Sodium Glucose Transporter-2 (SGLT2) Inhibition to Prevent Cardiotoxicity?
Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'
Release Date: 07/29/2022
Storms, Syncope, Survival 🌩️😵💫❤️ — Long QT Syndrome update
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...
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Dr RR Baliga's Philosophical Discourses: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Germany, 1646–1716 CE) – Monadology
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...
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Genes, Environment, Development 🧬🌿🧠— A 2025 Perspective on Autism
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.
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Numbness • Nerves • Nuance 🦶⚡🧠 — Decoding Peripheral Neuropathy
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...
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Stroke Risk, Stent Benefit, Surgical Uncertainty 🧠✨🔧
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...
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UPFs, Diets, Disease: The Global Drift 🍔➡️🌍➡️⚠️
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...
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Groceries, Guidance, Gains 🛒📞📉 — How DASH Delivery Lowers Blood Pressure
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.
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Hemodialysis, Cardiovascular Burden, Therapeutic Hope 🩺❤️🌊 — Can Omega-3 Fatty Acids Bend the Risk Trajectory?
Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'
🩺 New insights in hemodialysis care. A major New England Journal of Medicine study reports that daily supplementation with long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid) led to a 43% reduction in serious cardiovascular events among adults receiving maintenance hemodialysis. 🐟💙 In a population where traditional cardioprotective therapies often fall short, these findings open a fresh path for investigation — and perhaps, future practice. 📉🔬 A confirmatory trial will be essential, but the signal is compelling. 🌅
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💊 Oral, Potent, Proven — Enlicitide Redefines LDL Control
Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'
🚀 A milestone moment in lipid therapeutics! The new JAMA trial on the oral PCSK9 inhibitor Enlicitide reports a ~60% reduction in LDL-C, with parallel decreases in ApoB and Lp(a)—all on top of maximally tolerated statin therapy. For individuals with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH)—where reaching LDL targets remains a persistent challenge—this represents a major advance. An oral agent matching the potency of injectable PCSK9 inhibitors could reshape adherence, access, and long-term ASCVD prevention. 🌉💊 Safety was comparable to placebo, and effects...
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One Cup of Coffee. Less Atrial Fib/Flutter. More Life ☕🌀➡️💛
Dr. Baliga's 'Podkasts for Curious Docs'
☕ DECAF Trial insight! A new JAMA study shows that daily caffeinated coffee may lower recurrence of atrial fibrillation compared with abstinence. Patients drinking ~1 cup/day had 47% recurrence vs 64% with abstinence (HR 0.61, p=0.01) 📉💓 No major safety concerns—challenging long-held beliefs that coffee is proarrhythmic. 💡Takeaway: For many patients with AF, enjoying their morning brew may be both safe and possibly beneficial. #AtrialFibrillation #Cardiology #JAMA #ClinicalTrials #HeartHealth ☕💓📊
info_outlineSodium Glucose Transporter-2 (SGLT2) Inhibition to Prevent Chemotherapy Induced Cardiotoxicity?
Dr RR Baliga's 'Got Knowledge Doc' PodKasts for Physicians
References
Martinez CA, Scafoglio C. Heterogeneity of Glucose Transport in Lung Cancer. Biomolecules. 2020
Fang JC. Heart-Failure Therapy - New Drugs but Old Habits?. N Engl J Med. 2019