On this episode of the Humarian Health Podcast, Amy and Dr. Benzinger are joined by stroke specialist Dr. Amytis Towfighi, MD, to discuss strokes and talk about her book, “What You Must Know About Strokes: How to Recover from a Stroke and Prevent another Stroke”.  Dr. Towfighi talks about her reasoning for wanting to write a book about stroke and points out how little attention it receives compared to its prevalence and severity.  Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the world and the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, yet few people know what to do when they’re having stroke symptoms.  

They discuss the difference between ischemic strokes and a hemorrhagic strokes, how FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) can be used as an effective pneumonic device to look for stroke symptoms, and the relationship between stroke, blood pressure, and blood pressure medications.  Dr. Towfighi talks about thrombolytics (clot busting drugs) and clot retrieval procedures, the most common treatment options for stroke.  Dr. Towfighi also addresses stroke concerns in relation to COVID-19 and why the Mediterranean diet has been shown to be most effective in reducing the chances of stroke.

You can find Dr. Towfighi’s book on amazon.com, squareonepublishers.com, and wherever books are sold.

On this episode of the Humarian Health Podcast, Amy and Dr. Benzinger are joined by Dr. Clifton Meador, MD, to discuss his book, The Little Book of Doctors’ Rules: A Practical Guide to the Art of Healing. Dr. Meador is a retired physician and professor of medicine emeritus at Vanderbilt Medical School.

He shares his background in medicine and explains what events in his career led to his desire to write a book on rules for doctors. They discuss Dr. Meador’s four major categories of patients that exhibit symptoms but no disease and discuss why he uses patient diaries to determine the causes of symptoms and rule out diseases. Amy asks specifically about rule #186, “All patients will lie about something, some patients will lie about everything”. They finish out the podcast by discussing how and why patients are ending up with so many different doctors and why doctors are often not able to devote the amount of time necessary for more thorough and accurate diagnoses.

You can find Dr. Meador’s book, The Little Book of Doctors’ Rules: A Practical Guide to the Art of Healing, at Amazon, Square One Publishers, and wherever books are sold.

On this week’s show, Amy and Dr. B are joined by Dr. Donald S. Teig, author of High Performance Vision, to talk about visual performance in sports and in life. Dr. Teig starts by talking about his background in psychology and how that shaped his interest in all aspects of visual performance. Dr. Teig explains how depth perception, peripheral awareness, eye-hand coordination, visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and many other visual parameters all factor into vision performance. They discuss the impact of stress on vision and why athletes often report improved visual performance when they’re “in the zone”. Dr. Teig talks about the phrase, “keep your eye on the ball” and how he teaches baseball players to put it to practical use. They also discuss the impact of dominant vs. non-dominant eyes in sports performance, non-sport applications like reading, and how to tell which of your eyes is dominant. They end by talking about the visual impact of concussions in sports. You can find Dr. Teig’s book, High Performance Vision, on Amazon.com, Squareonepublishers.com, and wherever books are sold. You can find out more about Dr. Teig at highperformancevisionassociates.com.

On this week’s show, Amy and Dr. B are joined by Dr. Mandip S. Kang, MD, FASN, to discuss food, kidney health, kidney disease, and how they all tie together with his book, The Doctor’s Kidney Diets: A Nutritional Guide to Managing and Slowing the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease. Dr. Kang starts by discussing what he learned during his training in nephrology that led him to write his book. He gives a brief rundown of kidney functions in the body before describing the three most common kinds of kidney disorders: congenital kidney disease, acute kidney injury, and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The gang discuss some of the ways that CKD can arise, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as other kidney conditions like glomerulonephritis. Next, as per usual, Dr. B shifts the conversation to food, as they discuss the ways in which food and obesity can affect kidney health. They discuss dietary tips, nutrient deficiencies, and the impact of water filtration on the kidneys. Also, why is starfruit a big no-no for those with kidney disease? Dr. Kang closes out the show with a couple kidney-conscious food options.

You can find Dr. Kang’s book, The Doctor’s Kidney Diets: A Nutritional Guide to Managing and Slowing the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease, on Amazon, Square One Publishers, and wherever books are sold.

This week, we're bringing you the final part of Dr. B’s series on stress. Amy sits down with Dr. B for a discussion on how your mindset can affect the way you deal with stress. They start off by giving examples of how their mindsets have changed in their own lives recently and the effects those changes have had on their personal stress levels. Dr. B. outlines some problematic tendencies that can arise with fixed mindsets compared to growth mindsets, like gravitating towards known quantities instead of seeking out new experiences, declaring relationships as broken before first trying to work on them, or relying on natural talent above putting in hard work to succeed. Then he and Amy go over some of the ways that we can recognize fixed mindsets and work to develop growth mindsets in our own lives.

