Healthcare Histories Make Moot Modern Medical Mysteries

Transcript generated by AI.

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by Encore Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence!

Kevin Geddings: 0:30

Dr. Michael Koren joining us, live on the studio line right now and, of course, he is a medical doctor cardiologist and a research scientist and of course he directs the show at ENCORE Research Group, where you and I and others can participate in leading-edge clinical research on all sorts of different topics of health, and we can do it right from an operation here in St. Augustine, in St. Johns County, of course ENCORE Research Group, with offices right in the Whetstone building next door to UF Flagler Hospital. Speaking of Flagler and the Flagler legacy, which is such a part of St. Johns County and St. Augustine, you had a chance, I guess on Saturday to tour the historical parts of Flagler College, right.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:10

I did. I did Good morning, Kevin. Fun to have this discussion about Flagler College. I've been in it, but I never got a behind-the-scenes tour, and a fellow named Ron, who is the facilities manager there, took us literally into the nooks and crannies of the college and really showed us a number of really super interesting things from the Gilded Age. And, as I think a lot of people know, the college was built as the Ponce de Leon Hotel back in the 1880s and this was really the most luxurious hotel in the country and it rivaled the type of living of the European princes and kings. And so when you go through this tour you just get a sense for this.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:00

It's the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world just magnificent pieces. Tiffany tile the stonework of the stonemasons is just off the charts. The dining hall and, it tells, the dining hall are just examples of opulence from the 19th century that are just unbelievable when you look at it and study it. And it got me wondering whether or not the students that live in this environment really have an appreciation for the fact that they live the way kings and queens lived in the 19th century. The only thing is that their food is much better, because modern food is better than the stuff they were eating back in the 19th century. So just it's so interesting how history can kind of sneak up on us and we don't even necessarily appreciate what we have, unless we start to study it.

Kevin Geddings: 2:53

Yeah, absolutely, and that's interesting too in the context of how we view health issues. Right, and I know all this vaccine skepticism and questions that you know Secretary Kennedy and others have provoked out there. Sometimes it seems to ignore the lessons of history, right, which medicine has quite a history.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:11

Exactly and the parallel is absolutely perfect, which is medicine is incredibly rich in history and one of the things that we do well in medicine is that we train people in medicine to understand that history and then to apply it. And you can see, in the modern era it's very easy to forget the lessons of history. So you brought up the vaccine issues. Well, the concept of vaccines goes back to, actually, the Middle East and Africa from 500 years ago, and Europeans slowly but surely learned that by inoculating people for infectious disease you prevent severe complications of that particular illness. And sometimes that incredibly important lesson in history is lost. And one of my favorite stories to tell about is an African slave named Onesimus who actually worked with Cotton Mather in the colonies the Massachusetts colonies, before the United States was formed, and the two of them actually protected the population against smallpox by inoculating over 200 people in the colonies with smallpox and against smallpox, and the death rate in the Massachusetts colonies was much less than any other place because of this knowledge being applied to protect the patients.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:27

So again, one of many, many examples of lessons of history that could be applied to help people prevent illness and, ultimately, help people make good decisions for themselves and their family.

Kevin Geddings: 4:39

It seems like more so than any other field. Medicine does learn the lessons of history, right? You're always building on what has been learned. We don't necessarily do that very well in government and politics and things like that, but we do it pretty well in medicine, correct, Because there's a structure for it.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:57

There is, there, absolutely is as a matter of fact, in our MedEvidence platform, which is our educational media platform, one of the things we're doing now is creating research grand rounds, and this is a concept that actually goes back to William Osler, who used to take physicians around to see patients that had interesting illnesses and then share insights about those particular patients. So that's also 19th century.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:22

Now in the 21st century, with information technology, we can do the same thing, but instead of showing a dozen physicians what's going on, we can literally show millions of people what's going on. So that's a platform that we're launching as we speak, but in a general sense, the public has access to that when they hear medical experts discussing an issue on MedE vidence, so we'd encourage them to quote, learn lessons of history and to glean the insights of experts who are discussing these issues with one another in this really unique format.

