April 9, 2025 • 22 mins
(April 09, 2025)
Americans are losing interest in electric cars. Where will we eat when the middle-class restaurant is gone? Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about reduction in Alzheimer’s risk verified by blood markers, invasive strep throat doubled, eating some food additives together may increase diabetes risk, and shingles Vaccine Linked to lower dementia.
Americans are losing interest in electric cars. Where will we eat when the middle-class restaurant is gone? Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about reduction in Alzheimer’s risk verified by blood markers, invasive strep throat doubled, eating some food additives together may increase diabetes risk, and shingles Vaccine Linked to lower dementia.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle here on a home day, Wednesday,
April ninth, Coming up at the bottom of the hour,
Doctor Jim Keeney is coming aboard, as he does every Wednesday,
and I'm trying to figure out what topics we can
talk about.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
To make your life even more miserable.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
He normally comes in with some kind of a topic
that gives us some let's say, a little bit of
good news in your medical future, and I try to
stay away from those as much as possible. And so
I'm going through the list and I'll figure it out
in the meantime.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
A topic is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Is electric cars, electric vehicles, and as you know, I
have one all electric, and I think next time out
I'm going to get a hybrid. I'm a big fan
of electric vehicles for all kinds of reasons, and then
I'm not a big fan for all kinds of reasons.
So a poll just came out that is pretty important.
It's a gallup pole and it is connected to what
(01:10):
is going on obviously with the Trump administration, and it's
you on electric vehicles, and it turns out that Americans
are less interested and I'm not surprised in buying and
owning evs, and they were two years ago. The EV
market is still growing, but nothing like it was anticipated
to grow. Americans who are open to buying an electric
(01:33):
vehicle has dropped to fifty one percent in early twenty
twenty five, down from fifty nine percent. The reality is,
no one actually does buy an electric vehicle. And I'll
give you the stats in just a moment relative to
the number of cars that are.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Sold in the US.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And EV makers are facing increasing pressures because of first
of all, the Trump administration tariffs. That's one and two
the Trump administration's.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Philosophy on EVA cars.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Because of the Trump administration's reliance and belief in the
fossil fuels industry.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Trump is a big fan of fossil fuels. Drill, baby drill,
he has just opened up. But coal production, let's take
coal mining, which was shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, and going the
other way. So for those reasons and more, the EV
market has.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Really gone south. It's there's some interesting stats.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Corey Cantor, who's research director of the Zero Emission Transportation
Association says this Pole effort offers actually good news for
the transition to evs. He said, half of the entire
market is currently interested or already owns an EV.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Please.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
At the moment, electric electric vehicles make up about ten
percent of new car sales. That's not true. Electric vehicles
make up about one to two percent of the new
car sales. And why is that.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well, let's talked about some practicality.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
First of all, political batteries are made, for the most
part overseas. China controls, for example, the lithium production in
this country in.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
The world, and people have to buy from China, and
you know what's going on with the Chinese.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
The Chinese and tariffs the other thing that's going on
in terms of evs. And this is my personal involvement
outside of politics.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I just don't like to pay that much for fossil fuels.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I've always had very big cars that I get no
gas mileage. So now I have a beamer that is
all electrical, and I have a solar system at home,
so I don't pay for fuel because I charge it
during the day.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I have a battery pack I can charge you at night.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And I'm just not paying for fuel where I used
to pay one hundred hundred and twenty dollars a week
for fuel.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Is that I have range anxiety like many people do,
and that means I'm always figuring out how much juice
do I have left. There aren't enough charging stations out there,
and the federal programs that were pumping big money into chargers,
especially under the Biden administration, those are disappearing, if they
haven't already. Trump doesn't like electric vehicles, it's that simple,
(04:36):
and doesn't like the federal programs that help the electrification
of cars and trucks in this country. And so you
put that together the lack of a lack of chargers.
The other thing is you go to fill up a tank.
Let's say there are plenty of chargers out there, you
go and you fill up your car with gas. It's
three minutes. Five minutes A a charger is twenty minutes.
(05:02):
Although I just read about some new technology, there's a
new vehicle out there, and I forget what it is
because I just saw it in passing that you can
get a full charge and two minutes. And when that happens,
and the time is equivalent, and you have enough charging stations, maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
People will go the other way with electric cars.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Because when you talk about the reduction of the use
of fossil fuels.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
That's a big deal. Now. I used to be, and
still to.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
An extent, I am a huge fan of reducing fossil fuels.
