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Our first guest on the pod, Sam and Gracie swap the running track for the doctor’s office as they sit down with Dr. Joshua Jones to talk all things heart health, faith, and connection. ❤️
From the signs of a struggling heart to the deeper link between the head and the heart, the trio explore what it means to stay both physically and spiritually healthy. There’s laughter, a few awkward waiting-room moments, and some surprisingly profound insights on how our emotional, mental, and spiritual wellbeing all beat in rhythm together.
Along the way, they unpack lyrics from Gable Price and Friends’ “Think With Your Chest,” reflect on identity in God, and chat about how faith keeps us going when life feels heavy. Plus — don’t miss the debut of their new game segment, “Three Beats Ahead,” where listeners get clues to next week’s theme!
🎧 Expect humour, honesty, and heart — literally.
Creators and Guests
Host
Gracie Grace
Co-founder and host of Pulse Check In. I am an actress and writer who has created and performed one-woman theatre shows around the UK. Alongside my work on stage, I’ve taught drama in primary schools, led youth and young adult theatre groups, and worked as a teaching assistant, using drama to engage and support children with additional needs. Recently, I’ve been studying Understanding Alzheimer’s and Dementia and am developing story and drama-based resources to help support those living with dementia. I navigate life while facing mental health challenges most days. Although some days present a rougher terrain than others, I know I never walk alone. My faith sustains me through the toughest times and is a welcome companion in the joyful times. I live in the beautiful town of Godalming, just outside Guildford, with my dog, Mr Collins — an accomplished actor and model in his own right. He considers cheese a high-value commodity and socks as treasure.
Host
Sam Ellison
Co-founder and host of Pulse Check In. "Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they will never cease to be amused". Sam tries not to take life too seriously, always looking for the fun and joy in all things. He love being silly and cheeky with his daughter who brings out the most joy and the best in his families lives. He will also struggle to continue write about himself in the 3rd person. Co-host of Pulse Check In podcast and worshiper on Abide Worship. Love to chat about Star Wars, guitars, guitar pedals over a medium/light roasted, black coffee. Quick fire questions: What's your favourite worship song right now? - Washed by Elevation Rhythm What’s one thing you’re surprisingly good (or hilariously bad) at? - Quoting random TV shows/films in conversations (mainly Friends). What truth or verse keeps you grounded when life gets a bit wobbly? - 1 John 3:1: "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!". God love is as unconditional (if not more) as mine for my daughter, it has no limits. So why worry about what the world says? What defines us is what the father says about us and who he created us to be.
What is Pulse Check In?
Check in with friends up for the training of their lives. It’s in the training where all the work happens, the ups and the downs, the strains, the recovery, all so much more encouraging when experienced with others. So we want you to join us for our brand new podcast Pulse Check In. A regular check in to chat about faith and our fitness for life.
Pulse Check In- an opportunity to take a beat.
Hi. I'm Sam.
Gracie:And so is he.
Sam:And this is Gracie.
Gracie:And so am I. Together, we are up for the training of our lives, and we want you to join us.
Sam:We've both come to terms with the fact that we won't be representing team GB at the Olympics anytime soon.
Gracie:Let's face it. There's not much call for Sam's 50 meter dash with a guitar strap to his back.
Sam:And Gracie has been banned from the hurdles because she only goes under them.
Gracie:Harsh, but true. Anyway, what we are training for is not a sport. It's a way of life attempting to build up our spiritual and mental health.
Sam:It's in the training where all the work happens, the ups, the downs, the strains, the recovery, all of which is so much more encouraging when experienced with others.
Gracie:So we want you to join us for our brand new podcast, Pulse Check-in, a regular check-in to chat about faith and our fitness for life.
Sam:Subscribe to our YouTube channel, listen via Spotify, or however you like to access your podcasts.
Gracie:Post check-in, an opportunity to take a beat. Oh, hi, Sam.
Sam:Oh, hi, Gracie.
Gracie:Can I sit next to you or have you got something contagious?
Sam:Well, I'm not a 100% sure. I'm hoping the doctor will be able to tell me.
Gracie:Well, you sound okay, and I can't see a rash, so I'll take the risk.
Sam:What about you? What are you here for?
Gracie:Well, I've reached that age, Samuel, where I'm offered a full medical. But I'll be honest, I don't need a doctor to tell me why I can't trampoline anymore without well, you know. Anyway, you've been waiting long?
Sam:I'm number A 100 25 and they've just called 66.
Gracie:It's like waiting for your number at Argos.
Sam:Yeah, but without the teeny pencil. Fancy playing a game whilst we
Gracie:wait? Yeah, sure. Guess the Ailman?
Sam:Oh, yeah, perfect. Okay, starting with that person over there.
Gracie:Okay. Right. Well, they're wearing comfortable, breathable shoes with extra cushioning in their sock.
Sam:Oh, too easy. Kidney stones.
Gracie:What?
Sam:I mean, bunions.
Gracie:Yeah. Good shout. Okay then. That person over there by the leaflets, they've got a strong posture. Now that suggests it's not something making them hunched over or lethargic.
Sam:Twitching slightly, but could that be the anticipation of having their number called?
Gracie:Cheese. Oh, I'm sorry? The cheese counter. That's where else you'd take a number and wait to be served.
Sam:Oh, I don't remember that.
Gracie:Yet more proof that you are a few decades away from a full medical. Anyway, back to our patient over there. They seem to be sweating and holding a paper bag.
Sam:Oh, I'm no doctor, but do you think there might be vomit involved? I've gone off this game.
Gracie:I'm not sure it's good for our health. We should leave it up to the experts.
Sam:Ticket number A65 and a 66. That's Sam and Gracie to doctor Jones. Oh, they've said our names. What's the point in all these numbers?
Gracie:Let's hope it's cheese. It's checking. Very excited to you, Sam. We've got Very excited to
Sam:for our for our appointment together.
Gracie:An appointment together with the lovely doctor Josh Jones. Or should I call you Joshua Jones?
Dr Jones:Well, you could call me whatever you like. As long as it's not rude, you can call me whatever you like.
Gracie:Oh, I'm not sure about that. Okay. So doctor doctor Jones. Hello. It's really good to have you here today.
Dr Jones:Thank you very much for having me.
Gracie:Excited, we, Sam?
Sam:Very excited. Yes. Good. Good to have
Dr Jones:First guest of the new pub. Yes.
Sam:Setting the standards.
Dr Jones:Excellent. So no pressure. Very low bar.
Sam:Yeah. Low bar. The only way is it.
Gracie:So Sam and I, we've arrived at our appointment with you. We're your first appointment, aren't we? First on the books.
Dr Jones:Yes. First on the books. A late start today. Late start.
Gracie:So I just want to ask you in terms of getting to this point in the day. Obviously there will have been some things that have taken place in your life in terms of activity. But we just want to start off today just by asking you, it's a bit weird because really you should be asking us questions as is our appointment, but you know, I've got to build up a trust, think.
Dr Jones:It's all right, it's all right, yeah. Patient rapport, patient rapport.
Gracie:So we just want to kind of ask you to start us, what's your motivation like daily? So when you wake up and you're greeted by a new day, what gets you going? What gets you enthusiastic about what's gonna happen in the day ahead?
Dr Jones:So I think there are I was thinking about this, and there are three categories of this, and it all depends on what I'm doing that day. But one thing that gets me up is to go to work, and I actually I'm I'm very blessed that I actually really enjoy my job. And although it's not always unicorns and rainbows, and I don't wake up like Mickey Mouse does with a big smile on my face going, yay. I get to go to work. I actually do enjoy getting in the car, going to work, seeing my colleagues, doing my job, talking to patients.
Dr Jones:I actually do quite enjoy that. So I think my my motivation is often, oh, I get to go to work today. That's nice. Sometimes when I'm not in work, I'm usually motivated up early by my lovely little girl, Nancy, who is now 18. She has destroyed any hope that me and my wife have of ever having a lie in again.
Dr Jones:So we're usually up. She's not bad. She often will wake up after seven, but it's not much after seven. But it's also my motivation. I do love being with her.
Dr Jones:She's the best thing in the world. So getting up to spend time with her is great motivation. And the third thing I would say, if I am lucky enough not to be in work and for some reason aren't looking after Nancy, she's somewhere else or Georgina is with her, then I will get up and do some exercise because I am one of them really annoying people who likes exercise and then triathlon and marathons and stuff. So I will yes. I enjoy getting up and doing things like that.
Gracie:So if you check but, yeah, I've got a couple of things to ask in response to that.
Sam:Absolutely. Yeah.
Gracie:One's like an observation. I was watching an interview with these two female actors, and they were chatting about what motivates them. Know when you were saying, get to go to work or I get to and they were saying that when they struggle with motivation or even if it's things like the daily stuff, it's actually saying, what I say to myself is, it's a privilege. I get to go to work. Or but it like, this person does quite a lot of running, and but it's can be quite hard to get motivation.
Gracie:And before she goes out for a run, considers the fact that there are people who can't do that and will say, I get to go running today. Or and she uses it with her daughter as well when she's moaning about going to school. She'll say, you get to go
Sam:to school.
Dr Jones:You get to go to school.
Gracie:When you change that in your head
Dr Jones:Yeah. I've heard that before. Just changing that perspective and say instead of saying, oh, I have to go to work. I have to do this. I have to make tea.
Dr Jones:It's like, I get to make tea. I get to go to work. And it's just even just a simple change like that. And, again, it's very easy maybe for us to say because we're in we're in jobs and we're in lives where where we often do get to enjoy ourselves and do nice things and be and be reasonably privileged. So it's it's easy for us to say, but I think there's a change in your perspective just simply like that can make a massive difference.
Gracie:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then the other thing I was gonna ask in is that as a doctor outside of the podcast world, are you sat in a surgery or are you in hospital?
Dr Jones:So I do anaesthetics and intensive care. So most of my time is spent looking after patients having operations. So it varies between nice routine surgeries where you, Gracie, might be coming in for the surgeons to chop your gallbladder out or something like that, and you're nice and you're nice and fit. And it's nice and simple, and you can put you to sleep, and there's nothing to worry about. Sometimes you get people who have loads of medical problems, and you go you it's a bit ropey putting them to sleep, so you have to do lots of different exciting things to make sure they stay alive for their operation.
