Michael.Mosley.Wonders.of.the.Human.Body.S01E01
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00:00One of Michael's greatest passions has always been to reveal the extraordinary secrets of
00:13how our bodies work.
00:18He spent several months with the production team, travelling far and wide for this brand
00:27new series on the human body.
00:31The family and I are delighted to introduce it to you.
00:36Michael even persuaded me to participate, tipping him upside down, as well as filling
00:46his ice bath, all in the name of science.
00:52And I'm sure he would have enjoyed the programme.
01:05We're heading off on an extraordinary journey around the human body.
01:11And if you give us a little chuckle.
01:14Have you ever wondered why we get creaky joints?
01:19Does your body hold the power to stop cancer from multiplying?
01:24How do you remember to breathe?
01:29I'll be tracking down answers to lots of burning questions.
01:33I feel quite a strong desire to urinate, but don't.
01:38From what exactly is in our farts?
01:41This device, which we colloquially refer to as the thunder funnel.
01:44That's great.
01:45To how long we take to digest our food.
01:48Are you wearing it every night?
01:50Absolutely.
01:51I'll show you how we can all live healthier, longer lives.
01:56This is one of the most impressive things I've seen for a very long time.
02:00And I put my body to the test to help you at home understand yours.
02:10Get ready to see yourself in a whole new light.
02:24This time, my 66 year old hips still get me from A to B.
02:29But as we get older, the risks that a simple fall will lead to breaking a bone increases.
02:35So what can we do to keep our bones stronger as we age?
02:40It's rather brilliant, isn't it?
02:41Oh, it's an engineering miracle.
02:44If you've ever felt like your handwriting isn't as neat as it used to be,
02:48or maybe you feel shakier than you did when you were younger, you're not alone.
02:53More than a million of us in the UK are affected by tremors.
02:57For the first time, our cameras follow a pioneering brain surgery, giving real hope.
03:04He's just getting better and better, isn't he?
03:06Yeah.
03:08And almost every five minutes, somebody's life changes forever as their brain suffers a stroke.
03:15I always think you're only one blood clot away from a life changing event.
03:20So I try out an ingenious new way to diagnose whether we are at risk.
03:26In this series, we'll explore the wonders of the human body,
03:29how it adapts and changes to the countless challenges it often faces.
03:36Around a quarter of all deaths in the UK are linked to cardiovascular problems.
03:41To avoid becoming part of those statistics,
03:43I'm about to take a close look at one of our most vital organs, the heart.
03:49The heart is a powerful muscular pump, roughly the size of your fist,
03:53constantly at work, pushing blood around your body.
03:58And when the heart fails, it can happen suddenly, without warning.
04:07Well, I'm in Oxford to try out a brand new test, which was developed here,
04:11and which claims to be able to predict heart problems long before you have any symptoms.
04:19I am feeling a little bit nervous.
04:21Because my father had heart disease, I know I'm at increased risk.
04:24But when I do the test, that's going to tell me just what the risk is,
04:29and I'm really quite concerned about what they're going to find out.
04:33Like many others, I've lost loved ones to heart failure,
04:36including my dad, who died when he was just 74.
04:40That's only eight years older than I am now.
04:45Before I have the test, Professor Antonio Ades,
04:48who leads the team here at Oxford University,
04:51explains what makes this test such a breakthrough.
04:54This is a brand new technology, and essentially what it does,
04:57it looks into the fat that's in the heart,
05:01and by analysing the fat, we can tell whether the arteries themselves are inflamed.
05:07And these are the arteries that will give the heart attacks.
05:10Wow. So you're peering into the future with a greater degree of accuracy, you hope?
05:14Yes.
05:16You ready? Yes.
05:18Painless.
05:19First, a special dye is injected into my blood
05:22so that my arteries will show up on the CT scan.
05:26You're going to move in and out three or four times in total,
05:29and we'll get you to breathe in and hold your breath each time.
05:38Please breathe in and hold your breath.
05:45Start breathing again.
05:48Like most people, I've lost loved ones to heart failure,
05:51including my dad, who died when he was just 74.
05:54Like your other organs, your heart needs a constant supply of fresh blood,
06:00which it gets from the coronary arteries that wrap around the outside of your heart.
06:06By the age of 50, the walls of our arteries become more susceptible
06:10to a build-up of fatty deposits called plaque.
06:13You can think of this as a bit like the pipes in your house getting clogged up.
06:18The build-up can make it harder for blood to flow through,
06:22and this can increase the risk of heart attack.
06:37The new test can detect early signs of dangerous changes in my arteries.
06:45And, worryingly, they've found several places
06:48where my arteries are starting to get clogged up.
06:51This is not a natural plaque.
06:53Plaques can be prone to rupture,
06:55whether fatty or hardened ones known as calcified plaques.
06:59What I'm looking at is a ticking time bomb,
07:02a potential heart attack coming down the line.
07:04These are the calcified plaques.
