MedEvidence! Truth Behind the Data

Some People Trust Celebrities Over Science: We Need To Fix It

• Dr. Michael Koren, Kevin Geddings

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Dr. Michael Koren joins Kevin Geddings to share an anecdote; an acquaintance seemed to put trust in Mel Gibson on a podcast over the American healthcare system. The doctor analyzes why there has been an erosion of trust in this system, why institutions like the medical community and clinical research should be trusted, and how participating in clinical trials can increase your trust in the system as a whole. Dr. Koren also challenges listeners with a specific healthcare biomarker that may be putting your heart at risk.

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Have a question for Dr. Koren? Email him at askDrKoren@MedEvidence.com

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Music: Storyblocks - Corporate Inspired

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Announcer:

Welcome to the MedEvidence! Monday Minute Radio Show, hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St. Augustine Radio and powered by ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest Medical Updates with insightful discussion. MedEvidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with Both clinical and research perspective. So step back, relax, and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence!

Kevin Geddings:

Good morning, Dr. Koren,

Dr. Michael Koren:

Good morning, Kevin. How are you?

Kevin Geddings:

Well, I'm doing doing well. Doing well. There's a lot of skepticism out there, right? About, you know, healthcare facts and what works and what doesn't for various healthcare conditions and diseases.

Dr. Michael Koren:

Yeah, yeah. You and I were just chatting as we were waiting to get on air about an incident I had this weekend. It was not called incident, let me call it an interesting conversation that I overheard. And it was a woman who was an intelligent woman talking about using ivermectin for cancer. And she quoted, of all people, Mel Gibson, who apparently did a podcast on Joe Rogan's show about using ivermectin for cancer. And Mel Gibson claimed that he had three friends, quote unquote, who had stage four cancer that were cured with ivermectin. And this woman was talking about the fact that the Canadian physician who was prescribing ivermectin with healing for cancer lost his medical license and maybe coming to our area and and she was wondering whether or not this is something that we should know about it and pursue. And so when I heard this, it really fascinated me, quite frankly, because she basically was saying that she trusted Mel Gibson more than our system. And and why is that, Kevin? Uh why would that be? Obviously, you know, Mel Gibson has had his own well chronicled problems with a lot of things, including uh maybe not seeing the truth always very clearly. But putting that aside, why would she trust this anecdote? Why would she even believe Mel Gibson rather than our system? So I asked you that question. What do you think?

Kevin Geddings:

Part of me thinks it goes back to COVID and perhaps not the most precise answers coming out of the CDC and others, which it would be impossible to have precise answers because we were dealing with a great unknown, right? But it did create this societal skepticism, right, of of the healthcare institutions that we had always acknowledged as being mostly right in the past.

Dr. Michael Koren:

Yeah, yeah, I think that I think COVID did affect people in that way. I agree with you. And I I think it's at this point really just a matter of trust.

Kevin Geddings:

Right.

Dr. Michael Koren:

In healthcare, you have to know who you can trust. It's so critically important. And if you don't trust the system, then things usually run awry. And as the system has gotten more and more complicated, I think people are less less trusting of the system. Number one. And number two, as as it's gotten more and more complicated and more and more, quote, computer-based, patients to explain things as well as we used to. And I think that also erodes trust in the system. So, you know, one of the things I'm proud of in research is that we address these issues on a day-to-day basis. We spend a lot of time talking with our patients, explaining the protocols that we're running, explaining what the medical questions are, and then really every step along the way have a very nurturing approach to make sure the patient is in agreement with what we're doing, they give their consent, and also really understands what we're trying to accomplish, as well as hear what their concerns are, whatever they may be, and help them navigate those concerns. So with that in mind, I'm gonna just throw a challenge out there. You know, you and I have talked about this problem of lipoprotein(a). And that's to remind everybody a form of LDL cholesterol that's particularly dangerous. So I'm just gonna throw this challenge out. If you know about Lp(a) and you know that it's nothing for you to be worried about, that's great. You don't have to hear really hear anymore or do any more research. If you don't know what Lp(a) is, that means you don't know what your level is, you don't know what your family levels is. Why don't you make an effort to find out what it is? And if it's super high, there may be something we can do about it. If it's normal, then you feel reassured that you don't have to worry about this issue. And then if you find out that it is high and about twenty percent of people have high Lp(a)'s, then find out what the options are. Right now there are no approved drugs for Lp(a). There's some drugs that help it a little bit, but we have drugs in development that are really super effective for reducing Lp(a) levels by over 95%. It's really quite remarkable. And people can get involved in these programs. Now, there's no guarantee that you're gonna get these medications immediately. A lot of the programs we do are placebo-controlled, and during the course of the scientific part of the inquiry, you don't know exactly on. But many of these programs also have these nice we call open label extensions where once you finish the program, there is an opportunity perhaps to get the medication once it's shown to be safe and effective. So, yeah, that's my challenge is to take one little piece of of medical inquiry in question and figure out if it affects you, if it affects your family, and then have a very discernible plan to address it.

Kevin Geddings:

And also, Dr. Koren, when folks engage and they participate in clinical trials, I think their level of trust and confidence in science and our healthcare system increases, right? Because they get that kind of one-on-one attention, they get to be very engaged in what's going on with their healthcare, and that changes the whole way they look at things, right?

Dr. Michael Koren:

I absolutely. Yeah, trust is is a tricky thing. It's very easy to lose it, very hard to gain it.

Kevin Geddings:

Yeah.

Dr. Michael Koren:

And it's only through these experiences together where people will gain trust. Those experiences, of course, could be with a great healthcare provider. You know, your your old Marcus Welby doctor who gains your trust amongst his patients, or it could be through a clinical research process, or just you know, an institution that you've seen over time come up with answers and and and and address your concerns. But unfortunately, I would say more times than not, our medical institutions are not doing what's necessary to ensure that trust develops. And then what happens is that people start to listen to Mel Gibson.

Kevin Geddings:

Yeah, right. Oh man. Good actor, but I'm not sure I would get my healthcare information from him, right?

Dr. Michael Koren:

No, I that I would uh I would agree with that wholeheartedly.

Kevin Geddings:

That's Dr. Michael Koren. Speaking of trust and just getting a broad swath of health information that you can trust. Uh, one other point I want to make before we lose Dr. Koren, medevidence.com, great website they should check out, right, Doctor?

Dr. Michael Koren:

Absolutely, absolutely. And again, this is also something I'm I'm increasingly proud of because of getting really positive feedback about it. And again, it's addressing this issue of developing trust. We don't know all the answers, Kevin, but we have processes to learn what the answers are once people give us the question. And that's what MedEvidence seeks to do. You take whatever the question is, you take whatever the concern is, and you explain what we know about some particular area of medicine or science. We explain what we don't know about it, and then we explain the process about how we learn about that area. And this could be on a broad basis in terms of things like how to treat cholesterol problems better, as I just mentioned, and am I a candidate for this, that, or the other treatment. So uh we try to break it down for people. We believe it's a very trustworthy source, again, because we have typically two doctors talking about the issue, and by watching how these two doctors bounce things off of each other, you learn a tremendous amount through the eyes of people that understand these in this area. So I'd encourage people to check it out, see if they like it, and let us know what you think. We're always interested in getting feedback from people that either view or listen to the podcasts.

Kevin Geddings:

Once again, that website is MedEvidence.com, the truth behind the data, MedEvidence.com. Dr. Koren, thank you very much for your time, and we'll talk soon, okay?

Dr. Michael Koren:

Have a great week, Kevin.

Announcer:

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Dr. Michael Koren

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