In The Ladies' Room With Dr. Donnica

Pediatrician Jen Trachtenberg, MD – known to her patients and their parents as Dr. Jen – is a nationally renowned parenting expert.  A board-certified pediatrician, she been in private pediatric practice in New York City for over 20 years. She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and mother of three children. You have seen her on television, in your favorite magazines & on websites. . .and now you’re hearing her on your favorite podcast! She has published two parenting books: The Smart Parent's Guide to Getting Your Kids through Check Ups, Illnesses and Accidents (2010), and Good Kids, Bad Habits: The RealAge Guide to Raising Healthy Children (2007) and now her one of a kind, video parenting manual Pediatrician In Your Pocket (2017), which she describes as all the parenting information you need to know from A to Pee.

Secretary David Shulkin MD, a national thought leader on veterans’ health and patient-centered care, was appointed by President Trump as the 9th United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was the only Trump-appointed Cabinet Secretary who was confirmed unanimously by the US Senate; he was the first non-veteran to hold this position; and he was only the 2nd physician ever to serve in this position. Prior to becoming the Secretary of the VA, he was the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health under President Barack Obama.

We’ve heard a lot in the news about the Opioid Epidemic and various half-hearted political efforts to “combat” it. And well we should:  The National Center for Health Statistics estimates there were 68,557 drug overdose deaths in 2018, 47,590 involved opioids, and 31,897 involved synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl and tramadol. To put this in perspective, This is 50% more than all the deaths last year from breast cancer, from gun shot wounds, and from automobile accidents, each of which hover around 40,000 deaths per year. Our next guest is on the front lines doing something radical about it: providing compassionate medical care for people struggling with addiction.

Are you ready for cough, cold & flu season? The most important thing is to get your flu shot.  But beyond that, our guest today, pediatrician Dr. Hana Solomon—the self-proclaimed “Booger Lady”—will give us her best tips for children & the adults who love them about how to handle snotty, runny noses and other cold and flu symptoms.

Are you a migraine sufferer or someone who lives or works with someone who is? Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. households include someone with migraine, and nearly 12% of our population (adults and children) suffers from migraines. Our guest, Jaime Sanders, has suffered from chronic migraines since she was 8 years old. She has channeled her suffering to help others as a dedicated patient advocate and blogger who is known as “The Migraine Diva.”

Did you ever say you felt like you’d been hit by a truck? Well, our next guest actually was. What began as a journal entry on a borrowed laptop during her extended hospital stay, became the best-selling memoir, How to Get Run Over by a Truck. A former stand-up comedian, Katie McKenna is now a professional speaker, life coach and bestselling author, living in Brooklyn. Hear her tell her remarkable story of learning how to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles with resilience, hope, humor and gratitude.

More & more women are clinging to higher & higher heels, often at great risk to their leg & foot health.  Ironically, women seem to care more about how their legs & feet look rather than how they feel or how healthy they are.  More ironically:  in the discussion of the costs of health care, foot problems are a glaringly obviously example of how a little prevention goes a long way.  Not only are sneakers are more comfortable than heels, but they’re safer & healthier. Today, we’re going to talk with Dr. Nancy Yen Shipley, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, about The Hazards of Heels. She is fellowship-trained in sports medicine and arthroscopy of the shoulder and knee. She is also a team physician for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team. She is one of only 6.5% of orthopedic surgeons in the US who are women. Dr. Yen Shipley is passionate about caring for her patients as well as blogging about her path to a medical career, and bone and joint issues. As a mother and a surgeon, she is a mentor

We’ve discussed BrCA genetic mutations before with respect to increasing the risk breast and ovarian cancers in several different episodes In The Ladies’ Room, but we’ve only mentioned in passing that these mutations can also affect men too, particularly regarding raising their risk of prostate cancer. And while only men can be diagnosed with prostate cancer, it also has a deep impact on the lives of the women who love them. So, today we’re going to talk with Wendy Poage, President of Prostate Conditions Education Council (PCEC) about what women (and men) need to know about prostate cancer.

We have had a lot of “firsts” In the Ladies’ Room and today is our first guest to return for her 3rd episode! Whether you’ve heard her before or not, you are going to LOVE Shannon Boodram! Widely known as “Shan Boody”, she is a certified sex educator, dating expert and lifestyle personality. She has been featured in numerous media outlets including “The View,” MTV, Fox News, CNN, The New York Times, Forbes and Time Magazine. But today she really hits the big-time by joining “In The Ladies’ Room” yet again!

In 1989, I wrote an article published in the JAMWA called “The Other Side of the Bedpan” talking about my experiences as a physician having to adjust to the role of being a patient while I underwent major spinal reconstruction surgery. Today, I’m talking with another woman physician, Dr. Sarah Nadeem, who had to adjust to being on the other side of the bedpan.

