December 18, 2025 • 38 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. John Higgins about holiday feasts.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you, the good Die.
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on
your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by the UT Health Houston
Institute on Aging Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
All right, welcome one and all, yet another fantastic day.
As the fog finally lifts itself off the ground. It
wasn't that foggy all the way in, but it really
rarely is foggy in town because the air is different.
(01:05):
Their holds a little I don't know, I don't see
in town inside let's say inside Beltwagh eight, you don't
see much really heavy fog. We' go out on the
prairie somewhere, get a little low, get a little closer
to a river bank or something like that, or a
creek even, and that stuff can get really thick. Anyway,
(01:27):
it was great for the fog for my waterfowl hunting friends.
Not so exciting to be in dense, dense fog if
you're on a boat trying to get somewhere. I had
a trip in South Louisiana many many years ago, right
down to the mouth of the Mississippi River. We were
all waiting for the fog to lift.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Waiting, waiting, waiting. We had guides.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It's not like we were going to be flying blind,
but it was so long ago that there was no GPS,
so it really was to nobody's advantage to try to leave.
And I mean this stuff was the pea soup stuff,
where maximum visibility might have been twenty twenty five yards,
(02:07):
and there's no reason at all to launch a boat
when you can't see more than twenty five yards.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So we waited and we.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Waited, and a couple of boats went out ahead of us,
and more power to them. I and my captain said, no,
we're going to wait a little bit longer, got all
day to fish, not a big deal, And we finally
did wait, and once we got out, it was still
a little spooky going around some of the corners. We
(02:33):
had to negotiate, but it was also well worth the wait,
and not winding up on the shore somewhere when somebody
made a wrong turn. There were a lot of sharp
turns that had to be made to get way back
in the marsh where this guy wanted to go, and
so we patiently.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Waited for the fog to lift.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It turned out very well as any day can really,
when you get outside in mild weather like we have
right now. I'm hoping all of you get a chance
to get outside, maybe have a little fun, or maybe
at least just be out there and feel this warming air.
It's not all the way there yet, but by this
afternoon and then for several days to come, we actually
(03:13):
I think we have a little bit of a cool
down tomorrow. I didn't look very closely, because it all
looks pretty good. Between now and the end of next week,
when we've already celebrated Christmas and moved on toward New
Year's Eve, just get outside, have some fun, get a
little vitamin D. It's good for you, it really is.
I can't believe we're only one week from Christmas too.
It seemed like only yesterday it was December seventeenth, and
(03:36):
had all the time in the world to do my shopping,
And now suddenly I don't the heats on, and thank
goodness for Amazon and Ups and Fatex, and I suppose
even the US Postal Service. By the way, one of
the reasons I bring that up is because my neighborhood
has a great mail carrier. She is prompt, she's helpful,
(03:59):
she'll pause to answer questions, and I've seen her more
than once walking down the street after she's finished locking
up the mailbox, walking down the street to deliver something
to someone she probably knows has a hard time getting
to the mailbox or whatever. That's one of the good
(04:19):
ones at USPS. And I'm glad she's working my neighborhood.
Plowing into the markets and.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
On the heels of last night's Addressed to the Nation
by President Trump, it's pretty obvious at Wall Street likes
what it hurt. Almost everything on the board was either
either kind of green or really green or staggeringly green.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And I'm well, let's see what was it?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
One, two, three? There were three of the four indicators
I watched that were a full point or better above
yesterday's clothes, and the other the DOW was I think
zero point eight up something like that. A couple hours
ago I haven't look since then. It was very uplifting
to look at that. Even gold was up again, just
(05:07):
a little bit, but up again this morning, and closer
at this point to forty four hundred dollars an ounce
than to forty three hundred. I think it was like
forty four to sixty something all up half a buck,
which is, you know, if it were much higher, I
might be concerned, but it's still. It's still south of
fifty seven dollars a barrel, so there's no reason to
(05:29):
worry about that we're gonna be able to draw. I
filled up my tank yesterday at two eighteen a gallon
at a name brand station in sugar Land, and then
drove down the street a little closer to home to
another station that I frequent, and darned if it wasn't
two fifteen a gallon, that's pretty good. That's pretty good
(05:50):
considering what we were paying a year and two years
and three years ago.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
One promise after another kind of being kept pushing into
the news, I took a new tack.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I typically will go to.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Birds of a Feather websites and look at news that
I kind of know what's coming, and I trust, and
I feel comfortable with. But this morning I decided to
kind of take a new tack, and I went to
CNN to see what it had to say about President
Trump's speech last night, and and quite predictably, it was.
(06:25):
It was lopsided. And I don't that's just that's them,
that's what they do. I just wanted to see how
far they'd push it, and they pushed it pretty far.
It was remarkably skewed in a lot of ways. And let's,
for example, if if the pitcher's mound and home plate
a pitch, that would go straight to the plate from
(06:46):
the mound, if that was normal coverage.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
If that was.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Unskewed both sides of the story coverage, that would be
the benchmark and be straight down the middle. CNN through
it to first base, through it all the way to
first base. I watched a lot of that speech.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I was pretty.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Uplifted by it, actually, and felt more comfortable for having
heard it at CNN. Though the picture they painted was
one of just doom and gloom being sold by a
man whom they despised by the way, just for waking
up in the morning, a man who they said was
trying to distract from his own failures of the first year.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Have been a hard time finding those.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
He opened up by saying he inherited a mess from
the previous administration.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Four years a bad policy pushed by whomever was in
charge for the better part of Biden's final three years, whoever,
that was. Never in history has there been a man
just so disliked by so many people who would sacrifice
their entire country just to get revenge on a guy
who's actually given us a shot at recovery.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Let's take a blake.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Go back up, Doug, Let's take a break. You can
just pull that right out of the podcast, can't.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
You will? But you won't, will you? That's okay. You
know mistakes are human. That's okay. I make them sometimes.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Cedar Cove RV Resort, there's no mistake that I like
this place down at the end of Tri City Beach Road,
cross street from Thompson's Bake Camp. If you know where
that is and what you're going to find there is
all concrete roads, all concrete slabs, free WiFi, free electric,
free sewer. All of that's hooked up there, electric water
(08:32):
and sewer at every site. The WiFi, the bathhouse with
the showers, the convenience store for all the things that
you forgot because you were in such a here a
hurry to get down to the bay. And by the way,
if you don't own an RV, now Al Kibby's got
one he can rent to you and your family so
that you could experience the lifestyle without having to go
just shell out a ton of money to go buy
(08:53):
one of the same one of those things are rent
one from somebody who's going to charge you for the mile.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
To go drive it over to.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
It's a great way to understand this RV lifestyle. This
drive up and just hear the breeze blowing through the
palm fronds, to watch the water just kind of lap
up onto the shoreline, maybe toss out a little bait,
catch yourself for redfish for dinner. Beautiful place, a lot
of fun, no question about it. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot Com.
(09:25):
I'm just warning you, though, if you try it, you're
gonna love it, and you're gonna start talking about buying
yourself your own RV that you can go park at
Cedar Cove. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
What's life without a nap I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off. Just wait until this show's over, Sleepy.
