Insurance obstacles to care, sugar vs. substitutes, measles vaccines, diet and exercise strategies, and cutting-edge breakthroughs in cancer treatment

KSQD 5-01-2024: This week's show explores how healthcare systems can inflict "moral injury" on dedicated doctors. We examine instances where factors like insurance company prior authorizations prevent optimal patient care and discuss related research.

Dr. Dawn explores sweetness perception, reviewing a new study on how our bodies detect both natural sugars and substitutes like xylitol and stevia. We learn how substitutes can provide sweetness without insulin spikes and subsequent appetite increases.

We discuss the critical importance of measles vaccination, the challenges of maintaining live virus vaccine potency, and a promising new vaccine technology undergoing trials.

A new study investigates the potential benefits of combining time-restricted eating with high-intensity exercise. Although all participants lost weight, the combined approach led to gains in lean body mass.

Finally, we survey several exciting advances in cancer research. Dr. Dawn explores improvements in cancer cell targeting, the statistics of liquid biopsies for cancer detection, and a groundbreaking drug that halts aggressive breast cancer growth. We also investigate a new mRNA-based treatment that stimulates cancer cell death specifically within the tumor environment.