July 14, 2024 • 40 mins
Dr John Cameron joins Tyler Adams on The Weekend Collective to help with starting that hard conversation with your ageing relatives about needing to slow it down and look after themselves.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
at b.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome back into the Weekend Collective. Tyler Adams fillingon for
Tim Beverage. Great to have your company, and we will
of course continue to bring you the latest developments out
of the US as the afternoon and evening continues. But
right now it is the Health Hub and we are
joined by a very esteemed guest, from radio and TV
commentator to Team doctor to the Blank Camps, Doctor John
(00:45):
Cameron has done it all and he's in the Auckland studio.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Get a John, mate.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
They's stumbling in. You're talking about old age. That's a
really bad song to get us off the ground.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
With good peck tyrah, good peck tyra. Well on that one, John,
because this is a big, big conversation and it is
something we're going to kick off with now. So that
the conversations that many of us have had to have
with parents or grandparents about aging and about those family
members needing some extra support around them can be really
(01:17):
hard to have those conversations. Right, is that parents' grandparents
like to be independents. They may say, look, I'm fine,
I'm healthy. I don't actually need to go into a home.
I don't need twenty four hour care around me. What's
the best way to start those conversations with a family member.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, I think we need to take it back. We're
starting as a nation to live longer, and actually not
just longer, but living well longer. So your average age
for a Kiwi males round about eighty to eighty five,
females slightly more mailor in pacifica about five years less.
But we're actually keeping a reasonable level of health into
(01:56):
our retirement years. And people are very, very keen to
stay independent, as you're saying. They want to stay in
there own house. They want to do the things that
they want to do, not be talked about and told
what to do. When that starts to fall over, that's
when it gets into trouble. And quite often we don't
see it falling over until it's fallen over. And that's
(02:20):
the habit. And yeah, people tell us lies, it's great,
doing fine, no problem with me.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, I mean that's when ideally you'd get the support
of GP or the medical fraternity who's involved in the
parental grandparent right is to help you have those conversations
as say, actually, you know you are starting to see
some of these health issues. It's not a bad idea
to one maybe have a nurse that comes in one
time a week, or even look at some of the
(02:49):
options around retirement homes.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, I think we generally are seeing our people in
their eighties plus on a reasonably regular basis. You know,
they're normally maybe taking a medication, they may need other
bits of our supports services. So we're keeping an eye
on these people all the time and measuring where they
are now compared where they are where they have been.
(03:12):
We rely a hell of a lot on what the
family are telling us, but you always sometimes need to
verify that and take it with a grain of salt,
because as a rally, you come into your parents' house
once a week, you don't see what they're like. The
other six days of the week. You can see some
things are going on, but what we need to be doing,
and our first call is to make sure the person
(03:32):
is well. Second thing to make sure the person is safe,
and that can be really difficult, but also to make
sure we've got the supports putting into that place. I
can remember a lovely study they did in Otago many
years ago where they did a falls prevention study where
they put people into people's houses and looked at where
they might trip over things and the rugs and the
cords and they changed all that over and yeah, absolutely right.
(03:55):
Those people didn't fall over and hurt themselves there. They
found other places to fall over and hurt themselves, so
the actual rates of falls stayed the same.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Just thinking of a personal situation with my granddad. And
he worked in forestry all his life, so you know,
it was a tough guy and he looked after his
health for most of his life, but towards the you know,
the end, and he's in a retirement home now and
he's loving it. But it wasn't until he had a
fall at home. A dog got under him and he
cursed that dog something wicked, but he fell over and
got very badly injured. And at that point he said, okay,
(04:27):
you're right, my health is at the point now where
I probably need that extra support.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
But that's what it took.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, And unfortunately, so if you are in your eighties
and you fall over and you break a hip, which
is a common thing that happens, you've got a fifty
percent mortality at twelve months.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Wow, fifty Yes, it's huge.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
So how do we get these people before then? And
that's where we're trying to put exercise programs at personalized
exercise programs, muscle strengthening, some form of aerobic weight bearing
exercise on a regular basis. Making sure you're eating well,
that you've supported and loved by your community is the
other thing. Yeah, the idea of a retire at home,
rest homes, things like rest homes no so, but retirement yeah,
(05:09):
they can be good. They can give you more support.
It's very different from living independently in your own house.
You and we have a lot of big conversations with
some of our clients about when is the right time
for that, And it's basically they've got to look at
it as a step upwards, not a step downwards. You're
not going back in to avoid something, They're going there
to get something extra.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Great, if you've got a question for doctor John, now
is your opportunity eight hundred and eighty ten eighty or
you can text through nine to nine two. Any health concerns,
you've got, any nutrition advice you want, John is your man.
Just on the muscle strengthening, is that something that can
fall by the wayside? As we get a bit older,
where I think we're pretty good on cardio if you
(05:52):
care about your health getting out for a walk or
doing those sort of things. Is it the strength work
that cut sometimes gets gets missed out when we age.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
It's a bit of both really, if you don't all saying,
if you don't use it, you lose it. And that's
the big thing. The more the less exercise you do,
the less muscle power you will develop. You will start
to lose muscle mass, which makes it harder for you
to do things like get out of a chair. If
it's harder to get out of a chair, you don't
get out of the chair and you stay sitting all day,
and so it's got that terrible spiral on it. So
(06:22):
it's exercise you can do sitting down, just sitting, strengthening
your muscles, lifting yourself over out of the chair. You
can do that anytime, any day, and physios can help
us with that.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, great text has come through straight away, doctor. It says, Hi,
doctor John, I'm in my late sixties and have not
done much muscle work over the past twenty years. Is
it too late for me or can I start to
rebuild muscle now?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Never too late, never too late, and you start out.
The longest journey starts out with the first single step,
and that's the whole thing. And it's doing simple things.
And start in your house. If you're that worried about it,
you don't have to get into likera and go to
the gym.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It's okay, it's good to hear, but you.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Can do a whole set of things. If you open
up your pantry, you've got tins of tomatoes there, Okay,
pick them up in your hands and move them around.
Do things like that, just trying to get yourself active. Wait,
bearing exercises the most important thing. We don't expect you
to go out there run marathons, but go to the letterbox,
walk one lamp post, walk two lamp posts. The next day,
do those sorts of little, small, incremental things.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I imagine there's a bit of a fear, or certainly
there's a fear for me of getting back to the gym.
And I haven't been for some time. I'm going to say, John.
But you know, as you get older, it gets a
little bit more daunting to go to. Right, I've got
to sign up to a gym. It's all these young
people who look very fit and healthy. I don't really
want to be in that environment. That must be a
real thing as we get a bit older.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, another little secret. If all of us who've got
gym memberships use them, you'd never be able to get
through the front door. You'd have to book a slot
three weeks in advance. I feel really good. I've got
a gym membership. I think I went about two months ago. Yeah, brilliant.
That's my job. Look, you don't have to do those
sorts of things if you want to have a more
formalized one, if you want a personal trainer to take
you through things. But it's just getting those simple things
(08:12):
of weight bearing exercise and a little bit of walking,
and that clears your head and you see your neighborhood,
the neighbors see you. I'm really keen on this community
type process where one of the things I'd sort of
dislike about part mentalizing all our older people in the
single areas is you lose that community. And in New
Zealand being brought up with communities which has got that
wide range of age groups and we shall be taking
(08:33):
care of each other.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, is it something that is becoming you at the forefront.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
More.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That sense of community is massive to our health, not
just how many you know, how much weights you left,
and how much cardio you do. Having that social cohesion
is massive for our health.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Oh absolutely, it's having a neighbor someone you can chat
to to talking. The socialization of exercise and things is
really important as well. We have little old ladies. Every
morning they pull up their blinds and the neighbor knows
when they pulled up their blinds. They survive the night
your pee if the blinds don't go up there knocking
on the door. That's the sort of environment I'd like
to live in.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Again, if you've got a question for doctor John O
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to
call John.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You're on, How are you good?
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Thank you? Here this Alsonoma's situation. I find that the
ordinary medical fraternity take very little interest. Then we had
a visit by the NHT I think it's called, and
a doctor and a male nurse came and they my
wife was angry at them, I must admit, and so
they gave her a pill. They never came back to
(09:42):
wound out the result of that pill. And then they
just wrote and said, you're off our program now, and
then my ordinary doctor decided to double from fifty to
one hundred whatever that is. But no one's ever come
back to monitor to see what's that doing. Now. My
problem at the moment is to me, it appears to
be getting worse, getting up during the middle of the night,
(10:03):
three o'clock in the morning and one around the bed
making it, or walking through the house turning lights on,
and even worse, and seems to be deteriorating. I've spoken
to the Alzheimer's people. They don't seem to be all
that useful. They will take you along and give you
a lecture on things, but they don't seem to be proactive.