Back to Dougpike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, I like that song. I really do.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
If only we had time to play more. But we
have something far more important to do. We're gonna talk
in this segment about paying attention to what we eat
during what's almost certainly the time of the year when
most of us fall off whatever Christian wagon we've been
riding all year long and just dive headfirst into piles
of cookies and cakes and candies and pies and whatever
(10:08):
else comes out of the oven or gets delivered or
to shake some sense into us.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Now, let's just do this.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I'll bring on doctor John Higgins, frequent flyer on the
show and cardiologist over at McGovern Medical School, cardiologists to
the Houston Rockets and rice athletics, and a marathon runner
on top of that.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Do you just run back and forth between hospitals?
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Doc? Yeah, basically, Doug, you know when the uh and
you know what, Doug, sometimes I actually beat you know,
the cars because the you know, how the traffic gets.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
That's pretty you know, you know, that's not a bad
idea if you have your If I had your stamina,
I don't know that I would run to work, but
a marathon wouldn't You'd be able to run to my
house and back here. Uh and still have a little
in the tank, I think. So congratulations to you and Doug.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You can just take the bike, okay, I.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Will you know, all right? Ebike? Right?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
No, I know better?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So right up from what percentage of people in my audience,
would you think will at some point in the next
two weeks make one or more poor decisions about what
they're eating and how much of it they plan to
eat before they push away or put down the bag.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I would say, like conservatively nine, yeah, yes, yeah, I
do know a couple of quirky people.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Oh no, I would never get off my regimen, but
they're not fun to be around either.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
And And to grab attention here, let's talk about how
advancing age impacts vascular health and that which kind of
ramps up the workload we place on our hearts.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Absolutely well, you know, I like to think about the
blood vessels sort of like plumbing. You know, when when
the blood vessels, when the pipes are relaxed, you know,
working well, the blood can slow through. But when the
pipes start aren't getting a bit stiffer or they get blocked,
(12:04):
then you know the plumbing is breaking down. And I
think what happens what we see with aging is several
of similar things. First of all, the blood vessels get
stiffer as you get older, particularly the larger blood vessels.
And we know that that material on the lining of
(12:27):
the blood vessels, which helps the blood vessels to kind
of open up when you're exercising, you know, close up
when you cut yourself shaving or whatever, that doesn't work
as well. And then on top of that, you get
a little bit more collagen building up in the arterial
wall and the elasticity or the flexibility of the wall
(12:49):
doesn't kind of work as well. So they're not as
much of a cushion on those heartbeats because each time,
you know, in a normal healthy person, when that heart beats,
you get this kind of whoop of pressure and a
wave that goes along. And if you've got good blood vessels,
they can handle that no problem. But if you've got
stiff of blood vessels, it can cause some problems.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
No, we don't want problems. It's kind of like having
a kink in the garden hose.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I guess, huh exactly, you know, and and flow is
not happening, and you know you've got to unking that.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So talk about the risk factors. Okay, what are other
than just diving into an entire pumpkin pie or something,
what are we doing on a day to day basis
that raises our risk?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Okay, Well, we've got the regular traditional risk factors that
probably a lot of people have heard about. High blood pressure, cholesterol,
high blood sugar, diabetes, smoking. Of course, those are things
that generally people can do something about that. You know,
they can choose whether to smoke or not, or be
around people that are smoking. They can do things to
(13:55):
modify those risk factors in terms of a healthier diet. Also,
exercise regularly exercising, we know that can help the blood pressure,
keep that down a bit lower. It can help the cholesterol,
the good HDL cholesterol to go higher, the bad LDL
cholesterol to get lower. It also helps your blood sugar levels,
and generally people that are exercising are less likely to smoke. Also,
(14:20):
they're going to keep that weight down, you know, maintain
a more health weight as well as just in general,
you know, reduce the number of not only Kodiac diseases,
but other diseases and cancer and other diseases that are
associated with overweight Doug. So, I think there's a this.
You know, while we can't do something about, you know,
(14:41):
someone getting older, we can't turn the clock back, but
we can do something about slowing down that aging process
on the blood vessels. And you know, in some cases, Doug, there,
I've even had patients where they had a degree of
plaque and they got into a really really super healthy
change and the actual plaque went down. Wow, you know
(15:02):
on the scans.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Without yeah, without any medication, just doing the work right,
just doing the work. Doctor John Higgins here on fifty plus,
I saw something recently about specific foods that can actually
help improve hard health and bascular health.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
What's on that list?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Yeah, well, I'm Doug. A couple of things that you
should reach for over the holidays. The little berries, So
everything every type of berrier, whether it be raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries,
any type of berries, those are packed with these substances
called flavonoles. And these substances in particular can help to
(15:44):
energize the blood vessel wool and help that blood vessel
wool to be able to function better. Now they're also
present in cocoa, so you know, get your hot chocolate
on over the holidays, as well as tea, grapes, apples,
and other sort of substances. So I think the bottom
(16:07):
line is doug if when in doubt, if you can
try to get onto some berries for a little bit
of a snack as well as you know, a little
bit of fruit. Most fruits have a certain amount of flavenoles.
And think about that hot chocolate. Now, we don't want
you to you know, hot chocolate obviously has other things
in it that are not always healthy, like sugar. So
(16:31):
chocolate yeah, actually.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Yeah that doesn't sound too bad. But having you know,
having those sort of healthier you know, the Mediterranean type
diet is what we think about. But you know, of
course we encourage people to have fun as well and
cut loose here and there over the holidays, but as
long as that most of the days they're doing some
(16:54):
eating something healthy, getting out and doing a little bit
of exercise with whoever's in town visiting them and or
if they're visiting other people. You know, encourage people to
get out, making sure you're hydrating well, Doug, getting the exercise,
and that can be by the way aerobic or going
to the gym, especially you know in the Northeast with
(17:14):
the weather being the way it is, you know, exercising
outdoors is a bit hard. And then getting your proper sleep,
and we are talking seven to nine hours sleep per night.
So there's a lot of things that you can control
that can actually help your blood vessels to be happier
and to you to long live longer.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I am happy and I'm probably gonna live longer, just
from every conversation I ever have with you, Doctor John Higgins.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Thank you so very much.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, all that good stuff, and
I really appreciate everything that you do for me.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Okay, well, Doug, thank you, and to all your listeners,
I wishing them a happy and healthy merry Christmas and
a happy New Year. And we'll be back next year with.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You, Doug.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Indeed, we will thank you. Doc Sir audios. All right,
we gotta take a little break here. I like that
guy so much, so much. We have had many conversations
about many things, and he is he rock solid. He
tells me something, I'm taking that to the bank. Ut
House Institute on Aging is this amazing collaborative of providers.
(18:22):
I'm pretty sure doctor Higgins is in there, and they
come from every medical discipline and all the way down
to assistance, all the way up to pediatric neurosert well.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Not pediatrics, because it's about us. It's about older people.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Neurosurgeons, cardiologists, pullmonologists, all the ologists, all are involved, and
all of them have to gain their status as a
member of the Institute on Aging, got an additional training
to what they got originally in med school or wherever
they were, so that they can apply that knowledge to
us because.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
We are different.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Seniors are different from everybody else, and it's only natural.
