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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
Allison Rosen, M.S., Lead Project Coordinator at Baylor College of Medicine, discusses her important work in cancer prevention.
Rosen's work at Baylor College of Medicine is multifaceted, and educating the public about cancers is one of their primary areas of focus, especially minority communities and young people. They provide a community outreach that works toward the goal of prevention.
As the Lead Project Coordinator, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center Office of Outreach and Health Disparities at Baylor College of Medicine, Rosen takes an active grassroots approach to community education.
Rosen discusses her background in oncology research and her journey toward her current career and passion—cancer prevention. She talks about symptoms, especially symptoms that younger individuals might experience, and what healthcare providers need to look for. She explains in detail, one of her areas of expertise—colorectal cancer.
Rosen relates her own personal medical story as a colon cancer survivor. Her personal journey was at times a struggle, with years of varying medical issues, but once she got her diagnosis of cancer, she set out to begin her fight. Now, as a survivor, Rosen is passionate about taking her message of prevention to the streets. Rosen discusses her path to recovery and the important work that is happening in their outreach efforts.
When Aimee Tariq was just a teenager, she began developing serious, debilitating symptoms—symptoms that led her to dial 911 and end up in the hospital with a heart rate of over 200 beats per minute. She couldn't hold down a conversation or even brush her own teeth, and no one could tell her what was wrong. With multiple diagnoses, none of which seemed to address her ailments, and no treatments or medications that were alleviating her symptoms, Tariq found herself at a total loss.
But it was at her lowest point that she realized she had two options: get healthy or die trying. From that point forward, she stopped searching for answers within the U.S. medical system and began carrying out her own research on toxic chemical exposure in daily life, food allergies and sensitivities, hormones and vitamins, and the importance of spinal alignment. Eventually, Tariq rediscovered herself—her healthy self, the one who was athletic and could enjoy all aspects of life unimpeded by poor health.
In today's episode, she discusses the details of her journey and everything she has learned over the years, touching on a few aspects of her Amazon best-seller A Life with Health.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation and to learn what Tariq has going on in the works. Learn more about her by visiting https://www.aimeetariq.com/.
Tommaso Ghidini, Ph.D., Head of the Structures, Mechanisms and Materials Division at the European Space Agency (ESA), delivers a rousing overview of the medical advances that are improving options for astronauts on long-term missions.
Ghidini holds a Ph.D. in experimental and numerical Fracture Mechanics from the Institute of Materials Research of the German Aerospace Centre. Ghidini has been involved with many important civil and military aircraft developments through the years, including the A380, the A350, and the A400M developed at AIRBUS Industries. In 2007, Ghidini joined the European Space Agency (ESA) and is the Head of the Materials Technology Section.
Ghidini explains his work, detailing the 3D printing of human tissue for long-term missions in space, such as going to Mars. As he explains, on long-term missions you cannot stop and come back, you must continue, so if there is a medical emergency you need to be prepared to handle it in space. Even the healthiest astronauts can have accidents, burns, etc. that must be dealt with when they happen. As accidents on Mars, such as falls, could be more severe than on the moon, advanced surgery capabilities are going to be necessary.
Ghidini talks about the various medical options for these missions. He outlines what will be necessary, such as appropriately trained staff on board, and suitable surgery rooms, etc. And while telemedicine would seem like a good option, it is not possible because of the delays in transmission. However, if there was a space station on Mars, there could be telemedicine from the space station, but that is not yet a consideration.
Ghidini discusses their extensive testing of the 3D printers, in reduced gravity, etc. Ghidini explains the process and gives details about the 3D printed skin that comes from stem cells. With 3D printed skin there is no need to retrieve skin from another part of the body for a burn, etc., thus, a second wound is not created—better for recovery, and better for efficiency. Ghidini states that 'rejection' is low because the skin comes from stem cells from the astronaut's own body.
The ESA expert continues by discussing the many challenges of taking 3D printing into space. He explains that radiation is a factor to consider, as is sterility. Ghidini's work at ESA is on the cutting edge of technology and his contributions to space travel will be seen for many years to come.
Listening to music, white noise, or even podcasts before bed can be relaxing for a lot of people, giving them just what they need in order to fall asleep. But earbuds and headphones are bulky and uncomfortable, impeding the ability to fall asleep comfortably and thereby mitigating the relaxing effects of different sounds. Returning guests Wei-Shin Lai and Jason Wolfe discuss why and how they founded AcousticSheep, a company that provides people with a solution to this problem in the form of a stretch headband that contains thin, high-quality speakers.
On today's episode, they share their newest application of this technology: a "genome" that has hundreds of thousands of potential variations on sound and layers of music, with different alleles functioning as different frequencies or tones, and different variations of sound being referred to as "sheep." Lai and Wolf explain how these "sheep"—particularly the ones with high user ratings—can reproduce to create another sheep comprised of the "genetic" material of each parent sheep. It's a revolutionary idea, and the first product of its kind.
Interested in checking it out for yourself? Download the app for free and visit acousticsheep.com to learn more.
As the CEO and founder of My Personal Therapeutics and a biotech aficionado, Laura Towart's passion is personalized medicine, which is an area of research she's been working on for well over a decade. For the past seven years, she's been working with the Mount Sinai Medical Center on the Personal Discovery Process (PDP), a technology that uses "fruit fly avatars" in the study of certain malignant tumors and the testing of new, best-fit drug therapies for treating them.
Towart explains all the details of this process, which begins by sequencing a patient's tumor biopsy, microinjecting genetic mutations into fruit flies, and then carrying out large-scale high-throughput drug screening to identify new combinations of drugs for patients. Using robotics, they screen 1,500 FDA-approved drugs in combinations of up to three—meaning they screen tens of thousands of drug combinations before making human treatment recommendations.
On today's episode, Towart discusses the ins and outs of this new method, including the limitations and challenges it presents, the benefits of using a fly model, and where their work is headed in the near future. Click play and check out mypersonaltherapeutics.com to learn more.
About 50 percent of dogs over the age of 10 and one in three in total will ultimately die of cancer. For most of us, this is a pretty devastating statistic, but founder and CEO of LEAH Labs, Wesley Wierson, joins the podcast today to explain how and why this could change. The key may very well lie in a newly FDA-approved therapy for leukemia and lymphoma in humans known as CAR T-cell therapy. Since dogs are commonly affected by B-cell lymphoma, which is the same as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, why aren't we trying CAR T-cell therapy in dogs? One of the primary reasons is simply a matter of resources, as CAR T-cell therapy costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in humans. According to Wesley Wierson, however, it doesn't have to.
At LEAH Labs, they're flipping CAR T-cell therapy development on its head. Rather than using viruses to engineer T-cells, they are using gene editing to reprogram T-cells, and rather than generating autologous CAR T-cell therapies, they're generating allogenic CAR T-cell therapies; together, these techniques significantly reduce the cost of an individual treatment to just about $1,000. This is paving the way for CAR T-cell therapies to be used in dogs with cancer, which not only provides hope for dogs and their owners, but also provides a superior model for understanding how this form of therapy works. As it currently stands, CAR T-cell development is done using immunocompromised mice, which is less than ideal for a number of reasons on which Wierson expounds in this episode.
Tune in for all the details, and learn more by visiting https://www.leahlabs.com/.
Returning guest, Dominic D'Agostino, is a researcher and professor in the department of molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. On today's episode, he offers fascinating insight into a recent mission he completed in collaboration with NASA, which involved a number of experiments carried out under sea with the purpose of emulating activities that are essential to space missions. He explains how different space analogs under the sea can mimic neutral buoyancy and microgravity in space, the use of mini DNA analyzers to analyze the microbiome of the habitat and surface of astronauts' skin, the physiological effects of hyperbaric pressure which presents three times the amount of oxygen and nitrogen than the average person is accustomed to, a number of extravehicular activities (EVAs) to include the testing of astronaut rescue devices and drills for sampling rock or coral, the health impact and ways of dealing with extremely high concentrations of carbon dioxide, and decompression sickness.
