HoldsUp

Charles Raison

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Charles Raison, M.D., is a professor at the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Founding Director of the Center for Compassion Studies at the University of Arizona. His research examines the relationships between inflammation, stress, and the development of depression. His published work focuses on interventions for major depressive disorder and mental well-being, including whole-body hyperthermia, psilocybin-assisted therapy, and compassion-centered practices.

68 claims checked on air: 2 context 7 overstated 50 supported 9 unverified 7 flagged

What they said on air - unverified

3 citing their own research

0:21:33unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

A German study found that administering endotoxin to severely depressed inpatients produced a strong antidepressant response.

"This was done years ago in Germany, where they actually took people that were catastrophically—it's a small study, but they took people that had been inpatient, catastrophically depressed, and they shot them up with endotoxin, and it produced a powerful antidepressant response." (said at 0:21:33)

No published record matching the claim that a German study administered endotoxin to severely depressed inpatients and produced a strong antidepressant response was located; this does not prove the claim false. In published biomedical literature, endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide) administration in humans is standardly used as an experimental model to induce transient systemic inflammation and depressive symptoms (sickness behavior), rather than as a therapeutic antidepressant intervention.

0:23:03unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, and IL-6 exert neurotrophic effects in the brain at low physiological concentrations.

"these cytokines, these classic inflammatory molecules like TNF, tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6, at lower levels in the brain, they actually have neurotrophic effects." (said at 0:23:03)

No published record matching the claim that pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, and IL-6 exert neurotrophic effects in the brain at low physiological concentrations was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:34:05unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Hot yoga elevates core body temperature to 38.5 degrees Celsius as measured by rectal probe.

"she especially is interested in and has a grant to study hot yoga and convinced people to wear a rectal probe while they're doing hot yoga. Hot yoga, which also, you know, makes people sweat like pigs, elevates core body temperature to, interestingly, oh, the exactly the same place." (said at 0:34:05)

No published record matching the specific claim that hot yoga elevates core body temperature to 38.5 °C as measured by a rectal probe was located; this does not prove the claim false. While published research has evaluated physiological responses and depression outcomes associated with heated yoga, published data demonstrating this specific temperature endpoint using rectal thermometry were not identified.

0:40:20unverifiedlowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels are associated with increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and hippocampal shrinkage.

"There's all sorts of evidence that if it's elevated, if you're a Western person hanging around, if I measure your IL-6 and if it's bad, you're going to get heart attacks, you're going to get strokes, you're going to get cancer, you're going to get, you know It's a bad deal to have your IL-6 high, it's going to shrink your hippocampus." (said at 0:40:20)

No published record matching the claim that elevated interleukin-6 levels cause or are associated with heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and hippocampal shrinkage was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:44:57unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Whole-body hyperthermia induced an increase in neopterin that strongly correlated with IL-6 elevation.

"Neopterin is a chemical that's really only made by activated immune cells, by monocytes, these these innate immune pro-inflammatory cells. So we measured neopterin. Neopterin also went up and it correlated very strongly with the IL-6." (said at 0:44:57)

No published record matching the claim that whole-body hyperthermia induced an increase in neopterin that strongly correlated with interleukin-6 (IL-6) elevation was located; this does not prove the claim false. While published randomized trials examining whole-body hyperthermia in major depressive disorder demonstrate acute post-treatment increases in circulating IL-6, published reports describing concurrent neopterin induction and its direct correlation with IL-6 following whole-body hyperthermia are not available in the peer-reviewed medical literature.

0:49:06unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Five days following whole-body hyperthermia, patients' 24-hour core body temperatures were lower than baseline.

"Right, and what we found, from five days after being in the box, your everybody's core body temperature was really lower over 24 hours. So the box didn't make people hotter, it made them cooler. What we were actually inducing was hypothermia." (said at 0:49:06)

No published record matching the claim that patients' 24-hour core body temperatures were lower than baseline five days following whole-body hyperthermia was located; this does not prove the claim false.

0:49:40unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Higher baseline core body temperature before whole-body hyperthermia treatment correlates with a greater antidepressant response.

"And what we found was that the hotter you were before you got into the box, the better antidepressant response" (said at 0:49:40)

No published record matching the claim that higher baseline core body temperature before whole-body hyperthermia treatment correlates with a greater antidepressant response was located; this does not prove the claim false. While randomized clinical trials have established that whole-body hyperthermia significantly reduces depressive symptom severity compared to a sham procedure in major depressive disorder, the specific predictive correlation between baseline core body temperature and clinical response magnitude was not reported in available abstracts.

1:09:58unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Quadrupedal mammals can only cool down by panting and are unable to gallop and pant simultaneously.

"all other animals, especially four-legged animals, can only cool off by panting, and they can't gallop and pant at the same time. So as long as you can keep an animal just at the pace where they have to gallop every once in a while, they can't cool off" (said at 1:09:58)

No published record matching the claim that four-legged animals can only cool off by panting and cannot pant while galloping was located; this does not prove the claim false.

1:24:00unverifiedvery lowDr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface

Research led by John Krystal at Yale showed that approximately 70% of depressed patients do significantly better short-term on an antidepressant than on placebo, while 25% do worse on an antidepressant than on placebo.

"John Krystal at Yale did this great study where they were able to—I won't bore you with the details, but what really happens is about 70% of people in the United States will do much better in terms of a short-term with an antidepressant than they will with a placebo. I mean, they really feel better. So there is a group of people that really do well with antidepressants... 25% of people that are depressed will do much worse with an antidepressant than they would with a sugar pill" (said at 1:24:00)

No published record matching the claim that research led by John Krystal showed approximately 70% of depressed patients do significantly better short-term on an antidepressant than on placebo while 25% do worse than on placebo was located; this does not prove the claim false.

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