Future Tech: Almost Here, Round-the-corner Future Technology Podcast

In today’s episode, Dr. Stasha Gominak discusses the gut microbiome, the benefits of vitamin D in terms of the microbiome, the importance of B vitamins, and how the microbiome affects sleep in general. As a neurologist with restless leg syndrome, Dr. Gominak has interesting insight on what it feels like to experience involuntary movements that interrupt sleep, and how vitamins influence sleep in general. She discusses the importance of the four main species that live in the human GI tract, and how they are affected by insufficient levels of vitamin D. She also explains why she considers the microbiome to be its own organ, and how to restore it once it's been damaged or depleted. Dr. Gominak is a wealth of knowledge on these topics. Tune in for the details on all of this and more, including: Whether or not B vitamins are coming from the microbiome What is at play in the development of autoimmune diseases Why B100 and Vitamin D may help to resolve ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease Why Dr. Gominak

Historically, researchers have performed clinical research studies exclusively on males. Dr. Nichole explains: Why this was the case and how this led to less effective medicine and treatment. What are laws and measures the medical community has taken to correct this off balance look at gender in health care. Why it is important to consider sex and gender identification as well as race to achieve health equity. Dr. Nicole Catherine Woitowich, Associate Director of Women's Health Institute Research at Northwestern University, discusses the issues using male-dominated research groups created in our present medical treatments. Because women's hormones fluctuate monthly and have the potential to become pregnant, they were left out of clinical research studies as a protective measure. But this has led to a misunderstanding of how many medicines truly function for different sexes and genders. For example, Ambien metabolizes differently for men versus women. She discusses difficulties such as the ethics issu

OpGen uses genomics and informatics to improve management of patient infections by detecting antibiotic-resistant microbes. Mr. Jones describes How they do this by identifying the DNA of bacteria within hours rather than the days current tests take, and with more effective pathogen detection.  Why this polymerase chain reaction test is able to be specific in recognizing the actual pathogen. What medicine this technology is specially designed for such as urinary tract infection antibiotics. If a patient comes to the hospital with urosepsis from ineffective treatment, they don't have days to wait for information. OpGen's  genomics testing and data from informatics will deliver accurate pathogen detection within hours, giving doctors the correct urinary tract infection antibiotics.  Furthermore, the over use of antibiotics puts doctors in a difficult position of most likely under or over prescribing for patients when they won't know for days exactly what pathogen their patient is facing. This doesn't wo

After Dinesh Thankur discovered the failings of a generic drug manufacturer in India, he's been on a campaign for change. When you listen to this discussion, you'll learn Why overseas drug companies are able to get away with producing these spurious drugs. How the middle player in the United States generic drug market, the Pharmacy Benefit Manager, keeps the harmful system in play, dodging pharmaceutical quality assurance. What steps you can take to make small yet significant changes in our policy that might prevent these fraudulent practices.  A pharmaceutical expert, Mr. Thakur discovered a company in India that hired him was falsifying data and practicing substandard manufacturing techniques with generic drugs. He left the company and helped the US FDA put the company through criminal prosecution. In this podcast, he discusses these efforts and other problems with the lack of oversight for pharmaceutical quality assurance of generic drugs produced overseas. Featured in the book Bottle of Lies by j

Peter Jay Hotez, Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses vaccinations, the anti-science movement, and other critical issues regarding modern medicine. Additionally, the discussion covers global health issues, vaccination for hookworm infection, and other important information on vaccines. As a vaccine scientist, pediatrician, and parent, Hotez discusses his great concern over the rising anti-science and anti-vaccine movements that are sweeping the nation. He discusses the chatter in the anti-science community that has tried to make the case that vaccines cause autism. He explains how this false narrative has pushed its way through and gained steam. As a parent of a child who has autism and disabilities, he states that he has become a voice in this dialogue, due to his certainty that his child did not in any way develop autism due to any vaccines. He explains how the anti-vaccine community has pushed this false narrative, and how they have no facts to back th

