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Covering the health stories that make a difference. Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander dissect the latest and breaking news in the medical world. 

Airs Saturday 9am, Monday 4pm  and Friday 1am

Includes the podcast What's That Rash.

Episodes

Sorted by latest

Mapping the brain using the placebo effect

Researchers have tricked participants with placebo pain relief in an effort to map the brainstem.  Also, how immunotherapy might be used to treat mental health conditions in some young people. 

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 40 minutes 47 seconds

Could your baby’s skincare routine have lifelong benefits?

Lots of people develop a daily skincare routine for anti-ageing purposes, but what if there are benefits from starting even earlier — at just nine weeks old?

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 41 minutes 46 seconds

Long term relief for low back pain

Cognitive Functional Therapy can help relieve low back pain, and shows some positive long-term results. Ovarian cancer doesn't start in the ovaries, but in the fallopian tubes, and opportunistic surgery could prevent it.

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 43 minutes 51 seconds

Can an ultraprocessed diet ever be healthy?

Dietary guidelines tell us what we should eat for good health, but at the moment it is possible to follow the guidelines and still eat predominantly ultraprocessed foods. 

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 45 minutes 22 seconds

Is your no-sugar drink really the healthier option?

If you reach for a no-sugar drink, thinking you're making a wise choice, you might need to think again.  A new study suggests artificially sweetened drinks carry a similar type 2 diabetes risk to sugar sweetened beverages. 

Published: with Dr Preeya Alexander and Olivia Willis

Duration: 43 minutes 34 seconds

The pros and cons of mental time travel

There are ways to rejuvenate old memories, but a new study has compared the process to the myth of Sisyphus, who was cursed to repeatedly roll a stone up a hill. 

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 41 minutes 2 seconds

What bat parents and human parents have in common

Just like human children, young bats have been found to harbour and spread lots of viruses.  Their susceptibility to contracting multiple viruses at once makes them the perfect breeding ground for new disease variants. 

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 43 minutes 6 seconds

How to add 14 years to your lifespan

Five risk factors explain 50 per cent of cardiovascular risk at age 50, according to a new study.  Addressing those risk factors can add years to your life, even if you address them in middle age. 

Published: with Norman Swan and Olivia Willis

Duration: 43 minutes 7 seconds

Mapping the environmental exposures that impact human health

The human exposome is the environmental equivalent of the human genome, and there's a project in the works to map it. 

Published: with Norman Swan and Olivia Willis

Duration: 40 minutes 7 seconds

Harnessing the immune system to fight cancer

Immunotherapy uses the body's immune system to fight cancer. In blood cancer, a revolutionary t-cell therapy has cured patients and could show promise in solid tumours. 

Published: with Dr Norman Swan and Dr Preeya Alexander

Duration: 36 minutes 15 seconds

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