Frontline Health
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Frontline Health
#102 - Health Headline Highlights: From AI Brain Drain to Genetic Optimization
Could ChatGPT be making us lazier thinkers? What happens when parents can select embryos based on appearance and cognitive traits? Is your beauty routine secretly harming your lungs?
The latest Frontline Health Podcast dives deep into these provocative questions as hosts Evan Patrick and Troy Duell examine cutting-edge health headlines that challenge our understanding of technology, ethics, and personal wellbeing.
A fascinating MIT study reveals ChatGPT users show significantly lower brain engagement compared to those using Google or no tools at all—with participants becoming increasingly reliant on AI over time. Troy offers practical guidance on maintaining critical thinking while still leveraging AI's benefits: "Come up with your ideas initially, then use it almost as though it's a counsel."
The conversation takes a thought-provoking turn with news of "genetic optimization software" allowing parents to select embryos based not just on health factors but appearance and cognitive traits. This technology doesn't actually optimize genes—it simply discards embryos lacking desired characteristics. "You are truly trying to create the superior human," Troy notes, questioning whether this represents a concerning step toward eugenics.
For those concerned about personal care products, research linking beauty routines to increased asthma risk provides a wake-up call about potential hormone-disrupting chemicals. Meanwhile, a timely warning about flesh-eating bacteria in southern coastal waters offers practical advice for staying safe, including avoiding raw shellfish during warmer months.
The episode concludes with compelling evidence that early bedtimes benefit everyone, regardless of natural chronotype. Even night owls can gradually shift their patterns through consistent sleep schedules, morning light exposure, and mindful caffeine management—proving the age-old wisdom about early risers might be scientifically sound after all.
Thanks for listening to this edition of Frontline Health by Centurion. Remember, you are your best health advocate.
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Today on the Frontline Health Podcast.
Speaker 2:The more we educate our kids on good sleep patterns, making sure that we're emphasizing that you don't need to be up late playing video games or whatever it is, but going to bed so you can get up early and put in a better routine and a better system. I think all that is certainly a part of helping us raise our kids and develop healthy habits for them that can last a lifetime.
Speaker 1:Hello, welcome back to another episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion Health, where we help you take ownership of your health through health news tips and insights. My name is Evan Patrick and with me is Troy Duhl. He's our founder and CEO here at Centurion Health and we are excited to bring you guys another round of some of the latest health headlines that we have from this past month.
Speaker 2:Yeah, excited to be here and look forward to going over these headlines with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got some crazy ones for today. You want to get us started?
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:The first headline is chat GPT may be eroding critical thinking skills, according to a new MIT study.
Speaker 2:Kind of a crazy headline, but one that is certainly current because chat GPT and AI seems to be taking over all the airwaves out there.
Speaker 2:Seems to be taking over all the airwaves out there, but they actually did a study that divided 54 subjects 18 to 39 year olds, or 18 to 39 years old from the Boston area and they put them into three groups, asked them to write several SAT essays using chat GPT, Google search engine and nothing at all.
Speaker 2:The researchers used an EEG to record the writer's brain activity across 32 regions and found that, of the three groups, chat GPT users had the lowest brain engagement and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic and behavioral levels. Over the course of several months, chat GPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy and paste by the end of the study, and while it was a relatively small sample size and not peer-reviewed, it is definitely one of those that opens your eyes and makes you think through some of the things, because the rest of the research actually showed that the brain-only group showed the highest neural connectivity out there and that the group using Google expressed active brain function. So it seems that there's something to this whole idea of chat GPT, maybe making us a little lazier and maybe even a little dumber, based on what this study has shown from MIT.
