Podcasts about Mendell

mars femme home stretch alabaster hoodwinked u boats penultimate episode mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2020 89:45

Join us for the Penultimate Episode of Season One! Alabaster finds true love, Mendell starts a revolution, and Doug fights for the souls of his family. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts (Tiefling Rogue): Ted Hong Mendell Sands (Human Cleric): Nick Slaick Music from Youtube Audio Library: "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "I'll Remember You" by Jeremy Blake "Snack Time" and "Splashing Around" by The Green Orbs "La Danse Fetish de Femme" by The Mini Vandals "Anton" by Dan Bodan "Magical Triumph" by Sir Cubworth "Elli's Home Stretch" by The Great North Sound Society "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "Dark Toys" by SYBS "The Machine Assembly" by The Whole Other "Dance of the U-Boat" and "Serenity" by Aakash Gandhi "Lord of the Dawn" by Jesse Gallagher --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Character Arcana (D&D) Ep. 11: Hoodwinked

mars character femme home stretch arcana alabaster hoodwinked u boats penultimate episode mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2020 89:45

Join us for the Penultimate Episode of Season One! Alabaster finds true love, Mendell starts a revolution, and Doug fights for the souls of his family. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts (Tiefling Rogue): Ted Hong Mendell Sands (Human Cleric): Nick Slaick Music from Youtube Audio Library: "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "I'll Remember You" by Jeremy Blake "Snack Time" and "Splashing Around" by The Green Orbs "La Danse Fetish de Femme" by The Mini Vandals "Anton" by Dan Bodan "Magical Triumph" by Sir Cubworth "Elli's Home Stretch" by The Great North Sound Society "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "Dark Toys" by SYBS "The Machine Assembly" by The Whole Other "Dance of the U-Boat" and "Serenity" by Aakash Gandhi "Lord of the Dawn" by Jesse Gallagher --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Wired into Pain

