Duke Health

Bryant Grey was only 31 when he was diagnosed with an aggressive lung disease. “It was insane,” he said. “It felt like one day I was short of breath, and the next thing I knew I needed a lung transplant.” Grey came to Duke Health, where he was transplanted after spending only three weeks on the transplant list. “If you do the work, take care of yourself, and trust your team, you can beat the odds,” Grey said.

One in five children have abnormal levels of fats in their blood, like high cholesterol or triglycerides, and require special care to manage their condition now, before it becomes a problem in adulthood. Duke Health’s pediatric lipid disorders clinic brings together a team of experts to do just that. “We create individual care plans for children and their families,” said Duke Health pediatric endocrinologist Pinar Gumus Balikcioglu, MD, MHSc.

We live in an environment where plastic is in our clothing fibers, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the gum we chew, and the water we drink. Millions of plastic particles are ingested by people every year. What does that mean for our health and the environment?

As part of our ongoing Conversations in Cancer video series, Diane Reidy-Lagunes, MD, a medical oncologist at Duke Health, talks to Jason Somarelli, Ph.D., an assistant professor in medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine and a Duke Cancer Institute researcher who studies the effects of microplastics. Here, we cover the potential disease risks and what we can do to protect ourselves and future generations.