People's Pharmacy
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903 Defending the Digestive Tract
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Heartburn is a serious problem for millions of people. Not only is it...
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902 Staying Healthy on Vacation
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Summer vacation is right around the corner. We hope you have delightful travel...
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901 Digestive Diversions
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Our digestive systems are a great source of curiosity. How do we detect...
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900 The Checkup Controversy
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: The annual checkup with a physical exam has been a ritual of health...
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899 Headache Update
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Are you troubled with frequent headaches? How can you figure out what triggers...
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898 Healthy Kids
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: How can we raise healthy children? One place to start is with feeding...
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784 Death by Rubber Duck (Archive)
Many of the products we use every day, from non-stick frying pans to plastic toys like rubber ducks, expose us to chemicals. How safe are they? Phthalates and BPA are endocrine disruptors. Do we get enough in day-to-day life to...
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897 Diet Flip Flops
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Have you ever felt frustrated with dietary advice that seems the exact opposite...
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896 What Animals Teach Us About Health
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Humans are a special type of animal, but for a long time human...
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895 The Great Cholesterol Myth
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: We've all heard that high cholesterol is a prelude to a heart attack....
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894 Heart-Healthy Choices
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: The news from Spain this week is promising indeed. Some 7,500 Spaniards volunteered...
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838 The Wild Life of our Bodies (Archive)
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Thousands of years ago (and more), human beings co-existed with a wide range...
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893 Difficult Decisions
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Anyone who has ever received a frightening diagnosis knows that what the doctor...
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892 Will Food Affect Your Medicine?
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: When Dr. David Bailey and his colleagues first published their findings that grapefruit...
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891 Life as Your Best Medicine
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: Dr. Tieraona Low Dog is one of the country's most knowledgeable experts on...
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890 Do Antidepressants Really Work?
Tune in to our radio show on your local public radio station, or sign up for the podcast and listen at your leisure. Here's what it's about: For more than two decades, antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil or Effexor have...
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748 Ayurvedic Medicine
Americans have grown accustomed to hearing about acupuncture and herbs such as ginkgo from traditional Chinese medicine. But most have never heard of another ancient healing tradition, Ayurveda. Ayurvedic medicine comes from India, where its history stretches back thousands of...
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738 Menopause
Menopause used to be spoken about in whispers, if at all. Women dreaded The Change, and many men did as well. Now, with many thousands of baby boomers going through menopause every week, women are changing their attitudes. Menopause doesn't...
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737 Diagnostic Errors
Diagnostic errors have gotten less attention from health care critics than medication mistakes or wrong-site surgeries, but they are just as dangerous. Without the right diagnosis, getting the right treatment is a matter of guesswork or luck. Two renowned patient safety experts say diagnostic errors are far more common than most of us realize, and they offer some ideas for reducing the harm that such serious mistakes can cause. Their commentary, "Diagnostic Errors--The Next Frontier for...
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735 Healthy Feet
Each foot has 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 tendons, ligaments and muscles, so the human foot is something of a masterpiece. Our feet carry us thousands of miles in the course of a lifetime, and when they hurt, we are miserable. We'll find out what to do for common foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, corns or bunions and take live calls from our audience. Guests: Bryan C. Markinson, DPM, Chief of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery at the Leni and Peter W. May Department of...
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732 Integrative Medicine
Integrative medicine combines the latest medical techniques with ones that come from centuries-old healing traditions, such as acupuncture or yoga. What is the evidence behind such approaches?Learn how integrative coaching can turn good intentions into practice. Guest: Tracy Gaudet, MD, Executive Director of Duke Integrative Medicine. She is also Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke University Medical Center. Her books include Consciously Female and Body, Soul and Baby.
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731 Predictably Irrational
Although doctors pride themselves on practicing evidence-based medicine, not everything that happens in a hospital or clinic is supported by science. Do health care providers always act based on logic? We Americans imagine that we are (usually) rational and make decisions based on analysis and thoughtful consideration. But behavioral economics suggests we are swayed by many factors that are (usually) out of our awareness and sometimes not in our best interests. Dr. Dan Ariely got...
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704 Healthy Eating (Archive)
The science of nutrition seems to lead to a lot of contradictory advice. Vitamin E is a great example. At one time, it was supposed to prevent cancer and heart disease and help people stay healthy into their later years. Now, though, the vitamin is in the doghouse. We find out why scientists have reversed their stance.Dr. Christopher Gardner talks with us about how to evaluate the changing news on nutrition and design a healthy diet. Guest: Christopher Gardner, PhD, Director of Nutrition...
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729 Deep Vein Thrombosis
Veins get no respect. Millions of Americans worry about heart attacks, which occur when arteries are blocked by a blood clot. But blood clots in veins get very little attention, although they can also be life threatening. Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) occurs when a blood clot lodges deep within the veins of the legs. When such a clot breaks loose, it can go to the lungs and become a pulmonary embolism. These can be lethal. How can DVT be prevented?Guest: Thomas L. Ortel, MD, PhD, is Professor...
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728 Health News Update
Three million Americans have hepatitis C, a viral infection of the liver that can cause long-term illness. The medication used to treat it must be taken for a long time and often doesn't cure the condition. But a new treatment improves the effectiveness of this drug and reduces the amount of time patients have to take it.Omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory activity. They may be found in walnuts as well as in marine animals. Is one source better than the other, or do they have...
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727 Celiac Disease Update
Symptoms such as severe fatigue or irritable bowel syndrome are sometimes diagnosed as psychosomatic disorders. But intolerance to gluten, called celiac disease, can cause malabsorption that could trigger these symptoms along with others, such as anemia, migraines, osteoporosis, dermatitis, infertility or peripheral neuropathy. Although celiac disease was once considered rare, studies now show it occurs in 1 of 100 Americans. People with certain other conditions such as type 1 diabetes have...
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726 Generic Drug Controversy
Generic drugs are supposed to be identical to their brand-name counterparts, but they are much cheaper. That's why so many insurance companies and HMOs insist upon their use. Reports have been cropping up that suggest not all generic drugs meet the high quality standards Americans expect. We get perspectives from the generic drug manufacturers, a scientist analyzing FDA adverse event data, and an investigative journalist who took a year to look into the issue. Guests: Kathleen Jaeger,...
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725 Allergy and Asthma
Molds and pollen from grasses and trees trigger allergies that cause a lot of misery. Red, itchy eyes and runny noses are often accompanied by cognitive fogginess. Judgment may be affected. But the common treatments, especially OTC antihistamines, may not make driving any safer. Asthma triggered by allergies may pose a more serious health threat. How can it be treated so that serious attacks are avoided? Guest: Beth Eve Corn, MD, is assistant professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of...
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724 Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are both elusive and debilitating conditions. They are difficult to diagnose and even trickier to treat. Many physicians chalk them up to psychosomatic problems and don’t have much to offer patients. The CDC counts these as real disorders: fibromyalgia affects up to 5 million Americans, and chronic fatigue syndrome affects between 1 and 4 million at any given time. Although these problems seem mysterious, they are treatable. Guest: Jacob Teitelbaum,...
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723 Traditional Diets
Our ancestors survived without supermarkets, by growing and preparing their own food. Some of their traditional ways of cooking, that involve fermenting foods like sauerkraut or sourdough bread, are sliding into oblivion. Our guest, Sally Fallon, has been bucking the nutrition establishment to suggest that the old ways of eating have very real and important benefits. She advocates including saturated fats like butter or coconut oil in the diet for good health and she opposes the widespread...
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675 Exercise and the Brain (Archive 5/2/09)
Exercise is essential for keeping the heart and circulatory system healthy. It helps, too, to moderate blood sugar and control metabolism. Now, animal research suggests that physical fitness also benefits the brain. Guest: John Ratey, MD, is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has co-authored Driven to Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood through...
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679 What Expert Patients Can Teach Us (Archive)
Everyone needs health care at some point, and in today’s complex health-care system, patients are at risk for errors. Some people with chronic illnesses who have logged a lot of time in hospitals have thought hard about how patients can help providers give them the best possible care. We talk with two expert patients and get their recommendations for communicating with health care providers and coping with a complicated health care system. An amazingly uplifting show. Guests: Tiffany...
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721 Health News Update
That numb feeling after a dental filling could be reversed more quickly. How much is it worth? Making smart health care decisions depends upon understanding your risks. But many of us are not comfortable with statistics. We get a primer on the basics from a couple of the country’s experts. Pregnenolone, a precursor to many hormones, has activity in the brain. A new pilot study suggests it may have interesting benefits in schizophrenia. We take your questions about Rx drugs, dietary...
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720 Brain Nutrition
We’ve always heard that you are what you eat. Research shows that diet can have an impact on heart health. Can we improve our brain function by paying attention to nutrition? Dr. James Joseph and his colleagues have investigated the effects of antioxidant and flavonoid rich foods such as blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and spinach. In rodents, supplementing the diet with such foods can reverse some of the mental decline associated with aging. How well will they work in humans? Instead...
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639 Medical Errors (Archive)
The Institute of Medicine reports that the average patient experiences at least one error every day he is hospitalized. The annual death toll from medical errors is estimated at 44,000 to 98,000 Americans. How can you protect yourself or a loved one from a dangerous mistake? Learn how one woman discovered that her doctors had covered up a serious surgical error they made when she was a teenager. Guests: Janet Lynn Mitchell, a patient’s right’s advocate and author of Taking A Stand. Her Web...
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719 Global Obesity
Over the last several decades, the American waistline has been expanding relentlessly. But obesity is not only a problem in our country; it has now spread around the world. We explore the causes and possible cures for global obesity. Nutrition scientists have been debating the best diet for weight loss for decades, but there have been little data to help determine which approach is best. Researchers pitted low-fat and low-protein approaches in a well-controlled two-year study and found that...
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718 Health News Update
Peanut allergies can be life threatening, but scientists are finding new ways to reduce the danger. Good medical care requires the right diagnosis along with the proper treatment. We talk with an expert on patient safety about the hazards of misdiagnoses. We take your questions about Rx drugs, dietary supplements and home remedies. Guests: David Newman-Toker, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-author of “Diagnostic Errors--The Next...
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674 Advances in Headache Treatment (Archive)
The very medicines many people take to relieve pain may actually be causing their headaches. A vicious cycle of pain relievers is behind too many cases of chronic headache. How can you break out of this insidious cycle? Guest: Joel Saper, M.D., FACP, FAAN, is founder and director of The Michigan Head-Pain and Neurological Institute. He is past president of the American Association for the Study of Headache, past chairman of the American Council for Headache Education. Dr. Saper is professor...
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717 Health News Update
More than a million people get an angioplasty, stent or bypass surgery each year. How many of these costly procedures are really essential? Guidelines for cardiologists have proliferated in the last decade, but how many of these recommendations are based on solid evidence? Cold sores are common. There are some natural ways to prevent or treat then. We take your questions about Rx drugs, dietary supplements and home remedies.Michael D. Ozner, MD, is a Fellow of the American College of...
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716 Living in Balance
Next time on the People’s Pharmacy, We talk with Dr. Tieraona Low Dog about getting our lives back in balance. Grandmothers all over the world have some common sense recommendations about sleep, exercise, diet and social support. What does science have to say about these old wives’ tales? Find out what the country’s leading expert on the science behind alternative medicine recommends for good health on the next People’s Pharmacy. In stressful times, people often take short cuts that may...
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715 Back Pain
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical attention. Nearly everyone has a sore back at some time or another, but some people are incapacitated for long periods of time. How should back pain be treated? When is surgery appropriate? Guests: Andrew Hecht, MD, is Co-director of Spine Surgery at Mount Sinai in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics. Dr. Hecht is the spine surgical consultant to the New York Jets and New York Islanders professional teams, as...
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714 Health News Update
Exercise has a reputation for improving health. Just how much does it take to improve your quality of life? People are often told to lose weight or quit smoking, but they have trouble following through. Do financial incentives help? Some doctors worry about giving their patients false hope. Do they worry enough about making sure that patients do have hope when they leave the office? We talk with two prominent physicians about their essay on the power of hope in the Journal of the American...
