Inside Health

The average five-year-old consumes their own body weight in sugar every year in this country - a scary illustration of the scale of the sugar problem. The new sugar tax is supposed to tackle this, but what's the evidence that a tax on sugary drinks alone will make a difference? Dr Margaret McCartney reviews the evidence from other countries, which have also used fiscal measures to nudge their popu...

Why asthma is both over diagnosed and undertreated. Professor Mike Thomas and GP Dr Margaret McCartney discuss this apparent contradiction and look behind recent headlines that half a million children in the UK could be taking asthma medicines they don't need. A new study finds that putting doctors under pressure or being a difficult patient may backfire, inducing them to make diagnostic errors. W...

Millions of anti-depressants are prescribed every year and more than half of people taking them have been doing so for two years or more. But how do you know when you're better and how can you tell that the time is right to stop taking them? Withdrawal symptoms are often confused with a return of the original depression so careful tapering of medication is crucial. Tony Kendrick, Professor of Prim...

The use of talc and its potential connection with ovarian cancer has hit the headlines after a court ruling in America. Given that nearly half the UK population uses talc to some degree GP Dr Margaret McCartney looks at the evidence and puts any link in perspective. PBC is an often missed condition that causes severe itching and fatigue with the resulting liver damage mistakenly associated with dr...

Up to half a million people in the UK could have it, but it's a condition that hardly anybody has heard about: Charles Bonnet Syndrome. It happens to people who are losing their sight through age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic eye problems or glaucoma. They see vivid and often frightening visual hallucinations and these images are soundless. Judith Potts' mother Esme was in her...

The UK's first licensed e-cig, owned by a tobacco company, is now classed as a medicine paving the way for it to be prescribed on the NHS to help people quit. Robert West, Professor of Psychology at University College London and one of the world's leading experts on smoking cessation, and GP Margaret McCartney debate the issues. Asherman's Syndrome, a little known complication of surgery that is o...

Dr Margaret McCartney reviews advice to pregnant women concerned about the Zika virus while Andrew Shennan, Professor of Obstetrics at King's College and St Thomas' Hospital in London tells Dr Mark Porter about the risks of infection closer to home - chicken pox. One in every one thousand babies born in the UK has congenital talipes, or club foot. This is where the foot points inwards and downward...

How low should you go when treating blood pressure? Mark Porter talks to the author of landmark study that was stopped early because the benefits of aggressive treatment were so convincing. This looks set to change the management of high blood pressure and millions more people in the UK will be taking extra medication. Dr Margaret McCartney debates the issues with Professor Tony Heagerty. Imagine...

Scotland is considering whether to add folic acid to staple foods like flour to protect babies against conditions like spina bifida. Frustrated at the lack of action by the UK government on the issue - despite government advisers recommending for 16 years that flour should be fortified with folic acid - the Scottish government is preparing to go it alone. Spina bifida is one of a group of severe c...

Dr Mark Porter unpicks the science behind the so called 'weekend effect'. Politicians have quoted research claiming that people are 20% more likely to die of a stroke at the weekend, while another much cited study finds 11,000 more deaths in people admitted at the weekend. But how valid are these figures and the research that generated them? Dr Margaret McCartney reviews the stroke data that has b...

Inside Health listener and keep fit enthusiast, David Heathcote, wanted advice on how far he should safely push himself when he's training in the gym. In this special programme about the health benefits of keeping active, Dr Mark Porter helps David to find the answer to his question about the exercise "sweet spot". If you struggle to screw the top off a jar, or use your arms to push yourself out o...

Prescriptions for nerve drugs pregabalin and gabapentin have risen dramatically in recent years and at the same time, concerns about abuse. Former prisoner and addict "Patrick" tells Dr Mark Porter that "gabbies" or "pregabs" are drugs of choice in jail and Dr Iain Brew, a GP who works in prisons, says misuse is a growing problem and there are examples of doctors being pressurised into prescribing...

As cars were banned from central Paris this weekend and the health risks of pollution hit the headlines, Mark Porter examines the statistic that pollution kills 29,000 people a year in the UK. And he visits a pioneering clinic at Southampton General Hospital where falls in the elderly are seen as a risk factor for underlying health problems; 'Having a hip fracture is like having a heart attack or...

