Cancer Care in Transition
PodcastDX
In this week’s episode, “Cancer Care in Transition: Precision Medicine, Immunotherapy, and Patient Choice,” we look at how cancer treatment is changing at the exact moment when patients are trying to move from crisis mode into something like a new normal. Precision medicine now uses a person’s genes, tumor markers, and even lifestyle to match them with targeted drugs or immunotherapies instead of one‑size‑fits‑all chemo, while immuno‑oncology has created a growing group of survivors living with long‑term effects and unique follow‑up needs. At the same time,...
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Various Types of Dementia
PodcastDX
Various Types of Dementia This week on PodcastDX, we’re stepping into the complex world of dementia—not as a single diagnosis, but as a family of conditions that affect memory, thinking, behavior, and independence in different ways. We’ll introduce the most common types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, and mixed dementia, where more than one process—often Alzheimer’s plus vascular changes—are happening in the brain at the same time. We’ll also touch on less common causes, such as dementia related to...
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Rethinking DX: A Digital DSM and the Roots of Mental Health
PodcastDX
“Rethinking DX: A Digital DSM” looks at how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) quietly shapes almost every part of mental health care—from who gets a diagnosis and insurance coverage to how people understand their own symptoms and identities. In this conversation, Lita and Jean Marie unpack what the DSM actually is, why the current DSM‑5‑TR matters, and how a future, fully digital “DSM‑6” could function as a living document that updates more quickly, links to decision‑support tools, and better integrates real‑world data from electronic health...
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The Next Decade in Medicine
PodcastDX
Over the next decade, medicine won’t just add new gadgets—it will change what it feels like to be a patient. In this episode of PodcastDX, we explore how AI as a clinical co‑pilot, stem cells and regenerative medicine, genomics and precision care, wearables, and hospital‑at‑home models could reshape everyday care. We talk about the promise of earlier detection and more personalized treatment, the risks around bias, privacy, and hype, and why equity and shared decision‑making must stay at the center as technology races ahead. Most of all, we ask how patients and caregivers can be...
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Patients as Partners: Shared Decision Making in Medicine
PodcastDX
This week we are discussing the rise of a new type of health care where the patients play a vital role in their medical care. Patients as partners in care are at the heart of shared decision making (SDM), a model where clinicians and patients deliberately work together to choose tests and treatments that fit both best evidence and the patient’s values and life context. What shared decision making means SDM is a collaborative process in which clinicians contribute clinical expertise while patients contribute their goals, preferences, and lived experience. Core...
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End of Life in Transition: Earlier Palliative Care, Better Conversations
PodcastDX
At a time when modern medicine is allowing people to enjoy longer, fuller lives, mortality is not always a chief concern. But when a serious illness occurs, the topic becomes unavoidable. This became especially clear during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when hospitals were overrun with patients, many with grim prognoses. “The pandemic gave all of us a sense that life can be short and there’s the very real possibility of dying,” says , director of the Palliative Care Program at Yale New Haven Hospital. “It opened the door for us to talk more about death and have a...
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Is Mental Health Care Changing Fast Enough
PodcastDX
This week we discuss the current status of Mental Health Care. Mental health care is changing, but most experts argue it is not changing fast enough relative to the need, especially on access, equity, and workforce. Where change is too slow Unmet need is huge. In the U.S., millions with a diagnosable condition still receive no treatment each year; a recent national report notes that many adults with mental illness remain uninsured or unable to access care. Global workforce shortages. Nearly 50% of the world’s population lives in countries with fewer...
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Rehabilitation Reimagined: Technology, Therapy and Independence
PodcastDX
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into post-injury rehabilitation is transforming recovery paradigms by enabling personalized, adaptive, and efficient rehabilitation pathways tailored to individual patient needs. This podcast reviews the current advances in AI applications that facilitate assessment, monitoring, and optimization of rehabilitation programs following injuries. Through machine learning algorithms, wearable sensors, and predictive analytics, AI enhances the precision of therapy plans, tracks patient progress in real-time, and predicts recovery trajectories. The...
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The Gut Brain Revolution
PodcastDX
The gut–brain revolution is about treating the digestive system and the nervous system as one integrated network instead of two separate organs that happen to share a body. The gut–brain axis is a bidirectional communication system: the brain influences digestion, motility, and gut sensation, while the gut and its microbiota send chemical, neural, and immune signals back to the brain that can shape mood, cognition, and even neurodegeneration. Central to this loop is the vagus nerve, the longest cranial nerve, which carries most of the traffic from gut to brain and...
