Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

In this episode, Dr Paul Taylor talks with integrative practitioner Dr Christobelle Yeoh about protecting cognitive health. They start with the rise of early cognitive decline, brain fog and stress, including during menopause. Dr Yeoh's central idea is that thinking depends on the body. Cognition rests on the lower-order systems that feed the brainstem: the gut, vascular tone, blood chemistry, breathing and the cranial nerves that read signals of safety. They explain how chronic stress and the brain's constant threat prediction affect it. They also cover why top-down approaches like CBT work best alongside bottom-up, body-based ones. The second half is practical. They look at common mismatches and what to do about them: get morning sunlight and keep a circadian rhythm, eat at regular times in daylight hours and prioritise protein and whole foods, and fix the basics before relying on supplements such as DHA, creatine and ubiquinol. They also cover CO₂-tolerance breathing, and movement that challenges balance and coordination to support neuroplasticity.
Key takeaways
Brain and body are not separate. Cognition depends on the health of the body's regulation systems.
Get outside for morning light soon after waking, and top up with light through the day.
Eat in daylight hours, include protein early, favour seasonal whole foods, and cut ultra-processed food.
Sort out the basics (light, food, sleep, hydration) before relying on supplements.
Combine top-down tools like CBT and ACT with bottom-up work like breathing, movement and gut health.
Choose movement that challenges balance and coordination, such as boxing combinations, dancing or crawling.
Start gently with breathwork. CO₂ tolerance practice is a safe place to begin, and cathartic breathwork needs guidance.
Time Stamps
0:59 Why cognitive health matters, with dementia now overtaking cardiovascular disease in Australia 1:34 What's going on: brain fog, early cognitive decline (MCI), and stress in menopause 4:02 Is getting more forgetful in your 40s, 50s and 60s a warning sign? 5:35 Reframing cognition as an emergent property of whole-system regulation 10:52 Chronic stress, the brain as a prediction engine, and early-life influences 17:20 Five key inputs to the brainstem: cranial nerves, gut, vascular tone, blood pH/redox, and breathing 21:59 Threat vs challenge stress appraisal, and cortisol vs adrenaline 24:48 Top-down (CBT, ACT) and bottom-up (body-based) approaches, and neuroplasticity 27:23 Functional brain networks, and why complex, cross-body movement matters 31:52 The big mismatches: circadian biology, supplements before fundamentals, cell membrane and bioelectricity, CO₂ tolerance, and psychology without physiology 40:31 Circadian basics: morning sunlight, "clocking in" with the sun, ditching sunglasses 43:30 Red and near-infrared light, and light-based therapy for neurodegenerative conditions 47:07 Food timing, protein and the protein leverage idea, seasonal eating, leptin and insulin resistance 51:54 Supplements: DHA, phospholipids, organ meats and liver capsules, electrolytes and minerals 54:09 Creatine and hydration, including the dehydration and cortisol study 57:14 Ubiquinol: dosing and its role in the electron transport chain 58:31 Urolithin A, B vitamins, and matching supplements to the person 1:00:12 Breathing: CO₂ tolerance and Buteyko-style training vs cathartic and holotropic breathwork 1:05:23 Psychology–physiology mismatch: somatic work, vitamin D, creatine and psychotherapy
Mentioned in this episode
Dr Dale Bredesen's work on reversing cognitive decline
UCLA Health: news release on the original 2014 study. The paper was “Reversal of cognitive decline: A novel therapeutic program” (UCLA/Buck Institute, 2014).
ScienceDaily: the 2016 follow-up study. It used quantitative MRI and neuropsychological testing before and after the program, following a protocol called ‘metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration’.
Dr Stephen Porges (polyvagal theory and neuroception)
stephenporges.com: official site and timeline. The first paper describing the theory was Porges (1995), “Orienting in a defensive world,” published in Psychophysiology.
Prof. Mark Seery (challenge and threat appraisal)
Seery’s lab publications, University at Buffalo. The two key papers are Seery (2013), “The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat: Using the heart to measure the mind,” and Seery (2011), “Challenge or threat? Cardiovascular indexes of resilience and vulnerability to potential stress in humans”
Dr Konstantin Buteyko and Patrick McKeown (CO₂ tolerance breathing)
Oxygen Advantage: how to measure your BOLT score
Oxygen Advantage: McKeown on breath-holding and the science behind it
Buteyko Clinic International podcast. McKeown founded the clinic in 2002
Dr Rosalba Courtney (breath and healing)
rosalbacourtney.com
The Human Connectome Project
humanconnectome.org
Previous episode with Dr Yeoh on mitochondria
Omny – Part 1 - Why You Need To Be A MITOchondriac Part 1 with Dr. Christabelle Yeoh
Omny – Part 2 - Why You Need to be A MITOchondriac Part 2 with Dr. Christabelle Yeoh
Resourses:
Next Practice Genbiome, Sydney (genbiome.nextpracticehealth.com)
Mitocore, Sydney (mitocore.com.au)
This episode is for general education and isn't personal medical advice. Speak with a qualified practitioner before changing your health routine or starting supplements.
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Most of us spend a lot of time listening to the voice in our heads, especially when it turns negative. This week Carly looks at what happens when you start answering back instead.
She explores research by psychologist Ethan Kross showing that talking to yourself using “you” or your own name helps you perform better under stress and see challenges as less threatening. She also looks at how Marcus Aurelius used his private journal to coach himself.
In this episode:
Why we listen to our negative self-talk as if it’s the truth
How using your own name creates helpful distance
The sage and the gremlin
A simple way to coach yourself in the moment
Sources:
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (1965)
Kross et al. (2014), “Self-talk as a regulatory mechanism: How you do it matters,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Moser et al. (2017), “Third-person self-talk facilitates emotion regulation without engaging cognitive control,” Scientific Reports
Ethan Kross, Chatter (2021)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

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Your attention is being hijacked every day, and it is quietly shaping the life you get. Dr Paul Taylor and Adam Williams reveal how to spot the hidden cost of distraction, reclaim control, and start directing your attention toward what actually matters. Adam Williams, author of Mega Focus: Join the Attention Revolution, spent 30 years working inside the attention economy in advertising, innovation, promotions, and events before switching sides when he realised he was checking emails instead of being present with his daughter.That shift led him to build a practical framework for understanding why we reach for our phones, why we avoid hard things, and why so much of modern life runs on autopilot.
You will discover:
Why attention matters more than talent, intelligence, or motivation
The difference between the "builder" and the "architect" in your brain
How the "attention tax" exposes the opportunity cost of distraction
Why a quick email or "quick question" can destroy deep work for nearly half an hour
How sleep, energy, and environment shape the amount of attention you really have
The four core purchasing triggers that advertisers use to win your focus
Why boredom, discomfort, and effort are not enemies, but the raw material of creativity and progress
Paul and Adam also unpack the psychology behind social media, status signalling, happiness chasing, and the arrival fallacy, making the case that contentment beats endless pursuit every time. If you have ever felt busy but not truly effective, connected but not present, or productive but strangely off-course, this conversation will hit hard. Perfect for anyone who wants to work smarter, think more clearly, and stop outsourcing their life to algorithms, alerts, and other people's goals. If you are ready to take back control of your attention, this one belongs at the top of your queue.
Time Stamps
03:23 - From advertising to studying attention
04:06 - The moment Adam noticed his own attention problem
06:07 - Attention audits and the idea of an attention heat map
07:00 - Calculating the lifetime cost of phone use
08:15 - What attention tax really means
10:21 - Why attention matters more than talent or motivation
11:53 - The hidden cost of workplace interruptions
14:25 - What drives distraction and comfort-seeking
15:15 - The builder and architect model of attention
16:38 - Three things the fast brain tries to do
18:22 - Why busywork feels easier than meaningful work
19:23 - Remove to improve
20:26 - Who am I, what do I want, what do I do
22:22 - Conditions of happiness and the arrival fallacy
24:24 - Why chasing happiness can backfire
25:30 - Relevance, signalling, and how attention is captured
29:51 - Frequency, timing, and context in advertising
32:43 - Reclaiming attention through awareness and alignment
32:51 - The four key purchasing criteria
37:44 - How emotion beats logic in buying decisions
39:54 - Giving attention versus getting attention
40:14 - Infobesity, infomania, and digital overload
43:06 - Why many people cannot sit with their own thoughts
45:21 - The dark side of getting attention online
48:03 - Why understanding your brain helps you take back control
50:00 - Satisfaction, contentment, and goals without deferring life
51:43 - Attention as the upstream driver of thought and action
53:48 - Mega Focus as macro and micro attention management
55:10 - Perfectionism, energy, and attention tax in daily life
56:13 - The end of effort and why hard things matter
58:26 - Tools, calculators, and exercises on Adam's website
Quote:
“Attention lives upstream of everything in your life.”
Resources
Website: https://theattentionarchitect.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theattentionarchitect/

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What if one of the most effective treatments for depression and anxiety in young people needs no prescription, has no withdrawal and makes you stronger?
In this episode, Dr Paul Taylor unpacks a 2024 meta-analysis from Victoria University. It found that resistance training produced large reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms in people aged 26 and under. He then sets it against the largest analysis of its kind, a BMJ network meta-analysis of 218 trials and more than 14,000 people. In that analysis, walking, jogging, yoga and strength training matched therapy and outperformed SSRIs.
In this episode:
Why strength training was overlooked for decades in mental health research
The training “recipe” behind the biggest effects: sets, reps, intensity and duration
Why harder exercise and clear structure produced better results
How few young people in Australia, the UK and the US meet activity guidelines
The case for prescribing exercise before medication for young people
Key studies:
Marinelli et al. (2024). Resistance training and combined resistance and aerobic training as a treatment of depression and anxiety symptoms in young people. Early Intervention in Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.13528
Noetel et al. (2024). Effect of exercise for depression: systematic review and network meta-analysis. BMJ. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2023-075847
Survey data:
ABS National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey 2023
Sport England Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2024-25
CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2025
This episode is for education, not medical advice. If you or your child takes medication, talk to your doctor before making any changes.
More at paultaylor.biz
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