November 13, 2024 • 11 mins
Dr. Choctaw unpacks “The Pillbox Principle,” showing how an inexpensive tool can reduce anxiety around medication schedules for patients and caregivers alike. Learn how to simplify routines, avoid missed doses, and reduce worry with this easy, actionable solution. Discover why even small organizational habits can bring significant peace of mind for those managing chronic illness or cognitive health challenges.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Coming up on this episode of thehealthy, wealthy, and wise podcast.
Are
there any questions?
Okay.
We have a
couple.
Okay.
Um, my mom was just recentlydiagnosed with dementia.
Um, and they put her on, she'son two different medications,
but someone also told me that anover the counter prevention, um,
(00:24):
is a good thing to start her on.
What do you think about that?
That's an excellent question.
Welcome to the healthy, wealthy,and wise podcast with Dr.
William T.
Choctaw, MD, JD, this podcast willprovide you with tools and actionable
information you can use to help live amore healthy, wealthy, and wise life.
(00:47):
It's powered by the over 50 yearsof medical experience of this Yale
university medical school trainedsurgeon, who is also a Western
state law school trained attorney.
With executive experience being a.
Former Mayor of Walnut, California,as well as the current chairman of the
Nonprofit Servants Arms, and as presidentof Choctaw Medical Group Incorporated.
(01:12):
This is the leadership masterclassedition already in progress.
Hi the world.
You gonna remember to do that
now?
Most of us think we can.
I said, oh, got this, no problem.
Two times a day, three timesa day, every other day.
At some point, you're goingto say, Did I take that?
Did I take that medicine?
I think I did.
(01:33):
I think I did.
And, you know, and, and here'swhat, I can't ask my wife.
She's got to know whetherI took the medicine or not.
So she can't help me.
I don't know.
Did you?
My point is, it's complicated.
It's complicated.
And so, why not make it simpler?
Get a pillbox.
They're cheap.
Five dollars, five bucks, five, ten bucks.
(01:55):
Whatever.
And you can get different size.
But, what it does is, you putSunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, okay?
Put that pill in that pill box.
The ones that you take every otherday, you get a bigger pill box.
Because this is Sundaymorning, Sunday evening.
(02:16):
You put it in the Sunday morning part,or put it in the Sunday evening part.
You can get an even bigger pill box thathas Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Sunday
night, and you put it in the pill box.
Why?
Because you got enough on your mind.
The last thing you want to worryabout is, did I take medicine
A on Tuesday or Wednesday?
(02:38):
And it's hard to remember.
And then you aren't sure.
And some doctors will say, okay, if youmissed this, then just skip it, right?
Just skip it.
So then you say, okay, do I just skip it?
I do I just take it?
And what if I've takenit twice and don't know?
And then you, and thenthat, what does that do?
That creates anxiety.
(03:00):
And what does that do?
That increases your blood pressure.
Because now you said, ohmy god, I can't remember.
Oh, I'm a terrible person, you know.
And if you're a caregiver,you feel even worse.
I'm supposed to be taking care ofmom, and I'm supposed to know even
worse You You tell mom what to do,you lay it out for her, she forgets.
because she has dementia, you come homeand say, Mom, your pills are still on,
(03:24):
you didn't take it, then you yell at her.
Mom says, why you yelled at me?
I put your medication out thereand you didn't take it anyway.
Didn't remember?
Well, I didn't know youwanted me to take it today.
I thought that was for tomorrow.
right?
Get a pill box.
Get a pill box.
Even better.
I say you don't take it in medication.
You don't need it in medication.
(03:45):
Christmas is coming up.
You know, I don't know, a neighbor,a friend, um, uh, member of
the family, send a pill box asa gift and say, God bless you.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Why?
Because what are you doing?
You're helping them to takebetter care of themselves.
(04:06):
That's a good thing.
That's a good thing.
Because remember the first belief?
Life is about being of service to others.
You are serving them, right?
By buying them a, I don'tknow, 15, 20 dollar pill box.
Okay?
In summary, dementia is not a disease.
It is a normal changeof the brain over time.
(04:27):
Uh, it is an umbrella term forcognitive or thinking problems.
Um, Alzheimer's is a disease.
And Alzheimer's is the mostcommon cause of dementia.
To determine what you have or yourmember has, um, uh, uh, see your
physician, uh, and get a good checkup.
And, and to get a diagnosis,excuse me, a proper diagnosis.
(04:51):
We talked about the common symptoms, andwhat studies show is that by Managing
your blood pressure more efficiently, youput less pressure on the brain, uh, and
you decrease, like I said, you do havethe gene that's going to create dementia.
You decrease that, uh, by puttingyour brain in a better environment.
Very quickly, if you missed someof these presentations, you can
(05:13):
go to your church website, St.