The Sciatica Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2020 48:02

This is a repost from 2018, an article caled Wired Into Pain: a history of the science of pain. I hope you enjoy it. I’ve also recorded an audio version to go with it!I am a Physiotherapist. Almost every person I see in clinic is in pain, and most already have an idea about what has caused their pain. If they are old enough, they might say ‘overuse’, or ‘wear and tear’; if they are younger, they might say ‘bad posture’ or ‘tight muscles’; if they have had a scan, they might say a ‘slipped disc’ or a ‘bone spur’. We accept these explanations prima facie. We consider pain to be a readout on the state of the body’s tissues. Or, as one doctor wrote in 1917, it is “the unerring medical compass that serves as a guide to the pathological lesion”.But it is only very recently that we have come to understand our aches and pains in this way. Since medieval times, until surprisingly recently, people commonly understood their pains in terms of their relationship to God, often as punishment for sin. Physical and emotional pain were entangled, along with mind, body and soul. This was the grim logic of medieval torture and self-flagellation: the truth of the soul could be accessed through the pain of the body.But, as historian Joanna Bourke records in her book The Story of Pain, this mixture of mind, body, soul and God also allowed people to feel pain as comforting: a “vigilant sentinel […] stationed in the frail body by Providence”, as one writer put it in 1832. For others, pain was redemptive: take, for example, the early nineteenth-century labourer Joseph Townend, who resolved himself to God after undergoing surgery without anaesthetic, and reflected at the end of his life on his “sincere thanks to the Almighty God” for his agonising conversion.Pre-modern physicians had a different perspective. Most understood pain according to humoural theory. Hippocrates and his disciple Galen considered all illness to be caused by an imbalance of the body’s humours — phlegm, yellow bile, black bile and blood — which ebb and flow in response changes in the body or its environment. This notion endured for many centuries. To one 18th century writer, pain was a consequence of “viscid blood [stopping] at every narrow passage in its progress”; to another, it was a “Nature throw[ing] a Mischief” about his body. Humoural theory is pre-scientific and seems quaint to us now. But, as Bourke points out, it accounts for an abundance of influences, from our personal temperament and our relationships to the alignment of the planets above our heads, on the pain that we feel.Over the coming centuries, at great cost to people suffering from pain, this insight was lost. This is the story of that loss; of how we arrived at the strange, wrong idea that pain is a straightforward “guide to the pathological lesion”; and of how an emerging re-understanding of pain shows us that it is more complex and more astonishing than we have thought for centuries.Descartes, dualism and the labelled line“The ghost in the machine” — Gilbert RyleIt is in the sixteenth century that we find the beginnings of the dominant modern understanding of the body and its pains. The rise of Protestantism and, amongst secular thinkers, of humanism, contributed to an increased focus on the individual and an understanding of the body as a natural, rather than a supernatural entity. Medicine became more interested in anatomy and the physical laws of nature. Vesalius published his On the Fabric of the Human Body, a compendium of illustrations of dissected cadavers based on the author’s strict, first-hand observations at a time when doctors were not accustomed to performing their own dissections. Later, physicians like William Harvey took principles from physics and astronomy to show that in many ways, our bodies can be understood as machines: pumps, pulleys and levers. Slowly, the body became less sacred and more scientific.It was in this spirit that, in 1641, the French polymath Renes Descartes published his Meditations on First Philosophy. This work contains a drawing that became the seminal image of pain for the next three hundred years. The picture shows a kneeling boy with one foot perilously close to a small campfire. The heat of the flame sends a signal (an “animal spirit”) up a channel to the boy’s pituitary gland, which Descartes reckoned was the seat of consciousness. There, the signal elicits pain, “just as pulling one end of a cord rings the bell at the other end”.This picture makes sense to us, it seems intuitively correct. But this is because in matters of pain we are most of us now, in the Western world at least, the children of Descartes. For pain scientists on the other hand, who have fought in recent decades to emancipate themselves from Descartes, this picture has has come to represent the original sin, the first big lie of the Western world’s understanding of pain.It’s crimes are twofold. First, it is the essence of an idea called dualism, which holds that mind and body are separate. The body feels pain, and passes this information on to the mind. For Cartesian dualists, the body is a machine and we are a kind of ghost in the machine, receiving information about its status.Second, the picture represents pain as being felt by a specific detector in the body, and passed up a specific pathway, the long hollow tube, to a specific location in the boy’s brain. Pain detectors, at the end of a pain pathway, that leads to a pain centre. This idea is called specificity theory, but in this post I’m going to use the term labelled line theory because although it is less common, I think it is more descriptive — a labelled line for pain.As it happens, Descartes’ idea was more subtle than the picture and its subsequent interpretations made out. In his defence, the historians Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen and Karl A.E. Enenkel point out that Descartes knew that pain is not merely perceived, like a mariner perceives his ship, but felt, as if the mind and body are “nighly conjoin’d […] so that I and it make up one thing”. Descartes knew that we don’t just have a body; we are a body. But this subtlety was lost: the picture of the little boy with his foot in the fire has a memetic power that has carried it, along with dualism and the labelled line, through the centuries.The nineteenth century“Nothing less than the social transformation of Western medicine” — Daniel GoldbergThis change came gradually. It was not until the nineteenth century, two hundred years after Descartes’ Meditations, that dualism and the labelled line for pain finally established their authority in medicine.They set in as part of a wider change in the history of medicine following the French Revolution that is sometimes now called the ‘Paris School’. The physicians of the Paris School transformed large teaching hospitals in the city to dedicate them, for the first time, to furthering scientific knowledge through rigorous observation of patients and cadavers, and the classification of disease. They explicitly rejected humoural theory, which held that illnesses are processes that are distributed around the body through the movement of viscous humours. Rather, physicians of the Paris School considered diseases to be the result of lesions localised to a single, solid organ.Influenced by the Paris School, Victorian physicians across the Western world began to search their suffering patients’ bodies for a local, solid lesion to blame for their pain. As one New York physician wrote in 1880, “we fully agree that there can be no morbid manifestations without a change in the material structure of the organs involved”. For the first time, doctors began to think like detectives on the hunt for the smoking gun, following clues provided by the body and its sensations (it is no coincidence that Arthur Conan Doyle was a doctor before he wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, or that he made his character Watson one, too).This approach has tremendous diagnostic power. But, as we will see, even modern researchers find that our pain, particularly our chronic pain, resists reduction by detective work. How did Victorian physicians respond when their investigations failed to turn up a local lesion to explain pain? According to historian and medical ethicist Daniel Goldberg, many doubled down, hunting for anything they could find. As one surgeon put it, “any lesion anywhere in the body will do to account for an otherwise inexplicable pain”. And that meant any lesion: the surgeon Joseph Swann, or example, baffled by a woman’s 11-year history of pain in an apparently healthy knee, eventually attributed it to an imperfection he found, after much searching, in a nerve in her hand.Those that could not find a lesion anywhere explained unexplained pain as one inevitably must if one subscribes to the logic of dualism: if it’s not in the body, it must be in the mind. Goldberg tells the story of the surgeon Josiah Nott who, in 1872, took on the care of an American soldier whose leg was crushed in a railway accident. The leg had already been amputated by another surgeon at a point about halfway up the calf, but the soldier had developed phantom limb pains. The original surgeon, assuming there must be a local lesion at the end of a labelled line, had then amputated the stump, but to no avail. Nott, making the same assumption, took still more from the stump the next year, and still the patient felt no relief. Later that year, Dr. Nott operated again, removing tissues from three major nerves in the shank. This pattern continued until Nott had removed the poor soldier’s leg up to four inches above the knee, and his sciatic nerve up to the pelvis. When the patient’s pain returned after this final operation, Dr. Nott reasoned that he must have acquired an addiction to opioids which was inciting him to malinger (to exaggerate or feign his disease). Nott had, horribly literally, followed the assumed cause of the disease up a labelled line through the body and, not catching it, decided it must therefore be in the mind.This logic played out on a broad scale in physicians’ understanding of the now-forgotten condition “railway spine”, the widespread and mysterious back pain felt by the victims of train accidents. Initially, physicians thought that the trauma of a crash caused compression of nerve filaments that in turn caused pain. But as time wore on and their investigations repeatedly failed to find a tissue lesion to explain railway spine, even in cadavers, their suspicion grew that railway spine was not a ‘real’ condition at all. After all, weren’t most victims also seeking compensation from railway companies? By the beginning of the twentieth century, railway spine was known instead as “hysterical spine […] merely a psychical condition”. Dualism dictated once more that if we can’t find it in the body, it must be in the mind.1900 to 1965Anomalies, non-anomalies, and opening the gateAnomalies“[Pain] reveals only a minute proportion of illnesses and often, when it is one of their accompaniments, is misleading. On the other hand, in certain chronic cases it seems to be the entire disorder which, without it, would not exist.” — Rene Leriche, 1937The break from Cartesianism began at the end of the nineteenth century, when the great neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal showed that our nerves, spinal cord and brain are not one thing but composed of many smaller things (which came to be called neurons) linked by gap junctions (which came to be called synapses). Decades earlier, the English neuroscientist Charles Bell had suggested that the function of the nervous system is less straightforward than the labelled line in Descartes’s picture, and Cajal’s work was proof.As we can see by his extraordinary drawings, Cajal meticulously mapped the peripheral neurons in our arms and legs, running to the spinal cord, and the neurons running up the cord, and many of those in our brain. But, according to pain scientist and writer Fernando Cervero, the terminus for incoming peripheral neurons, the foremost part of the spinal cord that we now call the dorsal horn, was so dense and chaotic that it resisted even Cajal’s fastidious eye. He called the dorsal horn a maremagnum, a Spanish word that means ‘confused and disorganised crowd’, as in the bustle of a busy railway station. Cajal’s vision of a network of individual cells, with nodes of incomprehensible complexity, opened up the possibility that signals aren’t simply passed upwards in a linear fashion as Descartes had assumed, but are modulated along the way.The idea that inputs to the nervous system are modulated before they ‘become’ our sensations hints at an explanation for the odd persistent pains for which Victorian physicians could find no lesion. It also begins to explain the opposite phenomenon, lesions that cause no pain, which became unignorable during the brutal first decades of the twentieth century. Doctors like Rene Leriche, on the front line in the Great War, found that soldiers with dreadful wounds often felt no pain and could undergo surgery without anaesthetic. Leriche knew this was not willpower but “certain movements of the hormones, or of the blood”, a presciently non-Cartesian thought.During the Second World War, the American anaesthesiologist Henry Beecher built on Leriche’s observations by conducting a more methodical study at his post in Italy. He found that as many as three quarters of wounded soldiers felt little pain at the time of their injury. As one doctor put it, it was as if wounds and diseases “carry for the most part — most mercifully — their own anaesthetics with them”.One might think that such cases would have alerted the scientific community to the fact that our nervous systems are doing something more than passively relaying pain into our brains, as labelled line theory implied. But for scientists and doctors at large, anomalies that defied labelled line went on hiding in plain sight, “discovered” periodically and then easily forgotten as they had been in the Victorian era. Phantom limb pain, for example, was unignorable during the American Civil War, and then slipped once more from popular consciousness. The doctor and writer Oliver Sacks called these periods of forgetting scotoma, dark gaps in the scientific awareness in which the prevailing theory cannot explain common phenomena and instead shoves them in the attic to think about another day. The progress of science, wrote Sacks, is faltering and haphazard, “very far from a majestic unfolding”.Non-anomalies“Pain is the physiological adjunct of a protective reflex” — Charles Sherrington, writing in 1900“Pain remains a biological enigma — so much of it is useless, a mere curse” — Charles Sherrington, writing forty years later.(Quoted in Understanding Pain by Fernando Cervero)Rather than explaining anomalies, scientists studying pain at the beginning of the twentieth century focused on a series of discoveries that appeared, at first, to confirm labelled line theory. The British neuroscientist Charles Sherrington had coined the term “nociceptor” for the neurons that convey danger messages (elicited by things like heat, intense mechanical pressure or an incision to the skin) to the brain, and in the following decades researchers slowly but successfully identified and isolated these cells.Starting in 1912, American scientists performed the first anterolateral cordotomy, slicing through the part of the spinal cord that was theorized to carry danger messages to the brain and appearing to stop pain in its tracks. Later, the success of such operations would prove to be temporary, but the procedure did show that this part of the spinal cord houses Sherrington’s nociceptors. In 1927, the Americans Herbert Gasser and Joseph Erlanger established that different nerve fibers conduct signals at different velocities, and classified them according to their diameter as A, B and C fibers. A fibers were widest and conducted signals the quickest; C fibers were the most narrow and slow. They found that one sub-type of A fibers, A-delta fibers, conducted the relatively quick sensation of dull pain we feel when we stub our toe; and that C fibers conduct the slower, stinging pain that arrives later. Again, this neat distinction would later prove to be more complicated, but the discovery was further evidence for a labelled line of pain. Gasser and Erlanger were only able to look at conduction signals from a whole bundle of nerves and so it was not until 1958 that Ainsley Iggo was first to record individual A-delta and C fibers and isolate Sherrington’s nociceptors for the first time.Opening the gate“It may seem easy, but it was not” — Ronald MelzackDespite this series of discoveries in favour of labelled line, some researchers could not shake from their minds those confounding anomalies: pain without lesion, and lesion without pain. And so, at last, the science of pain began to wake from its scotoma. Some scientists began to propose a theory to compete with labelled line called pattern theory, which held that it is not the stimulation of specific nerves that causes the sensation of pain, but that the way in which nerves are stimulated, spatially and temporally. Pattern theory was vague, and had nowhere near the amount of evidence that supported labelled line theory, but it did hint at an answer to some of the anomalies that had been documented in the recent scientific literature, such as the way pain spreads beyond the site of an injury and the way rubbing a pain can make it temporarily feel better. Pattern theory was taken up in Oxford in the 1940s and 50s, where the brilliant British neuroscientist Pat Wall was beginning to develop ideas he would turn into gate control theory, a whole new model of pain.In 1959, Wall moved from Oxford to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he met Ronald Melzack. Melzack, a Canadian, had just arrived at M.I.T. to take up a post as assistant professor of Psychology, and found to his annoyance that he could not perform research on animals in the university’s Psychology building. So, Melzack decamped to Wall’s lab. The two quickly took up a discussion on the inadequacy of Cartesianism and decided to come up with a new theory to “entice spinal-cord physiologists away from [labelled line]”.From his previous research, Melzack knew the brain sends messages down the spinal cord to inhibit the messages coming up it, exerting a kind of ‘top-down’ control on incoming information. From his own experiments, inspired by pattern theory, Wall knew that different inputs into the nervous system are weighed against each other somehow in the spinal cord, competing to be ‘sent up’ to the brain. Despite their discussions, Melzack and Wall’s ideas remained inchoate until, in 1962, Melzack stumbled on the Dutchman Willem Noordenbos’s pattern-theory hypothesis that large A-fibers carrying touch signals might somehow inhibit small C-fibers carrying danger signals.Melzack calls this moment a “flash of insight”. Noordenbos had theorized that this modulation happened in the substantia gelatinosa, which is part of the terminus for incoming information at the spinal cord. Wall knew that large fibers and small fibers entered the substantia gelatinosa at opposite ends, and theorised that it was this setup that allowed the one to inhibit the other, like closing a figurative ‘gate’. The weight of signals from large and small fibers would determine what kind of message was allowed up to the brain.In 1963, Melzack moved to McGill University in Canada, but travelled South over the border when he could to visit Wall’s home in Boston where, over large amounts of duty free whiskey, the two put the finishing, definitive touches to their work. Their theory differed critically from Noordenbos’ because they proposed that the brain itself plays a role in processing at the substantia gelatinosa, by sending signals down the spinal cord to make the ‘gate’ more likely to open or close to danger signals. This was gate control theory.For the first time, science had a model that began to explain pain anomalies. According to gate control theory, for example, the brain of a soldier who has sustained an injury can send messages down the spinal cord to close the gate to incoming danger signals. Over fifty years have passed, and gate control theory has turned out to be wrong in lots of little ways, but right in one big way: it is modulation in the spinal cord and the brain, or the central nervous system, that explains why pain is so rarely the reliable sign of tissue status that Victorian scientists assumed it was.Neuromatrix theory“We need to go… to the brain” — Ronald Melzack“When you feel a pain in the leg that has been amputated, where is the pain? If you say it is in your head, would it be in your head if your leg had not been amputated? If you say yes, then what reason have you for ever thinking you have a leg?” — Bertrand RussellGate control theory was a great advance but Melzack and Wall knew their theory was incomplete. According to Oliver Sacks, it is by studying anomalies — phenomena not explained by the prevailing theory — that researchers wake from scotoma and begin revolutions in scientific understanding. So it was that Melzack’s interest in the anomaly of phantom limb pain led to neuromatrix theory, the next great boost that finally allowed pain science to escape to orbit of CartesianismIf people without limbs have phantom pain, Melzack reasoned, it follows that the origins of the pattern of pain lie not in the limb but in the brain. And not only pain, but the sensation of having a body in its entirety — its place in the world, its shape, its movements — is housed, in what Melzack came to understand as a series of loops and patterns of neurons, inside our brains. This brain architecture is the neuromatrix.Incoming information, then, is not what holds the essence of our sensations; it merely triggers the neuromatrix, already inscribed in the brain, to ‘produce’ the sensations we feel. If a boy puts his foot in a fire, the nerves do not tell a passive brain “here is pain”; the nerves simply say “here is an intense input”, and the neuromatrix does the rest.How do we get a neuromatrix? Melzack says it is inborn, but then shaped by experiences. So, your neuromatrix develops your own personal signatures for familiar pains, like the pain you might feel in your back when you bend. Crucially, the neuromatrix uses our thoughts and emotions to generate our sensations, as well as sensory information. This makes sense: think of a stroke on the leg from your partner and one from an unappealing stranger. The same sensory input feels different.So, if you believe the cause of your back pain is something threatening, like a suspected spinal cancer or a ‘slipped’ disc, it willfeelworse than if you believe it is something benign, like a muscle strain. If a conscripted soldier sustains a battlefield injury that means he will likely have to leave the trenches to convalesce behind the front lines, that wound may not feel as bad as it would for a factory worker, for whom it could mean a loss of livelihood. If you have just been made redundant, or become divorced, than the incoming danger signals from an incipiently arthritic hip might suddenly start triggering your neuromatrix to produce a deep aching pain in your joints.Pain is intimately integrated with meaning, and informed by the broader context of our lives. And there is no labelled line: pain is the output of a widely-distributed neural process that takes input from countless biological, psychological and social factors.The sensitive nervous system“Not under conditions of my choosing / Wired into pain / Rider on the slow train” — Adrienne RichResearchers have used the neuromatrix as a foundation to develop our understanding of pain. For example, towards the end of the 1970s, scientists began to establish that the endings of our danger messenger neurons, the ones Sherrington christened nociceptors, become more sensitive the more they are used, a process called peripheral sensitization. But perhaps the most remarkable development since Melzack proposed the neuromatrix was Clifford Woolf’s discovery of central sensitization.On completing his medical training in South Africa in the early 1980s, Clifford Woolf joined Pat Wall’s laboratory in London. He was not content with measuring the readouts from individual chains of neurons, and instead began to monitor broader bursts of activity which he thought would give him more insight into the pain system as a whole. He started to measure the output of the neurons that cause muscles to flex away from a dangerous stimulus (think of touching a hot stove and retracting your hand before you are even conscious of pain). Investigating on rats, he found that most of these cells responded to dangerous stimuli, such as heat and pinch, in a fairly narrow field — say, one toe. But, some cells had a very wide receptive field and would respond to even light, non-dangerous touch. Why would rats have neurons designed to elicit a withdrawal response to light touch?It took Woolf some months to realise that he was only finding these neurons at the end of the workday, when his rats had already been subjected to hours of pain-inducing stimuli. He calls this his “eureka moment”. He had not discovered that rats have certain neurons that are super sensitive across a wide receptive field: he had discovered that a rat’s nervous system becomes super sensitive across a wide receptive field when it has been exposed to prolonged danger. Woolf had discovered an ‘amplifier’ mechanism in the spinal cord. This phenomenon is central sensitization.Woolf was the first person to show that the nervous system is not hard-wired for pain but plastic. Prolonged nociception can change the behaviour and the architecture of the nervous system so that non-dangerous inputs (like light touch) are felt as painful, and dangerous inputs (like a pinprick) produce more pain than they otherwise would have done. To top it off, this whole pain experience also spreads beyond the original site of injury. The great physiotherapist Louis Gifford described central sensitization as like tapping X on your computer keyboard three times, and 10 X’s of different sizes and colours popping up on the screen.A mild and benign form of central sensitization is common and almost immediate after most injuries — after you burn your hand or sprain your ankle, it is your body’s way of protecting itself. But central sensitization can wear on and, in many cases, persist and get worse long after any injury has healed. If you or someone you know has widespread back pain that flares up with the slightest movement, or has osteoarthritis in their hip that seems to spread all the way down their leg, they might have central sensitization.Central sensitization can affect many different functions, not just pain. People with ongoing, maladaptive central sensitization can be tense and forgetful, and sensitive to bright lights, loud noises and chemicals. It is also a feature of irritable bowel syndrome, migraine and chronic fatigue syndrome, and often goes hand in hand with anxiety and depression.So long, labelled line: Grappling with complexity“Pain cannot easily be divided from the emotions surrounding it. Apprehension sharpens it, hopelessness intensifies it, loneliness protracts it by making hours seem like days. The worst pain is unexplained pain” — Hilary Mantel“The basic idea of pain modulation implies that the output can be different to the input at every stage in the transmission of pain signals throughout the brain” — Fernando CerveroCentral sensitization is just one discovery that has enhanced our understanding of pain. There are many more examples. Descending modulation is the ongoing process by which the brain sends signals down the spinal cord to simultaneously inhibit and facilitate incoming danger signals, a mechanism Leriche anticipated when he observed that battlefield wounds “carry […] their own anaesthetics with them”. In people with persistent pain, descending modulation may be set for a net facilitation of incoming danger messages. Researchers have also expanded our understanding to include the immune system, which aids and abets the nervous system as it produces pain. They have found out that nociceptors, far from lying waiting for an intense stimulus as Sherrington imagined, are actually firing regularly throughout the day, every time we use a pair of scissors, ride a bike or go on a long walk, without (if we are lucky) our neuromatrix producing the experience of pain. Conversely, clever experiments have shown that nociception is not even necessary for pain, giving credence to the stories of people who narrowly escape injury but, believing they have been hurt, writhe in agony. And, we know that stress, even the stress of early life events, plays a vital role in ongoing pain, and that our stress system and pain production system are intimately linked.The contrast between the byzantine, distributed complexity of the mechanisms of pain and the singular experience of pain — I feel it here — is remarkable. Scientists have made various attempts to simplify the mechanisms into something more understandable and more useful to lay people. The neuroscientist VS Ramachandran has said that “pain is an opinion on the organism’s state of health rather than a mere reflective response to an injury”, a stark contrast to the old-fashioned idea of pain as “the unerring medical compass that serves as a guide to the pathological lesion”.The scientists and physiotherapists Dave Butler and Lorimer Moseley put it elegantly:“We will experience pain when our credible evidence of danger related to our body is greater than our credible evidence of safety related to our body. Equally we won’t have pain when our credible evidence of safety is greater than our credible evidence of danger.”In other words, pain is not measuring damage, it is a protective strategy, just one of many (along with local and systemic inflammation, changes in movement like tensing or bracing, the feeling of stiffness, and so on) that the body enacts in response to credible evidence of danger.This evidence of danger often includes nociception (signals from tissue damage), but the neuromatrix uses many other sources, too. For example, if someone has back pain and a doctor tells you your x-ray shows “wear and tear” or “degeneration” in your spine, they have received a clear message of danger related to your body that is likely to make their pain worse. Indeed, people with back pain who get an MRI actually reduce their chances of recovery. On the other hand, if that person’s doctor (or physiotherapist!) tells them that the findings on their scan are normal age-related changes (or, better yet, doesn’t order a scan at all), that is a clear safety message. Safety messages can come from anywhere. Exercise can send safety messages to your neuromatrix, and so can a supportive workplace or having a friend around to talk to.ReflectionsSlow progress, hopes for the future and a note of cautionSlow progress“I am still not happy with what has been accepted” — Pat Wall, 1999Danger sharpens pain; safety soothes it. Why, then, do health professionals continue to give people with persistent pain credible evidence of danger? Apart from the obvious — that there is money in telling people their spines are crumbling and their pelvises are out of line, that they have muscle knots that need releasing and cores that need stabilizing — it is because, just as Descartes’ model of pain took almost three centuries to reach its zenith in Western culture, the neuromatrix, still only forty years old, has been accepted only falteringly even in medical circles, and hardly at all in the wider culture.Indeed, in many ways the twentieth century has doubled down on labelled line. Take, for example, the dominance of the orthopaedic understanding of low back pain, which the late Scottish doctor and historian Gordon Waddell called “the dynasty of the disc”. Waddell traces the tenuous association of the lumbar disc with low back pain to a fateful cluster of papers published at the beginning of the century by orthopods searching, like Victorian physicians had done before them, for a pot of gold at the (wrong) end of the labelled line. Even today, routine orthopaedic surgeries like lumbar fusion, knee arthroscopy and shoulder decompression are amongst the most low-value, least evidence-based treatments in healthcare, still performed largely because of inertia and unexamined Cartesianism.Many physiotherapists practice with the same habits. Like Joseph Swann, we might conduct a questionable root-cause analysis up or down a kinetic chain to find an ‘issue in the tissues’, settling on a pronated foot, a slumped posture or a valgus (in-falling) knee. Like Josiah Nott, when a patient has failed a course of ‘corrective’ exercise to ‘fix’ their body we might decide their problem is primarily ‘psycho-social’, a euphemism for in-their-mind. This is understandable, it takes great effort to shift from Cartesianism to the neuromatrix; I have been trying for years and I am still astonished when a new study is published showing, for example, that there are no major physical risk factors for a first episode of neck pain, but multiple psychological ones, like depression, and social ones, like role conflict. Still, it is imperative that medical professionals of all stripes challenge their colleagues who promote themselves as experts but who practice with unreconstructed Cartesianism.Hopes for the Future“While pain sufferers do not have the luxury of denying the reality of their pain, they can and do deny its legitimacy, thereby internalising the stigma so frequently directed at people in pain.” — Daniel GoldbergThe neuromatrix model has the potential to be immensely liberating for patients. For people with everyday predicaments of life like the back or shoulder pain we all get from time to time, there is the reassuring message that pain is not an indicator of damage and they are safe to move. In fact, movement, as opposed to protecting the painful joint, is the way to go in the long run. For people with more profound, widespread and recalcitrant pain, understanding why their pain is the way it is can help with the process of acceptance, and knowing pain is multifactorial can open up new therapeutic options to help calm down a sensitive nervous system.The neuromatrix could also militate against the way Cartesian thinking drives stigmatization of people with chronic pain. Cartesian dualism casts pain as a two-step sequence of events: the body senses pain, then the mind reacts. As recently as the 1980s, words like “hysterical” or “psychogenic” were used to describe people who appeared to be ‘over-reacting’ to their pain. It is this thinking that allows us to sort people into those who are responding appropriately to their pain, and those who are ‘being dramatic’. The saddest effect of this stigma is when patients internalise it, believing that they are not ‘coping’ properly with ‘a bit of back pain’.So patients and health professionals need to know that dualism is bogus: as Pat Wall himself put it, “the separation of sensation from perception was quite artificial… sensory and cognitive mechanisms operate as a whole”. Or, in the words of neuroscientist Fernando Cervero, “emotional, sensory and cognitive elements aren’t organised in a hierarchical way, but in a cooperative way […] interacting to generate the final pain experience”.A note of caution“Nineteenth century physicians drain[ed] pain of any intrinsic meaning altogether, making it little more than a sign or symptom of something else” — Joanna Burke“[The challenge is] to allow a rapprochement between the world of the clinician and the world of the person in pain” — Quinter et. al (2008).The neuromatrix and all its attendant discoveries have revolutionised how medical and health professionals should approach people in pain. It is a rare true paradigm shift. But there is danger in complacency. “Now is not a time for professional hubris or the proclamation of truth by a few”, warn the rheumatologists John Quintner and Milton Cohen. The battle to understand pain is only half won. It is all too easy to be drawn back into the orbit of dualism, not only between the mind and body, but between the clinician and the patient, or the researcher and the sufferer. Centuries-old habits die hard, and we have long made the person-in-pain an object of enquiry. But this can only take us so far; as Quinter and Cohen assert, “the pain of another person is irreducible to its neuronal correlates”. We can only really know pain through dialogue.It is difficult to talk properly about pain. Being in deep pain can be a harrowing, abject, solitary experience. And apart from anything else, often we just don’t have the words: Virginia Woolf, no stranger to pain, lamented that English has a rich vocabulary for love, but a meagre one for pain. The poet Emily Dickinson said that pain “has an element of blank”.But it can be done. Joletta Belton, a blogger with persistent pain, recently tweeted about the two clinicians who had helped her the most. “It wasn’t just their words” she wrote, “it was that they listened first. And understood. Listening matters […] I wasn’t interrupted or lectured, they didn’t try to ‘educate’ me or alter my narrative to suit their own […] I felt what I said was of value. I felt human, of worth. That’s invaluable.”It may seem strange to end a post about science with a note on the importance of listening, but in the context of the neuromatrix it makes perfect sense. Listening to people in pain is what’s needed to undo the damage that has been done, and take the progress that’s been made to the next level.Belton’s experience echoes a vignette reported by Joanna Bourke in The Story of Pain.During a medical consultation in 1730, an embarrassed patient found himself apologising to his physician for boring him with “so tedious a Tale”. The patient’s physician protested: “Your Story is so diverting, that I take abundance of delight in it, and your Ingenious way of telling it, gives me a greater insight into your distemper, than you imagine. Wherefore, let me beg of you to go on, Sir: I am all attention, and shall not interrupt you.”Selected bibliographyJournal ArticlesAllan, D. and Waddell, G. (1989). An historical perspective on low back pain and disability. Acta Orthopaedica Scandinavica, 60(sup234), pp.1–23.Arnaudo, E. (2017). Pain and dualism: Which dualism?. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 23(5), pp.1081–1086.Baliki, M. and Apkarian, A. (2015). Nociception, pain, negative moods, and behavior selection. Neuron, 87(3), pp.474–491.Bourke, J. (2014). Pain sensitivity: an unnatural history from 1800 to 1965. Journal of Medical Humanities, 35(3), pp.301–319.Brodal, P. (2017). A neurobiologist’s attempt to understand persistent pain. Scandinavian Journal of Pain, 15(1).Cohen, M., Quintner, J., Buchanan, D., Nielsen, M. and Guy, L. (2011). Stigmatization of Patients with Chronic Pain: The Extinction of Empathy. Pain Medicine, 12(11), pp.1637–1643.Chapman, C., Tuckett, R. and Song, C. (2008). Pain and stress in a systems perspective: reciprocal neural, endocrine, and immune interactions. The Journal of Pain, 9(2), pp.122–145.Eriksen, T., Kerry, R., Mumford, S., Lie, S. and Anjum, R. (2013). At the borders of medical reasoning: aetiological and ontological challenges of medically unexplained symptoms. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 8(1), p.11.Goldberg, D. (2012). Pain without lesion: debate among American neurologists, 1850–1900. 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 0(15).Goldberg, D. (2017). Pain, objectivity and history: understanding pain stigma. Medical Humanities, 43(4), pp.238–243.Iannetti, G. and Mouraux, A. (2010). From the neuromatrix to the pain matrix (and back). Experimental Brain Research, 205(1), pp.1–12.Kerry, R., Maddocks, M. and Mumford, S. (2008). Philosophy of science and physiotherapy: An insight into practice. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice, 24(6), pp.397–407.Latremoliere, A. and Woolf, C. (2009). Central sensitization: A generator of pain hypersensitivity by central neural plasticity. The Journal of Pain, 10(9), pp.895–926.Melzack, R. (1999). From the gate to the neuromatrix. Pain, 82, pp.S121-S126.Melzack, R. (2005). Evolution of the neuromatrix theory of Pain. The Prithvi Raj Lecture: Presented at the Third World Congress of World Institute of Pain, Barcelona 2004. Pain Practice, 5(2), pp.85–94.Melzack, R. and Katz, J. (2012). Pain. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 4(1), pp.1–15.Mendell, L. (2014). Constructing and deconstructing the gate theory of pain. Pain, 155(2), pp.210–216.Moayedi, M. and Davis, K. (2013). Theories of pain: from specificity to gate control. Journal of Neurophysiology, 109(1), pp.5–12.Moseley, G. and Butler, D. (2015). Fifteen years of explaining pain: the past, present, and future. The Journal of Pain, 16(9), pp.807–813.Moseley, G. (2007). Reconceptualising pain according to modern pain science. Physical Therapy Reviews, 12(3), pp.169–178.Neilson, S. (2015). Pain as metaphor: metaphor and medicine. Medical Humanities, 42(1), pp.3–10.O’Sullivan, P., Caneiro, J., O’Keeffe, M. and O’Sullivan, K. (2016). Unraveling the complexity of low back pain. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy, 46(11), pp.932–937.Perl, E. (2007). Ideas about pain, a historical view. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8(1), pp.71–80.Quintner, J., Cohen, M., Buchanan, D., Katz, J. and Williamson, O. (2008). Pain Medicine and Its Models: Helping or Hindering?. Pain Medicine, 9(7), pp.824–834.Thacker, M. and Moseley, G. (2012). First-person neuroscience and the understanding of pain. The Medical Journal of Australia, 196(6), pp.410–411.Wiech, K. (2016). Deconstructing the sensation of pain: The influence of cognitive processes on pain perception. Science, 354(6312), pp.584–587.Woolf, C. (2007). Central sensitization. Anesthesiology, 106(4), pp.864–867.BooksCervero, F. (2014). Understanding pain. Boston: Mit Press.Butler, D. and Moseley, G. (2015). Explain pain. Adelaide: Noigroup Publications.Bourke, J. (2014). The story of pain. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Moseley, G. and Butler, D. (2017). Explain pain supercharged. Adelaide: Noigroup Publications.Blog postsPain is weird by Paul IngrahamPain really is in the mind, but not in the way you think by Lorimer MoseleyCentral sensitization in chronic pain by Paul IngrahamMy own chronic pain story by Paul IngrahamEasing musculoskeletal pain Information leafletTell me your story by Joletta BeltonPodcasts and lecturesThe Pain Revolution by Lorimer MoseleyPain: past, present and future with Mick ThackerUnderstanding Pain in 2025 by Mick Thacker Subscribe at tomjesson.substack.com

god american new york canada australia english starting science technology future british french pain canadian song doctors practice nature story meditation italy evolution psychology spanish western medicine ideas tale south safety south africa exercise world war ii philosophy journal patients press wall barcelona empathy ethics oxford scientists scottish researchers butler providence explain hopes phantom victorian pattern wired decades theories lie evaluation sherlock holmes unraveling chapman humanities rider goldberg mri investigating incoming nielsen williamson influenced katz fabric deconstructing equally conversely mcgill university buchanan french revolution almighty god massachusetts institute great war virginia woolf centuries mischief american civil war grappling constructing galen sacks human body descartes emily dickinson mumford physiotherapists eriksen your story protestantism descending prolonged arthur conan doyle clinical practice woolf anesthesiology moseley hippocrates hindering waddell quoted crucially neilson dualism belton bourke ingenious neuron interdisciplinary studies oliver sacks thacker nineteenth hilary mantel apprehension pain medicine cajal cartesian medical humanities gasser nott keeffe neurophysiology medical journal paris school anjum maddocks erlanger stigmatization scandinavian journal world institute dave butler first philosophy william harvey lorimer moseley daniel goldberg leriche sherrington mendell nature reviews neuroscience charles bell dijkhuizen vesalius nociception experimental brain research santiago ramon

Ep. 10: The Trickster God

lord mars monster thrones tricksters freesound alabaster trickster god mendell angel guides

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2020 71:43

The epic journey continues as Alabaster finds herself a Thicc Boi! Mendell must reckon with an angry god, and Doug suspects that they both just might be idiots. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Music from Youtube Audio Library: "London Fog" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Claim of Thrones" by RKVC "Dark Toys" by SYBS "Magical Triumph" and Monster at the Door" by Sir Cubworth "The Black Cat" by Aaron Kenny "Mer-Ka-Ba," "Angel Guides," and "The Lord of Dawn" by Jesse Gallagher "Snack Time" by The Green Orbs "Collapsing All Around" by Amulets Additional sound effects from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Character Arcana (D&D): Ep. 10: The Trickster God

lord mars character monster thrones tricksters freesound arcana alabaster trickster god mendell angel guides

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2020 71:43

In this brand new episode of our D&D adventure podcast: Alabaster finds herself a Thicc Boi and Mendell meets his maker, but Doug suspects foul play! Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Music from Youtube Audio Library: "London Fog" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Claim of Thrones" by RKVC "Dark Toys" by SYBS "Magical Triumph" and Monster at the Door" by Sir Cubworth "The Black Cat" by Aaron Kenny "Mer-Ka-Ba," "Angel Guides," and "The Lord of Dawn" by Jesse Gallagher "Snack Time" by The Green Orbs "Collapsing All Around" by Amulets Additional sound effects from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Character Arcana (D&D) Ep. 9: The Golden Dragon

fire mars character thrones freesound arcana alabaster golden dragon mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2020 78:10

As our heroes befriend a bizarre turtle man and face off against a mighty dragon, Mendell gets clever with his use of magic, Alabaster walks straight through the piss, and Doug has a master plan to try and claim the third and final totem. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts (Tiefling Rogue): Ted Hong Mendell Sands (Human War Cleric): Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl (Dragonborn Paladin): Abby Bryington Music from YouTube Audio Library: “Claim of Thrones” by RKVC “Epic Journey” by Yung Logos “Spirit of Fire” by Aakash Gandhi “Confusing Disco” by Birocratic “Outside Visitors” by Sarah, The Illstrumentalist “London Fog” by Quincas Moreira “Last Train to Mars” by Dan Lebowitz Additional sound effects from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Ep. 9: The Golden Dragon

fire mars thrones freesound alabaster golden dragon mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2020 78:10

As our heroes befriend a bizarre turtle man and face off against a mighty dragon, Mendell gets clever with his use of magic, Alabaster walks straight through the piss, and Doug has a master plan to try and claim the third and final totem. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts (Tiefling Rogue): Ted Hong Mendell Sands (Human War Cleric): Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl (Dragonborn Paladin): Abby Bryington Music from YouTube Audio Library: “Claim of Thrones” by RKVC “Epic Journey” by Yung Logos “Spirit of Fire” by Aakash Gandhi “Confusing Disco” by Birocratic “Outside Visitors” by Sarah, The Illstrumentalist “London Fog” by Quincas Moreira “Last Train to Mars” by Dan Lebowitz Additional sound effects from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Obama Time Capsule

52 Book Challenge

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2020 14:29

In this episode, I discuss a biography from 2007, Obama: From Progress to Power by David Mendell, a Chicago Tribune reporter. Mendell covered Obama early-on in his political career. This book helps us understand how Obama went from a brainy political neophyte to a world-wide influential leader. After, I share a podcast series that pairs with the book. By the time you finish both, you'll know nearly everything to know about pre-presidential Obama.

power barack obama chicago tribune time capsules mendell

Ep. 8: Pandemonium

pandemonium alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2020 69:28

Mendell is caught in a war, and not the one he expected. Alabaster and Doug unearth an ancient evil. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Character Arcana (D&D): Ep. 8: Pandemonium

character pandemonium arcana alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2020 69:28

Mendell is caught in a war, and not the one he expected. Alabaster and Doug unearth an ancient evil. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Character Arcana (D&D): Ep. 7: The Infernal Symbol

mars character symbol infernal paladins arcana alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2020 62:16

