Podcasts about health research council

In this conversation, Professor Alex Tups discusses his extensive research on metabolic regulation, focusing on the roles of leptin and insulin in the brain. He shares insights into the discovery of butane, a compound found in the Dahlia flower, and its potential to improve blood sugar regulation and combat neuroinflammation. The discussion highlights the importance of diet, gut health, and the synergistic effects of flavonoids in promoting overall well-being. Professor Tups emphasizes the need for further research and clinical trials to validate the benefits of his findings. In this conversation, Alexander Tups and Lisa Tamati discuss the journey of research from the lab to market, focusing on the supplement Dahlia 4 and its potential impact on health, particularly in relation to metabolic dysregulation and neuroinflammation. They explore the importance of consumer awareness regarding supplements, the role of circadian rhythms in health, and the need for proactive health measures. The discussion emphasizes the unique mechanism of Dahlia 4 in targeting brain inflammation and its implications for conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Takeaways: Leptin and insulin play crucial roles in metabolic regulation. Neuroinflammation is a key factor in insulin resistance. Dahlia4 is a supplement derived from the Dahlia flower. Flavonoids can have synergistic effects on health. Diet and gut health significantly impact overall well-being. Research shows potential for reversing pre-diabetes. Oral hygiene is linked to brain health. Clinical trials are ongoing for Dahlia 4's effectiveness. The brain is a master organ in regulating metabolism. Natural compounds can have varying effects on health. The importance of feedback from users to improve health products. Research must translate into real-world applications for maximum impact. Basic research is crucial for developing new drugs and supplements. Supplements can be brought to market faster than traditional drugs. Consumer awareness is key in choosing effective supplements. Metabolic dysregulation is a growing concern for aging populations. Neuroinflammation may be addressed with targeted supplements. Regular eating patterns can support circadian rhythms and metabolic health. Dahlia4 targets brain inflammation, offering a unique approach. Proactive health measures can mitigate risks of chronic diseases. If you would like to try DAHLIA4 you can now find it in our range at www.lisatamati.com Dahlia4 BIO Alexander Tups pursued his academic journey in Biology, initially studying at the Heinrich Heine University of Duesseldorf and the Philipps University of Marburg. He earned a Diploma in Biology at the latter institution, focusing on Animal Physiology, Genetics, and Developmental Biology. He further advanced his education through a Marie Curie and Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Scholarship, undertaking a Ph.D. at the Rowett Research Institute, one of the UK's leading nutrition research centres and the Philipps University of Marburg. In 2005 he graduated with "summa cum laude (highest distinction) " for his research on the neuroendocrine mechanism that regulates seasonal body weight. Following his Ph.D., Alexander Tups served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago from 2006-2008. In recognition of his potential, he received a prestigious junior group leader grant in nutrition research from the German Ministry of Education and Research in 2007, amounting to €1,500,000. This grant allowed him to establish an independent research group called 'neuronal nutrition physiology' at the Philipps University of Marburg, where he explored the impact of nutrient sensing in the brain on the regulation of body weight and glucose homeostasis as one of the youngest independent group leaders in Germany. From 2012-2014 in addition to his group leader role he was Head of Department for Animal Physiology at this institution before he was appointed at the University of Otago in 2014 in Physiology.   Throughout his career, Alex Tups has contributed significantly to his field, publishing 48 peer reviewed research papers, the vast majority as lead author. His research has contributed to our understanding of how the brain controls body weight and blood sugar levels. His work has been internationally recognized with notable awards, such as the Michael Harbuz Price in neuroendocrine research in the UK in 2009, the Ernst and Berta Sharrer Award in Germany in 2014, the Commercialisation Researcher Award at Otago University in 2023 and the Research Excellence Price by the Physiological Society of New Zealand in 2023. Alexander reviews research for leading international journals and grant agencies including for Harvard University, the British Welcome Trust and the French and German National Research Agencies. He has advised the city council of his home town, Dunedin, on the impact of artificial lighting on human Health supported by his research which contributed to the installation of modern warm street lighting in Dunedin.   His research has been funded by Return on Science, Otago Innovation, the Royal Society of Marsden Fund, the Health Research Council, the German Ministry of Research and the German Research Foundation.        Personalised Health Optimisation Consulting with Lisa Tamati Lisa offers solution focused coaching sessions to help you find the right answers to your challenges. Topics Lisa can help with:  Lisa is a Genetics Practitioner, Health Optimisation Coach, High Performance and Mindset Coach. She is a qualified Ph360 Epigenetics coach and a clinician with The DNA Company and has done years of research into brain rehabilitation, neurodegenerative diseases and biohacking. She has extensive knowledge on such therapies as hyperbaric oxygen,  intravenous vitamin C, sports performance, functional genomics, Thyroid, Hormones, Cancer and much more. She can assist with all functional medicine testing. Testing Options Comprehensive Thyroid testing DUTCH Hormone testing Adrenal Testing Organic Acid Testing Microbiome Testing Cell Blueprint Testing Epigenetics Testing DNA testing Basic Blood Test analysis Heavy Metals  Nutristat Omega 3 to 6 status and more  Lisa and her functional medicine colleagues in the practice can help you navigate the confusing world of health and medicine . She can also advise on the latest research and where to get help if mainstream medicine hasn't got the answers you are searching for whatever the  challenge you are facing from cancer to gut issues, from depression and anxiety, weight loss issues, from head injuries to burn out to hormone optimisation to the latest in longevity science. Book your consultation with Lisa    Join our Patron program and support the show Pushing the Limits' has been free to air for over 8 years. Providing leading edge information to anyone who needs it. But we need help on our mission.  Please join our patron community and get exclusive member benefits (more to roll out later this year) and support this educational platform for the price of a coffee or two You can join by going to  Lisa's Patron Community Or if you just want to support Lisa with a "coffee" go to  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/LisaT to donate $3   Lisa's Anti-Aging and Longevity Supplements  Lisa has spent years curating a very specialized range of exclusive longevity, health optimizing supplements from leading scientists, researchers and companies all around the world.  This is an unprecedented collection. The stuff Lisa wanted for her family but couldn't get in NZ that's what it's in her range. Lisa is constantly researching and interviewing the top scientists and researchers in the world to get you the best cutting edge supplements to optimize your life.   Subscribe to our popular Youtube channel  with over 600 videos, millions of views, a number of full length documentaries, and much more. You don't want to miss out on all the great content on our Lisa's youtube channel. Youtube   Order Lisa's Books Lisa has published 5 books: Running Hot, Running to Extremes, Relentless, What your oncologist isn't telling you and her latest "Thriving on the Edge"  Check them all out at  https://shop.lisatamati.com/collections/books   Perfect Amino Supplement by Dr David Minkoff Introducing PerfectAmino PerfectAmino is an amino acid supplement that is 99% utilized by the body to make protein. PerfectAmino is 3-6x the protein of other sources with almost no calories. 100% vegan and non-GMO. The coated PerfectAmino tablets are a slightly different shape and have a natural, non-GMO, certified organic vegan coating on them so they will glide down your throat easily. Fully absorbed within 20-30 minutes! No other form of protein comes close to PerfectAminos Listen to the episode with Dr Minkoff here:    Use code "tamati" at checkout to get a 10% discount on any of their devices.   Red Light Therapy: Lisa is a huge fan of Red Light Therapy and runs a Hyperbaric and Red Light Therapy clinic. If you are wanting to get the best products try Flexbeam: A wearable Red Light Device https://recharge.health/product/flexbeam-aff/?ref=A9svb6YLz79r38   Or Try Vielights' advanced Photobiomodulation Devices Vielight brain photobiomodulation devices combine electrical engineering and neuroscience. To find out more about photobiomodulation, current studies underway and already completed and for the devices mentioned in this video go to www.vielight.com and use code “tamati” to get 10% off     Enjoyed This Podcast? If you did, subscribe and share it with your friends! If you enjoyed tuning in, then leave us a review and share this with your family and friends. Have any questions? You can contact my team through email (support@lisatamati.com) or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. For more episode updates, visit my website. You may also tune in on Apple Podcasts.  To pushing the limits, Lisa and team

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research interview Associate Professor Natalie Walker from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Dr Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Associate Professor Natalie Walker, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, Social and Community Health, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Natalie Walker discusses her study exploring the effectiveness of nicotine salt vapes, cytisine, and a combination of these products, for smoking cessation in New Zealand. This is a three-arm, pragmatic, community-based randomised controlled trial. They have just finished recruiting 800 participants and the results of this study will be published 2024. This study is funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. We also hear about the stop smoking policies taking place in New Zealand and about current levels of smoking and e-cigarette use there. This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches. Our literature searches carried out October 1st 2023 identified two papers linked to studies previously identified. The study discussed in the podcast, Walker 2023, Effectiveness of nicotine salt vapes, cytisine, and a combination of these products, for smoking cessation in New Zealand: protocol for a three-arm, pragmatic, community-based randomised controlled trial (10.1186/s12889-023-16665-w) linked to ongoing study NCT05311085. The second linked study is Carpenter 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102142), see also May 2023 podcast. For more information on the full Cochrane review updated in November 2022 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub7/full Or our webpage: https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-cessation-cochrane-living-systematic-review-1 This podcast is supported by Cancer Research UK.

