The Scope Radio

One in 20 women will have some kind of uterine abnormality. Most won’t realize they have the condition until there are complications with a pregnancy. On this episode of “The Seven Domains of Women’s Health,” Dr. Kirtly Jones speaks about uterine anomalies: What they are, how they impact women, and available options for treating and living with uterine abnormalities.

A green, four-leaf clover on St. Patrick’s Day is lucky. But when it comes to the human body, turns out the color green isn’t a lucky thing. Dr. Troy Madsen tells us about three things that, if they’re green, it's not a good thing. Can you guess what they are before you listen?

Carri Lyons was only 39 years old when she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. And that wasn’t even her first cancer diagnosis. This is Carri's story about clashing with cancer twice and how her “game on” approach has kept her going. She also talks about how she made the treatment decision she did, her advice for others diagnosed with the disease, and the importance of really knowing yourself in order to ask for the support you need.

With three sets of breast cancer screening guidelines giving conflicting sets of recommendations, it’s no wonder that patients and physicians are confused. A new study shows that adding to the confusion are the guidelines themselves. Senior author Angie Fagerlin, Ph.D. sciences says that more often than not, cancer screening guidelines either leave out important information about the benefits, or harms, of certain recommendations. She talks about what the study reveals about guidelines for many types of cancers, and what’s next. Learn more.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) have very similar symptoms. However, the inflammation that accompanies IBD makes it much more serious, and it’s important to seek treatment if you suspect you have it. Dr. John Valentine takes us through the process that he uses to diagnose IBD. He covers who generally gets it, symptoms, risk factors, the diagnostics he uses to determine if it’s ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, and what to do if you think you have it.

Tooth decay is the most common chronic children’s disease in the country—even more chronic than allergies. Over 40 percent of children will have tooth decay before kindergarten. And those who have it are more likely to suffer from cavities in adulthood. Dr. Cindy Gellner tells you how to check for tooth decay and simple ways you can keep your child's teeth strong and healthy.

On this episode of Health Care Insider, we take a look at physician education after medical school. How is it funded and what impacts does it have on patient care? Dr. Brad Poss, the University of Utah’s associate dean of graduate medical education, joins Dr. Kyle Jones to answer these questions and talk about how the university is looking to innovate and improve the system to better service patients.

One in 5,000 women is born without a uterus—a condition called MRKH syndrome—making it impossible to carry a child. This is usually diagnosed during the adolescent years, and Dr. Kirtly Jones says the first sign she looks for is the lack of a period. In this episode, Dr. Jones talks about the different pregnancy options available for a woman born with MRKH, including the new uterine transplant procedure.

Opioid addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to overcome, but a new approach may prove to help patients suffering from dependency. Through mental training, doctors are working to help patients recognize craving behaviors and experience greater pleasure in everyday experiences. Dr. Eric Garland describes how University of Utah psychotherapists are using ‘mindfulness’ techniques to retrain the brain against pain pill addiction.

If one of your fingers gets stuck when you make a fist and it’s accompanied with shooting pain and popping, it might be a condition called trigger finger. And you can get it even if you’ve never shot a gun. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Angela Wang describes the condition, explains who tends to be the most susceptible and discusses the possible treatments.

Stomach ache, headache, dizziness and nausea are all symptoms you might hear from your child on a school day morning. The condition may even get worse as it gets closer to time for school, then miraculously become better on the weekends. It may be school phobia. Dr. Cindy Gellner explains what can cause school-phobic kids to feel sick and the simple method to cure it.

Gender, age, race, ethnicity and socio-economic status all can affect the quality of care a patient receives. For example, African American women have the overall poorest outcomes with breast cancer, regardless of their access to insurance. In this episode, Dr. Ana Marie Lopez explains how quality of health care in America can vary across demographics and what can be done to insure physicians provide quality health care for everyone.

It’s not something most pregnant women want to plan for when preparing for their new baby to be born: complications. Knowing what to expect when a complication occurs is crucial to a safe labor and delivery for both mom and baby. Janet Fisher, labor and delivery nurse educator, talks to Dr. Kirtly Jones about the conversations every pregnant woman should have with her clinician before the due date, and how to be flexible when not all goes according to plan.

It may be unsettling to realize, but roughly eight percent of our DNA is viral in origin, meaning it came from infections our ancestors battled long ago. New research published in the journal Science by University of Utah geneticists Cédric Feschotte, Ph.D., Nels Elde, Ph.D., and Edward Chuong, Ph.D., looks at how our bodies have repurposed the viral remnants to defend ourselves against infections by viruses and other pathogens. Feschotte and Chuong explain the research and why our defenses, and those of other mammalian species, may have arrived upon this solution repeatedly throughout evolution.

Surgery has been shown to be a very effective treatment for curing lung cancer patients with localized, non-small cell lung cancer. Even though it is the most common type of lung cancer—affecting 85 percent of patients—surgery is only effective if done early in treatment. Dr. Thomas Varghese, thoracic surgeon, speaks in this episode about how surgery, along with early screening and optimizing patient health habits, can go a long way to cure lung cancer.