Your Best Life

Palliative Care may be one of the most misunderstood terms in health care.  Many people might believe palliative care is the same as hospice care or end of life care. In this episode, Dr. Charles Goldman, a palliative care physician at MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center explains how it is different than hospice and can be very helpful to patients and their families. 

Send us your feedback or just say "hello" by filling out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast or send an email to [email protected]

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Down syndrome is a genetic condition where a child is born with an extra copy of the 21st chromosome. Although genetic testing is available to provide detection during birth, for many moms, like Dr. Nicole Stoecken from MercyOne Grimes Pediatric Care, a surprise diagnosis at birth is also possible.

Since Dr. Stoecken gave birth to her fourth child, Josie, who was born with Down syndrome in Dec. 2019, she has become an advocate and guide for children with a diagnosis of Down syndrome. As a pediatric physician, Dr. Stoecken works with new moms daily. In this episode she provides some frequently asked questions she’s received from new parents of children with Down syndrome.

Send us your feedback or just say "hello" by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, 1 in every 4 deaths in the United States is caused by heart disease. To help keep you and your family healthy, all you need to do is remember your ABCS:

• Aspirin when appropriate

Learn more about the ABCS for a healthy heart on our website.

This episode's featured medical expert is Curtis Hoogendoorn, ARNP from MercyOne Siouxland Heart and Vascular Center.

Send us your feedback or just say "hello" by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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It's easy to think about negative things that happened in 2020, but it is better to focus on the good things that happened. In this episode, we are joined by Paul Wehrman, LMHC. Paul is a licensed mental health counselor at MercyOne Waterloo Behavioral Health Care. 

• What are some bad habits we picked up last year that we should drop?

We're happy to partner with Iowa's Healthiest State Initiative and the Make It OK campaign to bring you this content! It's OK to have a mental illness - many people do. It's OK to talk about mental illness - talking makes people feel less alone. It's OK to seek help with mental illness - life can get better.

Send us your feedback by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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The first shipments of the vaccine to help contain COVID-19 has arrived at hospitals across the country.  In this episode, infectious disease expert Dr. Ravi Vemuri returns to the podcast to answer some common questions many people have about the vaccine.

• How does the COVID-19 vaccine work?

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Wow, this is episode number 50!  We're joined by Brandi Cox, PT, DPT and Linda Crisman, PTA to talk all about physical therapy.  We'll discuss a few conditions physical therapy can treat and the benefits physical therapy can provide over some other methods of treatment. Motion is lotion!

Send us your feedback by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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Along with football season, holiday season and flu season… urgent care season is upon us. Not familiar with that? Well, the need for "outside of regular hours," last-minute, early-morning and late-night medical advice seems to increase this time of year as we navigate illnesses that usually see an uptick in the fall and winter.

In this episode, some advice right from one of our Urgent Care providers Ruth Ann Uhl, ARNP about how to get the most of your Urgent Care visit, and when you should skip the clinic and head right to the ER.

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October is Depression Awareness Month and in this episode we have a panel discussion with five experts across the MercyOne system of care:

• Debra Georgia, LMFT, LMSW works with the MercyOne North Iowa Behavioral Services Center in Mason City

In this 45 minute discussion, we cover when to know when you're just having "the blues" or if you need professional help, some different methods of treating severe depression and medication-resistant depression, such as TMS Therapy and SPRAVATO, and the successes our experts have seen by using Telehealth.

Send us your feedback by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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In this episode we're joined by Dr. Moiz Dawood and Jenna Niccolls, PA-C to learn all about weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery. Weight loss surgery provides a unique opportunity to help treat and manage chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and in some cases can even cure those diseases altogether.

We also set the record straight on one big misconception many people have about why this procedure works.

Send us your feedback by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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Endocrinology is the study of hormones and diseases related to the glands in your body. This episode, we're joined by Losty Torres Potter, MD, who recently joined MercyOne following her stay as Chief Fellow of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Dr. Torres Potter has done extensive research on Graves disease, Recurrent Adrenal Crisis, Hashimoto Encephalopathy and several other endocrine case reports.

Send us your feedback by emailing [email protected], or fill out the submission form at MercyOne.org/podcast

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