Britain's "Embarrassing Bodies" brings medical reality TV

We're so down for watching reality TV medical shows. Give us a half-ton man or some guy whose hands resemble trees and we're a happy clam. So we were thrilled when our editor passed along a link to a series of British shows called "Embarrassing Bodies."

With a title like that, you can only imagine. Before you click the link and watch the video clips, be forewarned: There are graphic images -- albeit in a medical context -- some of which are much more explicit than what we're used to seeing in the U.S.

The show is pretty much what you'd imagine: People with embarrassing health issues seek treatment. Besides "Embarrassing Bodies," there's also "Embarrassing Teenage Bodies" and "Embarrassing Bodies: Kids."

When we watched some of the clips, we thought the show toggled between voyeuristic and informative, and we weren't alone. We asked Dr. Camelia Davtyan, a clinical professor of medicine at UCLA, what she thought. "There were a lot of good visuals," she said, "and a lot of what I saw was certainly useful as far as getting the graphic details if someone is interested. But it depends how you look at it. It may go a little too far to try to make it interesting." Like, oh, say, footage of some guy's really big hemorrhoids or a woman's awful nail fungus or actual surgical procedures.

But Davtyan agreed that the show may be a catalyst for people with similar potentially embarrassing health issues to seek a doctor's help. "That's part of what we're teaching in medical school," she said, "that the human body is the human body, and it has a lot of variations and illnesses. From the beginning we make (students) sensitive to the fact that many patients don't forward information." Doctors want patients to know that they won't be judged for revealing uncomfortable matters and there could be solutions to the problem.

Davtyan also said that, although the site provides helpful health-related links, they are British-based and may provide different information from what's available in the U.S. Also, take the tips posted by regular blokes in the forums with a large grain of salt. If you're looking for medical advice, go see a doctor.