Brain & Body Things

Aniket Natekar, MD, MSc, is a board certified general neurologist and board certified headache specialist. He uses individualized approaches to the treatment of headache and develops long-term relationships with his patients.

He completed his undergraduate degree from Western University in London, Ontario and his Master’s of Science in Pharmacology at the University of Toronto. He then moved to Honolulu, Hawaii for 4 years to complete his medical education at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. He then completed his residency in neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, including a fellowship in Headache Medicine.

Dr. Natekar believes in a complete approach when treating patients, working as a team with patients and other providers to provide the best patient care. He enjoys learning about new advances in neurology and within headache medicine, as many of these conditions are treatable. Treatment of headache disorders is rapidly expanding and there is renewed optimism to improve the quality of life.

In this episode we discuss:

• Headache pathophysiology
• Substance impact on headache including alcohol, cannabis, and hallucinogens
• Supplements and headache

The point of this conversation is not to be authoritarian or admonishing to anyones choices - but to better educate people on how & why they could be experiencing changes in headache with substances. 

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Natekar on Twitter @natekar_MD

This episode is not sponsored.

Dr. Richard Ulm is a chiropractor who developed his interest in the human body and it’s physical capabilities as an athlete. He studied English, philosophy and political science at Ashland University while training in track and field under the guidance of now 4 time Olympian, Jud Logan.

He is a former collegiate track and field coach who competed in the 2004 Olympic Trials in Sacramento, California.  Following the Olympic Trials he coached at New Mexico State University where he was both a strength and conditioning coach as well as the head throwing coach. 

He completed a doctorate of chiropractic in 2008 at National University of Health Sciences.  National University is an evidence-based institution for Chiropractic Physicians.  While at National, he focused his efforts on biomechanics, anatomy, orthopedics, gait assessment and rehabilitation.

In 2011, Dr. Ulm opened Columbus Chiropractic & Rehabilitation Center (CCRC). To ensure that he is providing the best, most cutting edge care to his patients, he has continued to study multiple techniques and approaches from around the world.  He is now full body certified in Active Release Technique (perhaps the best soft tissue technique in the world); he became one of only 177 Chiropractic Physicians in the world certified in the McKenzie Method (traditionally a certification reserved for physical therapists); he became a certified therapist of Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization by the Prague School of Rehabilitation (regarded by many as the most cutting edge rehab approach in the world). Dr. Ulm blends all of these techniques to provide the most effective and patient-specific care he can to the patients and athletes with whom he works.  

He teaches rehabilitation and strength training to medical professionals, personal trainers and strength coaches all over the world. He is a International instructor of DNS for the Prague School of Rehabilitation; he is an instructor for the Motion Palpation Institute and is the founder and lead instructor for Athlete Enhancement, an education platform where Dr. Ulm is able to take his clinical experience and knowledge and apply it to the performance industry, helping coaches better train their athletes.

In this episode we discuss:

• A deep dive into the history of core bracing.
• The different components of the core brace.
• How the core brace protects the low back.
• Improving spinal effeciency. 
• The importance of practicing stabilization. 
• How you stabilize your core matters.
• The continuum of rehabilitation to performance. 

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Richard Ulm on Instagram  @richardulmdc. Also, check out his podcast.

This episode is not sponsored.

Aaron Bunnell, M.D., is a board certified physician at the Rehabilitation Clinic at Harborview and a UW assistant professor of Rehabilitation Medicine.
 
Dr. Bunnell specializes in treatment of severe traumatic and neurologic injuries and neuromuscular diseases. He aims to help patients return to the health, activities and interests that give them quality of life by providing individualized, compassionate care.
 
Dr. Bunnell earned his M.D. at UC San Francisco. He is triple board certified in Brain Injury Medicine, Electrodiagnostic Medicine and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. His clinical interests include acute inpatient rehabilitation of stroke, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury, early mobilization and rehabilitation of critically ill patients, outpatient stroke rehabilitation, diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases including peripheral neuropathies, carpal tunnel syndrome and motor neuron disease. His research interests include critical Illness neuromyopathy, electrodiagnostic testing and neuromuscular ultrasound.

In this episode we discuss:

• Dr. Bunnell's personal experience with spinal cord injury.
• The life changing implications of a spinal cord injury.
• The transition from rehabilitation to fitness.
• Ableism in fitness.
• Tips for adapting fitness.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

You can't follow Dr. Bunnell on social media, and good luck trying to catch him with his busy & active lifestyle in Seattle :)


This episode is not sponsored.

Laura B. Vater, MD, MPH is a gastrointestinal oncologist, writer, and speaker. She has published a number of narrative medicine essays, is a member of the Pegasus Physician Writers at Stanford, and is working on her first novel. 

