Health Care

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we discuss a work that takes a careful and long-overdue look at how caregiving and burnout so often go hand-in-hand in this country. Our guest is Kate Washington, an essayist, freelance writer, and food critic based in Northern California. Her new book, which she tells us about, is a memoir/report/study titled "Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America." As was noted by Kirkus Reviews, this book is "a biting critique of how America is failing its unpaid caregivers....

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we speak with Sunita Puri, author of "That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour." Puri is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California, where she's also the medical director of palliative medicine at the Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center. She'll do a free event on the Zoom platform in connection with this insightful book on Wednesday the 28th at 6pm; the event is being co-presented by Hospice of Green Country and Magic City Books.

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority will start taking applications for coverage under Medicaid expansion a month before it takes effect.

The application process will open June 1 at mysoonercare.org, giving newly eligible Oklahomans time to be approved for SoonerCare before coverage begins July 1.

Adults 19 to 64 years old with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level will be eligible. That's $17,796 a year for one person or $36,588 for a family of four.

(Note: This show first aired early last year.) On this edition of StudioTulsa, we meet investigative journalist John Carreyrou, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with The Wall Street Journal. He broke the story of the fraud perpetrated by the medical tech company known as Theranos and its charismatic young CEO, Elizabeth Holmes. That story is the basis of his book, "Bad Blood," which he tells us about.

Our guest is Herman Pontzer, an Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University and Associate Research Professor of Global Health at the Duke Global Health Institute. An well-known researcher in human energetics and evolution, he joins us to discuss his new book, "Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Lose Weight, and Stay Healthy." The book draws on Pontzer's groundbreaking studies with hunter-gatherer tribes in order to show how exercise actually **doesn't** increase our metabolism.

The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust will help OSU with a new, rural physician residency program.

TSET is committing $2.4 million to the program, with OSU and Stillwater Medical Center covering the rest of the $6.1 million total. 

"It’s going to span three years, five residents per year for a total of 15 residents at the end of three years. The TSET funding, our funding, will pay for resident salaries and other expenses of the program," said TSET Director of Programs Jonás Mata.

The residency program will start July 2022.

Our guest on StudioTulsa Medical Monday is Dr. Monica Aggarwal, the director of Integrative Cardiology and Prevention at the University of Florida, where she teaches plant-based nutrition while also performing various mind-body techniques with her students and patients, including yoga and meditation. (You can visit her website here.) Dr. Aggarwal joins us to discuss her latest book, "Body on Fire: How Inflammation Triggers Chronic Illness and the Tools We Have to Fight It," which came out last year, and which she co-wrote with Jyothi Rao.

Our guest is Olivia Campbell, a journalist specializing in medicine and women who has written for The Guardian, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, and several other publications. Her first book is just out, and she joins us on ST Medical Monday to discuss it. "Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine" tells how three remarkable Victorian women broke down all sorts of barriers in order to become the first women doctors, thereby eventually revolutionizing the way all women receive health care.

Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Dr. Saray Stancic. In 1995, she learned that she had multiple sclerosis. By 2003, she was walking regularly with a cane, had stopped nearly all unnecessary physical activity, and was on several medications. Flash forward to 2010, when she ran a marathon.... How'd she do this? It didn't happen overnight, of course, but -- through a series of dedicated lifestyle changes -- it did happen. Dr.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we learn about the National Center for Wellness & Recovery, which is based at the OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa. The mission for this facility, per its website, is "to inspire hope and to develop innovative, science-driven treatment interventions to improve the lives of those afflicted by pain and substance-use disorders." Our guest is Dr. Kelly Dunn, a psychiatrist who is also the Executive Director for Clinical Treatment at the National Center.

Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Dr. T. Colin Campbell, who has been for more than four decades a leading expert on nutrition research in American medicine. His bestselling book from several years ago, "The China Study," grew out of the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted, which he led. Dr. Campbell joins us to discuss both his pioneering career and his newest book, "The Future of Nutrition: An Insider's Look at the Science, Why We Keep Getting It Wrong, and How to Start Getting It Right."

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we offer a discussion of what is commonly referred to as "long-haul syndrome" or "long COVID." Our guest is Dr. Stan Schwartz, who's the chief medical officer of The Zero Card, a digital-health enterprise. He's also a former medical director of Tulsa's Warren Clinic. Dr.