07:06So, these little nodules, which are plaque,
07:09if one of those ruptured, it would kill me, yes?
07:12Yes, that's correct.
07:15Right.
07:16Carve.
07:17As many as one in two of us can develop plaques without symptoms.
07:22That's where the new test comes in.
07:24By using it, the Oxford team will soon be able to tell
07:27just how high my risk really is.
07:36400 miles further north on the Fife coast,
07:39Thomas Black knows just how devastating it is
07:42when a vital organ goes wrong.
07:44In Thomas' case, it's his brain, which is not working as it should.
07:49I can't always get right underneath the roots
07:52because I'm shaking.
07:5971-year-old Thomas has had his life turned upside down
08:03by a condition called essential tremor.
08:06It's ten times more common than Parkinson's
08:09and is more likely to affect people over the age of 65.
08:13It's all the little things that you never think about,
08:17like working zips or brushing your teeth.
08:24Essential tremor makes daily activities for Thomas
08:27and others like him almost impossible.
08:31I was in my mid-40s
08:34and I first noticed quite shaky right hand.
08:38And then my mid-50s,
08:41both hands were much shakier
08:44and my head was shaking
08:46and it just got worse and worse and worse after that.
08:52We were showing this to our granddaughter the other day.
08:55Brings back memories.
08:57It's nice to look back.
08:59It's nice to see hair.
09:03Janet has been by Thomas' side watching helplessly
09:06as his symptoms have got worse.
09:09Tom was quite good at not showing how much he was struggling.
09:13You know, like putting a key in the lock.
09:16I had to adapt to the way he was behaving.
09:19I had to adapt to the way he was behaving.
09:22I had to adapt to the way he was behaving.
09:25I had to adapt to the way he could eat.
09:28The mugs were getting bigger for his soup with less soup,
09:31the same for the coffees.
09:33I couldn't do anything specifically to stop the tremor.
09:36They are now pinning their hopes
09:38on an innovative kind of brain surgery.
09:41Decisions had to be made.
09:43I had to go through various tests.
09:48Today is the big day
09:50and Thomas has been admitted to Ninewells Hospital
09:53for the operation.
09:55Quite sore, but I'll be fine.
09:58Neurologist Dr Tom Gilbertson
10:00is hoping it will change Thomas' life.
10:03It's one of very few treatments
10:05where we can make a huge difference
10:07to a chronic disease that's otherwise uncontrollable.
10:11OK, Thomas, I'm just going to move these pins forward slightly.
10:15It's just for me to know where to put the local anaesthetic in.
10:19With a head brace fitted to help reduce his shakes,
10:23Thomas is about to have a form of brain surgery
10:26that involves no actual cutting.
10:29Instead, a powerful beam of ultrasound waves
10:33will be focused on part of his brain that controls movement.
10:40It's not without risk.
10:42If the beam strays even a fraction,
10:45it could leave Thomas with loss of speech or paralysis.
10:48That's it.
10:53Coming up, how does your body fight back when cancer strikes?
10:57I planned and paid for my funeral.
11:02With the growing cold water craze,
11:05what are the health benefits and what are the risks?
11:08I'll reveal three surprising things about your heart
11:11that could save your life.
11:13When you exercise on a regular basis,
11:15you actually grow a whole lot of new blood vessels.
11:17And I find out my own heart attack risk.
11:20I've got slightly sweaty palms. I must admit, I'm quite anxious.
11:34I've just had a new test
11:36that can accurately predict your heart attack risk
11:39long before it happens.
11:42We're looking to whether there are narrowings in your arteries,
11:46plaques, as we call them,
11:48which may break in the future, causing a heart attack.
11:51Worryingly, they've told me
11:53that I do have these life-threatening plaques.
11:56If one of those ruptured, it would kill me, yes?
11:59Yes, that's correct.
12:02Right.
12:03We all have a protective layer of fat
12:05on the outside of our arteries.
12:08And this outer fatty layer can reveal
12:10where an artery has become inflamed on the inside,
12:14making it more susceptible to rupture.
12:18If picked up in time, you might be prescribed medication
12:21to try and reverse some of these changes.
12:24A healthy diet and at least 20 minutes of moderate exercise a day
12:27is also beneficial, whatever your age.
12:30So what about my arteries?
12:32Is the damage still reversible?
12:36OK, moment of truth. I've got slightly sweaty palms.
12:39I must admit, I'm quite anxious.
12:41This is your heart.
12:42Around an inflamed area,
12:44the fat becomes more watery and less fatty.
12:47The blue colour that you see here means there is water.
12:50Blue essentially means lots of inflammation, is that right?
12:53Exactly.
12:54So these are the plaques that we have seen earlier
12:56in the main artery.
12:58You can see that in this area,
13:00there is a little bit of inflammation.
13:02But overall, to me,
13:04it looks like a pretty much non-inflamed artery.
13:08OK, so I'm looking at this figure here.
13:10That's the one that's jumping out.
13:12So this is your absolute risk
13:14to have a fatal cardiac event
13:17over the next eight years.
13:19OK.
13:20Anything below 5% considers to be low risk.
13:24Now, you are 5.9.
13:26It means that you are just about where you should be.
13:29So another way of looking at this is saying
13:31I have a 94% chance of making it to 74.
13:34Exactly.
13:35And therefore a 94% chance of beating my dad.
13:38Exactly.
13:39That's a very good way to put it.
13:42It's not perfect.
13:43No.
13:44So there's still some risk.
13:45Yeah, I'm not going to go away and eat cream buns.
13:48Don't worry.
13:49Exactly.
13:50I can't imagine how relieved I feel
13:51because I was awake last night thinking about it.
13:53So you need to try a little bit harder,
13:55bring this down,
13:56but you are nearly there.
13:58Exercise and a healthy diet can help.
14:00People in my position may also be prescribed statins.
14:04Wow, I'm almost faint with relief.
14:07I'm going to give you a hug
14:08because I was really, really worried, I have to say.
14:17Well, that was stressful but also reassuring
14:20and at least I know now
14:22that it's unlikely I will go the same way as my dad.
14:28And I guess what it shows as well
14:30is that if you look after this remarkable organ,
14:33it will go on looking after you,
14:35hopefully for a long time to come.
14:38You can cut your heart attack risk by as much as 30%
14:41by eating less junk food
14:43and more healthy fats like oily fish and nuts.
14:49Getting your cholesterol checked is also a good idea.
14:55And of course, if you're at all concerned,
14:57do go and see your GP.
15:01In the UK, heart disease is still
15:04one of the leading causes of death.
15:06But there is another life-threatening condition
15:08which one in two of us will face
15:10at some point in our lives.
15:12Cancer.
15:13Throughout our lives,
15:14the cells that make up our body divide,
15:16they grow and then they die
15:18in a very controlled way.
15:25Sometimes the mechanisms to stop cells growing
15:28are faulty
15:29and a cell or a group of cells
15:31start to grow in an uncontrolled way.
15:33In fact, one of the things that your body fears
15:35above all else
15:36are rogue cells that are out of control.
15:39So if rogue cells arise
15:41that try to grow
15:43in a way that your body doesn't want them to,
15:45then the body has lots of different ways
15:47to destroy them.
15:49But sometimes rogue cells
15:51are able to evade all the attempts
15:53that are made to destroy them.
15:55They escape, they grow,
15:57they become cancer.
16:00Different cancers multiply at different rates.
16:02Most breast and bowel cancers,
16:04for example,
16:05seem to grow relatively slowly.
16:07But if you have a cancer of your blood cells,
16:09then symptoms can appear more suddenly
16:12and the cancer may spread more rapidly.
16:21In this series,
16:22we meet people
16:23with extraordinary stories to share
16:25that shed new light
16:26on how our bodies work.
16:29In Dorset,
16:3076-year-old Alan Peters
16:32has been diagnosed
16:33with a type of blood cancer
16:34called a lymphoma.
16:37It's lymphoma
16:38stage 4B cancer.
16:41They said
16:42that there wasn't really
16:44a great deal
16:45that they could do to cure me.
16:47Alan is grateful
16:48to have lived a full life.
16:51For 30-odd years
16:52I was a policeman in London
16:53and I was lucky enough
16:54to work with
16:55the Princess of Wales
16:56who was a nurse.
16:57But after Alan retired,
16:59he noticed worrying symptoms.
17:01I thought it was Covid.
17:03I went to the doctor
17:04two or three times
17:05and eventually
17:06they sent me for a scan.
17:08That's when we discovered
17:10there was a large lump.
17:13Just about that time
17:14was when
17:15you turned up
17:16from Ukraine.
17:17To hear
17:18Alan's story
17:19and to hear
17:20his story
17:21and to hear
17:22his story
17:23and to hear
17:24his story
17:25and to hear
17:26to hear
17:27this news about you
17:28I was
17:29absolutely upset.
17:30I decided
17:31straight away
17:32we have to stay
17:33to help you.
17:34Alan offered a home
17:35to Elena
17:36and her family
17:37and the support
17:38she offered in return
17:39was a huge blessing.
17:41I had written myself off
17:43and as much as
17:44I wasn't going to last
17:45much longer
17:46and as you know
17:47I planned
17:48and paid for
17:49my funeral.
17:51Karen?
17:52Karen?
17:56But then
17:57Alan was thrown
17:58on lifeline
17:59in the form of
18:00a radically different
18:01approach
18:02known as
18:03CAR-T therapy.
18:10After several rounds
18:11of the new therapy
18:12Alan is going
18:13back to Southampton
18:14to find out
18:15if the treatment
18:16has been successful.
18:17This is my
18:18sixth or seventh scan.