But in the end it doesn't matter anymore. We've already
hit critical mass. We've gone over the edge. Now it's
just a question of time. I mean, climate change is here.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You can deny it all you want. Lick what's happening
on the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You had once in a lifetime storms this year, and
last year you had once in a lifetime store store,
this is what every couple of years, we have once
in a thousand year storms. Now what ninety tornadoes reported
the other day, a couple of days ago. I mean,
(06:12):
it just goes on and on. So we're done with
climate all right. You can just kiss that one goodbye.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So now what do you do? Well for me?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's still an ev but it's going to be a
hybrid next time out, because I just don't want to
run out of electricity. I don't want to run out
of juice. I don't want to run out of battery power,
and I'm scared to death. So, as you know, I
live in Orange County and I drive up on a
regular basis to Burbank, and man, do I sweat bullets?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You know? Where do I charge? What if I run out?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I make sure I'm one hundred percent battery and I
charge at the station, which costs me buckets of money.
If you ever want to charge a car, you come
to KFI, you go downstairs in the parking lot, and
you're going to some serious money for charging. They just
may make a fortune off of you. And I'm always
thinking about that. And that's the problem with electric vehicles.
(07:08):
So we're losing interest. Even someone who is as big
a fan as I am with evs and not as
excited as I was. All right, Neil Savedra, who is
with us every single morning and hosts The FOK Report
Saturdays from two to five. It is a show about food,
and Neil's Wheelhouse is all about food in addition to
(07:32):
other things like being depraved and sick. Okay, Neil, I
want to throw something at you, Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I hope it's a brick and yes, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Since the early two thousands, you've got chains TGI Fridays,
Red Lobster out Back, Applebee's, Pizza Hut have either closed
huge number of locations or have file for bankruptcy. And
you had these restaurants which didn't exist for the most part,
a certainly not in popularity explode at the in the
(08:05):
last century, maybe from the nineteen sixties up to the
two thousands, because the Mom and Popper's, those little restaurants
that we love going to have just disappeared for the
most part. Why is this happening where these guys are
going away?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Well, the one thing that they bring to the table
was massive amounts of space and consistent food. And so
when families were going out to dinner, they'd say, Hey,
you know, we don't want to cook tonight, let's go
out here. They would go to these chain restaurants and
they'd get consistency in the food. It's tasty. I love
chain restaurants personally. I think they're important part of the ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, so do I I don't they're and they're derided people.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Oh good god, Olive Garden, that's horrible. Hey, I love
Olive Garden. I love the cheesecake Factory. Oh I do too.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
I mean when we go out to a movie in
Burbank or something like that, family, we often go out
to the olive garden right there, or you have out
back right there, whatever it is. These places absolutely have
a place. These chain restaurants absolutely have a place in
the food ecosystem, and they're an important part of it.
(09:18):
We just don't eat out the same way. We want
fast casual, something we can get in and get out.
They've kind of been replaced by other places like Chipotle
or shake Shack or something that's smaller. You get in
and you get out still with quality ingredients. And if
(09:39):
you go into most of them built, they're pretty big.
They used to have, you know, the families on earlier
in the night or maybe even a triple layer. You'd
get older folks going in early four o'clock whatever, and
then you'd get by five o'clock. You'd have you know,
people coming in with their families for dinner and maybe
(10:01):
a happy hour, and then there'd be kind of a
nightlife segment of it where people would go and maybe
watch a game or watch TV there and have Margarita's
whatever it is. And there's just been a breakdown in
those patterns. People aren't going out with their families in
the same way and the same Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It's also so is it because of the question of cost?
Is it a question of just convenience. One of my
favorite fast casual for example, Stonefire Grill. I mean I
love going to Stonefire Grill. You go up to the counter,
you do the order, there's the menu, poop yah pop
poop pop. I'll come to your credit card, and then
it's delivered to the table. It is quick. You're not
(10:39):
deally with waiters. You're not the only people writing stuff down.
Those have to be growing like crazy. Well yes, but
that's a that's a completely different model. Like you said,
not to mention they do catering and they do takeout. Yeah,
so and so do you know the bigger chains. But
for instance, you go to Olive Garden, which is known
(11:03):
for their bottomless salads and breadsticks, right all.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
You can eat.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
That's not something you can take home. That's not something
you can experience at home. So you're not going to
have that delivered to your You're not going to do
that takeout because you can't. So there are there are
still issues with getting bodies in there consistently. You have
to have. You have to have a consistent base of people.
