Surviving Covid • 2020

60:25

We are living in a time that has been described as the age of loneliness. Statistics reveal that over the last few decades, the number of admittedly lonely people has doubled. Many individuals report they have trouble making friends and finding others to confide in. Despite advances in technology, living conditions, education and healthcare, it's apparent that we are feeling more alone than ever before. While it's true that this isolation impacts us psychologically and emotionally, what many of us don't realize is the negative impact it has on every aspect of our health and well-being. So what's caused this? How have we become so Disconnected? Wellness expert Tamer Soliman attempts to answer these questions by visiting cities across North America. Through interviews with local citizens, community activists, and leading authorities on social, economic and urban design, Tamer discovers the reasons behind this loneliness epidemic and the true cost it has on our lives. This fascinating documentary invites us to reflect on our relationships with those around us and raises the question: Is it possible to overcome our modern day culture of disconnectedness and rediscover how essential we are to each other?

2020 • Health

59:07

Two procedures so formidable, they would not have been attempted even a few years ago. Surgical teams at the Queen Elizabeth are constantly pushing the limits of what is possible. But despite state-of-the-art diagnostic scanning, sometimes cancer surgeons don't know exactly what they are up against until they open the patient up on the operating table. Even with the most meticulous planning, sometimes they must resort to taking critical decisions live in the theatre. 74-year-old Jasmine Harkness has been referred to the specialist sarcoma unit with a vast tumour in her abdomen, weighing more than three stone - a third of her total body weight. It is consuming her, displacing organs including her stomach and liver. Unless it can be removed, she has just four weeks to live. Sarcoma specialists Sam Ford and Professor David Gourevitch can't be sure whether they will be able to save Jasmine until they open her up and inspect her anatomy. Such is the risk of this surgery - five years ago they would not have embarked on this intervention. Sue Sinclair, lead anaesthetist and matriarch of theatre, keeps the others in check - working alongside them as they battle to detach the tumour from Jasmine's organs and blood vessels, and remove it intact. Whenever it presses heavily on vital blood vessels, Jasmine's blood pressure plummets, placing her life in grave danger. It will take unwavering focus to keep her alive. The tumour has grown so invasively that it has crushed and displaced Jasmine's internal organs. Sam and David have a puzzle on their hands to identify what and where everything is. At times, dark humour is the only way to release the tension as they grapple with blood, guts and mind-boggling complexity.

S1E2 • Surgeons: At the Edge of Life • 2018 • Health

52:33

Through the worlds of a religious faster, an ultra-marathon runner, a farmer and a young girl beating allergies, go deep into the world of the human gut, which processes the fuel our bodies need to keep going.

S1E3 • Human: The World Within • 2021 • Health

75:56

Explores the spread of Covid-19 across four continents during 2020. Featuring contributions from medical professionals, a look at the initial outbreak in China and suggestions that the authorities attempted to cover up the danger, and an examination of how the decisions taken by governments and public health officials helped shape the course of the infection.

2021 • Health

57:28

By the middle of January many people struggle to keep up their resolutions to be more active. The result is that the UK wastes nearly £600 million a year on unused gym memberships. But new science has the answers. Medical journalist Michael Mosley teams up with scientists whose latest research is turning common knowledge about fitness on its head. They reveal why 10,000 steps is just a marketing ploy and that two minutes of exercise is all a person needs each week. They discover how to get people to stick to their fitness plans and what exercise can actually make everyone more intelligent. Whether it is for couch potatoes who hate the thought of exercise, someone too busy to consider the gym, or even for fitness fanatics who are desperate to do more - science can help everyone exercise better.

2020 • Health

12:25

In the early days of the space race, agency researchers in Russia and at NASA really weren't sure all what would happen to an astronaut in space. They didn't know if a human mind could handle actually seeing Earth or what would happen to the human body when exposed to long periods of weightlessness. Would their blood forget which way to pump? Would their eyeballs shift or their inner ears wig out? They sent up mice and monkeys and dogs, to see what happened, and in 1961, the Russians strapped a man to a rocket headed for orbit. Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space. The ultimate human guinea pig, he survived, becoming an international hero.

SciShow • 2014 • Health