Students from AIT were featured on TV3’s Doctor in the House programme which aired earlier this week. The team met Conor, Padraig, Brian, and Paddy - all students in their 20s sharing a house in Athlone.
Apart from the dangers of their binge drinking and fatty diets, the doctors discover E coli growing in their much loved microwave.
In this episode, the doctors dip their toes back in the waters of student life and find serious health issues with hygiene, sexual health, poor diets, and binge drinking.
They learn that Conor has a family history of heart problems and is concerned for his own cardiac health. Brian is addicted to sugar and video games. Padraig is a man who seems to be a little too fond of his pints, and Paddy is the healthiest in this not-so-healthy student house.
Their terrible diets of fried foods combined with regular binge drinking sessions seem like the doctors’ worst nightmare but things get a whole lot worse when Dr Nina Byrnes discovers E coli growing in their much-loved microwave.
Dr Nina sends a swab to the lab to see how dangerous it is.
“It grew a very heavy growth of bacteria called E coli. At the very severe end of E coli, there’s a particular strain of E coli that can cause kidney failure and death and that was growing in your microwave. They’re the kind of bacteria you would usually see growing in a toilet.”
Because they are a group of young and supposedly fit young men, Professor Niall Moyna ups the ante and gives them an exercise programme that will challenge their strength, power, speed, and overall aerobic fitness.
Each of the students is tested and trained to their limits as they follow an eight week lifestyle overhaul to pull them back from the brink of a life of bad habits and chronic illness.
