March 20, 2025 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
FDA recalls some acne treatment products over benzene levels. What to know about benzene. Farah Moustafa, MD, Dermatologist and Director of Laser and Cosmetics at Tufts Medical Center joined Dan.
Spring Clean Your Goals - Top trends, tips, and tools for tidying up all areas of your life. With Nick Burns – Google Tech Expert.
Dustin Dunbar – The “Alcohol Matrix” - a web of lies and illusions that kept Dustin (and many others trapped) for years. Overcoming alcoholic addiction and your path to recovery. Author & psychologist Dustin Dunbar stopped by.
Dina Readinger is co-author of Healing Healthcare: Evidence-Based Strategies for Mending our Broken System checked in with Dan.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
FDA recalls some acne treatment products over benzene levels. What to know about benzene. Farah Moustafa, MD, Dermatologist and Director of Laser and Cosmetics at Tufts Medical Center joined Dan.
Spring Clean Your Goals - Top trends, tips, and tools for tidying up all areas of your life. With Nick Burns – Google Tech Expert.
Dustin Dunbar – The “Alcohol Matrix” - a web of lies and illusions that kept Dustin (and many others trapped) for years. Overcoming alcoholic addiction and your path to recovery. Author & psychologist Dustin Dunbar stopped by.
Dina Readinger is co-author of Healing Healthcare: Evidence-Based Strategies for Mending our Broken System checked in with Dan.
Listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the NEW iHeart Radio app and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
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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 news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, you know, Nicole, if we if you and I
knew that the Celtics would go for a measly six
point three billion, we could have probably got in on
this action too pocket change right, Well, you know, I
mean it's a little bit, but you and I we
could have covered it totally.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Well, then again, people seem to think that we're like
millionaires in radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That is not the kid. Anything that I could do
to reinforce that.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Maybe if it was you know, six and a half dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Maybe, oh yeah, absolutely, no question no. But it's exciting.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
This is big news.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It is it is big news. The folks who all
the Celtics turned quite a profit, they call that return
ROI return on investment. I think they bought it for
three hundred mil. Yes, I saw that. Good for them
sometimes good for them? Yeah hopefully, Well yeah, that can
go to pay off the national debt. Says all about that.
(01:06):
Great to chat. We owe each other a phone call. Yes,
talk to you, thanks to Gold, talk to you. Good night.
Welcome on in everyone. My name is Dan Ray, and
this is Night's Out. We've got a great show. Schedule
for you tonight. Once again, we have some subjects that
you may not have thought a lot about. But the
whole idea here on Nightside is we try to make
people think. I do care that you're thinking. It matters
(01:30):
not to me what you're thinking. You can come to
any conclusion on any subject and you can use our
microphone to shout it to the world. It's as simple
as that. My name's Dan Ray. Rob Brooks, the producer
of this fine program, is back at Broadcast Central headquarters.
He's going to make sure everything goes smoothly. There will
be no phone calls until after nine o'clock because we
(01:50):
have four guests, as we do every eight o'clock, and
they are interesting topics. Tonight, my first guest is doctor
Fara Mustafa. She's a dermatologist and director of laser and
cosmetics at Tuft's Medical Center, kind of close to home. Welcome,
doctor Mustapha. How are you tonight?
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Hi?
Speaker 6 (02:12):
Dan, how are you? I'm doing well? Thanks, I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
We are going to talk about something that I don't
know a lot about, and so bear with me if
I ask any dumb questions. But that's what I get
paid to do. The Federal and Drug Administration Apparently they've
decided to recall some acne treatment products over benzene levels.
I have no idea. I know what acne treatment products are,
(02:38):
but I don't know what the problem is with benzene levels.
And I'm sure you can explain it to my audience.
Is this a big deal?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Yes, I'm happy to explain it. Well, it's good for consumers.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
To know about, for sure, of course.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
So benzel peroxidism and over the counter acne treatment, it's
in a lot of spot treatments for acne. And about
a year ago, there was an independent lab that kind
of put this out that many acne treatments that you
can buy over the counter actually had the breakdown products
of benzene in these in these containers, which is a
(03:17):
known unfortunately a known carcinogen. So so the FDA recently
made out this statement. Just last week, they did their
own independent test and and although they actually found a
lot less more contaminated than the third party lab found,
there were a few products that still had levels of
benzene and those companies have voluntarily issued recalls.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
This This must have freaked out a lot of teenagers,
many of whom deal with ACNE. I assume the world,
the world would have spread like wildfire amongst you know,
middle schools and and high schools. Should parents who might
be listening to they need to do anything now in
response to this if their son or daughter was used.
(04:05):
We're using any of these products.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
Well, not necessarily. I benzene is all around us, So
that's one thing to kind of take into account. You know,
it's in car exhaust, it's a byproduct of gasoline, and
so it's not like we're not exposed to it into
our in our everyday lives. It's all about you know,
limiting exposure especially and knowing what you're exposed to. So
(04:28):
I definitely did get things in my you know, my
on TikTok and Instagram about people you know that we're
kind of hyped up about this, and I totally understand that.
I think for now, the most reasonable thing to do
would be not to purchase the ones that the FDA's
I would trust the FDA's tests more than the third
party test. So there are a few products that kind
of stood out, like the leoche pos e faclaire duo,
(04:51):
another proactive which is a very popular one that has
some name recognition. But if if if you have those
products at home or they're close to their expiration date,
especially because a lot of the products kind of break
down over time or as they get closer to their
expiration date, then it would make sense to avoid using
(05:11):
avoid using them at that time.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Sure. Sure, So benzene does that have a a benzine?
Does it have? Is it is? It? Is it on
the periodic table? It is? Is this some sort of
a chemical that actually can have some positive use or
does it just appear as byproduct? Uh? And it's a
dangerous by product?
Speaker 6 (05:36):
It's it's that's exactly right, it's a dangerous byproduct. Okay,
it's it's a chemical breakdown of benzyl peroxide in this case,
which benzyl peroxide you know, is a safe and good
to use active ingredient that has antibiotic properties and anti
insulimmatory property, so really good for acne. But the breakdown benzene,
(05:57):
that's just a it's a chemical that's kind of out
there that has negative effects for humans.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So this is not a chemical that is put into
a product in a small amount.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
And no, no, it's like a breakdown. Usually it breaks
down at like high temperatures or so in this lab,
the initial lab that did the tests, that the products
were supposed to really high temperatures, which is not what
you're normally doing, right, You're not putting There were even
jokes online like I'm not putting my acne cream baking
it in the oven at four hundred and fifty degrees right,
(06:33):
So how was just like a real risk. But having
said that, having said that, of course when they did
the when they did the repeat testing, they found that
there were some products that actually had them at low levels,
just kind of as they exist normally, right, like if
it's in your shower or on your bathroom sink. There
were still some products that had some low levels.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
This comes back to announcer, prevention is worth a pound
of cure. Why do you want to us with something
like this if you know about it. I'm sure the
companies aren't thrilled to take products or recall products, but
can they not produce the products in a way that
this benzene is not produced, is not created as a
by product. I assume I have to go back and
(07:16):
maybe reconfigure the acne me medication, the acne treatment. But
let's do it safely. I assume that's the lesson.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Here, right, Yes, I absolutely agree, and it was, you know,
and they actually issued the voluntary recalls of their own products,
which was was a nice thing to do and the
responsible thing to do. So that wasn't an fd you know,
it was an FDA mandated recall or anything. But they
the companies themselves had retailer based recall, so that means
(07:44):
they took them out of the stores. It's not like,
you know, they're messaging people and saying, Okay, if you
have this, you got to take it back or get
rid of it or anything like that. But they just
remove them from the stores until they can figure out
how to safely produce them without benzine by products.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Sounds great. Well, look, thank you very much for explaining it.
