Dr. M's Women and Children First Podcast

Dr. Carrie Jones, ND, MPH Hormone Literacy Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women and Children First, where we step back from symptoms and ask a more interesting question: how does the female hormonal system actually develop, adapt, and sometimes struggle across a lifetime? Today’s conversation spans that entire arc, from early life, to puberty, to fertility and more with someone who has spent more than tw...

Screenshot Chapter 3 - Individual Differences Dr. Delahooke starts Chapter 3 by allowing Margaret Mead to remind us that each child is absolutely unique: “Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” This is more than a witty paradox, it is the hinge upon which all effective pediatric care swings. When we take individual differences seriously as neurobiological fact, w...

The Year in Review - 2025 Articles and Points of Interest: 1) Microplastics in the Brain - From Science Advances: "Human health is being threatened by environmental microplastic (MP) pollution. MPs were detected in the bloodstream and multiple tissues of humans, disrupting the regular physiological processes of organs. Nanoscale plastics can breach the blood-brain barrier, leading to neurotoxic ef...

Today, I’m joined by Dr. Maeve O’Connor, a board-certified allergist and immunologist practicing in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dr. O’Connor’s training reflects both rigor and range. She completed dual undergraduate degrees at the University of South Carolina Honors College with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish before earning her medical degree at the University of...

I think that this is an important time to pause and relook at Polyvagal Theory before continuing with Beyond Behaviors. Polyvagal Theory: Current Status, Clinical Applications, and Future Directions (Porges, S. 2025) "Social behavior and the capacity to manage challenge are dependent on the neural regulation of physiological state." S. Porges   When I dove into Stephen Porges’s 2025 review of th...

This week I sit down with Dr. Stephen Porges, a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University where he is the founding director of the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. He is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, and Professor Emeritus at both the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland. He served as president of the Society for Psycho...

Review of Chapter 2 of Beyond Behaviors by Mona Delahooke, PhD  "Social behavior and the capacity to manage challenge are dependent on the neural regulation of physiological state." S. Porges  Top Down or Bottom Up? "Before We Respond to Behavior, We Need to Understand Its Origin." With a deceptively simple observation, Dr. Delahooke reshapes the entire field of behavioral intervention: children...

Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First, we’re joined by Dr. Sam Yanuck, a clinician-educator who has spent more than three decades translating immunology from the bench to the bedside. Dr. Yanuck has been in private practice since 1992 and is the creator of Cogence Immunology, one of the most widely respected functional immunology training programs in the world. Through Cogence, he has trained...

Review of Chapter 1 of Beyond Behaviors by Mona Delahooke, PhD  "When we see a behavior that is problematic or confusing, the first question we should ask isn't "How do we get rid of it?" but rather "What is this telling us about the child?" (MD 2019)  The opening chapter sets the stage for a quiet revolution in how we understand children who struggle. Dr. Mona Delahooke invites us to take a ste...

Food in Infancy What do we know? "Humans are the only mammals who feed our young special complementary foods before weaning and we are the only primates that wean our young before they can forage independently. There appears to be a sensitive period in the first several months of life when infants readily accept a wide variety of tastes and this period overlaps with a critical window for oral tole...

This weeks Guest is Dr. Jeremy Goldberg. He styles himself as a compassion cultivating day making change agent/empathy collecting not quitting word wizard/chief burrito appreciator aspiring to inspire/struggle overcoming ranter in charge/ferocious idealist/never giver upper/a love bombing kindness pirate. What he really does, in my mind, is write and teach the world to project love and kindness wh...

THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS Every year, as the leaves turn and the air gets that crisp bite, I’m pulled back to 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts where a group of English Pilgrims, religious refugees who had crossed an ocean to breathe free, and their Wampanoag neighbors sat down together for three days of feasting. No treaties, no agendas, just gratitude for a successful harvest and the simple miracle th...

The Evolutionary Tug-of-War - Inflammation’s Double-Edged Sword "Environmental factors, particularly infections, have fundamentally shaped human evolution by selecting for protective inflammatory response mechanisms that enhance survival. This evolutionary pressure has created a core biological paradox: inflammation is indispensable for host defense, yet its dysregulation significantly heightens d...

Today’s conversation takes us upstream—to the source—of one of the most pressing and emotionally charged topics in modern pediatrics: the rise in autism spectrum disorders. Autism rates have continued to climb in 2025, but what if much of what we call “the epidemic” isn’t simply genetics or better diagnosis, but a reflection of deeper biological, environmental, and developmental changes affecting...

Back to Sleep and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is defined as “the sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history.” During my time at the University of Virginia, I trained under neonatologist Dr. J...

Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast, we welcome Dr. Wayne Koontz, a founding partner at Salisbury Pediatric Associates in Salisbury North Carolina, where he has spent over 5 decades caring for generations of families with compassion, wisdom, and a deep commitment to community health. Dr. Koontz earned his Undergraduate degree and his Doctor of Medicine from Wake Forest University, wh...

Speaking Truth in Love: The Weight of Avoidance in Pediatric Metabolic Health After completing the second round of our Asthma and Obesity Metabolic Pilot Program at Salisbury Pediatrics, I left the clinic reflecting deeply on what I witnessed. It crystallized a truth that is uncomfortable but undeniable: the greatest health threats to our children today are not infectious or accidental, they are m...

Review Part III - after the Attia Podcast After completing the interview with Dr. William Parker and now listening to Peter Attia's analysis, let us look again at this question. I repeat that the initial question has not changed for me. The first and most fundamental question to ask is this: What is the true value of acetaminophen in health compared with the potential risk if the associated findin...

Welcome to Dr. M’s Women & Children First Podcast, where we engage with pioneering voices at the intersection of science, healthcare, and the well-being of families. Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First, we welcome Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, a physician, educator, and thought leader whose career has profoundly influenced the practice of integrative pediatrics. Dr. Mumper earned her Bachelor of Sci...

Flu season is around the corner and we should take a look at the virus for preparation purposes. Influenza Every few years, I revisit this virus in my writing, not only to keep it on your radar in preparation, but also because of the significant illness and death it continues to cause. It’s never wise to dismiss its potential impact. Influenza reliably returns each year, difficult to escape even w...

Welcome to Dr. M’s Women & Children First Podcast, where we engage with pioneering voices at the intersection of science, healthcare, and the well-being of families. Today, I’m honored to introduce Dr. William Parker, PhD. Dr. Parker is perhaps best known for discovering the function of the human appendix, but his contributions to science extend far beyond that single discovery. He studied biology...

For parents of special needs children, I honor you today. I witness your strength every day in clinic. You rise to meet challenges that many cannot begin to imagine, truly. You navigate medical appointments, therapy sessions, school meetings, and the unpredictable rhythms that come with raising a child with special needs. Often without pause, without adequate rest, and without the recognition you...

Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women & Children First, where we explore the front lines of children’s health and what matters most for our families. Today I’m honored to bring you Dr. Paul A. Offit, the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He also holds the Maurice R. Hilleman Professorship of V...

Breastmilk is Dynamic Cellular and transcriptional diversity over the course of human lactation This recent 2022 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Nyqiust and colleagues is a site for sore eyes. It offers a remarkable, high-resolution portrait of how the cellular landscape of human breast milk (hBM) shifts over time. The authors capture something both scientifical...

Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women and Children First podcast where we look at the world of Women and Children's Health through an anthropological lens with the humble understanding that we have a lot to learn. Today, I’m joined by Dr. Joel “Dr. Gator” Warsh, a pediatrician, author, and advocate for a whole-child approach to healthcare. Dr. Warsh earned his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical...