Live Well Be Well with Sarah Ann Macklin | Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition

This week I'm joined by Dr Karan Rajan, NHS surgeon turned bestselling author and Chief of Science at Throne Science, for a conversation about optimisation culture: wearables, peptides, Bryan Johnson, and why more data isn't always better data.

What we explore together:
•His own health scare at 28, when a routine blood test uncovered fatty liver disease from a low-fibre diet

•Why "the illusion of health" might be the real cost of the wearable and wellness boom

•Bryan Johnson, colonoscopies, and why the most measured man in history still missed the basics

•The peptides debate: survivorship bias, zero human trial data, and what to actually ask before you try one

•A hospice nurse's deathbed regrets, and what they reveal about how we're really spending our time

•Creatine's kidney false alarm, and the simple blood test that solved it

•The "fever dream" that became Throne Science, and the mission to catch colon cancer early

Love, Sarah Ann 💛

My book 'Healthy Shouldn't Be This Hard': https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.
👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.

👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.
https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let's be friends!
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast

Dr Karan Rajan:
🔗 Throne Science: https://www.thronescience.com
📷 Instagram/TikTok/YouTube: @DrKaranRajan

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:05 Welcome + what's interesting Karan right now

02:19 His own health scare at 28: fatty liver, high cholesterol, low fibre

04:10 Wearables, optimisation culture and "orthosomnia"

05:56 Bryan Johnson: most measured human in history, still skipped his colonoscopy

14:51 Rick Rubin, Wilderness festival

16:12 "Illusion of health": wearables, data and fragility wrapped in a wellness aesthetic

19:09 The hospice nurse's deathbed regrets

20:23 The red cup trick, and why coffee helps you poop

24:22 Sugar substitutes and the cognitive-decline headline, unpacked

38:21 Wireless headphones and the cysts claim, debunked

42:54 Creatine and cognitive health

43:35 The kidney false alarm, and the test that solved it

49:47 Peptides: what they actually are

53:09 Survivorship bias and the total lack of human trial data

59:54 The Enhanced Games and performance enhancers

1:03:51 His own burnout and productivity

1:09:35 Why success and balance aren't compatible in this season of life

1:15:31 The Throne Science origin story

1:19:22 Sarah's own polyposis syndrome reveal

1:23:19 Closing: links and sign-off

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Dr Mark Horowitz, lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, the UK NHS’s official guidance on safely stopping psychiatric medication.

This is a moment from the episode that stuck with me: Dr Horowitz explains the liquid tapering method for coming off antidepressants, the non-linear dose-response curve behind that “jumping off a cliff” feeling, and what a genuinely safe, gradual reduction can actually look like.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.
👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.
👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.
https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast
💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

This week’s Live Well Be Well Moment is with Arthur Brooks, Harvard happiness researcher and #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Why does actually reaching your goals so rarely make you feel as good as you expected?

Arthur breaks down the arrival fallacy and the real neuroscience behind that dopamine crash, and what it means for how you should be chasing success in the first place.

My book ‘Healthy Shouldn’t Be This Hard’:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healthy-Shouldnt-Be-This-Hard-ebook/dp/B0G1DHNRV5

This episode is sponsored by:

POLSEN HEALTH: The compassionate health tracker. Connecting body and mind with unique stress recovery insights so you can live fully today.
👉 15% off with code LWBW15 at https://polsen.health/

PULSETTO: Vagus nerve stimulation for stress, sleep and calm.
👉 Use code SARAHANN at https://pulsetto.sjv.io/SARAHANN

📖 If this resonates, you can join the thousands who read The Compassionate Cure each week.
https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

Let’s be friends!

📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahannmacklin/
📹 Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@livewellbewellsarah
🐦 Twitter: https://x.com/SarahAnnMacklin
📱 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@livewellbewellpodcast
💌 Newsletter: https://sarahmacklin.substack.com/

ADHD diagnoses have risen 200% in the last five years. Sarah Warley, founder of BeBright and The Key Clinic, says that’s not overdiagnosis. It’s ancient biology trying to cope with a modern environment it was never built for.

She joins Sarah Ann to unpack what’s actually changed, and why the answer isn’t as simple as real or not real.

Full episode out now: search ‘Live Well Be Well’ on YouTube & Spotify.

ADHD diagnoses have risen 200% in the last five years. Sarah Warley, founder of BeBright and The Key Clinic, says that’s not overdiagnosis. It’s ancient biology trying to cope with a modern environment it was never built for.

She joins Sarah Ann to unpack what’s actually changed, and why the answer isn’t as simple as real or not real.

Full episode out now: search ‘Live Well Be Well’ on YouTube & Spotify.