Dr. M's Women and Children First Podcast

Coronavirus Update #71 A look at the next pandemic From a recent article, we see a 10 point series of mitigation measures for a future pandemic based on rational thought: "A more realistic public health approach is to adjust current mitigation goals to be more data-driven and to minimize unintended harms associated with unfocused or ineffective control efforts." a) Accelerate vaccinations, b) ease...

Dr. Katz - "Human offspring come into this world much like the young of all other mammals, and like all the others, within minutes of our arrival, we are hungry. Food figures prominently in our lives ever after, but never is it more important than in childhood, when it serves as the literal construction material of those growing bodies and brains. The initial food choice for human babies should be...

This weeks guest is Dr. Sandra Hassink, an expert in pediatric obesity. Dr. Hassink has spent her career looking into the pathophysiology and social determinants of childhood obesity. Her career began at the Univeristy of Deleware where she studied Chemistry before heading off to Vanderbilt University to study medicine. After completing her training in Pediatrics at St Christopher's Hospital in Ph...

Coronavirus Update #70 GOOD NEWS: This information is so important to help us all understand risk. Stratified risk is the only true way to measure personal risk. Let us look at some CDC data from the spring Omicron BA.1 and .2 spikes versus the fall 2021 delta wave. Median age of hospitalization has increased from 60 years old with Delta to 64 with BA.1 and 71 with BA.2. Any underlying medical con...

Loss has seemed to follow me more this year than any other. Whether it is a newborn baby that never had a chance to take a crack at life, an 86 year old who lived a rich life or now a 20 year old in his prime, the loss is profound each and every time. My exposure is clearly occupational as well. However, how do we continue to process this time and time again? Does it get easier? How do we talk abo...

† Jamie Manirakiza is the Executive Director at the Partnership to End Human Trafficking (PEHT). She is a Licensed and Masters level social worker who studied at the University of Pennsylvania before embarking on a career to shine a bright spotlight on human trafficking while helping those caught and released from that dangerous net. Partnership to End Human Trafficking (PEHT) is a nonprofit organ...

Coronavirus Update 69. Quick Hits and other musings - 1) In the interview with Dr. Offit there were a few big take aways: Boosters for non risk based teen and young adults are unlikely to provide benefit while offering a small but real level of risk from myocarditis Boosters are offering minimal benefit to the nation from a transmission perspective. At best 8-12 weeks of protection against symptom...

A mother, wife, herbalist, educator, author, researcher, and medical doctor, Tieraona has trained hundreds of medical professionals as the Fellowship Director at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, chaired dietary supplement expert panels for the United States Pharmacopeia, and has been appointed to numerous scientific advisory boards. In addition, she has authored best-sell...

Biome Depletion Theory or Biota Alteration Theory When we look at risk of disease over time in humans, we need to take stock in what was supposed to be versus what is. If we become mismatched genetically to the environment that we find ourselves in, then we will begin to suffer disease. The work of Dr. William Parker and colleagues is very fascinating here. His understanding of our immune solvency...

Coronavirus Update #68 At this point the fundamentals completely point to a world of Covid mitigation based on personal risk tolerance and previous vaccination and/or disease. It no longer makes any sense for the entire population to be asked to change the way they live and exist. The messaging remains a struggle for me as people including the heads of major health organizations are pushing for me...

Joy Warner - An Educated Life Joy Warner is the founder and director of the Community School of Davidson in Davidson, North Carolina. She is a leader, educator, grower of children and a person with strong compassion. Joy graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before obtaining a masters in education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her path was a deviation f...

Issue 34 This week we look at The Truth About Lying, Acid Suppressors and Asthma Risk, Testicular Concerns and Obesity. Adults lie? Shocker. According to the research, most adults lie 1-2 times per day, but most lies are not damaging and often related to self inflation for ego or to spare another's feelings. That is great news. Most people are honest most of the time! Ok. Now that we understand th...

Coronavirus Update 67 Natural infection provides a much better route to transmission protection than intramuscular systemic vaccination because of the induction of mucosal immunity via IgA and tissue resident T cells. (Tang et. al. 2022) If you can tolerate a natural infection without much morbidity, this seems to be a reasonable choice at this time. This is especially important now with the immun...

Dr. Paul A. Offit is Director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He is the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Offit is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of virology and immunology, and was a memb...

This is Bone Health week. As soon as you are conceived, the process of growing new bone begins in the map of DNA. The first bone cells are noted at the sixth week post conception. This process continues for many years peaking as a teenager and beginning to decline in the third decade of life. The peak decline starts in the sixth decade when sex steroids start to decline significantly. The natural...

Dr. Bonnie Kaplan is an emeritus professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. She is a research psychologist who has published widely on the biochemical etiologies of developmental disorders and mental health. She studied at Brandeis University, University of Chicago and Butler University. Her focus is the contribution of nutrition to brain developme...

Coronavirus Update #66 This week is another close look at the current variants of the Omicron lineage, especially BA.5. What is the deal with this strain? Is it causing more heart ache in the United States or just an annoying highly infectious variant? In my opinion, when we have global flairs of Covid 19, there is clear evidence now that individuals that are immune compromised have unwittingly be...

This week we look at breastfeeding, the guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and some science related to the nutrients in breastmilk. Should we breastfeed our children past 1 year of age? Should we push the government to do more to support nursing babies? We also discuss curiosity and parenting. Enjoy, Dr. M

Dr. Victoria Talwar is the Chair and a Professor of the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at The McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is one of the preeminent thought leaders on the subject of lying. Working in the area of developmental psychology for over fifteen years with an emphasis on social-cognitive development, her research interests include children’s verbal decept...

Coronavirus Update #65 This week we take another and deeper dive into PACS or long covid. What are the risk factors for it? How does the intestinal microbiome play out in this space? Are there certain bacteria that are associated with a negative outcome? Can we alter them to our advantage? We also take a closer look at the current variants of the Omicron lineage. Finally, we end with a discussion...

Concussions: otherwise known as TBI or traumatic brain injury Concussion is an injury that is a trauma to the head where the skull stops rapidly and the inner brain gets rotationally or linearly moved beyond its normal confines leading to microscopic nerve injury and subsequent inflammation. The traumatic process occurs suddenly and can have unconsciousness as a consequence. Whether the patient is...

My guest this week is Dr. Lindsey Albenberg. We sit down to discuss all things gastrointestinal as it relates to children, nutrition, inflammation and health. Dr. Albenberg is a physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and a member of the research team in the Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. She primarily studies...

Coronavirus Update #64 What is the current state of affairs? We have a highly contagious and mutational SARS2 virus that is present in the United States. The mutations usually occur overseas in vaccine naive areas. The landscape here has changed as most of us have some immunity as vaccine induced, viral induced or a hybrid combination. That reality has dramatically reduced the death and hospitaliz...

Depression has been a problem for humans for a very long time. It is the leading cause of suicide and lost vitality for life. It is a tricky disease that has been more prevalent and severe in the last few decades. the pandemic was not kind to people suffering from mood dysthymia. Traditional pharmacological and verbal based therapies have been useful for some while not so much for others. The trea...

Coronavirus Update 63 plus other stuff - Lots on boosters today while the persistent world of Covid exposure drags on. Omicron US strains: newer variant BA.2 makes up 35% of current case volume based on different parts of the country while omicron BA BA 1.1.529 is at 6% and B 2.12.1 is 59%. Delta is gone by competition. Cases are increasing in some cities with little increase in hospital morbidity...