Doctors' Notes: Lymphatic System
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Chris and Xand continue their conversation about the lymphatic system with Professor Kristiana Gordon, a Consultant in Dermatology and Lymphovascular Medicine.
The docs ask about the growing field of lymphoedema research and how our understanding of the lymphatic system has developed in recent years. They also explore primary lymphoedema, a condition caused by genetic errors that can affect children and young people, and ask what advances in understanding its underlying causes might mean for the development of new treatments.
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Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Professor Kristiana Gordon Producer: Claire Justin Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Researcher: Samara Linton Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Visual Producer: Leon Gower Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Olga Reed
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. |
| 0:07.2 | Things just swirling around my head. |
| 0:09.6 | Am I really the product of this? |
| 0:12.1 | Astonishing secrets uncovered by at-home DNA tests. |
| 0:17.0 | Little did I know what more was to come. |
| 0:19.5 | I'm Jenny Clemen, and in the new series of The Gift, we'll hear more stories emerging out of the ever-expanding global DNA database. |
| 0:28.8 | They did know that I was different. |
| 0:31.7 | You had kids together. |
| 0:33.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:33.5 | Then you met. |
| 0:34.3 | Then we met. |
| 0:35.2 | The Gift. |
| 0:36.1 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello, welcome to Doctor's Notes. |
| 0:42.7 | I'm Dr. Chris Van Tiliken, as ever I'm here, with my identical twin brother. |
| 0:46.3 | That's me, Dr. Zand, and we have just finished recording an interview with Professor |
| 0:49.9 | Kristiana Gordon. |
| 0:51.3 | She's a consultant in dermatology and lymphovascular medicine and clinical lead |
| 0:55.5 | at the National Lymphidema Clinic. Now, Zandi, in the main app, we talked about why everyone |
| 1:02.3 | is talking about detoxing and hacking your lymphatic system. And certainly, once you understand it |
| 1:07.9 | and its ability to drain toxins, there's something superficially appealing about giving it a hand, kind of get where the social media hacks come from. |
| 1:17.0 | Well, as always on social media, there's a sort of little kernel of truth. |
... |
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