Radio Shows
Our award-winning radio show is heard by 200,000 listeners on over 190 public radio stations nationwide. Tune in to find out about everything from home remedies to the latest breakthroughs in medicine. You can find a list of public radio stations that carry The People’s Pharmacy here.
Show 1050: How to Protect Your Vision
Being able to see is something most of us treasure, especially if we imagine being deprived of good vision. But do we know how to take care of our eyes to keep them healthy and working well? Our guest…
Show 1049: Do You Need a Gluten-Free Diet?
Years ago, doctors thought that celiac disease was incredibly rare among Americans. In this auto-immune condition, exposure to gluten found in barley, rye and wheat causes the body to attack the linin…
Show 1048: How to Revive the Recently Dead
For millennia, when people stopped breathing, they stopped living. The classic test for determining whether people were asleep or dead was whether they could fog a mirror. Resuscitating the Drowned: …
Show 1047: How to Sync Your Body Clock to Get th…
Our daytime functioning depends in large measure on the sleep we get at night. No doubt that helps explain why we spend approximately 36 percent of our lifetimes sleeping. How can we embrace bedtime i…
Show 989: The Mediterranean Zone Diet (Archive)
The Zone diet popularized by Dr. Barry Sears was one of the earliest to emphasize the importance of balancing protein, fat and carbohydrate consumption at every meal. Dr. Sears pioneered the idea that…
Show 1046: How to Save Money on Prescription Dru…
Prescription medications cost more in the US than anywhere else in the world. What's behind the high cost of these drugs? How are insurance companies and other payers coping with costs? Is there any w…
Show 1045: How to Design Your Diet for Better He…
Montmorency cherries are rich in polyphenols. Scientists in England have been studying their ability to help athletes recover more quickly from strenuous exercise. The latest research was conducted wi…
Show 1044: The Truth about Statins and Heart Dis…
What do you know about the popular cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins? Are they miracle medicines that save lives, or do they represent a menace to health because of possible side effects? Ge…
Show 1043: How to Strengthen Bones and Fix Your …
Do you think of yoga as exercise? Many people don't. Yoga doesn't seem like exercise that can combat osteoporosis. Yet physiatrist Loren Fishman, MD, has shown that certain yoga poses can improve bon…
Show 1042: How Acupuncture Can Help You Overcome…
An ancient Chinese medical modality is gradually gaining converts in the US. In acupuncture, a skilled practitioner inserts thin needles into specific points on the body. The problems that may be t…
Show 1041: What Are Your Favorite Home Remedies …
If you are hiking in the hinterlands this summer, what first aid should you take along? We talk with Dr. Jim Hubbard, author of The Survival Doctor's Complete Handbook, about what to do when you can't…
Show 1009: The Upside of Stress (Archive)
Stress is bad for our health, isn't it? It has been linked to everything from psoriasis to asthma to heart disease. It may even make us more susceptible to cancer. Is the Emphasis on Stress Reduction …
Show 1040: How to Make Your Brain Healthy for a …
At midcareer, neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki had numerous scientific awards and accomplishments. She was studying what makes a brain healthy. But she didn't have much of a life outside of the lab, and sh…
Show 1039: How to Reduce Your Risk from Breast o…
As we grow older, the risk of two different cancers looms ever larger: breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men. Whether you are a woman or a man, how can you reduce your risk from breast o…
Show 1038: Should You Be Cutting the Salt in You…
Americans have been admonished to reduce the amount of sodium in our food. In fact, the American Heart Association has said that all of us should be cutting the salt we eat and aiming for 1500 mg of s…
Show 1037: What Is the Dirt Cure?
