Via Découvertes

While life expectancy is increasing in Western countries, cases of diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer are increasing, and the use of medication has exploded. Does this mean that in order to live to a ripe age we are condemned to swallow more and more drugs? What if there was another way? For half a century, in Russia, Germany and the U.S., doctors and biologists have been exploring a different therapeutic approach: fasting. The results are amazing. Soviet researchers have provided a body of clinical studies of exceptional health…only published in Russian, and thus unknown in the West. Young biologists from the University of Los Angeles have overturned conventional wisdom and used molecular biology to demonstrate the powerful effects of fasting. This research suggests a wide-ranging potential, which could include treatments for the disease of the century, cancer. If these scientists are right, maybe our approach to disease and treatment will need a rethink.

As most plastic never deteriorates, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that are invisible to the human eye, what happens to this missing ocean plastic is a mystery. In this investigation, scientists embark in search of the micro-plastics. Small, mostly invisible, toxic, they are home to the new ecosystem: the plastisphere. But where are they? Ingested by organisms? Buried under the ocean floor? Degraded by bacteria? And what is the impact of them entering the food chain?

Every km of ocean now contains an average of 74,000 pieces of plastic. A 'plastic soup' of waste, killing hundreds of thousands of animals every year and leaching chemicals slowly up the food chain. In Holland, scientists found plastic in the stomachs of 95% of all fulmar birds. In Germany, plastic has been found to affect the reproductive systems of animals, while in the US, conservationists are seeing increasing numbers of dolphins die in agony, their guts blocked with rubbish. What will be the long term impact of this 'plastic pollution'? Can anything be done to clean up our oceans?

In the Philippines, the reefs, coasts and islets of the island of Palawan, the Straits of Balabak and the Sula Sea are amongst the richest in biodiversity on Earth. Some scientists claim that the entire submarine wildlife of the Pacific originated from this area. The coral is magnificent and the protected sites offer an incomparable vision of marine life to scuba divers from all over the world. However, since the end of the Second World War, Philippine fishermen have been fishing with dynamite all over the coral reefs of this marine Wild West. Today, far from diminishing, this form of fishing has taken on industrial dimensions and 50% of the coral has been destroyed, turning this underwater Eden into arid desert…

Spared by cancer, diabetes and possibly Alzheimer’s, men and women of small stature are intriguing scientists that are trying to postpone age-related illnesses. What mechanisms protect these small Ecuadorian from certain illnesses? From Quito to Los Angeles, via Tel-Aviv, the film follows the revolutionary research, step-by-step, that is attempting to understand and prevent diseases such as cancer. And outlines ways to live in good health… for as long as possible.