Healthy Dialogue

Community acquired pneumonia accounts for 600,000 hospital admissions a year. Many patients with this disease are quite ill and have a very high mortality. To save lives, the appropriate antibiotics should be given in a timely basis, but it is not clear what the best antibiotics are and how long they should be given. In this podcast we interview the author of a JAMA review on community acquired pneumonia, Dr Jonathan Lee, author of Antibiotic Therapy for Adults Hospitalized With Community-Acquired Pneumonia, who performed a systematic review of the literature to determine the best way to treat community acquired pneumonia.

The 2015-2020 US Dietary Guidelines for Americans were recently released. They are intended to provide guidance for health policy officials and clinicians regarding healthy diets and establishing goals for improving nutrition. These are important since bad eating habits are the underlying cause for a great deal of disease in the US and that these guidelines influence the operations of programs such as school lunch assistance, meals on wheels etc. Because these guidelines influence policy, they have been criticized by various investigators and special interest groups. Karen DeSalvo, MD, Acting Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS and author of Dietary Guidelines for Americans responds to some of these criticisms and explains how the guideline was created and what it is intended to do. Implementation of the guidelines dietary advice may be challenging and Deborah Clegg, RD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine at UCLA discusses how the various recommendations can be followed.

Interview with Martha Clare Morris, ScD, author of Association of Seafood Consumption, Brain Mercury Level, and APOE ε4 Status With Brain Neuropathology in Older Adults

Interview with Michael P. Pignone, MD, MPH, author of Screening for Depression in Adults: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement

Peripheral neuropathy is a highly prevalent and morbid condition affecting 2% to 7% of the population. Patients frequently experience pain and are at risk of falls, ulcerations, and amputations. It is most commonly occurs in patients with diabetes. For most cases, the diagnosis and treatment of neuropathy can be made without complex testing or referral to specialists. Drs. Eva Feldman and Brian Callaghan from the University of Michigan Department of Neurology, authors of Distal Symmetric Polyneuropathy and Electrodiagnostic Tests in Polyneuropathy and Radiculopathy, explain how to manage neuropathy.

Interview with Justin E. Bekelman, MD, author of Comparison of Site of Death, Health Care Utilization, and Hospital Expenditures for Patients Dying With Cancer in 7 Developed Countries

Constipation is one of the most frequent problems clinicians are asked to deal with. Despite how common it is, constipation is frequently not treated adequately. In this podcast, Arnold Wald, MD, explains a stepwise approach to the management of constipation ranging from very simple measures to the most novel and complicated new medical therapies.

Interview with Gaëtan Deslée, MD, PhD, author of Lung Volume Reduction Coil Treatment vs Usual Care in Patients With Severe Emphysema: The REVOLENS Randomized Clinical Trial

Interview with Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, author of Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Interview with Dalane W. Kitzman, MD, author of Effect of Caloric Restriction or Aerobic Exercise Training on Peak Oxygen Consumption and Quality of Life in Obese Older Patients With Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Randomized Clinical Trial