Migraine, Iron overload, Redefining low-risk cancers
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A new handheld device for migraine is being pioneered at Guys and St Thomas's Hospital in London. Using single pulses of transcranial magnetic stimulation the device is helping prevent and treat migraines in people who haven't responded well to other treatments. Dr Anna Andreou, director of headache research, and nurse specialist, Bethany Hill talk Mark through how it works.
Some people, particular of North European and Irish ancestry have the faulty genes that mean they are unable to get rid of excess iron in the body. This can lead to symptoms ranging from tiredness, joint pain, and diabetes to skin discolouring and liver disease. New research has shown the condition is far more common than has been previously thought and is often missed as a diagnosis. Haematologist at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow, Ted Fitzsimons and epidemiologist, David Melzer of the University of Exeter, talk testing and treatment for iron overload, or haemochromatosis.
Cancer is an umbrella term which covers a spectrum of disease. Some cancers, like lung cancer grow and spread rapidly. But others like some forms of breast, thyroid and prostate cancer have a less than 5% chance of progressing over twenty years. So should we redefine low risk cancers? GP Margaret McCartney and consultant histopathologist, Murali Varma of University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff discuss this question.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.5 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:34.8 | Hello, coming up today, redefining cancer. The idea that you can detect too many cancers |
| 0:41.1 | may seem counterintuitive, but overdiagnosis is worrying many doctors, as well as potentially |
| 0:47.3 | harming a lot of patients. Is it time we stop using the term cancer to describe low-risk tumours |
| 0:54.0 | and iron, an essential mineral, but a very toxic one in the world. we stop using the term cancer to describe low-risk tumours, |
| 1:00.3 | and iron, an essential mineral, but a very toxic one if levels in the body rise too high, |
| 1:03.1 | as they do in people with haemochromatosis. |
| 1:08.4 | It is, in many ways, described as the most common condition you have never heard of. |
| 1:14.8 | More on identifying haemochromatosis later, but first the novel approach to treating migraine. |
| 1:21.8 | Transcranial magnetic stimulation or TMS has been approved by Nice and is being pioneered in the NHS by the Headache Centre at Guy's St Thomas's Hospital in London, and it's offering it to people |
| 1:26.3 | who failed to get relief |
| 1:27.8 | from more conventional treatments, ranging from fast-relieving drugs like Sumatriptan to daily |
| 1:33.1 | preventive medicine and even Botox injections. Barry Simner started getting severe migraines in his |
| 1:39.2 | 50s. They went from really sort of a very bad headache type hangover type headache to really sharp |
| 1:46.0 | pains in my head so that you wanted to really close both eyes and hold your head. |
| 1:50.9 | But then as time went on, the severity of them became extreme, particularly in my right eye |
| 1:56.9 | where it was almost like some sharp object was being pushed into my eye and I just couldn't |
... |
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