November 8, 2024 • 39 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Steve Bittenbender – Writer with Bet Massachusetts answers the question "What topics Americans are preparing to avoid at the dinner table this holiday"?
Swathi Varanasi-Diaz, Pharm.D., Integrative Pharmacist on the Wild West of Weight Loss Drugs! With the popularity of diabetic medication being used for weight loss such as Ozempic, these drugs are being found to have adverse side effects like muscle loss, gastrointestinal issues, etc.
Nichole Davis – WBZ NewsRadio Anchor with the latest on the teachers that went on strike in Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead.
John Hopkins School of Public Health study found, Older Adults with Dementia Exhibit Financial Symptoms Up To Six Years Before Diagnosis. Dan was joined by Lauren H. Nicholas, PhD, MPP – Lead Author of the Study.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Steve Bittenbender – Writer with Bet Massachusetts answers the question "What topics Americans are preparing to avoid at the dinner table this holiday"?
Swathi Varanasi-Diaz, Pharm.D., Integrative Pharmacist on the Wild West of Weight Loss Drugs! With the popularity of diabetic medication being used for weight loss such as Ozempic, these drugs are being found to have adverse side effects like muscle loss, gastrointestinal issues, etc.
Nichole Davis – WBZ NewsRadio Anchor with the latest on the teachers that went on strike in Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead.
John Hopkins School of Public Health study found, Older Adults with Dementia Exhibit Financial Symptoms Up To Six Years Before Diagnosis. Dan was joined by Lauren H. Nicholas, PhD, MPP – Lead Author of the Study.
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes, Nicole, I am here ready to take people all
the way till Saturday morning, virtually about eleven fifty eight.
Rob Brooks is back in the control room at the
Big Socket, as we say, at Broadcast Central headquarters. I'll
set to take your phone calls beginning after the nine
o'clock news. We'll be talking tonight about the now three
count of three teacher strikes going on north of Boston.
(00:29):
We'll also talk about some questions about the Democratic Party
and do they need to actually reassess themselves after the
tough night they had Tuesday night this week. I think
all of us know what then those numbers are. And
by the way, for you, Nicole Davis Fans, Nicole is
going to be making a return appearance here at eight
(00:49):
thirty tonight, and we're going to talk about the teacher
strikes up in the three communities now north of Boston.
And we've got a great show lined up for you,
and I think in the eleven o'clock hour tonight, I'd
like to give people an opportunity to talk about Veterans
Day and fewer Americans have ever served in the armed forces,
and many of us have parents who served during World
(01:13):
War One, not World War one, World War two Korea
have family members Vietnam Era, or people who served in
the Middle East, either in the nineteen nineties or during
the long twenty year war that begin as a result
of nine to eleven. And tonight, let's remember some of
(01:35):
those names, either people who are passed on or who
are still with us. We should never forget the sacrifice
that those men and women made so that we as
a country can actually have free and fear and open
elections as we have had in this country now for
nearly two hundred and fifty years. So they say, my
name is Dan Ray, host of the show here on Nightside,
(01:57):
and we're going to start off tonight. It's Novama, and
of course the election is over. What's the next big
date on the calendar? For most people, it's Thanksgiving? So
the question now has become kind of an annual question,
what topics are Americans preparing to avoid at the dinner
table this Thanksgiving? With us? Is Steve Bittenbender. He's a
(02:19):
writer for Bett Massachusetts. I got an idea with Bette Massachusetts.
Is Steve, But why don't you tell us what bet
Massachusetts actually is, and then we'll get to the topic
at hand.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Sure, thanks Dan, first offer having me on. Bet Massachusetts
is a site that provides sports betting news and analysis
for people who are interested in the latest sports betting news.
You know, news and analysis about the Bees, the Celts,
(02:52):
even the Red Sox even though it's off season, or
the Pats even though they look like they're tanking this year.
You can get some get some good analysis on them.
And then also you can you can also get reviews
of the various legal sports books that are in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So you're not you're not so. Bett Massachusetts is not
a betting site per se, but it's a site about
betting sites and related issues. Okay, very clear, Thank you,
thank you very much. Okay. Ten topics to avoid this Thanksgiving.
I think most of us can relate to them. Let's
go through a few of them. We've always been talking,
(03:32):
you know, not supposed to talk about politics or religion.
So you got politics and religion right out there. Number
three relationship statuses. I guess that's why you're not supposed
to ask when is Elizabeth going to get married? Anyway?
Isn't she almost thirty? Five. Now, is that what we're
talking about there, or what what's relationship statuses should we avoid?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
That's no, that that's exactly what what we're talking about there, obviously.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And and I'm the and I'm the dad of a
twenty year old, so I'm not quite there yet. But
I've got an older brother who has kids a little
older than my son, and obviously that's something that you know,
you get a little older, you know. And it's not
just moms and dads that ask a question either, it's uncles,
it's cousins, grandparents, you know, hey, you know, you know,
(04:28):
why don't I see a girl around?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You know, or when you're going to put a ring
on her? You know, things like that and those you know,
you know, relationships are difficult no matter what. Obviously, with
the holidays being you know, adding to that stress, you know,
anything that the family can do to kind of alleviate
some of that stress or not add on to it
(04:51):
would certainly be helpful from you know, from from you know,
a single person saying, so then.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You talk about people should not talk about family drama.
I think we can understand that. But then you got
two or three here, which is kind of interesting. Uh,
you're suggesting that this was a poll that you took,
so this is this is not scientific, but it's a poll.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And you say people should not be talking about gas prices,
inflation or finances. I assume you mean family finances, personal finances,
but gas prices inflation. I mean, I kind of imagine
that at the Thanksgiving dinner table, people aren't gonna say,
you know, what that turkey costs us this year compid
to five years ago, or you know. I mean, that's
(05:36):
one that I think is almost unavoidable.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Right, And and honestly, I think it also kind of
ties into politics as well, because what what was one
of the major talking points of the of the election,
inflations exactly and how much groceries cost, you know, how
much it costs you know, they're still up the car.
And obviously, if you've got family that you know, you've
got family that's you know, inside four ninety five, it's
(06:01):
probably not that much of an issue. But if you've
got people coming, you know, from down to Turnpike or
from you know, across states, you know, it's probably not
going it's probably going to happen that you know, Man,
I can't believe I paid, you know, for something a
gallon or you know, or I can't believe, you know,
the holidays, the holiday spike, you know, made me spend
(06:21):
sixty bucks or whatever for a fill up.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, see what I'm thinking. The advice I've given to
my listeners always is, look, it's like the elephant in
the room, you know, because a lot of this is politics.
It's like the elephant in the room. You know, if
where your mega hat, where your Hillary Clinton button, your
your Vice President Harris button, whatever, It's gonna be there.
(06:45):
But why don't you tweet each other in a civil fashion?
You know, don't start throwing drumsticks across the table, you know, just.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Exactly. I would recommend that families, you know, whether it's
the wives, the mothers, whoever, you know, people get together
ahead of time on the phone, through text, whatever and
kind of create some kind of detente where Okay, you know,
we know obviously the election, and the election was going
(07:14):
to be controversial no matter who won, but you know
that was going to be a divisive top topic whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I think the fact that it was decisive, though, Steve, I
think we caught a break there. I think that because
it was decisive. Boy, can you imagine if it was like, uh,
two cents, we three to whatever?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Right, but even then with it being one sided and
somewhat shockingly one sided. Yeah, I mean, you know, you know,
think about the if if the Red Sox were ever
swept the Yankees in the Alcs or or the or
the Bruins.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Can he be like maybe coming down from behind three
games to none or something like that. Yeah, something like
that that never happen, not in your life or.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Exactly well, and I'll be honest, but we've got to
be adults.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
See, I think we got to be adults and we
got to say, look, you know, it is what it is.
