Redefining Health through Structure: Clinical Trials and Exercise

Narrator: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St. Augustine Radio and powered by ENOCRE 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 health care. This is MedEvidence.

Kevin Geddings: 0:30

So on Monday mornings we always hear from Dr. Michael Koren and of course he was out there this morning saving many lives, so a little bit later than normal, but we appreciate you joining us, Dr. How are you?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:41

Doing well, Kevin. How are you? I wish I could honestly say we're saving lives. It's actually answering urgent emails of uncertain urgency.

Kevin Geddings: 0:51

Dr. Michael Koren, of course, with ENCORE Research Center. ENCORE Research providing opportunities for people like myself and others here in St. Augustine and St. John's County to participate in leading edge medical research, where we could benefit, obviously, from those treatments. We could also benefit from some amazing one-on-one health care. You're never going to be listened to or cared for quite like you will be when you participate in a clinical trial. That's certainly the experience of myself and Karen and other members of our team. So we highly recommend learning more about what they're doing here, and you can do that. There are offices, in a Whetstone building near UF Flagler Hospital. Go to ENCOREdocs. com. That's spelled E-N-C-O-R-E docs. com, and one of the key things about all this, too, is when you do participate. This is a pretty highly structured event, right, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 1:42

It is. And schedule is so important in terms of getting things done in life in general and in health care. And so, to give you an example, is that I'm constantly preaching to my patients about exercise and what they tell me is oh, I don't have time for it, or I have good intentions but it doesn't quite happen. And then I in turn tell them about scheduling is that things won't happen unless they're scheduled. And for exercise you should pick, let's say, two days during the week when you're going to either do it before you go to work or after you come home, and then maybe both weekend days, or, if you work on the weekend days, you flip that. But the point being is that you know which days you're going to exercise and which days you're going to take off. And we know from a medical standpoint that if you exercise two hours a week in total in 30-minute sessions, that does you a world of good. So it's all about getting things into your schedule, and the beauty of a protocol to your point, Kevin, is that we have a whole schedule event from the very beginning to the very end of a program, and that gives you the discipline of knowing that you'll be following through on things. So, whether or not you're treating your cholesterol or you're treating your weight issue, your diabetes, your blood pressure or whatever it may be, you'll be involved in a protocol and, from the very beginning, you know exactly when the visits are, and that will provide the discipline that you need to make progress.

Kevin Geddings: 3:06

Yeah Well, it's all very structured and, of course, that's key for you getting reliable results that you can then share with the medical community, right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:14

Absolutely, absolutely. And the beauty of this is that everybody is doing it the same way. So, to your point. It's only scientific when we have a very, very clear structure, so that we're comparing apples to apples, everything is done the same way. So, whether or not you're participating in the study in Turkey, or in Latin America or the United States or China, you're doing things the same way, and this is really the power of collectivity and the power of doing things in large numbers.

Kevin Geddings: 3:44

Yeah, once again we're spending time, if you're just hopping in your vehicle, of course that's Dr. Michael Koren and he joins us on Monday mornings, very involved, obviously, with clinical research, has been for years. Also very involved in trying to get us accurate health care information, which, in this day and age of the internet and Dr. Google, seems to be increasingly difficult.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:06

Yeah, yeah, I had a very interesting phone call yesterday. I got a call from somebody who I actually grew up with from Staten Island, who also was at Harvard Medical School during the same time that I was there and I hadn't heard from him probably for 20 years, and he actually discovered MidEvidence online and gave me a call thanking me for the fact that he was able to jog while listening to the latest podcast. So that was a nice affirmation for the work that we're doing getting medical information out. So I appreciate his phone call and his outreach and hopefully other people can take advantage of this really unique way of presenting medical information.

Kevin Geddings: 4:49

Yeah, yeah. We want you to check out this website. Share it with others too. You may have a little bit of downtime as we head into this holiday season. All you have to do is go to MedEvidence. com. That's a great resource for just good, reliable information. Medevidence. com, we encourage you to do that. When they go on that website, Dr. Koren, what are they going to find?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:12

You name the topic and you'll look at it and learn about that particular medical issue from a very objective standpoint. Many of our programs and podcasts have more than one physician talking about the pluses and minuses of looking at an issue from different points of view. So it's a very pragmatic but nonetheless objective way of looking at what the medical issue that may be affecting you and your family and how you should approach it. What should your strategy be? What should your schedule be? To bring this back to the original point, how are you going to approach this and what's going to be your strategy?

Kevin Geddings: 5:48

Yeah, yeah, it's a good source, it's a great resource and, of course, it costs you absolutely nothing. So there you go, Dr. Koren. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much and we hope you have a good day. I know you'll be watching the Jags tonight, on Monday Night Football.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:06

Yeah, yeah, I will be going to the game. So, yeah, first time the Jags have been on Monday Night Football for 12 years, as I understand it, so hopefully we'll have a nice showing and get a W.

Kevin Geddings: 6:17

Yeah, we'll see. You'll be the guy that's in the body paint, is that right?

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:21

Yeah, we'll have to decide exactly what my outfit's going to look like. But I'll be out there. I'll definitely do a spread.

Kevin Geddings: 6:31

Dr. Koren, thank you for always being a good support. We'll talk with you soon.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:34

All right, have a great week, Kevin.

Narrator: 6:37

Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to MedEvidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.