Episodes

Review of Chapter 1 of Beyond Behaviors by Mona Delahooke, PhD  "When we see a behavior that is problematic or confusing, the first question we should ask isn't "How do we get rid of it?" but rather "What is this telling us about the child?" (MD 2019)  The opening chapter sets the stage for a quiet revolution in how we understand children who struggle. Dr. Mona Delahooke invites us to take a step back from the culturally and medically ingrained belief that children’s outward actions are reliab...

Food in Infancy What do we know? "Humans are the only mammals who feed our young special complementary foods before weaning and we are the only primates that wean our young before they can forage independently. There appears to be a sensitive period in the first several months of life when infants readily accept a wide variety of tastes and this period overlaps with a critical window for oral tolerance. As a result, infants should be exposed to a wide variety of flavors while mother is pregnant,...

This weeks Guest is Dr. Jeremy Goldberg. He styles himself as a compassion cultivating day making change agent/empathy collecting not quitting word wizard/chief burrito appreciator aspiring to inspire/struggle overcoming ranter in charge/ferocious idealist/never giver upper/a love bombing kindness pirate. What he really does, in my mind, is write and teach the world to project love and kindness where it is not layered enough. On his website he writes: My mission is to make kindness cool, empathy...

THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS Every year, as the leaves turn and the air gets that crisp bite, I’m pulled back to 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts where a group of English Pilgrims, religious refugees who had crossed an ocean to breathe free, and their Wampanoag neighbors sat down together for three days of feasting. No treaties, no agendas, just gratitude for a successful harvest and the simple miracle that two very different peoples could share a meal in peace. Food and friendship. That was the entire ...

The Evolutionary Tug-of-War - Inflammation’s Double-Edged Sword "Environmental factors, particularly infections, have fundamentally shaped human evolution by selecting for protective inflammatory response mechanisms that enhance survival. This evolutionary pressure has created a core biological paradox: inflammation is indispensable for host defense, yet its dysregulation significantly heightens disease and mortality risk. This fundamental tension raises three fundamental questions about human a...

Today’s conversation takes us upstream—to the source—of one of the most pressing and emotionally charged topics in modern pediatrics: the rise in autism spectrum disorders. Autism rates have continued to climb in 2025, but what if much of what we call “the epidemic” isn’t simply genetics or better diagnosis, but a reflection of deeper biological, environmental, and developmental changes affecting the human organism before birth? To explore this critical question, I’m joined by three extraordinar...

Back to Sleep and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is defined as “the sudden death of an infant under one year of age which remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation, including a complete autopsy, examination of the death scene, and review of the clinical history.” During my time at the University of Virginia, I trained under neonatologist Dr. John Kattwinkel, a champion for newborn health and one of the leading figures in shaping national saf...

Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast, we welcome Dr. Wayne Koontz, a founding partner at Salisbury Pediatric Associates in Salisbury North Carolina, where he has spent over 5 decades caring for generations of families with compassion, wisdom, and a deep commitment to community health. Dr. Koontz earned his Undergraduate degree and his Doctor of Medicine from Wake Forest University, where his early love of science and service began to take shape. He went on to complete his pediatric ...

Speaking Truth in Love: The Weight of Avoidance in Pediatric Metabolic Health After completing the second round of our Asthma and Obesity Metabolic Pilot Program at Salisbury Pediatrics, I left the clinic reflecting deeply on what I witnessed. It crystallized a truth that is uncomfortable but undeniable: the greatest health threats to our children today are not infectious or accidental, they are metabolic. Diseases once reserved for adulthood: insulin resistance, fatty liver, hypertension, early...

Review Part III - after the Attia Podcast After completing the interview with Dr. William Parker and now listening to Peter Attia's analysis, let us look again at this question. I repeat that the initial question has not changed for me. The first and most fundamental question to ask is this: What is the true value of acetaminophen in health compared with the potential risk if the associated findings are indeed correct? My response to this question has been altered by the analysis so far. I love ...

Welcome to Dr. M’s Women & Children First Podcast, where we engage with pioneering voices at the intersection of science, healthcare, and the well-being of families. Today on Dr. M’s Women and Children First, we welcome Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, a physician, educator, and thought leader whose career has profoundly influenced the practice of integrative pediatrics. Dr. Mumper earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Bridgewater College, graduating magna cum laude, before attending the Virginia Comm...

Flu season is around the corner and we should take a look at the virus for preparation purposes. Influenza Every few years, I revisit this virus in my writing, not only to keep it on your radar in preparation, but also because of the significant illness and death it continues to cause. It’s never wise to dismiss its potential impact. Influenza reliably returns each year, difficult to escape even with strict isolation. The flu is different from the common cold in many ways as the flu has: 1) Rapi...

