Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Initialize sequencing coming to you live from Houston, Texas, home
to the world's largest medical center.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Bunch phase everything, looking time.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is Your Health First, the most beneficial health program
on radio with doctor Joe Bellotti. During the next hour,
you'll learn about health, wellness and the prevention of disease.
Now here's your host, doctor Joe Bellotti.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, a good Sunday evening to everybody. I am doctor
Joe Galotti, and you're tuned into your Health First every
single Sunday between the hour of seven and eight pm
of course Central time. We're broadcasting out of Houston, Texas
on our flagship radio station seven forty k T and
(01:01):
around the country and around the globe on the iHeartRadio app.
So there should never ever be an excuse to say, Hey,
I'm traveling, or I'm out of town, or I'm out
of the country that you can't catch our program every
single Sunday between seven and a PM. And our mission
from the very very beginning of when we started this program,
(01:24):
which was in two thousand and three, it is to
make you better consumers of healthcare. You hear me say
this all the time, and you may say, look, this
guy's a broken record. But the key fact here is
if you become a better consumer of healthcare, which means
(01:44):
you understand or you're able to read all of the
information that is published in newspapers, heard on the radio podcast,
all of this information that's being thrown at you, you
are a or discerning consumer to understand to say, now,
wait a second, this actually might be interesting. I need
(02:08):
to pay attention or this just sounds like utter garbage
and I need to discount it and not sort of
get sucked into a health movement that really is not
founded in any sort of research or practicality. The other
thing is being a good consumer is you know, consumers
(02:33):
think that oh you're you know, you're buying something or
there's some sort of a transaction. I think being a
better consumer may also mean better understanding how your body works.
What does your heart do, what does your lung do,
what does your liver do, your kidneys? What are the
(02:54):
signs and symptoms of something going wrong with your neurologic system,
your balance, your breathing, your heart, your circulation, and also
knowing your risk factors. What you know sitting there right now,
wherever you are, you're in your car, you're in your kitchen,
(03:14):
you're in your study, wherever it may be, you have
to have a pretty good idea what are your risk
factors for certain diseases and conditions. For those that are
good consumers of healthcare, they know right off the bat
(03:35):
because they have high blood pressure, they're at risk for stroke,
because their mother had colon cancer and their uncle had
colon cancer, and let's say their older sister had multiple
colon polyps. Well, you know what, you are at risk
for colorectal cancer and you need to change up your
(03:57):
strategy a little bit. So that is what being a
better consumer of healthcare. And I would say, look, you know,
reach out to me and share with me what you
think you're doing to be a better consumer of healthcare.
(04:19):
I really do think this is this is really a
two way show. Yes, I am here broadcasting and you
dial in, but you need to be able to reach
back out to me. And so how do you reach
back out to doctor Joe Galotti. Well, the easiest thing
is go to our website doctor Joe Galotti dot com,
d R J O E G A L A t
I dot com and on the homepage there there are
(04:44):
a few tabs. One is says contact us and click
it send me a message. It comes right to my inbox,
but you have to go there, Doctor Joeglotti dot com.
Second thing is a lot of people ask me how
to stay in touch. Which the best thing is signing
up for our weekly newsletter. It comes out every Saturday.
(05:07):
Occasionally we push it to Sunday like today. But on
the website, which I am pulling up right now, so
I do not This is live radio, doctor John Galani
dot com. Hang on a second, I can't even spell
my name g A l a ti dot com. Okay,
(05:29):
So when you go there on the homepage, you're able
to click the button that says subscribe, and that subscription
will allow you to receive our newsletter. And the newsletter
we talk about everything health and wellness. This week we
(05:51):
talked about I shared with everybody a very detailed review
on food processors. With the holidays coming up, you may
be wanting a food processor yourself, give it to one
of your kids or family member. But we talk about food, nutrition, exercise,
latest fad stuff like that. But doctor Joegalotti dot com.
(06:16):
A little later in the program, we're going to be
talking about some interesting stories and articles that have been
in the news this week, and again some of them
are very good that you should have a knowledge on
both good and bad, so we'll be sharing that with you.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You know.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
The other thing is just getting back to the being
a better consumer. My role here on the radio, my
role on social media in a sense. And I look
at the radio here as a form of social media.
We are communicating with all of you, were communicating with
(07:02):
the public, and certainly people that are interested in health
and wellness sort of gravitate to this program. But the
greatest thing is when I am out and about and
I meet people, and it's not exactly like people know
me by sight, but they may know the name. And
I've been places where they say, you know, I know
(07:26):
that voice, and I come from very humble, humbled background,
and I am really sort of laugh to myself that,
you know, people may recognize your voice from the radio,
or they're just familiar with the program and they see,
(07:46):
you know, if I'm writing something down or they ask
what my name is, They're like, oh, you the guy
on the radio, And I'm like, yes, I am. I
hope you like it. If you don't like it, I
am not that guy at somebody else. But anyway, the
joy that I get in realizing that we are able
to communicate to a much broader audience. And people ask
(08:09):
me all the time, especially my medical colleagues. Other physicians
are like, you know, it takes a lot of time,
and every Sunday for twenty two years, you're doing this.
And I tell them that number one, I don't look
at this as work. Number two, I look at it
as an absolute joy. And number three I look at
it to and I tell them that when I am
(08:32):
seeing a patient one on one, it's me and you,
or maybe me you and your spouse, or a kid
or a friend in the exam room and we are talking,
I can only influence one person when we're talking about
their disease. But when you expand it to the radio
and social media, you're able to touch many more people.
(08:56):
Because I see the good that we do in our practice,
me and my nurse practitioners and pas and rest of
our team, the absolute good that we do. And if
you could multiply this, the radio is a force multiplier
for getting news and information and educating our patients, but
(09:20):
also the consumers. Because find nothing I'll say before we
take a break, care the vast majority of the disease
is that we see on a day to day basis
in the hospital, in the clinic, and what you yourselves
are witnessing first hand that you are dealing with. Just
look at your medicine cabinet. How many pills are you taking.
(09:44):
It is a result of chronic progressive disease, much of
which eighty to eighty five percent could have been either
reduced or prevented with lifestyle interventions. And so that is
very powerful and realizing that the improvement we could make
(10:07):
in all of your lives is absolutely astounding. It is
absolutely great, and you have more control over your health
destiny than you really may appreciate you. So, all right,
we're gonna take a quick break. I'm doctor Joe Galotti.
As I said earlier, doctor Joegalotti dot Com is our website.
You could send me a message. I do want to
(10:28):
hear from you. You could also off the website pick
up a copy of my book Eating Yourself Sick, available
on Amazon. All right, stay tuned, we'll be right back.
Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for tuning in. I'm doctor Joe Galotti.
Your radio or smart device, which we have to say nowadays,
(10:48):
is tuned into your health first every Sunday between seven
and a pm Central Time. And as I was talking
about earlier in the program, our goal, our mission is
to make me better consumers of healthcare and to raise
your health IQ. Raise your health IQ. That's what we
(11:10):
are all about. Doctor Joeglotti dot com is our website,
Doctor Joeglotti dot com and you could sign up for
our newsletter. All of our social media is there be
it YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and of course links to my practice,
Liver Specialists of Texas. That is our practice. We take
(11:35):
care of people with liver disease, digestive disorders, cirrhosis, fatty liver,
all sorts of liver related ailments, alcohol related liver disease,
liver transplant, liver cancer. So you can either way. You
could send me a message through the doctor Joegalotti dot
(11:56):
com website or through a practice website. It all comes
to the same person, me and my team and we
will help you out as best we can. Doctor Joegalotti
dot com. Are right, So in the news, I like
to scour the news and sort of fill you in
(12:19):
on some of the things that are going on. Articles
that you may have seen, things that you may say, gee,
it's interesting, but this really doesn't really apply to me,
and so this is a chance here where I'm able
to go through things and fill in some of the
blanks for you. All Right, The first article was published
(12:42):
in I think it was the Washington Post, but I'm
going to post these on the Facebook page. All right,
So go to the doctor Joeglotti dot com and the
Facebook page. The first one, the title is the gender
gap and heart Disease Research treatment leaves Women behind. And
we've talked about this a lot over the years, how
(13:02):
several things. Heart disease in men is very different than
heart disease in women. A little fun fact, women are
more likely to die after a first heart attack or
stroke than men. The other thing that we always want
to talk about and sort of ring home to everybody,
is that women are also more likely to have additional
(13:26):
or different heart attack symptoms. Instead of the crushing chest
pain that radiates up to your neck and goes down
your left arm, which we've all been taught that this
is a sign of a heart attack, women have much
more nausea, dizziness, fatigue, just as general abdominal discomfort, which
(13:51):
could be blown off as indigestion, you ate too many
Tamali's last night, you're constipated, you've got gas, you've got
acid ref and all of that delays getting people, the
women into the healthcare system calling nine eleven, nine to
one one. Uh. So you have to keep aware of that.