Our heroes are deep undercover! Alabaster tries to infiltrate the cathedral. Doug encounters an ancient mystery, and Mendell tries to win over The Paladins. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Music from Youtube Audio Library: "London Fog" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars: by Dan Lebowitz "Window Demons" by Roljui "Invitation to the Castle Ball" by Doug Maxwell "The Machine Assembly" by The Whole Other "The Long Ascent" by Cooper Cannell "Epic Journer" by Yung Logos --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Ep. 7: The Infernal Symbol

mars symbol infernal paladins alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2020 62:16

Our heroes are deep undercover! Alabaster tries to infiltrate the cathedral. Doug encounters an ancient mystery, and Mendell tries to win over The Paladins. Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Music from Youtube Audio Library: "London Fog" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars: by Dan Lebowitz "Window Demons" by Roljui "Invitation to the Castle Ball" by Doug Maxwell "The Machine Assembly" by The Whole Other "The Long Ascent" by Cooper Cannell "Epic Journer" by Yung Logos --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Episode 181: "Depression Part 2 - Change Or Die With Scott Mendell"

Learn For 2 Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2020 43:18

Today's episode is part 2 of the interview that I had with Scott Mendell about depression and suicide. The first episode he got a little deep little dark where he was talking about how he suffered from depression and also how thoughts of suicide went through his head. In this episode we're going to go a little bit more onto the ideas that he has and the, the tips and tricks that he's used to battle depression and overcome and dig himself out of those dark places as well as talking about how people should feel that aren't directly affected by depression but how they can help and how if maybe your friend is depressed, how can you help them or if they're suicidal, how can you help them? Also, how you should feel as a person that maybe has lost someone to suicide and how you can cope with that as well. So hopefully this gets out to anybody who it can help if, if it's not you that needs to hear this, but you know, someone that needs to hear it, please pass it along. That is what this podcast is about. Learning for 2. We're wanting to learn things so we can pass along to others. And as we come upon some trying times here, pretty soon, and battle through people with job loss, things like that, people are gonna start turning to dark places. So, if this can help at least one person get out of that dark place or keep them from going to that dark place, then we feel that we've, we've accomplished what we set out to do. So if this isn't for you and it might be for somebody else, please share it with them and hopefully we can make it a little bit brighter for everybody. So here's Scott Mendell for part two of this interview. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/learn-for-2/message

learning depression mendell

Ep. 6: Shadeheart Manor

mars manor new order alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2020 69:50

Mendell tries on a few disguises, Alabaster gets a new companion, and Doug learns the fate of his last surviving family member. Featuring: Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Music from YouTube Audio Library: "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "The Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Candelabra" by Latasha "Monster at the Door" and "Magical Triumph" by Sir Cubworth "The Black Cat" and "The New Order" by Aaron Kenny "Goat" by Wayne Jones "Window Demons" by Rolijui "Invitation to the Castle Ball" by Doug Maxwell "Bloodkiss" by Hainbach Additional sound effects from freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Character Arcana (D&D) Ep. 6: Shadeheart Manor

mars character manor new order arcana alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 17, 2020 69:50

Mendell tries on a few disguises, Alabaster gets a new companion, and Doug learns the fate of his last surviving family member. Featuring: Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Music from YouTube Audio Library: "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "The Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Candelabra" by Latasha "Monster at the Door" and "Magical Triumph" by Sir Cubworth "The Black Cat" and "The New Order" by Aaron Kenny "Goat" by Wayne Jones "Window Demons" by Rolijui "Invitation to the Castle Ball" by Doug Maxwell "Bloodkiss" by Hainbach Additional sound effects from freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Ep. 5: Under The Sea

mars freesound alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2020 69:39

Doug violently opens the freezer, Alabaster discovers a new power, and Mendell faces his own mortality. Featuring: Dungeon Master Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts Ted Hong Mendell Sands Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl Abby Bryington Music from Youtube Audio Library: "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Apprehensive at Best" by Biz Baz Studio "Collapsing All Around" by Amulets Additional sounds from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Character Arcana (D&D): Ep. 5: Under The Sea

mars character freesound arcana alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 21, 2020 69:39

Doug violently opens the freezer, Alabaster discovers a new power, and Mendell faces his own mortality. Featuring: Dungeon Master Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts Ted Hong Mendell Sands Nick Slaick Alabaster Chernobyl Abby Bryington Music from Youtube Audio Library: "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Apprehensive at Best" by Biz Baz Studio "Collapsing All Around" by Amulets Additional sounds from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Episode 138: How fast are you aging? Reveal your biological age through epigenetics with Dr Keith Booher

Pushing The Limits

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2020 51:15

Molecular Biologist Dr. Keith Booher talks about the Horvath epigenetic clock and the why and how behind finding out your biological age. Keith Booher received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine in 2011 where he conducted research in the field of cancer cell metabolism. He then began work at Zymo Research Corporation developing methods and assays for the investigation of epigenetics. Along with colleagues, he contributed to a high impact study evaluating methods for DNA methylation validation in 2016. Keith continues to study epigenetics in his current position as Application Scientist at The myDNAge company or Epimorphy, LLC, in Southern California where his research is focused on healthy aging and longevity. In his free time, you can find Keith either on the dance floor, at the local library, or spending time with his family. "The world population is aging, especially in the West and the industrialized countries of Asia. In fact, the percentage of the population over the age of 65 is expected to more than double by the year 2050. An aging population presents many societal challenges as advanced age is the number one contributor to chronic ailments such as heart disease, cancer, neurological disorders, and more. It is imperative that meaningful and effective anti-aging interventions are identified and deployed in order to ease the transition from a younger to a gradually older population. Epigenetics involves the modification of gene expression without changing the underlying DNA sequence. Importantly, many recent scientific studies demonstrate the connection between epigenetics, especially DNA methylation, and aging. To date, analyzing changing DNA methylation patterns at key genes is the most accurate way to quantify the aging process. Understanding the connection between epigenetics and the aging process allows us to gain deeper insight into the mechanisms that cause aging, with the ultimate hope of devising interventions that will potentially lead to better health and longevity. Dr. Booher highlights the use cases for this new type of testing and it's used for those individuals or teams wanting to understand what protocols, training regimes, food plans, supplement regimes etc impact their own aging and how you can maybe even turn back the clock ticking on us all. Get yourself tested and find out your biological age at: https://www.mydnage.com/ Use the code 'LISA15" to get a 15% discount on the cost of the test Watch Dr. Keith's Ted Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeT1RcwsDMc We would like to thank our sponsors for this show: www.vielight.com Makers of Photobiomodulation devices that stimulate the brains mitocondria, the power houses of your brains energy, through infrared light to optimise your brain function. To get 10% off your order use the code: TAMATI at www.vielight.com For more information on Lisa Tamati's programs, books and documentaries please visit www.lisatamati.com For Lisa's online run training coaching go to https://www.lisatamati.com/page/runningpage/ Join hundreds of athletes from all over the world and all levels smashing their running goals while staying healthy in mind and body. Lisa's Epigenetics Testing Program https://www.lisatamati.com/page/epigenetics/ Get The User Manual For Your Specific Genes Which foods should you eat, and which ones should you avoid? When, and how often should you be eating? What type of exercise does your body respond best to, and when is it best to exercise? Discover the social interactions that will energize you and uncover your natural gifts and talents. These are just some of the questions you'll uncover the answers to in the Lisa Tamati Epigenetics Testing Program along with many others. There's a good reason why epigenetics is being hailed as the "future of personalized health", as it unlocks the user manual you'll wish you'd been born with! No more guesswork. The program, developed by an international team of independent doctors, researchers, and technology programmers for over 15 years, uses a powerful epigenetics analysis platform informed by 100% evidenced-based medical research. The platform uses over 500 algorithms and 10,000 data points per user, to analyze body measurement and lifestyle stress data, that can all be captured from the comfort of your own home For Lisa's Mental Toughness online course visit: https://www.lisatamati.com/page/mindsetuniversity/ Develop mental strength, emotional resilience, leadership skills and a never quit mentality - Helping you to reach your full potential and break free of those limiting beliefs. For Lisa's free weekly Podcast "Pushing the Limits" subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast app or visit the website https://www.lisatamati.com/page/podcast/ Transcript of the Podcast: Speaker 1: (00:01) 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 welcome to pushing the limits. Speaker 2: (00:12) Let's see everyone. Thanks for joining me again today. I have a scientist to guest on the show, Dr. Keith Booher. Now, Dr. Keith is a molecular biologist and he works for a company called mydnage.com. Now this is a company that uses Dr. Steve Horvath's epigenetic clock. This tells us our biological age. So we have a very interesting conversation around the difference between your biological age your, your chronological age, and also the method of telling how old you are based on your DNA. So we're looking at DNA methylation as opposed to some of the other processes that look at biological aging from other factors. And we get to into a deep dive about looking at your biological age. Now this is really interesting from a perspective from coaching, from I'm trying to draw a line in the sand to see where you are now. Speaker 2: (01:08) And I can see this having benefits. We are looking at it for our mastermind program where we're thinking about having this as our baseline to start from where we can actually see what your biological age is at one point in time when you start. And then using that as we go through our program to see how you come out at the other end. And hopefully you would have lost a number of years off your life as far as your biological ages going. So this was a very interesting deep dive into this topic. So I hope you enjoy the show. And just before we go over to Dr Keith just like to remind you that I have my book relentless coming out in just a couple of weeks time or four weeks time and it's on the 11th of March and launches, it's available for preorder now you can jump on my website, hit the shop button and preorder it. Speaker 2: (01:57) And at moment you'll get access to my mindset Academy mindsetu for free. If you join or buy the book in the preorder stage, you'll also get a discount. It'll normally be retailing for $35. You'll get it for $29 plus you get access to mindset, you a value of $275. So really good idea to go on and jump and now and get it. And that helps me get the book rolling, get it out into the world. It's been a two year long process. So really excited to see that baby launch. As always, reach out to me if you've got any questions on this episode or on any of the other episodes that we've recorded. And I really appreciate your help with ratings and reviews on iTunes that really helps the show get exposure and of course sharing it with your friends and family if you got value out of it. So thanks and now over to Dr. Keith Booher from mydnage.com. Speaker 3: (02:49) Well, hello everyone. Lisa Tamati speaking and here I'm pushing the limits. I thank you once again for joining me today. I have a wonderful guest, Dr. Keith Booher who is a biochemist. Is that correct case? Speaker 4: (03:02) Yes, that's correctly. So thank you for having me. Speaker 3: (03:04) Yeah, it's wonderful to have you. So Keith is going to talk to us today about the biological clock. He works for a company called mydnage which does testing of the biological age as opposed to your chronological age. And this is a very interesting area we in our company through it continued existing without athletes and clients. So this is something that I'm very interested in finding out more about in cases coined the agreed to come on the show and talk to us about it. So. Okay. Can you give us a little bit of background about who you are and where you come from and, and the work that you're doing? Speaker 4: (03:46) Yes, certainly. So, so my name is Keith Booher. I'm a scientist. I worked for the company epi Morphe that offers the mydnage test. This isn't a epigenetic, a base test to quantify aging or biological age. And my background I got a PhD in biological chemistry. I'm from the university of California, Irvine here in Southern California right now. They've worked and where the company's headquartered. I then joined a research companies. I'm a research, Oh, also in California when I started doing epigenetics research in an industrial setting and then transitioned to a, working with the epi Murphy and offering the mydnage test. Speaker 3: (04:28) Wonderful. So can you tell us a little bit, well, for the listener, what is epigenetics and the area of study of epigenetics and what is on those a biological clock? Speaker 4: (04:39) Yeah, so I think, so the scientific, no definition of epi genetics, so it's a biological term. So simply refers to any changes in gene expression that occur without altering the primary DNA sequence. So what that sort of means in lay context is any, any instance where our genetics interacts with the environment. So sort of nature versus nurture a concept. So what epigenetics then does at the molecular level is to help control gene expression or to help turn genes on or off, or how strongly genes are expressed in the cell. I think an analogy that I've heard before, which is it's not perfect, but I think gives you the idea would be that our genes, our genetics, it'd be the hardware with which we operate. And epigenetics would be the software or instructions that tells that hardware what to do. Speaker 3: (05:33) Wow. Okay. So, so in other words, our environment, what we eat they, the, the, the, the toxins in our environment. Eric's the size, whether we do any or not, all of these things will have an effect on how our genes express themselves. So we've gone as sort of DNA code, which we can't really change. Yeah. What genes are turned on and off can be affected by environment. That, correct. Speaker 4: (05:58) Yeah, that's absolutely correct. So there's lots of studies looking at how epigenetics change in response to environment. So this, you know, in the past decade, decade and a half, there's been a lot of progress made by the scientific community. So we know that you know, people that go on a controlled exercise regimen you know, when they start versus a, when they stop after six months and compared to control group. So there are genetic changes that, that occur in a skeletal muscle. So we know that people have also looked at adipose or the fat tissue and also seeing epigenetic changes in response to certain exercise programs. We also know that smokers have a different epigenetic, I'm marks highly correlative with smoking. Mmm. That these epigenetic marks behind people in certain occupations where they're exposed to a lot of environmental pollutants such as coal miners, a certain factory workers also have pronounced epigenetic changes compared to those that aren't occupied in such fields. Speaker 4: (07:04) I think another, sorry, maybe another example just to really, it would be easy to understand is if you look at twins. So twins are genetically identical individuals. However, through the course of their lives. So we know what, you know, when they're young, we can take it classmates in grade school with some twins. I mean, you couldn't tell them apart. Right. But if we think of older twins, you know, throw the course of their lives, you know, they maybe move to different places there obviously the families that they no start you know, they have different sort of traditions, different diets perhaps they like to eat, you know, brought in from their own partners and all these different influences impact their epigenetics. Right? So these still genetically identical individuals but the epigenetics change based on their environment and their lifestyle and when they're older, they actually don't resemble each other as much as they did when they were. Yeah, sure. Speaker 3: (07:59) That's really good example of, of, of the, the power of epigenetics isn't it? I saw a photo of a pair of twins that I think were on the Oprah Winfrey show years ago. And two ladies, one very, very overweight one, one not and the identical twins. It's a really, it's an easy way to understand how much your environment fix your epigenetics of fakes your and how you end up. So in other words, we can't just blame mum and dad and our ancestors for what we've got. We have some responsibility for how we tune out. Is that right? Speaker 4: (08:37) Yeah, that's right. And I think it's it's actually allows us to take control and you know, kind of dictate where we want to be so we can, we're not destined for some, you know, fate just based on our, our genetics. We, we can actually influence what those genetics do. Speaker 3: (08:55) Yeah. So is this so I'm, I, I've read a lot of Dr. Bruce Lipton's work and books. And you know, I have found this whole area really, really fascinating and it's pretty new, isn't it? In the scientific world, like we're talking what the last 30, 40 years or Mmm. Oh, that, that scientists have really understood that the, it's not just your DNA that makes you who you are. Is it pretty new field? Speaker 4: (09:22) Yes and no. So I think we're all familiar with the Charles Darwin and in his theories on evolution. He's one of the preeminent scientists, the modern world. Actually before Darwin, there's a French, a scientist and philosopher, a Lamarck who, you know, he actually predicted that the, you know, wow. What are our, our parents or the mother and father the type of lifestyle they live. Okay. Their environment will impact. Mmm. The children. So it's actually a heritable trait passed on just based on, so he said that if you were, if your parents, did you follow with a blacksmith, you know, all the hard work that makes them strong will then be passed onto to his children. Mmm. And like a giraffe that you know, needs to a stretch to reach the the leaves from on the tallest branches of the tree will, you'll get a longer neck and then that'll be passed down for the next generation. Speaker 4: (10:17) And this is, this is a way that, okay. Drafts have evolved. Mmm. Once Darwin's theories came out and were tested you know, Mendell then proved how genes, I kind of demonstrated how James can, can, can behave. A lot of the marks, theories were just you know, kind of put in the, the dustbin of history and he was sort of left off, you know, these were, these were sort of thought as ridiculous principles, but a sure enough, as you, as you just mentioned, Lisa, in the past several decades, actually, the Mark's original theories have been proven to be a, have a lot of Yeah. He was before his time. And we know this to be true. I mean, the, the biology is clear that and then we're learning more about it all the time. And even in I think 2014 as these studies were coming out more and more showing the power epigenetics you know, a portrait of what Mark was on the cover of nature magazine and they kind of featured and, you know, paid homage to his, his original theories. Speaker 3: (11:15) Wow. What a shame. He wasn't around to say that a bit. That would have been the kinds of a lot of things. So in other words, so when we're talking evolution here or intergenerational . I, I read some way that, for example, when a mother smokes and the baby's in the, in the womb, that that can affect the baby's DNA and then it can affect also who children's DNA. Is that correct? The intergenerational nature, or is that a Zeta? It's not, is it epigenetics or is that more genetic changes? Speaker 4: (11:54) Oh, well, so any genetic change that's altered in a, what we call the germline. Oh, you know, the the male gametes are the chemo sites. That's certainly genetically heritable changes that occur in our you know, the scan for example, know if we know examples that give rise to cancer or something don't. So those wouldn't be heritable. Right. So like if something like skin cancer epigenetics, then, so, so for it to be heritable, it has to occur in the germline so that that would be the same for genetics or, right. Yeah. So we, so certainly genetic change is hard. I mean, that's, that's very clear. Epigenetic is it seems to also be true. There's lots of circumstantial evidence. It's very difficult to do these studies in humans for obvious reasons. Hmm. Other studies and other types of model organisms, the biologists often used to study different phenomenon indicates that indeed epigenetic inheritance inheritance is, is a observed phenomenon. I think it's very strong evidence in plants. I mean, these, these, these traits are, I mean, they persist for it. Dozens of generations in mammals, you know, maybe more temporal. So two to three or even four generations, but not not, not that stable, but it appears that they are here. Speaker 3: (13:16) Wow. Okay. So so we can affect our whole, yeah, the intergenerational aspect of it is quite interesting, but if we, if we just back up a little bit now and go into the dr Steve Horvath's work in the Horvath clock and I believe that is the basis of the work that has his work is the basis of, of the testing that you do. Can you explain what dr Horvath discovered and what that means for biological age and what, you know, how, how, how we can use it perhaps? Speaker 4: (13:50) Yeah. So this biological aging or epigenetic aging clock. So dr Horvath I think is the worldwide leader in this research. So he originally published a study in 2013. There was actually another study that came out actually a little before his that did something very similar. So I should mention too, it, he's, dr Horvath is a professor at UCLA. Oh. Petitioning biologists, computational biologists. So what both these research groups did, so her about that UCLA and then another group led by Hannah at a UC San Diego. So both in Southern California. So what they did was they looked at the epigenetic, a data for thousands of individuals and the applied some complex statistical mathematical algorithms. And what they found was that there were patterns of a change, epigenetic change that occurs with age. And so by of tapping into these different patterns, they could develop a model that would predict [inaudible] predict age based on epigenetic information. So, so that's where the clock came from. So basically, depending on what your epi genetics show, you can then assign a biological age Speaker 3: (15:05) Without any information. On the individual yourself. If you can take just a drop of blood, you can actually say with, with pretty, hi Jackness call it 98, the single thing. How well would that individual is based on the work from dr Hova? So most people fall into this, this Linea Patton that would say, well, this person has these markers on the DNA before that person is the Savage, is that how it works? Speaker 4: (15:42) That's correct. That's correct. So I think there's one. So it's not, it's not just that you want to predict an age, but it's actually a signing up biological age. Yes. So I think that's a key kind of thing to keep in mind. So no, we talked about the twins earlier, you know, a few moments ago and we can see that some based on, you know, one was overweight and the other was more fit based on their lifestyle choices. So the did the choices that we make in our lives. So whether we exercise or eat a healthy diet other things, Mmm. Influencer epigenetics, which can turn in turn influence our aging. So we can actually have and accelerated aging compared to an average person or actually a slower rate of aging compared to someone else. So the Horvath clock measures that, that biology based on the epigenetics. So, you know, you may be 10 years younger biologically than your chronological age, which would be indicative of, you know, good health or good cause I've stopped choices you've made. Speaker 3: (16:45) Do you see big swings in the like, you know, 10 years or is it mostly that most people are in the, you know, within a year or two off via at their actual chronological age. Speaker 4: (16:56) So most people will be within a year or two. That's, that's Mmm, that's what you know, Horvath and others have shown. And that's what we see in our data. However you do see outliers. And I think every time we see a case where someone is okay, we do see 10 or, or greater years difference. Wow. It, it seems to be associated with, I mean, it almost in every case, there's some reason why. So some known this person may be suffering from a genetic disease or I think one thing common in, and you know, people we've looked at is, Oh, they've been treated with chemotherapy. So these are very powerful drugs that you know, obviously to, to treat cancer, but I have very strong side effects. I mean, this is very well known. These, you know, some are just not tolerated well at all. And we know these, these type of people have actually accelerated aging, very rapid aging compared to an average person. Mmm. Speaker 3: (17:53) Do you see the other way like, people who have lived a, you know, extremely good, healthy lifestyle with good food, good exercise not too much stress you know, 18 or more years younger than there a chronological edge. Speaker 4: (18:08) So I don't think just for lifestyle choices, I don't think we've seen a huge effect in that regard. But there we have seen some strong effect. I think for certain people are doing certain targeted interventions, it's a little more and just trying to eat more vegetables or run a little further. These are taking drugs. So I think Metformin Speaker 3: (18:32) hmmm Speaker 4: (18:33) There's one that's looked at very seriously for some of these anti-aging effects and we do see a pretty consistent, strong effect towards a slower aging. Yeah. Speaker 3: (18:44) [Inaudible] Is a, is an interesting one because it doesn't let up think though negatively the, the mitochondria. And, but, but it was a little bit confusing when I looked into just some surface level research on Metformin thinking, gosh, this sounds interesting. I want to have that. It, it produces more longevity, but it can damage the mitochondria. How would that work? Because your mitochondria, your rap part of this whole metabolic pertussis, I mean, it's probably too deeper questions to ask you, you know, but do you know why? Speaker 4: (19:20) Well, that's, that's a very good question, huh? The short answer is no one knows why. So, so yeah, there's sort of a antagonistic effects on or seemingly that would, that would associated with adverse health outcomes. But the data showed, we know it has been prescribed for type two diabetics years and has very good outcomes. And it seems to be off target prescribed for other melodies as well. You know, that the side effects are, are small. I mean, that's just based on you know, lots of people taking the drug. It seems that small side effects and clearly the benefits in most cases outweigh the whatever side effects may occur. Mmm. As to the reason why, I mean, it may be that the positive affects to regulate glucose metabolism, insulin, Speaker 3: (20:16) Yup. Speaker 4: (20:18) Maybe more important than the damage it causes or we have you know, just backup systems to deal with mitochondrial damage or stress that we don't have as robust. I mean, just as you know, living human beings that we don't have for when our glucose metabolism goes awry. Speaker 3: (20:35) So you know, that would be especially the case for, you know, people with diabetes or prediabetes. It has the same effect then on the healthy, you know the healthy person who doesn't have insulin resistance or any glucose Speaker 4: (20:49) Problems. So, yeah. So we get this, I get this question a lot. I would be very careful about just taking any drugs, you know, getting home from certain websites for example, I would, I would consult a physician for that. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I know your listeners are probably very interested on what types of things they can do to, to help them. Speaker 3: (21:15) Nobody don't go out there and do anything solid, not advocating this. We definitely won't. But, but it's interesting to look at the data. I know that there was a study done just a couple of years ago, I think by dr Horvath where they were able to reverse the, the epigenetics Speaker 4: (21:33) Clock Speaker 3: (21:34) In a small clinical study by giving people growth hormone and to diabetic medications, I believe. One. Mmm. And they took two and a half years off the year. Speaker 4: (21:49) Mmm. Speaker 3: (21:49) I'll say biological Speaker 4: (21:51) Age. Speaker 3: (21:53) That's, that's pretty exciting to actually be able to reverse. I mean, I know this was a small clinical trial and, and certainly not a big one. And obviously it's a very difficult area to do big blocks studies end, but a w would suggest that we're going to be able to in future reverse the aging process, which is super exciting rather than just slowing it down. Speaker 4: (22:17) Yeah. So this was the study you mentioned was a, that was a big one. So there's a lot of I don't know a lot, but there's a, there's a decent amount of studies you know, the Horvath and others have been involved in showing on ways to slow the rate of aging. But I was at a, a, a conference actually I gave a presentation along with the, dr Horvath was a keynote speaker and there was another, a surgeon Jim Watson. No. And Jim Watson said, you know, we think that we will be able to reverse actually reverse the clock. And Horvath was, this was January, 2018. He was pretty, he pushed back pretty hard on that idea. He said, you know, there's, there's nothing we found that can actually reverse aging clock. I, there's nothing in the data that shows that, you know, Jim Watson, he's a, he's a prominent Sergeant, you know, he works with patients and you know, from his medical person, he's like, well, I respectfully disagree. Yeah. And if you look at the authors on the paper, you mentioned Steve Horvath, but actually Jim Watson is, I think he's a senior author on that. Mmm. They ended up collaborating after this, you know, and [inaudible] looking into ideas from the medical side and then from, you know, dr horvath, you know, using this, these, these epigenetic aging clocks. And sure enough just as you mentioned, the study showed it was small, but it showed clearly that the aging was reversed to these individuals Speaker 3: (23:39) In a, in a very short space of time too, which is exciting to think what would happen if these interventions were, you know, extrapolated over a longer period of time. Mmm. Speaker 4: (23:52) Yeah. That's, that's right. I, you know, if you look at the, the intervention in that case, it was a drug cocktail. It was a two, two hormones, DTA I think human growth Speaker 3: (24:05) Yeah. Speaker 4: (24:06) And then I met foreman again was a drug they use to kind of help regulate some of the hormonal side effects of those drugs. And it was this three drug cocktail. Mmm. The the original goal of that study was to help reverse some of the immune decline. It had been well documented. We know our immune system starts to decline and as we grow older and the famous of course this organ that it functions in immune, you know, healthy immune function tends to get weaker and shrink. And so that's what the, the study was originally designed to just boost thymus function in the immune system. And okay. The authors showed clearly with, yeah, with, with clinical measurements, famous enemy and functions were restored and it was then shown, that's when Horvath came in and looked at the the epigenetics to show that actually reversed in these people who had responded well to the treatment. So Speaker 3: (25:04) Yeah, that's a short time frame as you mentioned. Yeah. Yeah. Very exciting. There's hope for us who are aging that we bought. So hurry up. You guys get started in so with the, the Magii and H test which people, you know, the public can go and get the SKUs. So if you wanting to actually, after listening to this episode want to go and just what your biological ages, I'll give you the address. It's just my, my DNA h.com. So DNA G a.com and you can order a test the and have the stun, which I, I'm, I'm finding fascinating from a coaching perspective and from an athlete's perspective to be able to draw a line in the sand and say, well, this is where we started from. And then we, you know, instigate L a epigenetic program for example, and our training regimes and nutrition and so on. Speaker 3: (26:00) And then perhaps in six to 12 months time retest to see what the I need a fake was. So I'm, I'm excited to be able to hopefully incorporate this into some of our, of our programs. And one of the reasons I reached out you today when we, let me go to the, look at the the testing that you do. So you're looking at the DNA methylation, is that right? Mmm. Can you explain what the United w what exactly that you're looking there with the, when you're looking at the methylation marks on DNA? Speaker 4: (26:36) Yeah, yeah, that's right. So we're looking at DNA methylation. So know anyone who wants to use our test, I might, do you need Speaker 3: (26:44) To test? Speaker 4: (26:45) We would send them a kit. Mmm. We would it comes with you know, slow land so we can take a blood drop. Mmm. That's put into a, you know, a special preservation stage or buffer solution. Speaker 3: (26:57) [Inaudible] Speaker 4: (26:57) Your preserve the integrity of the sample and then it can just be mailed back at room temperature. So it doesn't need to be frozen or cold or anything. I think also send a urine sample as well. So it's, it's, it's up to the it's each individual if they feel comfortable with, Mmm. That's sent back to us from the blood or urine sample. We will extract the DNA and then perform some fancy chemistry to quantify DNA methylation levels at a panel of genes that are known to be highly associated or highly informative of aging. Speaker 3: (27:32) Huh. Speaker 4: (27:33) Based on those values, we can then plug it into a mathematical model to predict the biological age. And again, this is, this is based off of a, you know, Horvath and others of the based on original publications. We sort of make it a economic one available too. And Speaker 3: (27:54) Sorry, Carry on. Speaker 4: (27:58) So we can make that that technology, which would otherwise not be accessible to non scientists. The general public, we can make it accessible to them. So they can, they can get their own biological age assessment. Speaker 3: (28:10) Yeah. It's really, really exciting. So, so you're looking at around 2000 different James. Mmm how do you, how do you express it? He was signs on there. They had assigned basically there was damage here. So you're looking at damage, Marcus. Speaker 4: (28:30) It's not, it's not famous markers per se. So specifically it's, it's DNA methylation. So a methyl group is a, you know, if you think from your organic chemistry, this is the most the oxidized form of carbon. A ch three is added to DNA and basis known as cytosines any basis on the cytosines. And when it's added biologically, what's going on at the molecular level is it's influencing gene expression. So helping genes turn on or off, on or off. Mmm. And these levels change over the course of our lives and it's this change that can then be related to, to, to the Speaker 3: (29:12) Marcus. Okay. I get that. Yeah. So does it take into consideration things like inflammation or cardiovascular health or kidney and liver function or metabolic metabolic state as well? Or is that readable from the DNA? Speaker 4: (29:32) Not with, not with the mighty age test. So if there's something specific like that, again, I'm in consultation with a physician. If you're worried about your Speaker 5: (29:41) Kidney health, metabolic health, Mmm. Then, right. You know, there's more specific tests to directly look at. Right, right. I think as a pan health indicator it gives you some information. Right. Cause I know that there is you know, other companies that do biological age tests that are based not on the Horvath clock, but on, I'm looking at these are the tops of biomarkers, like your inflammation, inflammation, they've always been your, your cardiovascular health. And I was trying to understand what is the difference in the, in the approach, you know, in the approaches and which one is, Mmm. Well going to give us some more exact calculation if you like. Do you know of the other ones and the difference between, well I mean, so there's, there's a lot, you know, people have been using like in a doctor's office, just a grip, the grip test, your vape. Speaker 5: (30:39) How will you walk? Yeah. The way you walk. But you know, there's a really broad era for those, for people you know, between the ages of teen until some point in your, your older years. Mmm. It's just not very, not very good. It's very precise, very precise. There's other molecular tests. Even if you look at DNA methylation or epigenetic tests, they may focus on a single gene or just a few genes having a, a more focused, you lose a lot of robustness so they can be more susceptible to small changes or small, Mmm. Environmental insults that may actually not have a big impact. So by incorporating thousands of sites into the tests, which, or my teenage test does, it's more robust to small changes. So overall picture. Yeah, that would be it. You know, cause when I heard about things like grip strength and stuff, I was like, well, if I got into the gym a lot, obviously I'm going to have a lot more grip strength. Speaker 5: (31:39) It doesn't necessarily, I'm biologically younger. Right, right. Yeah. Basically you say, I have a normal or we're better than average. Right. Or it's not good. Right? I mean that's, you get kind of a yes or no kind of a yes, yes. But it's not, it's difficult to say, you know, you know, you're looking at the also your body type, you know, like, and with your, you're a muscular person or you're a someone who is more of a flexible person, you know, there's, there's just too much. Okay. Wavering in the air. I mean things like inflammation markers of course. Can you look at the state of your health but perhaps notch the actual, you know, whether it's having damage, you mean you can have inflammation markers because you've got a cold as well, which would be skew the data satisfied. and a bad week. Speaker 5: (32:35) Yeah. And this wouldn't happen with the, with us taste. So how w I know you've done a Ted talk that I listened to that was very interesting thing and wants to look that up. We can put that in the show notes as well. We've got an aging world population and we have huge problems all around the world without, but their health care system. I think we probably can all agree with that. We're heading into times where chronic disease is going to be costing economically, governments in, in, in, you know, a lot of suffering around the world and a lot of resources. Mmm. So increasing health span is, is a very important piece of being able to lower the costs involved with chronic disease. Would you see that as being one of the areas where this this theory or science is really, really key and an important from a, from an economic standpoint as well as from the personal suffering standpoint? Speaker 5: (33:39) Right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Right, right. I think the potential to benefit society is really there's a, there's a lot a DNA aging test, epigenetic aging tests can, can provide. So it is clearly the best tool, two, assess, aging accurate and precise way. Mmm. And so by using this tool, I mean, whether it's, you know, our company and our researchers doing, you know, in their own labs are their own ways. Mmm. Those interventions which will have the greatest benefit can be more rapidly identified and no, very okay track to be very cheap. I'm an actress. So this, I think this is, you know, beyond just individual testing, which I think is important. And, you know, very interesting people empower themselves by getting some information here, but broader for the broader impact it can have on society. It can be really profound. Yeah. And I know you've, you've done a little bit of work with you mentioned the, in your, in your talk you know, looking at things like sporting H, you know, like how if kids are really in the right age group or people who don't have documents working out how old they are. Speaker 5: (34:56) When they coming into countries perhaps as, as refugees without, without any paperwork and things like that. There's a, there's a, there's a whole lot of areas that this could be utilized and couldn't it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So the the youth age testing I think that's, there's sort of a, the, the, the consequences are not as, as grave as like, you know, that aging population in Europe, you know, to some extent, North America and Asia. But but I, it just goes to show the potential applications for something like that. And I actually just learned that, you know, I did some work with [inaudible] law enforcement in Germany a couple of years ago for some for forensics application of using this aging. You can sort of the gauge person of interest in different law enforcement investigations. And in part thanks that work actually I just found out that lie in Germany changed December Oh about 2019. Speaker 5: (36:01) Sort of allow this scientific approach, you too well know wow. To work out someone's is being adopted in a lot of different areas. And I mean, Oh yeah. And, and for me I think in working in the, in the health as a health professional and, and training people and so on, it's just going to give us another, I'm wiping the Nantucket toolkit to get people motivated and moving and having a benchmark is really important I think for us to, well, this is where we started from and hopefully through different health interventions, we can see other results. Is there any way that we can, is there any of those things that are quantified, like what, what people are, you know, that are doing your tests perhaps and then doing different interventions, obviously not as a clinical study, but are you gathering any of the data of the interventions that people are undertaking to change the biological age? Speaker 5: (37:01) Let's see. What has it effect? So I mean, we have to be sort of careful about this, right? So that, I mean, the personal information of ours customers is yes. Obviously I can only do so much, right? I mean we're not, we're not trying to but so what I can say, we work with clinics, certain clinics doctors. So the doctors are incorporating this test into part of their medical practice and whether they're advising certain, you know, dietary interventions or different exercise programs or they can use this for their medical practically, I mentioned Metformin earlier. We are working with the group by testing this. So that's something that we, yeah, we can say has had a, yeah, a two. The rate of aging in these, in the samples, the subjects that we've examined. Mmm, yeah. Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. So that's got an interesting future too. I mean, what, what are you think, so are there any interventions which have been proven besides a Metformin and growth hormone? Mmm. To actually slow down the aging or to pervasive stop the aging process? Mmm, well that have been proven to be beneficial as it, you know, like lifestyle interventions. So yes, yes, there are. So, but I, I needed qualify that. So this has been clearly shown to occur in laboratory animals, so model research organisms and a lot of these, Speaker 4: (38:34) These pathways a Speaker 4: (38:35) Evolutionarily shared all the way from, you know, simple East to or complex organisms like fruit flies and more recently into mammals like mice lab, mice rats or even nonhuman primates. So there's clearly potential. Mmm. You know some of these interventions are related to altering metabolic pathways, insulin response. Mmm. Mmm. I think one that's gained a lot of interest in you know, the broader news media is this compound resveratrol. Yes. Resveratrol found in a grapes in higher concentrations, in certain nuts. I'm certain it's been shown to activate certain pathways related to protecting our DNA or protecting our genes and genomes and also influencing that metabolism in certain ways. So in laboratory animals, there's clear evidence to show that aging can be slow to reverse. In humans it's not as clear. So again, it's more difficult to do these types of studies. Speaker 4: (39:39) Okay. Ethical and logistical reasons. Yeah. But the Metformin is a hot candidate drug especially because it is well tolerated. So, so this may be something that can be easily prescribed. And individuals we mentioned the study that came out last last fall where the the growth hormone and Metformin combination reverse the aging in this was in a small court of men from the ages of 52 late sixties, I think. Years of age. Mmm. In terms of those are for reversing the aging clock. There's also evidence showing that the clock can be slowed from simple lifestyle changes. So if you think about diet, so it appears that, you know eating more plants plant based foods, so fruits and vegetables. So right carotinoids levels in the blood. You know, indicators of the. Speaker 4: (40:37) Okay. Metabolism are associated with slower rates of aging. Interestingly, a fish, actually, those who consume more fish, it seems to have the greatest impact on a slowing the rate of aging. Well, okay. That's interesting, huh? Yeah. Even greater than the vegetarian diets. That's what the data indicates at this time, at least. Right. Also you know, we can look at things that accelerate the aging clock. Mmm. So certain corn oil certain insulin levels a triglyceride levels you know, elevated or, or, or levels that are out of whack or associated with an accelerated aging. So these are indicators of a poor diet. Yup. I think one that's a, everyone's sort of interested to hear or happy to hear is that actually moderate alcohol consumption. It's associated with a slower Speaker 3: (41:34) Rate of eating. So, so we have an all glass of red wine with berry in it, Speaker 4: (41:40) I think. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. But this has been a also shown to have beneficial effects on heart health. So it's interesting to see that the studies our agreement, you know, coming back, coming at it from different angles, but, you know, finding beneficial health, mental health. Speaker 3: (41:55) So the, the things that we sort of intuitively know that exercise lots of fruit and veggies and you know, that type of thing. It can definitely slow down the aging clock. It's an exercise aspect of it as Sierra, any sort of data or omit, it's how much and what types of exercise or anything like that. Speaker 4: (42:22) So not that I'm aware of. So not that I'm aware of. But that's, but that's interesting. What you say is, you know, people hear this and they say, okay, great, eat more vegetables. You know, I already knew that. Right. But it's interesting the study, but I think you can see, right. So, okay, yes, vegetables are associated with slow rates of aging. So increase that. So it gives, we can show that in the data, but but what's really interesting about the clock of the state, but if you want, if there was one thing you could pick to slow your rate of aging, actually it's fish, right? So it's, it's a it kinda shows you you know, we can kind of rank these. So what's the most important thing? So, you know, vegetables are important, but actually according to the data fishes is even more important. Mmm. And you knew, and also people that die. While I've been doing vegetables, I've been actively trying to do better in, and so I've already incorporated that, but, well, what else is there that that might be, it might be missing. Oh, so a olive oil seems to be also beneficial. A dietary component. It can be incorporated absolute rate of aging. So, so what the clock does is it's able to quantify these and really pinpoint with some precision what, Speaker 3: (43:33) Yeah, yeah. Rather than just one out a feeling as and what we've, you know, at the top, some studies have seen what about ketones and the key she turned on us. Any, any data there on MCT oils or ketone esters or anything like that? Speaker 4: (43:52) Again, I'm not familiar with those studies. We haven't conducted any and we're not working with anyone specifically looking at this sort of thing that I'm aware of some. Again, you know, a lot of institutes and clinics are incorporating different things. We don't necessarily know what they're doing. I mean, it could be very well be that, you know, some of these changes are being prescribed or administered in certain way. I simply don't know the answer to that. Speaker 3: (44:16) Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, fair enough. So this is, you know, to actually get the data to get some concrete data is actually really, really helpful. And strengthening the arguments for reaching the goals and cutting out the, the donuts and the, the the biscuits in the sugar and so on. And, and the more data we have behind that, the beta what I had dr Andrew go Andrews on, on the podcast. We all would go, I'm looking at telling me and like something and NTA aging. Is there any sort of crossover between those sort of areas, like in the anti aging sciences in do you look at it telling me length is or anything like that in these biological tests or are they completely different area of science? Speaker 4: (45:11) It is different. It is different. So Tila mirrors have been I think before Horvath and Hanham's studies a few years ago came out showing the power of epigenetic aging assessments tumors were probably the most popular, well, I color test to look at this since then. You know, clearly that these DNA methylation clocks are by far the most accurate, most precise and robust to measure biological aging. Horvath and others tried to kind of assess how this interaction between Tealium or Lang and you know, epigenetic change and they found that they're not measuring the same thing. So they in the biology is they're looking at different things. And you know, I, I think for, you know, telomeres, you know, I just, in my opinion, I, I think they've been Sur surpassed by the power of the, you know, yeah. Speaker 4: (46:07) Inherent robustness of looking at epigenetics to assess aging. I think, you know, concrete example of this is so the telomere length, so the longer the telomeres, sort of the slower aging or more youthful, that's, that's the basic idea. And as those shrink, it indicates increased age or advanced age. That's, that's the basic idea. We find that this, you know, completely breaks down. When you look at something like cancer where a hallmark is the ability to increase the length of telomeres to kind of okay. You know, maintain the integrity of cancer cells or tumor size. And if you knew, if you look at it from that perspective, they would look biologically young. If you look at the same type. Okay. Tissue cancer tissue according to the epigenetic clock. I mean, these show very accelerated aging. So it's, it's clear indication of it for health. The telomere tests wouldn't be able to show that at all. You were so good. Sorry. Okay. Speaker 3: (46:59) Thats Really you know, emerging area of science that that's, I'm going to be interesting in the next few years to watch. Mmm. Keith, thank you so much for your time today. Is it, I, I think we've, we've, we've covered quite a lot of ground. Do you think there's anything we've missed out that, that people should hear about? In regards to doing, you know, like doing mydnage test can you actually, because we're sitting in New Zealand and obviously a lot of my lessons are in Zealand and Australia. Can you do the test from that far away when you're going to be seeding it in the post? Speaker 4: (47:33) Yes. So the test, so I think we're just trying to get the but just logistics, business-wise, just the paperwork in order too. We've gotten a lot of demand in Australia, New Zealand, you know, it should be a broadly. Yeah. Currently we're only offering and North America, Mmm. In Europe. Mmm. Canada, U S and . But we're trying to get to a New Zealand, Austria. That should be soon. So any listeners in New Zealand or thereabouts, that should be available very soon. Technically there's no issue. So the once the kids arrive the blood or urine sample can be mixed with the preservative solution. This is preservation. Yeah. Shipped back to our labs in California at room temperature with no problems. Speaker 3: (48:22) Nice. So we should be through that. Still already the tastes, even though you haven't got the laboratories and stuff down here, we came can already, you know, through that and seen it. But look, thank you so much for your time today. I think this is a really interesting area of science. And I'm encouraged people to think about doing these tastes because, you know, I will give you a line in the same tree to motivate you. I think a lot of 'em, you know motivation is a big key to being successful in your, in demons to be better and stronger and be there and plaster and normalize going to good things and tuning the, we're slowing down the clock with tuning back even. So having tastes like this that are available to the public, the weekly is exciting. You know, I think it gives us another thing that we can do that we can then use to help better our lives, you know, as we, as we move forward. Speaker 4: (49:20) Yeah. That's the mission of you know, making this test available to the broader, the broader public, Speaker 3: (49:25) The more things that are available direct to the public, the there or my opinion, it's not dangerous and you know, but being a bit of a biohacker, obviously I have a bit of a, a boss towards having your own power and making your own decisions. But I think this one is a, you know, it's a no brainer. It costs so obviously, but apart from that, if you you want to try this out I'll have the links in the show notes and case thank you so much for your time today. I wish you well with all your studies and with loved side contact and yeah, very, very interesting conversation today. Speaker 4: (50:03) Oh my pleasure. Lisa. It was great to, to speak with you. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: (50:07) If your brain is not functioning at its best in checkout, what the team at vielight.com Do now being like producers, photo biomodulation devices, your brain function, the pin's largely on the health of the energy sources of the brain cells. In other words, the mitochondria and research has shown that your brain with near infrared light revitalizes mitochondria. I use these devices daily for both my own optimal brain function and also for other age-related decline issues and also for my mom's brain rehabilitation after her aneurism and stroke. So check out what the team do vielight.com. That's V I E L I G H T .com. And use the code "TAMATI" and checkout to get 10% of any of their devices. Speaker 1: (50:58) That's it this week for pushing the limits. Be sure to write, review, and share with your friends and head over and visit Lisa and her team at Lisatamati.com.

