In this segment we talk about Google's AI driven project Alphafold and it's game changing discovery.

In this segment we go into more detail about the 3 dimensional structure of proteins and the huge discovery made by Google's Alphafold.

In this episode we go into detail on how you can avoid disaster by avoiding hip implants recalled implants

If you have back pain and you are serious about getting rid of it then take the next 5 minutes to watch this video to the end and find out what science says you need to do to get better. One size doesn't fit everyone: you need to know what's wrong with your back before you can fix it. Permanent relief of your low back pain starts with understanding what's wrong, then following the science to pick the right treatment; that's evidence-based treatment. There are only 4 common causes of back pain: inured discs arthritis facet joints pinched or inflamed nerve roots spinal narrowing (stenosis) How do you know which one is causing your back pain? Follow a 2 steps process. In this video we go over the four common causes of back pain so that you can pick and WRITE DOWN the one that best describes you. Once you have that, you can match the cause of your back pain with the evidence-based treatment that is most likely to give you relief.

Do this 5-item checklist before having spine surgery to be sure you are ready, and that spine surgery is the right option for you.

Low back pain is among the most challenging problems in clinical medicine. For those looking for help with their chronic low back pain, even if you have failed surgery before, a new device from 3-spine may be your best hope yet. Watch this video to the end to learn about a new approach that may be the one to end your complex, chronic back pain. Back surgery fails when the treatment doesn't fit with the cause. For example, microdiscectomy surgery, in which a small piece of your disc is removed, does not improve the pain from an arthritic facet joint. Sometimes doctors cannot even figure out the exact cause, but patients are left with severe pain. That's a time to consider total spine replacement. The concept of total spine replacement is similar to that of total knee or total hip replacement. The idea is to get rid of all causes of back pain. Thus, total spine replacement is a "maximalist" approach.

One size doesn't fit everyone: you need to know what's wrong with your back before you can fix it. Permanent relief of your low back pain starts with understanding what's wrong, then following the science to pick the right treatment; that's evidence-based treatment. There are only 4 common causes of back pain: inured discs arthritis facet joints pinched or inflamed nerve roots spinal narrowing (stenosis) How do you know which one is causing your back pain? Follow a 2 steps process. In this video we go over the four common causes of back pain so that you can pick and WRITE DOWN the one that best describes you. Once you have that, you can match the cause of your back pain with the evidence-based treatment that is most likely to give you relief.

There is so much buzz about CBD. This video explains the difference between CBD vs. THC. CBD does not get you high and is entirely legal. Then we help you figure out if CBD is right for you by introducing you to Kathleen Mitchell, who had such a strong response to CBD for hip pain, she dedicated her work to helping others get help with pain, anxiety, and sleep better with CBD. To learn more about Kathleen you can visit her store at 6102 N 16th street in phoenix, AZ 85026; or check out her website https://kayahempco.com/.

Is CBD bad for you? Not compared to the alternatives like opiates and NSAIDs (Aleve and Ibuprofen). Many arthritis sufferers are considering CBD for the treatment of their arthritic joint pain. But is CBD safe? It depends on what you compare it to. Many people currently take NSAIDs like Aleve and Ibuprofen, or even opiates, for their arthritis. CBD is a safer treatment than opiates. The tremendous loss of American life due to the opiate epidemic has raised the urgent need for alternatives to opiates for pain management. The opiate epidemic we are in right now is equal to two Vietnam Wars every year.

CBD gummies, capsules, oil, vape, and flower are good options for the treatment of your knee pain, hip pain, hand pain, and back pain due to arthritis if you are not pregnant, nursing, or a child. CBD works for pain relief by functioning as an anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). CBD is a cannabis product, made from hemp, but has no relationship to marijuana (weed). As a medicine for joint pain CBD has benefits that NSAIDs like Aleve and Ibuprofen do not, such as relief of anxiety and sleep problems. There is a growing interest in cannabis products such as CBD; people are even giving CBD to their dogs and cats. You should decide if CBD (or any drug) is right for you by considering the pyramid of evidence. But the necessary evidence for CBD will never be there because CBD is a natural compound, so the FDA treats it as a supplement. You have to decide on your own. CBD is right for you if the potential side effects are less than the expected benefits. CBD made from the cannabis product hemp is legal. CBD comes from hemp and is not made from marijuana. Federal law says that hemp products like CBD with less than 3% THC are legal in the US. CBD can be prepared as gummies, vape, tinctures, flower, oil, or capsule. The main difference between the preparations is the time to onset. Tincture if fast, oil is slow but steady, gummies and capsules are in between. CBD side effects: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-li.... CBD awareness project: https://www.cbdoil.org/cbd-benefits/ National Academy of Family Physicians Cannabinoids positions statement: https://www.aafp.org/about/policies/a...

The large hadron collider at CERN has reopened after a 3-year maintenance project. The last time the collider was open they discovered the Higgs boson. the ideas of dark matter and parallel universes have really taken over our popular imaginations. Scientific discovery often happens on its own. The WWW was developed at CERN, as well as the first website. CERN technology has contributed to a 3D x-ray machine. CERN's technology has also advanced radiation therapy, one of the three pillars of cancer treatment. CERN has also helped develop radio-isotopes. CERN is an example of basic science. In the US we invest in the National Institutes of Health. We spend $23B a year on NASS, $43B on NIH, but $722B on defense. At some point, we need to rethink our priorities. Exciting things that will help medicine will come out of CERN. The only way to find out is to watch.