And is there a place that people could go to
get more information on this? Is there a news article
or some journal that if parents are concerned or just
google benzene levels, products with benzene levels and they'll find
some news stories.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Yes, I will. Yeah, the FDA website itself actually has
the list of the products that did come back for benzene.
It's important to know also a lot of the products
were tested and did not have it. So probably if
I was a concern parent, I would just say, let
you know, let me look on this website and see
what not to buy, and then everything else is you know,
(08:41):
more fair game.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Okay, So just go to the FDA website and look
for products with benzene levels or just google something like
that and you'll find it. I assume it correct.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
Yes, the FDA benzene acting product. Yes, absolutely sounds great.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Doctor Mustafa, thank you very much for your time and
thank you for what you do. We will talk again,
I suspect, thanks.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
So much, thank you, thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You're very welcome when we get up. When we get back.
A lot of people talk about spring cleaning. Today is
the first day of spring. It's not Tomorrow's the first
full day. It came in this morning at I guess
five oh one here in the Boston area. But you
don't have to just think about spring cleaning as dusting
and cleaning up. Sweeping in your house. Does another sort
(09:27):
of spring cleaning that we're going to talk with Nick
Burns about. He's a Google tech expert. We'll talk to
him on the other side of the break. You listen
in nightside on WBZ, Boston's news radio. We're ten thirty
on your AM dial. If you're driving anywhere east of
the Mississippi River and have stumbled upon us on your
car radio, lock us in. You also can pull down
(09:48):
the iHeart app. The new and improved iHeart app very
easy to download onto your devices and then set WBZ
as your first preset, and that way we will always
be right there at your fingertip wherever you are in
this wide world of ours. Three hundred and sixty five
days a year, twenty four to seven, we'll be back
(10:10):
and we're going to give you some tips on maybe
how to clean up your desk. I'm looking at a
messy desk right now, and maybe clean up the files
on the floor. You'll get the drift. We'll be back
with Nick Burns in just a couple of minutes. Now
back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night
Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. All right, welcome back
(10:33):
as we head through the eight o'clock hour. Here, we're
going to talk when you think about spring. Spring arrived
today at five o't one in the morning, and I
know that all of us when you think about spring,
one of the things you think about is spring cleaning,
which of course means dusting and straightening up and all
of that. But there's another sort of spring cleaning that
(10:56):
you might think about, and that is what's around you
with us. As Nick Burns, he's a Google tech expert. Nick,
I'm all ears. I'd love to know one of the
top trends, tips and tools for tidying up all the
areas of your life.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Go right ahead, Yeah, you've got it. Thank you so
much for having me. Well, as you said, spring is
the season of renewal, and we're seeing that many people
are searching for ways to clean and organize their home,
focus on their health and fitness, refresh their wardrobes, and
some are even looking for a new job.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So if we talk about this is a wide variety
of changes. I don't associate new jobs with the Spring.
I do associate new jobs with January. Why do you
throw jobs into this? I thought you were going to
talk about not only maybe cleaning your home, but also
(11:52):
tidying up a little bit. I mean, if you could
see my task, if you could see my floor, the
files with flours, and you can never get them exactly
the way you want them. Do you have any tips
for people like me on how to I have files,
and I have boxes and files, and and I kind
of know where everything is, but every once in a while,
(12:15):
where the heck did I put that?
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Go right ahead, Nick, you and me, both you and
me both well, I can tell you you're not alone.
Search of interest in decuttering has hit a five year
high in twenty twenty five, and minimalism in particular was
the top trending search in the past week, and how
to decutter where it was one hundred and forty percent
in the past month alone. So people are really looking
(12:39):
for help here in Massachusetts specifically, people are looking for
ways to organize their kitchen more than any other room.
And one of the really best things I always go
to personally is YouTube. And actually, if you go to
YouTube today and you click the little logo, they're doing
a whole special highlighting all these creators who who do
(13:00):
clean with Me videos and they've had over two hundred
and fifty million views of those videos in the past year.
So it's a lot of people are looking for great
advice and it's YouTube is a great place to find it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, So that takes care of cleaning up our office
in desk area, and you talked about people also decide to,
I guess clean up their their resume and start to
circulate their resume from maybe some new jobs, a fresh
start again. I'm surprised that at the miriddle of the
year people are thinking that. But that's okay. What other
(13:34):
sort of ventures are people prompted to participate in, engage
and engage in, or initiate because we have come to
the end of winter. What else are people thinking of doing? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Spring self care rose more than two hundred percent in
the past month, along with self care ideas, which I'm
always a fan of. And you know, sleep hygiene also
hit an all time high in twenty twenty five, and
people are searching for how to improve quality of sleep
one in one hundred and forty percent more this month
than they were last month. So, you know, when it
(14:13):
comes to sleep, I think that that really is the
basis for so much of how we start our day
and how we feel throughout the day, our in our health.
And one of the best ways you can do that
is you know, I wear the pixel Watch three to
bed every night, and you know, it has these advanced
sensors that kind of measure all sorts of things throughout
the night, like your skin temperature and your heart rate
to really tell you how how well you're sleeping. And
(14:35):
in the morning you get like this really cool score
and a bunch of metrics about how much time you
spent in each type of stage of sleep. And I'm
a big data nerd, so this is like really fun
for me to see every morning.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, I'm a data guy too. I don't know if
they call myself a data nerd, but I'm a data
guy and I've seen some of those, and to be
honest with you, I don't buy a lot of those.
I I think when you get up in the morning,
most people know if they've had a good night's sleep.
I mean, look, one of the things that people if
they want to improve this sleep is not drink as much.
(15:11):
I mean I can tell you that, you know, yeah,
it was really true. And those are the and also
if you can calm your mind, which I've tried to do.
I work on Nick from eight to midnight, and I
do four hours in the radio and sometimes we get
into heated subjects, okay, And at midnight, my day is over,
(15:32):
the new day is starting, and I haven't slept and
you got to calm down, and I do the crossword
puzzles out of the newspapers. I actually still get a
written news handheld newspaper, and I try to do the
crossword puzzles, and sometimes that really relaxes me, and I
feel I get a better night's sleep if it's a
little shorter, if it's only six or seven hours, as
(15:56):
opposed to trying to go to bed and not have
a RESTful night sleep. For me, that half hour doing
a crossword puzzle and giving up when I'm tired, that
helps me. Now I don't have a pixel watch on it.
I can't prove it to you, but I can tell
you it helps. Does that make any sense to you
as somebody who who I'm sure follows what people do
(16:19):
and what people don't do.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Oh? Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I think everybody has their their kind of rituals before
they go to bed at night. And the thing about
the pixel Watch three is, you know, you get a
score in the morning and you say, okay, I didn't
maybe I didn't sleep that well. It'll actually fit fit up,
will give you tips to say, okay, here are certain
ways that you can kind of have good sleep hygiene
and like turn off your phone, stop looking at your
(16:44):
phone a couple hours before you go to bed, read
a book, you know, do a crossword puzzle. Things like
that that are really gonna relax you and help you
have kind of a nice regular routine and mitual before
going to bed.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, I mean, I got a really regular routine I
work with. If the show does it in until eleven
fifty eight, ten, so late night, Well it is, but
it's also intellectually your mind is running. That's my problem,
and you shut it down when the last caller ends
and you sign off. Everything is done. All you got
(17:18):
to do then is do you know a little tidying
up and you're all set. But it's it's tough. It's
like people ending work at five o'clock and saying, no,
you're not going to drive home. You have to sleep. Now,
here's a bed, go to bed. Tough you do. Do
you have a regular schedule? Are you a nine to
(17:40):
five guy and you can you can get that time
between five and whenever you go to bed to kind
of kick back and relax a little bit, or are
you is your schedule all over the place?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Oh, you know, that's a good question.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I'd have to say, I'm a little bit all over
the place. You know, I'm one of those people that
kind of tries to pack as much as I can.
