Inside Health

James Gallagher investigates whether there is a decline in male sperm including the results of his own sperm count analysis. He meets a couple who conceived after having treatment for a varicocele, enlarged veins in the testes that can heat the sperm up and the leading known cause of male infertility. And James is joined by leading scientists in the field to debate whether sperm counts are falling...

Can magic mushrooms help your mental health? James Gallagher cuts through the hype and examines the evidence to find out if psychedelics can treat depression. Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald

The cost of everything is soaring, but what toll is that taking on our health? We’re at a food pantry scheme in Coventry meeting mums Danielle and Ellie to find out how hard putting food on the table has become. Dr Megan Blake and Prof Sir Michael Marmot help explain what that does to our bodies now and in the long term. Get in touch: InsideHealth@bbc.co.uk Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Ger...

Dawn had a heart attack but 'powered through' making the Christmas dinner before seeking help - because she put her symptoms down to anxiety and backache. Her interventional cardiologist in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Professor Vijay Kunadian, sees many women like her who aren't seen quickly enough or given the right medication to improve their chances of survival. We hear about research which reveals th...

James Gallagher asks whether the next pandemic might be an invasive fungi? Most people think of athlete's foot or fungal toe nails but the World Health Organisation recently issued the first ever list of life threatening fungi. James hears stories of hospitals being shut down, a ruined honeymoon and fungal infections that consume human tissue leaving terrible disfigurement. Add to that ‘The Last o...

The rise of antibiotic resistance means that we need alternatives to fight infections - and some healthcare professionals are turning to maggot therapy to help clean up wounds. They might be treating people living with diabetes who can experience a loss of sensation in their feet because of high blood sugar levels. Damage to their blood vessels can also slow down healing. Melanie Rix Taylor from S...

Covid and other bugs have ripped through the Inside Health team, so we find out why everyone seems to be getting sick at the moment and if we will be facing a torrent of infections for months or even years to come. We see how easy it is to buy antibiotics online and why scientists are worried about it. And can ketamine and its mind-altering powers can help free people from addiction to alcohol? Ge...

It’s January. Christmas is a distant memory and nobody feels much like getting off the sofa, but luckily this episode can help. James Gallagher is on a mission to find out what is the least amount of exercise you can do to still stay healthy. James goes on a Ramblers wellbeing walk, uses a treadmill for the first time and takes a hot bath all to find out how lazy he can be. His guide Dr Zoe Saynor...

James is in South Wales where he's wired up and locked inside a cryo-lab to discover the impact of cold on the human body. A temperature of 10C seems pretty mild doesn’t it - yet James is shocked at the profound stress it puts on his body. Today we discover why cold is a killer and what you can do about it if you’re struggling to heat your home. Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Gerry Holt

Do you want to see your GP records at the touch of a button? That’s the plan in England, but doctors warn us freely opening them up to everyone is not safe. And we’ll explore a study that’s transforming our understanding of how cancers develop and bring clarity to the confusion around antidepressants after a study showed low serotonin levels were not the cause of depression. PRESENTER: James Galla...

Can you imagine moving out of the family home and watching your daughter grow up from a distance, all to avoid the threat of Covid? That’s the decision Shannon has taken because the drugs she takes for her lupus leave her immune system weak and vulnerable. She tells us what it’s been like shielding for 951 days (and counting) and we explore whether there are any solutions. Then we see why childhoo...

I think I might’ve dodged Covid. Like many others, I’m fully vaccinated but have never tested positive despite having had plenty of opportunities to catch it. I used public transport to get to work during the lockdowns and was exposed to the virus when my son came down with it. So what’s going on? Armed with my covid antibody test results, I ask immunologist Prof Mala Maini to clear up the confusi...

Maybe listen to this one BEFORE you eat… James is off to meet the sewage scientists trying to stop the next pandemic. He meets the teams that were monitoring 80% of people’s faeces during Covid-19 and finds out how sewage led to hundreds of thousands of children having an emergency polio vaccine. James needs to collect a sample at a water treatment works and then head to the laboratory… just be gl...