Dr. Hinemoa Elder (Ngāti Kurī, Te Rarawa, Te Aupōuri and Ngāpuhi) is a Māori child and adolescent psychiatrist and fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. She works at Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland and deputy psychiatry member of the NZ Mental Health Review Tribunal. She became a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and to Psychiatry in 2019.  Dr. Elder has written two best selling books – Aroha and Wawata and joins us today to kōrero about her journey today. She has a PhD in Public Health (2012)  in which she developed tools for Māori whānau (extended families) with Traumatic Brain Injury and was also the recipient of a Health Research Council of NZ Eru Pomare Post Doctoral Fellowship. The approaches she developed are used in rehabilitation in the community. She continues to work in TBI and dementia research. She received the MNZM for services to Māori and to Psychiatry in 2019. She is an invited member of the Busara Circle, a group of senior international women leaders which forms a critical support for the Homeward Bound project, a global leadership programme for women in science, of which she is an alumni, travelling to Antarctica with the project in 2019. Dr Elder is a Board member of The Helen Clark Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy think tank which generates public policy research and debate. She is a board member of the RANZCP Foundation. Dr Elder is the Patron of 'Share my Super” a charity aimed at ending child poverty in NZ. Dr Elder has written two best seeling books published by Penguin Random House. “Aroha. Māori wisdom for a contented life lived in harmony with our planet', was named on the Oprah Winfrey Book club in 2021.  ‘Wawata. Daily wisdom guided by Hina the Māori moon, is currently the number one best selling non-fiction book in NZ. Dr Elder is also regularly invited to give keynote presentations. She was an invited speaker to the Rhodes Healthcare Forum, Oxford University in 2019. Hinemoa has a background in theatre and dance. She performed in a NZ play at the Edinburgh Festival, Assembly Rooms in 1986. She is a past Chair of Auckland Theatre Company Trust and the inaugural Chair of Te Taumata a Iwi The Arts Foundation. Hinemoa also worked in NZ childrens' television in the early 1990s.In this episode, we discuss her journey from television presenting to medicine, her own experiences in the medical system with her māmā, her journey into psychiatry,  and the numerous non-profit organisations and her involvement - including Busara Circle, The Helen Clark Foundation, and Share my Super. We talk about looking after ourselves as doctors, but also the importance of seeing the bigger picture and public health involvement. We brush on topics of intersectional feminism and evidence-based practice, and how we can do more to empower our own medical wāhine. We discuss her passion for theatre performance and her multiple accolades in the creative world.Support the showAs always, if you have any feedback or queries, or if you would like to get in touch with the speaker, feel free to get in touch at doctornos@pm.me. Audio credit:Bliss by Luke Bergs https://soundcloud.com/bergscloudCreative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/33DJFs9Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/e9aXhBQDT9Y

Kava – a ceremonial Pacific Island drink known to relax the muscles – is showing promise as a therapy for the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To further explore the therapeutic potential of kava for first responders, military personnel, and Corrections staff, University of Waikato researchers recently received a Health Research Council grant of almost $1 million. 

Kidney patients are lining up to take part in the latest trial, as doctors and scientists in New Zealand move a step closer to transplanting a pig's organ into a person. Some people have already waited for 15 years without finding a compatible donor - but Xenotransplantation could be the answer. After approval from the Health Research Council's Ethics Committee, blood samples will be collected and compared to a special type of swine - to see whether they are compatible for a potentially life saving transplant. Sally Wenley reports.

Dr. Suresh Muthukumaraswamy — LSD Microdosing, Classical Psychedelics vs. Ketamine, Science and Speed in New Zealand, Placebo Options, and The Infinite Possibilities of Studying Mind-Altering CompoundsDr. Suresh Muthukumaraswamy completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Auckland in 2005 after which he joined the newly established Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre as a postdoctoral fellow. While at Cardiff, he started research work with psychedelics in 2011 in collaboration with Professor David Nutt and Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris investigating the neuroimaging correlates of the psychedelic drugs psilocybin and LSD. In 2014, Suresh received a prestigious Rutherford Discovery Fellowship and returned to the University of Auckland where he works in the School of Pharmacy at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences and leads the Auckland Neuropsychopharmacology Research Group.Suresh's main research interests are in understanding how therapies alter brain function and behavior and in testing methodologies to measure these changes in both healthy individuals and patient groups — particularly in depressed patients.At the University of Auckland, he has conducted clinical trials in depressed patients involving ketamine, scopolamine, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. He has received several Health Research Council of New Zealand research grants to support this work, including a grant to investigate the effects of microdoses of LSD on brain and cognitive function. Suresh has published 117 papers, with his work receiving 8000+ citations.This special episode of the podcast is a live recording from an event hosted by the Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF). EHF began in 2016 as a pilot immigration program and has matured into a fellowship of more than 500 technologists, creatives, investors, entrepreneurs, educators, and systems designers, committed to New Zealand as a base camp for global impact. From more than 50 different nationalities, including New Zealand, fellows span a range of high-value sectors: media, education, cleantech, venture capital, and mental health initiatives/research just to name a few.EHF and its fellows aim to make a meaningful impact in New Zealand/Aotearoa with projects that often have global applications.Please enjoy!*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim's email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim's books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissPast guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Doctors are worried that thousands of people are relying on menstrual tracking apps that are not accurate. The Health Research Council is funding a study on the apps to check how sound their predictions and advice are. Doctors say the popularity of the health-trackers has skyrocketed in recent years, especially among those who are trying to get pregnant. Here's reporter Kirsty Frame.

Associate Professor Anitra Carr is Director of the Nutrition in Medicine Research Group in the Department of Pathology & Biomedical Science, at the University of Otago Christchurch Medical School, New Zealand. Dr Carr is considered an international key opinion leader on the role of vitamin C in human health and disease. Following a PhD at the University of Otago, Christchurch, Dr Carr was awarded an American Heart Association Post-doctoral Fellowship to carry out research into vitamin C and cardiovascular disease at the Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, USA. Whilst there she produced a number of high impact publications, one of which was used by the US Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine as a basis for their increase of the recommended dietary intake for vitamin C. After returning to the University of Otago, Christchurch, Dr Carr managed human intervention studies investigating the bioavailability and health effects of vitamin C and was awarded a Health Research Council of New Zealand Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowship to investigate the role of vitamin C in severe infection, specifically pneumonia and sepsis. She is currently carrying out translational ‘bench to bedside' research into the role of vitamin C in the prevention and treatment of acute and chronic diseases such as infection, cancer and diabetes.

The donated brains of former athletes are being studied to understand more about how repeated sports related head injuries cause brain degeneration.Repetitive mild traumatic sporting brain injuries can lead to a progressive neurodegenerative disorder called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Funded by the Health Research Council, Helen Murray from the University of Auckland centre for brain research is looking at structural changes in the brain tissue from deceased Australian athletes to learn more about the neuropathology of such injuries. Dr Murray is the captain of the New Zealand women's national ice hockey team, the Ice Ferns, and she has witnessed team-mates suffer appalling head trauma.

Māori will be the focus of this country's first trial of screening for lung cancer. It's been made possible by a grant of nearly $2 million from the Health Research Council and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases programme. Lung cancer is our biggest single cause of cancer death, and a major driver of health inequities between Māori and non-Maori. Otago University Māori health researcher Sue Crengle will lead the trial.

Māori will be the focus of this country's first trial of screening for lung cancer. It's been made possible by a grant of nearly $2 million from the Health Research Council and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases programme. Lung cancer is our biggest single cause of cancer death, and a major driver of health inequities between Māori and non-Maori. Otago University Māori health researcher Sue Crengle will lead the trial.

"Bold and necessary" is how a 30-year health veteran is describing the government's shake-up. Dr Lester Levy has chaired New Zealand's biggest DHBs, headed up a private hospital and is the current chair of the Health Research Council and the Crown Monitor appointed to oversee the troubled Canterbury DHB. He says if the reforms are implemented properly, the new system should be a success, but not everyone will like it.  

