What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You

In the last few decades, there has been a huge increase in allergy and allergic reactions, but why? Just what has changed in our health and environment to bring this about? Consultant NHS allergist Dr Sophie Farooque discusses one of the biggest puzzles in medicine. For example peanut allergies were almost unknown before the 1990s, but today it  and other food allergies are much more common. Sophie reveals the best thing to do to stop a child developing a food allergy is - perhaps counter intuitively -  to ensure that from an early age, they are exposed to a wide variety of foods, including potentially hypoallergenic ones. And Sophie discusses how  children with eczema are at increased risk of  developing a cascade of other allergies, and what parents and doctors can do to minimise this risk. She explains why if you are allergic to one cat you will probably be allergic to all, but why that’s not necessarily the case for dogs. It turns out that cat allergen is one of the most powerful allergens of all, and remarkably resilient. Amazingly, it has even been found in Antartica. And for those parts of the world where it's the start of spring and many are starting to suffer from hay fever, she explains why she recommends nasal rinses and steroid sprays, but says patients should stay away from nasal decongestants and hay fever steroid injections. The link below gives the BSACI's (British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology) advice on early weaning to avoid food allergy),and the BSACI website also contains lots of other information about allergies in general. Preventing food allergy In your Baby The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/

Dr Jason Fung argues that much of what we think we know about weight loss is simply wrong. Jason says that the critical factor in losing weight is hormones - not calories. He believes calorie counting is an overly simplistic approach. And that actually dieting may be the worst thing you can do, because it slows your metabolic rate which actually makes it harder to reduce weight in the future. Jason argues medical science reveals that we all have what is effectively a fat thermostat in our bodies that tries to keep our body within a particular weight range. Try to reduce weight below this and our metabolism will do its very  best to sabotage our diet, making it harder for us to lose weight and easier for us to regain it. If that’s the case, is there anyway we can reset this internal fat thermostat, so that we can lose weight? Or are we doomed forever to be caught in a vicious circle of dieting and weight gain? Jason argues there is a solution. And it involves both changing what eat and when we eat. Jason who is based in Toronto, Canada, is a kidney specialist and an expert on intermittent fasting. He believes that many of today’s chronic medical issues are related to diet and obesity. And says that  a dietary problem needs a dietary solution. He is the author of a number of best selling books,  the scientific editor of the Journal of Insulin Resistance, and the managing director of the nonprofit organization Public Health Collaboration (Canada). The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou

Beth Zupec–Kania is a dietician and nutritionist, who has spent over 30 years developing very low carb -  otherwise known as ketogenic diets - to treat a range of both physical and mental health conditions. She has worked with many of the leading neurologists and psychiatrists pioneering this field. I heard Beth speak at a conference  Metabolic Psychiatry: Understanding How Modifying Metabolism Can Create Mental Health last November. I was very keen to get her on the podcast, because I’ve now done several episodes about the use of ketogenic diets to treat different illnesses. And so many people have asked me about the practicalities of following this dietary approach, so Beth seemed the perfect guest to discuss these issues. She explains her particular keto strategy. Critical to this is transitioning slowly to avoid what is sometimes known as "keto flu"; the role of medium chain trigleride oils, MCT for short; and the inclusion of Beth's own specially designed smoothie recipe. The podcast will be making Beth's recipe available to all mailing list subscribers a week after the podcast has gone live. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou  

Dr Barbara Mintzes and Dr Joel Lexchin, have recently published a review paper on the weight loss drug Wegovy (generic name semaglutide). They discuss it and the new generation of similar obesity medications. The hype surrounding this new class of drugs has been huge, but is it justified? These pharmaceuticals are called glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists or GLP-1 for short. They work by stimulating cells in your intestines to release a natural hormone called GLP-1 that tricks your stomach and your brain into thinking you’ve just eaten a large meal. Clearly, obesity is major problem in countries across the world, but as Barbara and Joel reveal although these drugs do achieve a significant weight loss, weight gain is common once the medication is stopped. And like any drug there are side effects, common ones include headache, vomiting, diarrhoea, and constipation. Rare reported side effects include pancreatitis and increased heart rate.  Currently, the European drug regulator, the EMA is reviewing data on the risks of thoughts of suicide and self-harm associated with GLP1 medicine. It is analysing around 150 reports. It expects to report on its findings this year. So exactly what are the risks and the benefits of these drugs, and who should take them? The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou

Dr Mark Horowitz discusses why psychiatric medication has turned out to be far harder to stop than any one expected. For Mark, this is as much a personal as well as a professional interest. For as a patient, at one point he was taking five different psychiatric drugs. Ironically, although Mark was working in London at the Institute of Psychiatry, he found the mostly useful information about deprescribing came -  not from the medical profession - but from peer support websites. This experience has driven his research and interest in safely stopping psychiatric medication. He, along with Professor David Taylor, has just written a new handbook The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines, providing step-by-step instructions on how to effectively stop all commonly used antidepressants, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids and z-drugs. One of the key findings from this work, is that it is essential to taper off the drugs much more slowly than patients have previously been advised. And perhaps most surprising of all, is  how a small amount of medication can have a completely disproportionate effect. In some cases, a 1mg dose can have nearly half the effect of a 20 mg dose, which means patients may have to taper far more gradually as they move down to smaller and smaller amounts of a drug. A process that may need to take months or even years. The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines: Antidepressants, Benzodiazepines, Gabapentinoids and Z-drugs (The Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines Series) by Mark Horowitz and David Taylor, published by Wiley-Blackwell will be available from 15 February 2024.   The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou

Psychiatrist Dr Georgia Ede argues that the medical profession has completely underestimated the huge impact of diet on our mental health. In her new book, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind,  Georgia reveals improvements we can all make to our diet, and in particular, three different dietary approaches for those looking to improve their mental health. She suggests that early results from a range of trials using this approach to treat conditions from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia, show a much great effect, in fact 6 to 10 times  that seen in any comparative drug trial. Georgia believes a metabolic evaluation should be standard practice for every patient seeking psychiatric help. In her own practice, this approach has enabled her to reduce the medication many of her patients take and in some cases allowed them to come off all medication all together. Ironically, the psychiatric drugs used to treat many of these mental health conditions, which Georgia argues can also be useful, can at the same time actually worsen metabolic health, which can then negatively impact brain health. So just how does a psychiatrist -  or indeed any doctor  - balance the benefits and risks of treatment? Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind by Georgia Ede is due to be published by Yellow Kite books on 30th January 2024. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou

Dr Lisa Sanders, writes a column called Diagnosis in the New York Times magazine, which was the inspiration for the Fox medical drama House, M.D. .The show in which Hugh Laurie, playing Dr Gregory House, regularly managed to diagnose the most obscure of medical conditions. But today Lisa has arguably a rather tougher challenge than Hugh Laurie ever faced, she’s recently become the Medical Director of Yale's Long Covid Multidisciplinary Care Center.   Long Covid  can affect multiple systems and organs in the body, and finding effective treatments so far has proved extremely difficult. However, Lisa reveals several approaches that it does appear can help at least some patients. She argues that we need to see long covid not as entirely new phenomenon, but in the context of many other post-acute infection syndromes such as ME/CFS or flu. Controversially,  Lisa suggests that it needed enough doctors to get sick from long covid for the profession to start taking these syndromes more seriously. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou

Dr Robert Lufkin argues that modern medicine hasn’t paid nearly enough attention to the underlying causes of diseases, and has tended to treat symptoms instead. And in a controversial new book Lies I taught at Medical school, How Conventional Medicine is Making You Sicker and What You Can Do to Save Your Own Life, published by BenBella books, as evidence for his claims, he points to the epidemics of chronic disease, we are now seeing in the industrialised world. In the US in 2010, 16-21% of adults had two or more chronic diseases. Today, shockingly, the figure is 40%. Rob explains what needs to  change and why he believes medical teaching gets a number of pivotal facts so wrong. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou  