(14:12):
The other thing is, if a woman has type two diabetes,
her risk of heart attack accelerates to be equivalent to
that of men, even if the woman with diabetes has
not yet gone through menopause. Okay, keep in mind, heart attack, stroke,
and other forms of cardio cardiovascular disease are still the
(14:38):
leading cause of death for all people, both men and women.
And so I think what you have to do is
again being a good consumer, realizing that if you are
a woman, or you're taking care of your mom or
your sister and they start having some of these unusual
pains and you're like, gee, could be heart attack. It
(15:01):
sounds more like acid reflox. You should take you know,
a Tom's or a may Lox or a zantac. It
could be the heart. So that is the message. Women
and heart disease are different, yet the risk of something
bad happening remains quite real. Now. The other next article
(15:21):
This comes from Yahoo. Five fruit myths. Now what kind
of myths can be surrounding the poor fruits? Okay, five
fruit myths. Dietitians want you to stop believing, including that
it's bad for you because it contains sugar. So again
(15:42):
this article I'm going to post on the Facebook page.
But the first myth number one, fruit isn't healthy because
it contains sugar. Well, that is a lot of boloney. Yes,
it has sugar, but you're eating the fruit with fiber,
you're getting other phytronutrients. The fiber in the fruit is
(16:06):
not going to be absorbed as quickly as a processed
food such as a cake or a donut. And we
also know that the fiber in the fruit, So don't
let the sugar thing get in the way. You're eating
the fruit because it has all of these added fhitro nutrients,
(16:29):
So do not get too hung up on the sugar
part of it. You do need sugar for energy and metabolism,
but there's so much more besides sugar that shouldn't get
in the way. The other thing is that berries are
healthier than other fruit. Now, while berries, you know, they
(16:51):
really do steal the spotlight for their sort of low sugar,
high fiber, and anti oxigen contact. That doesn't mean that
they're the only fruit. For fruits that really are worth your
love and attention. They quote here that saying just eating
two gold kiwi fruit a day has been shown to
(17:12):
help relieve constipation, while mangos provide copper and foliate. So again,
you want this whole sort of rainbow of fruit that
you're going to eat. Number three, canned fruit is less
nutritious than fresh or frozen. Totally debunked. These are equally nutritious,
So don't be afraid to eat canned fruit. Now you
(17:34):
have to be careful how they are packed. Are they
packed with a lot of sugar? You may want to
get the ones that are just packed in water mith
Number four, fruit should not be eaten on an empty stomach. Again,
I never heard where that came from, but there is
nothing wrong with eating fruit on an empty stomach. The body.
(17:54):
The body is designed to digest and absorb the nutrients
regarding what you eat it with, so don't worry about that.
And then the last one, number five, which is probably
the most the most readily discussed and is a myth.
Avoid fruit if you have diabetes so experts will certainly
(18:15):
say people with diabetes can enjoy fruit just like everybody else.
The natural sugar in the fruit doesn't mean it will
cause a rapid rise in blood sugar. Fruit provides a
natural sweet treat for those with diabetes and should be
enjoyed daily. In fact, a recent meta analysis, which is
(18:36):
basically a large number of research studies that are all
sort of analyzed together, found that higher fruit intake was
linked to lower fasting blood sugar levels in those with diabetes.
