May 18, 2025 • 39 mins
Our heart might just be the unsung hero of our health ... but do we only pay attention to it when it's too late?
So many of us will know someone, or have been someone who has dealt with heart-related issues.
What can we be doing more of to make sure we don't run into problems?
Dr Bryan Betty joins Tim Beveridge for the Health Hub to talk all things heart health, what effect vaping really has, and the seriousness of the current measles outbreak.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
I'd be children in New Zealand down about eighty percent,
sixty nine percent of MARI. So yeah, an outbreak measles
if it was to spread, would be yeah, reasonably, very
very serious.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, well, saw what it did in samow was it
ninety six deaths or ninety two deaths. I mean there's
in a small country, you know, not a big country,
ninety almost one hundred deaths.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Look, and we can't forget that we had seven hundred
admissions of children into hospital here in New Zealand. And yes,
we had the eighty deaths and Samaraw So New Zealand
was very very lucky not to get away with any
deaths at all. But Samoa got hit very badly. So
although a lot of people think that measles is a
you know, sort of benign childhood type illness, it can
(00:53):
have very very serious consequences.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
How yeah, how long have we had a vaccination for it?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I can't give you the exact time roughly vaccination, but
it's been about twenty fifty sixty years.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I think it's the problem with it that people because
there is a generation that's sort of still alive that
lived with you know, when the only way you could
deal with measles was to hopefully you get through it.
But pre vaccination is there sort of is there a
frustration that people think, oh, we had measles when we
were younger and it wasn't very nice and we got
over it and we're fine, sort I think ninety sixty
(01:29):
nine by the way, there you go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Look, look there is a little bit of that around.
I think there's a couple of things there is that.
So that's you're exactly right on what you've said. I
think we've come out of COVID where there was a
whole lot of immunization misinformation around, and I think that's
been been quite quite it's had a big, big impact
in people's view of immunization with measles, mumpsonry bellery immunization.
(01:56):
There was the case of a physician in England in
the late nineties who claimed that it was it was
associated with autism. Oh yeah, now got proven that that
that was totally false. You know that the person who
did it didn't disclose the financial conflict. They were being
paid by lawyers preparing a lawsuit. Number of ethical violations
(02:19):
and the fact that that doctor whose name was Andrew Wakefield,
was actually struck off in twenty ten over this through
serious professional wist conduct and dishonesty. So it was it
was no basis to it whatsoever. There's been very large
trials since then that has shown there's no association whatsoever.
But I think that's had that that that did have
(02:40):
an impact because you.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Made RFKR in the house and.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I know so, so that that sort of adds to everything.
And in fact, he was he was around at the
time the Sama thing as Sama outbreak happened and there
was very low immunization rates and Samara and he had actually
been been in Samar around that time. So look, a
number of things have been happening, a lot of misinformation
on social media about immunization, which is a real problem
and it certainly is impacting our munization rates in New
(03:09):
Zealand at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I remember once I had I'm hesitant to quote her
from back in the days of you know, tomounimanizations for
other things, and I had Helen Petusus Harris, who's a vaccinologist,
and actually she had a really good she had quite
a nice pragmatic answer because people. Somebody called up and said, oh, look,
when I was young, we'd just have a we used
to know, some parents used to have chicken pox parties
(03:31):
and that have, you know, where someone would come along
and she and actually Helen's response was actually quite instant,
because you know, parents deliberately choosing Look, if we're going
to get chicken pox, then we might as well get
it now sort of thing. And Helen's response simply was, well, yes,
people did do that back then, but now we have
a better answer.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And I thought it was so simply put.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It was understanding and empathizing with why parents people might
make choices. But she said, but now we have a
better way, and it's called a vaccine.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah. Look, I totally agree with Helen, and it's a
it's a lovely way of putting it that. Yeah, vaccines
have been developed for a reason and it's a much
better way of doing it because you know, the measles.
One thing I'll say about the measles is, you know,
for a lot of children, yes, they get unwell and
you know they require isolation and they will get better,
(04:20):
but it's not by nine. So there are these serious complications,
you know, including dehydration, pneumonia brain swelling, which is potentially
very serious. And yeah, for that proportion of kids especially
are under one year olds because they don't get vaccinated,
they are really at risk. And you know, of the
seven hundred that were admitted into New Zealand hospitals in
(04:42):
twenty nineteen, you know, sort of one hundred of those
were under the age of one and they required really
intensive treatment to deal with the issues. So we put
out our little Tamarik at risk with this with low
emmorganization rates.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Actually, just before we get onto the question of heart health,
which I want to explore, what is the way you
mentioned that certain communities I think within did you say
within Maria and Pacific Island communities the vaccination rates.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Are are lower.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
What if you could click your fingers and come up
with a solution for that. What would we be doing
better to get communities engaged with that stuff?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Oh, look, look, I think it's the communities themselves, and
it's really the communities have got the answer for that.
I'd look. I work in Canon's Creek AND's Pirua, and
you know there's a huge amount of community engagement going
out talking at churches and schools about vaccination contacting parents
and really trying to build a trust in vaccination and
(05:44):
the need for it. So I think there's a lot
of those things that need to happen, But it's also
the communities themselves talking about vaccination, talking about the reasons
for it, and freeing up the access to vaccination services
becomes really really important, so that the more points of
contact you have to be able to get vaccination, to
(06:05):
go out into the community and have vaccination carried out
is really important.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, and please if you're not vaccinated against the measles
and just it's a pretty simple process, isn't it, Brian,
In fact, for adults even what is the process that
people aren't sure about getting amminized?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
What do they do?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So, so look, you mentioned nineteen sixty nine, which is
about that fifty year sixty year mark. If you were
born before nineteen sixty nine, or in particular between sixty
two and sixty nine, you should think about getting a
measles booster. So we sort of recommend that because you
may only be partially immunized if it fall into that
that that group, Yeah, and going back further, you quite
(06:49):
like to have contacted the measles. So there's natural immunity.
But yeah, it's something you should probably talk about with
your GP doctor or nurse about whether it's something you
should consider if you're in that sort of slightly older
age group.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, okay, let's get onto the heart health. You know,
I was one of the things when we were looking
at having a chat about heart health. I was just thinking,
it's one of those questions that people only really start
to care about their heart health when they or someone
close to them has keeled over and hopefully like we've
survived or there's been a tragedy. Are we cognizant enough
(07:23):
in New Zealand of the importance of looking after our heart?
Because I mean, the thing that stuck out to me
when you first discover, you know, learn a little bit
basics about human biology is just being reminded of the
obvious that this is a muscle that never ever stops
until it stops.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
It stops. Yeah, it's a phenomenal muscle. But yes, art
the fact that just you're born, it just beats and
it just keeps on going till the day you pass away. Yeah.
Look at it's an interesting question you ask, and I
mean I think sometimes perhaps people you know, we don't
realize the impact of heart disease on New Zealander. So
(08:01):
what we do know is about one hundred and eighty
thousand New Zealanders live with heart disease. In New Zealand,
about ten thousand of us die every year from heart disease.
So that's one person every ninety minutes.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
That's carnage.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well well, look, look you're not wrong with what you say.
So and for some people there's no warning. It can
be very sudden, and it can be and it's absolutely
traumatic obviously for a faro and family that are left behind.
So yeah, look, it's a major impact on the health
of New Zealander. Is it's something we should actually think
(08:37):
about because a lot of heart disease, not all heart disease,
but a lot of it is actually preventable and preventable
through lifestyle and what we actually do on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So what percentage of those tenhou arm and gosh, that's
a hera in this number, isn't it? But what percentage
of those would be preventable as opposed to you've got
a predisposition, you.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Know, sure, sure, Look, look, probably probably a good proportion.
We know that age is probably the biggest stress factor
as you get older.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You can't help that, can you.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, you know, you can delay the onset of where
the heart gets a bit tired and worn out, but
the percentages are quite high in terms of what could
potentially be prevented through just thinking about a lifestyle and
particular our diets in particular. Physical inactivity is another big,
(09:29):
big one that in modern days, you know that that's
become a real, real issue and things like smoking and alcohol.
