COVID19

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #99 Liz Mumper, MD – Kids and Covid

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Welcome to Dr. M’s Women & Children First Podcast, where we engage with pioneering voices at the intersection of science, healthcare, and the well-being of families.

Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First, we welcome Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, a physician, educator, and thought leader whose career has profoundly influenced the practice of integrative pediatrics.

Dr. Mumper earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Bridgewater College, graduating magna cum laude, before attending the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, where she received her medical degree. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Virginia and served as Chief Resident in Pediatrics. She remained at UVA as an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics from 1997 to 2005, mentoring future physicians and advancing holistic, evidence-based approaches to child health.

Following her time in academia, Dr. Mumper founded The Rimland Center for Integrative Medicine in Lynchburg, Virginia, a clinic dedicated to children with autism spectrum disorders, PANS/PANDAS, allergies, and complex chronic illnesses. Her practice integrates the best of conventional pediatrics with biomedical and functional medicine principles, always guided by compassion and curiosity.

She has been a leading educator with the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs (MAPS) and a frequent international lecturer, teaching clinicians how to recognize and treat the root causes of immune dysregulation, inflammation, and neurodevelopmental challenges.

Dr. Mumper is also the author of the new book Kids and COVID, an insightful exploration of how the pandemic impacted children, physically, emotionally, and developmentally, and what lessons medicine must learn moving forward. In our conversation, we discuss her book in depth, as well as the broader implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for pediatric care, resilience, and future public health policy.

Finally, we dive into the complex topic of vaccines, considering what we’ve learned from the pandemic years and expanding the conversation begun with Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. Joel Warsh.

Dr. Mumper’s lifelong dedication to children, her fearless pursuit of truth, and her balanced, science-driven voice make her one of the most respected figures in functional medicine.

Please join me in welcoming my friend and colleague,  Dr. Elizabeth Mumper.

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #81 – John Wherry, PhD – Covid, What Did We Learn?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Today, we are honored to have Dr. E. John Wherry, a leading expert in the field of immunology, joining us. Dr. Wherry is the Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also directs the Institute for Immunology. His undergraduate degree was obtained at Penn State University before completing his PhD in Immunology at the Thomas Jefferson University.

A thought leader in T cell biology and immune memory, Dr. Wherry’s work has been instrumental in improving therapies for viral infections, vaccines, and immunotherapy treatments. His discoveries in the field of immune exhaustion have had a profound impact on the way we approach treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases. Widely published in top academic journals including Nature, Cell, and Science, Dr. Wherry is a heavy contributor to Covid research and especially the understandings of long Covid.

Today, we discuss Covid and the current state of the science regarding vaccines, long covid and what we can do better next time there is a pandemic.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

 

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 14 Issue 33

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Sleep Part IV

Continuing the sleep education from a few weeks ago.

Sleep is a most special event that we all need to continue to focus heavily on in order to live a healthy and long life. It may be the single most important event that we do daily.

Here are a few more quick hits on sleep from the Matthew Walker’s Book and other publications.

1) Aim for a minimum of 7 hours nightly to maintain adequate memory consolidation, immune health and emotional regulation. Young children and teens need 8-14 hours depending on age.

2) Do not eat close to bedtime. Stop eating three hours before you plan to go to sleep. Avoid rapidly digesting refined carbohydrates as they turn into energy quickly raising core temperature which makes it harder to fall asleep as we need our body temperature to drop 3 to 4 degrees F at night to fall asleep. Heavy protein meals at night are not a great idea. Eat the heavier proteins early (before 6 pm) if at all in the evening….plus a section on summer Covid surge.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 48

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Covid 19 Post Mortem Part II
The story of the Standard American Diet and its directional connection to death from Sars2 – Covid.
Post Covid population health data has shown us that humans that chronically consume more meat, sugar, animal products and highly processed foods were associated with more death and morbidity if they contracted early versions of Covid19. The effect of consuming sugar products on mortality was considerable, and obesity has affected increased death rates and reduced recovery rates. (Kamyari et. al. 2021) (Greene et. al. 2021) (Merino et. al. 2021) – also a Recipe of the Week.
Enjoy
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 47

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Covid 19 Post Mortem
As you all know, after reading countless articles that I have posted about COVID and the policies that were put in place by “well meaning” bureaucrats, I have been highly critical of the events that took place and the US Government’s failure on so many fronts. There are two seminal articles that have been written on these topics to date: 1) COVID-19 Origins: Investigating a “Complex and Grave Situation” Inside a Wuhan Lab, 2) COVID Lockdowns Were a Giant Experiment. It Was a Failure. A key lesson of the pandemic. 3) The third and equally critical article that remains unpublished is the story of the Standard American Diet and its direct connection to death from Covid…..also conversations on picky eaters and a recipe of the week.
Enjoy, Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 39

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Maternal Nutrition and the Microbiome – Part I

This was a tricky topic to drill down into one article – so I split it into two. Bear with me on this topic as it is so important in the grander scheme of maternal and child health.
The microbiome by definition: the microorganisms that reside in a particular environment.
Pregnancy is a dynamic event where a woman’s body changes radically, including epigenetically, hormonally, immunologically and physiologically in order to conceive and carry a baby to term. Pregnancy has always been a scientific fascination because of these changes. Now, we add the microbiome to the list, as it is the latest area of research that is shedding light on how pregnancy outcomes are determined.
Part I
This was a tricky topic to drill down into one article – so I split it into two. Bear with me on this topic as it is so important in the grander scheme of maternal and child health. The microbiome by definition: the microorganisms that reside in a particular environment. Pregnancy is a dynamic event where a woman’s body changes radically, including epigenetically, hormonally, immunologically and physiologically in order to conceive and carry a baby to term. Pregnancy has always been a scientific fascination because of these changes. Now, we add the microbiome to the list, as it is the latest area of research that is shedding light on how pregnancy outcomes are determined…… also two sections on covid vaccines and disease…
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 29

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Literature Review:
1) Is loneliness tied to an increase in death risk? A new study in Nature says yes to a degree of the pooled effect size of 1.32 for all cause mortality. (Wang et. al. 2023) In effect, that is a very large effect of the variable loneliness on death risk. Why would this be? Many reasons come to mind. The greatest of which is the control that our mind wields on our immune system. If we think in negative and in sad terms over a period of time, the immune system will shift into a pro inflammatory state and weakened pathogen killing which has massive downstream effects on physiology.
2) In an impressive inoculation study in the UK, researchers gave the ancestral strain of SARS2 to test subjects and then followed them for 2 weeks in quarantine……..
Enjoy
Dr. M

1 2 … 6