Dr Jones:Sometimes I get to go down to A and E and be involved in traumas and things. Sometimes I work on the intensive care unit with patients who are asleep and in comas and things. So I get to do a little bit of everything. A lot of my patients are asleep and don't talk to me too much. So I enjoy the talking I enjoy the talking to them before they go to sleep, and then I enjoy the peace and quiet afterwards when they're asleep, and I'm just keeping them going.
Gracie:So when they are under anesthetic, I assume you're kind of you're monitoring everything that's going on in in
Dr Jones:the gym. So so we stay with them, and we we watch all their observations. We sometimes need to give various drugs, so painkillers and antisickness and things. Because even though when someone's asleep during an anesthetic and they're not consciously aware of things, your body's nervous system still processes pain. So you don't you're not aware of the pain and you don't know about it, but your body will put its blood pressure up and put its heart rate up if there is pain even though you're not processing it.
Dr Jones:So the person doesn't feel pain, but the body will respond to that pain. So I sometimes have to do things to deal with that, and you wanna keep the body as normal and simple as possible while someone is asleep.
Gracie:I I find that really fascinating.
Dr Jones:Thanks, Gracie.
Sam:So as me and Gracie have come to see you in your doctor's surgery as per our little silly intro, say if our heart was starting to give us problems, how would be best to respond if our heart gives us, like, signals? What what are those signals that our heart might give us if there's a slight problem or something like that?
Dr Jones:That is a question that you could have about twenty four hours worth of lectures on. Cool. And I I probably sat through more than that in my trading and my career on heart problems.
Sam:Oh, about twenty five minutes. Yeah. A
Dr Jones:lot can go wrong with your heart, but your heart is very good at telling you something's wrong. So probably the thing we see the most often in the medical world is people with chest pain, and everyone gets very worried about chest pain because lots of things can cause chest pain, but one of the bad things that can cause it is a problem with your heart. So if you are getting pain in your heart and you get chest pain, that shows that there is not enough blood getting to your heart. And you need blood to get to your heart so that it can stay alive and pump blood to the rest of the body, if you see what I mean. So we might tell we've got a problem with our heart by chest pain.
Dr Jones:You might get palpitations where you can feel your heart going fast in your chest. You might get funny heart rhythms. The people we really worry about are those that have chest pain and then collapse or lose consciousness because at that point, you think, right, the heart isn't working properly. And as well as that, the heart isn't able to pump enough blood to their brain to keep them conscious. And Oh, it's a
Sam:body collapse.
Dr Jones:Right. Yeah. So public disclaimer to everyone listening. If you do have chest pain, please seek medical advice. But, also, don't worry if you have a little bit of niggly chest pain after you've just eaten your Christmas dinner because you've probably got reflux, but it's still worth getting it checked out.
Gracie:Yeah. I I because I think this came up, didn't it, Sam? When we were talking in previous episodes, I've got a watch tracker.
Dr Jones:A a a
Gracie:Yeah. And it was like, okay. Well, it's told me that. What do I do about it? And so, like, all I did was press the button to stop it because the noise was annoying me.
Gracie:But it's like and I know it's I know it's just a watch, but they're just like, okay.
Dr Jones:Yeah. What's quite good about we get it a lot in when I used to work in a and e, people with smart tech, so Apple watches, heart rate monitors, things that they wear for exercise, etcetera. All that kit is what we call very sensitive, but not very specific. So what that means is something is very, very sensitive. It picks up that something is going on.
Dr Jones:So whether that's a fast heart rate, a funny rhythm, but it can't tell you specifically what it is. So often I mean, probably for someone like us who are young and hopefully haven't smoked 90 cigarettes a day and have loads of bad heart problems, it's probably just your heart's gone fast from exercising or from being anxious or something like that. But often, we get people coming into A and E often, and they've picked up funny heart rhythms that we've then gone on to give treatment to and stuff. So, yeah, it's actually been really helpful as a medical profession that we're starting to pick up things that maybe would have caused people bother down the line, but we've managed to get in early and and fix them. So that's been that's been quite nice actually.
Sam:You mentioned before about when your heart starts working and people pass out, it's because, like, the brain's not getting enough oxygen. The heart makes the engine room of the brain work. Is that correct? So, like, what's the link between the head and the heart in that Yeah.
Dr Jones:That's a lovely analogy. Engine room of the engine room of the brain. I like that. Yeah. So the easiest way to think about it is your heart is your heart is a muscle, and it's divided into four chambers.
Dr Jones:This is medical person listening is gonna be thinking always oversimplifying this, and I am. But your heart receives blood from the body that has that has been used, so used for oxygen, and the oxygen's been taken out of that blood. And then it comes back into your heart, gets pumped around the lungs, picks up more oxygen, goes back into your heart, and gets pumped around the body. So your blood, which is being pumped by the heart, is what carries your oxygen. And oxygen is what we need for all of our cells to live.
