Embarrassing Bodies
GEM
Wednesdays 10.30pm
SOME people say when you’re in a rut or feeling down, the best way to boost your self-confidence is to relish in the misfortunes of others.
Whether you’re feeling a little soft around the edges or are sheepish about a new bodily dysfunction, switch the television over to Embarrassing Bodies where your concerns will pale in comparison.
With straight faces, Dr Christian Jessen along with Dr Dawn Harper and Dr Pixie McKenna take on some of the most gruesome ailments from premature balding and irritable bowel syndrome right through to sebaceous genital cysts and inverted nipples in the British cult-series which has made its way across the world.
As the notorious white van stalks its way across the United Kingdom, viewers are caught completely unaware as the person in questions begins to open up about symptoms that make you squirm in your seat.
Enjoying a focus on generally hard to pronounce and particularly disgusting diseases, the reality TV show makes it very hard to keep your cool when the doctors start poking and prodding areas that test your ability to hold down dinner earlier that night.
Now in its seventh season, some of the show’s humorous examples include Dr Harper speaking extensively about flatulence control as well as helping treat a man whose life was being overrun by excessive body hair.
Although quite a few cases are met with laughs, the show makes great strides at building awareness and destigmatising some very harrowing health issues.
In its most recent episode, Dr Harper met with a family of women who each carried the BRCA1 breast cancer gene and followed the decisions they made about their health future.
Uncovering rare genetic conditions such as progeria have also helped the show to appeal to the compassionate, understanding side of viewers and one can’t help but feel sympathetic and hopeful for these brave people.
Whether the show gives you the giggles or brings you to empathic tears, the show just got a whole lot more intimate with its new Embarrassing Bodies Down Under which gives viewers the backstage pass to some of Australia’s most awkward and concealed illnesses.
So will you tune into find out what’s in your neighbour’s deep dark closet?
– Aneeka Simonis
