January 31, 2025 • 40 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. Rafael Samper-Ternent, PhD about caregivers.
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Episode Transcript
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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? Hey John,
how's it going today?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This show is all about you, the good. 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 and Bronze Roofing
(00:43):
Repair or replacement. Bronze Roofing has you covered? And now
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
All Right, Friday it is, and glad to be it Friday,
to be perfectly honest, all I'm ready for the weekend
and more importantly, getting greatly enthusiastic over exactly what I'm
gonna do Monday, which is tea up and play a
little golf. Can't wait? Hold on, I gotta leave a
(01:12):
message for somebody. I'll call you right after the show. Oh,
never mind, he'll figure it out because I haven't called
him back yet. He called a little while ago and
I just got absolutely slammed. But I'm over that now.
Got a lot of good things going on too. Maybe
I'll share some of that. Maybe I'll won't. We'll see.
There's a lot to cover today. Welcome to sunny Friday,
(01:33):
which is actually going to turn into a preview this day,
will of the next several if the forecasters are correct.
A little nip in the air this morning, not enough
to really put me in a coat or even a
quarter zip. Will do you do you own a quarter zip?
Will a quarter zip? You know what they are right now?
(01:53):
What I had on yesterday, that garment that iHeart garment,
the gray one with the zipper. It's got a little
oh it's not it's a zipper that doesn't go all
the way down, kind of goes a quarter of the
way down. You get sassy with me, Doug, call it
what you want, Okay, hence the name though. So you
(02:15):
don't own one, I probably do.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
You don't know what clothes you own.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I just kind of put on what's there, just when
you get dressed in the dark. Yeah, a lot of
the time I close my eyes. You just close your
eyes and reach into the closet and just grab a
hanger and yank the hanger out of there. And they say, well,
this is what I'm wearing today. I guess this is Thursday.
I'm wearing this. Yes, you should get like gr Animals
(02:41):
or something.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
What you know of those?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Are?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You're teaching me all sorts of things today? Huh? Gr
Animals was a brand. It may still be a brand
of children's clothing that enables parents and children alike to
walk into a store and select from, say a shirt
and pants that are gonna match and look good together.
(03:08):
So there would be like a Koala bear on the
shirt and a Koala bear on the pants. But if
you had a Koala bear on the shirt and a
tiger on the pants, No, no, no, you don't need
to be putting those two together something like that. It's
an app No, it was actual a brand. It's a
clothing brand that was available in bigger like Target, and
(03:30):
I don't know where else. I've never heard of that before.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's not before your time.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
It would have been when you were growing up, and
since you wouldn't have been buying your own clothes, makes sense,
It's okay, it's okay, Well, it's okay, But if you
ever get a quarter zip, going back to the original question,
once you start wearing them, you'll find them very handy
on days. For instance, this morning would have been a
good quarter zip day. What I'll do is put a
(03:57):
little light T shirt on underneath it and then slap
that quarter zip on. Or if I'm playing golf, I
might put a golf shirt on, and then if it's
a little chillier than I want when I start, I
put the quarter zip on until it warms up a
little bit. I'll keep that in mind though, t am I, No.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
It's just a quarter zip.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Okay, speaking of that, what about those step in shoes?
You got any of those? What? Oh my god, what
do you know exactly what I'm talking about? Sandals? No, No,
I'm not talking about crocs. I'm not talking about sandals, loafers. No,
this is something that I think it's Sketchers came out
with a big line of these things, and now a
(04:37):
lot of other manufacturers have fallen in line. I think
Sketchers was first. But you just have your shoes standing there,
just sitting there on the floor, and instead of having
to bend down and tie them, or even reach down
and pull it onto your foot, you just step right
in and walk away. Well that's kind of how I
(04:57):
use my shoes going, but you just crushed the back
of the shoe and then slam your foot on end
and just walk on the on the heel of your shoe.
Of course, that's well, this is a very much more
sophisticated and fashionable way to get that same effect. I
think lots of people would say, I'm fashionable. Who's got
time to tie shoes? Anyway, That's what I'm saying. And
(05:20):
plus I think having your shoes untied adds a little
bit of danger drough your life.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, oh more than a little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
If you make the right step, I guarantee you you'll
be so surprised as you get a little bit older,
will on at how fast how fast the floor comes
up when you trip. Right now, even in your what
are you doing in your twenty still you trip and
you start to fall, and it just oh, I've got
time to roll, or I've got time to put my
(05:47):
arms out and break my fall a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I've got time to read a book on the way
to the ground.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And then when you're when you're my age, it's just like, oh,
I think I'm going up and then you hit the ground.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Wow, it's just like that.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Just gravity works different on you. Huh yeah, it's it's
much stronger on older people than it is on younger people.
I think you may be onto something there.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I can tell.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So there's something there's something anti gravitational about young people
that as as you age goes away. It's kind of
like testosterone or estrogen. I'm defining gravity all the time.
I'm sort of gliding wherever I go. Are you? Yes?
So if you step on a scale, you look like
(06:28):
you might weigh more than about nine pounds? Is that
what the scale's going to say? The scale says, how
about you don't do that again? Huh yeah. There's a
great Rodney danger Field line. You're young enough that you
haven't heard it. He's he Do you know who he is? Right?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yes, comedian and he's long gone.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
But the bottom line is he had he was talking
about how he gained some weight and when he got
on the scale, it said one at a time.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It's a good line, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It's pretty good? All right, we got one minute and
I just didn't even get I'll tell you what I
can knock through this. Uh, here we go. The official
weather from Texas iaq dot net. Because cleaner air is
healthier air. Actually not showing any rain in the forecast
at all all the way through next week. Highs in
the sixties, high sixties, by the way, and lows in
the high forties for two or three days, and then
(07:21):
mid seventies in the day and mid sixties overnight. It
won't be more comfortable for a long time. For this
good stretch, Spend some time outdoors for heaven's sakes, refill
your vitamin D stores. The market's real quick. Houston Gold
Exchange gold still rising like muffins in the oven. Dip
slightly a half an hour ago, but still well north
(07:43):
of twenty eight hundred and forty bucks an ounce. Brad
Schweis from over there at Houston Gold Exchange says it's
likely to continue to rise so long as we're in
deep debt as a nation and printing money to pay
the bills. Investment folks say we're not far from three
thousand dollars in ounce. Could come by the middle of
the year, maybe a little later, unless and until the
government quits waste of money and we regain energy independence
(08:06):
and quit throwing money around the world like we're making
it rain at a strip club. Holy cal Market indicators
all green led by the Nasdaq oiled down a half
a buck to nearly seventy two dollars of barrel. We'll
move on from there. On the way out, we'll tell
you about the Houston Auto Boative Show. Kind of a
(08:27):
nice little play on words. It's been around for a while.
This is day three of the show. Actually it continues
through Sunday at NRG Center and is, as its name implies,
a two for one. Really, as far as shows go,
you get the entire automotive show that used to be
(08:47):
by itself over there at that center, and then you
also get the entire boat show that used to exist
by itself at NRG Center. And if you've got several
hours to kill, and you'll need that much time if
you really want to go through there and learn and
look and think about shopping for a boat or a
new car or whatever, You're going to see everything you
(09:10):
can imagine, as far as the boats, the cars, the
accessories for all of them. You'll probably be able to
buy insurance for something like that. You'll be able to
just anything and everything auto boative. It's hard to describe
it all. I don't have time. January well now through
the second. It's this weekend at NRG Center. Autobotiveshow dot
(09:34):
com is a website. You can find out a whole
lot about it right there, Autobotive show dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What's life without a net? I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off, just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.
Back to Dougpike, as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Hi, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks for listening. Certainly
do appreciate it. This one's going to be a good one.
Great to see the sun again. By the way, we'll
talk in this segment about some of the unsung heroes
in healthcare, and by that I mean caregivers, whether they're
paid or especially if they're unpaid, family and friends, the
caregivers of older people with dementia or chronic illness or
(10:23):
whatever else landed them in need of regular care. And
to help I will bring in doctor Raphael Simper Tournette
at MD and PhD and associate professor at ut Health
Science Center and leader of research and clinical Innovation at
the Institute on Aging, which you've heard me mentioned so
(10:43):
many times here.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Welcome back to fifty plus. Doc.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Thank you Doug. It's good to be back.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You bet So I know someone actually who very recently
has been thrust into the role of caregiver for a
parent whose cognitive decline came on pretty quickly for some
one coming into that role. So suddenly, such as she,
what kind of calming and reassuring words would you offer her?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I think the first thing to say is you're
not alone. There is almost fifty three million people in
a similar situation in the US that are providing care
for an older adult with some type of difficulty. So
it's a really stunning number, but it means that there's
(11:30):
a lot of people in the same situation. So take
a deep breath. You're not alone, and there are resources
out there to help you in this journey.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Very good safety and numbers really, so talk about some
of the challenge some of the challenges these people who
just suddenly go from zero to one hundred on the
responsibility scale experience when they're still early in the journey.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I would say there are three major challenges. So
the first one is none of us has been taught
to become an older adult, and none of us has
been taught how to be a caregiver. So that's the
big challenge, is we're faced, we're put into an unknown
situation with very little preparation or education. The second thing
(12:15):
is there's a lot of stigma, So that prevents people
from getting timely help because we don't want people to
know that mom has dementia or that dad has dementia,
or we don't want to know that they can no
longer function by themselves, or even mom and dad don't
want other people to know that they're having a hard time,
(12:36):
and so that delays when and the type of health
that people can get. And three is, even though we've
been getting a little better, there's a limited set an
amount of resources for a lot of people, not only
because of cost, but because there are other social determinants
(12:59):
that people buld phase when getting help to become a
caregiver or to provide care. And they have to do
with financial resources, they have to do with language resources
for some populations, they have to do with location for
other people. So if you're in rural Texas, the ability
to get support to be a caregiver is much less
(13:22):
likely than if you were close to the medical center
in Houston.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
You mentioned that stigma aspect of it, and I dealt
with that when my mother's health started to fail. It
wasn't until she fell for the second time and her
best friend is who she called to go over there,
and her best friend found her in a not very
good state of affairs, and that she ended up with
(13:46):
a broken hip. But she wouldn't tell me. She never
told me that first time she fell. She just said, oh,
you know, I'm doing fine, I'm always okay, and all
of a sudden everything changed. Everything changed. So you really
do need to talk about it from long before it
even comes to.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That right, correct, correct, And the more people can have
this open conversations, the better. There's nothing worse than making
a decision in an emergency situation. It's much better to
do it before. And what I hear most from older
adults is, oh, if I tell my son, if I
tell my daughter, they're going to put me in the
(14:25):
nursing home.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
They're going to take away the keys.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's something that They're going to take away the keys,
or they're going to move me to their house and
I'm no longer going to be independent. And obviously those
things happen, and those resources are out there because we
have a shortage of caregivers, we have a shortage of
resources to support people to agent place at home, but
(14:49):
there are other alternatives, and unless you have those conversations,
then you can't explore other alternatives that are available.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Unless we get too far into the weeds on the
p person who's suffering the decline, talk about the importance
among caregivers to maintain their own health and get enough
sleep and eat right and do all the things they
can do to stay healthy, because it's not going to
be easy otherwise.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Is it correct. So one in five caregivers report their
health to be fair to poor. So that's a lot
of caregivers reporting poor health, and almost fifty percent of
them have had at least one financial impact or one
work impact when they start providing care to a loved one.
(15:35):
So it's really important that given all those conditions which
you mentioned, is true, caregivers tend to forget that they
also have health their needs, that they need to eat healthy,
that they need to exercise regularly, that they need to sleep,
and that they need to be able to take a break.
There's no job that anyone has that pace you to
(15:57):
work seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.
We're asking a lot of caregivers to do exactly that.
To be there seven days a week twenty four to
seven providing care. So you need time off to be
able to do things that you enjoy, but also to
take care of yourself. So it's really important to have
a balanced diet, get enough sleep, get support from other
(16:19):
family members and friends, and make sure that you're following
your health and getting the help that you need to
maintain your health.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Doctor Raphael Sampra Tournette on fifty plus here staying in
that vein, what are some of the ways that caregivers
can grab a break here and there without really disrupting
the care for that person.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So there are limited options available through some insurance companies
and some healthcare systems called it's called respite care in general.
So you can hire someone to provide a certain number
of hours to provide care for your loved one while
you go to a doctor's visit or take a weekend off.
Take that. But in addition to that, there's a lot
(17:02):
of community resources that are low cost and some are free,
where you can reach out to organizations and you can
take your loved one to a specific place to have
some time off. So they have activities that your local
one can engage with with other people while you take
a break. So care Partners is one of our collaborators
(17:26):
and they offer great services. Amazing Plays is another place
here in Houston where people can go and there are
programs structured for older adults while their caregivers take a break.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
With just about a minute and a half left, what
are some of the signs of burnout that if somebody
is a caregiver and yeah, I feel okay, but they
may be missing something that's critical to their own health.
What would that be?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
So when you're asleep starts getting affected, when you start
waking up every day at three or four o'clock in
the morning, thing gain, How am I going to pay
for health insurance? How am I going to pay for
food next month? Those things are really indicators that something
is wrong. When you lose your appetite, when you feel
sad all the time, or anxies all the time, when
(18:15):
you start if you previously had your diabetes under control
and suddenly you can't keep it under control, and your
sugars are all over the place, or of your blood
pressure this skyrocketing every other day, All of those are
signs that the things are getting out of control and
that you need to find help. So no one knows
(18:35):
your body better than you. So if you start noticing
things that are out of the ordinary, and you've noticed
them since you started or took on more responsibilities as
a caregiver, that's probably a good sign that you need help.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Before we close, because we're rapidly approaching it. I think
I read that it's also a very good idea for
the caregivers to alert the patient's doctor so that they
know doctors, they know that that caregivers hanging on by
a thread and in charge of all of this because
the caregiver is actually an integral part of that patient's
healthcare plan. Right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
That is correct, and as part of a large healthcare
system that is trying to improve, we're trying to find
better ways to document that our older patients have caregivers
and make sure that we have the contact information to
reach out to them in times of need or to
confirm or get additional information. But yes, you definitely want
(19:33):
to make sure that there is some place where this
is documented and that they have your contact information so
they can reach out to you in case that there
are questions about the person that you're providing care for.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Excellent information, Doctor Rafael samper Tournette on fifty plus. Anytime
you need information on things like this, you can go
to that Institute on Aging website and you will find
it correct, correct, correct. Thank you so very much. I will.
I'm sure we'll be talking again. I hope we are anyway.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Thank you, yes, sure, thank you very much. Have a
good day.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Buy all right.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
We got to take a little break here. Speaking of
the Institute on Aging, it's next up on the list here.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
This is the amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Collaborative of providers of resources that I just mentioned. The
website is ut h dot edu slash aging, and what
you will find there is information about the organization itself,
about its history, about why it was formed, how it
was formed, and then you will learn there that anyone
(20:33):
who is affiliated, such as doctor Samperturnett, has gone back
and received additional training and education beyond what it took
them to get the credentials on their walls, and they've
learned how to apply that expertise specifically to seniors, specifically
to us, and that's really important. If you're a caregiver,
(20:57):
you will find information about that, just like we shared.
If you need help with a particular condition, you will
find information about whatever that is that can be very
beneficial to you. You'll have access to providers all around town,
many in the medical center. Most in the medical center
probably for most of their time each week, but many
(21:17):
of whom also practice at outlying hospitals, at outlying clinics,
so that if you're not really comfortable trying to get
into downtown and get into the med center by yourself,
you can be seen by someone who has that special
training to help us uth dot edu slash aging uth
(21:39):
dot edu slash aging Aged to perfection.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
This is fifty plus with Dougpike.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Well thirty five on AM nine fifty kPr. Thank you
for listening. I certainly do appreciate it, as does Will.
I presume right, will a nod? That's all we get.
This audience is on the edge of its seat waiting.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
For your response.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, okay, good, that's enough.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
For the record.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
By the way, I am not ignoring the DC plane
crash in today's show, but I am going to postpone
deeper discussion until there's more confirmed information to share. As
has been the situation for so many years, there's all
sort of speculate speculation and postulation and thought just being
(22:41):
thrown about out there. But when there's something concrete, something
easily enough verified to share that's different from what's already
out there, then we'll talk some more. I have no
problem talking about it. I just want to make sure
that we're talking about things that can be verified, because
sometimes that's not the case. Verifiable very easily. Is the
(23:06):
Super Bowl which comes up on February the ninth, and
the halftime show will be provided by someone with whom
I would reckon the majority of this audience is not familiar.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That would be Kendrick Lamar.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Now you may know the name, and I'll give you
that from hanging out with your where kids and grandkids
and whatnot. But there would be great bonus points for
anyone in this audience who also could name more than
one song that Kendrick Lamar may sing. And I'm not
knocking him. That's a different type of talent to be
(23:47):
able to do what those guys do. I met Travis
Scott just a few days ago in this office and
it was an amazing experience. I don't know that I've
ever I've ever shaken the hand of someone who has
I want to it's say seventeen and a half million
Instagram followers or whatever the number is. That was fun.
(24:09):
Did I go out and listen to a bunch of
his music, No, because that's just not my cup of tea.
But the guy himself in that setting was very friendly,
very open, very easy to talk to for the few
seconds I was around. I mean, we just snapped those
pictures and he had to get going anyway. But nonetheless
it was fun. So that's who's going to be, not
(24:30):
Travis Scott, but Kendrick Lamar will be the halftime entertainment.
So if you're not a fan, just get up and
make a sandwich or something like that. I saw an
excellent piece in The American Thinker this morning, written by
a guy named JB. Shirk s h u RK about
how a once noble idea of long ago President Woodrow Wilson,
(24:51):
a vision of permanent positions in federal government to handle
the day to day governing of our great nation, how
that has evolved slow but surely into a morbidly a
beast collection of people who tend to just be loosely
veiled Marxists and communists and whatnots and socialists trying to
(25:11):
change America from the inside out. They have sabotaged our interests,
they've sabotaged our liberty, shirks right into all of this,
and I couldn't agree more. And they've even managed to
create a hiring system that makes it nearly impossible to
get rid of them. And over the past one hundred
years or so, the dream of professional government has been
(25:35):
turned into want of one of career government. These people
with fancy titles and benefits and nice salaries who tell
us what to do, but don't have to do the
same thing. They just they pointed us and tell us
this is how you're gonna live, but we're gonna have
something different. And in exchange for allowing all this to happen,
So now we got it, just bottomless pit of bureaucracy
(25:57):
that ignores the needs well, for example, ignored the needs
of North Carolina hurricane victims. Think about that, but they
can't wait to help California, where wildfire risk was pretty
much ignored on several fronts in the name of greenness
and echo that they diverted rain water that could have
filled their reservoirs and made it easier to fight those fires.
(26:21):
They drained that stuff in a wet year into the
Pacific Ocean to save some tiny little fish. In hindsight,
that probably wasn't the best idea, the best use of
all that water. And of course, rather than except blame
for the fires being caused, not by not by doing
prescribed burns, which they should have done, not by clearing underbrush,
(26:44):
which they should have done, and both of which greatly
would have reduced the fire damage, not filling the reservoirs.
All of that, they blamed it on climate change. They
blamed it on climate change. We've got a government that
just enjoys what shirt called wilful blindness from top to bottom,
and the ability to ignore legitimate, valuable solutions ahead of
(27:10):
time in the name of they just they they turn
their backs on all that stuff in the name of
trendy ideology, and it's dragged us into a really dark
place as a country. Unfortunately, uh, the only, the only
truly essential workers in this country far as I'm concerned, anyway,
the men and women who provide food and shelter and
(27:33):
protection from threats foreign and domestic, and maybe teachers most
of them. The rest of us rely on all of
them to get through our days. A couple of people
suggested that if the bulk of federal employees can't be fired,
then maybe they are to be redirected into farming positions,
(27:54):
maybe working the land for a little while. At the
same they can have their same salary if they're willing
to get out out there and get dirty. I don't care.
You can't fire.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Them, but you can.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Sure change what they do. That'd be far greater benefit
to Americans now too. All right, well, let's tee up
a little fun and get off that weirdo train there.
Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's a little bit harder.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
But I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I couldn't resist that. And I've got more of this
stuff enough to get us through next week. Probably. This
whole change of the guard and the lefts criticisms are
just they're a gift that keeps on giving. All right,
here we go, Well, deep sleep over the rainbow, or
what's better, deep sleep.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
They're all pretty good. This is the shortest one.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Squirrels hibernate so soundly, so hard. They're sleeping so hard,
will that you could do what without waking them? This
is like a circus question, circus related. You could pick
them up and shake all their acorns out, leave their
nuts alone. Will you could juggle them without waking them?
(29:02):
You could juggle Think about that. Think about You've seen
people juggle bowling pins and what chainsaws and knives and
tennis balls and all of that. But would you pay
extra to see somebody juggling hibernating squirrels. I think I
would pay to see you juggle some hibernating squirrels. Okay,
(29:25):
that's the theory. Out how much. I've got three squirrels
that hang out in my yard, and I can cover
your raby shot if that happens one of them happens
to wake up, Now.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, we got three of them that hang out in
our front yard. We have more squirrels around our neighborhood
and my yard specifically, we have more acorns falling out
of mike trees than any neighbor around me within eyeball
shot has. I have the only sidewalking driveway that need
to be powerwashed about two three times a year just
(30:01):
to get the acorn goo off of them. We need
to take a little break, don't we be domn All right,
let me tell you about a late health These are
vascular clinics around town where you can be seen to
get rid of issues that can be solved with vascular procedures,
usually within just a couple of hours in the office.
You're gonna need to bring somebody to drive you home.
(30:22):
They're not gonna let you do this wide awake. A
lot of these things anyway, Some you could, some you couldn't.
In any event, the most common procedure they do, the
most often procedure that gets done, is called prostate artoryabilization.
That helps guys my age and a lot younger and
a lot older who are dealing with enlarged non cancerous prostates.
(30:43):
If you have one, you know the symptoms. If you don't,
you don't want it. But if you feel them sometime
and you describe them to your doctor and they say, oh, yeah,
that's what that is, then you need to get in
touch with a late health and they can alleviate that
by shutting off the blood supply to that pesky prostate.
