March 22, 2026 • 39 mins
Dr. Galati starts the program with a story about a conversation he had with this finance guy after buying a new car this past week. He has Amy McGorry join to share her story of liver disease. She tells us about the journey of having autoimmune hepatitis and primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). Dr. Galati also spends a few minutes on the misunderstanding the role of alcohol has on liver transplant.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
In life sequence.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Coming to you live from Houston, Texas, home to the
world's largest medical center in the approach.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Phase everything looking at.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is your Health First, the most beneficial health program
on radio with doctor Joe Gillotti. During the next hour,
you'll learn about health, wellness and the provention of disease.
Now here's your host, doctor Joe Bellotti.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well to find Sunday evening to everybody, Doctor Joe Gillotti,
thanks for tuning in. Marvelous weekend here in the greater
Houston area, and I think that you can sort of
get the taste of spring now. There are still some
(01:08):
parts of the country that are still cold, stormy, but
the Gulf Coast h it's perfect. Got up to the
eighties on Saturday and you couldn't could not ask for
better weather to get outside, enjoy life, exercise. It really
(01:31):
was heaven. So to partake in our program, your Hell First.
Our website is doctor Joe Galotti dot com, d R
J O E G A L A T I dot com.
And when you get there, son a Friend newsletter, all
of our social media is there. You could send us
(01:52):
a message and participate in the program. So let's see
interesting thing happened to me. Now, by the way, we
have somebody that I was introduced to through a friend
(02:13):
of mine back on Long Island, my friend Dave. We're
going to meet in a little while. Amy mcgory. She
has rhosis autoimmune disease liver condition called PBC primary billiary colingitis.
(02:35):
She needs a liver transplant, but they're trying to work
out a living donor transplant where basically a healthy person
donates a part of their liver. The amazing thing is
that liver will grow back in six to eight weeks,
(02:57):
and so the person that receives the liver, so they're
getting half a liver. Several weeks later, you do a
follow up MRI or cat scan, the liver fills out
the right space the person that had their liver cut
out half of it. Six to eight weeks it grows back.
So it is really really quite amazing how the liver works.
(03:20):
But speaking of the liver, and Amy will be on shortly.
But speaking of the liver, so this weekend I went
and I bought a new car, my Ford F one
fifty one hundred and sixty two thousand miles just had
to be traded in. It was a good car. I
(03:42):
probably could have gotten another one hundred and sixty two
thousand miles on it, but it was time to change anyway.
So when you are sitting with the finance guy at
the dealership and you're filling out all the papers and
you're signing away your life and telling them everything about
your elf, it is occupation physician and trying to make conversation.
(04:06):
He says, oh, what kind of physician are you? And
I said, well, I take care of people with liver disease,
and very nice guy, no bones with him. And he
looked at me and he says, uh, gotta be tough
taking care of all those alcoholics. And I said, well,
not really. And he said, well, you know, all these
people that drink, they get liver disease and soorhosis. And
(04:30):
I said, would you be surprised if I told you
that only about forty nine percent of everybody that has
sorrhosis it is due to excess alcohol? And he said no,
he said, and he still kept going on, saying, well
(04:53):
it must be that they're drinking beer. And I said no, no, no, no, no.
Drop the idea that alcohol is the lone cause of cirrhosis.
Or liver disease, and I went through the notion that yes,
(05:13):
alcohol may be responsible for about fifty percent of the
cirrhosis that we see, which is scarring of the liver.
But the other ideologies, the other causes are going to
be related to fatty liver. We've talked about this a lot.
We've had experts from around Texas and around the country
(05:35):
internationally actually talking about fatty liver. And so there's also viruses,
typically hepatitis B or hepatitis C. There are autoimmune diseases
similar to what this person Amy mcgory has, that we're
going to be talking with shortly. Things that are you're
(05:57):
born with genetic disorder, too much iron in your blood,
too much copper, deficiencies of different enzymes in the blood.
So it's got nothing to do with your lifestyle, whether
you did drugs or nothing. These are things that you
were programmed to develop sort of in your DNA, if
(06:20):
you want to look at it that way. And so
it never surprises me when the general public and this
gentleman was a bright guy. For the twenty five minutes
it took to fill out all the loan papers. We
had a nice chat about politics and his family and kids.
(06:44):
But the general rank and file citizen out there really
still has the sense that if you have cirrhosis or
serious liver disease or you need a liver transplant, huh.
I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were an alcoholic,
(07:06):
but that that is part of why I'm here and
our Your Health First team is here trying to raise
your health IQ, make you a better consumer, realize that
alcohol is not the loane culprit for cirrhosis or chronic
(07:26):
liver disease. All right, we're going to take a break.
Don't forget. Go to doctor Joegalotti dot com. Down for
the newsletter. All things health are on the website. Stay tuned, well,
be right back. Welcome back everybody, doctor Joe Galotti. Every
Sunday between seven and a pm, we are here. The
(07:49):
name of the program is Your Health First. Don't forget.
Go to doctor Joegalotti dot com, sign up for our
newsletter and all things health and wellness so on the
line right now. And this is one of those stories
where a friend calls me and tells me about another friend.
(08:11):
And here we are talking with Amy mcgory from my
home state of New York. Metropolitan New York area. Amy,
welcome to the program and to share your story of
liver disease and in particular a condition called autoimmune hepatitis
(08:32):
and another condition that you have primary billiary colingitis or
known as PBC. Amy, thanks for coming on and really
just sharing your story.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Thank you, and thanks for all the work you do
with liver disease. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, you know, it's I think at times there are
circumstances where you have a friend or a friend of
a friend and you can sort of connect with some
and it just so happens in liver disease. You have
a liver problem, and you know act as a resource
to help you and your medical team in New York.
(09:10):
So why don't you back up for everybody and just
you know, give you know, the thirty thousand foot view
of how this health issue evolved over the past couple
of decades for you.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, it was weird. I had graduated from college and
I just thought I was tired from all the studying
and all that. I thought I had mono and I
just went for a routine exam before I started my
first job, and all of a sudden, they're like, your
liver enzymes are like in the three hundreds. I was
(09:46):
like what. So then the next thing they tell me
is you have a thing called autommune hebititis where your
body's packing the liver and I'm like, oh my gosh.