Before the measles vaccine was available in the US in 1963, there were 3-4 million cases of measles per year causing 400-500 deaths per year, 48,000 hospitalizations, and 1,000 cases of encephalitis. Today’s guest, Dr. Alan Greene, M.D. is “The Dr. Spock of our generation”. He has guided thousands of parents through the perils of pediatrics beyond his private practice in San Francisco, CA with his very popular website, DrGreene.com. He is also the author of 3 parenting books that are my go-to gifts at baby showers: Feeding Baby Greene; Raising Baby Greene; and From First Kicks to First Steps. He is also frequently featured in the media, appearing on shows such as the TODAY Show, Good Morning America, and The Dr. Oz Show.

Today we’re talking about “The Big O”...but before you get too excited, the O stands for osteoarthritis, a very common joint disease that most often affects athletes, and middle-age to elderly people. But stay tuned to the end, because this is one condition where sexual activity may be part of the treatment! My guest, Dr. Alexis Colvin is uniquely qualified to discuss this. She’s an Associate Professor of Sports Medicine at the Mount Sinai Hospital Department of Orthopedic Surgery. She also serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the United States Tennis Association, cares for elite tennis players during the U.S. Open and also is the medical advisor to the U.S. Fed Cup team.

Dr. Jennifer Hunt is Chair of Pathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She has served in a number of different leadership roles both at her institution and nationally, including Chief of Staff for her hospital, an elected member of the Board of Governors for the College of American Pathologists, and President of the Association for Molecular Pathology and President of the College of American Pathologists Foundation. As if all that wasn’t enough to make me feel like a slacker, she has a second distinguished career: she maintains a practice as an Executive Leadership Coach which focuses on current and emerging leaders in healthcare. She runs a very popular leadership development program for women to address the impostor syndrome in medicine called “Unlocking the Authentic Self”.  

Like way too many thousands of Americans, Dr. Jennifer Ashton is a woman who has experienced firsthand the impact of a loved one’s suicide. Unlike most of them, she has a national platform as Chief Medical Correspondent for ABC News from which she’s chosen to speak out broadly about Life After Suicide, which is also the title of her new book.

Today we’re talking about the "F" word: Fibroid. Most American women will develop these benign (non-cancerous) tumors that grow within or attached to the uterus or womb.  One study found that, by age 50, 70 percent of white women and 80 percent of African American women had fibroids. In many cases, they don’t cause significant symptoms, and many women may be unaware they have them. Our guest today is well known by her twitter handle as “The Fibroid Lady”, but she also has distinguished academic medical credentials. Theresa Caridi, MD is an assistant professor in the Division of Vascular and Interventional Radiology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

If you’ve been following our podcast, you know that I feel strongly about gun violence and that I consider it a public health emergency...literally thousands of times worse than the measles outbreak. So today we’re going to talk with Dr. Megan Ranney, an ER physician on the front lines who also has a master’s degree in public health. We’re in the midst of a series, covering this from various perspectives that easily get overlooked in the mainstream media who are busily and justifiably focused on the mass shootings du jour.

It seems that just about every day we hear about another mass shooting in the US.  That’s because there’s nearly 1 per day! Our guest today is Jaclyn Schildkraut PhD. She is the co-author with Glenn Muschert  of the new book: Columbine, 20 Years Later and Beyond.  Jaclyn is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego. This episode—and the subsequent interviews we’re going to do with physicians who treat gunshot wound victims as well as survivors of gunshot wounds—was motivated by the NRA statement chastising physicians to “stay in your lane.” This IS our lane.

Topic: “World Meningitis Day: Have Your Children Been Vaccinated for Meningitis B?” Guests: Patti Wukovits and Alicia Stillman For more information: www.MeningitisBActionProject.org We’ve heard a lot about the measles outbreak recently. This is a travesty on so many levels because measles is a highly contagious but vaccine preventable illnesses that was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000. Today, in support of World Meningitis Day, we’re going to talk about another vaccine preventable illness starting with M: meningitis. Our guests are both meningitis B advocates for the worst possible reason: they each lost a teenaged daughter to the disease, before a meningitis B vaccine was available in the US. While the meningitis conjugated vaccines have been available for 4 other strains of meningitis since 2005 (Menactra ®  and Menveo ® ), the first meningitis vaccine was available since 1978. The meningitis B vaccine, however, only became available in the US in late 2014 (Bexsero ®  and Trumenba ® ).  

We love stories of women who were motivated by their own medical struggles to overcome and to help legions of other people then overcome similar challenges—especially when those pioneers are also women physicians! Our guest today, Dr. Lara Oboler is an interventional cardiologist and the co-founder of MD Concepts, a company which produces a product to support male erectile health. Previously, Dr. Oboler co-founded PregPrep, a nutraceutical company focused on products related pregnancy and conception.   

Dr. Aaron Spitz is a urologist and a leading expert in male sexual health and fertility. His goal is to empower men to live their healthiest lives by giving them the tools and advice they need...but he knows that he can’t fully do that without reaching out to the women in their lives. Not only are women generally the ones who get men to get their butts to the doctor, but we are often the Health Care CEOs of our immediate and extended families.