Sunday, February 23, 2014

Monday, February 24th on the Doctor Ira Breite Show on SiriusXM 81: Doctor Radio!


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.


Sunday, February 9, 2014

Monday, February 10th, 201 on the Doctor Ira Breite Show on SiriusXM 81: Doctor Radio!

Red Quinoa

Today we are going to talk about high science and basic health.  Improving our health requires both.

First, high science.  Dr. Daniel Leffler, MD MS of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School will be joining us to talk about celiac disease and about a new study that is investigating how effective a new investigational  drug is at improving damage to the lining of the colon and reducing celiac symptoms.

Give us a call with your Celiac Questions at 1-877-NYU-DOCS!

After that we are going to expand the digestive disease discussion with Gastroenterolgy Update, where 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.  You can also tweet me a question at @doctorira

Physicians should represent a broad swath of who we are as Americans.  Join me as I speak with Dr. Kameron Matthews, MD, JD, as we talk about the 5th 'Tour for Diversity in Medicine,' an initiative that brings pre-med enrichment activities to minority high school and undergraduates across the United States. 

We will end the show, as usual, with Ask Doctor Ira, where you can ask me any question on any medical topic at all...anything that you forgot to ask your doctor ask me!  Give us a call at 1-877-NYU-DOCS.

Image source

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Monday, February 3, 2014 on the Doctor Ira Breite Show On SiriusXM 81: Doctor Radio!


Superbowl mania has hit New York City.  Ok, not really; more like fear of Superbowl traffic.  I have been particularly inconvienenced  by the "Bud Light Hotel," a large cruise ship docked on the Westside Highway.  Which got me thinking about Norovirus, which is NOT on the Bud Light boat but is on several cruise ships at the moment.  Norovirus in particularly contagious, and you don't need to be on a cruise ship to get it.  Find out more with me and Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News Channel medical correspondent and the Medical Director of Doctor Radio.

After this we will have gastroenterology update, where I will tell your some of the latest and greatest innovations in the world of digestive disease and answer your questions at 1-877-NYU-DOCS!

Or, tweet me at @doctorira!

Lobotomy.  The word is now mostly hurled by teenagers to each other as an insult, but at one time it was a standard part of medical practice.  Find out about "The Lobotomy Files: the story of the VA lobotomies of veterans during and after World War II," from Michael Phillips, a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal.

We will end the show with Ask Doctor Ira, where you can ask me any question on any medical topic at all...anything you forgot to ask your doctor ask me!  Give me a call at 1-877-NYU-DOCS.

image source: CDC