From Survival to Quality of Life:
PodcastDX
FROM SURVIVAL TO QUALITY OF LIFE: WHY OUTCOMES ARE BEING REDEFINED THE FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT IN MEDICINE For decades, medicine measured success through a singular lens: survival. Did the patient live? Did the procedure work? While these metrics remain important, healthcare is undergoing a profound transformation that redefines what "winning" actually means[1]. The new standard is no longer just extending life—it's enabling patients to live purposefully, functionally, and with dignity[2]. This shift reflects a critical insight: surviving is not the same as living well. WHY OUTCOMES ARE BEING...
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Ai in Medicine Tool Partner or Problem
PodcastDX
AI in medicine is best understood as a powerful tool and a conditional partner that can enhance care when tightly supervised by clinicians, but it becomes a problem when used as a replacement, deployed without oversight, or embedded in biased and opaque systems. Whether it functions more as a partner or a problem depends on how health systems design, regulate, and integrate it into real clinical workflows. Where AI Works Well Decision support and diagnosis: AI can read imaging, ECGs, and lab patterns with very high accuracy, helping detect cancers, heart...
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Medicine in Transition:
PodcastDX
Medicine has transitioned due to massive tech adoption (Electronic Health Records EHRs, Artificial Intelligence AI, Telehealth), shifting patient expectations (consumerism, convenience), the rise of value-based care, new treatments (precision medicine), and increased focus on population health and prevention, all while grappling with rising costs, data security, and persistent access/equity gaps, making healthcare more data-driven, personalized, and digitally integrated but also more complex and fragmented. We try to break it down to try and understand the changes and how they might...
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A Primer on Stem Cells
PodcastDX
This week we discuss stem cells. Having great therapeutic and biotechnological potential, stem cells are extending the frontier in medicine. Not only replace dysfunctional or damaged cells, the so-called regenerative medicine, stem cells may also offer us new perspectives regarding the nature of aging and cancer. This review will cover some basics of stem cells, their current development, and possible applications in medicine. Meanwhile, important remaining challenges of stem cell research are discussed as well. Stem cells are unique, unspecialized cells that can divide to create...
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Functional Fitness
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss the topic of "functional fitness" With the new year upon us many people want to add fitness or getting healthy as goals and we are here to help! Functional fitness is a simple, effective way to keep your body moving and reduce restlessness. It focuses on exercises that help you perform everyday activities more easily and safely—like getting up off the floor, carrying groceries, or reaching for items on a shelf. By training your muscles to work the way you actually use them in daily life, functional fitness reduces injury risk and improves overall quality of...
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Why New Year Resolutions Often Fail
PodcastDX
By the end of the first week of the new year, nearly 77% of New Year’s resolutions have already failed (Norcross, 1988). That’s discouraging—but it doesn’t mean you should stop trying. It means most of us are setting resolutions in ways that don’t work. You aren’t weak or lazy. More often, the problem is a misaligned system—one that relies too heavily on willpower and short-lived motivation. Motivation naturally fades over time, even when our intentions are good. Think about how often you enthusiastically agree to plans weeks in advance, only to feel tired or unmotivated when...
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The Lymphatic System
PodcastDX
The lymphatic system, or lymphoid system, is one of the components of the circulatory system, and it serves a critical role in both immune function and surplus extracellular fluid drainage. Components of the lymphatic system include lymph, lymphatic vessels and plexuses, lymph nodes, lymphatic cells, and a variety of lymphoid organs. The pattern and form of lymphatic channels are more variable and complex but generally parallel those of the peripheral vascular system. The lymphatic system partly functions to convey lymphatic fluid, or lymph, through a network of lymphatic channels,...
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Pancreatic Cancer
PodcastDX
This week we are talking about Pancreatic cancer. This is a type of cancer that begins as a growth of cells in the pancreas. The pancreas lies behind the lower part of the stomach. It makes enzymes that help digest food and hormones that help manage blood sugar. The most common type of pancreatic cancer is pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. This type begins in the cells that line the ducts that carry digestive enzymes out of the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer rarely is found at its early stages when the chance of curing it is greatest. This is because it often doesn't cause symptoms until...
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Diabetes Type 1 & 2
PodcastDX
This week we discuss diabetes mellitus, a group of diseases that affect how the body uses blood sugar (glucose). Glucose is an important source of energy for the cells that make up the muscles and tissues. It's also the brain's main source of fuel. The main cause of diabetes varies by type. But no matter what type of diabetes you have, it can lead to excess sugar in the blood. Too much sugar in the blood can lead to serious health problems. Chronic diabetes conditions include type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Potentially reversible diabetes conditions include prediabetes and gestational...
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Mast Cell Activation Syndrome MCAS
PodcastDX
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) is when you have unexplained episodes of severe symptoms like swelling, diarrhea, vomiting, flushing and itching. Unlike that happen with a specific exposure, MCAS episodes happen without a clear trigger. In some cases, mast cell activation can cause , a severe allergic condition that can be life-threatening. It can cause you to have trouble breathing and drop your to dangerously low levels. Call 911 (or your local emergency service number) or go to the nearest emergency room if you’re experiencing severe anaphylaxis. are a type of immune cell...
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Bleeding Disorders, also known as Hemophilia, von Willebrand Disease, Coagulation Disorders, Blood Clotting Disorders, Clotting Factor Deficiencies
Bleeding disorders are rare disorders affecting the way the body controls blood clotting. If your blood does not clot normally, you may experience problems with bleeding too much after an injury or surgery. This health topic will focus on bleeding disorders that are caused by problems with clotting factors, including hemophilia and von Willebrand disease.
Clotting factors, also called coagulation factors, are proteins in the blood that work with small cells, called platelets, to form blood clots. Any problem that affects the function or number of clotting factors or platelets can lead to a bleeding disorder.
A bleeding disorder can be inherited, meaning that you are born with the disorder, or it can be acquired, meaning it develops during your life. Signs and symptoms can include easy bruising, heavy menstrual periods, and nosebleeds that happen often. Your doctor will review your symptoms, risk factors, medical history, and blood test results to diagnose a bleeding disorder.
Your doctor may recommend medicines or clotting factor replacement therapy to treat the bleeding disorder. Some bleeding disorders are lifelong conditions, and some can lead to complications. Even if you do not need medicine to treat the bleeding disorder, your doctor may recommend taking precautions before a medical procedure or during a pregnancy to prevent bleeding problems in the future.
(credits to NIH)
TRANSCRIPT
Lita T 00:07 Hello and welcome to another episode of PodcastDX. The show that brings you interviews with people just like you whose lives were forever changed by a medical diagnosis. I'm Lita.
Ron 00:18 I'm Ron
Jean 00:19 and I'm moving to Hawaii.
Lita T 00:21 No, she's not
Jean 00:22 it snowed again last night.
Lita T 00:23 I know but
Ron 00:24 and today
Jean 00:25 and today
Lita T 00:26 still not moving to Hawaii.
Jean 00:27 ohhh moving to Hawaii
Lita T 00:28 Remember when you said you cannot shovel lava?
Jean 00:30 Lava
Lita T 00:31 Okay,
Jean 00:31 this is true.
Lita T 00:32 We're staying here.
Jean 00:33 Okay.
Lita T 00:33 Collectively we're the host of podcast dx. March is bleeding disorders Awareness Month, although bleeding disorders may be acquired. On today's show, we're going to be talking about the most common inherited bleeding disorder, von Willebrand disease,
Jean 00:53 someone with (unitelligable) the blah...blah
Lita T 00:55 What?
Jean 00:56 Someone living with a bleeding disorder has blood, which does not clot properly.