The truth is that most people who have sleep problems don’t really need to see a doctor about it; they just need to understand the problem, understand the challenges they’re having, and understand sleep, and then be given some ways to resolve it without using medications or medical devices or surgery,” says Jonathan Parker, who has worked as a dentist for over 36 years. For the past seven years, he's been collaborating with a sleep physician by the name of Mike Howell. With their combined experience of nearly four decades and a mutual interest in reaching large numbers of people who sleep poorly but don’t know why or what to do about it, Dr. Howell and Dr. Parker started the Sleep Performance Institute, which helps enable people with simple, fun, and engaging methods of resolving their sleep issues. Interested in learning more? Tune in, and discover the details of all this and more, including: What percentage of the population has a chronotype difficult to deviate from How the Sleep Performance Institut

Robert Munro, author, expert in human and machine intelligence, discusses his work, and the intersection between artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence. Munro discusses his background and what drove him to dig into AI, detailing the data side of AI and machine learning algorithms. He cites the example of autonomous vehicles, in that thousands of hours of driving data have been created by people, critical driving data that provides valuable and necessary information, such as ‘this is the middle of the street,’ this is a stop sign,’ etc. Therefore, the quality of the data is often times more important than the algorithm itself. And it was this construct that motivated Munro to devote his time and research into the nexus between artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence.  The AI data guru discusses active learning, the analysis of data and algorithms to determine how accurate and up to date they are, to suss what is missing, etc. It is the process of trying to decide which is the best

Veronika Kralj-Iglic, PhD is a physicist and Chair of Biomechanics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia who has done a variety of work in the field of medicine, classical physics, quantum physics, and orthopedics, but who says her favorite work has revolved around extracellular vesicle research. Why? According to Dr. Kralj-Iglic, it’s because of the amount of potential that extracellular vesicles hold for the future of medicine and biology. "These little vesicles present a hope that maybe we will get to an understanding of the function of living systems,” she says, commenting on the many questions that remain regarding the mechanism underlying the causes of cancer. She shares insight from years' worth of research, and touches on the following: The details of two clinical trials involving EVs that she is currently working on How cells have the ability to use parts of their cell membrane to create vesicles that help catalyze their actions How the behavior of EVs is similar to artificial and biologic

Nick Horowski, Holistic Health Professional and founder of Evolution, Health & Fitness (www.evo-health.com), delivers his thoughts on good health and offers tips for those who want to lead a healthier life. In this podcast, Horowski provides detailed information on holistic health and wellness, including the importance of nutrition in life. Horowski works as a consultant, health coach, and physical therapist. Horowski talks about his background and the reasons he was drawn to a career in health. He recounts how his childhood was filled with sports and health-conscious activities. Additionally, he saw the importance of eating healthy, from the garden, at a young age.  Horowski describes how important it is to have balance of good sleep, good emotional and physical health, and diet. Horowski talks about the ways he connects with clients, some who may have troubling health issues already. As he states, what’s important is to get his clients moving, and thinking, about the ways they can make improvements da

Researchers, physicians, and the layman alike are becoming more and more interested in understanding the role and function of the microbiome, and how it may be contributing to different states of health and disease. In the Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology at Bharati Vidyapeeth Dental College and Hospital in India, assistant professor Priya Nimish Deo is collecting data and reviewing the current literature on the composition of the oral microbiome and how it may cause a variety of human diseases. Until the relatively recent development of a number of sequencing methods, only microbes capable of being cultured in the lab could be identified, but all of that is changing quickly. This will open the door to an unprecedented amount of information about the bacteria in our mouths and the diseases throughout our bodies. Tune in for the details on all of this and more, including: How proteomics, metagenomics, and metabolomics differ from one another and are contributing to the identification and under