(10:24):
So where do you turn to from here?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's a problem. We don't have the resources
available to give one on one long term care for
people who are developing dementias, whether it's Alzheimer's or livy
body or whatever types of dementia. Most of the aid
that we have around at the moment is to try
and support the person living with that person who's got
failing mentation. Our interventions for failing mentation are not very
(10:50):
good for the individual themselves. There's some work coming in
there's some newer things looking at it. There's some trials
in the States at the moment which are showing some
form of promise, but they're still a long way off.
An interesting thing about dementing dementia is an actual fact
the percentage of people with dementia is actually decreasing. Okay,
so there's a smaller percentage of people with dementia as
(11:14):
a percentage of the population, But because we have an
aging population, the actual numbers of people with dementia are
rapidly increasing. And that's the problem that we have.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And do they know, sorry, doctor to jump in there,
do they know or do they have suspicions about why
the overall well, the number of people with dementia is declining.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Seems to be happening mostly with what we call vascular dementia.
So one of the forms of dementias through having raised
cardiovascular risks, hypertension, big cholesterol, high blood pressure, these sorts
of things, they can damage the brain the same as
in the Alzheimer's type. We can remediate some of those
cardiovascular ones, so that's dropping out a little bit. So
(11:57):
if you look at the rate of even heart attacks
at the moment, is incredibly lower than when I first
started practicing one or two seasons ago. Were just not
seeing them anymore. And the same sort of things happening
with escular dementia, but the Alzheimer's and the Louis body
and the other forms of dementia are still there and
we're not touching them at all.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, John, thank you very much for calling up.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And I will just say on a personal note, my
grandmother had Parkinson's and then went through dementia and it
was a it was an.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Incredibly hard time for the family. Because I'm sure you're
going through it as well.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Is that you feel like you're you're sort of, you know,
chugging through that road and it's so much as unknown.
So all the best and I hope you've got the
support around you that you need.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Thanks John.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It is one of those things that dementia is such
a cruel thing for families out there, and you know,
with my own family, just our own circumstance, it just
did feel like there was so much unknown and sometimes
Nana was great and sometimes she wasn't so great, and
that slow moving nature of it. And now she's in
the right place and she's got the support around her.
(13:01):
But that's incredibly heartbreaking for families to deal with, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Demi is the disease of the people who don't have
the disease. It's those people around them who are seeing
this loved one who's becoming a shell of the person
that they knew and loved, and the behaviors that you
see and the you just can't make logical sense out
of how someone has dementia. They don't think like we do,
and it's just incredibly sold to strength for everyone.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
It's a horrible disease that is Yeah. Oh one hundred
and eighty teen eighty is the number to call. Hey,
your pam.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
Hello, I'll be ninety eight next month. And I've told
my family.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
You don't sound a day over sixty five PM.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Yeah, I said, I'll be ninety eight next month, And
I told my family if I get goaty and things,
they should put me somewhere and not have to wear
themselves out looking after me. Because they've had so many friends,
these husbands have got demitia and things, and they the
(14:05):
time they've got help and she's look after him, or
he's gone into a home, they exhausted and worn out
and that's taken them sometime to recover. I think I
probably wouldn't like being put somewhere, but.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Pam, I mean it sounds like Pam's had that a
conversation with her kids rather than the other way around.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
John.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yes, still there just one. How she's managed her independence
up until now. How are you managing on a day
to day basis with your independence?
Speaker 7 (14:39):
Well understood? My own home, my eyesighted and so good.
Now I had to give up driving, but I've got
support from family. I still do my own cooking, and
I have helped to do house work in gardening, and
I still go to one or two things I belong
(15:01):
to and keeping with people. So I'm doing all right.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah, you have a good life.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
Yeah, but you never know.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
No, no, too true. I'll let you into a secret.
I'll let you into a little secret. I've got a patient.
Every night before she goes to bed, she puts lipyon.
She's dead, scared that no, she's dead, scared that she
might die overnight, and she could never ever be seen
without a lipyon. She's ninety two.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
Yeah, okay, Pam, thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Very much for got and happy birthday next month. By
the way, what are you planning anything special for the
ninety eighth.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
Well, not really. Some of my family are overseas for
a little while. I'm just going to have a I've
started making the soup, so I thought i'd have a
super bun lunch.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Oh that sounds beautiful. What about the cake? What's shere?
Go to cake for your birthday?
Speaker 8 (16:00):
Well, I don't.
Speaker 7 (16:01):
Make the cake for my birthday. I leave that to.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Somebody, too right, Too right?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You don't make your own boothday?
Speaker 7 (16:07):
Take I won't ninety eight Chandles.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Pam, you're brilliant.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Thank you very much for calling in our one hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number to call quick.
A couple of text questions doctor, and then we're going
to get to a break, says Hi John. Many of
us older women have loan low bone density and are
taking vitamin D and fours max. I've been on these
for the last few years. How long can you safely
stay on these treatments?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Quite a long time? Actually, so the vitamin D story, yes,
here or thereabouts. We're still looking at that one. But
certainly if you've got low vitamin D levels, we can
supplement that. Fossmax is a medicine which stops your bones
from being degraded. So bones are constantly being degraded and
laid down. The Fossomax type medicines stop the bones from
(16:56):
being degraded, so try and maintain more bone strength. There
is no stop limit on it. We normally say if
you're using the intravenous infusion of them a yearly for
three years, and then we stop and see how it goes.
So that's pretty story, but there's no significant danger of
long term muse.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Great.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
If you've got a question and you prefer to text
it in, you're more than welcome.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
The number is nine to nine two.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Got to take a break, but we'll be back with
doctor John Cameron very shortly on the health Hub. It
is twenty three minutes past four.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yep, you got it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
You are listening to the Health Hub on the Weekend
Collective and we are joined by GP doctor John Cameron.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Thanks again for your.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Time, John, it's a pleasure mate.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Now, interesting that Mike was talking to the gentleman about
a zimpack. It might link into this next question. Says hi,
doctor Cameron. I am thirty five years old and I've
had a run of elevated blood pressure readings. To get
that down, I've lost over ten kilograms and decent centimeters
off my waistline. I've tried to eat better, and I've
(17:53):
certainly increased my exercise. My blood pressure readings are still
quite elevated. Is my only option. Medication at this point.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It really depends on your overall cardiovascular risk profile, so
we've long since stopped looking at single item. Variance has
been the initiator of medication. So blood pressure of sort
of one seventy one ten becomes an independent risk factor
of for premature cardia invescular disease. Otherwise, we look at
your profile, which is age, gender, ethnicity, diabetes, smoking, family history, cholesterol,
(18:24):
all put into an algorithm to work out what it is,
and our whole thoughts about blood pressure changing. Our cardiologists
colleagues would want everyone to have blood pressure one twenty
eighty and fall over every time they stand up. We
actually live in a more wider world and sort of
message a little bit more and trying to make sure
we're treating the right people. So just be really careful,
question what's going on? But great thing. Yeah, the first
(18:45):
thing to do about losing a dropping of blood pressure
is to lose some weight, drop some weight. It will work. Really,
if you are overweight, exercise, brilliant, Keep doing what you're doing.
You're on the right track, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Is it a real thing that when someone would go
to their GP or another clinic can get their blood
pressure red, that the very fact that they're there they're
feeling nervous on me and I hope it goes down
this time.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
That plays into it.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Right, Oh, absolutely, We take absolutely no cognizance of a
single reading taking in our practice.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah, the first thing you're going to do to put
someone's blood pressure up is wrap a cup around their
arm up, she goes. So we actually in our practice
we lend out home blood pressure meters, say right, take
them away, play with them for three or four weeks,
see what your blood pressure is doing in your own
home environment. And we get people with eating blood pressures
in our surgery. They come back one twenty eighty when
they do them at home, so they're fine. We leave
(19:35):
them alone.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Now, they're great, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Let's go back to the phones.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Glenn, good afternoon to you.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
Yes, hello, Tyler and doctor Cameron. Look, I guess I
have to classify myself as elderly now, even though I
don't feel any different try what I did years ago.
But I'm in my seventies living alone. I'm full of
admiration for that previous caller, the ninety eight year old,
but my situation is that I live alone, well retired.
(20:03):
I'm a retired a nurse and I don't have any family,
and I've had several health issues, unfortunately major surgeries. I'm
talking brain surgery and heart surgery and endless surgeries, so
I have in different health, although I do try and
exercise and eat correctly, but I realize I'm getting to
(20:26):
that stage where I will have to look to the future.
