July 8, 2025 • 25 mins
In this episode we feature:
An interview with Pediatric ENT. Dr. Nina Shapiro
Read for longevity
Be grouchy to avoid scams
Your finances are ruining your sleep
And more ways you can improve your health today!
For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com
Our Hosts:
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Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:08):
Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of the
podcast. I'm Gib Gerard herewith another special
intelligence for health withConnie Celica edition of the
podcast. So excited to bebringing that to you guys today.
Today on the show, we have, inaddition to all kinds of
information that you can use inorder to live your life a whole
lot better, to be a lothealthier, we also have an
interview with pediatric earnose and throat specialist, Dr
(00:30):
Nina Shapiro. She is the authorof The Ultimate kids Guide to
Being super healthy. So you'llget to hear all about that. So
here, without further ado, isintelligence for your health
with Connie Celica,when you're crazy stressed, try
this technique from stressrelief expert Jessica Ortner.
She says, think about what'sbothering you while gently
tapping on an acupressure pointlike your temples by the side of
(00:54):
your eyes, the motion and lightpressure sends a calming signal
to the brain, and tapping is aform of self soothing touch. I
have tried this, and it works ifyou're among the estimated 42%
of adults who now work from homebut also go into work a few days
a week, sleep experts have animportant message for you, do
(01:18):
not sleep in on days when youstay home. This is according to
Dr royette dubar, adevelopmental psychologist at
Wesleyan University. She says itall comes down to your body's
internal clock, or circadianrhythm, which regulates when
your organs and cells expectthings to happen. There's
growing evidence now thatinconsistent sleep patterns,
(01:40):
even by just an hour here andthere, throws off your circadian
rhythm in a way that will weakenyour immune system and make you
more prone to brain fog.
Sleeping in later has also beenlinked to making people more
irritable compared to when theystick to a regular sleep
schedule. It's yet anotherreason why sleep experts
(02:01):
recommend going to bed andwaking up around the same time
every day, within 15 minutes,even on weekends, that gives
your brain and cells theirmarching orders for the day. And
when nighttime rolls around,your body will be anticipating
sleep, so you'll be primed forsuccess again. The next day,
(02:22):
coming up, we'll talk topediatric ENT Dr Nina Shapiro,
who has some advice for parentsand grandparents about how to
talk to kids about medicaltreatments. For example, she'll
tell us what to say when a childasks, Will it hurt? But first,
how much does your dog miss youwhen you leave the house. The
study published in PsychologyToday finds that our dogs miss
(02:45):
us the moment we leave thehouse, and that feeling slowly
intensifies for two hours, andthen our dogs have a plateau of
melancholy. How do researchersknow they scanned dog brains
with MRIs, and dogs greetedtheir owners with more
enthusiasm after two hours thanafter just 30 minutes. However,
(03:08):
when researchers measured thedogs after four hours, they
found no difference between twohours and four hours, and during
these stints of separation, dogsalso displayed negative
emotions, according to MRI data,the solution always give your
dog some love before you leavethe house. The researchers found
(03:29):
that if you give your dog someaffection before you leave,
they'll have less anxiety whileyou are away. Do you worry that
you or someone you love is athigh risk for age related
cognitive decline like dementiaor Alzheimer's, here's an early
sign to watch for walking moreslowly than usual. A team from
(03:50):
menache university in Australia,led by Dr Taya Collier, kept
tabs on 10s of 1000s of retireesover a seven year period. Study
participants took periodic teststo measure memory, mental speed,
verbal fluency, overallcognitive decline and walking
speed. The result those walkingat least 5% slower than the
(04:13):
previous year were at higherrisk for dementia. Dr Collier
believes a declining walkingspeed is linked to shrinkage in
the hippocampus, the brain arealinked to memory learning and
spatial navigation. The goodnews is we can slow the progress
of age related cognitive declinewith consistent exercise.
(04:35):
Psychologists from theUniversity of Pittsburgh had
seniors begin walking 10 minutesa day, and gradually increased
it to 40 minutes a day. Theresult study participants
increased the size of theirhippocampus by up to 2% which
shaved one to two years offtheir brain's actual age. Again,
(04:57):
we now know one of the earlysigns of. Cognitive decline is a
slower walking speed. Okay,listen to this. When was the
last time you thought about yourgarage? Well, here's a reason to
think about it. It's an entrypoint for thieves. Most burglars
enter your home through a dooror window, but according to
(05:18):
Department of Justice crimedata, your garage is the third
most common way to break in, anda lot of people with attached
garages don't lock the doorbetween the garage and the
house. And getting into yourgarage attached or not, could be
as simple as lifting up the dooror pressing the remote control
clip to your car's visor, and ifyou have an alarm keypad in your
(05:39):
garage, change the code on aregular basis. It's very easy to
see which numbers are worn fromuse or dirty from fingerprints.
