Sunday House Call, #327, November 7, 2010

Dan Gardner of the Ottawa Citizen joins Dr. Barry Dworkin to discuss his new book, Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail – and Why We Believe Them Anyway and how careful thought must be given to any ‘definite’ answers.

Related articles:

1. Sunday House Call #328, November 14, 2010
2. Sunday House Call, #330, November 29, 2010
3. Sunday House Call, #329, November 21, 2010

It seems as a society we are sleepwalking towards a myriad of preventable diseases. I say this because after reading another of Dr. Richard Béliveau’s masterful books on how our lifestyle, eating habits, and food choices are intricately linked with our physical, emotional and spiritual health, the evidence is compelling.

In his new book, Eating Well, Living Well, Dr. Béliveau begins with a straightforward review of the health problems we face, the variances around the world, and the direction that we are heading. The picture is not pretty but is completely within our power to change.

The complexities of medicine, biochemistry, physiology and research are explained in a way that is completely comprehensible to everyone. We begin to understand the interwoven relationship between our bodies, our environment, and the food we eat.

According to Dr. Béliveau, our bodies have evolved over millions of years of slow adaptation to environmental change. However, our environment has changed so severely in the past 100 years it has been impossible for our biology to adapt. Our current Western diets seem to have weakened our body’s ability to fend off certain types of cancer among other diseases. In short, our society’s food choices have become divorced from reality and from our biology and physiology.

• Dr. Richard Béliveau, Professor of Biochemistry and holds the chair in the prevention and treatment of cancer at the University of Québec at Montréal. He is a member of the Neurosurgery-Oncology division at Notre-Dame Hospital and holds the Claude-Bertrand Chair in Neurosurgery, Professor, Department of Surgery and Physiology at the University of Montréal. He is a member of the Center for Cancer Prevention at McGill University and a member of the Montréal Center for Experimental Therapeutics in Cancer at the Jewish General Hospital.Dr. Béliveau is author of Foods That Fight Cancer and Cooking with Foods That Fight Cancer.

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1. Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet
2. Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer
3. Sunday House Call #289, November 8, 2009

Original broadcast date: September 20, 2009

Our breadth of understanding of the reams of medical information reported in the media is dependent in part on our understanding of the history of medicine. This history includes our human response to change and our willingness to accept new ideas and engage in healthy debate when conflicts arise. It is indeed a treat and rare opportunity to speak with someone who has borne witness to the myriad of medical advances and changes to the art of medicine.

Dr. Joseph Kirsner has been an active faculty member of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine since 1935 and still goes to his office three days a week at the University to review current research and dole out advice to former patients.  His life and career as a dedicated gastroenterologist are chronicled in a new biography, GI Joe, written by Dr. James L. Franklin, a gastroenterologist and friend who received his training in gastroenterology at the University of Chicago.

Joseph Kirsner has won every award in the field of gastroenterology, except one, for which he is not eligible: the American Digestive Health Foundation’s Joseph B. Kirsner Award.  He is the author of more than 750 scientific papers and almost 20 books, including six editions of his textbook on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, which is by itself more than 800 pages.

Dr. Joseph Kirsner will be celebrating his 100th birthday on Monday, September 21, 2009.

• Dr. Joseph Kirsner, MD, PhD, gastroenterologist and professor of medicine, Section of Gastroenterology at the University of Chicago
  

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Original broadcast date: August 9, 2009

The statistics are compelling and disturbing. An article written by Val Jones on the website Science Based Medicine notes the following:

-    Pfizer Global Security raids resulted in seizure of 11.1 million counterfeit tablets, capsules and vials in 42 countries in 2008. Pfizer seizure of counterfeit drugs in 2008 was up 28.9% over 2007.

-    Within a 7-day period, 250 different Internet-based Viagra purchases were seized in a single mail center. After chemical testing, it was determined that 100% of the tablets were counterfeit.

-    Anti-malarial counterfeit tablets are common in East Asia and Africa, threatening to derail the US goal of decreasing malaria mortality by 50% in 15 countries. Chemical testing in Africa revealed that 20-67% of chloroquine failed content quality checks, and 75-100% of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine tablets (for pregnant women) were not absorbable. Tests conducted in Cambodia in 2003 demonstrated that 27% of anti-malarials were counterfeit with quinine being 77% counterfeit and tetracycline 20% counterfeit.

-    Some “Canadian” mail order pharmaceutical prescriptions have very circuitous routes of manufacture, packaging, and delivery. One batch was manufactured in China transported to Dubai, then to London, then filled in Bahamas, sent to the UK, and then mailed to the US.

The information was presented at The Global Impact of Fake Medicine conference held in Washington DC on June 11, 2009.

Prescription drug counterfeiting is a big business and is growing.

• Roger Bate, Economist with the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.  Board Member and Director of Africa Fighting Malaria.  Author of “Making a Killing:  The Deadly Implications of the Counterfeit Drug Trade”

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Original broadcast date: July 12, 2009

We like to believe that we are a rational species. If, the assumption goes, we are presented with information that is cogent, specific and valid, we will respond by incorporating these ideas for the betterment of our lives. What we decide to eat and drink is a world onto itself. Bombarded daily with dos and don’ts, benefits and health risks, exploding obesity rates and a myriad of eating and body image disorders, we are witness to the 24-hour health and nutrition treadmill that does not allow one to stop and digest the wheat from the chaff.

It comes as no surprise that even the very people who do well constructed and rigorous food psychology and food science research suffer the same travails as the rest of the public. Indeed, we are witness and succumb to the power of the succulent, gooey, warm, soft chocolate chip cookie that we believe we can resist but for a few minutes. Our brains have other ideas.

