Starting this fall, EPHI's podcast will sound slightly different. Doctor Vincent Amble-Naess will now take over as host together with EPHI's communications manager Nicolina Söderqvist. Amble-Naess promises celebrity guests and highly topical subjects.
Vincent Amble-Naess, we'll be hearing you on the Health for the Unhealthy podcast in the future. Who are you?
I am a doctor at the beginning of my career, doing an internship in a medium-sized hospital in Sweden. On the side, I work as a freelance writer. I write mainly for SvD Kultur, but also for the radio program OBS in P1, and for the magazine Axess.
In recent years, I have written two reports for EPHI, one on resistance to vaccination and one about the new obesity drugs.
What is your vision for the podcast?
There are problems in the political debate on public health. The word itself has a GDR feel to it. And it's reflected in the proposals, which often involve regulation and prohibition. For example, the proposals for a sugar tax, or the overwhelming opposition to farm sales of alcohol.
Mirroring this is the opposite view: that nothing should be regulated or banned. This is equally unreasonable. Of course, public authorities have a role to play in human health.
A middle ground is needed, a more pragmatic and libertarian approach to public health policy, which at the same time does not turn into libertarianism. And that is where EPHI can contribute.
Do you have an example of such a compromise?
The prescription requirement for medicines, for example. Of course, we shouldn't let addictive opioids go unchecked. But why should a person with asthma have to have their prescription for inhalers renewed by a doctor? Maybe they should be allowed to buy them over the counter? Most people with chronic diseases recognize how time-consuming these renewals can be, especially when changing health care centers.
And then there is the cost aspect. Why are people denied access to certain medicines, which they would benefit from, simply because of the cost - instead of having to pay for them themselves? Unfortunately, this is a recurring pattern in healthcare. Perhaps it is due to a misguided quest for equality. And it's true that more equality is good, but only if those who are less well off are better off. Making those who are well off worse off helps no one.
What guests can we look forward to in the coming year?
As in the past, we will invite people from different parts of society - politics, business, culture - to discuss public health in a broad sense. In the coming weeks, we will interview a KI professor, a Dramaten actor and a communicator. A great variety is promised.
EPHI and the Health for the Unhealthy podcast are political, without being partisan. We have had lots of political representatives here. Who would you like to invite ?
One person I would like to meet is the regional politician in Stockholm, Aida Hadzialic, to discuss the closures of private care. There is an ideological difference in approach that would be interesting to discuss, I think.
The ANDT strategy is now being rewritten and it has apparently been a struggle to keep different addictions out. More people wanted to get sex addiction, sugar addiction, shopping addiction and so on. Do you think it's about addiction and do we gain anything by turning everything into addictions?
Alcohol, drugs, doping, tobacco, gambling. There are some things in common, but also many differences. Some addictions are more destructive than others. It is not obvious that they should be treated in the same clinics. Often, those who write clinical manuals or guidelines do not focus on the treatment perspective, but rather on a more theoretical approach, seeing similarities rather than differences. Both approaches can be valuable.
Longevity has become mega-hot in the US, it is about how to prevent aging and thus diseases. When will the trend come to Sweden?
Research funding is difficult to obtain, as ageing is not considered a disease, and research funding is usually given to specific disease areas such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, neurodegenerative diseases, etc.
Having said that, the trend is probably already here. At least among doctors, I think it's common to discuss things like prescribing the diabetes drug Metformin, or intermittent fasting. Another example is that the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine went to Yoshinuri Ohsumi, who is partly investigating longevity.
The things that we know prolong life are a good diet with a high proportion of vegetarian food, regular heart rate increasing exercise, limited stress in everyday life, also social status. These are mostly things that are outside the scope of health care. Perhaps a sign that the most important issues have a high degree of personal responsibility.
Listen to all episodes here
