YOU: The Owner's Manual

Ever taken an aspirin? Thank a willow tree for that. Ever received a shot of numbing medication at the dentist’s office prior to a procedure? That was originally discovered in a plant too—the cocoa plant from the Andes. What about a painkiller for surgery? Morphine from opium poppy really takes the edge off the post-op pain. Plants are the basis for an array of lifesaving and health-improving medicines we all now take for granted. In her memoir THE PLANT HUNTER: A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines ethnobotanist Dr. Cassandra Leah Quave shows us how important studying plants is while sharing her own incredible journey.

As a person born with multiple congenital defects of her skeletal system, Quave had to get her leg amputated at a young age. While other kids in her class were at football games or school dances, Quave was volunteering her time working at the local ER. Since then her research has brought her to the flooded forests of the remote Amazon, the murky swamps of southern Florida, isolated mountaintops in Albania and Kosovo, and volcanic isles arising out of the Mediterranean. Filled with grit, tragedy, triumph, awe, and scientific discovery, THE PLANT HUNTER illuminates how the path forward for medical discovery may be found in nature’s oldest remedies.

THE PLANT HUNTER weaves together Quave’s personal experiences in and with medicine, infection, disability, and scientific discovery with a fascinating and accessible description of how plants and microbes interact, how antibiotic resistance evolves, and how Quave is working to figure out how we may be able to overcome it by taking the focus away from synthetic compounds. An inspiring story of perseverance, THE PLANT HUNTER is an example of how one scientist is helping provide clues for the next generation of advanced medicines.

Dr. Roizen talks about the latest health headlines that YOU need to know.  

 

Dr. Roizen talks about the latest health headlines that YOU need to know.  

 

Opioids help people manage chronic pain — and that’s a good thing. What went wrong?

The dangers of fentanyl use cannot be overstated, and there’s no question that the pandemic caused a troubling upward trend in addiction disorders, and a recent study predicts an additional 1.2 million drug overdose deaths in the next decade, with people in the Black community bearing the brunt of the opioid epidemic.

As the opioid crisis rages on, Dr. Paul Christo, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, wants to spread awareness and help people understand the risks of synthetic opioids and offer advice for talking with kids about the dangers of illegal drug use.

Dr. Roizen talks about the latest health headlines that YOU need to know.  

 

Researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered potential new drugs that work in concert with other drugs to deliver a deadly one-two punch to leukemia. The potential drugs are still years away from being tested in cancer patients, but a recently published study in the journal Leukemia highlights their promise and the innovative methods that led to their discovery.

In previous studies, the research groups of Rice biochemist Natasha Kirienko and MD Anderson physician-scientist Marina Konopleva screened some 45,000 small-molecule compounds to find a few that targeted mitochondria. In the new study, they chose eight of the most promising compounds, identified between five and 30 closely related analogs for each, and conducted tens of thousands of tests to systematically determine how toxic each analog was to leukemia cells, both when administered individually or in combination with existing chemotherapy drugs like doxorubicin.

During times of extreme stress, cells can temporarily forgo mitophagy to get an emergency energy boost. Cancer is notorious for hijacking these sorts of programs to fuel pathological growth. For example, previous research has shown leukemia cells have far more damaged mitochondria than healthy cells and are also more sensitive to mitochondrial damage than healthy cells.

Natasha joins us today to discuss her findings.

Board-certified family physician Naz Wahab, MD,  and her team at Wound Care Experts offer a progressive and integrative approach to medicine at their practice in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dr. Naz Wahab is a Board-certified physician and a Fellow of the American Professional Wound Care Association who has practiced in Southern Nevada since 2003.  After completion of her residency training, she established her family medicine practice in Las Vegas. 

During this time, she encountered and treated countless patients.  This gave her a sense of the gaps in patient care in our community.

She joins us today, sharing the following wound management tips with the general public and the advanced wound care solutions like ActiGraft that are currently available.

?       Wash your wound. When you first sustain an injury, clean it with anti-bacterial soap and water right away to remove dirt and other debris. Use a soft cloth to clean around the wound and avoid placing soap directly in the wound.

?       Keep a clean dressing on your wound. Dressings prevent germs and other bacteria from infecting your wound, as well as prevent further injury. Because fluids that drain from a wound can damage the healthy skin around it, it’s important to change dressings regularly.

?       Eat healthily. Having a healthy, appropriate diet gives your immune system the energy it needs to heal efficiently and properly. Leafy green vegetables, eggs, salmon and nuts are rich in protein, which helps wounds heal faster.

?       Don’t get wet. If your wound is on a lower extremity, keep it free from water in the shower or bath as water can cause the skin to soften and reopen the wound. Use waterproof covers or an elevated shower chair to help keep moisture out of the wound.

?       Consult a doctor. If a wound does not heal in four to six weeks, contact your primary care physician and let them know the progress, or lack thereof, of your wound’s condition. Additional treatments may be needed if a wound continues to fester.

Dr. Roizen talks about the latest health headlines that YOU need to know.  

 

Dr. Roizen talks about the latest health headlines that YOU need to know. 

 

In Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, Dr. Paul Conti examines the most recent research, clinical best practices, and dozens of real-life stories to present a deeper, richer, and more urgent view of trauma. Every single one of us is affected by trauma, though some carry a heavier burden than others. Understanding its insidious effects and far-reaching complications is vital to charting the path to healing for all.

In the book, Dr. Conti traces a step-by-step series of concrete changes that we can make both as individuals and as a society to alleviate trauma’s effects and prevent further traumatization in the future, including the different post-trauma syndromes, how they are classified, and their common symptoms, an examination of how for-profit health care systems can inhibit diagnosis and treatment of trauma, and the argument for a renewed humanist social commitment to mental health and wellness.

Paul Conti, MD, is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his psychiatry training at Stanford and at Harvard, where he was appointed chief resident. He then served on the medical faculty at Harvard before moving to Portland, Oregon, and founding a clinic. Dr. Conti serves patients and clients throughout the United States and internationally, including the executive leadership of large corporations, specializing in the complex assessment and problem-solving, as well as both health and performance optimization.