Community but also in terms of being appreciated as equal to non-disabled artists and not just treated as you know a curiosity joined us as we celebrate disability and not on the cultural front line after the latest b.b.c. Knees. B.b.c. News with Sue Montgomery the opposition candidate it bring him home and suddenly has claimed a surprise victory in the presidential election in the Mon Deaves South Asia added her under a senator Roger as muti tens of supporters went out on motorbikes in the capital Mali as the results came in in a stunning election upset your breath here Mohammad Soli took a commanding lead over President of the lie I mean Mr Solis said it was a moment of happiness and hope he called on his rival to accept the will of the people there has been no response yet from Mr Ya mean who was widely expected to win the Indian wars the nation has become a theater of rivalry between its traditional India and China which is back to Mr Ya means infrastructure dry the u.s. Has dismissed claims by President Rouhani of Iran that Washington and its Gulf allies were behind Saturday's deadly attack on a military parade the u.s. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said President Rouhani should look in the mirror before blaming the u.s. Response clear is in Washington Washington points out that President Rouhani hasn't offered any proof and they are pointing the finger straight back at Iran Nikki Haley has said very clearly that they condemn all sorts of terrorism all attacks that take place but also the President Rouhani should be looking at the policies of his own government that are pressing the people may well lead to these kind of attacks and it's that kind of rhetoric that gives you a sense of really the tensions between Iran and the u.s. And certainly they've been building since Washington decided to remove itself from the Iran nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions the Venezuelan government has announced the arrest of 3 more people suspected of involvement in last month's assassination attempt against President Nicolas Maduro 2 drones loaded with explosives went off near Mr Madeira during a military parade the Communications Minister said economy and man had confessed his involvement he said a Venezuelan woman and a retired general had been detained for helping Hendrie that reverse hide from the authorities. A new schemes been launched in India which aims to provide half a 1000000000 people with access to free medical care the 1000000000 dollar program nicknamed Modi care after Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers free health insurance to India's poorest families the Sector General of the Indian Medical Association Dr r n Tandon welcomed the move The only change is going to come rather than patients and families paying from their pocket this money will be paid by governments returns at the Trust Look one thing is very important the move is rarely a good move I am sure this is going to be a very big thing and people really big benefit to it Dr r.n. Tonton of the Indian Medical Association b b c news the German government has resolved a dispute about the outgoing domestic intelligence chief Hans garde Mohsen he was removed from his post after questioning the severity of recent anti immigrant violence there was a public outcry when he was offered a mood senior government job elsewhere now it's been agreed that Mr Mohsin will work in a lesser role in the interior ministry Israel is told residents of a Palestinian Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank to leave their homes by Kto with the 1st earlier this month the Israeli Supreme Court rejected petitions against plans to demolish the village of Hana Lamarr and relocate about 200 people to an area 12 kilometers away next to a landfill site and Israeli army letter to the residents to dismantle their own homes or the Israeli army would boot owns them. An international rescue mission to help an Indian round the world solo sailor who seriously injured and stranded is gathering pace up an ash Tomi suffered a severe back injury when his vessel was damaged in a storm he's trapped in his cabin unable to move the British sailors are often not Johnston the 1st person to perform a single handed nonstop circumnavigation of the globe described Mr Tommy is not the panicking type tough guy I mean he is the 1st in the server nonstop around the World Series experience he's been down there before is a naval officer knows what he's up to is very resourceful he knows he's he's doing his best to try and look after himself and I think we can rely on him to do that as best. Teams of divers are working to remove an artificial reef made from foam tires from the sea floor south of France after it was found to be leaking dangerous chemicals $25000.00 times was sunk into the Mediterranean Sea in the 1980 s. Between counted on t.v. With the idea of creating habitats for marine life b.b.c. News. And. What does it mean to be an artist with a disability many people feel happy when they see us dancing our unique moves because it's something new to them they often ask me How do you do that because it's something they have never seen him How can disability or impairment influence the arts we make I know a lot of casting directors and directors in general they've just kind of told me actually perfect for this role but I mean the problem is your disability if you want to see it we definitely coaster ride a rate. I'm team is a helium This is a program as explores the world we live in through the work on the voices of artists Welcome to the cultural front line this week we'll hear from artists who identify as disabled and use their bodies and experiences of impairment to inform their artwork we find creativity in body politics and artistic determination in the face of rejection on this week's cultural front line. So with me for this special program is cat Hawkins he weighs a b.b.c. Reporter and also adults the high Cat You know it's really nice to be here great to have you here now disability isn't just a subject you report on it's something you live every single day yeah when I was 18 I was in my 1st him of university and I contracted meningitis and at the time I was a dancer had actually been to a dance rehearsal just the night before I got ill and because I got septicemia or blood poisoning as a result of the meningitis I had both my legs amputated below the knee and what happened next well honestly I thought that this was the end of dance I thought was gone from my life forever I put it all in a box and just shut away and I'd actually have dreams about dancing it was like my brain was struggling to catch up with what happened to my body and I remember waking up and every time I'd had one of these dreams my. Stomach was just saying it was honestly the biggest part of my life that I missed and I just thought that dance wasn't for me anymore in my mind all I knew about dances was 2 arms 2 legs it's all I've ever known in the south thing is unfortunately I think that's what most people would picture when they think about dances bots it's changing isn't it definitely So I came back stunts 3 years ago and the whole concept of what dances who is full has shifted opportunities seem to be growing around the world so I spoke to one dancer based in Kenya Nicholas. Who shows just how important dance can be for change. In the media. When I am on stage I feel very good I get an opportunity to show my fellow disabled people that it's not a death sentence with your disability you can do anything that other people are doing and that is why I decided to start dancing with the. Dance was worth it. Nicholas started dancing in 2009 at the age of 31 with a Nairobi based inclusive dance company called into space he contract it as a child and as a result has little mobility in his legs before finding life was tough for him and he had almost no supports. My life was hard then because I had a lot of fear I did not feel normal but when I gained the courage to go out there I discovered that I was even better off than able bodied people. Minimoog I think you know I learned and. 'd Nicholas's down style is beautiful to watch he can lift partners above his head while lying on his back and does mostly floor wick which fits best with his body he says people are often surprised by watching them perform but he believes through he can change perceptions. Over rocky or now many people feel happy when they see us dancing our unique moves because it's something new to them they often ask me How do you do that because it's something they have never seen one but he has already. Lit another now he has a people in Kenya there is not enough effort that has been put to help disabled people they are still being locked up and they don't know how to live with it and that is why I joined the dance troupe dance into space so that I can show fellow disabled people that they can lead normal lives like other people we learned how to come out well what we gained. Since 2005 dance into space has been working hard to give opportunities to disabled Kenyans interested in dance they've created 5 new disability dance groups across the country and which with over 100 to say but artists but Nicholas says much more needs to be done at the moment all dance into space can offer is transport to and from performances all his of the ring come comes from the audience deciding whether or not to give the money this is his only job so he relies on the generosity. A quirky need. When you go out to dance it's not guaranteed that you will be paid you just take and share whatever little you have been given that day but if we get proper funding we can do a lot of things to ensure that we reach a lot of people with a Lucky. Funding has limited our movement if we were well funded we can easily move from one place to the next we can get cars for transport funding can be a very important thing you know our lives and can enable us to change Kenya and the World Cup with. Kenya and I'm. Speaking to Nicholas it's clear he can't imagine a life without dumps is a job in a country where having a disability can be a huge barrier to employment but more than that he's on a mission to replace stigma with respect using an art form he has daily about credit. It's pretty clear performing means so much to Nicholas but he can only do what he loves if the opportunities are there in the 1st place yes and it's all about funding really particularly in Kenya when we take into consideration that an estimated 4400000 people are disabled maybe they just can't afford to focus on the arts and disability yes but a lot of people think it's an investment focusing on the arts can empower people to think differently about the body and create real change for example the disability arts movement in the u.k. Often has politics at its heart doesn't it yeah and there are lots of interesting discussions that can be influenced by Art one for example is about the word disability itself many artists working with the issue choose to use the social model of disability and that's the idea that people are only disabled by society for example if I'm using my wheelchair and there isn't a ramp then society has disabled me there's nothing I could have done about it so if Access was improved then we might view disability differently. How am dope saying Jude and I am a musician and you're listening to the cultural frontline. I am I become. And you are listening to the cultural frontline b.b.c. World Service. This is the cultural frontline today we're looking at disability in the arts and also seeing what opportunities are changing for disabled artists around the world with that in mind we're going to talk films can you a fan of the rock if you mean Wayne Johnson star of The Fast and Furious and John j. Then the answer is definitely yes and I think I know what you're going to say that's exactly who I'm talking about now you may have seen that he's been in the news lately and also all over social media and that's because of his portrayal of an ex soldier and amputee in the new film skyscraper yet I've seen it and this conversation has really divided people so on the one hand people celebrated a mainstream character in a blockbuster movie with a disability something we don't see much and on the other hand there's been a big conversation about the opportunities that disabled actors get in the film industry and this isn't the only film that's getting criticism and you biopic for example about Joseph Merrick known as the Elephant Man is also coming under attack for not using actor with a facial disfigurement and it's important to say this isn't just happening in Hollywood I speak to active or Ali Modi who lives in Mumbai and Adam pace and who is based in the u.k. And has a similar condition to Joseph Merrick Hughes remembered as the Elephant Man they told me what they've encountered going into auditions I've noticed a lot of people to staring at me thinking What is she doing here she doesn't belong here I know a lot of casting directors and directors in general they've just kind of told me you know you have the looks you're really pretty and know you have the talent as well and you're actually perfect for this role but I mean the problem is your disability if you want to see will we definitely go. Asked you right away and a little bit they would be that blunt they would say that to your face yeah yeah they'd be that blunt and they'd see so when I mean what's your prognosis when do you think you'll start walking like what I really don't know maybe never will but like well you know when you do start walking you know here's my number give me a call and we'll get you in for another audition and request you right away Adam how does that compare to what you've experienced getting faxing roles sent me over here in the u.k. You can't say to someone if you want to say I would not hire you because I'm going to write some high quality tend to your 3010 it is a one way ticket to a on tribe you know I don't care if there's these the kind of trainers you just want right for the role or we're going to different direction why I mean why do you think so many disabled lol was played by non-disabled act is I think writers and cost environment are lazy and rest of us I don't want to point has always been we don't back up if there's any Well while we quickly know what's your definition of creeping up. Is the use of props for starters gimmickry. In order to equip a norm to say what happened so it's a play I disabled role. It won't see any sense of the rest lost disability as well but it's kind of tragedy trying to find a run of our city I don't know of brave all the way and it is just wrong or that about Rebecca but I think it's a case of just asking why we're here in the us why are we Ok with this when any mention of kind of rocking out sends shivers down my spine how is quicker help. And it to her and when it comes to t.v. Or when it comes to food I haven't seen one disabled person acting so I mean that that says a lot right there not one not one that's pretty shocking. So how does it feel then valid to not be represented at all. Honestly it feels like if you say we don't exist if you is like people with disabilities are treated as if they're minorities when in reality the population of those with disabilities in India is vast and we don't really Norn the actual number so we need to be displayed we need to be portrayed in a positive way if we want to create awareness about disability Why should I just have to play the poor disabled character why can't i just be a happy disabled person and not have no mention of the disability itself why isn't that there yeah I mean that that will really mark progress I suppose when somebody who's disabled complaint shopkeeper a love interest or a best friend when I talk about kind of despair when I'm just trying to say Well characters and people go Well that's not acting completely screws are you were born of disabled actors and disabled people down from nothing more than that conditions on empowerment. And really all of us right for humanity and the human condition and that is ridiculous. For Ali when disabled characters do exist in Bollywood What are their storylines what what kind of character development do we say the whole situation in India right now is we lack the infrastructure 1st of all and because of that our mentalities are gone for a toss as well we still think of disability disability to be a taboo it's still stigmatized and movies like for example it's a d. Motivating movie it's a d. Motivated movie that So basically the story of this movie is this guy he's a magician he ends up in an accident due to a faulty trick and he becomes a quadriplegic and he hates his life and he opts for euthanasia and everyone is supporting him in this and now because of that movie people have betrayed our people think that disability is such a negative thing and personally when I saw that movie did it despite being an optimistic person I felt as if I had no right to live. And that's that's appalling Adam let me read you this tweet and this just sums up some of the reaction Ok. This is to do with Dwayne Johnson play you can tell me more about is Dwayne Johnson The Rock playing a let you finish your teeth stardom and play disable character and amputee soldier . And this is the reaction on Twitter some of it seems like a naive understanding of how this works which amputee was supposed to headline $125000000.00 movie if the rock isn't allowed to play an amputee they would not have recast him the character just wouldn't have been an amputee. I think it misses the point. On this and by the way I just this is the film's skyscraper Yes. But it just completely misses the point. Of the conversation. And my opinions of what is the point. How many I'm getting out of his do you do you traitor if you check out before you sat on on the rock What was the casting process like. I'm going to really write. Filmmakers Yes but it's not been for for restaurants or all those Lee I just wish that Bollywood and its those would be a bit more receptive towards people with disabilities you know why not give them a lead role why not give them a sidewall why make the disability such a big deal why can't disability be a normal thing which it actually is a normal thing let them be a part of this wonderful industry in whatever way they can contribute why not they have their talents they're hidden right now and all we need is a little bit of empowerment a little bit of a push and a chance that's all we need but this there's tons of money in Bollywood so it's not it's all the money isn't there. Is this purely down to culture to boo say no around disability Yeah you know what I think it's there I think that's that and I also think that you know if they want to disable the act of playing or rule or whatever they're going to have to reevaluate their whole infrastructure just to accommodate one person and I don't think that they're ready for that what does that mean renovating their infrastructure so their vanity vans for example they're not excessive or they're like 2 or 3 steps in this so narrow that if you take out that untied the washrooms us all small I remember that I didn't have any fluids for about 10 hours because I couldn't access the washroom I think this is another reason people are kind of there's a military problem from Iraq to really point of view to one side it's the only one across monitor part right. Happening within Brio or large friend or partner crowd and had one of then. Why were you can pretend like you're not racist or transonic or harm of our back door and so far no kind of government only ship that was really Modi and out of pace and clearly showing that there is a long way to go for disabled actors trying to secure the new almost and beautiful characters we see portrayed on our screens we would love to hear what you think about this please do get in touch on social media join the conversation using the hash tag b.b.c. Cultural frontline Now our final stop in this disability special on the B.B.C.'s cultural frontline is going to take you into the world of chi Rani Broca a mixed media artist who uses her chronic pain and research in disability justice to ask important questions of what someone's disability can mean for their place in the world the B.B.C.'s malaria parasite went to meet her identifies a disabled woman myself I have chronic pain I. I always include accessibility as an element of my artwork circ For example I always make sure there are lots of pillows and beanbag so people can lie down and rest if they need to and I also interrogate the stories that are told in art history about disability write for the past decade . Has been an artist working in the field of performance and poetry with work that challenges for him and also attitudes. And. This is I think you'd probably say you were speaking always is. When you think disabled woman do you think disempowered why you know I mean a disabled woman could have a fantastic life if she has the resources if she is enabled to live a good life on a number 67 grey scale intervention. So I wake up in monochrome and someone is asking why would you think of her in chronic pain and then it's more than a person it's many I scratch the surface of the canvas from within and I Vy and I get angry. And so my latest piece is called an anemone glitter and it's a performance installation with mixed media collage a multiple projections and it centers around the question of who was on the ledge of an it is which translates to the Javanese and because I do research and disability justice in relation to the arts I am also looking specifically at how able normative a-T. Really plays a part in the stories we tell about Ana So Abel normative Eddie is the assumption that someone is able to before being disabled only has been researching for 7 years looking into the throne stories told about her she was a means of the French artist Paul Gauguin and he's depicted new on a seat with a pirate by her feet. Her latest These 2 asked one question in particular why that everyone assumed that Anna was not disabled I think that if you include the possibility that Anna was a disabled girl I think that raises very interesting questions and she could have been disabled in all kinds of ways look at her circumstances you know she was a brown girl and France in the late eighty's hundreds she did not have a support network I really come to feel for her and to try and figure out why do we tell these stories about her and why are there also different from a disability justice framework through these work they don't use not just commenting on attitudes to these. In Gauguin's Symes But also today oftentimes accessibility is treated as an afterthought right in the art world you know there's a sign with Braille describing the painting you know just stating this is what it's about but myself and and some other artists. Been really interested in creative approaches to described audio you know how can you make describe an artwork in and of itself well. We Did you about pain in the purple Chronic the orange glow embody the many but use the not one but possibility but these the pain as hidden in plain sight by these artists have a role in disability just as movements in terms of producing work that acts as a conversation in and of itself about why we are still saw far behind around the world in terms of giving proper rights to deaf and or disabled people it's really a crisis right now it's a human rights crisis that was Kyra speaking to the B.B.C.'s the lariat Perasso in that is unfortunate the where we have to end this week special program on disability arts thank you for listening and thank you again to cap gains producer and dancer for joining me in a studio remember if you want to listen to any of our other episodes including how design is being used to change the world you can go online to b.b.c. To indicate slash World Service Radio and search for Frontline I will be here same time next week with more stories about is changing the world and the way we see it until then. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the u.s. Is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of the award winning public radio content a.p.m. American Public Media with support from Babble a language app that teaches real life conversations in the new language like Spanish Italian and Russian Babble's 10 to 15 minute lessons are available in the app store or online at Babble dot com. Support for 91.5 k. R.c.c. Comes from our listeners and from local organizations who want to reach a discerning audience that values quality through marketing on 91.5 k. R.c.c. Underwriters reach the people most likely to shop in their businesses support their non-profits and buy tickets to their shows to learn more about corporate support call Jeanette at 719-473-4801. Arm Sophie Scott's and in the mix edition of discovery from the b.b.c. World Service I'll be exploring sodium you probably know it's a key component of salt but its ability to make tiny biological batteries means it also plays a crucial role in keeping as a low life I'll be finding out what eating the wrong parts of a puffer fish can kill you within hours and why this incredible element is paving the way for a new generation of pain killers with no risk of addiction and no side effects. B.b.c. News the opposition candidate in the Mon Deaves presidential election neighborhood Mohamed Salah has claimed victory speaking in the capital Mali Mr Salis said it was a moment of happiness and hope he called in his bitter rival President Abdoulaye ya mean to accept the will of the people the u.s. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has dismissed claims by President Rouhani of Iran that Washington and its Gulf allies were behind Saturday's deadly attack on a military parade She said President Rouhani should look in the mirror before blaming the u.s. Accusing him of oppressing his own people for a long time the government in Venezuela has announced the arrest of 3 more people suspected of involvement in last month's assassination attempt against President Nicolas Maduro 2 drones loaded with explosives went off near Mr Maduro and other officials during a military display no one was injured the German government has resolved a dispute about the outgoing domestic intelligence chief who is removed from his post after questioning the severity of recent anti immigrant violence in the city of chemists there was a public outcry when he was offered a more senior government job elsewhere but now Party leaders have agreed to work in a less a row in the German Interior Ministry without to pay rise how massive officials in Gaza say Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian man during clashes on the border a spokesman for the Israeli army says hundreds of protesters are governed to through fireworks and burn tires schools of Palestinians being killed by Israeli fire since regular border protests began in March teams of divers are working to remove an artificial reef made of 0 tires from the sea floor south of France results has found the tires were leaking toxic chemicals into the environment including heavy metals b.b.c. News. Sodium in its most familiar form table salt has a pretty bad name because of its role in increasing blood pressure and heart disease but sodium is actually essential for life you can listen to my voice and understand what I'm saying all because of sodium and the tiny biological batteries it creates I'm Professor Sophie Scott and in this edition of discovery on the b.b.c. World Service I'll be exploring why this element is behind some of the deadliest toxins on the planet and how it could pave the way for a new generation of powerful painkillers. But before that what most of us may remember about sodium is its response in the classic school chemistry experiments where sodium a surprisingly soft fleetingly beautiful silver metal meets water so I really want to introduce you to this amazing element that was discovered by Humphry Davy at the beginning of the 19th century and it turns out that our department has enormous amounts of this stuff if you take a look in this jar they're big fat cylinders and I'm going to grab a little pocket knife is that where we can cut it while you take the knife and slice through the metal just so that you can feel the consistency of it so here we go and you will see the actual sodium revealed cutting into it now and it's surprisingly soft but a straight out of the fridge oh now you say for absolutely isn't it a fantastic brilliant shiny I would 100 percent wear earrings that look like that it's a silvery white issue pinkish and it's already already fading it's amazing right it's got this party like yes sense and every time you cut it you see the beautiful sheen and in Slowly slowly it disappears we've got a little fragment here I'm holding it with tweezers whatever you do is I'm going to drop it into this because now you may need to step back sharply if something goes horribly wrong but anyway let's let's just draw it in and c. O o. O's involuntary vocalisation then you notice I was not hoping to make cries affair now you see what was really interesting was that it went in you can immediately see hear a fizzing sound yeah and I don't know what you saw that it turned into a sphere it turned into a real ball as it fizzed and then suddenly there was a bang and a yellow flash now I really must apologize 1st for making an alarm sound when the explosion happened and 2nd to slipping. Straight into Joe going after that now involuntary vocalisations of sounds that we make an emotional situations and I was genuinely surprised by that explosion but what exactly was going on so serious really quite interesting because it has a kind of core of electrons and then sort of left on its loans on the outside there is a single electron now that single electron is perfectly happy there's nothing wrong with it but it turns out that it actually doesn't cost very much energy to pull it away from the atom because a little bit and you have to get that back somewhere this is the secret to why it reacts so spectacularly with water is that if you take that electron that's caused but the moment you surround it with water and you make the hydrogen whirl you get a hell of a lot back and you've got this phenomenal reaction and exactly how common is sodium these very reactive metal My name's under Bloodworth and I'm size direct from minerals and waste at the British Geological Survey in the earth's crust which is the bit we measure really it's a the 6 most abundant element so it's quite abundant about 2.3 percent of the Earth's crust is estimated to be sodium and the sodium that we find is deposits in the u.k. Where do we find these and how did they get here the largest area on land is in what we call the Cheshire basin so it's a Cheshire area the area south of Manchester these are salt deposits were formed in rocks which are between 200 to 3 months for 1000000 years ago if you want the geological periods are such Triassic and the Permian periods and they were formed when Britain had a very different climate to that that it has now so probably a bit more like the Persian Gulf than anywhere else very very hot and dry and with a very shallow sea which would because it was hot and dry it was very very Say line so there was salt crystals literally falling out of it and for me. Quite thick beds of rock salt sodium chloride and all this salt that the producing one of the industrial uses of the sodium it's a very very important industrial chemical and it forms the basis of all sorts of things we use every day so the soul is used to make 2 products really one is something called caustic so do which is sodium hydroxide and that is use for things like bleach and for water treatment and also for it's really important in paper making process where you so used to break down the fibers in the wood pulp the other product that's made from salt is something or soda rush which is sodium carbonate and almost all the glass we use everyday the glass in windows the glass in your car windows the glass in containers for food all the glossy drink out of that's all what's called sauted loss and it has quite a lot of sodium in it but how was the sodium