university california canada health australia europe discover mindset running french germany west phd fitness speaker dna north america new zealand influencers nutrition east academy llc oprah winfrey southern california develop ucla athletes reveal austria limits trail sort savage environmental longevity ethical lang andrews makers irvine biological metabolism biohacking technically dozens kidney drafts charles darwin epigenetics sergeant ultramarathon u s tissue uc san diego mmm inherent nantucket bruce lipton ultrarunning zealand mct horvath metformin skus epigenetic shipped wavering watch dr resveratrol nta photobiomodulation petitioning booher jim watson morphe lamarck evolutionarily magii lisa tamati tamati tealium mendell steve horvath so speaker

Barack Obama's 1st biographer, David Mendell: Michelle didn't care for the book

Chicago Public Square Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2020

He’s Barack Obama’s first biographer. But journalist David Mendell doesn’t expect his award-winning 2007 book, Obama: From Promise to Power, to land a spot in Obama’s presidential library.Mendell and I were colleagues at the Chicago Tribune through much of the 2000s, but we barely exchanged hellos back then because he was so busy covering Obama’s rise to the U.S. Senate.So I learned a lot—including just how hard Obama worked to conceal his smoking habit—as Mendell and I finally got to catch up on-stage at Dominican University in River Forest, in this installment of the Wednesday Journal Conversations / Chicago Public Square Podcast series, recorded Nov. 20, 2019.Listen here, on your favorite podcast player, via Spotify and Pandora, on Amazon’s Alexa-powered speakers* or on iTunes (say “Hey, Siri! Play Chicago Public Square Podcasts”).Enjoying these? Keep them coming by joining The Legion of Chicago Public Squarians.*Even if you don’t have an Alexa speaker, you can turn iOS and Android phones into Alexa devices for free—a low-impact way to experiment with the technology. (Photo: Charlie Meyerson.)

Ep. 4: The Nightwalker

dance mars dead kiss horizon freesound alabaster u boats apprehensive nightwalker mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2020 81:55

The fate of the Material Realm hangs in the balance, and a new soul must be attuned to a powerful totem! Alabaster is reunited with an old friend, Doug must return to the site where his family was slaughtered, and Mendell is touched by madness. Cast: Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Music from YouTube Audio Library: "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Prelude No. 14" by Chris Zabriskie "Anton" by Dan Bodan "Funky Disco" and "Apprehensive at Best" by Biz Baz Studio "Magical Triumph" by Sir Cubworth "When We Found the Horizon" by Late Night Feeler "Spirit of the Dead," "Kiss the Sky" and "Dance of the U-Boat" by Aakash Gandhi "God Fury" by Anno Domini Beats Additional Sound Effect from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Character Arcana (D&D) Ep. 4: The Nightwalker

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 14, 2020 81:55

The fate of the Material Realm hangs in the balance, and a new soul must be attuned to a powerful totem! Alabaster is reunited with an old friend, Doug must return to the site where his family was slaughtered, and Mendell is touched by madness. Cast: Dungeon Master: Richard Bertelsen Doug Saucepotts: Ted Hong Alabaster Chernobyl: Abby Bryington Mendell Sands: Nick Slaick Music from YouTube Audio Library: "The Long Night" by Quincas Moreira "Last Train to Mars" by Dan Lebowitz "Prelude No. 14" by Chris Zabriskie "Anton" by Dan Bodan "Funky Disco" and "Apprehensive at Best" by Biz Baz Studio "Magical Triumph" by Sir Cubworth "When We Found the Horizon" by Late Night Feeler "Spirit of the Dead," "Kiss the Sky" and "Dance of the U-Boat" by Aakash Gandhi "God Fury" by Anno Domini Beats Additional Sound Effect from Freesound.org --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

dance mars dead character kiss horizon freesound arcana alabaster u boats apprehensive nightwalker mendell

Character Arcana (D&D): Ep. 3: The Massacre of Barrow Hill

character massacre barrow arcana alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2019 82:33

The heroes venture deep into the Fariose Forest where tickling is torture. Mendell makes a squirrelly new friend, Doug learns the troubling truth about the death of his family, and Alabaster is reminded of an old companion. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterark/support

Ep. 3: The Massacre of Barrow Hill

massacre barrow alabaster mendell

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 9, 2019 82:33

The heroes venture deep into the Fariose Forest where tickling is torture. Mendell makes a squirrelly new friend, Doug learns the troubling truth about the death of his family, and Alabaster is reminded of an old companion. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/characterarcana/support

Level up Your Real Estate Marketing with Jason Mendell

Think Bigger Real Estate

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2019 24:04

Today, real estate agents are not only competing against other Realtors for attention, but they are also competing against the likes of Netflix. In what you ask... what you share has to be not only informative but also entertaining or no one will pay attention. Today's guest has set a new standard for real estate marketing by re-enacting Back to the Future and James Bond videos... all to highlight a house.

netflix success future mindset real estate james bond personal growth back to the future realtors level up real estate agents real estate brokers real estate marketing mendell

Barack Obama's 1st biographer, David Mendell: Michelle didn't care for the book

Charlie Meyerson interviews

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 22, 2019

news care radio barack obama wgn biographers meyerson wxrt mendell wnua wpgu

Mendell Gosnell - Wisdom from a Property Manager turned Investor

Landlording for Life

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2018 37:12

As a broker/owner of Centurion property management, Mendell has had a number or experiences that has helped shape his investment style while developing his property management technique. Mendell discusses how he broke into the real estate industry, a few deals he has structured through the years, and some sound advice as an experienced property manager.

wisdom investors centurion property managers gosnell mendell

FUNKY POLITICS PODCAST | Is Education A Civil Right?...w/ Terri Freeman Mendell Grinter | KUDZUKIAN

THE FUNKY POLITICS powered by KUDZUKIAN

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2018 65:33

Terri Freeman, President, National Civil Rights Museum and Mendell Grinter, Executive Director, Campaign for School Equity, visit to discuss Civil Rights, MLK50, the book, An American Dream and Education as a tool to ascend out of poverty. Enjoy!

Ep. 125 – Building Upon Proof: Gary Mendell, Shatterproof

Cover 2 Resources

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2017 28:49

Greg interviews Gary Mendell, the founder of HEI Hotels & Resorts and Shatterproof, a non-profit organization dedicated to working for policy change to help combat the opioid epidemic. Mr. Mendell created Shatterproof in honor of his son Brian, who lost his battle to substance abuse in 2011. Listen to the podcast to discover how Mr. Mendell and Shatterproof are building a coalition of organizations to create an infrastructure to measure which processes work best for those fighting against substance abuse disorder.

resorts shatterproof mendell gary mendell

TWIPO #60 - Interview with Dr. Josua Mendell

This Week in Pediatric Oncology

Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2017 33:24

TWIPO hosts and cohosts interview Dr. Joshua Mendell, UT Southwestern Medical Center, who shares his knowledge with regard to the relationship between innate RNA biology and how it influences human disease.

rna josua ut southwestern medical center mendell

Mendell Grinter | Keeping the Community on Point and the Students Engaged!

THE FUNKY POLITICS powered by KUDZUKIAN

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 4, 2017 26:20

#EducationReformSeries | The Funky Politics, with our friends from Chalkbeat TN is peeling back the layers on “Education Reform” with some of the brightest and most committed minds in the Education arena. Guest for this show: Mendell Grinter, Executive Director, Campaign for School Equity The importance of keeping the community informed The role of city government in community engagement On this show, we cover a lot of territory. Ths series is about tackling the issues of Education Reform. Enjoy!

community executive director students campaign engaged education reform mendell

EPISODE 21: DAVID MENDELL, AUTHOR of OBAMA: FROM PROMISE TO POWER

The Golden Mean

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2016 38:58

David Mendell is an award-winning journalist and author of the 2007 book Obama: From Promise To Power. David covered Barack Obama all the way back in 2003, when the then-State Senator ran as a candidate in Illinois for the U.S. Senate race. Now, with just five weeks left in his second terms in White House, Mendell talks about his memories of the the man when nobody knew him - and about Obama's high points and low points as our country's 44th president.

barack obama illinois white house senate state senators mendell

EPISODE422 - Mark J. Mendell, Ph.D - FLASHBACK FRIDAY EP 193

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2016

This week IAQ Radio will be flashing back to January 21, 2011 for a show we did with Mark J. Mendell, PhD. of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the California Dept. of Health. When looking back at shows to replay this one stood out so we remixed the sound, tweaked a few things and will replay it today. Mark Mendell, Ph.D., is currently a Staff Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Indoor Environment Group at EETD, and an Air Pollution Research Specialist at the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Mendell is on the editorial board of the journal Indoor Air and a member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences. He was formerly at the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, where he was head of the National Occupational Research Agenda Team on Indoor Environments. Dr. Mendell holds a BA from Cornell University; a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon; and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Public Health. Dr. Mendell has worked for 20 years in the field of environmental epidemiology, focused on health effects related to indoor environments in buildings. His work includes field research to help understand relationships between specific factors and conditions in buildings and health effects in occupants, and critical reviews of the literature that summarize what we know, how well we know it, and what we do not know, about specific environment/health relationships in buildings. His research interests include health risks associated with buildings, ventilation systems, moisture, and microbial growth; effects of indoor environments in schools on health and performance of students, and effects of indoor chemical exposures in residences on asthma and allergies. LEARN MORE about indoor environments and the health effects related to mold and moisture this week on IAQ Radio!

EPISODE422 - Mark J. Mendell, Ph.D - FLASHBACK FRIDAY EP 193

IAQ Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2016 59:39

This week IAQ Radio will be flashing back to January 21, 2011 for a show we did with Mark J. Mendell, PhD. of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab and the California Dept. of Health. When looking back at shows to replay this one stood out so we remixed the sound, tweaked a few things and will replay it today. Mark Mendell, Ph.D., is currently a Staff Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Indoor Environment Group at EETD, and an Air Pollution Research Specialist at the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Mendell is on the editorial board of the journal Indoor Air and a member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences. He was formerly at the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, where he was head of the National Occupational Research Agenda Team on Indoor Environments. Dr. Mendell holds a BA from Cornell University; a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon; and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Public Health. Dr. Mendell has worked for 20 years in the field of environmental epidemiology, focused on health effects related to indoor environments in buildings. His work includes field research to help understand relationships between specific factors and conditions in buildings and health effects in occupants, and critical reviews of the literature that summarize what we know, how well we know it, and what we do not know, about specific environment/health relationships in buildings. His research interests include health risks associated with buildings, ventilation systems, moisture, and microbial growth; effects of indoor environments in schools on health and performance of students, and effects of indoor chemical exposures in residences on asthma and allergies. LEARN MORE about indoor environments and the health effects related to mold and moisture this week on IAQ Radio!

Episode 87: "You don't win every time", with Cathy Mendell.