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Promising New Cancer Screening Methods
PodcastDX
Promising new cancer screening methods are pivoting toward (MCED) blood tests (liquid biopsies) and AI-enhanced imaging, which aim to detect multiple cancer types from a single, non-invasive sample, often before symptoms arise. These technologies, including the and , analyze DNA, proteins, or methylation patterns to identify cancer signals. Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) Blood Tests: These tests, often called liquid biopsies, detect DNA or proteins shed by cancer cells into the bloodstream, identifying early-stage cancers (e.g., ovarian, pancreatic)...
info_outlineThis week we will discuss Metabolic Systems with our guest, Francis Fessler.
A certified personal trainer and conditioning coach for the last 25 years, Francis Fessler has built a career by designing programs and coaching professional and amateur athletes, celebrities, business professionals, parents and children to achieve their wellness and fitness goals. Throughout his time in the health and wellness world he evaluated, tried and tested countless ‘diet and nutrition plans’ and could not find one that had consistent results for both women and men- so he built one. Francis created F2 Wellness and the highly successful F2 Weight Loss Program for not only his clients, but for anyone looking for a simple, successful and sustainable weight loss program.
Have you ever experienced tiredness in your muscles while working out and you couldn’t continue exercising after a certain point? Have you wondered what can make you lift heavier weights or run longer than you can today? If you have, understanding the mechanism of the body's energy system can help you find answers to these questions.
Three metabolic pathways generate the energy required to perform an exercise: the phosphagen pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway, together known as the energy systems. Although your body is always using all three simultaneously, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise, your body will choose from which pathway it will use the largest percentage of its energy.
As you may know, all energy used by our bodies is generated from the breakdown of food and drink. The three macronutrients are protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Those are metabolized to create adenosine triphosphate, which is the source of fuel for all body processes, including muscle contraction.
Unfortunately, the supply of readily available ATP is very limited. It means our bodies constantly have to produce the substance; otherwise, muscle contraction would stop. This re-synthesis of ATP is done by the three energy systems.
The first 10 to 20 seconds of high-intensity physical activity is fueled by the “ATP-CP,” also known as the phosphagen energy system. Once the available ATP is used up, which occurs in a few seconds, a molecule called phosphocreatine is used to re-form ATP in the muscle. This energy system operates very quickly and can bring the highest output of the three systems. However, it is limited by the availability of creatine phosphate, which is usually consumed within 15 seconds.
Your body can eventually refill these stores when you rest. This is why this system is most active for athletes who engage in short bouts of very intense, explosive movement, such as a the 50-meter dash or powerlifting. This is also the reason we can sprint at full speed for only a few seconds or lift maximum loads only 1-2 times before requiring rest or a decrease in exercise intensity using another metabolic pathway.
The second pathway, the glycolytic pathway, is the primary energy system used for exercise lasting from 15 seconds to three minutes. People running an 800-meter event, for example, use this pathway the most. This energy system uses the glucose stored in the muscle, broken down primarily from carbohydrates, to form ATP. The benefit of this pathway is that it kicks in quickly, but it doesn’t make very much energy; it can only supply a maximum of about three minutes of energy. This pathway is responsible for the buildup of lactic acid in our muscles, which contributes to fatigue.
For exercise lasting longer than three minutes, the oxidative pathway is used. Unlike the others, this energy system requires oxygen. The increase in respiratory rate meets the oxygen demand during physical activity. The oxidative system is slow, but is also the most efficient. Using fat as its primary energy substrate, it produces enough ATP to sustain longer duration activities, but only at submaximal exercise output. It means fat is the predominant fuel source used during low to moderate-intensity activity, like biking or jogging long distances.
Now you are more knowledgeable on how your body relies on each of these systems working together to meet the energy demands needed for activities of daily living and exercise.
The system your body will use primarily depends on the type of activities you mostly engage in. The more you train in that particular type of exercise, the better your body adapts to being able to efficiently use that energy system.
For example, individuals who have trained in powerlifting can store more phosphocreatine and ATP than a marathon runner or sedentary individual. On the other hand, endurance-trained individuals have better ventilation ability, maximizing oxygen availability for the oxidative pathway. At the end of the day, consistency is key. If you want to excel at a particular type of exercise, just keep doing it and in time, your body will adapt. (Credits: US Army)