18:20Being diagnosed
18:21with cancer
18:22can be
18:23not just physically
18:24but also
18:25emotionally devastating
18:26and for Alan
18:27it's been
18:28a nerve-wracking wait.
18:29I'm just
18:30a little bit tense
18:31because it's
18:32an important one.
18:33CAR-T therapy
18:34is a way
18:35of boosting
18:36the body's
18:37immune system
18:38to attack the cancer
18:39and it's being
18:40further developed
18:41by Professor
18:42Xian Lim.
18:43Cancer cells
18:44are unfortunately
18:45sneaky
18:46and they can
18:47hide from the
18:48immune system
18:49so the immune
18:50system needs help.
18:55We all have
18:56special immune
18:57cells called
18:58T-cells.
18:59Their job
19:00is to defend
19:01your body.
19:04But cancers
19:05can hide from them
19:06so scientists
19:07take the patient's
19:08T-cells
19:09modify them
19:10in the lab
19:11then re-inject them.
19:13These new cells
19:14nicknamed
19:15CAR-T cells
19:16now have the
19:17ability to
19:18track down
19:19cancer cells
19:20and destroy them.
19:21Sadly,
19:22this approach
19:23isn't for everyone
19:24but has it worked
19:25for Alan?
19:27Complete remission
19:28no sign of any
19:29disease whatsoever.
19:30Yes!
19:31Well done.
19:36I was trying
19:37to keep a miserable
19:38face
19:39watching you
19:40like
19:41whoa
19:42what's going on?
19:43I was trying
19:44to keep a miserable
19:45face
19:46watching you
19:47like
19:48whoa
19:49what's going on?
19:50These scan images
19:51of Alan
19:52before he started
19:53the new therapy
19:54compared
19:55with his most
19:56recent scan
19:57shows
19:58something remarkable
19:59Alan's body
20:00once riddled
20:01with tumours
20:02now appears
20:03cancer free.
20:09Important to
20:10remember
20:11never give up.
20:12I never did
20:13give up
20:14I was just
20:15prepared
20:16there's a big
20:17difference.
20:18Thanks to
20:19breakthrough
20:20treatments
20:21we're now
20:22six times
20:23more likely
20:24to survive
20:25cancer
20:26than we were
20:2740 years ago.
20:29Back in
20:30Dundee
20:31Thomas
20:32is also
20:33about to
20:34undergo
20:35a radical
20:36new treatment.
20:37Everything
20:38is riding
20:39on what
20:40happens today.
20:41Will he finally
20:42get relief
20:43from the
20:44debilitating
20:45tremors
20:46that are
20:47affecting him?
20:52Our cameras
20:53have been given
20:54rare access
20:55to follow
20:56this groundbreaking
20:57procedure
20:58step by step.
20:59So they can
21:00monitor Thomas
21:01for signs
21:02of damage
21:03to healthy
21:04brain tissue
21:05he will have
21:06to remain
21:07awake
21:08the whole time.
21:09If he
21:10developed
21:11slurring
21:12a speech
21:13we'd know
21:14we were
21:15too far
21:17away
21:18to use
21:19a high
21:20powered
21:21ultrasound
21:22beam
21:23on Thomas's
21:24brain.
21:25They need
21:26to zap
21:27a tiny
21:28cluster
21:29of cells
21:30in a
21:31part of
21:32Thomas's
21:33brain
21:34called
21:35the thalamus.
21:36By doing
21:37this they
21:38hope to
21:39create
21:40a sort
21:41of
21:42circuit
21:43breaker
21:44which will
21:45stop
21:46Thomas's
21:47brain
21:48from
21:49shaking.
21:50At the
21:51moment
21:52there are
21:53billions
21:54of signals
21:55buzzing
21:56around your
21:57head.
21:58Normally
21:59your brain
22:00can filter
22:01out the
22:02information
22:03you don't
22:04need.
22:05But if
22:06you have
22:07essential
22:08tremor
22:09this filter
22:10doesn't
22:11seem to
22:12work
22:13and the
22:14signals
22:15don't
22:16work.
22:17So
22:18at the
22:19moment
22:20they're
22:21just doing
22:22some
22:23baseline
22:24tests
22:25and as
22:26you can
22:27see
22:28just how
22:29difficult
22:30it is
22:31for him.
22:32How bad
22:33is that
22:34on a
22:35score of
22:36one to
22:37ten?
22:38It's
22:39probably
22:40ten.
22:41It's
22:42pretty
22:43bad.
22:44We'll
22:45have to wait
22:46the next
22:47half an
22:48hour
22:49and see
22:50whether
22:51we've
22:52got
22:53a
22:54treatment
22:55here or
22:56not.
22:57If the
22:58beam
22:59strays
23:00even
23:01a
23:02fraction
23:03Thomas
23:04could end
23:05up
23:06with
23:07brain
23:08damage.
23:09It
23:10takes
23:11huge
23:12skill
23:13to
23:14do
23:15that.