Stephen's website, uh,stsbc, uh, click on.
Um, masterclass, you can go to eitherevents or ministry, go all the way
down and you can find this information.
Or you can go to our website andyou can get all this information.
And finally, as we always like to say, bethe change you want to see in the world.
(05:38):
Are there any questions?
Okay.
We
have a couple.
Okay.
Um, my mom was just recently diagnosedwith dementia, um, and they put
her on, she's on two differentmedications, but someone also told
me that an over the counter, um,is a good thing to start her on.
(06:02):
What do you think about that, or should I?
Okay, that's an excellent question.
About 15 years ago, 15 20 years ago,the government changed this policy
for pharmaceuticals that allowedthem to directly market to patients.
It used to be pharmaceuticalscould not market to patients.
(06:26):
You'd have to go through your physician.
And that's why you have now all of thesemedications to Prevagen, and everything
you can imagine, uh, you'll see it online.
I personally am skeptical about allof them, um, and so, to answer your
question, I would first, I would startwith your physician, because a lot
(06:46):
of it depends on what is her medicalcondition, what else is she taking, what
is she allergic to, or not allergic to.
I am not a fan of buying stuff becauseit's online or on television, um, without
going through your regular physician.
Now if your regular physiciansays, Oh yeah, go get it.
That's fine.
Um, I don't believe that there'sany quick fix for anything.
(07:10):
Um, I can remember 20, 30 yearsago, it used to be weight loss.
You take this pill, you're goingto lose 20 pounds in 30 days.
You know, then they show a pictureof the silhouette and all of a
sudden, I don't believe any of it.
I think this is allpart of the same thing.
Uh, it's to get your money, right?
So, you have, uh, medicalexpertise at your disposal.
(07:34):
Make a phone call or whatever,but go through the docs.
Most of these things you'll findwill say it does this, it does that,
and then there's the disclaimerand they cause blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And if you doubt that,listen to them on television.
They say it real quiet and real fast.
(07:55):
But they talk about all the bad stuff.
You could get, you could die.
You could have blah, blah, blah.
You can get sick and onand on and on and on.
So, bottom line, talk to your physician.
It may or may not work.
I don't know.
But, uh, talk to your physicianand see what they say.
Yes, ma'am.
Will it, if you live longenough, will it automatically
(08:16):
get into Alzheimer's, or what?
Does it stop, or what?
That's a good question.
I honestly don't know.
Uh, but I do believe that somedementia just stays dementia.
Um, I don't believe that all dementiaswitches over to Alzheimer's because
there are other types of dementia.
Okay.
Yeah.
(08:36):
Yes ma'am.
Is it possible to stay at the same levelof dementia that it may not progress?
Is it possible that, you know, for youor for, you know, individuals, some are
just going to stay at the forgettingthe keys and others are going to.
I would think that it probablyis for some people because I
think people do it differently.
(08:56):
Okay.
that some people may stay at onelevel for a longer period of time
than others, whereas others mayrapidly go through those stages.
So I, I think that's possible.
Yes, yes.
fatty acid Uh, brain health is,brain health is important, is it not?
(09:20):
Your brain health helps you, uh.
Well, I think health is
important, and I think if you eata well balanced meal, um, a well
balanced diet, you will get all that.
Uh, it's sort of in the, in thecategory of the the Prevagen type thing.
Um, uh, the whole, uh, vitaminindustry is based on that.
Um, and again, I would run all thatthrough your primary care physician.
(09:44):
Yes.
And now things like garlic, um, myneighbor lived to be 98 and his,
his, uh, grandson says He, Mr.
Nash used to just bite a clove, a garlic.
I said, okay.
That's pretty tough stuff.
There.
There, there are a hundreddifferent stories because people
would choose something thatthey think makes a difference.
(10:05):
But my express, express impressionsbeen, it's never something simple.
You know?
It could be a lot of different reasonsthat they, maybe the jeans were just
for them to be 98 may have nothingto do with what they eat, and I
think that that may be the case also.
Okay.
There you go.
There you go.
Everybody has a story.
(10:26):
Everybody has a story.
Is some foods more anti, uh, antiinflammatory conditions that we
have, you know, like I can't eventhink to say the word, turmeric?
Well, yeah.
There are different types of vitaminsand different types of foodstuffs.
Uh, but they all do.
(10:46):
Um, thank you for listening to theHealthy, wealthy and Wise Podcast with Dr.
William t Choctaw, MDJD.
You can listen again to this andany of the previous episodes.
Leave a comment or pose questions tothe doctor by going to www.hwwp.com.
That's www.th wwp.com and you've got it.
(11:11):
It's also availablewherever you get your pod.
Be sure to follow, like, share, andsubscribe if you haven't already.
