Finding Genius Podcast

"The lack of knowledge in the oncology field is profound, which contributes to tremendous suffering and death…Our research at Boston College is developing the very diet-drug combinations that will eventually lead to the resolution of cancer." Those are bold statements, and Thomas Seyfried offers no apology; just evidence. Press play to discover: What question every cancer patient needs to ask their oncologist What is stopping countless physicians across the world from implementing treatment based on the metabolic theory of cancer How the standard of care in cancer treatment (namely radiation and chemotherapy) actually accelerates metastasis How microbes that are inside cells facilitate energy generation by cancer cells Thomas Seyfried is a professor in the biology department at Boston College and author of over 150 peer-reviewed publications, as well as the book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: On the Origin, Management, and Prevention of Cancer. In the world of cancer research, Seyfried's is revolutionary, but it's not getting the attention it deserves. The underlying message is clear, backed by evidence, and surprisingly simple: all cancers—whether brain, breast, colon, or any others—are unable to grow without glucose and glutamine, which means any therapy that disrupts the availability of these molecules to cancer cells will result in the death of those cancer cells. Why are glucose and glutamine necessary components of cancer cell growth? It's because cancers cannot use oxygen to generate energy, which means they cannot use the oxidative phosphorylation pathway used by other cells in the body. Instead, they rely on an ancient metabolic pathway for energy production: fermentation. And what drives fermentation? That's right: glucose and glutamine. Without these molecules, fermentation cannot be carried out, leaving cancer cells without the ability to generate energy, which causes cancer cell death. Taking this to be true, every known major cancer should be potentially manageable at least, and entirely resolvable at most, so long as glucose and glutamine can be targeted and restricted. This is why Siegfried's efforts have been focused on developing a non-toxic diet and drug cocktail that does exactly this. He is skipping the clinical trials because the diet and drug cocktail strategy is not consistent with the double-blind crossover study design used by pharmaceutical companies. Furthermore, no pharmaceutical company is going to jump on the opportunity to fund a study that tests the efficacy of diet and non-patentable drugs, because there is simply no financial incentive to do so. Instead, Seyfried treats individual patients with these diet and drug therapies and publishes his results in the existing scientific literature. He is currently working on a paper on longitudinal studies showing the impact of diet and drug therapies on tumors, backed by MRI and PET scan images. Seyfried dives into the details of this research and more. Tune in—it's not an episode you want to miss. Visit https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/schools/mcas/departments/biology/people/faculty-directory/thomas-seyfried.html and https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/bcnews/science-tech-and-health/biology-and-genetics/targeting-cancer.html to learn more and find out how you can help these research efforts. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Is it possible to breed a species of bee with total viral immunity? Maybe, and the research being done in Michelle Flenniken's lab could pave the way for it to happen. Tune in to discover: Whether bees might utilize a form of preventative medicine In what way a honeybee model for insect immunity might be superior to the status quo fruit fly model Why the term "honeybee viruses" might be misleading Michelle Flenniken is Assistant Professor in the Plant Sciences Department and Co-Director of the Pollinator Health Center at Montana State University whose primary research is focused not only on understanding the impact of viruses on honeybees, but on the molecular mechanisms that bees have evolved to combat viral infections. Longitudinal monitoring projects looking at the prevalence and abundance of 16 pathogens across several bee colonies over time have led to interesting and useful findings. For instance, Flenniken's lab has shown that bees that are infected with viruses have perturbation in the genes that are important for metabolic processes, and that even in so-called asymptomatic bees, there are more than a billion copies of RNA viruses per bee. The hypothesis that follows this finding is that this viral load could be energetically taxing on bees—even if the bees appear phenotypically normal. More recent research in Flenniken's lab has shown that a bee's immune response is stimulated by double-stranded RNA, which is a molecule that viruses produce when replicating; this molecule stimulates RNA interference in bees—an antiviral mechanism. This has shown to be true also in bumblebees, but is not the case in the fruit fly, which is the go-to model for studying insect immunity. This has opened the door to more exciting and new research that Flenniken and her lab are gearing up to conduct. If antiviral mechanisms in bees can be fully understood, then it may be possible to identify the genes associated with fighting off viral infection, which would make it possible to breed honeybees that are resistant or immune to viral infections. Flenniken discusses the details of all this and more, including viral transmission in bees and across species, whether different castes of bees are differentially impacted by viruses, host-pathogen interaction studies, and which viruses most commonly impact bees. Check out https://plantsciences.montana.edu/directory/faculty/1524085/michelle-flenniken to learn more. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Bees are not alone in their fight to survive. While the backyard beekeeper might start with a pollinator garden, researchers are also busy strengthening and shoring up these vulnerable organisms that are an essential part of our food ecosystem. Jay Evans explains some promising efforts, telling listeners What the main stressors for bees are, from diseases to pests, Why protecting a middle-aged bee from stressors impacts the entire colony, and What exciting new management strategies are in the works, including botanical medicines for bees. Jay Evans is with the USDA ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Maryland. He and his colleagues are approaching bee health from every angle, assessing direct and indirect factors that increase bee health and lessening those that cause habitat harm. The list is long, from increasing nutrition to mitigating pesticide effects, parasites, and the spread of viruses. Often the best solutions provide a path for the bees to help themselves. Evans and his group in particular work on bolstering the honey bee immune system. Just as humans find their health affected by stress, so do bees, from temperature changes to chemical stress to nest disturbances. These stresses makes the bees more vulnerable to direct threats like parasites and pathogens. Their close living quarters in the beekeeping industry make for further vulnerabilities. Once a colony in an apiary is infected with a pathogen, it spreads fairly quickly through the apiary. Researchers like Evans are helping them tolerate those invasions and push the pathogens out over time. He describes some of the most promising efforts, from breeding for "varroa-sensitive hygiene" to developing disease-fighting medicines from botanical sources. For more, see the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory website. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

It just takes one sting to make sure your eyes are on the ground in fire-ant country. Walking across a field in the southern United States often includes a quick scan for any telltale nest mounds. More than memorable, fire ants also are problematic for agriculture. Guest David H. Oi fills in the background and tells listeners Why they're considered invasive ants and how they came to North America; What's their ecology, including prey, habitat, and possible predators; and What control methods, past and present, are used by the USDA as well as potential future measures. Research entomologist David H. Oi opens up the world of the fire ant for listeners, taking us along their "small and sneaky" paths. These ants are not native to North America, but made their way here in the '30s via imported goods arriving in Mobile from South America. They spread rapidly and easily, which is part of the reason they're considered invasive: the ability to out-compete native species and lack of any formidable predator, resulting in a negative impact. They USDA therefore gave them this special designation because of public health and agricultural concerns. Fire ants are omnivorous, so their food choices are plenty, and range from young quail to baby sea turtles to agricultural crops. Dr. Oi describes the USDA mitigation history, from early pesticides found to be harmful to mammals to current methods available at any local garden store. He also shares biological measures, including a range of insect pathogens. He describes a particular microsporidium scientists spread through colonies, which slowed the queen's reproductive capabilities with some measureable impacts. But Dr. Oi says it's no "silver bullet," so listen in as he describes other creative ventures he and his colleagues are developing to stop the sting and save the crops. For more about their work, see the USDA's Imported Fire Ants webpage. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Most of us dread the sight of an ant in the kitchen, and might squash it without pause. But what if we knew that a single ant is just one part of an 'individual', that individual being the ant colony as a whole? What if we truly understood the social complexity, diversity, and evolutionary success of ants? What if we knew that an ant queen can live up to 29 years? Tune in to enter the life of an ant, and discover: Why ants in warmer environments tend to be pale in color, and ants in colder environments tend to be dark in color, and how this is linked with body size How certain types of ants use leaves as fertilizer by growing fungus on them, which they feed on How pitfall trapping is used to collect and study ants from various habitats Tom Rhys Bishop is an ecologist and Extraordinary Lecturer at University of Pretoria, South Africa, whose research is focused on trying to understand the factors that drive the distribution and diversity of different ant species, both on a small and large scale. His primary field site is in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains of Southern Africa, where he samples ants up and down the mountain range to determine how and why different types and quantities of ant species live in different locations and habitats along the mountain. The second component of his research is larger in scale, aimed at uncovering patterns of ant diversity globally—which includes the potential study of all 15,000 species of ant that have been described to date. With a dataset containing incredible details—including leg length, size of mandible, and broadness of shoulders—on about 4,000 of these ant species sampled from every continent, Bishop and other researchers are trying to better understand evolutionary and ecological convergence. In describing the scope of this research and more, Bishop touches on a number of interesting