(11:29):
Now when I go over there, like I said in
bird Bank, you go over there off off a victory
place and those places are packed pretty much when I've gone.
But they used to be everywhere, every single one of them.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yes to do now there is So do you think
this trend is going to continue where you have these
sit down restaurants the casual restaurants that are disappearing is
because middle classes basically disappearing, I guess that's fair to say.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And then even casual dining.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It's it's gotten so expensive it's become crazy, making you
think they're really on the way out.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Are they going to come back?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It is you you put your finger right on it's
it will rise and fall in the middle class, and
right now there is no real middle class. I mean,
I look at ourself as middle class, my family and
still the the to be able to own a home,
to go out to eat without worrying about it, to
(12:31):
go and enjoy places like Disneyland, Universal not it's very
farm these types of things. It's getting more and more expensive,
but I think that's going to be the key. You'll
be surprised though, and I'm big on mom and pop.
I'm big on fast casual, I'm big on all these
things I think are necessary to local economy. But it's
(12:54):
very hard to keep a place like Olive Garden consistent.
And I find their foo tasty. But to keep them
consistent and to do all of those things and have
such a big footprint, I mean hundreds of tables, you know,
to keep that up is very difficult. That's why TGI
(13:16):
Fridays and the like have been dropping like flies.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
All right, Neil, I got to cut you off. We're
obviously out of time in this segment. By the way,
thank you. When you mentioned your middle class, you didn't
say to me and Bill, you're not middle class.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You are class less. Oh you left that one on
the table, So class was out with a lot of
money there you are, all right?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Chief medical officer for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center in
Long Beach. And Jim, you attended my wedding in Italy
and there's video of you dancing up and down like
a maniac.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Did you know that?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah? Well I figured there would be, you know, once
we did the horror and you know I had all
that extra energy afterwards without a chair on my shoulder.
It was so much easier.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, it's actually when that video comes out, I'm going
to tell people Jim is out of his mind.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
All right, let's get to medical news.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And actually this is pretty good medical news, which I
hate to talk about, and that's the reduction in Alzheimer's
risk verified by blood markers. And Alzheimer's is something that well,
we're really concerned about.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I'm concerned about.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You know, here I am, and you know, I'm scared
to death about the onset and a lot of people
tell me, well, you know you should be. So let's
talk about that for a moment, because that seems to be, well,
pretty good news.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And how do you get a reduction in Alzheimer's risk?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you're right. I think Alzheimer's strikes
fear into people like almost nothing else, because nobody wants
to be healthy and well otherwise and then lose their mind. Right.
There's people that say I don't mind if even if
feople say I don't mind if I drop dead from
a heart attack. But for example, if I have a stroke,
i'm disabled. That sounds horrible. So they're more afraid of
strokes than heart attacks. Even though heart attacks are higher
(15:03):
risk and Alzheimer's along those lines. You know, I lose
my mind, I lose function mentally, and I want to
keep that as long as possible. So there's a new study.
It's a small study. I mean, we're talking about seventy
one participants and they're using bio markers p TOW and
amyloid in the blood. And that's the difference is before
(15:24):
we have to be invasive and do spinal taps get
the fluid from the spinal cord to get this information.
Now they're getting it out of the blood. And what
this does is it allows people to be very motivated
to take very drastic lifestyle changes and lifestyle modifications. It
includes while you're changing or diet to a completely plant
(15:44):
based Mediterranean diet, you're doing regular exercise, cardio, strength training
and then yoga first, you know, stretch and stress reduction,
then sleep hygiene, absolutely getting enough sleep stress management. That's
not easy for people. But when you say, look, I'm
either going to keep doing this stress or I'm going
to lose my mind, people start, you know, paying attention.
(16:06):
And then they have some supplements and hormone and metabolic
balance and all that stuff. But when you can show
somebody that they're improving, their compliance rate goes way up.
So as you can show them having these numbers drop,
you know, they do better. And the article that was
published recently, the woman that they interviewed talked about how
(16:26):
her word finding problems stopped. You know, so and buill,
don't worry. Word finding is a normal problem as we
all matures.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
You know, you and I, you know, see each other
fairly regularly socially. And you went as you went through
that list of reducing your risk of alzheimer.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You do most of that yourself, don't you sure I do.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
That's why my goal is to not have to get
any of these tests right. If you just do things right,
you don't need a test to show you that you're
doing things right. And we kind of know what right is.