Stroke, heart attack, autoimmune diseases, weight gain and the inability to lose it, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer: what do all of these have in common? According to Dr. Jonathan Greenberg, one of the foremost authorities in treating snoring and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), as well as a growing body of evidence, they can all occur as a result of snoring or sleep apnea. This is a significant problem, especially considering the fact that tens of millions of people in the U.S. have sleep apnea, and most of them either don’t know it or aren’t being treated. Dr. Greenberg discusses the barriers to diagnosis and treatment when it comes to snoring and sleep apnea, and why so few people comply with what their doctors recommend. He also explains how his company, Sleep Certified, is making the process of receiving treatment more convenient for people, as well as encouraging awareness and education on the connection between sleep health, dental health, and overall health among dentists and physician

After a discovery ten years ago showed that extracellular vesicles (EVs) contain RNA rather than just cell waste, Dr. Ter-Ovanesyan has studied these cellular products. This discussion explores: * Why it's significant that RNA is shown to exist outside of cellular boundaries. * What puzzles scientists need to solve to use EVs for new solutions in synthetic biology research. * The significant advances in health that EVs, also called exosomes, may offer, such as ways to address dementia, and already-developed technology such as detecting prostate cancer through finding EVs in the urine. Dr. Dmitry Ter-Ovanesyan is working as a post-doc at Harvard with the Wyss Institute in extracellular vesicle research. He's drawn to the great potential and challenges these exosomes offer scientists in solving multiple health issues. While EVs were discovered about 40 years ago, it wasn't until two studies published in 2007 announced that they contained RNA that the scientific community focused more energy their way.

As a gastroenterology specialist and professor at McMaster University, Michael G. Surette, PhD centers his work on a variety of aspects of the human microbiome, including its development and role in early life, what happens to it with age, and how it’s related to chronic diseases such as those of the airway, as well as Crohn’s, colitis, and IBS. On today’s episode, Dr. Surette shares fascinating insight on the research he’s conducting, what he’s learned over the years, and the future of microbiome science. Tune in for the details on all of this and more, including: How the interaction between microbes changes depending on physical, functional, and/or taxonomic closeness Why it is difficult to define dysbiosis, and why it may never be possible How environmental stimuli impact the microbiome How to understand the relationship between the microbiome and the immune system, and why this understanding can help to explain why diseases like Crohn’s and colitis are harder to overcome than infections like C.

Wolfgang Smith, scholar, author, and researcher in mathematics and physics, presents an overview of his long and storied career in the sciences. From a young age, Smith was fascinated by the concept that physics could literally explain all that happens on Earth. Entering the prestigious Cornell University at the age of 15, Smith majored in physics, mathematics, and philosophy, and graduated at just 18 years old; and from there he began to question all that he had learned, and began to dig deeper. Smith provides an overview of the history and current state of physics. As he states, in regard to physics, we are approaching the end of an era, the end to the era of such scientific minds as Galileo and Newton. The scientific expert explains his thoughts on physics, expounding upon his views on testing and discovery, including the quantum realm and Newtonian physics. He discusses the philosophical thoughts of Rene Descartes. Continuing, he discusses the problems with the science that are not validated or supporte

Biopsies for the diagnosis of cancer are usually invasive and potentially dangerous. In addition, there’s no guarantee that this method will even result in a sample of tumor cells, due to the heterogeneity of tumors. In today’s episode, Chamindie Punyadeera from the Queensland University of Technology discusses a new non-invasive tool called a liquid biopsy to detect early cardiovascular disease and three types of cancers. Rather than relying upon a sample of tumor tissue retrieved through biopsy, this new tool uses saliva or blood. This is a cost-effective and less dangerous process for the patient, and it eliminates the chances of missing cancer cells that are there, but just weren’t accessed by the needle. This method makes early detection of cancer in the premalignant stage possible, as well as the stratification of patients at diagnosis to determine the stage of cancer. Tune in for all the details on this and more, including: What cell-free DNA is, where it’s found, and how it can provide valuable in