the makes up just as salt deposits created in the 1st place this is a question for space scientist I'm Lucy Green I'm professor of physics at u.c. I was Mullard Space Science Laboratory we have stars to thank for the origin of sodium and so temperature at the heart of the star has a big role in what element is made so in stars like our sun where the central temperature is perhaps 15000000 degrees 50000000 Kelvin That's right temperature to fuse hydrogen into helium but then once you've got helium you can then use that as the building block for the next elements so what we tend to think is that inside a star the 1st round of fusion of nuclei coming together will be using hydrogen but then when that supply runs out the star has a battle to play against gravity so was fusion is taking place you have this energy release that allows the star to be puffed up and counteract gravity that's trying to pull in on itself but when the fuel runs out gravity takes over and the star starts to shrink now that he'd sell up this. Center of the star and so if the temperature goes up enough you can start fusing helium say into carbon and oxygen and then when that phase is over the star will shrink again and the temperature will go up again and then you get to the point where you're starting to make it so g m So carbon is fused together and you can get outputs like magnesium neon but importantly sodium is made during that process of fusing carbon together but how does sodium get from 100000000 degree furnace in massive stars like years away and then up here on earth in all its salty abundance so what we know happens at the end of a very massive stars life is that fusion ultimately can't carry on anymore and without that process happening the star has no way to counteract gravity and so it starts to collapse in on itself and as it does this there is then a catastrophic explosion called a supernova that blasts all of those materials out into the region around the stop back out into the universe to be recycled into new stars and planets and rocks and and people seasoning salt sodium chloride call it what you like everyone has contact every day with sodium in the food that they eat a most of us know that too much of it is bad for us increasing blood pressure and the risk of heart disease but why Graham McGregor is Professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Wilson Institute at Bart's hospital I asked him how does eating too much salt increase blood pressure the simplistic a summation which I think holds a lot of truth in it is that when you eat more salt you retain some in the body so that salt is in the extracellular space us the blood volume of the fluid surrounds the tissues and that expands space so if you go for instance from a low to high salt intake you'll increase your extrasolar fluid by about Elisa and a half so we're all sloshing around in this extra fluid Now if you think this is a. A radiator system central heating if you put more fluid in it tends to put pressure up because the heart is beating more fluid comes back hot has to be hotter pressure goes up and do we need salt we need one thing that we need tiny amounts of all mammals evolved only an amount of salt will say to him in the food naturally in for vegetables and meat we had no access to salt no mammal eat salt you can be trained to eat it horses and because if they're trained to eat it will do so we existed for millions of years with no soldiers will can probably live on point one of a gram of soul where he sing 10 drams or as a 100 times more than what we need but obviously we need some sold or sodium otherwise we wouldn't exist and you were actually responsible for the experiment which proved that even a modest reduction in salt intake could reduce blood pressure how did you actually do this well Ok being a bit flattering we were the 1st here to do a properly controlled study of motorists or reduction it was known that so reduction of blood pressure but we want to do a study it was double blind which are neither patients or people measuring blood pressure new so what we did take a group of patients who were off treatment with high blood pressure and put them on a low salt so they would have their salt intake we then off they've been on that for a while we then randomised them into what's called Double Blind crossover study where for 6 weeks they took a slow surge in tablets which were waxing capsulated tablets of certain drugs that are make you vomit or they were randomized to take a placebo tablet so this gave us a difference in salt intake about 10 grams on the normal saw 5 grams on the lower and that caused a large fall in blood pressure in the Innes patients and it was important to give them the tablets rather than let them add salt back to the food because you can control that and they would know which they're doing then the whole idea was that the patients didn't know which in Tehran no. To the people measuring the blood pressure because otherwise if you feel it's a good feel you know the person measuring the vile they're on the low sold out it is a bit low you know that's the point of doing it in so-called double blind so nobody knows what's going on apart from the guy in charge who doesn't pay to partake in a study yet much more powerful how was your research received at the time. Well you know we got a lot of bad press from the food industry and sold and set a time. Quite naive that I hadn't really realize how important saltiest Well obviously to the salt industry earning about 40 percent of their profits come from Saw sold in let's put into processed foods and then of course the food industry make a lot of money from so in terms of flavoring very cheap food making you drink more and also in meat and fish products allowing you to add more water so it's vitally important to them in increasing their profits and to be clear the problems associated with high blood pressure not trivial Absolutely not but high blood pressure is the biggest killer in the world it is one thing you can measure in you it's your blood pressure and that will predict your death or through a life insurance company won't insure you have very high blood pressure that was known for many years and we now know that if we love blood pressure it immensely beneficial in preventing strokes heart attacks and haw failure we also know that if we prevent it I we prevent the rise of because with a so you don't develop it that's immensely beneficial So sodium