Ask Doctor Dawn

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 7-02-2026: Dr. Dawn devotes the first half of the show to a nuanced defense of GLP-1 receptor agonists, arguing the polarized debate treats obesity as a moral failure rather than a physiological one. She recounts the "Marilyn Monroe dress" moment that transformed semaglutide from diabetes drug into elite cosmetic tool, and pushes back on the puritanical framing t...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 6-25-2026: Dr. Dawn devotes the show's opening to ivermectin for COVID. She walks through critical thinking principles—considering the source, cross-verification, and recognizing self-interested claims—before reviewing the evidence. The most-cited 2021 Bulgarian study of 300 people showing 77% reduction lacked accessible methods, and larger trials capable of dete...

Broadcast on KSQD, Santa Cruz on 6-18-2026:>/p> Dr. Dawn opens with Virginia Tech research showing yellow fever mosquitoes can learn to associate DEET with blood meals after just four pairings, with over 60% of trained mosquitoes lunging at DEET alone. She emphasizes using DEET at sufficient concentration since under-application could teach mosquitoes a "life lesson" that compromises one of our be...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 6-11-2026: Dr. Dawn discusses fascia — the gelatinous network of sugary proteins, salts, and collagen bundles that has been known to acupuncturists and osteopaths for millennia but ignored in conventional medical training. New confocal laser endomicroscopy technology has finally visualized this "interstitium" as a fluid-filled space draining to lymph nodes, prese...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 6-04-2026: A caller with previously normal platelets now bouncing between 40-60 asks whether to accept her doctor's recommendation of high-dose dexamethasone. Dr. Dawn suggests checking homocysteine and methylmalonic acid for hidden B12 issues, getting an ultrasound to rule out splenic sequestration, and confirming actual autoimmune antibody testing before commit...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 5-21-2026: This is the second show featuring Mira Achilles, a UCSC graduate working on her masters in epidemiology. Dr. Dawn and Mira open with a Harvard study showing OpenAI's o1 reasoning model reached correct diagnoses 67% of the time versus 50-55% for physicians, and scored 89% versus 34% on treatment plans. The AI advantage shrinks when doctors get more data...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 5-14-2026: An emailer from Switzerland follows up on the case of neurological symptoms, warning about the fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis from unwashed garden vegetables and tick-borne encephalitis requiring the FSME vaccine available in Europe. Dr. Dawn adds that cysticercosis from undercooked pork leaves calcified brain lesions detectable on CT scans....

