The Laura Dowling Experience

🎧 Episode Description

Laura is joined by dental hygienist Eimear for a clear, practical conversation about oral health and why it connects to the rest of the body, not just your teeth. They talk about plaque, tartar and gum disease, what causes bleeding gums, and why brushing your teeth without brushing your gums misses half the problem.

Eimear explains why interdental brushes work better than floss for most people, how electric toothbrushes remove far more plaque than manual ones, and why soft brushes are better than hard ones. She also talks about mouth breathing, tongue scraping, night guards for grinding, and what happens when plaque is left to harden under the gums.

The conversation then moves into some of the less expected links between oral health and things like menopause, pregnancy, arthritis, diabetes and cancer treatment. Throughout it all, Eimear keeps coming back to prevention, showing how small, realistic habits can reduce risk and protect your teeth and gums over the long term.

🔑 Key Points

Most people are not cleaning where it matters most
Bacteria sits along the gumline and between the teeth, which is why brushing only the visible surfaces leaves disease behind.

Plaque becomes harmful when it is left too long
Soft plaque hardens into tartar and creates a protected space where more aggressive bacteria can grow and damage gums and bone.

Tools matter more than people realise
Electric toothbrushes and interdental brushes remove far more bacteria than manual brushing and flossing.

Saliva plays a major role in oral health
Dry mouth, common during menopause, illness and medication use, changes the balance of bacteria and increases the risk of decay and gum disease.

Gum disease is not just a mouth problem
Inflammation and bacteria are linked with conditions like diabetes, arthritis, pregnancy complications and Alzheimer’s.

Grinding and clenching cause real damage
Night-time grinding can shorten teeth, irritate gums and strain the jaw.

Consistency beats perfection
Regular, simple habits protect the mouth better than occasional intense cleaning.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Why gum disease is linked to Alzheimer’s
01:00 – Porphyromonas gingivalis and how it damages the brain
02:00 – The vicious cycle between Alzheimer’s and oral health
03:00 – Why dentists avoid scaring patients with the 70% statistic
17:00 – Diabetes, arthritis and bidirectional gum disease
22:00 – Menopause, hormones and dry mouth
26:00 – Teeth grinding, night guards and jaw damage
28:00 – Mouth breathing and gingivitis
30:00 – Tongue scraping and bad breath bacteria
45:00 – Mouthwash, chlorhexidine and staining
56:00 – Adapting dental care for people with extra needs
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.

🎧 Episode Description

In this episode of The Laura Dowling Experience, Laura is joined by Ciara Mangan, founder of Beyond Surviving. Ciara reflects on the gaps in long-term trauma support, the challenges survivors face once formal services fall away, and why survival is so often treated as the endpoint rather than the beginning of healing.

She speaks about navigating the justice process, the emotional toll of prolonged legal proceedings, and the ways trauma can ripple through families and relationships. Ciara also explores post-traumatic growth, describing how meaning, connection, and purpose became possible over time - without minimising the pain that came before.

This episode centres on healing beyond crisis, the importance of survivor-led support, and the understanding that recovery is deeply personal and looks different for everyone.

🔑 Key Points

Survival is often treated as the finish line
Ciara reflects on how recovery is expected to be complete once immediate danger has passed, even though healing is only beginning for many survivors.

The gap in long-term trauma support
She speaks about feeling lost once formal services fell away, highlighting how many survivors are left without guidance or connection after crisis support ends.

The emotional toll of the justice process
Ciara shares the impact of navigating prolonged legal proceedings and how systems intended to protect can sometimes retraumatise survivors.

How trauma ripples through families and relationships
The conversation explores the long-term effects of trauma on trust, intimacy, and family dynamics.

Post-traumatic growth without minimising pain
Ciara discusses growth as something that can emerge slowly over time, without pressure to reframe trauma as a positive experience.

The importance of being believed
Validation from family, professionals, and the justice system is shown to be central to rebuilding self-worth and safety.

Why survivor-led support matters
Ciara explains the value of spaces shaped by lived experience, where understanding, safety, and choice are prioritised.

Turning lived experience into purpose
The episode closes on Ciara’s decision to found Beyond Surviving, using her experience to support others navigating life after trauma.

📚 Mentioned in this Episode

Beyond Surviving – Survivor-led charity supporting healing beyond crisis. https://beyondsurviving.ie/
Beyond Surviving – Survivors Hub – Resources + community support. https://beyondsurviving.ie/survivors-hub/
Rape Crisis Ireland – 24-hour helpline + links to local support. https://www.rapecrisisireland.ie/
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC) – Support services and info. https://www.drcc.ie/

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Opening reflections on survival and recovery
06:20 – Reaching the end of crisis support
12:40 – Workplace response and social fallout
18:00 – Telling her parents what happened
25:40 – Deciding to pursue justice
30:10 – The trial process
35:50 – Being believed and legal validation
38:40 – Why survivor-led spaces matter
44:10 – The origins of Beyond Surviving
45:20 – Exploring post-traumatic growth
50:30 – Relationships and rebuilding self-worth
57:00 – Closing reflections on healing
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.

🎧 Episode Description

This episode offers an unflinching look at the realities of Irish healthcare - especially child and adolescent mental health - through the eyes of someone who’s been on the front line for decades. Laura is joined by Martin Daly, a rural GP in County Galway and a TD (Teachta Dála), to explore what it feels like to advocate for children and families inside systems that are overstretched, slow, and often unresponsive.

Martin shares a deeply affecting account of a nine-year-old boy experiencing severe OCD, including the barriers faced when trying to access CAMHS - from repeat assessments, to letters being returned, to referrals being deemed “not appropriate”, even as the child’s distress escalates. The story becomes a window into the human cost of rigid thresholds and administrative dysfunction, where families are left carrying fear and uncertainty while clinicians try to push against closing doors.

From there, the conversation widens into the bigger picture: the lack of digitisation in the HSE and how basic inefficiencies create real harm; why housing insecurity and “stuck” young adults ripple into mental health and relationships; and what Martin believes Ireland needs to do differently if it wants to protect wellbeing, not just respond to crisis. It’s warm, candid, and grounded in lived reality - ending with a reflective final stretch on kindness, purpose, and what it means to live a good life.

⸻

🔑 Key Points

Advocating for children inside broken systems
Martin describes the emotional and professional strain of repeatedly trying to secure care for children while working within rigid, under-resourced structures.

When mental health support depends on thresholds
The conversation explores how eligibility criteria can exclude children who are clearly distressed but not yet deemed to be in crisis.

A nine-year-old living with severe OCD
A real case highlights how delayed intervention intensifies suffering for both the child and their family.

The hidden burden placed on parents
Families are left holding fear, responsibility, and risk while waiting for services that may never arrive.

Housing insecurity and mental health
Martin connects the housing crisis to rising anxiety, stalled independence, and a growing sense of hopelessness among young people and families.

HSE digitisation and administrative failure
Basic inefficiencies - from paper-based systems to disconnected services - are shown to cause real harm and delay care when timing matters most.

Moral injury in clinical practice
Martin reflects on the ethical toll of knowing what care is needed, but being unable to access it for patients.

Social media and youth mental health
Constant exposure and online pressure are discussed as compounding factors in rising anxiety and distress.

⸻

📚 Mentioned in this Episode

Martin Daly – Rural GP and TD (Teachta Dála), sharing frontline experience of Irish healthcare

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) – Referral pathways, thresholds, and access issues

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – Childhood presentation and impact when left untreated

ADHD – Diagnosis pathways and pressures on assessment services

Health Service Executive (HSE) – Structure, capacity issues, and lack of digitisation

Housing crisis in Ireland – Links to anxiety, delayed independence, and mental wellbeing

Social media and youth mental health – Ongoing exposure and rising emotional distress

⸻

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Martin’s opening reflections and background
04:45 – Life as a rural GP on the frontline
09:30 – Accessing child mental health services in Ireland
15:10 – How CAMHS thresholds work in practice
21:40 – A nine-year-old with severe OCD
28:30 – Referrals returned and care denied
35:20 – The emotional toll on families
41:50 – HSE digitisation and systemic inefficiency
48:10 – Housing insecurity and its impact on mental health
54:30 – Social media, anxiety, and young people
59:40 – Responsibility, kindness, and what a good life means
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.

🎧 Episode Description

In this reflective episode, Laura sits down with Kathryn Thomas to talk about change - the kind you choose, the kind that’s forced upon you, and the kind that quietly reshapes you over time. Kathryn shares her journey through career transitions, from national broadcasting to creative independence, and what it’s like to make bold decisions in midlife while balancing motherhood, identity, and self-trust.

