It has been well established in studies and articles that cholesterol lowering medications have significant heart morbidity and mortality benefits. However, high dosage trials did not show additional survival benefits but had increasing side-effects for patients. Therefore, the maximum dose for statins is not necessarily the best dose for patients.

This is the story of statin dosing.

Guest:

Professor Simon Dimmitt is a Consultant Physician working in General and Cardiovascular Medicine. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Western Australia and Adjunct Professor, School of Medicine & Public Health at the University of Newcastle. His website contains Dose Tables and reviews for a modest subscription: Correct Dosing.

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Recreational use of steroids and testosterone to enhance image and performance is on the rise. Over the last 70 years, testosterone and testosterone-like substances have been used extensively to enhance performance particularly in elite sports. Nowadays, the use is more widespread and occurs in the general community with far more drugs available to people via the internet. Unfortunately, the evidence users base their drug regimes on range from anecdotal and scant to wrong and dangerous. We discuss the use of testosterone (and other substances) to learn more, identify how we can look after patients who use anabolic steroids, and what risk factors we need to consider.

This is the story of anabolic steroids.

You can listen to Part One of this series here.

Our special guests:

Dr Tim Piatkowski is a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland on image and performance enhancing drugs.

Dr Mair Underwood is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Queensland and is an anthropologist of the body.

Professor Ken Sikaris is a chemical pathologist and Director of chemical pathology at Dorevitch pathology.

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This Medical Life podcast is available on all podcasting services and Spotify. Help support us on our donation page.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Crucifixion was a form of punishment, humiliation, and execution. Adopted by the Ancient Romans, crucifixion was used on the State’s worst criminals on lower classes and slaves. As common as it was though, we know very little about how people died on the cross. In this episode, we take a closer look at crucifixion through a medical lens.

This image is not historically accurate. It was crafted within the guidelines of Gemini as a stereotypical rendering of crucifixion but our episode gets into the, sadly more brutal, truth.

This is the story of crucifixion.

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This Medical Life podcast is available on all podcasting services and Spotify. Help support us on our donation page.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.