How to find a receptive doctor for a specific disease?
I'm a patient who has JAK2-V617F induced Polycythemia Vera. After your recent podcast on cancer therapeutics, I learned that there's research showing JAK2-V617F is also a PD-L1 promoter and that PD-L1 is implicated in both the spread of JAK2-V617F positive cells as well as transformation to leukemia and myelofibrosis. I forwarded my findings to my hematologist, however she was unwilling to really brainstorm ways to go about investigating PD-L1 expression or pursuing PD-1 inhibitor therapy. I wanted to know if you have recommendations on either how to have this conversation with my doctor or find doctors who are more open to discussing topics like this? Sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9152999/pdf/advancesADV2021005491.pdf; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6034655/pdf/nihms977911.pdf
Preserving kidney function vs high protein diets
You convinced me that it is super important to preserve our kidney function, especially given its natural degradation as we age. But isn't this at odds with your recommendations for a high protein diet to support muscle growth? In #276, you try to allay concerns about high protein diets by observing that there isn't any appreciable mortality impact due to high protein intake for people under 50. I can appreciate that high protein diets are not causing people to drop dead before age 50, but aren't people risking a loss of kidney function that will come back to bite them later?
SPREN Body composition
Spren (www.spren.com) offers a body composition app that claims a photo from your smart phone can generate a body composition analysis that is comparable to DEXA. Do you have an opinion on how comparable Spren is to DEXA? And if there is measurement error, how far off might it be compared to DEXA?
Nutritional Sensitivity Testing
Hello, I have seen a lot of functional medicine practitioners pushing food sensitivity testing and using that to prescribe diet substitutions. What is the current reliability and validity of these tests. I know 4-5 years ago these were biased to the foods that were recently eaten, have they improved? Also, are there specific testing protocols as a patient that we should look for?
HRT and dementia
The product insert for Estradiol transdermal system/patch says "do not use estrogens with progestogens to prevent heart disease, heart attached, strokes or dementia." Several podcasts have talked about estrogen and progestrone helping to lower the risk of dementia. Which is it?