Tag Archives: Dietary Supplements

Fighting Future Flu Outbreaks

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This weekend on YOUR HEALTH® Adam and guest co-hosts Dr. Jonathan Fricke and Laurel Sisler welcome Dr. Lisa Koonin—deputy director of the CDC’s Influenza Coordination Unit and adjunct assistant professor in UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health—about fighting future flu outbreaks.Dr. Lisa Koonin

You can catch the episode on: 

WCHL 97.9 FM

  • Saturday, August 25 at 9 a.m.
  • Sunday, August 26 at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
  • Monday, August 27 at 6 p.m.

KKAG Retro Radio 88.3 FM

  • Sunday, August 26 at 7 a.m.

Listen to the show!
Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository

Anger, Prevention, and Treatment with Dr. Marco Iacoboni

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This weekend on YOUR HEALTH® Cristy and Guest Co-Hosts Yee Lam and Catherine Coe will be talking with Dr. Marco Iacoboni, Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA about Anger, Prevention, and Treatment. 

Please tune in!
marco

The show will air:

WCHL 97.9FM
• Saturday, July 4th at 9 a.m.
• Sunday, July 5th at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
• Monday, July 6th at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.

WBNE 103.7 FM
• Saturday, July 4th at 3 p.m.

KKAG Retro Radio 88.7 FM
• Sunday, July 5th at 7 a.m.

Listen to the show!
Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository

  • Research that Matters (min 0-10:58) Reducing college rapes; Heartburn medications and heart disease risk; Gun violence and kid’s mental health; Eating the placenta
  • Conversations with Dr. Marco Iacoboni (min 10:58-31:00)
  • House Calls (min 31:00-41:54) Diabetes and worsening of kidneys; DHEA supplement use; Alcoholism medications; Hemorrhoids and colonoscopies

Research that Matters
Reducing college rapes – Free full text of article
News about the study

Heartburn medications and heart disease risk – Free full text of article
News about the study

Gun violence and kids’ mental health – Abstract of article
News about the study

Eating the placenta – Abstract of article
News about the study

Conversations with Dr. Marco Iacoboni
Dr. Iacoboni’s lab at UCLA
Video about mirror neurons

House Calls
Diabetes and kidneys
Blood pressure and supplement use
Alcoholism: support from Alcoholics Anonymous
Rectal or gastrointestinal bleeding

The President, Obamacare, and Your Health: Thoughts of a Family Medicine Leader with Dr. Sam Weir

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Sam WeirThis weekend on YOUR HEALTH® Adam & Cristy will be talking with Dr. Sam Weir, Associate Professor of UNC Family Medicine , about The President, Obamacare, and Your Health: Thoughts of a Family Medicine Leader.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Listen to the Show!
Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository
 

Additional Commentary: The Affordable Care Act and Your Health

Sherry HayThe consequences of being uninsured are paramount. Individuals often enter care late, and care is not coordinated.  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a blueprint for reforming our healthcare system, the biggest in decades. The law is extensive in breadth and scope, e.g. expanding preventive services available to individuals covered by Medicare, offering individuals financial assistance to make healthcare more affordable through the insurance marketplaces, to changing how services are reimbursed. These changes align with the three key issues that face our healthcare system today as outlined by Dr. Sam Weir in his recent interview on Your Health Radio. Those issues, as he states, include access, quality, and cost of healthcare.

It is clear to me that many of the 1.5 million uninsured people in North Carolina need help in understanding the ACA and what the insurance marketplace could mean for them. I have been participating in a variety of community events over the past six months to answer questions about the ACA and then to help people navigate the new marketplace.  For example, here at UNC Family Medicine, we identified our uninsured households sending them information about the ACA as well as offering them assistance through trained counselors on our staff.  People have come with earnest questions and hope of gaining insurance, many for the very first time.  We have had success in a variety of ways from successfully helping people chose a plan, to answering questions about Medicare, to enrolling people into Medicaid.

At the center of it all, Dr. Weir notes that these changes can establish for people a relationship with a primary care team at a patient centered medical home. I couldn’t agree more and believe all Americans deserve access to high quality, low cost healthcare.  I feel better knowing we have this blueprint for change, and leaders like Dr. Weir who not only know the issues but are apart of the solutions.

Sherry Hay, MPA, is the Director of Community Health Initiatives and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

You may also like:

Paul Grundy and the Patient Centered Medical Home (YOUR HEALTH Radio July 2010)

Medicaid Expansion Across the U.S. with Dr. Adam Zolotor

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This weekend on YOUR HEALTH® Adam & Cristy will be talking with Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UNC, Dr. Adam Zolotor about Medicaid Expansion Across the U.S.

Please tune in! This show will air:
• Saturday, February 23rd at 9am
• Sunday, February 24th at 9am and 5pm
• Monday, February 25th at 6pm and 10pm

Listen to the Show!

Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository

Show Topics:

  • Research that Matters (min 0-10): strawberries & blueberries, vitamin C supplements & kidney stones, calcium & men’s hearts, deaths in hospitals vs. hospice
  • Conversations with Dr. Adam Zolotor about Medicaid Expansion Across the U.S. (min 10-31)
  • House Calls (min 31-41): moisturizer & rash, chest pain, psychiatric illness & hospitalization, frequent strep throat

Resources:

Can Vitamins Help Protect Against Macular Degeneration?

