Inside Health Folgen

What's the story behind the headlines about the links between red meat and heart disease? Researchers have reported that the way meat eaters' gut bacteria process a substance in red meat, carnitine, could be the trigger for heart disease. As the numbers of measles cases in Swansea rise, where else might be at risk of an outbreak and as the age of vaccination in Swansea has been lowered to 6 months, why do we vaccinate babies and young children when we do? Around a million people in the UK every year have some form of head injury. Most make a full recovery but there is growing concern that doctors are missing a common complication of head injury. Dr Mark Porter investigates a condition called post traumatic hypopituitarism - the result of a damaged pituitary gland- a small vulnerable structure which sits at the base of the brain. It regulates the actions of hormones controlling everything from immunity and the thyroid gland, to normal growth, sex drive and fertility.

Dr Mark Porter reports on NHS 111 - the new 24 hour urgent care number designed for the public to access urgent medical care. It was meant to go live across the whole of England this week but has been plagued by problems.And Inside Health's resident sceptic Margaret McCartney turns her beady eye to the latest fashion in the diet industry - fasting and so called 2 day diets. Popular - but what about the evidence?And obesity and cancer - there's growing understanding that being overweight is an important risk factor for a number of common cancers, but the relationship is never realy explained - Mark Porter turns his attention to one of the factors that might explain the link.

As part of NHS reforms doctors will be holding the purse strings from April 1st. In a special edition of the programme Dr Mark Porter finds out what the changes actually mean in practice. He meets GPs who have already been piloting some of the ways in which health services are commissioned to find out what they will mean for services on the ground. He also hears from GPs and hospital doctors about their concerns. One doctor says implementing GP commissioning is like flying a plane while it's being built. Why are GPs concerned and what could the changes mean for the future of our health services?