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10. Karl Friston on Understanding Schizophrenia using the Free Energy Principle

Karl Friston

In this interview, Mitch Belkin and Daniel Belkin speak with Dr. Karl Friston about his proposed free energy principle. They discuss how it applies to various psychiatric and neurological disorders including schizophrenia, depression, autism, and Parkinson’s. They also touch on the disconnection hypothesis of schizophrenia, how theories of schizophrenia have evolved over the last two centuries, and the relationship between schizophrenia and autism.

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Who is Karl Friston?

Dr. Friston is a professor of neuroscience at University College London and an authority on brain imaging. He is the 20th most-cited living scientist with over 260,000 citations for his works. After studying natural sciences at Cambridge, he completed his medical studies at King’s College Hospital in London and worked for 2 years in an inpatient psychiatric facility on the outskirts of Oxford, where treated patients suffering from schizophrenia.

Dr. Friston has developed a number of statistical tools for analyzing data from the brain, including statistical parametric mapping (SPM), voxel-based morphometry (VBM) or dynamic causal modeling (DCM). His mathematical contributions include variational Laplacian procedures and generalized filtering for hierarchical Bayesian model inversion.

References

Scott Alexander – On attempting to Understand Friston’s Free Energy Principle

The Disconnection Hypothesis – Karl Friston

The Free Energy Principle – Karl Friston

 

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Podcast

9. Fructose and Fat Storage: An Evolutionary Perspective with Rick Johnson, MD

Rick Johnson, MD

In this interview, Mitch Belkin and Daniel Belkin speak with Dr. Rick Johnson about fructose and its relationship to fat storage. They discuss uric acid as a cause of kidney inflammation and essential hypertension, how glucose intake can trigger endogenous fructose production, and the relationship between salt and obesity. Finally, they touch on the evolutionary history of uric acid metabolism and the potential role for fructokinase inhibitors in treating metabolic disease. This conversation was recorded on June 24th, 2021.

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Who is Rick Johnson?

Dr. Johnson is a Professor of Nephrology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He is one of the world’s leading experts on fructose. His research focuses on the role of fructose and uric acid in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease. He has over 700 publications, in journals including JAMA and the NEJM. He is also the author of two books for a general audience, The Fat Switch and The Sugar Fix.

References

Books:

1. The Fat Switch

2. The Sugar Fix

 

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8. John Mandrola, MD: Medical Conservatism, Myocarditis, and Physician Advocacy

John Mandrola

In this interview, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin speak with Dr. John Mandrola about a 2019 article he co-authored entitled The Case for Being a Medical Conservative. They discuss concerns about vaccine-induced myocarditis in children, vaccine mandates, and whether the AMA and other physician organizations should take sides on controversial political issues. This conversation with Dr. Mandrola was recorded on July 11th, 2021.

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Who is John Mandrola?

Dr. John Mandrola is a practicing cardiac electrophysiologist and a regular columnist for theheart.org on Medscape. He hosts the fantastic “This Week in Cardiology” podcast and is a blogger at drjohnm.org. He completed his medical training in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Electrophysiology at Indiana University. 

References:

The CAST trial 

RECOVERY Trial

Medscape – Cardiology

Medscape – General Medicine

Blog

Substack

This Week In Cardiology Podcast

Twitter: @drjohnm

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Podcast

7. The Epigenetics of Aging & Dispelling mRNA Vaccine Myths with Yuri Deigin

Yuri Deigin

In this External Medicine Podcast interview, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin speak with Yuri Deigin about aging, which he argues is fundamentally an epigenetic phenomenon. They discuss partial reprogramming using Yamanaka factors, evolutionary explanations of aging, and recent in vivo experiments which suggest that aging is partially reversible. They also touch on mRNA vaccines, specifically to address allegations about the cytotoxicity of the spike protein and concerns about infertility discussed on Bret Weinstein’s Dark Horse Podcast with Steve Kirsch and Robert Malone, MD, recorded on June 11th 2021. This conversation with Yuri Deigin was recorded on June 25th, 2021.

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Who is Yuri Deigin?

Yuri Deigin is a biotech entrepreneur with a background in pharmaceutical development. He received degrees in computer science and mathematics from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Columbia University. He is the CEO of Youthereum Genetics, a company which aims to translate epigenetic rejuvenation therapies to humans. 

Yuri was an early proponent of the SARS-CoV-2 lab leak hypothesis, the idea that the virus may have inadvertently escaped from a lab. In April 2020, he published a detailed genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2. In that article, Yuri discusses the virus’s furin cleavage site, genetic similarities and differences with its closest relative (RaTG13), and the similarities between the virus’s receptor binding motif and that of a pangolin respiratory virus. He also explores the gain-of-function research program at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Unfortunately, we did not have time in this conversation to delve into this hotly debated topic.

References:

Universal methylation age across mammalian species

Partial reprogramming of Progeria mice

David Sinclair paper on restoring vision in mice

Uri Manor Lab spike protein paper 

Large doses of Spike Protein Induce Acute Lung Injury in Mice

Pfizer ADME study (translated from Japanese) 

Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) FAQ re: requirement to report deaths, other serious adverse events

How frequently are side effects reported to VAERS?

More on Yuri:

Medium article on SARS-CoV-2 Origins

Yuri’s twitter: @ydeigin

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Podcast

6. The Case for Medical Education Reform with Bryan Carmody, MD

Bryan Carmody

This conversation with Dr. Bryan Carmody was recorded on June 21st, 2021. In this interview, Daniel Belkin and Mitch Belkin speak with Dr. Carmody about the history of the USMLEs, the value of standardized test scores, and the arms race in the residency admissions process. They touch on conflict of interest in medical education and the rising cost of medical schools among other topics.

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Who is Bryan Carmody?

Dr. Bryan Carmody is a pediatric nephrologist at Eastern Virginia Medical School. He has made a name for himself as a critic of certain aspects of medical education and the residency application process. For years, he has argued that USMLE Step 1 should go pass-fail and that Step 2 CS should be eliminated — both of these events happened in the last year and a half. 

Campbell’s law:

Campbell’s law comes from Donald Campbell, a psychologist and social scientist from the mid-20th century.

In 1976, Campbell wrote: “Achievement tests may well be valuable indicators of general school achievement under conditions of normal teaching aimed at general competence. But when test scores become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways.”

For instance, there are now entire school curricula devoted to improving test scores. This obviously wasn’t the original intention. 

References:

Radiology Journal Article: “Do residency selection factors predict radiology resident performance?” This article finds a fairly modest association between USMLE score and discordance rates between preliminary resident reads of radiologic findings and the final attending interpretation. This was for residents at UPMC. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29239834/

Paul Graham: The podcast references his essay, The Lesson to Unlearn.

More on Dr. Carmody: