Health Matters

Since this is our final Health Matters show, we decided to call it Quitz, or according to WMKY station manager Paul Hitchcock, “The End of an Error”. We discuss Covid 19-sensing dogs, new CDC guidelines, mammograms, and as a parting gift, we give you permission to eat eggs. Thanks to all the staff at Morehead State Public Radio, for allowing us to pollute the airwaves for 17 years.

We begin with a woman who found electroconvulsive therapy to be a partial cure for colorblindness. Then, a detailed discussion of the bathrooms of New York, 5 rules for surviving a pandemic, an update on airport screenings, and the proper diet to reduce your risk of cancer. It’s a great way to sign off for the summer.

Sponsored by the American Cancer Society guidelines for diet and physical activity, the show includes the latest Covid-19 numbers, apologies from Sweden’s health minister, when 511 epidemiologists think they can resume activities, and some measure of hope that we will be able to keep the pandemic under control. Be safe, and wear your masks!

Bob Behnken has a PhD in mechanical engineering from Caltech. Doug Hurley studied civil engineering at Tulane before becoming a test pilot in the Marine Corps. Each flew two Space Shuttle missions. Now, they have piloted the SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station. Health Matters celebrates their achievement with information about tick repellents and Covid 19.

Oedipus Rex is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Oedipus learns that he is doomed to kill his father. This makes Health Matters think about people who do not wear masks and are doomed to put their grandparents in danger. Of course, cigarette smokers are doomed to endanger those around them as well. We try our hand at prophecy, looking at the future of shopping malls, live entertainment, and colleges and universities. We also talk about swimming, prostate cancer, and the disappearance of influenza while we are social distancing.

As Kentucky tries to go back to work, we review the worldwide Covid 19 numbers, talk about swimming safety, vaccines, and the unreliability of information on twitter. We speculate on how the pandemic will change our hurricane response this fall, and ponder what New Zealand will do next, since they have practically eliminated the virus.

Dedicated to Kentucky state governor and Health Matters HOTY (Hero of Today’s Youth) Andy Beshear, this show explores some of the things that we can’t do the way we used to. We began with a brief history of the 1918 influenza epidemic, which killed up to 50 million people worldwide, and over 750,000 people in the US. Then, remembering that the roaring 20s began around 2 years after the epidemic, we try to reimagine what recovery would be like. There will be many changes.

Although numbers are subject to interpretation, we look at the experience with Covid 19 around the world. While we are cautious in our interpretation of numbers, it is telling that our experts want us to be more like South Korea or Iceland, rather than many of the European nations whose healthcare systems we admire. It appears that Covid 19 is capable of wrecking and overwhelming any healthcare system. Our best weapons are not ventilators, but handwashing and avoiding crowds.

We have learned a great deal recently about maintaining your health. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends all Americans ages 18-79 be screened for Hepatitis C. A review indicates mammography doesn’t save lives after age 75. There are at least 7 things you can do to lower your risk of dying of cancer. We explain what you need to do with this information, and discuss the future of Alexa in a jam-packed hour of radio.

We at Health Matters suspect you are having a bad month. It could be worse – the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine sent acceptance letters to everyone they interviewed, 10 times their normal class-size, and had to notify applicants that there was a mistake. We review the top 10 causes of death in good ol’ 2018, discuss drug prices and fish oil, and keep you company, virtually holding your hand during your quarantine.

Most people believe that cancer is caused by your genes. Researchers believe that only one third of all cancer cases can be blamed on inherited genes, but 42% of cancers are caused by your lifestyle. This show is designed to help you learn how to prevent cancer in your life. We discuss the top seven preventable causes of cancer, along with a few other interesting causes, such as scented candles, shift work, and not enough coffee.

This show is dedicated to the alert listener who called the station to let us know we are idiot s. Topics discussed include lung cancer screening, the health effects of eggs, coloring books for stress management, and age testing for healthcare providers.

After the 2016 Democratic primary debacle, the Des Moines Register wrote, “the whole world is laughing at Iowa”. Well, they are laughing again, and Health Matters celebrates the fact that someone other than Kentucky looks bad. This show features updates on lead aprons, service animals, and patient monitoring in the hospital and at home.