And in the day, you know, go to the gym
early in the morning, before work, go to work till
about you know, five, six, seven, and then come home
and have a nice dinner and by then I'm in
bed by ten. That's kind of nice.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, hopefully listening to Night's I only kidding. My most
successful days are the days that I have the courage
and the energy to get up, don't eat breakfast, go
to the gym first. That if that should be that
should be the key rule of my life that I'm
taking from our interview, because if you can get up
and go to the gym, so can I. Nick, I'll
(18:34):
see at the gym. Thanks so much. How can folks
find you and get some other information from you? That
you must have a website or somewhere we can direct
people to.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Oh absolutely so. For more trends, you can always go
to Google dot com Fast Trends, or if you're interested
in the pixel watch, you can go to the Google
dot com Fast Story, where you can find a lot
of wearable products that can help you sleep and fitness
and off work with stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I'm afraid to ask how expensive are those pixel watches.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
They're not as bad as you would saying. We have
a number of different models and the prices really range.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
So I think, so.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You're telling me, you're telling me they're under fifty bucks, right, No,
I'm only kidding. I suspect they're more than Thanks Nick,
I'm just having a thanks Nick. Okay, when we get
back right after the news, at the bottom of the hour,
we're going to talk about something that does impact your
sleep negatively, and that is drinking. We're going to talk
(19:31):
about the alcohol matrix. We have a guest who's an author,
former alcoholic and PhD in psychology, Dustin dunbar awaits the
other side of the eight thirty news here on Nightside,
my name is Dan Ray. Stay with us. We get
lots to cover between now and midnight. I promise. Okay,
you're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
(19:55):
All right, it is funny. Last hour we talked. Last segment,
we were talking about sleep and perhaps the adverse impact
of alcohol when you're trying to go to sleep. I mean,
it keeps your mind active with us as Dustin Dunbar.
He's an author, former alcoholic and a PhD in psychology.
He's written I believe it's a book, am I correct?
(20:15):
Called the Alcohol Matrix.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah you're doing great, and other lies alcohol told me.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Alcohol told me, oh, oh you're doing great, and other
lies alcohol told me. Okay, I get that. I see
in quotes here alcohol matrix a web of lies and
illusions that kept Dustin and many others trapped for years.
Where does the phrase alcohol matrix come from?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, it's basically we're changing people's consciousness. So any Grace
is the leading all time author of alcohol addiction book
sales that were a million sold, and her and I
are teaming up and guaranteeing that people will learn to
control alcohol or become alcohol free within six months. And
it's all about getting them out of the alcohol matrix,
(21:07):
which is the consciousness that is saying that alcohol is
the elixir of life, that you needed to have more fun,
to sleep better, to have better sex, to do all
these things, to go to parties, to do sporting events,
and it's all just total total consciousness raising myths. You
(21:27):
know that we get through and then everybody that we've
had used the two books within the six months have
either completely learned to control alcohol or gone alcohol free.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Okay, so I think everybody knows what alcohol free means,
and I have friends of mine. As a matter of fact,
former Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, is admitted publicly that
he was an alcoholic, and I guess also alcoholics always
say once you're an alcoholic, even though when you get
rid of it, you're always an alcoholic. I get that.
(22:02):
I have a lot of friends of mine who are
in AA IF I understand the idea of getting rid
of it and just saying you know this, I'm getting
this out of my life. How more difficult is it
to utilize it but keep it under control? Because so
(22:23):
many of my friends have made that one mistake one night,
had a couple too many got behind a car and
did something really dumb, got behind the wheel of a car.
How is it more difficult to kick the habit or
to control the habit? Is my question?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Dustin in your opinion, Yeah, everybody's different. Everybody's individual. And
I don't use the word alcoholic at all needed as
any grace, and we use alcohol free because the myth
is that once you are an alcoholic, you always are.
And that's just absolutely not true. I have at zero cravings.
It's just like somebody who'd smoke two packs of cigarette
(22:59):
to day and later it was like, oh my god,
I can't believe it used to do that. I stunk,
I felt terrible. It was totally brainwashed everything like that.
Whenever I see the best wine, beer, whatever, all I
see is the amount of ethanol by volume. So ethanol
is a scientific term for alcohol. And whenever we start
saying ethanol versus alcohol, it takes away all of big
(23:21):
Alcohol's brainwashing that they've done to us. And you're like,
oh my god, why would you drink ethanol right versus alcohol?
So you whatever, you have a bottle of wine up there,
and it's like thirteen percent ethanol in there. You can
put your finger up on the bottle and show, okay,
there's thirteen percent ethanol that I'm going to put in
my body if I drink this, and it's just a
(23:42):
total different way, and then you're cure. And that's what
we talk about. The magic till. Everybody wants the magic
till these days, and the magic till is that we're
completely using science and changing people's consciousness and we're not
blaming the person for becoming addicted to a one hundred
perc addictive substance.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
How did you get rid of the monkey or off
your back or whatever you however you want to call it?
Different people call it different things, and I want to
use language that you're comfortable with. How did you become
alcohol free?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah? Well, Annie Grace was my morpheus, if you will,
with the matrix, and she just got my consciousness to
agree to where we all know that ethanol alcohol is
horrible for us, and we're like, oh jeez, yeah, but
we're still doing it. It's kind of our crutch. It's
our way to unwind all these things, right. But then
(24:37):
there's this other side that we're like, what, I can
still do it. I can handle it all these other
other things. So the key to this is is to
get both sides and have the cognitive dissonance. Is what
is the problem where you're fully conscious that this stuff
is ethanol and ethanol is poison. It's toxic, it's one
(24:59):
hundred percent and addictive. Nobody can handle their ethanol. I
don't care if you're the biggest, baddest, you know, New
Zealand rugby player. Ever, once enough ethanol is consumed, you
will get addicted.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
So help me out. And I probably am ignorant when
I'm asking this question. Why are you interchanging? And I
have not read your material, so forgive me for that.
But why are you interchanging the word alcohol with ethanol?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Or Yeah, like I said, that's the scientific word for
so it's the same substance. Alcohol and ethanol are the
exact same thing. But what big alcohol companies have done
is such a wonderful job of brainwashing us with the
word alcohol that it's this elixir and that it's fun
and enjoy it and all this stuff. You gotta have
it and you can drink it, no problems, two glasses
(25:56):
a day, responsibly, moderately, socially. Exactly what I did, and
of course I got I got addicted. Sothanol is the
is what it is, and then we change people's way
of thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
It's funny when you say ethanol to me. I'll tell
you what I think. Okay, I think about a oh,
a gas station that the ethanol I think in gasoline
is there not?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yes, So ethanol what it is is the byproduct of
fruits and vegetables. So the ethanol that you see in gasoleene,
it's mostly from corn is where they get thatthanol. Yeah,
so you're that's the exact same product that you go
up to the gas station and you're like, oh, I'm
not putting there's ten ethanol in that gas. I'm not
putting that in my motor. Well, then just later you
(26:45):
go to a place and you get your order whiskey,
and it's fortythanol in the same thing, and you're putting
it in your brain, your body, your spirit, and it's
pure toxic poison.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And so that's great way to look at it. I
gotta tell you, Dustin, you have explained it very well
to me. If my questions seemed ignorant, it was because, frankly,
I had never made that connection. I thank you for
making that connection for me and my audience. How can
folks get your book? You're doing great and otherwise alcohol
told me how I assume Amazon and all the typical
(27:20):
sites if they're interested in getting the book for themselves
or for a friend.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, Dustin dash dunbar dot com and you can pick
up Annie Grace's book and my book right there. All
the links are there, so Dustin Dash dunbar dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
The U S T I N Dash. I assume that's
like a hyphen dunbar dou n b a r dot
com the alcohol free gu all right, Hey, Dustin, I
enjoyed the conversation. I learned something from our conversation. I
appreciate it very much. Take you taking the.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Time dumb questions, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I happened. I happen to believe that too, because I
learned that when I was in law school many many
years ago, the only dumb questions were the questions that
I didn't have the courage to ask, because often those
are the questions they came up on the midterm or
the final exam. So I am totally with you, and
that's why I guess this is why I do this job.