topics, such as the different caste systems within an ant colony, how colony lifespan differs between species, environmental factors that impact the distribution of ant species, how ants stay warm without much hair, the ecological role of ants, ant colony structure, techniques for trapping ants from their natural environment for study, surprising ant abilities, and more. For more information about Bishop's research, visit https://www.tomrhysbishop.com/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Astronauts in microgravity environments lose 2-3% of their bone mass per month. To put that in perspective, adults over the age of about 35 lose 2-3% of their bone mass per decade. Why is bone loss so accelerated in space? It all boils down to mechanical signals that are perceived and responded to by bone cells. Tune in to discover: Why people who are over the age of about 65 have such a high risk of bone fracture Why professional tennis players have 30-35% more bone in their playing arm than their non-playing arm Why bone fractures due to osteoporosis are so much more common in women than men SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University, Clinton Rubin, researches how mechanical signals or the lack thereof influence the musculoskeletal system, and how skeletal sensitivity to mechanical signals can be harnessed in the development of a non-drug therapeutic for bone wasting, obesity, and osteoporosis. The understanding is that cells are mechanoreceptors, and that by delivering mechanical signals of one type or another, cells perceive those signals and respond in specific ways. For example, when you go for a run or play a sport, your bones resist the compressive force of your body weight, your bone cells pick up those stress signals, and in turn they signal other cells to produce more bone mass. In the absence of these stress signals, such as in the case of a lack of exercise, whether from an illness, injury, or just plain laziness, your bone cells send signals to other cells for bone resorption—the opposite of bone building. This explains why astronauts in space lose bone mass as such a rapid rate: there is the complete absence of the compressive forces of weight, and therefore an absence of mechanical signals. All of this is the result of your bones tuning into the environment and trying to strike a balance between having too much bone mass and too little bone mass. At the Center for Biotechnology Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory, Rubin and his team are trying to develop a mechanical regimen that would produce the benefits of exercise on the skeleton, without requiring actual exercise—thereby benefiting those with injuries, illnesses, or other conditions which preclude them from exercising. How are they doing it? Rather than slamming the body with mechanical signals similar to those generated during exercise, which are at two cycles per second, they're mimicking what the muscles do at a higher frequency of 30-50 cycles per second. Clinical studies have shown that by delivering these higher frequency signals to a person who is standing, it's possible to stop bone loss and increase bone growth in those with osteoporosis. In effect, they've found a surrogate for exercise, at least in terms of the beneficial effects it has on the skeletal system. For the details on all this and more, tune in, and visit http://www.bme.stonybrook.edu/labs/crubin/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Imagine having a grand mal seizure while whitewater kayaking on a frigid river; you wake up and manage your way toward the shore, but you're dazed and confused, freezing cold, and you don't know where you are. Now imagine that a critical care registered nurse and wilderness medicine instructor comes to your rescue and brings you to safety. For a young man in his twenties, this story was real, and that nurse's name was Jon Lowrance. In today's episode, we hear from Lowrance about his past and current experiences in the medical world. Tune in to learn: What types and depths of anesthesia exist, and what determines which type or depth is used What types of injuries and traumas are most commonly sustained in remote areas of wilderness, and the unique challenges presented by remote environments Why people are started on IV anesthesia and then switched to inhalational anesthesia during a procedure, and under what circumstances the IV route can be skipped What role the patient can play in their own experience with and choice of anesthesia Lowrance got his start in the medical world as an outdoor guide and EMT who taught wilderness emergency medicine and risk management to other outdoor guides through Landmark Learning and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). He has since become a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), and currently works at a level one trauma center in Portland, Maine. He's also the producer of an educational podcast for other anesthesia providers called Anesthesia Guidebook. If you've ever had work done at the dentist, chances are you were under general anesthesia; you closed your eyes and opened them a second later—or at least that's how it felt. Lowrance compares general anesthesia to other forms of anesthesia and gives examples of when and how they are used. He discusses anesthesia side effects, monitoring parameters, invasive lab results, invasive blood pressures and central lines to monitor specific pressures within the heart, cerebral oximetry, and the use of ECG. He also talks about the modulation of a patient's physiology or immune response during anesthesia, sedation vs. anesthesia vs. analgesia vs. paralytics, the use of ketamine in patients with psychiatric conditions or chronic pain, and more. To learn more, check out https://anesthesiaguidebook.com/.