So they put me on all these immunosuppressants to keep
the immunes them down, and then eventually that started to
burn itself out. So I thought I was in the
you know, clear. I was like, oh, this is awesome.
(10:08):
And then unfortunately my original liver doctor had moved to Massachusetts,
so I had to go look for a new one.
So I found a great one in New York and
they did a biopsy obviously, just to follow up make
sure everything was thorough. And then they're like, you have
another type of condition like which is an overlap condition
(10:30):
often seen with automune heptizes called the PBC right it,
And they you know, I took this one medication to
ursa dial I think, or sodio or whatever, and it
was great. I made sure I didn't drink, I watched
what I ate, I worked out. I was holding two
jobs as a news reporter, health reporter and a physical therapist, functioning,
(10:54):
and I thought I had it always contained. It was
always in the back of my head like, oh God,
I never wanted to liver transfer, and I'm just oh God,
never let that happen to me. And everything was doing,
it was okay, and then about six months ago, all
of a sudden, just boom, this thing reared its head
out of the blue. I passed out, wound up in
(11:14):
an er and they're like, your hemoglobe in is half
of what it should be, and had to go through
blood transfusions, iron transfusions, and they're trying to figure out
what was going on Christmas. And then this last event
I was really scary, and this is when I passed
out again, wound up in a hospital and they transferred
(11:36):
me to the other hospital in New York and they're like,
you need a liver transplant.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Wow. I was like, yeah, pretty devastating. Now, in the
years that you were dealing with what you thought was
a stable disease really not causing too many problems, were
you in any way different in the way you looked
at your health to say, I have to make sure
I exercise, I'm taking my medicines, and I'm eating right,
(12:04):
and I'm listening to my body. Were you a little
bit more dialed in or was it more of you know,
everything is quiet. I know it's there. I'll go to
the doctor a couple of times a year and just
live life. Or was it on the you know, was
it on the front page of your mind every day?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, that's that's a good question. You've nailed it. I
it was every morning. I would it was on my
front line, like every day, like I feel a little
more vigilant. And I'd look at like, look one. Socially,
you couldn't drink, so people automatically are like, oh, why
doesn't she drink? Does she have a problem like this?
I'm like, no, I just you know, you know that
(12:46):
was weird, you know, so socially, especially in your twenties,
they're like, why is that person not drinking?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right? Right?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
But it was and I had to It was always
every day something would trip me where I'd be like, man,
this thing is scary. And I was able to eventually
compartmentalize it when I started to get into broadcasting, because
I found if I could be creative, if I could
do something that I really loved, and you have to
(13:12):
be in the moment, which is anchoring news or being
on a story. It allowed me to escape for a
little bit. And that's why I think. I just love
that and it does give you an appreciation for things,
and it did make you follow a regiment. I wasn't
one of these like I'm tired, I don't feel like
working out. It was like, no, you have to go
(13:33):
to the gym, right, you need to?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And were you were you symptomatic? Were you tired and
run down? Which was more of a reminder that, g
I'm tired, or I have to take a nap or
I can't stay out late.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, I now hindsight, like one of the doctors had
talked me through and he said, do you still have
the energy that you used to have? And I thought, well,
now I'm just getting older. He's like, no, think about that.
And I remember when I had COVID. I literally grabbed
a jump rope and I was jumping rope just to
make sure that the lungs with option. So I mean
(14:08):
I had the energy during COVID to jump rope for
five minutes. I was like, no, no, But now we're
talking five years later or whatever, since that pandemic. Six
years later, I started realizing, man, I've been slowing down
even when I was trying to work out, or if
people will be like, oh, just come out for dinner,
or I started noticing like, you know, I just don't
(14:29):
have the energy to go out tonight.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Just yeah, be on.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
So it's yeah, it's frustrating.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You never realize that, right, And you know, the one
thing is with the disease PBC primary biliary colangitis, the
hallmark of it is fatigue. And it sounds like it
eventually caught up with you. The fatigue.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
It did, And it's crazy because I used to have
to get up at three am to go anchor morning
news and I and then I do twelve hour shifts
in PT. I was great, but the fatigue caught me,
Like it's awful, and it's frustrating because you want to
be productive member of society. I still work, but now
(15:14):
I started isolating more and I and that's the worst
because then you start to feel like you're the only
like alone. And when you're then your head goes nutting
because then you're like, oh my gosh, I got this disease.
I'm alone. Oh God, what's you know? I'm all these
people are out having a good time. What was Maty.
Then you're drinking a bunch of coffee just to stay up.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Right. Now, what is your support system like with regard
to family, friends, relatives in the area.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah, I'm lucky. I mean, I'm from a big Irish
Catholic family and so, you know, it was funny. As
soon as I was in that hospital, it wasn't. The
doctors came in to meet and all of a sudden,
the next thing you know, they're like, whoa, there's like
ten people all around my bed. Yeah, you know, and
I'm like, we'll meet my family because this is they're
all going to need to hear this anyway.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right, It's more like a flash mob that shows up, right. Really, Yeah, no,
I've seen that certainly a lot. So you're you're you know,
you're you're you're going along. You are trying to be
mindful of your health. You're doing the right thing.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
You know, you're in physical therapy and so you know
the ins and outs of exercising and and staying in shape.
But then all of a sudden, the doctor springs on you. Uh, hey, Amy,
it's time for a liver transplant. How much of a
how much of a rock your world? You know? Element
is that?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, that that made it was like so.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Many pulled the carpet out from other Sure, and like
I'm usually very positive, Like my sister always make fun
of me.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
They're like, you're like a female ted lass out, you know,
but I turned into.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
A major ere Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
It took me two weeks to kind of Like first
I was just like, no, who are these people? You
guys are just trying to push you guys are surgeon
So that's how you physical therapists deal with it, like
we don't. We try to avoid surgery, so right, I
was no. So I just two weeks I literally felt
like you know, you feel like you're going through the
(17:31):
spinning of a tunnel. The world starts spinning and I
just crying at the drop of a hat, like I
lost all controls, started having panic attacks. Sure, they explained
to me, they're like, because you no longer have control,
And it was awful. So I waited two weeks, just
started praying and praying, and then I thought, all right,
(17:52):
time out, why is this happening to me? So and
pissed off, like look I'm mad. I'm like I'm not
sitting here drinking my face off, like this. Immediately, people
are like, well, she'd drink her I'm like, no, and
I'm not eating a bunch of fatty food. Sure I
have a donut. I do like donuts, but I would
have to have a donut and keep the sugars low.