Kevin Geddings: 5:54

Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin Geddings: 5:55

Once again, we're spending time with Dr. Michael Koren, medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist. You can always connect with what we're talking about by going to encordocs. com and to fully appreciate the role that history plays in medicine, you'll get a very clear sense of that when you go and check out the MedEvidence website the truth behind all this healthcare data that seems to come at us like a blizzard. Right, Go to MedEidence. com. That's medevidence. com. Hey, getting back ENCORE Research Group. And, of course, when we talk about history and what is learned and learning the lessons of history, part of that ties into what you do with clinical research, right, Because you're kind of at the very beginning point of the history of trying to, you know, solve a particular health issue, correct?

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:36

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:36

So getting back to what we talked about with the legacy of Henry Flagler, as you know, Kevin, back in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the only people who were really obese were the wealthy, because they ate rich foods and they could afford it, and food was relatively expensive back then, and middle-class people and poor people had to work hard just to put food on the table, literally.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:03

And now food is comparatively cheap and there's this obesity paradox where the people who are the most overweight are the people who are on the lowest rung in the socioeconomic ladder. So that's been completely flipped. And because of our understanding of history of medicine, we realized that a lot of this has to do with the biology of human beings, and the fact is that when you have access to food, you're going to eat. It's naturally what we do and we know the mechanisms by which that occurs, and we actually have medications that help people fight off these biological instincts and so we can help people that are overweight, that are struggling, that need some additional help.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:45

In our clinical research and as we speak, there are multiple studies helping people who are overweight and you would be blown away by the different mechanisms that we're using. So, for example, we have one study now that's taking people who are overweight with diabetes and we're actually doing a procedure on their intestines to prevent their intestines from absorbing nutrients as efficiently as they would otherwise.

Dr. Michael Koren: 8:11

So this is actually a medical procedure to help people control obesity. And then, of course, we're using medicines in the GLP class, which actually enhance the signaling between the gut and the brain to help people feel satiated or full after they have a meal, and so enhancing that natural mechanism that sometimes doesn't work as well as it should in a stressful environment or for people that may or may not be able to do as much physical activity as they would like to do optimally. So so many different things that we'll work on in the obesity space.

Dr. Michael Koren: 8:44

These are people that have dermatological problems, that have cardiac problems, that have liver problems and the protean manifestations of obesity are all being addressed in our clinical research as we speak, so we encourage people to call and learn more about it. It might be something that helps them.

Kevin Geddings: 9:02

Yeah, indeed, if someone is out there and they're struggling with their weight or with obesity issues and they've thought about some of the GLP-1 drugs etc. They should reach out to ENCORE Research Group. They may get to participate and get the benefit of some of these medications at no charge, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 9:19

Absolutely. We never charge our patients. Most of the studies have been to compensate patients for their time and their travel.

Kevin Geddings: 9:27

Absolutely Well once again go to EncoreDocs. com, not only if you have a concern about obesity and other issues, just about every area of health. There are some sort of clinical trial that you may get to participate in. So it pays for anyone listening, to get in touch with them here locally. EncoreD ocs. com. That's spelled E N C O R E, encore docs. com. The phone number here locally nine zero four, seven, three zero zero one six six. You'll get to speak to a live professional who will help guide you in this process and answer any questions you have about what Dr. Koren talks about with us on Monday mornings, 904-730-0166. Dr Koren. Any closing thoughts this morning?

Dr. Michael Koren: 10:09

My closing thought, Kevin, is to know your history, because those who do not know their history will repeat the mistakes that have been made historically. So study your history.

Kevin Geddings: 10:20

Good advice. Thank you, doc. We hope you're safe out there and we'll speak next week.

Announcer: 10:25

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