Dr Jones:And the brain is very, very greedy, so it wants as much oxygen as it possibly can. So there's massive blood vessels that come off very soon after the blood comes out of your heart that takes it up to your brain, and that means that your brain is constantly getting a really, really good blood supply. Now that without a working heart and without the working blood vessels coming out of the heart, your brain won't get enough oxygen. So they have to work in sort of perfect synergy almost to make sure that your body is always working. So when people faint and things, often you you imagine you're on a hot day, not like today, but a nice hot day in Greece or somewhere like that, and you've not drunk much water, your blood pressure is probably very low.
Dr Jones:So your heart is pumping, but it's not pumping as strongly as normal, and all your blood vessels are quite dilated. So it's harder for your blood to get up to your brain. So that's when you might feel a bit lightheaded, or you might feel a bit weak, and sometimes you might faint because it's too hot. So, yeah, your your heart is essential to keep your brain going, essentially.
Gracie:Can I ask another this might sound a dumb question? Is what about the other way So does your brain impact your heart?
Dr Jones:Tell your heart what to do. Ah, that's that's a really good question. So sort of and sort of not. So your heart is really clever in that it it has its own pacemaker cells. So you if you take a heart out of someone's body, like in heart transplants, it will continue to beat because there are little groups of cells in your heart that send off electrical impulses.
Dr Jones:And for a for a certain amount of time outside the body, they will just continue to beat for themselves. That is independent of your brain. Now you do have outside of your brain, you have something called your your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, which you might have heard of in GCSE biology, which I know was a long time ago for both of you. Long time. But your that is your nervous system that talks to your heart and tells it to speed up or slow down depending on what you're doing.
Dr Jones:And that's not directly linked to your brain, but the brain has some impact on that. But, essentially, your heart is under what we call autonomic control. So it's under control by itself. It will pump away. It will speed up when it needs to.
Dr Jones:It will slow down when it can't. So I don't know. Thinking about it, has the brain got any direct pathways to the heart speed up? Can I think my heart to go quicker? No.
Dr Jones:I can't. But I can think about things to do to make my heart go quicker. So I can think I'm gonna go for a run. That's gonna make my heart go quicker. But it's not your brain directly doing that.
Dr Jones:It's nervous system out in the rest of your body.
Sam:It made me think of a song, actually. We normally do workout tracks later on, but I'm just getting this in get this in straight away. I was listening to this song, think with your chest Alright. Which kinda, like, talks about the comparison between thinking with your head and and thinking with your heart and how
Dr Jones:Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Sam:And how that can affect your decisions or affects your feeling of worth. And so the first line of the song is there's a there's an organ in my rib cage. Is it an organ in your heart?
Dr Jones:It is an organ. Yeah. Alright. Okay. I thought it was,
Sam:like, is it an organ made of muscle?
Dr Jones:An organ made of muscle. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And
Sam:it it also lives on my sleeve is what it says. I can admit it's made some mistakes, but I'd rather live with it than die so comfortably.
Dr Jones:Yeah. Wow. That's quite profound. Yeah. Wow.
Gracie:Is this
Dr Jones:a is this a a Jesus song? Or is it
Sam:a I didn't actually say who it by, did I? It's by a band called Gable Price and Friends.
Gracie:I do I think it highlights what you're saying about the interaction between the heart and the mind and the, you know, you have one without the other. Also, we were just wondering, is there connection? If your heart's not working efficiently, oh, I think you've already touched on it, it affects the health of your mind. So not just talking about the physic the physiological stuff of the brain, but would you say there is a connection if it if your heart's not working efficiently, how does that affect your, like, mind and your mental health? Yeah.
Dr Jones:Yeah. So from, like, a physical point of view, I think sort of if your heart isn't working properly and you're not getting enough circulation to your brain, you're gonna get things like the most extreme thing being strokes and stuff like that if your if your circulation to your brain isn't working. But I think there's also a thing, and this is this is where you sort of go down the lines of mental health and our physical health being really intertwined. I think if you're if you're living a healthy life where you're looking after your heart, you're making sure you're putting the right things in your body, you're doing as much as sort of the exercise that you can manage and things, then you're making sure your heart is nice and healthy. And I think that trying to have a lifestyle like that where you are looking after your body will also relate to having good good mental health and stuff.
Dr Jones:I think that's both from a physiological point of view. There's probably something there. You get a more efficient blood flow to your brain, maybe something like that. That's probably a speculative thing to say, but there will be a link of some form between being healthy and your blood flow to your brain being a bit better. But I think as well, being healthy you you can feel when your body's healthy.
Dr Jones:Like, if you I love a Chinese or a curry. But after I go after I go for a curry and I've, like, shoved a load of Madras down me and, like, you feel quite bloated afterwards and you get a bit of heartburn and stuff. You you know, it was a nice treat, but it's not great for my body to be having that every day. Whereas when I sort of train for events exercise wise and I'm on a strict diet of what I eat and what I'm drinking, things like that, your body feels really good. You know that you're in a healthy state, and that really impacts on your mind, I think, and and helps you just feel better about yourself.
Dr Jones:And from a mental health point of view, you feel a lot better.
