Roy Benaroch
21) The Skeptic’s Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media: Episode 12,Is It Really OK to Stop Flossing?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
You might have seen a headline recently stating that flossing your teeth is a complete waste of time, or might have read that new guidelines mean your blood pressure might be high. But did you also read that many doctors do not agree with those changes? Probably not. Learn why health recommendations can suddenly change and how to determine if those changes apply to you.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Meet Sammi, an infant girl who's brought to the emergency room and suddenly starts shaking right on the examining table. How do doctors act to both help her and diagnose her as the attack happens? And what are the mysterious connections between the underlying diagnosis and a critical deficiency?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Meet a surly young man who could just be your typical teenager - or who could be suffering from an illness that's a severe threat to young adults. His story is a fascinating window into how doctors sort through myriad symptoms to diagnose and alleviate a highly prevalent - and all too serious - medical problem.
24) The Skeptic’s Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media: Episode 4,Is It Time for Medical Marijuana?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
By examining our changing perceptions of marijuana's safety and usefulness, you’ll learn how different stakeholders can affect media coverage, drive social change, and influence legislation. Given that the medical use of cannabis in the United States has not been driven by well-designed scientific studies, how can we best interpret news reports addressing its efficacy and safety?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
This lecture's diagnosis is surrounded by controversy about what causes this specific illness, how it should be treated, and even how common it is. In exploring how doctors approach it, you'll learn insights into childhood development; specifically, how to know when something may be wrong and what tests can help narrow down a cause.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
While the media has played an important role in educating the public about hygiene and the avoidance of disease, it has also been known to spread false rumors resulting in very real health consequences. Learn what the media got right and wrong in covering the recent outbreaks of Ebola and influenza, and why we shouldn’t be skimming headlines.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Step inside a university's student health center, where your patient, Elena, makes repeated visits complaining of nausea, then vision troubles, then a urinary tract infection. What's going on here? Investigate how seasoned doctors act like Sherlock Holmes to arrive at a diagnosis of a disease that predominantly affects young adults.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
What happens to billions of neurons when the gelatinous brain slams into the side of the hard skull? While the media has focused some attention on high-profile cases of concussion and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, learn how selective reporting can lull us into believing an issue has been adequately addressed when that is far from the truth.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Opioids had been around for a century before exploding into the crisis we have today. But the cause of the current crisis is not as simple as the story we often hear: greedy drug companies pushing greedy doctors to overprescribe. Learn what the most common cause of opioid death is today, and the role the media can play with respect to educating families and creating pressure for policy change.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Discover how to best address the common cold. What’s your best choice: Echinacea, good old chicken soup, vitamin C, vitamin D, or zinc? Will any of these options cure the cold or get rid of it faster than a placebo? You’ll find your answer by remembering that good journalism provides an honest headline followed immediately by solid facts and an accurate summary of the appropriate studies.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
You're at the grocery and the person next to you suddenly collapses. What do you do? Here, learn how doctors (and laypeople) can use basic lifesaving steps to deal with a sudden catastrophe. Also, explore the methods physicians use to prevent health emergencies before they happen.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
From “superfood” to “pink slime” to acai, the media exerts a powerful effect on our concepts of food, diet, and health. Learn how to differentiate between nutrition-related scientific statements and marketing statements. When does the desire to eat whole, healthy foods become an unhealthy obsession? What role does the media play in influencing those choices?
33) The Skeptic’s Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media: Episode 18,Heath Risks in Our Environment
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Does your cell phone increase your risk for cancer? Does it really matter whether or not you use your seatbelt? Learn how to examine the research that supports (or doesn’t) the “risk” headlines to then make appropriate choices for you and your family. Exaggerating a risk might make for good “clickbait,” but it can lead to unnecessary fears and poor decision-making.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
How does a doctor get from the common complaint of constipation to a diagnosis of something much more dangerous? In solving this medical riddle, you'll learn about a particular medical epidemic so powerful and prevalent that, in one county in Kentucky, it's deprived many children of their parents.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
For decades, the pharmaceutical industry and the press praised hormone replacement therapy as a panacea for menopausal symptoms and women’s long-term health. But that all came to a screeching halt in 2002. Discover what the scientific studies that caused this sudden turnaround really said. And are men falling prey today to the same marketing tactics regarding testosterone?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Using the example of genetic effects on obesity, you’ll discover how two antithetical headlines can result from the same scientific report. These overblown and overly simplistic headlines might attract readers, but they can muddy the waters of these complicated issues and even make readers skeptical of science itself.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
In 24 fascinating episodes, Dr. Roy Benaroch of Emory University’s School of Medicine shows you how to recognize good reporting that provides accurate, well-sourced health information and bad reporting that’s incomplete at best and purposely misleading at worst. You’ll get answers to medical questions that take you past the headlines and beyond the way health news is typically reported.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
At 55 years of age and quite overweight, Joe falls asleep all the time. Is it narcolepsy? Is it kidney disease? The real culprit, you'll discover, is a condition originally described by author Charles Dickens; one whose effects are more wide-ranging (and life-threatening) on the human body than you can imagine.
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2020.
Language
English
Description
Why is life expectancy in the United States decreasing and infant mortality so high compared to other industrialized nations? Take a captivating look behind the scenes at the debate between scientists fighting for their individual points of view. Does the media explain the statistics behind their competing theories? If not, who suffers from the oversimplification of a “clickbait” headline?
Publisher
The Great Courses
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Charlene has come into your office for a checkup and it is clear that she's lost a significant amount of weight. Follow along as Dr. Benaroch uses his medical savvy to make a diagnosis, reveal insights into what the real problem is, and establish a course of treatment that goes far beyond just taking pills.