It's just a matter of Look, we're all weighing, right,
how much we want to enjoy life versus how much
joy doing these things SAPs from our lives, right, Yeah,
And that's why, you know, that's why most people don't
(17:12):
participate and don't get enough sleep because they want to
stay up late, you know, having fun, talking to friends,
watching TV, whatever brings them joy and then they miss
out on the sleep aspect.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah my choice postrawmi sandwiches or losing my mind.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
You know, Jim, you know where I'm going to go
with that.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
All right, Jim, really quickly the strep throat story, and
then I want to talk about how your hospital has
been given an alert.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The strap throat has doubled. What is that about? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
No, this so this is not even just the simple
strip through what we call invasive group a strap, which
can cause strep throat. It can cause a lot of
other diseases too, like flesh eating, you know, flesh bacteria,
and toxic shock syndrome. So it has the ability that's
why this is so dangerous. It has the ability to
(18:07):
get into sterile areas of the body and especially like
the layers between your skin, and that's how it starts traveling.
Like normally, your skin's like a sponge. Imagine that, and
it's trying to travel through a sponge. You know, the
tissue stops it from progressing. But if you get between
the layers of two sponges, then all of a sudden
it can travel very rapidly. And that's what as doctors
(18:28):
we've seen this. You know, somebody comes into the er
with flesh eating bacteria and literally within minutes you're watching
it grow and expand. And if you don't get that
person to the operating room, you know immediately they're just
not going to do well.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think they're going to die.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Oh, they're going to die.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
They're going to die.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's a very high depth rate. It just they get
becomes septic, it becomes overwhelming, and they die very quickly.
So that's why this scares us. And it seems to
be there's a doubling of it now it's still about
it's gone from four out of one hundred thousand people
to eight out of one hundred thousand people, so that
they you know, it's it's it's yeah, not a super
(19:08):
common disease, but it's common enough that we see it regularly,
and to see something like that double is very concerning.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
All right, Let's quickly move on to a topic you
just suggested, and that is your er has been asked
to go on alert because of the Grand Prix Long
Beach coming in.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So that's the first time has happened.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And why so, yeah, I wouldn't say, you know, alert
as much because that sounds like something's happened, right, So
what this is is proactive and the city knows they're
and they're aware right that they've done. They've hosted the
Long Beach Grand Prix for fifty years and it's what's
the longest running you know, street race in North America,
(19:53):
and and so they're they're accustomed to this and what
they've you know, helped that asked us to help with
is they are increasing or enhancing surveillance for infections diseases
during the time of the Grand peer Race. You know,
the blum Beach Harbor is very international, right, It's one
of the largest, probably second largest harbor in the country,
and so lots of incoming and outgoings of people from
(20:16):
different countries. It's something common to Long Beach, but this
is going to raise that to a new level with
the participation of the Grand Prix this weekend. So the
gastro intestinal disease, hemorrhagic diseases, neurologic diseases, rashes, you know,
things like that, respiratory illnesses, those are all going to
now kind of be reportable and immediately report those two
(20:40):
to the Health Humans or Communicable Diseases Surveillance Division.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Is this more prevalent today, is it?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Are you got to increased alerts or proactive you know,
watch out for this this year than previous years.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, I think so. I mean really, with international travel
being so common and now it's it's really not just
the elite class that moves from country to country, it's
it's everyone. So you know, we're getting uh, you know,
people of all walks of life, from all areas of
the world. And and that's you know, things like like
monkey pocks. I mean you know that that when it
(21:20):
broke out in uh in a small area of Africa.
You know, years ago you wouldn't have been worried, but
now you know here it is in the United States.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Okay, Jim, I've decided that we when when I do
a lockout with you, you know how people say we'll see
you tomorrow or gee, thanks for being with us. Uh,
I've changed it all to Jim. Uh, kills someone today
for me?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, well no, I thought it was going to be
we're all gonna die.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
No, that's a given too, but I want to be
specific to you.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Uh, So Jim will catch you next Wednesday, uh, and right,
kill and kill someone for me today? Okay, uh, coming up,
it's Gary and Shannon. How unusual every day nine o'clock.