Sepsis is a massive health issue worldwide. According to WHO, nearly 50 million people get sepsis every year, killing 11 million. Here in New Zealand, one in five ICU patients dies because of it. Thus, raising awareness about the role of vitamin C in sepsis can help save lives. Dr Anitra Carr joins us in this episode to expand our understanding of the role of vitamin C in our body. She also explains how vitamin C functions not only as an antioxidant but also as a cofactor in many different mechanisms, particularly in fighting cancer and sepsis. Everything we share in this episode will be helpful for you should you find yourself or a loved one admitted to a hospital, so tune in.   Get Customised Guidance for Your Genetic Make-Up For our epigenetics health program all about optimising your fitness, lifestyle, nutrition and mind performance to your particular genes, go to  https://www.lisatamati.com/page/epigenetics-and-health-coaching/. You can also join their free live webinar on epigenetics.   Online Coaching for Runners Go to www.runninghotcoaching.com for our online run training coaching.   Consult with Me If you would like to work with me one to one on anything from your mindset, to head injuries,  to biohacking your health, to optimal performance or executive coaching, please book a consultation here: https://shop.lisatamati.com/collections/consultations.   Order My Books My latest book Relentless chronicles the inspiring journey about how my mother and I defied the odds after an aneurysm left my mum Isobel with massive brain damage at age 74. The medical professionals told me there was absolutely no hope of any quality of life again, but I used every mindset tool, years of research and incredible tenacity to prove them wrong and bring my mother back to full health within 3 years. Get your copy here: http://relentlessbook.lisatamati.com/ For my other two best-selling books Running Hot and Running to Extremes chronicling my ultrarunning adventures and expeditions all around the world, go to https://shop.lisatamati.com/collections/books.   My Jewellery Collection For my gorgeous and inspiring sports jewellery collection ‘Fierce’, go to https://shop.lisatamati.com/collections/lisa-tamati-bespoke-jewellery-collection.   Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode: Learn more about vitamin C’s antioxidant properties. Discover how vitamin C helps patients with pneumonia and sepsis. Learn about vitamin C’s role as a cofactor and how it ensures the proper functioning of different body processes.   Resources Read more about Dr Carr's study on vitamin C levels in patients with pneumonia. Access Dr Carr's review on recommended doses of vitamin C. Health and Immune Function Benefits of Kiwifruit-derived Vitamin C by Dr Anitra Carr Read more about Dr Carr's ongoing clinical trial on vitamin C and its effect on COVID-19 patients. Learn more about Dr Paul Marik's protocol for sepsis using vitamin C and steroids. Learn more about Dr Fowler's Phase 1 safety trial of IV vitamin C in patients with severe sepsis. Watch Professor Margreet Vissers' lecture on her work on vitamin C.   Episode Highlights [04:40] How Dr Carr’s Research on Vitamin C Started Dr Carr’s research began in 1998, where she studied how reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by white blood cells react with our tissues. White blood cells produce ROS to help kill bacteria. However, they can also react with the tissues and create inflammation. Dr Carr then began investigating how vitamin C’s antioxidant properties help decrease inflammation. She also studied the benefits of vitamin C in preventing atherosclerotic plaques and the development of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). [09:42] Vitamin C as an Antioxidant Vitamin C has real antioxidant properties. Metal ions produce oxidants in the body; vitamin C donates electrons to these ions, converting them to the reduced state. The recommended daily dose to benefit from the antioxidant potential of vitamin C is 60 to 90 milligrammes in men and 75 milligrammes in women. You need a higher dose (120 milligrammes) of the vitamin to protect yourself from CVD and cancer. [17:57] Vitamin C in Food vs. Vitamin C Tablet Dr Carr conducted a comparative dosing study between kiwi fruit and vitamin C tablets. She found no difference in the vitamin C obtained from food and tablets. The body recognises the same molecule and takes up the same amount. [21:36] Vitamin C in Sepsis and Pneumonia Patients with pneumonia can develop sepsis, resulting in multi-organ failure, septic shock and, eventually, death. In observational studies in patients with pneumonia, Dr Carr found that the lower the vitamin C levels, the higher the oxidative stress. The body's requirement for vitamin C goes up by at least 30-fold when you get pneumonia and sepsis; it is hard to get those amounts orally. ICU patients need a vitamin C dose of 100 milligrammes per day. In these patients, the actual levels of vitamin C measured in the blood is lower compared to the amount they are receiving. [25:25] Why Is Vitamin C Testing Not a Protocol in Hospitals? Doctors are not familiar with the importance, recent research and mode of action of vitamin C because it is not taught in medical schools. The hospital system is not set up to routinely measure vitamin C. In trials, vitamin C is treated as a drug rather than a vitamin. We need to know how vitamin C works to create proper and adequate study designs. [32:27] What Are Some of the Future Vitamin C Studies We Can Conduct? We need studies about the frequency, dosing and timing of its administration.  We need to learn about the finer details of the vitamin rather than doing the same study designs. It is tough to obtain research funding due to the misinformation surrounding vitamin C. We also need to educate doctors and patients alike about the science behind vitamin C. [43:16] Vitamin C as a Cofactor Our cells rely on enzymes to carry out chemical reactions. A cofactor helps enzyme function. Vitamin C functions as a cofactor for the enzyme that synthesises noradrenaline and vasopressin. These hormones help in blood pressure regulation. It’s better to give ICU patients vitamin C than giving them vasopressin drugs. This allows the body to naturally produce the hormone, preventing the side effects of getting vasopressin externally. Vitamin C is also a cofactor of collagen, which plays a role in stopping cancer metastasis and wound healing. [54:30] Vitamin C in Epigenetics The expression of DNA may be regulated by adding or removing methyl groups. Vitamin C is a cofactor for enzymes that modify DNA methylation. It controls the switching on and off of genes, playing a possible role in personalised medicine.   7 Powerful Quotes from This Episode ‘I’m much more interested in the whole person and how they're feeling, not what's happening inside a single cell’. ‘Don't wait until they're at death's door and at septic shock. It's hard for a vitamin to do something at this stage, even a really high-dose vitamin’. ‘A lot of these studies were designed to reproduce the first studies that came out to see if they could reproduce it also. That's why they’re using similar regimes. But now that we know more about it, each study adds another piece to the puzzle’. ‘There’s bigger issues at play with the whole pharmacological model that our whole system is built upon, and that nutrients and nutrition isn't taught in medical school. So, we're up against this big sort of brick wall’. ‘People go into a hospital setting or something, and they expect to have the latest and greatest information available, that the doctors know all that. And unfortunately, that's not always the case’. ‘Every person's life that is saved is a family that's not grieving’. ‘It’s the reason I’m doing this podcast, and it's the reason you're doing your research. And hopefully together and with many others, we can move the story along so that people get helped’.   About Dr Anitra Dr Anitra Carr holds a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry/Pathology. She started researching vitamin C when she undertook a postdoctoral research position at the Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University, USA, and was also awarded an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr Carr produced a number of high-impact publications in the field of vitamin C in human health and disease. Dr Carr is currently a Research Associate Professor at the University of Otago, Christchurch, School of Medicine. She has established her own research group, the Nutrition in Medicine Research Group, and undertakes translational bench-to-bedside research comprising observational studies and clinical trials on the role of oral and intravenous vitamin C in infection, cancer, metabolic health, mood and cognitive health. Dr Carr endeavours to understand the underlying biochemical mechanisms of action as well as improve patient outcomes and quality of life. She also pursues various ways to improve clinician and general public understanding of the roles of vitamin C in human health and disease. You may contact Dr Carr through anitra.carr@otago.ac.nz or call +64 3 364 0649.   Enjoyed This Podcast?  If you did, be sure to subscribe and share it with your friends! Post a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning in, then leave us a review. You can also share this with your family and friends so they can learn more about the benefits of vitamin C in sepsis and pneumonia. Have any questions? You can contact me through email (support@lisatamati.com) or find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. For more episode updates, visit my website. You may also tune in on Apple Podcasts. To pushing the limits, Lisa   Full Transcript Welcome to Pushing the Limits, the show that helps you reach your full potential with your host Lisa Tamati, brought to you by lisatamati.com.  Lisa Tamati: Welcome back to the show! This week, I have another fantastic interview with another amazing scientist. But before we get there, I just want to remind you please give a rating and review to the show if you're enjoying the content and share it with your family and friends. I really appreciate that. And if you haven't already grabbed a copy of my book Relentless, make sure you do, you won't regret it. It's an incredible story that is really about taking control of your own health and being responsible for your own health and thinking outside the box. And it's the story of bringing my mum back to health after a mess of aneurysm. And it will really make you think about those—the way our medical system works and about why you need to be proactive when it comes to health and prevention, preventative health. And it's really just a heart-warming story as well. So, you can grab that on my website at lisatamati.com. Or you can go to any bookshop in New Zealand and order that or get that and it's available also on audiobook for those people who love to listen to books rather than reading them, I know, I certainly do a lot of that.  And just to also remind that if you have any questions around some of the topics that we've discussed on the podcast episodes, please reach out to me lisa@lisatamati.com. And if you want help with one of your health journeys or your performance journeys, or you want to work on some goal setting, on some mindset, please reach out there as well. We'd love to work with you. So today I have the Dr Anitra Carr, who is a scientist at Otago University. She's currently a research associate professor at the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine. She's established her own research group, the Nutrition in Medicine Research Group and undertakes translational bench to bedside research comprising observational studies and clinical trials on the role of oral and intravenous vitamin C in infection, cancer, metabolic health, mood, cognitive health. And she endeavours to understand the underlying biochemical mechanisms of action as well as improve our patient outcomes. So, she's a person who loves to actually not just be in the lab and looking at petri dishes, but to actually help people in human intervention study. She currently has a study underway, which I'm really, really excited and waiting with bated breath to see what comes out. It’s a sepsis study, in the Christchurch hospital with 40 patients. And we talk a little bit about that today.  And we talk about the role of vitamin C  today. Continuing the conversations that we've had with some of the world's best vitamin C researchers. We're looking at the antioxidant properties, we're looking at the pro-oxidant properties, we're looking at vitamin C as a cofactor in so many different mechanisms in the body. We talking about its role in the production of adrenaline and vasopressin, in hypoxia inducible factors, in relation to cancer, and especially in relation to sepsis, which is obviously a very important one for me.  One in five ICU patients in New Zealand dies of sepsis. This is a massive problem. Worldwide, between 30 and 50 million people a year get sepsis. This is something that you really need to know about. You need to understand it and Dr Anitra Carr, also shares why you may not get a doctor in a hospital situation, actually understanding all the information that we're going to be sharing with you today. So, educate yourself, learn from this and enjoy the show with Dr Anitra Carr. Lisa: Well, hi, everybody. And welcome back to the show. Today I have Dr Anitra Carr, and today we're continuing the series around vitamin C. We've had some brilliant doctors and scientists on in the last few weeks and it's been really exciting to share some of the latest research and we have one of our own Kiwi scientists with us today, Dr Anitra Carr from Christchurch. Welcome to the show. Dr Anitra Carr: Hi, Lisa! Lisa: It's fantastic to have you. So, Dr Anitra, can you just tell us a little bit of your background and how you got involved with vitamin C research? Dr Anitra: Well, I first started researching back in the late 90s. So, 1998 and I had just finished a PhD with the University of Otago and I had been studying how reactive oxygen species that are produced by white blood cells react with our own tissues, damage their own tissues because these white blood cells produce these really reactive oxidants, such as hydrogen peroxide, which is hair bleach, and hypochlorous acid, which is household bleach. So very strong oxidants and they produce these to help kill bacteria in our bodies. But these oxidants can also react with their own tissues and that's what contributes to inflammation and the processes of inflammation. And so, I've just been studying how these oxidants react to certain components in our tissues. And when I finished that, I thought it’d be really interesting to investigate how antioxidants, such as vitamin C, which is one of the most potent antioxidants in our body, and help potentially protect against this damage. So, scavenge those oxidants before they react with our tissues, and help decrease the inflammation associated with them and features and conditions. And so, I applied to various people in the United States, I wanted to go to continue my research in the United States. And so I applied to several people over there who are doing research in the area that I was interested in, and they'll write back and say, ‘Yes, we have postdoctoral positions available.’ And so I selected one, on the advice of my PhD supervisor, and this was Professor Balz Frei. He was at the time in Boston. And after I said, ‘Yes, I'd like to work with him.’ He wrote back and said, ‘Oh, by the way, I'm moving to the west coast to Oregon. And I'm going to be the director, the new director of the Linus Pauling Institute.’  Lisa: Oh, wow.  Dr Anitra: Great opportunity it is. I like the West Coast of the United States. I've done a bit of work in California during my PhD. And so, I was quite happy with it. And so Linus Pauling had died just a few years prior to that. And so, the Linus Pauling Institute, which was in California, at the time, kind of needed a new home, I think they're in Palo Alto. And so they ended up going to Oregon State University because that was—for a couple of reasons—that was Linus Pauling alma mater. So, he had done his undergraduate research when he was in a cultural college. And also, because the library there was going to be able to host his papers. And so he has this collection of his writings and papers, thousands and thousands of documents, because as you've stated before, he's one of the only people to have been awarded two unshared Nobel prizes. So one was in chemistry around his work on the nature of the chemical bond. And the other one was a Peace Prize for his anti-nuclear campaign. And so the Oregon State University Library has his complete collection, it's called the Linus Pauling Special Collection. And so I spent a few years at Oregon State University researching how vitamin C can protect against oxidation of low density lipoprotein particles, which are what the body uses to export fat and cholesterol around the body, because the cells need cholesterol. But most people know low density lipoprotein protein as bad cholesterol. I mean, it's not intrinsically bad. But if it becomes oxidized, it can contribute to the development of atherosclerotic plaques and contribute to cardiovascular disease. And so I was looking at how vitamin C can protect against oxidation of this particle, and thereby potentially peak against development of atherosclerosis. And I was... Lisa: What was the outcome of it? That would be really interesting. Dr Anitra: Yes. So, I was particularly interested in the oxidants produced by white blood cells, because these can react with these low density lipoprotein particles and oxidized them. And vitamin C is a great scavenger in particular, and I was interested in how much do you need and how the particulars—is the real biochemical level? And, but also during this time, so late 1990s. We were interested—Professor Balz Frei was interested in the recommended dietary intakes for vitamin C. Because in a lot of countries they are very low—these recommendations, primarily to prevent deficiency diseases, such as scurvy. Whereas, we believe you know, that the recommendations should be high to help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer and that sort of thing. That's a bit helpful to the outcome. So, in the late 90s, in 1998, the Food and Nutrition board of the Institutes of Medicine was re-examining the recommended dietary intake for the antioxidant vitamins, the A, C, and E in the United States.  And we write a comprehensive review around all the scientific evidence at the time for what sort of doses of vitamin C appear to protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer. And so, we made a recommendation of 120 milligrams a day, which was, at that time twice what the recommended dietary intake in the States, it was 60 milligrams a day at the time. And so we submitted that document, and it was considered by the Food and Nutrition Board. And also another review, I'd written around vitamin C's antioxidant roles in the body versus its pro-oxidant roles. Vitamin C, referred to as pro-oxidant.  Lisa: Yes, I’ve heard that. To get hit around the antioxidant and as a pro-oxidant.  Dr Anitra: Vitamin C is an antioxidant. It's not a not oxidant, pro-oxidant. But what it does is it can reduce—so antioxidants donate electrons, and they reduce oxidized compounds. So, it reduces transition metal ions such as copper and iron. So, these are metals in our body that can read off cycles so they can produce oxidants. Lisa: Yes, and we've talked about redox before in the podcast. Dr Anitra: Yes, so what vitamin C does is it converts these metal ions into a reduced state and metal ions can go on and generate oxidants. Lisa: So it gives ion and copper a longer life, does it? It sort of gives them—ion and copper away to keep going? Dr Anitra: Regenerates them so that these metal ions can keep producing oxidants. But in our body, these metal ions are all sequestered away and protected by proteins, they're not floating around free. In the body, vitamin C doesn't seem to do that, based on the evidence, it seems to just have it’s true antioxidant roles, not this kind of prooxidant by-product, as you might call it. So, this sort of evidence was considered by the Food and Nutrition Board and they decided, ‘Yes, it does have an antioxidant role in the body.’ And, and so they also referred to Mark Levine's seminal work to kind of work out a dose, a daily dose of vitamin C, they thought would be good to help foster this antioxidant potential on the body—potentially protect against these other chronic long-term diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. And so they did end up increasing the RDA for vitamin C instead from 50 to 90 milligrams a day for men, and 75 milligrams a day for women. So that was good, not quite as high as we would have liked to see, but still a step in the right direction. Lisa: A very conservative, aren’t they? They are slow to respond and conservative? Because you think like being the preventative space would be a good thing, if we're trying to... Dr Anitra: It is. Prevention is a lot cheaper, a lot easier to prevent a disease. Lisa: Exactly. But I think New Zealand's even worse, isn't it? I think we're at 45 milligrams, which is I think it is. Dr Anitra: One of the lowest in the world, yes. Lisa: That’s got to change, sorry.  