Think Neuro

The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. You’ll go deep into the brain and beyond, exploring the neurological processes and structures that control our health, hormones, behaviors, movements, moods, and emotions. You’ll learn about new therapies that are giving hope for sufferers of the most challenging diseases, and you’ll hear about some habits you can develop to keep your brain in good working order for years to come. We’ll show you why patients from around the world are coming to Pacific Neuroscience Institute for novel treatments that are in many instances, available at few other institutions. pacificneuro.org | (310) 582-7640 Think Neuro’s has two co-hosts, Anthony Effinger and Dan Fost. Anthony Effinger is an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered money and finance, with deep forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children. He won the 2022 award for health care journalism from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for his piece on the disproven Covid remedy ivermectin and the anti-vaxx Portland biologist who was its biggest booster. Dan Fost is a veteran journalist who has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post. A former staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, he covers health, science, and technology, making complex subjects accessible to a broad audience. Dan has written extensively for the University of California, San Francisco, one of the nation’s leading health science universities, where he’s reported on leading scientists (including Nobel Prize winners), global health, and biotechnology innovations that have led to the launch of new companies. Dan is the author of “Giants Past and Present,” a book about the San Francisco baseball team. A native of New Jersey and a graduate of Boston University, Dan lives in Marin County, Calif., with his wife. They have one adult son.

Think Neuro is a health podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 314 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 86. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Think Neuro, a health show with 314 episodes published.

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  Episode #78

  78. Revolutionizing Brain Tumor Surgery with Minimally Invasive Techniques with Daniel Kelly, MD

  Aug 19, 202653 min

  The world of brain surgery has changed dramatically over the past generation. Surgeons are able to remove many tumors and other problems from the brain, often using new approaches that have much shorter recovery times and much better long-term outcomes. Many of these surgeries are much less invasive than old methods that saw the need to cut into a patient’s skull. Dr. Daniel Kelly and the team at Pacific Neuroscience Institute have pioneered many of these new approaches, and they’ve published peer-reviewed papers on their work in an effort to spread the word through the field. Dr. Kelly, the CEO and co-founder of PNI, joins us today to talk about some of these papers and what he and the team have found. For more information, visit: pacificneuro.org

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  Think Neuro

  Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS): The All-Important Pre-Operative Phase

  Aug 12, 20266 min

  Walavan Sivakumar, MD, explains how Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) is used at PNI to help patients with brain tumors through the neurosurgical process. ERAS unfolds in three phases, and Dr. Sivakumar details why the preoperative stage plays a key role in setting patients up for success.⁠

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  Think Neuro

  Dopamine Neuron Cell Replacement Therapy for Parkinson's Disease with Melita Petrossian, MD

  Aug 5, 20265 min

  Parkinson's disease begins with the quiet loss of the brain cells that make dopamine, and dopamine is what carries your movement, your mood and the drive that gets you through the day. As those cells disappear, so does everything they were holding up, which is why the disease eventually shows itself in so many different ways at once. For years the central question in Parkinson's research has been whether any of that can be given back, and stem cells offer one of the more hopeful answers, since they can be turned into the very dopamine neurons the brain can no longer make on its own.

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  Episode #77

  77. The Little Gland with a Very Big Job with Garni Barkhoudarian, MD

  Jul 15, 202659 min

  For a tiny organ, the pituitary gland carries outsized responsibilities in the human body. The size of a pea, the so-called “master gland” produces vital hormones that regulate many important bodily functions, including growth, stress, thirst, and even reproductive development. So it only follows that when things go awry with the pituitary gland, the body can suffer many other problems. Dr. Garni Barkhoudarian is a director of the Pacific Pituitary Disorders Center at Pacific Neuroscience Institute and he joins us today to discuss the positive parts—and the pitfalls—of the pituitary gland. Christine, one of Dr. Barkhoudarian’s patients, also joins us to share her story of the long and arduous road to get her pituitary tumor diagnosed—and the happy ending she experienced when Dr. Barkhoudarian finally removed the tumor. For more information, visit: PacificNeuro.org

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  Think Neuro

  Spotlight Replay - Episode 23: Scanning the Eye for Signs of Multiple Sclerosis | Dr. Barbara Giesser and Dr. Howard Krauss

  Jul 1, 202639 min

  July is Healthy Vision Month, and the National Eye Institute—part of the National Institutes of Health—reminds us to take care of our eyes, by eating a healthy diet and exercising, and also by understanding the connection between our vision and other diseases. Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is one of those diseases. Dr. Barbara Giesser, who specializes in treating patients with MS at Pacific Neuroscience Institute, says that often times, a sudden loss of vision is the first indication that a person might have MS. Dr. Howard Krauss, one of the founders of Pacific Neuroscience Institute and a neuro ophthalmologist, notes that 40 percent of the brain’s activity is related to vision—so it makes sense that a disease of the brain like MS would have such a big impact on vision. We’re revisiting this conversation between these two doctors who have partnered in ways that can detect MS very early in the process, and to monitor the optic nerve to see how well MS treatments are working. Let’s listen in!

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