I'm not embarrassed to ask a question if I don't
(28:18):
know the answer, because if I don't know the answer,
I choose not to ask the question. I'll never know
the answer, will I Thanks, Dustin, I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
We'll take care.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Bye bye. When we come up, we have one final
guest tonight, and we are going to talk about a
huge problem that probably we need to focus on much more.
And that is a nursing shortage here in New England
and a nursing shortage nationwide. And I know I have
many listeners, including one specific nurse who is always listening. Uh.
(28:54):
And I want to dedicate this segment to every nurse
who's listening to us night Side. We've heard about doctors shortages,
but the shortage of nurses might even be statistically worse.
Think about it. We're coming back with a great guest.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the window World
of night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. All right,
(29:18):
let's talk to my next guest here. Her name is
Dina Redding Girl. She's the executive. She's an executive NBA
with thirty five years of experience in healthcare, author of
a book entitled Healing Healthcare, Evidence Based Strategies for Mending
Our Broken System. Well, she wrote that, by the way,
(29:39):
with Sharon Weinstein, who is a registered nurse. Look, we
have some problems with our medical system in this country.
I still think it's the best of any in the world.
But I will tell you, Dina, we have a huge
doctor shortage here in Boston. We like to think of
ourselves as the medical capital. And when I say Boston,
(30:00):
I mean Greater Boston, which makes up about half of
New England. And there's a nursing shortage. I've seen it
myself recently when I've had friends who were in hospitals
and or rehabilitation centers. What happened? How did this happen?
I mean, did everybody decide to retire at COVID? Was
(30:22):
that what happened?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I'm serious, I said no, it's very First off, Dan,
thank you for having me. And this is a critical
issue that we have. I mean, this is so big
and people really need to wake up. And we've had
this problem before. What's exacerbated was the COVID situation, and
we continue to have this problem, except it's worse now.
(30:46):
We've got nurses that are leaving because they're fatigued, they're
burned out, they're overworked, they're overwhelmed. There's incivility, and they're
staff shortages and they are frantic, but they're just they're
shaking head and going, I can't take this anymore, and
we lose our nurse. The nurses, you know, is the
person who's the voice of you, the patient, but they're
(31:09):
also the collaborator with the physician who's going to help
make decisions about your care. So this is critical, very
critical time.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
It's totally critical. Now the shortage is it standard across
the country or are there some areas just focusing on
the nursing shortage where it's greater than ever. Is it
rural communities or is it urban areas? Where is it?
Where's this nursing shortage the most critical?
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
First off, it's everywhere. So I'm just going to say
that when we do have the outlying areas that we have,
you know, when you start looking at nurses that are
falling out and quitting, you know, it affects everybody. Across
the United States. There are forty two states according to
the Beckers Hospital Review, that have closed. You know a
(31:57):
lot of medical centers have closed. Forty two medical centers
have closed this last year. So and they're they're everywhere
they can be, rule they can be inside of you know,
the main suburbs of our city.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
So it's it's a critical issue.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
And it's just going to get worse. So we see
it everywhere.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So are there not enough nurses coming out of nursing schools?
I mean, I know that there's a lot of nursing schools.
Do they need to move more women. I know that
a lot of people, men and women have decided to
become let's see physician's assistance. I think is the friends
pas uh is that considered to be, you know, a
(32:41):
higher calling than being a nurse. I can't imagine anything
that is a higher calling than being.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
A nurse now.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I think the nurse is one of the most trusted
careers that in the United States and really across the world.
And according to the American Nurse Foundation. You know, when
we look at this shortage, now, we've got a lot
of nurses that are leaving, but we also have a
lot of people that are interested in being a nurse.
But yet we have a huge number of you know,
(33:11):
nurses who are being denied getting into school because there's
not enough nurses to actually teach the academic side of nursing.
Then we get into the problem of we've got a
lot of nurses that have been nurses for a long
time they've decided to kind of throw up their hands
or saying I'm done. I've had my share of nursing.
(33:31):
I love it, but it's time for me to go.
And we see all of that knowledge leaving, you know,
with all of the older nurses. Now we've got new
nurses that are trying to come out being new nurses.
But then we don't even have the schools being able
to take on the nurses who even want to meet
nurses because of the academic shortage and that knowledge loss.
So we've got a great, big chunk of knowledge that
(33:54):
is leaving, and people don't understand when you leave that,
you know, that nurse knowledge leaves, it's hard to find
that and get that back.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
So it's a critical time.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Okay, I'm a math guy. I'm a math guy. So
my question is we've had a period of you know,
decades where the uh, the number of children babies that
are being born is not at the rate that it
used to be back in the day of a family.
Now of three is considered a large of three children
(34:25):
is considered wow, three children, whereas in the old days
that you had to get the double digits before anyone
really noticed. And you also had this aging population they're
my group called the baby boomers. So those two mathematical
sets of statistics, a huge wave of boomers now going
(34:45):
through their seventies and into their eighties, with a smaller
population coming behind. Is that a mathematical fact factor that
has to be considered here.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yes, And on top of that, what we have as
far as the statistics through the American Nurse Foundation is
also stating that, you know, new nurses are deciding to
get out and they've only been a nurse for two years.
So you take those numbers that you just talked about,
and you talk about new nurses coming out, they're not confident.
We don't have enough preceptors right now. And you know,
(35:22):
Jen Riggins, who is part of the Virginia second Congressional District,
has got a bill out there called the Precept Nurses Act,
and it's a seven year pilot program that they're trying
to get passed through to be able to create a
gap here, you know, something that will fill that gap
for new hires nurses who need more knowledge so that
(35:43):
it can precept the students and actually help also those
advanced practitioner candidates as well. So there's some things that
are happening, but you know, the numbers are striking when you.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Look at all of it.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
There's so many things that are happening right now, and
new nurses if they don't stay. You know, Sharon and
I predicted in twenty years there won't be any healthcare.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Okay, let me ask you this. You use the word
with which I'm unfamiliar and I when I don't know
a word? What does preceptor mean? What does is that
a term of art? Yeah, in the nursing community, explain
what that means?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Now, preceptor is like a mentorship, right, So, nurses who
want to be preceptors for other nurses, they have to
go through a very rigorous training to do that. Most
of the preceptors have to do a lot of extra
training that's on their own expense. And if this bill passes,
it really allows these preceptors to realize a two thousand
(36:40):
dollars tax credit. So I think, you know, the society
needs to know how can we help nurses too? You know,
you can help by getting involved with your state, you know,
local people that are part of you know that your
congressional district, and try to help push some of this
agenda of making sure that we retain this key knowledge
that we're using at a vast rate right now.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Right, But if let's say some veteran nurses would like
to be mentors to some mentees who are interested. Why
do we even have to have government involved in it.
Why don't we just say to those nurses, hey, you
go ahead, you go and help whoever you can help,
give them some insight into the field. I mean, what's
you know, if someone wants to become a golfer and
(37:24):
they want to go and take some golf lessons, we
don't need a congressional you know study on that. Well,
you just got golf, you know.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
We do.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You know, you've got to have You know, these nurses
that have been nurses for a really long time, they
have been screaming for somebody to listen to them for
so long. We've missed the boat. We've got to wake up.
We've got to be able to create the environment for
these nurses so they can stay. They've been shouting this
from the mountaintops for a really long time, and you know,
(37:56):
they're just to this point that they're shaking their hands
and they're saying, we've got to get some help, wake
up world help.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Okay, Well, keep us posted as to anything we can do.