So again, all these somewhat crazy ideas, you need to
get to the source, become a good student, become a
(18:58):
good consumer, and realize that having fruit in your diet
is a key part of wellness. All right, we're going
to take a break. News, weather, and traffic are coming up. Now,
stay tuned. I'm doctor Joe Glotti. We'll bright back. Welcome back, everybody,
Doctor Joe Glotti. Thanks for spending a little bit of
your weekend with us. We're here every Sunday between seven
(19:20):
and eight pm bringing you the best in health and wellness.
We try to filter it. We have a team of
people that review articles, send information to me, and we
try to give you the information that is really very
relevant to all of you. We don't try to get
too esoteric and off the grid on things that you
(19:44):
may never hear of or things that are so ridiculous,
but it really is things that we could use immediately.
And I like to say that listening to this program
is going to give you actionable information that you could
hear it right now and make a decision, make an intervention,
and do something positive for yourself. Now. The you know,
(20:06):
the last article we were talking about with regard to
fruit and these various myths that were associated with it,
there is a sense that we are criminalizing certain foods
that we eat, especially fruit, and people worry about I'm
(20:27):
going to get overweight and I'm going to get fat.
Don't eat fruit. I have diabetes, don't eat fruit. Well,
what is the alternative? Many of you, in maybe fear
or out of not knowing, or just out of really
sheer ignorance not knowing, you're eating some other sugar free,
(20:53):
diabetic controlled food, which is number one, stripped of fiber,
stripped of real God given nutrients, all kinds of artificial
stuff in it that our body was not meant to
handle or process. All right, So think about it. On
(21:13):
one end, you say no, no, no, I'm not going
to eat those berries because I have diabetes, I'm overweight,
my bleecher is going to go crazy. But at the
same time, you have absolutely no qualms buying into this
consumerism of buying processed, man made food. I call it
(21:34):
Frankenstein food. This is stuff that's made in a laboratory.
It's made in a laboratory. It there's nothing natural about this.
So just really do try to keep all of this
in context and look at your habits. And it's okay
to say to yourself, you know what, I got this
one wrong. I should increase the amount of fruit that
(21:55):
I need. All Right, more articles to talk about, and
as had mentioned before, we're going to post these on
the Facebook page again website doctor Joeglotti dot com. All right,
so this one has to do with standing and a
lot of effort really has been placed on these standing desks. Okay,
(22:18):
some people in my own office have a standing workstation,
and there is this general concept that man standing is
fantastic for my health, and so I need to get
on that standing bandwagon. All right. So this is a
an article that was just published the International Journal of epidemiology,
(22:42):
And the bottom line is they suggest that prolonged standing
may not offer as much in the way of health
benefits and raise the risk of what they call orthostatic
circulatory disease. And so here once again we have to
proceed with some caution and understanding what the benefit is
(23:06):
and what the downfall is. So standing, although it is
not associated with a higher risk of having heart disease
or heart attack, it was not associated with lowering the risk, okay.
And so what they say in the article is that
more time spent standing, and I'll say standing still was
(23:28):
associated with a higher risk of circulatory conditions, okay. And
I'll tell you what they are in a second. So
orthostatic circulatory disease. You may not have heard this. It's
really not the most common thing you'll talk about. It
includes orthostatic hypotension where when people stand up, their blood
(23:51):
pressure drops and they get a little light headed and
they just don't feel that well, as well as Verico's veins. Now,
Verico's veins over time can be quite problematic for people. Now,
what they found with regard to the risk of sitting, okay,
(24:12):
sitting for more than ten hours per day increase both
cardiovascular and orthostatic risk. For every hour of sitting above
ten hours, cardiovascular disease risk increased by fifteen percent and
orthostatic disease risk increased by twenty six percent. So really
(24:32):
what they're getting at is this sedentary behavior, which includes
both standing and sitting without movement. That is the key.
If you're just standing still and not moving, you're not
really doing much for yourself, and so that is the key.
(24:53):
So after two hours of standing every day, after two
hours of standing every day, every addition thirty minutes was
associated with an eleven percent increased risk of orthostatic disease.