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily bring up something like the
Ukrainian War because no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And right, And that's why I'm saying, Dan, you know,
if you know, if you can kind of establish some
ground rules ahead of the game and just you know,
reinforce them and you know, you know, make small talk,
you know, talk about you know, how great you know,
how great the Turkey is this year, or for our
beating friends, how great the to Turkey is this year?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That tough you know, talk about I don't know, you know,
the other thing that we should do. Here's we should do. Okay,
Maybe here's the deal. Maybe what everybody should do is
have a yellow flag in their pocket. Okay, and so
if someone brings up a topic that makes anyone uncomfortable,
you throw the yellow flag, you know, instead of a
(08:57):
fifteen yard penalty five minutes in the living room by yourself.
Maybe that's I don't know, Yeah, that would be fun.
There you go, Steve Bittenbender, Turkey Day topics you should
avoid from the website, Bett, Massachusetts. Steve, thanks very much.
(09:18):
I appreciate you taking the time as a fun conversation.
You and I. If we had turkey dinner Thanksgiving Day,
we could have fun with this. But again, it's kind
of one of those things where I think you've got
to be broadcast professionals before you try to don't try.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
This at home, exactly, exactly, leave the hot takes at home.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You got it, You got it right, break, bring the
hot cakes, not the hot takes.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Thanks Steve, exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Talking again. Appreciated very much. We come back when we
talk about the wild West of weight loss drugs. Yeah,
a lot of people out there figured out that this
ozempic does more for them, including losing weight and people
it's gonna be it's a little dangerous. We'll explain right
after this on night Side. It is a Friday, heading
toward the weekend. I am. I am relaxed, ready for
(10:04):
a couple of days rest, and I hope you are
as well. Be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well, I think all of you know that with Awaken
one to eighty weight loss loss, I lost thirty five
pounds nine years ago the right way and I haven't
put a pound back on now. Part of it is
I learned how to eat a little better. I'm in
the gym five six days a week and I'm doing okay.
A lot of people, however, have been taking some drugs
which are not for weight loss, but for example o zempic,
(10:41):
and these drugs are being found to have some adverse
side effects. With us, we're delighted to be welcomed, but
we had delighted to welcome. I should say my guest
doctor Swathi varunas Dias, Doctor Swathy, I'll keep it still.
They tell me if that's okay with you, Yeah, that perfect.
(11:04):
Welcome to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I'm great, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, this is an important topic here because obviously losing
weight can be tough. But I got to tell you,
I'm so glad I lost thirty five pounds nine years ago.
And there are people out there trying to do it
the easy way and explain to us what they're doing
and why it's harmful in the long run.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, so people, it's the big fag right now to
be taking GLP one agonists. So these are prescription medications
also known as ozembic or wago v mondro. There are
quite a different There are quite a few different branded
medications out there right now. And see they are FDA
approved for particular populations. So they are FDA approved for
(11:50):
people who have a BMI of twenty seven plus other conditions.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Wait twenty but if I know a little bit about this,
a BMI twenty seven plus that is not all that bad.
I mean, so.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
That's considered quote unquote overweight.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's not considered obese.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
It's not considered obese exactly. So that is one category.
So if you have a BMI of twenty seven plus,
any other chronic disease. And then the other subcategory that
it is FDA approved for is if you have a
BMI of over thirty, So this is specifically for Wgovigov
and ozempic are the same active ingredient, but ozempic is
(12:31):
actually only FDA approved for type two diabetes. So that's
a little bit about GLP one agonist themselves. And I
think when it comes to you know, the use of them,
you know, people think that they're a magic bullet, that
they're the right fit for everyone, which as we know,
is not correct. And you know that everyone thinks that
you know, I'm just gonna take you then not going
(12:53):
to have any side effects.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Now is ozempic correct? You know, help me out here.
Is ozempic prescription based or over the counter?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
So ozembic and would go be all of these medications
in this particular drug class of GLP one agnes, all
of them are prescription medications.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Okay, So who are the docs that are writing these
for people? Or are they writing them for people? How
are the people getting these drugs if you have a
condition that a doctor writes a prescription for. I have
a lot of faith in physicians. I got to be
honest with you. I'm assuming if a doctor writes a prescription,
they understand the side effects, the consequences, and they believe
(13:29):
that that drug is something that that person should have.
Who are the people who are popa nozempics? And are
really who's writing the prescriptions for people who are over
who are poping ozempics? Is it doctors or are they
getting you some pills on the side from their friends?
Is there a black market here on this? What's going on? So?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
There's not actually a big black market, at least not
for now. And the reason I say that is because
physicians are the one So whether they're healthcare providers, physicians
and ps pas, they are the ones writing the prescriptions
for patients, and it is f to approved for specific
use cases. Again, if you fall within those BMI ranges
(14:08):
that you have type two diabetes, are looking to lose
weight safely. However, a lot of the issue is actually
with this off label use. Off label use means that
you know you don't fall within those populations, but your
physician is still writing that you know, that prescription for.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You, So why would a physician do that? I understand
that occasionally there are drugs that can be used off labels.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Safely, So a position would considered yeah, doing that because
they are trying to make the patient happy, and at
the end of the day, they are weighing what we
refer to as the risk versus benefit ratio, and to them,
they don't see as much of a risk in contrast
with the potential benefit to the patient.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Let me ask you a tougher question. When some physicians
years ago were over prescribing certain type drugs which were
highly addictive, you know, there has been some suggestion that
those physicians were actually being rewarded for writing as many
(15:20):
prescriptions as possible. There is ozembic. Are these type companies
Are they in any way, shape or form encouraging physicians
or inducing physicians to overprescribe these drugs.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I think they're not necessarily inducing or manipulating physicians. But
that being said, you know when the physicians way back
when when you were talking about these addictive medications, you know,
we didn't know they were addictive initially, at least not
in the in the initial stages of them being FDA
approved because we didn't have the long term data. So
(15:54):
the same is the case for these medications. For these
GLP one agonises we don't have the long term data
to really know are the addictive what are the long
term implications for them?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Well, I'll tell you it's it's the idea of losing
weight is something that obviously is attractive, and it's it's
this health benefits to it. But I hope that people
listen to you on this subject. How did you get involved?
You know, this seems to me to be an issue
that you are very concerned about. What got you involved?
(16:27):
Are concerned about this?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
So what really got me concerned is just as a
healthcare professional seeing the number of people on these medications
but them not realizing that, you know, everyone is not
the best fit for it and it's not going to
be the magic bullet as I mentioned before. And then
also that there aren't side effects. There are some really
potentially big risks associated like gastrointestinal issues or stomach issues
(16:53):
like nausea and vomiting, constipation, diarrhea. There's also potential issues
with you know, mental help, so things like mood swings
or excess a fatigue. And then also as people are
losing weight, what's not discussed often enough in my opinion,
is that people are losing weight. Yes, of course, but
they are losing fat and losing muscle. So this accelerated
(17:17):
muscle loss, which muscle is so linked to longevity and aging,
well that that can really get in the way of
the long term outcomes of a patient.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, I've really enjoyed this conversation because I've read a
lot about this. I know the a fraction of all
that you know, and you have increased my knowledge on this,
and I hopefully my audience as well. So, uh, doctor Swathy,
but runasi dias. I hope I got fairly close to
(17:49):
the pronunciation of your full name.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
But doctor Swathy, Yes, yeah, And if patients are interested
in learning more, I recommend you know a combina of
nutritional intervention, so thinking about how you're eating healthy, high protein,
high fiber diets, thinking.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
About what sort of exercise that you're doing, so incorporating
movement every single day, and then also in addition to
how you're incorporating dietary supplements like omega three fatty acids
or phortotropin.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, that's great. Is there a website that people could
be in touch with you on. I don't want to
have you give out a website and have twenty five
people contacting you unnecessarily. Is there a book that you
may have written recently? A lot of folks come on
the program and they're trying to get the word out
in some form of fashion. Is there any other way
that did you'd like to people that have access to
(18:43):
you other than our interview.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Absolutely so. I'm most active on LinkedIn. You can just
search my name and you'll be able to find it there.