But I'm angry. I was really angry. But then I thought,
(18:16):
all right, well, what can I do to make good
out of this and help? You know, it sounds so cliche,
but I'm like, well, let me try to get the
word out because there's people like me who don't have
the support system or who don't know who to call
or what to do.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
All right, Amy, if you could just hold that point
right there, We're going to take a quick break for
everybody tuning in. We're with Amy McGorty from New York
talking about her to Live a disease journey. I'm dot
to Joglotti. Will be back in a minute. Welcome back everybody,
doctor jo Galotti. Every Sunday between seven and eight pm,
(18:54):
we're here. The name of the program is Your Health First.
You can reach out to me at doctor Joe Galotti
dot com. That's where you need to go. Sign up
for our newsletter all Things health and wellness related and
on the line, we've been talking with Amy mcgory, very
(19:16):
wonderful person that has chronic liver disease zorosis, autoimmune disease
that is looking at a liver transplant right now when
we're talking with her about her disease and the process
and her journey. Picking up on the conversation that we
(19:37):
were discussing before the break, there are several items here
to outline. One is you had mentioned the doctors told
you you had soorosis and right away, and I'm making
a little bit more out of this, you said, well,
I'm not a drinker, and I think what where the
(19:57):
public gets a little bit messed up is that they
think when you talk about liver disease and or cirrhosis,
there is that almost a stigma that you must have
been an alcoholic a drug addict, and that only those
type of people get liver disease. And that is a
(20:18):
big misservice to our community where we have to get
the word out that livid disease is pervasive, there is
a lot of it, and getting cirrhosis is not related
to alcohol use. So now that you are a patient
with cirrhosis and needing a liver transplant. What do you
say to those out there that have liver disease and
(20:42):
they still sort of live behind this almost stigma of
liver disease.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Yeah, I say to them, one, you have to talk
about it, because it's so crazy how many people have
reached out to me like, hey, I have that disease too,
Oh my god, like, and they've been afraid to talk
about it because of that stigma. And then the second
thing what I tell them is, hey, look at this.
We're seeing what's going on with fatty livers. We're seeing
(21:09):
with the GLP ones how they're helping. So many people
are on them now for like fatty liver disease. The
sense like one doctor told me, he goes, you know,
it's not really necessary. We're seeing the bad livers from alcohol,
now we're seeing it from bad eating food.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
So I'm hoping that maybe through all this research and
all this money, everybody now is targeting in on the
GLP ones and fatty liver, which is good because maybe.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
This will somehow help with Maybe this will somehow help
with people looking at the bile ducts and PBCs. Because
I've gotten I've chosen, I'm not chosen. I have the
worst liver disease to pick. It's nobody talks about it.
You don't see a bunch of pharmaceuticals spending money to
look into that. They're all like, at first it was
(21:59):
the hepsia, and now we got a cure for that,
thank God. Yes, but now we got the golp ones,
and everybody's like, all right, that's great. There's a lot
of focus, there's a lot of attention. Somebody needs to
look at the BBC because I feel like it's a
step child of liver disease.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
No, I think it is. There's nothing too sexy about
PBC in particular, and.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
He's the full name. We have to use appreciations because
I can't.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Even say I know, no, no, no, I know. And
the other thing before we before we go. You know,
now you're not only liver transplant, but the idea of
a live liver donor where somebody will give a a
lobe of their liver to a donor, uh to a
(22:43):
recipient like you. What is that process going through with
your family and relatives in New York.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
It's it's tough because I think a lot of people
don't realize and I just learned this that liver donors, yes,
we take, like you said, a lobe of your liver
or a portion of your liver or whatever it is,
but that the donor's liver, they told me, can grow
back up to one hundred percent within two to three months.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yes, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
So many people thought like, oh what. Literally I had
somebody who sent me a social media post which was
so nasty. It says, oh, so what I have to
walk around with a hole in my liver to help you?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
And I'm crazy.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
You know, you get some crazy remarks and some and
then you know that's the thing. Anytime I tell anybody,
I'm like, listen, it's good in that you're saving a life,
and hey, your liver will go back and a lot
of living donors live, according to the doctors, normally healthy,
normal healthy. So what a wonderful thing. And and it's
(23:44):
great because it helps people with PBC who's the meld
scores don't really reflect the amount of deconditioning that you have.
That's been another issue they raised. So I'm I'm hoping
and praying that more people will consider it. You can
save a life and and your liver grows back.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yes, it is, you know, it's amazing where Yeah, like
you said, you take half of the liver out and
within six eight weeks if you do a follow up
cat scan or MRI, the liver grows back to the
exact space. It doesn't get it doesn't grow too much,
it grows right to the perfect size the recipient you
(24:25):
who has half of a liver, within six eight weeks,
the liver will fill that space and you have a
whole liver there. So it is really quite a miracle
what the liver could do. And again, Amy, I think
the you know we're we're here to support you, and
certainly for me here in Houston, I'm a resource. If
I could have helped you out, You've got my number now.
(24:46):
But I believe for everybody tuning in tonight, it is
an opportunity to think about your liver health. Are your
liver chemistry's normal? Have you been told you have a
fatty liver? Have you been told your enzymes are up?
Or maybe you have some sort of autoimmune disease, Because
(25:09):
liver disease really takes no prisoners. If if you don't
intervene make the diagnosis, years later, you can end up
with really advanced liver disease and it's early intervention. And
you know, stories like this Amy really help many people.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, Doc, have a quick question for you. It's a
and I've heard fantastic things about your, uh, your whole
healthcare system. And so you're you know, how the liver
can regenerate. Yes, it cannot regenerate when it hits therhosis.
