What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You

Thalidomide - The Story You Don’t Know (Part Two)

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/
 

Thalidomide - The Story You Don’t Know (Part One)

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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 Accidental Drug Advocate

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/

Why Knowing Your Blood Sugar Level Matters

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/

How To Keep Your Brain Healthy Into Old Age

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/

Anorexia: A Patient’s Story

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/

Pain: Why We Need to Revolutionise Our Thinking

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/

Why Having a Healthy Microbiome Is Critically Important

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/

Using Low Carb Diets To Treat Epilepsy And Other Neurological Diseases

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/
 

Your 24 Hour Body Clock: How It Controls Everything from Sleep To When You Should Take Medication

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 via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/WhatYourGPDoesntTellYou or via PayPal at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com/support/
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/