Doctors' Notes: Calcium
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2026
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Chris and Xand continue their conversation about calcium with Dr Sagen Zac-Varghese.
The docs want to know about common issues that are seen around calcium and bone health, especially osteoporosis. They want to learn how osteoporosis relates to calcium, who is at risk and why it is more common in women. They also want to know what inspired Sagen’s passion for calcium and what we can learn from astronauts about bone health.
If you’d like to share your thoughts on this or any other topic covered on the podcast, you email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or Whatsapp on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Dr Sagen Zac-Varghese Producer: Maia Miller Lewis Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Researcher: Mili Ostojic Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Video Producer: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hello, I've just nipped in before your BBC podcast starts to tell you all about |
| 0:09.4 | You're Dead to Me. We're the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Also from the BBC |
| 0:13.9 | and presented by me, Greg Jenner. I should have told you that at the beginning. Sorry. |
| 0:17.9 | Anyway, like many other BBC podcasts, such as Desert Island Discs, Evil Genius, or In Our Time, your dead to me is available first on BBC Sounds, |
| 0:26.3 | a whole month earlier than anywhere else, in fact. So if you can't wait another day to hear |
| 0:31.2 | the very latest in history and loads of other good stuff, then listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:38.9 | Welcome to Doctor's Notes. |
| 0:44.0 | We've just finished our discussion with Dr. Sergeant Zach the Geese on the topic of calcium. |
| 0:51.7 | She is a consultant, diabetes, endocrinology and general internal medicine specialist. And I think that interview was amazing because it made me inspired |
| 0:55.8 | to look after my calcium levels a bit more. But I didn't feel panicked about it or that I had to |
| 1:01.5 | rush out and buy any supplements or anything. I thought it was really helpful. And the thing that I think |
| 1:07.0 | is so great for this episode of Doctor's Notes is that Sargent is, I would say, |
| 1:11.8 | unusually passionate about calcium. I don't recall ever meeting any, maybe anyone, but certainly |
| 1:18.5 | any medical colleagues who really cared about calcium. You know, we all knew it was important. |
| 1:22.7 | I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who cares about anything quite as much as Sargent cares about |
| 1:26.5 | calcium, parathyroid hormone, |
| 1:29.3 | bone health, and all of the other things she's interested in. |
| 1:32.4 | That's right. So that is what we're digging into in doctor's notes, and especially a bit more |
| 1:36.7 | on osteoporosis. We know there will be lots of listeners who are interested in this. We've had |
| 1:41.8 | lots of people write in about it. We are going to do a separate episode on osteoporosis itself, but we wanted to get a bit further into it with Sargent because |
| 1:49.8 | it tells us a lot about calcium and its management in the body. |
... |
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