An AI health scribe - what is this? And could Ozempic be a miracle drug?
A look at this week's health headlines that will likely leave you with more questions than answers.
Hello, and happy Thursday, health heroes out there!
After my rant earlier this week, I figured a headline roundup might be in order to provide a nice balance. Rants are just opinions, like the one I posted on Tuesday. People have varying opinions, and I think it’s interesting to hear what people have to say sometimes. But I have to be open to varying opinions while also being able to defend my own. You can see a nice balance of this on my LinkedIn in the comments to my rant post. It’s not about being right or wrong; it’s about being able to communicate and form our opinions - our health philosophy, in a helpful way.
Some articles I have selected here have an element of truth and opinion. Do you know the difference? I’ve created a simple system for sorting health news. (Or any news, for that matter.) When reading these articles, be sure to question everything and be curious! Is there an element of truth to these, even if it seems over-the-top? Or the other way around, is what you’re reading true with an aspect of falsity? Nothing is black and white. Also, ask if this information or article is persuasive or encouraging you to buy and try. Is it trying to empower, scare, make you feel something, or educate you? Or is it simply someone’s opinion? They can all be used to help you think in a new way or entrench you in your current opinion - it just depends.
With that in mind, let’s explore today’s wellness headlines and health discourse.
A CLOSER LOOK
Here are some topics I’ve discovered recently that I think will potentially help us shift our health perspective.
💊 The Venn diagram of our health includes… placebos. What I call ‘the health optimization zone’ — the intersection between lifestyle, medical, and complementary interventions — is covered a little more in-depth in this piece, looking at placebos and their place in care. (As it turns out, a ‘placebo’ isn’t always bad!)
🌺 A remarkable essay on one woman’s journey through her early osteoporosis discovery, which she shares in hopes that “recounting that odyssey, step by step, might be useful for other women with hollowed out bones.” I always enjoy reading about people’s individual health journeys, especially when they’re thoughtful and thorough.
🏥 Zoom is integrating AI technology into its telehealth visits. The virtual scribe will take notes and highlight relevant information, allowing doctors to spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients. Zoom is now used for more than one-third of all telehealth visits, so this new health/AI integration seems to make sense. I’d love to know what you all think of this.
THE LATEST NEWS IN HEALTH…
The latest health information articles contain many opinions but can also provide education and information.
🧘♀️ Striving for the coveted ‘Pilates Body?’ It’s an impossible standard, if you can believe we’re still having this conversation in 2024. For those of you out there who are on TikTok or Instagram and somehow engaged in the ‘Muscle Mommies vs Pilates Princesses’ discourse, remind yourself that GLP-1s and anything else designed to help you ‘quickly and easily’ lose weight requires more thought than you’ve probably given it.
If you’re super into Pilates in 2024 you’re probably also into a lot of wellness-adjacent stuff that Kate Moss circa 2009 was maybe not. Still, I believe many women are choosing to do Pilates over other exercise modalities for reasons that are more regressive than we’d like to admit: We don’t want to look “fat” or “bulky” and are led to believe, by Pilates culture, that Pilates is the exclusive means to achieving the type of body that’s currently upheld as the gold standard for women — slender, yet “toned.”
💉 Beyond weight loss, Ozempic is now being touted as a modern-day cure-all, from its obvious model-thin attributes to curing Alzheimer’s, cancer (!?) and fighting drug and alcohol addiction. Obviously, we know very, very little about the potential help or harm of GLP-1s, and we know that people are benefiting (health-wise and financially) from the miracle-cure gold rush. (I also recommend episode 415: The Shocking Truth About Ozempic (Risks, Benefits, and Dosing) with Tyna Moore, ND, DC, on The Genius Life podcast for another perspective on this drug.)
“The growing list of potential GLP-1 indications suggests the drugs may target the root cause (inflammation, probably) of the most prevalent and costly conditions in the U.S. If even a fraction of the trials now underway pan out, GLP-1s have the potential to reshape health care as we know it.”
THINK LIKE A HEALTH HERO
Empowering and educating topics.
🪻 This essay offers an interesting take on ‘the root cause of all illness’ in our modern, highly concentrated world. It is a valuable reminder that the world we’re living in, even with its helpful, practical, necessary medical interventions, is one of highly concentrated everything, from a medication’s active ingredients to high-fructose corn syrup and social media-driven dopamine fixes.
The Health Navigator Group (my organization) reminds people to think proactively about their health, pay attention to their body’s signs and symptoms, and question everything. In a world where so much is handed to us amid myriad distractions, try to keep an open and attentive mind.
🥑 Need a Supermarket Cheat Sheet? Here’s a great one! Eating well and living well doesn’t have to be complicated. I love resources like these!
In personal news, I’ve been working on a simple, actionable (and free!) guide that can be used as a starting point for solving any health problem. Yes, any health problem—I mean that.
The guide should be available starting next week, and I can’t wait to share it with you!
What’s been on your mind lately in the world of health? Is there a particular problem, concern, or headline catching your eye? I’d love to know, discuss (and debunk!) in the comments.
Have a great autumn weekend, everyone,
Dr. Alice.
A little more about Dr. Alice Burron and The Health Navigator Group:
You can find more about The Health Navigator Group at our website: www.thehealthnavigator.org
On Instagram: @the.health.navigator
And learn more about Dr. Alice Burron at her website: draliceburron.com
Or via her personal Instagram: @dr_burron
You can even connect with her on LinkedIn, if you want to be professional about it. 👓
And if you’re not subscribed to our Substack, what are ya doing? It’s free, and packed full of useful tools to help you on your journey to better, faster healing.