podcast

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #7 – Dr. William Parker, The “Macrobiome” and Human Health

Dr. William Parker, Associate Professor of Surgery and Global Health at Duke University, will discuss the biome depletion theory and how our cleanliness is disrupting normal immune function. These processes can have profound downstream effects on maternal and child health. From the Duke Medical School: What is widely known as the “hygiene hypothesis” is more appropriately described as the biota alteration or biome depletion theory: Changes in symbiont composition in the ecosystem of the human body in Western culture has led to immune dysfunction and subsequent disease. We are working on several aspects of this theory. Our earlier studies probe the immunological differences between laboratory-raised and wild-raised animals as a means of assessing differences between humans with and without Western culture, respectively. Other studies probe the role of biome enrichment, in particular the addition of helminths, in the treatment of disease. Studies are ongoing in both humans and in animals, with particular attention to the role of biome depletion in cognitive dysfunction.

We discuss the future of human health with a specific focus on our macrobiome friends, parasites, with whom we have co evolved. They are now missing and we are not better off because of it.

 

Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. William Parker,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #6 – Dr. David Rakel, Stress and Optimal Woman’s Health

Podcast #6
Dr. David Rakel, MD is a nationally recognized leader in integrative medicine. He is the Chair of the department of Family Medicine and Community health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He is an expert in mind body stress and human health.
Dr. Rakel obtained his undergraduate degree from Colorado College and graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in 1991. During his time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison he founded the Integrative Medicine Program (now known as the Integrative Health Program) and received the Gold Foundation’s Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, the school’s highest honor for excellence and compassion in care. His team worked with more than 50 clinical systems within the Veterans Health Administration to implement changes to make care more personalized, proactive, and patient driven.
An author of both academic and popular writings, David Rakel says one of his missions is to communicate medical information in a way that is accessible to people of all backgrounds. He has published 11 books, including the Textbook of Family Medicine, Current Therapy, and Integrative Medicine, as well as peer-reviewed research on the impact of measures such as mindfulness meditation and the power of the therapeutic encounter. He serves as editor-in-chief of Practice Update, a website devoted to commentaries on primary medical care research. His 2018 book The Compassionate Connection focuses on how relationship-building can influence health outcomes.
Today we will take a deep look at maternal and child health as it relates to stress.
I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Dr. Rakel,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast – Putting It All Together #1

This week on the show, I sit down to put the first three maternal/child health podcasts into perspective. We take a more nuanced view of how these three experts are tied together. We examine the basic underpinnings of maternal health risks through the eyes of these thought leaders in preparation for the next three experts who will take us on a tour of human health from a microbiome and environmental perspective. This show is also a way for the folks that are on the go to get a summary of the podcasts for their benefit.

 

Be well,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #5 – Dr. Victoria Maizes, Fertility and Optimal Woman’s Health

Dr. Victoria Maizes is executive director of the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, chief of the UA Division of Integrative Medicine and a professor of medicine, family medicine and public health. Internationally recognized as a leader in integrative medicine, she stewarded the growth of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine from a small program educating four residential fellows per year to a designated “Center of Excellence” that trains more than 500 residents and fellows annually.

Dr. Maizes has pioneered multiple innovative educational programs including the Integrative Family Medicine Program, and Integrative Medicine in Residency, two national models for educating primary care physicians. As founding co-chair of the education committee of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine—the mission of which is to promote integrative medicine, she has led a team of educators in developing objectives for medical students in integrative medicine.

Her passion for women’s health makes her ideal for a discussion on fertility and the best path forward for a woman wanting to become a mother. Her book, Be Fruitful, is a road map leading to the best pregnancy and child outcomes. We discuss the root causes of infertility and maternal disease. Dr. Maizes teaches us the pathway to be followed for a mother to be in order to unwind the antecedent risk factors for infertility and disease.

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

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #4 – Ken Cook, the Environmental Working Group and Your Health

Ken Cook, President and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group, is widely recognized as one of the environmental community’s most prominent and influential critics of industrial agriculture, U.S. food and farm policy and the nation’s broken approach to protecting families and children from toxic substances. Under Cook’s guidance, the organization empowered American families with easy-to-use, data-driven tools to help reduce their exposure to potentially harmful ingredients in foods, drinking water, cosmetics and other household products. These unique digital resources are searched hundreds of millions of times by consumers. 
We discuss the state of the nation with regards to environmental triggers of disease which can cause problems in mothers and children. It is a conversation that every parent needs to hear as it is loaded with news to use for a healthier life.
Please enjoy my conversation with Ken Cook,
Dr. M
Here are two links to the podcast:
Apple Podcasts
Women and Children First
SPA Podcast Page – will be loaded this week

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #3 – Dr. Randy Jirtle and the Discovery of Maternal Risk

Dr. Randy Jirtle joins the show today to discuss his groundbreaking research that ushered in the era of epigenetics. Time Magazine nominated him for person of the year in 2007 and had this to say about him: “Dr. Jirtle’s pioneering work in epigenetics and genomic imprinting has uncovered a vast territory in which a gene represents less of an inexorable sentence and more of an access point for the environment to modify the genome. His trailblazing discoveries have produced a far more complete and useful understanding of human development and diseases” — Time Magazine. This interview is ground zero for the Women and Children First Podcast as we discuss the underpinnings or mechanisms of disease risk for all humans as it relates to the environmental inputs of our lives that are driving health or disease at both the pregnancy and post natal periods. We look specifically at how maternal nutrition and later chemical exposure directly affected the health of the agouti mouse offspring. This experiment was the first of its kind and paved the way for a complete shift in human disease understanding. For parents, this podcast is really the beginning of everything that I am trying to convey regarding a healthy pregnancy and childhood. Without this interview, the following interviews will be more difficult to understand. The picture becomes very clear once his research is cemented in our minds.

His biography is as follows: Professor of Epigenetics at the Department of Biological Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, and a Senior Scientist at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. He was previously professor of radiation oncology and associate professor of pathology at Duke University, Durham, NC, where he had been a faculty member since 1977. He graduated with a B.S. degree in nuclear engineering in 1970 and a Ph.D. degree in radiation biology in 1976, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His awards list is long but the key to Dr. Jirtle is that he is a curious thinker and we are grateful for this.

Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Randy Jirtle,

Dr. M

Women and Children First Podcast #2: Danny Benjamin – COVID 19 and the Return to School

Dr. Danny Benjamin joins me today to discuss COVID19 in children, vaccines and the critical research that his team performed regarding back to school in North Carolina. He is the Kiser Arena Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University and the Principle Investigator of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Pediatric Trials Network. His group performed two large trials of children going back to school in 2020 effectively proving that children being in school face to face was and is safe. We discuss the safety of the mRNA vaccines in the 12 year old and older age group. We dive deep into the risks and fallout from natural COVID infections as well as weigh the scales of vaccination versus natural disease in older children. He is a wealth of knowledge and I am grateful for his time.

 

Enjoy my conversation with Dr. Danny Benjamin,

Dr. M