Hot of the Press: Lopinavir–Ritonavir NOT Effective in Severe COVID19 NEJM
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
Release Date: 03/18/2020
Dhanvantari and the Birth of Ayurveda: Divine Origins. Living Science. Timeless Healing 🕉️🌿
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
The origins of medicine are not merely scientific—they are deeply philosophical. In our Great Doctors Series, we begin with Dhanvantari, the divine physician of Ayurveda, emerging from myth into method. From the Ocean of Milk to the clinics of today, this episode explores how healing began as a sacred science. For students and physicians alike, it is a reminder that medicine is not just practiced—it is inherited, refined, and reimagined across centuries. 🌿🩺✨ 🎬 “Before medicine became a science, it was a gift—from the gods to humanity.”
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South Asians and ACS: The SMuRF-less Paradox 🎭🧠💔
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
A fascinating and somewhat unsettling observation from JACC: Asia: nearly 1 in 4 STEMI patients in New Delhi had no traditional risk factors—no hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, or smoking. Yet outcomes tell a different story. Despite fewer signs of heart failure at presentation, these patients had worse left ventricular dysfunction and identical in-hospital and 1-year mortality compared with those with standard risk factors. This “SMuRF-less paradox” challenges our conventional risk models. It reminds us that absence of risk factors is not absence of risk. We may need to think...
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Cardiogenic Shock: 🏥 ICU to Life Again
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
A thoughtful and important JACC State-of-the-Art Review reframes cardiogenic shock not as a single ICU event, but as a longitudinal survivorship journey. The article highlights recovery, remission, native heart survival, PICS, HF GDMT optimization, and the need for structured multidisciplinary postshock clinics focused on function, cognition, quality of life, and recurrent risk after discharge. A timely call to move from rescue alone to rescue plus recovery.
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Beyond Aspirin, Clopidogrel Rising: A New Era 💊➡️🧬🚀
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
A landmark 10-year follow-up of the HOST-EXAM trial published in The Lancet challenges a century-old assumption: aspirin may no longer be the default for lifelong secondary prevention after PCI. Clopidogrel demonstrated a sustained reduction in ischemic and bleeding events (HR 0.86, p=0.005), with benefits that accumulated over time—yet without a mortality difference. The implication is subtle but profound: we may be witnessing the quiet reshaping of antiplatelet strategy. In cardiology, tradition often lingers—but data, eventually, prevails.
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🧠 One Year after Myocardial Infarction: Do Beta-Blockers Still Matter?
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
🫀 In the New England Journal of Medicine, the SMART-DECISION trial asks a practical modern question: after myocardial infarction, should stable patients without heart failure or marked left ventricular systolic dysfunction remain on beta-blockers indefinitely? In this randomized noninferiority trial, stopping beta-blockers after at least 1 year was noninferior to continuing them for the composite of death, recurrent myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for heart failure. A provocative study that may help us prune old habits with newer evidence.
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🎯 Lower. Further. Better: The New LDL Frontier
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
The New England Journal of Medicine has now given us randomized trial evidence for a question long guided more by extrapolation than by direct proof: in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, targeting LDL cholesterol to <55 mg/dL beat a target of <70 mg/dL over 3 years. In Ez-PAVE, the primary end point occurred in 6.6% vs 9.7%, with a hazard ratio of 0.67, supporting a more intensive LDL strategy for secondary prevention. Elegant trial, practical message: when risk is high, lower may truly be better. 🫀📉🎯 Journal: New England Journal of...
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Nine Rules, Stronger Hearts: 2026 AHA Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
New in Circulation: the 2026 AHA Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health distills prevention into 9 elegant features—maintain healthy weight, emphasize vegetables/fruits, choose whole grains, favor healthier proteins and unsaturated fats, minimize ultraprocessed foods, added sugars, and sodium, and avoid starting alcohol for health. Food, here, is not garnish; it is strategy. 🥗🌾🩺 #Cardiology #Preven
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Michel Foucault: 1926–1984 • France • historian of ideas, philosopher, sociologist, activist
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
📚 From prisons to clinics to classrooms — what really shapes us? I’ve been exploring the philosophical work of Michel Foucault, and one idea keeps echoing: 👉 Power isn’t just something imposed from above — it quietly operates through systems, language, and everyday norms. From how we define “normal” to how institutions like schools, hospitals, and prisons function, Foucault challenges us to rethink what we take for granted. 🔍 His work invites us to ask: Who defines truth? How do labels shape identity? When does care become control? ...
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Left atrial appendage closure—promise meets proof, and proof meets pause.
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
Left atrial appendage closure—promise meets proof, and proof meets pause. In The New England Journal of Medicine, two pivotal trials draw a nuanced arc: CHAMPION-AF shows noninferior stroke prevention with less bleeding vs direct oral anticoagulants, while CLOSURE-AF tempers enthusiasm—failing noninferiority in older, high-risk patients with meaningful procedural risk. The message is elegant and sobering: innovation must bow to evidence, and patient selection remains paramount. In atrial fibrillation, the art lies not in closing the appendage—but in opening judgment....
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Lower LDL-C earlier, protect longer—the artery remembers every LDL it has ever seen.
Dr. RR Baliga's 'Podkast for the Kurious Doc'
Evolocumab steps into primary prevention—quietly, convincingly. In JAMA, the VESALIUS-CV analysis shows that high-risk patients with diabetes without known atherosclerosis experienced a 31% relative reduction in first MACE (HR 0.69), with LDL-C lowered to ~52 mg/dL. The signal is clear: earlier, deeper lipid lowering matters. Yet questions remain—cost, long-term safety, and who benefits most. Are we ready to treat risk before disease declares itself? 🧠💉📉 #JAMA #Cardiology #Prevention
info_outlineHot of the Press: Lopinavir–Ritonavir NOT Effective in Severe COVID19 NEJM March 18, 2020
Dr RR Baliga's 'Got Knowledge Doc' Podcasts for Physicians
Not Medical Advice or Opinion