Today, our guest is pediatricear, nose and throat specialist,
Dr Nina Shapiro. Her latestbook, called The Ultimate kids
Guide to Being super healthy,was written for elementary
(06:01):
school age children with thegoal of empowering them to take
care of their own health. So Iasked Dr Shapiro how we should
talk to our kids and grandkidsabout their health. It's
a great question. Connie, Ithink that part of the issue as
many adults remember from whenthey were kids, nobody's
interested when you're 789,years old, and doing something
(06:23):
that's necessarily healthy. Sowhat I try to do with the book,
with the ultimate kids guide, isto just give the information,
without using words like goodfor you, bad for you, harmful,
anything like that, or really oreven helpful. Kids just want to
know information, and they canreally get a lot of good
(06:47):
information themselves. Weoftentimes don't give kids
enough credit in what they canunderstand when it when it comes
to science and health and theirbodies and the world around
them. And I think that the goalthat I like to do for kids and
for parents, because a lot ofthe information in the book has
new information for a lot ofadults, is to just give them
(07:09):
knowledge, and knowledge ispower. The more that kids
understand, the better they canmanage their own decisions as
they get older into youngadulthood and then adulthood.
Today we're talking to pediatricENT Dr Nina Shapiro, and she was
just saying that when talking tokids about their health, it's
(07:29):
best to just be honest and givekids as much information as you
can without using judgmentalwords like good and bad. So I
asked Dr Shapiro how that advicewould apply to answering one of
the most common questions kidsask before seeing a doctor. Is
this going to hurt?
I will never say no, it's notgoing to hurt if I think it
(07:50):
might hurt a little bit. But asopposed to just saying yes, this
is going to hurt, and you haveto deal with it, let's talk
about what it's going to feellike, and how you can manage
that, and how long it's going tolast, and what it might be
similar to, to what they'veexperienced, and really to
involve children in the process,certainly when it comes to their
(08:11):
own bodies and their own health,I don't like to make up stories
for children. I like to give itto them, you know, give them the
facts, and they really canhandle it a lot better than we
would ever imagine, andoftentimes a lot better than
adults can handle things. So forinstance, I remove tonsils for
(08:31):
children who have sleepproblems, breathing problems,
and occasionally recurrent sorethroats. And so oftentimes the
kids will ask, is this going tohurt afterwards, and if I say
no, it's not going to hurt then,then that's not being fair to
the child and not giving themthe real information. And I will
say yes, it's going to hurt.
It's going to feel like a sorethroat. But let's talk about how
(08:53):
we can make that better. Andhave you ever had a sore throat
before, and what did that feellike? And what works for you
that makes it better, and justto know that it's not going to
last forever and it's going togo away and make you better, and
they feel a lot better, just themore information that kids can
get. And again, this goes foradults as well. The more
information that any of us haveregarding something that's
(09:16):
unknown to us, the better offwe'll be, and the better we'll
be able to manage it. Ifyou're watching the financial
news right before bed, you'renot doing yourself any favors.
The National Sleep Foundationsays 27% of people are kept
awake by money worries. Dr RubenNieman is a sleep specialist
from the University of Arizona,and he says it's like eating a
(09:39):
spicy meal and then trying tonod off instead watch a comedy
before bed. Laughter reducesblood pressure and decreases
your heart and respiratory rate.
Today's medical term xerostomia,that refers to something most of
us probably woke up with. This.
Morning dry mouth, becauseduring sleep, saliva production
(10:02):
in our mouth drops to about halfits normal level, so we tend to
wake up with a dry mouth.
Xerostomia is also linked tostress, smoking and drinking
alcohol, and if you're takingmedication, about two thirds of
the most commonly prescribeddrugs produce dry mouth as a
(10:22):
side effect. Health experts saythat's a big deal because saliva
in your mouth plays an importantrole in digestion and is one of
your top defenses againstinfection. Saliva also helps
keep your teeth clean, whichmeans a chronic dry mouth
increases your risk for cavitiesand gum disease. The good news
is that temporary xerostomia isharmless and easy to fix. For
(10:46):
example, just drinking water andchewing gum is proven to help
stimulate our salivary glands.
However, if you ever experiencedryness that can't be relieved
with water, or dryness that'saccompanied by excessive thirst,
extreme fatigue or a burningsensation in the mouth, please.
You need to see a doctor,because that could be a sign of
a health condition, like anautoimmune disease, which causes
(11:08):
damage to the salivary glands.
And that's today's medical termxerostomia coming up. We'll hear
more from pediatric ENT Dr NinaShapiro, she'll have an
important warning for parentswho are constantly on the go,
shuttling their kids to soccerpractices and play dates, for
example. She'll explain why youshould never let your kids eat
(11:32):
their meals on the go. Butfirst, the next time you need to
watch a training video for workor anything educational and
you're short on time, go aheadand speed up the video.
Researchers say you'll learn theinformation as well as if you
just played the video at regularspeed. This is the latest from
the Journal of Applied cognitivepsychology. For the study, they
(11:54):
had subjects watch a selectionof videos at normal speeds and
others at much faster speeds.
Then they were tested on thesubject matter. Even they were
surprised by the results. Whenthe videos were played two times
faster than normal, peoplescored just as well as when the
videos were viewed at a regularspeed. The researchers say a
slightly faster presentationdoes not over tax a person's
(12:17):
working memory. Let's talk aboutairport germs. Here are the top
germ hot spots to avoid,according to microbiologist Dr
Kelly Reynolds from theUniversity of Arizona, first,
the absolute dirtiest spots inairports are the touch screens
on self check in kiosks. Infact, a study found the average
(12:40):
airport touch screen containsover 200,000 potentially illness
causing bacteria and fungalcells per square inch, which is
four times more than the averagehousehold toilet seat. Also
beware the reusable bins at thesecurity checkpoint, according
to the Finnish Institute forHealth and Welfare, half of
(13:02):
those bins carry the virusesthat cause common colds, and a
significant number containdangerous waste matter, due to
all the shoes and bags loadedinto them, which were recently
touching the ground. Finally, asyou're waiting to board your
flight, try to avoid touchingchair armrests at the airport
gate. Research shows those areon par with public toilet seats
(13:26):
when it comes to the amount ofillness causing germs they
contain. That's because they getcleaned less frequently than the
seats on planes, and they'reconstantly being touched by
people who've just been eatingchanging diapers or using the
restroom. Okay, listen to this.
(13:46):
Have you ever wondered why youseem to get your best ideas
while you're in the shower orhuffing and puffing on the
treadmill? It's probably becauseyou're not trying to come up
with a great idea. According toresearch from the University of
London, you're more likely tohave an aha moment when you let
your mind wander than when youfocus intensely on a problem. So
(14:10):
the next time you're stumped, godo something else for a while
and let the solution come to younaturally back with more
intelligence for your health andmore from our guest pediatric
ear, nose and throat specialist,Dr Nina Shapiro, and now that
most kids are back in school,health experts say we are
officially at the start of coldand flu season. So I asked Dr
(14:31):
Shapiro how we can tell thedifference between our kids
coming down with just a cold orsomething potentially more
serious,a little bit of stuffy nose is a
is okay. A little bit of clearrunny nose is usually okay. Once
a child starts coughing, and ifthat cough sounds sort of wet
and congested, any sort of feverabove 100 any sort of difference
(14:55):
in your child. And and parentsand caregivers know their
children best. If your child isjust not themselves, if they've
lost their appetite, if theyjust don't seem as active or
interactive, children behavedifferently when they're not
feeling well. It's not alwaysthe same type of behavior. Some
children get just get reallyquiet when they're not feeling
(15:18):
well, some kids get very whinyand cranky and clingy. If your
child just seems different andyou're not sure what's going on.
My mantra is always, never worryalone. Always ask somebody. Ask
your physician, yourpediatrician or your family
doctor, to have you know, to goover what their symptoms are.
Involve somebody else, if you'renot sure, and always err on the
(15:41):
side of caution. I know nobodywants their child to stay home
from school or activities, butit's much better to miss one day
than to send them that day andthen get stuck home for a week
and then also potentially shareor spread this infection with
their classmates and friends.
Back with more from Dr NinaShapiro, author of The Ultimate
(16:04):
kids Guide to Being superhealthy, one of the habits she
recommends for staying superhealthy is to eat meals as a
family on a regular basis,preferably while sitting down at
a table. Dr Shapiro says that'snot just because family meals
encourage stronger bonds withkids. It's also because eating
meals on the go, like in thecar, is potentially dangerous
(16:28):
for kids.
I feel that that leads tomindless eating. First of all,
we're not thinking about it asan activity, and so we don't
really think about eating, andthat's not necessarily healthy.
It's not a social activity. AndI do think that ideally, eating
is a social experience. And forchildren, especially, it's
(16:49):
potentially dangerous if theyare running around while they're
eating, if they're eating in theback of a car, and for the car
in particular, while the adultin the front seat is driving,
they need to be focusing on theroad. And children are rear
facing until age two years, andif they are eating and they have
an episode where they're chokingon something, you cannot see
(17:11):
them or hear them or do anythingabout it, if you're driving on
the highway or the freeway andyour child starts choking. So
that's very dangerous. And thatgoes the same when they're when
they're front facing, because,again, you need to be focused on
the road, not on your childpotentially choking on food in
the back seat. I think a sippycup or a cup of water, or, you
(17:31):
know, milk even, is fine for achild who's old enough to hold
hold the cup themselves. Butsolid foods, especially high
risk choking foods, whichinclude nuts and popcorn and any
sort of larger raw vegetables orraw fruit, are potentially
dangerous in the back seat of acar for a child,
(17:53):
people who read books livelonger than people who don't.
That's from the Yale UniversitySchool of Public Health, which
studied 1000s of people for 12years, they found people who
read for half an hour or moreper day were 17% less likely to
die and lived two years longerthan those who read no books. So
(18:17):
what about people who readnewspapers and magazines? Their
life expectancy was slightlylonger, but not on par with
reading books. The researchersaren't entirely sure why reading
increases lifespan, but theyspeculate that it's the mental
stimulation that improves brainhealth and the fact that reading
reduces stress, both of whichare known to increase longevity,
(18:43):
more intelligence for yourhealth. From Dr Nina Shapiro and
as a pediatric ENT, she's the goto doctor for many parents whose
children have breathing issues.
In fact, Dr Shapiro says one ofthe most common questions she
gets asked is, is it normal formy child to snore? And here's
how she responds.
So Connie, one of the mostcommon things I see in my
(19:05):
practice as an ear, nose andthroat surgeon, is snoring in
children. And when we talk aboutsnoring, it's a huge range from
very mild to severe, what wecall sleep apnea. And for
children and for adults, alittle bit of snoring is not
abnormal, and I say that withwith a lot of caution, and that
(19:27):
really depends on if the snoringhas a regular quality to the
breathing, meaning that thechild is not struggling to
breathe. It's just a littlebackground noise. They're
sleeping comfortably. They sleepall through the night. They wake
up feeling rested. They are notcongested. They don't have a
stuffy nose. They're able tobreathe through their nose
(19:49):
during sleep, and so if theycan't breathe through their nose
and their mouth is propped open,that's a sign of potentially
some blockage in theirbreathing, but a little bit of
snoring and a. Especially if itgets a little bit worse when
they have a cold or duringallergy season, is okay, as long
as it's not interfering with thequality of their sleep every
(20:10):
night.
Have you ever cried happy tears,like at a wedding or when your
kid went off to college? You'rehappy, of course, but you're
also sad to see your kid go oryou're crying because Time
passes so quickly, you'redefinitely not alone.
Researchers at the University ofCanada in Waterloo say it's
common for people to experienceboth happiness and sadness at
(20:31):
the same time, and it has abenefit. It's our brain's way of
trying to even out our emotionsand restore emotional
equilibrium meaning, byexpressing two emotions at once,
we recover faster from ourstrong emotions compared to
those who only have oneemotional response. Also people
who can feel and express twoemotions at the same time relate
(20:54):
better to others. They're alsomore in touch with what's going
on around them. So the next timeyou cry at a happy reunion, know
that it's your brain's way ofleveling out from strong
emotions, and it makes you moreemotionally intelligent. Here's
an email I received at Connie atintelligence for your health.com
(21:14):
It comes from Megan Koontz, whowrites, do poor strips really
remove dirt and blackheads? Arethey safe to use? Well? Megan
Dermatologist, Dr MaryStevenson, says, poor strips do
work for the most part. Eachstrip contains glue that bonds
to the skin, and when you pulloff the strip, it removes the
(21:35):
top layer of dead skin cells,plus the oily debris of bacteria
that cause blackheads, but thestrips won't remove every
blackhead. They can't clear upblackheads long term or prevent
them from happening in the firstplace. And if you have sensitive
skin, be careful, because theadhesive could cause irritation.
(21:55):
Now here's the trick to usingpore strips correctly. According
to dermatologists, first splashyour face with warm water to
open your pores, which helps theadhesive stick to the
blackheads. Then get the stickyside of the strip wet, press it
firmly in place. And here's thekey, let it dry completely,
which can take up to 40 minutes.
And by the way, if you'reworried about the strips making
(22:19):
pores look bigger with regularuse, you can stop your worries.
Dermatologists say pore size isgenetic, and the only things
that make them bigger are ageand sun damage. Thank you for
your email. Megan, I hope thishelps. Okay, listen to this. Are
you feeling cranky that couldbenefit your brain and your
(22:39):
wallet. Researchers foundgrouchy people tend to pay more
attention to what's going onaround them and ask more
questions, which gives thembetter memories and sharper
minds. It also reduces theirrisk for being scammed, like
when a criminal calls or emailspretending that your bank or
credit card company requiresverification of financial
(23:00):
information. Meanwhile, happypeople tend to float on a cloud
of positive emotions and exertless brain power, making them
much more likely to take mentalshortcuts and get taken in by a
scam. Here are science backedways you can give yourself a
mental health boost. Take a walkon a tree lined street,
(23:22):
according to the University ofVermont, people who walked in an
area with lots of trees usedhappier words and expressed less
negativity than they did beforetheir walk and their mood
remained high for four hoursafterward. Then while you're
walking down the tree linedstreet, change the way you walk.
According to a study by Queen'sUniversity in Canada, study
(23:46):
subjects who were told to walkwith very little arm movement
and with their shoulders rolledforward, experienced worse moods
than those who were told to walkin a happier style, swinging
their arms, head up with aspring in their step. More
intelligence for your healthfrom pediatric ENT, Dr Nina
Shapiro, if you'd like to knowmore about her or her book, The
(24:10):
Ultimate kids Guide to Beingsuper healthy, follow her on
Instagram. Her handle is at DrNina Shapiro, and there's one
thing she hears parents say totheir kids that really bothers
her, because the way parentstalk to kids about basic medical
treatments can help them be lessfearful around doctors, which
(24:31):
can help them for the rest oftheir lives.
One thing that I always like totell parents is that I do not
recommend using vaccines orshots as a threat or a
punishment. I hear it every dayfrom parents. If you don't
behave at the doctor's office,you're going to get a shot. And
(24:51):
that really, really makes shotsas scary as they are for many
adults and for many children, itmakes it this horrible
punishment. Which it is not. AndI really like to emphasize that
vaccines for children and foradults are to help, they're not
to hurt, and using that as athreat to a child is really, you
(25:12):
know, sets them up for anunderstanding that shots are bad
and dangerous and wrong. And Ithink that's a bad piece of
information.
That's it for our show today,our special intelligence for
your health with Connie Selig,edition of the podcast, I'm Gib
Gerard. Don't forget to ratecomment and subscribe on Apple
podcast. Spotify, wherever youget your podcast. It helps us
out a lot. And also, you canreach out to us on social media.
(25:33):
All of our links are listed downin the show notes. We try to
respond to every DM, everymention of the show, because
ultimately, we do the show foryou guys. So thank you so much
for listening. You.
Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of the
podcast. I'm Gib Gerard herewith another special
intelligence for health withConnie Celica edition of the
podcast. So excited to bebringing that to you guys today.
Today on the show, we have, inaddition to all kinds of
information that you can use inorder to live your life a whole
lot better, to be a lothealthier, we also have an
interview with pediatric earnose and throat specialist, Dr
(00:30):
Nina Shapiro. She is the authorof The Ultimate kids Guide to
Being super healthy. So you'llget to hear all about that. So
here, without further ado, isintelligence for your health
with Connie Celica,when you're crazy stressed, try
this technique from stressrelief expert Jessica Ortner.
She says, think about what'sbothering you while gently
tapping on an acupressure pointlike your temples by the side of
(00:54):
your eyes, the motion and lightpressure sends a calming signal
to the brain, and tapping is aform of self soothing touch. I
have tried this, and it works ifyou're among the estimated 42%
of adults who now work from homebut also go into work a few days
a week, sleep experts have animportant message for you, do
(01:18):
not sleep in on days when youstay home. This is according to
Dr royette dubar, adevelopmental psychologist at
Wesleyan University. She says itall comes down to your body's
internal clock, or circadianrhythm, which regulates when
your organs and cells expectthings to happen. There's
growing evidence now thatinconsistent sleep patterns,
(01:40):
even by just an hour here andthere, throws off your circadian
rhythm in a way that will weakenyour immune system and make you
more prone to brain fog.
Sleeping in later has also beenlinked to making people more
irritable compared to when theystick to a regular sleep
schedule. It's yet anotherreason why sleep experts
(02:01):
recommend going to bed andwaking up around the same time
every day, within 15 minutes,even on weekends, that gives
your brain and cells theirmarching orders for the day. And
when nighttime rolls around,your body will be anticipating
sleep, so you'll be primed forsuccess again. The next day,
(02:22):
coming up, we'll talk topediatric ENT Dr Nina Shapiro,
who has some advice for parentsand grandparents about how to
talk to kids about medicaltreatments. For example, she'll
tell us what to say when a childasks, Will it hurt? But first,
how much does your dog miss youwhen you leave the house. The
study published in PsychologyToday finds that our dogs miss
(02:45):
us the moment we leave thehouse, and that feeling slowly
intensifies for two hours, andthen our dogs have a plateau of
melancholy. How do researchersknow they scanned dog brains
with MRIs, and dogs greetedtheir owners with more
enthusiasm after two hours thanafter just 30 minutes. However,
(03:08):
when researchers measured thedogs after four hours, they
found no difference between twohours and four hours, and during
these stints of separation, dogsalso displayed negative
emotions, according to MRI data,the solution always give your
dog some love before you leavethe house. The researchers found
(03:29):
that if you give your dog someaffection before you leave,
they'll have less anxiety whileyou are away. Do you worry that
you or someone you love is athigh risk for age related
cognitive decline like dementiaor Alzheimer's, here's an early
sign to watch for walking moreslowly than usual. A team from
(03:50):
menache university in Australia,led by Dr Taya Collier, kept
tabs on 10s of 1000s of retireesover a seven year period. Study
participants took periodic teststo measure memory, mental speed,
verbal fluency, overallcognitive decline and walking
speed. The result those walkingat least 5% slower than the
(04:13):
previous year were at higherrisk for dementia. Dr Collier
believes a declining walkingspeed is linked to shrinkage in
the hippocampus, the brain arealinked to memory learning and
spatial navigation. The goodnews is we can slow the progress
of age related cognitive declinewith consistent exercise.
(04:35):
Psychologists from theUniversity of Pittsburgh had
seniors begin walking 10 minutesa day, and gradually increased
it to 40 minutes a day. Theresult study participants
increased the size of theirhippocampus by up to 2% which
shaved one to two years offtheir brain's actual age. Again,
(04:57):
we now know one of the earlysigns of. Cognitive decline is a
slower walking speed. Okay,listen to this. When was the
last time you thought about yourgarage? Well, here's a reason to
think about it. It's an entrypoint for thieves. Most burglars
enter your home through a dooror window, but according to
(05:18):
Department of Justice crimedata, your garage is the third
most common way to break in, anda lot of people with attached
garages don't lock the doorbetween the garage and the
house. And getting into yourgarage attached or not, could be
as simple as lifting up the dooror pressing the remote control
clip to your car's visor, and ifyou have an alarm keypad in your
(05:39):
garage, change the code on aregular basis. It's very easy to
see which numbers are worn fromuse or dirty from fingerprints.
Today, our guest is pediatricear, nose and throat specialist,
Dr Nina Shapiro. Her latestbook, called The Ultimate kids
Guide to Being super healthy,was written for elementary
(06:01):
school age children with thegoal of empowering them to take
care of their own health. So Iasked Dr Shapiro how we should
talk to our kids and grandkidsabout their health. It's
a great question. Connie, Ithink that part of the issue as
many adults remember from whenthey were kids, nobody's
interested when you're 789,years old, and doing something
(06:23):
that's necessarily healthy. Sowhat I try to do with the book,
with the ultimate kids guide, isto just give the information,
without using words like goodfor you, bad for you, harmful,
anything like that, or really oreven helpful. Kids just want to
know information, and they canreally get a lot of good
(06:47):
information themselves. Weoftentimes don't give kids
enough credit in what they canunderstand when it when it comes
to science and health and theirbodies and the world around
them. And I think that the goalthat I like to do for kids and
for parents, because a lot ofthe information in the book has
new information for a lot ofadults, is to just give them
(07:09):
knowledge, and knowledge ispower. The more that kids
understand, the better they canmanage their own decisions as
they get older into youngadulthood and then adulthood.
Today we're talking to pediatricENT Dr Nina Shapiro, and she was
just saying that when talking tokids about their health, it's
(07:29):
best to just be honest and givekids as much information as you
can without using judgmentalwords like good and bad. So I
asked Dr Shapiro how that advicewould apply to answering one of
the most common questions kidsask before seeing a doctor. Is
this going to hurt?
I will never say no, it's notgoing to hurt if I think it
(07:50):
might hurt a little bit. But asopposed to just saying yes, this
is going to hurt, and you haveto deal with it, let's talk
about what it's going to feellike, and how you can manage
that, and how long it's going tolast, and what it might be
similar to, to what they'veexperienced, and really to
involve children in the process,certainly when it comes to their
(08:11):
own bodies and their own health,I don't like to make up stories
for children. I like to give itto them, you know, give them the
facts, and they really canhandle it a lot better than we
would ever imagine, andoftentimes a lot better than
adults can handle things. So forinstance, I remove tonsils for
(08:31):
children who have sleepproblems, breathing problems,
and occasionally recurrent sorethroats. And so oftentimes the
kids will ask, is this going tohurt afterwards, and if I say
no, it's not going to hurt then,then that's not being fair to
the child and not giving themthe real information. And I will
say yes, it's going to hurt.
It's going to feel like a sorethroat. But let's talk about how
(08:53):
we can make that better. Andhave you ever had a sore throat
before, and what did that feellike? And what works for you
that makes it better, and justto know that it's not going to
last forever and it's going togo away and make you better, and
they feel a lot better, just themore information that kids can
get. And again, this goes foradults as well. The more
information that any of us haveregarding something that's
(09:16):
unknown to us, the better offwe'll be, and the better we'll
be able to manage it. Ifyou're watching the financial
news right before bed, you'renot doing yourself any favors.
The National Sleep Foundationsays 27% of people are kept
awake by money worries. Dr RubenNieman is a sleep specialist
from the University of Arizona,and he says it's like eating a
(09:39):
spicy meal and then trying tonod off instead watch a comedy
before bed. Laughter reducesblood pressure and decreases
your heart and respiratory rate.
Today's medical term xerostomia,that refers to something most of
us probably woke up with. This.
Morning dry mouth, becauseduring sleep, saliva production
(10:02):
in our mouth drops to about halfits normal level, so we tend to
wake up with a dry mouth.
Xerostomia is also linked tostress, smoking and drinking
alcohol, and if you're takingmedication, about two thirds of
the most commonly prescribeddrugs produce dry mouth as a
(10:22):
side effect. Health experts saythat's a big deal because saliva
in your mouth plays an importantrole in digestion and is one of
your top defenses againstinfection. Saliva also helps
keep your teeth clean, whichmeans a chronic dry mouth
increases your risk for cavitiesand gum disease. The good news
is that temporary xerostomia isharmless and easy to fix. For
(10:46):
example, just drinking water andchewing gum is proven to help
stimulate our salivary glands.
However, if you ever experiencedryness that can't be relieved
with water, or dryness that'saccompanied by excessive thirst,
extreme fatigue or a burningsensation in the mouth, please.
You need to see a doctor,because that could be a sign of
a health condition, like anautoimmune disease, which causes
(11:08):
damage to the salivary glands.
And that's today's medical termxerostomia coming up. We'll hear
more from pediatric ENT Dr NinaShapiro, she'll have an
important warning for parentswho are constantly on the go,
shuttling their kids to soccerpractices and play dates, for
example. She'll explain why youshould never let your kids eat
(11:32):
their meals on the go. Butfirst, the next time you need to
watch a training video for workor anything educational and
you're short on time, go aheadand speed up the video.
Researchers say you'll learn theinformation as well as if you
just played the video at regularspeed. This is the latest from
the Journal of Applied cognitivepsychology. For the study, they
(11:54):
had subjects watch a selectionof videos at normal speeds and
others at much faster speeds.
Then they were tested on thesubject matter. Even they were
surprised by the results. Whenthe videos were played two times
faster than normal, peoplescored just as well as when the
videos were viewed at a regularspeed. The researchers say a
slightly faster presentationdoes not over tax a person's
(12:17):
working memory. Let's talk aboutairport germs. Here are the top
germ hot spots to avoid,according to microbiologist Dr
Kelly Reynolds from theUniversity of Arizona, first,
the absolute dirtiest spots inairports are the touch screens
on self check in kiosks. Infact, a study found the average
(12:40):
airport touch screen containsover 200,000 potentially illness
causing bacteria and fungalcells per square inch, which is
four times more than the averagehousehold toilet seat. Also
beware the reusable bins at thesecurity checkpoint, according
to the Finnish Institute forHealth and Welfare, half of
(13:02):
those bins carry the virusesthat cause common colds, and a
significant number containdangerous waste matter, due to
all the shoes and bags loadedinto them, which were recently
touching the ground. Finally, asyou're waiting to board your
flight, try to avoid touchingchair armrests at the airport
gate. Research shows those areon par with public toilet seats
(13:26):
when it comes to the amount ofillness causing germs they
contain. That's because they getcleaned less frequently than the
seats on planes, and they'reconstantly being touched by
people who've just been eatingchanging diapers or using the
restroom. Okay, listen to this.
(13:46):
Have you ever wondered why youseem to get your best ideas
while you're in the shower orhuffing and puffing on the
treadmill? It's probably becauseyou're not trying to come up
with a great idea. According toresearch from the University of
London, you're more likely tohave an aha moment when you let
your mind wander than when youfocus intensely on a problem. So
(14:10):
the next time you're stumped, godo something else for a while
and let the solution come to younaturally back with more
intelligence for your health andmore from our guest pediatric
ear, nose and throat specialist,Dr Nina Shapiro, and now that
most kids are back in school,health experts say we are
officially at the start of coldand flu season. So I asked Dr
(14:31):
Shapiro how we can tell thedifference between our kids
coming down with just a cold orsomething potentially more
serious,a little bit of stuffy nose is a
is okay. A little bit of clearrunny nose is usually okay. Once
a child starts coughing, and ifthat cough sounds sort of wet
and congested, any sort of feverabove 100 any sort of difference
(14:55):
in your child. And and parentsand caregivers know their
children best. If your child isjust not themselves, if they've
lost their appetite, if theyjust don't seem as active or
interactive, children behavedifferently when they're not
feeling well. It's not alwaysthe same type of behavior. Some
children get just get reallyquiet when they're not feeling
(15:18):
well, some kids get very whinyand cranky and clingy. If your
child just seems different andyou're not sure what's going on.
My mantra is always, never worryalone. Always ask somebody. Ask
your physician, yourpediatrician or your family
doctor, to have you know, to goover what their symptoms are.
Involve somebody else, if you'renot sure, and always err on the
(15:41):
side of caution. I know nobodywants their child to stay home
from school or activities, butit's much better to miss one day
than to send them that day andthen get stuck home for a week
and then also potentially shareor spread this infection with
their classmates and friends.
Back with more from Dr NinaShapiro, author of The Ultimate
(16:04):
kids Guide to Being superhealthy, one of the habits she
recommends for staying superhealthy is to eat meals as a
family on a regular basis,preferably while sitting down at
a table. Dr Shapiro says that'snot just because family meals
encourage stronger bonds withkids. It's also because eating
meals on the go, like in thecar, is potentially dangerous
(16:28):
for kids.
I feel that that leads tomindless eating. First of all,
we're not thinking about it asan activity, and so we don't
really think about eating, andthat's not necessarily healthy.
It's not a social activity. AndI do think that ideally, eating
is a social experience. And forchildren, especially, it's
(16:49):
potentially dangerous if theyare running around while they're
eating, if they're eating in theback of a car, and for the car
in particular, while the adultin the front seat is driving,
they need to be focusing on theroad. And children are rear
facing until age two years, andif they are eating and they have
an episode where they're chokingon something, you cannot see
(17:11):
them or hear them or do anythingabout it, if you're driving on
the highway or the freeway andyour child starts choking. So
that's very dangerous. And thatgoes the same when they're when
they're front facing, because,again, you need to be focused on
the road, not on your childpotentially choking on food in
the back seat. I think a sippycup or a cup of water, or, you
(17:31):
know, milk even, is fine for achild who's old enough to hold
hold the cup themselves. Butsolid foods, especially high
risk choking foods, whichinclude nuts and popcorn and any
sort of larger raw vegetables orraw fruit, are potentially
dangerous in the back seat of acar for a child,
(17:53):
people who read books livelonger than people who don't.
That's from the Yale UniversitySchool of Public Health, which
studied 1000s of people for 12years, they found people who
read for half an hour or moreper day were 17% less likely to
die and lived two years longerthan those who read no books. So
(18:17):
what about people who readnewspapers and magazines? Their
life expectancy was slightlylonger, but not on par with
reading books. The researchersaren't entirely sure why reading
increases lifespan, but theyspeculate that it's the mental
stimulation that improves brainhealth and the fact that reading
reduces stress, both of whichare known to increase longevity,
(18:43):
more intelligence for yourhealth. From Dr Nina Shapiro and
as a pediatric ENT, she's the goto doctor for many parents whose
children have breathing issues.
In fact, Dr Shapiro says one ofthe most common questions she
gets asked is, is it normal formy child to snore? And here's
how she responds.
So Connie, one of the mostcommon things I see in my
(19:05):
practice as an ear, nose andthroat surgeon, is snoring in
children. And when we talk aboutsnoring, it's a huge range from
very mild to severe, what wecall sleep apnea. And for
children and for adults, alittle bit of snoring is not
abnormal, and I say that withwith a lot of caution, and that
(19:27):
really depends on if the snoringhas a regular quality to the
breathing, meaning that thechild is not struggling to
breathe. It's just a littlebackground noise. They're
sleeping comfortably. They sleepall through the night. They wake
up feeling rested. They are notcongested. They don't have a
stuffy nose. They're able tobreathe through their nose
(19:49):
during sleep, and so if theycan't breathe through their nose
and their mouth is propped open,that's a sign of potentially
some blockage in theirbreathing, but a little bit of
snoring and a. Especially if itgets a little bit worse when
they have a cold or duringallergy season, is okay, as long
as it's not interfering with thequality of their sleep every
(20:10):
night.
Have you ever cried happy tears,like at a wedding or when your
kid went off to college? You'rehappy, of course, but you're
also sad to see your kid go oryou're crying because Time
passes so quickly, you'redefinitely not alone.
Researchers at the University ofCanada in Waterloo say it's
common for people to experienceboth happiness and sadness at
(20:31):
the same time, and it has abenefit. It's our brain's way of
trying to even out our emotionsand restore emotional
equilibrium meaning, byexpressing two emotions at once,
we recover faster from ourstrong emotions compared to
those who only have oneemotional response. Also people
who can feel and express twoemotions at the same time relate
(20:54):
better to others. They're alsomore in touch with what's going
on around them. So the next timeyou cry at a happy reunion, know
that it's your brain's way ofleveling out from strong
emotions, and it makes you moreemotionally intelligent. Here's
an email I received at Connie atintelligence for your health.com
(21:14):
It comes from Megan Koontz, whowrites, do poor strips really
remove dirt and blackheads? Arethey safe to use? Well? Megan
Dermatologist, Dr MaryStevenson, says, poor strips do
work for the most part. Eachstrip contains glue that bonds
to the skin, and when you pulloff the strip, it removes the
(21:35):
top layer of dead skin cells,plus the oily debris of bacteria
that cause blackheads, but thestrips won't remove every
blackhead. They can't clear upblackheads long term or prevent
them from happening in the firstplace. And if you have sensitive
skin, be careful, because theadhesive could cause irritation.
(21:55):
Now here's the trick to usingpore strips correctly. According
to dermatologists, first splashyour face with warm water to
open your pores, which helps theadhesive stick to the
blackheads. Then get the stickyside of the strip wet, press it
firmly in place. And here's thekey, let it dry completely,
which can take up to 40 minutes.
And by the way, if you'reworried about the strips making
(22:19):
pores look bigger with regularuse, you can stop your worries.
Dermatologists say pore size isgenetic, and the only things
that make them bigger are ageand sun damage. Thank you for
your email. Megan, I hope thishelps. Okay, listen to this. Are
you feeling cranky that couldbenefit your brain and your
(22:39):
wallet. Researchers foundgrouchy people tend to pay more
attention to what's going onaround them and ask more
questions, which gives thembetter memories and sharper
minds. It also reduces theirrisk for being scammed, like
when a criminal calls or emailspretending that your bank or
credit card company requiresverification of financial
(23:00):
information. Meanwhile, happypeople tend to float on a cloud
of positive emotions and exertless brain power, making them
much more likely to take mentalshortcuts and get taken in by a
scam. Here are science backedways you can give yourself a
mental health boost. Take a walkon a tree lined street,
(23:22):
according to the University ofVermont, people who walked in an
area with lots of trees usedhappier words and expressed less
negativity than they did beforetheir walk and their mood
remained high for four hoursafterward. Then while you're
walking down the tree linedstreet, change the way you walk.
According to a study by Queen'sUniversity in Canada, study
(23:46):
subjects who were told to walkwith very little arm movement
and with their shoulders rolledforward, experienced worse moods
than those who were told to walkin a happier style, swinging
their arms, head up with aspring in their step. More
intelligence for your healthfrom pediatric ENT, Dr Nina
Shapiro, if you'd like to knowmore about her or her book, The
(24:10):
Ultimate kids Guide to Beingsuper healthy, follow her on
Instagram. Her handle is at DrNina Shapiro, and there's one
thing she hears parents say totheir kids that really bothers
her, because the way parentstalk to kids about basic medical
treatments can help them be lessfearful around doctors, which
(24:31):
can help them for the rest oftheir lives.
One thing that I always like totell parents is that I do not
recommend using vaccines orshots as a threat or a
punishment. I hear it every dayfrom parents. If you don't
behave at the doctor's office,you're going to get a shot. And
(24:51):
that really, really makes shotsas scary as they are for many
adults and for many children, itmakes it this horrible
punishment. Which it is not. AndI really like to emphasize that
vaccines for children and foradults are to help, they're not
to hurt, and using that as athreat to a child is really, you
(25:12):
know, sets them up for anunderstanding that shots are bad
and dangerous and wrong. And Ithink that's a bad piece of
information.
That's it for our show today,our special intelligence for
your health with Connie Selig,edition of the podcast, I'm Gib
Gerard. Don't forget to ratecomment and subscribe on Apple
podcast. Spotify, wherever youget your podcast. It helps us
out a lot. And also, you canreach out to us on social media.
(25:33):
All of our links are listed downin the show notes. We try to
respond to every DM, everymention of the show, because
ultimately, we do the show foryou guys. So thank you so much
for listening. You.
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