Tag Archives: life

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #60 – Moshe Szyf, Ph.D. – Hope and Epigenetics Part 2

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This week’s guest is Professor Moshe Szyf.
This is the second story of hope for us as a species. We have a level of control over our outcome that is baked into our DNA.
Dr. Moshe Szyf joins the show today to discuss the social programming of the epigenome. Dr. Szyf and his colleague Dr. Meaney proposed over two decades ago the first set of evidence that the “social environment” early in life can alter DNA methylation launching the emerging field of “social epigenetics”. He also has illustrated that DNA methylation is a prime therapeutic target in cancer and other diseases to be explored and potentially manipulated for health.
“Together, they discovered that our genetic code, the actual sequential structure of our DNA, can pretty much shrug off the influence of any external environmental factors, short of massive radiation. However, the expression of individual genes within that sequence can be permanently altered by such seemingly innocuous influences as diet or how others treat us. Once triggered, a group of molecules called a methyl group attaches itself to the control centre of a gene, permanently switching on or off the manufacture of proteins that are essential to the workings of every cell in our body. In most tumours, this DNA methylation pattern has been knocked awry, leading to a gene being completely deactivated or triggered to abnormally high activity.” (McGill Reporter)
Dr. Szyf received his Ph. D from the Hebrew University and did his postdoctoral fellowship in Genetics at Harvard Medical School before he joined the department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He currently holds the James McGill Professorship in Pharmacology. He is the founding co-director of the Sackler Institute for Epigenetics and Psychobiology at McGill and is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Experience-based Brain and Biological Development program. Szyf has been the founder of the first “Pharma” to develop epigenetic pharmacology “Methylgene Inc.” and the first journal in epigenetics “Epigenetics”.
Please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Moshe Szyf,
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #59 – Randy Jirtle, Ph. D. – The Imprintome and Hope

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Randy Jirtle, Ph.D.
This week’s guest is Professor Randy Jirtle.
Dr. Randy Jirtle joins the show for the second time today to discuss his new research on the imprintome, the regulatory regions that at the earliest stages of fetal development control our epigentic and thus our genetic outcome. This is the Hope locus.
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,
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 20

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Section I – An Uncivilized Journey Part II
(Being Vulnerable part II)
I continued my wandering journey of self discovery this year. Finding myself back in rural Austin, Texas, there would be no preconceived idea for me what this stop on the path would uncover and offer me in witness and self emotional understanding. Not to disappoint, this journey was easily 5X more mind and heart opening than last April. The past year has been tumultuous for me as you all may remember. I am still coming off the reality of losing my rock in the world, my father. It is a strange feeling. The knowing that he is gone and that I must live without his counsel, love and support. But, live we all must with loss, grief and existence…..
Best,
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 #21 – Traver Boehm – An Uncivilized Journey

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What does it mean to be a man in modern times? To be in tune with and feel all aspects of one’s life experiences? To be unapologetic, authentic and safe? To move past trauma and pain? In other words, to be a man uncivilized.
To better understand these questions, I give you the words or Traver Boehm: “Men had to choose between two outdated and broken options….Be the Lone Wolf and die ALONE with a chest full of unexpressed emotions and a wake of broken relationships behind him. A man who thinks the feminine is weakness and weakness is unbearable. He misunderstands that within his weaknesses lie his greatest strengths. Or… Be the Sensitive New Age “Nice Guy” and have a million bestest girlfriends, now living as the wolf in sheep’s clothing. A man who thinks the masculine is terrifying and is forced to deny every aspect of his own manhood. If you are a “Nice Guy”— you are living someone else’s life. But the truth wasn’t in these two options, was it? I knew it. Most men knew it. We just couldn’t find it. And until you have your own back, you can’t truly have anybody else’s. WHAT IF THERE WAS AN OPTION FOR MEN TO BREAK OUT OF THEIR CAGED LIVES AND BECOME FREE?
A Good Man, a Strong Man, a WHOLE MAN.”
This podcast is an exploration of Traver and his thoughts on these topics. He is a man on a mission to help men become better men. He is a thinker, podcaster, writer and so much more.
Enjoy my conversation with Traver Boehm,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #14 – Dr. Richard Johnson, Nature Wants Us To Be Fat

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Richard J. Johnson, M.D. is the Tomas Berl Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Renal Division and Hypertension at the University of Colorado since 2008. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with a major in Anthropology, and a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, he is a physician and nephrologist whose research has focused on the role of sugar, and especially fructose, in driving obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease. Much of this work has explored the role of fructose metabolism, especially the generation of uric acid, in driving this phenotype, and his work has included studies ranging from molecular biology, integrative physiology, and evolutionary biology. He is the author of The Sugar Fix which introduced the first low fructose diet, and also The Fat Switch which explores the role of fructose in driving the obesity epidemic. His newest book, Nature Wants Us To Be Fat, is a tour de force of the entire pathway of survival via metabolic events in the body related to fructose and the polyol pathway. This is a must read book. This podcast will introduce you to the exceptional work of Dr. Johnson and how we are now mismatched metabolically for the environment of modern America and our food systems.

Please enjoy this wide ranging conversation.

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 11 Issue 52 and Volume 12 Issue 2

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11 Years Gone by!
What have we learned in 2021?
1) Covid is truly remarkable and also a major pain in the …. Messaging and political policies have been mostly dysfunctional and persist in many places today. The vaccine effort has been nothing less than heroic and saved countless lives. Media companies and the CDC continue to avoid the elephant in the room, poor quality nutrition, obesity and metabolic self induced derangements. Life continues for most of us while we mourn the loss of those that have succumbed to COVID. Getting significant COVID illness portends high death risk acutely and during the first year after recovery by a significant margin. Vaccination for high risk groups is the only chance of reducing this risk. See this mortality Graph (Manious et. al. 2021)
Lymphatics
Lymphatics – a plumbing system that follows the circulatory system throughout the body including the brain where it is called the glymphatics. The function of these passively moving tubes is to transport fats around the body, clear cellular debris returning it to the liver and spleen, move fluid in and out of tissue to maintain fluid balance, transport and help immune cells function. These are critical functions of metabolism, immunity and detoxification that when disrupted lead to chronic diseases of aging including edema, hypertension, autoimmunity and cardiovascular disease.
Enjoy,
Dr. M
For the written newsletter visit: https://www.salisburypediatrics.com/patient-education/dr-magryta-s-newsletter

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