Health Check

USA gymnast Simone Biles won Olympic bronze but withdrew from earlier events due to ‘The twisties’ and resulting mental health issues. Family Doctor Graham Easton looks at the evidence for what causes this condition.Childhood myopia: A new study finds an increase in childhood short-sightedness during the pandemic. Lead author Jason C. S. Yam explains the potential impact of lockdowns on eye health by increasing close work on screens and decreasing outside activity.Cannabis and vomiting: Alison van Diggelen reports on an under recognised condition, Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome [CHS] where users of marijuana get bouts of vomiting, nausea, and severe abdominal pain that can need hospitalisation. It mostly impacts long term users though some younger people who smoke concentrates only a few times a week have had it too. Severe weight loss and the dehydration caused by vomiting can have long term impacts on the heart, liver and kidneys even causing death in extreme cases. Oxygen monitoring: Updated guidance showing that pulse oximeters – a device designed to measure early signs of a dangerous drop in oxygen - works less well in people with darker skin.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright(Picture: Simone Biles of Team United States competes in the Women's Balance Beam Final on day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo, Japan. Photo credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images.)

New research on Covid vaccination in prisons. Plus can financial incentives like free tuition or free cruises encourage people to get the jab? Samara Linton reports on some surprising examples, while Professor Stephen Higgins reviews the evidence. And does the use of words like "provider" or "customer" subtly change healthcare? Claudia's guest is Matt Fox, Professor of Global Health Epidemiology at Boston University.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright(Picture: Prisoners at the La Modelo Correctional Facility wait to receive a Covid-19 vaccination administered by medical workers in Bogota, Colombia in July 2021. Photo credit: Juancho Torres/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.)

A really intriguing finding on flu vaccines - that they might offer some protection not just against flu, but against the most serious effects of Covid-19 – even though it is of course a completely different virus. Claudia Hammond talks to Dr Devinder Singh who led the research using anonymous medical records from countries including Singapore, Germany, Italy and Israel, which medical researchers can use.Summer viruses And why are some countries in the middle of the summertime, seeing a surge of infections with viruses usually found in winter? In the northern hemisphere there are fears that we’ll see a surge of cases of flu next winter – a twindemic. Why is that? And is this something that will follow the seasons around the world? We hear from Lorna and her daughter Willow on Willow’s persistent cough and from Dr Michelle Jacobs who’s a consultant in paediatric and adult emergency medicine at Watford General Hospital in the UK on concerns of RSV and viral wheeze, and Tracy Hussell, professor in immunology at the University of Manchester on children’s long-term immunity especially for babies who are seeing all these infections for the first time.Downs Syndrome and Covid-19 There’s new research just published in the British Medical Journal looking at how both adults and children with Downs Syndrome have been affected if they contract Covid. Some countries such as India are prioritising vaccination against Covid-19 for adults with Downs Syndrome. University College London’s Professor Monica Lakhanpaul’s work has been instrumental in helping clinics to start vaccinating people in India. And in the UK it’s just been announced that children with Downs Syndrome will be able to get vaccinated, which isn’t the case for all children. Monica explains the relevance of the research and her work in highlighting the issue.Image: Vaccine bottles in a row Credit: Helder Faria/Getty ImagesPresenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright

Claudia Hammond presents three stories where people have helped someone who’s going through mental health difficulties. Dale had spent his childhood playing basketball at an elite level, and when his career stalled he became depressed. A chance meeting with Mike, a customer in the mobile phone shop where Dale was working, has turned his life around. Poppy was going through a very tough time when she was 16, but a teacher at her college called Sophie Durant was determined to give her the chance to talk if she wanted to. Poppy is now about to start to study dance at university. Adam’s teenage daughter Megan knew she suffered from food allergies and was always careful with her diet. One evening five years ago, she had a take-away at a friend’s house. They warned the restaurant about her allergies, but she suffered a severe anaphylactic shock and on New Year’s Day she died. Adam has found great support from a group in the UK for men who’ve been bereaved called StrongMen. It’s never easy to know what to say to a friend or relative who has mental health problems without risking making things worse. Clinical psychologist Linda Blair gives tips on how to handle these conversations.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Pam Rutherford(Picture: A couple hiking in the Austrian mountains. Photo credit: Westend61/Getty Images.)

