In this week’s episode, Cara talks to former med student and current PhD candidate Cyrena about her experience pursuing higher education in the biomedical sciences, other ways to pursue related interests, what it’s been like to deal with both Bipolar Disorder and Lupus along the way, and the systemic ableism baked in to medicine and medical education.
Cyrena will be on another upcoming episode in the new year that contains the second part of their conversation about how our bodies respond to stress, and her research in that area. She is studying inflammatory markers in adults who experienced early life stress, and they’ll be talking about how that may contribute to or exacerbate, but not cause, the development of chronic health conditions later in life.
More information about Bipolar Disorder from the National Alliance on Mental Illness: https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Bipolar-Disorder
More information about Lupus from the Lupus Foundation of America: http://www.lupus.org/answers/entry/what-is-lupus
Cyrena’s talk at the MedX Pop-up in New York: http://livestream.com/stanfordmedicinex/nyc/images/101818250
More information about becoming a physician from the American Medical Association: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/becoming-physician.page?