What do sweeteners do to our bodies? We force feed James cups of sweetened tea and find out with nutrition scientist Dr Sarah Berry from King’s College London. We then tackle something stronger - alcohol. Can a new supplement reduce the amount of alcohol getting into the body? And Rohin Francis gets frustrated at the shonky claims being made by health podcasts (not this one, of course, you’re tota...

Should friends and family be trained to give potent medications to those dying at home to relieve their symptoms? We often say that we’d like to die peacefully at home when the inevitable happens. Yet people can be left in pain for hours waiting for a doctor or nurse to be free to visit and administer the medicines that ease our symptoms in our final days. James Gallagher speaks to Mark, who was t...

Smitha Mundasad asks whether we will see waves of Covid – with infections going up and down and then up and down again - forever more. We speak to Elliot whose life has been transformed after a single shot of gene therapy to treat the inherited blood disorder haemophilia B. And Dr Margaret McCartney discusses the accidental discovery of Viagra and how sometimes researchers find new, surprising use...

Rashes, a runny nose and weird poos are all common in babies. Parents are sometimes told these symptoms mean their baby is allergic to cows milk and are prescribed low allergy formula or advised to avoid dairy if they are breastfeeding. Marijke Peters cut dairy out of her diet to try and help the gut problems her new baby Eva was having - but it made no difference and she's still trying to find ou...

What do you think bendy joints has to do with the way the brain works? Well you may be in for surprise. Scientists have found a connection with autism, attention deficit and Tourettes. So what does this tell us about how our brain and body work? We’re asking whether we’re stuck with monkeypox forever now or do we still have the chance to stop it spreading? And has the pandemic left a permanent sca...

Does medicine have a language problem? We speak to Rachel who was made to feel like a 'naughty schoolgirl' by the terminology used around the birth of her child. We’ll find out how deep-seated blaming and belittling language in healthcare is, and why. We get sticky and sweaty discussing the dangers of heatwaves to the human body. And we take the confusion out of 'chemo brain' or cancer-related cog...

Aaaaaaaaa-choo! If you have hay fever then you know that it can be a right pain in the… nose. This week Inside Health presents a complete guide to hay fever. Are we enduring the worst hay fever season? When was the disgustingly-named “summer catarrh” first identified as a medical condition? And what can we safely plant in the garden without setting off our symptoms? GP Navjoyt Ladher and immunolog...

This week James Gallagher finds out if the Power of the Dog is true. No not the movie, but the claim that dogs can make us live longer. He’s also doing press ups in the studio to see if small amounts of muscle building exercise can help boost our health no matter how old we are. Then, inspired by the last episode on long Covid, James goes in search of the lost art of convalescence.

It’s a long Covid reunion on Inside Health. We first met Jo, Neil and John in February 2021 when they were 12 months into the condition. Another year on, we catch up with them to see if they are any closer to making a full recovery. We explore how a virus can cause such prolonged symptoms, with Dr David Strain from the NHS Long Covid Taskforce, and see if we are any closer to treating long Covid....

We get to the bottom of a medical mystery – what causes multiple sclerosis? A series of studies have compellingly pointed the finger at the virus behind glandular fever. We see if they stack up and assess what it means for the future of preventing and treating MS. Then nearly two years since the World Health Organization described Covid as a pandemic, James chats to Dr Maria van Kerkhove, who is t...

How often do we need a smear test? It’s become controversial now as a new test means women and people with a cervix need checking less often. But in the future the answer might be only once a lifetime! We hunt for the special blood that's in high demand, yet in short supply, for people with sickle cell disease. And could the disruption from the Covid pandemic be setting the stage for a large outbr...

James meets a record breaking doctor who is analysing DNA so quickly it is transforming treatment in intensive care and from one of his patients, Matthew, who discovered he needed a new heart. Then James has a disgusting confession as we discuss losing weight by getting more sleep. And can we get better therapies for all of us by copying the revolutionary trial that transformed the pandemic.?