The Smart Human with Dr. Aly Cohen

Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S. is the former Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health, and the National Toxicology Program (NTP). After retirement, she was granted scientist emeritus status and still maintains a laboratory. As a board-certified toxicologist, Birnbaum served as a federal scientist for 40 years. Prior to her appointment as NIEHS and NTP Director in 2009, she spent 19 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where she directed the largest division focusing on environmental health research. Birnbaum has received many awards and recognitions. In 2016, she was awarded the North Carolina Award in Science. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of the highest honors in the fields of medicine and health. She was also elected to the Collegium Ramazzini, an independent, international academy comprised of internationally renowned experts in the fields of occupational and environmental health and received an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Rochester and a Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Illinois. She has also received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Rhode Island, Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and Amity University, India; the Surgeon General's Medallion 2014; and 14 Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards, which reflect the recommendations of EPA's external Science Advisory Board, for specific publications. Dr. Birnbaum recently received the Winslow Award, the highest honor from the Yale School of Public Health and was elected an AAAS Fellow. She has also received numerous awards from professional societies and citizen's groups. Birnbaum is an active member of the scientific community. She was vice president of the International Union of Toxicology, the umbrella organization for toxicology societies in more than 50 countries, and former president of the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional organization of toxicologists in the world. She is the author of more than 1000 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, abstracts, and reports. Birnbaum's own research focuses on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of action of toxicants including endocrine disruption, and linking of real-world exposures to health effects. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, the School of Public Health of Yale University, the Gillings School of Global Public Health, the Curriculum in Toxicology, and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as in the Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health Program at Duke University where she is also a Scholar in Residence. A native of New Jersey, Birnbaum received her M.S. and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

…🤩 another episode of The Smart Human podcast🎙️ has just been released! I'm talking with John Abramson MD about medications💊- the drug approval process, conflicts of interest, statin use, and so much more!

Link to YouTube👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/eQWKbgre

Link to audio recording👉🏽 https://lnkd.in/eG_ZUi8f

👉🏽In this episode:

🔹The influence of drug companies on medical journals and evidence-based medicine.

🔹The alarming story of the drug Vioxx, its misrepresentation in clinical trials, and the resulting harm to patients.

🔹The FDA medical peer review process.

🔹The problematic relationship between healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical companies - transparency, data analysis, and clinical decisions.

🔹Lifestyle modification benefits and the over-reliance on medications.

🔹Reforms in the healthcare system to prioritize patient well-being over profits.

After completing a residency in Family Medicine and a 2-year Robert Wood Johnson fellowship, Dr. John Abramson practiced as a family physician for 20 years in a small town an hour north of Boston. He also served for 7 years as chair of the department of family practice at Lahey Clinic. He was on the Harvard Medical School faculty from 1997-2023, most recently as a Lecturer in the Department of Health Care Policy. In 2002, after becoming aware of the uncorrected misrepresentations about the benefits and dangers of Vioxx and Celebrex in our most respected medical journals, Dr. Abramson left his practice to devote his full attention to researching the quality of the information doctors must rely on. In September 2004 he published Overdo$ed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine. Just one week later, Vioxx was withdrawn in the biggest drug recall ever, but not before it had killed between 40 and 60,000 Americans, despite providing no better relief than inexpensive OTC anti-inflammatory drugs. From 2005 through the present, Dr. Abramson has continued his research and served as an expert in litigation involving prescription drugs and medical devices, with each case giving him access to millions of pages of confidential corporate documents and unreleased clinical trial data. He has also served as a consultant to the FBI and U. S. Department of Justice, including a case that led to what was, at the time, the largest criminal fine in U.S. history. Dr. Abramson has published multiple articles in peer reviewed journals, made numerous national media appearances, and written many op-ed pieces, including 2 in the New York Times. His main research interest is the extent to which the commercial takeover of medical knowledge, primarily by the drug companies, is compromising the quality of medical information available to even the most dedicated doctors, harming our health, and wasting enormous amounts of Americans' wealth. In February 2022 Dr. Abramson published his second book, Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It.

#medical #safety #bigpharma

Joel Warsh, MD, MSc aka DrJoelGator https://www.instagram.com/drjoelgator/ of the popular parenting Instagram account is a Board-Certified Pediatrician in Los Angeles, California who specializes in Parenting, Wellness and Integrative Medicine. He is the author of Parenting at Your Child's Pace: The Integrative Pediatrician's Guide to the First Three Years. #parenting #wellness #medical

Deanna Minich, PhD, is a nutrition scientist, international lecturer, educator, and author, with over twenty years of experience in academia and the food and dietary supplement industries, and currently the Chief Science Officer at Symphony Natural Health. She has been active as a functional medicine clinician in clinical trials and in her own practice (Food & Spirit™). She is the author of seven consumer books on wellness topics, four book chapters, and over fifty scientific publications. Through her talks, workshops, groups, and in-person retreats, she helps people to transform their lives practically and artfully through nutrition and lifestyle. Visit her at: www.deannaminich.com #healthyliving #nutrition #health

Jeanne Lenzer is an award-winning independent medical investigative journalist and author whose hard-hitting investigations and analyses have appeared in medical journals, such as The BMJ and the Journal of Family Practice, and in outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, the Atlantic, Washington Monthly, Newsweek Japan, Mother Jones, and Discover.

