Show 1416: Exposing Fraud and Arrogance in Alzheimer’s Research
Release Date: 02/02/2025
Show 1436: Why Mosquitoes Bite You and How to Outsmart Them
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
In this episode, Joe & Terry speak with two scientists studying mosquito preferences. Why are some people mosquito magnets while others barely get bitten? A range of factors influences mosquito behavior and may explain why mosquitoes bite you and leave your neighbor alone. Learn how to outsmart them. Why We Worry About Mosquito Bites: You may think of mosquitoes as annoying insects with itchy bites. That’s certainly a reasonable summary in many places and times. But there are large swaths of the globe where mosquitoes carry deadly diseases. Malaria, for instance, kills an estimated...
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Show 1435: Beyond Companionship: A Veterinarian's Take on the Pet-Human Health Connection
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
This week, our guest in the studio is veterinarian Dr. Chuck Miller. You may have already thought about One Health without realizing it has a name. This is an interdisciplinary approach to promoting the health of animals as well as humans that share an environment. If you have companion animals that move between inside and outside, your already know that protecting them from ticks and fleas also offers you a measure of protection. Another example of the importance of this approach would be control of bird flu. So far, we have paid it relatively little attention as it spread through...
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Show 1434: Digital Doctoring: Will AI Save Lives or Cause Medical Mayhem?
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
In this episode, Joe & Terry speak with two physicians who have examined ways that artificial intelligence might contribute to patient care. Can AI help with better diagnoses? Is robotic surgery better? Could AI save lives or is it more likely to cause trouble? We begin our conversation with Dr. Jonathan Chen, who has found that chatting with a robot made him a better doctor. (He challenged ChatGPT with an ethically difficult conversation and was surprised at the sensitivity of the observations it offered.) When researchers studied diagnostic acumen pitting human doctors against AI, the...
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Show 1433: What Are the Hidden Dangers in the Air We Breathe?
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
In this episode, our guest, award-winning science journalist Carl Zimmer, describes the hidden dangers in the air we breathe. He begins with the concept of the aerobiome–the collection of living things from ground level to the stratosphere. While that includes eagles and dragonflies, the most insidious inhabitants are those we can’t see. Often, we are totally unaware of their presence. Yet bacteria like the one that causes tuberculosis or viruses like those that cause COVID or flu have the power to make us ill even if we don’t know they are there. You have surely heard of the microbiome,...
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Show 1432: Lead, Lies and Lasting Harm: The Chemical Roots of Chronic Disease
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
This week, the topic is lead. A hundred years ago, chemists discovered that adding lead to gasoline decreased engine knock and gave the cars of the day more power. It remained a popular additive for decades. At the same time, companies were adding lead to house paint to help it last longer. We know now that lead exposure harms children, but what about adults? Could lead in our environment have contributed to the horrific toll of heart disease over the past century? When the nascent automotive industry began adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline early in the 20th century, scientists did not fully...
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Show 1431: Vitamin C Studies on Colds & Cancer Vindicate Linus Pauling
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
This week, two scientists discuss the evidence on using vitamin C to treat colds and as part of the treatment for cancer. For years, the medical establishment has maintained that such claims could not be considered seriously. But new studies vindicate Linus Pauling, the Nobel Prize winner who postulated that vitamin C would help. In 1970 the Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Dr. Linus Pauling, published a paperback book titled Vitamin C and the Common Cold. Although this idea captured the public imagination, it got a lot of pushback from scientists. Most of the American medical establishment...
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Show 1332: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Weight Loss (Archive)
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
In this week’s episode, find out what everyone gets wrong about weight loss. Why don’t diet and exercise work very well? Do official guidelines and weight loss drugs offer a clearer path to success? With nearly three-fourths of American adults either overweight or obese, we can’t ignore the problem any longer. For decades, people have acted as though packing on extra pounds was simply a matter of poor willpower. “Eat less and exercise more” is the standard mantra. But that is just one of the things we get wrong about weight loss. In truth, obesity is far more complex than we may...
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Show 1430: Uncovering the Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
In this episode, investigative journalist Gardiner Harris delves into the dark secrets of one of the country’s most admired pharmaceutical firms. Johnson & Johnson sold talcum powder–Johnson’s Baby Powder–for decades even though it contained asbestos, an acknowledged carcinogen. How did the company maintain its superb reputation for so long? Johnson’s Baby Powder was as American as apple pie. The company counted on the emotional associations with its baby products. The fragrance of its Baby Powder was linked to feelings of love and security. That was smart marketing. Continuing...
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Show 1429: How to Love Your Liver and Protect its Superpowers
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
This week, Joe and Terry discuss liver health with two specialists. You may not have spent much time thinking about your liver. It is, however, an absolutely essential organ. When the liver is working properly, every part of the body gets the nutrients it needs and no parts are exposed to damaging toxins. These are among its superpowers. Find out why you should love your liver. Nutrients don’t go directly from the intestines to the rest of the body. Instead, they pass through the liver first. There, this master organ breaks them down into compounds that can be recognized and utilized by...
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Show 1428: The Hidden Power of the Unconscious Brain
The People's Pharmacy Podcast
Our senses feed us a tremendous amount of information all the time, but we don’t have the bandwidth to pay attention to more than a small fraction of it. That’s where the unconscious brain is so valuable, juggling millions of bits of information while we focus our conscious attention on what seems important. This week, a renowned neurosurgeon shares what he has learned in decades of working to restore ailing brains. His new book covers a vast range of neuroscience. Our dilemma was what to pay attention to in all those options. In a sense, that is always the human situation. We are capable...
info_outlineWith nearly seven million Americans currently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the effort to understand what causes it and how it could be treated effectively is urgent. Over the last several decades, research on this dementia has focused largely on amyloid plaque (also called amyloid-beta) in the brain as the sole cause. Consequently, drug companies have developed medications that can pull plaque out of the brain. Medicines like aducanumab (Aduhelm), lecanemab (Leqembi) and donanemab (Kisunla) do that pretty well. Unfortunately, though, the patients don’t get better. At best, they decline a little more slowly. Could putting all the focus on amyloid-beta have been a mistake?
This week, we explore the evidence that some respected researchers in the field of Alzheimer’s disease took shortcuts or even manipulated their data to get the results they wanted. How did our guests detect fraud and arrogance in this research?