SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to Confidence to Thrive, the podcast for ambitious healthcare practitioners and entrepreneurs, brought to you by Our Licity Advisors. Welcome to Confidence to Thrive, the podcast helping growing practitioners and healthcare entrepreneurs navigate the challenges and risks of regulation while building brands that matter. Every episode, Christopher Cloak Brown tackles a different issue facing healthcare practitioners or entrepreneurs, or interviews a guest who is working on the leading edge of private healthcare, building something that matters in their sector or profession. Today's episode has a little bit of a Radio 4 documentary feel to it, as our licidity directors Christopher Cloak Brown and Roger Houston report directly from the Integrative Personalised Medicine Congress 2026 at the QE2 Centre in London. Christopher and Roger share their thoughts and insights on what has changed over the last four years they've been attending and why this year is notable for several important milestones, not least the attendance from the Chief Medical Officer. Christopher and Roger are walking around the Congress sharing their thoughts, so there may be some occasional background chatter or noise. Let's join Christopher Roger at the QE2 Centre.

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Just the Integrated Personal Medicine Congress 2026 at the QE2 Centre in London. Well, we were saying this place was a third bigger than last year.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah, we've got this whole new room now.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

It's got a real plus about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24

Yes, yeah. It feels like it's gonna come with age. It feels like it's not on the margins and the shadows, does it?

SPEAKER_03 1:30

It feels like everybody's but it's still a broad church. You've got sort of fungus growers on one end, you've got medication, supplement, health supplements.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Have a look over here. We've got we've got listening. Here we go. We've got a little bit of mushrooms, fungus.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Yeah. Then we've got right next door is the diagnostic service. Yes. Lab testing. There's lots of compounding lab scenes. Yep. And then we've got medication alley down.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Oh yes, yeah. And there's probably all sorts of. Should we go and have a look? Let's go and see. Let's go and have a cook. Can we go and see what we can see? There's a fan for the heat as well. It's uh seasonably warm. Yeah, uh oh, yeah. So a pill and a potion and this to do. Oh, and an apple of day to keep the doctor away, no doubt. Interestingly.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

We're told there are probably more GPs here than ever before.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Yeah. Yeah. So that it that's it. That's it, really getting a foothold within the profession, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yes, yeah. I think that's a real that's probably the piece that really gives it the sense that it's it's kind of coming of age and uh and becoming more mainstream.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Every prospect the next time you visit your GP for a consultation, functional medicine may be part of the conversation. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

I think we'll start that. A lot of GPs are starting to at least think about some of the approaches taken here. Yeah. I think a lot of GPs have always kind of quite liked it, but you've been more cautious about whether they should integrate it into their work.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

So the other huge aspect of this are the lectures and workshops. This year, for the first time ever that I'm aware of, the chief medical officer has done a session. Yes. So if you know if that's not you know, some recognition at the very highest level.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

And I think debate there was quite a hot debate on on what what people thought about his contribution, yeah, as to how how supportive or otherwise the chief medical officer was or wasn't about the whole approach taken here. But as you say, is the the the most exciting thing is that he was here in the first place.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And we've got a smattering, more than a smashing of international speakers that we've not had before.

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

So again, there's a whole gaggle of the moment from America.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And even so a lot of American speakers, but people who've dropped by our own our own standards for the Americans.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

So I think we were saying there were what 3,000 people across three days.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Some Morkins and so on.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

So here we are, more supplements, labs.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Oh yeah, doctor's data, spin the wheels. Obviously, a big nutritional component as you'd expect. It's really interesting. So this whole thing speed shifting my views on nutrition and nutritionists. Yeah. Uh and interesting. Ah, here, just quickly, uh, this I think it's this is the mushroom stand here, our next door neighbours a couple of years ago. So impressive display of uh of fungi. Yeah, maybe. But yeah, it's so I ended up on the train home last night, sitting next to uh somebody who trained as a nutritionist and then as a functional practitioner. Yeah. Who hadn't attended this IPM, but had actually been to the first IPM we came to in 2022. Right. I was very familiar with it. Uh but just talking to her as a trained nutritionist, what I've really observed is this whole level of biochemistry, the knowledge of biochemistry is utterly phenomenal in this community, and nutritionists are no different. And I was I was asking her if she thought, you know, she'd be really learnt a lot of biochemistry because she started training in 2014. She'd done something completely different before that. It was a fascist story of she got interest in the whole health and well-being from her own experiences. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so she'd been, what's that, 10, 12 years? Um and um his rotic labs. Well uh and yeah, she said that just through her nutritionist training, uh, which is his degree level, two-year degree, she'd picked up a lot of that sort of biochemical knowledge.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

So yeah, so nutrition isn't just the major food groups and eat more broccoli and trying to have them exerch anymore. Nutritionist degrees are really quite serious things.