Her first book, The Danger Within Us: America's Untested, Unregulated Medical Device Industry and One Man's Battle to Survive It, explores themes that have been at the heart of Lenzer's work over the past three decades: the intersection of money and medicine and how profiteering distorts medical science and undermines the public health, often by gaming or misrepresenting research to obtain a desired outcome. The book served as a basis for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists' award-winning Implant Files project on medical devices and for the Netflix show, Bleeding Edge . It was used by John Oliver for his segment on medical devices as well as by the television show, The Resident for segments on the vagus nerve stimulator. It was favorably reviewed by Jerome Groopman in The New Yorker.

Her investigations have revealed hidden financial ties between industry and public institutions, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. In each instance, she documented flawed scientific recommendations that serve to protect profits over public health. Examples include the CDC's recommendation for oseltamivir (Roche, Tamiflu), a campaign that was paid for by Roche; and the FDA's approval of drugs over the (sometimes unanimous) recommendations of their own scientists - after being contacted by politicians beholden to manufacturers. http://www.jeannelenzer.com/

Maria "Adi" Benito is an integrative adult endocrinologist and the director of Princeton Integrative Endocrinology. After her residency in Internal Medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital (1997-2000) (University of Pennsylvania Health System), she completed a Fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania (200-2004) and a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine (2008-2010). She has attended David Winston's Center for Herbal studies (2012-2014 )and the Khalsa Healing Arts and Yoga Center (meditation teacher training 2005-2006). Adi joined the fellowship faculty of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (University of Arizona) in 2012. She developed and authored the first course on Integrative endocrinology for this program. She has contributed a chapter in thyroid health to the 2nd edition of Integrative Women's health (Weil Integrative Medicine Library) and has been an invited guest reviewer for www.dr.Weil.com. Adi lectures on the integrative management of endocrine conditions including diabetes prevention and thyroid disorders to the community. She is the chief medical advisor of Eating for Your Health, a non-profit organization based in Princeton, NJ, whose mission is to help people lead healthier lives by eating deliciously prepared whole foods in a supportive setting. In her private practice, she uses an integrative approach to the management of pre-diabetes, thyroid conditions, and PCOS, blending the best of the healing arts.

Dr. Yvonne Burkart is a PhD Toxicologist, Mom of two, and Consultant. She is a 23-year veteran of Toxicology with expertise in reproductive toxicity, particularly endocrine disruption, infertility, cancer, and glutathione homeostasis. She has also served as a Senior Toxicologist in the flavor and fragrance chemical industry where she helped to ensure the safety of flavor ingredients.

After experiencing the power of a low tox lifestyle, Dr. Yvonne began a mission to help consumers slash their toxic exposure with confidence and ease. She is extremely passionate about helping parents protect their children from toxic exposure. Dr. Yvonne lives in California with her husband and two children.

LINKS My website https://dryvonneburkart.com/ YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@dryvonneburkart/videos Hormone Disrupting Ingredient Cheatsheet and Training https://info.safeingredientacademy.com/3738-9693

In this interview, we discuss:

-What is integrative cardiology and how does it differ from conventional cardiology? -How many people have heart disease today? Is this number growing? -How do women differ when it comes to heart disease...risk, management, and even symptoms of heart problems? -Which lab screening tests do you use for heart disease? -What is advanced lipid testing (ex. apolipoprotein B, lipoprotein(a), CRP, small dense LDL) are best for predicting heart disease risk? -Which imaging studies are best for diagnosing heart disease? -What are the pros and cons of pharmaceutical therapy? -Are statin medications bad for us? How are statin medication best managed when necessary? -How do lifestyle approaches, such as diet, sleep, exercise, affect our risk for heart disease? Which diet is best to prevent or manage heart disease? -Do mind-body approaches, like meditation and yoga, affect blood pressure and/or heart disease risk? -What 3 things can we all do RIGHT NOW to make our hearts healthier?

Vivian A. Kominos, MD, FACC, a nationally recognized clinician and educator in integrative cardiology, is a graduate of St Louis University School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in her home state of New Jersey. She is board certified in both Integrative Medicine and Cardiology. She has practiced cardiology for over 35 years and has concentrated on integrative medicine and integrative cardiology for the past 15 years. She is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine (AWCIM) where she completed her integrative medicine fellowship in 2007. She is a founding member of the American Board of Integrative Medicine where she served as vice chair and remained an active board member until 2020.Besides being a mentor for the AWCIM fellowship, she is intimately involved in the fellowship educational curricula, authoring modules on topics ranging from cardiovascular health and disease to nutrition, mind body medicine, and obesity. She is a speaker and educator for her peers, medical students and residents, nurses, allied health professionals and the community. She enjoys volunteering at the Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank, New Jersey. She loves running, kayaking, cooking and spending time with family and friends. Her greatest joy is her 2 1/2 year old granddaughter

Ken Cook, president and co-founder of Environmental Working Group, is widely recognized as one of the environmental community's most prominent and effective critics of establishment agriculture and U.S. farm policy.

• On November 2, food policy authority Michael Pollan named Cook one of "the world's 7 most powerful foodies", along with First Lady Michelle Obama, nutritionist Marion Nestle and The New York Times' columnist Mark Bittman.
• On November 19, The Times' Bittman listed EWG among 25 people and organizations for whom he was thankful as Thanksgiving approached.
• In its 2011 roster of Washington's top lobbyists, The Hill, the newspaper of Capitol Hill, said Cook "is at the forefront of challenges to corn ethanol and subsidies for Big Agriculture, upcoming hot-button issues as Congress tackles energy matters and starts work on a new farm bill."
• Cook was voted the "Ultimate Green Game Changer" in 2009 by the readers of The Huffington Post. As Arianna Huffington put it, "The EWG is an environmental superhero with a full set of digital tools in its arsenal."

Cook is a principal architect of the landmark conservation provisions of the 1985 farm bill, which for the first time attempted to shift U.S. farm policy from a narrow focus on maximum crop production to conservation of land, water, wetlands and wildlife. The legislation was the most important environmental farm policy reform of recent years, affecting more than 400 million acres of privately owned - and publicly subsidized - farmland.

EWG's online database listing every farm subsidy recipient in the nation and the amount of money each receives has generated thousands of stories about America's broken farm policy. A New York Times profile of Cook said the website helped "transform the [2002] farm bill into a question about equity and whether the country's wealthiest farmers should be paid to grow commodity crops while many smaller family farms receive nothing and are going out of business." Cook and EWG played a similarly prominent role during the crafting of the 2008 farm bill.

In the 1990s, EWG's research on pesticides was a major factor in the passage of the landmark pesticide reform law, the Food Quality Protection Act. EWG was among the first organizations to draw attention to the health threat posed by the weed-killer atrazine, conducting the first extensive tests for the chemical in tap water in 29 Midwestern cities.

Cook has addressed food and agriculture policy in numerous interviews, including 60 Minutes, the CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX Business News, CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Associated Press, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. Cook testifies regularly before House and Senate committees, has briefed top Congressional staff and has met with senior Obama administration officials, including Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and Environmental Protection Administration chief Lisa Jackson. Cook earned a B.A. in history, B.S. in agriculture and M.S. in soil science from the University of Missouri Columbia. He is a board member of The Organic Center and the Amazon Conservation Team. He is married to Deb Callahan and lives in northern California with their young son, Callahan.

David Kriebel, Sc.D., Director, Lowell Center for Sustainable Production

https://www.uml.edu/research/lowell-center/

Professor Emeritus, Department of Public Health

https://www.uml.edu/Health-Sciences/Public-Health/faculty/kriebel-david.aspx

David Kriebel is a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Trained at Harvard in occupational/environmental epidemiology, his research has helped to identify many important environmental and occupational causes of cancer, lung diseases, injuries and other health hazards. For over 30 years he taught in the Department of Work Environment at UMass Lowell, an interdisciplinary graduate program that trained hundreds of occupational health researchers, practitioners and activists. Dr. Kriebel has co-authored two textbooks and published more than 150 peer reviewed papers. As a member of a committee of the U.S. National Research Council, Dr. Kriebel helped establish the link between exposure to Agent Orange among Vietnam veterans and cancer, leading to compensation for many disabled veterans. He advised the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences on its long term study of the health effects of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill and clean-up operations and conducted research to identify cancers and other diseases among the first responders to the World Trade Center Disaster. Dr. Kriebel is also the Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, which collaborates with industries, government agencies, unions, and community organizations on the redesign of systems of production to make them healthier and more environmentally sound. He continues to teach epidemiology and also frequently speaks to community groups and government agencies on the role of science in democratic decision making, particularly in cancer prevention.

A few articles that you may find useful:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thesmarthuman/FDA_Consumer_Update_on_tattoos_FDA_Cosmetics_Facts-Tattoos_Foerster_Tattoo_inks__cancer_Negi__Tattoo_inks_toxicological_risks_systematic_review_Toxicol_Indus_Health_2022_Sabbioni_Carcinogenic.pdf

Other podcasts with David Kriebel:

https://www.whatmamawants.org/archived-episodes/david-kriebel Colleagues,

I thought you would like to know that Dr. Christel Nielsen and colleagues at Lund University, Sweden, have published the first study to specifically target the tattoo-lymphoma hypothesis. The results are suggestive of an effect, and I hope will help convince funders and skeptical reviewers to support additional studies to explore the hypothesis.

Take care,

David

Tattoos as a risk factor for malignant lymphoma: a population-based case–control study

Christel Nielsen, Mats Jerkeman, Anna Saxne Jöud

e-Clinical Medicine

is now available online: Tattoos as a risk factor for malignant lymphoma: a population-based case–control study - ScienceDirect