Your book, Healing Healthcare, Evidence Based Strategies for Mending our
Broken System, Dina reading Er, thank you so much. Thanks
for talking about this tonight. I'd love to do it again,
so Le Sucky, we would love.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
To do that too.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Thank you so much, and you can go to diagnosticsthinking
dot com if you want some other resources. Take care
and thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
You're welcome. Dan. When we get back right after the
nine o'clock news, I'm going to talk to you about
the strangest, weirdest story that I have seen in years,
and it happened in Waterbury, Connecticut. Why do you hear
this story? You won't believe it
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, you know, Nicole, if we if you and I
knew that the Celtics would go for a measly six
point three billion, we could have probably got in on
this action too pocket change right, Well, you know, I
mean it's a little bit, but you and I we
could have covered it totally.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Well, then again, people seem to think that we're like
millionaires in radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
That is not the kid. Anything that I could do
to reinforce that.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Maybe if it was you know, six and a half dollars.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Maybe, oh yeah, absolutely, no question no. But it's exciting.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
This is big news.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It is it is big news. The folks who all
the Celtics turned quite a profit, they call that return
ROI return on investment. I think they bought it for
three hundred mil. Yes, I saw that. Good for them
sometimes good for them? Yeah hopefully, Well yeah, that can
go to pay off the national debt. Says all about that.
(01:06):
Great to chat. We owe each other a phone call. Yes,
talk to you, thanks to Gold, talk to you. Good night.
Welcome on in everyone. My name is Dan Ray, and
this is Night's Out. We've got a great show. Schedule
for you tonight. Once again, we have some subjects that
you may not have thought a lot about. But the
whole idea here on Nightside is we try to make
people think. I do care that you're thinking. It matters
(01:30):
not to me what you're thinking. You can come to
any conclusion on any subject and you can use our
microphone to shout it to the world. It's as simple
as that. My name's Dan Ray. Rob Brooks, the producer
of this fine program, is back at Broadcast Central headquarters.
He's going to make sure everything goes smoothly. There will
be no phone calls until after nine o'clock because we
(01:50):
have four guests, as we do every eight o'clock, and
they are interesting topics. Tonight, my first guest is doctor
Fara Mustafa. She's a dermatologist and director of laser and
cosmetics at Tuft's Medical Center, kind of close to home. Welcome,
doctor Mustapha. How are you tonight?
Speaker 5 (02:12):
Hi?
Speaker 6 (02:12):
Dan, how are you? I'm doing well? Thanks, I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
We are going to talk about something that I don't
know a lot about, and so bear with me if
I ask any dumb questions. But that's what I get
paid to do. The Federal and Drug Administration Apparently they've
decided to recall some acne treatment products over benzene levels.
I have no idea. I know what acne treatment products are,
(02:38):
but I don't know what the problem is with benzene levels.
And I'm sure you can explain it to my audience.
Is this a big deal?
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Yes, I'm happy to explain it. Well, it's good for consumers.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
To know about, for sure, of course.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
So benzel peroxidism and over the counter acne treatment, it's
in a lot of spot treatments for acne. And about
a year ago, there was an independent lab that kind
of put this out that many acne treatments that you
can buy over the counter actually had the breakdown products
of benzene in these in these containers, which is a
(03:17):
known unfortunately a known carcinogen. So so the FDA recently
made out this statement. Just last week, they did their
own independent test and and although they actually found a
lot less more contaminated than the third party lab found,
there were a few products that still had levels of
benzene and those companies have voluntarily issued recalls.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
This This must have freaked out a lot of teenagers,
many of whom deal with ACNE. I assume the world,
the world would have spread like wildfire amongst you know,
middle schools and and high schools. Should parents who might
be listening to they need to do anything now in
response to this if their son or daughter was used.
(04:05):
We're using any of these products.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
Well, not necessarily. I benzene is all around us, So
that's one thing to kind of take into account. You know,
it's in car exhaust, it's a byproduct of gasoline, and
so it's not like we're not exposed to it into
our in our everyday lives. It's all about you know,
limiting exposure especially and knowing what you're exposed to. So
(04:28):
I definitely did get things in my you know, my
on TikTok and Instagram about people you know that we're
kind of hyped up about this, and I totally understand that.
I think for now, the most reasonable thing to do
would be not to purchase the ones that the FDA's
I would trust the FDA's tests more than the third
party test. So there are a few products that kind
of stood out, like the leoche pos e faclaire duo,
(04:51):
another proactive which is a very popular one that has
some name recognition. But if if if you have those
products at home or they're close to their expiration date,
especially because a lot of the products kind of break
down over time or as they get closer to their
expiration date, then it would make sense to avoid using
(05:11):
avoid using them at that time.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Sure. Sure, So benzene does that have a a benzine?
Does it have? Is it is? It? Is it on
the periodic table? It is? Is this some sort of
a chemical that actually can have some positive use or
does it just appear as byproduct? Uh? And it's a
dangerous by product?
Speaker 6 (05:36):
It's it's that's exactly right, it's a dangerous byproduct. Okay,
it's it's a chemical breakdown of benzyl peroxide in this case,
which benzyl peroxide you know, is a safe and good
to use active ingredient that has antibiotic properties and anti
insulimmatory property, so really good for acne. But the breakdown benzene,
(05:57):
that's just a it's a chemical that's kind of out
there that has negative effects for humans.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So this is not a chemical that is put into
a product in a small amount.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
And no, no, it's like a breakdown. Usually it breaks
down at like high temperatures or so in this lab,
the initial lab that did the tests, that the products
were supposed to really high temperatures, which is not what
you're normally doing, right, You're not putting There were even
jokes online like I'm not putting my acne cream baking
it in the oven at four hundred and fifty degrees right,
(06:33):
So how was just like a real risk. But having
said that, having said that, of course when they did
the when they did the repeat testing, they found that
there were some products that actually had them at low levels,
just kind of as they exist normally, right, like if
it's in your shower or on your bathroom sink. There
were still some products that had some low levels.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
This comes back to announcer, prevention is worth a pound
of cure. Why do you want to us with something
like this if you know about it. I'm sure the
companies aren't thrilled to take products or recall products, but
can they not produce the products in a way that
this benzene is not produced, is not created as a
by product. I assume I have to go back and
(07:16):
maybe reconfigure the acne me medication, the acne treatment. But
let's do it safely. I assume that's the lesson.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Here, right, Yes, I absolutely agree, and it was, you know,
and they actually issued the voluntary recalls of their own products,
which was was a nice thing to do and the
responsible thing to do. So that wasn't an fd you know,
it was an FDA mandated recall or anything. But they
the companies themselves had retailer based recall, so that means
(07:44):
they took them out of the stores. It's not like,
you know, they're messaging people and saying, Okay, if you
have this, you got to take it back or get
rid of it or anything like that. But they just
remove them from the stores until they can figure out
how to safely produce them without benzine by products.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Sounds great. Well, look, thank you very much for explaining it.
And is there a place that people could go to
get more information on this? Is there a news article
or some journal that if parents are concerned or just
google benzene levels, products with benzene levels and they'll find
some news stories.
Speaker 6 (08:21):
Yes, I will. Yeah, the FDA website itself actually has
the list of the products that did come back for benzene.
It's important to know also a lot of the products
were tested and did not have it. So probably if
I was a concern parent, I would just say, let
you know, let me look on this website and see
what not to buy, and then everything else is you know,
(08:41):
more fair game.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Okay, So just go to the FDA website and look
for products with benzene levels or just google something like
that and you'll find it. I assume it correct.
Speaker 6 (08:52):
Yes, the FDA benzene acting product. Yes, absolutely sounds great.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Doctor Mustafa, thank you very much for your time and
thank you for what you do. We will talk again,
I suspect, thanks.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
So much, thank you, thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You're very welcome when we get up. When we get back.
A lot of people talk about spring cleaning. Today is
the first day of spring. It's not Tomorrow's the first
full day. It came in this morning at I guess
five oh one here in the Boston area. But you
don't have to just think about spring cleaning as dusting
and cleaning up. Sweeping in your house. Does another sort
(09:27):
of spring cleaning that we're going to talk with Nick
Burns about. He's a Google tech expert. We'll talk to
him on the other side of the break. You listen
in nightside on WBZ, Boston's news radio. We're ten thirty
on your AM dial. If you're driving anywhere east of
the Mississippi River and have stumbled upon us on your
car radio, lock us in. You also can pull down
(09:48):
the iHeart app. The new and improved iHeart app very
easy to download onto your devices and then set WBZ
as your first preset, and that way we will always
be right there at your fingertip wherever you are in
this wide world of ours. Three hundred and sixty five
days a year, twenty four to seven, we'll be back
(10:10):
and we're going to give you some tips on maybe
how to clean up your desk. I'm looking at a
messy desk right now, and maybe clean up the files
on the floor. You'll get the drift. We'll be back
with Nick Burns in just a couple of minutes. Now
back to Dan Ray live from the Window World night
Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. All right, welcome back
(10:33):
as we head through the eight o'clock hour. Here, we're
going to talk when you think about spring. Spring arrived
today at five o't one in the morning, and I
know that all of us when you think about spring,
one of the things you think about is spring cleaning,
which of course means dusting and straightening up and all
of that. But there's another sort of spring cleaning that
(10:56):
you might think about, and that is what's around you
with us. As Nick Burns, he's a Google tech expert. Nick,
I'm all ears. I'd love to know one of the
top trends, tips and tools for tidying up all the
areas of your life.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Go right ahead, Yeah, you've got it. Thank you so
much for having me. Well, as you said, spring is
the season of renewal, and we're seeing that many people
are searching for ways to clean and organize their home,
focus on their health and fitness, refresh their wardrobes, and
some are even looking for a new job.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
So if we talk about this is a wide variety
of changes. I don't associate new jobs with the Spring.
I do associate new jobs with January. Why do you
throw jobs into this? I thought you were going to
talk about not only maybe cleaning your home, but also
(11:52):
tidying up a little bit. I mean, if you could
see my task, if you could see my floor, the
files with flours, and you can never get them exactly
the way you want them. Do you have any tips
for people like me on how to I have files,
and I have boxes and files, and and I kind
of know where everything is, but every once in a while,
(12:15):
where the heck did I put that?
Speaker 4 (12:17):
Go right ahead, Nick, you and me, both you and
me both well, I can tell you you're not alone.
Search of interest in decuttering has hit a five year
high in twenty twenty five, and minimalism in particular was
the top trending search in the past week, and how
to decutter where it was one hundred and forty percent
in the past month alone. So people are really looking
(12:39):
for help here in Massachusetts specifically, people are looking for
ways to organize their kitchen more than any other room.
And one of the really best things I always go
to personally is YouTube. And actually, if you go to
YouTube today and you click the little logo, they're doing
a whole special highlighting all these creators who who do
(13:00):
clean with Me videos and they've had over two hundred
and fifty million views of those videos in the past year.
So it's a lot of people are looking for great
advice and it's YouTube is a great place to find it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Okay, So that takes care of cleaning up our office
in desk area, and you talked about people also decide to,
I guess clean up their their resume and start to
circulate their resume from maybe some new jobs, a fresh
start again. I'm surprised that at the miriddle of the
year people are thinking that. But that's okay. What other
(13:34):
sort of ventures are people prompted to participate in, engage
and engage in, or initiate because we have come to
the end of winter. What else are people thinking of doing? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (13:50):
Absolutely so.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
Spring self care rose more than two hundred percent in
the past month, along with self care ideas, which I'm
always a fan of. And you know, sleep hygiene also
hit an all time high in twenty twenty five, and
people are searching for how to improve quality of sleep
one in one hundred and forty percent more this month
than they were last month. So, you know, when it
(14:13):
comes to sleep, I think that that really is the
basis for so much of how we start our day
and how we feel throughout the day, our in our health.
And one of the best ways you can do that
is you know, I wear the pixel Watch three to
bed every night, and you know, it has these advanced
sensors that kind of measure all sorts of things throughout
the night, like your skin temperature and your heart rate
to really tell you how how well you're sleeping. And
(14:35):
in the morning you get like this really cool score
and a bunch of metrics about how much time you
spent in each type of stage of sleep. And I'm
a big data nerd, so this is like really fun
for me to see every morning.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Yeah, I'm a data guy too. I don't know if
they call myself a data nerd, but I'm a data
guy and I've seen some of those, and to be
honest with you, I don't buy a lot of those.
I I think when you get up in the morning,
most people know if they've had a good night's sleep.
I mean, look, one of the things that people if
they want to improve this sleep is not drink as much.
(15:11):
I mean I can tell you that, you know, yeah,
it was really true. And those are the and also
if you can calm your mind, which I've tried to do.
I work on Nick from eight to midnight, and I
do four hours in the radio and sometimes we get
into heated subjects, okay, And at midnight, my day is over,
(15:32):
the new day is starting, and I haven't slept and
you got to calm down, and I do the crossword
puzzles out of the newspapers. I actually still get a
written news handheld newspaper, and I try to do the
crossword puzzles, and sometimes that really relaxes me, and I
feel I get a better night's sleep if it's a
little shorter, if it's only six or seven hours, as
(15:56):
opposed to trying to go to bed and not have
a RESTful night sleep. For me, that half hour doing
a crossword puzzle and giving up when I'm tired, that
helps me. Now I don't have a pixel watch on it.
I can't prove it to you, but I can tell
you it helps. Does that make any sense to you
as somebody who who I'm sure follows what people do
(16:19):
and what people don't do.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Oh? Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 5 (16:22):
I think everybody has their their kind of rituals before
they go to bed at night. And the thing about
the pixel Watch three is, you know, you get a
score in the morning and you say, okay, I didn't
maybe I didn't sleep that well. It'll actually fit fit up,
will give you tips to say, okay, here are certain
ways that you can kind of have good sleep hygiene
and like turn off your phone, stop looking at your
(16:44):
phone a couple hours before you go to bed, read
a book, you know, do a crossword puzzle. Things like
that that are really gonna relax you and help you
have kind of a nice regular routine and mitual before
going to bed.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, I mean, I got a really regular routine I
work with. If the show does it in until eleven
fifty eight, ten, so late night, Well it is, but
it's also intellectually your mind is running. That's my problem,
and you shut it down when the last caller ends
and you sign off. Everything is done. All you got
(17:18):
to do then is do you know a little tidying
up and you're all set. But it's it's tough. It's
like people ending work at five o'clock and saying, no,
you're not going to drive home. You have to sleep. Now,
here's a bed, go to bed. Tough you do. Do
you have a regular schedule? Are you a nine to
(17:40):
five guy and you can you can get that time
between five and whenever you go to bed to kind
of kick back and relax a little bit, or are
you is your schedule all over the place?
Speaker 5 (17:51):
Oh, you know, that's a good question.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I'd have to say, I'm a little bit all over
the place. You know, I'm one of those people that
kind of tries to pack as much as I can.
And in the day, you know, go to the gym
early in the morning, before work, go to work till
about you know, five, six, seven, and then come home
and have a nice dinner and by then I'm in
bed by ten. That's kind of nice.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, hopefully listening to Night's I only kidding. My most
successful days are the days that I have the courage
and the energy to get up, don't eat breakfast, go
to the gym first. That if that should be that
should be the key rule of my life that I'm
taking from our interview, because if you can get up
and go to the gym, so can I. Nick, I'll
(18:34):
see at the gym. Thanks so much. How can folks
find you and get some other information from you? That
you must have a website or somewhere we can direct
people to.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Oh absolutely so. For more trends, you can always go
to Google dot com Fast Trends, or if you're interested
in the pixel watch, you can go to the Google
dot com Fast Story, where you can find a lot
of wearable products that can help you sleep and fitness
and off work with stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
I'm afraid to ask how expensive are those pixel watches.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
They're not as bad as you would saying. We have
a number of different models and the prices really range.