Ugly veins, that's a that's a no brainer in there.
They fix those all the time, and if there's no
(31:06):
blood getting to that little tiny vein, you don't need
them all. I mean, you certainly don't need the ugly ones.
And they'll just make that go away fibroids. In women,
there are head pain issues that can be alleviated in
many cases with vascular procedure. They do a lot of
regenerative medicine over there as well at a late health
and that is extremely helpful for those of us who
(31:27):
suffer from chronic pain. Most of what they do is
covered by Medicare and Medicare too, So make a phone call,
get a consultation, see what they can do for you.
A late health dot com Ala te a late health
dot com seven one three five eight eight thirty eight
eighty eight seven one three five eight eight thirty eight
eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Old guy's rule. And of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch. Oh
you think that sounds like a good plan. Fifty plus continues.
Here's more with Doug.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Welcome Back Pull forty nine on AM nine fifty KPRC.
I have to be very careful coming into this break
will because my mind is already thinking about tomorrow morning,
when I'll be back here in what barely fifteen hours?
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Tee it up at seven o'clock on AM nine. No see,
I messed that one up too. Sports Talk seven ninety Tomorrow,
we're gonna talk about fishing. There's a lot. There's a
very interesting photograph that got circulated recently, and a friend
of mine sent it to me and said, is this real?
And immediately when I read it, the best way to
(32:49):
find out if a fish that purports some state record,
world record, or anything that's kind of a record like that,
and something that's a big deal. This particular record, the
large amount bass record for the state of Texas has
been in place. It hadn't changed in twenty five or
thirty years. It might be forty years now, I don't know.
A guy named Barry Saint Clair caught it out of
(33:10):
Lake Fork. It weighed eighteen point eighteen pounds. And don't
get me started on Texas, Texas not being able to
produce a twenty pounder, which California and Florida and Georgia
already have. I don't know why we can't do that.
I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if if
one gets caught in the next in the next year
(33:30):
and a half. Anyway, now that we have all this
forward looking sonar and you can just look down there
and see them, but the bottom line is I said no,
And indeed I went to the internet and just said
I just typed a search for Texas New Texas State
Record bass and it was just total crickets everything there
was about Barry Saint Claire's eighteen eighteen. So before you
(33:54):
get all excited and start posting things and about something
you think is way too good to be true, I'm
not my guy. My cat came to me first. He didn't.
He didn't get all excited about it. He wanted somebody
to research it, and I was this guy. But before
you look at a lot of these things that are
on the internet now, just ask yourself what's the likelihood
of that being true? And then go find two or
(34:17):
three other sources to confirm it before you shot it
from the rooftops.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Okay, well, I'm back to you.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Uh, Sweet Dreams, call me back in three years or
go Granny go do, Grannie goes. This was kind of interesting.
It's pop quizo you ready, Yeah? For all the money
in the world and the camper. A ninety four year
old woman in Oregon was cited for allegedly driving how
fast on the Interstate one twenty five. She's ninety four,
(34:54):
one hundred and six, okay, doing one hundred and six,
still fast, Yeah, but out of winter.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You did.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
You came pretty close you know where I thought you
were gonna go, knowing you what what I thought you
were gonna say would be like seven would be kind
of funny, wouldn't it been? Probably more than one twenty
six going seven miles an hour a little bit, you know,
on my way into work on the weekends. I'm telling you,
(35:23):
tomorrow morning more than Sunday morning, Saturday mornings more than Sundays.
There's gonna be somebody doing forty. Now, that's gonna be
a beautiful, clear morning. Probably not a cloud in the sky,
and if there are, they're just the little puffy, fluffy ones.
And somebody's gonna be doing thirty five or forty in
a center lane, and somebody's gonna be doing at least
(35:45):
one hundred in any lane. They may may may start
on the right and pass on the left. They may
come by me so close that you couldn't squeeze a
paper clip between our bumpers, and they won't care. They
just won't care. I had a guy cut me off
in a in a left turn lane where there's only
(36:07):
one lane that's supposed to turn left, and it's very clear,
clearly posted everywhere in this intersection, and he just as.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I went into it, and there's no room to go around.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He either has to get just completely in front of
me or he has to go farther up, and there's
no there's no legal left turn other than that one lane.
And he came flying up there at about a million
and slams on the brakes and just darts in front
of me to where I had to really hit my
brakes pretty hard. And I tapped my horn at him,
(36:41):
and he rolls his window down and salutes me with
not all five of his fingers like I did something wrong,
like I did something wrong. It's just the arrogance I
think is really frightening.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Man.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I got a couple of minutes, I'll hit one of these.
Let's go go with San Antonio right down the street.
If you're on iten well three hours away anyway, soon
to come. This what I'm gonna tell you about is
probably gonna hit a lot more big cities, to millions
of dollars over there being invested in the study of
something called capping and stitching of our highways. You know,
(37:18):
what that is, will no prepare to learn something else?
You learn three things just in the first segment. Wow,
now you're gonna learn one more. In theory, this is
being presented as a long overdue repair and repayment for
what's being called deliberate racism of the past.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Way back in the past.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Somewhere when highways were being built, according to some people,
they were being built to segregate cities. So these big
wide surface streets, these freeways, where to keep keep them
over there and them over there, which really makes no
sense because there are roads that go under and over
(38:01):
and around and whatnot. It's not like it's a moat
just dug through the middle of the city where the
boats come up and down. Anyway, the bottom line, and
never mind that private cars and public transportation enable people
from all walks of life to get from point A
to point B. But these people are are dead set
on convincing us to spend hundreds of millions of dollars
(38:23):
eventually on building these grass covered dirt overpasses and maybe
make taking the highway over or under these things so
that people can walk from one side of the freeway
to the other, so that people can walk an hour
to get someplace they could get in ten minutes on
(38:46):
a bicycle or two minutes.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
In a car.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Most of the people who work, who want to work,
most of the people who want to work, can find
a way to get to work when and if they
get that job. I do believe that if you're dead
set on getting a job and making a better path
for yourself, you're gonna find a way to get there.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I would, I certainly would.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I see stories a lot on Undercover Boss where some
of these young people who are working at these places
maybe come from a wherever they come from, are working
a mile, walking a mile mile and a half two
miles back and forth from work each day because they
want to be there. They want to better themselves, and
I like that. And building a building, a vacant lot,
(39:34):
park over a road, over a freeway is not going
to do that. Before they invest millions of dollars in this,
maybe people on both sides of the freeways could either
choose that or maybe I don't know, better, water supply,
medical care, maybe a park with a soccer field, a
new fire station, something that benefits everybody, that would not
(39:59):
be a bad thing to have, would not be And
if there are people who genuinely need that transportation. Well,
then maybe we spend a couple of million on creating
a better route and a free pass system for people
who genuinely cannot afford a bus pass. I'd sign on
for that easy. All right, Well, we're down daring, near
to the end of the whole week. I'll give you
(40:20):
a chance to take it out of here. No sense
crying over it, Captain obvious strikes again, or back to
what's better? What's better? Oh God, we don't have time
for that one.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
I'll go to no sense.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Firefighters in Florida dealt with a smelly mess on Wednesday
when a truck spilled more than four thousand gallons of milk.
We'll get to the others next week. Thanks for listening, 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? Hey John,
how's it going today?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This show is all about you, the good. 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 and Bronze Roofing
(00:43):
Repair or replacement. Bronze Roofing has you covered? And now
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
All Right, Friday it is, and glad to be it Friday,
to be perfectly honest, all I'm ready for the weekend
and more importantly, getting greatly enthusiastic over exactly what I'm
gonna do Monday, which is tea up and play a
little golf. Can't wait? Hold on, I gotta leave a
(01:12):
message for somebody. I'll call you right after the show. Oh,
never mind, he'll figure it out because I haven't called
him back yet. He called a little while ago and
I just got absolutely slammed. But I'm over that now.
Got a lot of good things going on too. Maybe
I'll share some of that. Maybe I'll won't. We'll see.
There's a lot to cover today. Welcome to sunny Friday,
(01:33):
which is actually going to turn into a preview this day,
will of the next several if the forecasters are correct.
A little nip in the air this morning, not enough
to really put me in a coat or even a
quarter zip. Will do you do you own a quarter zip?
Will a quarter zip? You know what they are right now?
(01:53):
What I had on yesterday, that garment that iHeart garment,
the gray one with the zipper. It's got a little
oh it's not it's a zipper that doesn't go all
the way down, kind of goes a quarter of the
way down. You get sassy with me, Doug, call it
what you want, Okay, hence the name though. So you
(02:15):
don't own one, I probably do.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
You don't know what clothes you own.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I just kind of put on what's there, just when
you get dressed in the dark. Yeah, a lot of
the time I close my eyes. You just close your
eyes and reach into the closet and just grab a
hanger and yank the hanger out of there. And they say, well,
this is what I'm wearing today. I guess this is Thursday.
I'm wearing this. Yes, you should get like gr Animals
(02:41):
or something.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
What you know of those?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Are?
Speaker 3 (02:44):
You're teaching me all sorts of things today? Huh? Gr
Animals was a brand. It may still be a brand
of children's clothing that enables parents and children alike to
walk into a store and select from, say a shirt
and pants that are gonna match and look good together.
(03:08):
So there would be like a Koala bear on the
shirt and a Koala bear on the pants. But if
you had a Koala bear on the shirt and a
tiger on the pants, No, no, no, you don't need
to be putting those two together something like that. It's
an app No, it was actual a brand. It's a
clothing brand that was available in bigger like Target, and
(03:30):
I don't know where else. I've never heard of that before.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Yeah, yeah, it's not before your time.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
It would have been when you were growing up, and
since you wouldn't have been buying your own clothes, makes sense,
It's okay, it's okay, Well, it's okay, But if you
ever get a quarter zip, going back to the original question,
once you start wearing them, you'll find them very handy
on days. For instance, this morning would have been a
good quarter zip day. What I'll do is put a
(03:57):
little light T shirt on underneath it and then slap
that quarter zip on. Or if I'm playing golf, I
might put a golf shirt on, and then if it's
a little chillier than I want when I start, I
put the quarter zip on until it warms up a
little bit. I'll keep that in mind though, t am I, No.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
It's just a quarter zip.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Okay, speaking of that, what about those step in shoes?
You got any of those? What? Oh my god, what
do you know exactly what I'm talking about? Sandals? No, No,
I'm not talking about crocs. I'm not talking about sandals, loafers. No,
this is something that I think it's Sketchers came out
with a big line of these things, and now a
(04:37):
lot of other manufacturers have fallen in line. I think
Sketchers was first. But you just have your shoes standing there,
just sitting there on the floor, and instead of having
to bend down and tie them, or even reach down
and pull it onto your foot, you just step right
in and walk away. Well that's kind of how I
(04:57):
use my shoes going, but you just crushed the back
of the shoe and then slam your foot on end
and just walk on the on the heel of your shoe.
Of course, that's well, this is a very much more
sophisticated and fashionable way to get that same effect. I
think lots of people would say, I'm fashionable. Who's got
time to tie shoes? Anyway, That's what I'm saying. And
(05:20):
plus I think having your shoes untied adds a little
bit of danger drough your life.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, oh more than a little bit.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
If you make the right step, I guarantee you you'll
be so surprised as you get a little bit older,
will on at how fast how fast the floor comes
up when you trip. Right now, even in your what
are you doing in your twenty still you trip and
you start to fall, and it just oh, I've got
time to roll, or I've got time to put my
(05:47):
arms out and break my fall a little bit.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
I've got time to read a book on the way
to the ground.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And then when you're when you're my age, it's just like, oh,
I think I'm going up and then you hit the ground.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Wow, it's just like that.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Just gravity works different on you. Huh yeah, it's it's
much stronger on older people than it is on younger people.
I think you may be onto something there.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
I can tell.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So there's something there's something anti gravitational about young people
that as as you age goes away. It's kind of
like testosterone or estrogen. I'm defining gravity all the time.
I'm sort of gliding wherever I go. Are you? Yes?
So if you step on a scale, you look like
(06:28):
you might weigh more than about nine pounds? Is that
what the scale's going to say? The scale says, how
about you don't do that again? Huh yeah. There's a
great Rodney danger Field line. You're young enough that you
haven't heard it. He's he Do you know who he is? Right?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yes, comedian and he's long gone.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
But the bottom line is he had he was talking
about how he gained some weight and when he got
on the scale, it said one at a time.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It's a good line, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
It's pretty good? All right, we got one minute and
I just didn't even get I'll tell you what I
can knock through this. Uh, here we go. The official
weather from Texas iaq dot net. Because cleaner air is
healthier air. Actually not showing any rain in the forecast
at all all the way through next week. Highs in
the sixties, high sixties, by the way, and lows in
the high forties for two or three days, and then
(07:21):
mid seventies in the day and mid sixties overnight. It
won't be more comfortable for a long time. For this
good stretch, Spend some time outdoors for heaven's sakes, refill
your vitamin D stores. The market's real quick. Houston Gold
Exchange gold still rising like muffins in the oven. Dip
slightly a half an hour ago, but still well north
(07:43):
of twenty eight hundred and forty bucks an ounce. Brad
Schweis from over there at Houston Gold Exchange says it's
likely to continue to rise so long as we're in
deep debt as a nation and printing money to pay
the bills. Investment folks say we're not far from three
thousand dollars in ounce. Could come by the middle of
the year, maybe a little later, unless and until the
government quits waste of money and we regain energy independence
(08:06):
and quit throwing money around the world like we're making
it rain at a strip club. Holy cal Market indicators
all green led by the Nasdaq oiled down a half
a buck to nearly seventy two dollars of barrel. We'll
move on from there. On the way out, we'll tell
you about the Houston Auto Boative Show. Kind of a
(08:27):
nice little play on words. It's been around for a while.
This is day three of the show. Actually it continues
through Sunday at NRG Center and is, as its name implies,
a two for one. Really, as far as shows go,
you get the entire automotive show that used to be
(08:47):
by itself over there at that center, and then you
also get the entire boat show that used to exist
by itself at NRG Center. And if you've got several
hours to kill, and you'll need that much time if
you really want to go through there and learn and
look and think about shopping for a boat or a
new car or whatever, You're going to see everything you
(09:10):
can imagine, as far as the boats, the cars, the
accessories for all of them. You'll probably be able to
buy insurance for something like that. You'll be able to
just anything and everything auto boative. It's hard to describe
it all. I don't have time. January well now through
the second. It's this weekend at NRG Center. Autobotiveshow dot
(09:34):
com is a website. You can find out a whole
lot about it right there, Autobotive show dot com.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What's life without a net? I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off, just wait until the show's over. Sleepy.
Back to Dougpike, as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Hi, welcome back to fifty plus. Thanks for listening. Certainly
do appreciate it. This one's going to be a good one.
Great to see the sun again. By the way, we'll
talk in this segment about some of the unsung heroes
in healthcare, and by that I mean caregivers, whether they're
paid or especially if they're unpaid, family and friends, the
caregivers of older people with dementia or chronic illness or
(10:23):
whatever else landed them in need of regular care. And
to help I will bring in doctor Raphael Simper Tournette
at MD and PhD and associate professor at ut Health
Science Center and leader of research and clinical Innovation at
the Institute on Aging, which you've heard me mentioned so
(10:43):
many times here.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Welcome back to fifty plus. Doc.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Thank you Doug. It's good to be back.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
You bet So I know someone actually who very recently
has been thrust into the role of caregiver for a
parent whose cognitive decline came on pretty quickly for some
one coming into that role. So suddenly, such as she,
what kind of calming and reassuring words would you offer her?
Speaker 2 (11:10):
So I think the first thing to say is you're
not alone. There is almost fifty three million people in
a similar situation in the US that are providing care
for an older adult with some type of difficulty. So
it's a really stunning number, but it means that there's
(11:30):
a lot of people in the same situation. So take
a deep breath. You're not alone, and there are resources
out there to help you in this journey.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Very good safety and numbers really, so talk about some
of the challenge some of the challenges these people who
just suddenly go from zero to one hundred on the
responsibility scale experience when they're still early in the journey.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So I would say there are three major challenges. So
the first one is none of us has been taught
to become an older adult, and none of us has
been taught how to be a caregiver. So that's the
big challenge, is we're faced, we're put into an unknown
situation with very little preparation or education. The second thing
(12:15):
is there's a lot of stigma, So that prevents people
from getting timely help because we don't want people to
know that mom has dementia or that dad has dementia,
or we don't want to know that they can no
longer function by themselves, or even mom and dad don't
want other people to know that they're having a hard time,
(12:36):
and so that delays when and the type of health
that people can get. And three is, even though we've
been getting a little better, there's a limited set an
amount of resources for a lot of people, not only
because of cost, but because there are other social determinants
(12:59):
that people buld phase when getting help to become a
caregiver or to provide care. And they have to do
with financial resources, they have to do with language resources
for some populations, they have to do with location for
other people. So if you're in rural Texas, the ability
to get support to be a caregiver is much less
(13:22):
likely than if you were close to the medical center
in Houston.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
You mentioned that stigma aspect of it, and I dealt
with that when my mother's health started to fail. It
wasn't until she fell for the second time and her
best friend is who she called to go over there,
and her best friend found her in a not very
good state of affairs, and that she ended up with
(13:46):
a broken hip. But she wouldn't tell me. She never
told me that first time she fell. She just said, oh,
you know, I'm doing fine, I'm always okay, and all
of a sudden everything changed. Everything changed. So you really
do need to talk about it from long before it
even comes to.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
That right, correct, correct, And the more people can have
this open conversations, the better. There's nothing worse than making
a decision in an emergency situation. It's much better to
do it before. And what I hear most from older
adults is, oh, if I tell my son, if I
tell my daughter, they're going to put me in the
(14:25):
nursing home.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
They're going to take away the keys.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
That's something that They're going to take away the keys,
or they're going to move me to their house and
I'm no longer going to be independent. And obviously those
things happen, and those resources are out there because we
have a shortage of caregivers, we have a shortage of
resources to support people to agent place at home, but
(14:49):
there are other alternatives, and unless you have those conversations,
then you can't explore other alternatives that are available.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Unless we get too far into the weeds on the
p person who's suffering the decline, talk about the importance
among caregivers to maintain their own health and get enough
sleep and eat right and do all the things they
can do to stay healthy, because it's not going to
be easy otherwise.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Is it correct. So one in five caregivers report their
health to be fair to poor. So that's a lot
of caregivers reporting poor health, and almost fifty percent of
them have had at least one financial impact or one
work impact when they start providing care to a loved one.
(15:35):
So it's really important that given all those conditions which
you mentioned, is true, caregivers tend to forget that they
also have health their needs, that they need to eat healthy,
that they need to exercise regularly, that they need to sleep,
and that they need to be able to take a break.
There's no job that anyone has that pace you to
(15:57):
work seven days a week, twenty four hours a day.
We're asking a lot of caregivers to do exactly that.
To be there seven days a week twenty four to
seven providing care. So you need time off to be
able to do things that you enjoy, but also to
take care of yourself. So it's really important to have
a balanced diet, get enough sleep, get support from other
(16:19):
family members and friends, and make sure that you're following
your health and getting the help that you need to
maintain your health.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Doctor Raphael Sampra Tournette on fifty plus here staying in
that vein, what are some of the ways that caregivers
can grab a break here and there without really disrupting
the care for that person.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
So there are limited options available through some insurance companies
and some healthcare systems called it's called respite care in general.
So you can hire someone to provide a certain number
of hours to provide care for your loved one while
you go to a doctor's visit or take a weekend off.
Take that. But in addition to that, there's a lot
(17:02):
of community resources that are low cost and some are free,
where you can reach out to organizations and you can
take your loved one to a specific place to have
some time off. So they have activities that your local
one can engage with with other people while you take
a break. So care Partners is one of our collaborators
(17:26):
and they offer great services. Amazing Plays is another place
here in Houston where people can go and there are
programs structured for older adults while their caregivers take a break.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
With just about a minute and a half left, what
are some of the signs of burnout that if somebody
is a caregiver and yeah, I feel okay, but they
may be missing something that's critical to their own health.
What would that be?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
So when you're asleep starts getting affected, when you start
waking up every day at three or four o'clock in
the morning, thing gain, How am I going to pay
for health insurance? How am I going to pay for
food next month? Those things are really indicators that something
is wrong. When you lose your appetite, when you feel
sad all the time, or anxies all the time, when
(18:15):
you start if you previously had your diabetes under control
and suddenly you can't keep it under control, and your
sugars are all over the place, or of your blood
pressure this skyrocketing every other day, All of those are
signs that the things are getting out of control and
that you need to find help. So no one knows
(18:35):
your body better than you. So if you start noticing
things that are out of the ordinary, and you've noticed
them since you started or took on more responsibilities as
a caregiver, that's probably a good sign that you need help.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
Before we close, because we're rapidly approaching it. I think
I read that it's also a very good idea for
the caregivers to alert the patient's doctor so that they
know doctors, they know that that caregivers hanging on by
a thread and in charge of all of this because
the caregiver is actually an integral part of that patient's
healthcare plan. Right.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
That is correct, and as part of a large healthcare
system that is trying to improve, we're trying to find
better ways to document that our older patients have caregivers
and make sure that we have the contact information to
reach out to them in times of need or to
confirm or get additional information. But yes, you definitely want
(19:33):
to make sure that there is some place where this
is documented and that they have your contact information so
they can reach out to you in case that there
are questions about the person that you're providing care for.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Excellent information, Doctor Rafael samper Tournette on fifty plus. Anytime
you need information on things like this, you can go
to that Institute on Aging website and you will find
it correct, correct, correct. Thank you so very much. I will.
I'm sure we'll be talking again. I hope we are anyway.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Thank you, yes, sure, thank you very much. Have a
good day.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Buy all right.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
We got to take a little break here. Speaking of
the Institute on Aging, it's next up on the list here.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
This is the amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Collaborative of providers of resources that I just mentioned. The
website is ut h dot edu slash aging, and what
you will find there is information about the organization itself,
about its history, about why it was formed, how it
was formed, and then you will learn there that anyone
(20:33):
who is affiliated, such as doctor Samperturnett, has gone back
and received additional training and education beyond what it took
them to get the credentials on their walls, and they've
learned how to apply that expertise specifically to seniors, specifically
to us, and that's really important. If you're a caregiver,
(20:57):
you will find information about that, just like we shared.