23:16I
23:17mean
23:18that's
23:19very
23:20impressive
23:21considering
23:22that his
23:23hand,
23:24you know,
23:25when he
23:26first
23:27went in
23:28there
23:29he was
23:30going to
23:31do
23:32that.
23:33It's
23:34still
23:35moving
23:36a little
23:37bit
23:38but
23:39much
23:40better.
23:41It's
23:42still
23:43making
23:44progress
23:45considering
23:46a very
23:47short
23:48time
23:49ago
23:50but
23:51he was
23:52only
23:53able to
23:54make
23:55dabbing
23:56motions
23:57on
23:58there
23:59and now
24:00he's
24:01actually
24:02beginning
24:03to track
24:04the
24:05circle.
24:06After
24:07five
24:08rounds
24:09of
24:10ultrasound
24:11I've
24:12seen
24:13impressive
24:14things
24:15I've
24:16seen
24:17for
24:18a
24:19very
24:20long
24:21time.
24:22The
24:23progression
24:24from
24:25that
24:26end
24:27to
24:28that
24:29end.
24:30They
24:31weigh
24:32up
24:33whether
24:34doing
24:35more
24:36could
24:37reduce
24:38Thomas's
24:39tremors
24:40or
24:41reduce
24:42his
24:43pain.
24:44Still
24:45to
24:46come
24:47have you
24:48ever
24:49wondered
24:50how much
24:51saliva
24:52or
24:53spectrum
24:54you
24:55produce?
24:56I'll
24:57reveal
24:58the
24:59surprising
25:00science
25:01behind
25:02how
25:03we
25:04swallow.
25:05Every
25:06year
25:07thousands
25:08of
25:10bones
25:11break
25:12at
25:13any
25:14age
25:15but
25:16after
25:17women
25:18go
25:19through
25:20the
25:21menopause
25:22or
25:23men
25:24turn
25:2565
25:26we become
25:27especially
25:28susceptible
25:29to
25:30fractures.
25:31To find
25:32out more
25:33I'm
25:34off to
25:35see
25:36Professor
25:37Sue
25:38Black
25:39who
25:40is
25:41a
25:42professor
25:43of
25:44bone
25:45research.
25:46Hello
25:47I am
25:48loving
25:49your
25:50collection.
25:51Thank
25:52you.
25:53There's
25:54nothing
25:55not to
25:56love.
25:57About
25:58bones.
25:59Once
26:00you start
26:01to
26:02study
26:03bones
26:04it gets
26:05in
26:06your
26:07system.
26:08How many
26:09bones are
26:10there in
26:11the human
26:12body?
26:13I have
26:14no
26:15idea.
26:16Some
26:17people
26:18say
26:19there's
26:20206
26:21some
26:22say
26:23there's
26:24212
26:25unless
26:26you're
26:27a
26:28child
26:29and in
26:30a
26:31child
26:32there are
26:33more
26:34than
26:35that
26:36because
26:37there's
26:38a
26:39constant
26:40turnover
26:41of
26:42bone.
26:43So
26:44it's
26:45rather
26:46brilliant
26:47isn't
26:48it?
26:49Oh
26:50it's
26:51incredible
26:52it's
26:53an
26:54engineering
26:55miracle.
26:56Sadly
26:57however
26:58the
26:59miracle
27:00sometimes
27:01falls
27:02apart.
27:03Why
27:04when we
27:05get
27:06osteoporosis
27:07does it
27:08act
27:09as a
27:10hormone
27:11acts
27:12as a
27:13protector
27:14to
27:15bone?
27:16Osteoporosis
27:17affects
27:18one
27:19in
27:20five
27:21women
27:22and
27:23one
27:24in
27:2520
27:26men
27:27but
27:28why?
27:29Sue
27:30shows
27:31me
27:32exactly
27:33what
27:34happens
27:35when
27:36you
27:37have
27:38osteoporosis
27:39and
27:40sometimes
27:41they
27:42won't.
27:43So
27:44if you
27:45have
27:46more
27:47and
27:48more
27:49micro
27:50fractures
27:51you
27:52will
27:53get
27:54to
27:55a
27:56point
27:57where
27:58it's
27:59no
28:00longer
28:01a
28:02structure
28:03that
28:04can
28:05protect
28:06you
28:07from
28:08death.
28:09It
28:10is
28:11impossible
28:12to
28:13imagine
28:14human
28:15life
28:16without
28:17them.
28:18Weight
28:19bearing
28:20exercises
28:21like
28:22running
28:23or
28:24dancing
28:25are
28:26very
28:27important
28:28for
28:29preventing
28:30bone
28:31damage
28:32and
28:33weight
28:34bearing
28:35exercises
28:36are
28:37a
28:38great
28:39way
28:40to
28:41keep
28:42your
28:43bones
28:44strong
28:45but
28:46other
28:47forms
28:48of
28:49exercise
28:50like
28:51having
28:52a
28:53swim
28:54also
28:55come
28:56with
28:57benefits.