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Macular Degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of the leading causes of vision loss in older adults.  Over 7 million people suffer from macular degeneration and close to a million have an advanced form of the disease.

Macular Degeneration affects the macula, which helps to guide your central vision, allowing people to see fine details. People suffering from Macular Degeneration might see peripheral vision but will find it hard to see directly in front of them clearly.

Researchers in a recent study looked to see whether anti-oxidants such as Vitamin E and Vitamin C had any effect on Macular Degeneration. Researchers gave one set of patients 400 international units of Vitamin E and another set of patients received a placebo. Researchers then did the same thing with Vitamin C, where one group was given 500 mg of Vitamin C and the other group received a placebo.

Unfortunately, the study showed that neither vitamin had any protective effect against the vision disorder. This study indicates to us that we have no reason to recommend these vitamins to patients suffering from this condition.

Body Proteins & Disease with Dr. Avram Hershko

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Dr. Avram HershkoThis weekend on YOUR HEALTH®, we’ll be talking with Biochemist at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology & Winner of 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Dr. Avram Hershko  about Body Proteins & Disease.

Please tune in! This show will air:
• Saturday, September 22nd at 9am
• Sunday, September 23rd at 9am and 5pm
• Monday, September 24th at 6pm and 10pm
 
 
 
 
Listen to the Show!
Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository

Show Topics:

  • Research that Matters (min 0-10): weight loss & legislation, speech therapy for stuttering, rumors about cancer & your health, almonds as a healthy snack
  • Conversations with Dr. Avram Hershko about Body Proteins & Disease (min 10-33)
  • House Calls (min 33-43): Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome & IUDs, supplements: too much of a good thing?, strong immune systems, cortisone injections

Pomegranate Seed Oil & HOT FLASHES?

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This is really the first clinical study (we’ve ever seen) that looks at pomegranate seed oil as a treatment to help ease hot flashes. Researchers had 81 women who had experienced lots of hot flashes and gave half pomegranate seed oil while half got a placebo that didn’t have any extract of pomegranate seed.

Pomegranate is high in phyto-estrogens that mimic estrogen, and we know that estrogens reduce hot flashes, but also have many adverse side effects.

The result of the study:  the two groups of women actually both had significant reduction of their hot flashes.  How is that possible?

It appears both groups of women saw reduced symptoms from something commonly known as the placebo effect, where people believe they are receiving an active treatment but they actually are not.  But in this study, there was not a significant difference between the people who took the pomegranate seed oil and the people who took placebo.
To be exact, researchers saw a 13% difference between groups, but since they had small numbers in the study (only 81 women), our concern is there could be a small difference but maybe they just didn’t have enough people to actually show it statistically.

At this point, we think if you’ve been taking pomegranate seed oil and you feel like it’s helpful, then we don’t necessarily recommend stopping it, but we wouldn’t, as physicians, recommend this to our patients otherwise just yet- check back when we see more research.

Eat Local with Jasia Steinmetz

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Jasia SteinmetzThis weekend on YOUR HEALTH®, Cristy and special guest host, Dr. Bob Gwyther from the UNC Department of Family Medicine, will talk with Jasia Steinmetz, author and Assoicate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Steven’s Point, about her book, Eat Local: Simple Steps to Enjoy Real, Healthy & Affordable Food.

 
Please tune in! This show will air:
• Saturday, November 12th at 9am
• Sunday, November 13th at 9am and 5pm
• Monday, November 14th at 6pm and 10pm
 
Listen to the Show!

Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository

Do Vitamins boost memory? We Don’t Think So….

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Vitamins may be beneficial to many people, and certainly they are a multibillion dollar business.  Most people think that daily vitamins are good for them, even though the data showing benefit for 99% of the population that takes them is truly lacking.  However, do vitamins boost your memory? If so, we would be impressed.  A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition decided to find out.

Researchers looked at 4,500 French men and women from age 40 to 60 who took vitamin and mineral supplements for eight years, to see how it affected their memory.  They then compared this group to a placebo group who took a supplement that did not contain any of these vitamins or minerals.

According to the study they found that the groups that took the supplement and the placebo really ended up performing similarly on most memory tests.  But the ones who got the nutrients did a little bit better on one (of multiple) tests of long-term memory.

We want you to know that we do take this study with a grain of salt (but not a multivitamin) because the differences were small enough that we think they could be explained by multiple testing chances.  We’re not overly impressed, and we do not support the idea that supplements can improve your memory based on this study.  You may need nutrients for optimal memory, but receiving them from a diet that includes fresh fruits, grains and vegetables seems like a better plan to us.

The Ethics of Wrongful Conviction with Christine Mumma

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Christine MummaThis weekend on YOUR HEALTH® we’ll be talking with lawyer and director of the N.C. Center on Actual Innocence, Christine Mumma, on the ethics of wrongful conviction.

Please tune in! We’re on the air:
– Saturday at 9am
– Sunday at 9am & 5pm
– Monday at 6pm & 10pm
 
 
 
 
 
Listen to the Show!

Download the episode from the Carolina Digital Repository

Show Topics:

  • Research that Matters (min 0-10): green tea & cholesterol, mammograms, arthritis & Teflon, cancer in men vs. women
  • Conversations with Christine Mumma on the ethics of wrongful conviction (min 10-32)
  • House Calls (min 32-43): rashes, sleeping too much, estrogen & sunlight, restless leg syndrome & supplements

Resources: