Inside Health

New research suggesting that the ban on smoking in public places has led to a sharp fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with asthma. Sunbeds and cancer, Dr Mark Porter examines claims by some tanning salons that their machines do not increase the risk of developing skin cancer despite UV tanning devices being classified as carcinogenic to humans. Plus we visit a leading expert to answer a listener's query about why she is waking up with a very dry mouth. And why your body mass index may not be the best way to work out if you are overweight.

After Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham suggested recently that legislation could be introduced to reduce salt levels in processed foods - Inside Health asks how helpful is cutting out salt at home, if most of what we eat is hidden inside processed foods? Margaret McCartney provides clarity behind this week's headlines of a link between junk food and the risk of developing asthma and eczema. Margaret also visits the Science Museum to find out about an old drug, with new tricks - amitriptyline - an out-of-favour antidepressant now a popular remedy for everything from migraine to back pain. Plus a listener's question about the day he lost through amnesia. And what your fingerprints can reveal about the medicines you've taken.

Dr Mark Porter explores Dementia Challenge - the Department of Health's much publicised campaign to improve dementia care, including a new scheme to test everyone over 75 who's admitted to hospital for signs of the condition. Will this lead to overdiagnosis or will it get people treated early? And prescribing sleeping tablets for those unable to rest on a noisy hospital ward may seem like a quick fix but there is strong evidence that they are linked to side effects including an increase in falls. Mark Porter investigates and finds some simple solutions to getting a good night's kip in hospital. Plus a leading expert on the thyroid gland answers a listener's concerns about the use of the hormone thyroxine.

New method of talking to your baby; How should long term risks of anti-psychotics be communicated; An art science collaboration for dyslexia.

Preventing PTSD; Archaeology and mental health; Organophosphates and the brain

Alzheimer's Disease; Why we continue to believe information even when we know it’s wrong; PTSD

Mandatory polygraphs for sex offenders; birdsong; body image and disfigurement

MIT research into distraction in drone operators; New study on bonding in fostered children; Sarah Wise "Inconvenient People" discovers victims of wrongful incarceration in Victorian Asylums

How does our "Gaydar" work? De-coding the signals of sexuality; Self-confidence, Self-obsession, Self-regard - the downside of the Me Generation; IQ tests and learning disabilties

The frontline treatment for psychosis is antipsychotic medication, but a trial in Manchester is evaluating Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or CBT, without medication

Claudia Hammond talks to the new minister with responsibility for mental health, Norman Lamb. She also hears how feeling guilty might make you a better leader and sixty years on, how the Anna Freud Centre famous for psychoanalysis is embracing neuroscience.

Self-harm report findings indicate people don't know where to go for help, investigation into the use of insulin pumps, how to manage night terrors and healthtalkonline's new section on penile cancer

The science behind this week's leap from the edge of space - how the human body copes. Why are the chances of surviving a common type of emergency abdominal surgery lower if you have the operation at night or over the weekend? One listener - a former artist and puppeteer - emailed Inside Health about his recent diagnosis of essential tremor. He's finding the shaking of his hands embarrassing and wants to know what can be done about it. And a new design of pyjamas in response to a spate of blocked catheters in patients wearing conventional pyjamas.

As the Nobel Prize for medicine announced this week recognises stem cell research, Dr Mark Porter asks if it's already making a difference to patients. And imagine waking up with numbness in your face, by the end of the day with paralysis in your leg, all tests are normal and there's no apparent cause - Margaret McCartney reports from Edinburgh on a burgeoning field of medicine - functional disorders. Plus an Inside Health listener who has been taking epilepsy treatment for 35 years asks when is it safe to stop taking her medication? And do 'stop-smoking' campaigns really work? Kamran Abbasi looks at the evidence.

Dr Mark Porter talks to a world expert on Hepatitis E and hears about a new health magazine which promises to reveal What Doctors Don't Tell You. And a listener finds out what might be causing her dizziness when she turns over in bed.