Dr Anitra: So we're trying to generate the evidence to help support them increase in RDA. Lisa: Gosh, so it's also slow, like you've been doing this for what? 20-like years. And still... Dr Anitra: They do say that translation of science into medical research into clinical practice takes 15 to 20 years. Lisa: Wow, that is a really interesting statement. Because this is why I think, like sharing the sort of information direct from the experts, if you like, and I sit this was Professor Margreet Vissers too, that we have to make sort of educated decisions as people in trouble now. Whether you've got cancer or whether like my case who have a dad who had sepsis, you have to make an educated decision now based on you're running out of time. And we're waiting for the research and the research will be great, but it will be another 10 to 20 years down the line before it actually… And then in the medical world, it seems to be a very slow—Doctor Fowler said that beautifully when I had him on last week. It's like trying to shift a supertanker, Critical Care he was referring to is very, very slowly coming around. And I had Dr Ron Hunninghake on as well from the Riordan Institute, another fantastic doctor, and he talked about Medical Mavericks. Dr Hugh Riordan had written three books on people who were really ahead of their time, got in trouble for it and then actually the research and everything caught up with them later.  So that's interesting. So, if you’re listening to this, New Zealand has got 45 milligrams as the RDA, that's just to keep you out of scurvy. Right?  So, okay, so you've done all this antioxidant research and this with RSS and at the Linus Pauling Institute, when did you start to develop an interest in the infectious diseases, sepsis side of that, because I'd really love to... Dr Anitra: Yes, that's, that's more recent.  So, after a few years—three years at the Institute, I decided to have our first child and move back to New Zealand. And I made the decision to quit science and just focus on bringing up our family, ended up having three children. Stayed home for nine years looking out after our children. And I made the decision that they were more important than my career  Lisa: Wonderful. That's an interesting fact, as well as a mom and a scientist, like, an incredibly dedicated career that you'd have spent years getting there and then trying to juggle mum roles with scientist roles, and taking nine years out of your career. Has that hurt your career massively? Or I would have catch up so to speak? Dr Anitra: It hasn't hurt my career. I mean, I'm 10 years behind my contemporaries, my colleagues because I took that time out. But that's the decision I made. And I stand by it because the first three years of a child's life are very important. So I thought I'll dedicate myself to the children in the early years. And after those nine years, right? I've done my time and really can’t get back to work. Lisa: Mum's going to be a working mum from now on.  Dr Anitra: But I just went back to work part time, so, within school hours, so that I'll still be there for them after school hours. And one of the things that drew me back to work—I was recruited back to run a human intervention study. What really excited me because when I was in the lab doing lead-based research, I always felt too removed from the need to be helping. And so I’m much more interested in the whole person and how they're feeling, not what's happening inside a single cell.  Lisa: Yes. Yes, it makes sense.  Dr Anitra: I was really excited and really grateful to be recruited back, especially after taking nine years out for my... Discoveries have been made during that time that I had no idea until I went back and I've got a bit of catching up to do. And... Lisa: So what was that first intervention study, that human...  Dr Anitra: This was a kiwi fruit study. So kiwi fruit is very high in vitamin C. In summary, we're interested in how many kiwi fruit do you need to eat to get adequate and optimal vitamin C level. So it's just kind of a dosing study?  Lisa: Brilliant. Dr Anitra: Then we went on to compare kiwi fruit with tablets. So, animal research had shown our food sources of Vitamin C seemed to be a bit better than tablet sources. And so we would—we thought we'd translate that into a human study. And what we found is there's no difference  Lisa: There's no difference. Uptake of vitamin C from food versus tablets, the body is really good at it. Because we need vitamin C, our body has adapted ways to...   Lisa: Take it wherever it gets it. Dr Anitra: Take it up, regardless of the source. Lisa: Wow, that's... Dr Anitra: The structure of vitamin C's the same in foods as it is in tablets. So the body recognizes it the same, takes up the same amounts. I mean, the benefit of food is that you're also getting all the other vitamins and minerals and fibre. So, we still recommend food. But it is in our daily diets these days, it's very hard to get 200 milligrams a day of vitamin C. Lisa: Just fruits and veggies. Yes. Dr Anitra: That’s just fruit and vegetables. And as you know, different fruits and vegetables have quite different amounts of vitamin C, which a lot of people aren't aware of. Lisa: No. No. Dr Anitra: I mean, people know that kiwi fruit and citrus are high, but they may not realize that apples and bananas are actually quite low in vitamin C. Lisa: Or capsicums are quite high… You wouldn’t think that broccoli… And if you decide to take a supplement, is there a bit of supplement? Like, I have heard concerns about corn-derived vitamin C because of the glyphosate discussion, and that’s a bit hard to track really, the types of vitamin C. But is there any sort of research around—I mean, I've talked previously with a couple of doctors and scientists around liposomal delivery. Have you seen anything in that department or any supplementation method that's better? Dr Anitra: Not convincingly better. I mean, there might be trials that show that’s slightly better than just your normal chewable vitamin C. But I just go for the standard, cheap vitamin. Lisa: Yes, doesn't have to be super special. Like it's a pretty simple molecule, isn't it? Like, the body is pretty, like you say, it needs it, it knows it. Dr Anitra: Liposomal vitamin C kind of wrapped up in lipids, and the body doesn't need it because like you said it’s designed to recognize vitamin C in its natural form, in foods and such like. Lisa: Yes—who was that? I think Dr Thomas Levy was saying it bypasses some of the digestive issues because with vitamin C, you can get digestive stress when you take a bigger... Dr Anitra: When you take a higher dose. Some people, we're talking about more than four grams a day, and some people can get stress, it does but you can use that. Lisa: Okay. So then you've moved into—and forgive me for jumping here—but very keen to talk about the role of sepsis and pneumonia and patients in ICU reasons   Dr Anitra: So, after about five years of doing that research part time, I managed to get at Health Research Council, such as speakers Health Research Fellowship, which allowed me to move into the more clinical arena of studying infection, which was an area I was interested in. And done some observational studies where we have recruited patients who have pneumonia, measured the vitamin C levels, and levels of oxidative stress. And found that they have very low levels of vitamin C and high levels of oxidative stress. And the more severe the condition, the worse it is, the lower the vitamin C levels, and the higher the oxidative stress. So, if those patients with pneumonia are going to develop sepsis, and sepsis is kind of this uncontrolled inflammatory response to a severe infection. And that can develop into multi organ failure and the patient’s taken to the intensive care unit. And it can go on further to develop into septic shock due to failure of the cardiovascular system. And up to half those patients die, it’s the major cause of death in critically ill patients.  Lisa: Yes. And that's what I unfortunately experienced with my dad. And so, with the organs are starting to break down. So, when you get anything like pneumonia or sepsis, the body's requirement just goes up, a hundred-fold or more. Dr Anitra: Yes, at least 30-fold. Yes. So, it's very hard to get those amounts into a patient orally. And so, when the patients are in the intensive care unit, they're generally sedated because they're being mechanically ventilated. And so, they're given nutrition in two different ways because they can't eat. And so, the main way is to drip feed it directly into the stomach, liquid nutrition in the stomach through nasal gastric tube. The other way is to inject it directly into the bloodstream. And so, the recommended amounts of vitamin C by these means is about 100 milligrams a day. Lisa: That’s nothing.  Dr Anitra: But what we did on one of our studies was we looked at how much vitamin C these patients should theoretically have in their blood based on how much vitamin C they're consuming. Because 100 milligrams a day in a healthy person is more than adequate to—provides adequate plasma, what we would consider adequate plasma levels. And so, we mapped out what it would look like in these patients based on how much they were getting. And then we compared it with what we actually measured in their blood, it’s way lower than what theoretically should have been. And so, this, this was an indication that you still need a lot more vitamin C than they're getting in the standard liquid nutrition. And that the body also has these much higher requirements, which has been shown previously by other researchers. Lisa: And so this leading to almost a scurvy-like situation. I mean, some of these severe sepsis people—I mean, seeing one of your [unintelligible 24:53] that sort of normal community cohort of people, young people, middle aged people, and then down into the more severe pneumonia and then sepsis, and severe sepsis. And they are just over the scurvy level. So basically, their bodies are falling apart because of that, as well as the sepsis if you like. and it's... Dr Anitra: And that’s even on top of being given a day of at least 100 milligrams a day, that's still really low. Lisa: That's just not touching the sides.  Dr Anitra: Yes and...  Lisa: Why is this not like—for people going into the hospital, why is it that even though—okay, we may not know the dosages, why is not every hospital testing at least the really sick patients, what their vitamin C levels are, and then treating it the nutrient deficiency only? Even apart from the high dose intravenous stuff, but just actually—with my dad, I was unable to get a vitamin C test done to prove my case. I couldn't prove my case because I couldn't get it tested.  Dr Anitra: Yes, no, it's so true. It's because doctors don't learn about nutrients in medical school, it’s not part of their training.  Lisa: At all, yes.  Dr Anitra: So they're not familiar with how important they are for the body. They're not familiar with all the recent research around all the different functions and mechanisms of action that vitamin C carries out. Over the last 10 years, all these brand-new mechanisms and functions have been discovered, and they think we know everything there is to know about it.  Lisa: Yes, and we don't. Dr Anitra: [unintelligible 26:34] the time. It’s basically exciting. Lisa: Yes, it is.  Dr Anitra: So basically, they don't understand. The hospital system isn't set up to routinely measure it. It is only ever measured if scurvy—if someone comes in with suspected scurvy. And even then, a lot of doctors aren't used to recognizing the symptoms of scurvy. It's not something they're familiar with because it doesn’t... Lisa: They think it no longer exists because it’s what sailors had in the 1800s. Dr Anitra: ...the parents and the wisdom.  Lisa: It’s basically in the sick population. Dr Anitra: It is. But I think... So when I first applied for funding to carry out these studies, in pneumonia and sepsis, there were only a couple of papers have been published at that time looking at vitamin C sepsis, and that was Berry Fowler's safety dosing study.  Lisa: That is phase one trial.  Dr Anitra: And another one, small one in Iran. So, there was very, very little information out there at the time. And so, I put in an application for us to carry out an intervention study in our ICU at Christchurch. So just a small one, 40 people—20 placebo control of vitamin C and 20 getting intravenous vitamin C.  And not long after that, Paul Marik's study came out and that stimulated real explosion and research in this field because of the media interest. So the media picked up on it. And it hit the world. I've been talking about this for years to doctors. I see doctors and they're trying to get to talk about it. But it wasn't until it hit the media, and they heard about it through the media, they thought, ‘Okay, maybe there's something here.’ So that just goes to show how important media can be. Lisa: Exactly why we're doing the show. I have not seen it. But you know what I mean? We've got to get this from the ground up moving.  Dr Anitra: Yes. And so since then, there's been many studies carried out around the world, all of different quality. And so we're learning more and more information, real-time clinical trials, they take a long time to run. Recruitment being the most difficult part.  The other thing is that, a lot of the clinical trials, the clinical researches are used to running drug trials and so they treat vitamin C like a drug, but it's not a drug. It's a nutrient, it’s a vitamin, that the body is specially designed to take up and use very different from drugs. And so they don't always understand how vitamin C works in the body. And it's important to know how it's working in order to design good studies, good quality studies. So a lot of the data that's come out may be impacted by how well the study was done and thought out. So we still don't know all the important essays about the dose, how often should you give it, when should you give it?  I mean, ideally it should be given you know, as early as possible.  Lisa: Early as possible.  Dr Anitra: Don't wait until they're at death's door and septic shock. It's hard for vitamin C to do something at that stage even really high, even a really high dose vitamin. The earlier that you give it, the longer you can get it for digest.  Most of these trials have given it for four days and they stop.  Lisa: Yes, I've wondered that.  Dr Anitra: The whole time, they're in the ICU because once pharmacokinetic study showed that when you stop that vitamin C, some of those patients just drop straight back down to where they were. Now they need to keep that continued input.  Lisa: So why? Why has it been made that it's only—all of those I've seen, I think have been 4-day, 96 hour studies. And occasionally one of them is or for the latest day in ICU, but most of them have been 96 hours and most of them have been very, very conservative dosing. From what I understand conservative dosing. And I know Dr Berry Fowler said where there's some consideration about oxalate in kidney function. And I'm like, ‘Yes, but this is still a very low risk for somebody who's got sepsis.’ Dr Anitra:  If a patient has kidney dysfunction in ICU they put them on haemodialysis anyway, so which clears that excess vitamin C. So it's not such an issue for those patients. But yes, a lot of these studies were designed to reproduce the first studies that came out to see if they are reproducible. so, that's why they’re using similar regimes. But now that we know more about it, each study adds another piece to the puzzle. And so hopefully, future studies will look more into what dose we actually need and it only varies depending on the... Lisa: The severity  Dr Anitra: Severity, etc. How long? And I believe, once they leave the ICU... So patients who survived sepsis, they can go on to have real problems, physical disabilities, cognitive issues, psychological issues, like depression, anxiety. And so, I really believe they keep taking vitamin C when they leave the hospital just orally, that might help with those conditions that hasn't been researched yet. That's a whole area of research that should be carried out to. Lisa: So, if I was to ask you, in your dream world where your resources are unlimited, and you had lots of money, and you had lots of people to help you do all these and you have enough patience to enrol. What are some other things that you would like as a scientist and you understand some of the mechanisms and the cofactors—which I want to get on to as well—what are some of the studies that you would like to see happen? So, we can move this along faster.  What are some of the key things?  So, quality of life afterwards? Yes, like dosages, what?  Dr Anitra: Really practical things that the doctors need to know, I think, what's important, like, how much to give, how often to give it? Most of the studies are done four times a day because that's what was done in the initial studies. Is it better to give it continuously? So, when they're in the ICU, can you just use drugs continuously, rather than this kind of bolus dosing?  So, do more research around that.  So the frequency and dosing and timing like when do you administer it, how long should you administer it for? I mean, there's so many important aspects around that. And we've got the foundational research done now, we can start teasing out the finer details now, I think. Rather than just doing the same study designs over and over again, Lisa: Yes and reproducing.  Dr Anitra: Modify their study designs to start addressing these other issues. And there's some really big studies underway at the moment. One in Canada with 800 people. I mean, they'll give us really good information, those sorts of studies, rather than the little studies. Unless you live in small countries. Lisa: Small countries that can’t afford those things that cost millions and millions of dollars. And is there a trouble with funding because it's not a drug that we're developing here? Does it make it harder to get funding? Dr Anitra: It's extremely hard to get funding because often on the CSUN committee, it's often medical people on these who don't believe in vitamin C. The bad press or the misinformation don't understand the importance, the relevance and so, that's why this outreach is really important. It's just educating people about the science behind it. It's not hocus pocus.  Lisa: Yes, I mean, if I can share—I mean, I've shared a little bit on the past episodes with my case with my dad. I know and I felt they just put me in that, wackery quackery caught and they paid lip service to listening to me. They didn't really and but I’m quite—well in this case, I had to be quite forceful because my dad was dying. And I didn't go away, most people would go away because—and I just wish I knew then what I know now even because I wasn't that deep into the research. And now I am deep into the research and really an advocate for this.  But I was treated like—there was one really good doctor who listened to me, who advocated, he didn't believe in it, he didn't understand the mechanisms of action or any of that sciency stuff. But he did advocate for me at the ethics committee, whereas everyone else would just roll their eyes basically.  And this is why I think it's so important to share this, to come back again and again to the science for science for science, and for them to just open up their eyes just because they didn't learn it in medical school. And it's not in the current textbook for, like you say, because it takes 20 years probably to get it to the textbook. Because it's a vitamin, they just immediately shut down, it’s how I felt. They just immediately, ‘Well, just eat an orange and you're good to go.’ I mean, the surgeon—I had a friend that was going into surgery, and she was like, ‘Should I have intravenous vitamin C, before I go into surgery to prepare my body?’ Very logical thing to do in my eyes. It’s like, ‘You don’t need that, just eat an orange,’ and it's like, ‘Oh, you don't get the whole why and how, and what happens when the body goes through a trauma and a surgery, or a sepsis or any of these things.’And I don't know, like there's a bigger issue at play with the whole pharmacological model that our whole system is built upon. And that nutrients and nutrition isn't taught in medical school. So we're up against this big sort of brick wall.  And when I tell my story to people just, sharing with friends and things, they’ll be going, ‘But where's the downside? He was dying anyway, why couldn't he have it?’ And I said, ‘Well, you're up against machinery, you're up against ethics committees, legal battles, and a system that is just very staid and conservative in its approach.’  