is critical in regulating blood pressure and it's also very important for the rest of our biology in physiology due to its keenness to give away its electrons might biological it is the possible so perhaps it's not surprising that electricity was at the heart of how this incredibly reactive metal was ever isolated in its pure form this was a moment in science when there's a really extraordinary flowering of chemistry which is driven by a crucial discovery and that was a listener of alter who in Italy made the 1st battery what he called his crown of cops and what he'd shown was that if you take alternating discs of copper and silver or copper and zinc you could give yourself a nominal electric shocks. People started using that man called Nichols and used that to split water. And that was the 1st indication electrolysis the splitting using electricity you might be able to tear the material world apart using this new tool and Davy set about doing just that and really you know in that basement he had the equivalent of the Large Hadron Collider circa 18041806 is that you know he really had a matter splitting tool so he then takes a variety of different salts he sticks to platinum electrodes into it the salt is actually molten So he's got some kind of burner going and out of this Malton mass and to his astonishment out came one after another these amazing fiery reactive frightening elements one of which was electrolysis was what helped Humphry Davy tear the physical world apart to finally meet sodium in its pure soft metallic state the electrical component to biology is what gives cells their power to send signals but how can a sodium on lead to such possibilities Franz's Ashcroft is a professor of physiology at the University of Oxford and the author of The Spark of Life Electricity in the human body and she is a passionate advocate of this basic an ancient mechanism the sodium ion channel so we have much higher sodium outside ourselves than inside them and it's this concentration gradient that's used to produce electrical signals in a nerve and muscle fi this and that of course underlies our ability to think and speak indeed your ability to hair and understand me now all of that's due to the electrical signals taking place in the nerve cells in your brain and that in 10 is down to a set of little known but extremely important proteins known as ion channels and one of the most important are the sodium channels so everything that happens in multicellular organisms when they can move and sense information. In the world is reliant on these nervous systems are you saying that that's critically involving sodium I said restate Yeah absolutely it does and that's because the sodium ions have to move through tiny little pores in the cell membrane which are known as I and channels and it's that movement that creates an electrical current that's responsible for the nerve impulses and electrical impulses in your muscle fibers and you mentioned these channels can you tell us a little bit more about how those work oh these are my favorite things this is what I work on all my life and so these are tiny little pores that are found in the membrane of every one of us south and the cells of every organism on earth in fact and they serve as tiny little ports that can open and close and so when the poor that open the ions can swarm through the center of it and when they're shot they obviously can't move of course the tiny really tiny You can't see them with the naked eye they may be tiny but they are critical to the function of nerve cells and without nerve cells we would have no brains no structures for forming memories and making plans neuroscientist a neurologist Steve Waxman is also passionate about them I'm professor of neurology engineer a science at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Veterans' Affairs Connecticut medical center the brain is the world's most complex computer it consists of billions probably a 100000000000 nerve cells and they communicate with each other by sending tiny electrical messages electrical impulses and these electrical impulses are produced by specialized molecules in the membranes of neurons the molecules are called sodium channels and you can think of them as tiny molecular batteries they produce tiny electrical currents some nerve cells will go up up up up up up up these will go up up up up up up. And so it's important to understand how they work and how they can be targeted as therapeutic targets but 1st it's worth finding out just how important the said in channels are by looking at what happens when they stop working. Their aims Ashcroft Frances Ashcroft. Oh well there's my favorite There's lots of them there. There are the ones I thought if one can like a top it was like having a favorite sex and everyone has a disposition Yeah but this story is the same interesting and a many of them are made by plants or bacteria or animals that are concentrated in other animals so for example there are inhibitors that sodium channels in their activate as of sodium channels and if I just give you some examples of the inhibitors one of those would be a toxin which is known as tetrodotoxin which is produced by a bacteria and that bacteria is eaten by lots of creatures including fish and scorpions and snakes and I think probably most people would know it through food goo which is a form of puffer fish that eaten in Japan and if the fish isn't properly prepared and you eat some of the liver or the tests or a very which happened have large amounts of to treat a toxin people can die and indeed they have done those familiar with the James Bond novels may also be familiar with James Bond's lucky escape from death of to being poisoned by Russian villain Rosa club using a spike in his shoe trust the Russians to use something no one's ever had of to try to do talks in it's terrible stuff I'm very quick one shot of it like your mom got in a matter of seconds the most your inner spiritual muscles are paralyzed 1st the chap sees double and then he can't keep his eyes open his head falls and he can't raise it dies of or spiritual paralysis. Lucky he got away with it what it does is it blocks the sodium channels it acts like a little plug so it physically plugs the pool and what that means is the sodium ions can't move through and the consequence that that is that your nerves the paralyzed so to begin with you feel a sort of tingling and numbness of the lips and math and then it progresses