Why do we sleep? How much is enough? Do we die if we don’t get enough? Kate Rusk, Joe Alcock, Coffee Brown and Gandhi Yetish discuss these topics in this episode of the EvolutionMedicine podcast. Sleep is one of the least understood lifestyle-related risk factor for chronic disease. For instance, […]
In this age of Marvel comics, superheroes with superpowers have attained a high degree of cultural fascination. But some superpowers exist in real life, courtesy of natural selection. One such superpower is the ability of the Bajau people to dive longer and deeper than other people. This ability is linked […]
Kate Rusk recorded and live streamed this episode on the science channel Inertia TV in March, 2018. Kate, Coffee Brown, and I discussed the power of the placebo effect, what it means for the evolution of the brain, and the evolution of social behavior. We riff on martial arts, mind […]
This year, evolutionary anthropologist Kate Rusk began a streaming video science channel, called Inertia TV, that streams great science programming, including Science Happy Hour and Evolutionary Medicine. The platform to watch these programs in real time is on Twitch. The link to Inertia TV on Twitch is here: https://www.twitch.tv/inertiatv_ You […]
Coffee Brown and I recently recorded a podcast on that most necessary molecule for mammalian life – O2. The question we consider: should medics send patients to hospital with 100% oxygen? Should all patients get supplemental oxygen in the hospital? The answer: an emphatic no! First author Derek Chu and […]
Peter Soeters and Peter De Leeuw of Maastricht University Medical Center wrote an interesting perspective piece entitled Disease or adaptation, another look at the practice of medicine, that was published in January in the journal Postgraduate Medicine. They write: “thanks to the great advances in medical technology we are now […]
I just came back from the Keystone conference on the microbiome and metabolism in Banff, Canada, where Eran Elinav of the Weizmann Institute of Science presented research on the relationship between high blood sugar and the microbiome, published this week in the journal Science. (Click on the image below for […]
My specialty is emergency medicine. My teaching interest is evolutionary medicine. My research area is the microbiome. I am often asked, “What does evolution and the microbiome have to do with emergency medicine?” My answer – almost everything. Here is the deal, folks. Evolution is happening in us and around […]
I was joined this week by Coffee Brown to discuss the landmark ADRENAL study. We debate whether ADRENAL should make us change our practice and whether steroids help or hurt patients with sepsis. I say they hurt. Coffee says they help. Notes: Here is one table of anti-inflammatory treatments that […]
“All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds” – Dr. Pangloss in Voltaire’s Candide Whether septic shock provides a defense to the host is an open question – one that is increasingly relevant to emergency and critical care. Even if certain features of sepsis represent host […]
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