Sam:Because you mentioned about what did you say? Knowing that your heart's healthy and that you've done exercise and stuff can really help your mental health. And I think going back to that song that I was talking about, it links to, like, knowing that our identity is in God and who God says we are Mhmm. And how that can have an effect on our mental health. Did we talk about that last time, Bruce?
Gracie:Yeah. We did a little bit.
Sam:The chorus for this song I'm going back to the lyrics because it's more propelled lyrics than I could say. Says, I keep hearing, think with your head and not your chest. It'll only get you in trouble. But with all due respect, everyone else is depressed. Yeah.
Sam:They're living in the rubble. Everyone's a critic, but few are the chef. I think there's you're talking about the chef being god. Everyone's pointing out the spills, but if you are cleaning up the mess, they're busy thinking with their heads. So I'll think with my chest.
Sam:So you're a Christian, aren't you, doctor Jones?
Dr Jones:I am. I am indeed. Yeah.
Sam:So in your in your job and your profession and your dealing with all these medical heart things, how has your faith kept you going in any situations?
Dr Jones:Oh, wow. That's a that's a deep question, Samuel. I mean, there's a there's a lot of situations you come across at at a hospital. And so I I worked as a as a very junior doctor during the pandemic and was terrified that my mental health struggled as as did the vast majority of people's. And I think leaning on god, that was a massive comfort being able to do that.
Dr Jones:And I think having a trusting God that he was he was still in control even when everything seemed very hopeless was was one of the only things that pulled me through. And I often pray quietly in my head when I am working, even if it's things like help me deal with this person, help me work out what to do next, or even there's there's often a a blood test we do where we try and get a sample out of someone's artery in a wrist, and it involves a lot of poking around and trying to find the artery, and it really hurts someone. And it's amazing the number of times where I've been doing that for a minute or two, and the person's really uncomfortable. And I just say in my head, come on, god. Let me get this now.
Dr Jones:And then a second later, blood comes into the tube. I'm like, there there are little moments like that when I just think I'm doing this as a team with Jesus. I need to remember that that what I'm doing is it's his work, and he's just using me to to help people. It's a really, like, beautiful and humbling thing to be able to do.
Sam:I guess I've got this this cheesy link between how the head and the heart work together and how us and gods work together in those situations, how we get how that link is really really important in our daily lives.
Dr Jones:Yeah. Definitely. I think yeah. Like, if we're thinking about the heart being and Jesus often sort of talks about what's in our heart and that god knows our hearts. And in in the bible, I think that they're they're referring to this sort of, I guess, metaphorical spiritual heart.
Dr Jones:But I think there's very much a parallel there with Jesus knows our hearts or our hearts where our faith lies, and physically, our heart is where our our life is. We can't function without a functioning heart. So if someone has a a cardiac arrest where their heart stops, they they die unless you can get the heart to start beating again. So I think the the heart is obviously, the brain is a very, very important organ, and you could argue with a million different doctors about which organ's the most important, especially doctors who a specialist in the liver will say that's the most important organ. I'm a I'm a doctor of airways, so I say, oh, the airway is the most important area.
Dr Jones:But the heart is the organ that everything else relies on, getting a blood flow. Without it, we cease to exist. So I guess you can draw a parallel there of Jesus knows our hearts, and our hearts are the spiritual home for Jesus. So can we exist without him being there? That's maybe the the parallel we can draw and say.
Dr Jones:Our lives work because our hearts are going, and our spiritual lives will work when we have Jesus in our heart and we we sort of are in communion with him and have him in our lives guiding us, I guess. Does that make sense? I feel like
Gracie:that's a
Sam:lot of sense.
Dr Jones:Yeah.
Gracie:I was thinking then about you've got a very clever job. You've you've got a lot of
Sam:knowledge. Yeah?
Gracie:But I I don't know about you, Sam, but I I feel slightly slightly inadequate. The stuff I know, it's not useful I at know a
Dr Jones:lot of stuff
Gracie:that's not very useful. But but the nature of your job, you have to have, obviously, a lot of knowledge about a lot
Dr Jones:of stuff. Yeah.
Gracie:There times where having all that knowledge kind of is in not in conflict, but is there a time where you think it it but in your heart, you think something else or you know something else? So are there moments that you can think of when you've had to trust your heart over the knowledge that you've got?
Dr Jones:Yeah, I think so. The thing about my job is everyone does an anaesthetic slightly differently, I think, and everyone deals with traumas or critically unwell patients slightly differently, and they'll have different things. They think, oh, that'll work or this'll work. There's there's a patient I've dealt with recently who was a young person who had a cardiac arrest and has unfortunately passed away despite everything we did. And we were trying things where once we'd exhausted all the treatments, it was like, oh, we've got a gut feeling that this might work or this might work.
Dr Jones:So and often, we we do that to great success. We think, oh, let's let's try this, see if it see if it does something, or let's try a slightly different version of this treatment. So I think you do you do still have a a gut feeling sometimes. And I guess there's odd times where I feel God has guided me in slightly unusual ways. So this this particular patient, I mentioned I there was an emergency call that went off on my pager that I wasn't supposed to go to unless they called me.
