If a tooth gets knocked out, place it between the cheek and gum immediately, since the chance of successfully saving it drops by roughly 10% every ten minutes if it isn't found. In this episode, Dr. Joseph Alton (Dr. Bones) and Nurse Amy Alton join Dr. Mitchell to break down what it actually takes to be medically prepared when help isn't immediately available. They cover why a $30 to $35 military-grade tourniquet belongs in every car and go-bag, how the stretchy SWAT tourniquet is designed to fit children who can't be treated with standard sizes, and why hemostatic dressings should be paired with any tourniquet for serious bleeding. They also explain how raw, unprocessed honey is used in hospitals to treat burns and staph-resistant wounds, how two drops of clove oil mixed with zinc oxide can form a temporary dental filling in a pinch, and why staying calm with an injured person can be just as important as the medical supplies themselves. Dr. Alton and Nurse Amy also share the real story of a nurse whose emergency kit helped her save two lives in a car accident years after she first bought it.

Guest Contact:

Social Media
YouTube
Instagram
Facebook Group: Survival Medicine DrBones

Websites
doomandbloom.net
altonfirstaid.com

Resources/Book Links
The Survival Medical Handbook: The Essential Guide For When Help is NOT On The Way

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here

Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
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YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Being ready for a medical emergency doesn't require expecting a disaster, Dr. Dean Mitchell explains in this week's tip. Every household benefits from a basic medical kit stocked with bandages, antiseptics, gauze, adhesive tape, tweezers, and scissors, along with core over-the-counter medications like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, an antihistamine, and an antidiarrheal. When traveling, keeping a list of your medications, allergies, and medical conditions on hand (a printed copy or a note on your phone) can be critical if someone else needs to speak to first responders on your behalf. A portable, battery-powered phone charger and bottled water round out the essentials, and telemedicine now puts medical guidance within reach right from your smartphone the moment an emergency starts. A few minutes of preparation today can make all the difference when every minute counts.

For the full conversation, listen to Ep. 236 with Dr. Joseph Alton & Nurse Amy Alton on The Smartest Doctor in the Room.

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here

Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Tick bites can transmit far more than Lyme disease. In this episode, Saravanan Thangamani, PhD, SUNY Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Director of the SUNY Center for Vector-Borne Diseases, explains why coinfections are common, with roughly one in three ticks carrying the Lyme disease agent and five to ten percent of those also carrying additional pathogens like anaplasma, babesia, or Powassan virus. He breaks down how the deer and mouse life cycle spreads ticks, why pets are "tick magnets," why the old 24-to-48-hour transmission window is outdated advice, and how tick testing can give clinicians critical extra information. He also covers the expanding range of the lone star tick, alpha-gal syndrome, and where Lyme vaccine development currently stands.

About the Guest:
Saravanan Thangamani, PhDSUNY Empire Innovation Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, SUNY Upstate Medical UniversityDirector, SUNY Center for Vector-Borne Diseases and Vector Biocontainment Laboratories
Website
Instagram: @upstate_tick_lab
X: @NY_Ticks
Facebook: UpstateTickLab

Resources Mentioned:
Upstate Tick Lab — Research, Education & Public Health
TickMAP — Interactive Tick & Tick-Borne Disease Surveillance
Upstate Tick Testing Laboratory — National Tick Testing & Surveillance Program
Thangamani Laboratory — Powassan Virus & Vector-Borne Disease Research

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Dr. Dean Mitchell's Health Tip of the Week: outsmart ticks before they make you sick. From his conversation with Dr. Saravanan Thangamani, the top prevention move is a simple habit — a full-body self-check every time you come in from outside. Another easy win: spraying clothing with permethrin, which kills ticks on contact. And if you find one, don't just toss it — bag it and send it to a lab (like Dr. Thangamani at SUNY Upstate) since the tick itself often holds the clearest clues about infection. Watch for a non-itchy rash, fever, swollen lymph nodes, or a severe headache — early treatment makes all the difference.

For the full conversation, listen to Ep. 235 with Dr. Saravanan Thangamani on The Smartest Doctor in the Room.

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

The evidence increasingly points to a laboratory origin for COVID-19, not a natural spillover from the Wuhan wet market. In this episode, returning guest Steven Quay, MD, PhD, FCAP, Chairman, President, & CEO of Atossa Therapeutics, walks through the case built in his book, The Code as Witness. He explains why none of the animals or market workers tested showed signs of infection, how a 2012 mining accident produced a coronavirus strain closely related to SARS-CoV-2, and what the furin cleavage site reveals about possible genetic engineering. The conversation also covers gain-of-function research, biosafety failures at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and concrete steps that could help prevent the next pandemic.

About the Guest:
Steven Quay, MD, PhD, FCAP
Chairman, President, & CEO of Atossa Therapeutics
Website
LinkedIn
X: @quay_dr

Order your copy of Dr. Steven Quay's book, The Code as Witness, here.

