The Devastating Effect of Gender Bias in Healthcare - Challenges and Solutions

03/11/20 • 52 min

In episode # 12, we discuss one of the most important issues in the field of medicine - gender bias in healthcare - which has become an epidemic. Women’s diseases are often missed, misdiagnosed or remains a total mystery. There are tremendous knowledge gaps that are filled with hysteria narratives. Women are more likely to be labeled as “difficult”, “hysterical”, and “hypochondriacs” compared to men presenting with the same diseases. This has major negative consequences for both medical practice and the health of women. Join us as we reveal the profound effect of this bias across multiple diseases and their terrifying consequences, and shed light on ways we can help women get the appropriate attention and treatments for various diseases. We hope you enjoy this episode.

In the next episode, we take a deep dive on why women are affected by Alzheimer's disease disproportionally compared to men. We will expand on the relevant research that has been done to date on the subject, and discuss how the female brain is more susceptible due to various environmental and biological factors.

Also, for those of you who are interested in learning more about brain health and the work we’re doing across the country with our NEURO Plan, we recently released a free 14 day program that will help you take the first steps toward transforming your life and optimizing your cognitive health. Visit the link below and check out The NEURO Plan Academy to claim your free copy, and get access to some of our favorite recipes as well.

https://courses.neuroacademy.com/p/14-day-neuro-plan-jump-start

Finally, if you can take a few minutes to leave a review on Apple Podcast app, we would really appreciate it.

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https://courses.neuroacademy.com/p/14-day-neuro-plan-jump-start

Finally, if you can take a few minutes to leave a review on Apple Podcast app, we would really appreciate it.

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Previous Episode

A Transformative Leader Revolutionizing Healthcare - Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

In this episode, we sat down with Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams, a dynamic leader and a luminary who is changing healthcare as we know it. He previously served three terms in the New York State Senate and 22 years in the New York City Police Department. In 2016, after a series of painful symptoms and visual problems, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. He soon learned about the profound effect of food on his health and adopted a whole food, plant-based diet and successfully reversed his diabetes. Since then, he has been a vocal proponent of a plant-based diet and has encouraged all Brooklynites to eat healthier. He has launched multiple initiatives to provide resources to the community regarding healthy nutrition, and also hosts various events at the Brooklyn Borough Hall to educate citizens on different health topics. He has also prompted the City Council to pass a resolution called "Ban the Baloney," which aims for schools across the city to stop serving processed meats to school kids, based on a 2015 World Health Organization report that labeled these products as Group 1 carcinogens, increasing the risk of diabetes, multiple cancers, and respiratory illnesses. He has also been an avid supporter of "Meatless Mondays" in public schools. He’s dedicating much of his efforts to empowering the community with new models of health.

Our entire life has been focused on evidence-based research and translating it to the population, which we believe is the missing link - the translation of preventive medicine to populations in modern medicine. And that is what inspires us so much about Eric’s work, who is making Brooklyn a role model city for other cities in the US. Learn more about his initiative by visiting this link:

https://www.brooklyn-usa.org/eric-adams-bio/

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Next Episode

On the Front Line of The Battle with COVID19 - with Dr. Shinkai Hakimi

The date is March 23, 2020. At the time of recording this episode, and in the last week, our world and the way we have known it has turned upside down. Today, we‘re talking about corona virus, or COVID-19 with with our dear fried and colleague, Dr. Shinkai Hakimi who is a pulmonary critical care doctor in Monterey Bay, CA. She has special interest in public health, has worked extensively towards healthcare for refugees, and is one of the most knowledgeable physicians we know. She is on the front lines and knows first hand the trajectory of the disease here and in other countries and how it is evolving.

Currently, in the US, we have about 42,700 identified cases with 541 deaths. Compare this number to last week when there were 4,400 cases and 75 deaths, and a week before that, it was 566 cases with 22 deaths.

This looks as ominous as what happened in china, when the numbers of infected cases went from 549 in January to more than 80,000 cases by the beginning of March. In Italy the onslaught started with 155 cases at the end of February, with a few deaths to more than 59,000 cases today with up to 5,476 deaths and its rising at an exponential rate. This is not necessarily the case in all countries. In Singapore and in South Korea, the pattern was very different, and it’s attributed to early measures such as screening for people with fever or flu-like symptoms, banning large gatherings, directing people to work from home, and encouraging social distancing, and after 6 weeks, they were able to curb the spread of this virus.

There is evidence that our response - how quickly and extensively we institute public health measures could mean the difference between minimal additions to uncontrollable spread of this disease.

We are already late both at the community and national levels. The U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous classified warnings in January and February this year about the global danger posed by the coronavirus, yet we didn’t start taking this virus seriously until mid February. But even then, it was only talk and some mediocre local measures, but no major movement to mobilize tools and equipment for patients and health care workers, and no decisive preventive measures at the community level. But what is missed in all of this is what will possibly happen to our first line of defense - the health care community.

We hope you enjoy the conversation.

We would love 4 action items from all of you:

Follow the public health recommendations from CDC and WHO, which strongly suggest social distancing, and universal hygiene measures like hand washing.
Don’t go to the emergency room or urgent clinics for menial procedures or visits as they are already overwhelmed. And
Please contact your local and national policy makers to get them to support what ever measure needed to get personal protection equipment for healthcare providers.
Please share this information with your loved ones.

We hope you enjoy this conversation. If you liked it, please give us a review on Apple Podcast, and please share with friends so we can get the message of health, brain health and hope to a larger audience.

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