Johan in the Laid Bare lab with Dr Punam Krishan (Photo: Red Sky Productions)
Johan in the Laid Bare lab with Dr Punam Krishan (Photo: Red Sky Productions)

Why are Scots dying earlier than rest of the UK?

A new television series is to investigate why Scots die younger than anyone else in the UK.

For many of us work is less active, hobbies more sedentary, our lives are more stressful and sleep is harder to come by.

While the damage is devastating it’s never too late to make a change – and this new series sets out to prove it.

Laid Bare is a new three-part series for BBC Scotland, introducing new ‘doc on the box’ Dr Punam Krishan, who each week takes two volunteers through their paces to find out their crucial health ‘achilles’ heel and determine a programme to see if their health issue can be turned around.

Each week two people with very different lifestyles are subjected to a full Health MOT; blood tests, urine analysis, fitness tests and lifestyle diaries are collated together to build up a picture of their health from ‘the inside out’…

Each volunteer is then ‘Laid Bare’ on a slab, effectively having a ‘living post-mortem’, and Dr Punam Krishan reveals the damage that they are doing to themselves – now and in the future. A team of medics then give them a tailored health plan to turn things around.

But the question is can they stick to the programme, and will they improve their health before they are retested eight weeks later?

A GP, lifestyle medicine expert and the Scottish health blogger with her finger on the pulse of contemporary issues, Dr Krishan said: ‘Modern life is complex and busy, and the choices we make on a daily basis affect our health over the course of our lives. Each episode features people doing their best to navigate modern life, and through their experience we can all pick up tips on how to eat healthier, get better sleep, and change bad habits.  If you’ve ever wondered what damage you’re doing to your body – and how to reverse it – you need to watch this programme….’

Johan in the Laid Bare lab with Dr Punam Krishan (Photo: Red Sky Productions)

Over the course of the episodes, Laid Bare illustrates the physical ‘nuts and bolts’ of what modern life is doing to people across classic issues such as unhealthy eating and lack of exercise, but it also goes deeper to see the physical ‘casualties’ of modern life, from lack of sleep to sugar and caffeine drink dependence. And how to help offset challenges such as shift-working – and its disruption to natural cycles   – and home-workers, metaphorically tied to their digital desks, and the lot of a busy mum, trying to fit it all of life’s demands and its resulting chaotic schedule…

Starting off the series is a body-builder, who looks a picture of health, as a non-smoking tee-totaller but who has been using steroids for around 15 years. And whose tests chart off the proverbial Richter scale – at the red-alarm bell level – which leads to the revelation of some truly scary news for potential heart issues.

Throughout the series Laid Bare, which is made by Red Sky Productions for BBC Scotland, will shine a light on what modern life is doing to people, often outwardly appearing very healthy. And provides crucial tips on how these issues can be addressed.

The three-part series starts on Thursday 24 October, on BBC One Scotland, from 9-10pm.

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