Businessweek Extra- Vijay Vad (Podcast)

here in New York City. But man, he is a big thinker in many ways, so thoughtful when he approaches problems that so many of us have as athletes or even just as people, like a sore back. Yeah, especially something that a lot of folks are dealing with working from home and just being at a computer or laptop for hours on in check out our conversation. Well, you know, this is sort of one of these historic events, especially when it comes to healthcare. You know, we've been so

focused on chronic diseases. We almost thought we had infectition diseases quote unquote beat but little do we know we didn't. So, you know, COVID it's going to be what I call one of these game changing or altering events and healthcare for a long while to come. So I think telemedicine is taking off. Although I haven't been involved in telemedicine, it's it's really taking off. Um. And I guess if

the new generation likes these new technologies. Um. But I think the negative part is that the patient doctor relationship, you know, sort of the healing touch and the one on one close interaction is definitely gonna suffer, at least in the short term. Yeah, I have to say there is something to that. And I've been in circumstances where doctors just like, wait a minute, let's just stop for a minute, what's going on, and they just pick up

on something, you know, in an office. And I do wonder whether that gets potentially lost for some circumstance in a virtual world. And I do see the benefits of it in terms of the ease and the acts, especially for routine things. But I do wonder, um that you still have to have that face to face relationship. Well, you know, definitely a lot a lot of the stuff I do, especially chronic back pain is such a mind

body issue. The develop a report with a patient online, I think is much more difficult than when you're in person with them seeing them, I do I and there's certain you know what told to pick up clinical pearl

pearls in person. That's what our training has been and and I think that's where the new generation doctors that are just getting trained might have a slight edge on us quote unquote Oldheimer's is that you know, we're so trained to be in the room tactile visual um for clinical diagnosis and patient report, and I think that new

generation might be better at doing that online. And Dr brod when when you think about whether this focus that hopefully many of us have on our health and overall wellness. We were having a conversation earlier in the show with the c of WW International, Mindi Grossman, and she was talking about she sees that in her business that it's not just about weight loss, but but a more holistic approach. Do you see that? First of all, do you see that happening? And second of all, do you see it

lasting well? I think wellness is going to be the next gigantic thing happening in health if you will, you know, and I don't mean formal health care, but I think as technologies improve, as our understanding improves and enhances. The wellness segment is not just here to stay, but the knowledge that we're gaining is going to give people tools sort of take charge of their own wellness. And you know,

the prime example I give is just nutrition. I mean, you know, when I trained in nineteen nineties and medicine, we got fifteen hours on nutrition. And today, finally physicians are woken up saying, hey, we need to pay attention to what people are eating. You know, you are what you eat, and this whole microbiome and what I call prebiotics, which is the type of food that really enhances great

gut flora for great health. We're just at the beginning of this um actively with a huge thing in healthcare and medicine is a wellness segment and it's it's going to be there to stay for the right reasons. Yeah, and why did that takes out? I mean, that's fascinating that there was that little training about it. Why did it take so long for for medicine to come around on that. Well, you know, there are many factors that

influence medical education. You know, there are many industrial influences, pharmaceutical influences, and so you know, you have to in medical training be actively thinking about how I don't get boxed in. Yeah, you know the power of the prescription pad. You know that means highpertension is not just taking out a prescription pad and writing a pill. It's like, look, here are five things you can do on your own that can get real borderline high blood pressure versus giving

your pill. It's so true, you know. I have to say my sister worked as a registered nurse and I'm Royal Stone Catterying and also at MD Anderson and they were doing research specifically looking at nutrition and how that can help a cancer patient with all And this was years ago, but it was considered like why are you

doing that? That sounds like kind of out there. But I do feel like we're realizing maybe you know, UM talked about as we we learn more about the body kind of how it really works and and understanding you know, the significance of truly what we put in there. I mean, you know it's five old sunscript problem. You are what

you eat? No, no kidding. Something that you've been working on I believe is it's a type of medical food that helps with metabolism and basically minimizes the amount of that patients have to rely on drugs, especially like in a leave or other sorts of medicines that we might normally use for things like arthritis. So, uh, tell me how that works and how you came upon it. Well, how I came upon it actually is. You know, life is a personal journey. Actually, my grandmother was prescribed heavy