SPEAKER_03 6:23

Oh yeah. Yeah. So it's taken on a highly professional guise. This is foraging with fungi in the woods with a bit of alcohol and a bit of property.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Yeah. It's a proper scientific approach, isn't it? It's it's and it's scientific rather than medical, which is quite interesting as well. That's possibly causing a few issues with the regulators and the regulations set up for doctors and medicine. Yeah. But in some ways, the people with the better knowledge, technical knowledge, are non-doctors, they're the nutritionists, they're the biochemists, um.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

So they're quite a broad professional group where rather than you would go to Disney to see a physician, yes. It's a much broader church now, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:08

And certainly what we see is our wellness. Yeah. And certainly our best practitioner or best triumphs are the clinics with multiple practitioners of all sorts of they've got physiotherapists, they've got psychiatrists, psychologists, nutritionists, dietitians. Now, these guys, again, I was always interested. Yeah. So that again, the alternative approaches to cancer are really quite uh I'm finding quite predominant in this conference. And you're saying, Roger, today there's quite a large session on that and the talks.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Today, uh today is for the oncologists and the psychologists and psychiatrists. Tomorrow um will be for uh the acute long-term neurological people.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Now I thought I saw somewhere there are thirty-seven different books, uh all all of which can be signed for you here.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

So uh if nothing else, just the amount of literature being uh produced as well. It's quite phenomenal, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 8:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

And I guess we've also noticed just in terms of all these sort of freight tables, the last few years we've been, these were all during the sort of talk sessions, all of these would have been absolutely empty.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Yeah, no, that's just definitely a lot more networking and all discussion and all. So we've been able to plot this over the last three years in terms of being here as an exhibitor. Sorry, we came our very first year, we did what you've seen with soon. So we've seen it, well, I guess over four years.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

To to where we are now.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yes, yes. And I think that's we've said there's increasing sort of science behind it. Uh so first year was the the other room, the far room with the fungi are was resistant with the unscientific, whereas the whole show, you see the sort of technical level really increase.

unknown 9:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Um and just in the practitioners, we took a photo earlier just over by the um we'll just just get a shot of the British College of Functional Medicine where we have many friends, but uh for those a group of our clients will be getting together and just chatting. Uh and you could see just the the sort of knowledge and skills in that little group was just quite phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

Yeah. No, absolutely, and they started to produce some amazing stuff.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yes, so we were chatting about uh how many cases of Alzheimer's have been completely reverse cured. Yeah. Uh a lady here, 82-year-old lady, come to see us at our listie stand here.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

And she was saying she was one of the first patients to do that, and has just walked across America to raise awareness. Yeah. But one of our clients was telling us that there's now been thousands of people with all had this pressure gold reversed. So quick mention, so that's us, quick mention to our neighbours, this is gluten-free, and it's been very lively, hasn't it? Had a very lively time on your amazing food here.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

So we've been yeah, hard next to the sweet shop, which has been great, but also very tempting.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

And a quick view to our herbal reality, you've been our neighbours the last couple of years. Got human first. So they're doing clinical research. Uh now over here, every year it's much smaller. The first year we were here. These guys who do, I think it's this gluten-free baking, the sourdough school, they had a massive got more bread than you can imagine. Uh that looked really good. And it was very tasty as well. They were handing it out like crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It looks like they've got less this year, but uh yeah. So uh do you uh you're interested in all those health and well-being?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

I spoke to this lady that was about Madame House.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Dryness in your mouth. Okay. Very eyelpitting subject. Okay. So that was really helpful. Uh I got a blimp head from there.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

But the gluten-free bread, it's something that we probably would love to discover more.

SPEAKER_02 11:33

Okay, well, yeah, go and say, oh wow, they've got choppings and everything. This is great. I think that's the only one.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

I think you know, having something healthy to try.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Do you want to depend and grab some?

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Yeah, absolutely. Smells great.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Salty.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Oh yeah, uh might just beep it in the oil. Olive oil. Can I try?

SPEAKER_02 12:00

Yeah. Uh hopefully, I think uh maybe maybe they got more shipped in or something. Brilliant. So yeah, so that generally is a thing. We got our friends of the British College of Functional Medicine. Uh hi Dr. Mayor, any let me know? So I'll say hello to Dr. Mayor in a bit. So this is this is Saturday afternoon. Afternoon of the last day, isn't it? Proof commenting seems to be a fairly different crowd. So it is the complex cases.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

It is complex cases, complex case management.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Yeah, we're looking at brochure. Yes. So we're quickly off the scene and quite a few talks. So we think a lot of a lot of the really serious people are probably in the talks rather than here. Not to say the people that here aren't serious, but I suspect there are some people who are really here for the talks.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

And uh sort of a changeover. Feels overall a bit quieter. Always a debate as to whether they should run the Saturday, but I decided to, and it seems to work. It seems still seems busier than it has been in previous years.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Today's got a flavour of the long-term management of chronic cancers. Yeah. As opposed to managing I guess more immediate trauma.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:23

Again, quite quite uh high profile American influence on the day in the speakers.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Yeah. It's very much still American dominated twists, isn't it? Yeah. This whole area. But it's interesting to see how how rapidly it seems to be growing now here in here in the UK.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

And I guess we're hearing the the other sort of major countries in Europe are Denmark, Sweden, Germany, UK and Ireland. Uh and then the Middle East, the UAE is is a big creek center, which we've seen. Yeah. But yeah, it's interesting. Good mates, business still going? Well. Yeah. Global reality full with a crowd. And uh our uh Swedish store next door.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Yeah, there's a small crisis over there in there. They're they're running out of chocolate, I think, over there.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Yes, yes. A small crisis. There's definitely a crisis in your world, Roger.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

So uh Thank you for listening to Confidence to Thrive. Before you go, please rate, review, and subscribe to Confidence to Thrive on your preferred podcast platform and help us spread our message to others who are making a difference in private healthcare. This podcast was brought to you by Ourlicity, insurance advisors who support your business ambitions. Learn more about how Ourlicity can support you by finding the link in the show notes or visiting our co.uk.