28:58Up
28:59on
29:00the
29:01Ayrshire
29:02coast
29:03there
29:04is
29:05a
29:06place
29:07where
29:08you
29:09can
29:10feel
29:11safe.
29:12It
29:13is
29:14a
29:15place
29:16where
29:17you
29:18can
29:19feel
29:20safe.
29:21It
29:22is
29:23a
29:24place
29:25where
29:26you
29:27can
29:28feel
29:29safe.
29:30It
29:32is
29:33a
29:35place
29:36where
29:37you
29:38can
29:39feel
29:40safe
29:41and
29:42But what actually goes on inside your body when you go into cold water?
29:46What are the health benefits and what are the risks?
29:57Back down south with the temperature still less than tropical,
30:00physiologist Professor Mike Tipton wants to put me to the test.
30:06Hi Mike, nice to see you.
30:08I feel a bit of a fraud I must admit because I've got all this on at the moment.
30:11It'll still work for you in terms of getting a cold stimulus.
30:15We don't mind people wearing wetsuits if that's the way they're going to start.
30:18What I do is I go straight in.
30:20I assume that's probably all wrong.
30:22Yeah, when you actually get to the point of going into the water,
30:25you go in slowly because we want to avoid a big cold shock response.
30:28Yeah, gasping and hyperventilation and a big workload on your heart.
30:32You're a tropical animal.
30:34You want to be in 28 degree air doing not very much
30:37and you're taking that body and plunging it into 12 degree water.
30:40It's a stress.
30:41I think it's probably about time I actually went in.
30:44You going to join me?
30:44No.
30:54Oh, that is cold.
30:56Go in slowly and wait until you get your breathing under control
30:59before you launch into anything.
31:05When do you do that?
31:06When it gets to the nether regions.
31:11Woo!
31:14The hands are quite...
31:16And that's because there's no blood flow there.
31:18Look, if I just pinch your back of your hand there, it's staying white.
31:22The refill time is really long
31:24because your body's shut down the blood flow to the extremities
31:27to keep your brain and your heart and your central and critical organs warm.
31:35I feel quite a strong desire to urinate, which is obviously not a good thing.
31:39It's because you've shut down the blood flow to the skin.
31:41All of that's gone centrally, increased central pressure
31:44and your body starts to try and offload that fluid by producing urine.
31:48OK.
31:49But don't.
31:52So, apart from wanting to have a wee,
31:54what happens to our bodies when we swim in cold water?
31:58Your artery's narrow,
32:00so your heart suddenly has to work much harder, pumping blood.
32:03This is why cold water swimming isn't recommended
32:06for anyone with a heart condition.
32:09So that is a potential risk.
32:11But what are the benefits?
32:13The cold also triggers the release of hormones,
32:16which speed up your metabolic rate and may boost your mood.
32:21I'm feeling fairly vigorous,
32:22but the good thing is I've got a smile on my face.
32:24I'm actually feeling quite, you know, cheerful about it.
32:27Yeah, so one of the big pluses that people always report
32:30is for their mental health.
32:31We've had the benefit of you being alert, awakened,
32:34because that's the cold shock response,
32:35just pouring stress hormones into the system.
32:38The other thing we hear quite a lot about
32:40is in terms of immune function.
32:41Yeah.
32:42And so you'll have people saying,
32:46since I've done open water swimming,
32:47since I've done wild swimming, I haven't had a cold.
32:49Jury's out on that.
32:50There's not really been a very carefully controlled study.
32:55Yeah.
32:56But how long do you need?
32:58Two or three minutes.
32:59Get that cold shock response,
33:00get the release of the stress hormones.
33:02Then get out.
33:03And then get out.
33:04If you are a novice, it's best to join a swimming group
33:08or try something more gentle, like a cold shower.
33:11I wash in warm water, then switch to cold
33:13and stand there for about 40 seconds.
33:16Others prefer a dip in a chilli bath.
33:20And speaking of chilli baths,
33:24have you ever wondered how much saliva or spectrum you produce?
33:28Well, it's about one litre a day.
33:31And that would be enough over the course of three months
33:35to fill a bath of this size.
33:38And in fact, over a lifetime,
33:40you would be able to fill around 320 baths.
33:47So why do we need to produce so much saliva?
33:55Well, amongst other things,
33:58Well, amongst other things,
34:00producing saliva helps us to swallow,
34:03something we do as much as 500 times a day.
34:08I've agreed to have a camera put somewhere uncomfortable
34:11to get a proper look at how it all works.
34:14I'm in the capable hands of consultant Suzanne Slade.
34:18Hi.
34:19Hi.
34:19Come on in.
34:20Have a seat.
34:21Going to have a peer down my throat, eh?
34:24And don't worry.
34:26Only up, not that much, is going to go through your nose.
34:31Okay, there's a camera on the end here.
34:32So it's going to light everything up on the inside.
