UF Health Podcasts

Most veterinarians work closely with their pet owning clients about the importance of disease prevention through a routine vaccination schedule, and many talk to them about the importance of nutrition and a proper diet through throughout the pet’s life. But the list is broader, and Dr. Wendy Mandese, a clinical associate professor whose focus is primary care and dentistry, will provide her own take on what pet owner’s need to be aware of, from when a pet first enters the household through its later years.

Good health requires that we watch what we eat. Unfortunately, it might also be a good idea to keep an eye on how your food is cooked.

European researchers recently found that cooking methods can affect a home’s air quality, even after the stove is turned off. The research underscores the importance of good kitchen ventilation, especially when frying.

We get this insight thanks to the versatile chicken breast.

Scientists measured two types of pollutants produced by five methods of cooking this delectable entrée. One pollutant is particulate matter — tiny particles that become airborne and once inhaled, can lodge in the lungs.

Levels of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, a gas released during cooking, were also recorded.

Together, these pollutants can cause a range of short- and long-term health problems, from coughing and wheezing to cancer, stroke and heart troubles.

The chicken breasts were pan-fried, stir-fried, deep-fried, boiled, and air-fried, each using canola oil.

The study found that pan-frying produced the most particulate matter. Stir-frying was the next worst, followed by deep-frying, which produced few particles. Boiling and air-frying produced numbers barely above background levels.

The ranking was similar for VOCs except that deep-frying produced more of the gas than deep-frying.

Pollutants peaked 14 minutes after cooking was completed.

Boiling and air-frying will keep the kitchen pollution-free. But don’t give up on the other methods. Just keep the kitchen ventilated.

Remember: Cooking is part chemistry, minus the Bunsen burner. And not all chemistry experiments come up smelling like roses.

You wake up in the morning, roll out of bed, and start the coffee. Soon the smell of freshly made java fills the room, and you’re ready to begin your day.

But your morning cup of coffee might be doing much more than keeping you awake at work. A new study published in the journal Cancer indicates that drinking coffee and tea correlates with a lower risk of mouth, throat, and head and neck cancers.

Researchers analyzed data from 14 published studies involving more than 9,500 people with head and neck cancer and nearly 16,000 healthy folks. The investigation found that those who drank more than four cups of coffee each day — compared with those who didn’t drink coffee at all — had a 17% lower risk of head and neck cancer, 30% lower risk for mouth cancer, and 22% lower risk of throat cancer.

It wasn’t the caffeine that tamped down the lowered risks. Decaffeinated coffee was associated with a 25% lower risk of mouth cancer. This was supported by earlier studies, which have found that drinking coffee suppresses biological activity that can trigger cancer development.

Moreover, the researchers found, drinking one cup or less of tea every day lowered the risk of head and neck cancer by 9%. But, with tea, too much of a good thing is not necessarily better. In fact, it can be detrimental.

The study found that consuming more than 1 cup of tea a day is associated with a 38% higher risk of throat cancer.

That higher risk is likely caused by acid reflux, which has long been associated with throat cancer.

So, brew your coffee with pride, knowing that it not only perks you up but could help you avoid cancer with each cup.

For those in middle age, the secret to whether we will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease may be hiding in our girth.

Researchers have linked a type of body fat to unwanted proteins in the brain that are known to appear as long as 20 years before Alzheimer’s does.

The Washington University research team wanted to look at how Alzheimer’s begins in its earliest stages, when people are in their 40s and 50s.

Close to 7 million Americans ages 65 and older now have the disease. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that without a medical breakthrough, the number could nearly double by 2050.

The scientists said that lifestyle modifications aimed at reducing extra pounds in the belly could stem the tide. In Alzheimer’s, brain cells and their connections degenerate and die. It leaves sufferers without memory and in cognitive decline.

The researchers homed in on the links between Alzheimer’s progression and changeable lifestyle factors, such as obesity, body fat distribution, and metabolics.

A pool of 80 people, who on average were 49 years old, were studied … more than half of them women. About 57% of participants were obese.

Participants’ brains were scanned, their glucose, insulin and cholesterol measured. Their bellies were evaluated for the type of fat found just under the skin as well as visceral fat, the kind that tucks itself in around internal organs.

Their findings: Higher levels of deep belly fat are related to increased amyloid and tau, Alzheimer’s signature proteins.

With 3 of 4 Americans overweight or obese, doctors say it’s important to help people find ways to lose weight and control cholesterol, whether it’s with medication or plain old diet and exercise.

Of late, artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT have been hailed for their potential ability to lighten health workers’ load … eventually triaging patients, gathering their medical history, or even offering early diagnoses.

But new research suggests these tools have a long way to go before they can replicate real-world interactions between doctors and patients.

A team from Harvard Medical School and Stanford University put four models to the test using a framework called CRAFT-MD, or Conversational Reasoning Assessment Framework for Testing in Medicine.

The models performed well on medical exams, like the ones you take to become a doctor, but struggled when it came to conversations that resembled actual doctor-patient interactions. In fact, the study noted the gap between artificial intelligence’s performance on standardized tests and its ability to handle the dynamic, often unpredictable nature of medical conversations.

In the real world, doctors must ask the right questions at the right time, connect scattered pieces of information, and reason through complex symptoms.

In contrast, when AI tools were asked to gather a patient’s history or respond to open-ended information, their diagnostic accuracy dropped significantly.

Incorporating both AI agents and human experts into the evaluation process could help move the needle toward a tool that is reliably accurate and helpful, as computers can process thousands of conversations far more quickly than humans.

But for the time being, there remains much work before these tools can come close to having the sort of chat you might have with your own flesh-and-blood doctor.

