Finding Genius Podcast

Dr. Scott A. Johnson, a health and wellness advocate, and author of Beating Ankylosing Spondylitis Naturally, discusses his personal battle and ankylosing spondylitis causes. Podcast Points: What is ankylosing spondylitis? Common treatments for ankylosing spondylitis How can essential oils help? Dr. Johnson discusses his personal journey and he explains in detail the symptoms and issues that come from the condition known as, ankylosing spondylitis, such as significant neck and back pain, especially after resting. The condition can also affect the heart, lungs, and eyes, and reduce overall quality of life. Dr. Johnson is a bestselling author, natural health expert, and naturopath. Dr. Johnson's book provides valuable information on the connections that link AS, eating, and gut health. Additionally, it teaches sufferers how this knowledge can help reduce their AS symptoms. The doctor's book looks at evidence-based natural remedies as a means to quiet inflammation, combat and ease pain, as well as manage the difficult complications typically associated with AS. The doctor explains that ankylosing spondylitis is considered to be an autoinflammatory condition, slightly different than autoimmune diseases. He discusses the genetic pathways, and modern treatment techniques, as well as some negative effects of various medicines used to treat the condition. He talks about drugs, injections, and surgery, and how each treatment can be used to help people maintain a higher quality of life. Dr. Johnson explains how he came to the current methods that he utilized to heal his own ankylosing spondylitis condition. He talks about the published papers that he studied, as well as clinical trials for essential oils and what he learned about the significance of them. Engaging in an informative conversation about lavender specifically, he extols the virtues of it, discussing physical and emotional improvement possibilities. As he states, most natural solutions are not designed to stop something as much as they are designed to simply promote natural health balance. Wrapping up, Dr. Johnson talks about case studies and how essential oils have been shown to improve conditions for many, but not necessarily all, patients.

Dr. Abramson is a dentist who specializes in sleep apnea and created a specific oral appliance called the Oasys. In this discussion, he explains the health risks associated with sleep apnea, the differences between success rates for CPAP machines and oral appliances, and the three zones oral appliances need to manage and why that makes a difference with sleep apnea. As someone who has researched and applied various techniques to treat sleep apnea through dentistry, Dr. Mark Abramson is able to discuss the process and benefits of oral appliances with effective clarity. In this conversation he explains first why it is important to seek solutions to sleep apnea, from general health issues to a correlation between lack of deep sleeping and dementia. He then describes the blocking that causes apnea and the mechanics for different treatment approaches. He highlights the success rate of oral appliances for several reasons, including the rates at which people stop using or won't even try CPAP machines because of the discomfort and difficulty of wearing the device. He then articulates the approach through dentistry in more detail, describing how oral appliances bring the jaw forward and can also treat other areas that may need addressing such as nasal dilation and small pads that reposition the tongue. His Oasys system is able to mechanically treat all three issues with one device. Finally, he answers additional questions about oral appliances and dentistry such as effects on TMJ, the efficacy of over-the-counter products, and more. For more information, see his practice website: Dr. Mark Abramson DDS in Redwood City, CA, at https://www.drtmjsleepapnea.com/. You can learn more about the Oasys device at Dream Systems Dental Lab in Rosewood, CA: https://www.dreamsystemsdentallab.com/ and at http://www.oasyssleep.com/. Dr. Abramsons' office can also help locate dentists in your area that offer oral appliance treatment.

Dr. Tobias Carling performs more adrenal gland surgeries than any other surgeon in America. In this podcast, he offers an overview of the basic functions of the adrenal system, the types of tumors and cancers in the adrenal glands as well as adrenal tumor diagnosis, and the difficulties and goals for adrenal gland surgery as well as ways for patients to educate themselves. Dr. Tobias Carling left his position as Chief of Endocrine Surgery at Yale in 2020 to open the Carling Adrenal Center in Florida. Early in his medical schooling he found the endocrine system worthy of advanced study. Eventually the challenges and diverse array of tumors the adrenal gland presents kept his interest and he made it his specialty. After being at Yale for almost 18 years, he started the Carling Adrenal Center in Tampa to continue giving patients exceptional care. In this podcast he begins by explaining the biology of the glands, such as the three hormones they produce: aldosterone, cortisol and catecholamines. He explains how common it is for tumors to form in the glands and what risks they pose. Primarily, different tumors produce different degrees of hormone levels in the body in excess, which can be toxic. This, he adds, is why adrenal tumor diagnosis is important and sometimes tricky. Some cases, like Conn's Syndrome, can be a silent disease hidden by the presentation of symptoms attributed to high blood pressure. Finally, he explains various issues related to adrenal gland surgery such as when cortical-sparing surgery is advisable and when it's not. Such decisions take into account issues such as the risk of spilling tumors into the body as well as the state of the other gland. He comments that the surgery must be done as quickly as possible yet as precisely as possible because of the vital nature of the surrounding area. To learn more, see the Carling Adrenal Center Website at https://www.adrenal.com/, which includes a lot of information to help readers better understand everything from lab numbers to different issues to consider. They've made a concerted effort to help patients educate themselves.

Oliver Rando is a professor and head of the Rando Lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He joins the show to discuss his research on epigenetic inheritance. You'll learn the following: How the research being done in Rando's lab has shown that in mouse models, a father's environment can influence some phenotypes in children When the first example of epigenetic inheritance was discovered in mammals, and how it adds to the understanding of both Prader-Willi syndrome and Angelman syndrome Whether or not the evidence suggests that changes through epigenetic inheritance may be additive in nature or have the ability to be "locked in" after multiple generations are exposed When data that doesn't belong to the DNA sequence itself affects the phenotype of an organism in some way, and when that phenotypic change is passed on from a parent to a child, epigenetic inheritance is said to occur. It was only two or three decades ago that there was near consensus in the scientific community that epigenetic information could not be passed between generations. However, a growing number of research studies are now showing that that's simply not the case. One such study is taking place in Oliver Rando's lab, where he and his team are using mouse models to demonstrate that the environmental conditions of a father can impact the phenotype of the father's offspring. In addition to discussing the details of his research, Rando touches on the nature of some other interesting types of research going on in the area of epigenetic inheritance. He also talks about the limitations and gaps in this type of research, and what he aims to accomplish in the coming years. Tune in for the full conversation and learn more at https://www.umassmed.edu/randolab/.

Health coach, author, and top-ranking podcast host Abel James discusses his journey towards health and fitness. When you listen in, you'll hear How a health crisis in his twenties led to today's healthy approach, What his personal daily eating habits are in terms of interval fasting, and Tips on starting a similar path for your own health and fitness goals. Abel James hosts the popular podcast Fat Burning Man, writes a blog, and has published several books including The Wild Diet. In this conversation, he shares why he first decided to shift away from popular eating trends towards a direction that made more sense for what his body was telling him. As he turned away from the carb-loading habit runner's magazines were advising and embraced whole foods, he found a dramatically different health and fitness level. He talks about the fear-based approach mainstream voices lend to eating choices as well as the circular nature of eating processed foods and experiencing increased cravings for more unhealthy foods. Abel notes that when we step back and eat more as our grandparents might have with a focus on less processed ingredients and more substance, we end up healthier. He also brings in how this different eating emphasis lends itself to interval fasting. By eating more satisfying foods that don't induce craving, ultimately he's able to spend less time eating and more time being active and productive. For more, see his web page at https://fatburningman.com/, which links to his blog, podcasts, and books. It also provides a way to contact him for coaching opportunities and links to courses.

Dr. Gupta, a leading expert on liver processes and gastroenterology, explains both the science behind how the liver works and the latest efforts towards treating liver diseases. He discusses: The types of damage that preclude liver regeneration, such as Tylenol overdoses, and why doctors then turn to liver transplants, How liver transplants work across different liver damage scenarios, and Additional new treatments and research such as tissue engineering, liver regeneration through drug-based approaches, and therapy through cell transplants. Dr. Gupta is a professor of medicine specializing in gastroenterology and liver diseases at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and serves as the Eleazar and Feige Reicher Chair in Translational Medicine. In this podcast, he answers questions about how the liver works, what makes it stop working, and the many ways doctors can then approach medical treatments. He explains that understanding how the liver is divided, from lobes and sub-compartments to drainage ducts and blood vessels, is important in how a successful transplant and then regeneration can move forward for both the donor and the patient with the damaged liver in cases of liver diseases. But he also explains the immense variety of approaches therein, such as some patients having a "temporary liver" implanted for use until their native liver has more time to regenerate and heal. Dr. Gupta also explains how the gastroenterology system initiates liver regeneration in conditions of liver diseases. He describes the two pathways toward self-regeneration: hepatocyte division and stem cell or progenitor cell activation. But he also explains how these pathways are connected to liver cancers alongside additional risk factors. Finally, Dr. Gupta comments that researchers can learn from how the liver functions and apply this activity to cures for other organ diseases such as diabetes when the cells stop making insulin. There's hope that the liver regeneration system can lead to the successful regeneration of the insulin-making cells. He finishes the conversation by discussing recent breakthroughs in treating liver diseases such as drug-based therapies to enhance liver regeneration. For more, including links to his papers, see his web page at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine: http://www.einstein.yu.edu/faculty/8041/sanjeev-gupta/

