Inside Health

BBC Radio 4

4.4 (493)
HEALTH & FITNESS
UPDATED WEEKLY

Series that demystifies health issues, separating fact from fiction and bringing clarity to conflicting health advice.

5 DAYS AGO

Dementia: Your questions answered and lion's mane mushrooms in the lab

You sent in your questions on dementia and now we're tackling them. Professor Tara Spires-Jones, Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, joins James Gallagher to go through the insidehealth@bbc.co.uk mailbag. James also visits mushroom grower the Bristol Fungarium which has teamed up with the University of the West of England to examine a mushroom called lion's mane. Lion's mane has a lot of hype about it online as well as a long history in traditional medicine and neuroscientist Dr Tim Craig and his team are taking it into their to lab to investigate whether it might harbour properties that could benefit people with dementia. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions after listening to our episode 'What next for Alzheimer's treatment' which is available on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024ng7 Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Tom Bonnett Editor: Holly Squire

28 min
5 DAYS AGO

Assisted dying: How can we be certain someone wants to die?

We continue our exploration of some of the issues that could crop up if assisted dying becomes law under The Terminally Ill Adults End of Life Bill that is currently working its way through Parliament. Today we tackle safeguarding. How can we be certain an assisted death is what the person wants? And who should even bring up the conversation? To discuss we're joined by: Katherine Sleeman - Professor of Palliative Care at King's College London David Nicholl - Consultant Neurologist at University Hospital Birmingham Mark Taubert - Consultant Palliative Medicine at NHS Wales Erica Borgstrom - Professor of Medical Anthropology at The Open University Presenter: James Gallahgher Producers: Hannah Robins Assistant Production: Tom Bonnett and Siobhan

28 min
1 APR

Assisted dying: Who’s eligible under the proposed bill?

The Terminally Ill Adults End of Life Bill is working its way through Parliament. If it became law in England and Wales it would be one of those moments in history that profoundly changes society. There are similar discussions taking place in Scotland, the Isle of Man and Jersey too. To be clear about what we’re doing on Inside Health. We’re not going to debate the rights or wrongs of assisted dying. Or go through the politics of the Bill. Instead, over the next few episodes we’re going to explore some of the issues that will come up if assisted dying goes ahead. We’re going to start with eligibility and who could get an assisted death under the proposed rules? To discuss we're joined by: Katherine Sleeman - Professor of Palliative Care at King's College London David Nicholl - Consultant Neurologist at University Hospital Birmingham Mark Taubert - Consultant Palliative Medicine at NHS Wales Erica Borgstrom - Professor of Medical Anthropology at The Open University Also in the programme we have exclusive research on the differences between men and women’s immune systems and why that affects the risks of infection and even autoimmune disease. James speaks Professor Lucy Wedderburn from the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Director of the Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology at University College London, and Associate Professor Dr Lizzy Rosser also from the Centre for Adolescent Rheumatology at University College London. Presenter: James Gallagher Producers: Hannah Robins & Tom Bonnett

28 min
25 MAR

How did the Covid-19 pandemic change medicine?

Five years on from the first Covid lockdown in the UK, we consider how the pandemic changed medicine. We're joined by Dr Emma Wall, academic consultant in Infectious Diseases at University College London Hospital who also runs a long covid clinic, Professor Katrina Pollock, Associate Professor in Vaccinology at the Oxford Vaccine Group and Jon Otter Director for Infection Prevention and Control at Guy’s Hospital London. Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Hannah Robins

28 min
18 MAR

Why do we lose our hearing with age?

John is registered blind, and relies on his hearing to get around in his everyday life. But as he has got older, he’s started to notice his hearing deteriorate. He wants to know – is there anything available in between the initial solution of wax removal, and the final destination of hearing aids? He emailed Inside Health to ask James Gallagher to investigate. James speaks to Nish Mehta, an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon at Royal National ENT Hospital, to find out how we hear, and learn about the different causes of hearing loss. He then visits UCL Ear Institute to undergo a hearing test with audiologist Dr Hannah Cooper, and see the potential future of hearing tests with Professor Maria Chait, an auditory cognitive neuroscientist. But hearing in day to day life is not as simple as in a science laboratory. James meets Kevin Munro, Professor of Audiology at the University of Manchester, in a noisy café to discuss hearing aid technologies and learn about their latest advancements. Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Hannah Fisher Editor: Holly Squire and Colin Paterson

28 min
11 MAR

Will wearables revolutionise healthcare? Cardiff Science Festival special

Fitness trackers at the ready! Join James Gallagher at Cardiff Science Festival as he runs through the ways wearable tech is making an impact on health and how it might shape the future of medicines and care. With him are Dr Sanne Lugthart, Haematology consultant at the University Hospital of Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. She's pioneering using wearables and an app to track pain in people who suffer from sickle cell disease. Also on the panel is Professor Kathryn Peall who is Personal Chair, Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences at Cardiff University. Kathryn tells James all about working with data from the UK Biobank to test if wearables could predict Parkinson's disease. She's also developing 80s-style headbands that could help take hospital grade sleep monitoring to the comfort of the bedroom. And, running experiments with the audience and on his skydiving assistant Danni, James is also joined by Damian Bailey, Professor of Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of South Wales. Presenter: James Gallagher Producers: Tom Bonnett and Hannah Robins Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Editor: Colin Paterson

