Speaker 1:
0:00
Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Gettings of WSOS St Augustine Radio and powered by Encore Research Group. Each Monday morning, dr Michael Coran 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.
Speaker 2:
0:32
I can't remember, Dr Michael Coran, if you are a Paul Simon fan or not. Are you?
Speaker 3:
0:37
Absolutely. We had a discussion about the sound of silence, I guess, a couple of months ago and all that history and that's the fellow that Tom Wilson was a producer who had a problem with lipoprotein-lilay, we believe, who died in his mid-40s of a heart attack. He was responsible for helping Simon and Garfunkel turn you to the icons that they are today.
Speaker 2:
1:01
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:
1:03
Dr, Michael Coran is with us. He joins us every Monday morning. We appreciate our time with him and he is a great resource for our listeners and for all of us. He, of course, is a medical doctor cardiologist, also a research scientist and, of course, with Encore Docs. Encore Docs has an office right here in St John's County in St Augustine, near Flagler Hospital, where they are enrolling for different clinical trials, where you can be on the leading edge of medicine. Pretty cool stuff, and I'm going to give you their phone number here locally Just a moment. One thing we wanted to talk about this morning, though, is often we talk about health studies here in the mornings, and one morning we'll have a study about, maybe, some result from the latest on cholesterol reduction, and then it seems like six weeks later there'll be another study that comes out that maybe counters that or has a totally different result, but that's not necessarily that the research is canceling the other research out, right, doctor?
Speaker 3:
1:57
Right, exactly, we kind of teased this last week. But when people hear things sound discrepancy, sound that odds with one another, chances are that they're actually asking a different question. And when you just think about this logically, humans don't change. Where our bodies have a certain physiology, we have certain genetics, and our bodies are our bodies. The drugs don't change, or whatever are testing devices or procedures, they're the same one. So what is different is the questions you're asking.
Speaker 3:
2:32
So a great example of that is whether or not to take an aspirin a day.
Speaker 3:
2:36
I must get that question five times a week as a cardiologist, and people have heard things saying aspirin is something you should take, and now they've heard things that aspirin is something that you should not take. Well, the truth is that aspirin is what some people should take, depending upon what your medical history is. So there are plenty of studies that show that people who are at high risk for heart attacks and strokes do better by taking an aspirin, and if you've had a heart attack, aspirin would be a cornerstone of your therapy. On the other hand, the study came out recently that showed that if you get to 70 years old and you don't have heart disease or you've never had a stroke, then the likelihood of aspirin helping you is incredibly small, and that's because you're probably not going to die of a heart attack or a stroke. Something else is going to get you. So in that case, taking an aspirin probably has no value. So it's not the aspirin that has changed. It's not that people have changed, it's the population and the question that we ask.
Speaker 2:
3:32
Yeah, good point. Yeah, people need to realize that this data that's being collected to is being done in different ways, with different populations, sometimes in different geographic locations right, and obviously different things being looked at.
Speaker 3:
3:46
Exactly, yeah, exactly. Another good example of that is with niacin. You may remember, 20 years ago niacin was the rage, vitamin E was the rage. 20 years ago, when I first started practice, lots of people were on niacin and vitamin E and by and large I was supportive of those decisions based on the information we had available at the time.
Speaker 3:
4:07
But it turns out that niacin, which was shown to be something effective mildly effective, but effective nonetheless in a study called the coronary drug project that was conducted in the 70s, turns out to do absolutely nothing once somebody's on a statin. So again, people didn't change. The drug didn't change, but the background therapy did. So when you ask the question, does niacin do anything when somebody's already on a statin, the answer is no, it really doesn't do anything. Vitamin E is another example of that. We thought that vitamin E would have antioxidant effects and it was often recommended as something that would be helpful for people with heart disease. Two major studies were done where you actually looked at it in a controlled fashion and vitamin E really didn't do anything. In fact, there was a slight trend to worse health outcomes for people who are taking vitamin E Interesting.
Speaker 2:
4:55
Well, once again, clinical research, of course, gets us down the road right, gets us to where we're able to treat all these conditions in a much better way than we did 10 years ago. Right, doctor it?
Speaker 3:
5:05
is yes, it's an answer box. I always like to tell people that, again, it's a need to process by which we ask people to be part of this really wonderful experiment that's happening around the world. We control the environment in a very important way and we only change one thing. There's only one thing difference between the two groups. Typically sometimes there's three or four arms, but typically there's only one thing that's being changed and based on that we can see if the people could have that one thing change do better than the people who do not have that one thing changed.
Speaker 2:
5:40
Once again as Dr Michael Coran, and of course he's with Encore Docs and you can learn more about all the studies, all the clinical research they're doing and how you can participate, potentially make some money and get some of the best health care you're ever going to experience. Go to EncoreDocscom, their offices here in St John's County near Flagler Hospital. What are we recruiting for? These days? Like people want to participate. What might be some options for them? Dr?
Speaker 3:
6:04
Well, our two big programs right now are cholesterol issues. We talked about lipoprotein-lil-A, which is the really, really, really bad cholesterol, right? So anybody within the sound of my voice, excuse me who has a family history of heart disease, a stroke at a relatively young age meaning if somebody in your family has died of a heart attack or a stroke before the age of 60, give us a call and get screened for this genetic dyslipidemia or this genetic problem that puts you at very high risk for having a heart attack or a stroke.
Speaker 3:
6:34
And then you know COVID is here. There's lots of cases, as we've talked about in recent weeks, and we have a new treatment particularly for those people at highest risk. So instead of using a vaccine, we're using antibodies to protect patients. We have that study going on at a couple of different sites. So we're eager to tell people who are at high risk ie people who have cancer, people who are on steroids or other immunosuppressive agents or people who are on kidney dialysis that we may have a solution for them.
Speaker 2:
7:03
Yeah, that's Dr Michael Corn, of course, with Encore Docs. We'd love for you to check out the website to see if there may be a study you might be interested in, or just give them your basic information and they will match you up with some opportunities. You decide whether or not you want to participate ultimately. There's no high pressure here, just some great opportunities to be on the leading edge of medicine.
Speaker 2:
7:22
Go to EncoreDocscom, EncoreDocscom, and, while you're surfing the web, maybe check out this website as well MedEvidencecom and Dr Corn. When they go to that website, the MedEvidencecom website, what are they going to find?
Speaker 3:
7:35
They're going to find objective information about a lot of healthcare issues. We like to call it the truth behind the data. It can be very complicated navigating all these healthcare claims and we like to help people do that. Plus, the most exciting thing, kevin, is that our interviews are on MedEvidence.
Speaker 2:
7:52
I know, I know.
Speaker 3:
7:54
People want to hear us having our daily chat or weekly chat. That's the place to go.
Speaker 2:
7:58
Yeah, no, it really ups my credibility when I'm associated with Dr Corn, so I actually love that Share it with friends and family.
Speaker 3:
8:05
So well, dr Corn Advice versa, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 2:
8:09
Dr Corn, we appreciate you. Stay safe this week with the tropical storm coming our way, or at least on the fringes of it, so stay dry.
Speaker 3:
8:17
And same to you, my friend.
Speaker 1:
8:18
Thanks for joining the MedEvidence podcast. To learn more, head over to medevidencecom or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