And everybody says you shouldn't move into retirement home when
you're really pasted at the time to do it is
when you're able to organize it yourself, and I tend
to agree with that, so I'm not averse to moving
into retirement village. There happened to be an open day
here where I live in Hawk's Bay last weekend, so
(20:48):
I veiled myself with that opportunity. But you know, you
talk blithely, and I don't mean to sound facetious, but
you talk blithely about oh well, you might, you know,
people can go into care, they might have to go
and care.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
But I'm not averse to it.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
But quite frankly, I can't afford it. I was absolutely
Stunn and the little one bedroom flats which are very
very small, but I could even manage that. But they
were about eight hundred thousand. But after you've paid that,
they asked for four hundred dollars a week. That's because
(21:22):
they provide you with one meal a day and do
your laundry. Now, superannuation works out at about five hundred
dollars a week, so you left with one hundred dollars
to live on. And if you're running a car, it
would be impossible. The other thing is I said, do
they have garages for the cars, and they said, no,
(21:43):
we've got car parks. The car parks were actually just
open car parks where visitors could car park could part
because but I'm incredulous, so much so that I rang
them back the next day because I thought I must
have misheard. They want fifteen thousand dollars for being the
privilege of parking your car in one of these places.
(22:03):
So we've got eight one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
save for the unit, four hundred dollars a week for
the services and fifteen thousand to park your car. Now,
who can afford that in retirement?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It's tough. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I mean you know it is depending on the circumstance,
isn't it, Doctor Cameron that yes, it can be incredibly expensive.
But I would hope there are options out there, And Glenn,
you've looked into this so you would know. But I
hope there'd be options out there for those who don't
reach a certain threshold to get some assistance with that
elderly care.
Speaker 8 (22:36):
Well, I've been through my doctor and they did an
assess and they sent someone to do an assessment. The
woman had no medical knowledge whatsoever. By the question she
asked me. I just thought that she even listening to me.
And then I got a letter to say that I
wasn't eligible for any help. So I'm sort of caught
between a rock and a hard place, to be honest.
(22:57):
You know, it's all very well for people to say, oh,
they need to go into care, but what care?
Speaker 6 (23:01):
You know?
Speaker 8 (23:02):
And that is pretty average what I saw at the
week here. And I have taken advantage of other places
that have had open days. They're all much of a muchness.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah. Sorry, I can't speak of what goes on on
the Hawk's Bay, but certainly if you've got these people
who are out there marketing themselves, there is a huge
cost associated with some of these and some of them
you can do from a reverse mortgage, and there are
other ways of freeing up your assets if you have assets,
but they will whittle away quite quickly. The government will
support you to some extent, especially if you need private
(23:33):
hospital care that is different from a rest home or
a rest home or a retirement village. If the worst
things happen, there is a subsidy there which will come in,
but it can be very difficult if you're out there
in the open market unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Glenn, thank you very much for raising that. Yeah, I
mean it is very true and wish you all the best. Peter,
how are you this afternoon?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Hey are you Peter?
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (23:58):
Hello there, hi, doctor John. I wanted to ask you.
I joined a tai chi class and I've been there
for or about probably about six months now. Is there
any benefits either equad jogging or jogging and doing this
or working working with what's the equa jogging of tai
(24:22):
chi can you give me any benefits from doing it, oh.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Heaps, heaps, And it doesn't really matter what whether one's
better than the other is irrelevant really. So water working
takes away the pressure on your joints. So if you've
got bad hips and bad knees and things like that,
taking gravity out of the equation can be quite helpful.
From tai chi point of view. It's really good for
muscle toning and muscle and balance because you're doing very slow,
(24:48):
controlled movements and you're stressing your brain to actually get
that out. And you know, one of the most important
things about tai chi, it's having other people around you
that you can talk to before and after. So do
you keep that socialization going? So no, whatever it is, brilliant,
it doesn't matter what flavor, color, or whatever. Just do it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Bro Love that you enjoying it. Peter Toichi very much,
fantastic love that. One text question here, let's see, is
hi doctor any suggestions for how to move an elderly
person with Alzheimer's into a retirement village. They live alone
with various supports in place, but they are alone most
of the day because of their Alzheimer's. They don't recognize
(25:27):
that they aren't eating properly or looking after themselves. You
can't rationalize with them because of their Alzheimer's. So how
do we get their buy in to move to a village?
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Wow, that is the million dollar question and it's been
sitting there in the background since we started this talk. Yeah,
it is incredibly difficult. There is a legal way, and
that is basically almost get what we call section by
our gerontology friends out, the people who look after old
age care. They can come in and say it is
now unsafe for you to be where you are now.
(25:57):
That is a last resort. But if you're saying, if
you're saying someone has got that level of Alzheimer's or
dementia that they don't know that that's what's going on
with them, they can be a significant damage or risk
to themselves and to others around them, and we do
have to step in. It hasn't happened often in my
consulting career. I must admit most people do realize this
(26:20):
is happening before you get to that stage and the
rallies come in and they will sit down and say it's.
One of the ways that that's talked about is that
the rallies can say, if we withdraw our care, what
will happen to this person? Great, and it's horrible to do,
but if they're not listening and they won't follow a
logical process, it's possibly the only way you can actually
(26:42):
get some shifting happening. It's horrible.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
That is horrible and a tough situation. Dead text.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
But as you say, doctor, their health and wellbeing of
that family member has got to be paramount and as
a last resort to make sure that they are remaining
healthy and eating properly and being looked after needs to
be considered.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah, and there is the legal capability of doing that
in the worst possible situation.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, all the best to that text.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
This person, Andy asks your high doctor John, I've had
issues worth cholesterol in my life. I have asked my
doctor if I can go on statins, but so far
they have said that it's not needed. Is their general
benefit to taking statins or are there side effects I
need to know about.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Whenever we do a medical intervention, we've got the capability
of improving things and also potentially harming things from that intervention,
So we've got to make sure it's the right thing
for you do you know what, I find that people
deal with cholesterol really weirdly. They look at the wrong things.
They look at total rather than LDL levels or ratio levels.
And everyone talks about dinner part what's yourcholeterol? There's no
(27:47):
such thing as what's your cholesterol? It should be what
is your cardiovascular risk? So and also the easiest way
of working on what your cholesterol is like is look
at your family and if your mum and dad are
in their nineties and trucking on, fine, your cholesterol's perfect
because they're still alive. We've put them into a real
live situation and it ain't doing them.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
No.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
If all of your rallies died at forty five from
heart attacks, okay, that might mean that your pattern's going
to be a little bit more dangerous to you. And
also it depends if as you get older, what should
we be offering you. If you are eighty five and
we're saying, well, we're going to put you on a
stat and to stop you having a heart attack in
the next twenty years, yeah, okay, we're actually doing you
a harm or help. And that's where you bring a
(28:27):
real good Some people will say I want to do
everything I possibly can to prevent this, and we will
listen to you and work with you on that, but
you've got to put it down there in real black
and white. Is that a lot of these things we're
offering people are to defer things that might happen anyway
regardless of what we do, and they might not change
your outcome.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Just on the how you assess the cardio vascular risk
of a particular person, you mentioned their genetics, family history.
How much does that play a part? I mean, can
you put it in percentage wise?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
What would that?
Speaker 4 (28:56):
It's biggas one. The most important thing you can do
for giving yourself the quality and quantity of life is
to choose your parents appropriately. And if you've chosen Rock,
only you change, get adopted, do something else. No, what
happens when we put it in a real life situation
gives us a really good clue about what's going on
the rest of them normally. Add to that basic genetic risk.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
If you've got a question for doctor John O, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number you need
to call. Plenty of text questions coming through as well.
The number for the text machine is nine to nine two.
Got to take a break and we'll get back to
the phones very shortly. It is twenty one minutes to five.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It is the Health harb and we're joined by GP
doctor John Cameron. Let's go straight back to the phones. Liz,
thank you so much for hanging on.
Speaker 10 (29:42):
Is that Liz you're saying?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yep, that is you, my dear?
Speaker 5 (29:45):
All right.
Speaker 10 (29:46):
I've been very privileged in my life. I had the
most wonderful, gorgeous mother. She had five children, but she
didn't get to the stage of giving us some information
on anything to do with her. They could she had
five beautiful children. We didn't. We had the opportunity with
(30:08):
one of the members being a solicitor, so we could
have organized what to do. So she got to a
stage where the family members could not do what one repired,
so we had to get a doctor and we ended
up the doctors he had put her in. Now, don't
take it to your home because she's gotten sort of past.
