Fit As A Fiddle – Details, episodes & analysis

Let’s get political folks! As mental health overall has gotten more attention in the media over the last 4 years, so has the very important topic of PMADs, or Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. After the latest CDC findings on the alarming maternal mortality rate, many facets of government are starting to pay attention to mothers and birthing individuals and the toll that pregnancy and child-rearing can take on their mental health.

Today, we have a returning guest on the show, Paige Bellenbaum, LCSW. Paige is the Founding Director and Chief External Relations Officer at The Motherhood Center of New York. She discusses the baby steps that are being taken to protect and elevate mothers in NY and America at large, although she points out that it is just a drop in the ocean of change that is required to truly support mothers in this country. She touches on some new research and statistics that have shockingly helped change the narrative on maternal support. We discuss the highly divisive and high-tension topics surrounding motherhood and child care in America during a very heated election year. 

For 20 years, Paige worked in the non-profit sector, holding senior leadership positions at Hamilton Family Center Homeless Shelter, The Partnership for the Homeless, Habitat for Humanity, and Settlement Housing Fund. She has worked in the field of public policy, advocacy, community organizing and direct practice with disadvantaged communities including homeless families and incarcerated young adults and has held several appointed and elected political positions including the District Leader of Brooklyn’s 52nd Assembly District.

After her first child was born, Paige suffered from severe postpartum depression and anxiety that nearly ended her life. However, once she began to heal, she became committed to fighting for PMAD education, screening, and treatment so that no more women would have to suffer silently. She drafted legislation in New York State championed by State Senator Liz Krueger, mandating hospitals to provide education on PMADs and strongly encouraging screening of all new and expecting mothers. This bill was signed into law in 2014. She has continued to be an outspoken maternal mental health advocate and clinician and uses her story as a tool for change.

Paige works closely with multiple New York City agencies on maternal mental health best practice and policy, including the NYPD, DOHMH’s Maternal Hospital Quality Improvement Network, and the Nurse Family Partnership, and the Administration for Children’s Services.  She was a member of the NYC Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee and currently sits on the NYS Maternal Mental Health Working Group. She has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, NPR, PBS Newshour, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Connect with her at:

themotherhoodcenter.com

Pain is real whether it is felt immediately after a traumatic event or in the absence of apparent tissue damage on imaging. We now know through pain neuroscience research and understanding the biopsychosocial approach to chronic pain that patients’ perceived experiences of pain are unique to them and are entirely valid. 

On the show today, we have Dr. Neel Mehta, MD. He is the Division Chief of the Weill Cornell Pain Management Center and an Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College. He also leads research on Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN).

We chat about the uses, benefits, and side effects of LDN and how it can be used with patients with hypermobility, fibromyalgia, interstitial cystitis, and more. Dr. Mehta discusses how little research has been done on the drug and how he hopes to delve deeper into it to maximize patient outcomes. 

Dr. Mehta also serves as a Co-Director of Och Spine at Weill Cornell Medicine.  He is the Immediate-Past President of the Eastern Pain Association and Secretary of the New York Society of Interventional Pain Physicians. Dr. Mehta completed his fellowship in Interventional Pain Medicine in the Tri-Institutional Pain Medicine Fellowship at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. 

Connect with him and his team:

646-962-7246

weillcornell.org/services/pain-management

@wcmpain

Sometimes the best health practitioners are those that ended up in their field almost out of chance. Today Jeremy Quinby, a craniosacral therapist, chats with us on his interesting journey into integrative health. 

We talk about how manual therapy and movement are key to improving health and the importance of trauma-informed care. He focuses on pediatrics and how he uses his modalities to help children of all ages improve their development. Jeremy dives into the way he listens to his patients and uses his presence to create a space of healing.  

Jeremy Quinby, is the host of Highway to Health Podcast. For more than 25 years, he’s helped improve the health of individuals, families and communities he’s served. He is at the intersection of manual therapies, mental health support, orthopedics, functional movement, pain management, and newborn and pediatric care. He has become known for his ability to build bridges between many fields of care. He is also involved in numerous health-tech and community health projects aimed at improving care coordination and quality referrals. 

With private practices in New York and Minneapolis, his goal is to continue to educate and improve the dialogue about a more integrative approach to care and the development of actionable ways we can improve our state of being. 