to all of the face and then your limb muscles become paralyzed and the reason it kills you is because it paralyzes your ISP or tree muscles so you dive this fixation and my understanding is that actually the toxin doesn't cross the blood brain barrier so you actually have some idea of what's going on which must be extremely frightening mess with sodium channels at your peril but while changing how they work can kill us quite dramatically understanding exactly what they do and how they do it is helping us tackle a big problem in medicine people with neuropathic pain it happens when there is damage to a particular kind of nerve called the peripheral pain sensing nerves they normally serve a protective function but normally they fire only when there is a threatening stimulus say a hot match or a pinprick that impinges on our body now in some situations our peripheral pain signaling neurons take on a life of their own and become hyper active they're firing but I don't know when they should be silent or they should be firing slowly. But. That occurs in diabetic neuropathy it occurs in tri germinal or Alger produced by hyperactivity try Gemini all gangly and neurons these are the neurons the nerve cells that innervate the face patients will describe it as feeling as if an x. Had been hurled into their face it occurs after nerve injury after traumatic limb imputation it's an immense unmet medical need the existing drugs are only partially effective and in some cases carry on acceptable side effects including the potential for addiction so worldwide there's a need to understand neuropathic pain better and to develop new therapies and at the core of it are the molecules that enable pain signalling nerve cells to fire and those are sodium channels if you've ever had a local anaesthetic at the dentist then you have had a sodium channel block but of course you only have it locally and the important word here is local if you took it as a pill it would book all kinds of sodium channels those in the hearts those in the brain you have a rich me a double vision loss of balance and sleepiness and then we're back in food territory. But what if there was a very specific sodium channel which didn't affect the brain and heart and just was involved in the generation of near perfect pain that could be less terrifying a moment or Oculus as we begin to learn that there are different genes encoding different sodium channels the question came up might there be a peripheral sodium channel that is important for the firing of our peripheral pain signaling neurons in our peripheral nerves but that was not important for the function of the brain and that became a holy grail of pain or search because if such a channel were to exist and be found then one could try to target it with drugs that would block it and in principle that would produce a pain therapy that would not produce these central side effects like loss of balance or confusion or sleepiness and the Holy Grail sodium channel was identified called and I v 1.7 but Stephen and colleagues wanted more proof that this particular study in China was critical in Europe perfect pain so he launched a quest to find a very very group of people people with a genetic mutation which causes them excruciating pain we found families with a very rare disorder the man on fire syndrome also called inherited a rift. In which the disease is passed on from generation to generation and these individuals feel as if they're on fire they experience searing burning scalding pain in response to even mild warmth wearing a sweater wearing shoes entering the room at 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 degrees Celsius and they describe the pain as feeling as if a blow torch or hot lava had been poured into their body they will keep their limbs their hands and feet on ice to the point of getting Gang Green these families carry you Taishan that make the n.a.v. 1.7. Sodium channel over active and that in turn causes pain signaling neurons to be overactive So they're shrieking when they should be silent I'm not only that 2 years later in 2006 another Reg group of families were discovered with the opposite problem these families have a loss of function of the n.a.v. $1.00 sodium channel and they display a remarkable picture of total insensitivity to pain painless fractures of the bones painless Burns painless childbirth painless Dental to thinks tractions these people don't feel pain at all so we were in the very unique situation of having gain a function mutations of n.a.v. 1.7 causing extreme pain and loss of function causing inability to sense pain now that's important scientifically because it indicts the n.a.v. $1.00 sodium channel as a master player a master regulator of pain so we have a target the have been a few small clinical trials with initial signs of success one of those is on patients with facial pain from. 15 patients received the n.a.v. 1.7 blocker and 14 patients received placebo and the study was was carefully blinded the important result was that the number of attacks per day went down by 45 percent in the patients who had received the n.a.v. $1.00 blocker and the overall pain score at the end of each day also went down very substantially Now that's the good news the bad news is the total number of patients studied was 29 and this study took several years to carry out my hope and I'm I'm reasonably confident that there will be some. Point an entirely new class of pain medications Now having said that this work goes slowly and it's not going to be ready for patients in pharmacies or in their doctors' offices next month or next year this work progress is slowly understanding said his role in the brain may help create a generation of pain killers with no risk of addiction no side effects and who knows where research and study may take medicine in the future for me one of the most astonishing properties a sodium is the way the evolutionary process is a built such a complex world of brains and behavior from its life on earth would look and act very differently without sodium I'm so if you Scott and this edition of discovery on the World Service was produced by Pamela rather fit you're listening to the b.b.c. World news on k. Or c c 2 Southern Colorado's n.p.r. Station Kera c.c. Broadcasts on 91.5 f.m. From our studios in Colorado Springs Colorado you can also hear cares you see in the following communities 88.5 f.m. 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