Beyond the Prescription

Episode Summary In this live (unedited!) discussion, Dr. Lucy McBride sits down with Adam Cifu, MD to examine the evolving COVID landscape in 2025. This conversation explores recent FDA and CDC guidance, the challenges of medical decision-making under uncertainty, and the broader implications for how Americans navigate health information in an era of politicized science. Both physicians emphasize...

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! Episode Summary Dr. Lucy McBride speaks with physician and bestselling author Dr. Aditi Nerurkar about managing stress and vulnerability in times of uncertainty. Dr. Nerurkar shares her personal journey with stress-related health issues and discusses practical strategies from her book "The Five Resets" to help people rewire the...

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! Episode Summary In this episode, Dr. McBride explores the critical topic of brain health and cognitive function , addressing common concerns about dementia while providing evidence-based strategies for protecting brain health . She discusses the different types of dementia, explains the diagnostic process, and outlines six esse...

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! EPISODE SUMMARY In this week’s episode, Dr. McBride dives deep into one of the most underappreciated yet essential pillars of health: sleep . Drawing from scientific evidence and her experience caring for patients medical practice, she explores why sleep isn’t a luxury but a biological necessity . She breaks down what’s really...

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! EPISODE SUMMARY This week’s conversation is all about your heart—how cardiovascular disease develops, how to think differently about cholesterol and blood pressure, and what you can actually do to prevent problems before they start. Heart disease is still the leading cause of death worldwide, but the good news? You have far mor...

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! Episode Summary In this week’s episode of Are You Okay? , Dr. Lucy McBride tackles a subject that touches every one of us: anxiety. In the midst of political upheaval, global conflict, climate change, and personal unpredictability, it's no wonder many of us are feeling unmoored. Dr. McBride offers a framework for understanding...

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! For too long, women have been left to navigate menopause in the dark—without facts, without context, and without a roadmap. In this episode, Dr. McBride is joined by Dr. Sharon Malone—OBGYN, menopause expert, and best-selling author of Grown Woman Talk —to bust myths about hormone therapy, unpack the history of medical misinfor...

Thank you for tuning into my live video! Join me each week on the Substack app at 3 pm ET! In this week’s episode of the Q&A live from the office, Dr. Lucy McBride takes a deep dive into metabolic health. She unpacks the often-misunderstood concept of “prediabetes,” explains how blood sugar regulation works, and offers practical tools for improving insulin sensitivity and overall health—without ob...

EPISODE SUMMARY In this week’s live Q&A, Dr. Lucy McBride dives deep into the complex and often misunderstood topics of weight loss, anxiety, and how to navigate medical advice in a noisy health landscape. With her signature warmth and clarity, she explores what it means to approach health from a place of awareness, acceptance, and agency—not shame or quick fixes. This episode is a must-listen for...

EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode of our weekly live Q&A, I answer your pressing health questions, covering a range of topics from measles outbreaks to arthritis treatments. We discuss how to navigate common health conditions, identify where you have agency over your well-being, and make informed choices about your care. KEY CONCEPTS DISCUSSED MEASLES: UNDERSTANDING IMMUNITY AND PROTECTION * Measles...

Thank you Kathy Fish , Luci , Jen Danish , Terry Matlen, LMSW , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Are You Okay? at lucymcbride.substack.com/subscribe

Join Dr. McBride every Friday at 3 pm ET for her live Q&As in the app! EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode, Dr. Lucy McBride is joined by Professor Emily Oster to discuss the overwhelming flood of medical information, how to interpret health news, and how to determine whom to trust. They explore how context, communication, and risk assessment play critical roles in understanding health-related topics....

Thank you Sally Satel , Carl S. , MERRIE BREITENFELDT , Claire F. , Wisdom , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Are You Okay? at lucymcbride.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Eric Maierson , AUTHOR KRISTEN STAFFORD -HOWE , Kathleen , jackie sand , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Are You Okay? at lucymcbride.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Sarah Hartley , Integrate! Network , Pamela Cox | Author , Principaled And Unyielding , Betsey Apple , and many others for tuning into my live video with Shannon Watts ! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Are You Okay? at lucymcbride.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Kathy Fish , Leslie Bienen , Luci , Olwen Assheton , Kathleen BONK , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Are You Okay? at lucymcbride.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Camilla , mitch , bobby dubois , Karen Duarte , Helen Pudlin , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Are You Okay? at lucymcbride.substack.com/subscribe

ICYMI 👉 * Need Better Sleep? Start here. * Make Kindness Great Again * How Much Alcohol is Okay? Hundreds of you tuned into my live conversation with Shannon Watts on Saturday. While neither of us claims to have all the answers, we discuss some coping strategies to manage distress. You can watch the full conversation above. 👉 Let me know in the comments what you found most helpful from the conve...

Life transitions are sprinkled with possibility. They invite adventure and hope. They can also force us to look inward, to reevaluate our life choices. They can beget sadness and regret, a mourning over the passage of time. There’s nothing like kids getting older to remind us how it goes so fast. Mary Louise Kelly writes out these very issues in her memoir It. Goes. So. Fast. It is a heartfelt chr...

ICYMI 👉 * 4 Steps Toward Reclaiming Your Health * It’s Okay to Not Be Okay * How to Care For Your Body with Kindness & Respect A note to paid subscribers: Join me for our next Zoom hangout on Tuesday, Feb 6 at 8:30 pm ET. The topic: Reclaiming Your Health in 2024. Bring your questions! Click here to register. 🎉 In a special video episode of today’s newsletter , my friend Shira Doron, MD, and I d...

You can also listen to this episode on Spotify! The new weight loss drugs such as Ozempic are stunningly effective at helping patients lose weight and improve their metabolic health. Their existence also seems to have intensified polarizing rhetoric around weight, health and BMI.  On one end of the ideological spectrum, there is the “Healthy at Every Size” (HAES) movement that aims to decouple wei...

You can also listen to this episode on Spotify ! Dr Devika Bhushan is a pediatrician and public health leader who has lived with bipolar disorder for the last 13 years. She has served on Stanford’s faculty and trained at Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins. She's a firm believer that life’s trials and tribulations not only improve our self-awareness, they help us flourish. While serving as Ca...

You can also listen to this episode on Spotify ! It’s hard enough for adults to navigate anxiety, lack of privacy, and social relationships in the digital era. How can we expect young people to do it? On this episode of Beyond the Prescription, media expert Dr. Devorah Heitner presents practical strategies for parenting in an era of perpetual connectivity.  She offers a refreshing perspective in h...

You can also listen to this episode on Spotify ! What gives you meaning and purpose? How do you measure success? What does it mean to be healthy? Suneel Gupta is helping people grapple with these essential questions. His new book, Everyday Dharma : The Timeless Art of Finding Joy in What You Do , is about reconciling what we do with who we are . Gupta describes our “dharma” as our calling—or what...

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify —or wherever you get your podcasts! Confused about how to handle COVID this fall and winter? Wondering how to think about masks, boosters, and reducing your risk of getting sick? On this episode of Beyond the Prescription, Dr. McBride talks with Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, who became one of the most prominent public health experts in the...