Connect with him:

www.jeremyquinbycst.com

www.highwayto.health

You might think that a concussion is just a hit to the head. But it is so much more than that. Doug King, an Emergency Department Clinical Nurse Specialist in New Zealand, has actively studied concussions for years. He discusses what a concussion is and how you don’t need to be hit in the head to have a concussion. He emphasizes how concussions impact athletes in games like rugby and American football and the need for more research on how concussions impact female athletes as well. Doug reveals some of the most common symptoms he sees, some of which start 2-3 days later. Often, athletes are put back on the field and the concussions go under-diagnosed. However, this is extremely detrimental to the athlete’s health as there are several long lasting effects that can even lead to death.

Having served in the Royal New Zealand Navy and the New Zealand Army Nursing corps, Doug retired as a Captain and was awarded the NZOSM, NZGSM(IO) and NZDSM(R) for his service time. Since leaving the military, Doug has dedicated towards advancing himself academically having completed Post Graduate studies in resuscitation and sports medicine as well as two Doctor of Philosophy degrees on Sports Injury Epidemiology and Head impact Biomechanics and Sports Related Concussion. Doug has just submitted his third PhD on women’s rugby union sports injuries and concussion management in women. Doug utilises this research within his primary employment in the Emergency Department enabling this to be implemented on a variety of patients presenting from sports injuries through to domestic violence, child abuse and falls. Doug has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers and is consulted from a variety of agencies on concussion related aspects.

On this week’s episode, I had a lively conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urologist and urogynecologist, on the bladder! This was one of the most fun chats I’ve had regarding pelvic health. She talks about the similarities and differences between urology, gynecology, and urogynecology. Then she goes on to bust myths on bladder health, explaining why each of the points below are NOT true!

1. Drink a lot of water to maintain bladder and kidney health
2. Incontinence is an inevitable part of aging
3. Water helps you lose weight
4. Urine should be clear, not yellow. 
5. Vaginal deliveries are bad for the pelvic floor. C sections are safer.
6. UTIs come from toilet seats and swimming pools.
7. Cranberry juice and pills prevent  urinary tract infections
8. You have to urinate as soon as you get the urge or you will get a uti
9. Hormone replacement therapy is good for bladder and vaginal problems in menopausal women.
10. Women loose interest in sex as they get older.
11. We all wish that we were men because they don’t have these issues. 

Dr. Kavaler is the Medical Director of Total Urology Care of NY and is double board certified in both Urology (men and women) and Uro-Gynecology. Arguably the most recognized and consulted female urologist in New York City, she modestly accepts several Top Doctor awards each year. She is the author of, A Seat on the Aisle, Please! The essential guide to urinary tract problems including urinary tract infections, incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, interstitial cystitis, and menopause. 

Connect with her practice at www.totalurologycare.com

Whether you are a weekend warrior or a professional athlete, there are some basic considerations that will help you optimize your performance on the field or court. This involves more than just training and practicing. In this episode, we have a very special guest, Basu Shanker, the former strength and conditioning coach for the national cricket team of India. He has worked with elite athletes like Virat Kohli to help them take a full-body approach to enhancing performance and wellbeing. Basu talks about how competing in sports helps you learn how to lose in life and still get up to try again. He explains the role of a strength and conditioning coach and how appropriately balancing sleep, nutrition, and supplements can propel someone beyond their current physical limits.

Basu is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach of Royal challengers, the Founder of Primal Patterns, and Former Head Strength and Conditioning Coach of Team India. Check his work out at www.primalpatterns.com and follow him @basushanker.

You think of “physical therapy” and the words itself indicate that PTs must “physically” treat patients. When it isn’t safe to make direct contact due to COVID-19, what happens then? Dr. Rami Said, the Director of the Columbia University Physical Therapy Faculty Practice & Instructor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine at Columbia University, joins us today to discuss the shift that took place within PT academics and his clinical practice.

When New York City shut down in March 2020, PT graduate schools like Columbia University were deeply affected. Students and faculty had to reshape their entire curriculum to optimize learning in the safest way possible. Clinics still needed to treat their patients without compromising their care. Dr. Said dives into the steps his clinical facility and academic department took to overcome these challenges. He emphasizes that telehealth and virtual platforms surprisingly work very well and have given rise to a whole new future within academics and healthcare.

As a Board-Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist, Dr. Said specializes in delivering individualized physical therapy treatment to patients of all ages with a wide range of musculoskeletal, sports, and spine injuries in order to maximize function, improve quality of life, and restore the participation of recreational, functional, or professional activities. As an Instructor of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine for the Doctoral Program in Physical Therapy, he participates in the instruction of Gross Anatomy, Kinesiology, Biomechanics, Orthopedics, and Sports Rehabilitation. His areas of interests include creating a movement-based injury risk profile for athletes of different sports, the utilization of technology to assess biomechanical forces and stress applied to the body during therapeutic exercise, and the delivery of physical therapy education.

