The Immune System: Guardian of Our Health

Intermittent fasting, autophagy, "metabolic switch": ten years after their first successful documentary on fasting, Sylvie Gilman and Thierry de Lestrade delve back into promising research on a booming practice.

ME/CFS is a devastating disease that affects around 300,000 people in Germany alone. There has been little help for sufferers to date. Many doctors are not familiar with the clinical picture and treat it incorrectly. However, something has been happening recently, partly due to the coronavirus pandemic: because the late effects of Covid-19 correspond to the typical symptoms of ME/CFS...

Amidst a devastating opioid epidemic, a needle exchange and free clinic operates in the shadows of Fresno, California.

While life expectancy is increasing in Western countries, cases of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer are increasing, and the use of medication has exploded. Does this mean that in order to live to a ripe age we are condemned to swallow more and more drugs? What if there was another way? For half a century, in Russia, Germany and the U.S., doctors and biologists have been exploring a different therapeutic approach: fasting. The results are amazing. Soviet researchers have provided a body of clinical studies of exceptional health…only published in Russian, and thus unknown in the West. Young biologists from the University of Los Angeles have overturned conventional wisdom and used molecular biology to demonstrate the powerful effects of fasting. This research suggests a wide-ranging potential, which could include treatments for the disease of the century, cancer. If these scientists are right, maybe our approach to disease and treatment will need a rethink.

This is the story of death and survival, exclusion and hope told by those who lived through it. 40 years ago an HIV infection seemed like a death sentence.

Fasciae, hidden connective tissues, are largely unstudied parts of our anatomy. What role do they play in the organism? And could a better understanding of them help in finding a cure for back pain?

Could psychedelics treat depression? Banned substances such as LSD and psilocybin are now being tested for various afflictions. Several studies are ongoing with one of the largest being conducted by the Charité hospital in Berlin and the Central Institute for Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. Since the risks and side effects of the substances have not yet been fully researched, their use for therapeutic purposes remains highly controversial.

Under pressure to continue a winning tradition in American tennis, Mardy Fish faced mental health challenges that changed his life on and off the court.