Ron 01:02 When someone is injured and bleeding, a blood clot forms to hopefully...to hopefully stop that person from losing too much blood. This process requires both blood platelets and clotting factors which clump together to form something like a dam to stop the bleeding.
Lita T 01:20 Right? I remember watching Grey's Anatomy.
Ron 01:22 (Chuckle)
Lita T 01:23 Okay, we need more platelets, right?
Jean 01:26 I don't watch Grey's Anatomy...but sure I could see them saying that.
Lita T 01:28 Yeah, cuz you know, somebody is bleeding. They need more platelets!
Jean 01:31 Right
Ron 01:31 That's not scripted.
Lita T 01:33 No, it's not.
Jean 01:33 No.
Lita T 01:35 Someone with a bleeding disorder may notice that they bruise easily bleed; excessively during medical or dental procedures or when cut; have unexplained nosebleeds and bleeding gums and internal bleeding. And when I was on blood thinners...no
Jean 01:54 Here we go...
Lita T 01:54 Right? Wait was I am blood thinners or aspirin? I was either on blood thinners or a baby aspirin at one time. And I was outside gardening. And I grabbed a thorn bush. Right? I was clipping and the thorn punctured something on my wrist. And I'm watching it and it's going: squirt, squirt, squirt, and I'm just watching it. I like Isn't that interesting? As it squirting like a squirt gun every you know it would like with my pulse. Squirt, squirt, squirt. And then finally I said: "Okay, better stop this." So, I put pressure on it to stop it. But um, yeah.
Jean 02:24 We're all surprised she's still here. (Chuckle)
Lita T 02:36 (Boisturious laughter)
Ron 02:36 But you definitely painted a picture.
Lita T 02:38 Yeah. Right. So that's what it would be like, if you have a bleeding disorder.
Jean 02:41 I don't know if that's exactly what it would be like, that sounds like an arterial spray that squirting in very, very dangerous.
Lita T 02:47 Okay, that's a bleeding disorder.
Jean 02:49 Bleeding problem.
Ron 02:50 So
Lita T 02:51 yeah.
Ron 02:52 In addition to obtaining a complete medical history, your healthcare provider may order a complete blood count, a bleeding time test and or a platelet aggregation test to help diagnose your condition.
Jean 03:07 And have you guys ever had a bleeding time test?
Ron 03:10 Me personally? No.
Jean 03:11 Oh, they like cut your, nick, your ear and then stand there and wait to see when it stops bleeding.
Lita T 03:18 (chuckling)
Jean 03:19 That's what I remember.
Lita T 03:19 like watching. paint dry?
Ron 03:20 I don't like your doctor's.
Jean 03:21 Yeah, well, that wasn't my doctor. That was my mom. Oh, no, just kidding. Okay. Um, treatment for bleeding disorders will likely depend on the severity and cause of the specific bleeding disorder an individual has.
Lita T 03:33 Right. And although I had never heard of it before, today, the most commonly inherited bleeding disorder is von Willebrand disease.
Ron 03:45 Well I can say that approximately 1% of the population here in the US are affected by von Villa brain disease. And it's characterized by an insufficient amount of a protein. Ironically, the von Willebrand factor or VFW
Jean 04:03 VWF
Lita T 04:04 The VFW hopefully doesn't. It's causing you to bleed you're going to the wrong VWF
Ron 04:11 Did I say I do glasses. I'm sorry, the von Willebrand factor or v w F, which aids in the clotting,
Lita T 04:18 right? There are three forms of von Willebrand disease.
Jean 04:24 We're gonna say it differently every time you say
Lita T 04:26 Yes, okay. Individuals with type one have less VWF than average and may have associated bleeding issues.
Jean 04:37 Were and those living with type two von Willebrand disease have enough v wF in their system, but their Vidya wF does not function correctly or is incorrectly formed. And
Ron 04:49 type three, v w.f
Jean 04:52 Vwd willen brand disease Oh, tight as opposed to von Willebrand factor. Oh, Okay,
Lita T 05:00 okay. So type three v WD.