And that's not to criticize individual people within the system. I'm not wanting to do that. I'm just trying to make people aware because people go into a hospital setting or something, and they expect to have the latest and greatest information available that the doctors know all that. And unfortunately, that's not always the case. Do you find that frustrating?  Dr Anitra: I mean, it's not the doctors’ fault as such, because they're very busy people, they don't have time to keep up with all the literature, and they're not likely to be going into the nutrition literature in the first place. Which is why we try and publish as much of that stuff and the clinical literature, they're more likely to see it then. And they have the patient's best interests at heart. They've just heard the bad things about vitamin C and the misinformation. And so they don't want to do harm to the patient, I guess. It’s the view that they’re coming from and they don't have time to read all the latest information. And that's why just piece by piece, chip away at theirs, and educate them and hopefully it'll come into the training of the new doctors. And future hopefully, more nutrition courses will be introduced into training because it's not just vitamin C.  The body needs all the vitamins that are all vital to life. That's where the name comes from. You don't hit them, you die. It's as simple as that. So, yes, I think that it is vital that this information gets into the appropriate arenas. Lisa: Yes. And I think that's why I'm passionate about the show is that my sort of outlook on the whole thing is, ‘Yes, I'm not a doctor, but I can give voice to doctors and researchers. And I can curate and I can investigate and I can share.’ And this is a very emotional topic for me or for obvious reasons, but I'm trying to take the emotion out of it because that doesn't help the discussion.  And it’s really hard but I understand the importance—because I know that if I share things in an emotional manner, then I'll get shut down as having mental health problems in a group being a grieving daughter. When actually I’m an intelligent person who's educated herself in this. I've got the best people, and the best researchers, and the best scientists, and the best doctors sharing the latest research. And I hope that by doing that you can get one mind after the other and just get them to understand rather than the emotional side of things. Because what I do want to also share with the story is that every person's life that is saved is a family that's not grieving. These are not statistics.  When Dr Berry Fowler's research, with Dr Merricks research and you see a drop from, I think Dr Merricks was 40%, mortality to 8% and Dr Berry’s was something like 49, down to 29. Don't quote me on the numbers, but big numbers in drops and mortality. And you go, those are just dozens, if not hundreds of lives that are saved. And those families are saved from that grief.  And worldwide, I've heard a couple of estimates between 30 and 50 million people a year who get sepsis. Of those, one in five—I've heard in your research—one in five in New Zealand ICU dies of sepsis. This is a huge problem. This is as big as cancer and actually is one of the complications often of cancer therapies. So, I don't think people understand the enormity of sepsis itself. And then pneumonia, and then we can go into the discussion of COVID, and cancer, and all those other things. It's like we're talking millions of lives every year around the world. So this research is just absolutely crucial. Sorry, I've gotten on my bandwagon a little bit. But I really want to get this information out there. And that I think it's really, really important.  And let’s change track a little bit and just talk a little bit briefly because I haven't covered this subject with the other vitamin C interviews that I've done. Around the cofactor, so vitamin C is a cofactor for so many different areas. So I remember from one of your lectures, it has epigenetic influences and hairs like with collagen synthesis, and that's not just for your skin and your and your nails, but also has implications for cancer. You've got your health, which Professor Margreet Vissers talked about your hypoxia inducible factor, tumor growth. Can you just go and give me a little bit of information around—the vasopressin one would be very good and anything else that pops to mind there. Dr Anitra: Yes, so the cofactor is a compound that helps enzyme function. So everything in our cells relies on the functions of enzymes to carry out reactions in ourselves or the chemical reactions require enzymes. And so a cofactor supports that function.  And so early on when I was just starting in this area of research in the field of sepsis, I was looking at the different cofactor functions of vitamin C, and one of them is a cofactor for the enzyme which synthesizes noradrenaline. And noradrenaline is one of the main drugs, as you might say, that's given to patients who are going into septic shock. So it's given to the patients to try and increase the blood pressure. And it works by making the muscles around the blood vessels contract. Makes the blood vessels a bit smaller, so it increases your blood pressure.  And so vitamin C is a cofactor for the enzyme that naturally synthesizes noradrenaline in our body. And there's another enzyme which synthesizes hormones, one of which is vasopressin.  And this is another drug that's also sometimes given to these patients to help your blood pressure. And it works by increasing the re-uptake of water by the kidney. So, that increases your blood volume and hence, your blood pressure. So, for a lot of ICU patients, they're given noradrenaline and sometimes they're given vasopressin on top of that. Really try and get the blood pressure up. Lisa: Yes, their collapsing cardiovascular system.  Dr Anitra: And I realized, ‘Oh wait a minute vitamin C is also cofactor for this enzyme that synthesizes vasopressin.’ So here it is, a cofactor for two quite different enzymes that synthesize vasopressors naturally in our body. And so, if these patients are coming into the ICU, very low in vitamin C, and going into shock, is one of those reasons because they don't have enough vitamin C in the body to support natural vasopressor function. The doctors have to give them these drugs but if we're able to get them vitamin C, early enough that it can potentially support their own natural synthesis of these vasopressors in the body, which is a much better way to do it. Because if drugs are given from the outside, they're often given in high doses and not regulated, and so can cause side effects. There is a difference being produced in the body, the body knows what it's doing. It regulates how much and how often, all those sort of 46:07 engineering emails and so you don't get the nasty side effects. Lisa: Can I share a bit of a story there? Because both my mom and her case was—she had an aneurysm four years ago, she was on noradrenaline, and could only be given in an ICU. And originally she was in the neurological ward. And they couldn't do it there. And I only realized like she was going into a coma. So she had massive brain damage going into a coma. That when they took her up to ICU, they could give her the noradrenaline that opened up that the vessels in the heat it a little bit, or keep the pressure up, so that the vessels were open to stop the vasospasm in her case, which was killing parts of the brain. But she'd been in the neurological ward where they couldn't give any of that earlier. And so the damage had already been done partly.  And then with the case with my dad, back then I didn't know anything about vitamin C, of course. With the case with my dad in July, this year, I got vitamin C, but it was on day 13 of his 15-day battle, because I had paid to go through ethics committees and all of that sort of jazz. So he was an absolute death's doorstep, should have been dead days ago, according to the doctors. They couldn't believe he was still going but he was one tough man. I don’t know how he was still alive but he was. And the very first infusion that we got a vitamin C, immediately we were able to take him off norad for a period of about eight hours. We needed the vitamin C again, that took me another 18 hours before I could get permission to get the second one. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it in the six-hour bolus, which was ideal.  We gave him initially 15 grams. So this was again, multiple organ failure, fecal matter, and the creatinine, desperate, desperate, desperate straits. His CRP, c-reactive protein dropped from 246 down to 115. His white blood cell count improved and his kidney function went from 27% to 33%. And I was able to take him on vasopressors and noradrenaline for about eight hours. That is incredible for someone who could die at any moment. And we eventually—we failed because I struggled to get the second and I struggled to get the third infusion and it really was too late.  But even at that point, I thought it might be interesting for your research—I have all the medical records by the way, if you want to have a look at the data exactly. But it really was a strong—he doesn't need the noradrenaline, his blood pressure was going up. And that was a really, really good sign. As the dropping of the CRP, which was still very high at 115 but it was way better than where it had been.  So goodness, what would have happened if I'd had him on day one from the surgery? Yes. And, and none of it is understood. So that's one of the cofactors that… And that brings to mind just as someone who's connecting the dots, if you have an HPA axis problem, like your adrenals aren't doing the job well. And your cortisol, vitamin C would probably be a good thing to take to support.  Dr Anitra: And sometimes it’s referred to as a stress hormone because it is involved in the adrenal response. And people who are under stress, or in animal studies who have stress animals they appear, they use more vitamin C, and they generate more vitamin C, the animals they can synthesize it themselves, they generate more vitamin C to compensate for that. We are not there anymore. So we have to take more if we're under stressful conditions. Lisa: Exactly. And that's a really—it's just a funny thing of evolution that we've lost the ability to synthesize more as we like animals, like the goat, especially it can synthesize like a ton more when it needs that. We will give them big brains so that we can make vitamin C so we can take it. What are some of the other cofactors? Just as we start to wrap it up, but just a couple of the other important cofactors.  And collagen? Why is collagen important apart from you want my skin and hair, and your joints? Well, I did hear in one of the lectures about collagen helping stop metastasis of cancers?  Dr Anitra: Right, yes, that's one mechanism. It's also very important in wound healing. And, interestingly, a lot of—a reasonable number of surgeons are aware of this and that they're a lot more open to people taking vitamin C around surgery before and after surgery just to help affect wound healing. Lisa: Oh, wow. Yes.  Dr Anitra: Which is great. And Lisa: And oncologists, are they sort of open to...  Dr Anitra: Least so  Lisa: Least so. Yes. In fact, I've had friends who have told us, if you take intravenous vitamin C, we won't do any treatments. And this is... Dr Anitra: And that is primarily around all the misunderstanding around those early, early trials around intravenous. What I'm seeing is when Linus Pauling showed a feat of vital intravenous vitamin C. The clinicians at the Mayo Clinic who tried to reproduce those studies, they used oral doses, so just small doses over a day.  But back in those days, they weren't aware of the different pharmacokinetics of vitamin C, they thought oral and intravenous, are just the same, like the drug. But it's quite different. Oral uptake is a lot lower, much smaller amounts are taken up versus intravenous, you can get really high doses. And very quickly,  Lisa: Up to 200 times. I heard Professor Gabi Dachs, saying that intravenous is up to 200 times for short periods, but that short periods makes a difference, because you can get that into the tumor cells and to—so that… And this is the problem. Professor Margreet Vissers was saying the original controversy around Linus Pauling’s work and because they didn't have an understanding of how can possibly this mechanism of action been working. They just pursued it, basically. And it caused this big rift, those on the side, and those on that side, and for the next—what are we? 40 something years later—we'll still actually, it's problematic. Dr Anitra: Yes, it wasn't really till Mark Levine did his really detailed pharmacokinetic studies that people realized the big differences between oral and intravenous. And also there’s more recent discoveries of vitamin C's cofactor functions around regulating genes through herbs and through the epigenetic enzymes. These are all mechanisms, which could be involved and its anticancer mechanisms as such. And so the epigenetic area is a very, very exciting, very interesting area of research. And I think it'll enable us to personalize medicine in the future.  Lisa: Oh! I mean, I have an epigenetics program as one of my health programs. And yes, that's looking at okay, how genes being influenced by your environment, and let's optimize your environment to your genes. And the vitamin C helps serve to give people an understanding, so is vitamin C helping produce the enzymes that read the DNA? And then therefore having the reactions. Is that how it works? Dr Anitra: It works as a code. Lisa: the transcription Dr Anitra: Yes, so it helps the function of the enzymes which modify the DNA. So genetics is about the DNA itself. Epigenetics is above the DNA. So it's a way to regulate the DNA as you know. Usually through adding methyl groups to the dynast DNA, adding and subtracting and that affects how the DNA is read by the enzymes that read DNA and transcribe it. Lisa: Turning them on or off, or simplify.  Dr Anitra: So vitamin C, regulates the enzymes which modify the methyl groups and stimulates them coming off or stimulates different mechanisms happening. So switching certain genes on, switching certain genes off, now it can teach you to regulate thousands of genes in our body through stimulation of these enzymes. Lisa: Wow. So yes, I've heard somewhere, I think it was seven or 8000 genes that are possibly affected by this. So we are really at the beginning of the vitamin C journey, as far as the epigenetics mechanisms is concerned. Yes, that's exciting. Dr Anitra: A lot of its functions, not just in cancer, but in all areas of health and disease, these functions could be playing a role. So yes, huge areas of research possible there. Lisa: Yes. Yes. Yes. Is there a—I remember Professor Margaret, talking about Tt? Is that one of the enzymes? The Tt one? Dr Anitra: It is an enzyme, that's right. Lisa: And that's important for cancer in some way? Dr Anitra: Now, the enzyme search modifies the methylated DNA, some regulation that epigenetics. And it's definitely difficult. Lisa: To replicate it in the cancer process. Wow. Okay, we're getting quite technical here.  Doctor Anitra, I just want to say thank you very much for your dedication because I've listened to a couple of interviews with you. And you've actually sacrificed quite a lot to do the research that you're doing because there isn't a heck of a lot of funding and things are out there. So, thank you for doing all that. It's a labour of love, I can imagine. It's a long, slow process, getting the information, getting it to be watertight—scientifically watertight, so that we can actually get people help, who need help. And that at the end of the day it’s the reason I'm doing this podcast. And it's the reason you're doing your research, and hopefully together and with many others, we can move the story along so that people get helped.  Is there anything that we haven't covered that you think would be an important message for people listening today? Dr Anitra: Well, I think—I mean, of course, infection is very relevant these days with COVID. There’s a lot of information and misinformation floating around out there about vitamin C and COVID. And at this stage, the studies are still at the really early, early stages. Americans have done a study which shows that patients with COVID in the ICU do have low vitamin C levels, like other similar conditions. COVID is a severe respiratory infection like pneumonia and sepsis or complications with COVID. And so, I think that the key is to stay healthy, eat a good healthy... Lisa: Boost your immune system, yes.  Dr Anitra: Yes, to support your immune system, it doesn't mean you won't get COVID. But it may decrease the severity and the duration, so it doesn't go on to become the more severe version, the pneumonia and sepsis.  So I think that's an important message and if you do get infection, your requirements, dear God, so you do need to take more vitamin C, you need to take gram amounts, rather than milligram amounts. Want you to prevent getting even more severe. So, I'm all for prevention as much as possible, not leaving it till it's too late. So, I think, yes, just look after yourself, eat well. Lisa: Yes. And get your vitamin C. Come buy some kiwi fruit, and some oranges today, and some lemons, and capsicum. And some supplements maybe. Just as a final thing, you yourself, have a study that's currently underway, which is really, really exciting. And this is based in the Christchurch hospital, I believe, in 40 patients and with sepsis. Can you just tell us a little bit, the parameters of that study and when you think you'll have some results from it? Dr Anitra: So this was patients with septic shock. So once again, at the end. And they were administered either placebo control, so half the patients and the other half were given intravenous vitamin C at a dose of 100 milligrams per kilogram body tissue per day, which equates to about six to seven grams a day. The reason for that, I have wanted to use the high dose, Berry Fowler. But the ethics committee—because when I put this into the ethics committee, there were only the two studies out, which was Berry Fowler's and the small study headed by Iran. And they said, ‘Well, slightly more people have received a lot lower dose versus the higher dose. So we'd rather use the lower dose.’’ Even though there'd be no adverse events at any dose. And subsequently, no adverse events and any studies.  Lisa: No. Dr Anitra: And so, we've used the lower dose, we've only just finished recruiting the last patients. It took a while and we had issues of lockdown. And so now we're in the process of analysing the samples that we've collected analysing the data. And so hopefully, we're about to pull that together, sometime next year and publish the results next year.   Lisa: Brilliant. I can't wait to see that. And yes, that's a little bit frustrating because I would have liked to have seen a study with the 15 to 18. And even that I thought was still very conservative compared to some of the cancer dosages. But I understand from what Dr Berry Fowler said because of the decreased kidney function often in septic patients and so on, but it's just like yes, but the dying often. And it's because that was one of the arguments that was thrown at me, I could damage my dad's kidneys. The sepsis was doing that quite nicely and he was dying anyway. So why the hell?  So, but I think even at those dosages, we’ll hopefully see some fantastic results come out of it. And hopefully, in future we'll be able to do slightly more high-powered dosages. Dr Anitra: Yes. Well, the key is also the size of the study, our study is very small. And we were interested in being a scientist. I'm interested in how it's working in the body because once you understand how it's working, it makes it easier to design better studies and not our future studies.  And so, our study will be too small to show a yes or no, it decreases mortality or not—that we're leaving it up to the large studies to show there. And hopefully, we can put a bit more science behind how it's working, what's happening in the body.  Lisa: And it's such a complicated thing to design a study. People don't probably realize how the parameters and the limitations and the number of variables that you can look at and the primary outcomes and the secondary outcomes and so on.  Dr Anitra: Sepsis is such a complex variable that comes in as unique in this situation. So there's huge variability in the data. And that's where the biggest studies are good, because it helps decrease... Lisa: The statistical...  Dr Anitra: The statistical analyses of those studies. Yes, I'm looking forward to the results of the big studies coming out. Lisa: Yes, but these, these smaller ones are really, really important. So, and it's great that we've got one going in New Zealand. So, thank you very much for your work, Dr Anitra. It’s been absolutely fascinating. And thank you for your dedication to this. I really, really appreciate you. Dr Anitra: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. That's it this week for Pushing the Limits. Be sure to rate, review, and share with your friends and head over and visit Lisa and her team at lisatamati.com

