Obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Adam Urato, explains why he is concerned about the huge increase in medications now taken by pregnant women. A figure that has surged in the last few decades. Across the world, women are taking more drugs than ever before while pregnant. In the US, around 90% of women expecting a baby will now take some kind of medication during pregnancy

Adam argues the notion a drug is safe until proved otherwise goes completely against the precautionary principle and common sense.

He was one of the first doctors to highlight the risks of a synthetic hormone called Makena, which was supposed to reduce the risk of preterm birth. It was on the market for two decades, even when the evidence showed it didn’t work, it took a further four years to get it withdrawn.

Today Adam is particularly concerned about the number of women taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors - or SSRIs for short -  in pregnancy and doesn’t believe they are usually fully informed about the risk.

Yet studies have shown that the medications can increase the likelihood of miscarriage, birth defects, an early birth, a low birth weight and postpartum haemorrhage. In some cases, there also appears to be a potential impact on the baby after birth.

Dr Adam Urato is a board certified obstetrician and gynaecologist, who trained at Harvard Medical School and  who practices in Massachusetts in the US. He has a particular interest in the risks and benefits of medications during pregnancy and has written a number of peer-reviewed papers on the topic.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

NHS consultant neurologist Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan argues that a range of medical conditions from autism to ADHD are now overdiagnosed, which is completely redefining how we think about sickness and disease. In a new book The Age of Diagnosis; Sickness, Health and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far, she explains why she believes that creating large numbers of new diagnoses, carries risks for both our mental and physical wellbeing and can turn healthy people into patients.

Suzanne is convinced that we should be cautious about having unnecessary medical tests and investigations that may cause more harm than good.

And she reveals, perhaps surprisingly, that apart from a small benefit for large bowel cancer, cancer screening has not been shown to have an impact on all cause mortality. Suggesting that although we may be finding cancer earlier, we are not necessarily saving lives.

The Age of Diagnosis; Sickness, Health and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far by Suzanne O'Sullivan is published by Hodder.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Dr Bill Harris discusses the critical impact the Omega 3 fatty acids have - not just on our heart health - but on a myriad of other medical conditions.

Bill was one of the earliest researchers in this field. Ever since he gave a fascinating presentation at the Integrative and Personalised Medical Congress in London last year, I’ve been really keen to get him on the podcast.

In our conversation, Bill stresses why he believes the UK NHS's advice on limiting our oily fish intake is inaccurate and badly out-of-date. He reveals why getting enough Omega 3 is crucial.

And in what will be a surprise to many, Bill explains that he doesn’t believe seed oils are problematic and why it is important we also get enough omega 6, which these oils contain.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

In the very first episode of the new season of Medical Evidence Matters with Liz Tucker formerly known as What Your GP Doesn't Tell you, Liz Tucker talks to medical doctor and researcher, Dr William Li who has treated some of the toughest cancer cases imaginable.

He argues for the 21st century treatment of cancer, the solution lies not in a single silver bullet but in an integrative approach. In addition to traditional cancer therapies this also includes newer ones such as immunotherapy and takes into account factors such as the gut biome.

Published research now suggests that the health of someone’s gut biome and the particular species of bacteria it contains can make a genuine difference in their body’s ability to fight cancer. William believes it’s essential doctors use all the tools at their disposal to provide the most effective treatment possible.

In a number of patients, including his own mother who faced a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Using a multi-factorial methodology, William has been able to successfully treating cancer cases which initially appeared to have extremely bleak diagnoses.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

GP Dr Safia Debar discusses how we can leverage emerging knowledge of neuroscience to help us more effectively manage our stress.

This is something, she has personal knowledge of after finding herself burnt out as a GP, when she turned to her first degree in neuroscience to see how it could help her rethink her approach.

Safia argues it is not so much the stress that we face, but how we think about that stress and the processes that we put in place to manage it.

It is now implicated in almost every disease you can think of and intriguing new research suggests that using meditation as a calming technique, doesn't just affect the mind, but can create genuine biological change, switching our genes on and off.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Psychiatrist Professor Joanna Moncrieff discusses her new book Chemical Imbalance: The Making and the Unmaking of the Serotonin Myth.

I first spoke to Joanna two years ago, just after she had published a review paper suggesting that there was no link between depression and an imbalance of serotonin in the brain.

And her book picks up what happened next. As her article gained more and more attention, she found herself in a political maelstrom facing vitriolic personal and professional criticism.

Because if the serotonin hypothesis was false, what could be the possible grounds for prescribing the popular antidepressants - the selective serotonin uptake inhibitors - better known as the SSRIs?  It’s been claimed in the past they can alter brain chemistry and correct imbalances, but how can they work if Joanna is right and no imbalance exists?

