Medicine made for you part 3: Your treatment

03/03/20 • 35 min

Know Your Place | The Conversation Documentaries

Medicine made for you is a series from The Anthill, a podcast from The Conversation. Across three episodes we're taking a deep dive into the future of healthcare – to find out how it could soon get a lot more personal.

In this third and final episode of the series, we’re exploring how treatment offered by your doctor could become more tailored to you in the future.

In the past, if you walked into a pharmacy and told them you weren't feeling well, the pharmacist would probably have made up a powder for you – your own personalised medicine. But with the introduction of antibiotics and modern medicine which is much more regulated, this personalised service fell away.

Come the 21st century, some researchers are looking at ways to introduce more personalisation back into pharmaceuticals in the future – using 3D printing. We find out more.

This episode also explores other ways researchers are looking to personalise the treatment options available to patients, from new ways of doing cancer screening trials, to social prescribing – programmes where GPs refer patients to a host of other services in the community to help improve their health and wellbeing.

Featuring interviews with Professor Robert Forbes at the University of Central Lancashire, Professor Mike Messenger at the University of Leeds, Dr Alison Fixsen from the University of Westminster and Chris Dayson, principal research fellow at Sheffield Hallam University.

The music in this episode is Is That You or Are You You? by Chris Zabriskie, Hallon and FB-01_#2 by Christian Bjoerklund and Serenade for String Orchestra, No 20 by Edward Elgar performed by US Army Strings. Medicine made for you is produced and reported by Holly Squire and Gemma Ware, and hosted by Annabel Bligh for The Anthill podcast. A big thanks to City, University of London, for letting us use their studios.

Read more about precision medicine and the personalisation of health in _This article is part of a series tied to Medicine made for you, a series by The Anthill podcast on the future of healthcare and how it could soon get a lot more personal. [Read more here](https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/medicine-made-for-you-82269)._" target="_blank">our series of articles on The Conversation. You can sign up to get a daily digest of facts each day by signing up to our newsletter.

In this third and final episode of the series, we’re exploring how treatment offered by your doctor could become more tailored to you in the future.

Come the 21st century, some researchers are looking at ways to introduce more personalisation back into pharmaceuticals in the future – using 3D printing. We find out more.

Previous Episode

Medicine made for you part 2: Your diet

In the second episode of Medicine made for you we’re looking at the food we eat and how dietary advice could soon get a lot more personalised.

Listen to our producer Gemma Ware go through a two-week experiment with her identical twin sister, aimed at trying to better understand which factors influence the way people react to particular foods. The PREDICT study involved eating lots of special muffins, and doing lots of blood tests. But the results are surprising – and show that everybody reacts differently to different foods, even identical twins.

We also explore what role a person's microbiome has in their health and whether it will ever be possible to personalise dietary advice based on the bacteria in your gut. And we look at wider questions about what kind of personalised nutritional advice actually gets people to change their behaviour.

Featuring interviews with Professor Tim Spector from King's College London and Professors Glenn Gibson and Julie Lovegrove at the University of Reading.

The music in this episode is Is That You or Are You You? by Chris Zabriskie and Hallon by Christian Bjoerklund. Medicine made for you is produced and reported by Holly Squire and Gemma Ware, and hosted by Annabel Bligh for The Anthill podcast. A big thanks to City, University of London, for letting us use their studios.

Read more about the personalisation of healthcare in our series of articles on The Conversation.

Next Episode

Expert guide to conspiracy theories – trailer

Conspiracy theories no longer feel like a fringe phenomenon, with people claiming that Elvis isn’t dead or the royal family are shape-shifting alien lizards, put down as crackpots. Now presidents push them and major events are regularly followed by a slew of sinister ideas involving dark forces at work behind the scenes. Coronavirus is just the latest.

Some conspiracy theories may be harmless entertainment or a sign of healthy scepticism, but others are dangerous because they can fuel racism, violence, terrorism and chaos. With the prominence of conspiracy theories seemingly on the rise, we set out to better understand them.

Over five episodes, we speak to dozens of academics who have spent their careers researching different elements of conspiracy theories. Most are part of Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories, an international network of conspiracy theory researchers, which supported the making of this podcast.

Psychologists tell us why some people are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than others, and why there's a spectrum ranging from the conspiracy curious to hardcore believers. Anthropologists explain why conspiracy talk is commonplace in some parts of the world but not others.

Conspiracy theories have evolved over the centuries, from ancient times to the present day. We discover how conspiracy theories were at the birth of the United States and how the idea of the Illuminati – a purported secret organisation pulling the puppet strings of major organisations and governments – evolved from the French Revolution and which now supposedly counts Jay-Z and Beyoncé among its members.

We find out how conspiracy theories spread and the extent that the internet has changed the game. We also investigate how dangerous conspiracy theories can be and why – whether it’s climate change denial, anti-vaxxers or political extremists.

All that and much more coming up on The Conversation’s Expert guide to conspiracy theories.

Original music by Neeta Sarl and sound design by Eloise Stevens. The Anthill is produced by Gemma Ware and Annabel Bligh. A big thanks to City, University of London, for letting us use their studios.