Health Check

Claudia visits the University of Sussex to undergo a novel treatment for her spider phobia. She meets Professor Sarah Garfinkel, from Sussex University in the UK, who has trialled a new technique which involves tuning in to the beat of a heart and finding a quicker way to dampen down and reduce arachnophobia. Does this new technique cure Claudia of her long term hatred of spiders? And does it allow her to get closer to Terry the tarantula? Have you ever worked in a big open plan office where there are daily thermostat wars? It is often a problem in air conditioned offices, with some people preferring a cold ambient temperature and others feeling so cold they have to bring in extra items of clothing to wear. Women generally prefer higher indoor temperatures than men, which is well supported by survey evidence, but could it have an impact on cognitive performance? New research from the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre, looking at the differences in gender for the first time, suggests this is the case. Dr Agne Kajackaite is lead author of the study, which has recently been published in the journal PLOS One. When women are pregnant they release more of a hormone called relaxin. This hormone peaks in the first and third trimester; helping an embryo successfully implant in the uterus, and also helping to relax the ligaments in the pelvis to aid childbirth. An orthopaedic surgeon in the US noticed that when his patients had stiff, frozen elbow, they eased during and after pregnancy and he wondered whether this was due to their increased levels of relaxin. A team then conducted a study in rats to see whether injections of relaxin could help with frozen shoulder, a condition where connective tissues around the joint become thickened and stiff. It can cause a lot of pain and make it very hard to move. Mark Grinstaff, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Medicine at Boston University in the US, tells Claudia that the injections seemed to work in rats, and that the use of relaxin could be a very promising treatment for other musculoskeletal diseases. The results have just been published in the journal PNAS. (Photo caption: Young child surprised by a wasp spider – credit: Getty Images) Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond with comments from BBC Health and Science correspondent, James Gallagher. Producer: Helena Selby

The Tour de France starts next month and athletes competing will be undertaking an extraordinary feat of human endurance, spending three weeks battling up mountains and cycling more than 3000km. But despite benefitting from lighter bikes and advances in nutritional science, the times they achieve have not changed that much in the last 35 years. And new research has confirmed that humans are indeed close to reaching their physiological limits of endurance. Herman Pontzer, Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health, and his team at Duke University have been studying people doing all sorts of extreme endurance events; including a race from one coast of the US to the other where competitors run a marathon a day, six days a week for almost five months. They reveal a clear metabolic ceiling to human endurance, suggesting that the maximum effort that humans can sustain over days, weeks, and months is strongly tied to our ability to consume calories. The results have just been published in the journal Science Advances. In the UK there is a national cervical cancer screening programme which invites women between the ages of 25 to 64 for tests every three to five years. The test is commonly known as a Pap smear test and involves a nurse inserting a speculum into the vagina to take a cell sample from the cervix. Women often find the test uncomfortable and attendance rates at cervical screening have reached a 21-year low in the UK, so researchers are now looking towards a new method - self-testing - which is already part of the national screening programme in the Netherlands and Australia. And it is about to be introduced in other countries as well, as Hannah Fisher reports from London. As children get older, their bones become denser and stronger and peak maximum bone density occurs when adults are in their 30s. By the time people reach old age, women in particular are at risk of osteoporosis, where bones become so weak that they can fracture. But new research on the prevalence of osteopenia, a precursor to osteoporosis, has surprised researchers, who have found that men between the ages of 35 and 50 are more at risk than women. Allison Ford-Wade, Professor of Health, Exercise Science and Recreation Management at the University of Mississippi, is lead author of the study, which has recently been published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. (Photo caption: Tour of Italy cycle race – credit: Luk Benies/AFP/Getty Images) Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond with comments from family doctor Ann Robinson. Producer: Helena Selby

It is well known that it is healthier to eat fresh food than processed food, but it tends to be assumed that this is because the processed food is often high in salt, fat and sugar. But if a person eats ultra-processed foods with the same nutritional value as fresh food, would they gain weight? According to a lab experiment done recently, the answer is yes. Participants ate on average an additional 508 calories per day on the ultra-processed diet and after two weeks gained an average of two pounds. Kevin Hall from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases was senior investigator on the study, which has recently been published in the journal Cell Metabolism. The controversy surrounding the athlete Caster Semenya is raising awareness of differences of sex development, or DSD. There are about 40 different known pathways an embryo can take towards DSD, affecting the production of, or sensitivity to sex hormones, which in turn can impact on genital development and fertility. This is very rare; in the UK for example, just 150 children are diagnosed each year. A new report out this week from the British charity DSD Families is calling for children, young people and families living with different sex development to be given a voice and a better say in their healthcare. Angela Robson reports for Health Check. It is the time of year that is traditionally the start of the summer swimming season in the US. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, warns that this is also the peak season for injuries caused by the chlorine, bromine and acid used to disinfect pools. Data shows that more than 4,500 people visit hospital emergency departments each year as a result of these chemical injuries. Michele Hlavsa is chief of the Health Swimming programme at the CDC. (Photo caption: A selection of processed food and drink – credit: Getty Images) Health Check was presented by Claudia Hammond with comments from Matthew Fox, Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health at Boston University, USA. Producer: Helena Selby

The results of a medical trial called RESTART may be a game changer when it comes to the treatment of patients after a brain haemorrhage. More than a third of these patients take regular blood thinning medication such as aspirin after having had a heart attack or stroke in the past. And after a brain haemorrhage this leaves doctors with a dilemma. Should the antiplatelet medicines be restarted to prevent future heart attacks or could that increase the chances of another brain haemorrhage? Often doctors are reluctant to take the risk. Researchers led by a team at the University of Edinburgh have conducted a randomised controlled trial comparing patients who were restarted on their medication after a brain haemorrhage with those that were not. The surprising results have just been published in the journal Lancet, and lead author professor Rustam al-Shahi Salman tells Claudia what they found. About 12 to 15% of the world's gold comes from artisanal mining where people work with whatever tools they have to hand. In some countries, such as Kenya, mercury is used to separate the gold from the rock; workers burn the amalgam, sluice it by hand or even put it between their teeth to squeeze out the gold. But touching, inhaling or ingesting mercury has long been known to cause serious health issues such as neurological problems, cancers, miscarriage or damage to a pregnant women’s foetus. Hannah McNeish visited Migori County in Kenya to look at attempts to prevent poisoning from becoming a major public health problem. Every day more than 7,000 people are bitten by snakes, and even though anti-venoms are effective, approximately 300 of those die. As well as people dying, many others are left with serious disabilities, which can leave whole families destitute. This week the World Health Organisation, or WHO, launched a new road map to try to tackle the problem once and for all. And the Wellcome Trust has also just announced that they are investing more than 100 million dollars in scientific research looking at anti-venoms. Dr Bernadette Abela-Ridder is team leader for neglected zoonotic diseases in the Department for the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases of the WHO. (Photo: Senior man taking pills at home. Credit: Getty Images) Health Check is presented by Claudia Hammond with comments from BBC Health and Science correspondent, James Gallagher. Producer: Helena Selby