Advertisement

‘Human guinea pig’ Dr Michael Mosley’s craziest experiments

Dr Michael Mosley has made a career out of doing things most people have nightmares about.

For example, one of the BBC presenter’s most memorable experiments involved willingly infecting himself with a tapeworm.

“I went off to Kenya, we found an infected cow, cut it up and picked up the tapeworm cysts and I swallowed three of them,” Dr Mosley tells The New Daily.

“All three of them took … I had them for about eight weeks and they were linked to an iPad so I could monitor their journey. So yeah, that was fun!”

That’s not even the worst of it – Dr Mosley was forced to keep fecal samples in his freezer so the medical team could monitor his gut biomes.

“I have a very patient wife and a bottom section in the freezer dedicated to strange things so the kids don’t go looking for ice cream down there.”

Describing himself as a “human guinea pig”, the British doctor and medical journalist began his career as an economist at an international bank before switching to medicine.

“I actually blame an Australian for my entire career,” he says when asked how he got into this whole experimentation thing.

“One of the first films I made was about a doctor called Barry Marshall, based in Western Australia. Barry was convinced stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria and not by stress … no one believed him.

“So he actually brewed some [of the bacteria] up and swallowed it and a few days later he was vomiting blood and absolutely thrilled.”

For the record, Professor Marshall went on to win a Nobel Prize for medicine.

“He’s a national hero,” Dr Mosley declares. “I loved the fact he was brave enough to do it … I thought, ‘what a great idea for a TV show’.”

Watch Dr Mosley discover a tapeworm living inside him (warning: graphic tapeworm images):

Dr Mosley began his own self-testing journey and hit on some hard truths – one of his experiments led to a shocking revelation.

“Five years ago I discovered I was Type 2 diabetic as the result of a blood test I did for TV,” he explains.

“My GP wanted me to start medication but I thought there must be something better so I started searching the literature and I came across this thing called intermittent fasting.”

From there, Dr Mosley came up with his now-famous 5:2 diet, which involves five days of eating regularly and two of low-calorie consumption.

“I lost 10 kilos in 12 weeks and reversed my diabetes and have kept the weight off ever since.”

Although testing for this diet involved fasting for days, Dr Mosley says nothing is as challenging as one of his recent experiments at a mysterious military science development facility.

“I got access to Porton Down, a top-secret facility in the UK where they develop some of the nastiest substances known to man,” Dr Mosley says.

“The most unpleasant thing I’ve experienced was tear gas exposure. I felt initially fine and then it just was unbelievably horrible.

“It’s like breathing fire. Snot pours out of your eyes, every extremity just wants to explode and you just want to run away as fast as possible.”

Watch Dr Mosley go inside Porton Down:

It’s not all bad though – plenty of Dr Mosley’s experiments have returned positive results, like his revolutionary research on exercise.

“I found you can get most of the benefits of exercise in about three minutes a week,” he reveals, to the joy of lazy people the world over.

He’s also interviewed murderers for an upcoming doco on what makes a serial killer, swallowed a camera, taken “truth drug” thiopental, been bitten by leeches – and is willing to share his all of his experiences with anyone and everyone.

“I love talking about it,” says Dr Mosley, who is in Sydney to speak at the ASTRA conference, “so if anyone wants to come up and talk to me about it feel free – I’m wandering around Sydney at the moment.”

Watch Dr Mosley’s encounter with a leech (warning: it’s gross):

Catch Dr Mosley’s upcoming documentaries on Thursdays at 8.30pm from September 22 on BBC Knowledge.

Advertisement
Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter.
Copyright © 2025 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.