Ira Pastor, ideaXme longevity and aging Ambassador and Founder of Bioquark interviews Dr. Calixto Machado, Senior Professor at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in Havana Cuba and President of the Annual International Symposium on Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness. (This interview was recorded at a conference. We apologise for sound interference). For the last few months we’ve been profiling many of the cutting edge technologies that are in the pipeline for moving us from the 20th century symptom treatment model of healthcare, to a 21st century cure model whereby we can begin to have an impact on many of the chronic degenerative diseases responsible for human degeneration and suffering, as well as usher in an era of extended healthspan and lifespan.
However, that future is still being developed. Every year we still watch 65 million people die across the globe: 2/3 to diseases of aging, 1/3 to some form of acute trauma. Whether they have cancer, heart disease, kidney failure, sepsis, or suffered an auto accident, the final biologic state that each of these people experience as they leave this world is that of the death of the brain.
Brain death is defined as the complete loss of brain function, including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life. An ad hoc committee at Harvard Medical School published a pivotal 1968 report to define brain death as an "irreversible coma". The Harvard criteria gradually gained consensus toward what is now known as brain death.
When placed in the disorders of consciousness (DOC) continuum, brain death differs from the persistent vegetative state (PVS), in which the person is alive and some autonomic functions remain. It is also distinct from an ordinary coma, whether induced medically or caused by injury and/or illness, even if it is very deep, as long as some brain and bodily activity and function remains. It is also not the same as the condition known as "locked-in syndrome".
Like many of the above disease conditions, brain death is an area (including the related DOCs) that we need to have a much better understanding of moving forward for an integrated approach for dealing with disease and degeneration.
Today’s guest, who is at the very epicenter of this space (a true thought leader’s thought leader) and is going to take us further along this theme, into the work that is being done in the space, new discoveries, and into the realm of potential future technologies that could potentially allow us to blur the lines in the future between life and death, is Dr Calixto Machado.
Dr. Machado is both an MD (specialising in Neurology) and PhD in Clinical Neurophysiology and is senior professor at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in Havana Cuba.
He is President of the Annual International Symposium on Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness.
He is the author of 100s of peer reviewed publications on topics as broad as brain death, DOC, neuro-intensive care, as well as a book that has become known as one of the “bibles” of the research space for neurologists, neurosurgeons, intensivists, and transplanters alike - "Brain Death: A Reappraisal".
On this show we will hear from Dr. Machado:
About his background and where he grew up. How he became interested in science and medicine. How he finds himself in 2019 at the epicenter of DOC and brain death research. He’ll tell us about the current state of the Cuban biotechnology industry and his daily research itinerary at the Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery. About learnings from the 50th anniversary conference of the Brain Death definition at Harvard Medical School. About his work on the Jahi McMath case and the Future of Brain Death research.
To conclude the show Dr Machado explains who he would like to meet and why.
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