The Top Ten Intelligent Medicine podcast episodes of 2023
| By Dr. Ronald Hoffman
‘Tis the season! As the pace of work and school slows, and the freneticism of shopping and parties abates, people are hopping into cars, buses, planes and trains to reach holiday destinations. Or else, they collapse and simply enjoy cocooning at home with family.
It’s a perfect time to relax while catching up on some of our best Intelligent Medicine podcast episodes of 2023 that you may have missed (we’ve generated over 200 shows with timely, original, free content this year alone!). To date there have been over 11 and a half million downloads since we launched our popular podcast series!
While all of our Intelligent Medicine podcast episodes have been great this year, here are ten I’d like to highlight:
1) Dr. Peter A. McCullough is the co-author of THE COURAGE TO FACE COVID-19: Preventing Hospitalization and Death While Battling the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex. He tells the story of doctors who developed a safe and effective early treatment for COVID-19 and their battle with the Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex that suppressed it. Dr. McCullough and his colleagues developed an early treatment protocol of generic, repurposed drugs and supplements that has saved millions of COVID-19 patients from hospitalization and death. But in spite of their success, their early treatment protocol was spurned by public health officials.
2) Dr. Drew Ramsey is a pioneer in the emerging field of Nutritional Psychiatry and author of Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety: Nourish Your Way to Better Mental Health in Six Weeks. Dr. Ramsey reviews the remarkable research that has demonstrated the efficacy of diet for improving mental health outcomes. The foods we eat impact our brain function for better or for worse, delivering essential nutrients, fostering a healthy microbiome, combatting inflammation, encouraging neuroplasticity, and supporting neurotransmitters. He is co-developer of the Antidepressant Food Scale which rates foods based on their potential to support well-being.
3) Dr. Martin Blaser, author of Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues, has now been featured in a new documentary, The Invisible Extinction, that explores the dire consequences of our depleted microbiomes. Antibiotic overuse, C-sections, lack of breastfeeding, ultra-processed food, lack of exposure to nature, and chlorinated water conspire to deplete our bodies of beneficial bacteria; these imbalances in intestinal flora have profound far-reaching effects, not just on digestive disorders, but on immunity, metabolism, and brain function.
4) Dr. Ramona Wallace, trained conventionally as a DO, she undertook additional training and certification via the Institute for Functional Medicine to broaden her clinical skills. She practices primary care in an underserved community in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she incorporates diet and lifestyle recommendations to address her patients’ chronic conditions. Careful nutritional assessment has revealed that many of her patients, while overtly overweight, are decidedly malnourished. She has documented a wide range of deficiencies—of B vitamins, vitamins A, C, and D, critical minerals like zinc and magnesium, even full-blown scurvy. These are precisely the patients who are most likely to benefit from nutritional support.
5) Dr. Geo Espinosa, naturopathic urologist, dishes on men’s urinary problems, natural support for testosterone, and prostate cancer. Lifestyle factors—diet, exercise, sleep and stress reduction—play an important role in all phases of urological health. How can natural strategies alleviate urinary difficulties without the need for surgery or drugs? Are there really herbal alternatives to testosterone? For men with prostate cancer who are under active surveillance, is there anything more that can be done to minimize their chance of eventually needing surgery or radiation? What nutraceuticals, vitamins and minerals have anti-prostate cancer potential?
6) Dr. Tania Dempsey specializes in treating complicated chronic disorders. She has embraced and advanced a new paradigm based on addressing Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). What is MCAS? How is it differentiated from ordinary allergies, and why are its symptoms so pervasive? What are its causes and triggers? What role for low-histamine diets? Antihistamines? Other novel medications? What nutritional supplements can facilitate its resolution?
7) Matthew Rees, founder of Food and Health Facts, offers his incisive views on how to improve our nation’s health: we need more education, for the public and for health professionals; perverse incentives like subsidies for poor quality food need to be eliminated; and certain forms of food advertising to impressionable kids should be prohibited. Rees addresses the limitations of newly-popularized weight loss drugs. He discusses why health disparities are widening among Americans.
8) Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, author of the best-seller From Fatigued to Fantastic applies his expertise acquired over decades in addressing chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia to a new pressing problem—Long Covid. His SHINE protocol (Sleep / Hormones and Hypotension / Infections / Nutrition / Exercise) offers a step-by-step action plan for recovery. He also has developed customized treatments for pain, averting reliance on powerful addictive drugs. His approach is eclectic, blending natural therapies with judicious use of medications.
9) Sally K. Norton, MPH, Ivy League nutritionist, and author of the book Toxic Superfoods: How Oxalate Overload is Making You Sick-and How to Get Better, details why your key to vibrant health may be quitting so-called superfoods due to chemical toxins called oxalates that lurk within a “healthy,” organic plant-heavy diet. What are oxalates and why are they so bad? What are some signs you’ve eaten too many oxalates? Which foods are the highest in oxalates? How widespread is oxalate overload? How do you know if you have inflammation or oxalate overload?
10) Dr. Joan Ifland, Ph.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.N., a certified Food Addiction Counselor, explains the science underlying processed food addiction. She contends that the new popular semaglutide drugs used for weight loss cripple the dopamine pathways in the brain—which may not only injure the ability to experience pleasure in other areas of life but also leave people without the skills to cope with food cravings once they stop taking the drugs. Instead we need to address underlying emotional, mental, and physical reasons for compulsive eating and processed food addiction.
Browse our extensive podcast library to find what Intelligent Medicine subjects or personalities interest you—there’s surely plenty you’ll find informative!
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May the New Year bring you and your loved ones a bounty of health and happiness!