For five years the Cancer Drugs Fund has supplied seventy five thousand patients in England with cancer drugs, but its days are numbered. Spiralling costs have led to a reduction in the number of drugs the CDF will pay for, meaning newly-diagnosed patients may miss out. Dr Mark Porter talks to Vicky Rockingham about the anxiety that reform of the CDF is causing. Vicky is a mother of two, working f...

Are league tables listing surgical outcomes the best way to assess your surgeon or are high risk patients being turned away as surgeons keep an eye on their figures? New data published this week list the clinical outcomes for heart surgery - cardiac surgeons are just one speciality from an ever expanding list of doctors whose performance is now published in league tables and subject to public scru...

Dr Mark Porter presents a programme devoted to questions from the listeners. Dr Mike Knapton from the British Heart Foundation answers a question about whether aspirin can protect against a second heart attack. A number of people asked about the treatment of vertigo. Vertigo is a symptom of a variety of conditions ranging from migraine and Meniere's, to strokes and tumours, but by far the most com...

From this week all UK babies will be vaccinated against that most feared disease, meningitis B, the first country in the world to take this step. But the decision to include Men B in the national immunisation programme has come too late for parents, Freya and Ross. A year ago their baby daughter, Harmonie, nearly died after contracting the infection. Her arms and legs as well as the tip of her nos...

Why more than 1 in 10 people having emergency abdominal surgery die within 30 days of their operation. Which thermometers parents should use and which they should not. Vitamins and dementia - a controversy dividing scientists. Could taking B vitamins lower the levels of the amino acid homocysteine and slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease? Absolute risk v relative risk.

The Off-Patent Drugs Bill aims to prevent people missing out on life-saving treatments, but doctors can already prescribe drugs off-licence so why do we need a new law? Pre-diabetes - a new label that could apply to as many as 1 in 3 British adults, but is it a useful to know this? The importance of diagnosing sepsis early and how to recognise the key signs. Plus Dr Margaret McCartney and Dr Carl...

Elite athletes are far more likely to use asthma inhalers than the general population. Do the stresses and strains of competition bring on asthma-type symptoms or does an inhaler give a performance advantage to individual sportsmen and women? Dr Mark Porter talks to sports physician Dr Babette Pluim about her review of the use of inhalers in sport. One hundred and fifty thousand knee arthroscopies...

What is the evidence that taxing sugary drinks will help to tackle obesity? Low libido in women - what is Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder and where did the diagnosis originally come from? Is it a label that will liberate millions of women or a construct to market new drugs? Plus Mark visits Europe's largest robotic pharmacy at a brand new hospital in Bristol.

Diabetes in pregnancy, gestational diabetes, is on the increase, and the risks to mother and baby if this condition is untreated, are very serious. Around one in fourteen pregnant women will develop GD, but the risk is much greater according to age and weight of the mother, whether there's a history of diabetes in the family and in certain ethnic groups. Dr Mark Porter visits The Rosie Maternity H...

Across England, selected GP surgeries are trialling 7-day working, but there are reports that take-up has been so low in some areas, particularly on Sundays, that pilots have been abandoned. Dr Margaret McCartney and Dr Mark Porter investigate where the pressure for extended opening hours is coming from. Mark visits Herefordshire where Taurus Healthcare, a federation of local GPs, is running a lat...

Cervical screening in older women has hit the headlines, but reports have not explained whether these women being diagnosed after 65 have attended screening. Concerns about an outbreak of Hepatitis E in Nepal that could kill pregnant women; A new technique being trialled in the UK to treat enlarged prostate; and Dr Margaret McCartney on statistical significance.

Treating low sex drive in women. Expert panels in the USA have voted in favour of a drug that has been dubbed 'Pink Viagra', but there are serious reservations. Outdoor swimming is the new trend for 2015, but should you take the plunge or go in slowly? Strokes in the under 55's have recently been reported to be on the increase: Dr Margaret McCartney takes a closer look at the evidence. And unpicki...