More children than ever suffer with allergies, asthma, ADHD or eczema. Sometimes these allergies can affect their ability to focus in school or get along with friends. It might be hard to see what is …
Show 1036: How to Prevent Diabetes by Changing Y…
An increasing proportion of Americans are at risk for type 2 diabetes. In 2012, 86 million adults had prediabetes, which is elevated blood sugar that doesn't quite reach the cut-off for a diabetes dia…
Show 996: Mystery and Lyme Disease Misdiagnosis …
People who have had difficulty getting an accurate diagnosis of their ailments may feel that their doctors are not taking them seriously. Perhaps if they had MD degrees themselves, they imagine, the d…
Show 976: Intimacy and Eroticism (Archive)
Why do couples who love each other often experience diminished desire? Relationship expert Esther Perel says that achieving intimacy sometimes removes the mystery that makes sex so exciting. Keep the …
Show 1035: How to Understand Medical Flip-Flops
Why can't the medical experts make up their minds? That's a question we hear often when the guidelines for eating a healthy diet, treating high blood pressure or lowering the risk of heart attacks sud…
Show 1034: How to Stay Healthy with Minimal Medi…
Americans take a lot of pills with the goal of staying healthy-pills to lower cholesterol, pills to control blood pressure, even pills to keep bones strong. How can we use fewer pills but still maximi…
Show 1032: How to Use Products of the Bee Hive f…
You may not think of bees as domestic animals, but any beekeeper would set you straight. Bees range far and wide when they forage for nectar and pollen, but they return home to the bee hive. Products …
Show 1031: Could a Tick Bite Make You Allergic t…
How Helpful Is Lowering Cholesterol? This week, the American College of Cardiology met and revealed surprising data on some new studies. What is the best way to lower cholesterol? Do healthy people ge…
Show 1030: Dr. Mark Hyman on How to Eat Fat …
For decades, we've been told that we need to avoid fat if we want to lose weight. So Americans turned to highly-processed low-fat foods that are full of sugar. Is it a coincidence that we are fatter t…
Show 1029: How to Mobilize the Immune System to …
Our immune systems are supposed to protect us from attack. Viruses, bacteria and fungi that try to invade can all trip alarm signals that awaken the body's natural defenses. Cancer is not an invader, …
Show 1028: How Animals Can Help Us Heal
How can animals break through the barriers created by traumatic events and help people heal? We'll learn about horses that interact with people with dementia, and dogs who visit patients in hospitals…
Show 994: Learn How One Doctor Is Reversing Alzh…
Alzheimer's disease is a prospect as frightening to many of us as cancer, and the treatment options are not promising. Most of the costly medications used in treating this type of dementia do little m…
Show 1026: What Should Women Do to Protect Their…
Heart disease is still the number one killer of women in the US, though the words "heart attack" usually conjure up an image of a gray-haired man. The symptom of chest pain or tightness is the most co…
Show 1025: Get SuperBetter: How Games Can Improv…
When computer game expert Jane McGonigal suffered a concussion, she had a hard time recovering from the constant headaches, fatigue, confusion and depression. To give herself achievable goals and make…
Show 1024: Could Popular Heartburn Drugs Destroy…
America's most popular heartburn drugs might be harming our kidneys. Research published in the February issue of JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that regular use of drugs like Nexium, Prevacid or Pri…
Show 1023: How to Rebalance Your Digestive Tract…
What do you know about your digestive tract bacteria? Normally, a wide range of bacteria helps us digest our food and works together to keep us healthy. But when infections or antibiotics intervene, t…
Show 1022: How to Pick Dietary Supplements That …
Are you getting all the nutrients you need from the food you eat? We are often advised to eat a well-balanced diet, but many people find that difficult. In today's fast-paced world, it can be hard eve…
Show 1021: If You Are in Pain, You Are Not Alone…
Chronic pain is often invisible, but it undermines the quality of life of a hundred million Americans. Many of these people face a terrible dilemma: without medication, they suffer dreadfully. But if …
Show 1019: Trade In Bad Habits for Better Ones
As we start the new year, many of us use the opportunity to try to change the habits that affect our health. Last week we heard from Gretchen Rubin, author of the book Better Than Before. How to Chang…
Show 939: The Health Benefits of Chocolate (Arch…
Chocolate has long been considered a sinful indulgence, definitely not a food that belongs in any "healthy" diet. But over the past few decades, evidence has been building that consuming chocolate act…
Show 1017: How to Avoid Weight Gain Over the Hol…
We are accustomed to hearing, "Eat this, don't eat that." Nearly everyone who makes such a pronouncement is convinced that he or she has discovered the one and only diet that will solve the problem of…
Show 1016: Rosita Arvigo Recommends Remedies fro…
The tropical rainforest of Belize is full of medicinal plants. The knowledge of these plants and their uses has been considered secret, closely guarded by the traditional Mayan practitioners of shaman…
Show 1015: Thyroid Mysteries, Controversies and …
The thyroid medicine levothyroxine (Synthroid) is among the top ten drugs dispensed in the US. The inevitable conclusion is that thyroid malfunction is extremely common. Even after diagnosis and treat…
Show 951: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Archive…
Does your mood affect how much you eat? While serious depression or anxiety are known to change appetite, even milder changes in mood can have surprising effects. You might be surprised to learn that …
Show 1013: Bacon Causes Cancer! How Good Is the …
Bacon and Cancer: Not long ago, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Cancer Research stirred up a lot of controversy by announcing that processed meats such as bacon or hot dogs sh…