You smoking in particular is devastating for increasing the rates
of heart disease. In fact, if you give up smoking,
you reduce your rate of dying of heart disease by
about fifty percent after about five years. So it's major.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Why Why is that?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Because intuitively, and I'll ask questions from a dumb point
one of you, Intuitively we think, well, of course we
can understand lung cancer, smoke lungs bad. How does how
does it the heart muscle?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, look, I mean, you know, basically, we take a
whole lot of toxins into our blood system. With smoking,
we tend to with nicotine that's in the cigarette smoke,
we tend to put up our blood pressure. And blood
pressure is one of the big, big risk factors for
heart disease, and it tends to just be associated with
(10:28):
a whole lot of things like deposition of cholesterol on
the artery walls, blood pressure, and yeah, it's got this
very very strong association with not just heart disease, but
stroke as well. So yeah, smoking per se, apart from
the nicotine, puts pumps into our bodies about one hundred
(10:48):
and sixty different toxins of chemicals, and to cut a
long story short term, it's basically toxic, poisonous. That's essentially
what it does.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, I mean, ironically, what smoking does do is cut
a long story short, doesn't it, Because yes, I mean
potentially long story short. I mean we had the famous
the death of a fav very famous New Zealander, Bob Jones,
who sort of lived a reasonably long life. But all
I could think of was that with the pipe. I
was thinking, how long would you have kept going if
(11:19):
he had cut that habit out twenty or thirty years before.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean, well, look, that's a really interesting question. But
we always have these stories of people who have smoked
all their lives and live into their nineties or you know, hundred.
You always sort of hear those type of stories, they
have long lives. However, when you look at smoking as
a collective from the people who smoke, what we do
know just shortens life. That's what it actually does. And
apart from the effects on the lungs, and again, when
(11:45):
you start to get lung damage, the lungs don't work
as well, it tends to put pressure on the heart,
the part can't pump as well. Tends to lead to
things like heart failure and things. And so yeah, all
these effects are pretty devastating on the human body. And
let's face it, we weren't designed to put a great
(12:05):
smoke and toxins into our body. You know, every day
you just think about it. It's not something that the
human body was designed to do.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, speaking of things we might necessarily necessarily been designed
to do. And yet you know, there's the argument about moderation.
You probably guess what my next question is going to be,
what about where are we at with alcohol consumption and
heart health? Because there's one of the things people talk
about is stress can impact your heart. When some people
think that, well, it lasts of wine maybe three or
(12:33):
four times a week at the end.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Of a big day.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Where are we at with alcohol and heart health.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, no, that's that's a good question because it's probably
one of the ones we don't think of too much.
And yeah, it's it's an important one.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
So so.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, it's it's one of those ones that that that
is quite important. And the more we drink, the more
it does tend to affect the heart. Now, one of
the ways it can affect the heart, you know how
cold can be affected with blood pressures, so put in
your blood pressure ups pressure on the heart. But there
is a specific condition that occurs called cardiomopathy. So a
(13:09):
lot of alcohol consumption can cause the heart muscle to
the heart to actually enlarge, in the heart muscle to
actually weaken, and that can lead to problems down the track.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So that with extreme drinking, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
When you you're above above what's sort of recommended, you know, So,
so drinking and moderation is what we try and push.
You know, less is better basically, but if you have
an excessive alcohol it can certainly lead to this this
cardiomopathy condition where the heart gets enlarged, it doesn't pump
as well, it's weaker than it should be, and it
leads to heart failure and a whole lot of problems.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Okay, well, look I'm going to throw it out there
for people to give you a call as well. On
eight hundred eighty ten eighty text nine nine two were
having a chat about heart health, Mandy. If you've got
any questions around the measles and MMR vaccines and things
like that. If you've got any questions, we have doctor
Brian Betty is with us GP and also as you
will know, he's said chair of General Practice New Zealand.
(14:07):
Give us a call eight hundred eighty ten eighty. But
also on the heart thing, if you have gone through
a bit of a journey with heart health and you've
come out the other side, or what was it that
made a difference to you, What was the lesson that
you realized about what where you were going wrong? Because
sometimes sharing your story can help other people reflect on
what they're doing with their last style.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Give us a call. I'd love to hear from you.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty e text on nine two.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
If you like nine two nine two, should I say
we'll be back in just a moment.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Is twenty three past four news Talks. He'd be.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And welcome back to the weekly collective. This is the
Health Hub. My guest is doctor Brian Betty. He's GP
and chair of the General Practice New Zealand, talking about
heart health and we've got I've got a lot of
questions to dig into with but we're going to take
some calls as well.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Steph, Hello, Hi, Hello, Hello, Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Where you go?
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I've got a few questions about heart health. And so
with heart health, how do you deal with that when
it's full of injustice?
Speaker 6 (15:27):
Right?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Injustice really affects your heart?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Are you talking about stress?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Steph?
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yes, stress and just complete injustice.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay, I'll keep that question short, I think, because I'm
not sure where it's going. And Brian, but let's let's
tie that in with stress, shall we? I think, because
injustice sounds a bit political? What do you reckon, Brian?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Stress?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Well, there's no doubt that stress releases basically hormones or
doorphins in our body that can increase heart rate and
can increase blood pressure. So we know that over time
that if you are stressed continually and there's something triggering
that stress, that certainly blood pressure can increase. And we
(16:08):
know that blood pressure is one of those those factors
that does put stress on the heart. So look, it
can have an indirect effect through through blood pressure in
terms of what actually actually happens.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Okay, all right, let's take another call Ross.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Hello, Hello mate, there you going good? Yeah, I would
like to about cancers and all these sort of things.
I think the ten eighty is our biggest problem in
New Zealand is coming down into the water. There's trace
is found in dairy meat and honey, and it's all
(16:45):
the basic stuff that we eat a little bit of.
It's all in the stuff we eat.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I think that's a slightly contentious view. Ross, I don't
really want to in the ten a debate, but you've
got anything to say on that, Brian.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Look, look, I mean you know there's we know that
some pesticides are linked to cancer. We do know that
ten eighty is a very controversial area in terms of
what happens in terms of pest controls. So I think
it's it's not there's no clear answer on that.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But I mean it apparently does break down in water.
But actually we're not going to get we're not going
to get into the arguments around that because then I
have someone targeting my home address when I call it crazy,
which has happened before, believe it or not, so stay
away ross on the actually just on the question of
what I think one of the bigger questions is, and
(17:39):
obviously in your role at general Practice New Zealand, is
what can and should New Zealanders do look after their
heart versus what role does the government have to play
in us making healthier choices? Do you think because I've
had a few texts saying we'll get rid of KFC
and they always get a hard time despite how many
times they advertising can have a healthy choice if you want.
(18:00):
But anyway, but how what what do you think when
it comes to the government telling us how we should
live versus maybe them playing in a role in information
we will make our own choices.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Well, look, look, I think information and education is really important.
I mean, you know the basics around healthheart are ready
two things diet and exercise. That those are the two things,
and we don't know we know that we don't exercise enough.
Diet is problematic. We live in what we call this
a bisogenic environment, so we have a lot of access
(18:32):
to processed foods which are high in sugar and high
in salt, and they have a direct impact on heart disease.
So there's no doubt that diet plays a big thing,
and in particular takeaway food, so you're referred to KFC
a whole range of them. So I think awareness about
the potential. You know, it's not to say you can't
(18:54):
have these things, and I'm a big believer in all
things moderation, but it's when it's excessive that's the problem
we start to run into. And I think the government
does have a big role to play in terms of education,
in terms of what we actually do with that, and
we know there's debates over things like, you know, certain suburbs,
too many takeaway stores, and access to food, and especially
(19:15):
for our children. We're the third highest country in the
world for obesity amongst our children. It's it's it's quite phenomenal.
So we've got a real real problem with that. And yeah,
the other one that often comes up is tax on sugar.
So these things do float around, and that there's two
sides to all those arguments. I think the big key
thing is actually education and actually us making decisions for
(19:38):
ourselves on what we do with us and how are
we handle it.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Because the sugar taxes, to me, I don't like the
idea of it taxes as a way of doing things.
But of course, you know, we have excise taxes and
we are doing you know, smoking is a classic example
that if it went for the excise tax on or
whatever it is, on cigarettes, be well, they'd be cheapest chips.
But I would be in favor of, for instance, sugary drinks.
(20:02):
I still remember that when I first learned how much
sugar was in a can of coke, I was, you know,
and this was as a young man who just drink it,
you know, because I don't really care and I never
thought about it. That I heard it was like thirteen
or fifteen tea spoons. I was, what what I mean?
And should we have something around labeling?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Do you think?
Speaker 6 (20:22):
I mean?
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I know this is on the political side, but if.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You know your role is potentially political, if you want
to be lobbying for things, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Look look, I think you taped into a really important one.
I think one of the big big ones that are
talked about are these sugary soda drinks. So these are
your soft drinks with very high sugar. Now, the problem
with them is that they are packed full of sugar.
You're absolutely right, in terms of the amount of sugar.
Often a coke or a lemonade or something could have
And the problem with them is when you drink them,
(20:51):
they get absorbed into the body very very quickly and
overwhelm the body with sugar or glucose that has nowhere
to go. So what often happens with that excess sugar
it's laid down as fat in the body, and in
particular abdominal fat, and that's a big, big risks factor
for heart disease. So yeah, there's a lot of debate
(21:12):
about access to these sugary soft drinks, especially amongst children.
It's a real issue amongst children and parents need to
be aware of.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Do you think most people know drinks?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Do you think most people know They just see a
can of the brand and they go yummy, full style,
as opposed to this drink has thirteen teaspoons of sugar.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah. Look, look, a lot of people probably don't think
about enough. And I'm not aware of that, and I
think you're right certainly. What I have seen though is
and this is just a comment on what I see
in the clinic, there's a lot of people if they
are going to drink their cokes or the lemonades or
whatever are switching to coke zero or or what's at zero.
(21:53):
So so these these sugar free options, which I think
is a better option, it is a bit. Yeah, it
is a better option. There's still problems with them, so
we have to accept that. But people are making those
sort of choice, which I see more of now than
I perhaps did a few years ago. So the awareness
is probably more there, but we could do a lot
more with talking about the problems of these drinks. And
(22:14):
actually the other one is things like orange juice and
fruit juice. They're very, very high in fructose, they're very
high in concentrated sugars, and again they get absorbed into
the body very quickly and the body finds it very
difficult to handle them.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
All right, let's take some more calls, then let's go
to In fact, I think we're two Trevor's on the line,
so one after the other.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Trevor, Hello, Oh, good atim and thanks for having the
program buying. Yeah, I'm in christ is seventy seven years old,
reasonably healthy apart from knocking myself about. But with regard
to pre end of like trying to find any problems
before they get to a serious stage. What do you
(22:58):
should a doctor be able to do a long capacity
test for example?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Well, look, look, there's a whole lot of basic tests
we have access to. I think one of your big ones,
if I'm honest, Trevor, is sort of those routine yearly
blood tests, okay, for things like your cholesterol, your sugar,
and also checking your blood pressure. One of the biggest,
biggest single risk factors for the heart is blood pressure,
So monitoring that and keeping an eye on that I
think is really really important. Now, certainly if you've got
(23:28):
an issue like you're a smoker, or you've got what
we call COPD or asthma or something than spiometry or
lung what we call lung function tests are actually often done.
They can be done on the clinics. Often we have
access to sperometers. So it depends on your individual circumstance.
I suppose it's the big, big thing, but I think
there's reason So sorry, what was that, Trivall.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
We don't have any reason or any concerns, you know.
It's just that a person I know who's into his
health said, you know, try and get a lung capacity test.
I thought, oh, well, that's going to be five minutes
and probably a good thing to do, but Adoptor doesn't
want to. He says on that we don't do that.
Those are outlic.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Sure, but they'll have access to them. But again, unless
is a reason for doing it, I wouldn't necessarily be
recommending it, but certainly what I would be recommended is
what you're saying is that the routine blood tests, the
routine check up, and keep an eye on those basics
which do do impact the health of our heart, and
that's really really important.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Yeah, more specifically then I don't want to take it
too much time. But on the heart, what is the
in the priority order would be a CT calcium Look.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
CT calcium scores are quite controversial. I fall into the
camp that I think your metabolic indicators. By that I
mean your blood pressure, your sugar levels, your cholesterol levels,
and ensuring that your lifestyle is in place. So trying
to keep up adequate exercise I think is incredibly important
(25:01):
to your age. And in fact, if I was to
say something regularly exercise or just going for a walk
every day is probably better than any medication or anything
we can do for you. So I think your lifestyle
issues are really really the key to it all. I
believe a calcium channel score or a calcium score, all
(25:22):
that really really does is reinforce the fact that you
need to, you know, watch your diet size and do
the yearly checkup and stuffs.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Thanks for your call, Trevor.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And also sometimes you do a quick Google on these
things and just type the word controversy after it, and
it's interesting the facts that you get revealed to you. Anyway, let's,
by the way, just quickly salt before we get We've
got a bunch of calls. But I thought i'd just
throw in the question around. It's the hidden salt which
people worry about, it isn't it. But what about just
salt for your daily cooking and what does that play
(25:55):
a role in blood pressure?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Slash art health.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, absolutely, so we know that salts associated with blood pressure,
and again this is one of the big big risks
with heart disease is and we know we've got too
much salt in our diet and especially with processed foods.
So those processed foods, those takeaway foods, you know, ham, bacon,
takeaway foods tend to be full of salt. So yeah,
(26:19):
so cooking with salt. Look if you put some salt
in your potatoes to boil them. I think that's relatively okay.
And often what I do say to my patients is, look,
just look at the basics, Like if you put extra
salt on your food at the table, maybe just cutting
that out and reducing that has quite an impact on
the total amount of salt we take during the day.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
So I was wondering about so like bacon and eggs, Okay,
forget the bacon and salty.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Let's just say that I walked into that one.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
But yeah, you've got eggs on toast and you give it,
give it a couple of give it a couple of
grinds of salt.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yummy. Is that the problem? That's the problem? It is yummy? Yeah,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Is it a problem of doing it for taste rather
than all the hidden stuff processed foods.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
What you do find those people get into the habit
of not putting this on the eggs on their toast
or whatever, or on their food. They get into the
habit of doing it, then they tend to not notice it.
So it is often because we're in a habit. We
we know the taste, we enjoy the taste, and we
keep doing it, so there is a bit of a
habit to it, and people do get used to doing it.
(27:24):
It's like having sugar and tea or coffee. If you
cut sugar out over time, you just get used to
not having sugar and you tea or coffee.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So yeah, salt on your eggs.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
I'm not going to answer that.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I go for the everything in moderation sort of thing.
But anyway, I'm a big fan of everything in moderation.
I love that. That's I can sing from that hymn
book all day, Brian. But okay, we'll take another break.
We've got a bunch of course I make. We will
touch on it. We want to dig into just there's
a headline around vaping as well, and we might touch
on that. But we have a bunch of people lined
up to talk to you brand, so we'll be back
in just a moment. It's ten and a half minutes
(28:02):
to five news talks.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
He'd be.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Well, that sounds like a modern version of Titler Clips
of the Heart.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
There, we're sticking with the heart thing with Dr Brian
Betty GP and Chair of the General Practice, New Zealand
taking your calls. We're going to try and speed up
because we've time has shot, but lots of people wanting
to pick Brian's brains. And here we go Trevor Hello.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Yes, good evening, doctor Beauty Betty. Yeah, ob seventy nine
and very briefly my mother years and years ago passed away.
I had a go open heart surgery subride there at
Boys you had the pig trens blood, you know. But
(28:53):
I've led a pretty physical license then years in the Army,
said in Vietnam, exposed to that aded orange crapple lost
but daughters through it. But anyway, I've had quite a
few heart pop was lately myself and I've been on
the chopper a few times, and I've had surgery, you know,
(29:13):
transplant myself. It was two days freight for the heart surgery,
so I went up through the they went up through
the growing. Doctor Nen from way Kado did it. But
I tried to exercise, you know. I bought a knee
bike and exercised as much as I could. God damn,
(29:35):
I'm still having bloody, really bad turns, passing out nets.
