The Health Show on WAMC

When you do a program covering health, occasionally you deal with certain topics that make people a bit squeamish.  Things like digestive health and reproductive and sexual issues and body image.  They’re not the type of things you rush right off to your doctor to discuss.  On today’s Health Show, we’ll talk to a pair of doctors who specialize on these taboo topics.  

We’ll also learn how, and sorry to our vegetarian friends, keeping a healthy diet begins with healthy livestock.  And we’ll visit a city in Italy where fast food could mean a spleen sandwich.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – Have you ever done something that was, oh I don't know let's call it DUMB...then stopped, and thought...why the heck do I just do that? Let me take you off the hook right now. You're innocent...apparently it's all your brain's fault. On today's Health Show we'll talk to a psychiatric researcher about how the brain sometimes goes off on its own...and how you can regain control.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – Sometimes it's tough to tell why a certain month has been designated for a certain condition. For instance, why is October for breast cancer or March for colorectal cancer? Got me swinging. But February has Valentine's Day...so February is American Heart Month...and I think we can all buy into that. On today's Health Show, a conversation with a pair of heart specialists who's new book is a complete guide to heart health.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – The jokes starting forming just as soon as I heard the finished story. I'm going to do my best to keep you from hearing any of them. It seems that the human intestines are a pretty amazing system...one that almost operates as a second brain. In fact, what goes on below doesn't need much help from above. You can see where this might get us in trouble. On today's Health Show, an almost joke free tour of the human gut.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – The number of children with autism in the US has been growing for years. The latest information available shows one in 110 children born will be diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder...and the education system will need to be ready. On today's Health Show, we'll hear about a school in Brooklyn that uses Applied Behavioral Analysis to help teach children with autism.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – In the past couple of years some of my closest friends have developed problems with their eye sight...to the point where one is now learning braille. Sight is one of our most precious senses...yet we often treat it as an afterthought, not getting an exam until we think there might be a problem. But there are conditions that don't have symptoms until it's too late. On today's Health Show, just about everything you need to know about Glaucoma.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – Advances in genetic testing technology are making these tests easier to find...in fact many companies are bypassing doctors altogether and offering genetic tests for disease risk directly to consumers. As you might expect, this has some people concerned. On today's Health Show...a look at direct to consumer genetic testing.

We'll also hear how one family reacted to very different genetic test results.

Find out if acting impulsively is in your genes

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – If there is anything that can be described as a good news/bad news situation in the medical world, it has to be kidney dialysis. On one hand the good news...for patients who's kidneys have failed, dialysis is literally a life saver. Without the machine a patient would not live long without kidney function. Now the bad news...unless you get a kidney transplant you need to be hooked up to that machine for hours, just about every other day, for the rest of your life.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – Your bones are alive. They are living, growing parts of your body that need care from a very early age. On this week's Health Show, we'll talk to a bone specialist who just wrote the complete book on bone health.

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http://www.healthshow.org/ – It's almost impossible to talk about the war in Iraq without starting some kind of argument. Those debates will continue to go on for years. But there is one aspect of the war that cannot be debated: the lives of the troops returning from the war have been changed, some obvious...some hidden. On today's Health Show we'll hear from some of those veterans and find out how they are getting on with their lives.