The Scope Radio

You’ve been watching what you eat, but yet a month later your weight is the same. What’s going on? We ask endocrinologist Dr. Dev Abraham from the University of Utah Diabetes Clinic if it could be a thyroid issue.

The Zika virus has a possible link to birth defects, specifically, microcephaly, when pregnant women are infected. Microcephaly is a rare condition in which babies are born with very small brains, blindness and deafness. This virus is spread rapidly by mosquito bites. We don’t have a vaccine or treatment for it. Luckily, though, for those living in colder areas, the type of mosquito that spreads the virus prefers warm and humid environments like Africa, Asia and Central America. Dr. Kirtly Jones recaps what we know and don’t know about the Zika virus, including possible symptoms and your chances of getting it. For travel information concerning the Zika virus, visit the CDC’s website.

Most people know the dangers of smoking cigarettes and getting lung cancer, but did you know that, just like nicotine cigarettes, e-cigarettes, are bad for your heart and can cause heart attacks? Cardiologist Dr. John Ryan talks about what they do to your heart and why e-cigarettes should really scare you.

Many times the decision to use hospice care comes too late in the process to really get the benefits from it, according to clinical psychologist Dr. Lee Ellington. Her research wants to find out how a hospice team can provide better care for the at-home caregiver. By recording the conversations that happen in the home between the hospice team, patients and caregivers, she’s gained insights about how people can better use hospice services and better handle the challenge of the final stages of a loved one’s life.

It’s a common question many people have when they find out they need surgery because of colorectal cancer: Will I need a colostomy bag? Dr. Tom Miller asks specialist Dr. Molly Gross how she answers this question and, if they have to, how she helps patients come to terms with it.

If your child’s cold has been hanging around for more than three to four weeks, it might not be a common cold at all. Your child might actually have an allergy in disguise. Winter allergies are just as common as allergies in other seasons. The symptoms can be very similar, but there are differences. In this episode Dr. Cindy Gellner tells you what those differences are.

If you were in charge of the U.S. health care budget, how would you get spending under control? Turns out there are a lot of factors in play beyond economics, including our culture and lifestyles. In this episode of “Help Me Understand Health Care,” Dr. Kyle Bradford Jones asks professor of economics Dr. Norm Waitzman this very question: How can we reduce health care spending and what are the challenges facing us?

Your heart pumps about 100,000 times a day. It pushes your blood around 12,000 miles a day. So what do you need to know to take care of it? There are seven main features you need to consider: smoking status, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, sugar level, diet and physical activity. Medical Director of Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation Dr. Lillian Khor talks to Dr. Kirtly Jones about which of the seven she considers to be most important, easiest and hardest to control, and also gives tips and suggestions to achieve your ideal heart health. To check your heart health status online, take the American Heart Associations’ My Life Check assessment

The effects of a stroke reach far beyond the physical health of those who suffer them and can be especially tough for a spouse or other caregiver. Alexandra Terrill is a rehabilitation psychologist and she says strokes put very different pressure on spouces than other diseases do. Stroke neurologist Jennifer Majersik asks her about some of the common challenges faced by spouses and caregivers of stroke victims and what strategies and resources she recommends to overcome them.

You may know someone who has high cholesterol and isn’t taking it seriously. How can you help them better understand how important cholesterol levels are as an indicator of heart attack risk? By listening to this podcast and then sharing it with them. Cardiologist Dr. John Ryan tells us how accurate a predictor cholesterol tests are for heart attacks. He also provides a simple, proven plan to start reducing those numbers immediately.

Some estimates say that as many as half of the scientific discoveries made in certain disciplines cannot be replicated. Irreproducible research is a big problem that could be undermining credibility in science. Tom Parks, Ph.D., vice president for research at the University of Utah, describes factors that have brought us to this point, and steps toward resolving them.

Most people with hand arthritis just live with it. However, there are two types of surgery that can effectively eliminate arthritis pain and improve your quality of life. People suffering from thumb or DIP joint (the last joint on the finger near the nail) arthritis are good candidates for surgical intervention to reduce pain and improve quality of life. Orthopedic surgeon and hand expert Dr. Douglas Hutchinson talks to Dr. Tom Miller about these operations and how effective they are and also tells us what conservative methods you might want to consider first.

Instead of getting a transplant or a mechanical assist device, what if there was a treatment that helped the heart repair itself? There is. It’s called regenerative heart therapy and Dr. Philippe Menasche, a pioneer in the field, has been working on it for the past 20 years. Recently, a patient was treated using this procedure. Dr. Craig Selzman asks Dr. Menasche about his research, how the patient is doing and when regenerative heart therapy will be available to everyone.

From eating healthy diets to preparing the incubator, there are many things women are recommended to do before they get pregnant to have a healthy baby. But it takes two to make a baby, so what about the men? Recent research has shown that genes encoded in men’s sperm can be modifed by the environment in which they were developing, and those modifications may affect the developing child. In this episode, Dr. Kirtly Jones gives insight into some of the things that men can do to prepare for pregnancy.

Cardiology imaging can give doctors crucial information to help them more confidently diagnose a patient and choose the best treatment. Dr. Jeroen Bax is a cardiologist from Holland and the president of the European Society of Cardiology. In this interview, Dr. Josef Stehlik and Dr. Stavros Drakos from University of Utah Health Care ask him about the types of imaging available and ways doctors can best use them to detect and treat heart issues.