34:37Okay, I'm going to be brave.
34:38Here we go.
34:39Just breathing in and out.
34:42So we're just heading along the floor of the nose now.
34:45We're going to be very, very gentle.
34:46Oh, that's weird.
34:47We're almost there.
34:49And we're really sitting and looking down into your voice box.
34:53Oh.
34:54Absolutely fantastic.
34:56And if you give us a little chuckle,
34:58then we see the vocal cords tapping together.
35:00Hee hee hee.
35:01Hee hee hee.
35:03So this is really the opening to both my breathing
35:07and also to my food, if you like.
35:11You want to eat and drink,
35:14but you don't want to eat and drink at the same time.
35:17And drink, but you don't want any of that stuff to go down into your lungs.
35:21Absolutely.
35:22So in the centre of your throat here,
35:24we're seeing the entrance to the lungs.
35:26If you were to, this is a bit crude,
35:28but if you were to belch, we might actually see the,
35:31oh, there we go, the opening of your food pipe.
35:34Are you happy to take a bite of banana?
35:37So, and we can see,
35:40see the base of the tongue, which is at the bottom of the screen.
35:43And that's you just chewing, getting that banana ready.
35:46Here it's coming to the epiglottis and then it's gone.
35:49There's a little structure called the epiglottis,
35:51and that flips back and almost puts a lid on the entrance to your windpipe.
35:56Your epiglottis flips back and forth every time you swallow.
36:00This tiny flap of cartilage allows you to safely swallow
36:04and breathe without having to think about it.
36:06If you had a swallowing problem,
36:08if you'd had a stroke or something like that,
36:10then dealing with the saliva can be a huge issue.
36:12If you're not swallowing,
36:14then it can just trickle down into the larynx and then into your lungs.
36:18Very fine balancing act, isn't it?
36:19It absolutely is.
36:20I think I need to have it out now.
36:25Ah!
36:27Well done.
36:28Huge amounts not, thank you for this.
36:29I probably need more.
36:33Swallowing is a complex process.
36:35Under direction from your brain,
36:37your throat muscles must all work together,
36:40which is why swallowing can sometimes be affected by problems
36:43with your nervous system.
36:49Back in Dundee,
36:50the operation to treat Thomas's essential tremor,
36:53caused by malfunctioning circuits in his brain and nervous system,
36:57has reached a critical point.
36:59It was going really, really well,
37:00and they're hoping to push it further,
37:02but in a moment,
37:03Tom is being violently sick in there,
37:05everyone's kind of gathered.
37:11Before that happened,
37:12the team managed to successfully bombard a tiny area in his brain
37:16with ultrasound waves,
37:18and the impact of that on his tremor has been dramatic.
37:24Wow, the changes from the beginning.
37:27You pleased?
37:28Oh, it's amazing.
37:30It's stressful, but you're so pleased.
37:33I'm just shaking from the experience.
37:38I'm so grateful to everybody.
37:44Amazingly, later that afternoon,
37:46Thomas is up and about.
37:48I noticed a change right away.
37:51It's improved far, far more than I thought it would.
37:55It'll really make a life-changing difference.
38:03I haven't been able to drink
38:05with my right hand for years.
38:08Previously, that would have been down my chin and onto my jersey,
38:13and that is no problem at all now.
38:18You know, pretty close to a miracle, I would say.
38:23What I've seen today is absolutely astonishing.
38:26The idea that you can use ultrasound to destroy a tiny part of the brain,
38:31and by doing that, give Tom his life back,
38:34is absolutely mind-boggling.
38:36Coming up, what causes deadly blood clots to form in your heart?
38:40Your heart is a wonderful organ.
38:42The electrical system which drives it is also remarkable,
38:45until it goes wrong.
38:48I take a test to see if I'm at risk of having a stroke in a most unlikely location.
38:53Nervous at all?
38:54Yes.
38:56And you have enough blood vessels in your body
38:59to stretch from Land's End to Jono Groats.
39:02True or false?
39:04False.
39:11Right, that's my heart, yes?
39:13Seeing the fatty plaques in my coronary arteries,
39:16the vessels that supply blood to my heart,
39:18hammered home just how important it is to protect those arteries.
39:23But coronary arteries are just one part of a vast circulatory system.
39:28If you were to take all the blood vessels in the human body,
39:31how far do you think they would stretch?
39:37Once around a track?
39:38Twice?
39:42No, the average human body contains 60,000 miles of blood vessels,
39:48or about 240,000 times around this track.
39:53That is like traveling from Land's End to Jono Groats, more than 70 times.
39:59And if any of those major blood vessels gets damaged, you could have a stroke.
40:04To find out more, we need to go deep inside the heart.
40:09If you could be inside your heart when it pumps, it would feel something like this.
40:15Every second of every day, your heart beats away to its own rhythm.
40:20And as you speed up, or indeed slow down,
40:23your heart does likewise, without you having to think about it.
