Transcript
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Speaker 1: Welcome to the
Healthy, wealthy and Wise
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podcast with Dr William T
Choctaw, mdjd, where the doctor
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helps you unlock your full
potential by equipping you with
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tools and knowledge in the areas
of health, wealth and wisdom
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anchored in his experience as a
business executive, a physician
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surveyor for the Joint
Commission, a former mayor and
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over 50 years of experience as a
general surgeon. You've got
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questions, he's got answers, so
let's get started. Here's Dr
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William T Choctaw, mdjd.
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Speaker 2: Good morning. I'm Dr
William Choctaw and I am
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delighted to have you with us
today. Welcome to our Healthy,
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wealthy and Wise podcast. These
podcasts are part of our
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Leadership Masterclass series
based on my 50 years of surgical
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experience 50 plus years of
surgical experience and my 75
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plus years of life experience,
so please sit back and enjoy.
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Today, we're going to talk about
the Nobel scientists who just
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won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Please stay with us and enjoy.
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Each month, we strive to provide
our listeners with mental,
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physical and spiritual strengths
by giving you actionable advice
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, tips, guidance and information
to help you achieve your own
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personal, professional and
spiritual goals. We consider the
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health of your mind, body and
spirit paramount as a single
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unit that provides a cumulative
strength greater than the
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individual parts. In other words
, we want to strengthen the
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whole person. So thank you for
giving us some of your very
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valuable time and joining us on
this very important topic. As
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always, we like to start with
our beliefs. I believe life is
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about being of service to others
. I believe knowledge is power.
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I believe leaders can change the
world. We always like to give
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you an outline, and so we're
going to talk about the two
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doctors who discovered the
messenger RNA technique to
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deliver the COVID-19 vaccine
during the pandemic, for the
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pandemic. We're going to
specifically talk about them and
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how they got to where they were
and how we have all benefited
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from their resiliency and
dedication to this particular
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project. So go with me, if you
will, to an area we used to talk
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about in college and medical
school as subcellular
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engineering. Think about it this
way how bodies are made up of
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cells, probably billions of
cells. Inside those cells,
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inside each cell, there is a
nucleus, and inside each cell
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there's what we call cytoplasm.
I like to use the analogy of
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think about an egg, a fried egg.
The yolk, if you will, would be
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the nucleus and the white part
of the egg around the nucleus
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would be the cytoplasm, but they
constitute the egg. That's the
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way a cell is, so if you can
think about a cell in those
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terms. And so what we're going
to do is we're going to go
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inside that white and yellow
part of our cells, down to an
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area that's used to determine
activity of those cells, to
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determine how those cells
actually work and how those
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cells give direction to the body
or to other cells to fulfill
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certain tasks. It is absolutely
fascinating how our body is
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designed, and so I encourage you
, just for a brief time, just go
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with us on this journey of
subcellular engineering. Two of
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the individuals who this month
as a matter of fact, this week,
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we're in the month of October
just won the Nobel Prize in
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Medicine are doctors Catalan
Carrico and Dr Drew Weisman.
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Catalan Carrico is 68 years old.
She originally immigrated from
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Hungary to this country when she
was quite young and
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subsequently grew up here and
became a scientist, particularly
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a subcellular engineering type
of scientist, and as a result of
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that, became very, very
interested in the work of the
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different enzymes within
ourselves, particularly the
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enzymes having to do with
messenger RNA, dna, ribosomes,
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proteins, polymerases, etc. Etc.
And so, basically, this is her
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life's work. Dr Weisman is
originally from, was born here,
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and also and is an image of the
immunology, and so his work for
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all of his life has dealt with
the immune system in the body.
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He's been fascinated about the
immune system, which is sort of
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the defense system in the body,
if you will. If a foreign agent
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comes into our body, like a
bacteria or a virus, the immune
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system is that system in the
body that's responsible for
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protecting us and getting rid of
that foreign agent, and so this
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is really a lot of what Dr
Weisman has dedicated his life
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to doing and, as fate would have
it, apparently they met about
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25 years ago at the University
of Pennsylvania, where they were
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both instructors and began to
talk and, as they say, the rest
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is history. And so we have a
scientist who is interested in
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the cell and mechanisms within
the cell who then has a
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conversation with another
scientist both of positions
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who's interested in the defense
parts of the cell and that
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process and how that process
protects the body, and, as a
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result of their extraordinary
work, we have now been blessed
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with a vaccine using their
technique messenger RNA, and
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we've talked about this in some
of our previous podcasts, but
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we'll just briefly summarize
some of the aspects today. But
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the main thing is that we are
better in this country in the
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world actually not just this
country because two individuals
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dedicated their lives to doing
this and they've been doing this
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obviously over 20 years.
Particularly Dr Carrico, who was
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at the University of
Pennsylvania with Dr Weisman,
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actually was dismissed from the
University of Pennsylvania about
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10 years ago. And what she
decided to do? She wanted to
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continue her work, and so she
decided to go overseas to
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Germany and work for a little
company called BioTech. Now, you
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may have heard of BioTech maybe
two, three or four years ago,
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when they were talking about
vaccines. Well, biotech is a
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company that was working on
messenger RNA as a process to
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make vaccines better, just a
little small company that was
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working on this particular
technology. Pfizer, the bigger
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pharmaceutical worldwide, in
essence partnered, I think,
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biotech, and that's how Pfizer
ended up being the main
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pharmaceutical company to bring
this mRNA technique for vaccine
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production to market and allowed
and actually was the first to
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do that, and so all of us,
myself included, were able to
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get that vaccine and
consequently be protected. And
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so what this shows, I think,
among other things, and one of
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the things that we try to do
with these podcasts is we deal
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with the body, mind and spirit,
because what we have learned,
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whether we're talking about
wellness or just health, mental
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and physical health is that
there is a collaboration within
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each of us, and so that the one
plus one equals three, not two.
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So, indeed, it is the strength
of that collaboration that
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allows us to produce the highest
of quality, and I think doctors
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Carrico and Weisman are
exemplary of that. And then,
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clearly, they needed to have a
certain degree of perseverance,
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particularly Dr Carrico, as I
mentioned, who was dismissed
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from the University of
Pennsylvania. She had to really
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be strong and really be
committed to doing this work,
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and certainly until the point
that she would go to a different
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country to do her work, even
though she had family and
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husband. So I think it just
shows the level of commitment
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that is necessary sometimes to
do this type of work that both
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of them had to be relentless in
their pursuit Because initially,
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just because you come up with
an idea, that idea is not
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automatically adopted by the,
the medical community, if you
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will, and in a way that's a good
thing. It has to be proven. It
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has to be proven over and over
and over again. It has to meet
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what we call the co-postilist
K-O-C-H. But that's how we know
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that it's genuine and that it's
real. And indeed they were able
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to do that. Just very briefly,
what they were able to do. Let's
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go back to the cell. Let's go
inside the cell. We have a
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nucleus and we have a
surrounding cytoplasm, and all
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of this is within a membrane
called the cell membrane. Within
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the nucleus is where DNA is and
this is the genetic code for us
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individually. Desoxyribonucleic
acetic is the medical term for
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it, and it basically is what
determines why I am and look and
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act differently from the way
you may look and act. This is
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our specific genetic code and
some years ago the entire
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genetic code was defined and
what we found was the
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differences between all of us is
really just one or two areas,
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that most of the area is exactly
the same, but in terms of the
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vaccine it was utilized and the
beauty of what doctors Kariko
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and Weissman did, it was to take
a normal process within the
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body and use that process to
fight disease. So think about
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this to take a normal process
that was in the body and use
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that process. Use the body's own
process, just by tweaking it a
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bit, but use the body's own
process to fight disease, and
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that certainly is the best of
all worlds. No process is
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perfect, and neither is this
process perfect, but it works
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and has saved millions and
millions of lives over the last
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two to three years. So, in
essence, what it does is it
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causes the RNA, the messenger
RNA, to produce a prototype of
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the virus, particularly the
spike protein of the virus, and
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then have the body then be able
to recognize the virus whenever
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it invades the body. Now that's
a huge oversimplification, but
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that's in essence what it does,
and the idea and the thought is
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absolutely genius. The whole
idea of subcellular engineering
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that I can remember occurred
back when I was in medical
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school that I first remembered
this, and this was when Richard
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Nixon was president of the
country, and at the time he had
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an idea, or certainly made a
proposal in the federal
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government, that money's be used
to cure cancer. The whole idea
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was that there were so many
people dying of cancer and that
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we should increase research and
development to cure cancer, and
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part of that was to use monies
to be applied to what I call
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what's called subcellular
engineering. We can see the
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cells under the microscope, but
indeed it's what happens within
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the cells that dictates the
essence of how our body
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functions and does not function.