I conduct webinars for everyone that are free on longevity
and muscle health. And also you can find studies and
different information about preserving muscle when you're using GLP ones
at maos MD dot com. So that's m yo SMD
(19:08):
dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
And is that your website?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
That is not my website, but I am a scientific
advisor at the company. It's a supplement company.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Mayos MD dot com. Yes, thank you so much for
your time tonight, and hope you have a great weekend.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Thank you very much, Artie, thank you so much for
shing you the same. Bybye.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It's a little bit after eight thirty, so we get
the news, and of course the top news story here
in Massachusetts tonight, or one of the lead stories tonight,
is the teachers strike, three of them now ongoing which
include Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead, and we're going to be
talking with WBZ news anchor Nicole Davis will join us
on the other side of the news break at the
bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Boy you just heard Nicole filing the news at the
bottom of the hour. And now through the magic of
radio and unlo capable media in which people are able
to move from studio to studio so.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Quickly, boyar, my arm's tired.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, this has been kind of interesting. I did not
see this coming, and we're going to talk about this
with listeners at nine o'clock, particularly folks who live up
in the north show. So we have three school departments, Beverly,
Gloucester and now Marblehead joining this strike. I find it
kind of interesting that the three of them kind of
(20:30):
a close geographic proximity. Looks like there's a little bit
of coordination going on. I'm sure there's no proof of that,
but are you surprised that we have these three that
all of a sudden are on the picket line in
advance by the way of a long weekend holiday weekend yeah.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
I mean I don't obviously know the ins and outs
of what the unions have been doing. I know that
all three of these unions have been working to get
contracts in place. I can't be surprised if you know,
geographically they're so close, they've probably been talking and and
also sharing information and sharing maybe strategy. Again, I don't
want to speak to that cause I just don't.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Oh no, no, I totally, I totally understand that it
was funny. I remember last winter there was the big
strike in Newton last winter, and the mayor there was
quite upset Ruth Anne Fuller. If I recall correctly, that
strike was in January, in early January, and it lasted
(21:26):
I think about three weeks. I mean, that was a huge,
huge block of time. I don't know if those students
ever made up the time or not. But as I
think we all know, both you and I acknowledged that
the teacher unions, just as police and fire unions, are
not supposed to strike here in Massachusetts. I think it
was pretty costly for the Newton Teachers Association, but very much. Yeah.
(21:50):
I guess there's judges involved, at least in a couple
of these strikes. Maybe not in the Marblehead one that
happened late today. It's an interesting dynamic, you know, one
of those stories that that we're gonna have to follow.
It also comes on the heel of the ballot question,
ballot question two, which removed the MCST test as a
(22:16):
qualification for graduation. Yeah, that's right, and the teachers' unions
were the Mass Teachers Association was very much involved in that. Uh,
we're going to talk about it. People don't think sometimes
about the secondary impact. Come Tuesday morning. Moms and dads
and you know, single parents are going to have to
(22:36):
figure out, you know, if the strikes, these strikes continue,
what do they do with their kids.
Speaker 6 (22:41):
And childcare and all that. And the teacher the school
committees have been talking about that as part of their argument, saying, look,
you know, we need to have places for these children.
And the teachers on the other hand, say, well, you know,
let's come to a deal and then we won't have
to worry about this. I did want to give you
an update that we just got a couple of minutes
ago here in the newsroom, just heard from I'm the
Glocester School Committee and they I'm reading this letter essentially
(23:04):
write as I'm talking with you. They essentially said that
the State Labor Board last night told both sides directed
them to participate in mediation with the state appointed mediator,
and that started up this afternoon. So at least in
Gloucester they're working with a state appointed mediator to try
to make their way through this process. But as you
had mentioned, you know the judge tonight saying essentially to
(23:26):
the Beverly and the Gloucester unions, you cannot do this.
You have until Monday, I believe it, excuse me ten
am to essentially stop the strike, and then Tuesday to
file with the state that you have stopped this strike.
It's different from Marblehead because again, they just voted to
get this going. They just approved this. Ninety nine percent
(23:46):
of the teachers in the union approve this today and
they say they're not going to start their strike until Tuesday.
But there's a caveat to that. They say, if we
can come to a deal on Monday night, we're just
gonna go back to work. And you know, nothing's happened.
So they are saying, look, you've got the weekend, we're
going to bargain. We're here, we're ready. So let's see
what we can do by Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So that's Glocester.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
So that's Marblehead.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, I'm sorry, Marvel.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
I know it's a lot. There's somebody moving forward.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Right Marvelhead. Is the late is the late one the latest? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
it's the strategy here is interesting. The other thing which
I've never understood, and I've covered when I was in TV,
I covered these teacher strikes or threats of teacher strikes
for a long time. It always seems that they always
happen just when the school year starts, and now it's
the middle of the school year. I don't understand why
(24:36):
all this stuff isn't ironed out. I don't understand why
they get to a point where there's no contract resolution
that I don't know. Do you know offhand if any
of these school districts have been working without a contract.
I assume they're currently all without contract.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Yeah, they're all without contracts. I believe at least six
months for all of them. And you know in this
new letter from Gloucester they said, look, we tried to
bargain over the summer. The union didn't want to bargain.
I don't have the time right now, to look up
and see if that's actually true or see the union
side on that. But you know, with all of these
different unions, their arguments are, look, we've been at this
(25:11):
for months. They all claim that the argument or that
the talks are essentially stalled out, and they say, look,
this is kind of like our last ditch effort to
get you to come to the table and work with
us here.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, again my sense and probably the union will not
happy when I say this, but I feel like the
kids are the pawns in the middle of this. The
teacher it's generally it's about money, which most union negotiations
are going to be about money, but it's always shrouded
in the in the conversation about you know, we want
(25:43):
to do this to protect the children. And I get
all of that, but it's it's tough. I've never been
a teacher, so I've never been in their shoes. But
I'm more sympathetic to the plight of the parents, particularly
when all of a sudden they got a screen and
you know, the back in the good old days, as
(26:03):
we used to say, Nicole, you'd have you know, odds
living down the street or a grand mile of an
upstairs and everything. You know that that nuclear family was
always pretty close. It's a little different today, and I
think it's tougher on young parents, parents who have kids
these days than it might have been when you and
(26:23):
I back in the Dark Ages. Well at least I
was in the Dark Ages.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
I was slightly darker.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
No no, no, no, no, no, you were lighter. Yeah.
We didn't have electricity or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
I just had to luck my water uphill both ways
with the bags on my feet in the snowstorm. Yes,
of course, you know what. I what I was interesting
to me though. I'm reading through a statement that we
got today from Marblehead from the Union here, and what
a big sticking point for them is salaries for para professionals.
These are the people who work with the kids who
(26:55):
have i epes, And they say the starting salary for
kindergarten para professionals in marble Head is eighteen three hundred
and thirty eight dollars, and tutors only earned twenty seven
thousand dollars a year. So that's their big thing. They say, look,
we are not making enough money to live and as
teachers and paras who have all these different hands and
all these different classes and working with all these different kids.
(27:16):
That's their big thing right now in Marblehead.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
That was a big part of the strike in Newton
because the Newton teachers were averaging about ninety two thousand
dollars a year. That's the average, Okay, so obviously a
younger teacher might have been in sixty or seventy, and
a more experienced teacher could be well over one hundred. Sure,
(27:41):
the Department of Education actually has a website where they
post the salaries and the salary structure of every public
school you know in Massachusetts, and I relied on that
quite heavily. It was the Department of Education website, all
public record. And the union was white upset because they say, well,
(28:01):
you're saying that the average teacher makes ninety five thousand dollars.
I'm a second year teacher and I'm only making seventy
four thousand dollars. Well that's what average is about, exactly.
And there was a lot it was well, we're not
concerned about us, We're concerned about the pair of professionals.
But the negotiations always involves not only the pair of
professionals who clearly are underpaid. You're making eighteen or twenty
(28:25):
thousand dollars a.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Year, right, which is in this economy, in this state,
one of the highest cost of livings anywhere in the country.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
No question, no question. Yeah, but I've yet to harry
you have a union say well, our teachers have played
paid close to six figures. They're okay, we're going to
go on strike just to boost the pair of legals.
Because what happens is generally the increase goes across the
board and the pair of leaguers get a little bit
of a jump, and the teachers get a pretty good
(28:52):
size jump. So I know the teachers unions will not
be happy with what I'm going to talk about at
nine o'clock.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
That's between you and the teachers.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I know. That's that's why I didn't want to drag
you in on this. But I thank you for bringing
that information to of course always and I hope you
have a great weekend, okay.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
You as well. I hope you enjoy your time and
bundle up. It's actually going to feel like fall, believe.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well, that's what I heard. Yeah, it's going to feel
like early now. I think I think we can handle
it at this point.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
And so yeah, I think we're good, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Would some of us probably be looking for a little
bit of a taste of November before we get past.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
I just want like a little fall before we get
snacked with like February gray snow.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Do you remember, just just getting off topic, and because
I mentioned this, Yeah, about ten years ago, we had
a huge snowstorm, snowstorm, yes, do you remember that? I
didn't imagine it right.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
I think it's the winter of twenty fifteen when we
had the famed Marty Walsh Loon Mountain quote, when we
were getting like what a foot of snow every Monday.
I think that was for about ten or twelve weeks.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
You remember that, that that one. I know very well
that that.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Was the same year, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
No, no, no, no, no no. I guarantee you that
because that year of twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen, there
was no snow all throughout November. You know, we don't
get much snow in November anyway, nothing in December, and
there was virtually now there might have been something in
the mountains, but nothing. And then it started to snow
about January twentieth, and it didn't stop for about seven
(30:18):
or eight weeks and we ended up with about one
hundred and twenty inches of snow in that five or
six week period, which was extraordinary. But there was a year,
and I think it was a few years before that,
where we had a big snowstorm on Halloween, I mean
a real big snowstorm, accumulation and all that, and we
never had another bit of snow for the rest of
the winter. It was the weird one of the It
(30:39):
was as weird as that, And it might have been
the winter before, because the winter before we were croaked
with snow. The winter of twenty fourteen and into twenty fifteen.
The winter before that, which would have been twenty thirteen
and twenty fourteen the Atlantic region Maryland, Virginia, we didn't
get much snow and they got snow.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
All that's all right. I'd forgotten about that. It all
kind of blends.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
After saying it does blend.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
I'll never forget twenty fifteen when I could have jumped
out my window like Loon Mountain, but I didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Let me tell you what I did when I jumped
out my window onto my we have a flat roof, yeah,
a porch. I was up. I got out, I went out.
I wanted to clear the snow. Sure, I was up
to my chest and snow wow. And at that point
I started to shovel and there was really nowhere to
push it, and I thought, if I fall over here,
they're not going to find me till June.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
I'd like that back of the no dial that was
the seaport. You remember how it didn't melt till literally
June or July that year. Yes, it would have found
you eventually.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Well, thank you so much. We will talk soon. Okay,
thank you for the best.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Of course, you too, have a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
All right, coming back here on Nightside, we have one
more guest to talk with and then we will move
on to UH to give you an opportunity to talk
about some of these issues. We're going to talk about
a serious issue, and that is early signs of dementia
sadly show up in people's finances. So you may want
to take a look at your parents' checkbooks and their
(32:08):
bills they taking care of business, because that can be
an early sign. We'll talk with a lead author of
this study out of John Hopkins School of Public Health,
a study back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Right after this, Now back to Dan way live from
the Window World to night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
We are delighted to welcome doctor Laurence Nicholas. She is
the lead author of a study at the John Hopkins
School of Public Health that found that older adults with
dementia exhibit financial symptoms up to six years before diagnosis.
This is a frightening study but so critically important. Doctor Nicholas,
Welcome to Nightside. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
Thanks for having me so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
How this study evolved, but tell us a little bit
of the background. Someone must have said, Hey, how did
you get to get to even investigating this a very
novel approach to early signs of dementia.
Speaker 7 (33:12):
Well, I think we started with the same motivation you mentioned,
sort of hearing these very frightening stories where family members
were finding out that one of their loved ones had
dementia because one of these catastrophic financial events had happened.
So things like a person would stop paying their mortgage
(33:34):
in the house would be foreclosed on, and family members
would find out that the forgetting to pay the mortgage
was some of the signs of impaired financial capacity that
we know our early warning signs of dementia, and so,
you know, you hear some of these scary stories, and
(33:54):
it got us thinking, you know, how common is that actually,
and could we see it in some large data sets
that might give us better avenues of doing better detection
down the line. And so we put together a large
data set that included information from credit reports, which are
(34:20):
basically measures of whether you're paying back money that you're owed,
things like mortgages and credit card bills, and that allowed
we matched that with healthcare data so that we were
able to sort of plot out what happens to people's
financial trajectories as they get closer to a dementia diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
And how do children adult children who might be concerned
about mom or dad, how did they I guess, ask
this question or pry maybe it's a question that they're
uncomfortable asking. How did they say, Hey, how you doing?
Are you keeping up the data on your bills? How
(35:03):
do you bring that up to find out if there's
some early indications of a problem.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
Yeah, I think it's a very sensitive topic and can
be a difficult conversation to have. So we've heard some
stories of you know, adult children actually see bills getting
sent to the home with that, say like final notice
overdue payments. This is getting harder to do as more
(35:32):
and more of us receive all our bills electronically and
you don't get those telltale signs. There are services that
you can sign up for that will help do some
of this monitoring for you. Also, policy changes have required
(35:55):
all banks to give everyone the opportunity to put a
Trusted Content Act onto their account. Who would be contacted
if you know, there's a suspicious transaction request or your
suddenly missing payments. But it does sort of put the
responsibility on the person who may become cognitively impaired in
(36:21):
the future. And I have to say, you know, the
longer we do this research and we've you know, seen
similar patterns looking at wealth data as well, where these
financial losses just happen years and years before any of
the other cognitive signs of dementia. I'm increasingly thinking about
(36:42):
it as you know, if we if we live long enough,
this is almost certainly in any of our futures, and
so putting some plans in place in advance to sort
of protect us.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Ourself scams. You know, we used to we used to
laugh about the the prince who is who was looking
for money? But it's it's not a laughing matter anymore
because they're much more sophisticated the scams that are recurring
these days. And I look where all of us can
be impacted either by our parents. If we're lucky enough
(37:20):
to have our parents around, we have to kind of
look out for them. The role reversal occurs where they
used to look out for us, now we have to
look out for them. And of course, as we ourselves age,
we have to be willing to allow our children to
kind of take if they're willing to take a look
at how we're handling our finances. It's a it's a
frightening it's a frightening part of getting older. And everyone
(37:42):
wants to live along in a full life. But those
those so called golden years oftentimes aren't as golden as
people think they as they're told they're going to be.
Let's put it like that, doctor, I so appreciate you're
doing this stuff. Can people get access to a copy
of the Reporter? Is there an article maybe that that
is publicly available that you could refer my listeners to
(38:03):
if they want to follow up and read it more
In depth.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
Yes, our study was funded by the National Institute on
Aging and so they make the research available free of charge.
And we can send you a link so that it's
easiest to find on your website.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Sure the link, I'll copy you down. What's the link?
Speaker 7 (38:25):
Oh gosh, have it?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Okay? Yeah, okay, send that to my producer. Have your
folks send that, Lind to my producer and I can
mention it perhaps Monday night so people have access to it.
I didn't mean to catch you unaware there, but thank
you for all your information, doctor Laura and Nicholas. You've
certainly given people a lot to think about and talk
about maybe this weekend or this Thanksgiving over the dinner tables.
(38:50):
Thank you very much. I appreciate your time so much.
Speaker 7 (38:53):
Yes, thanks so much for calling attention to this important
issue and hopefully, like you said, giving everyone someplace talk
to you over the things giving table.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
I think you're absolutely right. Thanks, doctor Nicholas, appreciate it.
When we get back, we're going to talk about the
teacher this spate of teacher strikes that now have popped
up here like a I'm not even sure what sort
of flowers come up in the fall, but boom. We
got three teacher strikes going on, maybe there'll be some more.
We're going to talk about it on the other side
of the nine o'clock news here on a Friday night
(39:23):
edition of Nightside, and later on we'll talk about some
comments that Congressman Seth Molten made which has created a
bit of a firestorm within the Democratic Party. That'll be
at ten o'clock, and then at eleven tonight we'll give
you a chance to do a tribute to someone in
your family or some friend of yours who served in
the military and we can acknowledge their service. We'll be
back on Nightside right after this quick newscast at the
(39:45):
top of the hour.
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes, Nicole, I am here ready to take people all
the way till Saturday morning, virtually about eleven fifty eight.
Rob Brooks is back in the control room at the
Big Socket, as we say, at Broadcast Central headquarters. I'll
set to take your phone calls beginning after the nine
o'clock news. We'll be talking tonight about the now three
count of three teacher strikes going on north of Boston.
(00:29):
We'll also talk about some questions about the Democratic Party
and do they need to actually reassess themselves after the
tough night they had Tuesday night this week. I think
all of us know what then those numbers are. And
by the way, for you, Nicole Davis Fans, Nicole is
going to be making a return appearance here at eight
(00:49):
thirty tonight, and we're going to talk about the teacher
strikes up in the three communities now north of Boston.
And we've got a great show lined up for you,
and I think in the eleven o'clock hour tonight, I'd
like to give people an opportunity to talk about Veterans
Day and fewer Americans have ever served in the armed forces,
and many of us have parents who served during World
(01:13):
War One, not World War one, World War two Korea
have family members Vietnam Era, or people who served in
the Middle East, either in the nineteen nineties or during
the long twenty year war that begin as a result
of nine to eleven. And tonight, let's remember some of
(01:35):
those names, either people who are passed on or who
are still with us. We should never forget the sacrifice
that those men and women made so that we as
a country can actually have free and fear and open
elections as we have had in this country now for
nearly two hundred and fifty years. So they say, my
name is Dan Ray, host of the show here on Nightside,
(01:57):
and we're going to start off tonight. It's Novama, and
of course the election is over. What's the next big
date on the calendar? For most people, it's Thanksgiving? So
the question now has become kind of an annual question,
what topics are Americans preparing to avoid at the dinner
table this Thanksgiving? With us? Is Steve Bittenbender. He's a
(02:19):
writer for Bett Massachusetts. I got an idea with Bette Massachusetts.
Is Steve, But why don't you tell us what bet
Massachusetts actually is, and then we'll get to the topic
at hand.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Sure, thanks Dan, first offer having me on. Bet Massachusetts
is a site that provides sports betting news and analysis
for people who are interested in the latest sports betting news.
You know, news and analysis about the Bees, the Celts,
(02:52):
even the Red Sox even though it's off season, or
the Pats even though they look like they're tanking this year.
You can get some get some good analysis on them.
And then also you can you can also get reviews
of the various legal sports books that are in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So you're not you're not so. Bett Massachusetts is not
a betting site per se, but it's a site about
betting sites and related issues. Okay, very clear, Thank you,
thank you very much. Okay. Ten topics to avoid this Thanksgiving.
I think most of us can relate to them. Let's
go through a few of them. We've always been talking,
(03:32):
you know, not supposed to talk about politics or religion.
So you got politics and religion right out there. Number
three relationship statuses. I guess that's why you're not supposed
to ask when is Elizabeth going to get married? Anyway?
Isn't she almost thirty? Five. Now, is that what we're
talking about there, or what what's relationship statuses should we avoid?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
That's no, that that's exactly what what we're talking about there, obviously.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
And and I'm the and I'm the dad of a
twenty year old, so I'm not quite there yet. But
I've got an older brother who has kids a little
older than my son, and obviously that's something that you know,
you get a little older, you know. And it's not
just moms and dads that ask a question either, it's uncles,
it's cousins, grandparents, you know, hey, you know, you know,
(04:28):
why don't I see a girl around?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
You know?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
You know, or when you're going to put a ring
on her? You know, things like that and those you know,
you know, relationships are difficult no matter what. Obviously, with
the holidays being you know, adding to that stress, you know,
anything that the family can do to kind of alleviate
some of that stress or not add on to it
(04:51):
would certainly be helpful from you know, from from you know,
a single person saying, so then.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You talk about people should not talk about family drama.
I think we can understand that. But then you got
two or three here, which is kind of interesting. Uh,
you're suggesting that this was a poll that you took,
so this is this is not scientific, but it's a poll.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And you say people should not be talking about gas prices,
inflation or finances. I assume you mean family finances, personal finances,
but gas prices inflation. I mean, I kind of imagine
that at the Thanksgiving dinner table, people aren't gonna say,
you know, what that turkey costs us this year compid
to five years ago, or you know. I mean, that's
(05:36):
one that I think is almost unavoidable.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Right, And and honestly, I think it also kind of
ties into politics as well, because what what was one
of the major talking points of the of the election,
inflations exactly and how much groceries cost, you know, how
much it costs you know, they're still up the car.
And obviously, if you've got family that you know, you've
got family that's you know, inside four ninety five, it's
(06:01):
probably not that much of an issue. But if you've
got people coming, you know, from down to Turnpike or
from you know, across states, you know, it's probably not
going it's probably going to happen that you know, Man,
I can't believe I paid, you know, for something a
gallon or you know, or I can't believe, you know,
the holidays, the holiday spike, you know, made me spend
(06:21):
sixty bucks or whatever for a fill up.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, see what I'm thinking. The advice I've given to
my listeners always is, look, it's like the elephant in
the room, you know, because a lot of this is politics.
It's like the elephant in the room. You know, if
where your mega hat, where your Hillary Clinton button, your
your Vice President Harris button, whatever, It's gonna be there.
(06:45):
But why don't you tweet each other in a civil fashion?
You know, don't start throwing drumsticks across the table, you know, just.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Exactly. I would recommend that families, you know, whether it's
the wives, the mothers, whoever, you know, people get together
ahead of time on the phone, through text, whatever and
kind of create some kind of detente where Okay, you know,
we know obviously the election, and the election was going
(07:14):
to be controversial no matter who won, but you know
that was going to be a divisive top topic whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I think the fact that it was decisive, though, Steve, I
think we caught a break there. I think that because
it was decisive. Boy, can you imagine if it was like, uh,
two cents, we three to whatever?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Right, but even then with it being one sided and
somewhat shockingly one sided. Yeah, I mean, you know, you know,
think about the if if the Red Sox were ever
swept the Yankees in the Alcs or or the or
the Bruins.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Can he be like maybe coming down from behind three
games to none or something like that. Yeah, something like
that that never happen, not in your life or.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
Exactly well, and I'll be honest, but we've got to
be adults.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
See, I think we got to be adults and we
got to say, look, you know, it is what it is.
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily bring up something like the
Ukrainian War because no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And right, And that's why I'm saying, Dan, you know,
if you know, if you can kind of establish some
ground rules ahead of the game and just you know,
reinforce them and you know, you know, make small talk,
you know, talk about you know, how great you know,
how great the Turkey is this year, or for our
beating friends, how great the to Turkey is this year?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That tough you know, talk about I don't know, you know,
the other thing that we should do. Here's we should do. Okay,
Maybe here's the deal. Maybe what everybody should do is
have a yellow flag in their pocket. Okay, and so
if someone brings up a topic that makes anyone uncomfortable,
you throw the yellow flag, you know, instead of a
(08:57):
fifteen yard penalty five minutes in the living room by yourself.
Maybe that's I don't know, Yeah, that would be fun.
There you go, Steve Bittenbender, Turkey Day topics you should
avoid from the website, Bett, Massachusetts. Steve, thanks very much.
(09:18):
I appreciate you taking the time as a fun conversation.