Dr Matire Harwood is in fact a ‘double doctor' having graduated with her medical degree in 1994 and then her PhD in 2012. She is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland Medical School and has a particular focus on indigenous health outcomes. She's a leading Māori health researcher with over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications to her name. Alongside her research and lecturing, she is also a clinician, and is a GP at Papakura Marae Health Clinic. Matire has also contributed her expertise serving on a number of health committees and boards including the Health Research Council of New Zealand. Her efforts have been widely recognised, and she's received many awards, including in 2018 when she was awarded the prestigious L'Oréal UNESCO Women in Science Award.  "I've always liked the concept of trying to be mana enhancing. I think that we should be able to critique each other and pull each other up when we need to, but it shouldn't be critical. It should be done with kindness."

There are calls for a change of attitude by lead authorities after a person who had the Covid 19 visited a busy pub on Friday night in the northern suburb of Greenhithe. Hundreds of Aucklanders are being urged to get tested. A pop-up community testing centre has been set up in Greenhithe. The person, one of two community cases linked to a port worker, was at the Malt pub between 7.30 pm until 10 pm last Friday night, then tested positive on Wednesday. Sir David Skegg, is an epidemiologist at the University of Otago Medical School and former chairman of the Public Health Commission, Health Research Council and New Zealand Science Board. He's concerned at the levels of general complacency reflected at both public and government agency level. For up-to-date information on testing locations in Auckland call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or visit www.arphs.health.nz/covid19test

