Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🚨 Food Anaphylaxis: New Mechanisms Unveiled 🍽️🧬   A superb NEJM review highlights how cysteinyl leukotrienes act as gatekeepers in the gut—opening antigen passages, expanding mast cells, and amplifying the risk of oral anaphylaxis. The work elegantly bridges basic lipid biology with real-world food allergy challenges, and points toward new preventive strategies beyond current IgE-based therapies.   🔍 A must-read for clinicians, scientists, and anyone navigating severe food allergies.

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🌿 What does the evidence really say about medical cannabis? A new JAMA review highlights a clear message: cannabis helps few conditions—and harms may outweigh benefits for many. 📉 Small benefit for nausea ⚡ Moderate benefit for select pediatric seizures 💊 Limited evidence for pain, insomnia, or psychiatric use ❤️ Risks rise with high-potency products, especially for heart and mental health.   🧭 Clinicians: guide with evidence, screen carefully, use lowest-risk options.

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

Thrilled to see a major step forward in dengue prevention! 🦟💊 A new NEJM study reports that daily mosnodenvir, a first-in-class antiviral targeting the NS3–NS4B interaction, significantly reduced DENV-3 viral load and prevented infection in a controlled human challenge model. 📉🧬 It’s early, but the results offer real hope for a long-awaited oral dengue prophylaxis—with encouraging safety, strong PK, and dose-dependent efficacy. 🚀🌍 Exciting moment for global infectious-disease innovation and antiviral development. 🙌✨

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

  Delighted to share a concise update on the latest NEJM review of Long QT Syndrome 🫀📘 — a masterful synthesis by Schwartz & Crotti that reframes how we recognize risk, personalize therapy, and prevent sudden death in this genetically mediated disorder. The piece highlights ion-channel biology, gene-specific triggers, the impact of modifier genes, and the effectiveness of a tiered therapeutic approach including beta-blockers, mexiletine, and left cardiac sympathetic denervation ⚡️🧬🛡️.   For clinicians and trainees, it’s a compelling reminder that precise...

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🧠✨ Leibniz: Harmony, Logic, and the Birth of the Digital Mind   Celebrating Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz — the mathematician-philosopher who co-created calculus, invented binary arithmetic, and envisioned a world stitched together by pre-established harmony. His Monadology reads like proto-systems theory, and his binary system is the quiet ancestor of every computer we use today.   For clinicians and scientists, his legacy whispers: 🔹 Seek the sufficient reason behind every pattern 🔹 Value multiple perspectives — every “monad” reflects a different truth 🔹 Build...

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🧬 New insights into autism: A 2025 JCI Viewpoint highlights how hundreds of genes, polygenic risk, and specific environmental factors converge during fetal brain development to shape autism likelihood. 🧠 Early biomarkers—from infant MRI and ERPs to machine-learning models using EHR data—are accelerating earlier, more tailored interventions. 🌱 Advances in gene therapy, IGF-1 pathways, and proteomics offer emerging therapeutic possibilities. 🤝 Centering autistic voices remains essential as precision approaches evolve.

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

🔍 Peripheral Neuropathy: What Clinicians Should Know 🧠⚡   Peripheral neuropathy affects ~1% of adults worldwide, with diabetes accounting for more than half of all cases. The JAMA review highlights why length-dependent patterns dominate, how metabolic stress injures long axons first, and why sensory symptoms outpace motor loss. Evidence-based evaluation still begins with glucose testing, vitamin B12 with methylmalonic acid, and serum protein electrophoresis.   First-line therapies for neuropathic pain — gabapentin, pregabalin, duloxetine, and tricyclics — offer meaningful...

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

New NEJM insights on asymptomatic carotid stenosis 🧠🔍   The CREST-2 trials offer a landmark update: intensive medical therapy remains the cornerstone, while carotid stenting shows selective benefit when performed by expert operators. Endarterectomy, however, provides no significant advantage over modern medical management.   With stricter blood-pressure and LDL targets, plus expanding use of PCSK9 inhibitors, the future of stroke prevention is increasingly precision-driven, medically optimized, and patient-centered. 💊📉✨   A thoughtful read for all involved in...

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

The new Lancet Series on ultra-processed foods offers a striking insight: as UPFs rise globally, traditional whole-food diets decline—bringing nutrient imbalance, overeating, toxic exposures, and hyper-palatable formulations that quietly reshape health trajectories. 🍔➡️⚠️   Across more than 100 prospective studies and multiple trials, higher UPF intake consistently links to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, depression, and higher all-cause mortality. 📉🩺   The message is clear: reducing UPF consumption isn’t a wellness...

Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'

Home-delivered DASH-patterned groceries paired with dietitian counseling meaningfully lowered blood pressure and LDL cholesterol among Black adults living in food deserts 🥗📉—as demonstrated in the GoFresh randomized trial (JAMA).   An accompanying editorial highlights why future “food-as-medicine” programs must prioritize underconsumed, health-promoting foods and align with modern evidence favoring higher-fat DASH/Mediterranean patterns 🌱🫒.   A powerful reminder: the right groceries can be therapeutic.