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An inspired collaboration between Dr. Travis Brown and Steve Davis.
Every disease has a story to tell - Dr. Travis Brown
This Pathological Life podcast is an inspired collaboration between General Pathologist Dr. Travis Brown and seasoned radio interviewer and podcaster, Steve Davis. By using a storytelling format, they share the history behind diseases and put health challenges into context to deepen your library of anecdotes and explanations.
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Health data is the most personal official records we will ever have. It can contain everything from the medications we regularly take, all the way through to documenting discussions about some of our most troubling times. It does not get an…
In 1983, Dr Robin Warren and Dr Barry Marshall embarked upon a study to investigate the significance of bacterial found in the stomachs of ulcer patients. This journey would take them over a decade to complete and was riddled with self-doub…
Since ancient times, all manner of diseases have been attributed to the uterus. Theories range from a wandering womb yearning for motherhood to the psychological disorder of hysteria that was contagious. The treatment of women with these 'd…
'You have cancer' It must be the most dreaded sentence in modern society. Our fear of cancer is well founded and for those suffering from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML), before 1999, there was only a slim chance of survival. Caused by a si…
Our love affair with alcohol is as old as civilization itself. Every culture and religion have traditions, attitudes and laws that ranges from governing celebrations to issuing punishments. With only have sporadic cases of excessive drinkin…
Tuberculosis has had many names throughout human history: Phthisis, Robber of youth, the white plague, consumption. It wasn’t until 1865 that Jean Antonine Villemin proved it was an infectious disease and 1882 that Robert Koch identified th…
Twitter links Dr Travis Brown = @DrTravisBrown Steve Davis = @stevedavis See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sugar is as addictive as nicotine and as toxic as … well, sugar. Diabetes mellitus is the fastest growing chronic disease and the not-so-silent potentially ignorable epidemic sweeping our nation. This is a disease known about since antiquit…
In 1958, via the world’s first epidemiological study, Dr Denis Burkitt mapped the incidence of large jaw tumours in young African Children and theorised that the cause was due to a virus. However, he was later to discover that this same vir…
Chromosomal abnormalities are often incompatible with life. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule and history has shown us that certain paired chromosomes can include a third. These conditions are known today as Down syndrome (Tr…
The life of Alexander the Great is a landmark moment in history. The son of King Philip II, one of history’s greatest military conquerors, and Olympus, worshipper of Dionysus and political mastermind, Alexander was raised to believe he had …
On the 11th of September, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked 4 planes and crashed 2 of them into the Twin Towers of the in New York. Hours later, both Towers collapsed which caused a huge toxic dust plume composed of WTC (World Trade Centre) dust…
Everyone has a story… Pathology is Medicine. The day-to-day challenges and opportunities in pathology are mixed and varied. Often, very much like the journey of Pathologists into Pathology, the queries can take many different pathways. For …
Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from their sex assigned at birth. Until recently, these people have too often fallen into the ‘too hard’ category when dealing with their health, disease, and illne…
Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral composed of silk-like soft flexible fibres that are resistant to fire, heat, electricity, and chemical damage. Known from antiquity as a miracle product and believed to possess magical powers, there…
In 1920-1930’s, Dr Charles Huggins had an unusual problem: prostatic cancer cells appeared in his metabolic experiments that he was conducting on the Prostate of Dogs. With further experimentation, he was able to demonstrate that Prostate C…
Inherited bleeding disorders before the modern era were a death sentence. Haemophilia, also known as the Royal Disease (specifically Haemophilia B), is an X-linked coagulation disorder that the Heir to the Throne Alexei Romanov inherited in…
The Story of Typhoid Mary An outbreak of Typhoid occurred 1906 in a wealthy family in Oyster Bay, New York. Typically a disease of ‘deprived’ people, investigators concluded that the source must have been contaminated water or freshwater cl…
Smallpox was a devastating disease described as the scourge of the world. The Variola virus was responsible for countless deaths from antiquity to the twentieth century and left most survivors with lifelong scars. Using Variolation, a primi…
In the 19th Century there was an increasing numbers of Black Tumours reported in medical literature - described as Melanose in 1806 when Rene Laennec published that the Blackness of these tumours was not related to black carbon deposits fou…
Through the prism of COVID-19 and epidemiology, we examine different epidemics and pandemics throughout history. In the last twenty years, there have been three outbreaks of Coronavirus (MERS, SARS, and COVID-19) but only COVID-19 reached p…
Pathology is by definition: the study of disease.Pathology is about understanding. This episode uses the story of Mary Papanicolaou and her husband George who discovered the pap smear. Dr Travis Brown says, “What I’m hoping is that this pod…