And this is what these two
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physicians were able to do, dr
Kariku and Dr Weissman. They
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were able to take a part of that
subcellular engineering, ie the
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messenger RNA function, and its
primary function is to make
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copies of other types of RNA,
and by having these copies in
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the cell, the cell is now better
prepared to deal with an
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invasion from a foreign body, if
you will, one of the ways for
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the mRNA vaccine to work is that
it has to be couched in a a a a
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form so that the body does not
attack it. Because, remember, a
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vaccine is something that's
foreign to the body, so you've
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got to protect it with the
protective coating or covering
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so that the body itself does not
attack it. So they were able to
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do that. They were able to come
up with a way to do that, using
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nanoparticles or nanoparticle
production technique, and
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successfully be able to deliver
the vaccine into the body, then
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allow the stimulate the cell,
particularly within the
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cytoplasm, the mRNA within the
cytoplasm to make a new type of
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mRNA and a new type of protein
and allow the cell to protect
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itself against this foreign
protein. I know it sounds a
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little complicated, but the
bottom line is using the body to
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protect itself. That, in effect
, is the essence of what Dr
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Scorico and Weissman were able
to do. It took them close to
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about 30 years to do it.
Obviously, like with a lot of
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great inventions and discoveries
, it's discarded when it's first
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proposed. But over time and
with a lot of time and effort,
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or a lot of people work
entirelessly, we've all been
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able to benefit now from this
new messenger RNA process. So to
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look a little more closely,
just for a brief, with this
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process the messenger RNA does
not enter the nucleus, remember
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I mentioned the nucleus is like
the yolk of the egg. The
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messenger RNA primarily operates
within the white part of the
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egg, if you will, or the
cytoplasm of the cell. This is
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where it goes to an area called
the ribosome and where it
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produces or transcribes new
protein, if you will. What the
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doctors have taught the body to
do is to copy the virus protein
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and then use that copy to
protect the cell from the virus
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invading the cell. It's just an
extraordinary process. It's. The
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process is called part of the
process called protein synthesis
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. This occurs in the ribosome,
which is in the white part of
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the egg, if you will, the
ribosome, the cytoplasm, not in
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the yellow part. The messenger
RNA directs the cells to produce
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copies of the protein that
comes from the spike protein of
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the virus. By recognizing the
spike protein as an invader into
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the body, the body then
stimulates antibodies, which is
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part of that immune system,
stimulates antibodies which come
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in and kill the virus. It's
just an extraordinary process.
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As we know, the newest variant
of COVID-19 is ARIS E-R-I-S.
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That is the one that's most
prominent today and is creating
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most difficulty today. Let me
share a personal note with you.
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One of the reasons why I am so
fascinated and interested in
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this cell cell your engineer is
my major in college was
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biochemistry. I'm originally
from Nashville, tennessee. I
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went to an HBCU, a historically
black college university called
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Tennessee State University in
Nashville, tennessee. I knew I
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wanted to go to medical school,
but I did not major in pre-med.
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I majored in biochemistry. As
long as you take the breakfast
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of courses to apply to medical
school, then you can certainly
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apply. Biochemistry always
fascinated me. Chemistry was a
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requirement for medical school,
but I didn't quite like
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chemistry, quite honestly. But I
loved biology. Biochemistry was
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the perfect fit for me. It was
just the perfect fit for me.
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Indeed, biochemistry is what's
involved with the work of
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doctors like Carico and Weisman.
If you remember, back in the
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early sixties again, depending
on how old you are there was a
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doctor. There was a doctor James
Watson and Francis Crick who
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received the Nobel Peace Prize I
mean the Nobel Prize for in
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medicine for discovering
something called the double
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helix. The double helix is the
form of DNA. Dna is inside the
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nucleus of the cell Again, the
yellow part of the cell if it
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were an egg yolk, whereas the
messenger RNA is in the white
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part of the cell, ie the
cytoplasm of the cell. But
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doctors Crick and Watson
invented or discovered the
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double helix, got a Nobel Prize
for it. The reason why I bring
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that up is Dr Watson was at
Harvard, dr Crick was in England
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at one of the universities
there and when I was in college
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my second year in college I was
very fortunate to receive a
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summer internship from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
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and it had been invited from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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It's listening. I love you guys
. You literally changed my life.
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Literally changed my life
Because what they did? It was a
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program that was designed to go
to HBCUs in the sound and allow
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certain students who were
academically qualified to study
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for the summer at three Ivy
League schools. Think about that
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. This is something that
happened in 1967. I was a
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sophomore in college at
Tennessee State and I was one of
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two students from my school
selected to be a part of this
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
program that allowed summer
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studies of students from HBCUs
at Ivy League schools. And I was
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fortunate. In 1967, I went to
Harvard and you gotta understand
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, I had never been out of the
deep South in my life. I had
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never been on an airplane in my
life. So here I am, first time,
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on a plane arriving in Boston,
massachusetts, on my way to
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Cambridge to study for the
summer at Harvard University.
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More significantly, I was
assigned to study with a
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graduate student who was working
for Dr James Watson. Now, dr
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Watson was not there that summer
, he was away for the summer but
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I was able to work with his
graduate student and the student
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was just extraordinary. His job
was to teach me various
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subjects. These were regular
Harvard college subjects, but he
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was my tutor and just my
supporter overall. He was a
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young man from Caltech who was
studying at Harvard for the
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summer, working on an advanced
degree. So my point is that my
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interest in a lot of the
vaccines and the way they're
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formed using a subcellular
technique is really part of how
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I got into medicine in the first
place. It fascinates me and I
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just sort of feel
extraordinarily blessed to see
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the results of what has happened
. But so just wanted to mention
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that very briefly. Going back to
Aris, one of the good things
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about this new variant for
COVID-19 is that it does not
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appear to be very, very
different from the previous
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variants and that's a good thing
because it makes the work of
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the vaccine easier or more
productive, if you will, or more
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effective, if you will. And as
you know, the virus COVID-19,
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and its variants causes
initially cold-type symptoms,
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but they tend to be on the most
severe side. It's not like a
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regular cold or a regular flu.
They tend to be on the most
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severe side, with fever, fatigue
, dry cough, aches and pains,
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running nose, sore throat, there
may be some shortness of breath
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and there also may be some
gastrointestinal symptoms,
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abdominal pain, diarrhea, et
cetera. These are some of the
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symptoms that we see, as we all
know, doing the, usually doing
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the what we call the cold flu
season. The fourth quarter and
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the first quarter of the year, a
particular first quarter of the
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year. We basically have three
main viruses that we're
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concerned about. One is the
influenza virus, which has been
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around for years, and usually we
get vaccines against that.
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There's the RBS virus, and it's
been around not quite as long
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and you can also be vaccinated
for that, and the more important
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or the more serious, the
COVID-19 bars, which we've all
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been vaccinating. I remember
vaccination. The purpose of
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vaccination is to prevent and
infection. It does not treat the
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infection. So when you are
vaccinated, that prevents you
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from getting the disease or the
illness in the future. There are
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other types of medication that
have been used to treat COVID
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and, as we mentioned before,
these medications like paclibid,
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which is a tablet that can be
used as an outpatient,
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00:25:18,875 --> 00:25:23,292
redemzavir, which is given IV,
that can be used early on when
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the symptoms have started. So
we're talking about vaccinations
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now, which is prevention, not
treatment. Undoubtedly, any type
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of severe infection and
certainly COVID is no exception
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to that creates damage on
multiple levels. We always talk
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about the body, mind and spirit,
and rightfully so. There's a
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lot of focus on the body, but
clearly the mind and spirit are
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00:25:50,269 --> 00:25:54,164
also traumatized and it's very
important to think about those
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areas as we experience, the
members of our family experience
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00:25:58,816 --> 00:26:05,529
illnesses, to help the whole
person to heal. So, in summary,
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00:26:06,612 --> 00:26:12,366
basically we have two physicians
, dr Caitlin Carrico and Dr Drew
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00:26:12,366 --> 00:26:16,601
Weissman, who just received
this month the Nobel Prize in
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00:26:16,681 --> 00:26:23,051
Medicine for their landmark work
in developing the messenger RNA
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00:26:23,051 --> 00:26:30,228
vaccine to save the lives of
millions of people worldwide.
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00:26:30,347 --> 00:26:34,275
And, as we mentioned, vaccines
are not treatment, they are
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00:26:34,295 --> 00:26:39,875
prevention, and the beauty of
the work of these two physicians
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00:26:39,875 --> 00:26:44,207
is that they were able to use
the body's own mechanism to
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better protect itself against
foreign invaders, ie viruses. My
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00:26:52,078 --> 00:26:55,631
basic principles I believe God
is in charge. I have said this
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00:26:55,691 --> 00:26:59,326
before. My first principle I'm a
physician of faith and indeed
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00:26:59,346 --> 00:27:04,297
it has been my faith in God that
has sustained me all of my life
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00:27:04,297 --> 00:27:08,612
. Second principle is no bad
days. I do not have any more bad
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00:27:08,612 --> 00:27:13,151
days. I used to, but about 20,
30 years ago I got rid of all my
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00:27:13,151 --> 00:27:17,268
bad days because I figured out
that my day was good or bad if I
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00:27:17,268 --> 00:27:21,460
said it was. Number three I
don't sweat the small stuff.
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00:27:21,540 --> 00:27:27,156
Most stuff is small. When things
happen or are said to me that I
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00:27:27,156 --> 00:27:32,632
perceive as being negative, I
have learned not to worry about
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00:27:32,672 --> 00:27:35,402
that. Most times it's not
important, I just let it go.
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00:27:36,064 --> 00:27:40,435
Number four forgiveness is
therapy. Indeed, whenever
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00:27:40,536 --> 00:27:46,291
something happens to me that I
perceive as negative, I
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00:27:46,451 --> 00:27:49,801
immediately forgive. It does not
matter who's right or who's
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00:27:49,882 --> 00:27:54,498
wrong. I have learned that
forgiveness is therapy. And my
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00:27:54,577 --> 00:27:57,767
final basic principle is that
everything is a relationship.
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00:27:58,087 --> 00:28:01,776
Everything is a relationship and
relationships are based on
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00:28:01,816 --> 00:28:06,634
three things respect, mutual
trust, good communication. If
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00:28:06,673 --> 00:28:09,688
you have those three things, you
have a very good relationship.
341
00:28:10,108 --> 00:28:14,904
If you do not have those three
things. You have work to do. If
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00:28:14,924 --> 00:28:17,691
you like these podcasts, we
would encourage you to become
343
00:28:17,791 --> 00:28:25,492
one of our loyal subscribers and
go to wwwbuzzsproutcom forward
344
00:28:25,532 --> 00:28:34,046
slash 210103. That's
wwwbuzzsproutcom forward slash
345
00:28:34,125 --> 00:28:42,057
210103. And finally be the
change you want to see in the
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00:28:42,076 --> 00:28:44,039
world. Have a wonderful day.
347
00:28:44,285 --> 00:28:46,109
Speaker 1: Thank you for
listening to this episode of the
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00:28:46,109 --> 00:28:50,087
Healthy, wealthy and Wise
podcast with Dr William T Chokta
349
00:28:50,087 --> 00:28:54,636
, mdjd. Be sure to check out
other great episodes covering
350
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areas of health, wealth and
wisdom at THWPcom and, while
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you're there, be sure to check
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literature in your preferred
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leave a review, subscribe, share
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at THWPcom. You've been
listening to the Healthy,
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wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr
William T Chokta, mdjd.