We are supposedly toward the ends of our lives. But
we're finding out more and more that if we have
the right care and we do the right things, like
doctor Higgins and I were talking about a minute ago,
then we can live longer, better, more productive lives, more
(19:20):
enjoyable lives. And that's what they'll do for you at
the not at the Institute on Aging. It's not a place,
it's not somewhere you go. It's a collaborative of more
than a thousand providers. Thousands really, and you can get
to the website and start looking around to find out
where you're gonna find these specific providers. And while you're there,
(19:41):
you're gonna come across all kinds of information you had
no idea was available, and none of 's gonna cost
you a dime. Go to that website ut dot edu
slash aging. Start there and you'll see what I'm talking
about utch dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, welcome back,
thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Certainly to appreciate third, appreciate it. Third segment starts now.
A story about the Brown University shooting caught my eye
this morning, as they have now for several days. Retired
FBI agents said he has really big concerns over the
lack of adequate surveillance cameras. The lack how can you
(20:34):
have a university where the average cost for a year,
this includes I think room and board and food, probably
average cost is about one hundred grand a year. Guarantee
of my son's not going there unless they offer him
a full ride, and even then I probably wouldn't send
him up there unless I knew that they had fixed
(20:55):
whatever allowed this guy, whoever he is, to come in
there and start shooting the place up. Four days now,
and the best law enforcement has so far, there's a
picture of a guy dressed entirely in black, got a
black face mask, got a black hat on, got every
I mean, he's covered up. He knew exactly what he
(21:15):
was doing. He's pretty good at it. Presumed to be
the shooter, we don't even really know. They're also looking
for another guy who was in the area of the
alleged shooter.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Who may or may not have had anything to do
with that.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Anything to do with it, The word botched comes to mind,
but I don't think it's strong enough really so far
now to have that many people left virtually unprotected, except
for the signs on the walls, of course, that pronounce
Brown University to be a gun for his zone.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
That doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
We know that, and even more concerning to me anyways,
that the investigation of this shooting is being led and
handled by a small local police department Providence instead of
the FBI. I don't understand that at all. Even discussion
of whether the gun he used now was a long gun,
a short gun, something in between. There's question over that,
(22:13):
how can they not know anything? How do they not
have any video of this going on? They just don't
seem to know anything. But I've seen several stories recently
about this person or that person being interviewed and saying, well,
we don't want to say much, but might be an
arrest pretty soon that hadn't come yet. And if they
(22:35):
don't have anything more than some faceless guy walking down the.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Street, they may never find him.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
And I'll tell you this, if I were the guy
that they think was involved because they showed his face
on TV, one of the two things would happen. I
would either go straight to the police and let them
know it wasn't me and I wasn't involved, Or if
I was, now that my face was out there, I'd
have already been in a car and driven to the
other side of the earth by an I would be
(23:02):
nowhere to be found ever again, somehow, some way. As
hard as it was to watch that happen, it's just
yet another reminder that crazy people need to be addressed
and need to be examined and need to be. It's
(23:25):
not everybody, well not everybody, that's not true. Chuck Schumer
jumped right on this and said, oh, we need more
gun laws, anti gun. This anti gun that always want
to blame the gun. But if that hadn't been available
to this guy, he might have driven through a crowd
at the university. He might have plowed through civilians somewhere else.
(23:49):
Anybody who's that intent on harming people, innocent people, is
going to find a way. And that's happened all throughout history.
Fire explosives, guns, knives, machetes, swords, all kinds of weapons
that can cause really rapidly severe loss of life and injury.
(24:14):
We've seen it happen way too many times. But the Left,
I don't. I've never heard anybody say we ought to
get rid of cars when somebody drives through a crowd.
That's not gonna happen, and it's not. I would much
prefer if I were. I feel much safer knowing that
(24:35):
most of the places I go to, somebody in there
has probably got a handgun tucked into their waistband or
on their side, or on their ankle or wherever, and
that if some crazy person shows up, just maybe, just
maybe they'll be close enough to me to protect me
and the people around us. It's not unreasonable. It really
(25:00):
isn't when when you're facing a threat like that, you
can't throw rock. I watched there was some guy in
Australia down at Bandai Beach, okay, and the shooter was there,
and the man tackled the hero really tackled the shooter
and disarmed him, took his gun away, and the shooter
(25:24):
just started walking away casually, as if, okay, well you
took my gun, so I got nothing better to do.
I guess I'll head on home. He's walking away and
some other I don't know what this guy thought he
was going to accomplish with this, but a guy kind
of runs up behind the man who had been doing
the shooting and throws a rock at him. He throws
(25:47):
He's lucky the guy didn't turn around and just pummel him.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I almost have to.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
It's just so sad that this guy thought he was
gonna help somehow by throwing a raw I get a
disarmed guy. Very frustrating to see stuff like that happen,
Very frustrating.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Interesting story this morning.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
By the way, That confirms exactly what I said yesterday
about how Ford was gonna pull the plug on electric cars.
They did, electric cars, electric trucks, the whole ev thing.
They just they've thrown in the towel. The story said,
enough's enough, nobody wants these things.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Well not nobody, I'll take that back.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
But there's still so much question over the efficiency the
long term use of these cars and trucks, these electric vehicles.
Not to mention the damage they do to our roads.
Nobody ever talks about that. But they are so heavy
because of these batteries they have in them that they
tear up the roads. And that drive through Houston sometime,
(26:50):
get off the freeway and drive on surface streets in
Houston and you'll get an idea. I had to drive
all over almost downtown yesterday, just west of downtown, running
errand out that way, and I felt like I was
riding on the moon in a lunar rover with no
shock absorbers. The roads were that bad and that horrible.
(27:11):
Thank God for sugar Land because it's at least a
little better out there. We're starting to get wear and
tear on our roads, and I hope that they won't
let it get as bad as Houston's gotten before we
do something about it.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
There's gonna be some.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Diehards who believe the evs are answers to some questions
about the future. But when we're sitting on four hundred
years of oil and gas, I don't think we really
should have been pushed as hard as we were to
buy into cars that run on electricity, which is produced
at many charging stations, by the way, by diesel generators.
(27:46):
Diesel generators, that's where your electricity for your electric car
comes from comes from. Patrolling product Will says, I got
to take a break, which will be the final one
of this program, and I will do that right now.
With word again about Lisa Brewster and Brewster Law Firm
down there in sugar Land. Every day she's in there
working hard to help clients dealing with healthcare transactions, with compliance,
(28:09):
payer disputes, reimbursement. She does a lot of business law
as well, and works with seniors, especially who need advice
on protecting their assets, protecting their wealth, drafting end of
life documents, which come up in conversation a lot this
time of year, actually, and with good reason. That's an
important thing. Office is right off fifty nine in Sugarland.
(28:30):
Very easy to get to if you need legal help.
