The People's Pharmacy Podcast

In this week’s episode, a functional medicine expert will describe how to adjust your lifestyle to achieve the longest healthiest life possible. Is your biological age greater or less than your chronological age—the one you celebrate with birthday cake? How can you increase your chance of enjoying vibrant good health as you grow older?

Your Longest, Healthiest Life:

The idea that food is a powerful tool to transform our he...

This week, neuro-otologist David Kaylie of Duke Health will help us understand how balance disorders disrupt patients’ lives and what doctors can do to help.

Dr. Kaylie is a neuro-otologist who manages the whole range of disorders of the ear, hearing and balance. He is particularly interested in the impact balance disorders have on patients’ perceptions of their well-being and interactions with the world. Why are balance disorders ...

Pharmacists stand ready to help people review their supplements, herbs and medicines to see if there are potential interactions, redundancies, adverse reactions or other problems. Technically, everyone on Medicare is entitled to a comprehensive medication review annually. Some pharmacists like to conduct that as a “brown bag review,” in which the patient brings in everything they are taking–OTC med, prescription drugs, herbs, vitam...

We are finally emerging from an especially severe flu season. After a few years during and right after the pandemic in which there was relatively little influenza, this year was challenging. Preliminary data from the CDC suggest that between 40 million and 75 million Americans suffered from influenza or flu-like illnesses between October and March. As many as 1.2 million had to be hospitalized. The influenza viruses (there are many...

If your feet don’t feel good, you won’t either. Just imagine stubbing your toe. Ouch, that hurt! But stubbed toes generally recover fairly quickly. Some other common foot problems are likely to cause more long-lasting pain. Some of these may result from participation in sports, such as sprained ankles or stress fractures. What is the best way to handle these injuries so they won’t cause persistent problems?

This week, Dr. Jane Ande...

Of all our senses, the sense of smell often gets short shrift. Aside from Marcel Proust’s evocative description of the link between odor and memory, we don’t think much about smell. Scientists have discovered, however, that much of our social interaction relies on olfaction at a subconscious level. It plays a largely unconscious role in our choice of mates as well as in the timing of sexual acti...

This week, we get in-depth information on Lp(a), the heart risk no one talks about. You have heard of cholesterol, and you may even know what your cholesterol level is. The compound lipoprotein a may be equally dangerous when it is elevated, but you have probably heard very little about it.

While we don’t know if Lp(a) has or perhaps once had some important f...

This week, we dig into the cooking oil controversy. For decades, we’ve heard that we should be using vegetable oils rather than butter, lard or other fats (possibly even olive oil). Oils from corn, soybeans, sunflower or safflower seeds are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Consequently, people consuming them may have lower cholesterol levels than those primarily using saturated fats. But could there be a downside? We hear from ...

This week, Terry and Joe welcome Dr. Andrew Spector to the studio to share his expertise with listeners. Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a relatively common problem that can really wreak havoc on a good night’s sleep. Have you experienced this problem? How do you manage it? 

Restless legs are not usually painful, so pain that keeps a person awake might be due to neuropathy. Another condition that often bothers a bed partner more th...