Ron 05:03 Okay? So type three v WD is very serious individuals with this form of von Willebrand disease, do not make v w f at all. Oh, yeah, right. And their platelets cannot clot and this is very This is a very serious condition which makes bleeding difficult to control.
Lita T 05:23 That sounds terrible. Individuals with von Willebrand disease should typically avoid taking medications which may increase their risk of bleeding such as aspirin, or non steroidal anti inflammatories.
Jean 05:37 And if you have a bleeding disorder, it is vital that you inform your health care providers, including your doctors and dentists. And I would suggest if you know if it's a very serious form, that you have an ID bracelet that states that
Lita T 05:50 Oh, yeah, for sure. And carry a lot of gauze.
Jean 05:54 I don't get a tourniquet. I don't think you should be able to carry a tourniquet, no band aids. I think people that carry Okay, tourniquets are very serious,
Lita T 06:02 right. Okay. If you would like to know more about bleeding disorder awareness, check out the link to the national hemophilia foundation Foundation's website which will be on our web page, or you may want to donate to a red tie fundraiser.
Jean 06:21 And I think Haemophilia is what we've all associated with writing disorders. That's what I've heard, right? But it's very, very rare. It just gets a lot of publicity, because you hear about, you know, like Royals hat being haemophiliac and or being haemophiliacs because,
Lita T 06:34 you know, that's, that's where it came from.
Jean 06:37 No, it's just inbreeding, and the those, you know, because then you're passing the factor on and you're increasing the chance, or likelihood that two people with the same factor will pass it on. But
Ron 06:47 that's the most common, right. No,
Jean 06:49 no, no, it's not. It's very rare. von Willebrand disease is the most common. Isn't that weird? And we've never heard of that. Yeah, right. That's Yeah, it's very counterintuitive. It is very counterintuitive. But that's what the internet says, and we believe everything on the internet.
Lita T 07:07 And gene would like you to know about a blood parfait recipe in case you wanted to share this with your friends.
Jean 07:17 Well, the National hemophilia foundation does try to utilize different techniques to help people understand more about their blood and clotting. And to help illustrate that, they suggest that you could try to make a blood purvey, you could use a cream colored substance like vanilla ice cream, or maybe a yogurt as your base use Cheerios. And that will represent your platelets, although they're nice and round, which I don't understand. And you kind of want something like awkwardly shaped but red m&ms or red Hots, and those could be the red blood cells, white chocolate chips, or mini marshmallows. And these can be the white blood cells, pretzels. And these can be the fibrin which is the kind of the stuff that joins with platelets to form that your clot, okay. Gummy worms in the eye can actually represent the V WD. And to top it off, put on some rainbow sprinkles, and that'll represent the 13 other blood factors.
Lita T 08:14 Yeah, we'll be doing that.
Ron 08:18 I gotta tell you, I learned quite a bit on this. This morning.
Lita 08:21 Oh well, that's
Jean 08:22 that's good.
Lita T 08:23 Yeah, I'm glad somebody did. Yeah, I
Jean 08:24 learned we're not moving to Hawaii.
Lita T 08:26 No, we're not moving to Hawaii.
Ron 08:28 Well, for our listeners, if you have any questions or comments related to today's show, you can drop us a line at podcast dx@yahoo.com through our website, podcast, dx comm on Facebook pitter pitter pitter patter pitter patter on
Jean 08:47 his own app. Wow. Have you heard from somebody on Twitter? I hear they have a lot of patter.
Ron 08:54 Let's try this again. Okay, through our website, podcast, dx.com on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram,
Jean 09:02 I can appear as a combination of Twitter and Pinterest. I like it.
Lita T 09:05 Yeah. Okay. And if you have a moment to spare, please give us a review wherever you get your podcast. As always, please keep in mind that this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regime. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay of seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast till next week.