BBC Horizon - The Truth about vitamins.

In Great Britain every year peple spend £300 million on vitamin supplements, but do they actually do them any good? 
Some believe they offer the promise of preventing or even curing some of the world's biggest killers, such as heart disease and cancer. Others claim that taking large doses of some vitamins may in certain cases be harmful. So what are the facts?


Vitamin C, the most popular of them all
Nearly 40 years ago, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and double Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling, revolutionised the way people thought about vitamins. He claimed that by taking huge doses of vitamin C you could prevent or even cure the common cold.


He predicted that if everybody followed his advice, the common cold could even be eradicated. Many scientists dismissed his theory as quackery, but the public loved it and it helped launch a huge industry. But the latest evidence shows the great man was mistaken. Vitamin C can help you once have got a cold, but for most people it does nothing to prevent you from catching one in the first place.


Even if large doses of vitamin C do not prevent the common cold, some claim that it can still offer a more profound benefit. It is one of a group of vitamins called anti-oxidants that some believe can prevent illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease.


Too much of a good thing?
In 2004, scientists in the United States claimed that people could be missing any of the potential benefits of taking one of the world's most popular anti-oxidant vitamin supplements, vitamin E, because their bodies might not be absorbing it. But our own investigation suggested that the American scientists' conclusion could be mistaken.


While most safety experts believe that vitamins C and E can be taken safely even in quite large doses, there is worrying evidence that one form of another common vitamin, vitamin A, could be linked to osteoporosis, a debilitating bone disease.


If the theory is right it means that a person's diet, or some supplements that they take every day to improve their health, could actually be slowly and silently weakening their bones. 

Watch the full documentary now:

How drugs work. Ecstasy.

Using groundbreaking CGI this episode follows the effect of ecstasy on the human body. 

Over the past 30 years ecstasy has become one of the world's most notorious drugs. 

No other illegal substance has had such an effect on fashion, music and how we party. This film follows two recreational ecstasy users over one night .

Through graphic effects the viewer is taken on a journey deep inside the human body and the programme explains exactly how this powerful substance takes effect on the user's vital organs. Through the tour of the human body, we learn about the fascinating and often surprising scientific reasons for how these drugs work and also the damage they can cause.

The programme features interviews with toxicologists, neuro-scientists and medical pharmacologists who explain what actually happens in your body when you indulge, exploding a few myths in the process.

With access to cutting edge research at the University of Chicago, we find out how ecstasy creates empathy in the user and how this could one day lead to the drug being used as a life-saving prescription medicine for use in therapy.

The series also follows young people who use drugs recreationally and interviews former users who tell their cautionary tales. Whilst ecstasy is an enjoyable high for some, there are those for whom ecstasy is agony and the film tells their story too - a young woman who had to have a liver transplant after using the drug and a father whose 18-year-old daughter died from drinking too much water after taking ecstasy.

Watch the full documentary now:

How Drugs Work. Cocaine.

Documentary combining compelling real-life stories and stunning computer graphics to explore how cocaine creates its highs and its lows.

Cocaine, once a drug exclusively for the rich and famous, is now the most popular class A drug in Britain, with more than 1.2 million people taking it in the UK in 2009. The film follows three users on nights out on coke and uses cutting-edge computer graphics to journey inside their bodies and brains to find out how the drug creates its highs and its lows.

For some cocaine is the ideal addition to a night out, but for others taking it became a life-changing event, including the young man that needed a pacemaker fitted at just 17 after cocaine gave him a heart attack and a patient undergoing surgery to repair a nose torn apart by too many lines of coke.

Britain's leading experts help explain the truth behind cocaine's controversial reputation - the perfect pick-me-up or a killer class A?

Watch the full documentary now:

BBC - Horizon - The Truth About Vitamins

Every year we spend £300 million on vitamin supplements, but do they actually do us any good? Some believe they offer the promise of preventing or even curing some of the world's biggest killers, such as heart disease and cancer. Others claim that taking large doses of some vitamins may in certain cases be harmful. So what are the facts?

Vitamin C, the most popular of them all
Nearly 40 years ago, one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century and double Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling, revolutionised the way people thought about vitamins. He claimed that by taking huge doses of vitamin C you could prevent or even cure the common cold.

He predicted that if everybody followed his advice, the common cold could even be eradicated. Many scientists dismissed his theory as quackery, but the public loved it and it helped launch a huge industry. But the latest evidence shows the great man was mistaken. Vitamin C can help you once have got a cold, but for most people it does nothing to prevent you from catching one in the first place.

Even if large doses of vitamin C do not prevent the common cold, some claim that it can still offer a more profound benefit. It is one of a group of vitamins called anti-oxidants that some believe can prevent illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease.

Too much of a good thing?
In 2004, scientists in the United States claimed that people could be missing any of the potential benefits of taking one of the world's most popular anti-oxidant vitamin supplements, vitamin E, because their bodies might not be absorbing it. But our own investigation suggested that the American scientists' conclusion could be mistaken.

While most safety experts believe that vitamins C and E can be taken safely even in quite large doses, there is worrying evidence that one form of another common vitamin, vitamin A, could be linked to osteoporosis, a debilitating bone disease.

If the theory is right it means that a person's diet, or some supplements that they take every day to improve their health, could actually be slowly and silently weakening their bones.

Watch the full documentary now: