Doctors Take the Mic

Dr. Gloria Wu and Darren walk through six research posters their team presented at ENDO 2026, the Endocrine Society's annual meeting, exploring AI and diabetes patient education. They start with two posters showing how a physician-built AI chatbot, restricted to trusted medical sources, can deliver clear and accurate health guidance that real patients found genuinely helpful. Then they dig into fo...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez, joined by Jordan Tsay and Kosuke Kimura, explore a striking paradox at the intersection of urban lighting, plant biology, and allergic disease, drawing on Artificial Light at Night Extends Pollen Season and Elevates Allergen Exposure , published in PNAS Nexus in 2026 by Brandt Geist, Lin Meng, Daniel S. W. Katz, Huidong Li, Franz Hölker, and Qia...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez explore a striking paradox at the intersection of diabetes and neuroscience, drawing on  Type 2 Diabetes Impairs Odour Detection, Olfactory Memory and Olfactory Neuroplasticity; Effects Partly Reversed by the DPP-4 Inhibitor Linagliptin , published in  Acta Neuropathologica Communications in 2018 by Grazyna Lietzau, William Davidsson, Claes-Göran...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez unpack a striking finding from  Odor Olfactory Dysfunction in Chronic Kidney Disease and Diabetes Mellitus and Its Association with Nutritional Factors , published in the  Caspian Journal of Internal Medicine in 2025 by Kamyar Iravani, Aida Doostkam, Jamshid Roozbeh, Leila Malekmakan, Seyed Reza Kasaee, and Amir Soltaniesmaeili of Shiraz Universi...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez explore one of the most surprising findings in recent neuroscience: simply diffusing essential oils in your bedroom for two hours each night led to a 226% improvement in memory scores among older adults. Drawing on  Overnight Olfactory Enrichment Using an Odorant Diffuser Improves Memory and Modifies the Uncinate Fasciculus in Older Adults , publ...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez explore a surprising finding from the 2015 study  The Effect of Olfactory Stimuli on the Balance Ability of Stroke Patients , published in the  Journal of Physical Therapy Science by Mi-Na Gim, Sang-bin Lee, Kyung-Tae Yoo, Ji-Young Bae, Mi-Kyoung Kim, and Jung-Hyun Choi of Namseoul University in South Korea. The study found that simply smelling b...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez unpack one of the most urgent crises in modern healthcare: a $4.5 trillion chronic disease epidemic driven largely by what Americans eat. Drawing on  What Does Food is Medicine Mean? , published by the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Dr. Wu's own clinical observations as an ophtha...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez unpack a striking statistic: tennis players live an average of 9.7 years longer than sedentary individuals. Drawing on Dr. Wu's research notes on racket sports and dementia prevention, and on Bozyiğit, Karagöz, Karsai, and Tornóczky's 2026 study  Contribution of Tennis Involvement to Successful Aging: The Case of Masters Tennis Players , publishe...

In this episode, Dr. Wu and co-host Darren Gonzalez explore how a team of researchers is engineering a solution to one of emergency medicine's most overlooked problems — the involuntary freeze response triggered by traumatic smells in the field. Drawing on Framework for Microdosing Odors in Virtual Reality for Psychophysiological Stress Training , published in  Sensors journal in 2024 by Daniel An...

Summary: "The Epidemiology of Chagas Disease in the Americas," by Zulma M. Cucunubá ,  Fernando Abad-Franch , and colleagues, published in  The Lancet Regional Health – Americas  (2024), reviews how  Trypanosoma cruzi spreads via insect vectors, congenital, oral, and transfusion routes. Despite control efforts by WHO and PAHO, millions remain infected, often undiagnosed. The authors emphasize para...

Tick season is already breaking records — and the rules of the outdoors have quietly changed. In this episode, Dr. Wu digs into a May 2026 New York Times report by Maggie Astor revealing that four tick species are now spreading into regions where they've never been before, bringing Lyme disease, a mysterious red meat allergy, and a malaria-like parasite along for the ride. We break down the alarmi...

Your doctor may have a new kind of assistant in the room — and it's not human. In this episode, Dr. Wu breaks down a May 2026 New York Times investigation by Simar Bajaj into the rapid rise of AI scribes, the software tools now recording and transcribing millions of doctor-patient conversations across the U.S. We explore what actually happens to your audio after the appointment ends, who has acces...

In this episode, Dr. Gloria Wu — lead author of the 2025 UCSF study "Chatbots and Diabetes: Is There Gender Bias?" — brings her research directly to you as both researcher and host. Published in the Journal of Patient Experience , the study tested four leading AI chatbots — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and DeepSeek — asking each the same question about diabetic vision loss, changing only the patient's...

Here's a one-paragraph summary with the AMA citation: This episode examines Medvi, a telehealth startup founded by Matthew Gallagher that is projected to generate $1.8 billion in revenue in 2026 with just two employees — Gallagher and his brother Elliot — operating out of a house in Los Angeles. Drawing on Erin Griffith's front-page New York Times investigation, the episode traces Gallagher's path...

In this episode, Dr. Gloria Wu discusses a study from the February 2026 issue of the  Journal of Ophthalmology Retina that explores the relationship between long-term Metformin use and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in diabetic patients. The research found that patients who took Metformin for five or more consecutive years had a significantly lower risk of developing both dry and wet AMD c...

Dr. Gloria Wu shares insights from a Men's Health panel, redefining health not just as the absence of illness, but as the "capacity to thrive under pressure" through mental and emotional resilience. She explains how practicing gratitude and celebrating small wins can physically "groove" positive dopamine pathways in the brain, making happiness more permanent. Additionally, she emphasizes the criti...

In this recording, Dr. Gloria Wu explains how the health of your eyes can actually provide a "window" into the health of your brain. Using a non-invasive eye scan called an OCTA, doctors can spot thinning blood vessels in the retina that may serve as an early warning sign for Alzheimer's disease.

The provided text details significant ethnic disparities in Atrial Fibrillation (AF), noting a clear prevalence gradient with South Asians lowest and Whites highest. It highlights a "South Asian paradox" of low AF despite high cardiovascular risk. Risk factors also differ by ethnicity, such as hypertension driving AF more strongly in Chinese populations, while Pacific Islanders and Native American...

Summary:  According to an article by Sy Boles of the Harvard Gazette, Heavy Menstrual Bleeding (HMB) affects many women, but research progress has been slow due to the lack of suitable animal models. Scientists Donald Ingber, founding director of the Wyss Institute, and Judah Folkman, professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children's Hosp...

Summary:  In an article by Jacqueline Mitchell of the Harvard Gazette, a study by gastroenterologist Dr. Trisha Pasricha links smartphone use on the toilet to a 46% increased risk of hemorrhoids. Phone users are five times more likely to sit for over five minutes, a habit driven by the phone's distraction rather than constipation or straining. This prolonged sitting is thought to cause vascular cu...

Ashley Shew's  "A Gateway Hearing Aid" explores how Apple's AirPods Pro 2 have transformed from simple earbuds into affordable, over-the-counter hearing aids. Following FDA approval, users can now self-test and adjust their hearing through an app—bypassing clinics and high costs. While limited to mild or moderate hearing loss, AirPods help reduce stigma by blending hearing technology with everyday...

Research by Shravan Murlidaran and Miguel P. Eckstein challenges the idea that our eyes are drawn to the brightest objects. It suggests our brains actively seek to understand a scene's narrative. This "free viewing" state prioritizes objects critical for "scene understanding" (SU relevance) over simple visual saliency .  Evidence shows eye movements track changes in a story, not just visual simila...

In a Harvard Gazette article by Alvin Powell from September 23, a study by Ryan McBain tested how AI chatbots handle suicide-related questions. While they refused direct requests for self-harm instructions, the bots sometimes provided information about suicide methods that could enable harmful actions. The speakers emphasize the need for rigorous testing, external oversight, and regulation of ment...

In a September 30 Harvard Gazette article by Liz Mineo, insights from clinical psychologist Rachel Zawa distinguish normal stress from an anxiety disorder. While moderate anxiety can boost performance, a disorder persistently interferes with daily life, trapping individuals in an "anxiety avoidance cycle". Three strategies can break this cycle: gradually facing fears (exposure-based living), chall...

Research reveals a surprising cognitive limitation in an August 13 Harvard Gazette article by Christy DeSmith: the human mind can only track one independently moving invisible object at a time.   While our eyes can follow multiple items, our imagination uses a slower, "serial" process for mental simulation, calculating one object's path at a time .  When tasked with tracking a second invisible obj...