Join us this week for part 2 of Dr. B’s series on stress. Amy sits down with Dr. B for a discussion on the physiological effects of stress. They talk about major stressful events and what they mean for individual stress levels. Dr. B and Amy each mention some of the major symptoms they experience when they feel stressed. They talk about some of the most common stress symptoms cited after major stressful events, and then Dr. B breaks down some of these symptoms by going into detail about the physiological effects that stress can have on the body. They also touch on stress in relation to mood and food, genetics, mental beating, bad bosses, and family. Check back next month for part 3!

We have all kinds of great guests lined up for 2020, but we’re kicking off the year guest-less as Amy joins Dr. Benzinger for the start of a three-episode series about stress. This first episode is all about how stress shows up in our bodies and what it can do. Topics covered include doctor visits due to stress, common symptoms of stress, technology, and social media, and how to approach stress management day-to-day versus long term. In the second half of the show, they discuss the increased pace of everyday life today compared to a decade ago, the connection of workplace satisfaction with overall happiness, how to differentiate between good and bad stress, and more. Stay tuned for part 2!

On this week’s show, Dr. B is joined by returning guest, Dr. Earl Mindell, RPH, MH, PhD, to discuss his book, What's in Your Blood and Why You Should Care: How to Cleanse and Detoxify Your Blood for Optimum Health, co-authored by Gene Bruno. They get right into it with some talk about what kinds of harmful chemicals are in our water supply and how the water quality compares to 50 years ago. Then they dive into Vitamin D deficiency, cholesterol, and what can happen when harmful chemicals make it into our bloodstreams. Dr. Mindell goes into some specifics on how blood functions and what we can do to improve the quality of our blood for greater health and longevity. Dr. Mindell also talks about the history of hemp, the nationwide sugar epidemic, and how the now-infamous “Twinkie, Ding-dong, Donut, Pizza, Prozac, Pepsi” diet affects our blood and our bodies. You can find What's in Your Blood and Why You Should Care: How to Cleanse and Detoxify Your Blood for Optimum Health on amazon.com and wherever books are sold.

On this week’s show, Dr. B is joined by James Templeton to discuss his book, I Used to Have Cancer: How I Found My Own Way Back to Health. James tells Dr. B about his background as a successful business and family man, his family’s history with cancer, and why that history led him to becoming a fitness fanatic. He talks about his stage 4 melanoma diagnosis, and his subsequent depression, job loss, divorce, and news that the cancer had spread to his lymphatic system. After learning that he’d have at best a 20% chance to live 3-5 more years with conventional therapies, James was ready to throw in the towel. He tells Dr. B how he found the will to push on and discovered the keys to his recovery: the macrobiotic diet, overloading on vitamin C, and visualizing recovery. It has now been 33 years since James’ initial cancer diagnosis. James tells us what he’s been up to since then, including starting his own nutritional supplement company, writing this book, and started a nonprofit organization called Templeton Wellness. You can find I Used to Have Cancer: How I Found My Own Way Back to Health on amazon.com, iusedtohavecancer.com, and wherever books are sold.

On this week’s show, Amy and Dr. B. are joined by Brittany Henderson, MD, to discuss her book, What You Must Know About Hashimoto’s Disease: Restoring Thyroid Health Through Traditional and Complementary Medicine. Dr. Henderson talks about her background as a board-certified endocrinologist and what led her to opening a thyroid specific practice and writing a book on Hashimoto’s disease. She discusses the overall the prevalence of hypothyroidism, how suffering from one autoimmune disease can make you more susceptible to other autoimmune issues, and outlines some of the major symptoms of thyroid issues, like fatigue, weight gain, reproductive health, constipation, and feelings of “brain fog”. They spend some time discussing how thyroid health is still massively under-diagnosed in relation to fertility issues and why we see so many instances of postpartum thyroiditis, a form of Hashimoto’s disease that arises after pregnancy. Dr. Henderson gives a thorough explanation of TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) and how it is currently used to evaluate thyroid hormone levels in the body, as well as the thyroid’s relationship to body temperature and birth control. The group then discusses dietary concerns, including what to eat and what to avoid. Dr. Henderson ends the show by offering three pieces of advice for those that may be suffering from thyroid conditions. You can find Dr. Henderson’s book at amazon.com and wherever books are sold.