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Why Great Pharmacists Still Struggle to Stay Open
Discover why being a great clinician isn’t enough anymore, and what business skills actually keep a healthcare practice alive when margins collapse. Understand how 'negative margin' prescriptions work (paying more for a drug than you’re reimbursed) and why it’s quietly draining pharmacies from the inside out. Learn how to think in options instead of perfection so you can build a 'buffet' of strategies that fit your patients, your practice, and your future.
Why Cognitive Symptoms May Persist After Mold Exposure
Understand why symptoms may persist after a mold exposure has been addressed. Gupta proposes that the nervous and immune systems can remain highly reactive after the original threat has passed, potentially contributing to ongoing fatigue, cognitive difficulties, sensitivities, and other symptoms. Discover how neuroplasticity and nervous system regulation are used to interrupt learned patterns of reactivity. The Gupta Program combines regulation, brain retraining, and what Gupta calls “re-engaging with joy” to help the nervous system develop different responses through repetition. Recognize why brain retraining is presented as complementary to environmental and medical care. Gupta emphasizes reducing environmental exposures while also addressing nervous system dysregulation, with medical treatment, supplements, diet, and other interventions considered according to individual needs.
The Better Question: Is Your Brain Is Starving?
Healing Begins by Calming the Brain Laurie explains that balancing neurotransmitters through targeted amino acid therapy can help reduce anxiety, improve emotional regulation, and make it easier for patients to adopt healthy lifestyle changes that support long-term healing. Mental Health Is More Than a Chemical Imbalance Rather than simply managing symptoms with medication, Laurie discusses how nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, poor nutrition, stress, and nervous system dysfunction can all contribute to anxiety, depression, and chronic health challenges. True Healing Requires a Whole-Person Approach Long-term wellness involves more than supplements alone. Nutrition, detoxification, hormone balance, nervous system regulation, breathing techniques, faith, and lifestyle changes all work together to restore resilience and help the body heal as it was designed to.
Raising Capable Kids: Why Warmth and Boundaries Belong Together
Discover how authoritative parenting combines high expectations and accountability with warmth, affection, and support, giving children clear guardrails without removing connection or trust. Understand why routines, predictable boundaries, hands-on play, and age-appropriate responsibilities can help children build confidence, independence, and the real-world skills they will need as they grow. Learn how to rethink screen habits by protecting time for conversation, movement, fine-motor play, sleep, and family engagement, while remembering that parents can set and monitor the boundaries around a child’s device use.
From 15 Years of Diabetes to No Medication
Discover why Betsy wanted more than lifelong diabetes management. After living with type 2 diabetes for roughly 15 years and using multiple medications, she began looking for a different approach to her metabolic health. Understand what changed during her fasting journey. Betsy reports losing more than 60 pounds, completing six monthly fasting-mimicking diet cycles, and maintaining blood sugar readings in a range that allowed her to be off diabetes medication at the time of the interview. Uncover how better metabolic health changed what Betsy felt capable of doing. At age 65, she describes completing a demanding hike in Bryce Canyon that she does not believe she could have managed a year earlier.
0 – Before the First Cut— An Invitation
Behind every white coat is a battlefield of values, emotions, and unspoken tension. In this special teaser episode, Dr. Lee Sharma shares a glimpse of what’s to come: real conversations about conflict, burnout, boundary-setting, and negotiating a better life inside modern medicine. On Scalpel and Sword, we’ll walk together into the places we were taught to ignore—the silent struggles, the private battles—and find new tools to face them. The journey begins May 19th. Subscribe today and be part of the first wave of voices rewriting what it means to practice—and to live—as a physician. Host Bio: Dr. Lee Sharma is a gynecologist in private practice in Auburn, Alabama. She holds a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution. Dr. Sharma has worked for over thirty years as an advocate for patients and clinicians through local, state, and national medical organizations. Her husband, also a physician, and children, chemical engineer/bartender and third-year law student, have been her greatest sources of support. Dr. Sharma continues her work in health policy, health equity, advocacy and conflict management and is passionate in her pursuit of peace, equity, and quality for her patients, colleagues, and the entire house of medicine. Let’s Connect: 🌎 Connect With Me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajamalliga-sharma-md-ma-6a1b6731/) Want to Share Your Story? Your experience matters. We’d love to hear how you’ve navigated the conflicts of medicine. Reach out to join a future episode: scalpelandsword@gmail.com The Scalpel and Sword Podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or professional advice. Always consult a qualified professional regarding your specific situation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com (https://pcm.adswizz.com) for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Are We Medicalizing the Human Experience? with Dr. Roger McFillin
On this episode of Vitality Radio, Jared and Jen sit down with clinical psychologist Dr. Roger McFillin for a challenging conversation about psychiatric diagnosis, mental health medications, and the medicalization of normal human struggle. Jen shares her experience of being prescribed Prozac at age 13 and spending decades living under diagnoses that shaped how she saw herself. Dr. McFillin explains why he has become an outspoken critic of his own profession and questions how conditions such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and ADHD are diagnosed. They discuss the DSM, informed consent, psychiatric medications, emotional suppression, personal agency, and the powerful effect a diagnosis can have on identity. This conversation asks an important question: Are we helping people understand why they are struggling, or simply giving their struggles a name?
Trillions of Exosomes? Everybody Lies, Nobody Knows
There's no sheriff in town. Exosome manufacturers self-report particle counts with no independent verification, no universal standard, and no regulatory oversight — meaning claims like "twice as many exosomes for half the price" can't actually be checked. Identity isn't content. Markers like CD9/63/81 confirm a vesicle is an exosome, but not what's inside it. Without breaking vesicles open for RNA/proteomic analysis (an expensive step most companies skip), you're buying a sealed "bubble" and trusting the label. Bigger numbers often mean smaller reality. Diluting a product inflates particle counts on paper while reducing true exosome concentration — a dynamic Dr. Park says pushed even the industry's founding manufacturer to abandon "billions" language in favor of ""trillions"" just to stay competitive.
The Root Cause Hiding Behind One Family’s Alzheimer’s Diagnosis with Nicole Bell
Ask the root cause question, even in the hardest cases. Nicole's husband was handed an early onset Alzheimer's diagnosis and a plan to simply track his decline. Her engineer's instinct to keep asking why is what surfaced the tick borne infections underneath, Lyme along with Bartonella and Babesia. How and where you test matters. Standard tick borne testing missed it at first, and Nicole is candid that detection in this space is still improving. Her point is not that a test guarantees an answer, it is that the wrong test can wrongly close the door. Think vectors, not just ticks. Bartonella can travel through fleas and lice, not only tick bites, so Nicole encourages people to look honestly at their own exposure history, a pet adoption, an infestation, time spent outdoors, before deciding the risk does not apply to
Chemicals Wrecking Your Hormones (You’d Never Suspect)
In this conversation, Jared breaks down: What endocrine-disrupting chemicals actually are and how they hijack your hormonal system at the receptor level The everyday products with the highest EDC exposure — including ones health-conscious people already think they've fixed Why going BPA-free didn't solve the problem — and what replaced it The EDC-thyroid connection: why so many Hashimoto's patients plateau even when their TSH looks fine What declining testosterone has to do with chemical exposure — and why blaming age is missing the point How EDCs disrupt neurotransmitters and drive the brain fog, anxiety, and depression that conventional medicine sends straight to psychiatry What PFAS "forever chemicals" are actually doing inside the body — and whether they can be cleared What your water filter is and isn't removing The three highest-impact changes to reduce your EDC load starting today If you've been told your labs are normal but you still feel terrible, or you've been doing everything right and still not improving — this is the conversation that might explain why.
Medical Video Games: How Game Design Is Training Doctors Faster
Discover how video game mechanics can help doctors develop mental models for rare cases, complex procedures, and high-pressure decisions. Understand why frustration, reward, challenge, and dopamine are not just entertainment tools, but learning tools that can improve medical training. Learn how game-based education can support patients too, from type 1 diabetes management to behavior change and digital therapeutics.