28 min
4 MAR

Allergies: How to support young people as they grow up

When we hit our teens it's often a time when everything starts to change. We meet new friends through work or studies, we start going out more at night and we're often in new situations independent from our parents. For people with severe allergies it can be a risky time because they have all this change in their life, on top of what Priya Matharu calls the 'full time job' of managing your condition. Presenter James Gallagher talks to Priya about her experience of having severe allergies from a young age and how she has coped with reactions that mean just touching her face after chopping a carrot has put her in hospital. For Priya, when she reached adolescence and moved out of her family it was a scary time and she had to grow up quickly to take responsibility for her allergies. In a recent debate in the House of Lords it was discussed that moving young people out of the paediatric allergy services they have grown up with the support of and into adult services, just as everything else in their life is changing too can be really difficult for patients, and potentially dangerous. Dr Claudia Gore from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust shared her experience of working in a children's allergy clinic in London for that debate and she joins James along with Dr Paul Turner from Imperial College London to discuss how this transition from children's to adult services could be made safer and smoother for patients. Also in the programme, James is joined again by Dr Vanessa Apea, Consultant in Genito-Urinary and HIV medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust to answer more of your questions on genital herpes, UTIs and urinary incontinence. Presenter; James Gallagher Producer: Tom Bonnett Assistant Producer: Anna Charalambou Editor: Colin Paterson

28 min
25 FEB

How shoes affect our bodies and a focus on genital herpes

Has James been buying shoes that are bad his feet? He meets podiatrist Dao Tunprasert to find out how healthy his shoes are. Also, returning to our theme of health conditions you find embarrassing, we get the lowdown on genital herpes from Dr Vanessa Apea. She's consultant physician in Genito-urinary and HIV medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and answers some of your questions. Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Tom Bonnett Assistant Producer: Siobhan Maguire

28 min

See All (355)

4.4

out of 5

493 Ratings

Brilliant

2 days ago

😍rosie😍🌈

My favourite show. Entertaining and educational.
Informative

10/08/2023

Dazzlerbar

This is such a useful programme: informative and so well presented.
Mrs D Dalton

23 Mar

Wont do

This is so depressing. Many Long Covid patients are able to know their symptoms started with their vaccination and subsequent infections. We are a global network trying to help ourselves of sufferers of all ages. This is never mentioned.
Paternalistic and less informative than formerly

01/05/2024

An1t

Quality of this programme has diminished considerably. Latest episode regarding growth of cancer rates amongst younger people an uninformative, qemotive, speculative tour of possible causes which lacked evidence. In contrast no mention of the fascinating topic of over diagnosis/ over treatment.
Disappointing. No stars an option!

18/04/2024

Helly UK

I used to look forward to each new episode of what used to be a really interesting programme about health conditions, interviewing sufferers and their doctors and with excellent analysis by Margaret McCartney. BBC should make a different programme with a different name to cover the recent topics rather than high jack Inside Health.
Inside health

18/11/2023

Happy-Matty

Genuinely used to love this podcast. As a Gp it helped me to stay abreast of many developments and gave an in depth “behind the headlines “ view. Told everyone about it. But more recently I am finding it much less informative and more shallow/ populist and so sadly have stopped recommending it to colleagues as I no longer look forward to the podcasts
Terrific!

26/04/2022

Grandmatriarch

Love this program. James has done a good job taking over from Mark whom I’d thought irreplaceable. Margaret brilliant, a breath of fresh air and invariably the whole program is helpful and informative.
Inside health

31/10/2020

Annie the Blake

This programme is informative and provides non biased clinically accurate and well researched material which, as a retired clinician I find extremely interesting. It is presented in a manner that is easily understandable and informative to lay listeners
Cowardly

28/07/2021

istandwithjkr

I used to enjoy this podcast thinking it was based in science. How disappointed I was to hear the ridiculous pandering to the trans agenda in this topic. The first contributor couldn’t even bring herself to mention the word “woman” in her segment about periods, a uniquely female experience. Am I wrong in my understanding of biology that only women get periods? Not all women obviously, but only women. There is no need for every discussion about female reproductive health to be derailed in this way. This is especially insulting when in the same podcast the discussion about erectile dysfunction was (rightly) all about men, given that this is a uniquely male experience. Have a good look at yourselves BBC, because you are alienating a lot of women.
Bring back mark porter please

17/02/2021

keitflyer

James Gallagher isn’t a patch on the old team. Long winded and he doesn’t ask the questions properly. Latest episode was about long covid clinics but failed to give useful info on them. Also discussed vaccines efficacy percentages but again simply didn’t explain it. Sorry - but he isn’t improving and needs moving.