Brewster Law Firm TX dot com. Brewster Law Firm, TX
dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Old guys rule, And of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Hey, I think that sounds like a good plant. Fifty
plus continues. Here's more with Doug. Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Fourth and final segment starts right now. We got a
few minutes to deal with. And I mentioned to Will
that I've been reading so many amazing stories about about
medical breakthroughs and medical this and medical that. And I
told him his generation and younger ones are are going
to have opportunities that you and I never had. There's
(29:17):
always been breakthrough in medicine, and Saint jud Children's Research
Hospital is a prime example. The more research goes on,
the more bright minds get involved with trying to solve
seemingly unsolvable problems, the better it gets for us all.
And I saw something yesterday. There's a little device out
(29:38):
there now. It's barely the size of a postage stamp.
It's thinner than a credit card, and it's a wireless
implant that and they wrap this in quotes speaks end
quote to the brain and potentially could restore lost senses.
(29:58):
Think about that, this thing uses light to send information
directly to the brain.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Who thought this up?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
It bypasses all of our natural sensory pathways and is
being hailed as a giant leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics.
It's unbelievable. The more I read about this, the more
incredible it is. Research team says. These include providing sensory
feedback for prosthetic limbs, for delivering artificial stimuli for future
(30:32):
vision or hearing prostheses Holy Cow, modulating pain perception without
opioids or systemic drugs, enhancing rehab after stroke or serious injury,
controlling robotic limbs with the brain, on and on and on.
And it's just it's brand new, it's in its infancy.
(30:53):
It's in its infancy, but it's working. They're using it
now in the brains of mice and it's working. So
raise your hand if you think that's pretty cool, I
do anyway, says here. Even without touch, sight, or sound involved,
the roadents received information to make decisions and successfully completed
(31:15):
behavioral tasks. The mice quickly learned to interpret the patterns
as meaningful signals which they then could recognize and use.
So that's around the corner. How cool is that? Imagine
being able to restore eyesight, to restore hearing, to restore
(31:37):
your sense of touch, if it were ever to go away.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
We're just we're right on the edge of being able
to do that. It's fantastic, absolutely fantastic if you've been
keeping score at home.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
By the way, we've learned a little more about the
young man, a father of two who was killed in
a crash up in Washington State, allegedly killed by an
illegal immigrant there. He was twenty nine years old, had
two sons, and a driver that was allowed into our
country by President Biden's administration crashed into Robert Blake Pearson's car.
(32:12):
I guess it's alleged, but they the truck crashed into
the car and pushed it into and under a truck
in front of Pearson's and according to the Breitbart story,
Pearson's engine caught fire at.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That point and he lost his life.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
And just yesterday, as I think I covered, no, I
didn't get to it.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Actually yesterday I know I didn't.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
But here is again, despite a detainer that was issued
by ice to keep that guy under wraps. He was
allowed to bond out thanks to Washington's self assigned sanctuary status.
Would why would that person be allowed to get back
on the street. I think it was like one hundred
thousand dollars bond So he had to come up with
(32:56):
ten grand somehow, and now he's back on the street,
probably not doing anything different than he was doing.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Then there's a how much do I have? Three minutes?
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Will?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Can you give me that much? Okay? Good? I saw
a story this morning.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I want to talk about it associated with COVID nineteen
vaccines again, as if, as if we already weren't learning
enough to scare the pants off of us. This one
relates especially to young men and occurs in about one
of The issue is a heart problem. I can't I
think it was cardio my cardiomyelitis. I think that was it,
(33:31):
but whatever it was. Currently with someone who just had
one vaccine a young man, about one in every one
hundred and forty thousand of them, which doesn't seem that bad.
But after a second dose of the vaccine. According to
this same study it came out of Stanford University, the
odds rise to one in just thirty two thousand and
(33:52):
in specifically in males thirty and younger, that number goes
to one in sixteen thousand and seven, one hundred and fifty,
and that should cause anyone in that group, or the
parents or friends of anyone in that group, like my
own son, that should cause concern among us. All one
(34:14):
in sixteen thousand change doesn't sound scary unless you wind
up being that one. Early symptoms, by the way, so
you know, typically are pretty mild, and all doctors can
do at that point is wonder if it's related, And
according to the story, they just kind of cross their
fingers and hope the kid recovers. Most of them do too,
(34:36):
because the odds are fairly slim, But nonetheless, in those
rare cases, these young men in the prime, not even
to the primes of their lives, wind up hospitalized with
severe heart inflammation, and worst case scenario, they end up dead.
One in sixteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty. Of the
(34:58):
young ones, the really young ones, it's horrible all because
they were in some in some cases forced to get
a vaccine or risk losing a job, or being unable
to attend a school, or otherwise be what it turns
out unnecessarily burdened. Hindsight's always twenty twenty, okay, hindsight always
air force. Foresight takes a little more effort, though, and
(35:21):
all of us better put forth that effort. When the
next accidental pandemic busts out of somewhere and blankets the planet,
a couple of minutes will three. Oh good, and I
can go over to one of these. Hmmm, uh no,
I don't like that one. Over in China, this was
(35:43):
kind of interesting. Over in China, there's a plant at
I don't know how to pronounce the name of the town.
It's Rizhao Riso Resal. It literally means sunshine, and it's
one of China's most renewably powered cities and has an
amazing facility to turn seawater into into pure water into
(36:06):
pure fresh water. For every eight hundred metric tons of
seawater it takes in, it delivers one hundred and eight
almost one hundred and nineteen thousand gallons of pure fresh
water and one hundred and ninety two thousand cubic meters
of green hydrogen fuel. Went on top of that, three
(36:27):
hundred and fifty metric tons of mineral rich brine for
marine chemical production. So hats off to them in China,
and I hope we get something like that over here,
if it's if it's good and safe and whatnot, I
think that would be very nice and good news from
at from Texas actually, but this was kind of cool.
I saw the story of a New York City reporter.
(36:47):
It just kind of winds all over the country really,
and even up into Canada. But anyway, he once recommended
to a coworker that she call her grandmother for advice,
and from that single simple gesture, something called Grandma stands
were born. Very simple, really. They're just out on a street,
sidewalk somewhere, maybe in a park. There's a chair on
(37:10):
one side and a grandma on the other side of
the table, and there's a little sign behind it. It's
kind of cute, really, It says, Grandma stand and that
other chair, the one that's not occupied by Grandma and
these are real live Grandmas, is just empty until somebody
sits down, and then Grandma gets asked a question and
(37:33):
hopefully offers up some solid wisdom based on what she's
learned about life and relationships and work and family and whatever.
I'd kind of like to see those, maybe in a mall,
maybe in parks. Now, you know, it's as sad as
it is somebody kind of have to be around a
grown person who would protect grandma. But whatever, I think
(37:57):
it's it's pretty interesting and I'm sure those grandmothers are
happy to have the relationship and have happy to get
to talk to people. If I ever see one of those,
I'm gonna go sit down and flip the script. I'm
gonna have a couple of questions for grandma. That's the
reporter in me. I really can't help myself. We'll be
back tomorrow. I've got a great interview coming up tomorrow.
I hope you tune in audios
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Well, this show is all about you, the good Die.
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on
your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by the UT Health Houston
Institute on Aging Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
All right, welcome one and all, yet another fantastic day.
As the fog finally lifts itself off the ground. It
wasn't that foggy all the way in, but it really
rarely is foggy in town because the air is different.
(01:05):
Their holds a little I don't know, I don't see
in town inside let's say inside Beltwagh eight, you don't
see much really heavy fog. We' go out on the
prairie somewhere, get a little low, get a little closer
to a river bank or something like that, or a
creek even, and that stuff can get really thick. Anyway,
(01:27):
it was great for the fog for my waterfowl hunting friends.
Not so exciting to be in dense, dense fog if
you're on a boat trying to get somewhere. I had
a trip in South Louisiana many many years ago, right
down to the mouth of the Mississippi River. We were
all waiting for the fog to lift.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Waiting, waiting, waiting. We had guides.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
It's not like we were going to be flying blind,
but it was so long ago that there was no GPS,
so it really was to nobody's advantage to try to leave.
And I mean this stuff was the pea soup stuff,
where maximum visibility might have been twenty twenty five yards,
(02:07):
and there's no reason at all to launch a boat
when you can't see more than twenty five yards.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So we waited and we.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Waited, and a couple of boats went out ahead of us,
and more power to them. I and my captain said, no,
we're going to wait a little bit longer, got all
day to fish, not a big deal, And we finally
did wait, and once we got out, it was still
a little spooky going around some of the corners. We
(02:33):
had to negotiate, but it was also well worth the wait,
and not winding up on the shore somewhere when somebody
made a wrong turn. There were a lot of sharp
turns that had to be made to get way back
in the marsh where this guy wanted to go, and
so we patiently.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Waited for the fog to lift.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It turned out very well as any day can really,
when you get outside in mild weather like we have
right now. I'm hoping all of you get a chance
to get outside, maybe have a little fun, or maybe
at least just be out there and feel this warming air.
It's not all the way there yet, but by this
afternoon and then for several days to come, we actually
(03:13):
I think we have a little bit of a cool
down tomorrow. I didn't look very closely, because it all
looks pretty good. Between now and the end of next week,
when we've already celebrated Christmas and moved on toward New
Year's Eve, just get outside, have some fun, get a
little vitamin D. It's good for you, it really is.
I can't believe we're only one week from Christmas too.
It seemed like only yesterday it was December seventeenth, and
(03:36):
had all the time in the world to do my shopping,
And now suddenly I don't the heats on, and thank
goodness for Amazon and Ups and Fatex, and I suppose
even the US Postal Service. By the way, one of
the reasons I bring that up is because my neighborhood
has a great mail carrier. She is prompt, she's helpful,
(03:59):
she'll pause to answer questions, and I've seen her more
than once walking down the street after she's finished locking
up the mailbox, walking down the street to deliver something
to someone she probably knows has a hard time getting
to the mailbox or whatever. That's one of the good
(04:19):
ones at USPS. And I'm glad she's working my neighborhood.
Plowing into the markets and.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Well.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
On the heels of last night's Addressed to the Nation
by President Trump, it's pretty obvious at Wall Street likes
what it hurt. Almost everything on the board was either
either kind of green or really green or staggeringly green.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And I'm well, let's see what was it?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
One, two, three? There were three of the four indicators
I watched that were a full point or better above
yesterday's clothes, and the other the DOW was I think
zero point eight up something like that. A couple hours
ago I haven't look since then. It was very uplifting
to look at that. Even gold was up again, just
(05:07):
a little bit, but up again this morning, and closer
at this point to forty four hundred dollars an ounce
than to forty three hundred. I think it was like
forty four to sixty something all up half a buck,
which is, you know, if it were much higher, I
might be concerned, but it's still. It's still south of
fifty seven dollars a barrel, so there's no reason to
(05:29):
worry about that we're gonna be able to draw. I
filled up my tank yesterday at two eighteen a gallon
at a name brand station in sugar Land, and then
drove down the street a little closer to home to
another station that I frequent, and darned if it wasn't
two fifteen a gallon, that's pretty good. That's pretty good
(05:50):
considering what we were paying a year and two years
and three years ago.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
One promise after another kind of being kept pushing into
the news, I took a new tack.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
I typically will go to.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
Birds of a Feather websites and look at news that
I kind of know what's coming, and I trust, and
I feel comfortable with. But this morning I decided to
kind of take a new tack, and I went to
CNN to see what it had to say about President
Trump's speech last night, and and quite predictably, it was.
(06:25):
It was lopsided. And I don't that's just that's them,
that's what they do. I just wanted to see how
far they'd push it, and they pushed it pretty far.
It was remarkably skewed in a lot of ways. And let's,
for example, if if the pitcher's mound and home plate
a pitch, that would go straight to the plate from
(06:46):
the mound, if that was normal coverage.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
If that was.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Unskewed both sides of the story coverage, that would be
the benchmark and be straight down the middle. CNN through
it to first base, through it all the way to
first base. I watched a lot of that speech.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I was pretty.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Uplifted by it, actually, and felt more comfortable for having
heard it at CNN. Though the picture they painted was
one of just doom and gloom being sold by a
man whom they despised by the way, just for waking
up in the morning, a man who they said was
trying to distract from his own failures of the first year.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Have been a hard time finding those.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
He opened up by saying he inherited a mess from
the previous administration.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
That's absolutely true.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Four years a bad policy pushed by whomever was in
charge for the better part of Biden's final three years, whoever,
that was. Never in history has there been a man
just so disliked by so many people who would sacrifice
their entire country just to get revenge on a guy
who's actually given us a shot at recovery.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Let's take a blake.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Go back up, Doug, Let's take a break. You can
just pull that right out of the podcast, can't.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
You will? But you won't, will you? That's okay. You
know mistakes are human. That's okay. I make them sometimes.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Cedar Cove RV Resort, there's no mistake that I like
this place down at the end of Tri City Beach Road,
cross street from Thompson's Bake Camp. If you know where
that is and what you're going to find there is
all concrete roads, all concrete slabs, free WiFi, free electric,
free sewer. All of that's hooked up there, electric water
(08:32):
and sewer at every site. The WiFi, the bathhouse with
the showers, the convenience store for all the things that
you forgot because you were in such a here a
hurry to get down to the bay. And by the way,
if you don't own an RV, now Al Kibby's got
one he can rent to you and your family so
that you could experience the lifestyle without having to go
just shell out a ton of money to go buy
(08:53):
one of the same one of those things are rent
one from somebody who's going to charge you for the mile.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
To go drive it over to.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
It's a great way to understand this RV lifestyle. This
drive up and just hear the breeze blowing through the
palm fronds, to watch the water just kind of lap
up onto the shoreline, maybe toss out a little bait,
catch yourself for redfish for dinner. Beautiful place, a lot
of fun, no question about it. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot Com.
(09:25):
I'm just warning you, though, if you try it, you're
gonna love it, and you're gonna start talking about buying
yourself your own RV that you can go park at
Cedar Cove. Cedar Cove Rvresort dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
What's life without a nap I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off. Just wait until this show's over, Sleepy.
