Immune Health

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 33

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Coronavirus Update 67

Natural infection provides a much better route to transmission protection than intramuscular systemic vaccination because of the induction of mucosal immunity via IgA and tissue resident T cells. (Tang et. al. 2022) If you can tolerate a natural infection without much morbidity, this seems to be a reasonable choice at this time. This is especially important now with the immune escaping variants of Omicron lineage and the reality of the current vaccine booster pool is lackluster in its effect on transmission. This calculus may change dramatically with a newer Omicron BA.5 specific vaccine that is in the works. And much more this week!

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #27 – Dr. Paul Offit – Covid Vaccines

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Dr. Paul A. Offit is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Offit is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of virology and immunology, and was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is a member of the Food and Drug Administration Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, a member of the Institute of Medicine and co-editor of the foremost vaccine text, Vaccines.

He is a scientist, a skeptic, a thinker and an individual deeply passionate about children’s health.

This week we sit down to discuss Covid, vaccines and children’s health.

I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Offit,

 

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 31

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Coronavirus Update #66

This week is another close look at the current variants of the Omicron lineage, especially BA.5. What is the deal with this strain? Is it causing more heart ache in the United States or just an annoying highly infectious variant? In my opinion, when we have global flairs of Covid 19, there is clear evidence now that individuals that are immune compromised have unwittingly become breeding grounds for genomic mutations in SARS2 leading to variants of concern. These variants become our new circulating troublemakers. Thus, in my opinion, we should be making vaccines in this country that are high quality and targeted to the current strain. Then we should be releasing it worldwide very quickly to people in immune compromised states. This should have the effect of slowing down these emerging VOC’s that are evading our natural and vaccine induced immunity. Finally, we end with a discussion of chronic rhino sinusitis.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 29

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Coronavirus Update #65

This week we take another and deeper dive into PACS or long covid. What are the risk factors for it? How does the intestinal microbiome play out in this space? Are there certain bacteria that are associated with a negative outcome? Can we alter them to our advantage? We also take a closer look at the current variants of the Omicron lineage. Finally, we end with a discussion of social media concerns.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #24 – Dr. Lindsey Albenberg – Nutrition, microbiome and the bowel.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

My guest this week is Dr. Lindsey Albenberg. We sit down to discuss all things gastrointestinal as it relates to children, nutrition, inflammation and health. Dr. Albenberg is a physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and a member of the research team in the Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She primarily studies inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) as they relate to nutrition, the microbiome and overall health. She has been published in top journals including Gut, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. She is known for her teaching skills and has won many awards as a resident and an attending physician.

We discuss many layers of the evolving understanding of where the touch points are in the development of a dysfunctional microbiome and subsequently inflammatory diseases. She gives us high quality dietary information based on the current data for how to approach food with children and adults. We delve into Covid 19 a little and some other tidbits of useful take home points.

I hope that you will enjoy my conversation with Dr. Lindsey Albenberg,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 12 Issue 24

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

A subset of children may be more susceptible to respiratory infections of viral and bacterial varieties based on some new research. It appears that the microbiomes of the nasopharyngeal respiratory tract and host immune defenses play a major role here. We discuss some new research regarding infection risk. We also discuss snakes, post bite care and avoidance.

More to learn,

Dr. M

1 … 4 5 6