Tuesday, September 9, 2008

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!).

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