The Laura Dowling Experience
#169 Barbara Scully | The Things They Don't Tell You About Getting Older
14 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What challenges did Barbara face with her hip pain and medical tests?
But the glute thing then, go on.
So my doctor, like it was red flag. He immediately said, I need to see you down here now, like get back down here now. And I was like, what the fuck? So anyway, then I went and he said, you need to go into BlackRock Clinic, ask for an emergency MRI on your lower back. So I did that. That came back again. Nothing showed up very much.
So then BlackRock said, no, we need you back for three MRIs, three more on your middle back, no, on your upper back, your neck and your brain. Anyway, the short version of this is went for three more MRIs. BlackRock Clinic, this was August at this stage, BlackRock Clinic then rang me one day saying, and said to me, we think you've had a stroke. We think you've had a minor stroke.
So we need you to come in into the hermitage because my VHI didn't cover me in the Black Rock Clinic. So I had to go to the hermitage in a shared bedroom for two nights. We need to do lots more tests. I nearly fucking had a heart attack. And I don't think I had a heart attack. I haven't had a fucking stroke. But anyway, I did what I was told.
Frightened the shit out of my girls in Australia because we have this pact about always being honest and telling each other what's what. My husband was in England. I had to ring him and say, fucking doctors think I've had a fucking stroke and I'm on my way to. And he was like, what? Anyway, hermitage for two nights, had every test done known to man.
They wanted to redo the brain MRI because it was in the brain when it showed up white cells or something in my frontal cortex or something.
Ash, that's great.
Yeah. So I was I was waiting for that. And I said, I'm not staying here any longer. Like I'm well and I'm sitting in bed and being treated like a patient. Even though I kept escaping and going for walks, they were afraid I was going over to Liffey Valley.
Anyway, I finally said to the doctor, I said, look, I really need to go home where I can sleep and where I can eat my own food and where I can be fine. I'm only here waiting for an MRI. I can have that done. It's not urgent. I can have it done as an outpatient. So he said, yeah, fine, go home.
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Chapter 2: How did Barbara address her type 2 diabetes diagnosis?
Should we start now?
Well, we've already started.
Okay, Grant.
I think that entire rant that you just had was a nice prelude to what we're going to talk about. So people already have an essence of you, Barbara Scully, who I have not even done a countdown, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, let's go. But yeah, let's just start talking about... I should come with a health warning, literally.
I pissed off you all about the conversation that we are currently having today around ageing. Welcome back to the Lower Down Experience podcast, where each week I bring you insightful and inspiring guests that will open your mind and empower your life. If you like the podcast, take a second to rate it or share it with a friend. It helps more people find it.
Something I hear all the time from women in their 40s and 50s is that they feel like their care is all over the place. One appointment for hormones, another for bone health, another for intimate health, and none of it is really joined up. That is exactly why I love BlackRock Health and what they have done in their Women's Health Centre.
It is a full 360 approach to midlife health, bringing together consultants, specialist nurses and allied health experts all in one place. It's a small, focused team, which means your care feels personal and coordinated. And what really stands out is how seamless it is. You can have your consultations, diagnostics and even procedures organised in a really joined up way.
sometimes on the same day and it's not just about treating symptoms they look at the full picture your heart breast brain and bone health as well as your overall well-being with support from physio nutrition and psychology too this is how women's health care should be preventative joined up and centered around you if you are in that state of life and want to feel properly supported it is definitely worth looking into the women's health center at blackrock health
Thank you.
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Chapter 3: What misconceptions about brain fog in older women does Barbara challenge?
And I... carried on with that for about two years or so. And then my mum died and I kind of had a bad year.
So when you say put into remission through healthy diet and exercise, you reversed it?
Well, I would always say it's in remission. In other words, my bloods were normal. Oh, OK. Yeah. So you didn't eat any drugs? No. But as soon as I went, you know, if I had started eating all the cake again, I'm sure I would have been back with type 2 diabetes. So that's why I kind of say it's in remission rather than, you know, it's gone. OK. Now, then I had a bad year.