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713 The Nature of Consciousness
Consciousness is one of the great puzzles of modern neuroscience. Most scientists believe that awareness arises from interactions between neurons in the brain, but the details on how that works, exactly, are still unclear. And what happens as we die? Does consciousness disappear as soon as the heart stops beating? If so, how do we explain near-death experiences? Join us for a conversation with three scientists exploring these issues. Guests: Bruce Greyson, MD, is Carlson Professor of...
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712 Musicophilia
Human beings seem to be wired for music. Neurologists get some unique insights into that wiring when things go wrong, such as musical hallucinations. They can also use music therapeutically for conditions ranging from autism to stroke and Parkinson’s disease. Explore the meaning of music with one of the country’s foremost neurologists, Dr. Oliver Sacks. Guest: Oliver Sacks, MD, is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and has written ten books. The...
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711 Dental Health Connection
Dental health may be as important as mental health in affecting the rest of the body. Periodontal disease appears to provide a reservoir of inflammation and possibly infection that can greatly increase the risk of other conditions, such as heart disease or diabetes. Some prescription drugs can have a deleterious effect on oral health. The osteoporosis drugs Actonel, Boniva and Fosamax, for example, have been linked to jaw bone death. And several anticonvulsant drugs have long been known to...
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710 Health News Update
People with diabetes have been urged to keep their blood sugar as close to normal as possible. Doctors believed that this would reduce the likelihood of serious complications from the disease. A new study from the Veterans Affairs Health Centers throws this assumption into question. As the Obama administration takes office, health care will be targeted for reform. No one knows quite what that will look like, but we get a sneak preview from the president-elect’s advisor on health care policy....
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709 Alzheimer's Action Plan
Five million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and as the baby boom generation ages, many more will develop dementia. Not all confusion and forgetfulness is due to Alzheimer’s disease, however. Sometimes the cause is treatable. How can a family get the correct diagnosis for a beloved elder? What treatments can be helpful? Learn how families cope with Alzheimer’s disease. Guests: Murali Doraiswamy, MD, is Chief of Biological Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center...
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707 Unexpected Blessings
Roxanne Black was diagnosed with lupus at the age of 15. She had been an athletic teenager, a rower on her high school crew, and suddenly she had to shun the sun and face a life of chronic illness. Instead of moping, she formed a support group for people with lupus. Then she started Friends Health Connection, an organization that matches people around the world with others who are going through similar illness experiences. Many people have benefited from Roxanne’s energy and dedication. We...
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706 Side Effects
Before 2000, the FDA rarely highlighted suicide as a possible side effect. But in 2004, after years of controversy, the agency reversed course and issued warnings to doctors and patients that some popular antidepressants are linked to suicidal thoughts and behavior in adolescents. It was a long hard battle by a number of dedicated individuals to bring this problem to the agency’s attention and get it to be taken seriously. Science writer Alison Bass has talked with many of them. We talk with...
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705 Health News Update
Generic medicines have been hailed as the best way to economize without sacrificing quality. A new analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that heart drugs work equally well if they are generic or brand-name. But most of the studies included in the analysis are older, and many were carried out overseas. How can you use generic drugs safely? Budgets are tighter than ever this year, and prices at the drugstore have been rising. Pharmacists have hints on how to save...
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703 Health News Update
A large trial of Crestor was stopped early because it reduced inflammation and the risk of a heart attack. How should we interpret the JUPITER trial, and what does it mean for you? Explore the stories behind the health headlines. Guests: Paul Ridker, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. He led the JUPITER trial of Crestor against CRP. The photo is of Dr....
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701 Stroke of Insight
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in America, killing 150,000 people a year. The survivors can face a difficult challenge, as they may need to relearn simple activities such as talking, reading or dressing themselves. For one neuroscientist, experiencing a massive stroke and recovering from it resulted in a completely different understanding of how the brain works. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor stars in a popular YouTube videoclip. Now she shares her unique perspective on how the two halves...