Speaker 5 (19:10):
So I think, so.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You're telling me, you're telling me they're under fifty bucks, right, No,
I'm only kidding. I suspect they're more than Thanks Nick,
I'm just having a thanks Nick. Okay, when we get
back right after the news, at the bottom of the hour,
we're going to talk about something that does impact your
sleep negatively, and that is drinking. We're going to talk
(19:31):
about the alcohol matrix. We have a guest who's an author,
former alcoholic and PhD in psychology, Dustin dunbar awaits the
other side of the eight thirty news here on Nightside,
my name is Dan Ray. Stay with us. We get
lots to cover between now and midnight. I promise. Okay,
you're on night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio.
(19:55):
All right, it is funny. Last hour we talked. Last segment,
we were talking about sleep and perhaps the adverse impact
of alcohol when you're trying to go to sleep. I mean,
it keeps your mind active with us as Dustin Dunbar.
He's an author, former alcoholic and a PhD in psychology.
He's written I believe it's a book, am I correct?
(20:15):
Called the Alcohol Matrix.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah you're doing great, and other lies alcohol told me.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Alcohol told me, oh, oh you're doing great, and other
lies alcohol told me. Okay, I get that. I see
in quotes here alcohol matrix a web of lies and
illusions that kept Dustin and many others trapped for years.
Where does the phrase alcohol matrix come from?
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, it's basically we're changing people's consciousness. So any Grace
is the leading all time author of alcohol addiction book
sales that were a million sold, and her and I
are teaming up and guaranteeing that people will learn to
control alcohol or become alcohol free within six months. And
it's all about getting them out of the alcohol matrix,
(21:07):
which is the consciousness that is saying that alcohol is
the elixir of life, that you needed to have more fun,
to sleep better, to have better sex, to do all
these things, to go to parties, to do sporting events,
and it's all just total total consciousness raising myths. You
(21:27):
know that we get through and then everybody that we've
had used the two books within the six months have
either completely learned to control alcohol or gone alcohol free.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Okay, so I think everybody knows what alcohol free means,
and I have friends of mine. As a matter of fact,
former Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, is admitted publicly that
he was an alcoholic, and I guess also alcoholics always
say once you're an alcoholic, even though when you get
rid of it, you're always an alcoholic. I get that.
(22:02):
I have a lot of friends of mine who are
in AA IF I understand the idea of getting rid
of it and just saying you know this, I'm getting
this out of my life. How more difficult is it
to utilize it but keep it under control? Because so
(22:23):
many of my friends have made that one mistake one night,
had a couple too many got behind a car and
did something really dumb, got behind the wheel of a car.
How is it more difficult to kick the habit or
to control the habit? Is my question?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Dustin in your opinion, Yeah, everybody's different. Everybody's individual. And
I don't use the word alcoholic at all needed as
any grace, and we use alcohol free because the myth
is that once you are an alcoholic, you always are.
And that's just absolutely not true. I have at zero cravings.
It's just like somebody who'd smoke two packs of cigarette
(22:59):
to day and later it was like, oh my god,
I can't believe it used to do that. I stunk,
I felt terrible. It was totally brainwashed everything like that.
Whenever I see the best wine, beer, whatever, all I
see is the amount of ethanol by volume. So ethanol
is a scientific term for alcohol. And whenever we start
saying ethanol versus alcohol, it takes away all of big
(23:21):
Alcohol's brainwashing that they've done to us. And you're like,
oh my god, why would you drink ethanol right versus alcohol?
So you whatever, you have a bottle of wine up there,
and it's like thirteen percent ethanol in there. You can
put your finger up on the bottle and show, okay,
there's thirteen percent ethanol that I'm going to put in
my body if I drink this, and it's just a
(23:42):
total different way, and then you're cure. And that's what
we talk about. The magic till. Everybody wants the magic
till these days, and the magic till is that we're
completely using science and changing people's consciousness and we're not
blaming the person for becoming addicted to a one hundred
perc addictive substance.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
How did you get rid of the monkey or off
your back or whatever you however you want to call it?
Different people call it different things, and I want to
use language that you're comfortable with. How did you become
alcohol free?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah? Well, Annie Grace was my morpheus, if you will,
with the matrix, and she just got my consciousness to
agree to where we all know that ethanol alcohol is
horrible for us, and we're like, oh jeez, yeah, but
we're still doing it. It's kind of our crutch. It's
our way to unwind all these things, right. But then
(24:37):
there's this other side that we're like, what, I can
still do it. I can handle it all these other
other things. So the key to this is is to
get both sides and have the cognitive dissonance. Is what
is the problem where you're fully conscious that this stuff
is ethanol and ethanol is poison. It's toxic, it's one
(24:59):
hundred percent and addictive. Nobody can handle their ethanol. I
don't care if you're the biggest, baddest, you know, New
Zealand rugby player. Ever, once enough ethanol is consumed, you
will get addicted.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
So help me out. And I probably am ignorant when
I'm asking this question. Why are you interchanging? And I
have not read your material, so forgive me for that.
But why are you interchanging the word alcohol with ethanol?
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Or Yeah, like I said, that's the scientific word for
so it's the same substance. Alcohol and ethanol are the
exact same thing. But what big alcohol companies have done
is such a wonderful job of brainwashing us with the
word alcohol that it's this elixir and that it's fun
and enjoy it and all this stuff. You gotta have
it and you can drink it, no problems, two glasses
(25:56):
a day, responsibly, moderately, socially. Exactly what I did, and
of course I got I got addicted. Sothanol is the
is what it is, and then we change people's way
of thinking about it.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
It's funny when you say ethanol to me. I'll tell
you what I think. Okay, I think about a oh,
a gas station that the ethanol I think in gasoline
is there not?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Yes, So ethanol what it is is the byproduct of
fruits and vegetables. So the ethanol that you see in gasoleene,
it's mostly from corn is where they get thatthanol. Yeah,
so you're that's the exact same product that you go
up to the gas station and you're like, oh, I'm
not putting there's ten ethanol in that gas. I'm not
putting that in my motor. Well, then just later you
(26:45):
go to a place and you get your order whiskey,
and it's fortythanol in the same thing, and you're putting
it in your brain, your body, your spirit, and it's
pure toxic poison.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And so that's great way to look at it. I
gotta tell you, Dustin, you have explained it very well
to me. If my questions seemed ignorant, it was because, frankly,
I had never made that connection. I thank you for
making that connection for me and my audience. How can
folks get your book? You're doing great and otherwise alcohol
told me how I assume Amazon and all the typical
(27:20):
sites if they're interested in getting the book for themselves
or for a friend.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Yeah, Dustin dash dunbar dot com and you can pick
up Annie Grace's book and my book right there. All
the links are there, so Dustin Dash dunbar dot com.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
The U S T I N Dash. I assume that's
like a hyphen dunbar dou n b a r dot
com the alcohol free gu all right, Hey, Dustin, I
enjoyed the conversation. I learned something from our conversation. I
appreciate it very much. Take you taking the.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Time dumb questions, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I happened. I happen to believe that too, because I
learned that when I was in law school many many
years ago, the only dumb questions were the questions that
I didn't have the courage to ask, because often those
are the questions they came up on the midterm or
the final exam. So I am totally with you, and
that's why I guess this is why I do this job.
I'm not embarrassed to ask a question if I don't
(28:18):
know the answer, because if I don't know the answer,
I choose not to ask the question. I'll never know
the answer, will I Thanks, Dustin, I appreciate it very much.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
We'll take care.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Bye bye. When we come up, we have one final
guest tonight, and we are going to talk about a
huge problem that probably we need to focus on much more.
And that is a nursing shortage here in New England
and a nursing shortage nationwide. And I know I have
many listeners, including one specific nurse who is always listening. Uh.
(28:54):
And I want to dedicate this segment to every nurse
who's listening to us night Side. We've heard about doctors shortages,
but the shortage of nurses might even be statistically worse.
Think about it. We're coming back with a great guest.
Now back to Dan ray Line from the window World
of night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio. All right,
(29:18):
let's talk to my next guest here. Her name is
Dina Redding Girl. She's the executive. She's an executive NBA
with thirty five years of experience in healthcare, author of
a book entitled Healing Healthcare, Evidence Based Strategies for Mending
Our Broken System. Well, she wrote that, by the way,
(29:39):
with Sharon Weinstein, who is a registered nurse. Look, we
have some problems with our medical system in this country.
I still think it's the best of any in the world.
But I will tell you, Dina, we have a huge
doctor shortage here in Boston. We like to think of
ourselves as the medical capital. And when I say Boston,
(30:00):
I mean Greater Boston, which makes up about half of
New England. And there's a nursing shortage. I've seen it
myself recently when I've had friends who were in hospitals
and or rehabilitation centers. What happened? How did this happen?
I mean, did everybody decide to retire at COVID? Was
(30:22):
that what happened?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
I'm serious, I said no, it's very First off, Dan,
thank you for having me. And this is a critical
issue that we have. I mean, this is so big
and people really need to wake up. And we've had
this problem before. What's exacerbated was the COVID situation, and
we continue to have this problem, except it's worse now.
(30:46):
We've got nurses that are leaving because they're fatigued, they're
burned out, they're overworked, they're overwhelmed. There's incivility, and they're
staff shortages and they are frantic, but they're just they're
shaking head and going, I can't take this anymore, and
we lose our nurse. The nurses, you know, is the
person who's the voice of you, the patient, but they're
(31:09):
also the collaborator with the physician who's going to help
make decisions about your care. So this is critical, very
critical time.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
It's totally critical. Now the shortage is it standard across
the country or are there some areas just focusing on
the nursing shortage where it's greater than ever. Is it
rural communities or is it urban areas? Where is it?
Where's this nursing shortage the most critical?
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
First off, it's everywhere. So I'm just going to say
that when we do have the outlying areas that we have,
you know, when you start looking at nurses that are
falling out and quitting, you know, it affects everybody. Across
the United States. There are forty two states according to
the Beckers Hospital Review, that have closed. You know a
(31:57):
lot of medical centers have closed. Forty two medical centers
have closed this last year. So and they're they're everywhere
they can be, rule they can be inside of you know,
the main suburbs of our city.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
So it's it's a critical issue.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
And it's just going to get worse. So we see
it everywhere.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So are there not enough nurses coming out of nursing schools?
I mean, I know that there's a lot of nursing schools.
Do they need to move more women. I know that
a lot of people, men and women have decided to
become let's see physician's assistance. I think is the friends
pas uh is that considered to be, you know, a
(32:41):
higher calling than being a nurse. I can't imagine anything
that is a higher calling than being.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
A nurse now.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
I think the nurse is one of the most trusted
careers that in the United States and really across the world.
And according to the American Nurse Foundation. You know, when
we look at this shortage, now, we've got a lot
of nurses that are leaving, but we also have a
lot of people that are interested in being a nurse.
But yet we have a huge number of you know,
(33:11):
nurses who are being denied getting into school because there's
not enough nurses to actually teach the academic side of nursing.
Then we get into the problem of we've got a
lot of nurses that have been nurses for a long
time they've decided to kind of throw up their hands
or saying I'm done. I've had my share of nursing.
(33:31):
I love it, but it's time for me to go.
And we see all of that knowledge leaving, you know,
with all of the older nurses. Now we've got new
nurses that are trying to come out being new nurses.
But then we don't even have the schools being able
to take on the nurses who even want to meet
nurses because of the academic shortage and that knowledge loss.
So we've got a great, big chunk of knowledge that
(33:54):
is leaving, and people don't understand when you leave that,
you know, that nurse knowledge leaves, it's hard to find
that and get that back.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
So it's a critical time.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Okay, I'm a math guy. I'm a math guy. So
my question is we've had a period of you know,
decades where the uh, the number of children babies that
are being born is not at the rate that it
used to be back in the day of a family.
Now of three is considered a large of three children
(34:25):
is considered wow, three children, whereas in the old days
that you had to get the double digits before anyone
really noticed. And you also had this aging population they're
my group called the baby boomers. So those two mathematical
sets of statistics, a huge wave of boomers now going
(34:45):
through their seventies and into their eighties, with a smaller
population coming behind. Is that a mathematical fact factor that
has to be considered here.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yes, And on top of that, what we have as
far as the statistics through the American Nurse Foundation is
also stating that, you know, new nurses are deciding to
get out and they've only been a nurse for two years.
So you take those numbers that you just talked about,
and you talk about new nurses coming out, they're not confident.
We don't have enough preceptors right now. And you know,
(35:22):
Jen Riggins, who is part of the Virginia second Congressional District,
has got a bill out there called the Precept Nurses Act,
and it's a seven year pilot program that they're trying
to get passed through to be able to create a
gap here, you know, something that will fill that gap
for new hires nurses who need more knowledge so that
(35:43):
it can precept the students and actually help also those
advanced practitioner candidates as well. So there's some things that
are happening, but you know, the numbers are striking when you.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Look at all of it.
Speaker 3 (35:54):
There's so many things that are happening right now, and
new nurses if they don't stay. You know, Sharon and
I predicted in twenty years there won't be any healthcare.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Okay, let me ask you this. You use the word
with which I'm unfamiliar and I when I don't know
a word? What does preceptor mean? What does is that
a term of art? Yeah, in the nursing community, explain
what that means?
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Now, preceptor is like a mentorship, right, So, nurses who
want to be preceptors for other nurses, they have to
go through a very rigorous training to do that. Most
of the preceptors have to do a lot of extra
training that's on their own expense. And if this bill passes,
it really allows these preceptors to realize a two thousand
(36:40):
dollars tax credit. So I think, you know, the society
needs to know how can we help nurses too? You know,
you can help by getting involved with your state, you know,
local people that are part of you know that your
congressional district, and try to help push some of this
agenda of making sure that we retain this key knowledge
that we're using at a vast rate right now.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Right, But if let's say some veteran nurses would like
to be mentors to some mentees who are interested. Why
do we even have to have government involved in it.
Why don't we just say to those nurses, hey, you
go ahead, you go and help whoever you can help,
give them some insight into the field. I mean, what's
you know, if someone wants to become a golfer and
(37:24):
they want to go and take some golf lessons, we
don't need a congressional you know study on that. Well,
you just got golf, you know.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
We do.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
You know, you've got to have You know, these nurses
that have been nurses for a really long time, they
have been screaming for somebody to listen to them for
so long. We've missed the boat. We've got to wake up.
We've got to be able to create the environment for
these nurses so they can stay. They've been shouting this
from the mountaintops for a really long time, and you know,
(37:56):
they're just to this point that they're shaking their hands
and they're saying, we've got to get some help, wake
up world help.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Okay, Well, keep us posted as to anything we can do.
Your book, Healing Healthcare, Evidence Based Strategies for Mending our
Broken System, Dina reading Er, thank you so much. Thanks
for talking about this tonight. I'd love to do it again,
so Le Sucky, we would love.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
To do that too.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Thank you so much, and you can go to diagnosticsthinking
dot com if you want some other resources. Take care
and thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
You're welcome. Dan. When we get back right after the
nine o'clock news, I'm going to talk to you about
the strangest, weirdest story that I have seen in years,
and it happened in Waterbury, Connecticut. Why do you hear
this story? You won't believe it
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