Dr Jones:So it's sort of another team go and assess the problem initially, and then if they felt they needed anesthetics, they would call me. But I just was sat at the desk, I just had this feeling. I'm gonna wander down to see what's going on. And then as I was walking through the door of the ward where this problem was, my my pager went off and was like, go there right now. Go there right now.
Dr Jones:And this was such an urgent situation that actually thirty seconds a minute would have made a big difference. And so I don't know if that was just was it a gut feeling or was I a bit bored sat on critical care thinking, oh, I'll just I'll just pop down to see what's going on, or was that God saying to me, you need to just pop off down to that? And, yeah, I like to believe that that was God saying, you need to go to that. So there is those moments where you don't necessarily, I'd I'd say, break the rules. You don't break the rules.
Dr Jones:You still do things safely, and you follow protocols and stuff. But sometimes they're a little minutiae like that that you think, I feel like God's leading me to that.
Gracie:Wow. Brilliant. Yeah. Thank you.
Sam:Have you got any fun facts about connections between a healthy heart and a healthy mind in nonmedical terms because we're all thick.
Dr Jones:Please. I mean, Gracie's not thick. Yeah.
Sam:That's true.
Dr Jones:Depe I find them fun. It depends how fun you love them. And your as we've as we've talked about, your heart is a muscle as well as an organ. The the more you work that muscle, the same you would work your bicep, the stronger and the bigger it'll get. So from a I, as I've said, I love exercise because I'm weird.
Dr Jones:So being able to
Sam:Hey. A lot of people love exercises.
Dr Jones:We're all weird. If you if you make yourself run five k at your top speeds and get your heart rate up as high as you can, you're really working that muscle. So that if you keep doing that every couple of days, your five k will get faster because your heart can pump more efficiently because your muscle's stronger.
Gracie:Can we make your heart too big?
Dr Jones:Yes. Yes. You can. So you can get something called dilated cardiomyopathy, which is basically where your heart dilates too much, often because it's been under a bit of strain, or you can get it genetically.
Gracie:Can you? This is a bit left. Do you think a broken heart is a thing?
Dr Jones:Oh, this is a great question. And there is a syndrome called broken heart syndrome. It's a syndra. Oh my goodness. You actually see.
Sam:It's quite common. I say it's quite common. I've heard this. That when, like, an old couple who are in love with each other, when one of them dies, the other one can often go very quickly even if, like, nothing was really wrong with them.
Dr Jones:Yeah. Yeah. No. There there is a thing. So it's called takotsubo cardiomyopathy.
Dr Jones:Oh. That's the that's a good place to remember it. It's called stress cardiomyopathy. So when someone is in extreme physical or emotional stress, so grief, something like that, you can get a temporary weakening of the heart's function. I'm probably really oversimplifying this.
Dr Jones:And then that can cause your your heart to stop, essentially, and can mimic a heart attack.
Gracie:I mean, I'm hoping neither of you have ever had a broken heart. But I went through time where I was broken heart. I the Jews of Frazier, my heart was broken. In that period of time, it felt like it physically hurt.
Dr Jones:But surely that's not
Gracie:do you think that was just mental, emotional?
Dr Jones:No. I think it it probably it lines up to the very poorly understood connection between our brain and the rest of our body. Our body does weird things in response to various stimulus, a lot of them being from our brain. So our brain will send off lots of signaling pathways and release lots of hormones and things like that, and it's not entirely understood how our body responds to those signals. So So I think there's definitely there there will be something physiological that has caused your that sort of aching or that that physical sort of symptoms from everything that's going on in your mind.
Dr Jones:I think there's definitely something physical happening there. Whether someone can explain it one day, I don't know.
Gracie:Well, anyone knows. Yeah.
Dr Jones:Yeah. So Yeah. Let us know. Right in. Yeah.
Sam:Do you reckon when some people, like, come to faith, they say that they were, like, a there's a longing for something deeper in their lives. Do reckon there's, like, that same thing where your brain does something to make you long for something deeper and pulls you towards gods?
Dr Jones:Yeah. I think a medical
Sam:question, I don't But Yeah.
Dr Jones:No. I think it's that's a a sort of spiritual debate, isn't it? I think we as as Christians, we look at the world of people who are suffering and trying to fill that void in them with something, whether that's like the the classic examples of drugs or, like, I don't know, partying or something like that. And they try and fill a void in them with something that can't be filled. And I think we all know and feel like we have a place in our hearts that Jesus wants to be, and that is the only thing that will fill that hole.
Dr Jones:And I think a lot of Christians would probably agree. And and I I feel like it's a biblical thing, but I couldn't tell you an exact bible verse off top of my head. Maybe it's like when the holy spirit comes upon us, that fills a longing in us, doesn't it? Us to be in relationship with Jesus. And Jesus said, I leave my spirit with you.
Dr Jones:And I guess in doing that, there's a hole in every everyone's heart in the world that is only gonna be filled by that.
Gracie:I know the donut song lyrics. It's just come to me. Life without Jesus is like a doughnut like a doughnut with a hole in the middle of your heart.
Dr Jones:Oh, that's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Gracie:I see.
Dr Jones:That's good.
Gracie:By quoting that today, some people might have got saved.