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 5-07-2026: Dr. Dawn debunks the 1971 "220 minus age" maximum heart rate formula, noting a 2025 study found individual predictions were off by up to 20 beats per minute. She recommends the Tanaka equation (208 minus age) times 0.7, but emphasizes tracking improvement trends rather than absolute numbers. ConsumerLab testing found Safe Catch Wild Elite Pure Tuna and...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 4-30-2026:>/p> Dr. Dawn opens with a bike safety public service message, noting a 34% increase in bicycle use in Santa Cruz alongside rising e-bike accidents. She urges drivers to stay vigilant and calls for education and enforcement of helmet laws, particularly for riders under 18. A University of Michigan researcher discovered that standard nitrile, latex, and...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 4-23-2026: Dr. Dawn highlights ARPA-H-funded breakthroughs: Duke researchers created injections enabling cartilage cells to divide and remodel bone, UC Boulder developed intermittent-burst delivery of a repurposed drug that reversed rabbit arthritis in 4-8 weeks, and Columbia printed a living 3D knee using stem cells on biodegradable scaffolding. She notes the ag...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 4-16-2026: Dr. Dawn opens with a follow-up from an email from Maryland about a friend in Switzerland, who has ongoing neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms. She reviews the earlier effort to connect him with functional-medicine resources in Switzerland, then focuses on a new observation that the patient may have had multiple parasitic infections during trave...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 4-09-2026: Dr. Dawn shares a follow-up from an emailer in Switzerland providing seven functional medicine practitioner addresses near Zurich and Aargau, noting that Switzerland uses different terminology but is actually an "epicenter of functional medicine." Dr. Dawn calls for support of the bipartisan Break Up Big Medicine Act, modeled on Glass-Steagall, which w...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 4-02-2026: Dr. Dawn briefly responds to an emailer in Aptos, advising that her numbers don't require rushing into therapy but recommending a more thorough workup. An emailer asks about her sister's osteoporosis treatment, including Reclast side effects and vitamin D levels of 28. Dr. Dawn recommends raising vitamin D to around 50, adding vitamin K2 (MK7-9) and ca...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 3-26-2026: li> Dr. Dawn announces a UCSF study recruiting participants for psilocybin therapy to help patients cope with chronic low back pain, requiring ages 25-70 with failed prior treatments. A caller preparing for bladder stone surgery asks about avoiding a repeat of severe post-anesthesia disorientation. Dr. Dawn recommends pharmacogenomic testing through 3x...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 3-19-2026: Dr. Dawn warns that stacking multiple gummy supplements can cause GI distress from sugar alcohols like xylitol, sorbitol, and mannitol, with symptoms persisting up to three days after stopping. She recommends limiting sugar alcohol intake to 6mg daily and switching to non-gummy formulations if experiencing bloating, cramping, or diarrhea. An emailer as...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 3-12-2026: Dr. Dawn discusses Michael Pollan's critique of MAHA dietary recommendations, agreeing that ultra-processed foods should be avoided but noting the lack of science supporting high saturated fat intake. She acknowledges extra virgin coconut oil as an exception that doesn't raise LDL, and pushes back on the social Darwinism embedded in anti-vaccine, anti-...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 3-05-2026: Dr. Dawn demonstrates how to critically read a science paper using a widely-publicized study claiming adolescent cannabis use causes psychotic, bipolar, and anxiety disorders. She identifies multiple methodological problems: only 5.7% of Kaiser adolescents admitted cannabis use versus 11.2% in anonymous national surveys, suggesting massive underreporti...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 2-26-2026: Dr. Dawn opens with an urgent measles advisory, noting the virus has an R-value of 15 compared to COVID's peak of 5, with South Carolina reporting over 1,000 cases. She recommends those who received only one MMR shot—particularly people now in their 60s—get an immune titer blood test, as protection declines after 40-50 years. Measles can cause "immune...

Broadcast from KSQD on 5-30-2024 and replayed on 2-12-2026: Cognitive errors in medicine dismissing unusual presentations as psychological. A case of Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS). Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis causing psychiatric symptoms. Failures of genetic research to identify causes. The Need for integrating neurology and p...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 3-05-2026: >ul> Dr. Dawn presents a whimsical "theme park tour" of the upper gastrointestinal tract, from saliva production triggered by sight and smell of food, through the esophageal sphincter's iris-like opening, into the stomach's pH-1 acid bath where parietal cells produce 3,000 mg of hydrochloric acid per meal. She explains protective mechanisms including t...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 1-29-2026: An emailer asks about hemorrhoids affecting 2 relatives,a 60-year-old man and his 20-year-old daughter, with the daughter also experiencing constipation worsened by fiber supplements. Dr. Dawn explains hemorrhoids are essentially varicose veins of the anus, with 102 genetic regions identified affecting blood vessel and smooth muscle strength. She empha...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 1-22-2026: An emailer from Canada asks about long-term Remicade (infliximab) use for her 16-year-old daughter's ulcerative colitis. Dr. Dawn explains the drug blocks tumor necrosis factor, which stops autoimmune attacks but also weakens infection defense—increasing risk of fungal infections, tuberculosis, and after about 10 years, slightly elevated blood cancer r...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 1-15-2026: An emailer from Switzerland asks about fluorescein angiography requested before her first retina appointment. Dr. Dawn suspects protocol-based medicine screening for macular degeneration and suggests negotiating to see the doctor first given her different reason for seeing a retinal specialist. She encourages patients to maintain agency in medical sett...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 1-08-2026: Dr. Dawn concludes her 2025 medical advances recap, noting that while GLP-1 weight loss drugs showed unexpected benefits for addiction, schizophrenia, and dementia risk, Novo Nordisk recently reported semaglutide had no effect on cognition in people with existing dementia or mild cognitive impairment. She describes the first successful human bladder tr...

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 1-01-2025: An emailer asks about omega-3 supplementation for memory at age 72. Dr. Dawn advises checking that fish oil capsules contain adequate DHA—at least 1,000 mg—since many omega-3 products have low DHA levels. She notes Medicare covers the same testing at standard labs as proprietary labs like OmegaQuant that charge patients directly. Beyond omega-3s, she e...