If you need help with a particular condition, you will
find information about whatever that is that can be very
beneficial to you. You'll have access to providers all around town,
many in the medical center. Most in the medical center
probably for most of their time each week, but many
(21:17):
of whom also practice at outlying hospitals, at outlying clinics,
so that if you're not really comfortable trying to get
into downtown and get into the med center by yourself,
you can be seen by someone who has that special
training to help us uth dot edu slash aging uth
(21:39):
dot edu slash aging Aged to perfection.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
This is fifty plus with Dougpike.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Well thirty five on AM nine fifty kPr. Thank you
for listening. I certainly do appreciate it, as does Will.
I presume right, will a nod? That's all we get.
This audience is on the edge of its seat waiting.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
For your response.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Yeah, okay, good, that's enough.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
For the record.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
By the way, I am not ignoring the DC plane
crash in today's show, but I am going to postpone
deeper discussion until there's more confirmed information to share. As
has been the situation for so many years, there's all
sort of speculate speculation and postulation and thought just being
(22:41):
thrown about out there. But when there's something concrete, something
easily enough verified to share that's different from what's already
out there, then we'll talk some more. I have no
problem talking about it. I just want to make sure
that we're talking about things that can be verified, because
sometimes that's not the case. Verifiable very easily. Is the
(23:06):
Super Bowl which comes up on February the ninth, and
the halftime show will be provided by someone with whom
I would reckon the majority of this audience is not familiar.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That would be Kendrick Lamar.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Now you may know the name, and I'll give you
that from hanging out with your where kids and grandkids
and whatnot. But there would be great bonus points for
anyone in this audience who also could name more than
one song that Kendrick Lamar may sing. And I'm not
knocking him. That's a different type of talent to be
(23:47):
able to do what those guys do. I met Travis
Scott just a few days ago in this office and
it was an amazing experience. I don't know that I've
ever I've ever shaken the hand of someone who has
I want to it's say seventeen and a half million
Instagram followers or whatever the number is. That was fun.
(24:09):
Did I go out and listen to a bunch of
his music, No, because that's just not my cup of tea.
But the guy himself in that setting was very friendly,
very open, very easy to talk to for the few
seconds I was around. I mean, we just snapped those
pictures and he had to get going anyway. But nonetheless
it was fun. So that's who's going to be, not
(24:30):
Travis Scott, but Kendrick Lamar will be the halftime entertainment.
So if you're not a fan, just get up and
make a sandwich or something like that. I saw an
excellent piece in The American Thinker this morning, written by
a guy named JB. Shirk s h u RK about
how a once noble idea of long ago President Woodrow Wilson,
(24:51):
a vision of permanent positions in federal government to handle
the day to day governing of our great nation, how
that has evolved slow but surely into a morbidly a
beast collection of people who tend to just be loosely
veiled Marxists and communists and whatnots and socialists trying to
(25:11):
change America from the inside out. They have sabotaged our interests,
they've sabotaged our liberty, shirks right into all of this,
and I couldn't agree more. And they've even managed to
create a hiring system that makes it nearly impossible to
get rid of them. And over the past one hundred
years or so, the dream of professional government has been
(25:35):
turned into want of one of career government. These people
with fancy titles and benefits and nice salaries who tell
us what to do, but don't have to do the
same thing. They just they pointed us and tell us
this is how you're gonna live, but we're gonna have
something different. And in exchange for allowing all this to happen,
So now we got it, just bottomless pit of bureaucracy
(25:57):
that ignores the needs well, for example, ignored the needs
of North Carolina hurricane victims. Think about that, but they
can't wait to help California, where wildfire risk was pretty
much ignored on several fronts in the name of greenness
and echo that they diverted rain water that could have
filled their reservoirs and made it easier to fight those fires.
(26:21):
They drained that stuff in a wet year into the
Pacific Ocean to save some tiny little fish. In hindsight,
that probably wasn't the best idea, the best use of
all that water. And of course, rather than except blame
for the fires being caused, not by not by doing
prescribed burns, which they should have done, not by clearing underbrush,
(26:44):
which they should have done, and both of which greatly
would have reduced the fire damage, not filling the reservoirs.
All of that, they blamed it on climate change. They
blamed it on climate change. We've got a government that
just enjoys what shirt called wilful blindness from top to bottom,
and the ability to ignore legitimate, valuable solutions ahead of
(27:10):
time in the name of they just they they turn
their backs on all that stuff in the name of
trendy ideology, and it's dragged us into a really dark
place as a country. Unfortunately, uh, the only, the only
truly essential workers in this country far as I'm concerned, anyway,
the men and women who provide food and shelter and
(27:33):
protection from threats foreign and domestic, and maybe teachers most
of them. The rest of us rely on all of
them to get through our days. A couple of people
suggested that if the bulk of federal employees can't be fired,
then maybe they are to be redirected into farming positions,
(27:54):
maybe working the land for a little while. At the
same they can have their same salary if they're willing
to get out out there and get dirty. I don't care.
You can't fire.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
Them, but you can.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Sure change what they do. That'd be far greater benefit
to Americans now too. All right, well, let's tee up
a little fun and get off that weirdo train there.
Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's a little bit harder.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
But I couldn't.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
I couldn't resist that. And I've got more of this
stuff enough to get us through next week. Probably. This
whole change of the guard and the lefts criticisms are
just they're a gift that keeps on giving. All right,
here we go, Well, deep sleep over the rainbow, or
what's better, deep sleep.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
They're all pretty good. This is the shortest one.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Squirrels hibernate so soundly, so hard. They're sleeping so hard,
will that you could do what without waking them? This
is like a circus question, circus related. You could pick
them up and shake all their acorns out, leave their
nuts alone. Will you could juggle them without waking them?
(29:02):
You could juggle Think about that. Think about You've seen
people juggle bowling pins and what chainsaws and knives and
tennis balls and all of that. But would you pay
extra to see somebody juggling hibernating squirrels. I think I
would pay to see you juggle some hibernating squirrels. Okay,
(29:25):
that's the theory. Out how much. I've got three squirrels
that hang out in my yard, and I can cover
your raby shot if that happens one of them happens
to wake up, Now.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Go to sleep.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Yeah, we got three of them that hang out in
our front yard. We have more squirrels around our neighborhood
and my yard specifically, we have more acorns falling out
of mike trees than any neighbor around me within eyeball
shot has. I have the only sidewalking driveway that need
to be powerwashed about two three times a year just
(30:01):
to get the acorn goo off of them. We need
to take a little break, don't we be domn All right,
let me tell you about a late health These are
vascular clinics around town where you can be seen to
get rid of issues that can be solved with vascular procedures,
usually within just a couple of hours in the office.
You're gonna need to bring somebody to drive you home.
(30:22):
They're not gonna let you do this wide awake. A
lot of these things anyway, Some you could, some you couldn't.
In any event, the most common procedure they do, the
most often procedure that gets done, is called prostate artoryabilization.
That helps guys my age and a lot younger and
a lot older who are dealing with enlarged non cancerous prostates.