So it's not sitting or standing, it is the lack
of movement or continuous, uninterrupted sedentary behavior. So standing certainly
(25:21):
is better than sitting down. But I and I would
say most would agree that there's an increased risk of
cardiovascular disease risk if you're just sitting versus standing. But
it is the movement that is the key thing. So
(25:42):
I would say standing is better than sitting. But now,
how do you offset this sedentary behavior? This is this
is the root of so much evil that we see
from a healthcare standpoint. Now, keep in mind some statistics here.
According to the CDC, about one in four American city
for more than eight hours a day, and the average
(26:04):
US citizen sits between six point five to eight hours
a day. That is a hell of a lot of
time on your butt and it's not good. So ways
to get around this sedentary behavior while working? Okay? Number one,
use a treadmill desk desk, So a treadmill desk, you're standing,
but you're also moving. Number two, change your position at
(26:27):
regular intervals using a convertible sit to stand desk. Okay.
Number three, set an alarm reminding you to get up
and move around every hour. Be active at work i e.
Getting phone calls while walking or walking around to meetings. Okay,
(26:47):
other things getting up and walking for coffee, walking for lunch,
or incorporate chores like laundry or things outside through the
day to prevent you from being sedentary. So I think
the bottom line here is, do not think you have
a stand up desk that it is some panacea for
(27:13):
taking good care of yourself. Yes, it is better than sitting,
but you're not really getting that big bang for your
buck by just standing at your desk. You have to
move period. End of story. All right. The next study
has to do with our friend ozempic and the GLP
(27:36):
one drugs that are out there. You know that they're
all being used for weight loss, they are for diabetes
and blood sugar control. Well, this is a very very
fascinating story, and I think it is really worth all
of you knowing about this because I would think in
the months and years to come, you're going to hear
(27:58):
a lot more about this. And so when you look
at these drugs, these GLP one agonist drugs, yes, they
were originally marketed for diabetes control, and now with the
weight loss benefit that you're all so familiar with, they
are finding that it cuts down on the risk of
(28:20):
heart disease and heart failure that these you know, it
really is pretty amazing and you almost have to wonder
where is the health benefit of these drugs going to end.
It seems like it's helping so much. So. Now, this
is a new article that was published this past week
(28:41):
in the journal Addiction, and what they did was they
analyzed five hundred thousand people with a history of opioid
use disorder, of which about eight thousand of these people
were taking a weight loss drug such as ozepic or
one of the ozempic lookalike drugs, And what they found
(29:06):
is that when you're taking ozempic, it can cut drug
and alcohol abuse by up to fifty percent, which which
just further is mind blowing, adding to the mounting evidence
that this drugs yield health benefits way before, way beyond
(29:29):
diabetes and weight loss. And so in the study of
these half a million people, five hundred thousand people, eight
thousand of the opioid users, okay, we're taking one of
the GLP one drugs such as Manjaro or ozempic, and
(29:53):
the study found that when they were on this drug,
they had a forty percent lower rate of epoid overdose
compared to those that did not take it. Okay, pretty
pretty amazing. In a similar analysis of fifty six hundred
people out of the half a million with a history
(30:15):
of alcohol use disorder and who took the drug right,
they had a fifty percent lower rate of intoxication compared
to those that did not take it. So now we're
opening up a whole new chapter in the use of
these GLP one drugs to say, if you have alcohol
(30:37):
use disorder, should you be on a GOLP one agonist.
Will this reduce your risk of intoxication? And how it
works with your brain and the addiction center in your
body is probably not fully ironed out. Same thing for
those with opioid dependent and type problems. They're also looking
(31:03):
at the use of semiglutide for the treatment of Alzheimer's. Again,
how does this all neurologically work in your brain? I
think there is a lot more to look at, and
for all of you as consumers, it's something that you
probably should be aware of. All right, final segment coming
(31:27):
up Doctor Joe Galotti and our website is doctor Joglotti
dot com. Stay tuned more health and wellness news in
just a minute. Final segment of this week's Your Health First.
We hear every Sunday between seven and eight pm Central Time,
And don't forget if you're traveling. You want to share
this content with your friends, family, co workers, pen pals
(31:50):
across the globe. We're available on the iHeartRadio app. End
of course, if you go to doctor Joglotti dot com,
we have podcast replays of the program, But for Pete's sakes,
you have to go to doctor Joegalotti dot com. Signer
for our newsletter. Pick up a copy of my book
(32:11):
eating Yourself Sick, Be a better consumer, Raise your health IQ.
That is our mantra. All right, for the final six
or seven minutes tonight, and again, as we're sitting here
Sunday evening and it's almost eight o'clock Central time, winding down,
(32:35):
maybe you're watching a little baseball tonight, do think what
am I going to do this week for myself? Do
I have an exercise schedule? Am I going to walk
for an hour Monday after work? Or is Monday the
day I go to the gym and do a little
strength training? Am I going to ride my bike? Am
(32:57):
I going to go on the treadmill? What about the
food you're going to eat? Do you need to sit
now and make a little bit of a shopping list
for yourself to make sure that you have the fresh
fish that you need, a few different vegetables, the condiments,
the fruits and vegetables, like we talked about early in
(33:18):
the program. So do make it a conscious effort to
think about that. So in the final segment here, you
know a lot of people that I see, especially my patients,
they want to try and work out, They try to exercise.
(33:41):
But I would say that after a certain point in
your life, it is going to be far more efficient
and far more helpful if you get connected with a
personal trainer to help you in that training process. Now,
(34:03):
unless you are an absolute student of physiology of the
human body, how the joints and the muscles and the
tendons all work together, it's going to be a bit
more difficult for you. And so I would think that
(34:24):
while it may be a little bit of an investment
to pay for a personal trainer, many times, and I
know from personal experience, you can get a personal trainer
and get a bit of a discount. When you go
with one or two other people and you have a
(34:45):
one hour session that is divided up by three people,
you'll get a little bit of attention. They'll tell you
to do an exercise, then they'll work with somebody else,
and then they'll come back to you. Because the main
thing as we all get older, it is we are
losing muscle, we are losing strength, we are losing flexibility,
(35:12):
and we are losing balance. And I think when you
add all of those things up, if you are not
paying attention to the muscle mass that you may be
losing and the strength that you're losing which will result
(35:34):
in you know, lower bone density, and if you do fall,
god forbid, you're going to break your hip or your shoulder,
your arm, or your wrist. And the improved stability and balance, Okay,
you need that joint mobility and strength, and so it
is important to think about, you know, getting connected with
(35:58):
a personal trainer. Now, a lot of the commercial gems
that we all go to, we're talking about YMCA, Lifetime Fitness,
Crunch Planet Fitness, Okay, amongst many others, they have opportunities
for a personal trainer, or in many cases you could
(36:21):
maybe get into a group training class that we'll talk
about flexibility and strength and maybe they'll focus on your
back muscles, your legs, your thighs, your arms, your chest.
So it's really really very important and you know, really
I look at it from a scientific standpoint when you
(36:44):
look at overall survival, there is no doubt that when
you have maintained strength, flexibility and balance, your life expectancy
is better. But also something that we talked about, and
we've talked about this before, life span. So that you
(37:05):
may be living to sixty five, seventy five, eighty five,
ninety five, but the life span is the quality of
life that you are up and around, You are taking
care of yourself, You are able to drive around, you
go shopping for yourself, you go on vacation without much assistance.
So we're looking not only for life expectancy, we're looking
(37:26):
for life span and that's going to come with having
that strength and flexibility and balance. So it is important.
But I would say getting a trainer for at least
twice a week is something that you probably need to
invest in, and I would highly highly recommend it. And
(37:47):
wherever you go, work out, find out and ask and say, Look,
it doesn't matter if you're seventy years old, you have
every right in the world, if not more, to get
a personal trainer. All right. That is going to wrap
it up for me and all of you and our
your health first team here this evening. Don't forget doctor
Joeglotti dot com is our website. We do want to
(38:10):
hear from you. Send me an email. Anything that's on
your mind is of value to me and we try
to share it back with all of you. So until
next Sunday evening, have a great rest of the rest
of the night, and have a really, really helpful and
happy week. Ahead,