Dr Gemma Newman explains the GLOVES acronym and how it leads to healing health habits

Virgin Radio

18 Jan 2024, 11:21

Dr Gemma Newman spoke to Chris Evans about GLOVES. However, it was nothing to do with the current freezing temperatures! 

The family GP joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch to talk about her new book, Get Well Stay Well: The Six Healing Health Habits You Need To Know.

Explaining these habits and why they are called GLOVES, she told Chris: “The acronym stands for the six healing health habits you need to know, and that is Gratitude, Love, Outside, Veggies, Exercise and Sleep.”

A doctor for over two decades, Gemma realised a few years ago that, despite tinkering with their medications to help ease the symptoms of her patients with chronic illness, most of them were not getting better. She is therefore passionate about treating body, mind and spirit to beat disease. 

Speaking about gratitude, she said: “I don't want people to think it's a toxic positivity thing. Or you have to think everything's amazing. It's actually about learning to see what you can use in your life that's useful, and also working through things like grief as well. So for me, gratitude is one of the key pillars, because it allows us to have a bit more of an understanding of ourselves. Our thoughts and feelings can sometimes really keep us stuck.

“When our thoughts and our feelings keep us stuck, then they're in charge of what we think, what we do, what we feel. Gratitude is so useful for helping us to actually feel that we want to make changes in our lives.”

On love, she added: “It's not just about having a husband or a wife, or a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, or a lover. It's about sharing love with your community, with your friends, and with the wider world. And I think once you have that connection to love, it helps you to be more self-compassionate, as well. And then when you're more compassionate to yourself, it's easier for you to be compassionate with other people and give to other people freely, which is really good for your own health.”

Regarding the importance of being outside, she said: “I talk about the power of nature in the book and how visualising is helpful in the gratitude chapter, but also, looking at nature and being out in nature is really helpful and healing for us as well."

Speaking about grounding, she continued: “It's free for one thing, and it's very easy. All you have to do is take off your shoes and socks and stand on the grass. And what you're doing there is you are absorbing the electrons from the earth, the earth is naturally grounded because of lightning strikes and various thermogenic activity in the earth. And you can absorb some of those electrons into your body when you step on the ground.”

During the discussion about food and the importance of not scoffing meals, Gemma said: “One of the patients I talk about in the book, one of the things that she did, she was a nurse and she was suffering from a lot of health issues. And one of the promises she made herself was that she would sit down and she would eat breakfast, just look at the breakfast, focus on the food, enjoy the flavours enjoy the textures, and just be with it for a little while, let it digest, it helps so much, and it also helps with things like irritable bowel syndrome and all sorts.”

She added: “Sit with it, enjoy it.”

Read more from Dr Gemma Newman’s chat with Chris Evans, including conversations about laughter, journalling and food soon at virginradio.co.uk.

Get Well Stay Well: The Six Healing Health Habits You Need To Know is out now.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with cinch weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.