Narrator:
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 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:
0:30
Dr. Michael Koren is with us. Of course. He's a big part of our family here at WSOS and of course he leads the efforts at ENCORE Docs, which they have offices right here in St. John's County in St Augustine where they do leading edge medical research, advancing all sorts of different health issues and concerns that we have we were talking off the air about. Somehow we get a little obsessed with side effects. When we hear about, maybe, new medicines or even longstanding medicines, we want to know about the side effects. Talk to us a little bit about that, Dr.
Michael Koren:
1:01
It's interesting. Before we got on you were asking about the event we had at the research center, which was very well attended, and we had some great questions. It was focused mainly on the latest and greatest in vaccines, including this neat trial that we're doing now that's combining flu and COVID vaccines using mRNA technology. But there was a lot of questions about side effects and I made the point and I think people appreciated it is that you can't just talk about side effects. You always have to talk about side effects in context with benefits. So medicine, everything is a risk-benefit tradeoff. So even drinking water can have side effects if you do it recklessly. And the simplest things either have benefits and side effects, and our job as physicians is to help people understand what that tradeoff is. So my advice to people is if somebody tells you, oh, don't take that because of side effect, you should ask them well, what's the upside, what's the benefit and what's the likelihood of the benefit versus the side effect? The flip side is, if somebody says, oh, this is the greatest thing on earth, you should ask, well, what is the side effect? You know we measure risks versus benefits.
Kevin Geddings:
2:06
Yeah, it seems like even with our current sort of I want to say obsession, but very much focused on taking additional natural supplements or what have you other things that we believe are quote from nature, that's still messing with our body chemistry a little bit right. Even taking something as innocent as some plant-based item is still going to have a quote "side effect, right?
Michael Koren:
2:27
Totally. Everything that you take in your body is a chemical and obviously we need some of these chemicals to live normal, healthy lives, but sometimes, in particularly if the dose is wrong, they could have very deleterious side effects. So your point is well taken is that these natural things can actually cause a lot of side effects, and I'd like to remind my patients who are into natural things that a snake bite is natural, so be careful about nature.
Kevin Geddings:
2:53
Yeah, that's right. Dr. Michael Koren is with us here live. Of course, we also want to point out the website we'd love for you to check out MedEvidence. com. MedEvidence. com, and a lot of what we're doing here, is part of that overall mission, which is just to get good, accurate health information out there, especially about leading-edge advances that we're making in medicine, right?
Michael Koren:
3:13
Yeah, yeah. And the other side of the story about side effects, just to point it out is some people are having side effects and they don't even know it. So I had a really interesting conversation over the weekend with a vendor that's trying to get my refrigerator fixed and we started getting into a discussion and the woman on the phone was telling me about some her medical issues and she mentioned she was on a drug called Inderal or they're doing for that's called propanolol, and that drug is sort of an old-school drug. It's one out of favor in a lot of cases and she was using it because she was subject to fast heartbeat. Well, it is true that propanolol or Inderal will help fast heartbeat, but it also caused a lot of side effects. And During the same conversation she mentioned to me that our biggest problem is that her diabetes was completely out of control. And I asked her the question Well, did you know that one of the side effects of the propanolol is making your diabetes worse? And she had no idea. So hopefully that was a productive conversation for her and she gets switched over to something that's less likely to cause that side effect. But it's a good example of fact that sometimes we're obsessed about side effects I'm not there and other times we don't even know about side effects that we're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. So that's why I love the research process, because we dig into all these things and whether or not you decide to do a study or get involved, you'll have an analysis of your situation and leave our offices with much more knowledge than you came in with.
Kevin Geddings:
4:42
Well, Dr. Michael Koren, I'm sure you helped that lady with her diabetes. But probably just as important, Did you get your refrigerator fixed?
Michael Koren:
4:49
Well, not yet, but uh, the rest of the story will hopefully unfold in a in a cool direction by the end of the week.
Kevin Geddings:
4:57
It's always wonder you know? Because Dr. Koren, of course, is a research scientist, Harvard Medical S chool. You know very amazing credentials. Do you ever look at a refrigerator that's broken and just say you know, I bet I can probably fix this if I really focus on it.
Michael Koren:
5:12
Actually I'm smart because I realize I can't. It's a funny point you make, but one of the most important things about intelligence is knowing what you don't know, and I think that's missing in society nowadays.
Kevin Geddings:
5:26
Well, you're not the truth. It's like when a plumber comes because my toilet is backed up, I know that I need to step away. You know, don't give him any advice. This guy knows what he's doing. You know, I have my little role in the world, he has his, and let's just stay in our lane, right?
Michael Koren:
5:40
Exactly Well, it's good to ask questions and to assess, but don't assume you know more.
Kevin Geddings:
5:46
There you go, Dr. Michael Koren. Of course, we always learn a lot from our time with him. You can learn a lot more and get a much deeper dive into what we're talking about here each and every week by going to the website MedE evidence. com. That's MedE vidence. com, and if you'd like to participate in some leading edge you know medical research, clinical trials, you could even be compensated for some of your participation. But more importantly, you're going to get a better health status for yourself or a loved one. Go to on ENCOREd ocs. com. That's ENCORE docs. com, spelled ENCOREdocs. com, and the telephone number here locally 904 730 0166. And before we let you go, Dr. Koren, what are you going to be for Halloween tomorrow?
Michael Koren:
6:31
Um, I should have a snappy answer for that. Um, I think I'm going to be an idea.
Kevin Geddings:
6:40
Oh, an idea. Yeah, you could go dress as a big light bulb, right?
Michael Koren:
6:44
There you go. Yeah, go ahead best things in the world are great ideas. So that's I'm gonna. I'm gonna dress up as an idea tomorrow.
Kevin Geddings:
6:53
Very good. Well, Dr. Koren, thank you, as always, for all your time. We appreciate you. We'll talk soon.
Narrator:
6:58
Thanks for joining the med evidence podcast. To learn more, head over to medevidence. com or subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform you.