In 2017, she developed and trademarked a tool to help patients and clinicians simplify and prioritize health (the SMILE Scale™). This tool is being used in schools and clinics in the US and UK. 

Laura earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame, a Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Doctor of Medicine from Indiana University School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Oncology at Indiana University. She stayed on as faculty at IU where she cares for patients with gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary cancers, among others.

In this episode we discuss:

• Managing life with a cancer diagnosis.
• Navigating treatment options.
• Dealing with the unknown.
• Preventing what you can with lifestyle choices.
• Looking with hope into the future.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Laura Vater on Instagram and Twitter @doclauravater.


This episode is not sponsored.

Dr. Heidi Prather is an Attending Physiatrist at Hospital for Special Surgery. She specializes in sports medicine and the diagnosis and nonsurgical treatment of spine and hip disorders and conditions.

After receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honors in biology and chemistry from Drury College, she received her Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine from the University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine. Following medical school, she completed a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. 

Dr. Prather served as Professor, Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Founder and Division Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, Missouri from 1998-2020. Dr. Prather also served as the Outpatient Medical Director of the Joint and Spine Center at Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital, and Founder of the Living Well Center. Dr. Prather co-founded the Sports Medicine Fellowship in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and served as Co-Director of the NASS recognized Spine and Intervention Fellowship.

Dr. Prather is a Diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners and board certified by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. She is also a Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. She has been an Oral Board Examiner and Written Board Examination-item writer and self-examination assessment writer for the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is a founding Senior Editor for the journal of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, PM&R. She has served as President of the Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports and Occupational Rehabilitation and North American Spine Society.

Dr. Prather has authored many peer-reviewed articles, review articles, and book chapters teaches and lectures nationally on topics related to the sports, spine, and musculoskeletal medicine. Her clinical and research interests include the lifestyle medicine approach to care for musculoskeletal conditions with a special interest in gender differences, pre-arthritic hip disorders and their relationship to pelvic girdle and lumbar spine disorders.

In this episode we discuss:

• Common reasons joints can become painful.
• Joint anatomy.
• Determining the cause of joint pain.
• Joint pain over a lifespan. 
• Lifestyle choices and impact on joint pain.
• Integrating lifestyle medicine into joint pain management.
• Decision making for joint replacement.
• The lumbar pelvic and hip connection - challenges in evaluation and management. 
• The importance of individualizing treatment.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Heidi Prather on Twitter @heidipratherpmr. 

This episode is not sponsored.

Dr. Amy Moore is a plastic surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She specializes in super microsurgery for peripheral nerve injuries and peripheral neuropathies including complex hand and trauma reconstructive surgery. She regularly performs procedures to reanimate limbs, relieve patients’ debilitating pain, and restore sensation for those with nerve injuries.

She is one of the few peripheral nerve surgeons in the world, and she has a focus on improving her patients’ quality of life. Nerve growth is a years-long process, and she supports her patients the entire way through recuperating and regaining function after surgery.

Her research is focused on developing treatments to make nerve regrowth more efficient and faster. She is also exploring strategies for rewiring nerves with the goal of preventing muscle atrophy, restoring motion and relieving pain. 

She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in addition to other publications.she also leads a federally funded translational scientific research investigation of advanced limb reconstruction.

In addition to this she helps to train the next generation of physicians. She is a professor ands serve as the chair of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She is on the scientific advisory board for the International Symposium of Neural Regeneration, the board of the American Association for Hand Surgery and the American Society for Peripheral Nerve.

In this episode we discuss:

• What is a nerve? How does it function?
• Various ways nerves get damaged and try to heal themselves.
• The anatomy of nerve regrowth, for better or for worse.
• Nonsurgical options after nerve injury.
• Neuropathic pain descriptors.
• What is Wallerian degeneration? How does it influence timing of nerve testing?
• Surgical options after nerve injury.
• Common and uncommon examples.
• The growing & expanding field of peripheral nerve injury.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr.  Amy Moore on Instagram @amymooremd.

This episode is not sponsored.

Dr. Shounuck Patel is double board-certified in Sports Medicine and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation as well as fellowship trained in interventional pain management. He focuses his clinical practice on the use of exercise, nutrition, osteopathic manipulation, and natural therapies such as regenerative cell therapy for the treatment of orthopedic injuries and pain conditions. 