Then tune in for the nextepisode of the Healthy, Wealthy,
and Wise podcast with Dr.
William T.
Choctaw, MD, JD.
A production of ChangemakersCommunications, LLC.
Coming up on this episode of thehealthy, wealthy, and wise podcast.
Are
there any questions?
Okay.
We have a
couple.
Okay.
Um, my mom was just recentlydiagnosed with dementia.
Um, and they put her on, she'son two different medications,
but someone also told me that anover the counter prevention, um,
(00:24):
is a good thing to start her on.
What do you think about that?
That's an excellent question.
Welcome to the healthy, wealthy,and wise podcast with Dr.
William T.
Choctaw, MD, JD, this podcast willprovide you with tools and actionable
information you can use to help live amore healthy, wealthy, and wise life.
(00:47):
It's powered by the over 50 yearsof medical experience of this Yale
university medical school trainedsurgeon, who is also a Western
state law school trained attorney.
With executive experience being a.
Former Mayor of Walnut, California,as well as the current chairman of the
Nonprofit Servants Arms, and as presidentof Choctaw Medical Group Incorporated.
(01:12):
This is the leadership masterclassedition already in progress.
Hi the world.
You gonna remember to do that
now?
Most of us think we can.
I said, oh, got this, no problem.
Two times a day, three timesa day, every other day.
At some point, you're goingto say, Did I take that?
Did I take that medicine?
I think I did.
(01:33):
I think I did.
And, you know, and, and here'swhat, I can't ask my wife.
She's got to know whetherI took the medicine or not.
So she can't help me.
I don't know.
Did you?
My point is, it's complicated.
It's complicated.
And so, why not make it simpler?
Get a pillbox.
They're cheap.
Five dollars, five bucks, five, ten bucks.
(01:55):
Whatever.
And you can get different size.
But, what it does is, you putSunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, okay?
Put that pill in that pill box.
The ones that you take every otherday, you get a bigger pill box.
Because this is Sundaymorning, Sunday evening.
(02:16):
You put it in the Sunday morning part,or put it in the Sunday evening part.
You can get an even bigger pill box thathas Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Sunday
night, and you put it in the pill box.
Why?
Because you got enough on your mind.
The last thing you want to worryabout is, did I take medicine
A on Tuesday or Wednesday?
(02:38):
And it's hard to remember.
And then you aren't sure.
And some doctors will say, okay, if youmissed this, then just skip it, right?
Just skip it.
So then you say, okay, do I just skip it?
I do I just take it?
And what if I've takenit twice and don't know?
And then you, and thenthat, what does that do?
That creates anxiety.
(03:00):
And what does that do?
That increases your blood pressure.
Because now you said, ohmy god, I can't remember.
Oh, I'm a terrible person, you know.
And if you're a caregiver,you feel even worse.
I'm supposed to be taking care ofmom, and I'm supposed to know even
worse You You tell mom what to do,you lay it out for her, she forgets.
because she has dementia, you come homeand say, Mom, your pills are still on,
(03:24):
you didn't take it, then you yell at her.
Mom says, why you yelled at me?
I put your medication out thereand you didn't take it anyway.
Didn't remember?
Well, I didn't know youwanted me to take it today.
I thought that was for tomorrow.
right?
Get a pill box.
Get a pill box.
Even better.
I say you don't take it in medication.
You don't need it in medication.
(03:45):
Christmas is coming up.
You know, I don't know, a neighbor,a friend, um, uh, member of
the family, send a pill box asa gift and say, God bless you.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
Why?
Because what are you doing?
You're helping them to takebetter care of themselves.
(04:06):
That's a good thing.
That's a good thing.
Because remember the first belief?
Life is about being of service to others.
You are serving them, right?
By buying them a, I don'tknow, 15, 20 dollar pill box.
Okay?
In summary, dementia is not a disease.
It is a normal changeof the brain over time.
(04:27):
Uh, it is an umbrella term forcognitive or thinking problems.
Um, Alzheimer's is a disease.
And Alzheimer's is the mostcommon cause of dementia.
To determine what you have or yourmember has, um, uh, uh, see your
physician, uh, and get a good checkup.
And, and to get a diagnosis,excuse me, a proper diagnosis.
(04:51):
We talked about the common symptoms, andwhat studies show is that by Managing
your blood pressure more efficiently, youput less pressure on the brain, uh, and
you decrease, like I said, you do havethe gene that's going to create dementia.
You decrease that, uh, by puttingyour brain in a better environment.
Very quickly, if you missed someof these presentations, you can
(05:13):
go to your church website, St.
Stephen's website, uh,stsbc, uh, click on.
Um, masterclass, you can go to eitherevents or ministry, go all the way
down and you can find this information.
Or you can go to our website andyou can get all this information.