My mum died and I think probably I took my eye off the ball and I'm now on medication for my diabetes. But I do take my health very seriously. And I know because I got that diagnosis that I'm a healthier version of myself now than I would have been had I not. Because I kind of had to. Menopause, the worst thing for me was the fact that I had to give up alcohol and the migraines. That was terrible.
That was really tragic. But what pisses me off, and I'm not obviously a doctor, this is only going on my own experience, but I am a woman and I have had a menopause and I've talked to friends. Two things really piss me off that we talk about in relation to menopause. One is the brain fog thing. Telling women, menopausal, postmenopausal, perimenopausal women, you get brain fog. That's bullshit.
I live with a man who is actually a year younger than me. His brain fog is exactly the same as mine.
Really?
And as I say on my show, we go out in groups, you know, in couples. It's all around the same age. We can have long, very interesting, very intelligent conversations about any kind of subject. And we never use a proper noun because we can't remember the name of any person, place or thing.
So we talk about, you know, your woman down the road, she married to the little fat guy, they drive the red car. She works in that big place over there. We all know exactly what we're talking about and what we mean. It's fine. So as I say to my audience at my show, what is it? It's an information retrieval slowdown, because by the time you get to 60 plus, your head is full of information.
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Chapter 4: How does aging empower women according to Barbara?
And again, there was no lesbians back in apparently in the 70s. They hadn't been invented yet. So the retort was always like, oh, what are you, frigid or what? I go, yeah, I'm frigid. Off you go. So, yeah, no, it took me a while to, but now looking back, I'm very glad I'm tall. And it's something I have tried to instill in my girls because they are all tall. Is your husband tall as well?
My husband, I'm taller than he is. We were the same height when we started off, but he's shrunk. And he's lowered. So now I'm taller than he is. Yeah. But the girls are all tall. And it's one of the things they've all dealt with as teenagers, trying to make themselves, you know, the teenage, especially, do you have girls? Do you have old boys? All boys. And all they want to be is big and tall.
And girls all want to be, you know, at a certain age, they want to be dainty and small. And they don't want to feel like they're bigger than everybody, including the boys. And they want to wear the same clothes that all their little teeny petite friends wear.
are wearing and it's one of the hardest things is to try and help them negotiate through that and find themselves and be proud of the fact that they are tall and accept the fact that they are in inverted commas slightly different from all their mates and they're not going to be able to wear the same things as all their mates are but in the end I think it's an advantage oh absolutely it's a huge advantage when it comes to
than standing up for yourself as a woman. You know, I think it's much harder if you're smaller because you have that, the whole power differential is so much greater than when you're trying to stand up for yourself, be it in work or be it in a situation that might be slightly dangerous. It is easier if you are tall to be a woman, definitely.
Yeah, that's so interesting because there was a girl that I was in school with in primary school and she was very small and petite and the teachers used to love her. One teacher in particular used to just love her. She was his pet. And I remember wishing that I was so small and petite like her.
Yeah. You know, it's so interesting, isn't it? I felt for a long time like I was too big. I took up too much space and I could never be. And I mean, that might be where I started to use humour then as well. You know, if I'm going to be kind of standing out, well, I might as well go the whole hog and kind of be focused and all the rest of it. So, but yeah, no, it's good. I wouldn't swap it now.
And I've never worn high shoes, which is great. I've always worn flat shoes, which is wonderful. And your legs are so long. They're fabulous. Well, they're not fabulous. Now, they are long, but they're not fabulous. And they were never fabulous. Like, I mean, God, in her wisdom, gave me two good, strong, sturdy legs. Oh, you have fine, handsome legs.
Yeah, I'd done well on a farm or something where there was a lot of physical activity needed. Yeah, I don't, I wouldn't blow over like easy either. Do you know what I mean? But they're not sexy. No, they're definitely not sexy. But yeah.
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Chapter 5: What role does Barbara's mother play in her life and career?