He also discusses what he considers the biggest challenge in space, which is living in confined habitats for long periods of time. Navigating these issues means addressing team cognition and psychology, as well as the practical concerns associated with performing a variety of scientific experiments and tasks in such small and enclosed spaces. These are just a few of the subjects D'Agostino discusses on today's episode, and he brings an impressive amount of knowledge to every single one.
Press play to hear the full conversation.
"There are benefits to all mind-altering activities or substances…and it can almost be radical to even recognize that in a culture that seems hell-bent on convincing us all that drugs are evil and that drugs are the cause of the problem. What we've tried to do with The Social Exchange…is to broaden the definition of addiction beyond just drugs and to broaden it beyond just an over-medicalized mentality around it," says Aaron Ferguson, co-host of The Social Exchange podcast.
On today's episode, he is joined by his co-host Zach Rhoads to discuss the creation, development, and goals of the podcast, as well as what they've learned by interviewing countless experts and pain patients who've experienced addiction on a firsthand basis. Among many topics, they discuss differing viewpoints and arguments surrounding the concept and experience of addiction, the philosophy of harm reduction, and chemical dependency versus environmental influences.
Tune in for all the details of this compelling and passionate conversation.
As a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Irvine and the director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center and the Advanced Power and Energy program, Jack Brouwer brings an impressive amount of information to today's episode, discussing stationary fuel cell technology, which is a form of zero pollutant emission energy that can complement solar and wind power. He also discusses the value of renewably-produced hydrogen and the potential for introducing 100 percent renewable energy into society, as well as the challenges presented by this technology.
Currently, the biggest competitors of fuel cell technology are gas turbines and reciprocating engines, both of which are very cost-effective, but also less efficient and significant contributors to poor air quality. Brouwer explains what needs to be done in order to lower the cost of fuel cell technology and thereby make it a more feasible form of energy use, the science behind different forms of electricity, how fuel cell technology has developed over the years, and what he sees as the most important aspects of future adoption and implementation of fuel cell technology.
Tune in, and visit www.nfcrc.uci.edu for more information or reach out to Brouwer directly by emailing him at jb@nfcrc.uci.edu.
Dr. Eva Detko, Ph.D., natural health specialist, author, noted speaker, and podcaster, delivers an overview of her interesting background and work with natural medicine.
Dr. Detko has a keen interest in natural health and has devoted her life to the field for nearly two decades. Her work is primarily based in psychology and she uses multiple methods, such as hypnotherapy, Havening Techniques, NLP and mindfulness. Dr. Detko believes in the power of food and as such, she has written two cookbooks and is a strong believer in nutritional therapy.
Dr. Detko talks about her own medical history. As she suffered personally with fatigue and digestive issues and was eventually diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and fibromyalgia, Dr. Detko starting digging deeper to find a holistic solution to her maladies. Starting with nutrition and biochemistry to manage her conditions, she later expanded into psychology and psychotherapy, as well as a plant medicine. And today, feeling better than ever, she is sharing her vast knowledge with others, with patients who are suffering needlessly with a whole host of nagging, painful medical problems.
Dr. Detko discusses nutrition, and she explains how our bodies must also contend with more toxicity in the environment today than in decades past. She shares her thoughts on electromagnetic sensitivity and toxic metals. She outlines the ways that our bodies deal with multiple levels of toxins, emotional stressors, and so forth, and how it can build up and contribute to medical issues and symptoms.
Dr. Detko talks about water purity and the importance of water filters. And she discusses cosmetics, deodorants, and creams that we put on our skin and the collective impact they are having on our health. Going deeper, Dr. Detko explains how people may first discover what is ailing them. She explains that those who suffer from complex and multiple symptoms should see a naturopathic practitioner who is skilled and trained and can help them diagnose their problem. She explains that testing is important, in order to figure out why symptoms are occurring.
Dr. Detko has studied natural medicine, the human mind, and the body/mind connection for over two decades and is dedicated to helping people who suffer from the many medical problems that have both physiological and psychological/emotional elements.
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