Book an appointment with Dr. Said at Columbia University’s Faculty Practice Website.

Right from a physician’s mouth to your ears, join us today to learn more about our bodies and how we can optimize the quality of our lives. Dr. Edward Goldberg, a NYC-based concierge physician with a speciality in internal medicine and gastroenterology, chats with us on a variety of topics regarding overall wellness and preventing morbidity & mortality from some of the most common conditions. 

After working with a wide variety of people in the diverse city of New York, Dr. Goldberg provides us insights on why so many people complain to him about low energy and fatigue. He discusses complications one might experience from self-medicating with over-the-counter medications regularly, what to expect in a good doctor’s visit, the importance of a primary care provider, and more. He breaks down the reversible risk factors for heart disease and what everyone should know about cancer screening to detect and treat early on. He rounds off the show with his experience working during the COVID-19 pandemic in NYC and some of his top tips that everyone can follow. 

Connect with him at www.conciergemdny.com

What does your mouth have to do with your anxiety, sleep quality, food cravings, and cardiovascular disease? Everything! When you tune in to this episode, you will begin to think about your overall health in a way you have never thought before. Dr. Michael Gelb, DDS, MS joins us today with a vibrant evidence-based conversation on airway management and how dysfunctional breathing during sleep can lead to various other issues in our bodies.

He explains how expanding our airways does more than just rid us of pesky headaches, but also improves our mental health, our micro-biome, cardiopulmonary system, and more. He discusses the importance of breastfeeding and introducing solid foods at an early age to help infants naturally improve the width of their airways. This directly improves oxygen saturation and prefrontal cortex development in their brains. Dr. Gelb dives deep into the various types of airway disorders and treatments that he offers through The Gelb Center for children and adults, where he helps hundreds of patients every year.

Dr. Gelb is a world-renowned TMJ and Sleep Specialist with practices in both New York City and White Plains. Dr. Gelb is the co-author of GASP: Airway Health- The Hidden Path to Wellness, and the co-founder of both The Foundation for Airway Health and The American Academy of Physiological Medicine and Dentistry. The Gelb Center was founded over 30 years ago by Dr. Michael Gelb’s father, Dr. Harold Gelb. Since then, Dr. Michael has taken his father’s findings to the next level through his Airway Centric® integrated therapy. He invented the ACG™ Airway Centric® System with the help of ProSomnus Sleep Technologies. The ACG System is the first day and night dental appliance solution that offers an integrated approach to addressing airway issues.

Visit www.gelbcenter.com to book an appointment with Dr. Gelb and start your journey to better health today!

Books referenced in the show:

“Gasp: Airway Health: The Hidden Path to Wellness” : by Howard Hindin and Michael Gelb

“Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art” : by James Nestor

 We go to the doctor for our physical health and our mental health, but what about our BRAIN health? The brain regulates everything in our bodies and the way our mind functions. Dr. Teralyn Sell is a Psychotherapist & Brain Health Expert who chats with us today on the problem in our world with over-medication and negative beliefs that don’t help us thrive.

She discusses how amino acids affect serotonin and dopamine, how exercise and mindset can tackle our stress, and how women tend to be affected disproportionately more than men. She speaks of the controversy in saying that 2020 was not so terrible and encourages everyone to take the good from even the worst of situations. She talks about how medication changes the architecture of our brains and overmedicating women with postpartum depression or children with ADHD needs to be taken seriously.  

Dr. Sell is the co-creator of the world’s first and only mental health and addiction recovery supplement line, Pro Recovery Rx. For over 20 years, Dr. Teralyn has helped career-driven women overwhelmed by anxiety and panic attacks eliminate their symptoms and get off of medication completely using natural approaches that balances brain chemistry while permanently changing behavior. Dr. Teralyn is NOT a believer in throwing a prescription at the problem – which seems to be the blanket “solution” to stress, anxiety and depression in our current society. She encourages a holistic approach to overall wellness, which results in lasting change, a healthier state of being, and a happier you.

Connect with her:
https://twitter.com/DrTeralyn
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoBrFG9gmF6Ghm38bYdq_PA?
https://www.facebook.com/DrTeralyn/
https://www.instagram.com/dr_teralyn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-teralyn-sell-752a2060/