Thanks for dropping into healthHackers®
I’m Gemma Evans, a former UK television news anchor and journalist - now living in California’s Silicon Valley - with 13 years of broadcasting experience; including news anchoring, reporting and producing for Sky News, Channel 5 and ITV.
My broadcasting career centered on reporting facts and reliable information whilst making solid TV storytelling from exciting locations… On top of Icelandic glaciers, to deep underground inside London sewers (seriously). My work involved meeting fascinating people with compelling stories and innovations along the way (see what I mean in this short video).
I also happened to be a health geek, so it was only a matter of time before I combined my years of broadcasting with my wellness nerdiness, and healthHackers® - my video and podcast platform - was born.
As is often the case, there's a backstory to my wellness motivation. After some health hurdles in my teens (debilitating anxiety, sleep problems and blood-sugar issues), I spent much of the following 20 years researching ways to feel - and be - better, whilst dealing with few more challenges thrown in along the way (amenorrhea, allergic anaphylaxis, spontaneous and unexplained skin rashes, osteopenia and plenty of painful broken bones).
I’ve investigated and tried out a whole load of trends, methods and technologies, including: biological age testing, vagal nerve toning, whole-body cryotherapy, vestibular nerve stimulation, heart rate variability (HRV) training, laser periodontal therapy*, hyperbaric oxygen therapy*, gut microbiome repopulation protocols, personalized nutrition, GI gut testing, ketogenic living, red and infrared light devices, electrical-muscle stimulation, water floatation therapy, bioidentical hormones*, artificial intelligence-assisted high-intensity interval training, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), brainwave-targeted sleep technology, plus Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT tapping) as well as ‘Faster’ Emotional Freedom Technique (FEFT)- to name a few.
*Medically supervised. I do not recommend dabbling solo.
Life as a TV news presenter is never dull. Filming on the ‘Icarus’ workout station - where virtual reality meets core stability.
I’ve met with and interviewed more health experts, doctors, pioneering practitioners, and researchers than I can count. And as the presenter of Sky TV’s weekly tech show, I loved selecting great health-tech innovations to feature on the program along with their inventors who could share insights into futuristic ways of improving our bodies.
Testing an electrical muscle stimulation suit for one of my Sky News TV channel features
So, creating healthHackers® - a platform to showcase pioneering people and to try out new gadgets and tech products designed to help us improve our health - seemed like a logical move.
All of the guests on healthHackers® are doing things a little differently, unique or unprecedented in some way.
You already know there's no single solution for everyone to achieve optimal physical and mental well-being. I'm wading through new ideas all the time. But by getting inside the minds of those inspiring others on the health scene right now, you can at least see and hear different approaches in order to make up your own mind.
Everyone is welcome here. You don’t have to be mad about health. You don’t have to be ‘healthy’. There’s no shaming on healthHackers®. You might just be curious about one or two topics.
My belief is that all of us, at any given moment, are only ever doing the best we can with the knowledge we have at hand. What works for one of us doesn’t always work for another. You do you.
Have a watch or listen while you're here and let me know what topics or guests you’d like me to cover next.
Gemma