Speaker 1:You know, there's all kinds of uses for AI that are really positive. We're pretty big proponents of using this, for you know the work that we do and just trying to become more efficient, but I think education is one of those things. Like we really have to make sure that we are not letting AI do all the work for our students so that they don't develop the critical thinking skills they need, and we even, I think, have to be careful, you know, to make sure that we're keeping our brains sharp and not just letting it do this for us, because it's kind of like every muscle in our body you use it or lose it, and I definitely notice some of that in myself when I'm using it for different things. So what do you think is actually different about the way that your brain interacts with a search engine like Google versus interacting with an AI like ChatGPT?
Speaker 2:I think the biggest thing is all you're doing with ChatGPT is you're putting in a question and you're not having to think beyond that question. You're just putting in that question and chat GPT comes up with all the answers for you and with Google. And why it probably works is you come up with the first question, it gives you information on that question and doesn't really go beyond that. So you still have to think the next step in order to come up with where else can I look to find other information about this subject? What other questions can I have? But really ChatGPT and AI in particular, they do all of that for us and if we're not careful and we're not using it as the tool, it can truly make us very, very lazy, and we don't want to spend much time doing the research or setting up the essay and we can let ChatGPT do all the work for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if you're reading an article that you found on Google and you're writing a paper, for example, in school, you're having to paraphrase that information. You can't just take something directly from the search engine and put it into your work. And so to me that's kind of one of the highest levels of understanding, if you're able to actually articulate something in your own words, whereas ChatGPT is actually articulating ideas and thoughts for you, so you don't really have to have any kind of understanding of something to regurgitate it. But we do know AI is the future for pretty much every industry out there. I mean, you've certainly made it a point to implement it in the things we do, and it's helped us in a lot of ways. I've also heard you talk about kind of some things that you personally do to make sure that we're interacting with AI in a healthy way. So what are your thoughts on that? How do we leverage AI in a healthy way without destroying our critical thinking skills?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it goes back to it being a tool.
Speaker 2:So you come up with all your thoughts initially.
Speaker 2:You come up with your ideas initially, and then you come back and you use it almost as though it is a counsel type scenario and you put it in and you say, is there anything that I'm missing?
Speaker 2:Is there anything that could be added? And then you look at it and you say, okay, well, I agree or I disagree, based on the things that they came up with, and you use it as almost though it's an editor or a copywriter to help you just get a little bit better, as opposed to having it as a crutch and doing the whole thing for you. The other thing that I do, which some people think is a little weird, is I will never use the pronoun you or anything that personalizes it, because I'm a firm believer that I want to make sure that it stays a tool and it doesn't become one of those things that I start to look at it as a person, because I want to value people more than I do the tools that I use. So that's, that's one of the little cheats that I use to try to make sure that I'm not putting a personhood to a technology that's out there.
Speaker 1:Well, I certainly wouldn't call you crazy for doing that, given that people have literally left their wives to pursue a relationship with chat GPT. So I would say that's the crazy end of the spectrum, and viewing it not as a person but as a piece of technology in a computer program is the healthier way to view it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but there's probably plenty of crazy there. Still, I'm working on it, working on it. So what's the next headline you got for us?
Speaker 1:Nucleus Genomics launches embryo selection software that lets parents choose traits beyond health. Some of the key highlights from this article we noticed. Nucleus Genomics has launched Nucleus Embryo, a genetic, what they call a genetic optimization software. It's interesting that they use that term optimization We'll get into that maybe in a second. That promises to give IVF patients unprecedented control over embryo selection. The platform analyzes embryos across over 900 hereditary conditions, while extending into controversial territory by assessing appearance, cognitive ability and mental health traits. Ceo Kian Sadeghi claims one file containing DNA and genetic markers can tell you more about your baby's future than any other test a doctor could possibly run at this stage. So this represents a very significant shift from conventional embryo screening, which typically focuses on chromosomal abnormalities and known genetic disorders, and the CEO notes that his favorite feature is you can name your embryos and leave notes on the ones that you like. So that's a lot to take in. What are your thoughts on this, Troy?
Speaker 2:That is next level. I imagine the way that I look at that is is that something that Hitler would have been proud of? And what they did during Germany with some of the geneticists that they had? Because you are truly trying to create the superior human. When you get to that level and it seems to be ripe with all kinds of ethical concerns that could, that could happen from that, I mean it, it seems incredibly scary to me in a step, in a direction that I don't know we want to go as a people, while at the same time if it were me personally sometimes I think, wow, I wish my parents could have chosen different things for me, but I'm glad they didn't, because I am who I am.
Speaker 1:And they love you anyway.
Speaker 2:So they do.
Speaker 1:That's kind of the beauty of the parent-child relationship is loving each other despite faults. You know, I actually heard this news story on an apologetics podcast that I was listening to Apologetics Canada and they really dig into the phrase that they use, calling this genetic optimization software. We could get into everything related to IVF. I don't really want to go down that route at this moment, but I do want to point out an observation they made in this podcast that I thought was really key for understanding the ethical concerns with this. It's not genetic optimization, it's genetic discarding, because what you're doing you're not able to actually modify an embryo that exists. What you're doing is you're throwing out the embryos that don't have the traits that you desire as the parent, and so to me and to as they broke down beautifully in Apologetics Canada, it's not fair to call this genetic optimization. It's really genetic favoritism, and so I think that's a really important thing for people to understand is yeah, what you're doing is getting rid of the embryos that you don't desire and keeping the ones that you do.
Speaker 2:Well, and what would be interesting to see?
Speaker 2:Let's say that this whole thing goes through and you have several people who, quote unquote genetically optimize their kids.
Speaker 2:Is that a false sense of belief that your kid is now going to be perfect and they should score, you know, a 35 or 36 on the ACT and have a perfect score on the SAT and be able to be part of the you know, us Olympic team?
Speaker 2:I think those are things that would be interesting to see what happens 20 years down the road in a scenario like this, because the truth is, you can do all this optimization that you want, but they're still human and they're still going to fail and there's still going to be things that they disappoint their parents in. And really what we're trying to do is minimize our disappointments in our kids, which is really pointing back to us as individuals. We're more disappointed with ourself and we don't want our kids to have those same disappointments, but unfortunately, that's just not life and we can't take life away from people by optimizing their genes. It's always going to be difficult because until this whole world changes and we all die and go to heaven, we won't have a perfect place here on earth, and I think that's what we've got to understand as a human race and really come to grips with that. Even if you optimize everything, you're not going to have a perfect person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great point, and I can only imagine the lawsuits 20 years from now. You said my kid was going to be a genius and he flunked out of college.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:There are all kinds of claims we can't make about the products that we're selling, and so it's interesting that they're able to make these claims that you're going to have the perfect child if only you choose the ones that are genetically optimized.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then think of all the studies that would come out based on. You could really do some nature versus nurture type studies at that point as well, because you still have to have some effort, even if you're a brilliant person. It's not going to all come easy, but that's definitely a can of worms that could be blown wide open. So great headline. Thanks for sharing that. The next one we've got your beauty routine. Sorry, evan, I hate to share this with you, but it's disappointing yeah disappointing for me too.
Speaker 2:Your beauty routine may harm your lungs. Research suggests so. Recent findings link frequent use of beauty products to increased asthma risk, possibly due to hormone disrupting chemicals. Kind of breaking it down there was a long-term study of about 40,000 American women and they found that frequent use of beauty and personal care products like blush, lipstick, artificial nails, cuticle cream and pomade which, I'm sad to say, I don't really know what pomade is, but it was linked to a 19 to 22 percent higher risk of developing adult-onset asthma. Researchers suspected that hormone-disrupting chemicals like phthalates and parabens and PFAS in cosmetics may affect respiratory health by altering hormone levels, weakening immune response, causing oxidative stress or changing gene function. And then they talked about kind of the current US regulations saying that we allow a lot of these chemicals in cosmetics with very, very little oversight, while a lot of people are calling for stronger safety rules and more disclosure on what the ingredients do and contain and also some kind of public health guidance. So that's where they left the article and you know lots of questions could come out of that as well.