The lambda variant of coronavirus, first seen in Peru and Chile, has now spread to 27 other countries and new research just out suggests it’s better than other variants at escaping the antibodies produced by the CoronaVac vaccine that’s widely used in Latin America. The WHO does only currently classify it as a variant of interest and not a variant of concern. Ricardo Soto Rifo from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Chile, Santiago who conducted this new research explains his findings.A charity in the UK called Ovacome has long run in person support groups for women with ovarian cancer. And now women who live miles apart, but share similar experiences have got to know each other very well, online, during the pandemic. To find out what happens in these meetings, Health Check dropped in, on Zoom, to listen in to Gill, Gillian, Siobhan, Allyson and Jo.Dr Per Block, a research lecturer at the University of Oxford, has been investigating whether moods are contagious and crucially whether we pick on up good moods or bad moods more easily. The results of his study with teenage members of choirs and orchestras who were away on tour together have just been published in the journal Emotion. He tells Claudia what he found. Claudia’s studio guest is family doctor, Ann Robinson, who talks about new research into diet and migraines and whether a David Beckham style plastic boot or a traditional plaster cast is the best treatment for a broken ankle.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright and Paula McGrath(Picture: A woman receives her first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine during a door-to-door vaccination day against Covid-19 on 03 July 2021 in a rural area of the Jerusalén municipality, Cundinamarca Department, Colombia. Credit: Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images.)

New evidence on whether mixing Covid vaccines and spreading doses out gives better results.Plus, has five years of food labels in Chile warning of high fat, sugar or salt made a difference to obesity levels? Jane Chambers reports.And what gives some people a sense of entitlement? Emily Zitek, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Cornell University explains her new research.Claudia's studio guest is James Gallagher, BBC Health and Science Correspondent.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright(Picture: Three vials with different vaccines against Covid-19 by (L-R) Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech. Photo credit: Thomas Kienzle/AFP/ Getty Images.)

As Tanzania joins Covax, Rhoda Odhiambo discusses the challenges ahead and says 'joining' makes it sound simple but the requirements that need to be put in place are far from simple. Also,results from the first national TB prevalence survey in South Africa shows that the disease is found more in men and young people than previously recognised. Claudia talks to professor Martie van der Walt, director of the TB platform of the South African Medical Research Council while Taurai Maduna reports from a TB screening clinic in Diepsloot, Gauteng Province. Plus, professor Catherine Loveday on new research assessing lockdown memories and what they mean.Claudia's studio guest is Matt Fox from Boston University.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright(Photo: Portrait of a young man wearing a face mask in Nungwi, Tanzania. Credit: Jasmin Merdan/Getty Images)

Good news that a new treatment for Covid could help one in three people in hospital. Results are from the Recovery trial in the UK using an infusion of two antibodies made in the laboratory which bind to the virus and stop it replicating. But it is expensive and those people who haven't made their own antibodies should be given the treatment. And Project S - the unique experiment that vaccinated a whole town in Brazil. Claudia speaks to Dr Ricardo Palacios, clinical studies director at the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo, leading the research. Plus a ground breaking trial in Yogyakarta city, Indonesia, that has cut cases of Dengue Fever by 77% by infecting mosquitoes with a "miraculous" bacteria.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright(Picture: A doctor holds a vial of monoclonal antibodies, a new treatment for Covid-19. Photo credit: Cristian Storto Fotografia/Getty Images.)

Aducanumab the controversial new drug for Alzheimer’s disease, just approved by the FDA in the US is the first approved breakthrough in nearly 20 years. But, as Sarah Boseley explains, scientists dispute the drug’s effectiveness. Good news from a study published in Lancet Healthy Longevity looking at protection levels from getting Covid. It studied the risk of COVID reinfection in care home staff and occupants up to 10 months after first being unwell and showed substantial levels of protection is retained.And a new paper on Vitamin D deficiency in Africa – the first large prevalence study in children on the continent.Plus bestselling author and gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter on her Menopause Manifesto, part two in our mini-series on Health Check. Dr Gunter unpicks the facts and feminism of how society’s focus on what happens to women’s bodies has shaped and hindered treatment for the menopause.Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika WrightImage: Abstract medical icon of head showing Alzheimer's memory loss due to dementia and brain disease Credit: wildpixel/Getty Images

Could over the counter Steroids be driving the Black Fungus epidemic in India? Claudia talks to Dr Awadhesh Singh from the GD Hospital and Diabetes Institute in Kolkata who explains the link between Steroid use and the shocking surge in cases of this deadly disease. Guest Matt Fox from Boston University discusses mass Covid testing in Vietnam and a trial of mask wearing in Bangladesh, plus the renaming of Covid variants using the Greek alphabet. And bestselling author Dr Jen Gunter on her new book The Menopause Manifesto – own your health with facts and feminism!Presenter: Claudia Hammond Producer: Erika Wright(Picture: A doctor inspects a patient for mucormycosis inside a dedicated ward at MMG hospital in Ghaziabad, India. Photo credit: Sakib Ali/Hindustan Times/Getty Images.)