This Discovery documentary deals with a very rare and unusual prion disease called Fatal Familial Insomnia or FFI for short. FFI is a prion disease that targets the thalamus, of which of its many functions is the sleep regulator of the body. The prions form aggregates of amyloid plaques that destroy the neurons in this area. The age of onset is variable, ranging from 30 to 60
36-year old, Dede, from Indonesia is afflicted with a terrible disease that is encasing his body with tree like roots. Thick branch like growths on his hands and feet make him incapable of carrying out even the simplest tasks. He can no longer work, therefore, he cannot provide financially for his 2 teenage children. The tree like roots on Dede’s body grow up to 5cm
Homeopathy was pioneered over 200 years ago. Practitioners and patients are convinced it has the power to heal. Today, some of the most famous and influential people in the world, including pop stars, politicians, footballers and even Prince Charles, all use homeopathic remedies. Yet according to traditional science, they are wasting their money. Skeptic
Every year millions of people in Britain try to lose weight, and most fail. We are constantly bombarded with advice about dieting and the latest slimming fads. But what really works? In this programme, medical journalist Michael Mosley investigates the latest scientific breakthroughs in slimming, uncovering ten of the simplest ways you can shed those pounds. From the
The world is affected by an obesity epidemic, but why is it that not everyone is succumbing? Medical science has been obsessed with this subject and is coming up with some unexpected answers. As it turns out, it is not all about exercise and diet. At the center of this programme is a controversial overeating experiment that aims to identify exactly what it is about some
With the world shocked by rising food prices, and millions in the developing world struggling to get enough to eat, the problem of food security is right back on the world’s agenda. And with the world’s population likely to rise to nine billion in the next few decades, feeding the world is going to become an ever-greater problem. Are transgenic crops the answer to the problem, or do
The 2006 cinéma vérité documentary film, THIN, directed by Lauren Greenfield and distributed by HBO, is an exploration of The Renfrew Center in Coconut Creek, Florida; a 40-bed residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders. The film mostly revolves around four women with anorexia nervosa and/or bulimia and their struggles for
Nuclear Nightmares talks about how “radiophobia”, the fear of radioactivity, is widespread and yet not based on scientific evidence. After the Chernobyl accident, a lot of death toll numbers appeared in the news, some close to 400.000 people dead, but the reality is the only 57 (yes, 57) deaths can be directly or indirectly linked to the accident. It appears that