And finally, as we always like to say, bethe change you want to see in the world.
(05:38):
Are there any questions?
Okay.
We
have a couple.
Okay.
Um, my mom was just recently diagnosedwith dementia, um, and they put
her on, she's on two differentmedications, but someone also told
me that an over the counter, um,is a good thing to start her on.
(06:02):
What do you think about that, or should I?
Okay, that's an excellent question.
About 15 years ago, 15 20 years ago,the government changed this policy
for pharmaceuticals that allowedthem to directly market to patients.
It used to be pharmaceuticalscould not market to patients.
(06:26):
You'd have to go through your physician.
And that's why you have now all of thesemedications to Prevagen, and everything
you can imagine, uh, you'll see it online.
I personally am skeptical about allof them, um, and so, to answer your
question, I would first, I would startwith your physician, because a lot
(06:46):
of it depends on what is her medicalcondition, what else is she taking, what
is she allergic to, or not allergic to.
I am not a fan of buying stuff becauseit's online or on television, um, without
going through your regular physician.
Now if your regular physiciansays, Oh yeah, go get it.
That's fine.
Um, I don't believe that there'sany quick fix for anything.
(07:10):
Um, I can remember 20, 30 yearsago, it used to be weight loss.
You take this pill, you're goingto lose 20 pounds in 30 days.
You know, then they show a pictureof the silhouette and all of a
sudden, I don't believe any of it.
I think this is allpart of the same thing.
Uh, it's to get your money, right?
So, you have, uh, medicalexpertise at your disposal.
(07:34):
Make a phone call or whatever,but go through the docs.
Most of these things you'll findwill say it does this, it does that,
and then there's the disclaimerand they cause blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And if you doubt that,listen to them on television.
They say it real quiet and real fast.
(07:55):
But they talk about all the bad stuff.
You could get, you could die.
You could have blah, blah, blah.
You can get sick and onand on and on and on.
So, bottom line, talk to your physician.
It may or may not work.
I don't know.
But, uh, talk to your physicianand see what they say.
Yes, ma'am.
Will it, if you live longenough, will it automatically
(08:16):
get into Alzheimer's, or what?
Does it stop, or what?
That's a good question.
I honestly don't know.
Uh, but I do believe that somedementia just stays dementia.
Um, I don't believe that all dementiaswitches over to Alzheimer's because
there are other types of dementia.
Okay.
Yeah.
(08:36):
Yes ma'am.
Is it possible to stay at the same levelof dementia that it may not progress?
Is it possible that, you know, for youor for, you know, individuals, some are
just going to stay at the forgettingthe keys and others are going to.
I would think that it probablyis for some people because I
think people do it differently.
(08:56):
Okay.
that some people may stay at onelevel for a longer period of time
than others, whereas others mayrapidly go through those stages.
So I, I think that's possible.
Yes, yes.
fatty acid Uh, brain health is,brain health is important, is it not?
(09:20):
Your brain health helps you, uh.
Well, I think health is
important, and I think if you eata well balanced meal, um, a well
balanced diet, you will get all that.
Uh, it's sort of in the, in thecategory of the the Prevagen type thing.
Um, uh, the whole, uh, vitaminindustry is based on that.
Um, and again, I would run all thatthrough your primary care physician.
(09:44):
Yes.
And now things like garlic, um, myneighbor lived to be 98 and his,
his, uh, grandson says He, Mr.
Nash used to just bite a clove, a garlic.
I said, okay.
That's pretty tough stuff.
There.
There, there are a hundreddifferent stories because people
would choose something thatthey think makes a difference.
(10:05):
But my express, express impressionsbeen, it's never something simple.
You know?
It could be a lot of different reasonsthat they, maybe the jeans were just
for them to be 98 may have nothingto do with what they eat, and I
think that that may be the case also.
Okay.
There you go.
There you go.
Everybody has a story.
(10:26):
Everybody has a story.
Is some foods more anti, uh, antiinflammatory conditions that we
have, you know, like I can't eventhink to say the word, turmeric?
Well, yeah.
There are different types of vitaminsand different types of foodstuffs.
Uh, but they all do.
(10:46):
Um, thank you for listening to theHealthy, wealthy and Wise Podcast with Dr.
William t Choctaw, MDJD.
You can listen again to this andany of the previous episodes.
Leave a comment or pose questions tothe doctor by going to www.hwwp.com.
That's www.th wwp.com and you've got it.
(11:11):
It's also availablewherever you get your pod.
Be sure to follow, like, share, andsubscribe if you haven't already.
Then tune in for the nextepisode of the Healthy, Wealthy,
and Wise podcast with Dr.
William T.
Choctaw, MD, JD.
A production of ChangemakersCommunications, LLC.
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