Dr. Austin Baraki is a practicing Internal Medicine Physician, competitive lifter, and strength coach located in San Antonio, Texas. Originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia, he completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the College of William & Mary, his doctorate in medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
Lifters commonly experience routine aches and pains in the context of their training, often affecting the low back, knees, hips, and shoulders. These are common places non-lifters experience pain as well. Whether the pain began suddenly or gradually, it can be a discomfort that worsens under load during training, or it may “warm up” and […]
Diabetes is among the most common conditions encountered by patients and doctors today, affecting nearly 1 in 11 people worldwide. Unfortunately, it remains poorly understood by the general public, and even among many healthcare professionals. There are many different kinds and causes of diabetes, but today we will focus on common type 2 diabetes mellitus. […]
In part one we discussed how to interpret blood tests of kidney function in the context of exercise. Today in part two we will discuss another common area of confusion and misinterpretation: the effects of exercise on liver function tests. The liver, like all of the internal organs, is quite complex and there are some […]
Do you wake up feeling unrested in the morning? Have you experienced morning headaches, or been told that you snore at night? Do you feel fatigued or sleepy during the day, despite a full night of sleep? These symptoms can result from many things, but one common, under-recognized cause involves problems with breathing during sleep. […]
Blood pressure is a key indicator of your health. This is why it is checked at every visit with a healthcare professional. Understanding this measurement will help you make sense of both your blood pressure and your healthcare professional’s advice. This article series will explain what blood pressure is, how to correctly measure it, and […]
In our introduction to cholesterol article, we discussed the basics of cholesterol and blood test interpretation. We also covered the major factors that influence blood cholesterol levels to build a strategy for managing high blood cholesterol. Our discussion has been highly simplified for practical purposes, but the relationship between diet, blood cholesterol levels, and the […]
Note: This was a 2-part series (Part 1 & 2) that we merged together. The concluding article (Part 3) can be found here: Cholesterol: Myths & Misconceptions. Cholesterol is a substance that plays many essential roles in the body. It is involved in things like the structure of our cells, brain and nerve function, and […]
A doctor has just diagnosed you or a family member with osteoporosis. What does this mean, and what should you do about it? In this article we will address these basic questions. Bone Basics To begin, we must learn a bit about our bones. The bones of our skeleton are made up of many different […]
Cancer is among the leading causes of disease and death in the U.S. and contributes to a substantial burden of disease in the world [CDC, WHO]. Enormous amounts of resources are spent on treatment as well as research into new treatment approaches (e.g., chemotherapeutics, immunotherapies, and other emerging treatments) that often provide small, incremental survival […]
Our attempts to understand and explain complex systems commonly involve reductionist analysis, whereby a system is broken down into its component parts for easier understanding. Theoretically, after analyzing and understanding each of the individual components of the system, we can “add” these understandings back together in a linear fashion and emerge with a complete understanding […]