I am really starting to enjoy doing the "Ask Dr. Ira" segments. It really is like being in my office, complete with the occasional jaunt into Yiddish or Spanish, the snappy advice, and the rare bad joke. But I am always impressed by the questions that the callers ask, and wish I had time for more. The question of the week goes to our caller who asked about kidney stones, of which I saw a man in the office today with similar symptoms.
Besides our collection of questions, we had three interesting guests on as well. I spoke with Alexander de Moura, MD, a Clinical Assistant Professor in the department Department of Orthopedic Surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center and Founder, NY Spine Institute about chronic pain syndromes. This came about because of the FDA's recent decision not to put a warning label on anti-epileptic drugs, which are commonly used "off label" to treat pain syndromes and which have been associated with an increased risk of suicide.
I also spoke with Sari Greaves, a favorite guest, who is a national spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and a registered dietitian. We discussed a recent study showing that, in women, eating slower led to more satiety and increased weight loss. They also used smaller spoons. I am trying to follow her advice as I write this, by snacking on an orange and not the giant thing of M and M's I received from a vendor! Since I wasn't going to eat with a smaller spoon, I was glad that so many listeners called in with tips on what I should eat.
Finally, it came down to the Red Yeast Rice! Gloppy, and, it appears, good for your cholesterol, as it contains the anti cholesterol drug lovastatin. But how much is in what you buy? I spoke with Tod Cooperman, MD, the President of Consumerlab.com, a company that checks out whats actually in "natural" products. As a practicing physician, I am happy to know that there is an independent lab that is seeing whats in these loosely regulated products that so many of us take. Tod was able to answer a lot of listeners questions on a whole variety of natural products.
No comments:
Post a Comment