Onward Nation

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2015 41:53

Cathy Mendell has an extensive background in business development and growth management. Her roles have included 25-years as a senior executive with a Fortune 500 company. Additionally, she has been a founder and Vice President of Sales in two startup companies. Cathy has taken her passion for business growth to a new level in assisting individuals in their financial success. Cathy is also the Fundraising Chair for The Orphanages of Kenya. She is responsible for the funding resources of the orphanage — and through her efforts — 36 children now have a home to call their own, loving guardians, medical care, and are receiving an education. Secret – timesaving technique Cathy keeps the main thing the main thing – don’t get distracted. ONWARD! Daily habit that contributes to success Find your quiet time – Cathy gets up early and focuses. Could have ruined your business – but now – an invaluable learning experience Cathy had to back away from her business – and Cathy tells the whole story here. Most critical skill you think business owners need to master to be successful “Success is the result of your daily actions – the compound effect of what you do daily brings success.” Most influential lesson learned from a mentor “Change the word ‘but’ to ‘and’ – it changes a wall into a door.” Final Round – “Breaking Down the Recipe for Success” What systems would you go back and put into place sooner? I would have been more focused – concentrate on your goals. What one strategy or “recipe” would compound into big wins for business owners? Decide what you want – find what doesn’t work – pay the price. How to exceed expectations and add the most value? An individual matches your own commitment – and don’t hire too soon. What strategy would you recommend new business owners focus on to best ensure success? Believe in your mission – understand your impact Spend the time you need to train – find the people that can make you better How best to connect with Cathy: orphanagesofkenya.org You can find us here: ------OnwardNation.com------

success change sales vice president fortune decide recipes kenya onward everytime orphanages win every time onward nation mendell fundraising chair

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Phase 1/2a Follistatin Gene Therapy Trial for Becker Muscular Dystrophy :: March 2015

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2015 14:39

Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, is Director of the Center for Gene Therapy in The Research Institute, Director of the Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, and Curran-Peters Chair of Pediatric Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is also an attending neurologist at Nationwide Children’s and a professor of pediatrics and neurology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. • View the published abstract for this month’s featured research article. • Learn more about the gene therapy trial for Becker Muscular Dystrophy.

director research medicine hospitals trial md phase becker research institute gene therapy muscular dystrophy paul d nationwide children ohio state university college pediatric research mendell kevin flanigan

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Phase 1/2a Follistatin Gene Therapy Trial for Becker Muscular Dystrophy :: March 2015

Addicted to Addicts: Survival 101 – Denise Krochta

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2015 14:39

Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, is Director of the Center for Gene Therapy in The Research Institute, Director of the Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, and Curran-Peters Chair of Pediatric Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He is also an attending neurologist at Nationwide Children’s and a professor of pediatrics and neurology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. • View the published abstract for this month’s featured research article. • Learn more about the gene therapy trial for Becker Muscular Dystrophy.

director research medicine hospitals trial md phase becker research institute gene therapy muscular dystrophy paul d nationwide children ohio state university college pediatric research mendell nationwide children's hospital kevin flanigan

E257: Mia Grace Bailey, John E. Mendell

The Josie Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2014 41:00

E257: Mia Grace Bailey, John E. Mendell

john e mendell josie show country blast radio

Episode 107: Eleni Mendell

Independent's Day Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2014 64:56

Eleni Mandell has managed to carve out a decent career for herself in the last 15 years. She's a native of Los Angeles, and that geographical good fortune afforded her the opportunity to immerse herself in the rich musical scene of Southern California during her formative years. Now that she's been at it awhile, fans might not make the connection between her elegantly simple songs adorned with acoustic guitars and the underground punk and rock shows she grew up frequenting. Along the way, she has worked with music-savant producer Jon Brion, guitarists Nels Cline and Tony Gilkyson, drummer/producer Joey Waronker and the back up band on her new record, Let's Fly A Kite, was borrowed from none other than Nick Lowe. Over the years, Mandell has been compared to such diverse artists as PJ Harvey, X, Patsy Cline and Tom Waits and her life and career have continued to evolve. In addition to guitars and merch, Mandell now takes along a set of twins when she hits the road, and the shift in perspective is evident on Let's Fly A Kite. Motherhood has brought a new-found focus to Mandell's music because there simply isn't the time to sit around and wait for inspiration to strike when little people need to be clothed, fed and entertained. The evolution is a logical one, and it suits her music just fine. The twelve songs on Let's Fly A Kite are playful and focused and her evolution as an artist has been welcomed by critics, fans and the artist herself.

los angeles motherhood southern california tom waits pj harvey patsy cline nick lowe mandell nels cline jon brion fly a kite mendell eleni mandell joey waronker

Episode 108: Elani Mendell

Independent's Day Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 17, 2014

Eleni Mandell has managed to carve out a decent career for herself in the last 15 years. She’s a native of Los Angeles, and that geographical good fortune afforded her the opportunity to immerse herself in the rich musical scene of Southern California during her formative years. Now that she’s been at it awhile, fans might not make the connection between her elegantly simple songs adorned with acoustic guitars and the underground punk and rock shows she grew up frequenting. Along the way, she has worked with music-savant producer Jon Brion, guitarists Nels Cline and Tony Gilkyson, drummer/producer Joey Waronker and the back up band on her new record, Let’s Fly A Kite, was borrowed from none other than Nick Lowe. Over the years, Mandell has been compared to such diverse artists as PJ Harvey, X, Patsy Cline and Tom Waits and her life and career have continued to evolve. In addition to guitars and merch, Mandell now takes along a set of twins when she hits the road, and the shift in perspective is evident on Let’s Fly A Kite. Motherhood has brought a new-found focus to Mandell’s music because there simply isn’t the time to sit around and wait for inspiration to strike when little people need to be clothed, fed and entertained. The evolution is a logical one, and it suits her music just fine. The twelve songs on Let’s Fly A Kite are playful and focused and her evolution as an artist has been welcomed by critics, fans and the artist herself.

los angeles motherhood southern california tom waits pj harvey patsy cline nick lowe mandell nels cline jon brion fly a kite elani mendell eleni mandell joey waronker

Episode 108: Elani Mendell

Independent's Day Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2014

Eleni Mandell has managed to carve out a decent career for herself in the last 15 years. She’s a native of Los Angeles, and that geographical good fortune afforded her the opportunity to immerse herself in the rich musical scene of Southern California during her formative years. Now that she’s been at it awhile, fans might not make the connection between her elegantly simple songs adorned with acoustic guitars and the underground punk and rock shows she grew up frequenting. Along the way, she has worked with music-savant producer Jon Brion, guitarists Nels Cline and Tony Gilkyson, drummer/producer Joey Waronker and the back up band on her new record, Let’s Fly A Kite, was borrowed from none other than Nick Lowe. Over the years, Mandell has been compared to such diverse artists as PJ Harvey, X, Patsy Cline and Tom Waits and her life and career have continued to evolve. In addition to guitars and merch, Mandell now takes along a set of twins when she hits the road, and the shift in perspective is evident on Let’s Fly A Kite. Motherhood has brought a new-found focus to Mandell’s music because there simply isn’t the time to sit around and wait for inspiration to strike when little people need to be clothed, fed and entertained. The evolution is a logical one, and it suits her music just fine. The twelve songs on Let’s Fly A Kite are playful and focused and her evolution as an artist has been welcomed by critics, fans and the artist herself.

los angeles motherhood southern california tom waits pj harvey patsy cline nick lowe mandell nels cline jon brion fly a kite elani mendell eleni mandell joey waronker

Addicted to Addicts: Survival 101 – Banding Together to Make a Difference

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2013 59:58

This week’s show is all about taking all of our resources and using them collectively to make a difference. Denise interviews Gary Mendell, Chairman of Shatterproof. Mr. Mendell founded Shatterproof (then known as Brian’s Wish) to honor the memory of his son, Brian, who lost his battle with addiction, with the promise to spare other families the anguish of this … Read more about this episode...

survival addicted make a difference addicts banding shatterproof mendell gary mendell

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Newborn Screening in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2012 19:17

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Newborn Screening in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy :: April 2012 Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, director, Center for Gene Therapy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Access an abstract of this month’s featured research article: Evidence-based path to newborn screening for duchenne muscular dystrophy. Ann Neurol. 2012 Mar;71(3):304-13.

hospitals md screenings research institute gene therapy muscular dystrophy nationwide children duchenne muscular dystrophy newborn screening mendell ann neurol kevin flanigan

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Newborn Screening in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

TSoNYC® - The Sound Of New York City®

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2012 19:17

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Newborn Screening in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy :: April 2012 Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, director, Center for Gene Therapy, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Access an abstract of this month’s featured research article: Evidence-based path to newborn screening for duchenne muscular dystrophy. Ann Neurol. 2012 Mar;71(3):304-13.

hospitals md screenings research institute gene therapy muscular dystrophy nationwide children duchenne muscular dystrophy newborn screening mendell nationwide children's hospital ann neurol kevin flanigan

XXV TSoNYC™ - Jeff White from Chicago, USA

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2011 69:08

“My journey into becoming a DJ began in 1981. I was in a dance group called “The Boy scouts” we were at this club in Chicago called The Playground. The resident DJ was Farley Funkin’ Keith, now known as Farley Jack Master Funk. He was one of the hottest DJ’S back in that time. Listening to him spin, the tricks, the blends, and the records he played, grabbed me by the collar. I enjoyed the way the crowd responded to the way Farley was playing, how he held their attention, never letting them go. Month’s later I bought a pair of Technic turntables and a Teledyn mixer. I began my record collecting by purchasing records from stores like Import ECT, Loop records, Second Hand Tunes & Gramma Phone. Just to name a few, songs like “Keep On Dancing,” “Keep Your Body Working,” “Martin Circus” “Klein MBO Theme,” were some of the hottest records out. Now as I began maturing in music Disco and Garage became another one of my passions. From the playground I went to Mendell, Sauers, C.O.D.’s, Bismarck hotel and other parties. At C.O.D’s, there was this DJ by the name of Lil Louis. He was one of the hottest DJ’s in the 80’s of the house scene in Chicago, as well as a very dynamic producer. He really touched me with his tracks and the mixture of disco. There would be five hundred + people at these parties. No one going home until the wee hours of the morning. But it wasn’t until I heard the great late, legendary, Ron Hardy spinning at this club called The Muzic Box, which was located on Lower Wacker Drive. From the time you walked into the Box you were captivated, put in a trance. It was dark, with only the brightness of the flashing strobe lights bouncing off of the walls. The sound system was one of the best in the city. Ron Hardy knew how to grab the crowd. He knew how to work the crowd. He made many edits of certain records, and he was even a record producer. With his style and the system no track or record ever sounded the same. This made me want to really learn the craft. I began trying different things with records until I developed my own style. I have had the pleasure of spinning at clubs such as Retno 5, The Concrete Jungle, Jackson Harbor Bar & Grill, Hi Ricky’s, The Fiz Bar, Slicks, Family Den just to name a few. Some of the past DJ’s who were a major influence on me were: Farley, Steve Hurley, and Ron Hardy, Lil Louis, & Frankie Knuckles. Some of my present influences: Mark Grusane and Mike Cole of Mr. Peabody records: much love, and Baby Funk Roy, Joseph Colbourne ( He’s the real deal!!!! ) also I must not forget Soul in the Hole’s Lee Collins and Sadar Bahar.

EPISODE193 - Mark J. Mendell, Ph.D. -LBNL & CA DOH

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2011

Mark Mendell, Ph.D., is currently a Staff Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Indoor Environment Group at EETD, and an Air Pollution Research Specialist at the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Mendell is on the editorial board of the journal Indoor Air and a member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences. He was formerly at the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, where he was head of the National Occupational Research Agenda Team on Indoor Environments. Dr. Mendell holds a BA from Cornell University; a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon; and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Public Health. Dr. Mendell has worked for 20 years in the field of environmental epidemiology, focused on health effects related to indoor environments in buildings. His work includes field research to help understand relationships between specific factors and conditions in buildings and health effects in occupants, and critical reviews of the literature that summarize what we know, how well we know it, and what we do not know, about specific environment/health relationships in buildings. His research interests include health risks associated with buildings, ventilation systems, moisture, and microbial growth; effects of indoor environments in schools on health and performance of students, and effects of indoor chemical exposures in residences on asthma and allergies.

university california health school phd oregon bachelor public health berkeley centers cornell university california department international academy occupational safety landscape architecture mark j indoor air mendell lbnl

EPISODE193 - Mark J. Mendell, Ph.D. -LBNL & CA DOH

IAQ Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2011 63:49

Mark Mendell, Ph.D., is currently a Staff Scientist/Epidemiologist in the Indoor Environment Group at EETD, and an Air Pollution Research Specialist at the California Department of Public Health. Dr. Mendell is on the editorial board of the journal Indoor Air and a member of the International Academy of Indoor Air Sciences. He was formerly at the Centers for Disease Control/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, where he was head of the National Occupational Research Agenda Team on Indoor Environments. Dr. Mendell holds a BA from Cornell University; a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon; and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley, School of Public Health. Dr. Mendell has worked for 20 years in the field of environmental epidemiology, focused on health effects related to indoor environments in buildings. His work includes field research to help understand relationships between specific factors and conditions in buildings and health effects in occupants, and critical reviews of the literature that summarize what we know, how well we know it, and what we do not know, about specific environment/health relationships in buildings. His research interests include health risks associated with buildings, ventilation systems, moisture, and microbial growth; effects of indoor environments in schools on health and performance of students, and effects of indoor chemical exposures in residences on asthma and allergies.

university california health school phd oregon bachelor public health berkeley centers cornell university california department international academy occupational safety landscape architecture mark j indoor air mendell lbnl

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Dystrophin Immunity in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2011 16:22

Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, Nationwide Children's Hospital Access an abstract of this Month's Featured Research Article: Dystrophin immunity in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. N Engl J Med. 2010 Oct 7;363(15):1429-37.

research md immunity muscular dystrophy duchenne new england journal of medicine duchenne muscular dystrophy mendell nationwide children's hospital dystrophin kevin flanigan

Dr. Jerry Mendell Discusses Dystrophin Immunity in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2011 16:22

Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, Nationwide Children's Hospital Access an abstract of this Month's Featured Research Article: Dystrophin immunity in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy. N Engl J Med. 2010 Oct 7;363(15):1429-37.

research md immunity muscular dystrophy duchenne new england journal of medicine nationwide children duchenne muscular dystrophy mendell dystrophin kevin flanigan

Gene Transfer of Follistatin: Dr. Mendell Discusses Implications for Muscle Disease

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2010 17:44

Guest: Jerry Mendell, MD, Nationwide Children's Hospital Access an abstract of this Month's Featured Research Article: Follistatin Gene Delivery Enhances Muscle Growth and Strength in Nonhuman Primates. Sci Transl Med 11 November 2009: Vol. 1, Issue 6, p. 6ra15

research strength md disease vol implications muscle muscular dystrophy mendell nationwide children's hospital sci transl med kevin flanigan

Gene Transfer of Follistatin: Dr. Mendell Discusses Implications for Muscle Disease