doses anti inflammatories after just a routine cataract. You know, this is like thirty years ago, and she actually died from a bleeding ulcer m. And you know, forty people die year in our country to this day from reckless anti inflammatory use. Wow. Yeah, and that's not to mention these anti inflappators can cause high blood pressure in cruise, risk of heart disease, kidney damage, especially in diabetics. So

sort of my personal mission. Of course. It took me twenty some years after what happened to my grandmother, you know, medical college inventing things. But I stumbled upon circuman, you know, which is a turmeric extract which is very very hard to absorb. But I was fortunate that I was able to work with a really bright scientific team in Boston who figured out how to get this curricuman into the

bloodstream and into the inflamed tissues. UM and so we did research on it and clinical trials that showed that it held up with an approximate in clinical trials for near threat is. But the other big sort of serendipity was that it reduced something called high sensitive CRP, which is inflammation of the heart vessels so um, which was a total surprise and serendipity along the on the journey of trying to invent things for a better life. Um and it's it's you know, the results have been fun

dominal and hope. It's my hope that we can get decent number of people of anti inflammatories, but that give them options that will do no force, do no harm. Well, so help me with this because I've I've certainly tapped into the Tumerican cocuman, whether it's tease and different supplements. I know some other members of my family have what what's your view on that versus It sounds like the concentration of what you're doing is different. So just help

me out here a little bit. So so you know, I mean, so turmeric itself, there's very little cricuman in turmeric, so you would have to eat first of all, you know it to tend tea spoon tablespoons of it, which is not realistic. UM. And even most of the cricuman today it doesn't absorb well or be there is you know this whole pepper theory, I really haven't bought. You

put a little pepper in there and it absorbs. And there are a lot of manufacturing issues with crick human in general, and some of it is laced with lead, some of it is impure. I mean there. We just haven't had the depth, the federal government and the FDA hasn't had the bread to control this and to make sure you're getting what the bottle says it does. So

this we brought this out as a medical food. So every batch of tested for purity and it comes from an organic turmeric farm in India and is manufactured in Westchester at the FDA facility. UM. And you know that the differences that not only absorbed no bloodstream, but that it has some very high bioactivity, meaning it gets inside and flame tissues. And we know that because it reduces this high sensitive CRP, which should only be reduced by

penetrating those in flame blood vessels in the heart. I do wonder because dayson I talked about this a lot about the medical community. You know, the pharmaceutical industry is so still entrenched, and I do want or that, like what you're doing, there's got to be what seemed to be maybe equally or more productive ways without the negative impact on the human body. And it just feels like we're on the cusp of of getting there. How do

you see it? Yeah, Look, I think our knowledge of food is medicine is enhancing, our knowledge of non drug related therapies is enhancing, and so look, there's so much confusion when it comes to even pharmaceuticals. A lot of generics are impure, and when it comes to supplements, it's like the wild Wild West. I mean their studies done on supplements there, Yeah, they're they're very impurity, from zero percent to n Yeah. I have to say that that's an airy Jason, you and I have talked about this

in air. I I do agree with you that it's the wild wild West. There's no oversight of it, and it's a huge industry. Aste is um So only about a minute left here. Dr D tell us briefly about carbo plastic. I'm fascinated by this, especially because I know a lot of people who have had to get their knees replaced after years and years of running. So you know, I have a lot of technology companies. My wife thinks I've caught lightning and a bottle on this one, so um,

which is saying a lot. So basically we're not even in the joint when we're treating the ar threatis so carbro plastic. To me, it goes where the crime is where the cartilage and the bone meat. And the theories that the lack of blood supply from the bone to the cartilage gets where of the you know, gets the cartilage just start getting sluff sluffed off, which is by definition,

our threatis loss of cartilage. And we basically takes themselves from your body and we deliver them too, whether cartilage and the bone meat. It's almost like we're getting fertilizer to the cartilage to get it to repair and the

pain to go away. And that's Dr j Vard sports medicine specialists at the Hospital for Special Surgery, And I got to say the things that they are working on he is working on specifically in terms of really understanding the body, whether it's what we eat and what goes into it, or how to use the body itself to make us healthier. I really feel like this is a cutting edge of medicine. You've been listening to Bloomberg Business Week Extra. You shorty tune into Bloomberg Business Week Radio

like Monday through Friday at two pm. Wall Streetimeloomberg Radio. I'm here and I'm Jason Kelly. This is Bloomberg