(30:32):
That so a very privilege, and I never regranced my
mother she had. She was a various time for fourteen years,
and I count myself as extremely privileged to have the
most beautiful mother. But it gave me a huge amount
of insight that my children came first because I loved them.
(30:52):
So I told them from that time frame that they
went through the time with my mother that I did
not want, in any shape or form to be left
that I would be going to a rest home. So
my husband died. I was younger, I shouldn't have gone,
(31:14):
and maybe a lot of people would say no that
I didn't. So when he died, he died from heart dementia,
so I cared for him for years. I put myself
into a unit. I am an independent apartment, which everybody
told me I was stupid, but it wasn't stupid because
(31:35):
I did not want my children because I loved them
too much. Have to make a choice, and I can
honestly say that it's not like my home there will
be that they came first.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
What a beautiful perspective, Liz.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And you're you're doing well now in the in the heart,
in the unit.
Speaker 10 (31:54):
I'm fantastic.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Are you sound there? Do you sound there?
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (31:57):
I'm going to be honest and truth all a village
where you go, it's not your home. You have to
get a piece of paper, look at it. And say
pros and cons not where you live. It's not where
you will own. You don't have what you have. You
have the ability to live in the unit you pay
(32:21):
huge money.
Speaker 6 (32:22):
I will be honest.
Speaker 10 (32:24):
And there is always the inference that this village or
whatever it does not like saying I own that property.
No you don't, because the village has a concept in
their own way of thinking you're there. Well, of course
you're not there for that because you're huge money, but
(32:46):
you can't change that concept.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Now you're absolutely right. The pros and cons for everything,
And as you say, good idea, get a piece of paper,
write down the pros, write down the cons. Work it
out for your own situation. I think that's really well done.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, thank you very much, Liz. And just on Liz's call,
quite a few teaps coming through. What's the difference between
a retirement home and a nursing home? Can you just
give a rough description on on what the difference is.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
So retirement village basically you're living totally independently within there
with minimal supports, and then you go up through assisted
care levels until you're into a private hospital long term
residential care home where you're provided with food, nursing services
and all of those. So basically retirement village. You get
a space, you get some metal, live and very minimal
(33:32):
overall medical supports.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yep, fantastic, David, How are you this afternoon?
Speaker 11 (33:38):
Hey you David oh gent On?
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Just a quick question.
Speaker 11 (33:44):
Do you folks look at protein.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Proparting A Yeah, it's a research type thing. Whether it's
going to have any true relevance in the community as
this whole is still up for grabs. Unfortunately, it's one
of the markers that we look at, very difficult to change.
Speaker 11 (34:02):
In actual fact, my dad died at fifty six and
Rother died at forty six. I was working on a
mercy ship in third world country, had to fly back
to the state. I had five bypasses done through nine
nine blockages in the love part of my left sending
archery is ready to fall apart libid A protein and
(34:22):
had I not had that operational in my head talking
to you today and my daughter and son had the
same problem, and I asked the question, when somebody drops dead,
just that's it, and that's what happens with lipid a protein.
Your vessels just verse a new bleed internally and October
(34:42):
this year will be twenty eight years since I've had
five bypasses.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Are right, David?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
One of my passes that is extraordinary? I mean is
that is David right there, Clearly he's been put through
the ringer in his own health. That is that a
symptom of having the is it lipid a protein so.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
I life protin is one of the old L fractions
that that sit within our bloodstream. So basically you've got
the bad genetic millieure. Unfortunately there Dave and your offspring
and they're going down. We'll have that as well, So
we'll be watching very carefully their cardiovascular risks and for
those people will be trying to manage their risk profile
as best we can, so that is keeping active, keeping
(35:20):
healthy diet, maybe looking to lower their LDL fraction of
their cholesterol picture as low as we can do it.
Because there's a linear linear graph between LDL levels and
risk of heart disease. We know that for a fact,
the lower pushume, the less likely you are to have something.
But it's also difference between what we call primarum secondary prevention.
So you're in secondary prevention. Basically you've had the BIZ.
(35:41):
So we need to work hard on you, and your
family will probably be in that same situation regardless of
their actual events.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yep, David, thank you very much. You sund pretty chip
of for someone who's head five bypass surgeries. I've got
to say, Rick, how are you?
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Hey?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Rick?
Speaker 10 (35:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Yeah, mate? Yeah?
Speaker 9 (35:56):
Good?
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Hi John, quick question for you. I'm going to be
seventy nine in nine days time, seventy nine years old.
I keep fit. I've had a recent history of atrial fibrillation,
which is intermittent, it's not by any means all the
(36:17):
time that some years the doctor's had me on twenty
milligrams of staaten. Y.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:30):
So the reason he says is well, part of the
reason is that for years and years and years, the
blood tests show that I've got below what you would
call normal good cholesterol. Right, yeah, h goody Okay. So
(36:54):
I normally the readings between sort of point eighty five
to point nine zero and are supposed to be apparently
above one. That's what he tells me. So I'm on
many milligrams once a day, like every day. You know,
is is that a good bad thing? Should I continue
with it? Or what?
Speaker 4 (37:14):
Yeah? You've got one of these ones that HDL says
for high density liperprotein, and it's it's a saving part
of your cholesterol picture. And when you're talking about total cholesterol,
some of that is made up by high density HDL liperproting.
So and what we want to do is have it
greater than one. One point five is superb two is superhuman.
And my bloody wife's at two point five. So she's
(37:35):
going to use up all of the things I've worked
for over my years. After I have my heart attack,
she'll be sitting there and living the life of Riley
on my bloody money anyway. So but you can't change
your HDL. That's one of the hardest things to do.
We can drop your LDLs with a statin. A statin
is a mental which drops low density life proproting. It
may also drop your HDLs a little bit, so you
have to be careful of that. So if you genetically
(37:57):
low HDL's at the moment, we've got no great intervention.
If you wanted to try and minimize the potential nastiness
of your LDL low density lip of protein FRET, yes,
datam will definitely do that. They'll drop him by fifty
sixty percent.
Speaker 6 (38:09):
Yell that's the good cholesterol, right.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
We can't do anything to make you you're good to
get bigger?
Speaker 5 (38:20):
So am I wasting my time then taking twenty milligrams
every day?
Speaker 4 (38:24):
I would never say that on the radio, and I
don't think it's true. No ld els, look at your
LDLs and see what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
All the best.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Thanks very much for calling up. We've got to take
a break. It is nine minutes to five.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
This is a news talk. There'd be developing story.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yes, developing news out of the US. The gunman has
been identified as twenty year old Thomas Matthew Crooks Donald Trump. Meanwhile,
he is doing well and has just been seen walking
off as private plane after it landed in Newark and
New Jersey. More on that story in the news at
five o'clock. But let's get back to the phones and Joan,
how are you?
Speaker 8 (39:03):
Oh?
Speaker 12 (39:04):
Not too bad, except I have a problem. I am
eighty eight years old, and for over a year, I've
had this thickly sweet, almost pungent smell about me. It's
not bo and it's not wind.
Speaker 7 (39:20):
And.
Speaker 12 (39:22):
I've mentioned it to my doctor. But because it's not
always there, she has never smelled at herself, and so
recently she decided it's probably in my head and would
I like to see somebody to talk about it. Well,
I am not a neurotic Person's not in my head.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Good on you, Joe.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Now we'll quickly throw it to doctor John because I've
only got about fifty seconds. Doctor, Is there any suspicion
on what that may be?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Nothing comes to my mind. Yeah, Look, I would take
it with a grain of salt, making that your talk
about other things, whether it's physical or psychological. Really, as
long as you are well, I wouldn't worry about it
either way.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, yeah, Joan, there you go.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
All right, all the best, Joe, thank you very much,
and thank you to you doctor John Cameron. I really
appreciate your time this afternoon.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
It's pleasure.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
We will chat again soon and we've got a load
of texts that we couldn't get to, so next time
you're on, John, we'll get those to you. All right, go, Well,
after five o'clock we're going to have a chat to
Hannah McQueen. She is an expert on everything when it
comes to money. So if you've got a question for Hannah,
oh eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty is the
number to call, news, sport and weather on its way.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
For more from the weekend collective, listen live to News
Talk sed B weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks
at b.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Welcome back into the Weekend Collective. Tyler Adams fillingon for
Tim Beverage. Great to have your company, and we will
of course continue to bring you the latest developments out
of the US as the afternoon and evening continues. But
right now it is the Health Hub and we are
joined by a very esteemed guest, from radio and TV
commentator to Team doctor to the Blank Camps, Doctor John
(00:45):
Cameron has done it all and he's in the Auckland studio.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Get a John, mate.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
They's stumbling in. You're talking about old age. That's a
really bad song to get us off the ground.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
With good peck tyrah, good peck tyra. Well on that one, John,
because this is a big, big conversation and it is
something we're going to kick off with now. So that
the conversations that many of us have had to have
with parents or grandparents about aging and about those family
members needing some extra support around them can be really
(01:17):
hard to have those conversations. Right, is that parents' grandparents
like to be independents. They may say, look, I'm fine,
I'm healthy. I don't actually need to go into a home.
