Recent Episodes
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Trust in Science and Medicine
This year's Edelman Trust Barometer found nearly 70 percent of people surveyed from 16 countries embrace one or more medical conspiracy theories or believe misinformation about health, food, medicine or vaccines.
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Microbial Seeding of Newborns
We know that natural childbirth provides health and developmental advantages to babies. One happens when the baby encounters the mother's vaginal and intestinal microbiome. Good bacteria can colonize the newborn's intestinal tract to mature their gut immune system. Since Caesarian babies are not exposed to these microbes, scientists are studying whether swabbing the newborn's nose, mouth, and skin with the mother's vaginal fluids could have the same effect.
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What Goes Around Comes Around
Two infectious diseases are making the rounds again this summer with outbreaks of Legionnaires pneumonia and cyclosporiasis. The Legionnaires outbreak is centered in the Upper East Side of New York City. There have been increasing cases with deaths reported. It's a bacterial disease that can cause serious pneumonia.
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The Blood Brain Barrier Injury in CTE
Protecting our brain is a layer that keeps out toxins from the body. A recent study of athletes found that this blood brain barrier was leaky and allowing harmful materials into the brain. It explains why athletes who have had repeated head injuries develop symptoms of traumatic encephalopathy syndrome. It's a long-term cognitive decline that develops into chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
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CVD Disease and your Oral Flora
Among the collection of microbes that live with us are the ones inside our mouths. Between 8 and 20 billion microbes representing 700 species of bacteria, fungi, viruses and archaea live there. Studies have shown that poor oral hygiene leads to changes in oral microbiome that directly links to cardiovascular disease.
