TOMMOROW on The Doctor Ira Breite Show on Sirius Doctor Radio, 114!

Its been a lousy week for the financial markets, and a hard week for those of us who live in the City of New York.  You can feel the stress in the air.  It has been a good time for therapists here, as many people are using the last of their dollars to try to get their heads back in order.  So I am really happy that tomorrow I will be interviewing Carol Bernstein, MD, psychiatrist and the associate Dean for Education at the NYU School of Medicine.  We will be talking about stress and money, and what you can do about it.

We will be taking calls on this issue, so get yours ready. (8 to 8:30 AM)

I also plan to have Dr. Ralph Sacco, the Chairman of Neurology at the University of Miami Medical Center on the air with Dr. Glenn Jacobowitz, a the Vice Chief of vascular surgery here at the  NYU-Langone Medical Center.   All this stress is making some people feel like they are going to have a stroke!  We'll be talking about strokes, stroke prevention, and a new awareness campaign for strokes: Give me Five For Stroke.  

If you have any questions at all about strokes, stroke prevention, or mini-strokes (TIAs) give us a call at 1 877 NYU DOCS.    (8:30 to 9 AM)

If you want to send us an email, you can go to the Doctor Radio website directly.

Then we will have an hour of open phones, interesting medical chat, and tales of the internist's (thats me) office.  Some interesting stuff I've been seeing include Celiac Sprue (bizarre and interesting), new guidelines for colon polyp prevention (maybe???) and kidney failure from a commonly used over the counter drug.  Depending on time, we'll get to those, and of course, any questions you have on any medical topic whatsoever! (9 AM to 10 AM)

I hope you'll tune in!

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Tommorow on The Dr. Ira Breite Show on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 114!

We have a great show lined up tomorrow. In addition to taking your calls on any medical topic you have an interest in, I have two great guests coming in. The first is Sari Greaves, registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. We will be talking about the nutritional differences between men and women. As I sit here realizing that the Wii Fit has made me lose a little weight despite eating too much, I know that I will enjoy what she has to say (even if my wife does not!). We will also be speaking with Dr. Andrew Feldman, the team Doctor for The New York Rangers, about knee injuries. Dr. Feldman is extremely informative, and I find myself using some of the advice he gave us in the radio in my own practice. Dr. Feldman and Ms. Greaves will be on from 8AM to 9 AM EST and I will be taking questions from 9AM to 10AM on any medical topic at all!

Go Rangers!

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Tommorow on the Dr. Ira Breite Show!

I've decided to start posting the likely lineup for the show before. This way, if you have any questions you want to ask or see an interesting topic, you can be sure to call in at 1 877-NYU-DOCS! We have two really interesting topics in the 8 AM Eastern Hour:

1) We will be discussing the new study in the Journal Neurology that showed that elderly people who had higher levels of vitamin B12 had more brain volume than those that didn't. Joining me will be Keri Gans, registered dietitian, spokesperson for the ADA and NYU grad! We will be talking about this study and vitamin supplementation in general. You can ask us any vitamin questions you may have have!

2) I will be talking with author Dr. David Newman, the author of Hippocrates’ Shadow: Secrets From the House of Medicine (Scribner). Dr. Newman is letting us in on the secrets that doctor's know and patient's don't. Lets see which ones I routinely use!!!

3) Ask Dr. Ira. You don't need an appointment for this segment. From 9 AM to 10 AM EDT I will be answering any medical question on any topic you may have! Give me a call and I'll give you an answer!

Doctor Ira Breite's Sirius Radio Show for September 8, 2008

I'm Back!! We had a good show today. More and more, I find that I enjoy answering listener's questions: its one of the great things about Doctor Radio and, as an internist, I am able to help listener's focus the questions they should be asking their own primary care doctor's or specialists. One of the big problems in medicine is asymetric knowledge. Patients, despite their ability to gain information on the internet, often do not know how to "frame" a question the correct way. Even in medicine, how you ask a question can affect the answer you get. So, even in areas where I am not an expert (and there are many!), I enjoy explaining how physicians think about a problem, and how to ask the right questions!

Flu shot season is starting (Yes, we at Westside Medical Associates have received ours!!!). I got a chance to interview Neil Schachter, MD the author of “The Good Doctor’s Guide to Colds and Flu” about the flu, colds, the flu shot, Flu-Mist, and in fact, all things cold and flu. Its a really interesting segment and Dr. Schachter was an excellent resource for our listener's questions. I also talked to Dr. Peter Shamamian, Associate Professor of Surgery at NYU-Langone Medical Center, about diverticulitis. The big take home point is that nuts, seeds and pits are OK in people who have had this disease (yes, you should talk to your doctor first!).