(30:43):
If you have one, you know the symptoms. If you don't,
you don't want it. But if you feel them sometime
and you describe them to your doctor and they say, oh, yeah,
that's what that is, then you need to get in
touch with a late health and they can alleviate that
by shutting off the blood supply to that pesky prostate.
Ugly veins, that's a that's a no brainer in there.
They fix those all the time, and if there's no
(31:06):
blood getting to that little tiny vein, you don't need
them all. I mean, you certainly don't need the ugly ones.
And they'll just make that go away fibroids. In women,
there are head pain issues that can be alleviated in
many cases with vascular procedure. They do a lot of
regenerative medicine over there as well at a late health
and that is extremely helpful for those of us who
(31:27):
suffer from chronic pain. Most of what they do is
covered by Medicare and Medicare too, So make a phone call,
get a consultation, see what they can do for you.
A late health dot com Ala te a late health
dot com seven one three five eight eight thirty eight
eighty eight seven one three five eight eight thirty eight
eighty eight.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Old guy's rule. And of course women never get old.
If you want to avoid sleeping on the couch. Oh
you think that sounds like a good plan. Fifty plus continues.
Here's more with Doug.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Welcome Back Pull forty nine on AM nine fifty KPRC.
I have to be very careful coming into this break
will because my mind is already thinking about tomorrow morning,
when I'll be back here in what barely fifteen hours?
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Something like that.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Tee it up at seven o'clock on AM nine. No see,
I messed that one up too. Sports Talk seven ninety Tomorrow,
we're gonna talk about fishing. There's a lot. There's a
very interesting photograph that got circulated recently, and a friend
of mine sent it to me and said, is this real?
And immediately when I read it, the best way to
(32:49):
find out if a fish that purports some state record,
world record, or anything that's kind of a record like that,
and something that's a big deal. This particular record, the
large amount bass record for the state of Texas has
been in place. It hadn't changed in twenty five or
thirty years. It might be forty years now, I don't know.
A guy named Barry Saint Clair caught it out of
(33:10):
Lake Fork. It weighed eighteen point eighteen pounds. And don't
get me started on Texas, Texas not being able to
produce a twenty pounder, which California and Florida and Georgia
already have. I don't know why we can't do that.
I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if if
one gets caught in the next in the next year
(33:30):
and a half. Anyway, now that we have all this
forward looking sonar and you can just look down there
and see them, but the bottom line is I said no,
And indeed I went to the internet and just said
I just typed a search for Texas New Texas State
Record bass and it was just total crickets everything there
was about Barry Saint Claire's eighteen eighteen. So before you
(33:54):
get all excited and start posting things and about something
you think is way too good to be true, I'm
not my guy. My cat came to me first. He didn't.
He didn't get all excited about it. He wanted somebody
to research it, and I was this guy. But before
you look at a lot of these things that are
on the internet now, just ask yourself what's the likelihood
of that being true? And then go find two or
(34:17):
three other sources to confirm it before you shot it
from the rooftops.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Okay, well, I'm back to you.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
Uh, Sweet Dreams, call me back in three years or
go Granny go do, Grannie goes. This was kind of interesting.
It's pop quizo you ready, Yeah? For all the money
in the world and the camper. A ninety four year
old woman in Oregon was cited for allegedly driving how
fast on the Interstate one twenty five. She's ninety four,
(34:54):
one hundred and six, okay, doing one hundred and six,
still fast, Yeah, but out of winter.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
You did.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
You came pretty close you know where I thought you
were gonna go, knowing you what what I thought you
were gonna say would be like seven would be kind
of funny, wouldn't it been? Probably more than one twenty
six going seven miles an hour a little bit, you know,
on my way into work on the weekends. I'm telling you,
(35:23):
tomorrow morning more than Sunday morning, Saturday mornings more than Sundays.
There's gonna be somebody doing forty. Now, that's gonna be
a beautiful, clear morning. Probably not a cloud in the sky,
and if there are, they're just the little puffy, fluffy ones.
And somebody's gonna be doing thirty five or forty in
a center lane, and somebody's gonna be doing at least
(35:45):
one hundred in any lane. They may may may start
on the right and pass on the left. They may
come by me so close that you couldn't squeeze a
paper clip between our bumpers, and they won't care. They
just won't care. I had a guy cut me off
in a in a left turn lane where there's only
(36:07):
one lane that's supposed to turn left, and it's very clear,
clearly posted everywhere in this intersection, and he just as.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I went into it, and there's no room to go around.
Speaker 3 (36:18):
He either has to get just completely in front of
me or he has to go farther up, and there's
no there's no legal left turn other than that one lane.
And he came flying up there at about a million
and slams on the brakes and just darts in front
of me to where I had to really hit my
brakes pretty hard. And I tapped my horn at him,
(36:41):
and he rolls his window down and salutes me with
not all five of his fingers like I did something wrong,
like I did something wrong. It's just the arrogance I
think is really frightening.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Man.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I got a couple of minutes, I'll hit one of these.
Let's go go with San Antonio right down the street.
If you're on iten well three hours away anyway, soon
to come. This what I'm gonna tell you about is
probably gonna hit a lot more big cities, to millions
of dollars over there being invested in the study of
something called capping and stitching of our highways. You know,
(37:18):
what that is, will no prepare to learn something else?
You learn three things just in the first segment. Wow,
now you're gonna learn one more. In theory, this is
being presented as a long overdue repair and repayment for
what's being called deliberate racism of the past.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Way back in the past.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Somewhere when highways were being built, according to some people,
they were being built to segregate cities. So these big
wide surface streets, these freeways, where to keep keep them
over there and them over there, which really makes no
sense because there are roads that go under and over
(38:01):
and around and whatnot. It's not like it's a moat
just dug through the middle of the city where the
boats come up and down. Anyway, the bottom line, and
never mind that private cars and public transportation enable people
from all walks of life to get from point A
to point B. But these people are are dead set
on convincing us to spend hundreds of millions of dollars
(38:23):
eventually on building these grass covered dirt overpasses and maybe
make taking the highway over or under these things so
that people can walk from one side of the freeway
to the other, so that people can walk an hour
to get someplace they could get in ten minutes on
(38:46):
a bicycle or two minutes.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
In a car.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Most of the people who work, who want to work,
most of the people who want to work, can find
a way to get to work when and if they
get that job. I do believe that if you're dead
set on getting a job and making a better path
for yourself, you're gonna find a way to get there.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I would, I certainly would.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
I see stories a lot on Undercover Boss where some
of these young people who are working at these places
maybe come from a wherever they come from, are working
a mile, walking a mile mile and a half two
miles back and forth from work each day because they
want to be there. They want to better themselves, and
I like that. And building a building, a vacant lot,
(39:34):
park over a road, over a freeway is not going
to do that. Before they invest millions of dollars in this,
maybe people on both sides of the freeways could either
choose that or maybe I don't know, better, water supply,
medical care, maybe a park with a soccer field, a
new fire station, something that benefits everybody, that would not
(39:59):
be a bad thing to have, would not be And
if there are people who genuinely need that transportation. Well,
then maybe we spend a couple of million on creating
a better route and a free pass system for people
who genuinely cannot afford a bus pass. I'd sign on
for that easy. All right, Well, we're down daring, near
to the end of the whole week. I'll give you
(40:20):
a chance to take it out of here. No sense
crying over it, Captain obvious strikes again, or back to
what's better? What's better? Oh God, we don't have time
for that one.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
I'll go to no sense.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Firefighters in Florida dealt with a smelly mess on Wednesday
when a truck spilled more than four thousand gallons of milk.
We'll get to the others next week. Thanks for listening, Audios.
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