Narrator:
0:00
Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute radio show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St. Augustine Radio and powered by ENCORE 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 healthcare. This is MedEvidence.
Kevin Geddings:
0:29
Dr. Michael Koren, of course, is a research scientist and medical doctor and cardiologist. He also heads up ENCORE Research Center opportunities at ENCORE Research Center for all of us to participate in leading-edge medical research. So what do you have for us today, doctor and leading-edge medical research.
Dr. Michael Koren:
0:45
So you know I was thinking about how research fills the gaps in medical science, and there's three areas, for example, that we've worked on now for a long period of time, and we have exciting studies either starting or about to start in all those areas. I think your listenership should be aware of it. So let me just throw them out real quickly. Number one is working on migraines. We've made a lot of progress in treating migraine headaches, but still some people have refractory migraines. Several years ago we were working on a class of migraine headaches called CGRP antagonists calcitonin, gene-related peptide antagonists which are really quite effective, and we're proud of the fact that we're a part of the work that got those products in the market. But there's other stuff that we're looking at right now. So if you have refractory migraines, you can't afford some of the newer drugs, or if you know people that are debilitated by migraines, give us a call, let us know.
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:46
Another area like that is called EOE or eosinophilic esophagitis. It's an area that we're working with our friends at the Borland Groover Clinic and EOE is interesting. We have very little treatment choices for that and it's actually something that's related to allergy cells or immune cells getting into the esophagus and causing difficulty with swallowing and indigestion and other things, but swallowing difficulty is the hallmark. So this can actually occur in younger people. Teenagers can get it, people in their 20s and 30s can get it. So if you have unidentified swallowing problems, give us a buzz. Interestingly, because there's not a whole lot of treatment for this other than using, you know, PPIsppis, the Pepsin class and other things that are even over the counter. Now there's not been necessarily the awareness that this is now a condition that could be treated more specifically in clinical research. So we encourage people with swallowing issues or if they've heard the diagnosis of EOE eosinophilic esophagitis give us a buzz and we may be able to help you, or at least you can get involved in the research that will help others.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:55
And then finally we've talked about this several times, but this is perhaps my greatest passion at the moment is the cholesterol problem called lipoprotein-a, which we like to call the really, really, really really bad cholesterol, and it's a genetically inherited type of cholesterol molecule that causes all sorts of problems and it actually occurs in about 15% of all people.
Dr. Michael Koren:
3:17
Now some people seem to have very severe complications of it, but if you're somebody that's had a heart attack or a stroke at a relatively young age, meaning less than 65 years old or if you have a family history of people who have died of these problems at a relatively young age, you might have this Lp(a) problem, and cardiologists and other internists are just starting to wake up to this. We haven't put a huge amount of effort into this problem in the clinical space, because our ability to treat this problem has been fairly limited, quite frankly, but that's changing very, very rapidly and there are multiple products now that are in development that actually lower this bad cholesterol by up to 95%. So it's really really remarkable treatment and by being part of clinical research, you may get access to these products and certainly learn more about the condition.
Kevin Geddings:
4:04
Yeah, well, and, of course, if you're dealing with some of these issues, oftentimes you are frustrated, right? You haven't been able to achieve any sort of effective treatment, but participating in clinical research may give you that opportunity to finally find something that works for you, right, right?
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:20
Exactly exactly. You will certainly learn about your condition. We certainly don't guarantee that everybody's going to get perfect results, but a lot of people are helped tremendously by these programs. I see it every single day. It's actually the most satisfying part of what I do.
Kevin Geddings:
4:33
Yeah, I would think so. Well, if you'd like to learn more and, of course, find out what are some of the studies you could participate in, be a part of science, if you will, but also potentially benefit yourself, there's also compensation often made available for participating in this, at least travel expenses, that sort of thing. Go to ENOCREdocscom. com that's spelled with an E. And before we let Dr. Koren go tell us about MedEvidence, a website that we all need to check out.
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:58
Yeah, MedEvidence is our educational platform. We call it the truth behind the data, and there's a lot of discussions amongst physicians and other leading experts and people get to know what we know in a particular area, what we don't know about a particular area and how we want to learn more about what we don't know, and often that involves clinical research. So we find that the consumer feedback on this website is really tremendous. They learn the truth behind the data. We're not trying to sell them any particular product. We're just trying to help them understand what we don't know and how we learn about what we don't know.
Kevin Geddings:
5:34
Yeah, absolutely Well. Check out the website. It's a great resource and, unlike Dr. Google, it's actually well-filtered. Go to MedEvidence. com. That's MedEvidence. com, Dr. Michael Koren. Welcome home and thanks for calling in this morning.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:51
I appreciate it. Have a great week, Kevin.
Narrator:
5:53
Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to MedEvidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