You and I. If we had turkey dinner Thanksgiving Day,
we could have fun with this. But again, it's kind
of one of those things where I think you've got
to be broadcast professionals before you try to don't try.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
This at home, exactly, exactly, leave the hot takes at home.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
You got it, You got it right, break, bring the
hot cakes, not the hot takes.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Thanks Steve, exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Talking again. Appreciated very much. We come back when we
talk about the wild West of weight loss drugs. Yeah,
a lot of people out there figured out that this
ozempic does more for them, including losing weight and people
it's gonna be it's a little dangerous. We'll explain right
after this on night Side. It is a Friday, heading
toward the weekend. I am. I am relaxed, ready for
(10:04):
a couple of days rest, and I hope you are
as well. Be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well, I think all of you know that with Awaken
one to eighty weight loss loss, I lost thirty five
pounds nine years ago the right way and I haven't
put a pound back on now. Part of it is
I learned how to eat a little better. I'm in
the gym five six days a week and I'm doing okay.
A lot of people, however, have been taking some drugs
which are not for weight loss, but for example o zempic,
(10:41):
and these drugs are being found to have some adverse
side effects. With us, we're delighted to be welcomed, but
we had delighted to welcome. I should say my guest
doctor Swathi varunas Dias, Doctor Swathy, I'll keep it still.
They tell me if that's okay with you, Yeah, that perfect.
(11:04):
Welcome to Nightside. How are you.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
I'm great, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, this is an important topic here because obviously losing
weight can be tough. But I got to tell you,
I'm so glad I lost thirty five pounds nine years ago.
And there are people out there trying to do it
the easy way and explain to us what they're doing
and why it's harmful in the long run.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, so people, it's the big fag right now to
be taking GLP one agonists. So these are prescription medications
also known as ozembic or wago v mondro. There are
quite a different There are quite a few different branded
medications out there right now. And see they are FDA
approved for particular populations. So they are FDA approved for
(11:50):
people who have a BMI of twenty seven plus other conditions.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Wait twenty but if I know a little bit about this,
a BMI twenty seven plus that is not all that bad.
I mean, so.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
That's considered quote unquote overweight.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's not considered obese.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
It's not considered obese exactly. So that is one category.
So if you have a BMI of twenty seven plus,
any other chronic disease. And then the other subcategory that
it is FDA approved for is if you have a
BMI of over thirty, So this is specifically for Wgovigov
and ozempic are the same active ingredient, but ozempic is
(12:31):
actually only FDA approved for type two diabetes. So that's
a little bit about GLP one agonist themselves. And I
think when it comes to you know, the use of them,
you know, people think that they're a magic bullet, that
they're the right fit for everyone, which as we know,
is not correct. And you know that everyone thinks that
you know, I'm just gonna take you then not going
(12:53):
to have any side effects.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Now is ozempic correct? You know, help me out here.
Is ozempic prescription based or over the counter?
Speaker 4 (13:00):
So ozembic and would go be all of these medications
in this particular drug class of GLP one agnes, all
of them are prescription medications.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Okay, So who are the docs that are writing these
for people? Or are they writing them for people? How
are the people getting these drugs if you have a
condition that a doctor writes a prescription for. I have
a lot of faith in physicians. I got to be
honest with you. I'm assuming if a doctor writes a prescription,
they understand the side effects, the consequences, and they believe
(13:29):
that that drug is something that that person should have.
Who are the people who are popa nozempics? And are
really who's writing the prescriptions for people who are over
who are poping ozempics? Is it doctors or are they
getting you some pills on the side from their friends?
Is there a black market here on this? What's going on? So?
Speaker 4 (13:48):
There's not actually a big black market, at least not
for now. And the reason I say that is because
physicians are the one So whether they're healthcare providers, physicians
and ps pas, they are the ones writing the prescriptions
for patients, and it is f to approved for specific
use cases. Again, if you fall within those BMI ranges
(14:08):
that you have type two diabetes, are looking to lose
weight safely. However, a lot of the issue is actually
with this off label use. Off label use means that
you know you don't fall within those populations, but your
physician is still writing that you know, that prescription for.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
You, So why would a physician do that? I understand
that occasionally there are drugs that can be used off labels.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Safely, So a position would considered yeah, doing that because
they are trying to make the patient happy, and at
the end of the day, they are weighing what we
refer to as the risk versus benefit ratio, and to them,
they don't see as much of a risk in contrast
with the potential benefit to the patient.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Let me ask you a tougher question. When some physicians
years ago were over prescribing certain type drugs which were
highly addictive, you know, there has been some suggestion that
those physicians were actually being rewarded for writing as many
(15:20):
prescriptions as possible. There is ozembic. Are these type companies
Are they in any way, shape or form encouraging physicians
or inducing physicians to overprescribe these drugs.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
I think they're not necessarily inducing or manipulating physicians. But
that being said, you know when the physicians way back
when when you were talking about these addictive medications, you know,
we didn't know they were addictive initially, at least not
in the in the initial stages of them being FDA
approved because we didn't have the long term data. So
(15:54):
the same is the case for these medications. For these
GLP one agonises we don't have the long term data
to really know are the addictive what are the long
term implications for them?
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Well, I'll tell you it's it's the idea of losing
weight is something that obviously is attractive, and it's it's
this health benefits to it. But I hope that people
listen to you on this subject. How did you get involved?
You know, this seems to me to be an issue
that you are very concerned about. What got you involved?
(16:27):
Are concerned about this?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
So what really got me concerned is just as a
healthcare professional seeing the number of people on these medications
but them not realizing that, you know, everyone is not
the best fit for it and it's not going to
be the magic bullet as I mentioned before. And then
also that there aren't side effects. There are some really
potentially big risks associated like gastrointestinal issues or stomach issues
(16:53):
like nausea and vomiting, constipation, diarrhea. There's also potential issues
with you know, mental help, so things like mood swings
or excess a fatigue. And then also as people are
losing weight, what's not discussed often enough in my opinion,
is that people are losing weight. Yes, of course, but
they are losing fat and losing muscle. So this accelerated
(17:17):
muscle loss, which muscle is so linked to longevity and aging,
well that that can really get in the way of
the long term outcomes of a patient.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Well, I've really enjoyed this conversation because I've read a
lot about this. I know the a fraction of all
that you know, and you have increased my knowledge on this,
and I hopefully my audience as well. So, uh, doctor Swathy,
but runasi dias. I hope I got fairly close to
(17:49):
the pronunciation of your full name.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
But doctor Swathy, Yes, yeah, And if patients are interested
in learning more, I recommend you know a combina of
nutritional intervention, so thinking about how you're eating healthy, high protein,
high fiber diets, thinking.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
About what sort of exercise that you're doing, so incorporating
movement every single day, and then also in addition to
how you're incorporating dietary supplements like omega three fatty acids
or phortotropin.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, that's great. Is there a website that people could
be in touch with you on. I don't want to
have you give out a website and have twenty five
people contacting you unnecessarily. Is there a book that you
may have written recently? A lot of folks come on
the program and they're trying to get the word out
in some form of fashion. Is there any other way
that did you'd like to people that have access to
(18:43):
you other than our interview.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Absolutely so. I'm most active on LinkedIn. You can just
search my name and you'll be able to find it there.
I conduct webinars for everyone that are free on longevity
and muscle health. And also you can find studies and
different information about preserving muscle when you're using GLP ones
at maos MD dot com. So that's m yo SMD
(19:08):
dot com.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
And is that your website?
Speaker 4 (19:10):
That is not my website, but I am a scientific
advisor at the company. It's a supplement company.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Mayos MD dot com. Yes, thank you so much for
your time tonight, and hope you have a great weekend.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Thank you very much, Artie, thank you so much for
shing you the same. Bybye.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
It's a little bit after eight thirty, so we get
the news, and of course the top news story here
in Massachusetts tonight, or one of the lead stories tonight,
is the teachers strike, three of them now ongoing which
include Beverly, Gloucester and Marblehead, and we're going to be
talking with WBZ news anchor Nicole Davis will join us
on the other side of the news break at the
bottom of the hour.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
It's night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Boy you just heard Nicole filing the news at the
bottom of the hour. And now through the magic of
radio and unlo capable media in which people are able
to move from studio to studio so.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
Quickly, boyar, my arm's tired.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, this has been kind of interesting. I did not
see this coming, and we're going to talk about this
with listeners at nine o'clock, particularly folks who live up
in the north show. So we have three school departments, Beverly,
Gloucester and now Marblehead joining this strike. I find it
kind of interesting that the three of them kind of
(20:30):
a close geographic proximity. Looks like there's a little bit
of coordination going on. I'm sure there's no proof of that,
but are you surprised that we have these three that
all of a sudden are on the picket line in
advance by the way of a long weekend holiday weekend yeah.
