In the studio today we had Abby Begnaud, MD, who specializes in pulmonary and lung issues with the University of Minnesota and Teri Cannon Executive Director with Breath of Hope Lung Foundation working towards lung cancer survival and raising funds towards cancer research, survivors and providers to better serve the research! We discuss screening, defining biomarker testing, personal experiences with lung cancer, a special event that ABOH is putting on at Rush Creek in two weeks and much more!

It has been an increasing issue year by year over the last few years - the use, abuse, and recovery from fentanyl - we invited three people in the studio to share their battles, their struggles and stories that go along with being addicted to fentanyl! We had the pleasure of talking to Michele Hein of Fentanyl Free Communities, Veronica Stake who serves as a recovering alcohol and drug counselor and Leah Gleason who serves as the Community, Events and Speakers Bureau Coordinator - all of whom have experienced the struggle personally!

There is an art to knowing and understanding behavioral neuroscience so we chatted about that with Kurt Fraser of the University of Minnesota who studies behavioral and systems neuroscience and the motivational processes that promote reward seeking and punishment avoidance. We dive into specifically dopamine among other behavioral habits and some of the neurological explanations for why our brains crave certain things and other functions of the brain. As well as how, if it all dopamine relates to good or bad feelings.

This week we invited on Dr. Kelly Pritchard, R.N. with Lifespark to talk more about the importance of hospice care. From the care the staff provide, to the difficult conversations that come with hospice care including how to pay for hospice care, so many great topics pertaining to hospice care with Kelly this morning who joined us representing the amazing people at Lifespark.

What does the pancreas do for our bodies and why is the pancreas so difficult to treat when it comes to cancer? We chatted with Dr. Patrick Dreyer of MN Oncology about the harsh realities of pancreatic cancer and the ways in which people combat it and ways that you can monitor your health and seek screening for it. We also cover many of the listener questions regarding cancer, cancer prevention and treatment with the doctor!

With influenza going around and so many people on the shelf currently with sickness and flu we chatted with Karen Martin with the Minnesota Department of Health within the Infectious Disease Division about all things illness related, she talks about what she is seeing from her perspective, from pneumonia to flu and RSV to even hand foot and mouth we try to tackle many facets of the viral infections going around and some of the precautionary measures to take with certain instances including RSV and influenza vaccinations!

Denny Long jumped in for Susie today and we chatted with our good friend Dr. Hilden about heart health with February being National Heart Health Month and the rampant influenza spreading nationwide!

For today’s episode we chatted with Dr. Jay Sengupta, MD of Allina Health covering AFib, the Affera mapping system recently used in the cardiology field and also answers several heart health questions.

News broke late in the week that there are security concerns at the capitol building in Minnesota that have not yet been addressed so we talked to Mary Lahammer who is a political analyst for PBS Twin Cities and she discusses more on this story she published, we also dive into DFL leader Ken Martin being elected as the next Democratic Committee Chair! That and Blois brings us this week’s take!

Whether it is the changing weather in Minnesota or just bone health in general, millions struggle with arthritis and the various joint and ligament issues people struggle with when it comes to movement and body health so we chatted with Dr. Marta Michalska-Smith, MD with M Health Fairview about the many uncertainties with arthritis and the different types of arthritis!