It's been nearly 100 years since insulin was first used in the treatment of diabetes—a life-changing medical advancement for those who have diabetes or know someone who does. However, too much insulin can cause blood sugar levels to drop too low, taking someone from a state of hyperglycemia and putting them into a state of hypoglycemia. Press play to learn more about hypoglycemia, and to discover: What physiological effects are caused by hypoglycemia versus hyperglycemia, and whether one is more dangerous than the other What the difference is between fast and slow-acting insulin Why people who have type 1 as opposed to type 2 diabetes might be more prone to become hypoglycemic Honorary Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sheffield in the UK and consultant diabetologist, Peter Novodvorsky, PhD, studies the effect of hypoglycemia on cardiovascular health. About twenty years ago, the focus sat pretty narrowly on the detrimental and unpleasant autonomic symptoms caused by hypoglycemia, like shakiness, sweatiness, confusion, and hunger. "Since then, we've moved on, and we know that hypoglycemia has much wider negative impacts on the human body, in particular on the cardiovascular system," says Novodvorsky. Why? Novodvorsky explains the three natural defenses against hypoglycemia, one of which is activation of the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system. This increases the level of blood glucose, but also causes changes in heart rate and puts a lot of stress on the body. Part of Novodvorsky's work focuses on dead in bed (DIB) syndrome, which is when an otherwise young and healthy individual with type 1 diabetes goes to bed feeling fine, only to be found dead in their bed the next morning. This was first described in the early 1990s in the UK; since then, other reports from other areas of the world have followed. The possible mechanism, explains Novodvorsky, could be a hypoglycemia-induced cardiac arrhythmia. As part of a study designed to look at the effects of clinical hypoglycemia on the cardiovascular system, subjects wore a continuous glucose monitor and Holter monitor to record heart activity. This study resulted in several interesting findings, including that hypoglycemic episodes are far more frequent than expected, and the majority of hypoglycemic events during the night—and even many during the day—go entirely unnoticed by the person. The study also confirmed that hypoglycemia leads to QT prolongation, an electrical disturbance of the heart that can be fatal. Novodvorsky shares information about the physiology of hypoglycemia, the types of sugar responses in different people with type 1 diabetes versus type 2 diabetes, the conditions under which heart rate might decrease rather than increase during a hypoglycemic event, interventions for detecting hypoglycemic events during the day or night—especially in individuals who can't always tell when they are hypoglycemic, how well the pancreas controls glucose levels, and more.

Imagine being told as a young adult that you're suffering from osteoporosis so advanced that your bones are that of an 80-year-old. That's what happened to Mira Calton while living what she thought was a healthy life in New York City. She tells listeners what happened next and how she recovered. She and husband Dr. Jayson Calton discuss How her healthy-sounding diet and lifestyle led to micronutrient deficiency symptoms, Why micronutrients can cancel each other out and how the Calton formulation addresses and solves these issues, and What the implications are for various diets and medications as well as resources for more information. Mira and Jayson Calton are authors and founders of Calton Nutrition. They are experts in weight management strategies and micronutrient therapies. Their latest book, Rebuild your Bones, specifically addresses bone health tips and effective ways to pair bone health vitamins and other micronutrients. Their past book addresses micronutrient deficiency effects overall. Mira and Jayson met each other after her advanced osteoporosis diagnosis. While researching her condition, which doctors said was irreversible, she received a recommendation to see nutritionist Dr. Calton. Together, they delved into the world of micronutrients, an under-discussed topic in the supplement community. Dr. Calton was able to navigate the science behind what Mira had started to learn. For example, he explains how calcium and magnesium, both bone-building nutrients, share a similar receptor site and actually compete when introduced together. "They're like two screaming kids in a car," adds Mira, preventing each other from progressing. If they're separated, however, they can give their best. He began separating such natural competitors for her and this was the beginning of their micronutrient therapy. They've spent years researching every micronutrient competition that can take place and how to formulate them to prevent this competition. In fact, their formulation is the first and only multivitamin granted a U.S. patent for formulation. Eventually, micronutrient therapy worked to heal Mira's osteoporosis and they've helped numerous clients since. They also discuss ways medications hurt nutrient absorption and how diet effects these issues, such as suggestions for micronutrient rich foods and how each diet has micronutrient weaknesses and strengths. For more about their work, see caltonnutrition.com. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Pop quiz: what's seven trillion dollars times zero? The current amount of economic stimulus in the American economy. Despite printing four trillion dollars and seven trillion dollars in deficit spending since this time last year, economic growth is still below what it should be, hence talk of the new great depression. In this episode, you'll learn: How many of the major pandemics of the 20th century resulted in a second wave that was worse than the first, and how that seems to be playing out with COVID-19 How one man became the richest in Germany during the worst period of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s What it means to be in a depression versus a recession, and what can be said about the recent and current state of the American economy in this regard Why Rickards says deflation rather than inflation will be brought about by the response to COVID-19 Jim Rickards is an American lawyer, economist, investment banker, speaker, media commentator, and New York Times bestselling author of multiple books on matters of finance and precious metals. His most recent book, titled The New Great Depression: Winners and Losers in a Post-Pandemic World was released just this month, and presents an uplifting message: no matter how bad things get economically, there are ways for individuals to not only preserve wealth, but make money and prosper. Rickards shares his expertise on a range of topics, including the current state of disinflation and where it will lead, why the velocity of money is the real cause of inflation and what happens when there is no velocity, reasons for the 22-year downward trend in velocity and the even more significant drop during COVID-19, ways for individuals to protect themselves financially—regardless of the economic situation, nominal versus real interest rates, why cryptocurrency will not play a role in the international monetary system, the new strain of SARS-CoV-2 and why it is evidence that the lockdowns don't work, and more. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK