Black Box Pharmacy Warnings
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss the warnings some medications carry due to the dangerous side effects they may cause. In the past these were called "Black-Box" now the term used is simply "boxed". Boxed warnings apply to certain medications that carry serious risks for the person taking them. The FDA decides which medications require boxed warnings. A doctor must review the risks and benefits of a medication with a boxed warning before prescribing it. They will decide whether a medication is safe to prescribe based on a person’s health conditions, any medications they take, and other...
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Lupus and Gaslighting
PodcastDX
Our topic this week is Lupus and how doctors are frequently considered to be gaslighting the patients in their care. Our guest knows from first-hand experience that when you’re relatively healthy, you tend not to think much about ‘wellness.’ But when this slips away and lupus comes barreling in… your world gets rocked. That’s why she wrote the book, The Girlfriend’s Guide to Lupus, to help other women struggling with this chronic disease feel less alone and more empowered to take control of their health and manage their lupus. Amanda holds an Master’s degree in...
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Multi-Organ Transplant
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss Multi-Organ transplants with Zachary Colton. Zach is 35 years old and recently underwent a successful 5 organ multivisceral intestinal transplant surgery at the Toronto General Hospital in his home country of Canada. The organs he received were: stomach, small intestine, colon, liver, and pancreas. In 1954, . Liver, heart and pancreas transplants were successfully performed by the late 1960s, while lung and intestinal organ transplant procedures were begun in the 1980s. From the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, individual transplant hospitals...
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Ectoparasites
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss Ectoparasites. The CDC says: "Although the term ectoparasites can broadly include blood-sucking arthropods such as mosquitoes (because they are dependent on a blood meal from a human host for their survival), this term is generally used more narrowly to refer to organisms such as ticks, fleas, lice, and mites that attach or burrow into the skin and remain there for relatively long periods of time (e.g., weeks to months). Arthropods are important in causing diseases in their own right, but are even more important as vectors, or transmitters, of many different...
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Pasteurization For Your Health
PodcastDX
Over 200 years ago Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France. Among Pasteur's major contributions and their benefit to society, the most important is the heat treatment of foods and beverages to reduce spoilage and eliminate pathogens for consumers. Probably the greatest achievement of Pasteur was the process that bears the name of this famous scientist who perfected the technique: pasteurization. For liquids, this process does not involve boiling the product to sterility but simply applying just enough heat (ie, par-boiling) to 50–60°C for a specified period to reduce spoilage microbes and...
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Spontaneous Pneumothorax with Jack
PodcastDX
In this episode we are talking again with our audio editor Jack Scaro. The topic again is: spontaneous pneumothorax, or collapsed lung. Spontaneous pneumothorax is an abnormal condition of the lung characterized by the collection of gas in the pleural space between the lungs and the chest wall. This condition occurs without an obvious etiology and can be classified as either primary or secondary. Patients may present with symptoms such as tachycardia and dyspnea. The diagnosis is based on clinical suspicion and can be confirmed with imaging. Jack had this condition which surprised...
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Bile acid malabsorption (BAM) part 2
PodcastDX
This week we will continue our coverage of Bile acid malabsorption (BAM), a . It’s a common cause of . When bile acids aren’t properly absorbed in your intestines, they build up, upsetting the chemical balance inside. Excess bile acids trigger your to secrete extra water, leading to watery stools. This week we will continue our coverage of Bile acid malabsorption (BAM), a . It’s a common cause of . When bile acids aren’t properly absorbed in your intestines, they build up, upsetting the chemical balance inside. Excess bile acids trigger...
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Bile Acid Malabsorption
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss Bile acid malabsorption (BAM), a . It’s a common cause of . When bile acids aren’t properly absorbed in your intestines, they build up, upsetting the chemical balance inside. Excess bile acids trigger your to secrete extra water, leading to watery stools. What are bile acids? Bile is a substance your makes while filtering your blood. Your liver sorts waste products, such as toxins, dead blood cells and excess cholesterol into bile. Bile acids come from synthesizing these products together. The different acids in bile help...
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Veteran's Hesitancy to Healthcare
PodcastDX
This week we will discuss a Veteran's hesitancy to receive healthcare at the government hospital system known as Veterans Administration or "VA". Although many veterans may share the concern over receiving care through a government agency due to the medical care they got while in training or active duty; i.e. sucrettes and tylenol being the standard of care when Jean Marie and I were in training. Our guest, Mark Frerichs, has different reasons to question the quality of care. Mark, a Navy veteran who continued working as a contractor post-war in Afghanistan. It was during his work...
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Adrenal Insufficiency
PodcastDX
In this episode we discuss adrenal insufficiency You can have either primary, secondary, or tertiary adrenal insufficiency. Primary adrenal insufficiency is also called Addison’s disease. When you have this type, your adrenal glands are damaged and can’t make the cortisol you need. They also might not make enough aldosterone. Secondary adrenal insufficiency is more common than Addison’s disease. The condition happens because of a problem with your pituitary gland, a pea-sized bulge at the base of your . It makes a hormone called adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). This is the...
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)