Narrator:
0:00
Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by Angkor 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:
0:32
Joining me live right now on the studio line is Dr. Michael Koren, and he is, of course, a medical doctor, a cardiologist and a research scientist. Good morning doctor. How are you?
Dr. Michael Koren:
0:41
Good morning Kevin. How are you?
Kevin Geddings:
0:42
Well, I'm doing well, doing well. So it sounds like you're rushing to save a life this morning in your vehicle, right?
Dr. Michael Koren:
0:50
Well, I definitely am traveling to work and we had a busy weekend and actually this weekend we may have saved a life. We had a fortunate fellow who had a heart attack that we got to the hospital, quickly, got the right care and then he's doing quite well. So we actually saved lives on a day-to-day basis.
Kevin Geddings:
1:10
That's pretty fulfilling work, right.
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:13
It is. I must say it's one of the reasons why I do what I do.
Kevin Geddings:
1:16
Yeah, yeah, Dr. Michael Koren, of course, also with ENCORE Docs. He spends a lot of time trying to help us get good information about what's happening with health care and medical research in particular. Let's face it, because of Google and Facebook and all that, there is a lot of bad information out there, and we try to get some good information out there, and you can do that by going to medevidence. com. Medevidence. com it's a great resource for just good information about what's happening, and we didn't have a chance to talk before the call, but there's been a lot of excitement, I guess, about this new Alzheimer's drug that might be available now. Right, any sense of that?
Dr. Michael Koren:
1:51
Yeah, we've been working very actively in the Alzheimer's space and the FDA has just approved a new drug which, for the first time, both reduces the symptoms, or more accurately, the progression of symptoms, of Alzheimer's dementia, and it also affects the plaques in the brain that are believed to be the source for the development of the disease. So that's a nice little breakthrough. The unfairness of the effects of the drug are modest, so there's still a lot of work to be done and we're doing the work as we speak at our centers.
Kevin Geddings:
2:24
Yeah, and isn't it true, Dr. Koren, that a lot of times we don't necessarily find that cure? That I guess those of us that are not professionals in your space understand, but you make incremental progress to get to a better place.
Dr. Michael Koren:
2:36
Yeah, and that's a typical case Is incremental. Progress is a good word and eventually we hope to come up with a cure, and in many cases we do. But the typical pathway is through incremental progress and figuring things out along the way, and figuring out what is the magic bullet, how can we get to this disease before it affects people's lives?
Kevin Geddings:
2:56
Right. Help us understand if someone were engaged with you in one of these Alzheimer's drug studies. Are they somebody who just has an early diagnosis? Have they been diagnosed for a while? I mean, and I guess too, how does the caregiver help with somebody, maybe, who has progressed a little bit along with the disease, if they still want to participate within medical research that's focused on Alzheimer's?
Dr. Michael Koren:
3:19
Well, we're actually trying to help people at different stages of the illness. So we start by doing memory screens and people who are concerned. A lot of people, as they get older, worry about the memory. We can do formal memory testing to see if you're at risk. People have a family history of Alzheimer's or dementia may want to come in be checked out. Remember that not all dementia is Alzheimer's. There is a lot of dementia due to blood vessel disease. People, for example, who get little, small strokes, well, in many cases develop dementia and that's not Alzheimer's, it's something else and that should be treated by preventing the strokes, for example. So there's a lot of nuances to it. And then if we identify you as somebody that is at high risk and typically these are people that have high levels of the tau protein and have amyloid plaques in the brain if we identify that, then we'll get you involved in one of the studies that is specifically looking to block those effects over time.
Kevin Geddings:
4:12
Yeah, it's a great way, of course, to access the latest technology. If you know someone a loved one, a friend or a neighbor who maybe they have received an Alzheimer's diagnosis, have them check out the website, or you check it out for them and help them get connected with the good folks at ENCORE Docs. They have offices right here in St John's County, next door to Flagler Hospital, in the Whetstone Building. You can call them 904-730-0166 or go to the website, encoredocs. com. In addition to Alzheimer's studies, obviously, Dr. Koren, there's lots of other areas that you guys are doing research in.
Dr. Michael Koren:
4:52
Yeah, I'd like to make a mention about our old friend COVID-19.
Kevin Geddings:
4:57
Oh, have you heard of it, Kevin? Yeah, he's back.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:00
Yeah, so I was just reviewing the Florida statistics and there's a big surge in COVID-19 cases over the last six weeks. If you remember, we talked about this, probably two or three years ago. What would happen with COVID down the road? One of the possibilities was that it would become an endemic virus, meaning it's going to be around like the flu and something we have to deal with every year. That's in fact, what's happened.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:25
Florida is different than other parts of the country. Most parts of the country see spikes during the cold months when people are indoors, but in Florida people are indoors more during the hot months. So, true to form, we're seeing a huge increase in the number of cases between May and July. So the number of cases in Florida went from a little bit over 5,000 to close to 8,000 per week, and this affects people's lives.
Dr. Michael Koren:
5:48
I've had friends and colleagues that got pretty sick even in the last month from COVID, and the neat news is that we now have treatments other than vaccines. So we're working on these antibody treatments that may help a lot of people who weren't even qualified for the vaccine studies. So, as you know, if you have an immune problem or you're at high risk of developing infection because you're on a drug that blocks your immune system. Your options have been limited, but maybe not anymore. So we have these antibody treatments that circulate in your body that will interfere with the effects of COVID-19 and hopefully protect people for another six to 12 months. So we encourage people to look into that.
Kevin Geddings:
6:29
Now, that is good stuff. Once again, call, and they have a really nice team at ENCORE Docs. They'll walk you through the process 904-730-0166. Dr. Michael Koren, thank you for your time. We appreciate you and we'll talk with you next week.
Narrator:
6:47
Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to medevidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