Speaker 6 (20:45):
I mean I don't obviously know the ins and outs
of what the unions have been doing. I know that
all three of these unions have been working to get
contracts in place. I can't be surprised if you know,
geographically they're so close, they've probably been talking and and
also sharing information and sharing maybe strategy. Again, I don't
want to speak to that cause I just don't.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Oh no, no, I totally, I totally understand that it
was funny. I remember last winter there was the big
strike in Newton last winter, and the mayor there was
quite upset Ruth Anne Fuller. If I recall correctly, that
strike was in January, in early January, and it lasted
(21:26):
I think about three weeks. I mean, that was a huge,
huge block of time. I don't know if those students
ever made up the time or not. But as I
think we all know, both you and I acknowledged that
the teacher unions, just as police and fire unions, are
not supposed to strike here in Massachusetts. I think it
was pretty costly for the Newton Teachers Association, but very much. Yeah.
(21:50):
I guess there's judges involved, at least in a couple
of these strikes. Maybe not in the Marblehead one that
happened late today. It's an interesting dynamic, you know, one
of those stories that that we're gonna have to follow.
It also comes on the heel of the ballot question,
ballot question two, which removed the MCST test as a
(22:16):
qualification for graduation. Yeah, that's right, and the teachers' unions
were the Mass Teachers Association was very much involved in that. Uh,
we're going to talk about it. People don't think sometimes
about the secondary impact. Come Tuesday morning. Moms and dads
and you know, single parents are going to have to
(22:36):
figure out, you know, if the strikes, these strikes continue,
what do they do with their kids.
Speaker 6 (22:41):
And childcare and all that. And the teacher the school
committees have been talking about that as part of their argument, saying, look,
you know, we need to have places for these children.
And the teachers on the other hand, say, well, you know,
let's come to a deal and then we won't have
to worry about this. I did want to give you
an update that we just got a couple of minutes
ago here in the newsroom, just heard from I'm the
Glocester School Committee and they I'm reading this letter essentially
(23:04):
write as I'm talking with you. They essentially said that
the State Labor Board last night told both sides directed
them to participate in mediation with the state appointed mediator,
and that started up this afternoon. So at least in
Gloucester they're working with a state appointed mediator to try
to make their way through this process. But as you
had mentioned, you know the judge tonight saying essentially to
(23:26):
the Beverly and the Gloucester unions, you cannot do this.
You have until Monday, I believe it, excuse me ten
am to essentially stop the strike, and then Tuesday to
file with the state that you have stopped this strike.
It's different from Marblehead because again, they just voted to
get this going. They just approved this. Ninety nine percent
(23:46):
of the teachers in the union approve this today and
they say they're not going to start their strike until Tuesday.
But there's a caveat to that. They say, if we
can come to a deal on Monday night, we're just
gonna go back to work. And you know, nothing's happened.
So they are saying, look, you've got the weekend, we're
going to bargain. We're here, we're ready. So let's see
what we can do by Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So that's Glocester.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
So that's Marblehead.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Well, I'm sorry, Marvel.
Speaker 6 (24:10):
I know it's a lot. There's somebody moving forward.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Right Marvelhead. Is the late is the late one the latest? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
it's the strategy here is interesting. The other thing which
I've never understood, and I've covered when I was in TV,
I covered these teacher strikes or threats of teacher strikes
for a long time. It always seems that they always
happen just when the school year starts, and now it's
the middle of the school year. I don't understand why
(24:36):
all this stuff isn't ironed out. I don't understand why
they get to a point where there's no contract resolution
that I don't know. Do you know offhand if any
of these school districts have been working without a contract.
I assume they're currently all without contract.
Speaker 6 (24:51):
Yeah, they're all without contracts. I believe at least six
months for all of them. And you know in this
new letter from Gloucester they said, look, we tried to
bargain over the summer. The union didn't want to bargain.
I don't have the time right now, to look up
and see if that's actually true or see the union
side on that. But you know, with all of these
different unions, their arguments are, look, we've been at this
(25:11):
for months. They all claim that the argument or that
the talks are essentially stalled out, and they say, look,
this is kind of like our last ditch effort to
get you to come to the table and work with
us here.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, again my sense and probably the union will not
happy when I say this, but I feel like the
kids are the pawns in the middle of this. The
teacher it's generally it's about money, which most union negotiations
are going to be about money, but it's always shrouded
in the in the conversation about you know, we want
(25:43):
to do this to protect the children. And I get
all of that, but it's it's tough. I've never been
a teacher, so I've never been in their shoes. But
I'm more sympathetic to the plight of the parents, particularly
when all of a sudden they got a screen and
you know, the back in the good old days, as
(26:03):
we used to say, Nicole, you'd have you know, odds
living down the street or a grand mile of an
upstairs and everything. You know that that nuclear family was
always pretty close. It's a little different today, and I
think it's tougher on young parents, parents who have kids
these days than it might have been when you and
(26:23):
I back in the Dark Ages. Well at least I
was in the Dark Ages.
Speaker 6 (26:27):
I was slightly darker.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
No no, no, no, no, no, you were lighter. Yeah.
We didn't have electricity or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (26:34):
I just had to luck my water uphill both ways
with the bags on my feet in the snowstorm. Yes,
of course, you know what. I what I was interesting
to me though. I'm reading through a statement that we
got today from Marblehead from the Union here, and what
a big sticking point for them is salaries for para professionals.
These are the people who work with the kids who
(26:55):
have i epes, And they say the starting salary for
kindergarten para professionals in marble Head is eighteen three hundred
and thirty eight dollars, and tutors only earned twenty seven
thousand dollars a year. So that's their big thing. They say, look,
we are not making enough money to live and as
teachers and paras who have all these different hands and
all these different classes and working with all these different kids.
(27:16):
That's their big thing right now in Marblehead.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
That was a big part of the strike in Newton
because the Newton teachers were averaging about ninety two thousand
dollars a year. That's the average, Okay, so obviously a
younger teacher might have been in sixty or seventy, and
a more experienced teacher could be well over one hundred. Sure,
(27:41):
the Department of Education actually has a website where they
post the salaries and the salary structure of every public
school you know in Massachusetts, and I relied on that
quite heavily. It was the Department of Education website, all
public record. And the union was white upset because they say, well,
(28:01):
you're saying that the average teacher makes ninety five thousand dollars.
I'm a second year teacher and I'm only making seventy
four thousand dollars. Well that's what average is about, exactly.
And there was a lot it was well, we're not
concerned about us, We're concerned about the pair of professionals.
But the negotiations always involves not only the pair of
professionals who clearly are underpaid. You're making eighteen or twenty
(28:25):
thousand dollars a.
Speaker 6 (28:25):
Year, right, which is in this economy, in this state,
one of the highest cost of livings anywhere in the country.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
No question, no question. Yeah, but I've yet to harry
you have a union say well, our teachers have played
paid close to six figures. They're okay, we're going to
go on strike just to boost the pair of legals.
Because what happens is generally the increase goes across the
board and the pair of leaguers get a little bit
of a jump, and the teachers get a pretty good
(28:52):
size jump. So I know the teachers unions will not
be happy with what I'm going to talk about at
nine o'clock.
Speaker 6 (28:58):
That's between you and the teachers.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
I know. That's that's why I didn't want to drag
you in on this. But I thank you for bringing
that information to of course always and I hope you
have a great weekend, okay.
Speaker 6 (29:07):
You as well. I hope you enjoy your time and
bundle up. It's actually going to feel like fall, believe.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Well, that's what I heard. Yeah, it's going to feel
like early now. I think I think we can handle
it at this point.
Speaker 6 (29:17):
And so yeah, I think we're good, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Would some of us probably be looking for a little
bit of a taste of November before we get past.
Speaker 6 (29:25):
I just want like a little fall before we get
snacked with like February gray snow.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Do you remember, just just getting off topic, and because
I mentioned this, Yeah, about ten years ago, we had
a huge snowstorm, snowstorm, yes, do you remember that? I
didn't imagine it right.
Speaker 6 (29:43):
I think it's the winter of twenty fifteen when we
had the famed Marty Walsh Loon Mountain quote, when we
were getting like what a foot of snow every Monday.
I think that was for about ten or twelve weeks.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
You remember that, that that one. I know very well
that that.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
Was the same year, wasn't it.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
No, no, no, no, no no. I guarantee you that
because that year of twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen, there
was no snow all throughout November. You know, we don't
get much snow in November anyway, nothing in December, and
there was virtually now there might have been something in
the mountains, but nothing. And then it started to snow
about January twentieth, and it didn't stop for about seven
(30:18):
or eight weeks and we ended up with about one
hundred and twenty inches of snow in that five or
six week period, which was extraordinary. But there was a year,
and I think it was a few years before that,
where we had a big snowstorm on Halloween, I mean
a real big snowstorm, accumulation and all that, and we
never had another bit of snow for the rest of
the winter. It was the weird one of the It
(30:39):
was as weird as that, And it might have been
the winter before, because the winter before we were croaked
with snow. The winter of twenty fourteen and into twenty fifteen.
The winter before that, which would have been twenty thirteen
and twenty fourteen the Atlantic region Maryland, Virginia, we didn't
get much snow and they got snow.
Speaker 6 (31:00):
All that's all right. I'd forgotten about that. It all
kind of blends.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
After saying it does blend.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
I'll never forget twenty fifteen when I could have jumped
out my window like Loon Mountain, but I didn't.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Let me tell you what I did when I jumped
out my window onto my we have a flat roof, yeah,
a porch. I was up. I got out, I went out.
I wanted to clear the snow. Sure, I was up
to my chest and snow wow. And at that point
I started to shovel and there was really nowhere to
push it, and I thought, if I fall over here,
they're not going to find me till June.
Speaker 6 (31:32):
I'd like that back of the no dial that was
the seaport. You remember how it didn't melt till literally
June or July that year. Yes, it would have found
you eventually.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Well, thank you so much. We will talk soon. Okay,
thank you for the best.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Of course, you too, have a good weekend.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
All right, coming back here on Nightside, we have one
more guest to talk with and then we will move
on to UH to give you an opportunity to talk
about some of these issues. We're going to talk about
a serious issue, and that is early signs of dementia
sadly show up in people's finances. So you may want
to take a look at your parents' checkbooks and their
(32:08):
bills they taking care of business, because that can be
an early sign. We'll talk with a lead author of
this study out of John Hopkins School of Public Health,
a study back on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Right after this, Now back to Dan way live from
the Window World to night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
We are delighted to welcome doctor Laurence Nicholas. She is
the lead author of a study at the John Hopkins
School of Public Health that found that older adults with
dementia exhibit financial symptoms up to six years before diagnosis.
This is a frightening study but so critically important. Doctor Nicholas,
Welcome to Nightside. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 7 (32:55):
Thanks for having me so I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
How this study evolved, but tell us a little bit
of the background. Someone must have said, Hey, how did
you get to get to even investigating this a very
novel approach to early signs of dementia.
Speaker 7 (33:12):
Well, I think we started with the same motivation you mentioned,
sort of hearing these very frightening stories where family members
were finding out that one of their loved ones had
dementia because one of these catastrophic financial events had happened.
So things like a person would stop paying their mortgage
(33:34):
in the house would be foreclosed on, and family members
would find out that the forgetting to pay the mortgage
was some of the signs of impaired financial capacity that
we know our early warning signs of dementia, and so,
you know, you hear some of these scary stories, and
(33:54):
it got us thinking, you know, how common is that actually,
and could we see it in some large data sets
that might give us better avenues of doing better detection
down the line. And so we put together a large
data set that included information from credit reports, which are
(34:20):
basically measures of whether you're paying back money that you're owed,
things like mortgages and credit card bills, and that allowed
we matched that with healthcare data so that we were
able to sort of plot out what happens to people's
financial trajectories as they get closer to a dementia diagnosis.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
And how do children adult children who might be concerned
about mom or dad, how did they I guess, ask
this question or pry maybe it's a question that they're
uncomfortable asking. How did they say, Hey, how you doing?
Are you keeping up the data on your bills? How
(35:03):
do you bring that up to find out if there's
some early indications of a problem.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
Yeah, I think it's a very sensitive topic and can
be a difficult conversation to have. So we've heard some
stories of you know, adult children actually see bills getting
sent to the home with that, say like final notice
overdue payments. This is getting harder to do as more
(35:32):
and more of us receive all our bills electronically and
you don't get those telltale signs. There are services that
you can sign up for that will help do some
of this monitoring for you. Also, policy changes have required
(35:55):
all banks to give everyone the opportunity to put a
Trusted Content Act onto their account. Who would be contacted
if you know, there's a suspicious transaction request or your
suddenly missing payments. But it does sort of put the
responsibility on the person who may become cognitively impaired in
(36:21):
the future. And I have to say, you know, the
longer we do this research and we've you know, seen
similar patterns looking at wealth data as well, where these
financial losses just happen years and years before any of
the other cognitive signs of dementia. I'm increasingly thinking about
(36:42):
it as you know, if we if we live long enough,
this is almost certainly in any of our futures, and
so putting some plans in place in advance to sort
of protect us.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Ourself scams. You know, we used to we used to
laugh about the the prince who is who was looking
for money? But it's it's not a laughing matter anymore
because they're much more sophisticated the scams that are recurring
these days. And I look where all of us can
be impacted either by our parents. If we're lucky enough
(37:20):
to have our parents around, we have to kind of
look out for them. The role reversal occurs where they
used to look out for us, now we have to
look out for them. And of course, as we ourselves age,
we have to be willing to allow our children to
kind of take if they're willing to take a look
at how we're handling our finances. It's a it's a
frightening it's a frightening part of getting older. And everyone
(37:42):
wants to live along in a full life. But those
those so called golden years oftentimes aren't as golden as
people think they as they're told they're going to be.
Let's put it like that, doctor, I so appreciate you're
doing this stuff. Can people get access to a copy
of the Reporter? Is there an article maybe that that
is publicly available that you could refer my listeners to
(38:03):
if they want to follow up and read it more
In depth.
Speaker 7 (38:07):
Yes, our study was funded by the National Institute on
Aging and so they make the research available free of charge.
And we can send you a link so that it's
easiest to find on your website.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Sure the link, I'll copy you down. What's the link?
Speaker 7 (38:25):
Oh gosh, have it?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Okay? Yeah, okay, send that to my producer. Have your
folks send that, Lind to my producer and I can
mention it perhaps Monday night so people have access to it.
I didn't mean to catch you unaware there, but thank
you for all your information, doctor Laura and Nicholas. You've
certainly given people a lot to think about and talk
about maybe this weekend or this Thanksgiving over the dinner tables.
(38:50):
Thank you very much. I appreciate your time so much.
Speaker 7 (38:53):
Yes, thanks so much for calling attention to this important
issue and hopefully, like you said, giving everyone someplace talk
to you over the things giving table.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
I think you're absolutely right. Thanks, doctor Nicholas, appreciate it.
When we get back, we're going to talk about the
teacher this spate of teacher strikes that now have popped
up here like a I'm not even sure what sort
of flowers come up in the fall, but boom. We
got three teacher strikes going on, maybe there'll be some more.
We're going to talk about it on the other side
of the nine o'clock news here on a Friday night
(39:23):
edition of Nightside, and later on we'll talk about some
comments that Congressman Seth Molten made which has created a
bit of a firestorm within the Democratic Party. That'll be
at ten o'clock, and then at eleven tonight we'll give
you a chance to do a tribute to someone in
your family or some friend of yours who served in
the military and we can acknowledge their service. We'll be
back on Nightside right after this quick newscast at the
(39:45):
top of the hour.
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