What happens when a healthcare system closes? Unfortunately, northeastern Kentucky is about to find out. With the closing of Our Lady of Bellefonte hospital in Russell, our region loses a 214-bed community and referral hospital, outpatient specialty clinics, a same-day surgery center, a women's center, primary care clinics in South Shore, Cannonsburg, Grayson, and Flatwoods, 1000 jobs, and a busy emergency room. At the time the closing was announced, the wards were full, the emergency room was bustling, and people were waiting for appointments. Health Matters looks at what we’ve lost and why it matters.

At long last, this was the show where Shelley Irving was going to say something, but we ran out of time. We do discuss heart attack symptoms, the recent fall in cancer death rates, and we review the advances in healthcare over the last decade. Why not avoid the flu, and listen to this one in the closet?

A new year, but the same sloppy Health Matters. We talk about how to be healthy and 48 words, some of the worst behaviors by healthcare providers in 2019, and Rick gives an update from the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show for new inventions in healthcare.

In memory of Minnesota Viking placekicker Fred Cox, who invented the Nerf football and improved the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays of boys and girls around the world, this show discusses holiday safety tips from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, deep brain stimulation and losing your ability to swim, managing nosebleeds on an airplane, and smart watches that can diagnose atrial fibrillation. This holiday season, why not give your brain a holiday with this episode of Health Matters.

This show consists of carefully selected brief health topics to help you get through your holiday shopping. From colon cancer prevention to marijuana to hamburgers and hotdog sales in Kentucky, we have all the essential health information you need for the holidays, condensed into nugget form, perfect for while you are driving to the mall or waiting for Santa to talk to the children. Happy holiday shopping to our listeners, and you are welcome.

It is time once again to celebrate that sacred, yet profane, season when we dress up as sexy dead people, eat too much, watch football, and buy each other gifts. Health Matters brings our contribution—this discussion of colon cancer screening, theme park cameras, vaping, and preventing heart attacks. If you are stuck in a long line waiting to spend your money, we will keep you company.

This show is dedicated to a friend and financial advisor, Wes Holland, who observed, “bankers don’t wear hoodies”. We talk about the dangers of senior citizens managing their finances, and discuss the top 12 Time magazine innovations that would change healthcare in the 2020s. Be sure to wash your hands before the show, and you may want to rinse out your ears afterwards.

100 years ago, at 11 AM on November 11, 1919, British leaders observed a two-minute period of silence to honor those soldiers who had died in World War I. That celebration spread around the world, triggering the predecessor of our Veterans Day. Many things have changed in the era of modern warfare, but unfortunately the loss of human life to achieve political ends remains. We salute our war heroes from all wars with this offering regarding handwashing, taking your blood pressure medicines at nighttime, and reconstructing a person’s face from their MRI scan.

Subtitled “Dead Men Don’t Move”, this show is about pronouncing a person dead, dealing with families, remaining upright, osteoporosis, and shoes with tread. Our two favorite articles are the fall prevention intervention from China that was badly translated, and the “Dead or Married” article illustrating the rising gap in life expectancy between married and single adults.

This show is dedicated to reviewing the latest findings regarding red meat and processed meat consumption. Nutrition experts issued a week recommendation that there is no reason to change your current meat intake to improve your health. This is opposite the recommendations of many groups, and sure to create a controversy, but their numbers are very large and their math looks sound. Grab some red meat and listen to us expose our ignorance.

We celebrate the (anticipated) close to the fall fundraiser with this show, reviewing the benefits of magnetic helmets in Alzheimer disease, the dangers of vaping, especially vaping marijuana, Kentucky's massive outbreak of hepatitis, and the use of fans during extreme heat waves. This reminder from our sponsor, the Vaccination League: get your fall flu shot, and enjoy the show.

Okay, this is fairly simple. Morehead State Public Radio needs money. You got money. How about we make a deal? We give you classical music, jazz music, bluegrass music, folk music, national news, state news, regional news, local news, weather, sports, interesting historical tidbits on The Readers Notebook, storytelling-- even the traffic report from Isonville (mostly clear with a chance of tractors). You give us money. Then we buy a new soundboard, and we do it all again.

This show gives us a chance to expound on the things that vex us – teenage children, werewolves, optimism, women’s health, vaccinations – while paying our respects to the ill-fated Vikram Lander. Just as it crashed on the moon's surface, we show you that radio shows can crash as well. The Vaccination League reminds you it is time to get your flu shot. But wait until after the show.