Dr Jones:Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And so that is a perfect analogy of with a hole in your physical heart, as in a hole between one of the four chambers, your heart will not function properly. That will need fixing.
Dr Jones:So that is a perfect analogy, actually.
Gracie:It's not scriptural.
Dr Jones:No. No.
Sam:Well, there's there's the verse about the living water that, you know, you'll never thirst again if you drink the living water of Christ gives you and cleanses.
Dr Jones:And any water we drink eventually will get into our blood supply and go through the heart. So you can there's a lot of you could spend all day coming up with parallels like that.
Gracie:But, Josh, I've got another I've got another question. Way, way back
Dr Jones:at
Gracie:the beginning, you talked about what you do. Yeah. And you talk about and I asked I said to you, are you monitoring, but you're also, like you you said about people experiencing pain when they're out. Now if you didn't provide pain relief when they were out, but then they came to, would they remember that pain, or would it be new pain?
Dr Jones:So no, they wouldn't remember the pain. Their body might feel a bit more tired because they've had to cope with it, but the they might just feel more the effects of having been in pain. So things like blood pressure going up, heart rate going fast, breathing becoming a bit quicker maybe because of all of the stress of the pain, and they might wake up feeling more exhausted or more worn out or something like that.
Gracie:So, Josh, you've mentioned that you're a bit of an exercise. I don't wanna use the word freak.
Dr Jones:No. You can use freak.
Gracie:It's fine. You said you're an exercise freak. You're an exercise machine. That's what I understand you today. You have a
Sam:That's very true.
Gracie:Freakish
Sam:Mister Ironman. Freakishly.
Dr Jones:It's a half Ironman.
Sam:Half Ironman. So
Gracie:it's half an Ironman without the board.
Dr Jones:Without the board? Iron board.
Gracie:See what it went through. Anyway
Sam:I thought I thought I
Gracie:thought so you're half an Ironman, which is still Yeah. But you also do these freakishly fast paced runs
Dr Jones:Thank you.
Gracie:With the war. I'm not I'm jealous.
Dr Jones:Oh, thank you. That's very kind. Very good.
Gracie:I don't know. Like, many of us, when you go out for a workout, do you have music playing?
Dr Jones:Less often than sometimes I do. So interestingly
Sam:He listens to Paul's checking all
Gracie:the time. Yeah. Of course. Yes.
Dr Jones:And what the fun fact for anyone who's thinking of doing triathlon stuff, Ironman, the company, have a lot of very strict rules about the races, and you're not allowed devices during the races, and you can't have your phone on yet. But I will I will occasionally, right, listen to music.
Gracie:So what would you say would be your track that keeps you on track in your training?
Dr Jones:I mean, it's gonna be I'm a big Swifty. I'm a very big Swifty. I love Taylor. Yeah. You have them out today, October 3.
Gracie:Already listened to it. Yeah. Very good.
Dr Jones:Yeah. It's good, isn't it? Very good. Very so prob it'll probably be something from that soon. But I I enjoy anything by Taylor.
Dr Jones:I will happily run to. One of my favorites at the minute, I must confess it's a song with lots of swears in it, but her song called Florida exclamation mark exclamation mark is an excellent running track.
Gracie:Well, I've been greatly surprised today. That is
Dr Jones:Oh, good.
Gracie:Good. Sam looks absolutely thrilled of your choice.
Sam:Say, I think you've answered the second part of the question already. What's your what's your guilty pleasure track?
Dr Jones:There's no guilt in
Gracie:the I like that because No.
Dr Jones:She's she's wonderful.
Gracie:Made me feel ashamed, couple of podcasts.
Dr Jones:No. There's no shame in that. No shame at all.
Sam:Swifty's unite.
Gracie:So you've got no guilty of Swifty.
Sam:Put it in the comments.
Dr Jones:I mean, I I always I remember someone seeing, like, a Facebook post years ago saying, don't criticize my music taste. It's my music taste. And I actually I'm I'm a proper weird person with music because I have anything. I'd I really quite like Nothing. Yeah.
Dr Jones:Nothing with I I don't like screaming songs, but if someone likes them, good for them. Yeah. You if
Gracie:you were running along, though, but you had your headphones on, and suddenly the Bluetooth broke down, and your your your device played it out loud, so you've got no track on there that you'd be listening to where you'd think, Sat's played out loud, then I need to just run home.
Dr Jones:Yeah. No. I'd I'd let anyone I mean, yesterday as I got into the work car park, I realized, what have I been listening to? Something really random. It just shuffled.
Dr Jones:You know how it can go like infinity play and just puts anything on? So I brought, like, a J Lo and pit bull track on that I remember from, like, my university days. And I was as I put the window down to scan into the car park, I was like, wonder what people think of
Sam:it as I'm
Dr Jones:driving it like this.
Gracie:He's destroyed the actual
Sam:You destroyed the segment. Yeah.
Dr Jones:Know. Sorry.
Sam:Sorry. But in
Gracie:a brilliant way.
Dr Jones:If if my dad heard some of the songs I listened to, he'd probably be like, you're a loser. That's that's probably the only person
Sam:If there's one single track that your dad would disown you about.
Dr Jones:What is he saying?
Sam:I mean, I know he would never
Gracie:disown me.
Dr Jones:He would never disown me. He's a lovely he's a lovely man. He's a lovely man. But, I mean, I think if he heard me listen to, we are never ever ever getting back together, he'd probably be like, come on. Listen to, like, Blairs and Oasis.
Dr Jones:They're another brilliant I love Oasis. Yeah. That's the Burberry music taste.
Gracie:You're about to save the the segment and then the
Dr Jones:know.
Gracie:But Oasis is cool. Yeah.
Dr Jones:Oasis is brilliant.
Sam:So for all our guests, Joshua, we are asking we have got a kit bag for our fitness and exercise needs, and we're asking all our guests to put one thing into kit bag for life.
Dr Jones:Right? What
Sam:one thing on our journey of life would we need in our kit bag.
Dr Jones:What's in it so far?
Sam:Well, you are the first guest, Joshua.
Dr Jones:Oh, I'm sorry.
Sam:You get to choose
Gracie:empty lunch at the moment.
Sam:It's empty.
Dr Jones:Okay. So I am I am gonna pick something that is not a item of faith. As in I'm not gonna say, I'm gonna put my bible in there because that's too obvious.
Sam:It's just to give an
Gracie:Islam bomb. That's in
Sam:your heart.
Dr Jones:I am going to put yeah. It's I'm gonna put in electrolyte tablets. Like, I think I mean, you can have whichever ones you want, but the ones that dissolve in the water for two reasons. One, they're excellent before, after, or during a workout. Excellent for sports hydration.
Dr Jones:But as we've talked about looking after your body, putting the right things in it, trying to make sure that we care for our bodies. I think replacing our electrolytes, making sure we're drinking the right stuff, having the right things in our body, the right salts, and everything is all really important to keep our bodies healthy, our minds healthy, keep our spiritual life healthy because you're feeling better and you're feeling more alive, I suppose, by making sure you're having good nutrition in you.
Sam:Nice. Added to the kit bag.
Gracie:Game time.
Sam:Game time. Game time.
Gracie:You ready? Play the jingle. Jingle.
Sam:The game three beats ahead. Three clues, one sound effect, one single word, and one quote that we have decided that link all link to a single word, which is a little preview for what comes up in the the next episode. Hence, three beats ahead to the next episode. So Okay. Little teaser for
Dr Jones:you. I hope I get this right. It's gonna be embarrassing if I don't.
Sam:So we're gonna ask all the viewers to also put their guesses in the comments. So
Gracie:So if you don't get it right, it's fine. But you're
Sam:a little tester to be Nice.
Gracie:To be the
Dr Jones:first Bye.
Sam:You'll be the first thoughts of what our listeners are
Gracie:gonna I mean, you would have let yourself down. You wouldn't let everyone down. But don't worry about it.
Dr Jones:There's no pressure.
Sam:So the first is a sound effect.
Gracie:Okay. Ready? Brace yourself.
Sam:Any ideas what that might be?
Dr Jones:I thought it was the sound of eating.
Sam:Interesting. Interesting. Single word is.
Gracie:Well,
Dr Jones:it's not to do with Ethan then, is it?
Gracie:Any ideas?
Sam:You get more points if you get it sooner.
Dr Jones:Something to do with the weather, squelching mud, something like that. Something. Oh,
Sam:very interesting thoughts there, Joshua. And the the final quote to wrap it all up is
Gracie:Binding the pack together.
Dr Jones:Binding the pack together has something to do with ah, sheep. Lost sheep. Something to do with sheep. It's a flock of sheep. The pack, the pack pack of dogs.
Gracie:You have touched the edges, hasn't he? Yes. He touched the edges.
Sam:Yes. I'll let
Dr Jones:you I'll let your listeners guess a bit more.
Gracie:You're definitely
Sam:The first one is a tough one. I will admit that. It's a bit I mean, you you got very close to it, but because the thing's a bit abstract anyway, it's a bit excellent.
Gracie:Don't don't don't feel disappointed.
Dr Jones:No. No. I won't. I won't.
Gracie:I just
Dr Jones:know that I've let myself down. I've let the team down.
Sam:You've let us down. You've let us down.
Dr Jones:Yeah. But that's disappointing.
Gracie:I mean, just don't let it get to you, really.
Sam:So make sure you tune in next time to find out what the word or the theme was. See you there. So thank you very much for joining
Dr Jones:us. Pleasure. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Sam:A wonderful guest. Can you die have you diagnosed us after our appointment?
Dr Jones:Well, I don't think anyone's ever gonna diagnose you. Oh, there you go. You're you're a special case. And Gracie, I would just diagnose you with being wonderful.
Gracie:Oh. So You said two really nice things today, Josh. One, that.
Dr Jones:Yeah.
Gracie:That's right. You you categorized me under we're all young and I'm part of the week, so I'll take that.
Dr Jones:Yeah. There you go. Yeah.
Gracie:Yeah. Think
Dr Jones:we're there. There we go. I aim to please.
Sam:You have to leave us with a final word, Joshua.
Dr Jones:Shed.
Gracie:Brilliant.
Sam:Wow. I'd say that
Gracie:you could create that.