Tag Archives: obesity

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 1

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Covid update #77 with quick hits on vaccines in young adults, POTS or hypotension following Covid 19 as well as obesity and Sars2. Non covid research looking at the brain.

From Nature Communications: “Parkinson’s disease (PD) may start in the gut and spread to the brain. To investigate the role of gut microbiome, we conducted a large-scale study, at high taxonomic resolution, using uniform standardized methods from start to end… Here we show that over 30% of species, genes and pathways tested have altered abundances in PD, depicting a widespread dysbiosis.”

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #34 Stephan Guyenet, PhD – Childhood Obesity Part IV – Neuroscience of Food Choice

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This week, I sit down with Dr. Stephan J. Guyenet, a neuroscientist, thinker and educator.  After earning a BS in biochemistry at the University of Virginia, he completed a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Washington, then went on to study the neuroscience of obesity and eating behavior as a postdoctoral fellow.  He has over 12 years of history in the neuroscience research world studying neurodegenerative disease and the neuroscience of body fatness.  His mission is to advance science and public health as a researcher, science consultant, and science communicator.  Publishing a book, The Hungry Brain, in 2017, he laid out the framework for understanding how our brains work with food. It was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly and called “essential” by the New York Times Book Review.

Finally, he is the founder and director of Red Pen Reviews, which publishes the most informative, consistent, and unbiased popular health and nutrition book reviews available.

This hour long conversation is very stimulating as we dive headlong into the upstream targets of food choice and body outcome.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #33 David Allison, PhD – Childhood Obesity Part III

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This weeks guest is Dr. David B. Allison. Dr. Allison is the third guest to tackle the topic of childhood obesity for us. He received his Ph.D. from Hofstra University in 1990. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a second post-doctoral fellowship at the NIH-funded New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke’s/Roosevelt Hospital Center. He became Dean and Provost Professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington in 2017.
He has authored more than 660 scientific publications and received many awards over his distinguished career. Dean Allison has provided regular service to the National Academies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.
His research interests include obesity and nutrition, quantitative genetics, clinical trials, statistical and research methodology, and research rigor and integrity.
“Dr. Allison coined “It’s about knowing” as the tagline for the School of Public Health Indiana University Bloomington for which serves as Dean, and the extended moto “It’s about knowing. Because conjecture is good, but knowing is better.” He conceived a book by the title “It’s About Knowing” written principally by Susan Brackney and co-authored by Dr. Allison. More information about the book is available here.”
This week we tackle the difficulty of performing meaningful research in the Obesity landscape. This is a conversation primarily about the study process and the difficulties in teasing out the variables.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #32 David Katz, MD – Childhood Obesity Part II

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Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #32 – David Katz, MD – Childhood Obesity Part II
David L. Katz, MD, MPH is a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine, with particular expertise in nutrition.
He earned his BA at Dartmouth College (1984); his MD at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (1988); and his MPH from the Yale University School of Public Health (1993). He completed sequential residency training and board certification in Internal Medicine (1991) and Preventive Medicine/Public Health (1993). Katz is the founder and former director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (1998-2019); Past President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine; President and Founder of the non-profit True Health Initiative; and Founder and CEO of Diet ID, Inc. The recipient of numerous awards for teaching, writing, and contributions to public health, Katz was a 2019 James Beard Foundation Award nominee in health journalism, has been a widely supported nominee for the position of U.S. Surgeon General, and has received three honorary doctorates. Katz has served as a nutrition columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine; an on-air contributor for ABC News/Good Morning America, and with appearances on most major news programs and contributions to most major magazines and leading newspapers, including OpEds in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
His most recent book, How to Eat, co-authored with Mark Bittman, is a 2021 IACP Awards finalist and is worth your time. I have had the pleasure of hearing him speak many times over the years and he is an amazing orator and I am blessed to have this hour with him.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 40

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Dr. Katz – “Human offspring come into this world much like the young of all other mammals, and like all the others, within minutes of our arrival, we are hungry. Food figures prominently in our lives ever after, but never is it more important than in childhood, when it serves as the literal construction material of those growing bodies and brains. The initial food choice for human babies should be self-evident, as it is for all other baby mammals: the milk of their mothers. The provision of that milk is among the defining characteristics of the mammalian class; it is part of what makes us what we are….

Also, we discuss marijuana and vaping as well as new work by Derek Sivers.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #31 – Dr. Sandra Hassink – Childhood Obesity

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This weeks guest is Dr. Sandra Hassink, an expert in pediatric obesity.
Dr. Hassink has spent her career looking into the pathophysiology and social determinants of childhood obesity. Her career began at the Univeristy of Deleware where she studied Chemistry before heading off to Vanderbilt University to study medicine. After completing her training in Pediatrics at St Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia, Dr. Hassink began a long trailblazing road to treating childhood obesity, starting a weight management clinic in 1988 at Alfred I. duPont Children’s Hospital in Delaware well before most pediatricians even realized there was an issue to address.
She is now internationally recognized as an expert in childhood obesity prevention, testifying before Congress and serving as chair of the Delaware Governor’s council on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and directing the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight. She has served as the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, chaired the AAP Obesity Leadership Workgroup, the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight Advisory Committee, and the AAP Strategic Planning Committee. Dr.  Hassink is the chair of the Institute for Medicaid Innovation Child and Adolescent Subcommittee and a member of the  National Advisory Board. She authored numerous articles for parents and pediatricians and two books: “Pediatric Obesity: Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment Strategies for Primary Care” and “A Clinical Guide to Pediatric Weight Management.”
In a word, she is a teacher.
Today, we have the privilege of learning.
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 39

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Coronavirus Update #70 GOOD NEWS: This information is so important to help us all understand risk. Stratified risk is the only true way to measure personal risk. Let us look at some CDC data from the spring Omicron BA.1 and .2 spikes versus the fall 2021 delta wave.
Median age of hospitalization has increased from 60 years old with Delta to 64 with BA.1 and 71 with BA.2. Any underlying medical condition associated with hospitalization increased from 89% with Delta to 92% with BA.1 to 95% with BA.2 respectively. Length of hospital stay decreased from 4.8 to 3.9 to 3.3 days. ICU admission was down from 24% to 18% to 13% of admitted patients. Mechanical ventilation decreased from 14% to 8% to 6% of admitted patients. And Finally, death from 12% to 8% to 5% overall.

What we can glean from this data set is very clear. With successive SARS2 mutations coupled to increased population based exposure to virus via infection or vaccine, we are now seriously in a reduced risk state unless you are older than 65 years with a comorbid disease or younger than 65 with a serious disease. 95% of hospitalizations were related to a comorbid disease regardless of age. The other big takeaway was this: if you are in this high risk group, getting every available booster is vital to your survival based on the risk reduction data. For everybody else, the data is clear, you are ok – to boost or not to boost is up to you. But, absolutely work on your general health.

To your health,
Dr. M

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