Dr. Suravajhala works as a dry biologist in next-generation genome-sequencing research. In this podcast, he explains what we still don't know about the human genome despite the first sequencing in 2003, the difference between introns and exons, and what exactly next-generation sequencing offers scientists in locating mutations that lead to disease. Dr. Suravajhala is a Senior Scientist of Systems Biology in the Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at Birla Institute in Jaipur, India. He works on next-generation sequencing to better-identify disease-causing mutations. Specifically, this means he works with the protein-coding exome, which makes up about 1.8% of the genome in an arrangement of exons. As a dry biologist working in systems biology and clinical exomes, he utilizes the newest technology to get a closer look at these exons for sequencing, separating out what is called exon "chunks." To explain next-generation sequencing compared to the initial sequencing, he uses an aerial view analogy, likening the next-generation work as akin to 100x while the 2003 view is more of a 10x magnification. He explains this in more detail and describes how this larger map of about 150 bases at a time can help identify disease-causing mutations, such as a case he worked on that involved the rare disease pouch colon. He and his team were able to identify the mutations that were only present in affected family members. For more information, search pub med and google scholar for papers by Dr. Prashanth N Suravajhala.

Roy A. Black holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is a professor at the University of Washington. His research expertise has to do with something that almost every human being has wondered at one point or another: how did life as we know it comes to be? On today's podcast, Dr. Black talks about the following: What explanation might account for the development and survival of cells despite harsh environments in early life How the relationship between complexity and stability might explain the aggregation of the building blocks of life (e.g. RNA, proteins, fatty acids) How it comes to be that forces like natural selection act upon a molecule Before diving into the field of research on the origin of life, Dr. Black spent many years in biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. Having always felt a drive toward understanding our history, he became increasingly compelled to research something that's been largely unaddressed by scientists: how life began. Answering this question or at least getting closer to an answer will not only satisfy human curiosity but allow for us to say with more confidence what probability there is of other forms of simple or complex life in the universe. Among a number of interesting topics, Dr. Black talks about his hypothesis as to how the building blocks of RNA and protein first came together, and how the answer might explain cell division and molecular stability. He explains the component parts of a cell, similarities between the biochemistry of different species on earth, and what he wants to answer as a researcher on the origin of life.

Over the course of the past decade or so, there's been a huge influx of genomic data due to better and more affordable sequencing technologies. How does anyone make sense of it all? Simon Sadedin joins the show to answer this question and explain his role as a bioinformatician at Victorian Clinical Genetics Services. He talks about the following: How useful bioinformatics is and why it's become increasingly necessary in recent years What types of difficulties and philosophical dilemmas are encountered by clinical geneticists How short-read sequencing differs from long-read sequencing in important ways Victorian Clinical Genetics Services perform genetic and genomic testing for patients who have or are at risk of developing rare genetic disorders. The amount of data that can be gathered in this field of work is significant, which can complicate the process of providing patients with easy-to-understand, useful information that applies to their lives and the lives of their loved ones. This is where bioinformatics aims to be most useful. Sadedin explains the three primary roles of the bioinformatic work he carries out at Victorian Clinical Genetics Services, and explains that the ultimate goal is to improve patients' experiences and the quality of healthcare on the whole. He also talks about the ways in which it can be a challenge or even impossible to elucidate what a certain genetic or genomic result means for a specific person, the advantages and drawbacks of current versus emerging sequencing technologies, and how useful it is to obtain genomic data from people who are unaffected by certain rare genetic disorders. For more, visit https://www.vcgs.org.au/ and https://www.mcri.edu.au/.

Dr. Onyinye Iweala is a professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine whose expertise lies in environmental allergies, including allergic rhinitis, chronic hives, and food allergies. She joins the show to talk about a number of interesting topics, such as: What factors might be causing or contributing to a food allergy epidemic in developed countries The relationship between microbiota and food allergy, allergic rhinitis, and chronic sinusitis Hypotheses as to why some food allergies can be outgrown by a certain percentage of those affected, and why others cannot How the new and only FDA-approved treatment for food allergy works What happens physiologically during an alpha-gal allergy As a junior in college, Dr. Iweala took her first basic immunology class and pretty much knew that that was the path she wanted to pursue as a doctor. Not only did she find it complicated and fascinating, but also very relevant to human health. In recent years, food allergy has been on the rise, particularly in industrial countries like the U.S. This has caused concern for many people, especially since there has only very recently been a food allergy treatment on the market. Dr. Iweala discusses how this new drug functions in the body, and how it is based on the principles of oral immunotherapy. She also explains the standard understanding of IgE-mediated allergy responses, and how a non IgE-mediated allergy response prompted by an alpha-gal allergy is unique and challenging to detect. She touches on a number of other interesting subjects, such as how multiple food allergies in a single person might be treated, the goal of recent and ongoing studies in the field, and much more.