So now I'm like, if you, like have been diagnosed
with something like a PBC or uto immune in the
(25:50):
early stages, then that liver can still have a chance
to regenerate.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, yes, And and you know that's the one thing
you're You're right, Amy people, For those that are sort
of interested in health, the fact that a lot of
people know is that the liver can regenerate. And so
when they show up to see me with cirrhosis, they say, well,
my liver can regenerate, right, Well. Orrhosis is the end
(26:17):
stage of months to years to decades of injury trying
to regenerate. So it is really the regeneration process that
has run its course. The final effect is that you
develop cerosis. But to answer your question, early on with
(26:39):
something like autoimmune hepatitis, with the immunosuppression, the medicine to
suppress the immune system. We certainly can see in the
earlier stages short of crhosis that when we get a
follow up biopsy a year or two later, we can
see improvement in the fibrosis. So it's a very much
(27:00):
time dependent when you get in to see us, when
you start therapy, that we can see a reversal. So,
but that is i'd like to say more theoretical and textbook.
Every patient behaves just a little bit differently. Yeah, yeah, no,
(27:21):
I know, I know, I know. Well, Amy McGrory, we
will let's let's do this. I will say, let's have
you back on in let's say a couple months, and
we'll get an update to see how you're doing, our
our New York Long Island friend, and continue to share
(27:43):
with our audience your story. So Amy, good luck, thank
you for reaching out. And like I said, we're here
as a resource for you in Texas.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Thank you. I really appreciate my friends at Texas. And
I'm laughing because you're down there in Houston. I've been
listening to Joel Olstein and yes, like every day I'm like,
come on.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yes, absolutely, all right, Amy, Well, look you stay well,
We'll stay in touch. Thank you. All right, final segment
of Your Health First coming up. Don't forget doctor Joegalatti
dot com is our website, always here to help people,
(28:25):
especially with liver disease. Stay tuned, Welcome back everybody, Thanks
for tuning in on this glorious Sunday evening. I would
say every Sunday is glorious. Now, I'd like to think
(28:46):
that on Sunday night school is still in session. And
are you know I always would use Sunday Evening. Yes,
I would do the radio program and then I would
come home. Typically when the kids were younger, I'd leave
the studio at eight Central time because it's seven to
(29:09):
eighth Central, be driving home and check in with my
wife to get a status update, a homework, B, food,
C lunch, D dinner for the week, and in the
(29:30):
short distance I had from the studio to home, we
would try to map out what was going on for Sunday,
rest of Sunday evening and then food for the week
for the kids, food for the family. And that is
something that I have talked about on the radio since
(29:52):
the inception twenty three years ago of Your Health First. Now,
if you want to use Wednesday, Friday, I don't care.
Sunday just seems like a natural pause in a sense,
you're winding up, you're getting set, you're looking into the
week ahead. But from a planning standpoint, you really, you
(30:22):
really want to pick a day out where you could
spend a half hour. It's not going to kill you
to sit down with your family, your significant other, your wife,
your husband, whoever's in the house and just playing out
the day. Because from a meal standpoint, if you don't
(30:43):
have the basic building blocks of a meal in the house,
you're stuck. You're going to go to drive through, take out,
door dash, etc. You're going to make a bad food choice.
But if you have the food you need to whip
(31:07):
up a meal, it's that much easier. So use that
time tonight every Sunday night. All right. You know, My
intention was not to turn this into a liver episode
realizing that my life is liver liver disease, but it
(31:32):
just sort of falls that way. And again I want
to thank Amy mcgory for coming on and sharing her story.
Lots of lessons to learn from her case. The other
thing I want to get at is on Friday here
in Houston in the Texas Medical Center, we hosted a
(31:58):
medical conference that was looking at transplantation predominantly liver. That's
what I'm involved in, and the role of alcohol. Now, again,
this is a topic that I've talked about in one
form or another. I have some videos on YouTube that
outline this a little bit more. But there is a
(32:21):
let me just back up while we got a few
minutes here left. There's a general consensus, and this gets
into the misunderstanding first of all, that everybody that has
zerosis who needs a transplant is an alcoholic. No, that
is not true. But when you start talking about doing
a liver transplant, a life saving surgery with, by the way,
(32:48):
limited resources, This is not Midas Muffler where you just
pull in, you pull into the shop and you say
I need a size six liver and it comes out
in a box. No, it is a scarce resource. We
do not have enough livers to serve every single person
(33:12):
that needs a liver. So what does that mean? People
are going to die waiting or they're going to not
survive the weight to get evaluated for a liver transplant.
So this gets very dicey and emotional, and people get
very high strung over this. But anyway, here in Houston
(33:32):
and other centers around the country, we have tried to
and we have not that we tried, we really did
change the paradigm on how we look at the patient
with alcohol use disorder alcoholism and transplant liver transplant. And
so we pulled together experts from around the country. A
(33:57):
terrific group came from New York and Detroit. I almost
ended up going to Detroit from a career standpoint out
of my training, I think it would have been nice.
But anyway, and local experts here in the Greater Euston
area and we got together and shared ideas, shared strategies
(34:24):
on what we do now. There is still a certain
uneasiness when you hear that somebody with alcohol use disorder,
they drank too much, develop liver disease and then they
get a liver transplant. The first thing that they say,
and this is almost universal, they did it to themselves. Okay, well, yes,
(34:49):
they drank to excess and did cause liver disease to
the point that it was life threatening and you need
a liver transplant. But there is a certain sense, be
it judgmental, be it stigma, that if you did it
to yourself. You don't deserve to get a life saving
(35:11):
transplant because you did it to yourself. You should be punished,
sit and time out, or maybe prove to everybody, prove
to society that you're going to shape up now when
it gets down to you did it to yourself. What
about the person that smokes a pack of camels every
(35:40):
day for thirty years, what do they develop? Chronic lung disease,
chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, heart disease, heart disease, and lung
disease and they need surgery, therapy, chemo. Are we going
(36:01):
to look at somebody with bad lung disease and say,
whoa stop smoking or I'm not going to give you your
nebulizer or stop smoking, and I'm not going to remove
the tumor in your lung, which by the way, could
be curative. Or the individual with really poorly controlled diabetes
(36:27):
because that didn't exercise, they ate the wrong foods and
they have heart disease, then they need a quadruple bypass.
Imagine if your relative, your brother, needed a quadruple bypass.
The surgeon comes out or the doctors and they say, look,
(36:47):
Bob really would do great with a quadruple bypass, but
because he was spotted going through the McDonald's drive through,
we're going to put him in quarantine for three months
and make sure he doesn't drive through again, and then
maybe we'll do the surgery that would never that would
(37:09):
never ever ever hold up. But yet the person that
has alcohol use disorder, alcoholism, it's a disease, are being punished.
So this conference really brought together some of the finest
people around the country that are committed to this and
(37:32):
we realize that, you know what, alcoholism is a disease.
We shouldn't punish people. We do have guidelines on how
we allocate organs predominantly livers and have fairness so that
everybody has a good success and the risk of going
(37:52):
back to severe problematic drinking is not as high as
you would think. It's really quite acceptable. But we have
to get out and open, get these people into therapy
and take care of them. So you'll probably hear more
about this. I plan on having some of my colleagues
that were at the meeting on and we could delve
(38:14):
into this a little bit, a little bit longer and deeper.
So all right, well, thanks again for tuning in tonight.
It's always a pleasure. This is the best hour of
the week for me. It's such a joy to do this.
Share ideas, raise everybody's health, IQ make you a better consumer.
(38:39):
You have to start thinking about your health. It's no accident.
When I see people that are really healthy, really taking
care of themselves, it's not a fluke. They know exactly
what they're eating, they know exactly their exercise, they get
the sleep they need, they don't abuse alcohol, they don't smoke,
(39:00):
they're happy, they've got good social networks. So it is
all all very very attainable. All right, don't forget doctor
Joeglotti dot com and we will see you next Sunday night.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
You've been listening to Your Health First with doctor Joe Glotti.
For more information on this program or the content of
this program, go to your Health First dot com.
In life sequence.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Coming to you live from Houston, Texas, home to the
world's largest medical center in the approach.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Phase everything looking at.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is your Health First, the most beneficial health program
on radio with doctor Joe Gillotti. During the next hour,
you'll learn about health, wellness and the provention of disease.
Now here's your host, doctor Joe Bellotti.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well to find Sunday evening to everybody, Doctor Joe Gillotti,
thanks for tuning in. Marvelous weekend here in the greater
Houston area, and I think that you can sort of
get the taste of spring now. There are still some
(01:08):
parts of the country that are still cold, stormy, but
the Gulf Coast h it's perfect. Got up to the
eighties on Saturday and you couldn't could not ask for
better weather to get outside, enjoy life, exercise. It really
(01:31):
was heaven. So to partake in our program, your Hell First.
Our website is doctor Joe Galotti dot com, d R
J O E G A L A T I dot com.
And when you get there, son a Friend newsletter, all
of our social media is there. You could send us
(01:52):
a message and participate in the program. So let's see
interesting thing happened to me. Now, by the way, we
have somebody that I was introduced to through a friend
(02:13):
of mine back on Long Island, my friend Dave. We're
going to meet in a little while. Amy mcgory. She
has rhosis autoimmune disease liver condition called PBC primary billiary colingitis.
(02:35):
She needs a liver transplant, but they're trying to work
out a living donor transplant where basically a healthy person
donates a part of their liver. The amazing thing is
that liver will grow back in six to eight weeks,
(02:57):
and so the person that receives the liver, so they're
getting half a liver. Several weeks later, you do a
follow up MRI or cat scan, the liver fills out
the right space the person that had their liver cut
out half of it. Six to eight weeks it grows back.
So it is really really quite amazing how the liver works.
(03:20):
But speaking of the liver, and Amy will be on shortly.
But speaking of the liver, so this weekend I went
and I bought a new car, my Ford F one
fifty one hundred and sixty two thousand miles just had
to be traded in. It was a good car. I
(03:42):
probably could have gotten another one hundred and sixty two
thousand miles on it, but it was time to change anyway.
So when you are sitting with the finance guy at
the dealership and you're filling out all the papers and
you're signing away your life and telling them everything about
your elf, it is occupation physician and trying to make conversation.
(04:06):
He says, oh, what kind of physician are you? And
I said, well, I take care of people with liver disease,
and very nice guy, no bones with him. And he
looked at me and he says, uh, gotta be tough
taking care of all those alcoholics. And I said, well,
not really. And he said, well, you know, all these
people that drink, they get liver disease and soorhosis. And
(04:30):
I said, would you be surprised if I told you
that only about forty nine percent of everybody that has
sorrhosis it is due to excess alcohol? And he said no,
he said, and he still kept going on, saying, well
(04:53):
it must be that they're drinking beer. And I said no, no, no, no, no.
Drop the idea that alcohol is the lone cause of cirrhosis.
Or liver disease, and I went through the notion that yes,
(05:13):
alcohol may be responsible for about fifty percent of the
cirrhosis that we see, which is scarring of the liver.
But the other ideologies, the other causes are going to
be related to fatty liver. We've talked about this a lot.
We've had experts from around Texas and around the country
(05:35):
internationally actually talking about fatty liver. And so there's also viruses,
typically hepatitis B or hepatitis C. There are autoimmune diseases
similar to what this person Amy mcgory has, that we're
going to be talking with shortly. Things that are you're
(05:57):
born with genetic disorder, too much iron in your blood,
too much copper, deficiencies of different enzymes in the blood.
So it's got nothing to do with your lifestyle, whether
you did drugs or nothing. These are things that you
were programmed to develop sort of in your DNA, if
(06:20):
you want to look at it that way. And so
it never surprises me when the general public and this
gentleman was a bright guy. For the twenty five minutes
it took to fill out all the loan papers. We
had a nice chat about politics and his family and kids.
(06:44):
But the general rank and file citizen out there really
still has the sense that if you have cirrhosis or
serious liver disease or you need a liver transplant, huh.
I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were an alcoholic,
(07:06):
but that that is part of why I'm here and
our Your Health First team is here trying to raise
your health IQ, make you a better consumer, realize that
alcohol is not the loane culprit for cirrhosis or chronic
(07:26):
liver disease. All right, we're going to take a break.
Don't forget. Go to doctor Joegalotti dot com. Down for
the newsletter. All things health are on the website. Stay tuned, well,
be right back. Welcome back everybody, doctor Joe Galotti. Every
Sunday between seven and a pm, we are here. The
(07:49):
name of the program is Your Health First. Don't forget.
Go to doctor Joegalotti dot com, sign up for our
newsletter and all things health and wellness so on the
line right now. And this is one of those stories
where a friend calls me and tells me about another friend.
(08:11):
And here we are talking with Amy mcgory from my
home state of New York. Metropolitan New York area. Amy,
welcome to the program and to share your story of
liver disease and in particular a condition called autoimmune hepatitis
(08:32):
and another condition that you have primary billiary colingitis or
known as PBC. Amy, thanks for coming on and really
just sharing your story.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Thank you, and thanks for all the work you do
with liver disease. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Well, you know, it's I think at times there are
circumstances where you have a friend or a friend of
a friend and you can sort of connect with some
and it just so happens in liver disease. You have
a liver problem, and you know act as a resource
to help you and your medical team in New York.
(09:10):
So why don't you back up for everybody and just
you know, give you know, the thirty thousand foot view
of how this health issue evolved over the past couple
of decades for you.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, it was weird. I had graduated from college and
I just thought I was tired from all the studying
and all that. I thought I had mono and I
just went for a routine exam before I started my
first job, and all of a sudden, they're like, your
liver enzymes are like in the three hundreds. I was
(09:46):
like what. So then the next thing they tell me
is you have a thing called autommune hebititis where your
body's packing the liver and I'm like, oh my gosh.
So they put me on all these immunosuppressants to keep
the immunes them down, and then eventually that started to
burn itself out. So I thought I was in the
you know, clear. I was like, oh, this is awesome.
(10:08):
And then unfortunately my original liver doctor had moved to Massachusetts,
so I had to go look for a new one.
So I found a great one in New York and
they did a biopsy obviously, just to follow up make
sure everything was thorough. And then they're like, you have
another type of condition like which is an overlap condition
(10:30):
often seen with automune heptizes called the PBC right it,
And they you know, I took this one medication to
ursa dial I think, or sodio or whatever, and it
was great. I made sure I didn't drink, I watched
what I ate, I worked out. I was holding two
jobs as a news reporter, health reporter and a physical therapist, functioning,
(10:54):
and I thought I had it always contained. It was
always in the back of my head like, oh God,
I never wanted to liver transfer, and I'm just oh God,
never let that happen to me. And everything was doing,
it was okay, and then about six months ago, all
of a sudden, just boom, this thing reared its head
out of the blue. I passed out, wound up in
(11:14):
an er and they're like, your hemoglobe in is half
of what it should be, and had to go through
blood transfusions, iron transfusions, and they're trying to figure out
what was going on Christmas. And then this last event
I was really scary, and this is when I passed
out again, wound up in a hospital and they transferred
(11:36):
me to the other hospital in New York and they're like,
you need a liver transplant.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Wow. I was like, yeah, pretty devastating. Now, in the
years that you were dealing with what you thought was
a stable disease really not causing too many problems, were
you in any way different in the way you looked
at your health to say, I have to make sure
I exercise, I'm taking my medicines, and I'm eating right,
(12:04):
and I'm listening to my body. Were you a little
bit more dialed in or was it more of you know,
everything is quiet. I know it's there. I'll go to
the doctor a couple of times a year and just
live life. Or was it on the you know, was
it on the front page of your mind every day?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Yeah, that's that's a good question. You've nailed it. I
it was every morning. I would it was on my
front line, like every day, like I feel a little
more vigilant. And I'd look at like, look one. Socially,
you couldn't drink, so people automatically are like, oh, why
doesn't she drink? Does she have a problem like this?
I'm like, no, I just you know, you know that
(12:46):
was weird, you know, so socially, especially in your twenties,
they're like, why is that person not drinking?
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Right? Right?
Speaker 4 (12:52):
But it was and I had to It was always
every day something would trip me where I'd be like, man,
this thing is scary. And I was able to eventually
compartmentalize it when I started to get into broadcasting, because
I found if I could be creative, if I could
do something that I really loved, and you have to
(13:12):
be in the moment, which is anchoring news or being
on a story. It allowed me to escape for a
little bit. And that's why I think. I just love
that and it does give you an appreciation for things,
and it did make you follow a regiment. I wasn't
one of these like I'm tired, I don't feel like
working out. It was like, no, you have to go
(13:33):
to the gym, right, you need to?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
And were you were you symptomatic? Were you tired and
run down? Which was more of a reminder that, g
I'm tired, or I have to take a nap or
I can't stay out late.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, I now hindsight, like one of the doctors had
talked me through and he said, do you still have
the energy that you used to have? And I thought, well,
now I'm just getting older. He's like, no, think about that.
And I remember when I had COVID. I literally grabbed
a jump rope and I was jumping rope just to
make sure that the lungs with option. So I mean
(14:08):
I had the energy during COVID to jump rope for
five minutes. I was like, no, no, But now we're
talking five years later or whatever, since that pandemic. Six
years later, I started realizing, man, I've been slowing down
even when I was trying to work out, or if
people will be like, oh, just come out for dinner,
or I started noticing like, you know, I just don't
(14:29):
have the energy to go out tonight.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Just yeah, be on.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
So it's yeah, it's frustrating.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
You never realize that, right, And you know, the one
thing is with the disease PBC primary biliary colangitis, the
hallmark of it is fatigue. And it sounds like it
eventually caught up with you. The fatigue.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
It did, And it's crazy because I used to have
to get up at three am to go anchor morning
news and I and then I do twelve hour shifts
in PT. I was great, but the fatigue caught me,
Like it's awful, and it's frustrating because you want to
be productive member of society. I still work, but now
(15:14):
I started isolating more and I and that's the worst
because then you start to feel like you're the only
like alone. And when you're then your head goes nutting
because then you're like, oh my gosh, I got this disease.
I'm alone. Oh God, what's you know? I'm all these
people are out having a good time. What was Maty.
Then you're drinking a bunch of coffee just to stay up.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Right. Now, what is your support system like with regard
to family, friends, relatives in the area.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah, I'm lucky. I mean, I'm from a big Irish
Catholic family and so, you know, it was funny. As
soon as I was in that hospital, it wasn't. The
doctors came in to meet and all of a sudden,
the next thing you know, they're like, whoa, there's like
ten people all around my bed. Yeah, you know, and
I'm like, we'll meet my family because this is they're
all going to need to hear this anyway.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Right, It's more like a flash mob that shows up, right. Really, Yeah, no,
I've seen that certainly a lot. So you're you're you know,
you're you're you're going along. You are trying to be
mindful of your health. You're doing the right thing.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
You know, you're in physical therapy and so you know
the ins and outs of exercising and and staying in shape.
But then all of a sudden, the doctor springs on you. Uh, hey, Amy,
it's time for a liver transplant. How much of a
how much of a rock your world? You know? Element
is that?
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Yeah, that that made it was like so.
Speaker 5 (16:48):
Many pulled the carpet out from other Sure, and like
I'm usually very positive, Like my sister always make fun
of me.
Speaker 4 (17:01):
They're like, you're like a female ted lass out, you know,
but I turned into.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
A major ere Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
It took me two weeks to kind of Like first
I was just like, no, who are these people? You
guys are just trying to push you guys are surgeon
So that's how you physical therapists deal with it, like
we don't. We try to avoid surgery, so right, I
was no. So I just two weeks I literally felt
like you know, you feel like you're going through the
(17:31):
spinning of a tunnel. The world starts spinning and I
just crying at the drop of a hat, like I
lost all controls, started having panic attacks. Sure, they explained
to me, they're like, because you no longer have control,
And it was awful. So I waited two weeks, just
started praying and praying, and then I thought, all right,
(17:52):
time out, why is this happening to me? So and
pissed off, like look I'm mad. I'm like I'm not
sitting here drinking my face off, like this. Immediately, people
are like, well, she'd drink her I'm like, no, and
I'm not eating a bunch of fatty food. Sure I
have a donut. I do like donuts, but I would
have to have a donut and keep the sugars low.
But I'm angry. I was really angry. But then I thought,
(18:16):
all right, well, what can I do to make good
out of this and help? You know, it sounds so cliche,
but I'm like, well, let me try to get the
word out because there's people like me who don't have
the support system or who don't know who to call
or what to do.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
All right, Amy, if you could just hold that point
right there, We're going to take a quick break for
everybody tuning in. We're with Amy McGorty from New York
talking about her to Live a disease journey. I'm dot
to Joglotti. Will be back in a minute. Welcome back everybody,
doctor jo Galotti. Every Sunday between seven and eight pm,
(18:54):
we're here. The name of the program is Your Health First.
You can reach out to me at doctor Joe Galotti
dot com. That's where you need to go. Sign up
for our newsletter all Things health and wellness related and
on the line, we've been talking with Amy mcgory, very
(19:16):
wonderful person that has chronic liver disease zorosis, autoimmune disease
that is looking at a liver transplant right now when
we're talking with her about her disease and the process
and her journey. Picking up on the conversation that we
(19:37):
were discussing before the break, there are several items here
to outline. One is you had mentioned the doctors told
you you had soorosis and right away, and I'm making
a little bit more out of this, you said, well,
I'm not a drinker, and I think what where the
(19:57):
public gets a little bit messed up is that they
think when you talk about liver disease and or cirrhosis,
there is that almost a stigma that you must have
been an alcoholic a drug addict, and that only those
type of people get liver disease. And that is a
(20:18):
big misservice to our community where we have to get
the word out that livid disease is pervasive, there is
a lot of it, and getting cirrhosis is not related
to alcohol use. So now that you are a patient
with cirrhosis and needing a liver transplant. What do you
say to those out there that have liver disease and
(20:42):
they still sort of live behind this almost stigma of
liver disease.
Speaker 4 (20:49):
Yeah, I say to them, one, you have to talk
about it, because it's so crazy how many people have
reached out to me like, hey, I have that disease too,
Oh my god, like, and they've been afraid to talk
about it because of that stigma. And then the second
thing what I tell them is, hey, look at this.
We're seeing what's going on with fatty livers. We're seeing
(21:09):
with the GLP ones how they're helping. So many people
are on them now for like fatty liver disease. The
sense like one doctor told me, he goes, you know,
it's not really necessary. We're seeing the bad livers from alcohol,
now we're seeing it from bad eating food.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
So I'm hoping that maybe through all this research and
all this money, everybody now is targeting in on the
GLP ones and fatty liver, which is good because maybe.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
This will somehow help with Maybe this will somehow help
with people looking at the bile ducts and PBCs. Because
I've gotten I've chosen, I'm not chosen. I have the
worst liver disease to pick. It's nobody talks about it.
You don't see a bunch of pharmaceuticals spending money to
look into that. They're all like, at first it was
(21:59):
the hepsia, and now we got a cure for that,
thank God. Yes, but now we got the golp ones,
and everybody's like, all right, that's great. There's a lot
of focus, there's a lot of attention. Somebody needs to
look at the BBC because I feel like it's a
step child of liver disease.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
No, I think it is. There's nothing too sexy about
PBC in particular, and.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
He's the full name. We have to use appreciations because
I can't.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Even say I know, no, no, no, I know. And
the other thing before we before we go. You know,
now you're not only liver transplant, but the idea of
a live liver donor where somebody will give a a
lobe of their liver to a donor, uh to a
(22:43):
recipient like you. What is that process going through with
your family and relatives in New York.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
It's it's tough because I think a lot of people
don't realize and I just learned this that liver donors, yes,
we take, like you said, a lobe of your liver
or a portion of your liver or whatever it is,
but that the donor's liver, they told me, can grow
back up to one hundred percent within two to three months.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yes, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
So many people thought like, oh what. Literally I had
somebody who sent me a social media post which was
so nasty. It says, oh, so what I have to
walk around with a hole in my liver to help you?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
And I'm crazy.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
You know, you get some crazy remarks and some and
then you know that's the thing. Anytime I tell anybody,
I'm like, listen, it's good in that you're saving a life,
and hey, your liver will go back and a lot
of living donors live, according to the doctors, normally healthy,
normal healthy. So what a wonderful thing. And and it's
(23:44):
great because it helps people with PBC who's the meld
scores don't really reflect the amount of deconditioning that you have.