There are calls for a change of attitude by lead authorities after a person who had the Covid 19 visited a busy pub on Friday night in the northern suburb of Greenhithe. Hundreds of Aucklanders are being urged to get tested. A pop-up community testing centre has been set up in Greenhithe. The person, one of two community cases linked to a port worker, was at the Malt pub between 7.30 pm until 10 pm last Friday night, then tested positive on Wednesday. Sir David Skegg, is an epidemiologist at the University of Otago Medical School and former chairman of the Public Health Commission, Health Research Council and New Zealand Science Board. He's concerned at the levels of general complacency reflected at both public and government agency level. For up-to-date information on testing locations in Auckland call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 or visit www.arphs.health.nz/covid19test

Dr Monique Faleafa has worked in the health sector over the past 20 years in clinical management, governance and consultancy roles.  She was the founding Chief Executive of Le Va a national NGO focused on Pacific people’s wellbeing.  She is a clinical psychologist and advocate for improving equity in health and social outcomes for Pacific and disadvantaged communities. Dr Faleafa was deputy chair of the New Zealand Psychologists board for 9 years, and currently serves on two crown entities as Deputy Chair of the Health Promotion Agency, and the Health Research Council of New Zealand. In 2016, Monique was awarded as a Member of the NZ Order of Merit and a finalist in the Westpac Women of Influence awards. Dr Faleafa is now a wellbeing consultant to the government and private sector. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

The Health Research Council of New Zealand’s has announced it’s latest funding results – with more than $71.58 million awarded to 47 new research studies.  Of the 47 new research studies, 4 are under the 2020 Pacific Project grants.  We’re joined now on Pacific Breakfast by Associate Professor Vili Nosa (Dr Teuila Percival, Dr Janine Paynter, Dr Maryann Heather, Mrs Fiona Langridge) member of a research team, which has been granted funding of $1 million to study Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island Māori, and Niuean infant care practices. The project will span 2 years once it commences. 

The Health Research Council of New Zealand’s has announced it’s latest funding results – with more than $71.58 million awarded to 47 new research studies.  Of the 47 new research studies, 4 are under the 2020 Pacific Project grants.  We’re joined now on Pacific Breakfast by Associate Professor Vili Nosa (Dr Teuila Percival, Dr Janine Paynter, Dr Maryann Heather, Mrs Fiona Langridge) member of a research team, which has been granted funding of $1 million to study Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island Māori, and Niuean infant care practices. The project will span 2 years once it commences. 

From the University of Auckland and the Liggins Institute, Associate Professor Katie Groom, joins us for a chat about corticosteroid injections and childbirth. She chats to Rachel about the C*STEROID Trial, funded by the Health Research Council, is a New Zealand-wide, placebo-controlled, randomised trial to assess the effects of corticosteroids given to the mother prior to a planned caesarean section at or near term on newborn and later childhood health.

A Covid-19 testing method which speeds up decision-making could be on the way.The project, led by Otago University molecular biology associate professor Jo-Ann Stanton, is one of 13 covid-19 studies being backed by the Government and the Health Research Council.She told Kate Hawkesby what clinicians need is to get some measurements when they're standing next to a patient."So that you can see that immediately into the system and immediately what's next treatment protocols that you need to instigate." Stanton says the point of care philosophy is that you move your testing closer to where it's needed - such as doctors clinics and aged-care facilities."It just means that you're getting the test and the result closer to where those people need those answers quickly." 