Dr. Patel earned  his degrees across the nation at the George Washington University in Washington DC, Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Midwestern University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine in Chicago. He completed his residency at the prestigious Kessler Institute in New Jersey, fellowship with the Orthopedic and Spine Specialists hospital of Pennsylvania, and advanced regenerative medicine training with Regenexx and the Interventional Orthobiologics Foundation (IOF) – a non-profit for which he became a master instructor for other physicians and Chair of the Curriculum Committee.

Dr. Patel is an invited speaker and instructor for medical conferences and courses across the world and I’m honored to have him on the podcast to talk about all things regenerative for orthopedic & pain conditions. 

In this episode we discuss:

• What is regenerative medicine?
• What are the different orthobiologics?
• Clearing confusion about stem cells.
• Safety and efficacy.
• Evidence-based considerations for treatment.
• Challenges in studying and creating evidence-based guidelines for treatment.
• Insurance payment challenges.
• Future directions for treatment to increase efficacy.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Mondays in seasonal chunks. 

Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about.

For more information about me, check out my website, www.natashamehtamd.com.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Shounuck Patel on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @regendrpatel. Learn more about him and his practice on his website fxregencenter.com.

This episode is not sponsored.

Meredith Broderick, MD is neurologist specializing in sleep medicine and behavioral sleep medicine.  She is one of the only physicians in the country to hold this trifecta combination of board certifications.  Her career has included academics, private practice, urban and under-served areas.  She has spent most of her career practicing in the Puget Sound region.  In 2021 she started Sound Sleep Guru, a holistic boutique sleep medicine practice located in Bellevue, WA and with telehealth reaching WA, CA, and AK. 

 In this episode we discuss:

• Sleep for cognition, energy, strength, and happiness.
• Chronic sleep deprivation and memory.
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (CBTi).
• Food and sleep.
• Temperature and sleep.
• Working out and sleep.
• Light exposure and sleep.
• Supplements and sleep.
• Wearables and sleep.

This is the last episode of this first season of Brain & Body Things! Subscribe to stay up to date about the next season, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about. 

For more information about me, check out my website.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Meredith Broderick on Instagram @sleepdoctormer.

This episode is not sponsored.

Arti Thangudu, MD, is a triple board-certified physician and endocrinology, diabetes, and thyroid specialist who provides high-level, well-rounded care at Complete Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. She takes an evidence-based approach to care, focusing on the whole patient, not their disease or symptoms. At her membership-based practice, Dr. Thangudu offers direct access, frequent coaching, and continuous blood glucose monitoring to patients all over Texas through telemedicine. 

She received her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, internship in internal medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and residency at Tulane University.  She completed a fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, one of the busiest endocrinology training centers in the country. 

She has received nutritional training at Cornell University’s Center for Nutrition Studies as well as a 200-hour yoga training so she could coach her patients on using mindfulness to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease. 

Dr. Thangudu holds board certification in internal and lifestyle medicine, as well as endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism. She’s also certified in plant-based nutrition.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What is hormone imbalance?
• Common myths and sales tactics around hormone imbalance.
• Normal hormone variance.
• When to check labs.
• What labs are needed and what labs are unnecessary.
• Beware of scams and misinterpretation of labs! See an endocrinologist.
• Lifestyle approaches in endocrine disorders.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Monday over the summer. Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about. 

For more information about me, check out my website.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta. 

Follow Dr. Arti Thangudu on Instagram @drartithangudu.

This episode is not sponsored.

Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. She previously was the Medical Director of the Brain Injury and Stroke Program at a top three US News and World Report Best Hospital for Rehabilitation. Her area of clinical expertise is the care of patients with traumatic brain injury, stroke rehabilitation, and interventional spasticity management. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she has developed a Post-COVID Recovery Clinic to aid in the rehabilitative recovery of patients with functional, mobility, and cognitive deficits after infection with coronavirus. She strives to increase awareness of the long-term debilitating aspects of Long COVID and lobbies to improve access to care.

In this episode we are going chat with Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez about all things brain fog. This is a very common symptom experienced in the setting of fatigue, chronic insomnia, mood disturbance, stress and, most recently, after a COVID-19 infection. You will definitely want to tune in to hear about what she has to say if you or a family member has experienced brain fog, or if you are simply interested in the topic.

In this episode we discuss:

• What is brain fog?
• Brain fog in Long COVID.
• Helpful strategies for people with brain fog.
• Treatment options.

The podcast episodes drop weekly on Monday over the summer. Subscribe to stay up to date, and tune in when you can! Be sure to rate, review, and follow on your favorite podcast app and let me know what other brain & body things you'd like to hear about. 

For more information about me, check out my website.

Follow me on Instagram, Twitter, or Tik Tok @drnatashamehta.
Follow Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez on Instagram & Twitter.

This episode is not sponsored.