I don't need twenty four hour care around me. What's
the best way to start those conversations with a family member.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
Yeah, I think we need to take it back. We're
starting as a nation to live longer, and actually not
just longer, but living well longer. So your average age
for a Kiwi males round about eighty to eighty five,
females slightly more mailor in pacifica about five years less.
But we're actually keeping a reasonable level of health into
(01:56):
our retirement years. And people are very, very keen to
stay independent, as you're saying. They want to stay in
there own house. They want to do the things that
they want to do, not be talked about and told
what to do. When that starts to fall over, that's
when it gets into trouble. And quite often we don't
see it falling over until it's fallen over. And that's
(02:20):
the habit. And yeah, people tell us lies, it's great,
doing fine, no problem with me.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, I mean that's when ideally you'd get the support
of GP or the medical fraternity who's involved in the
parental grandparent right is to help you have those conversations
as say, actually, you know you are starting to see
some of these health issues. It's not a bad idea
to one maybe have a nurse that comes in one
time a week, or even look at some of the
(02:49):
options around retirement homes.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Yeah, I think we generally are seeing our people in
their eighties plus on a reasonably regular basis. You know,
they're normally maybe taking a medication, they may need other
bits of our supports services. So we're keeping an eye
on these people all the time and measuring where they
are now compared where they are where they have been.
(03:12):
We rely a hell of a lot on what the
family are telling us, but you always sometimes need to
verify that and take it with a grain of salt,
because as a rally, you come into your parents' house
once a week, you don't see what they're like. The
other six days of the week. You can see some
things are going on, but what we need to be doing,
and our first call is to make sure the person
(03:32):
is well. Second thing to make sure the person is safe,
and that can be really difficult, but also to make
sure we've got the supports putting into that place. I
can remember a lovely study they did in Otago many
years ago where they did a falls prevention study where
they put people into people's houses and looked at where
they might trip over things and the rugs and the
cords and they changed all that over and yeah, absolutely right.
(03:55):
Those people didn't fall over and hurt themselves there. They
found other places to fall over and hurt themselves, so
the actual rates of falls stayed the same.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Just thinking of a personal situation with my granddad. And
he worked in forestry all his life, so you know,
it was a tough guy and he looked after his
health for most of his life, but towards the you know,
the end, and he's in a retirement home now and
he's loving it. But it wasn't until he had a
fall at home. A dog got under him and he
cursed that dog something wicked, but he fell over and
got very badly injured. And at that point he said, okay,
(04:27):
you're right, my health is at the point now where
I probably need that extra support.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
But that's what it took.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Yeah, And unfortunately, so if you are in your eighties
and you fall over and you break a hip, which
is a common thing that happens, you've got a fifty
percent mortality at twelve months.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Wow, fifty Yes, it's huge.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
So how do we get these people before then? And
that's where we're trying to put exercise programs at personalized
exercise programs, muscle strengthening, some form of aerobic weight bearing
exercise on a regular basis. Making sure you're eating well,
that you've supported and loved by your community is the
other thing. Yeah, the idea of a retire at home,
rest homes, things like rest homes no so, but retirement yeah,
(05:09):
they can be good. They can give you more support.
It's very different from living independently in your own house.
You and we have a lot of big conversations with
some of our clients about when is the right time
for that, And it's basically they've got to look at
it as a step upwards, not a step downwards. You're
not going back in to avoid something, They're going there
to get something extra.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Great, if you've got a question for doctor John, now
is your opportunity eight hundred and eighty ten eighty or
you can text through nine to nine two. Any health concerns,
you've got, any nutrition advice you want, John is your man.
Just on the muscle strengthening, is that something that can
fall by the wayside? As we get a bit older,
where I think we're pretty good on cardio if you
(05:52):
care about your health getting out for a walk or
doing those sort of things. Is it the strength work
that cut sometimes gets gets missed out when we age.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
It's a bit of both really, if you don't all saying,
if you don't use it, you lose it. And that's
the big thing. The more the less exercise you do,
the less muscle power you will develop. You will start
to lose muscle mass, which makes it harder for you
to do things like get out of a chair. If
it's harder to get out of a chair, you don't
get out of the chair and you stay sitting all day,
and so it's got that terrible spiral on it. So
(06:22):
it's exercise you can do sitting down, just sitting, strengthening
your muscles, lifting yourself over out of the chair. You
can do that anytime, any day, and physios can help
us with that.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, great text has come through straight away, doctor. It says, Hi,
doctor John, I'm in my late sixties and have not
done much muscle work over the past twenty years. Is
it too late for me or can I start to
rebuild muscle now?
Speaker 4 (06:49):
Never too late, never too late, and you start out.
The longest journey starts out with the first single step,
and that's the whole thing. And it's doing simple things.
And start in your house. If you're that worried about it,
you don't have to get into likera and go to
the gym.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
It's okay, it's good to hear, but you.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Can do a whole set of things. If you open
up your pantry, you've got tins of tomatoes there, Okay,
pick them up in your hands and move them around.
Do things like that, just trying to get yourself active. Wait,
bearing exercises the most important thing. We don't expect you
to go out there run marathons, but go to the letterbox,
walk one lamp post, walk two lamp posts. The next day,
do those sorts of little, small, incremental things.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I imagine there's a bit of a fear, or certainly
there's a fear for me of getting back to the gym.
And I haven't been for some time. I'm going to say, John.
But you know, as you get older, it gets a
little bit more daunting to go to. Right, I've got
to sign up to a gym. It's all these young
people who look very fit and healthy. I don't really
want to be in that environment. That must be a
real thing as we get a bit older.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah, another little secret. If all of us who've got
gym memberships use them, you'd never be able to get
through the front door. You'd have to book a slot
three weeks in advance. I feel really good. I've got
a gym membership. I think I went about two months ago. Yeah, brilliant.
That's my job. Look, you don't have to do those
sorts of things if you want to have a more
formalized one, if you want a personal trainer to take
you through things. But it's just getting those simple things
(08:12):
of weight bearing exercise and a little bit of walking,
and that clears your head and you see your neighborhood,
the neighbors see you. I'm really keen on this community
type process where one of the things I'd sort of
dislike about part mentalizing all our older people in the
single areas is you lose that community. And in New
Zealand being brought up with communities which has got that
wide range of age groups and we shall be taking
(08:33):
care of each other.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah, is it something that is becoming you at the forefront.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
More.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That sense of community is massive to our health, not
just how many you know, how much weights you left,
and how much cardio you do. Having that social cohesion
is massive for our health.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Oh absolutely, it's having a neighbor someone you can chat
to to talking. The socialization of exercise and things is
really important as well. We have little old ladies. Every
morning they pull up their blinds and the neighbor knows
when they pulled up their blinds. They survive the night
your pee if the blinds don't go up there knocking
on the door. That's the sort of environment I'd like
to live in.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Again, if you've got a question for doctor John O
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to
call John.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You're on, How are you good?
Speaker 6 (09:15):
Thank you? Here this Alsonoma's situation. I find that the
ordinary medical fraternity take very little interest. Then we had
a visit by the NHT I think it's called, and
a doctor and a male nurse came and they my
wife was angry at them, I must admit, and so
they gave her a pill. They never came back to
(09:42):
wound out the result of that pill. And then they
just wrote and said, you're off our program now, and
then my ordinary doctor decided to double from fifty to
one hundred whatever that is. But no one's ever come
back to monitor to see what's that doing. Now. My
problem at the moment is to me, it appears to
be getting worse, getting up during the middle of the night,
(10:03):
three o'clock in the morning and one around the bed
making it, or walking through the house turning lights on,
and even worse, and seems to be deteriorating. I've spoken
to the Alzheimer's people. They don't seem to be all
that useful. They will take you along and give you
a lecture on things, but they don't seem to be proactive.
(10:24):
So where do you turn to from here?
