What High-Pressure Jobs Do to Your Body (Even When You ‘Look Fine’)

In this episode of Own Your Health, Katie Brindle is joined by her close friend Katie Nicholl (Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent and BBC contributor) for a conversation about stress, symptoms, and the wake-up call that changed everything. Katie shares how what looked like burnout, palpitations, and perimenopause stress turned out to be cholangiocarcinoma (a rare primary liver cancer), despite “normal” blood tests, and why pushing for a scan likely saved her life. They unpack the post-treatment reality: life doesn’t magically get easier after a diagnosis, so self-care has to become non-negotiable.Chapters 00:00 — Meet the guest: royal correspondent, author, high-stress career00:33 — Building self-care habits that don’t collapse in January01:05 — How they met: gua sha, “liver” themes… and what no one knew yet02:08 — The moment: “It’s probably stress”… but the truth was liver cancer05:18 — The scary part: normal bloods, no tumour markers —why scans mattered06:14 — Diagnosis to surgery fast: MRI confirmed it, 11-hour operation, chemo08:00 — After the all-clear: life stays hard, so the system has to change09:25 — Stop the self-care guilt: how to restart without beating yourself up10:02 — The “diary-first” rule: schedule self-care before everything else12:32 — The non-negotiables: nature, internal vs external exercise, organ strength15:12 — Forest bathing + “tree hugging”: why nature became her anchor18:03 — Joy as medicine: shedding what wasn’t serving her, gratitude as a practice22:31 — Reinvention: rage, resentment, marriage ending, rebuilding a new life25:16 — What she’s adding now: foot baths, daily breathwork, simple routines30:47 — Guided practice: Healing Sounds for organs (follow along)-------------------------------------------More information here: https://katiebrindle.com/Subscribe to my newsletter: https://katiebrindle.com/newsletter-signup/Buy 'Yang Sheng: The Art of Chinese Self-Healing' athttps://www.hayoumethod.com/product/yang-sheng-the-art-of-chinese-self-healing/Buy the Hayo'u tools at https://www.hayoumethod.com/products/Hayo'uFit at https://hayoufit.com--------------------------------------------Join my channel and leave a comment about what you want to see next!Love, Katie Brindle.