Delving into the recent discovery of the intimate relationship between the brain and the body’s immune system, Dr Monty Lyman reveals the extraordinary implications for our physical and mental health.

Up until the last ten years, we have misunderstood a fundamental aspect of human health. The brain and the body have always been viewed as separate entities – treated in separate hospitals – but science now shows that they are intimately linked.

Startlingly, we now know that our immune system is in constant communication with our brain and can directly alter our mental health. Biological science and cognitive science are inseparable. This has opened up a new frontier in medicine. Could inflammation cause depression, and arthritis drugs cure it? Can gut microbes shape your behaviour via the vagus nerve? Could childhood infections lie behind neurological and psychiatric disorders?

A specialist in the cutting-edge field of immunopsychiatry, Monty Lyman argues that we need to change the way we treat disease, and the way we see ourselves.

Episode One
Dr Monty Lyman looks at the historical development of our understanding of the way in which both the nervous system and the immune system operate. He examines the recent ‘eureka moment’ when it was discovered that these two systems are linked.

Read by Gunnar Cauthery
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: David Blount

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 Show less