And tomorrow we start all over again with Amy wake
Up Call, and I think Will's part of wake Up
Call too. Although I'm so busy preparing the show, I
(22:13):
have a hard time listening. And then of course Neil
and I come aboard at six to write about now
and let's well, let me say a quick thank you
to KNO and and and I'm forced to do that.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
So what can I tell you? All Right? This is
KFI A M sixty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
KFI AM six forty Bill Handle here on a home day, Wednesday,
April ninth, Coming up at the bottom of the hour,
Doctor Jim Keeney is coming aboard, as he does every Wednesday,
and I'm trying to figure out what topics we can
talk about.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
To make your life even more miserable.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
He normally comes in with some kind of a topic
that gives us some let's say, a little bit of
good news in your medical future, and I try to
stay away from those as much as possible. And so
I'm going through the list and I'll figure it out
in the meantime.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
A topic is near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Is electric cars, electric vehicles, and as you know, I
have one all electric, and I think next time out
I'm going to get a hybrid. I'm a big fan
of electric vehicles for all kinds of reasons, and then
I'm not a big fan for all kinds of reasons.
So a poll just came out that is pretty important.
It's a gallup pole and it is connected to what
(01:10):
is going on obviously with the Trump administration, and it's
you on electric vehicles, and it turns out that Americans
are less interested and I'm not surprised in buying and
owning evs, and they were two years ago. The EV
market is still growing, but nothing like it was anticipated
to grow. Americans who are open to buying an electric
(01:33):
vehicle has dropped to fifty one percent in early twenty
twenty five, down from fifty nine percent. The reality is,
no one actually does buy an electric vehicle. And I'll
give you the stats in just a moment relative to
the number of cars that are.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Sold in the US.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And EV makers are facing increasing pressures because of first
of all, the Trump administration tariffs. That's one and two
the Trump administration's.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Philosophy on EVA cars.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Because of the Trump administration's reliance and belief in the
fossil fuels industry.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Trump is a big fan of fossil fuels. Drill, baby drill,
he has just opened up. But coal production, let's take
coal mining, which was shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, and going the
other way. So for those reasons and more, the EV
market has.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Really gone south. It's there's some interesting stats.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Corey Cantor, who's research director of the Zero Emission Transportation
Association says this Pole effort offers actually good news for
the transition to evs. He said, half of the entire
market is currently interested or already owns an EV.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Please.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
At the moment, electric electric vehicles make up about ten
percent of new car sales. That's not true. Electric vehicles
make up about one to two percent of the new
car sales. And why is that.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Well, let's talked about some practicality.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
First of all, political batteries are made, for the most
part overseas. China controls, for example, the lithium production in
this country in.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
The world, and people have to buy from China, and
you know what's going on with the Chinese.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
The Chinese and tariffs the other thing that's going on
in terms of evs. And this is my personal involvement
outside of politics.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I just don't like to pay that much for fossil fuels.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I've always had very big cars that I get no
gas mileage. So now I have a beamer that is
all electrical, and I have a solar system at home,
so I don't pay for fuel because I charge it
during the day.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I have a battery pack I can charge you at night.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And I'm just not paying for fuel where I used
to pay one hundred hundred and twenty dollars a week
for fuel.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
But here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Is that I have range anxiety like many people do,
and that means I'm always figuring out how much juice
do I have left. There aren't enough charging stations out there,
and the federal programs that were pumping big money into chargers,
especially under the Biden administration, those are disappearing, if they
haven't already. Trump doesn't like electric vehicles, it's that simple,
(04:36):
and doesn't like the federal programs that help the electrification
of cars and trucks in this country. And so you
put that together the lack of a lack of chargers.
The other thing is you go to fill up a tank.
Let's say there are plenty of chargers out there, you
go and you fill up your car with gas. It's
three minutes. Five minutes A a charger is twenty minutes.
(05:02):
Although I just read about some new technology, there's a
new vehicle out there, and I forget what it is
because I just saw it in passing that you can
get a full charge and two minutes. And when that happens,
and the time is equivalent, and you have enough charging stations, maybe.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
People will go the other way with electric cars.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Because when you talk about the reduction of the use
of fossil fuels.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
That's a big deal. Now. I used to be, and
still to.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
An extent, I am a huge fan of reducing fossil fuels.
But in the end it doesn't matter anymore. We've already
hit critical mass. We've gone over the edge. Now it's
just a question of time. I mean, climate change is here.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You can deny it all you want. Lick what's happening
on the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
You had once in a lifetime storms this year, and
last year you had once in a lifetime store store,
this is what every couple of years, we have once
in a thousand year storms. Now what ninety tornadoes reported
the other day, a couple of days ago. I mean,
(06:12):
it just goes on and on. So we're done with
climate all right. You can just kiss that one goodbye.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So now what do you do? Well for me?