This is the second episode of a  two parter about  a new investigation into the drug thalidomide, so if you haven’t listened to part one, please do go back and listen to that first. Thalidomide is one of the greatest medical catastrophes of the 20th century. It’s now thought to have been  responsible for around 100,000 miscarriages and disabled children. In this episode, journalist Jennifer Vanderbes reveals the second half of the story. The result of six years of research, resulting in her recent book: Wonder Drug: The Hidden Victims of America’s Secret Thalidomide Scandal. After thalidomide’s launch in 1957 by the Germany company Chemie Grunenthal, four years on, doctors in a number of countries, are becoming increasingly concerned about the drug’s effects. In Australia obstetrician, Dr William McBride, having delivered several disabled babies in mothers who were given thalidomide, starts to conduct animal experiments and becomes convinced the drug is linked to the disabilities he is seeing. While in Germany, geneticist Dr Widukund Lenz's analysis of babies whose mothers  have taken thalidomide, produces what he believes is a clear evidence that the drug is very far from safe. The devastating disabilities being caused in new born babies, include a shortening or absence of limbs; hands and feet that don’t fully form; and damage to ears, eyes, brain, skeleton and internal organs. So the pressure to take the drug off the market grows. And in the States, further children will be harmed as unbeknownst to the FDA, the drug has been dispensed by over one thousand doctors. This is despite the fact that it has not been approved for use, a development which will add further heartbreak  to the tragedy. In total, Vanderbes estimates that five million doses of thalidomide were distributed in America. Jennifer Vanderbes Wonder Drug: The Hidden Victims of America’s Secret Thalidomide Scandal is published by Harper Collins. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou  

It was one of the greatest medical tragedies of the 20th century. In 1957, a new wonder drug was launched in Germany. It was marketed as an astonishingly safe sedative. Tragically, this could not have been further from the truth. For this was the drug thalidomide, and it would end up being responsible for around 100,000 miscarriages and disabled children. This week’s guest, journalist Jennifer Vanderbes,  in a forensic six year investigation has uncovered compelling and shocking new information about warnings that went unheeded, test results that were misrepresented, and uncovered scores of potential victims who have never before been recognised as harmed by the drug. One of the heroines of this narrative is a dogged and committed FDA reviewer Dr Frances Kelsey, who sceptical of the drug never approved it for US use. However, as Vanderbes reveals in her new book: Wonder Drug The Hidden Victims of America’s Secret Thalidomide Scandal, published by Harper Collins, although the drug was never sold in the states,  the medication was sent out to 1,200 doctors to be used in what were termed clinical trials. These physicians then passed on thalidomide to other colleagues. But the FDA later described these not as a clinical trials - but a marketing scheme. Which as Jennifer reveals, means, tragically, there are also American babies born with birth defects likely to have been caused by thalidomide. Had early safety signals been acted on or investigated, thousands of families and babies could have been spared unbelievable heartbreak. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou

Kim Witczak's life was changed for ever one tragic day in 2003 when her husband Woody killed himself. Several weeks earlier, Woody, who did not have a history of depression or mental illness, had been prescribed the SSRI anti-depressant drug Zoloft (generic name sertraline) for his insomnia. Kim sued the drug company Pfizer for wrongful death, later settling out of court. Pfizer did not admit liability. Since Woody’s death 20 years ago, Kim has become a committed advocate for safer medication. She campaigned for stronger safety warnings to be put on SSRI drugs. And in 2004 and 2006, labelling in the US was changed to include a black box warning on antidepressants regarding the risk of suicidality in young adults. Today Kim, as a consumer representative, sits on the (Food and Drug Administration (FDA) psychopharmacologic advisory board committee, which recommends whether a new drug should be approved or not. She argues that safety is not given a high enough priority by the FDA and explains why she thinks the system is failing. Kim says that for the sake of both patients and doctors it's essential this changes. Kim is the  co-founder of Woodymatters, a non-profit dedicated to advocating for a stronger FDA and drug safety system She is on the board of directors of National Physicians Alliance and MISSD (Medication Induced Suicide Prevention in Memory of Stewart Dolin).  And Kim is also an active member of the DC-based Patient, Consumer, and Public Health Coalition that aims to ensure that the voice of non-conflicted patients and consumers is represented in healthcare and FDA related legislative issues.   The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

