My Gut Feelings

Stress and Gastrointestinal disease

There is increasing evidence that stress plays a significant role in how we receive our symptoms, and in fact can lead to development of disease. There is increasing evidence that the brain gut axis allows two way communication between the brain and the gut. This, along with our increasing knowledge of the role of the Microbiome, to maintain health, and our diet form complex connections that keep us healthy or not. In this podcast, I speak with an experienced psychologist who specializes in gut health, and it's a relation to chronic stress.

Covid infection: vaccines and the future

Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the Co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. He is also University Professor at Baylor University, Fellow in Disease and Poverty at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, Faculty Fellow with the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies at Texas A&M University, and Health Policy Scholar in the Baylor Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.Dr. Hotez is an internationally-recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. As co-director of the Texas Children’s CVD, he leads a team and product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm infection, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and SARS/MERS/SARS-2 coronavirus, diseases affecting hundreds of millions of children and adults worldwide, while championing access to vaccines globally and in the United States. In December 2021, Dr. Hotez led efforts at the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development to develop a low-cost recombinant protein COVID vaccine for global health, resulting in emergency use authorization in India.Dr. Hotez has authored more than 600 original papers and is the author of five single-author books, including Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases (ASM Press); Blue Marble Health: An Innovative Plan to Fight Diseases of the Poor amid Wealth (Johns Hopkins University Press); Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism (Johns Hopkins University Press); and Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science (Johns Hopkins University Press).Dr. Hotez served previously as President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and he is founding Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. In 2006 at the Clinton Global Initiative he co-founded the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to provide access to essential medicines for hundreds of millions of people. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (Public Health Section) and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (Public Policy Section). In 2014-16, he served in the Obama Administration as US Envoy, focusing on vaccine diplomacy initiatives between the US Government and countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2018, he was appointed by the US State Department to serve on the Board of Governors for the US Israel Binational Science Foundation, and is frequently called upon frequently to testify before US Congress. He has served on infectious disease task forces for two consecutive Texas Governors. For these efforts in 2017 he was named by FORTUNE Magazine as one of the 34 most influential people in health care, while in 2018 he received the Sustained Leadership Award from Research!America. In 2022 Hotez and his colleague Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for “their work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation.”Most recently as both a vaccine scientist and autism parent, he has led national efforts to defend vaccines and to serve as an ardent champion of vaccines going up against a growing national “antivax” threat.

Anorectal Health: Stuff you may be itching to know!

Anal rectal disease symptoms are often ignored by patients who may just live with them and by physicians who may not be terribly well trained in this area. Anorectal disease is very common and includes diagnoses such as hemorrhoids, anal fissures or tears, itching which can be severe or persistent, rectal bleeding, anal warts and even anal cancer which is not the same as colon cancer. Autoimmune disease such as crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis may present in the anorectum. Rectal bleeding or blood on wiping after a bowel movement could be a symptom of something more serious such as colon cancer which is quite common and often incurable once it's advanced. I hope that this podcast shines some light on questions you may have any certainly useful information. This is Waqar Qureshi, MD, FRCP, FASGE, FACG and Professor of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Common sense eating habits

In today's epidemic of obesity and the easy availability of fast foods it is difficult to find healthy food. This podcast looks into how you can make the best of it by ordering the best choices you can make to keep your diet reasonably healthy. We speak with Courtney Ford who is an experienced dietitian who helps guide us through the maze of choice is to make sensible decisions for our health. I think you'll find this very useful in your day-to-day decision-making on what you put inside your body.

A common bug that can cause stomach cancer

This podcast discusses infection of the stomach from a common bug that can lead to ulcer disease, lymphoma and stomach cancer. The bug is called Helicobacter pylori. Dr. David Graham wrote the book on H. pylori and is the world's foremost authority on this bug what it can do, how to find it and reliably eradicate it. He will also discuss who is at increased risk of getting this infection. He is the inventor of the breath test that can reliably and noninvasively diagnose the infection. Dr. David Graham became professor of medicine, molecular biology and virology in 1983 and since then has published over 1000 scientific articles and 125 book chapters. His wisdom and knowledge on this topic has made this podcast worthwhile. Dr Barry Marshall was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine after his work on H. pylori infection.