Much of the conversation centres on health and how our understanding of it has evolved. Kathryn speaks openly about her years on Operation Transformation, the backlash she faced, and why she felt compelled to explore the science and controversy around GLP-1 medications and Ozempic through documentary work. Together, they unpack how the obesity conversation has shifted, including the role of biology, food environments, and access in shaping long-term health.

The episode also moves into ageing, menopause, sleep, aesthetics, and longevity. Kathryn reflects honestly on contradiction - wanting to age well while questioning the systems that profit from fear - and on the small, practical changes that have made the biggest difference to her wellbeing. Grounded, thoughtful, and deeply human, this is a conversation about agency, perspective, and learning when to let go of certainty.

🔑 Key Points

Choosing change later in life
Kathryn reflects on making major career decisions in her mid-40s and stepping outside long-established systems.

The cost of visibility
Public scrutiny, online criticism, and resilience are explored through Kathryn’s lived experience.

Operation Transformation revisited
A nuanced look back at the show’s evolution, cultural impact, and the stigma that surrounded it.

Rethinking obesity
The conversation moves beyond willpower, focusing on biology, metabolic adaptation, and prevention.

Food deserts and ultra-processed foods
Kathryn and Laura discuss how access, environment, and the dominance of ultra-processed food shape health outcomes, particularly for children, highlighting why individual choice alone is an incomplete explanation.

GLP-1 medications and Ozempic
Kathryn explains why open, responsible discussion around these treatments matters.

Health, hormones, and sleep
Menopause, exhaustion, and the underestimated power of routine and rest are discussed honestly.

Ageing, aesthetics, and contradiction
From Botox to longevity science, the episode holds space for complexity rather than judgement.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Introductions and setting the tone
03:00 – Career longevity and public visibility
06:00 – Leaving RTÉ and taking a midlife leap
09:30 – Operation Transformation and public scrutiny
13:30 – How the weight conversation has changed
18:00 – GLP-1 medications and Ozempic
23:30 – Metabolic adaptation, food environments, and prevention
30:30 – Food deserts, inequality, and access
35:00 – Ageing, aesthetics, and contradiction
40:00 – Longevity, medicine, and living well
46:00 – Menopause, sleep, and routine
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.

🎧 Episode Description

Donal O’Shea has spent a lifetime working at the sharp end of endocrinology- and in this conversation, he brings that perspective with clarity and honesty. Laura and Donal explore how dramatically medicine has changed, from early diabetes care rooted in fear and compliance to modern treatments that prioritise quality of life and long-term health.

The discussion moves through hormones, obesity, and the rise of GLP-1 medications, examining how new treatments exposed long-held misconceptions about appetite, behaviour, and responsibility. Along the way, they confront stigma, access to care, and the cultural tendency to reduce complex conditions to willpower. Thoughtful and grounded, this episode invites a more humane way of thinking about health- one led by evidence, humility, and compassion.

🔑 Key Points

How diabetes care used to work - and why it didn’t
Donal reflects on fear-based approaches from earlier in his career and contrasts them with today’s technology-driven, compassionate care.

Hormones quietly run the show
The episode unpacks how chemical messengers regulate appetite, mood, energy, and long-term health.

GLP-1s changed more than blood sugar
Originally developed for diabetes, these treatments revealed unexpected effects on appetite and behaviour.

Why “eat less, move more” falls short
Obesity is explored as a biologically regulated, chronic condition rather than a failure of willpower.

When medicine collides with culture
Laura and Donal discuss how effective treatments risk being misunderstood in a thinness-obsessed world.

Access isn’t equal
Cost and prescribing rules shape who receives care and who is left behind.

Weight loss doesn’t erase identity
The psychological impact of changing bodies is often overlooked.

📚 Mentioned in this Episode

OSheaHoganLabs - Donal’s educational presence on TikTok and Instagram addressing medical misinformation

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 - A lifetime inside changing medicine
04:10 - Diabetes before technology
07:30 - Why fear was never good healthcare
12:00 - GLP-1 and a shift in understanding obesity
17:45 - Appetite, behaviour, and biology
23:30 - Stigma, thinness, and misuse of treatment
30:15 - Identity after weight change
36:40 - Menopause, hormones, and long-term thinking
43:20 - Battling misinformation online
50:00 - Who gets treatment - and who doesn’t
57:00 - Looking to the next generation
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.