Our guest is Dr. Michael F. Myers, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, New York. He's the author or co-author of several works, including "Why Physicians Die by Suicide." Dr. Myers joins us on StudioTulsa Medical Monday for a discussion of his new book, "Becoming a Doctors' Doctor: A Memoir." As was noted of this reflective and readable work by Dr.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, we learn about "Where It Hurts," a podcast co-produced by Kaiser Health News and St. Louis Public Radio. Our guest is the host of this podcast, investigative journalist Sarah Jane Tribble. Season One of "Where It Hurts" -- subtitled "No Mercy" -- was just completed, and as we learn on today's show, the full season focused on the intricate, far-reaching why and how of the closing of Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott, Kansas.

Our guest is Dr. Michael Roizen, the bestselling author and Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic. He's also the co-author of "The What to Eat When Cookbook," which is just out, and which builds upon a previous (and very popular) guidebook that he co-wrote called "What to Eat When." In both volumes, Dr. Roizen points out that **when** we eat (that is, what time of day) is actually crucial to the link between a healthy diet and healthy living. It's also crucial to disease prevention, better overall mental/physical performance, and a longer life. As Dr.

Our guest is Dr. Jeff Spiess, who has been caring for seriously and terminally ill patients for 30+ years, first as an oncologist, and later in the realm of hospice medicine. (In 2016, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine named him as a recipient of the Josephina B. Magno Distinguished Hospice Physician Award.) Dr. Spiess joins us to discuss his new book, which is just out. It's called "Dying with Ease: A Compassionate Guide to Making Wiser End of Life Decisions." More about this title is posted here.

Our guest is the author and doctor Michael Stein, who's also a professor of health law, policy, and management at Boston University. He tells us about his new book, which presents the many various moving, sobering, genuine, and often heartbreaking accounts of his patients about money...and about having (or not having) enough money to simply get by in the U.S. today. "Broke" gives us the words and thoughts of those now facing the reality of having to choose between getting medical treatments or paying their bills. As was noted of this book by Dr.

Our guest is Dr. Anne Hallward, the host and founder of Safe Space Radio. She is also a board-certified psychiatrist in Portland, Maine. Formerly on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Hospital, Dr. Hallward co-designed and taught courses on death and dying, cultural competence, sexuality, and psychiatric interviewing; she also published on death and dying, cultural bias in medicine, sexuality, and issues related to hunger.

(Please note: This interview originally aired back in September.) It's scary, but by now it's also obvious -- our environment today contains thousands (literally, thousands) of toxic chemicals that it did NOT contain just a few decades ago. How are these chemicals affecting our health? And what can we do about this? Our guest on ST Medical Monday is the co-author of a new book called "Non-Toxic: Guide to Living Healthy in a Chemical World." Dr.

More than 3,200 households in Oklahoma and Kansas will have a total of $5.2 million in medical debt wiped out by the area’s United Church of Christ conference.

The UCC Kansas-Oklahoma Conference raised $40,000, which was sent to RIP Medical Debt, a New York–based nonprofit that buys medical debt for pennies on the dollar.

The Rev. Chris Moore, lead pastor at Tulsa’s Fellowship Congregational Church, said the act is more about justice than charity.

November is National Caregiver Awareness Month, and in that regard, our guests on this edition of StudioTulsa Medical Monday are Velvet Brown-Watts and Jeremiah Watts, Sr. They are the caregivers for, and the parents of, Jeremiah Watts, Jr., who is a 16-year-old student attending Union Public Schools here in our community, and who was diagnosed with Sickle Cell as an infant. Velvet Brown-Watts and Jeremiah Watts, Sr., are also the co-founders of a nonprofit called Supporters of Families with Sickle Cell Disease, which they tell us about.

Our guest is Chicago-based therapist and social worker, Joey Miller, MSW, LCSW, who has counseled women and their families for nearly two decades. She joins us to discuss her important new book, "Rebirth: The Journey of Pregnancy After a Loss." (You can learn more about, or contact, Joey Miller here.) A much-needed guidebook concerning a subject that many find difficult to talk about -- let alone deal with or confront -- "Rebirth" explains the challenges mothers and their partners can face after the loss of an infant.

A high-sodium diet can be a deadly diet -- high levels of sodium have been linked to high blood pressure, strokes, and heart attacks. And yet, salt is everywhere. It's all but inescapable on the American foodscape; salt (and plenty of it) is in packaged foods, fast foods, canned foods, table-service restaurants, etc. So...why hasn't salt received the sort of public attention and regulatory action that sugar and fat have? Our guest on ST Medical Monday is Michael Jacobson, who set out to answer this question.

(Note: This discussion first aired back in June.) What happens when a woman seeking an abortion in the U.S. is turned away? Our guest is Diana Greene Foster, PhD, who set out to answer this question as definitively as possible.