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Michael D. West, PhD, founder and CEO of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (agexinc.com), delivers an insightful overview of the effects of aging and the cellular aging mechanism.
Dr. West received his PhD from Baylor College of Medicine with a concentration in the biology of cellular aging. He has spent the better part of his academic and business career focused on the application of developmental biology to various age-related degenerative diseases.
Dr. West discusses the premise of his company, AgeX Therapeutics. As he explains, aging is a national and international priority. He explains how the post WWII population surge has made chronic degenerative diseases a major focus. And the goal at AgeX Therapeutics is to develop new and innovative therapies to combat these chronic degenerative diseases. AgeX Therapeutics is interested in the development and commercialization of unique therapeutics that will target human aging issues. Working forward from their current proprietary technologies, such as PureStem® and induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR™), Age X Therapeutics seeks to further develop innovative medicines that can have a significant positive impact on the many and various unsolved problems in aging.
Dr. West talks about aging in detail, framing his conversation upon the current information that exists regarding various diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes, etc. He states that as they study the basic clockwork elements that lead to aging in the brain, skin, lungs, etc., they then apply this information and research to the unmet needs in medicine. Dr. West goes on to explain telomerase, an important enzyme that adds nucleotides to telomeres, most especially in cancer cells. He explains how telomerase resets the clock. Further, he talks about some of the information they learned from cloning experiments. The evidence, he states, suggests that by putting an aged cell back into an egg cell, the aging process could be set in reverse. And today, after further experimentation, researchers know this to be true. Telomerase can in fact rewind the clock of cellular aging.
The aging researcher explains how the aging process is the same throughout the body, which is encouraging because having a common mechanism makes the outlook for discovery of treatment and therapies better. Continuing, Dr. West explains how change is observed, discussing the science of aging, and he states that changes seem to be systemic thus far in current experimentation with animals.
In this podcast:
New chronic degenerative disease therapies
How can telomerase reset the clock?
Can aging be reversed at the cellular level?
It's a belief that can be traced to the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians: the gut is the seat of emotion. Until recently, however, this idea hasn't been given much attention in the world of modern science and research. On today's podcast, gastroenterologist, author of over 320 peer-reviewed articles, and professor of physiology at the UCLA Microbiome Center,
Dr. Emeran Mayer, gives us a look into his current work on understanding how the microbiome lends itself to brain-gut interactions, influences emotion, and even paves the way for the development of obesity.
Tune in for the details on all this and more, including:
For more information on these topics, visit https://emeranmayer.com/.
In this podcast, Dr. Jose Colon explains
Triple board-certified author Dr. Jose Colon brings his expertise to this podcast by addressing many common questions about the current state of sleep science. He describes different types of sleep disorders treatment from C-Pap machines to oral devices and when one may be more beneficial than another.
Dr. Colon practices full time sleep medicine for adults and children, incorporating a holistic outlook that includes mindfulness and science-driven approaches. In an effort to bring his ideas together, he wrote Sleep Diet: A Novel Approach to Insomnia for adults and The Magic Ice Cream Palace for kids, both of which are more creative approaches to the issue rather than to-do lists. He explains some of the most common sleep disorders like obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia to less common but equally harmful disorders that disturb our sleep health benefits.
He then weighs the plus and minus for different sleep disorders treatments and even describes his own experience with an oral appliance to improve sleep quality. Dr. Colon also points to upcoming advances in improving sleep health benefits such as comfort level improvements of C-Pap machines and an implant in the works.
For any next steps, he recommends reaching out to your primary care physician but also a search for a locally accredited sleep center.
In today's episode, Dr. Stasha Gominak discusses the gut microbiome, the benefits of vitamin D in terms of the microbiome, the importance of B vitamins, and how the microbiome affects sleep in general. As a neurologist with restless leg syndrome, Dr. Gominak has interesting insight on what it feels like to experience involuntary movements that interrupt sleep, and how vitamins influence sleep in general.
She discusses the importance of the four main species that live in the human GI tract, and how they are affected by insufficient levels of vitamin D. She also explains why she considers the microbiome to be its own organ, and how to restore it once it's been damaged or depleted. Dr. Gominak is a wealth of knowledge on these topics.
Tune in for the details on all of this and more, including:
Learn more about Dr. Gominak's work by visiting https://drgominak.com/.
Historically, researchers have performed clinical research studies exclusively on males. Dr. Nichole explains:
Dr. Nicole Catherine Woitowich, Associate Director of Women's Health Institute Research at Northwestern University, discusses the issues using male-dominated research groups created in our present medical treatments. Because women's hormones fluctuate monthly and have the potential to become pregnant, they were left out of clinical research studies as a protective measure.
But this has led to a misunderstanding of how many medicines truly function for different sexes and genders. For example, Ambien metabolizes differently for men versus women. She discusses difficulties such as the ethics issues with randomized clinical trials for pregnant women, but also suggests solutions such as pregnant women who must take medicines for health reasons becoming involved in a system of self-reporting reactions.
The National Health Institute passed a mandate in 1993 and again a broader one in 2015 to try and correct these measures and transform the disregard for gender in healthcare. Dr. Woitowich talks about how this might change some practices and the hope form more changes to insure health equity across the board, including gender nonconforming , transgender, and nonbinary patients as well.
For more, see the Women's Health Institute page at https://www.womenshealth.northwestern.edu/
Dr. Wotowich can be found on Twitter @NikiWoitowich and her email address is nicole.woitowich@northwestern.edu
OpGen uses genomics and informatics to improve management of patient infections by detecting antibiotic-resistant microbes. Mr. Jones describes
If a patient comes to the hospital with urosepsis from ineffective treatment, they don't have days to wait for information. OpGen's genomics testing and data from informatics will deliver accurate pathogen detection within hours, giving doctors the correct urinary tract infection antibiotics.
