Dr Xand van Tulleken didn't hold back on the wellness industry's biggest money-spinners, telling Jo and Zoe that high-dose Vitamin D sold on the high street can cost "80 quid a year" compared to the cheap, NHS-recommended version, and is "associated with increased falls, increased fractures" in some trials. He said the menopause supplement market was the part of his new book, Make Me Well, that was hardest to write, pointing out that around six billion dollars a year is spent globally on menopause supplements while the UK barely records what it spends on menopause research at all.
Zoe pressed him on her own arthritis, and Xand's answer was blunt: "motion is lotion." He explained that joint pain often comes from the muscles and tendons around a joint rather than the joint itself, and that strengthening exercises can genuinely help, while admitting arthritis research funding is shockingly low given "every billionaire in the world has arthritis."
Listener questions ran through the back half of the show. Nikki asked about wearable tech and sleep tracking, and Xand was clear that "none of the tech knows when you're asleep." Emma wrote in about health anxiety, and Xand reassured her that "your health anxiety is being handed to you on a plate by the industries that profit from you." Seven-year-old Margot, a fan of his show Operation Ouch!, asked what it's really like having an identical twin, prompting Xand to admit he and his brother Chris "have a little bit of a row every day."
Xand also praised his friend Dr Hannah Fry's run on Celebrity Traitors, saying she "left looking with everyone's opinions of them even higher."
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