Back to Dougpike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, I like that song. I really do.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
If only we had time to play more. But we
have something far more important to do. We're gonna talk
in this segment about paying attention to what we eat
during what's almost certainly the time of the year when
most of us fall off whatever Christian wagon we've been
riding all year long and just dive headfirst into piles
of cookies and cakes and candies and pies and whatever
(10:08):
else comes out of the oven or gets delivered or
to shake some sense into us.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Now, let's just do this.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I'll bring on doctor John Higgins, frequent flyer on the
show and cardiologist over at McGovern Medical School, cardiologists to
the Houston Rockets and rice athletics, and a marathon runner
on top of that.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Do you just run back and forth between hospitals?
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Doc? Yeah, basically, Doug, you know when the uh and
you know what, Doug, sometimes I actually beat you know,
the cars because the you know, how the traffic gets.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
That's pretty you know, you know, that's not a bad
idea if you have your If I had your stamina,
I don't know that I would run to work, but
a marathon wouldn't You'd be able to run to my
house and back here. Uh and still have a little
in the tank, I think. So congratulations to you and Doug.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
You can just take the bike, okay, I.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Will you know, all right? Ebike? Right?
Speaker 4 (11:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
No, I know better?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
So right up from what percentage of people in my audience,
would you think will at some point in the next
two weeks make one or more poor decisions about what
they're eating and how much of it they plan to
eat before they push away or put down the bag.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
I would say, like conservatively nine, yeah, yes, yeah, I
do know a couple of quirky people.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Oh no, I would never get off my regimen, but
they're not fun to be around either.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
And And to grab attention here, let's talk about how
advancing age impacts vascular health and that which kind of
ramps up the workload we place on our hearts.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Absolutely well, you know, I like to think about the
blood vessels sort of like plumbing. You know, when when
the blood vessels, when the pipes are relaxed, you know,
working well, the blood can slow through. But when the
pipes start aren't getting a bit stiffer or they get blocked,
(12:04):
then you know the plumbing is breaking down. And I
think what happens what we see with aging is several
of similar things. First of all, the blood vessels get
stiffer as you get older, particularly the larger blood vessels.
And we know that that material on the lining of
(12:27):
the blood vessels, which helps the blood vessels to kind
of open up when you're exercising, you know, close up
when you cut yourself shaving or whatever, that doesn't work
as well. And then on top of that, you get
a little bit more collagen building up in the arterial
wall and the elasticity or the flexibility of the wall
(12:49):
doesn't kind of work as well. So they're not as
much of a cushion on those heartbeats because each time,
you know, in a normal healthy person, when that heart beats,
you get this kind of whoop of pressure and a
wave that goes along. And if you've got good blood vessels,
they can handle that no problem. But if you've got
stiff of blood vessels, it can cause some problems.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
No, we don't want problems. It's kind of like having
a kink in the garden hose.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
I guess, huh exactly, you know, and and flow is
not happening, and you know you've got to unking that.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So talk about the risk factors. Okay, what are other
than just diving into an entire pumpkin pie or something,
what are we doing on a day to day basis
that raises our risk?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Okay, Well, we've got the regular traditional risk factors that
probably a lot of people have heard about. High blood pressure, cholesterol,
high blood sugar, diabetes, smoking. Of course, those are things
that generally people can do something about that. You know,
they can choose whether to smoke or not, or be
around people that are smoking. They can do things to
(13:55):
modify those risk factors in terms of a healthier diet. Also,
exercise regularly exercising, we know that can help the blood pressure,
keep that down a bit lower. It can help the cholesterol,
the good HDL cholesterol to go higher, the bad LDL
cholesterol to get lower. It also helps your blood sugar levels,
and generally people that are exercising are less likely to smoke. Also,
(14:20):
they're going to keep that weight down, you know, maintain
a more health weight as well as just in general,
you know, reduce the number of not only Kodiac diseases,
but other diseases and cancer and other diseases that are
associated with overweight Doug. So, I think there's a this.
You know, while we can't do something about, you know,
(14:41):
someone getting older, we can't turn the clock back, but
we can do something about slowing down that aging process
on the blood vessels. And you know, in some cases, Doug, there,
I've even had patients where they had a degree of
plaque and they got into a really really super healthy
change and the actual plaque went down. Wow, you know
(15:02):
on the scans.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Without yeah, without any medication, just doing the work right,
just doing the work. Doctor John Higgins here on fifty plus,
I saw something recently about specific foods that can actually
help improve hard health and bascular health.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
What's on that list?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Yeah, well, I'm Doug. A couple of things that you
should reach for over the holidays. The little berries, So
everything every type of berrier, whether it be raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries,
any type of berries, those are packed with these substances
called flavonoles. And these substances in particular can help to
(15:44):
energize the blood vessel wool and help that blood vessel
wool to be able to function better. Now they're also
present in cocoa, so you know, get your hot chocolate
on over the holidays, as well as tea, grapes, apples,
and other sort of substances. So I think the bottom
(16:07):
line is doug if when in doubt, if you can
try to get onto some berries for a little bit
of a snack as well as you know, a little
bit of fruit. Most fruits have a certain amount of flavenoles.
And think about that hot chocolate. Now, we don't want
you to you know, hot chocolate obviously has other things
in it that are not always healthy, like sugar. So
(16:31):
chocolate yeah, actually.
Speaker 5 (16:33):
Yeah that doesn't sound too bad. But having you know,
having those sort of healthier you know, the Mediterranean type
diet is what we think about. But you know, of
course we encourage people to have fun as well and
cut loose here and there over the holidays, but as
long as that most of the days they're doing some
(16:54):
eating something healthy, getting out and doing a little bit
of exercise with whoever's in town visiting them and or
if they're visiting other people. You know, encourage people to
get out, making sure you're hydrating well, Doug, getting the exercise,
and that can be by the way aerobic or going
to the gym, especially you know in the Northeast with
(17:14):
the weather being the way it is, you know, exercising
outdoors is a bit hard. And then getting your proper sleep,
and we are talking seven to nine hours sleep per night.
So there's a lot of things that you can control
that can actually help your blood vessels to be happier
and to you to long live longer.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
I am happy and I'm probably gonna live longer, just
from every conversation I ever have with you, Doctor John Higgins.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Thank you so very much.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, all that good stuff, and
I really appreciate everything that you do for me.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Okay, well, Doug, thank you, and to all your listeners,
I wishing them a happy and healthy merry Christmas and
a happy New Year. And we'll be back next year with.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You, Doug.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Indeed, we will thank you. Doc Sir audios. All right,
we gotta take a little break here. I like that
guy so much, so much. We have had many conversations
about many things, and he is he rock solid. He
tells me something, I'm taking that to the bank. Ut
House Institute on Aging is this amazing collaborative of providers.
(18:22):
I'm pretty sure doctor Higgins is in there, and they
come from every medical discipline and all the way down
to assistance, all the way up to pediatric neurosert well.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Not pediatrics, because it's about us. It's about older people.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Neurosurgeons, cardiologists, pullmonologists, all the ologists, all are involved, and
all of them have to gain their status as a
member of the Institute on Aging, got an additional training
to what they got originally in med school or wherever
they were, so that they can apply that knowledge to
us because.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
We are different.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Seniors are different from everybody else, and it's only natural.