Speaker 4 (10:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's a problem. We don't have the resources
available to give one on one long term care for
people who are developing dementias, whether it's Alzheimer's or livy
body or whatever types of dementia. Most of the aid
that we have around at the moment is to try
and support the person living with that person who's got
failing mentation. Our interventions for failing mentation are not very
(10:50):
good for the individual themselves. There's some work coming in
there's some newer things looking at it. There's some trials
in the States at the moment which are showing some
form of promise, but they're still a long way off.
An interesting thing about dementing dementia is an actual fact
the percentage of people with dementia is actually decreasing. Okay,
so there's a smaller percentage of people with dementia as
(11:14):
a percentage of the population, But because we have an
aging population, the actual numbers of people with dementia are
rapidly increasing. And that's the problem that we have.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
And do they know, sorry, doctor to jump in there,
do they know or do they have suspicions about why
the overall well, the number of people with dementia is declining.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Seems to be happening mostly with what we call vascular dementia.
So one of the forms of dementias through having raised
cardiovascular risks, hypertension, big cholesterol, high blood pressure, these sorts
of things, they can damage the brain the same as
in the Alzheimer's type. We can remediate some of those
cardiovascular ones, so that's dropping out a little bit. So
(11:57):
if you look at the rate of even heart attacks
at the moment, is incredibly lower than when I first
started practicing one or two seasons ago. Were just not
seeing them anymore. And the same sort of things happening
with escular dementia, but the Alzheimer's and the Louis body
and the other forms of dementia are still there and
we're not touching them at all.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, John, thank you very much for calling up.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
And I will just say on a personal note, my
grandmother had Parkinson's and then went through dementia and it
was a it was an.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Incredibly hard time for the family. Because I'm sure you're
going through it as well.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Is that you feel like you're you're sort of, you know,
chugging through that road and it's so much as unknown.
So all the best and I hope you've got the
support around you that you need.
Speaker 6 (12:39):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Thanks John.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It is one of those things that dementia is such
a cruel thing for families out there, and you know,
with my own family, just our own circumstance, it just
did feel like there was so much unknown and sometimes
Nana was great and sometimes she wasn't so great, and
that slow moving nature of it. And now she's in
the right place and she's got the support around her.
(13:01):
But that's incredibly heartbreaking for families to deal with, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Demi is the disease of the people who don't have
the disease. It's those people around them who are seeing
this loved one who's becoming a shell of the person
that they knew and loved, and the behaviors that you
see and the you just can't make logical sense out
of how someone has dementia. They don't think like we do,
and it's just incredibly sold to strength for everyone.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
It's a horrible disease that is Yeah. Oh one hundred
and eighty teen eighty is the number to call. Hey,
your pam.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
Hello, I'll be ninety eight next month. And I've told
my family.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
You don't sound a day over sixty five PM.
Speaker 7 (13:41):
Yeah, I said, I'll be ninety eight next month, And
I told my family if I get goaty and things,
they should put me somewhere and not have to wear
themselves out looking after me. Because they've had so many friends,
these husbands have got demitia and things, and they the
(14:05):
time they've got help and she's look after him, or
he's gone into a home, they exhausted and worn out
and that's taken them sometime to recover. I think I
probably wouldn't like being put somewhere, but.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Pam, I mean it sounds like Pam's had that a
conversation with her kids rather than the other way around.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
John.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yes, still there just one. How she's managed her independence
up until now. How are you managing on a day
to day basis with your independence?
Speaker 7 (14:39):
Well understood? My own home, my eyesighted and so good.
Now I had to give up driving, but I've got
support from family. I still do my own cooking, and
I have helped to do house work in gardening, and
I still go to one or two things I belong
(15:01):
to and keeping with people. So I'm doing all right.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Yeah, you have a good life.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
Yeah, but you never know.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
No, no, too true. I'll let you into a secret.
I'll let you into a little secret. I've got a patient.
Every night before she goes to bed, she puts lipyon.
She's dead, scared that no, she's dead, scared that she
might die overnight, and she could never ever be seen
without a lipyon. She's ninety two.
Speaker 7 (15:34):
Yeah, okay, Pam, thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Very much for got and happy birthday next month. By
the way, what are you planning anything special for the
ninety eighth.
Speaker 7 (15:42):
Well, not really. Some of my family are overseas for
a little while. I'm just going to have a I've
started making the soup, so I thought i'd have a
super bun lunch.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Oh that sounds beautiful. What about the cake? What's shere?
Go to cake for your birthday?
Speaker 8 (16:00):
Well, I don't.
Speaker 7 (16:01):
Make the cake for my birthday. I leave that to.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Somebody, too right, Too right?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
You don't make your own boothday?
Speaker 7 (16:07):
Take I won't ninety eight Chandles.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Pam, you're brilliant.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Thank you very much for calling in our one hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number to call quick.
A couple of text questions doctor, and then we're going
to get to a break, says Hi John. Many of
us older women have loan low bone density and are
taking vitamin D and fours max. I've been on these
for the last few years. How long can you safely
stay on these treatments?
Speaker 4 (16:35):
Quite a long time? Actually, so the vitamin D story, yes,
here or thereabouts. We're still looking at that one. But
certainly if you've got low vitamin D levels, we can
supplement that. Fossmax is a medicine which stops your bones
from being degraded. So bones are constantly being degraded and
laid down. The Fossomax type medicines stop the bones from
(16:56):
being degraded, so try and maintain more bone strength. There
is no stop limit on it. We normally say if
you're using the intravenous infusion of them a yearly for
three years, and then we stop and see how it goes.
So that's pretty story, but there's no significant danger of
long term muse.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Great.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
If you've got a question and you prefer to text
it in, you're more than welcome.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
The number is nine to nine two.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Got to take a break, but we'll be back with
doctor John Cameron very shortly on the health Hub. It
is twenty three minutes past four.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Yep, you got it.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
You are listening to the Health Hub on the Weekend
Collective and we are joined by GP doctor John Cameron.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Thanks again for your.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Time, John, it's a pleasure mate.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Now, interesting that Mike was talking to the gentleman about
a zimpack. It might link into this next question. Says hi,
doctor Cameron. I am thirty five years old and I've
had a run of elevated blood pressure readings. To get
that down, I've lost over ten kilograms and decent centimeters
off my waistline. I've tried to eat better, and I've
(17:53):
certainly increased my exercise. My blood pressure readings are still
quite elevated. Is my only option. Medication at this point.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
It really depends on your overall cardiovascular risk profile, so
we've long since stopped looking at single item. Variance has
been the initiator of medication. So blood pressure of sort
of one seventy one ten becomes an independent risk factor
of for premature cardia invescular disease. Otherwise, we look at
your profile, which is age, gender, ethnicity, diabetes, smoking, family history, cholesterol,
(18:24):
all put into an algorithm to work out what it is,
and our whole thoughts about blood pressure changing. Our cardiologists
colleagues would want everyone to have blood pressure one twenty
eighty and fall over every time they stand up. We
actually live in a more wider world and sort of
message a little bit more and trying to make sure
we're treating the right people. So just be really careful,
question what's going on? But great thing. Yeah, the first
(18:45):
thing to do about losing a dropping of blood pressure
is to lose some weight, drop some weight. It will work. Really,
if you are overweight, exercise, brilliant, Keep doing what you're doing.
You're on the right track, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Is it a real thing that when someone would go
to their GP or another clinic can get their blood
pressure red, that the very fact that they're there they're
feeling nervous on me and I hope it goes down
this time.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
That plays into it.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Right, Oh, absolutely, We take absolutely no cognizance of a
single reading taking in our practice.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah, the first thing you're going to do to put
someone's blood pressure up is wrap a cup around their
arm up, she goes. So we actually in our practice
we lend out home blood pressure meters, say right, take
them away, play with them for three or four weeks,
see what your blood pressure is doing in your own
home environment. And we get people with eating blood pressures
in our surgery. They come back one twenty eighty when
they do them at home, so they're fine. We leave
(19:35):
them alone.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Now, they're great, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Let's go back to the phones.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Glenn, good afternoon to you.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
Yes, hello, Tyler and doctor Cameron. Look, I guess I
have to classify myself as elderly now, even though I
don't feel any different try what I did years ago.
But I'm in my seventies living alone. I'm full of
admiration for that previous caller, the ninety eight year old,
but my situation is that I live alone, well retired.
(20:03):
I'm a retired a nurse and I don't have any family,
and I've had several health issues, unfortunately major surgeries. I'm
talking brain surgery and heart surgery and endless surgeries, so
I have in different health, although I do try and
exercise and eat correctly, but I realize I'm getting to
(20:26):
that stage where I will have to look to the future.
And everybody says you shouldn't move into retirement home when
you're really pasted at the time to do it is
when you're able to organize it yourself, and I tend
to agree with that, so I'm not averse to moving
into retirement village. There happened to be an open day
here where I live in Hawk's Bay last weekend, so
(20:48):
I veiled myself with that opportunity. But you know, you
talk blithely, and I don't mean to sound facetious, but
you talk blithely about oh well, you might, you know,
people can go into care, they might have to go
and care.
Speaker 7 (21:00):
But I'm not averse to it.
Speaker 8 (21:01):
But quite frankly, I can't afford it. I was absolutely
Stunn and the little one bedroom flats which are very
very small, but I could even manage that. But they
were about eight hundred thousand. But after you've paid that,
they asked for four hundred dollars a week. That's because
(21:22):
they provide you with one meal a day and do
your laundry. Now, superannuation works out at about five hundred
dollars a week, so you left with one hundred dollars
to live on. And if you're running a car, it
would be impossible. The other thing is I said, do
they have garages for the cars, and they said, no,
(21:43):
we've got car parks. The car parks were actually just
open car parks where visitors could car park could part
because but I'm incredulous, so much so that I rang
them back the next day because I thought I must
have misheard. They want fifteen thousand dollars for being the
privilege of parking your car in one of these places.
(22:03):
So we've got eight one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
save for the unit, four hundred dollars a week for
the services and fifteen thousand to park your car. Now,
who can afford that in retirement?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
It's tough. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I mean you know it is depending on the circumstance,
isn't it, Doctor Cameron that yes, it can be incredibly expensive.
But I would hope there are options out there, And Glenn,
you've looked into this so you would know. But I
hope there'd be options out there for those who don't
reach a certain threshold to get some assistance with that
elderly care.
Speaker 8 (22:36):
Well, I've been through my doctor and they did an
assess and they sent someone to do an assessment. The
woman had no medical knowledge whatsoever. By the question she
asked me. I just thought that she even listening to me.
And then I got a letter to say that I
wasn't eligible for any help. So I'm sort of caught
between a rock and a hard place, to be honest.
(22:57):
You know, it's all very well for people to say, oh,
they need to go into care, but what care?
Speaker 6 (23:01):
You know?
Speaker 8 (23:02):
And that is pretty average what I saw at the
week here. And I have taken advantage of other places
that have had open days. They're all much of a muchness.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
Yeah. Sorry, I can't speak of what goes on on
the Hawk's Bay, but certainly if you've got these people
who are out there marketing themselves, there is a huge
cost associated with some of these and some of them
you can do from a reverse mortgage, and there are
other ways of freeing up your assets if you have assets,
but they will whittle away quite quickly. The government will
support you to some extent, especially if you need private
(23:33):
hospital care that is different from a rest home or
a rest home or a retirement village. If the worst
things happen, there is a subsidy there which will come in,
but it can be very difficult if you're out there
in the open market unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Glenn, thank you very much for raising that. Yeah, I
mean it is very true and wish you all the best. Peter,
how are you this afternoon?
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Hey are you Peter?
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Oh?
Speaker 9 (23:58):
Hello there, hi, doctor John. I wanted to ask you.
I joined a tai chi class and I've been there
for or about probably about six months now. Is there
any benefits either equad jogging or jogging and doing this
or working working with what's the equa jogging of tai
(24:22):
chi can you give me any benefits from doing it, oh.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Heaps, heaps, And it doesn't really matter what whether one's
better than the other is irrelevant really. So water working
takes away the pressure on your joints. So if you've
got bad hips and bad knees and things like that,
taking gravity out of the equation can be quite helpful.
From tai chi point of view. It's really good for
muscle toning and muscle and balance because you're doing very slow,
(24:48):
controlled movements and you're stressing your brain to actually get
that out. And you know, one of the most important
things about tai chi, it's having other people around you
that you can talk to before and after. So do
you keep that socialization going? So no, whatever it is, brilliant,
it doesn't matter what flavor, color, or whatever. Just do it.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Bro Love that you enjoying it. Peter Toichi very much,
fantastic love that. One text question here, let's see, is
hi doctor any suggestions for how to move an elderly
person with Alzheimer's into a retirement village. They live alone
with various supports in place, but they are alone most
of the day because of their Alzheimer's. They don't recognize
(25:27):
that they aren't eating properly or looking after themselves. You
can't rationalize with them because of their Alzheimer's. So how
do we get their buy in to move to a village?
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Wow, that is the million dollar question and it's been
sitting there in the background since we started this talk. Yeah,
it is incredibly difficult. There is a legal way, and
that is basically almost get what we call section by
our gerontology friends out, the people who look after old
age care. They can come in and say it is
now unsafe for you to be where you are now.
(25:57):
That is a last resort. But if you're saying, if
you're saying someone has got that level of Alzheimer's or
dementia that they don't know that that's what's going on
with them, they can be a significant damage or risk
to themselves and to others around them, and we do
have to step in. It hasn't happened often in my
consulting career. I must admit most people do realize this
(26:20):
is happening before you get to that stage and the
rallies come in and they will sit down and say it's.
One of the ways that that's talked about is that
the rallies can say, if we withdraw our care, what
will happen to this person? Great, and it's horrible to do,
but if they're not listening and they won't follow a
logical process, it's possibly the only way you can actually
(26:42):
get some shifting happening. It's horrible.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
That is horrible and a tough situation. Dead text.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
But as you say, doctor, their health and wellbeing of
that family member has got to be paramount and as
a last resort to make sure that they are remaining
healthy and eating properly and being looked after needs to
be considered.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
Yeah, and there is the legal capability of doing that
in the worst possible situation.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, all the best to that text.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
This person, Andy asks your high doctor John, I've had
issues worth cholesterol in my life. I have asked my
doctor if I can go on statins, but so far
they have said that it's not needed. Is their general
benefit to taking statins or are there side effects I
need to know about.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Whenever we do a medical intervention, we've got the capability
of improving things and also potentially harming things from that intervention,
So we've got to make sure it's the right thing
for you do you know what, I find that people
deal with cholesterol really weirdly. They look at the wrong things.
They look at total rather than LDL levels or ratio levels.
And everyone talks about dinner part what's yourcholeterol? There's no
(27:47):
such thing as what's your cholesterol? It should be what
is your cardiovascular risk? So and also the easiest way
of working on what your cholesterol is like is look
at your family and if your mum and dad are
in their nineties and trucking on, fine, your cholesterol's perfect
because they're still alive. We've put them into a real
live situation and it ain't doing them.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
No.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
If all of your rallies died at forty five from
heart attacks, okay, that might mean that your pattern's going
to be a little bit more dangerous to you. And
also it depends if as you get older, what should
we be offering you. If you are eighty five and
we're saying, well, we're going to put you on a
stat and to stop you having a heart attack in
the next twenty years, yeah, okay, we're actually doing you
a harm or help. And that's where you bring a
(28:27):
real good Some people will say I want to do
everything I possibly can to prevent this, and we will
listen to you and work with you on that, but
you've got to put it down there in real black
and white. Is that a lot of these things we're
offering people are to defer things that might happen anyway
regardless of what we do, and they might not change
your outcome.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Just on the how you assess the cardio vascular risk
of a particular person, you mentioned their genetics, family history.
How much does that play a part? I mean, can
you put it in percentage wise?
Speaker 3 (28:55):
What would that?
Speaker 4 (28:56):
It's biggas one. The most important thing you can do
for giving yourself the quality and quantity of life is
to choose your parents appropriately. And if you've chosen Rock,
only you change, get adopted, do something else. No, what
happens when we put it in a real life situation
gives us a really good clue about what's going on
the rest of them normally. Add to that basic genetic risk.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Yeah, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
If you've got a question for doctor John O, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number you need
to call. Plenty of text questions coming through as well.
The number for the text machine is nine to nine two.
Got to take a break and we'll get back to
the phones very shortly. It is twenty one minutes to five.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
It is the Health harb and we're joined by GP
doctor John Cameron. Let's go straight back to the phones. Liz,
thank you so much for hanging on.
Speaker 10 (29:42):
Is that Liz you're saying?
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Yep, that is you, my dear?
Speaker 5 (29:45):
All right.
Speaker 10 (29:46):
I've been very privileged in my life. I had the
most wonderful, gorgeous mother. She had five children, but she
didn't get to the stage of giving us some information
on anything to do with her. They could she had
five beautiful children. We didn't. We had the opportunity with
(30:08):
one of the members being a solicitor, so we could
have organized what to do. So she got to a
stage where the family members could not do what one repired,
so we had to get a doctor and we ended
up the doctors he had put her in. Now, don't
take it to your home because she's gotten sort of past.
(30:32):
That so a very privilege, and I never regranced my
mother she had. She was a various time for fourteen years,
and I count myself as extremely privileged to have the
most beautiful mother. But it gave me a huge amount
of insight that my children came first because I loved them.
(30:52):
So I told them from that time frame that they
went through the time with my mother that I did
not want, in any shape or form to be left
that I would be going to a rest home. So
my husband died. I was younger, I shouldn't have gone,
(31:14):
and maybe a lot of people would say no that
I didn't. So when he died, he died from heart dementia,
so I cared for him for years. I put myself
into a unit. I am an independent apartment, which everybody
told me I was stupid, but it wasn't stupid because
(31:35):
I did not want my children because I loved them
too much. Have to make a choice, and I can
honestly say that it's not like my home there will
be that they came first.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
What a beautiful perspective, Liz.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And you're you're doing well now in the in the heart,
in the unit.
Speaker 10 (31:54):
I'm fantastic.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Are you sound there? Do you sound there?
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (31:57):
I'm going to be honest and truth all a village
where you go, it's not your home. You have to
get a piece of paper, look at it. And say
pros and cons not where you live. It's not where
you will own. You don't have what you have. You
have the ability to live in the unit you pay
(32:21):
huge money.
Speaker 6 (32:22):
I will be honest.
Speaker 10 (32:24):
And there is always the inference that this village or
whatever it does not like saying I own that property.
No you don't, because the village has a concept in
their own way of thinking you're there. Well, of course
you're not there for that because you're huge money, but
(32:46):
you can't change that concept.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:49):
Now you're absolutely right. The pros and cons for everything,
And as you say, good idea, get a piece of paper,
write down the pros, write down the cons. Work it
out for your own situation. I think that's really well done.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Yeah, thank you very much, Liz. And just on Liz's call,
quite a few teaps coming through. What's the difference between
a retirement home and a nursing home? Can you just
give a rough description on on what the difference is.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
So retirement village basically you're living totally independently within there
with minimal supports, and then you go up through assisted
care levels until you're into a private hospital long term
residential care home where you're provided with food, nursing services
and all of those. So basically retirement village. You get
a space, you get some metal, live and very minimal
(33:32):
overall medical supports.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Yep, fantastic, David, How are you this afternoon?
Speaker 11 (33:38):
Hey you David oh gent On?
Speaker 6 (33:41):
Just a quick question.
Speaker 11 (33:44):
Do you folks look at protein.
Speaker 4 (33:50):
Proparting A Yeah, it's a research type thing. Whether it's
going to have any true relevance in the community as
this whole is still up for grabs. Unfortunately, it's one
of the markers that we look at, very difficult to change.
Speaker 11 (34:02):
In actual fact, my dad died at fifty six and
Rother died at forty six. I was working on a
mercy ship in third world country, had to fly back
to the state. I had five bypasses done through nine
nine blockages in the love part of my left sending
archery is ready to fall apart libid A protein and
(34:22):
had I not had that operational in my head talking
to you today and my daughter and son had the
same problem, and I asked the question, when somebody drops dead,
just that's it, and that's what happens with lipid a protein.
Your vessels just verse a new bleed internally and October
(34:42):
this year will be twenty eight years since I've had
five bypasses.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Are right, David?
Speaker 2 (34:47):
One of my passes that is extraordinary? I mean is
that is David right there, Clearly he's been put through
the ringer in his own health. That is that a
symptom of having the is it lipid a protein so.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
I life protin is one of the old L fractions
that that sit within our bloodstream. So basically you've got
the bad genetic millieure. Unfortunately there Dave and your offspring
and they're going down. We'll have that as well, So
we'll be watching very carefully their cardiovascular risks and for
those people will be trying to manage their risk profile
as best we can, so that is keeping active, keeping
(35:20):
healthy diet, maybe looking to lower their LDL fraction of
their cholesterol picture as low as we can do it.
Because there's a linear linear graph between LDL levels and
risk of heart disease. We know that for a fact,
the lower pushume, the less likely you are to have something.
But it's also difference between what we call primarum secondary prevention.
So you're in secondary prevention. Basically you've had the BIZ.
(35:41):
So we need to work hard on you, and your
family will probably be in that same situation regardless of
their actual events.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yep, David, thank you very much. You sund pretty chip
of for someone who's head five bypass surgeries. I've got
to say, Rick, how are you?
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Hey?
Speaker 5 (35:54):
Rick?
Speaker 10 (35:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (35:55):
Yeah, mate? Yeah?
Speaker 9 (35:56):
Good?
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Hi John, quick question for you. I'm going to be
seventy nine in nine days time, seventy nine years old.
I keep fit. I've had a recent history of atrial fibrillation,
which is intermittent, it's not by any means all the
(36:17):
time that some years the doctor's had me on twenty
milligrams of staaten. Y.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (36:30):
So the reason he says is well, part of the
reason is that for years and years and years, the
blood tests show that I've got below what you would
call normal good cholesterol. Right, yeah, h goody Okay. So
(36:54):
I normally the readings between sort of point eighty five
to point nine zero and are supposed to be apparently
above one. That's what he tells me. So I'm on
many milligrams once a day, like every day. You know,
is is that a good bad thing? Should I continue
with it? Or what?
Speaker 4 (37:14):
Yeah? You've got one of these ones that HDL says
for high density liperprotein, and it's it's a saving part
of your cholesterol picture. And when you're talking about total cholesterol,
some of that is made up by high density HDL liperproting.
So and what we want to do is have it
greater than one. One point five is superb two is superhuman.
And my bloody wife's at two point five. So she's
(37:35):
going to use up all of the things I've worked
for over my years. After I have my heart attack,
she'll be sitting there and living the life of Riley
on my bloody money anyway. So but you can't change
your HDL. That's one of the hardest things to do.
We can drop your LDLs with a statin. A statin
is a mental which drops low density life proproting. It
may also drop your HDLs a little bit, so you
have to be careful of that. So if you genetically
(37:57):
low HDL's at the moment, we've got no great intervention.
If you wanted to try and minimize the potential nastiness
of your LDL low density lip of protein FRET, yes,
datam will definitely do that. They'll drop him by fifty
sixty percent.
Speaker 6 (38:09):
Yell that's the good cholesterol, right.
Speaker 4 (38:16):
We can't do anything to make you you're good to
get bigger?
Speaker 5 (38:20):
So am I wasting my time then taking twenty milligrams
every day?
Speaker 4 (38:24):
I would never say that on the radio, and I
don't think it's true. No ld els, look at your
LDLs and see what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
All the best.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Thanks very much for calling up. We've got to take
a break. It is nine minutes to five.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
This is a news talk. There'd be developing story.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Yes, developing news out of the US. The gunman has
been identified as twenty year old Thomas Matthew Crooks Donald Trump. Meanwhile,
he is doing well and has just been seen walking
off as private plane after it landed in Newark and
New Jersey. More on that story in the news at
five o'clock. But let's get back to the phones and Joan,
how are you?
Speaker 8 (39:03):
Oh?
Speaker 12 (39:04):
Not too bad, except I have a problem. I am
eighty eight years old, and for over a year, I've
had this thickly sweet, almost pungent smell about me. It's
not bo and it's not wind.
Speaker 7 (39:20):
And.
Speaker 12 (39:22):
I've mentioned it to my doctor. But because it's not
always there, she has never smelled at herself, and so
recently she decided it's probably in my head and would
I like to see somebody to talk about it. Well,
I am not a neurotic Person's not in my head.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Good on you, Joe.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Now we'll quickly throw it to doctor John because I've
only got about fifty seconds. Doctor, Is there any suspicion
on what that may be?
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Nothing comes to my mind. Yeah, Look, I would take
it with a grain of salt, making that your talk
about other things, whether it's physical or psychological. Really, as
long as you are well, I wouldn't worry about it
either way.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Yeah, yeah, Joan, there you go.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
All right, all the best, Joe, thank you very much,
and thank you to you doctor John Cameron. I really
appreciate your time this afternoon.
Speaker 4 (40:12):
It's pleasure.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
We will chat again soon and we've got a load
of texts that we couldn't get to, so next time
you're on, John, we'll get those to you. All right, go, Well,
after five o'clock we're going to have a chat to
Hannah McQueen. She is an expert on everything when it
comes to money. So if you've got a question for Hannah,
oh eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty is the
number to call, news, sport and weather on its way.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
For more from the weekend collective, listen live to News
Talk sed B weekends from three pm, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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