Gastroenterology specialist Dr. Paul Moayyedi describes why a network of researchers across Canada is studying causes and possibilities for relief for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This podcast explores: Why Dr. Moayyedi is a proponent of evidence-based medicine and how this directs the nature of his studies on bowel diseases and how gut bacteria affects health. How the Imagine Network, a live cohort study involving at least 8,000 participants, is the appropriate way to tackle the complicated microbiome of the bowel.  What are roadblocks to current handling of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis and how fecal transplants may be the best immediate solution. Dr. Moayyedi, Professor, Division of Gastroenterology at the Department of Medicine with MacMaster University, is principal investigator with Imagine Network, a study encompassing multiple disciplines, from gastroenterology specialists to psychiatrists, observing what changes in variables over time for IBS a

Diana Jabour describes the "building biology" of our homes. She explains: How bodily health connects to our building choices, from light bulbs to hard-wiring versus wireless systems. How electromotive forces, or EMF pollution, and electromagnetic radiation dangers affect the quality of our sleep and anxiety levels. What are some solutions, from quick and easy devices like foil screens to better design choices from the ground up. Diana Jabour, Environmental and Electromagnetic Radiation Specialist and owner of Jabour Environmental, believes we can be CEOs of our health. Her mother modeled research-driven selections alongside common sense for healthy choices in food and materials, and Jabour continues practicing what she learned from this inspiring figure. When she noticed her own family experiencing troubling symptoms after moving into a new home, she began researching. She then attended the Building Biology Institute in Santa Fe and Jabour added to her already solid understanding of EMF pollution and

This podcast describes a cutting-edge application of analytical chemistry. When you listen, you will learn: * How Dr. McCall's lab uses liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry together to identify and locate pathogen microbes in bodily organs. * How identifying their location leads to creating compounds that help the body fight their effects. * Why this new pathogen management is centered on metabolomics testing rather than killing the microbes. Laura-Isobel McCall, Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma, specializes in chemical cartography of host-microbe interactions. She runs the McCall Lab, where they practice the application of analytical chemistry to map disease-causing microbes in mammalian organ systems. The McCall Lab explores the interaction between pathogens, the microbiome, and the host to develop drugs that are capable of metabolism modulation. Through metabolomics testing and chemical cartography, Dr. McCall's lab is working on compounds to counter the effects of pathogen

Jordan Stern, MD, Founder & CEO of BlueSleep, a successful sleep health and wellness company, talks about the diagnosis of sleep apnea and his company’s solutions for better sleep. Dr. Stern is an award-winning head and neck surgeon, and a New York Times bestselling author. He is board-certified in otolaryngology and sleeps medicine. Dr. Stern discusses his background and the massive epidemic of sleep apnea, a condition of which most people do not even know they have. The sleep expert and researcher discusses various sleep conditions including hypopnea, which is shallow breathing, an abnormally low respiratory rate. The condition is regularly defined by a significantly decreased amount of air movement into the lungs, so much so that it can cause oxygen levels in the blood to drop. Hypopnea is often due to partial obstruction of the upper airway. Dr. Stern describes how the oxygen in your blood drops when you suffer from hypopnea. The sleep doctor discusses the various risk factors for sleep apnea, the p

In this podcast, Dr. Abramson will explain: * How the pain in the jaw, ears, face, and head can have multi-dimensional causes that can be treated through TMJ dentistry. * How TMJ treatments involve hands-on manipulations and a specially-designed splint that can free up the jaw to settle in a pressure-free position. * Why Dr. Abramson's Oasys appliance is unique among sleep apnea treatments because of its ability to enable nasal breathing.   Dr. Mark Abramson is sleep apnea and TMJ specialist in Northern California. After facing an injury in his teen years, his resolve to pursue healing strengthened and he has spent 40 years developing a treatment program that brings together the mind-body connection in dentistry. In this podcast, he describes the complex ways the mouth and jaw, two main centers of growth, interact within the muscular-skeletal complexes of our upper body. The extent to which we are mouth breathers, how our tongue grows, and what types of orthodontics we've had an all affect TMJ