A Holistic Approach to Nutrition with Samantha Williams

A thought‑provoking episode in which, host Michael Millward talk to nutritionist and holistic health practitioner Samantha Williams to explore how science, psychology and spirituality come together to shape a healthier relationship with food.

Samantha’s journey from biology teacher to Ayurvedic‑inspired nutritionist spans continents and disciplines. After struggling with her own health during the isolation of COVID‑19, she discovered the transformative power of lifestyle‑based nutritional healing, an experience that reshaped her career and now informs her work with clients across the UK and Thailand.

Together, Michael and Samantha unpack:

• Why so many of us have complicated, often subconscious relationships with food
• How childhood conditioning shapes lifelong eating habits
• The difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger
• Why comfort eating feels soothing—but never truly satisfies
• The impact of ultra‑processed foods on metabolic health
• How intuitive eating helps reconnect mind and body
• Why personalised nutrition matters more than one‑size‑fits‑all diet culture
• How science, psychology and spirituality combine in Samantha’s holistic practice

Samantha also shares insights from her work at a Thai healing centre, which featured in the TV show The Retreat and explains how her business, Natural Nutrition, helps people build sustainable habits that support long‑term wellbeing.

This episode is ideal for anyone curious about improving their relationship with food, understanding their body more deeply, or exploring a more holistic path to health.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health. Use discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Buddhism’s impact on well-being

In a very personal episode of Fit For My Age, Michael Millward speaks with Saw K Myrit founder of the Australian charity Wake Up Limited, about how Buddhist principles can support self‑care, emotional healing, and long‑term mental well‑being.

Drawing on her childhood trauma, Saw explains how discovering Buddhism in adulthood helped her understand suffering, rebuild confidence, and develop a practical, compassionate approach to mental health.

Saw says “good things don’t last, bad things don’t last… what we feel is the side effect, the memory” a simple but powerful idea that underpins her method for moving beyond painful experiences.

Michael and Saw explore:

• How childhood experiences shape adult mental health
• Why acknowledging the past, but not living in it, is essential
• The Buddhist view that life’s value lies in the present moment
• The importance of supportive listeners who “just listen, without judging”
• The five core Buddhist principles and how they guide a “good life”
• Practical steps anyone can take to begin healing, regardless of faith or background

Saw’s message is universal: we cannot change the past, but we can choose how we live today and tomorrow. Her blend of Buddhist philosophy and lived experience offers a grounded, science‑aligned framework for anyone seeking clarity, calm, or a new way forward.

This episode is reflective, humane, and quietly uplifting; a conversation that doesn’t tell you what to think but certainly encourages you to think.

Find out more about Saw Myrit and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health. Use discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Vulnerability can mean many things, including empowerment

This episode of Fit For My Age brings together host Michael Millward and psychotherapist Carol Smaldino,author of Vulnerability Protected, for a deeply human conversation about what it really means to feel — and safely express — vulnerability.

Across the discussion, Carol traces her journey from a turbulent childhood, through her early work in residential treatment centres, to the development of her professional philosophy: that vulnerability is not weakness, but a messy, courageous, and essential pathway to empathy. Drawing on vivid experiences, including moments when she herself felt overwhelmed, frightened, or unexpectedly reactive, she explains how acknowledging our own emotional fragility can actually protect us, strengthen relationships, and create genuine connection.

Together, Michael and Carol explore:

• ·The difference between physical and psychological vulnerability
• Why many people cannot afford to be vulnerable — and what happens when they try
• How owning your emotional reactions can defuse conflict and build trust
• The role of vulnerability in leadership, parenting, therapy, and everyday relationships
• Why empathy begins with understanding your own inner world
• How psychological safety enables deeper thinking, curiosity, and authentic dialogue
• The cultural discomfort with vulnerability — and why it urgently needs dignity

Carol’s reflections are warm, candid, and often surprising. She challenges the idea that vulnerability is fashionable or performative, arguing instead that it requires space, patience, and environments where people feel genuinely safe enough to think, feel, and speak openly.

This is an episode that will stay with you — one that doesn’t tell you what to think but will certainly make you think about how you relate to yourself and others.

