Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast,

The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's

Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials

from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommasanganaethon. However, and maybe I'm biased,

it's really all about the traitors uncloked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and

podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. Hello, thank you for listening to this edition of

Inside Health. I hope you enjoy it. Coming up in today's program, thermometers, which type

your family should be using and which they shouldn't.

Vitamins and dementia could supplements that lower the levels of the amino acid homocysteine

slow the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

High homocystain in the population is associated with a doubling of the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

And what sort of proportion of the UK population would have higher than normal levels?

The over 60s, about half of the over 60s in this country will have raised levels of homocysteine.

That's about 7 million people.

More on the homocysteine controversy later,

but first new data suggesting that too many people in the UK

are dying following emergency bowel surgery

because best practice isn't being followed.

Laparotomy involves opening up the abdomen

to treat life-threatening problems like a perforated bowel,

blockages and bleeds. Close to 40,000 are performed every year in the UK, but figures published

this week suggest that more than one in ten people undergoing emergency laparotomy die within

...