Was she? Was it the Queen Mother was known as Gin Lizzy, I think. Yeah, she used to have a gin every night. Yeah. So I have my gin. I don't have it every night, but a lot of nights. I'm going to move this microphone a little bit.
I think it's also because the gin is purer than wine. So there's really less. Yes. Isn't there less in it or something?
And also, did I tell you I have diabetes?
Back on board now, isn't it, in your diabetes? Are you going to tell us your medication?
Well, I think gin is kind of more acceptable than red wine, so it's quite calorific.
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Chapter 6: How does Barbara reflect on her experiences as an unmarried mother in Ireland?
So I'm happy enough with my gin, but I still, yeah, red wine, yeah. I worry that I'm going to die without ever having been absolutely off my face ever again.
Okay.
And that would make me sad. That place that you described, you know, that's warm and fuzzy and everything's hilarious and you love everybody and all that. I haven't been there for a long time and I'd like to go back there occasionally. It's just not worth it, though.
It's just, well, I mean, I'll just be like, and also you can't actually, certainly with the red wine, I can't actually physically drink it, you know, the way it gets stuck here somewhere.
Oh, no, I've never had that problem.
Oh, that's ahead of you, girl. Oh. Yeah, stop in now. You're only a young one. Wait, wait till that happens.
Oh, my goodness.
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Chapter 7: What challenges did Barbara face when becoming a mother?
So did your mother have a positive effect on your life in terms of the ageing and your body? development as a taller lady woman growing up the way you have on your daughters. Did your mother have that outlook and was she positive about her own ageing experience or?
My mother and I were really close because of the fact that she had no sisters and I had no sisters. So we were extraordinarily close. I consider myself hugely lucky to have had the relationship I had with my mother. And it's only now looking back I realised how much of a headbanger she was and how kind of off the rails her parenting style, particularly when it came to me, was.
So when I was a teenager, we started hanging out together. Like when I was... Like with Gin? No, we didn't hang out with Gin. She bought me my first alcoholic drink when I was about 12, which was a Baby Sham. Do you remember Baby Sham? Some of your listeners might remember Baby Sham with the little... What are they? Is that sparkling wine?
Chapter 8: What insights does Barbara share about the importance of love and relationships?
It was like a sparkling, winey, champagne kind of Baby Sham. You know, it was like a poor man's Prosecco back in the day. And it came in the nice glass.
Was it like just white wine with a bit of fizz thrown in or something?
I can't remember what it was. I know it was very sugary and sweet. Okay, okay. And I think there was probably fairly low alcohol, but yeah, so she thought it was acceptable for me to have a baby sham. But because I was very tall, I always looked older than I was, right? So back in the 70s, Ireland was such a dull place. I mean, there was nothing happening, absolutely nothing. And then...
Jesus Christ Superstar opened in Dublin, right? Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical, which is brilliant. I still love the music in that. But it was a shocker back in the day. A shocker. There was like protests outside that it was blasphemous and it was awful and blah, blah, blah, right?
Like the Ann Summers shops. Do you remember when they came on O'Connell Street? Do you know that the owner or the CEO of the Ann Summers shops got a bullet sent to her in the post when she wanted to open a shop up on O'Connell Street? Mental. Mental.
Yeah, but that's where we came from. So we went to see Jesus Christ Superstar and we loved it. And then the following year, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat opened. So again, we went and my mother fell in love with the fact that my mother was happily married to my father, but she fell in love with the fellow who played.
Who was the fellow who played the Elvis fella in Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? I have no idea. Anyway, the fellow who played whoever it was.
This is the time now where you can't remember the noun. Yeah, yes. And it's not brain fog there, just too much information.
My brain is furiously trying to figure it out and it will in a minute. But anyway, so he was a fellow called Cairo Doherty, right? And it's played as an Elvis kind of character, right? And he does, he sings an Elvis-y kind of song. And my mother thought this was brilliant. So Cairo Doherty had a show band, because show bands were big at the time, called the Dazzle Band.
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