the NUANCE // a community health podcast.

Lisa Patel MD, MESc received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. After college, she worked in Egypt, Brazil, and India on international development projects with community-based organizations and non-profits, focusing on conservation and development efforts. She then obtained her Master's in Environmental Sciences from the Yale School of the Environment and went on to be a Presidential Management Fellow for the Environmental Protection Agency, coordinating the US Government's efforts on clean air and safe drink ing water projects in South Asia in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Realizing the critical and inextricable links between children's health and environmental issues, she obtained her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed her residency in pediatrics at UCSF. She co-founded the Climate and Health task force for AAP-CA1, and sits on the Executive Committee for the AAP's national Council on Environmental Health. She is currently the Executive Director for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and maintains a clinical practice as a pediatric hospitalist caring for newborns, premature infants, and children requiring hospitalization.

Dr. Sasha Hamdani is a Board Certified psychiatrist and ADHD specialist. In addition to her private practice, she has a robust social media following across multiple platforms where she provides accessible and accurate information about ADHD. She has been featured in Forbes, Washington Post, and Cosmopolitan and is currently launching a global mental health campaign through Maybelline. Her first book about self-care and mental health will be released this Winter through Simon and Schuster.

Dr. Steven Lasee is a toxicologist with expertise in risk assessment, chemical fate and transport, exposure, and the Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) chemical group. Dr. Lasee has advised and worked with several state and federal government agencies including the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on projects surrounding PFAS and PFAS contamination. Dr. Lasee has given several presentations on PFAS exposure to the EPA and at national Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry conferences. Dr. Lasee’s focus is on understanding human and environmental exposure to toxicants. This has been accomplished by focusing on exposure and how chemicals move through the environment.

Dr. David Wiss became a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) in 2013 and founded Nutrition in Recovery, a group practice of RDNs specializing in the treatment of eating and substance use disorders. He earned his Ph.D. in Public Health with a minor in Health Psychology from UCLA by investigating links between adverse childhood experiences and mental health outcomes among socially disadvantaged men. Dr. Wiss can be your nutrition and health consultant, functional medicine practitioner, recovery coach, or simply provide psychoeducation related to his areas of expertise. Learn more about the intersection of nutrition and mental health using his new app called Wise Mind Nutrition, and follow him on Instagram @wisemindnutrition

Dr. Marc Milstein, a scientist specializing in brain health, provides actionable tips for a healthier brain. Topics include factors and steps to prevent Alzheimer's, the link between neurological diseases and mental health, debunking misinformation, and the role of gut health in optimal brain health.

Gregory Scott Brown, M.D.,  is a board-certified psychiatrist, a contributing columnist for Men's Health magazine, and an affiliate faculty member at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. His first book, The Self-Healing Mind: An Essential Five-Step Practice for Overcoming Anxiety and Depression, and Revitalizing Your Life was published in June 2022 for Harper Wave. Dr. Brown believes we can work together to fight mental health stigma by having open and honest conversations about mental health. He is an advocate for evidence-based integrative care that includes incorporating exercise, mindfulness, meditation, and nutrition with standard-of-care treatments for mental illness. Dr. Brown completed a fellowship in integrative medicine at the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, specialty training in general psychiatry at the University of Texas Dell Medical School, and received an M.D. from the McGovern Medical School in Houston. Prior to his transition to medicine, Dr. Brown studied music at The Juilliard School in New York. Follow Dr. Brown on social media @gregorysbrownmd. ------ Today, we talk about the state of mental health today and how he has seen it change during his practice. We  talk about the 5 pillars of self care. We discuss the importance of purpose, balance, and contentment. Dr. Brown’s book The Self-Healing Mind is such an important read, giving us tools to help prevent and address our anxiety and depression on a daily basis.

Rob Hopkins is a cofounderTransition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He hosts the wonderful podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘ which invites listeners to send in their “what if” questions and then explores how to make them a reality.   In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Rob is an inspiring speaker, who has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events. His ideas and perspective on imagination are crucial today in order to solve our most pressing issues, like climate change. He is thoughtful, open-minded, and imaginative.  He blogs at transtionnetwork.org and robhopkins.net and tweets at @robintransition. Follow us on TikTok @medicineexplained and IG @medicine.explained. If you want to search our entire library of video explainers - go to our Youtube @MedicineExplained

Christopher Palmer, MD received his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine. He did his internship and psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He is currently the Director of the Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education at McLean Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For the past 25 years, he has been an academic physician with administrative, research, educational, and clinical roles. Dr. Palmer has been involved in psychiatric research for over 23 years. He has served as a research physician in the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory and the Sleep Research Laboratory, both at McLean Hospital, where he worked with teams pursuing wide-ranging research in the areas of addiction and sleep. Most recently, his research interests have turned to the areas of metabolism, metabolic disorders, and their connection to mental disorders. Interestingly, the connections are widespread and span across numerous mental and metabolic disorders. He is focused on combining and understanding epidemiological data, basic science research, and clinical studies in order to better understand what role metabolism plays in mental illness. Link to Dr. Palmer's book: https://www.chrispalmermd.com/

Monica Aggarwal, MD, is a board certified cardiologist and adjunct Associate Professor in the University of Florida’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine where she conducts research on the impact of nutrition in chronic illness. She also serves as the Chief Medical officer of the not-for-profit, 4Roots Farm which is looking at how to improve food quality to improve human health. Dr. Aggarwal’s own path to understanding the impact of nutrition in illness started w/ her own journey, which she will share details about in this podcast. Through learning about the microbiome (gut), its impact on the immune system and the role of nutrition in affecting the gut, she was able to truly heal and became determined to change the face of medicine. Dr. Aggarwal gives talks around the community, country and internationally. She was named a “Next Generation Innovator” by Cardiology Today. She is the author of the book “Body on Fire: How Inflammation Triggers Chronic Illness and the Tools We Have to Fight It,” and Body on Fire Cookbook which provides whole food, healthy recipes to help implement change. This is not medical advice, this is intended for educational purposes only. For full privacy policy, please go to MedicineExplained.org.

Dr. Rose Goldman, MD, MPH is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is the founding Chief of Occupational; Environmental Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, and currently Director of Faculty Affairs for the Department of Medicine. Her career has combined clinical occupational and environmental medicine (focus on toxicology) with public health and education, and has authored numerous publications.