Hashtag Health: A Health and Medical Podcast

Dr. Luckett-Gatopoulos works on the front lines of the current COVID-19 pandemic. In this podcast series, she shares her day-to-day perspective as a newly graduated emergency physician working in the world of medicine during COVID-19.

Should you be as scared of coronavirus as the thousands of people wearing surgical face masks would make it seem? Given that the total number of deaths has surpassed the cumulative total of MERS and SARS combined, some would say yes. But there is more to the story than just numbers. In this episode, we chat with Dr. Michael Silverman, Chief of Infectious Diseases at London Health Sciences Centre, about the current state of the NCov epidemic and what kinds of preventative practices can reduce the risk of infection.

What do you get when you combine magic beans and the direct to consumer sales pipeline of the internet? A lot of money in the pockets of the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Dr. Oz. Science misinformation is a wolf in sheep's clothing and camouflages as "natural" goods being sold for the sake of ~wellness~. In this episode, we chat with Tim Caulfield, a Canadian professor of law at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, about the motives behind science misinformation and what we can do to fight it.

In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin from leaving a moldy petri dish out over his holidays. Pharmaceutical companies jumped on the opportunity to both develop new antibiotics and advertise the ones they already had. We spoke with Dr. Scott Podolsky, a family physician and history professor at Harvard Medical School about the history of antibiotics and the eventual development of antimicrobial resistance.

Acne! It affects mere babes all the way to women going through menopause. Stubborn, unsightly, and ... hard to treat?

Many folks have cut out dairy from their diet in hopes that they can make a trade for clear skin. You may have heard the same thing about staying away from sugary or processed foods. But how does the evidence for these kinds of lifestyle practices hold up? On the other hand, you may be wondering what sorts of treatments have proven to be effective zit zappers and where you can get them. All that and more in this episode featuring Dr. Jessica Howard - a family physician with a special interest in dermatology.

Once considered a historic disease, syphilis is once again on the rise. In this week's episode we spoke with Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, about what is contributing to the resurgence of the sexually transmitted disease, what is being done in response, and what we can do to prevent the spread.

In today's time, both at home and globally reproductive rights have been more contested than ever. Especially given the plethora of information on the internet, it can be difficult to decipher between fact and fiction. We sit down with Dr. Fraser Fellows to debunk the top myths surrounding abortions circulating on the internet.

Both Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson are still recovering from the injuries they sustained in the NBA finals early this year. It’s no surprise then that more and more players are taking games off for load management, a practice pioneered by 2019 NBA Finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard. In this week’s episode, we spoke to orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Chris Raynor about the reality behind Kevin Durant’s Achilles rupture, the load management movement, and reasons why 17 years into his career, LeBron James is still one of the most dominant players in the league.

Caravans carrying Type I Diabetes patients across borders to buy life-saving drugs. Frantic parents calling pharmacies for EpiPen refills to save their anaphylactic children. With all the news surrounding drug shortages, it sounds like we are heading towards a drug-less, apocalyptic future. But the drugs in the news are everyday medications we buy at local pharmacies; so how can there be sudden shortages? Is this just a case of sensationalized media or are we really in danger of running out of drugs? In this episode, we talk to Dr. Jackie Duffin about the causes of drug shortages and whether we can hold Big Pharma accountable.