Welcome to Dr. M’s Women & Children First Podcast, where we engage with pioneering voices at the intersection of science, healthcare, and the well-being of families. Today, I’m honored to introduce Dr. William Parker, PhD. Dr. Parker is perhaps best known for discovering the function of the human appendix, but his contributions to science extend far beyond that single discovery. He studied biology and chemistry as an undergraduate before earning his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Nebras...

For parents of special needs children, I honor you today. I witness your strength every day in clinic. You rise to meet challenges that many cannot begin to imagine, truly. You navigate medical appointments, therapy sessions, school meetings, and the unpredictable rhythms that come with raising a child with special needs. Often without pause, without adequate rest, and without the recognition you deserve. For those single parents carrying this day to day reality, a double level of gratitude for ...

Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women & Children First, where we explore the front lines of children’s health and what matters most for our families. Today I’m honored to bring you Dr. Paul A. Offit, the Director of the Vaccine Education Center and Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He also holds the Maurice R. Hilleman Professorship of Vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Offit is a globally recognized expert in virology ...

Breastmilk is Dynamic Cellular and transcriptional diversity over the course of human lactation This recent 2022 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Dr. Nyqiust and colleagues is a site for sore eyes. It offers a remarkable, high-resolution portrait of how the cellular landscape of human breast milk (hBM) shifts over time. The authors capture something both scientifically rich and uniquely human: the dynamic, living composition of milk as it adapts to the changing nee...

Welcome back to Dr. M’s Women and Children First podcast where we look at the world of Women and Children's Health through an anthropological lens with the humble understanding that we have a lot to learn. Today, I’m joined by Dr. Joel “Dr. Gator” Warsh, a pediatrician, author, and advocate for a whole-child approach to healthcare. Dr. Warsh earned his medical degree from Thomas Jefferson Medical College and completed his pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Along the way, ...

Inflammaging from a Population View In a landmark study published in Nature Aging on July 7, 2025, researchers challenge a cornerstone of modern gerontology by showing that inflammaging, chronic, age-associated low-grade inflammation, is not universal across all human populations. The abstract states the following: "Inflammaging, an age-associated increase in chronic inflammation, is considered a hallmark of aging. However, there is no consensus approach to measuring inflammaging based on circul...

A Rooted Approach to Modern Medicine: The Vision Forward My emerging and chronically iterating philosophy of medicine is a rising structural entity rooted between ancient healing wisdom and modern scientific insight. It is layered with root cause immunometabolomic thinking and built upon anthropological foundations. As a pediatrician, educator, and onion peeling thinker, I believe that a medical approach grounded in compassion, prevention, and the pursuit of root causes is the way forward. Medic...

Today’s guest is Dr. Sanjay Bhojraj, a powerful voice at the crossroads of advanced interventional cardiology and root-cause wellness. Dr. Bhojraj is board-certified in Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology, and one of only a small number of interventional cardiologists in the United States who is also certified in Functional Medicine through the Institute for Functional Medicine. Dr. Bhojraj earned his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine, trained in interna...

Systemic Maternal Inflammation and Neurodevelopment: The Role of IL-6 and IFN-γ in Autism Spectrum Disorder I just returned from Estes Park, Colorado where I presented a lecture on the Growing Brain/Mind - a tour through the underpinnings of childhood neurological changes that we call Autism. The timing is perfect for this article to be written. In an era when chronic disease in children is rising at an unprecedented pace, the search for root causes must include an honest inquiry into the condit...

Today, we explore the intersections of cutting-edge science, compassionate care, and the future of pediatric and maternal health with Dr. Melinda Elliott, MD, FAAP, a leading neonatologist and the Chief Medical Officer at Prolacta Bioscience. Dr. Elliott has dedicated her career to advancing the care of our most vulnerable patients, premature and medically fragile infants, through both clinical excellence and research-driven innovation. Dr. Elliott earned her medical degree from West Virginia Un...

As I have told many of my patients, I would write immediately when NC sees its first Measles case. Well, North Carolina has its first measles case: The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed a case of measles in a child who was visiting Forsyth and Guilford counties. The child became ill while traveling to NC from another country where measles outbreaks have recently been reported. To protect the individual and their family’s privacy, no additional information about...

Literature Review 1) An exciting phase three trial with the CETP inhibitor Obicetrapib has shown serious promise for ASCVD and Alzheimer's Disease (AD). "In BROADWAY, a pre-specified AD sub-study was designed to assess plasma AD biomarkers in patients enrolled in the BROADWAY trial and evaluated the effects of longer duration of therapy (12 months) with a prespecified population of ApoE3/4 or 4/4 carriers. The sub-study included 1727 patients, including 367 ApoE4 carriers. The primary outcome me...