Best of Episode: Dr. Eugene Lipov

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (0:10)
Hey now, welcome to The Dr. Drew Podcast. Appreciate you all being here. Today is one of these shows I'm really excited about. It's the kind of guest that I really constructed this show to serve, really. These are the guests I want to have on this show. Let me just remind you, before you move on here, that I need your support. I need your support over at the Dr. Drew streaming shows on three o'clock, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, on drdrew.tv, drdrew.com. It is called Ask Dr. Drew. Wednesdays, particularly, we have like a million views where people are discussing with Dr. Kelly Victory, the people that have been silenced on social media and what they've got to say. And it's been rather interesting. I got to say, I don't, you know, some of it seems like they're over their skis, but some of it seems, I always walk away with some discrete, like specific headline that I did not know. Like yesterday, I particularly like talking to people who are in the room when some of the decisions were made. And I've been of the opinion for quite some time that we're going to find some evangelists. We're marching off without any authority or orders. And Dr. Hatfield confirmed that as someone who was at the NIH and the CDC when all this was going down. But you have to listen to find out more about that, and also keep support of the people that support us here at this podcast. Today, Eugene G. Lipov, he's a physician, and he has a book called The Invisible Machine, The Startling Truth About Trauma and the Scientific Breakthrough That Can Transform Your Life. This is a direct referral from our friend Stephen Porges. And if you want to, as I said, I had trauma neurobiology in mind and interpersonal neurobiology in mind when I started The Dr. Drew Podcast, like, Gary, how long was it? Six years ago, seven years ago? Seven, maybe. Sheesh. Don't do that. A long time ago. And you can search Porges, P-R-G-E-S, and Schor, Alan Schor, S-C-H-O-R-E, if you want to get the fundamentals we talked about, what's currently sort of thinking about the polyvagal theory and interpersonal neurobiology. Today's guest, Dr. Lipov, can be found at his website, Dr. Dr. Eugene, E-U-G-E-N-E-L, excuse me, Dr. eugenelipov.com. E-Lipov, L-I-P-O-V-M-D, Twitter and Facebook, Eugene Lipov and LinkedIn, Eugene Lipov. Dr. Lipov, physician, researcher. He's certified in anesthesiology and specialized in intervention-based pain management. He has received his bachelor's in biochemistry from Northwestern and also medical school there at Northwestern. PTSD research earned him invitation to testify for the US. Committee on Veterans Affairs in 2010
And obviously, the issue of trauma is a major issue for the VA. He's authored over 40 publications. Dr. Lipov, welcome to the program.

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (2:43)
Thank you so much for having me.

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (2:45)
So, shall we start with the book, or should we start with your basic story in trauma and your observations and how they evolved, or how do you want to proceed here? Both interest me greatly.

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (2:56)
Well, I can give you the background.

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (2:58)
Okay, let's do it.

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (2:59)
And the way I met Dr. Porgius was actually quite interesting. So I think you may find it interesting since you know Stephen.
So I was born in Ukraine, and I left Ukraine when I was six. So my father had severe PTSD from World War II. And then, so he gave that to my mother. So in circles, side circles, it's now called secondary PTSD. So that eventually led to my mother's suicide when I was interned in surgical residency.

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (3:33)
So I just want to stop you. So you were first a general surgical resident?

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (3:38)
I started as a general surgical resident, yes.

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (3:40)
And how many years of that did you do?

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (3:42)
I did two years.

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (3:43)
And then you switched to anesthesia? Is that what happened?

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (3:45)
That's correct.

**Dr. Drew Pinsky** (3:46)
Okay, keep going.

**Dr. Eugene Lipov** (3:48)
Yeah. So after that, so I got into pain medicine.
And then during pain medicine, actually I had a patient that had severe cough flashes. And I called up my brother, and he thought, you know, he tried to treat her because he was an internist, and he wasn't able to solve her problems. So he said, oh, you do the Stelagenglian block thing, which is the ejection of the neck, for CRPS, or burning of the hand. And he thought that hot flashes and burning of the hand is the same thing. So I did Stelate, and it took away hot flashes, which was pretty amazing. So I had no idea why I did that. So I actually have published in Lancet Oncology, you and I both know that's a pretty big journal. And then, so then I, there was a paper, a Chicago Tribune came in to do a story about me. And it was a very ugly story, shall we say.