I had an opportunity to chat with Dr. Lori Brotto, who is a Professor in the UBC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, a Registered Psychologist, the Executive Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute of BC. Dr. Brotto also holds a Canada Research Chair in Women’s Sexual Health. She is an expert in sex and desire, and I am also fortunate enough to call her a friend.
When I heard that she had some exciting new research about a digital tool for low desire, I knew I wanted to talk with her! it’s called eSense, and it makes evidence-based research about non-medical therapy for low desire accessible. One issue when researchers study tools like cognitive behavioral therapy is they may work very well in studies, but finding skilled practitioners and actually getting access to the care can be challenging.
How useful is exciting new research when no one can access it?
Dr. Brotto and her team decided they were going to bridge that gap, so not only were they designing a tool to help women, they were also going to bring that tool to women. And you can find more about it in the video above and over at www.esense.health.
How effective is the eSense tool? Here are the numbers from their website. Pretty impressive!
While eSense hasn’t been studied head-to-head with FDA approved therapies for low desire or transdermal testosterone, the results are more impressive than what we see with medications. So getting this tool to people is really important!
Dr. Brotto is presenting her data on this work next week at a sexual medicine conference, but you can get a sneak peak here!
If you have questions about desire, leave them below and I will see if I can convince Dr. Brotto to do a live broadcast here at The Vajenda, so we can answer them for you.
Top Researcher Leaves the NIH Over Censorship
And now for some terrible, but important, news
I was saddened to hear that Dr. Kevin Hall has decided to retire from the NIH over government interference in his work. This is a tragedy for everyone on several levels and exposes the abject hypocrisy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his band of medical MAHA miscreants.
Dr. Hall had spent over twenty years at the NIH as a nutrition and metabolism scientist. His specific focus is the impact of diet on health and he has published seminal work on the the impact of ultra-processed foods. This is how Dr. Hall described his research on Twitter:
My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology. Lately, I’ve focused on unravelling the reasons why diets high in ultra-processed food are linked to epidemic proportions of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Our research leads the world on this topic.
It is not hyperbole to say his research leads the world in this area. If you want to know how our diets are making us sick, something Kennedy and the MAHA movement claim to be interested in, then Dr. Hall is your guy. He’s the captain of the A team.
I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Hall back in 2022 for my podcast, Body Stuff. We had a fantastic conversation about metabolism. You can find the episode here.
Dr. Hall explained that he:
…experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction.
He told the New York Times that his research had been severely affected by cuts at the NIH. But even more concerning is he was required to remove himself from a large review article that dared to mention “health equity” (as in some people don’t have access to healthy food!). In addition, he was prohibited from speaking with the press about a study that contradicted Kennedy’s belief that ultra-processed foods are addictive. He was later allowed to answer questions for the press via e-mail, but he later found out that his responses “had been edited without his approval in a way that emphasized the study’s limitations and downplayed its significance.”
Dr. Hall explained that he had written to leadership at the NIH to discuss his concerns, which included both Kennedy and NIH director Dr. Bhattacharya, but received no response. Dr. Hall felt he had no option but to take an early retirement as it would be unacceptable to work in an environment where he might be asked to change results or be censored.
Tragedy doesn’t begin to describe what has happened. Dr. Hall’s contributions to our understanding of nutrition and metabolism have been immeasurable. His leaving is not just a major loss to the NIH, but to everyone. The scientific community has appropriately responded with both shock, sadness, and understanding. As well as massive respect for Dr. Hall.
In addition to the loss of Dr. Hall’s leadership, knowledge, expertise, and talent, we are now faced with the hard truth that press releases from the NIH may not reflect the actual findings and that research is being suppressed. How can we trust NIH-funded work going forward?
We can’t. Science can’t exist without integrity.
Share this post