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Simple habits do more to protect you from viruses than any supplement, Dr. Dean Mitchell explains in this week's tip. Frequent handwashing, avoiding touching your face, and paying attention to indoor ventilation top the list, alongside adequate sleep, regular exercise, and a healthy diet. One striking example: during the COVID pandemic, 75% of passengers on a bus in China caught the virus, but the 25% who didn't were seated by an open window. Add a well-fitting mask in crowded, high-risk settings and staying current on your flu vaccination, and you've got a simple, evidence-based defense against the season's respiratory viruses. No single measure is perfect, but together, they make a real difference.

For the full conversation, listen to Ep. 234 with Dr. Steven Quay on The Smartest Doctor in the Room.

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Most abdominal pain is not cancer, but certain warning signs like unexplained weight loss, blood in the stool, or pain radiating to the back should prompt further workup. Dr. Douglas Adler, an advanced interventional gastroenterologist, joins Dr. Dean Mitchell to explain how new endoscopic techniques are letting patients avoid traditional surgery for gallbladder disease and other GI conditions, plus his take on Cologuard, pancreatic cancer screening, and when colonoscopy is still the gold standard.

Contact Douglas G. Adler, MD:
Director, Center for Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy
Porter Adventist Hospital / Peak Gastroenterology, Denver, CO
X (Twitter)

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Medical schools are moving away from lecture-based, multiple-choice testing toward hands-on clinical training from day one. Dr. David Battinelli, Dean of the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, joins Dr. Dean Mitchell to break down the bold changes his school made, from first-year EMT training to oral and simulation-based exams, and why students who learn this way report feeling less overwhelmed facing real-world uncertainty.

Contact David L. Battinelli, MD:
LinkedIn

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Heart rate variability has become a buzzword in wellness circles — but what does it actually measure, and why does it matter far beyond fitness tracking? Rheumatologist Dr. Andrew Holman, associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington and founder of InMedix, joins Dr. Dean Mitchell to explain how HRV serves as a precise, measurable window into the autonomic nervous system and what that means for immune function, chronic disease, and personalized medicine.Dr. Holman breaks down the difference between consumer wearables and his FDA-cleared cloud HRV device, which uses a five-minute EKG sampled at 500 times per second to accurately measure both sympathetic and parasympathetic activity against clinical standards — not just comparing you to yourself. He shares how a prospective double-blind study using advanced HRV predicted with 90% sensitivity which rheumatoid arthritis patients would respond to biologic therapy a full year in advance, and how addressing autonomic imbalance raised remission rates from 25% to 79% in a pilot study.The conversation covers the autonomic roots of fibromyalgia, the overlooked role of sleep apnea in autoimmune disease, positional spinal cord compression as a driver of chronic pain, and the concept of immunoautonomics — a framework Dr. Holman introduced to the medical literature describing how the brain's command and control center influences immune function in autoimmune disease, cancer, and infectious illness. Dr. Holman also discusses the legacy of Dr. Kevin Tracy's vagus nerve research and how it intersects with his own work measuring autonomic state at its source.For patients and physicians alike, this episode makes the case that measuring HRV with clinical precision is as essential as checking cholesterol — and that the future of medicine depends on understanding who each patient is autonomically before deciding how to treat them.

Live Q&A with Dr. Mitchell, August 19: How Stress Turns Into Disease, and What Actually Works to Lower It

Nobody just gets colitis. Stress goes looking for your weak spot, and thirty years of practice says it usually finds it. Dr. Dean Mitchell is live on Wednesday, August 19 at 6:00 PM Eastern for a free hour: the Holmes-Rahe scale, what HRV shows, which relaxation methods have evidence behind them, and where medication belongs. Register here


Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off

Before assuming a new walking problem means Parkinson's disease, Dr. Dean Mitchell shares a key insight from his conversation with neurologist Dr. Alexander Stilbans: not every shuffling gait points to the obvious diagnosis. Many treatable conditions, including degenerative hip disease, spinal stenosis, and certain medications, can cause changes in how you walk, especially after age 60. One patient's case makes this clear: a 72-year-old man whose "magnetic legs" seemed to stick to the floor turned out to have a treatable buildup of fluid in the brain, not Parkinson's. The next time you or a loved one notices a new walking problem, ask your doctor what else it could be. Sometimes the most important diagnosis isn't the obvious one.For the full conversation, listen to Ep. 230 – How You Walk Matters: Movement Disorders That Can Be Mistaken For Parkinson's Disease on The Smartest Doctor in the Room.

Contact Dr. Mitchell:

Email: [email protected]
Website
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
LinkedIn

Order your copy of Dr. Mitchell’s latest book, Conquering Candida, here.
Be sure to visit ImmunoLytics & use coupon code SmartestDoc for 5% off