We can all agree that death is the thing we are most concerned about. One way to look at the pandemic, then, is that it is over when the excess death rate goes to zero and stays there. In this video, we will go over how the excess death rate is calculated, the cause of death, and where we are today. Is the pandemic over? Watch to the end to find out. If you want to know if the pandemic is over, why not just look at the number of deaths due to COVID? You hear these numbers on the news every day. Unfortunately, life is not that simple. Deaths due to COVID come from the cause of death listed on death certificates. Have you ever filled out a death certificate? I have. And let me tell you, it’s not nearly as straightforward as you may think. Let us start with an example. When I was an intern, I had a patient who was in a coma after a car accident; in the hospital, he did not wake up after 3 days which meant the was a high chance he never would. As often occurs in this situation, he developed pneumonia on the ventilator. I was meeting with the family to decide when to pull the plug when he had a massive heart attack and died. So, what was the cause of death? The heart attack? Pneumonia? Brain injury? Car accident? Today he may have developed COVID-19 in the hospital. And his cause of death would be listed as COVID. The complexity of determining the cause of death percolates up in the system and makes it hard to know the effects of a given disease. COVID is a great example because many of the people we lost were over 80, and chances are high that they would have died of something else had the SARS-COV-2 virus never existed. To overcome these issues when doctors want to know how many deaths are caused by something like the pandemic, directly and even indirectly, we look at excess death. Excess death is the number of deaths we would have expected during a period under normal circumstances. You can use math to come at the estimate in different ways; our CDC uses something called the Farrington method, which is supported by at least one paper published in the medical literature. Here are the CDC’s calculations of excess death through the time period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The orange line is the average number of expected deaths, and the red line is the upper limit of the range expected. The first thing I notice here is that more people die in the winter than in the summer. That makes sense to me because respiratory diseases are more common in the winter, and historically respiratory disease is the fourth most common cause of death. The other big three--- heart disease, cancer, and accidents--- are not as seasonal, and stay more constant throughout the year. The COVID pandemic sticks out like a sore thumb. Remember the first reports of the new virus in the US were in January 2020. The first vaccine was approved in August 2021, and Omicron came in November 2021. What does this data tell us about when the pandemic will actually be over? Remember we are mostly concerned with death. So, science says the pandemic is over when the excess death rate is zero. I took the CDC data for Arizona, where I live, and plotted the excess deaths since August 2021 when the first vaccine was approved. It took about four months while most people were getting vaccinated, but excess deaths have steadily fallen. Until March of this year, when the excess death rate reached zero. It has stayed there ever since. The pandemic is over when the excess death rate is zero. The excess death rate reached zero in March of 2022. So, by this measure, the pandemic ended in March. This tells us a lot about how we should act responsibly. Should we continue to mask and socially distance ourselves? You certainly can if you want to. It is hard to prove one way or another how much of a difference it makes, and mask requirements cannot be justified by this data. But some people have always worn masks in public during cold and flu season, and I am sure watching so many of their fellow citizens die over the last couple of years will not make them stop. It is a free country, so they should take the steps that make sense to them. Sadly, we need to acknowledge that things can always change for the worse. But currently, with the excess death rate at zero, clearly there is no reason to think about riskier interventions such as lockdowns and school closures.

To overcome these issues when doctors want to know how many deaths are caused by something like the pandemic, directly and even indirectly, we look at excess death. Excess death is the number of deaths we would have expected during a period under normal circumstances. You can use math to come at the estimate in different ways; our CDC uses something called the Farrington method, which is supported by at least one paper published in the medical literature. Here are the CDC’s calculations of excess death through the time period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The orange line is the average number of expected deaths, and the red line is the upper limit of the range expected. The first thing I notice here is that more people die in the winter than in the summer. That makes sense to me, because respiratory diseases are more common in the winter, and historically respiratory disease is the fourth most common cause of death. The other big three--- heart disease, cancer, and accidents--- are not as seasonal, and stay more constant through the year. The COVID pandemic sticks out like a sore thumb. Remember the first reports of the new virus in the US were in January 2020. The first vaccine was approved in August 2021, and Omicron came in November 2021. What does this data tell us about when the pandemic will actually be over? Remember we are mostly concerned with death. So, science says the pandemic is over when the excess death rate is zero. I took the CDC data for Arizona, where Ilive, and plotted the excess deaths since August 2021 when the first vaccine was approved. It took about four months while most people were getting vaccinated, but excess deaths have steadily fallen. Until March of this year, when the excess death rate reached zero. It has stayed there ever since. The pandemic is over when the excess death rate is zero. The excess death rate reached zero in March of 2022. So, by this measure, the pandemic ended in March. This tells us a lot about how we should act responsibly. Should we continue to mask and socially distance? You certainly can if you want to. It is hard to prove one way or another how much of a difference it makes, and mask requirements cannot be justified by this data. But some people have always worn masks in public in cold and flu season, and I am sure watching so many of their fellow citizens die over the last couple of years will not make them stop. It is a free country, so they should take the steps that make sense to them. Sadly, we need to acknowledge that things can always change for the worse. But currently, with the excess death rate at zero, clearly there is no reason to think about riskier interventions such as lockdowns and school closures. The pandemic certainly showed off some of our divisions. But it also served to remind us of all that we are in this together. As this tough time grows smaller and smaller in our rear-view mirrors, I ask that we remember that recovery may look different for all of us. I would like to close with an updated version of an old Hebrew prayer for the sick.