In a first of its kind, the Malaghan Institute has sought healthy volunteers to take part in a clinical trial designed to explore the therapeutic potential of human hookworms. Funded by the Health Research Council, and in collaboration with the University of Otago Wellington, the trial’s ultimate aim is to find better treatment options for a range of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including coeliac, asthma, allergy, MS and inflammatory bowel disease. Director of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research Professor Graham Le Gros told Simon and Phil the potential for better health outcomes for many people suffering these illnesses is huge.  LISTEN ABOVE

There's concern about the high level of sugar in baby pouches.The squeezy pouches are thought to make up around 70 percent of the baby food market.The Health Research Council has granted money for academics at Otago University to look into the baby food issue.Dietician Caryn Zinn says told Kate Hawkesby the main problem is the pouches are so focussed on fruit."People think that fruit is so healthy that they can eat unlimited quantities," she said."The reality is that these pouches are just full of sugar."She said that mums are busy and need convenience so they turn to pouches."The intake of sugar that these kids have is mounting and potentially enormous, damaging dental health and potential obesity and diabetes long term."LISTEN ABOVE AS CARYN ZINN TALKS TO KATE HAWKESBY 

Episode 13: Entering the Job Market Chun Tao met with Drs. Martin and Ragin to discuss transitioning to the job market and things to consider when you are applying for jobs. Dr. Deborah Fish Ragin is a Professor of Psychology at Montclair State University. Her professional service includes a five-year appointment as an American Psychological Association (APA) Representative to the United Nations where she focused on global efforts to address the psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS. She currently serves as a member of the Health Research Council of the Health Psychology Division (Division 38) of the American Psychological Association and as a member of the Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education (CABE) also for the American Psychological Association. Dr. Ragin’s research focuses on health systems and health policy, examining disparities in health care. She is the author of numerous articles on HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, health care disparities, healthy communities, and research ethics, and of a leading textbook entitled Health Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Approach to health, now in its third edition, published by Routledge/Taylor and Francis. She also serves as a reviewer on several international and national journals, including Social Science and Medicine, American Journal of Nursing, Health Psychology Open, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and others. Dr. Martin Igunchi is a Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health. Dr. Iguchi received his AB in liberal arts from Vassar College, his MA, and Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Boston University, and postdoctoral training in Behavioral Pharmacology and Drug Abuse from Johns Hopkins. He is also a former Director of the RAND Corporation's Drug Policy Research Center. Dr. Iguchi's more recent research has examined the sexual transmission of HIV, development of brief motivational and contingency management approaches for the treatment of substance abuse, barriers to treatment entry, and drug policies. Dr. Iguchi is also studying aging performing artists, examining the quality of life, life transitions, retirement planning, legacy planning, and roles in the community.

What it is like when a much loved and respected leader in your Intensive Care suddenly dies? And do you view the people you work with in your ICU as an extended family?   Paul Young, an Intensivist from New Zealand, discusses his perspectives on these questions, amongst many other valuable insights, in this important and moving interview. Paul Young is an intensive care specialist at Wellington Hospital in New Zealand where he is the co-clinical leader at Wellington ICU. He is also medical director of Wakefield Hospital ICU, Deputy Director at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, and holds a Clinical Practitioner Research Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. Paul's predominant non-clinical interest is in ICU research. Since starting work as an intensive care specialist in 2010 he has published more than 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals including five papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, two in JAMA, and one in the Lancet. His involvement in clinical research has been instrumental in the development of his belief that intensive care is fundamentally about keeping people alive for long enough for them to recover whilst meddling as little as possible. In his leadership roles he encourages people to find joy in their work and to be nice to each other yet he constantly battles with his own tendency towards sarcasm. In late 2018, Dr Peter Hicks, the Clinical Lead at Wellington Hospital died suddenly. Peter was an excellent intensivist, a wonderful leader, and a friend to many in the Australian and New Zealand ICU community. His death is sad for all who knew him and most notably his family and colleagues. Paul speaks in this interview about the legacy Peter left behind, how Peter particularly guided Paul in his career and how the Wellington ICU is moving on after Peter’s untimely death. In this conversation, Paul also discusses: Why he became an intensivist The cultural differences between Australia and New Zealand Telling the truth about his thoughts on the patient’s likely outcome Worrying - and when it's useful and not useful The specifics of his ward round What it’s like to have consultants changing daily in his ICU The start to his research career Some insights on designing clinical trials to answer important questions Why “negative studies” are so important to advance clinical practice (using the TARGET study as an example) How he keeps up with the literature including with Twitter His efforts to be more kind and to get on with people The effects of running on his general wellbeing A challenge for other units to try a “day about” clinical roster Paul is clever, incisive, and is delightfully able to simplify many concepts about intensive care practice and research. Please enjoy listening to Dr Paul Young.   Andrew Davies   --------------------   About the Mastering Intensive Care podcast: The podcast is aimed to inspire and empower you to bring your best self to the intensive care unit, through conversations with thought-provoking guests. I hope you’ll glean insights to help you improve as a healthcare professional and as a human being so you can make a truly valuable contribution to your patient’s lives.   --------------------   Links to people, organisations and other resources mentioned: Paul Young on Twitter: @dogICUma Wellington ICU website Tribute to Peter Hicks written by David Pilcher ANZICS CTG (Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Clinical Trials Group) Rinaldo Bellomo Critical Care Reviews Rob MacSweeney Wellington ICU Journal Club on Twitter: @WellingtonICU TARGET study Tweetorial on the TARGET study by Paul Young Rana Awdish on Twitter: @RanaAwdish Book "In Shock" (by Rana Awdish) Mastering Intensive Care podcast: Episode 3 with Rinaldo Bellomo Mastering Intensive Care podcast: Episode 19 with Alex Psirides Mastering Intensive Care podcast: Episode 20 with Jack Iwashyna Mastering Intensive Care podcast: Episode 23 - The Best of 2017 (Part 1) Mastering Intensive Care podcast: Episode 24 - The Best of 2017 (Part 2) Mastering Intensive Care podcast: Episode 39 - The Best of 2018 Mastering Intensive Care podcast – episode 41 with Rana Awdish Mastering Intensive Care podcast Mastering Intensive Care page on Facebook Mastering Intensive Care at Life In The Fast Lane Andrew Davies on Twitter: @andrewdavies66 Andrew Davies on Instagram: @andrewdavies66 Email Andrew Davies: andrew@masteringintensivecare.com  

Nick Gant is Director of the Exercise Neurometabolism Laboratory at the University of Auckland. His group uses interdisciplinary approaches from the nutritional sciences and neurosciences to investigate the role of nutrition in brain health and performance. Nick is particularly interested in foods and supplements that prevent brain fatigue and improve physical and cognitive function. His research is currently funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Health Research Council of New Zealand, and several industrial partnerships. He partners with clinicians and dieticians within the NZ Centre for Brain Research and provides scientific and educational support for elite athletes, government and military organisations In This Episode We Discuss: Understanding fatigue Hypoxia-induced decrements in cognitive performance Role of caffeine and stimulants in “rescuing” performance in high-fatigue/high-stress states Creatine for cognitive function and brain health Potential for creatine mitigating traumatic brain injury (TBI) Can ketones aid in mitigating traumatic brain injury? Thoughts on cognitive impact of nicotine CHO mouth rinsing: proposed mechanism of action SHOW NOTES: https://sigmanutrition.com/episode276

If you're a man there have been two series of remarkable writing over the past year that I recommend you read.One is Peter Wells' series called Hello Darkness on the website The Spinoff. The acclaimed New Zealand author Peter Wells kept a diary talking about what he saw, was going through, and thought since his prostate cancer diagnosis. A cancer which has spread and metastasised.It's an emotional read. Because of his skill with words and his ability to write about emotion and feeling. It has a dark beauty. It's easily understandable. His ability to write about the tug at the heart and gut of battling the beast is very affecting.The other is Simon Wilson's series in the Herald. It's a prostate cancer diary as well but it's more pragmatic and practical. A less lyrical take on the science and more on the grunt of the battle to control a beast that wants to take your life.This past weekend Simon looked at the screening for the third biggest killer of men and in that he wrote some astounding things.There are 4 ways to figure out if you're on the battlefield. The digital exam and a PSA test are early indicators and then there is a biopsy and an MRI to confirm if the bugger is in there.The gold standard is the biopsy or MRI: they're the proof. That's an expensive option. So men are relying on a gentle probing by your friendly neighbourhood GP and the PSA test before they go for the big ones.Doctors are not happy about either the digital exam or the PSA test because they're inconclusive or misleading.  For instance, did you know that your PSA levels can be raised if you've done vigorous exercise or sex. I didn't.  Good information to knowThe Prostate Cancer Foundation told Simon that American doctors are against the PSA test in particular because they want to cover their backside.  They don't want to concern people who may record worrying signs but don't have the thing. But is that enough reason to tell people not to test for PSA at all?Get a grip. That's like seeing a crack in a building and not sending the engineers in.So here's my story. When I turned 40 I started yearly exams. I thought it was time to send my doctors fingers into the dark places. She agreed. I also asked for a PSA test. She disagreed. She said it could alarm me because it was unreliable. So she gave me my blood test script. I noticed she hadn't ticked the PSA test box so I ticked it with the same coloured pen.When the results came back my PSA was fine but my doctor was irritated that I took my health tests into my own hands. I said suck it up. We now have a baseline. How could it hurt? We've tested ever since. Apparently, my prostate is nice and soft and my PSA is unchanged. Too much information.Now in my 50s, I know a number of men whose life has been saved by PSA tests. I know it's not a gold standard test but it's a bloody good indication of whether you want to spend more finding out if you have it. I also know a lot of friends who haven't had a single check. Get a grip you boysI have no idea why the PSA test holds such fear for doctors particularly in this non-fault environment that we have in New Zealand. Women wouldn't let this lie. From breast screening to pap smears women have been truly vigilant about their health and their screening.So here's the other thing Simon Wilson wrote that blew my mind. According to the Health Research Council, for every dollar spent researching women's health, the amount we spend researching men's health is six cents.The Prostate Cancer Foundation's annual conference took place over the weekend with a focus on ways to improve diagnosis and treatment strategies. Much of the talk was be on the likelihood of a new test for prostate cancer that's cheap and reliable.Do it. Spend on it. Currently, men are in a cone of silence that actually resembles stupidity. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and it's time for men to squeak. 

1) Systematic review and statistical analysis of the integrity of 33 randomized controlled trials2) What's Trending: Interview with Dr. Neil Garrett about his Nature Neuroscience article on dishonesty.3) Topic of the month: Neurology Today story about Zika virus and Guillain Barre syndrome detected in ColumbiaThis podcast for the Neurology Journal begins and closes with Dr. Robert Gross, Editor-in-Chief, briefly discussing highlighted articles from the print issue of Neurology. In the second segment Dr. Ted Burns interviews Dr. Mark Bolland about his paper on the systematic review and statistical analysis of the integrity of 33 randomized controlled trials. Dr. Ted Burns is also interviewing Dr. Neil Garrett for our “What's Trending” feature of the week about his Nature Neuroscience paper on dishonesty. In the next part of the podcast Dr. Ted Burns interviews Dr. Carlos Pardo about a Neurology Today story on the topic of Zika virus and Guillain Barre syndrome detected in Columbia.DISCLOSURES: Dr. Ted Burns serves as Podcast Editor for Neurology®; and has received research support for consulting activities with UCB, CSL Behring, Walgreens and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Dr. Bolland receives research support from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.Dr. Pardo receives research support from Bart McLean Fund for Neuroimmunology Research-Project Restore and the NIH.All other participants report no disclosures.