So I don't know what the hell's going on. I've
got a heart specialist nurse that I see every couple
of weeks in firal hospital and then the medical center.
But okay, at seventy nine, you know I have to
(29:57):
get out of the art. I worked on a fire
with business.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Have you got a question here? What was your question
for Brin? Sorry to jump on that, Trevor.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
What my question is? What else can I do to
sort of get back to the old self?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Okay, fair enough. It's difficult to turn back time, isn't it, Brian?
And I guess the question there is also if you
have a history of family heart problems, is there you know,
can you get ahead of it as well?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Look, I think if you've got a family history of
heart problems, I think prevention is better than cure. So
in those situations, I think you do need to take
note of that family history, and the earlier you take
note of things like those dietary changes like salt sugar
in the diet, eating lots of fruit and vegetables, and
(30:47):
exercising as I keep going back to it daily sort
of exercise or four to five times a week, just
going for a walk for thirty to forty minutes a
week is the type of thing that's often recommended. Has
has a miserable benefit plus getting those regular checkups once
a year to check your blood press, to check your bloods,
your sugars, your cholesterol in particular, that's really really important.
(31:11):
So if you do have that history, I think prevention
is actually the thing, and there's there's a lot we
can do around that in terms of advice and what
we do. So I think that's what's really really important.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Thanks for your call that, Trevor. Thank you, Yeah, thank you,
really appreciate it, right, Josh, Hello, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
Hi guys, high term, Hi doctor. My questions are in
regards to cholesterol, fats, and oils.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Good and bad.
Speaker 8 (31:38):
That's sort of consensus.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
Yeah, well's the consensus there was, like the oils, the fats,
and the good and bad question.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Like a nice big slab of bacon versus a bit
of olive oil on your pasta.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Let's go with that one, right.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah. Yeah, so look, really good question, thanks, Josh.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
No, so not all all fats or oils are bad.
We do know that the ones that are particularly bad
and the ones that tend to have excess are what
we call the saturated fats. So those are the ones
that are found in the fat around meat. They're often
found in take away foods. And these are the fats
that really drive something called LDLs in our blood, our
(32:19):
bad cholesterol essentially, and this is a cholesterol that deposits
on vessel walls and leads to heart attacks. However, we
have good oils, and in particular olive oil, So we
know that olive oil is good, especially virgin of olive oil,
and so using olive oil and salads and things like that,
(32:41):
especially non cooked olive oil, has a positive effect on cholesterol,
and it tends to raise our what are called HDLs,
which are considered our good cholesterol, and they are the
things that sort of mop up these deposits of fats
on our vessel walls, and they tend to be associated
with better outcomes. So certainly olive oil has a big,
big tick or plus around it. Things like fats associated
(33:04):
with meat particular tend to have a big cross around
it in terms of what it does to our cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, just quickly on the oils if they but they
still have that thing where they've got a tech on
certain oils and you just something else got the tick,
I must be all.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Right, or yeah, no, no, no, that that's sort of
around I mean the other one that's talked about is fish,
fish oil. So fish is very very good for heart health.
So it has a lot of very good good oils
in it, especially deep sea fish and salmon and things
which are actually very very positive for our heart health.
So yeah, no, there are definitely positives to certain foods
(33:39):
and certain oils within those foods good stuff.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Right, let's go to over Jane.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Hello, Hello, doctor Bryan.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
I have a friend and a friend of mine who
has got very high blood pressure, very high blood pressure.
Andrew doctor gave all the advice like you have done.
But the one thing that the curious made us curious
was no sugar. She's not had anything with sugar. Water
has got to go.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yes, blood pressure yes, so so yeah so so it's
an additional risk factor for putting pressure on the heart.
So we know that blood pressure puts puts a puts
a puts puts pressure on the heart. It's it's it's
one of those things that does. But what we do
know that sugar does is it can increase the amount
(34:30):
of fat deposits, specially the abdomen that leads to things
called insulin resistance and inflammation, which increases our risk of
heart disease. There is thought to be some sort of
association with blood pressure through the fact we tend to
put on weight if we eat a lot of sugar,
so it can affect the bad cholesterols in our blood.
(34:51):
It can cause this thing called insulin resistance and inflammation
around our abdominal fat and through through putting on weight
can can lead to increased blood pressure, which again puts
pressure on the heart. So it's an additional I think
risk fact and it's certain one of the things we
talk about if you have heart problems or have potential
heart problems about reducing sugar intake. It's one of the
(35:12):
risk factors.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Okay, thanks for you call over, Jane. We'll be back
in just a moment. We're with doctor Brian Betty. It
is ten minutes to five. Yes, the news talk said
be with doctor Brian Betty. Brian a couple of quick
fire text questions for you. Sure, cream and butter still
(35:34):
really bad?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Some people say not.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, No, there's a bit of debate going on around this.
Look what I come down to with this, especially with butter,
The thing is in moderation. I think the problem we
run into is when we have too much of it.
So again, I'm a big believer in a balanced diet,
big believer in all things in moderation and not trying
to exclude things all together.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Well, next time you're in Auckland, you come around and
I'll give you one of my homemade cross songs and
see how much. See how we go. They had a
friend who had two of them, he said, kind of another.
I said, well they are quite rich. He said, I
didn't need anything for the rest of the day. Now
I did mention I want to and time flies because
everyone wanted to have a chat with you. Vaping. There's
(36:18):
just some news about vaping. I think it's just worth
putting out there because there have been some recent headlines
out There has been some bit more research on this
now and it's not good for kids or anyone, really,
is it.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yeah, we have a high rate of kids taking up
vaping who would otherwise not smoke. So this is a
big study out of Oxford, about two hundred and fifty
thousand people followed up to see, look, is there a
long term problem with vaping, And actually the answer is yes.
So what's been discovered is that there's about you know,
two and a half times the rate of developing chronic
obstructive airways disease otherwise known as mph seema, which is
(36:53):
a devastating disease of the lungs where the lungs just
don't work as well. And there's been some association with
blood pressure as well. So there are does seem to
be emerging some long term effects to and this is
a real concern with the rates of vaping we have,
especially in our younger adolescents and younger people.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
That is where I think there's some room for the
government policy to do something about this too. I mean,
as we don't like government intervention and things, but if
the alternative smoking is you know, not too flash either,
is it, well.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Well, I've got to be clear on this as a
smokingessation tool, I'm all for it. It's less harmful than smoking,
so we've got to be very careful about that. The
issue as those who would otherwise not smoke taking up vaping,
there seems to be this problem. So I think we
need to think about this pretty pretty hard as to
what we do about this.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
And without inundating GPS. As a result of this show,
if people are concerned about their heart health, what are
the basic steps they can take to just get a
check up. Would it be calling ahead with your GP
and saying I want to come in and talk about
this and get the blood test aforehand and all that.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, Look, you don't have to do it tomorrow when
you can do it in the next month. You're just
booking a check up to get your blood pressure check.
They'll either do the blood blood test that point or
the loft and audit before you come in. So you
want a heart check, they'll do the basic blood test,
to the examination. List to the heart, listen to the lungs,
take a history. We generally generally do the blood test
(38:19):
and the blood pressure. Yeah, so you can book ahead
for that. There's no urgency with it, so don't think
it has to be done tomorrow, but it's a good
thing to do.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Hey, Brian, I really appreciate your time this stuff and
it's such great information for people and I hope we're
going to do it again again soon.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, thanks very much, Tim, I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Thanks very much.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
That is Dr Brian Betty, the GP and Chair of
General Practice New Zealand, and thank for all your feedback.
If you missed any of the hour you want to
catch it. Lots of good information there. Then go and
check out the podcast, which will be loaded pretty quickly
after each our concludes, and you go to the News
Talks b website for that. Thanks very much to Brian Betty.
We'll be back with Smart Money. Shane Sally's with us.
We're going to talk about We're going to talk about
(38:58):
money actually, yeah, among other things. We'll be back very
shortly News Talks.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
He'd be for more from the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Listen live to News Talks it be weekends from three pm,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks.
I'd be children in New Zealand down about eighty percent,
sixty nine percent of MARI. So yeah, an outbreak measles
if it was to spread, would be yeah, reasonably, very
very serious.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, well, saw what it did in samow was it
ninety six deaths or ninety two deaths. I mean there's
in a small country, you know, not a big country,
ninety almost one hundred deaths.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Look, and we can't forget that we had seven hundred
admissions of children into hospital here in New Zealand. And yes,
we had the eighty deaths and Samaraw So New Zealand
was very very lucky not to get away with any
deaths at all. But Samoa got hit very badly. So
although a lot of people think that measles is a
you know, sort of benign childhood type illness, it can
(00:53):
have very very serious consequences.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
How yeah, how long have we had a vaccination for it?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I can't give you the exact time roughly vaccination, but
it's been about twenty fifty sixty years.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I think it's the problem with it that people because
there is a generation that's sort of still alive that
lived with you know, when the only way you could
deal with measles was to hopefully you get through it.
But pre vaccination is there sort of is there a
frustration that people think, oh, we had measles when we
were younger and it wasn't very nice and we got
over it and we're fine, sort I think ninety sixty
(01:29):
nine by the way, there you go, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Look, look there is a little bit of that around.
I think there's a couple of things there is that.
So that's you're exactly right on what you've said. I
think we've come out of COVID where there was a
whole lot of immunization misinformation around, and I think that's
been been quite quite it's had a big, big impact
in people's view of immunization with measles, mumpsonry bellery immunization.
(01:56):
There was the case of a physician in England in
the late nineties who claimed that it was it was
associated with autism. Oh yeah, now got proven that that
that was totally false. You know that the person who
did it didn't disclose the financial conflict. They were being
paid by lawyers preparing a lawsuit. Number of ethical violations
(02:19):
and the fact that that doctor whose name was Andrew Wakefield,
was actually struck off in twenty ten over this through
serious professional wist conduct and dishonesty. So it was it
was no basis to it whatsoever. There's been very large
trials since then that has shown there's no association whatsoever.
But I think that's had that that that did have
(02:40):
an impact because you.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Made RFKR in the house and.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
I know so, so that that sort of adds to everything.
And in fact, he was he was around at the
time the Sama thing as Sama outbreak happened and there
was very low immunization rates and Samara and he had actually
been been in Samar around that time. So look, a
number of things have been happening, a lot of misinformation
on social media about immunization, which is a real problem
and it certainly is impacting our munization rates in New
(03:09):
Zealand at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I remember once I had I'm hesitant to quote her
from back in the days of you know, tomounimanizations for
other things, and I had Helen Petusus Harris, who's a vaccinologist,
and actually she had a really good she had quite
a nice pragmatic answer because people. Somebody called up and said, oh, look,
when I was young, we'd just have a we used
to know, some parents used to have chicken pox parties
(03:31):
and that have, you know, where someone would come along
and she and actually Helen's response was actually quite instant,
because you know, parents deliberately choosing Look, if we're going
to get chicken pox, then we might as well get
it now sort of thing. And Helen's response simply was, well, yes,
people did do that back then, but now we have
a better answer.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
And I thought it was so simply put.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It was understanding and empathizing with why parents people might
make choices. But she said, but now we have a
better way, and it's called a vaccine.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yeah. Look, I totally agree with Helen, and it's a
it's a lovely way of putting it that. Yeah, vaccines
have been developed for a reason and it's a much
better way of doing it because you know, the measles.
One thing I'll say about the measles is, you know,
for a lot of children, yes, they get unwell and
you know they require isolation and they will get better,
(04:20):
but it's not by nine. So there are these serious complications,
you know, including dehydration, pneumonia brain swelling, which is potentially
very serious. And yeah, for that proportion of kids especially
are under one year olds because they don't get vaccinated,
they are really at risk. And you know, of the
seven hundred that were admitted into New Zealand hospitals in
(04:42):
twenty nineteen, you know, sort of one hundred of those
were under the age of one and they required really
intensive treatment to deal with the issues. So we put
out our little Tamarik at risk with this with low
emmorganization rates.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Actually, just before we get onto the question of heart health,
which I want to explore, what is the way you
mentioned that certain communities I think within did you say
within Maria and Pacific Island communities the vaccination rates.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Are are lower.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
What if you could click your fingers and come up
with a solution for that. What would we be doing
better to get communities engaged with that stuff?
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Oh, look, look, I think it's the communities themselves, and
it's really the communities have got the answer for that.
I'd look. I work in Canon's Creek AND's Pirua, and
you know there's a huge amount of community engagement going
out talking at churches and schools about vaccination contacting parents
and really trying to build a trust in vaccination and
(05:44):
the need for it. So I think there's a lot
of those things that need to happen, But it's also
the communities themselves talking about vaccination, talking about the reasons
for it, and freeing up the access to vaccination services
becomes really really important, so that the more points of
contact you have to be able to get vaccination, to
(06:05):
go out into the community and have vaccination carried out
is really important.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah, and please if you're not vaccinated against the measles
and just it's a pretty simple process, isn't it, Brian,
In fact, for adults even what is the process that
people aren't sure about getting amminized?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
What do they do?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:24):
So, so look, you mentioned nineteen sixty nine, which is
about that fifty year sixty year mark. If you were
born before nineteen sixty nine, or in particular between sixty
two and sixty nine, you should think about getting a
measles booster. So we sort of recommend that because you
may only be partially immunized if it fall into that
that that group, Yeah, and going back further, you quite
(06:49):
like to have contacted the measles. So there's natural immunity.
But yeah, it's something you should probably talk about with
your GP doctor or nurse about whether it's something you
should consider if you're in that sort of slightly older
age group.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yeah, okay, let's get onto the heart health. You know,
I was one of the things when we were looking
at having a chat about heart health. I was just thinking,
it's one of those questions that people only really start
to care about their heart health when they or someone
close to them has keeled over and hopefully like we've
survived or there's been a tragedy. Are we cognizant enough
(07:23):
in New Zealand of the importance of looking after our heart?
Because I mean, the thing that stuck out to me
when you first discover, you know, learn a little bit
basics about human biology is just being reminded of the
obvious that this is a muscle that never ever stops
until it stops.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
It stops. Yeah, it's a phenomenal muscle. But yes, art
the fact that just you're born, it just beats and
it just keeps on going till the day you pass away. Yeah.
Look at it's an interesting question you ask, and I
mean I think sometimes perhaps people you know, we don't
realize the impact of heart disease on New Zealander. So
(08:01):
what we do know is about one hundred and eighty
thousand New Zealanders live with heart disease. In New Zealand,
about ten thousand of us die every year from heart disease.
So that's one person every ninety minutes.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
That's carnage.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well well, look, look you're not wrong with what you say.
So and for some people there's no warning. It can
be very sudden, and it can be and it's absolutely
traumatic obviously for a faro and family that are left behind.
So yeah, look, it's a major impact on the health
of New Zealander. Is it's something we should actually think
(08:37):
about because a lot of heart disease, not all heart disease,
but a lot of it is actually preventable and preventable
through lifestyle and what we actually do on a daily basis.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
So what percentage of those tenhou arm and gosh, that's
a hera in this number, isn't it? But what percentage
of those would be preventable as opposed to you've got
a predisposition, you.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Know, sure, sure, Look, look, probably probably a good proportion.
We know that age is probably the biggest stress factor
as you get older.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
You can't help that, can you.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, you know, you can delay the onset of where
the heart gets a bit tired and worn out, but
the percentages are quite high in terms of what could
potentially be prevented through just thinking about a lifestyle and
particular our diets in particular. Physical inactivity is another big,
(09:29):
big one that in modern days, you know that that's
become a real, real issue and things like smoking and alcohol.
You smoking in particular is devastating for increasing the rates
of heart disease. In fact, if you give up smoking,
you reduce your rate of dying of heart disease by
about fifty percent after about five years. So it's major.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Why Why is that?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Because intuitively, and I'll ask questions from a dumb point
one of you, Intuitively we think, well, of course we
can understand lung cancer, smoke lungs bad. How does how
does it the heart muscle?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Well, look, I mean, you know, basically, we take a
whole lot of toxins into our blood system. With smoking,
we tend to with nicotine that's in the cigarette smoke,
we tend to put up our blood pressure. And blood
pressure is one of the big, big risk factors for
heart disease, and it tends to just be associated with
(10:28):
a whole lot of things like deposition of cholesterol on
the artery walls, blood pressure, and yeah, it's got this
very very strong association with not just heart disease, but
stroke as well. So yeah, smoking per se, apart from
the nicotine, puts pumps into our bodies about one hundred
(10:48):
and sixty different toxins of chemicals, and to cut a
long story short term, it's basically toxic, poisonous. That's essentially
what it does.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, I mean, ironically, what smoking does do is cut
a long story short, doesn't it, Because yes, I mean
potentially long story short. I mean we had the famous
the death of a fav very famous New Zealander, Bob Jones,
who sort of lived a reasonably long life. But all
I could think of was that with the pipe. I
was thinking, how long would you have kept going if
(11:19):
he had cut that habit out twenty or thirty years before.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I mean, well, look, that's a really interesting question. But
we always have these stories of people who have smoked
all their lives and live into their nineties or you know, hundred.
You always sort of hear those type of stories, they
have long lives. However, when you look at smoking as
a collective from the people who smoke, what we do
know just shortens life. That's what it actually does. And
apart from the effects on the lungs, and again, when
(11:45):
you start to get lung damage, the lungs don't work
as well, it tends to put pressure on the heart,
the part can't pump as well. Tends to lead to
things like heart failure and things. And so yeah, all
these effects are pretty devastating on the human body. And
let's face it, we weren't designed to put a great
(12:05):
smoke and toxins into our body. You know, every day
you just think about it. It's not something that the
human body was designed to do.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, speaking of things we might necessarily necessarily been designed
to do. And yet you know, there's the argument about moderation.
You probably guess what my next question is going to be,
what about where are we at with alcohol consumption and
heart health? Because there's one of the things people talk
about is stress can impact your heart. When some people
think that, well, it lasts of wine maybe three or
(12:33):
four times a week at the end.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
Of a big day.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Where are we at with alcohol and heart health.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, no, that's that's a good question because it's probably
one of the ones we don't think of too much.
And yeah, it's it's an important one.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
So so.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, it's it's one of those ones that that that
is quite important. And the more we drink, the more
it does tend to affect the heart. Now, one of
the ways it can affect the heart, you know how
cold can be affected with blood pressures, so put in
your blood pressure ups pressure on the heart. But there
is a specific condition that occurs called cardiomopathy. So a
(13:09):
lot of alcohol consumption can cause the heart muscle to
the heart to actually enlarge, in the heart muscle to
actually weaken, and that can lead to problems down the track.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So that with extreme drinking, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
When you you're above above what's sort of recommended, you know, So,
so drinking and moderation is what we try and push.
You know, less is better basically, but if you have
an excessive alcohol it can certainly lead to this this
cardiomopathy condition where the heart gets enlarged, it doesn't pump
as well, it's weaker than it should be, and it
leads to heart failure and a whole lot of problems.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Okay, well, look I'm going to throw it out there
for people to give you a call as well. On
eight hundred eighty ten eighty text nine nine two were
having a chat about heart health, Mandy. If you've got
any questions around the measles and MMR vaccines and things
like that. If you've got any questions, we have doctor
Brian Betty is with us GP and also as you
will know, he's said chair of General Practice New Zealand.
(14:07):
Give us a call eight hundred eighty ten eighty. But
also on the heart thing, if you have gone through
a bit of a journey with heart health and you've
come out the other side, or what was it that
made a difference to you, What was the lesson that
you realized about what where you were going wrong? Because
sometimes sharing your story can help other people reflect on
what they're doing with their last style.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Give us a call. I'd love to hear from you.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty e text on nine two.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
If you like nine two nine two, should I say
we'll be back in just a moment.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Is twenty three past four news Talks. He'd be.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
And welcome back to the weekly collective. This is the
Health Hub. My guest is doctor Brian Betty. He's GP
and chair of the General Practice New Zealand, talking about
heart health and we've got I've got a lot of
questions to dig into with but we're going to take
some calls as well.
Speaker 6 (15:07):
Steph, Hello, Hi, Hello, Hello, Hi.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Where you go?
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I've got a few questions about heart health. And so
with heart health, how do you deal with that when
it's full of injustice?
Speaker 6 (15:27):
Right?
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Injustice really affects your heart?
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Are you talking about stress?
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Steph?
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Yes, stress and just complete injustice.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Okay, I'll keep that question short, I think, because I'm
not sure where it's going. And Brian, but let's let's
tie that in with stress, shall we? I think, because
injustice sounds a bit political? What do you reckon, Brian?
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Stress?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Well, there's no doubt that stress releases basically hormones or
doorphins in our body that can increase heart rate and
can increase blood pressure. So we know that over time
that if you are stressed continually and there's something triggering
that stress, that certainly blood pressure can increase. And we
(16:08):
know that blood pressure is one of those those factors
that does put stress on the heart. So look, it
can have an indirect effect through through blood pressure in
terms of what actually actually happens.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Okay, all right, let's take another call Ross.
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Hello, Hello mate, there you going good? Yeah, I would
like to about cancers and all these sort of things.
I think the ten eighty is our biggest problem in
New Zealand is coming down into the water. There's trace
is found in dairy meat and honey, and it's all
(16:45):
the basic stuff that we eat a little bit of.
It's all in the stuff we eat.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I think that's a slightly contentious view. Ross, I don't
really want to in the ten a debate, but you've
got anything to say on that, Brian.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Look, look, I mean you know there's we know that
some pesticides are linked to cancer. We do know that
ten eighty is a very controversial area in terms of
what happens in terms of pest controls. So I think
it's it's not there's no clear answer on that.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But I mean it apparently does break down in water.
But actually we're not going to get we're not going
to get into the arguments around that because then I
have someone targeting my home address when I call it crazy,
which has happened before, believe it or not, so stay
away ross on the actually just on the question of
what I think one of the bigger questions is, and
(17:39):
obviously in your role at general Practice New Zealand, is
what can and should New Zealanders do look after their
heart versus what role does the government have to play
in us making healthier choices? Do you think because I've
had a few texts saying we'll get rid of KFC
and they always get a hard time despite how many
times they advertising can have a healthy choice if you want.
(18:00):
But anyway, but how what what do you think when
it comes to the government telling us how we should
live versus maybe them playing in a role in information
we will make our own choices.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Well, look, look, I think information and education is really important.
I mean, you know the basics around healthheart are ready
two things diet and exercise. That those are the two things,
and we don't know we know that we don't exercise enough.
Diet is problematic. We live in what we call this
a bisogenic environment, so we have a lot of access
(18:32):
to processed foods which are high in sugar and high
in salt, and they have a direct impact on heart disease.
So there's no doubt that diet plays a big thing,
and in particular takeaway food, so you're referred to KFC
a whole range of them. So I think awareness about
the potential. You know, it's not to say you can't
(18:54):
have these things, and I'm a big believer in all
things moderation, but it's when it's excessive that's the problem
we start to run into. And I think the government
does have a big role to play in terms of education,
in terms of what we actually do with that, and
we know there's debates over things like, you know, certain suburbs,
too many takeaway stores, and access to food, and especially
(19:15):
for our children. We're the third highest country in the
world for obesity amongst our children. It's it's it's quite phenomenal.
So we've got a real real problem with that. And yeah,
the other one that often comes up is tax on sugar.
So these things do float around, and that there's two
sides to all those arguments. I think the big key
thing is actually education and actually us making decisions for
(19:38):
ourselves on what we do with us and how are
we handle it.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Because the sugar taxes, to me, I don't like the
idea of it taxes as a way of doing things.
But of course, you know, we have excise taxes and
we are doing you know, smoking is a classic example
that if it went for the excise tax on or
whatever it is, on cigarettes, be well, they'd be cheapest chips.
But I would be in favor of, for instance, sugary drinks.
(20:02):
I still remember that when I first learned how much
sugar was in a can of coke, I was, you know,
and this was as a young man who just drink it,
you know, because I don't really care and I never
thought about it. That I heard it was like thirteen
or fifteen tea spoons. I was, what what I mean?
And should we have something around labeling?
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Do you think?
Speaker 6 (20:22):
I mean?
Speaker 3 (20:22):
I know this is on the political side, but if.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
You know your role is potentially political, if you want
to be lobbying for things, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Look look, I think you taped into a really important one.
I think one of the big big ones that are
talked about are these sugary soda drinks. So these are
your soft drinks with very high sugar. Now, the problem
with them is that they are packed full of sugar.
You're absolutely right, in terms of the amount of sugar.
Often a coke or a lemonade or something could have
And the problem with them is when you drink them,
(20:51):
they get absorbed into the body very very quickly and
overwhelm the body with sugar or glucose that has nowhere
to go. So what often happens with that excess sugar
it's laid down as fat in the body, and in
particular abdominal fat, and that's a big, big risks factor
for heart disease. So yeah, there's a lot of debate
(21:12):
about access to these sugary soft drinks, especially amongst children.
It's a real issue amongst children and parents need to
be aware of.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
Do you think most people know drinks?
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Do you think most people know They just see a
can of the brand and they go yummy, full style,
as opposed to this drink has thirteen teaspoons of sugar.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah. Look, look, a lot of people probably don't think
about enough. And I'm not aware of that, and I
think you're right certainly. What I have seen though is
and this is just a comment on what I see
in the clinic, there's a lot of people if they
are going to drink their cokes or the lemonades or
whatever are switching to coke zero or or what's at zero.
(21:53):
So so these these sugar free options, which I think
is a better option, it is a bit. Yeah, it
is a better option. There's still problems with them, so
we have to accept that. But people are making those
sort of choice, which I see more of now than
I perhaps did a few years ago. So the awareness
is probably more there, but we could do a lot
more with talking about the problems of these drinks. And
(22:14):
actually the other one is things like orange juice and
fruit juice. They're very, very high in fructose, they're very
high in concentrated sugars, and again they get absorbed into
the body very quickly and the body finds it very
difficult to handle them.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
All right, let's take some more calls, then let's go
to In fact, I think we're two Trevor's on the line,
so one after the other.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Trevor, Hello, Oh, good atim and thanks for having the
program buying. Yeah, I'm in christ is seventy seven years old,
reasonably healthy apart from knocking myself about. But with regard
to pre end of like trying to find any problems
before they get to a serious stage. What do you
(22:58):
should a doctor be able to do a long capacity
test for example?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Well, look, look, there's a whole lot of basic tests
we have access to. I think one of your big ones,
if I'm honest, Trevor, is sort of those routine yearly
blood tests, okay, for things like your cholesterol, your sugar,
and also checking your blood pressure. One of the biggest,
biggest single risk factors for the heart is blood pressure,
So monitoring that and keeping an eye on that I
think is really really important. Now, certainly if you've got
(23:28):
an issue like you're a smoker, or you've got what
we call COPD or asthma or something than spiometry or
lung what we call lung function tests are actually often done.
They can be done on the clinics. Often we have
access to sperometers. So it depends on your individual circumstance.
I suppose it's the big, big thing, but I think
there's reason So sorry, what was that, Trivall.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
We don't have any reason or any concerns, you know.
It's just that a person I know who's into his
health said, you know, try and get a lung capacity test.
I thought, oh, well, that's going to be five minutes
and probably a good thing to do, but Adoptor doesn't
want to. He says on that we don't do that.
Those are outlic.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Sure, but they'll have access to them. But again, unless
is a reason for doing it, I wouldn't necessarily be
recommending it, but certainly what I would be recommended is
what you're saying is that the routine blood tests, the
routine check up, and keep an eye on those basics
which do do impact the health of our heart, and
that's really really important.
Speaker 6 (24:29):
Yeah, more specifically then I don't want to take it
too much time. But on the heart, what is the
in the priority order would be a CT calcium Look.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
CT calcium scores are quite controversial. I fall into the
camp that I think your metabolic indicators. By that I
mean your blood pressure, your sugar levels, your cholesterol levels,
and ensuring that your lifestyle is in place. So trying
to keep up adequate exercise I think is incredibly important
(25:01):
to your age. And in fact, if I was to
say something regularly exercise or just going for a walk
every day is probably better than any medication or anything
we can do for you. So I think your lifestyle
issues are really really the key to it all. I
believe a calcium channel score or a calcium score, all
(25:22):
that really really does is reinforce the fact that you
need to, you know, watch your diet size and do
the yearly checkup and stuffs.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Thanks for your call, Trevor.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And also sometimes you do a quick Google on these
things and just type the word controversy after it, and
it's interesting the facts that you get revealed to you. Anyway, let's,
by the way, just quickly salt before we get We've
got a bunch of calls. But I thought i'd just
throw in the question around. It's the hidden salt which
people worry about, it isn't it. But what about just
salt for your daily cooking and what does that play
(25:55):
a role in blood pressure?
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Slash art health.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Yeah, absolutely, so we know that salts associated with blood pressure,
and again this is one of the big big risks
with heart disease is and we know we've got too
much salt in our diet and especially with processed foods.
So those processed foods, those takeaway foods, you know, ham, bacon,
takeaway foods tend to be full of salt. So yeah,
(26:19):
so cooking with salt. Look if you put some salt
in your potatoes to boil them. I think that's relatively okay.
And often what I do say to my patients is, look,
just look at the basics, Like if you put extra
salt on your food at the table, maybe just cutting
that out and reducing that has quite an impact on
the total amount of salt we take during the day.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
So I was wondering about so like bacon and eggs, Okay,
forget the bacon and salty.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Let's just say that I walked into that one.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
But yeah, you've got eggs on toast and you give it,
give it a couple of give it a couple of
grinds of salt.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Yummy. Is that the problem? That's the problem? It is yummy? Yeah,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Is it a problem of doing it for taste rather
than all the hidden stuff processed foods.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
What you do find those people get into the habit
of not putting this on the eggs on their toast
or whatever, or on their food. They get into the
habit of doing it, then they tend to not notice it.
So it is often because we're in a habit. We
we know the taste, we enjoy the taste, and we
keep doing it, so there is a bit of a
habit to it, and people do get used to doing it.
(27:24):
It's like having sugar and tea or coffee. If you
cut sugar out over time, you just get used to
not having sugar and you tea or coffee.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So yeah, salt on your eggs.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
I'm not going to answer that.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
I go for the everything in moderation sort of thing.
But anyway, I'm a big fan of everything in moderation.
I love that. That's I can sing from that hymn
book all day, Brian. But okay, we'll take another break.
We've got a bunch of course I make. We will
touch on it. We want to dig into just there's
a headline around vaping as well, and we might touch
on that. But we have a bunch of people lined
up to talk to you brand, so we'll be back
in just a moment. It's ten and a half minutes
(28:02):
to five news talks.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
He'd be.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
Well, that sounds like a modern version of Titler Clips
of the Heart.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
There, we're sticking with the heart thing with Dr Brian
Betty GP and Chair of the General Practice, New Zealand
taking your calls. We're going to try and speed up
because we've time has shot, but lots of people wanting
to pick Brian's brains. And here we go Trevor Hello.
Speaker 8 (28:29):
Yes, good evening, doctor Beauty Betty. Yeah, ob seventy nine
and very briefly my mother years and years ago passed away.
I had a go open heart surgery subride there at
Boys you had the pig trens blood, you know. But
(28:53):
I've led a pretty physical license then years in the Army,
said in Vietnam, exposed to that aded orange crapple lost
but daughters through it. But anyway, I've had quite a
few heart pop was lately myself and I've been on
the chopper a few times, and I've had surgery, you know,
(29:13):
transplant myself. It was two days freight for the heart surgery,
so I went up through the they went up through
the growing. Doctor Nen from way Kado did it. But
I tried to exercise, you know. I bought a knee
bike and exercised as much as I could. God damn,
(29:35):
I'm still having bloody, really bad turns, passing out nets.
So I don't know what the hell's going on. I've
got a heart specialist nurse that I see every couple
of weeks in firal hospital and then the medical center.