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700 Stroke
Stroke is a leading cause of death in America, right behind heart disease and cancer. In fact, some neurologists call stroke a “brain attack,” analogous to a heart attack. Strokes can be disabling, but neuroscientists have been learning that the brain is more flexible than once thought. Given time, support and the appropriate training, many stroke survivors can recover at least some of the skills they lost. What do you need to know about preventing and treating stroke? Guests: Larry B....
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699 Worried Sick
We expect our pricey prescription pills to be as reliable as our toasters—that they will work every time. But when it comes to medications, the success rate is much lower. Just how effective are medications for lowering cholesterol or treating osteoporosis? Screening programs like mammograms for breast cancer or PSA for prostate cancer are considered the foundation of the fight against cancer. But how well do they work, and are there any downsides? Guest: Nortin Hadler, MD, is Professor of...
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663 Dealing with ADD (Archive)
Millions of American kids have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without hyperactivity. This can make for challenges in the classroom, and even at home or with friends. People with ADD are often prescribed stimulant medications to help them focus better. What are the benefits and risks of such drugs? What other approaches can help? How does ADD affect relationships such as marriage? Dr. Ned Hallowell is one of the country’s leading experts on ADD and ADHD. His books,...
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696 Doubt Is Their Product
When the hazards of smoking first started to surface, a clever public relations firm figured out that by casting doubt on the emerging science, the tobacco companies would be able to fend off regulation for years. This tactic worked so very well that other industries have taken note. Environmental groups may worry about endocrine disruptors like bisphenol A and phthalates, but the chemical industry insists that the science is no good. This leaves consumers in a quandary. How do you determine...
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693 Sports Medicine
Watching the Olympics was certainly inspiring. Perhaps many more of us will revive old interests in sports and become more active. But what kinds of risks does the weekend warrior run? Children are being encouraged to specialize in just one or two sports at increasingly early ages. Does this concentration on early athletic achievement pose hazards of injury? Guest: Dean C. Taylor, MD, Professor of Surgery (Orthopaedics); Director of the Duke Sports Medicine Fellowship; and Head Team Physician...
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692 The War on Cancer
Cancer is a major cause of illness and death in this country and around the world and has been for decades. Back in the 1970s, the United States declared war on cancer. Are we winning or losing this war? Researchers have made amazing progress when it comes to diagnosing cancer early. But cancer prevention has not received the same research attention. We speak with one of the country’s foremost cancer epidemiologists about the secret history of the war on cancer. Why has it placed so little...
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655 Overtreated (Archive)
We usually assume that the primary problem with health care in the U.S. is that so many people don’t have good access to it. But while many Americans suffer because of lack of medical care, others undergo unnecessary procedures or take potentially dangerous drugs they don’t really need. How does the health care system lead to overtreatment and what are the consequences? Guest: Shannon Brownlee, essayist and writer, has written for The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, The New Republic,...
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689 Bacteriophage vs Antibiotic Resistance
The problem of antibiotic resistance is increasing. Superbugs like MRSA (methicillin-resistant staph aureus) are becoming harder and harder to treat as they evolve resistance to the most powerful antibiotics used against them. Back before the development of antibiotics, scientists were working on a different way to fight bacterial infections. They enlisted viruses that attack only those particular bacteria. Should we go back to this old bacteriophage technology for the future of fighting...
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688 Superfoods
There’s a lot of hype about superfoods that are said to have near-mystical properties to promote health. Should we be chowing down on blueberries, Swiss chard, pomegranates and pumpkin? Or do we need to concentrate on goji and acai berries and galangal? Get the straight and skinny on superfoods from one of the world's leading nutrition researchers. Guest: Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of...
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687 Genetic Medicine - Obesogens
The field of genetic medicine has been evolving rapidly. We all know our DNA determines certain characteristics such as our eye color, hair texture and height. It is also important in considering our risk for certain conditions such as Huntington’s disease or cystic fibrosis. Now that the genome can be analyzed, how will that affect medicine in the 21st century? One area in which genes and the environment interact is weight. The rates of obesity are increasing worldwide. What factors may be...
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- English
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