Speaker 2 (06:23):
It's still an ev but it's going to be a
hybrid next time out, because I just don't want to
run out of electricity. I don't want to run out
of juice. I don't want to run out of battery power,
and I'm scared to death. So, as you know, I
live in Orange County and I drive up on a
regular basis to Burbank, and man, do I sweat bullets?
Speaker 3 (06:43):
You know? Where do I charge? What if I run out?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I make sure I'm one hundred percent battery and I
charge at the station, which costs me buckets of money.
If you ever want to charge a car, you come
to KFI, you go downstairs in the parking lot, and
you're going to some serious money for charging. They just
may make a fortune off of you. And I'm always
thinking about that. And that's the problem with electric vehicles.
(07:08):
So we're losing interest. Even someone who is as big
a fan as I am with evs and not as
excited as I was. All right, Neil Savedra, who is
with us every single morning and hosts The FOK Report
Saturdays from two to five. It is a show about food,
and Neil's Wheelhouse is all about food in addition to
(07:32):
other things like being depraved and sick. Okay, Neil, I
want to throw something at you, Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I hope it's a brick and yes, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Since the early two thousands, you've got chains TGI Fridays,
Red Lobster out Back, Applebee's, Pizza Hut have either closed
huge number of locations or have file for bankruptcy. And
you had these restaurants which didn't exist for the most part,
a certainly not in popularity explode at the in the
(08:05):
last century, maybe from the nineteen sixties up to the
two thousands, because the Mom and Popper's, those little restaurants
that we love going to have just disappeared for the
most part. Why is this happening where these guys are
going away?
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Well, the one thing that they bring to the table
was massive amounts of space and consistent food. And so
when families were going out to dinner, they'd say, Hey,
you know, we don't want to cook tonight, let's go
out here. They would go to these chain restaurants and
they'd get consistency in the food. It's tasty. I love
chain restaurants personally. I think they're important part of the ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, so do I I don't they're and they're derided people.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Oh good god, Olive Garden, that's horrible. Hey, I love
Olive Garden. I love the cheesecake Factory. Oh I do too.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
I mean when we go out to a movie in
Burbank or something like that, family, we often go out
to the olive garden right there, or you have out
back right there, whatever it is. These places absolutely have
a place. These chain restaurants absolutely have a place in
the food ecosystem, and they're an important part of it.
(09:18):
We just don't eat out the same way. We want
fast casual, something we can get in and get out.
They've kind of been replaced by other places like Chipotle
or shake Shack or something that's smaller. You get in
and you get out still with quality ingredients. And if
(09:39):
you go into most of them built, they're pretty big.
They used to have, you know, the families on earlier
in the night or maybe even a triple layer. You'd
get older folks going in early four o'clock whatever, and
then you'd get by five o'clock. You'd have you know,
people coming in with their families for dinner and maybe
(10:01):
a happy hour, and then there'd be kind of a
nightlife segment of it where people would go and maybe
watch a game or watch TV there and have Margarita's
whatever it is. And there's just been a breakdown in
those patterns. People aren't going out with their families in
the same way and the same Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It's also so is it because of the question of cost?
Is it a question of just convenience. One of my
favorite fast casual for example, Stonefire Grill. I mean I
love going to Stonefire Grill. You go up to the counter,
you do the order, there's the menu, poop yah pop
poop pop. I'll come to your credit card, and then
it's delivered to the table. It is quick. You're not
(10:39):
deally with waiters. You're not the only people writing stuff down.
Those have to be growing like crazy. Well yes, but
that's a that's a completely different model. Like you said,
not to mention they do catering and they do takeout. Yeah,
so and so do you know the bigger chains. But
for instance, you go to Olive Garden, which is known
(11:03):
for their bottomless salads and breadsticks, right all.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
You can eat.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
That's not something you can take home. That's not something
you can experience at home. So you're not going to
have that delivered to your You're not going to do
that takeout because you can't. So there are there are
still issues with getting bodies in there consistently. You have
to have. You have to have a consistent base of people.
(11:29):
Now when I go over there, like I said in
bird Bank, you go over there off off a victory
place and those places are packed pretty much when I've gone.
But they used to be everywhere, every single one of them.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yes to do now there is So do you think
this trend is going to continue where you have these
sit down restaurants the casual restaurants that are disappearing is
because middle classes basically disappearing, I guess that's fair to say.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
And then even casual dining.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It's it's gotten so expensive it's become crazy, making you
think they're really on the way out.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Are they going to come back?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
It is you you put your finger right on it's
it will rise and fall in the middle class, and
right now there is no real middle class. I mean,
I look at ourself as middle class, my family and
still the the to be able to own a home,
to go out to eat without worrying about it, to
(12:31):
go and enjoy places like Disneyland, Universal not it's very
farm these types of things. It's getting more and more expensive,
but I think that's going to be the key. You'll
be surprised though, and I'm big on mom and pop.
I'm big on fast casual, I'm big on all these
things I think are necessary to local economy. But it's
(12:54):
very hard to keep a place like Olive Garden consistent.
And I find their foo tasty. But to keep them
consistent and to do all of those things and have
such a big footprint, I mean hundreds of tables, you know,
to keep that up is very difficult. That's why TGI
(13:16):
Fridays and the like have been dropping like flies.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
All right, Neil, I got to cut you off. We're
obviously out of time in this segment. By the way,
thank you. When you mentioned your middle class, you didn't
say to me and Bill, you're not middle class.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You are class less. Oh you left that one on
the table, So class was out with a lot of
money there you are, all right?
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Chief medical officer for Dignity Saint Mary Medical Center in
Long Beach. And Jim, you attended my wedding in Italy
and there's video of you dancing up and down like
a maniac.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Did you know that?
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah? Well I figured there would be, you know, once
we did the horror and you know I had all
that extra energy afterwards without a chair on my shoulder.
It was so much easier.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, it's actually when that video comes out, I'm going
to tell people Jim is out of his mind.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
All right, let's get to medical news.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
And actually this is pretty good medical news, which I
hate to talk about, and that's the reduction in Alzheimer's
risk verified by blood markers. And Alzheimer's is something that well,
we're really concerned about.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
I'm concerned about.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You know, here I am, and you know, I'm scared
to death about the onset and a lot of people
tell me, well, you know you should be. So let's
talk about that for a moment, because that seems to be, well,
pretty good news.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And how do you get a reduction in Alzheimer's risk?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, yeah, I mean you're right. I think Alzheimer's strikes
fear into people like almost nothing else, because nobody wants
to be healthy and well otherwise and then lose their mind. Right.
There's people that say I don't mind if even if
feople say I don't mind if I drop dead from
a heart attack. But for example, if I have a stroke,
i'm disabled. That sounds horrible. So they're more afraid of
strokes than heart attacks. Even though heart attacks are higher
(15:03):
risk and Alzheimer's along those lines. You know, I lose
my mind, I lose function mentally, and I want to
keep that as long as possible. So there's a new study.
It's a small study. I mean, we're talking about seventy
one participants and they're using bio markers p TOW and
amyloid in the blood. And that's the difference is before
(15:24):
we have to be invasive and do spinal taps get
the fluid from the spinal cord to get this information.
Now they're getting it out of the blood. And what
this does is it allows people to be very motivated
to take very drastic lifestyle changes and lifestyle modifications. It
includes while you're changing or diet to a completely plant
(15:44):
based Mediterranean diet, you're doing regular exercise, cardio, strength training
and then yoga first, you know, stretch and stress reduction,
then sleep hygiene, absolutely getting enough sleep stress management. That's
not easy for people. But when you say, look, I'm
either going to keep doing this stress or I'm going
to lose my mind, people start, you know, paying attention.
(16:06):
And then they have some supplements and hormone and metabolic
balance and all that stuff. But when you can show
somebody that they're improving, their compliance rate goes way up.
So as you can show them having these numbers drop,
you know, they do better. And the article that was
published recently, the woman that they interviewed talked about how
(16:26):
her word finding problems stopped. You know, so and buill,
don't worry. Word finding is a normal problem as we
all matures.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
You know, you and I, you know, see each other
fairly regularly socially. And you went as you went through
that list of reducing your risk of alzheimer.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
You do most of that yourself, don't you sure I do.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
That's why my goal is to not have to get
any of these tests right. If you just do things right,
you don't need a test to show you that you're
doing things right. And we kind of know what right is.