Speaker 1:Troy, you actually named one of about three personal care products that I used, and you didn't even know what it is, even though you see my beautiful head of hair all the time, are you?
Speaker 2:telling me you've never seen it. Maybe that's why I don't have a beautiful head of hair.
Speaker 1:That's how I slick it back and style it is with the pomade. But now you're telling me I shouldn't. So maybe you really will. We'll rock my world with this as we dig into it.
Speaker 2:I do apologize for stepping on the pomade, but I've never had the thick, luscious head of hair to have to use the pomade in my life.
Speaker 1:That makes this first question a little bit personal for me, but I'll ask it anyways. Should governments impose stricter regulations on hormone-disrupting chemicals in personal care products, even if direct causation hasn't been proven yet?
Speaker 2:I think that's a question for a lot of things. I think that's a question for a lot of things and certainly since RFK has come into office and been placed there, I think it is a question that's become even more pertinent to things like this, and I don't know if they should have stricter regulations, but at least have a warning and say there's a potential that this could cause increased asthma risk as an adult if you use these products. And then I think it's ultimately up to the individual to make that decision and take in the information and go from there, because I'm a firm believer, as we always say here, of taking ownership of our own health. And if we have a concern and we know that there's a potential for one ingredient to cause that, then I'm bigger on the government at least saying that this could happen, as opposed to saying we've got to get rid of it until they find a exact causation of asthma and a particular ingredient.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's absolutely right. I mean, ideally you would have companies only putting things in their products that are going to be safe we're definitely strong believers in that but at the same time, if they're being transparent about what they are putting in their products and the risks that are associated with that, it kind of is on the individual. So I mean, what would you say? What role should consumers play in reducing their exposure? You know, through product choices, advocacy or both?
Speaker 2:if there is limited regulatory oversight, yeah, I mean, I think it goes back to really the ownership piece.
Speaker 2:If we're serious about wanting better health, then we need to start looking at these things and doing our own research to say well, does putting a little pomade in my hair, does that help me or hurt me? My hair may look great, but what do the studies say have long-term consequences on? And just do your own research, make it. You don't have to take a deep dive into it, but certainly if you hear something, then start diving in a little bit deeper and spend some time really looking at it, because you only have one life right and our health can be affected by so many different things. So why not just take an extra five, 10 minutes, especially when you have easy things, like we talked about earlier with AI and chat, gpt and Google? We have so many things at our fingertips that we can research and find out greater information about things and then make our own educated decision about whatever we're putting on our face, our hair or wherever else on our body.
Speaker 1:Well, if in future episodes my hair looks a little different, it's because I went and did my research and I mean now I have no excuse, really, because you've shared this headline with me. So so yeah, don't be surprised my hair looks a little different in future episodes.
Speaker 2:And don't be surprised if my hair looks the same because I just don't use it.
Speaker 1:Our next headline. Flesh eating bacteria leave eight dead, 32 sick in four states. Officials in Florida and Louisiana have reported dozens of cases of Vibrio vulnificus so far this year, while Mississippi and Alabama have each had one case. So at least eight deaths 32 illnesses have been reported across Florida, louisiana, mississippi and Alabama. Louisiana and Florida are seeing the highest number of cases. Bacteria typically causes severe infections when exposed to open wounds in warm coastal waters or through consumption of raw seafood, especially oysters. It can lead to life-threatening infections, including necrotizing fasciitis. Flesh-eating bacteria, with one in five infected individuals dying within one to two days of symptoms appearing. That makes me not want to go for a swim or eat oysters.
Speaker 2:There's a reason they say you shouldn't eat oysters in any month that doesn't have an R in it. You shouldn't eat oysters in any month that doesn't have an R in it. So that would be May, june, july and August, because the water is so warm and the Vibrio Fulnificus, however you say that is definitely in the water and it can get into our bodies and cause some serious damage. But the interesting thing to me, based on that article well, a lot of things is you don't think of this flesh-eating bacteria being an issue if you just go for a swim, but it sounds like there's issues with whatever. It is if you have an open wound out there that it can truly affect you. So what can we do to kind of prevent that spread and watch out for it during those warmer months? Is there anything that they suggested in the article?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so some of the suggestions include safe seafood handling and consumption. So this should be common sense right. Avoiding raw or undercooked shellfish, especially those oysters and thank you for sharing that. Only eating oysters in months that include our. I missed that day of school whenever that was taught, but it's good to know. Keep seafood cold, so refrigerate it promptly, avoid cross-contamination and be sure to shut safely. A lot of this would only pertain to you if you're catching this fish yourself, but use gloves and tools to avoid cuts. While handling the shellfish you want to exercise proper wound care and water safety. So avoid the exposure of open wounds, including recent piercings or tattoos. I'd imagine that gets overlooked quite a bit. People go down to the beach and might get a tattoo or piercing, feeling crazy. Avoid that exposure to warm seawater or brackish water. You can use waterproof bandages. You can clean your cuts immediately if you do get hurt out there on the beach and seek medical care quickly if you notice symptoms like redness, swelling or blistering after water contact.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's kind of crazy when you think about all those things and I don't know if you've ever met somebody who's had that. But I talked to one guy who had the flesh eating wound and he was actually on a lake not at the ocean and he had an open cut and apparently the bacteria was in the water. He had his leg that he just put in the water and all of a sudden in a couple days he was in the hospital because his body was basically or the bacteria was eating his, eating his skin. But they were able to get it under control and he was fine. He just had to have a big chunk out of his leg. So it happens more often than we think and kind of kind of crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would not wish that on my worst enemy. It sounds really terrible. Given that it's so terrible, how do you think healthcare systems can improve awareness and early detection of Vibrio vulnificus infections to reduce fatality rates?
Speaker 2:I think it's all about education. I mean, most of us don't think twice about getting into the ocean. If we've gone to the beach, we don't think twice, especially about the food that we eat, because we assume that it's going to be healthy. And if we're at the beach, a lot of us want seafood and sometimes it's oysters, and we don't think about the time of year that we're getting those oysters or where they're from. So I think it's all about education, making sure that more and more people are aware of bacteria like this and what causes it, and then understanding that we may not be able to take all the risk of the world away, but if you understand what's going on and you see around a cut, a lot of redness or swelling or blistering after you've had contact with the water, that you go immediately and get the treatment that you need and you can salvage your health and salvage, sometimes, your life in these cases.
Speaker 1:You want to wrap us up with our last headline.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. This is one that I think we've all heard growing up and certainly took my attention. It says why early to bed and early to rise is wise, regardless of your chronotype and chronotypes are our natural preferences for when we sleep and feel most alert. Most people fall into one of two main types. You can probably guess it. There's the morning type, what they called in this article larks, and the evening type, which we call night owls.
Speaker 1:I like early bird better.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Early bird's good because you get the worm. But those chronotypes refer to our natural sleep preferences and research showed that late bedtimes, even with adequate sleep, are linked to higher risk of physical health problems like diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The health benefits of those who got to sleep earlier if you could shift to an earlier bedtime even for somebody who may have that natural tendency to want to stay up late they found that it reduced health risk because it improved your metabolism, had better hormone regulation and it reduced cravings for unhealthy foods, because most people have those cravings later the later they're up at night. And they really recommend adjusting your sleep patterns to kind of gradually shift those night owls to have earlier sleep to maintain. And they really believe that if you do it by having consistent sleep and wake times and getting exposed to natural morning light and managing kind of your lifestyle and reducing your caffeine intake of your lifestyle and reducing your caffeine intake, that you can shift from being a night owl to an early to bed person, which is difficult for me.
Speaker 2:But I can attest that my wife was not a night owl, she was an early to bed type person and over time I have shifted and we've kind of met in the middle. So I'm a I'm a 10 o'clock guy. She, she would probably go to bed earlier and, based on this article, she's probably right. I just can't do it yet.
Speaker 1:My wife and I are the opposite. I'm the early bird in the morning lark as this calls it and then she is the night owl. But I really do. We were having this conversation earlier. I really think the morning sets the foundation for the rest of your day. I mean kind of like you were saying. Often we do things that are more productive in the morning, especially if you're getting up early for a reason like to get your exercise for the day or to make sure that you have time to fix breakfast and get something nutritious to eat in the morning, to spend your time in the Word and prayer, whatever that is. That's your morning routine. It's usually those things are done with a lot more intentionality than what we do late at night when we're just sitting on our phones, scrolling on social media or watching a bad TV program. I'm a big believer in this myself.
Speaker 2:Very, very true, and I'm also testimony to the fact that you can change from a night owl to a morning person, because I have shifted everything to the morning person. Kids probably have a lot to do with that and work as you get a little bit older and you just have to change your schedule in order to make it work. And you know, this was great seeing an article that kind of supported everything that you heard about. Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Speaker 1:So, along with a whole bunch of other stuff, so how can workplace cultures or school systems better accommodate different chronotypes to improve overall health and productivity?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and I think a lot of it is shifting some of our maybe even some of our start times or finish times and changing the diet when you talk about a school system to where you reduce the caffeine intake that you allow kids to have and really start to educate them to say, hey, these things have a true impact on our health long term, and understanding that the more we educate our kids on good sleep patterns, making sure that we're emphasizing that you don't need to be up late playing video games or whatever it is, but going to bed so you can get up early and put in a better routine and a better system, I think all that is certainly a part of helping us raise our kids and develop healthy habits for them that can last a lifetime.
Speaker 1:Those things are all huge, troy. I think you nailed it there time. Those things are all huge, troy. I think you nailed it there. You know, people have been talking about for years pushing back the start of school and having later start times because kids do require more sleep, and I agree with that. I think that that would be a wise idea. There's some practical things that make that complicated, like you know parents dropping their kids off of school, off from school and then having to get to work themselves. But what you just said is parents and even kids who are responsible, can take ownership of their health by doing the simple things that are going to make their sleep quality a lot better and at the duration that they need, like just going to bed early, less exposure, less exposure to blue light at night, less caffeine intake, which most kids probably should not really be taking in caffeine at all through the drinks or Starbucks or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:So there's definitely, and if you're a kid in high school and you're having to take caffeine in the afternoon, it probably means that either you have some health issue or that you're not getting the sleep you need anyway. So you really need to change the sleep cycle then so you're not having to take on so much caffeine, because your energy level and your hormones are so rampant at that age that you really should be fine making it through the day without much caffeine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really good, troy. To wrap things up with one last question what are some potential challenges individuals might face in trying to shift their chronotype and how they can overcome them? How can they overcome them?
Speaker 2:may have a job that has them stay up way later than they should, based on the shift work that they're doing or whatever else is going on, and I think you also have different cultural things where you may only be able to get your social life met and having time with friends and family later in the night, and that is something that you just have to shift and really hold each other accountable to and have a lot of friends who maybe want to do the same thing and you can change how you go out to eat with them. Maybe you start going out to eat with your friends a little earlier so you're not staying out so late. But those are little things that we can do. But I think all those pieces and components really come into play when you're talking about how do you change your natural rhythms that you may have about staying up later or getting up earlier, and you just have to be very disciplined and take it one day at a time when you're going through those.
Speaker 1:Those are really great tips, troy, and this has been a great conversation, a really great lineup of headlines that we've talked about today. So thank you so much for that, troy, and thank you for listening to this episode of the Frontline Health Podcast by Centurion. Go out today and take ownership of your health, because you are your best health advocate.
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