In his new best-selling book, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite, Dr. David Kessler investigates how a combination of salt, fat, sugar and umami or food texture are designed to exert tremendous influence on our decision to consume them despite the rational part of our brain that screams “NO!” Why do we behave this way, what is it in our evolutionary biology that makes us ripe for the taking? Can you say no to the chocolate chip cookie or that plate of steaming French Fries?

• Dr. David Kessler, MD, JD, Professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was Dean of the School of Medicine and the Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs at UCSF from 2003 through 2007 and Dean of the Yale University School of Medicine from 1997 until 2003. He served as Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration from November 1990 until March 1997, was appointed by President George H. Bush and reappointed by President Bill Clinton.

  He is author of A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle With a Deadly Industry about tobacco regulations, The Needs of the Dying , and now The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite

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Original broadcast date: June 21, 2009

It is a jungle of medical information out there on TV, radio, newspapers and journals. Reports appear daily espousing or refuting the latest finding to cure our ills and prevent disease. The contradictions abound and foster confusion for the public and health practitioners alike. It is creating a situation that Dr. Nortin Hadler says is creating a society of “worried sick” people.

• Dr. Nortin Hadler, M.D., M.A.C.P., F.A.C.R., F.A.C.O.E.M., professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attending rheumatologist at UNC Hospitals.  Author of “The Last Well Person:  How to Stay Well Despite the Health-Care System”, his most recent book is “Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America” and the upcoming “Stabbed in the Back: Confronting Back Pain in an Overtreated Society”
  

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Original broadcast date: March 29, 2009

If there is one quote that epitomizes the plethora of ideas expressed in physician and Guardian columnist Dr. Ben Goldacre’s book bad science, it is this from paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science, Steven Jay Gould: “ When people learn no tools of judgment and merely follow their hopes, the seeds of political manipulation are sown”.

I have talked at length about this book and how well it encapsulates the problems we face today with respect to science reporting, how clinical studies are conducted, the vested interests and machinations that promote treatments, cures, and modes of teaching and thinking. No industry, university or political party is immune to the lack of critical appraisal of claims and research that have sown the seeds of manipulation.

• Dr. Ben Goldacre, physician, award-winning writer, and broadcaster, who has written the weekly Bad Science column in the Guardian since 2003 and is author of the book of the same name.

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Every year millions of people flock to complementary and alternative therapists offering a vast array of treatments ranging from acupuncture to biofeedback to urine injections. Millions more purchase over-the-counter alternative medications, such as glucosamine, herbs, and homeopathic remedies. While consumer motivations for turning to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) vary, there is one common element among them all: a belief in their effectiveness. This belief appears to be prevalent among all elements of society, from scientists and physicians to celebrities such as Prince Charles and Oprah Winfrey to clerical workers and senior citizens.

On Sunday House Call we focus on the scientific evidence to help us understand whether a treatment claim, be it for medications or alternative therapies, do what they purport. And if they do, what is the true mechanism of action behind it?

• Barker Bausell, PhD, biostatistician and author, Senior Research Methodologist in the Office of Research and Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore. He was Research Director of a National Institutes of Health-funded Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Specialized Research Center.

  Author of Snake Oil Science: The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the science of complementary and alternative medicine.

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Original broadcast date: April 20, 2008

We are the safest and healthiest human beings who ever lived, and yet irrational fear is growing, with deadly consequences — such as the 1,595 Americans killed when they made the mistake of switching from planes to cars after September 11. In part, this irrationality is caused by those — politicians, activists, and the media — who promote fear for their own gain. Culture also matters. But a more fundamental cause is human psychology.

Working with risk science pioneer Paul Slovic, author Dan Gardner, author of his new book Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear, sets out to explain in a compulsively readable fashion just what that statement above means as to how we make decisions and run our lives. We learn that the brain has not one but two systems to analyze risk. One is primitive, unconscious, and intuitive. The other is conscious and rational. The two systems often agree, but occasionally they come to very different conclusions. When that happens, we can find ourselves worrying about what the statistics tell us is a trivial threat — terrorism, child abduction, cancer caused by chemical pollution — or shrugging off serious risks like obesity and smoking.

• Dan Gardner is a columnist and senior writer for the Ottawa Citizen, specializing in criminal justice and other investigative issues. Trained in history and law, Gardner worked as a senior policy adviser to the premier and the minister of education before turning to journalism in 1997. His writing has received numerous awards, including the National Newspaper Award, Amnesty International’s Media Award, and others.
  

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Food science is a major topic for discussion on Sunday House Call. To me, there was one seminal interview that beautifully encapsulated the exciting science and discovery of the biochemistry of foods and the role they play in fighting cancer.

The interview in June 2006 featured Dr. Richard Beliveau, author of Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer through Diet. To date, 200,000 copies of the book have sold in Canada, an incredible number given that 5,000 is considered a best-seller.

As we discussed in our last interview of June 25, 2006, phytochemicals in the foods we eat can play a significant role in cancer prevention and overall health; literally a non-toxic version of chemotherapy. Our current Western diets seem to have weakened our body’s ability to fend off certain types of cancer among other diseases. In short, our society’s food choices have become divorced from reality and from our biology and physiology.

It seems the next logical step was to expand on the science and, at the same time, produce a book on how to incorporate these foods into our diet. With that in mind sprung his next book, Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer.

• Dr. Richard Beliveau, author of Foods That Fight Cancer: Preventing Cancer Through Diet and Cooking with Foods that Fight Cancer, Biochemistry professor and Chair in the Prevention and Treatment of Cancer at the University of Quebec at Montreal and director of the Molecular Medicine Laboratory at Sainte Justine Hospital.  He is also professor of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montreal.

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