What followed illustrates the fierce political divide in psychiatry between those who remain sceptical of her claims and believe that the current medication for depression is a vital tool and those such as Joanna who are unconvinced by its value.

And we also discuss why much to her surprise, Joanna – although she has always been a socialist -  found far more sympathy for her research from right wing media sources rather than the left.

Chemical Imbalance: The Making and the Unmaking of the Serontonin Myth by Joanna Moncrieff is published by Flint Books.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Dr Louise Newson, who runs a menopause clinic, discusses many of the myths about Hormone Replacement Therapy for women - or HRT for short. What are the risks? Who should take it and for how long? It's a subject which has been much misunderstood.

Too frequently, women in either the years leading up to the menopause or during the menopause itself, get misdiagnosed when they go to see their GP about symptoms. That can mean they end up on antidepressants, sleeping pills and potentially a cascade of other drugs, some of which may be very difficult to stop once they start, and don’t actually treat the underlying issues caused by the menopause.

Shockingly, Louise has even met women who have been given electro-convulsive therapy for their menopausal symptoms.

Recently, there has also been controversy about dosage levels of HRT and why doctors like Louise sometimes prescribe higher doses of the hormone estradiol. But she argues this is because these women are poor absorbers of HRT. They need higher levels of the hormone to achieve an effective level of estradiol in their bloodstream.

In a recent paper, she and colleagues explored the variation in estradiol levels in women using transdermal patches.

Louise Newson's book: The Definitive Guide to the Perimenopause and Menopause is published by Yellow Kite.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Journalist Katherine Eban's investigation over more than ten years has uncovered one of the most shocking medical scandals imaginable, which affects millions of patients across the world.

In this podcast, she discusses the shocking reality of what happens or perhaps more accurately what doesn’t happen, when generic drugs that we import, are manufactured in countries with poor regulations.

When a drug is first approved, it is released with its own brand name, but once the drug’s  patent expires, then other manufacturers are allowed to make cheaper generic versions of the same medication.

Now most patients and indeed many doctors think these generic drugs are the same as the brand name ones - but they are not. Current regulations only require the medications to be "bioequivalent" and they also allowed to have very different absorption rates, so may work very differently to the brand name pharmaceuticals, which has huge implications for patients.

But although that is worrying enough, many of the world’s generic drugs are made in India and China - where as Katherine explains -  there is little regulation and they can be made very cheaply. In what was India’s largest pharmaceutical company – Ranbaxy - 200 of its generic drugs were revealed to have been filed with the US drug regulator, the FDA, with inadequate, falsified or completely missing data. And furthermore in other companies, an FDA investigator found in over 80 plants in India and China he visited, 80% had falsified data.

These generic drugs are sold into every country, so may well end up on the shelves of your local pharmacy, so what can we do as patients and doctors to protect ourselves?

On her website, Katherine gives some tips for consumers in  A Guide To Investigating Your Own Drugs.

Bottle of Lies: Ranbaxy and the Dark Side of Indian Pharma by Katherine Eban is published by Juggernaut.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Norwegian GP Dr Torkil Færø argues wearable devices that measure our heart rate and other health metrics, if used in the right way can be transformative in keeping us healthy and helping prevent disease in the future.

In his book, The Pulse Cure, he explains why he thinks far more attention should be paid to a key metric which turns out to give a surprisingly accurate snapshot of our level of stress and overall health -  and that is our heart rate variability or HRV for short.

Torkil explains what it is and simple steps we can all take to improve our heart rate variability. Remarkably, it turns out that drops in our HRV may predict future illness and a higher heart rate variability has even been correlated with a better performing immune system.

The Pulse Cure - The Revolutionary Way to Balance Stress, Optimise Health and Live Longer by Torkil Færø is published by Quercus.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/

Whistleblower Dr Carl Elliott's life changed for ever, when he tried to alert his university about the running of a drug trial which had resulted in the suicide of a patient. A patient whose mother felt should never have been enrolled in a trial in the first place.

Carl’s battle came at a huge personal and emotional cost and at the end of years of campaigning and lobbying, little had really changed.

His disillusioning experience as a whistleblower has driven him to meet others who have had similar experiences. And it seems few escape with their careers and personal lives intact.  In a new book: The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the The Price of Saying No, published by WW. Norton and Company, Carl reveals  his own personal painful story and that of other medical whistleblowers too.

If you would like to support this podcast you can do so via Patreon at or via PayPal.

The host of the podcast, Liz Tucker is an award winning medical journalist and former BBC producer and director.  You can follow Liz on Twitter at https://twitter.com/lizctucker and read her Substack newsletter about the podcast at https://liztucker.substack.com

Medical Matters with Liz Tucker has been selected by Feedspot as one of the top 15 UK Medical Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_medical_podcasts/