We are supposedly toward the ends of our lives. But
we're finding out more and more that if we have
the right care and we do the right things, like
doctor Higgins and I were talking about a minute ago,
then we can live longer, better, more productive lives, more
(19:20):
enjoyable lives. And that's what they'll do for you at
the not at the Institute on Aging. It's not a place,
it's not somewhere you go. It's a collaborative of more
than a thousand providers. Thousands really, and you can get
to the website and start looking around to find out
where you're gonna find these specific providers. And while you're there,
(19:41):
you're gonna come across all kinds of information you had
no idea was available, and none of 's gonna cost
you a dime. Go to that website ut dot edu
slash aging. Start there and you'll see what I'm talking
about utch dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Now, they sure don't make them like they used to.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
That's why every few months we wash him, check his fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, welcome back,
thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Certainly to appreciate third, appreciate it. Third segment starts now.
A story about the Brown University shooting caught my eye
this morning, as they have now for several days. Retired
FBI agents said he has really big concerns over the
lack of adequate surveillance cameras. The lack how can you
(20:34):
have a university where the average cost for a year,
this includes I think room and board and food, probably
average cost is about one hundred grand a year. Guarantee
of my son's not going there unless they offer him
a full ride, and even then I probably wouldn't send
him up there unless I knew that they had fixed
(20:55):
whatever allowed this guy, whoever he is, to come in
there and start shooting the place up. Four days now,
and the best law enforcement has so far, there's a
picture of a guy dressed entirely in black, got a
black face mask, got a black hat on, got every
I mean, he's covered up. He knew exactly what he
(21:15):
was doing. He's pretty good at it. Presumed to be
the shooter, we don't even really know. They're also looking
for another guy who was in the area of the
alleged shooter.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
Who may or may not have had anything to do
with that.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Anything to do with it, The word botched comes to mind,
but I don't think it's strong enough really so far
now to have that many people left virtually unprotected, except
for the signs on the walls, of course, that pronounce
Brown University to be a gun for his zone.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
That doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
We know that, and even more concerning to me anyways,
that the investigation of this shooting is being led and
handled by a small local police department Providence instead of
the FBI. I don't understand that at all. Even discussion
of whether the gun he used now was a long gun,
a short gun, something in between. There's question over that,
(22:13):
how can they not know anything? How do they not
have any video of this going on? They just don't
seem to know anything. But I've seen several stories recently
about this person or that person being interviewed and saying, well,
we don't want to say much, but might be an
arrest pretty soon that hadn't come yet. And if they
(22:35):
don't have anything more than some faceless guy walking down the.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Street, they may never find him.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
And I'll tell you this, if I were the guy
that they think was involved because they showed his face
on TV, one of the two things would happen. I
would either go straight to the police and let them
know it wasn't me and I wasn't involved, Or if
I was, now that my face was out there, I'd
have already been in a car and driven to the
other side of the earth by an I would be
(23:02):
nowhere to be found ever again, somehow, some way. As
hard as it was to watch that happen, it's just
yet another reminder that crazy people need to be addressed
and need to be examined and need to be. It's
(23:25):
not everybody, well not everybody, that's not true. Chuck Schumer
jumped right on this and said, oh, we need more
gun laws, anti gun. This anti gun that always want
to blame the gun. But if that hadn't been available
to this guy, he might have driven through a crowd
at the university. He might have plowed through civilians somewhere else.
(23:49):
Anybody who's that intent on harming people, innocent people, is
going to find a way. And that's happened all throughout history.
Fire explosives, guns, knives, machetes, swords, all kinds of weapons
that can cause really rapidly severe loss of life and injury.
(24:14):
We've seen it happen way too many times. But the Left,
I don't. I've never heard anybody say we ought to
get rid of cars when somebody drives through a crowd.
That's not gonna happen, and it's not. I would much
prefer if I were. I feel much safer knowing that
(24:35):
most of the places I go to, somebody in there
has probably got a handgun tucked into their waistband or
on their side, or on their ankle or wherever, and
that if some crazy person shows up, just maybe, just
maybe they'll be close enough to me to protect me
and the people around us. It's not unreasonable. It really
(25:00):
isn't when when you're facing a threat like that, you
can't throw rock. I watched there was some guy in
Australia down at Bandai Beach, okay, and the shooter was there,
and the man tackled the hero really tackled the shooter
and disarmed him, took his gun away, and the shooter
(25:24):
just started walking away casually, as if, okay, well you
took my gun, so I got nothing better to do.
I guess I'll head on home. He's walking away and
some other I don't know what this guy thought he
was going to accomplish with this, but a guy kind
of runs up behind the man who had been doing
the shooting and throws a rock at him. He throws
(25:47):
He's lucky the guy didn't turn around and just pummel him.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I almost have to.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
It's just so sad that this guy thought he was
gonna help somehow by throwing a raw I get a
disarmed guy. Very frustrating to see stuff like that happen,
Very frustrating.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Interesting story this morning.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
By the way, That confirms exactly what I said yesterday
about how Ford was gonna pull the plug on electric cars.
They did, electric cars, electric trucks, the whole ev thing.
They just they've thrown in the towel. The story said,
enough's enough, nobody wants these things.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Well not nobody, I'll take that back.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
But there's still so much question over the efficiency the
long term use of these cars and trucks, these electric vehicles.
Not to mention the damage they do to our roads.
Nobody ever talks about that. But they are so heavy
because of these batteries they have in them that they
tear up the roads. And that drive through Houston sometime,
(26:50):
get off the freeway and drive on surface streets in
Houston and you'll get an idea. I had to drive
all over almost downtown yesterday, just west of downtown, running
errand out that way, and I felt like I was
riding on the moon in a lunar rover with no
shock absorbers. The roads were that bad and that horrible.
(27:11):
Thank God for sugar Land because it's at least a
little better out there. We're starting to get wear and
tear on our roads, and I hope that they won't
let it get as bad as Houston's gotten before we
do something about it.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
There's gonna be some.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Diehards who believe the evs are answers to some questions
about the future. But when we're sitting on four hundred
years of oil and gas, I don't think we really
should have been pushed as hard as we were to
buy into cars that run on electricity, which is produced
at many charging stations, by the way, by diesel generators.
(27:46):
Diesel generators, that's where your electricity for your electric car
comes from comes from. Patrolling product Will says, I got
to take a break, which will be the final one
of this program, and I will do that right now.
With word again about Lisa Brewster and Brewster Law Firm
down there in sugar Land. Every day she's in there
working hard to help clients dealing with healthcare transactions, with compliance,
(28:09):
payer disputes, reimbursement. She does a lot of business law
as well, and works with seniors, especially who need advice
on protecting their assets, protecting their wealth, drafting end of
life documents, which come up in conversation a lot this
time of year, actually, and with good reason. That's an
important thing. Office is right off fifty nine in Sugarland.
(28:30):
Very easy to get to if you need legal help.
Brewster Law Firm TX dot com. Brewster Law Firm, TX
dot com.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Old guys rule, And of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Hey, I think that sounds like a good plant. Fifty
plus continues. Here's more with Doug. Welcome back.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Fourth and final segment starts right now. We got a
few minutes to deal with. And I mentioned to Will
that I've been reading so many amazing stories about about
medical breakthroughs and medical this and medical that. And I
told him his generation and younger ones are are going
to have opportunities that you and I never had. There's
(29:17):
always been breakthrough in medicine, and Saint jud Children's Research
Hospital is a prime example. The more research goes on,
the more bright minds get involved with trying to solve
seemingly unsolvable problems, the better it gets for us all.
And I saw something yesterday. There's a little device out
(29:38):
there now. It's barely the size of a postage stamp.
It's thinner than a credit card, and it's a wireless
implant that and they wrap this in quotes speaks end
quote to the brain and potentially could restore lost senses.
(29:58):
Think about that, this thing uses light to send information
directly to the brain.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Who thought this up?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
It bypasses all of our natural sensory pathways and is
being hailed as a giant leap for neurobiology and bioelectronics.
It's unbelievable. The more I read about this, the more
incredible it is. Research team says. These include providing sensory
feedback for prosthetic limbs, for delivering artificial stimuli for future
(30:32):
vision or hearing prostheses Holy Cow, modulating pain perception without
opioids or systemic drugs, enhancing rehab after stroke or serious injury,
controlling robotic limbs with the brain, on and on and on.
And it's just it's brand new, it's in its infancy.
(30:53):
It's in its infancy, but it's working. They're using it
now in the brains of mice and it's working. So
raise your hand if you think that's pretty cool, I
do anyway, says here. Even without touch, sight, or sound involved,
the roadents received information to make decisions and successfully completed
(31:15):
behavioral tasks. The mice quickly learned to interpret the patterns
as meaningful signals which they then could recognize and use.
So that's around the corner. How cool is that? Imagine
being able to restore eyesight, to restore hearing, to restore
(31:37):
your sense of touch, if it were ever to go away.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
We're just we're right on the edge of being able
to do that. It's fantastic, absolutely fantastic if you've been
keeping score at home.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
By the way, we've learned a little more about the
young man, a father of two who was killed in
a crash up in Washington State, allegedly killed by an
illegal immigrant there. He was twenty nine years old, had
two sons, and a driver that was allowed into our
country by President Biden's administration crashed into Robert Blake Pearson's car.
(32:12):
I guess it's alleged, but they the truck crashed into
the car and pushed it into and under a truck
in front of Pearson's and according to the Breitbart story,
Pearson's engine caught fire at.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
That point and he lost his life.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
And just yesterday, as I think I covered, no, I
didn't get to it.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Actually yesterday I know I didn't.
Speaker 3 (32:36):
But here is again, despite a detainer that was issued
by ice to keep that guy under wraps. He was
allowed to bond out thanks to Washington's self assigned sanctuary status.
Would why would that person be allowed to get back
on the street. I think it was like one hundred
thousand dollars bond So he had to come up with
(32:56):
ten grand somehow, and now he's back on the street,
probably not doing anything different than he was doing.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Then there's a how much do I have? Three minutes?
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Will?
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Can you give me that much? Okay? Good? I saw
a story this morning.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
I want to talk about it associated with COVID nineteen
vaccines again, as if, as if we already weren't learning
enough to scare the pants off of us. This one
relates especially to young men and occurs in about one
of The issue is a heart problem. I can't I
think it was cardio my cardiomyelitis. I think that was it,
(33:31):
but whatever it was. Currently with someone who just had
one vaccine a young man, about one in every one
hundred and forty thousand of them, which doesn't seem that bad.
But after a second dose of the vaccine. According to
this same study it came out of Stanford University, the
odds rise to one in just thirty two thousand and
(33:52):
in specifically in males thirty and younger, that number goes
to one in sixteen thousand and seven, one hundred and fifty,
and that should cause anyone in that group, or the
parents or friends of anyone in that group, like my
own son, that should cause concern among us. All one
(34:14):
in sixteen thousand change doesn't sound scary unless you wind
up being that one. Early symptoms, by the way, so
you know, typically are pretty mild, and all doctors can
do at that point is wonder if it's related, And
according to the story, they just kind of cross their
fingers and hope the kid recovers. Most of them do too,
(34:36):
because the odds are fairly slim, But nonetheless, in those
rare cases, these young men in the prime, not even
to the primes of their lives, wind up hospitalized with
severe heart inflammation, and worst case scenario, they end up dead.
One in sixteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty. Of the
(34:58):
young ones, the really young ones, it's horrible all because
they were in some in some cases forced to get
a vaccine or risk losing a job, or being unable
to attend a school, or otherwise be what it turns
out unnecessarily burdened. Hindsight's always twenty twenty, okay, hindsight always
air force. Foresight takes a little more effort, though, and
(35:21):
all of us better put forth that effort. When the
next accidental pandemic busts out of somewhere and blankets the planet,
a couple of minutes will three. Oh good, and I
can go over to one of these. Hmmm, uh no,
I don't like that one. Over in China, this was
(35:43):
kind of interesting. Over in China, there's a plant at
I don't know how to pronounce the name of the town.
It's Rizhao Riso Resal. It literally means sunshine, and it's
one of China's most renewably powered cities and has an
amazing facility to turn seawater into into pure water into
(36:06):
pure fresh water. For every eight hundred metric tons of
seawater it takes in, it delivers one hundred and eight
almost one hundred and nineteen thousand gallons of pure fresh
water and one hundred and ninety two thousand cubic meters
of green hydrogen fuel. Went on top of that, three
(36:27):
hundred and fifty metric tons of mineral rich brine for
marine chemical production. So hats off to them in China,
and I hope we get something like that over here,
if it's if it's good and safe and whatnot, I
think that would be very nice and good news from
at from Texas actually, but this was kind of cool.
I saw the story of a New York City reporter.
(36:47):
It just kind of winds all over the country really,
and even up into Canada. But anyway, he once recommended
to a coworker that she call her grandmother for advice,
and from that single simple gesture, something called Grandma stands
were born. Very simple, really. They're just out on a street,
sidewalk somewhere, maybe in a park. There's a chair on
(37:10):
one side and a grandma on the other side of
the table, and there's a little sign behind it. It's
kind of cute, really, It says, Grandma stand and that
other chair, the one that's not occupied by Grandma and
these are real live Grandmas, is just empty until somebody
sits down, and then Grandma gets asked a question and
(37:33):
hopefully offers up some solid wisdom based on what she's
learned about life and relationships and work and family and whatever.
I'd kind of like to see those, maybe in a mall,
maybe in parks. Now, you know, it's as sad as
it is somebody kind of have to be around a
grown person who would protect grandma. But whatever, I think
(37:57):
it's it's pretty interesting and I'm sure those grandmothers are
happy to have the relationship and have happy to get
to talk to people. If I ever see one of those,
I'm gonna go sit down and flip the script. I'm
gonna have a couple of questions for grandma. That's the
reporter in me. I really can't help myself. We'll be
back tomorrow. I've got a great interview coming up tomorrow.
I hope you tune in audios
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