But okay, at seventy nine, you know I have to
(29:57):
get out of the art. I worked on a fire
with business.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Have you got a question here? What was your question
for Brin? Sorry to jump on that, Trevor.
Speaker 8 (30:05):
What my question is? What else can I do to
sort of get back to the old self?
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Okay, fair enough. It's difficult to turn back time, isn't it, Brian?
And I guess the question there is also if you
have a history of family heart problems, is there you know,
can you get ahead of it as well?
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Look, I think if you've got a family history of
heart problems, I think prevention is better than cure. So
in those situations, I think you do need to take
note of that family history, and the earlier you take
note of things like those dietary changes like salt sugar
in the diet, eating lots of fruit and vegetables, and
(30:47):
exercising as I keep going back to it daily sort
of exercise or four to five times a week, just
going for a walk for thirty to forty minutes a
week is the type of thing that's often recommended. Has
has a miserable benefit plus getting those regular checkups once
a year to check your blood press, to check your bloods,
your sugars, your cholesterol in particular, that's really really important.
(31:11):
So if you do have that history, I think prevention
is actually the thing, and there's there's a lot we
can do around that in terms of advice and what
we do. So I think that's what's really really important.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Thanks for your call that, Trevor. Thank you, Yeah, thank you,
really appreciate it, right, Josh, Hello, Yeah.
Speaker 8 (31:29):
Hi guys, high term, Hi doctor. My questions are in
regards to cholesterol, fats, and oils.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Good and bad.
Speaker 8 (31:38):
That's sort of consensus.
Speaker 6 (31:40):
Yeah, well's the consensus there was, like the oils, the fats,
and the good and bad question.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Like a nice big slab of bacon versus a bit
of olive oil on your pasta.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Let's go with that one, right.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah. Yeah, so look, really good question, thanks, Josh.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
No, so not all all fats or oils are bad.
We do know that the ones that are particularly bad
and the ones that tend to have excess are what
we call the saturated fats. So those are the ones
that are found in the fat around meat. They're often
found in take away foods. And these are the fats
that really drive something called LDLs in our blood, our
(32:19):
bad cholesterol essentially, and this is a cholesterol that deposits
on vessel walls and leads to heart attacks. However, we
have good oils, and in particular olive oil, So we
know that olive oil is good, especially virgin of olive oil,
and so using olive oil and salads and things like that,
(32:41):
especially non cooked olive oil, has a positive effect on cholesterol,
and it tends to raise our what are called HDLs,
which are considered our good cholesterol, and they are the
things that sort of mop up these deposits of fats
on our vessel walls, and they tend to be associated
with better outcomes. So certainly olive oil has a big,
big tick or plus around it. Things like fats associated
(33:04):
with meat particular tend to have a big cross around
it in terms of what it does to our cholesterol.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
Yeah, just quickly on the oils if they but they
still have that thing where they've got a tech on
certain oils and you just something else got the tick,
I must be all.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Right, or yeah, no, no, no, that that's sort of
around I mean the other one that's talked about is fish,
fish oil. So fish is very very good for heart health.
So it has a lot of very good good oils
in it, especially deep sea fish and salmon and things
which are actually very very positive for our heart health.
So yeah, no, there are definitely positives to certain foods
(33:39):
and certain oils within those foods good stuff.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Right, let's go to over Jane.
Speaker 6 (33:44):
Hello, Hello, doctor Bryan.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
I have a friend and a friend of mine who
has got very high blood pressure, very high blood pressure.
Andrew doctor gave all the advice like you have done.
But the one thing that the curious made us curious
was no sugar. She's not had anything with sugar. Water
has got to go.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yes, blood pressure yes, so so yeah so so it's
an additional risk factor for putting pressure on the heart.
So we know that blood pressure puts puts a puts
a puts puts pressure on the heart. It's it's it's
one of those things that does. But what we do
know that sugar does is it can increase the amount
(34:30):
of fat deposits, specially the abdomen that leads to things
called insulin resistance and inflammation, which increases our risk of
heart disease. There is thought to be some sort of
association with blood pressure through the fact we tend to
put on weight if we eat a lot of sugar,
so it can affect the bad cholesterols in our blood.
(34:51):
It can cause this thing called insulin resistance and inflammation
around our abdominal fat and through through putting on weight
can can lead to increased blood pressure, which again puts
pressure on the heart. So it's an additional I think
risk fact and it's certain one of the things we
talk about if you have heart problems or have potential
heart problems about reducing sugar intake. It's one of the
(35:12):
risk factors.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Okay, thanks for you call over, Jane. We'll be back
in just a moment. We're with doctor Brian Betty. It
is ten minutes to five. Yes, the news talk said
be with doctor Brian Betty. Brian a couple of quick
fire text questions for you. Sure, cream and butter still
(35:34):
really bad?
Speaker 3 (35:35):
Some people say not.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, No, there's a bit of debate going on around this.
Look what I come down to with this, especially with butter,
The thing is in moderation. I think the problem we
run into is when we have too much of it.
So again, I'm a big believer in a balanced diet,
big believer in all things in moderation and not trying
to exclude things all together.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Well, next time you're in Auckland, you come around and
I'll give you one of my homemade cross songs and
see how much. See how we go. They had a
friend who had two of them, he said, kind of another.
I said, well they are quite rich. He said, I
didn't need anything for the rest of the day. Now
I did mention I want to and time flies because
everyone wanted to have a chat with you. Vaping. There's
(36:18):
just some news about vaping. I think it's just worth
putting out there because there have been some recent headlines
out There has been some bit more research on this
now and it's not good for kids or anyone, really,
is it.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Yeah, we have a high rate of kids taking up
vaping who would otherwise not smoke. So this is a
big study out of Oxford, about two hundred and fifty
thousand people followed up to see, look, is there a
long term problem with vaping, And actually the answer is yes.
So what's been discovered is that there's about you know,
two and a half times the rate of developing chronic
obstructive airways disease otherwise known as mph seema, which is
(36:53):
a devastating disease of the lungs where the lungs just
don't work as well. And there's been some association with
blood pressure as well. So there are does seem to
be emerging some long term effects to and this is
a real concern with the rates of vaping we have,
especially in our younger adolescents and younger people.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
That is where I think there's some room for the
government policy to do something about this too. I mean,
as we don't like government intervention and things, but if
the alternative smoking is you know, not too flash either,
is it, well.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Well, I've got to be clear on this as a
smokingessation tool, I'm all for it. It's less harmful than smoking,
so we've got to be very careful about that. The
issue as those who would otherwise not smoke taking up vaping,
there seems to be this problem. So I think we
need to think about this pretty pretty hard as to
what we do about this.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
And without inundating GPS. As a result of this show,
if people are concerned about their heart health, what are
the basic steps they can take to just get a
check up. Would it be calling ahead with your GP
and saying I want to come in and talk about
this and get the blood test aforehand and all that.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yeah, Look, you don't have to do it tomorrow when
you can do it in the next month. You're just
booking a check up to get your blood pressure check.
They'll either do the blood blood test that point or
the loft and audit before you come in. So you
want a heart check, they'll do the basic blood test,
to the examination. List to the heart, listen to the lungs,
take a history. We generally generally do the blood test
(38:19):
and the blood pressure. Yeah, so you can book ahead
for that. There's no urgency with it, so don't think
it has to be done tomorrow, but it's a good
thing to do.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Hey, Brian, I really appreciate your time this stuff and
it's such great information for people and I hope we're
going to do it again again soon.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Yeah, thanks very much, Tim, I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Thanks very much.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
That is Dr Brian Betty, the GP and Chair of
General Practice New Zealand, and thank for all your feedback.
If you missed any of the hour you want to
catch it. Lots of good information there. Then go and
check out the podcast, which will be loaded pretty quickly
after each our concludes, and you go to the News
Talks b website for that. Thanks very much to Brian Betty.
We'll be back with Smart Money. Shane Sally's with us.
We're going to talk about We're going to talk about
(38:58):
money actually, yeah, among other things. We'll be back very
shortly News Talks.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
He'd be for more from the Weekend Collective.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Listen live to News Talks it be weekends from three pm,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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