GP Dr David Unwin has been a pioneer in the UK developing and promoting a low-carb approach for treating type 2 diabetes. In 2016, he won the NHS innovator of the year award for his work. His treatment approach has been so successful that  he has put around half his type 2 diabetic patients, who follow a low carb diet, into remission. And as a result, his practice, spends far less on diabetic medication than any of the surrounding GP surgeries. The potential cost savings if this approach was adopted nationally and internationally, would be huge for health services across the world. We tend to think that unless we have a form of diabetes that we don’t really need to be concerned about our blood sugar levels, but nothing could be further from the truth. As we get older, all of us unless we change our diet and lifestyle, will see our blood sugar levels rise, this causes our bodies to produce more and more insulin, which can lead to insulin resistance. If we eat a diet high in carbohydrates, this is likely to exacerbate the problem. And that matters because insulin resistance isn't just linked to type 2 diabetes but a wide range of illnesses including high blood pressure, heart disease, Alzheimer's and some cancers too. In the podcast, David discusses the Public Health Collaboration, a charity that he set up with colleagues, which aims to promote metabolic health and so prevent many chronic diseases. Here's a link to it: https://phcuk.org/ And here is a link to David’s most recent paper published in BMJ nutrition, also discussed in the podcast: https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/6/1/46   The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Neuroscientist Dr Sabina Brennan argues that while we may be increasingly aware of the importance of physical health, we neglect the value of brain health. By giving our brains the right stimulation, she believes, not only can we increase our odds of either avoiding or delaying serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s, we may actually be able to build in resilience and slow down the ageing of our brains. Sabina discusses the research that shows how essential it is that at every stage of our lives, our brains receive the right input at the right time. And she argues that we completely fail to understand the teenage brain. Our brains are not fully formed until we are around 24, and due to this, in our adolescence we are more like to indulge in risk taking, and are also at high risk of addictive behaviour. Yet she believes that neither society nor the way parent our teenagers really takes this into account. Sabina was responsible for running Trinity College, Dublin’s Brain Fit, a study of brain health, lifestyle, genetics and dementia.  And she has published a number of books about brain health including 100 Days to a Younger Brain and Brain Fog. Sabina also has a website Superbrain with advice on how to enhance brain health and has a particular interest in promoting the public understanding of science.  https://superbrain.ie/ The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

As a teenager, journalist Hadley Freeman spent over two and half years in hospital being treated for anorexia. In this interview, she gives a brutally honest account of her experience and describes how she was finally able to recover from what is one of the most puzzling psychiatric diseases. She has just published a book about her illness called: Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, and during her research for it, also spoke to many experts and patients. Anorexia remains an incredibly difficult disease to treat with the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric condition - of around 1/3. Perhaps most revealing of all, Hadley discusses the thought processes that an anorexic patient can go through which to an outsider or worried parent can seem so illogical. And she explains the advice she would give to a parent today, who has a child with anorexia. Hadley Freeman is a staff writer at The Sunday Times. Prior to that she worked at The Guardian and her articles have appeared in many other publications too. Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia by Hadley Freeman is published by 4th Estate For anyone with an eating disorder or supporting someone with an eating disorder, the charity Beat Eating Disorders offers help and support: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/get-help-for-myself/i-need-support-now/helplines/ The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Dr Deepak Ravindran, a NHS consultant in pain medicine, reveals how we need to completely rethink our views about pain. Pain, particularly long term intractable chronic pain, can be one of the most difficult medical conditions to live with, making normal work or life almost impossible. Globally around 20% of people suffer from the condition. And getting the help they need can be incredibly difficult. Ravindran explains how many of us totally misunderstand pain. The problem can be someone with chronic pain can have a battery of tests that all come back clear, which may lead some medical professionals to suggest that there is not actually anything wrong with these patients. But that is not the case. For the first time in 2022, the World Health Organisation updated the International Classification of Diseases to include chronic pain as a separate medical condition. And as Ravindran reveals, the biological mechanism of chronic pain, which can lead to an over-sensitised immune and nervous system is not the same as acute pain. That means a very different treatment is required, using not just drugs, but taking a whole body approach which includes diet, exercise, sleep and cognitive techniques. It’s a technique that has had life-changing consequences for patients, who have often suffered for years with crippling chronic pain. In the podcast, Ravindran discusses the importance of being cautious about every drug that is given for pain management and recommends the following website: https://thennt.com/ The Pain-Free Mindset: 7 Steps to Taking Control and Overcoming Chronic Pain by Dr Deepak Ravindran is published by Vermilion The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Colorectal surgeon Mr James Kinross reveals the remarkable impact that our microbiomes have on every aspect of health from the moment we are born. He argues that the biome may hold the key to understanding diseases as varied as cancer, bowel and auto-immune conditions. And that the rise of these conditions may be at least partially due to the disruption that’s been caused to our biomes, by the food we eat, antibiotics and the environment around us. In his new book: Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome, James even suggests that the way a man and woman’s biome interacts may have an  impact their ability to reproduce. James Kinross is a senior lecturer in colorectal surgery and a  surgeon at Imperial College London. He leads a research team exploring how the microbiome may drive cancer and other diseases of the gut. Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome by Dr James Kinross is published by Penguin Random House. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Dr Tanya JW McDonald discusses the use of low carb (otherwise known as ketogenic) diets for patients with epilepsy, Alzheimer’s Disease, malignant glioma and other neurological conditions. Remarkably, low carb diets have been used successful to treat  patients with epilepsy for 100 years, but fell out of favour when drugs were developed. However, in recent years there has been a resurgence in the use of these diets, and studies suggest that around 50% of pediatric and 40% of adult patients whose epilepsy is resistant to drug therapy can be helped with a low carb diet. And in malignant glioma, a form of brain cancer, some research now suggests that tumour cells prefer glucose. So following a low carb diet cuts sugar, removing this potential cancer cell fuel source. So is it possible that food can access neurological pathways that drugs can’t? And what implications does this have for the treatment of other neurological diseases? Dr Tanya J. W. McDonald is a neurologist based at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the US. She focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy and seizures. Her particular interests include dietary therapies for adults with epilepsy, evaluations for seizure surgery and epilepsy in women. The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/  

Russell Foster, Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at Oxford University,  reveals the key role our body clock plays not just in controlling how and when we sleep, but in every aspect of our biology and health. He discusses his tips for getting a good night's sleep and what do when you just can’t drop off. And explores the huge toll that shift work takes on both our physical and mental health, so much so that the World Health Organization has described the link between shift work and cancer as probably carcinogenic. Russell goes on to explain why modern medicine needs to pay far more attention to the impact that our body clock has on the time of day we should take certain drugs. Remarkably, one study revealed that if you take an aspirin for stroke prevention,  it can be 50% more effective depending on the time of day you take it.  And another trial for the treatment of ovarian cancer discovered there was a fourfold difference in a successful outcome depending on when in the 24 hour cycle the chemotherapy was taken.   Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, Director of the Sir Jules Thorne Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, and  Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at Oxford University. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded a CBE for his services to science. And he is the author of the book Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionise Your Health.   The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

The idea of staying fit, young and healthy for longer, is something many of us would love to achieve, but just how possible is it? Dr Robert Lufkin, who has a particular research interest in the  science of longevity discusses the reality. He says the aim is not to live forever, or live longer when we are frail and ill, but to lengthen our healthy lifespan. When we age, the odds of us getting a range of degenerative diseases or life threatening illnesses increase, so the science of anti-aging is really all about discovering why this happens and what we can do to slow or stop these pathways. Lufkin reveals the role that he believes lifestyle, diet and exercise can play. And goes on to review drugs such as Rapamyzin that some people, including him, are now taking in the hope they can keep their bodies healthier for longer. So exactly what is the evidence that we can stave off the perils of aging? Dr Robert Lufkin is currently Adjunct Clinical Professor of Radiology at the USC Keck School of Medicine. He is also Chief of Metabolic Imaging at a large medical network in southern California. Previously, Rob has been president of the society of magnetic resonance imaging, president of the American society of head and neck radiology. In addition to being a practicing physician, he is author of over 200 peer reviewed scientific papers and 14 books. Link to the web page of Dr Lufkin's website with research paper references, some of which are discussed in this podcast: https://www.robertlufkinmd.com/academic-papers/ The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Dr John Abramson, who has published several peer reviewed papers examining the data behind statins, discusses the facts you need to know before deciding with your doctor whether to take one of these drugs or not. Statins are drugs that lower cholesterol levels and the numbers of people recommended to take them continues to increase. Just this year, the UK’s National Institute of Clinical Excellence, NICE, has extended its recommendations to suggest that those with a less than 10% 10 year risk of heart disease consider taking one. Yet interestingly, the vast majority of the clinical trial data had been collected ten years ago. So the podcast explores the basis on which these new recommendations are being made. Dr Abramson discusses the risks and benefits of statins, which will vary depending on if you are male or female, and if you are at high or low risk from heart disease.   And just to note, in this podcast we talk about US and UK recommendations, but both are based on the same clinical trial data,  which countries across the world rely on. The key difference is the US measures cholesterol levels in milligrammes per decilitre and the UK in millimoles per litre. (To convert milligrams per decilitre to millimoles per litre divide by 18 and there are also various calculators online that can convert from one system to the other too.) The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 20 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/