Navigating Health Risks with Dr. Michael Koren

Transcript Generated by AI.

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St. Augustine Radio. 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: 0:29

Dr. Michael Koren is with us live on the studio line, as he is on most Monday mornings, and he's a pretty good student of rock and roll music. So do you think the Little River Band created that song knowing that you know people would use that as an anniversary song for decades to come, and that way they'd make?

Kevin Geddings: 0:45

more money.

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:45

Yeah it's very clever, very clever to do songs like that. Obviously, the Beatles have the birthday song. It's a very popular song. So absolutely, Kevin you and I have to think of an event that hasn't been covered yet and create a song about it. So let me know.

Kevin Geddings: 1:02

Yeah, well, yeah.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:04

You can write the lyrics. I'll write the music.

Kevin Geddings: 1:07

You have the musical talent for it, I wonder if the Beatles and the Happy Birthday song, I always felt like that was one that they like created on a whim, like you know, on a paper towel in four minutes and never thought much about it, but it's, it's lasted generations.

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:21

It is. It's a simple song. Paul McCartney wrote it, but it's a typical catchy McCartney song that definitely works and certainly has had a great run. Yeah.

Kevin Geddings: 1:32

Dr. Michael Koren joins us live on the studio line, as he does on Monday mornings, and of course he is a medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist and also heads up the show ENCORE Research Group. He also helps direct a great website where you can get good, reliable, trustworthy health information medevidence. com. Medevidence. com Speaking of health information right out of the box. We have a news item that's breaking this morning out of Tallahassee, where the Florida Surgeon General is advising folks here in Florida not to get the COVID booster. Of course this particular Surgeon General has been fairly political over time and so it's hard to say exactly whether or not that's based on medicine or based on politics. But where do you come down on all this, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:13

So this gets to the whole purpose of MedEvidence, Kevin, which is to help people understand what we know, what we don't know, and how we're going to learn about the stuff that we don't know. So, again, I haven't read the full report from our Surgeon General, so I don't want to get too specific in my comments, but let me just share with the listeners what we know, what we don't know and what we need to learn. So we know that if you are at high risk, for example somebody over 60, somebody who is diabetic, somebody who has asthma.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:45

Covid vaccines and COVID boosters can save your life and certainly reduce the severity of the disease if you were to get COVID.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:54

We also know that people who are young say a very healthy 20-year-old probably doesn't get that much value. Probably the biggest value that people get in that demographic is they won't spread the virus as much to vulnerable people. But from the standpoint of their own personal health, they tend to not have severe cases of COVID when they get it and they're at higher risk for developing pericarditis, even though that's a very low risk Nonetheless, because the fact that the disease isn't so bad for them, that risk becomes more significant. So that's what we know. What we don't know is people in between. So if you can identify yourself as high risk, you should definitely take the booster. If you can identify yourself as very low risk.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:35

You don't necessarily have to take the booster, but think about the people around you and for people in the middle. Come work with us on one of the studies that we're doing and we can help figure that out together.

Kevin Geddings: 3:46

There you go, All right. Well, good advice. We appreciate that and overall, let's talk. That kind of leads into this next piece too, which is how do we improve our odds in healthcare, you know, in terms of engaging the entire healthcare system.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:58

Yeah, it's an interesting question and you know to be very, very truthful, anything you do in healthcare has a risk and a possible reward. So something as simple as taking an aspirin has a risk of bleeding or allergic reaction or other problems, but it can have a reward in terms of symptom relief and reducing clotting complications. So In medicine, we have to always weigh the risks versus the benefits, and the beauty of the clinical trial world is that there's a mechanism in place to reduce the risk and maximize the benefit, and that mechanism is called a DSMB, which stands for a Data Safety Monitoring Board. And what that means is you have a group of physicians and other people who are constantly looking at the results of clinical trials, as those results are being generated, and when we see a positive trend, we let the study run. If we see a negative trend, then we stop the study so that there isn't any further risk. So think about that, kevin. How many things in life do you have sort of a guardian angel that's looking at what's happening behind the scenes? And as long as things are going well, you keep on doing it, but as soon as you see a little bit of trouble, we get you out of harm's way. So it's a neat part of what we do and it's also something that has implications for public health.

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:23

The other piece of clinical trials is something that I, as an investigator, and a lot of other investigators push for, which is that if somebody participates in a clinical trial and the investigational product is shown to be beneficial, we try to, as much as possible, let people take that medicine for as long as possible after the trial is over. So we push for what we call an open-label extension. Again, we can't guarantee that, but in many cases that occurs again to help people, to support clinical trials as part of the public health system and also to just keep our patients happy as best we can. We have a lot of really interesting studies going on right now, including studies looking at flu prevention, looking at COVID prevention, looking at RSV infection prevention, looking at norovirus prevention so a lot of neat things.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:10

But again getting back to what you started with please, everybody out there, if you're high risk, make sure you protect yourself. If you're low risk, then look at the people around you and also remember consulting with your physician is very, very important, and I hope the Surgeon General mentioned that, because it's hard for people to know what their risk status is. So your doctors are out there and the ENCORE team is out there also. We're happy to look at you and have you come in. It's all free of charge and we'll help you assess that risk and, quite frankly, in many cases we tell patients quote you're too healthy to be involved in this program and that's what you can do on a day-to-day basis.

Kevin Geddings: 6:48

Yeah Well, once again Dr. Michael Koren joins us on Monday mornings. In the meantime, check out the website medevidence. com. That's medevidence. com, Dr. Michael Koren. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day. We'll speak with you again soon, okay.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:02

My pleasure.

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:04

Take care.

Announcer: 7:04

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