Find out more about Carol Smaldino and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health. Use discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Exploring the profound and often unseen effects of generational trauma

In this thought‑provoking episode of Fit For My Age, Michael Millward speaks with author Willie Handler, whose memoir Out of the Shadows: Growing Up with Holocaust Survivor Parents explores the profound and often unseen effects of generational trauma.

The COVID19 lockdown prompted Willie to begin documenting his family’s holocaust story. An 1,800‑word blog post quickly became an all-consuming passion research project into wartime records, deportation archives, family testimony to find out what really happened.

Willy says that trauma alters DNA and can be passed through generations, leaving descendants with PTSD‑like symptoms despite not experiencing the original event.

Michael and Willy explore

· The difficulty of recognising generational trauma, especially as it becomes just part of normal life, that results in descendants not realizing that they’re damaged”.

· The emotional cathartic and triggering impact of memoirs and survivor stories.

· Willie’s volunteering, and how he is trying to end the cycle with his grandchildren, introducing family history gently, positively, and age‑appropriately. He emphasises resilience, telling them, “We come from a family with a lot of resilience, which makes us strong”.

· Why talking is essential: silence perpetuates trauma, while open conversation, formal or informal, help prevent trauma being internalised and passed on.

This episode offers a compassionate, accessible exploration of a complex psychological and historical topic. You are encouraged to reflect on your own family histories, the hidden legacies they may carry, and the healing power of honest conversations.

Find out more about Dr Waldman and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health. Use discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Understanding intimate relationships in our senior yearsHost

Host Michael Millward is joined by Dr. Larry Waldman, an 80‑year‑old licensed clinical and forensic psychologist and author of Silver Sex: Insights into Senior Sexualityto explore a subject that is often whispered about, frequently misunderstood, but rarely discussed openly: intimate relationships and sexuality in our senior years.

Drawing on more than 45 years of clinical practice, Dr. Waldman offers a candid, compassionate, and deeply informed look at how sexuality evolves as we age — and why it remains an important part of wellbeing.

What this episode covers

• Why senior sexuality is still treated as taboo,
• How ageism shapes our expectations of intimacy later in life.
• The psychological barriers many older adults face.
• Adapting to the biological realities of aging, from erectile dysfunction to vaginal dryness,
• Practical ways to stay connected, including the thoughtful use of aids or adjustments.
• How medication, lifestyle, and fitness influence sexual wellbeing,
• Why staying active matters.
• The liberating shift that comes from understanding sexuality as a lifelong, evolving part of human connection.

Dr. Waldman emphasises that intimacy in later life is not only possible — it can be deeply fulfilling. The key is recognising that sexuality changes, but does not disappear, and that couples can continue to enjoy closeness by adapting with honesty, creativity, and care.

A thoughtful, warm, and refreshingly frank discussion that challenges outdated assumptions, encourages open conversation, and offers reassurance to anyone navigating intimacy as they age.

This is an episode worth listening to, liking, downloading, and sharing.

Find out more about Dr Waldman and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health.

Visit York Test and use this discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Restoring the heart and body by targeting hidden stress

In this episode of Fit For My Age host Michael Millward and Douglas Mulhall author of Discovering the Nature of Longevity: Restoring the heart and body by targeting hidden stress, explore why our bodies lose flexibility as we age, why our arteries “turn to stone,” and how new scientific breakthroughs may help restore elasticity and extend healthy lifespan.

A thought‑provoking conversation, Michael and Douglas discuss an overlooked driver of aging: the gradual breakdown of elastin, the flexible fibre that keeps our arteries, organs, skin and connective tissues supple.

Decades of research, show how hidden stresses degrade elastin, triggering chronic inflammation and calcification—the process that turns to people to stone.”

You Will Learn

• What elastin is and how it powers every breath, heartbeat and movement.
• Why at age 30 elastin assembly starts to decline
• Why your immune system is part of the problem.
• How calcification happens
• The hope provided by clinical trials including, polyphenol‑based treatments, Aneurysm‑focused clinical trials using elastin‑restoring compounds, Tropoelastin scaffolds that prevent scarring by rebuilding elastin at wound sites.

Could it be possible to slow the aging process by actively repair the structures that keep us flexible and resilient?

Douglas explanations are clear, accessible, and often surprising.

This episode is perfect for you if you are interested in practical evidence‑based health insights Anyone curious about longevity science, and essential listening for you if your family has a history of cardiovascular disease

Find out more about Douglas and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health.

Visit York Test and use this discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

The latest developments in sauna technology, and user experience

In this episode of Fit For My Age, host Michael Millward explores far‑infrared therapy with Phillip Wilson, President of the Relax Sauna Company. They start talking about saunas but quickly deep dive into energy, wavelength science, hyperthermia, and the body’s innate ability to heal.

Phillip was selling massage tools and nutritional products when he discovered home saunas. He later found, the specialised far‑infrared technology behind the Relax Sauna. After over 150,000 user demons, Phillip knows how to explain why this sauna feels so different to alternatives.

You will learn:

• Why far‑infrared light is unique,
• Why the Relax Sauna uses a semiconductor‑based system to generate the exact micron wavelength that resonates with human tissue.
• About the 10 years spent building the technology.
• How far‑infrared energy works inside the body,
• How vibration creates internal heat, and health benefits.”
• Why users experience is deeply relaxing, grounding, and even spiritual.
• How far‑infrared saunas differ from traditional heat‑based saunas, and why some people prefer the gentle internal warmth over the intense external heat of steam rooms or Finnish saunas.
• Practical considerations, including hydration, electrolyte balance, and how people with high or low blood pressure should approach sauna use safely.

Phillip’s enthusiasm is infectious, and his explanations blend science, personal experience, and cultural history—from Japanese healing spas to Native American sweat lodges. Whether you’re curious about sauna therapy, new wellness tools, or simply exploring alternative approaches to relaxation and recovery, this episode offers a fascinating perspective on how heat, light, and energy can support wellbeing.

Find out more about Phillip and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health.

Visit York Test and use this discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.

Pain relief, wellbeing, and natural alternative to opioids

In this episode of Fit for My Age, host Michael Millward sits down with Christopher Deaney, founder of Christopher’s Organic Botanicals, for a deep and eye‑opening exploration of kratom—the Southeast Asian botanical that’s quietly becoming part of global conversations about pain relief, wellbeing, and natural alternatives to opioids.

Christopher shares his personal journey from childhood injuries and years of prescribed painkillers to discovering kratom as a natural option that changed his life. Together, Michael and Christopher unpack the plant’s origins, how it’s traditionally used in Indonesia and Thailand, and why it’s often misunderstood in the West.

Listeners will learn:

• What kratom actually is—a leaf from a towering tree related to coffee
• How labourers in Southeast Asia chew fresh leaves for energy and focus
• Why kratom became entangled in myths, misinformation, and early ban.
• The science emerging from U.S. research institutions, including studies on safety, dependence, and therapeutic potential
• The realities of kratom farming, fair trade challenges, and the cooperative systems supporting Indonesian growers
• The difference between natural kratom and synthetic products that have caused confusion and concern

This conversation blends history, science, culture, and personal experience—offering a thoughtful, balanced look at a plant that has helped many people but remains controversial and poorly understood.

As always, Fit for My Age doesn’t tell you what to think, but it certainly gives you something worth thinking about.

Find out more about Christopher and Michael at Abeceder.co.uk.

Audience Offers - listings include links that may create a small commission for Fit For My Age that help keep Fit For My Age free to air.

Proactive Positive Ageing.

We recommend The Annual Health Test from York Test, because knowing the risks early means you can take appropriate actions to maintain good health.

Visit York Test and use this discount code AGE25.

Fit For My Age is made on Zencastr, because Zencastr makes making podcasts so easy.

Ultimate Travel Club members enjoy travelling at trade prices on flights, trains, hotels, holidays and so many other travel related purchases. Use the link to access discounted membership.

Matchmaker.fm is where great hosts and great guests are matched and great podcasts are hatched. Use our offer code MILW10 for a discount on membership.

Being a Guest

If you would like to be a guest on Fit For My Age, please contact Abeceder.co.uk.

We recommend the podcasting guest training programmes available from Work Place Learning Centre.

We appreciate every like, download, and subscriber.

Thank you for listening.