city. This programme wants to democratise access to healthier lifestyles and introduce evidence-based advice and educational tips on the high street, following the flow of life instead of trying to divert it. We aim to make Newcastle, together with a network of founding partner cities, the leader of a proactive way of promoting health and longevity not only for the citizens but for visitors too, sustaining healthy behaviours as a touristic attraction.”
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