It's just a matter of Look, we're all weighing, right,
how much we want to enjoy life versus how much
joy doing these things SAPs from our lives, right, Yeah,
And that's why, you know, that's why most people don't
(17:12):
participate and don't get enough sleep because they want to
stay up late, you know, having fun, talking to friends,
watching TV, whatever brings them joy and then they miss
out on the sleep aspect.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah my choice postrawmi sandwiches or losing my mind.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
You know, Jim, you know where I'm going to go
with that.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
All right, Jim, really quickly the strep throat story, and
then I want to talk about how your hospital has
been given an alert.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
The strap throat has doubled. What is that about? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
No, this so this is not even just the simple
strip through what we call invasive group a strap, which
can cause strep throat. It can cause a lot of
other diseases too, like flesh eating, you know, flesh bacteria,
and toxic shock syndrome. So it has the ability that's
why this is so dangerous. It has the ability to
(18:07):
get into sterile areas of the body and especially like
the layers between your skin, and that's how it starts traveling.
Like normally, your skin's like a sponge. Imagine that, and
it's trying to travel through a sponge. You know, the
tissue stops it from progressing. But if you get between
the layers of two sponges, then all of a sudden
it can travel very rapidly. And that's what as doctors
(18:28):
we've seen this. You know, somebody comes into the er
with flesh eating bacteria and literally within minutes you're watching
it grow and expand. And if you don't get that
person to the operating room, you know immediately they're just
not going to do well.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
I think they're going to die.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Oh, they're going to die.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
They're going to die.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's a very high depth rate. It just they get
becomes septic, it becomes overwhelming, and they die very quickly.
So that's why this scares us. And it seems to
be there's a doubling of it now it's still about
it's gone from four out of one hundred thousand people
to eight out of one hundred thousand people, so that
they you know, it's it's it's yeah, not a super
(19:08):
common disease, but it's common enough that we see it regularly,
and to see something like that double is very concerning.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
All right, Let's quickly move on to a topic you
just suggested, and that is your er has been asked
to go on alert because of the Grand Prix Long
Beach coming in.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
So that's the first time has happened.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And why so, yeah, I wouldn't say, you know, alert
as much because that sounds like something's happened, right, So
what this is is proactive and the city knows they're
and they're aware right that they've done. They've hosted the
Long Beach Grand Prix for fifty years and it's what's
the longest running you know, street race in North America,
(19:53):
and and so they're they're accustomed to this and what
they've you know, helped that asked us to help with
is they are increasing or enhancing surveillance for infections diseases
during the time of the Grand peer Race. You know,
the blum Beach Harbor is very international, right, It's one
of the largest, probably second largest harbor in the country,
and so lots of incoming and outgoings of people from
(20:16):
different countries. It's something common to Long Beach, but this
is going to raise that to a new level with
the participation of the Grand Prix this weekend. So the
gastro intestinal disease, hemorrhagic diseases, neurologic diseases, rashes, you know,
things like that, respiratory illnesses, those are all going to
now kind of be reportable and immediately report those two
(20:40):
to the Health Humans or Communicable Diseases Surveillance Division.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Is this more prevalent today, is it?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Are you?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Are you got to increased alerts or proactive you know,
watch out for this this year than previous years.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, I think so. I mean really, with international travel
being so common and now it's it's really not just
the elite class that moves from country to country, it's
it's everyone. So you know, we're getting uh, you know,
people of all walks of life, from all areas of
the world. And and that's you know, things like like
monkey pocks. I mean you know that that when it
(21:20):
broke out in uh in a small area of Africa.
You know, years ago you wouldn't have been worried, but
now you know here it is in the United States.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Okay, Jim, I've decided that we when when I do
a lockout with you, you know how people say we'll see
you tomorrow or gee, thanks for being with us. Uh,
I've changed it all to Jim. Uh, kills someone today
for me?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, well no, I thought it was going to be
we're all gonna die.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
No, that's a given too, but I want to be
specific to you.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Uh, So Jim will catch you next Wednesday, uh, and right,
kill and kill someone for me today? Okay, uh, coming up,
it's Gary and Shannon. How unusual every day nine o'clock.
And tomorrow we start all over again with Amy wake
Up Call, and I think Will's part of wake Up
Call too. Although I'm so busy preparing the show, I
(22:13):
have a hard time listening. And then of course Neil
and I come aboard at six to write about now
and let's well, let me say a quick thank you
to KNO and and and I'm forced to do that.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
So what can I tell you? All Right? This is
KFI A M sixty. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Catch My Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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