Furthermore, the over use of antibiotics puts doctors in a difficult position of most likely under or over prescribing for patients when they won't know for days exactly what pathogen their patient is facing. This doesn't work for superinfections or broadly resistant pathogens. OpGen's genomics testing gives caregivers answers within hours to help the correct course of treatment through effective pathogen detection.
In addition to urinary tract infection antibiotics identification, they are also developing equivalent systems for respiratory tract infections. Mr. Jones expects this technology will be cleared for use in our medical system by the end of 2020.
For more, see their website at opgen.com and follow them on twitter: @OpGen
After Dinesh Thankur discovered the failings of a generic drug manufacturer in India, he's been on a campaign for change. When you listen to this discussion, you'll learn
A pharmaceutical expert, Mr. Thakur discovered a company in India that hired him was falsifying data and practicing substandard manufacturing techniques with generic drugs. He left the company and helped the US FDA put the company through criminal prosecution. In this podcast, he discusses these efforts and other problems with the lack of oversight for pharmaceutical quality assurance of generic drugs produced overseas.
Featured in the book Bottle of Lies by journalist Katherine Eban, Mr. Thakur has continued his activism within the current generic drug consumption in the U.S. He discusses the holes in the system, such as difficulties in inspecting an overseas manufacturer, and how the lack of power Medicaid holds in negotiating drug prices produces further roadblocks.
He offers some tenable actions the average citizen can make to prevent the manufacture of these spurious drugs and shares his expertise on how small changes could improve the potentially dangerous generic drugs in our market.
For more about Dinesh Thakur and his contact information, see https://dineshthakur.com/.
Peter Jay Hotez, Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses vaccinations, the anti-science movement, and other critical issues regarding modern medicine. Additionally, the discussion covers global health issues, vaccination for hookworm infection, and other important information on vaccines.
As a vaccine scientist, pediatrician, and parent, Hotez discusses his great concern over the rising anti-science and anti-vaccine movements that are sweeping the nation. He discusses the chatter in the anti-science community that has tried to make the case that vaccines cause autism. He explains how this false narrative has pushed its way through and gained steam.
As a parent of a child who has autism and disabilities, he states that he has become a voice in this dialogue, due to his certainty that his child did not in any way develop autism due to any vaccines. He explains how the anti-vaccine community has pushed this false narrative, and how they have no facts to back their assertions. With hundreds of anti-vaccine websites, and media exposure, Hotez states that this movement is beginning to impact public health negatively.
Hotez recounts some of the cases he has handled as a pediatrician, discussing some of the diseases that have diminished over time due to successful vaccines. From anti-vaccine movements to genetically-modified organism movements to climate denial, and more, the war being waged against real, proven science is growing at an alarming rate. And Hotez states that the 'new normal' is dangerous, as anti-science takes hold in the wider public discourse.
Continuing, Hotez discusses his recommendations to patients and the public about how to get correct information on science and vaccines. He states that pharmacists and pediatricians/doctors should be the trusted sources for vaccine and medical information. And he states that people should be very cautious when they source information from the internet. Wrapping up, he discusses some of the most important vaccinations that people should be getting, and other information about protecting your health.
In this podcast:
The truth is that most people who have sleep problems don't really need to see a doctor about it; they just need to understand the problem, understand the challenges they're having, and understand sleep, and then be given some ways to resolve it without using medications or medical devices or surgery," says Jonathan Parker, who has worked as a dentist for over 36 years. For the past seven years, he's been collaborating with a sleep physician by the name of Mike Howell.
With their combined experience of nearly four decades and a mutual interest in reaching large numbers of people who sleep poorly but don't know why or what to do about it, Dr. Howell and Dr. Parker started the Sleep Performance Institute, which helps enable people with simple, fun, and engaging methods of resolving their sleep issues.
Interested in learning more? Tune in, and discover the details of all this and more, including:
Check out https://www.sleepperformanceinstitute.com/ to learn more.
Robert Munro, author, expert in human and machine intelligence, discusses his work, and the intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence.
Munro discusses his background and what drove him to dig into AI, detailing the data side of AI and machine learning algorithms. He cites the example of autonomous vehicles, in that thousands of hours of driving data have been created by people, critical driving data that provides valuable and necessary information, such as 'this is the middle of the street,' this is a stop sign,' etc.
Therefore, the quality of the data is often times more important than the algorithm itself. And it was this construct that motivated Munro to devote his time and research into the nexus between artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence.
The AI data guru discusses active learning, the analysis of data and algorithms to determine how accurate and up to date they are, to suss what is missing, etc. It is the process of trying to decide which is the best data for humans to review, and is a major topic in Munro's latest book.
Munro goes on to discuss languages and algorithmic functioning from a historical perspective, touching on bad data and large volumes of data, and the impact of both. As he states, sometimes it is best to use a smaller amount of data, a batch of data that is carefully curated, as opposed to simply a large data set that is more generic.
Munro furthers the conversation, discussing the differences between various languages and how adaptable systems are created. Munro provides information on raw data and the methods to utilize it, discussing the specifics in regard to natural language processing and machine learning. He discusses task creation and models for prediction in AI.
Wrapping up, Munro provides further information on computer vision models for autonomous driving, and other issues such as predictive maintenance, identifying cracks in machinery, the integration of robotics and more.
And Munro provides his thoughts on the future of artificial intelligence, where we are currently, and the prospects for the coming years.
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