Advanced diagnostic imaging tools can be life-saving for large and small animals. Expertise in this key area of veterinary medicine is critical for both pinpointing diseases and guiding the treatment process. On this show, Dr. Federico Vilaplana Grosso, a clinical associate professor and diagnostic imaging specialist, will discuss some of the tools used most frequently these days in veterinary medicine to diagnose diseases. He’ll also discuss how veterinary specialists can supplement what general practitioners are able to do when the need for diagnostic images arises, and how technology has evolved to enable the veterinary care team to obtain faster and ever more accurate diagnoses in order to ensure the best possible outcome for your pet or horse.

Americans spend billions of dollars on our hair. We shampoo, brush, braid, cut and comb it. Our locks are gelled, moussed, sprayed and blow-dried. Occasionally, our mane coiffed, quiffed and occasionally fluffed. That’s a whole lot of hair care.

But do some of our ’dos endanger our health?

The problem lies in a substance used in many products applied to hair, like gels and sprays. A recent paper from scientists at Purdue and Indiana universities says animal studies show that the substance, siloxane [SI-lok-sayn], accumulates in the body. The compound, which gives hair a shiny, less-frizzy look, has been shown to cause liver, lung and nervous system damage in animals.

Few human studies, however, have examined their long-term health impact.

Scientists worry that products containing siloxanes might be especially dangerous when applied in a confined space. With heated styling tools, the compounds get into the air and the lungs more easily.

The study’s authors recruited volunteers who went through their normal hair-care routine in a lab space. The researchers measured air contamination while participants styled their hair.

Emissions of siloxanes soared in the enclosed space when a styling tool was used at its highest heat setting. They were also present when no heat was applied. Using the bathroom fan dramatically lessened air contamination but did not eliminate it.

The researchers say an investigation of the long-term health impacts of siloxane products is urgently needed.

The study points to the need to do your hair grooming in a well-ventilated area. Open a window. Use a fan.

Don’t make that beehive a buzzkill.

You’re waiting to have surgery, and you’re a nervous wreck. But what if, instead of hospital antiseptic, you smelled lavender? Or maybe eucalyptus?

A new study from the University of Florida finds that a little aromatherapy before surgery significantly reduces patients’ anxiety while decreasing their blood pressure and pulse rate, too.

The results are so compelling that UF Health Shands Hospital is implementing preoperative aromatherapy treatments for all its surgical units.

In the study, 100 patients were offered aromatherapy as part of their surgical preparation. For 20 minutes, a small pod, loaded with a blend of essential oils, was placed on the patients’ gowns near their chests. The pods contained a base of lavender oil enhanced with ylang ylang [lang lang] and sweet orange oils — each known for their calming properties.

Patients’ blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rates, and self-assessed anxiety levels were measured before and after the aromatherapy session.

Among adult study participants, self-reported anxiety levels dropped an average of 40%. In children ages 12 to 17, anxiety levels declined more than 56%. All vital signs — blood pressure, pulse, and respiratory rates — showed significant reductions.

The study originated from an initiative in which nurses at two UF Health hospitals submitted ideas they hoped to study to improve patient care. The initiative was meant to better integrate nursing practice with academic research and give nurses a bigger role in patient-care innovation.

The nurses also want to conduct a follow-up study on how well aromatherapy patients fare in the long term.

So far, their research passes the smell test.

If you’re feeling the post-holiday blues, you might want to consider adding a new form of exercise into your routine. Research suggests that regularly attending a yoga class can help reduce short- and long-term symptoms associated with seasonal depression.

Researchers from universities in Massachusetts and New York studied 30 participants between the ages of 18 and 65 who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Participants were split into two groups, a high-dose group and a low-dose group. Each group attended regular Iyengar [ai-uhn-gaar] yoga and coherent breathing classes for 12 weeks.

Iyengar yoga is a type of yoga style that emphasizes alignment and precision when performing specific yoga poses. Coherent breathing involves taking about four long, deep breaths per minute and has been proved to reduce stress.

Each week, the participants in the high-dose group took three 90-minute yoga classes and completed four 30-minute coherent breathing sessions at home. Those in the low-dose group took two 90-minute yoga classes and three 30-minute coherent breathing sessions.

Researchers evaluated the presence of major depressive disorder symptoms in participants at the study’s beginning, middle, and end. Results showed that the yoga practices contributed to significant improvements in the mental health and depression symptoms of both groups.

After just one month, participants in both groups reported better sleep, less physical exhaustion, and higher levels of positivity and tranquility. Their symptoms of depression and anxiety were also reduced.

So, if January’s got you down, consider giving yoga a go.

For some, drinking red wine brings on a thundering headache. And it’s not the morning-after hangover from a night of Merlot madness. Red-wine headaches can come on strong less than three hours after that first empty glass.

Explanations have proved elusive but now some scientists have a novel theory. A study by University of California — Davis researchers points to the combination of alcohol and a particular antioxidant known as quercetin [kwur-seh-tn].

In its solo form, quercetin is a plant pigment that’s sometimes used as an anti-inflammatory supplement. But when mixed with alcohol, its effect is undesirable. In the bloodstream, quercetin is converted into a slightly different form of itself. That blocks the metabolism of alcohol, leading to the buildup of another chemical that’s known for causing inflammation. That, the researchers believe, is the origin of the “red wine headache.”

Genetics — and a wine drinker’s preferences — also may play a role.

Some people have a modestly functioning enzyme that lets the headache-inducing chemical build up in their bodies. And some varieties of grapes contain much higher levels of quercetin. Grape clusters that are exposed to more sunlight, such as those used in cabernet sauvignon from California’s Napa Valley, can produce copious amounts of the antioxidant. Production methods also play a role.

Next, the researchers will conduct a human clinical trial to compare the effects of wines with varying amounts of the headache-inducing quercetin.

One day, that glass of red wine could be vine and dandy — with no aspirin required.