Medicine. Science. Professionalism. And rules and guidelines... so many of them that there appear to be an veritable army of people making sure we are on the straight and narrow. And two things happen sometimes. First of all, sometimes regulations seem to make no sense from a clinical point of view. And sometimes, clinical guidelines seem more confusing than guiding. We are going to talk about this today.
Starting with fecal transplants. These have become an important part of the treatment of C. difficile colitis and there is ongoing research on its usefulness for a variety of other GI diseases. The question has been raised (by the FDA) as to whether the stool is a drug or not. If it is, then all kinds of regulations apply to it. If it is thought of as a "transplant organ," think a gross version of bone marrow, then a totally different set of regulations apply. And what do you or a loved one do while everyones trying to figure this out? Join me as I speak with Mark Smith of MIT about Openbiome, an organization devoted to making fecal microbiota transplant more available to everyone.
Questions about FMT? Call us at 1-877-NYU-DOCS!
We will then expand the conversation with GI Update. I will tell you some of the latest and greatest news from the world of digestive disease and answer your questions at 1-877-NYU-DOCS! Or tweet me at @doctorira.twitter.com/doctorira.
Cholesterol. We've been told its the devil's product (except for the good kind of course) for many years. And then new guidelines came out and it became even more confusing. For younger people, cholesterol may not be so bad. For older people, apparently bad even if its perfect. So confusing. Join me and cardiologist Dr. Seth Baum as we talk about cholesterol.
Give us a call at 1-877-NYU-DOCS!
We will end the show, as usual, with Ask Doctor Ira, where you can ask me any question you want on any medical topic at all...anything you forgot to ask your doctor ask me! Give me a call or tweet.
