By Rebel Wolf for The Broadside News
Oklahoma is proud of its hospitals, sports programs, and medical schools. Our universities showcase state-of-the-art fMRI machines, imaging centers, and sports medicine labs as proof that we are keeping pace with modern science.
But there is a deeper truth: Oklahoma’s medical colleges have the technology, but they are not teaching or applying the science that matters most. The discoveries transforming medicine today, from women’s brain health to sports physiology to nutrition and hormone science, are happening at institutions just down the road in Texas. Here in Oklahoma, those breakthroughs haven’t made it into the classroom, the clinic, or the exam room.
This isn’t just an academic oversight. It’s a public health failure. And it affects every community in this state, Native and non-Native alike. As someone who has experienced neurological symptoms myself, I can say plainly: I claim no medical care for my brain.
Estrogen Is a Brain Hormone
One of the most important findings in neuroscience in the last two decades is that estrogen is not just a reproductive hormone, it is also a brain hormone.
Dr. Lisa Mosconi, director of the Women’s Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medicine, has shown through advanced imaging that declining estrogen during perimenopause and menopause triggers measurable changes in the female brain. These include:
- “Electrical storms” in cortical regions,
- Structural disruptions that affect memory and speech,
- Metabolic slowdowns increase dementia risk.
This is not speculative. It is peer-reviewed, NIH-funded science. And yet most Oklahoma doctors have never been taught it exists. Women reporting neurological symptoms in midlife are too often told it’s “Just stress” or “anxiety,” while the machines that could measure the truth sit unused.
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Sports Science: Women Are Not “Smaller Men”
If you really want to push an Oklahoma button, start with sports. We live by Friday night lights. Our athletes are a source of pride across the state. But our sports medicine programs are not even training with the most up-to-date science.
Dr. Stacy Sims has proven what women athletes already knew: women are not smaller men. Female physiology responds differently to training, hydration, recovery, and even temperature regulation. Her research is now used by elite athletes worldwide, except in places like Oklahoma, where our sports programs still operate on outdated models.
For a state that sees itself through football, basketball, wrestling, and track, this is not just a missed opportunity. It’s a competitive disadvantage. If we want our players, and our communities, to compete, we cannot afford to be a decade behind.
Without This Science, Women Aren’t Receiving Health Care
Nationally, physicians and educators like Dr. Mary Claire Haver, Dr. Mindy Pelz, and Dr. Stacy Sims are already translating this research into practical advice for millions of women. Their waiting lists are full, their online programs reach thousands, and yet no one doctor can possibly see everyone.
But here’s the truth: without this science, women are not receiving health care at all, whether they realize it or not. Being prescribed antidepressants for neurological symptoms or being trained as an athlete under protocols built for men, is not health care. It is mis-care. And it is dangerous. To treat half the population while ignoring the two hormones that regulate nine major body systems, including the brain, is malpractice at scale.
Further, by not informing Oklahoma’s women of these advances in medicine, women, and the men who love and care for them, are denied informed consent on nearly every medical issue. A patient cannot consent to treatment if the most important information has been withheld.
Women in Oklahoma cannot simply travel to Houston or California to access this knowledge. We need good doctors here who are up to date, or else half our population will continue being treated with medicine that doesn’t fit their biology, possibly making their health worse, while universities pretend the science doesn’t exist.
Texas Is Already Doing It
This isn’t just an Ivy League issue. Our closest competitors, right here in the region, are already applying this science.
- At UT Austin, researchers have used fMRI to show the aging brain’s “remarkable ability to respond to estrogen,” with direct implications for hormone therapy timing.
- At UT Southwestern, scientists are connecting estrogen to brain and metabolic health, studying how hormones influence both diabetes risk and neurological function.
- At UT Dallas, the Center for Vital Longevity is using fMRI and PET imaging to study aging and cognition across the lifespan.
These are the schools Oklahoma actually measures itself against. If Texas can put their imaging technology to work on women’s brain health, why aren’t OU and OSU doing the same?
Protein Pacing, Diet and Men’s Health
Nutrition science has also advanced, but again, not here. Dr. Paul Arciero’s work on protein pacing is not another fad diet. His program was the first lifestyle approach to be peer-reviewed and tested across multiple body types and age groups, and it showed 100% success in clinical trials for weight loss and fat reduction while preserving lean muscle. Since then, his team has published over 50 peer-reviewed studies confirming its effectiveness for women, men, young, middle-aged, and older adults alike.
For a state like Oklahoma, one of the most obese in the nation, this isn’t just interesting science. It’s life-saving knowledge that could transform public health if applied. For women, protein pacing supports metabolic stability during midlife. For men, it offsets muscle loss and hormonal decline. For athletes, it boosts performance and recovery.
Yet instead of integrating proven methods like this into medical training and sports programs, Oklahomans are left with outdated advice that fuels the very problems it should be solving.
Native Nations and the Cost of Suppression
The consequences are even more severe for Oklahoma’s Native Nations. There are 27 sovereign Nations in this state, each relying in part on medical professionals trained at Oklahoma’s colleges. When those schools don’t teach cutting-edge science, entire populations are left behind.
And this isn’t an accident. The same era when American medicine consolidated into today’s “medical-industrial complex,” the years between World War I and the Korean War, was also the height of the U.S. eugenics movement. Systems built in that time did not prioritize Native health. Some would argue they were never meant to.
History repeats when people don’t know it.
The patterns of dismissal and neglect are still shaping women’s and men’s health today.
👉 Learn more in our free booklets here.
The Cost of Being Behind
The result of all this is clear:
- Women are dismissed, misdiagnosed, or placed on medications that don’t fit their biology.
- Men are put on psychiatric drugs or testosterone instead of receiving evidence-based hormone care.
- Athletes are coached with outdated methods that ignore half a century of sports physiology.
- Native Nations are doubly affected, locked into systems that don’t recognize modern science and leave entire communities underserved.
This is not because Oklahoma lacks the tools. We have the machines. We have the labs. We have the athletes. What we lack is the will to use them for the science that matters.
Oklahoma Must Compete
Our universities don’t need to compare themselves to the Ivy League. They need only ask whether Oklahomans should have to leave the state to get the care and science they deserve.
UT Austin and UT Southwestern are already using their imaging technology to study estrogen’s impact on the brain and metabolism. If Texas can lead in this field, Oklahoma has no excuse for lagging behind.
It’s 2025. The science exists. The machines are here. The athletes are here. The people are here. The only question left is whether Oklahoma’s medical colleges will finally catch up.