Health411

Occupational therapy is a specialized practice that sees patients after an injury, trauma, or surgery in order to help them regain the ability to carry out everyday tasks. Today on Health 411, Alan Newman, an occupational therapist from Capital Health, joins our host Dr. Jonathan Karp and student producer Kaya Basatemur, in a conversation all about occupational therapy. In this episode, Alan addresses questions such as, "what ...

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is a chronic syndrome characterized by fast heart rate (30-40 BPM higher than resting heart rate), lightheadedness/dizziness, fainting, heart palpitations (feeling your heart beat in your chest), brain fog, exhaustion, shakiness, and anxiety. While these are the most prevalent symptoms, POTS varies greatly from case to case. Some people can experience only a few of these symptoms whi...

What is a state veterinarian? What are the responsibilities of someone in this position? Today Dr. Amar Patil, the State Veterinarian of New Jersey, joins our host, Dr. Jonathan Karp, and student producer, Kaya Basatemur to talk about what it means to be the State Vet.

As someone who is also part of the Department of Agriculture, Dr. Patil has some unique insights on what it's like to deal with widespread animal disease outbrea...

What really counts as being exposed to nature? Is it being on a hike, camping out in the wilderness for days at a time, climbing mountains, or going out to sea? Griff Griffith, a renowned nature conservationist and nature interpreter, says it's much simpler than you might think.

Today, Dr. Jonathan Karp and student producer Kaya Basatemur are joined by Griff Griffith to discuss the role that nature plays in our daily lives-- fr...

At this day in age, it's not uncommon for children to own a mobile device, such as a tablet or cell phone. According to a 2024 census conducted by Common Sense Census looking at how many children own mobile technology by age group, they found that 47% of children aged 2-8 own tablets. Further, they recorded that by the age of eight, 23% of children own a cell phone. From 2017 to 2024, the screen time of children aged 0-8 have b...

"In 2021, 57 million people had dementia worldwide... Every year, there are nearly 10 million new cases," (World Health Organization). Dementia is a group of neurodegenerative diseases that affect a large amount of the aging population, and that have a wide variety of symptoms-- change in habits, forgetting the month or year, forgetting relationships to others, often losing or misplacing items, getting lost while driving ...

Dr. Cecilia Baradhi Garduno makes a reappearance on the Health 411 radio show and podcast! This time, Dr. Baradhi Garduno discusses her specialty as a doctor and physician, which is family medicine. With the cold and flu season coming to a close, it's important to keep up with yearly "well" visits with your primary care physician to make sure that you stay healthy in your day-to-day life. Today, Dr. Baradhi Garduno di...

Cryopreservation has been an ongoing area of research in the United States since the 1930s, but only since the 1980s have scientists been able to freeze oocytes (human eggs) and then later use them to successfully birth a human baby. Since 1983, the technology for oocyte cryopreservation has advanced vastly, and has become a more widespread medical procedure. Different techniques have emerged, allowing for a higher likelihood that ...

Long before western modern medicine became popularized, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) had already been in practice from anywhere between 3,000-5,000 years ago, during the Shang Dynasty of China. Unlike western medicine, traditional Chinese medicine focuses on balancing the energy of the body. The primary belief in TCM is that the reason you fall ill and contract diseases is if one or more of the bodies' systems is out of b...

While hospitals are medical institutions, you don't need to be a doctor or a nurse to work in healthcare. Today, Kate Stier from Capital Health joins our host, Dr. Jonathan Karp, and student producer Kaya Basatemur to talk about being the Director of Public Relations and Community Education at a large hospital like Capital Health.

In this episode, Kate discusses the roles and responsibilities of being the director of Public Rel...

With a rise in the number of Flu and Cold cases this winter, it's helpful to know what the difference is between these two ailments, and how to know if you have it or not. Dr. Cecilia Baradhi Garduno joins our host Dr. Jonathan Karp and student producer Kaya Basatemur to discuss what to do if you start to feel sick, and how you can take care of yourself.

Dr. Cecilia Baradhi Garduno is a board certified DO from New Jersey who pr...

Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to increase our lifespans and health spans? While many factors go into what makes us live longer and stay sharp, a term arose in the early 2000's to describe areas of the world that housed people with extraordinary longevity: "Blue Zones". This is a term coined by researchers Michel Poulain and Gianni Pes in March of 2000 when they were studying centenarians (people 100 year...

Alzheimer's Disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the buildup of Amyloid Beta plaques and Tau proteins. The initial symptoms often manifest as a loss of cognitive function, especially with learning and memory. Currently, there are numerous pharmaceutical ways to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, including drugs to manage the severity of symptoms and clearing plaque. However, a recent paper from the Procee...

As one of the world's leading causes of death, cancer does not yet have a cure. It is one of the most studied diseases, however, and researchers have been studying every aspect of cancer that they can. What we do know is that cancer is most often caused by abnormal uncontrolled cell division and replication, which can spread to other parts of the body and create tumors.

On October 29th, 2025, Nature magazine published a paper r...

William Person is a retired Team USA Olympic bobsledder that competed in 9 seasons, from 1998 to 2007. Throughout his career, he obtained countless concussions and traumatic head injuries due to the nature of the sport. In his thirties, Person says he started to experience extremely concerning symptoms, such as severe brain fog, confusion and disorientation, memory problems, depression, light sound and smell sensitivities, and othe...

According to the AAFA (Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America), approximately 28 million people in the U.S. have asthma, which is about 1 in 12 people. Additionally, over 100 million have some kind of allergy (food, seasonal, eczema, or environmental), and that's about 1 in 3 people! With allergies and asthma being so prevalent in the United States, it's important to know what they are, why they happen, and what to do if you or a...

Are smart watches actually good at monitoring your heartbeat?

With the age of new and emerging medical technology, diagnostics are getting more and more specialized, leading to more specialization opportunities for doctors as well. Dr. Zabeer Bhatti is a cardiologist with Capital Health who subspecializes in electrophysiology. Electrophysiologists typically see patients who have arrhythmias, which are disorders that disrupt the hea...

In the 1970s, the term "Holistic Medicine" started popping up in the United States. Holistic Medicine refers to the practice of treating a patient by focusing on the entire body and interactions between systems, and not just the individual symptoms. This is typically done using natural vitamin and mineral supplements, medicinal herbs, making diet and lifestyle changes, and increased mindfulness and meditation. One of the ...

Getting scared is part of life. Whether it's animals, heights, the dark, bugs, or flying in an airplane, we all experience fears. Sometimes, you have a bad experience and get scared-- but then when you do it again, you realize it's not actually scary or dangerous. Maybe you visited a haunted house as a kid and you felt nervous, convinced something bad was going to happen, or that you would get hurt. Then, as an adult, you w...