Dr Norman Swan

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26,995 appearances 288 recordings 3 series first heard Apr 2006 last heard 15 Sep

Dr Norman Swan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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ABC News Daily · The renewed obsession with living longer · 19 Jul 2026 podcast

But you've got doctors all over the place prescribing these things.

So there's a gap between them and the other regulatory agency which regulates health practitioners, the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, APRA.

They did not give us an interview on Four Corners, but they did give us a long reply.

APRA expressed concern that some practitioners may be seeking to exploit the latest health trends by putting profits ahead of patients.

This is unacceptable.

The onus is on practitioners to do the right thing and follow good practice, regardless of the business model or employment arrangements.

And they say they are taking action against some practitioners, although they don't give specifics.

But you get the sense that there is a regulatory twilight zone between these two agencies through which some longevity businesses are driving a truck.

It's much easier taking a pill than changing our behaviour.

And we want the easy way out.

The evidence suggests that people quite like the explanations given by alternate practitioners or complementary practitioners because it seems to appeal to them more rather than the more scientific explanations, which are harder to explain.

And then you often couch them in uncertainty.

So when a doctor is doing this and doing it honestly, it's never a straightforward story.

There's always a margin of uncertainty around what you're saying.

So you've got people giving you certainty, which is what people want.

There is an appeal to doing this the easy way.

And the trouble is, according to our research, at the moment there is no easy way.

There actually might be in the future.

I mean, some of this research is really interesting and something may turn up, but not at the moment and certainly not in your local longevity clinic.

Yeah, and Professor Luigi Fontana at Sydney University is an international authority on metabolism, aging, chronic disease, and so on.

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