What Your GP Doesn’t Tell You

How to Keep Your Gut Healthy - Season Two

Professor Tim Spector reveals how developing research about our gut biome – the microbes in our gut – is revolutionising our understanding of  diet and disease. And he argues this may also help explain why we got so many things wrong about food. For example, it turns out that not all calories are equal, because different microbes will deal with identical calorie foods in very different ways.
 
70% of our immune cells are actually in our gut, so how our microbes interact with these immune cells has a major impact on how effective our bodies are at fighting infections and illnesses.
 
In his recently published book: Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well, Tim reveals what we should eat to optimise our gut biome and health.
 
Tim Spector is a professor in genetic epidemiology at King’s College, London and one of the founders of the personalised nutrition company Zoe.
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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/

Should You Take A Vitamin D Supplement? - Season Two

Dr Michael Holick is a pioneer in vitamin D science and has spent a lifetime researching and exploring what he believes are its potentially life-changing benefits.
He argues that across the world guidelines for the amount of vitamin D we need are simply too low. And that many of us, even those  living in a hot climate, will not be able to get enough vitamin D from sunlight alone.
Dr Horlick contends that not only do we need vitamin D for bone health, we also need it for many other critical functions too. Without a sufficient amount, he says our immune system can’t operate effectively, and that a deficiency of the vitamin is linked to a wide range of other health conditions from heart disease and depression, to auto-immune illnesses and cancer.
In this interview, Michael discusses why he believes vitamin D is so essential and reveals the levels he thinks we all need take for optimal health.
 
Dr Michael F. Holick is a Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics. He is Director of the General Clinical Research Unit;  Director of the Bone Health Care Clinic and the Director of the Heliotherapy, Light, and Skin Research Center at Boston University Medical Center.
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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/
 

Could Low-Carb Diets Help Treat Mental Illness? - Season Two

Harvard trained psychiatrist Dr Georgia Ede is pioneering the use of low carb -  otherwise known as ketogenic - diets to help treat a range of mental illness from major depression to schizophrenia. An approach she believes could revolutionise psychiatric care in the future.
She spent a decade treating patients with the standard approaches of medication and psychotherapy but became increasingly frustrated that she was not seeing the results she had hoped. So began to explore nutritional options and has now treated hundreds of patients using this approach.
A recently published paper on which Georgia was an author, reported that 28 patients who had either major depression, schizophrenia or biopolar disorder were put on this diet. These patients had tried multiple medications previously with very little improvement. But following this diet, 43% went into total remission and 64% were discharged on less medication.  This was a small study without a control group, but having said that it's almost unheard of to see results like these in a psychiatric trial, so if these results are replicated, this approach could have a major impact for patients in the future.
 
In the podcast, Georgia recommends a number of websites to go to for further information, here they are:
https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/
https://baszuckigroup.com/
https://med.stanford.edu/psychiatry/patient_care/metabolic.html
https://www.dietdoctor.com/home
 
Georgia also talks about insulin resistance and suggests the various tests to take to see if you are insulin resistant or not:
https://www.diagnosisdiet.com/files/content/pdfs/Insulin-Resistance-Tests-rev01-20.pdf
 
Dr Georgia Ede, trained at Harvard Medical School, before first working for the Harvard University Health Services and then moving to Smith College. In 2018, she set up her own psychiatric nutritional practice, helping patients reduce or eliminate the use of medications by changing what they eat.
 
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at https://www.whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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/
 
 

Sugar - A Chronic Toxin? - Season Two

Dr Robert Lustig  argues sugar is fuelling an epidemic of chronic and metabolic disease, from diabetes and strokes, to cancer and heart disease costing hundreds of thousands of lives. He says in a view that some have seen as controversial that we need to see sugar not just as empty calories,  but as a chronic, addictive toxin. In this podcast, Rob reveals just what sugar does to our bodies.
And he claims that while modern medicine has been highly effective in treating acute illness, it has failed in its treatment of chronic conditions, only able to treat the symptoms rather than curing the diseases.
In his words:
“You can’t fix healthcare until you fix health. You can’t fix health until you fix diet. And, you can’t fix diet until you know what the hell is wrong”.
Rob explains what he thinks it is essential to eat to stay healthy  and contends that  prevention is not just better than cure it is the cure.
 
Dr Robert Lustig is a Professor emeritus of Pediatrics, at the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. He has written a number of best selling books about the dangers of sugar, refined carbohydrates  and metabolic illness. And his research and clinical practice have focussed on childhood obesity and diabetes.
 
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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 @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at 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 Whistleblower Who Inspired A John Le Carré Novel - Season Two

Welcome to Season Two of What Your GP Doesn't Tell You
This week’s story is so extraordinary that the best selling spy writer John Le Carré used it as the inspiration for one of his novels. And indeed if it was a work of fiction it would be dismissed as too fantastical or improbable. To tell this remarkable tale, I am talking to whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri, who became concerned during a  trial about the effectiveness of a drug that she was using to treat thalassemia – an inherited form of anaemia.
Nancy was threatened with legal action by the drug company Apotex - who were part funding the trial -and told it would be a breach of contract if she mentioned her concerns to  patients. This would spark decades of legal action, vitriol and intrigue during which time many careers including Nancy’s would be destroyed, investigations would be launched, private detectives  be hired and an academic found guilty of sending anonymous letters finally  tracked down by his DNA.
 
Dr Nancy  F.  Olivieri is a professor of pediatrics, medicine and public health services at the University of Toronto, a senior scientist at Toronto General Hospital and the executive director of Hemoglobal®
 
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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 @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at 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 the Smartphone Could Revolutionise Healthcare

Dr Eric Topol, one of the world’s leading cardiologists, reveals how the smartphone has the potential to revolutionise healthcare and create far more targeted treatment for patients.
Eric, who has been listed as one of the top ten cited researchers in all of medicine and has been voted the number one most influential physician-leader in the United States, explains the huge range of tests that phones can now carry out, from assessing kidney function to controlling asthma. And with technical attachments, phones can also do full body ultrasound scans, skin, eye and eye tests. All in real time and far cheaper than using conventional hospital technology.
But the real game changer is the wearable biosensors that can be attached to patients and their phones, collecting data 24 hours a day. Information that can then be fed back directly to patients and their doctors. This can help doctors spot drug interactions,  discover which drugs work for which patient, assess how  a patient’s genetic make-up may affect how they respond to a treatment or medication. All of which will enable doctors to treat diseases earlier and more effectively, and potentially even prevent illnesses developing at all.
Eric argues that this individualised approach will help put patients at the centre of their own care and bring what he says is the long over due democratisation of medicine.
Dr Eric Topol is the  founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research Institute and has also advised the UK’s NHS.
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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 @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com
 

First Drug Company to Be Accused of Racketeering in a US Court- The Neurontin(Gabapentin) Story

This week’s podcast is about one of the world’s top selling drugs, Neurontin (generic name Gabapentin).  And it centres on an extraordinary court case which for the very first time accused a drug company, Pfizer and its subsidiary Warner Lambert, of racketeering, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, a piece of legislation that was actually brought in tackle organized crime.
The company had been accused of  encouraging doctors to use Neurotonin not just for its approved use, but for several unapproved uses, something that is known as off-label marketing and is illegal in the US. It had attempted to market the drug for bipolar disorder, neuropathic pain and migraine. Despite the fact that in the judge’s words there was “little or no scientifically accepted evidence that Neurontin is effective for the treatment of bipolar disorder,  neuropathic pain or migraine”.
Detailed detective work by the plaintiff’s expert witnesses revealed how data was distorted and  inconvenient evidence buried to suggest the drug was effective. And the shocking discoveries in this decade old trial continue to be highly relevant for patients and doctors today.
Telling this story is Dr John Abramson, who  was one of the expert witnesses in the trial, who spent nearly two years forensically examining thousand of documents to uncover the truth. John is based at Harvard Medical School, where he teaches health care policy. John has written several books about the pharmaceutical industry and consults as an expert in litigation involving the industry.
 
You can sign up to the podcast mailing list and be first to know when a new episode is published at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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 @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com
 

What Happens When the Doctor Becomes The Patient?

Neurosurgeon and author, Mr Henry Marsh, pioneer of the awake craniotomy, a brain surgery performed while the patient is still awake, discusses the ethical dilemmas and realities of the surgeon’s role. And he explains why he thinks doctors need a certain level of self-deception and exaggerated self-belief.
But after decades of treating patients, frequently for dangerous and life-threatening conditions, it was a huge shock as Henry describes in his latest book, And Finally, when he found himself diagnosed with prostate cancer, which was treatable but not curable.
So just how does a doctor cope when he becomes the patient?
 
You can sign up to the podcast mailing list and be first to know when a new episode is published at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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 @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com

Has Medicine Been Too Slow to Explore the Benefits of Fasting?

Dr Jason Fung a kidney specialist, and one of the world's leading pioneers in low carb diets and intermittent fasting, reveals why modern medicine has been so slow to explore the  benefits of fasting and discusses its benefits not just for type II diabetes but for a range of other metabolic and neurological conditions.
For decades, patients with type II diabetes were told to eat a high carbohydrate diet, despite the fact that their problem was that their carbohydrate levels were already out of control.
A major study published back in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, had shown that  intensive best practice management of type II diabetes actually increased the death rate from the disease.
But despite this, treatment remained largely unchanged. Yet emerging data now suggests that the majority of type II diabetes patients can not only reverse their disease with diet, they can also prevent it developing and so stop many of the life-changing side effects of the disease, so why did it take so long for medicine to discover this?
 
You can sign up to the mailing list to the podcast and be first to know when a new episode is published at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com and also find out more about the pod there.
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 @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com
 
 
 

Why The UK Does Poorly For Some Cancers & The Devastating Impact of Covid on the UK’s Cancer Services

In the final part of his interview, Professor Karol Sikora, one of the world's leading cancer experts and a past director of  the WHO Cancer Programme, explains why the UK does poorly in the treatment of some common cancers and the reforms he believes are necessary to change this.
And Karol goes on to discuss the devastating impact that Covid has had on the UK's cancer services, which led to palliative care being halted and now means that patients are presenting with much later stage cancers, which are far harder to treat. He argues we will see the results of this in a higher cancer death toll in years to come.
Professor Karol Sikora worked in the UK's NHS for over 35 years and until recently was also the Chief Medical Officer of Rutherford Health, a private company providing proton bean therapy centres.
 
To sign up to the podcast mailing list and be first to know when a new episode is published, go to whatyourgpdoesn'ttellyou.com
The podcast's host, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at @lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at liztucker.substack.com
 
If you would like to support this podcast you can do so at patreon.com/whatyourgpdoesnttellyou or via PayPal at whatyourgpdoesnttellyou.com