40:29Those changes are driven by a small cluster of blood vessels in the heart.
40:34And that's what we're going to look at today.
40:36And we're going to look at the heart's heart rate,
40:38which is the heart rate of a human heart.
40:41Those changes are driven by a small cluster of specialized cells,
40:45which send electrical signals to the different chambers of your heart,
40:49making them beat in a coordinated way.
40:56But sometimes the signaling becomes faulty.
41:06If the heart starts to beat erratically, then it's known as arrhythmia.
41:10And the commonest form of arrhythmia is atrial fibrillation, otherwise known as AF.
41:15Now, this is a serious condition, and it needs to be detected early.
41:20If your heart isn't pumping as it should,
41:22blood can hang around inside the heart too long, and dangerous clots form.
41:29If a clot breaks off, travels to the brain, and blocks blood flow, that can cause a stroke.
41:40Here in Liverpool, they're working on a novel way
41:43to detect those dangerous arrhythmias and prevent strokes.
41:47I'm off to try it out with the help from some of the locals.
41:54Hello, everyone.
41:55Hello.
41:56So you're all here to see how good your heart's done.
41:59Just how common is atrial fibrillation?
42:03Professor Ian Jones is an expert in cardiology.
42:06The incidence of AF is only 1.5% roughly in the population.
42:10As you get older, it increases,
42:12so the older population are more likely to pick that up.
42:15Ian and his team have come up with a novel way to detect undiagnosed atrial fibrillation.
42:21Enter the humble shopping trolley.
42:27But these are no ordinary shopping trolleys.
42:29Hidden in their handles is a simple yet powerful bit of information.
42:33Hidden in their handles is a simple yet powerful bit of tech.
42:41So the sensor inside the middle of the handle is an ECG sensor,
42:45so it will measure the person's heartbeat,
42:47their heart rhythm, over a period of one minute.
42:50And as they're gripping the trolley, it will record it.
42:52So just push the trolley around as you would do normally.
42:54Nervous at all?
42:56Yes.
42:56Will the trolleys detect dodgy heartbeats in our group or in me?
43:05So the way this works is I'm just strolling around,
43:09but I'm also gripping this metal handle,
43:11and what it's doing is essentially measuring the electrical activity of my heart.
43:16Lights on the trolley turn red if you have an abnormal heartbeat.
43:20I'm hoping it's going to be green.
43:23And there it goes.
43:24So they're coming around now.
43:25It'll be interesting to see whose light is flashing what.
43:27Hey, hi there.
43:28Hello.
43:30OK, so you are green.
43:31Well done.
43:33So you're green as well?
43:34I am.
43:34Marvellous.
43:35Hi.
43:36Hello.
43:37Right, so what do we see?
43:39Green, OK, coming by.
43:42I am green.
43:43You are green, marvellous.
43:46Ian has already conducted a study involving over 2,000 people,
43:502,000 people, which found 59 new cases of unsuspected cardiac arrhythmia,
43:57suggesting this ingenious idea really could save lives.
44:01Do you think it's a good idea, a bad idea?
44:02Is it a bit invasive?
44:03I think it's brilliant.
44:05It's not taking any time out of your day that you wouldn't be spending anyway.
44:09Also, what we're talking about preventing here is strokes,
44:13and strokes are devastating conditions.
44:15I always think you're only one blood clot away from a life-changing event.
44:19Good motto.
44:20As well as atrial fibrillation,
44:25another very common cause of stroke is having high blood pressure.
44:29So if you haven't had it done recently, do get yourself tested.
44:34Your heart is a wonderful organ.
44:36The electrical system which drives it is also remarkable, until it goes wrong.
44:41Then you're probably going to be grateful to people like Ian,
44:44who are devising ingenious ways to detect it,
44:47and others who are finding better ways to treat it.
44:50And here's another surprising way to protect your heart.
44:54Brush and floss.
44:55Bacteria in the mouth that cause gum disease
44:58have been linked to an increased risk of heart problems.
45:01So to help your heart, take care of your teeth.
45:05There's still so much more to discover about the wonders of the human body.
45:11That's the head of a femur.
45:13Next time, one in ten of us will need a new hip at some point.
45:18We film a fascinating hip replacement operation.
45:21You're seeing a lot of pain.
45:22Activate.
45:23People often complain about stress, but it can be a good thing.
45:28To explore what stress really does to your body, I go way out of my comfort zone.
45:32I am feeling sort of panic.
45:35And I reveal three things you at home can do to reduce your blood pressure,
45:40without needing to join a gym.
45:42This is a real thigh burner.
45:45Those wonders of the human body, next Thursday at 8.
45:48Tomorrow, a shopping trip cut short by cardiac arrest in new Rescue 999.
45:54The air ambulance crew have seconds to save a life at 8.
45:57Next, how did prosecutors prove him guilty?
46:01With dramatic and vivid recollections,
46:03the trial of Harold Shipman, brand new in just a moment.
46:14you