That's been another issue they raised. So I'm I'm hoping
and praying that more people will consider it. You can
save a life and and your liver grows back.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yes, it is, you know, it's amazing where Yeah, like
you said, you take half of the liver out and
within six eight weeks if you do a follow up
cat scan or MRI, the liver grows back to the
exact space. It doesn't get it doesn't grow too much,
it grows right to the perfect size the recipient you
(24:25):
who has half of a liver, within six eight weeks,
the liver will fill that space and you have a
whole liver there. So it is really quite a miracle
what the liver could do. And again, Amy, I think
the you know we're we're here to support you, and
certainly for me here in Houston, I'm a resource. If
I could have helped you out, You've got my number now.
(24:46):
But I believe for everybody tuning in tonight, it is
an opportunity to think about your liver health. Are your
liver chemistry's normal? Have you been told you have a
fatty liver? Have you been told your enzymes are up?
Or maybe you have some sort of autoimmune disease, Because
(25:09):
liver disease really takes no prisoners. If if you don't
intervene make the diagnosis, years later, you can end up
with really advanced liver disease and it's early intervention. And
you know, stories like this Amy really help many people.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, Doc, have a quick question for you. It's a
and I've heard fantastic things about your, uh, your whole
healthcare system. And so you're you know, how the liver
can regenerate. Yes, it cannot regenerate when it hits therhosis.
So now I'm like, if you, like have been diagnosed
with something like a PBC or uto immune in the
(25:50):
early stages, then that liver can still have a chance
to regenerate.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Yeah, yes, And and you know that's the one thing
you're You're right, Amy people, For those that are sort
of interested in health, the fact that a lot of
people know is that the liver can regenerate. And so
when they show up to see me with cirrhosis, they say, well,
my liver can regenerate, right, Well. Orrhosis is the end
(26:17):
stage of months to years to decades of injury trying
to regenerate. So it is really the regeneration process that
has run its course. The final effect is that you
develop cerosis. But to answer your question, early on with
(26:39):
something like autoimmune hepatitis, with the immunosuppression, the medicine to
suppress the immune system. We certainly can see in the
earlier stages short of crhosis that when we get a
follow up biopsy a year or two later, we can
see improvement in the fibrosis. So it's a very much
(27:00):
time dependent when you get in to see us, when
you start therapy, that we can see a reversal. So,
but that is i'd like to say more theoretical and textbook.
Every patient behaves just a little bit differently. Yeah, yeah, no,
(27:21):
I know, I know, I know. Well, Amy McGrory, we
will let's let's do this. I will say, let's have
you back on in let's say a couple months, and
we'll get an update to see how you're doing, our
our New York Long Island friend, and continue to share
(27:43):
with our audience your story. So Amy, good luck, thank
you for reaching out. And like I said, we're here
as a resource for you in Texas.
Speaker 4 (27:52):
Thank you. I really appreciate my friends at Texas. And
I'm laughing because you're down there in Houston. I've been
listening to Joel Olstein and yes, like every day I'm like,
come on.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Yes, absolutely, all right, Amy, Well, look you stay well,
We'll stay in touch. Thank you. All right, final segment
of Your Health First coming up. Don't forget doctor Joegalatti
dot com is our website, always here to help people,
(28:25):
especially with liver disease. Stay tuned, Welcome back everybody, Thanks
for tuning in on this glorious Sunday evening. I would
say every Sunday is glorious. Now, I'd like to think
(28:46):
that on Sunday night school is still in session. And
are you know I always would use Sunday Evening. Yes,
I would do the radio program and then I would
come home. Typically when the kids were younger, I'd leave
the studio at eight Central time because it's seven to
(29:09):
eighth Central, be driving home and check in with my
wife to get a status update, a homework, B, food,
C lunch, D dinner for the week, and in the
(29:30):
short distance I had from the studio to home, we
would try to map out what was going on for Sunday,
rest of Sunday evening and then food for the week
for the kids, food for the family. And that is
something that I have talked about on the radio since
(29:52):
the inception twenty three years ago of Your Health First. Now,
if you want to use Wednesday, Friday, I don't care.
Sunday just seems like a natural pause in a sense,
you're winding up, you're getting set, you're looking into the
week ahead. But from a planning standpoint, you really, you
(30:22):
really want to pick a day out where you could
spend a half hour. It's not going to kill you
to sit down with your family, your significant other, your wife,
your husband, whoever's in the house and just playing out
the day. Because from a meal standpoint, if you don't
(30:43):
have the basic building blocks of a meal in the house,
you're stuck. You're going to go to drive through, take out,
door dash, etc. You're going to make a bad food choice.
But if you have the food you need to whip
(31:07):
up a meal, it's that much easier. So use that
time tonight every Sunday night. All right. You know, My
intention was not to turn this into a liver episode
realizing that my life is liver liver disease, but it
(31:32):
just sort of falls that way. And again I want
to thank Amy mcgory for coming on and sharing her story.
Lots of lessons to learn from her case. The other
thing I want to get at is on Friday here
in Houston in the Texas Medical Center, we hosted a
(31:58):
medical conference that was looking at transplantation predominantly liver. That's
what I'm involved in, and the role of alcohol. Now, again,
this is a topic that I've talked about in one
form or another. I have some videos on YouTube that
outline this a little bit more. But there is a
(32:21):
let me just back up while we got a few
minutes here left. There's a general consensus, and this gets
into the misunderstanding first of all, that everybody that has
zerosis who needs a transplant is an alcoholic. No, that
is not true. But when you start talking about doing
a liver transplant, a life saving surgery with, by the way,
(32:48):
limited resources, This is not Midas Muffler where you just
pull in, you pull into the shop and you say
I need a size six liver and it comes out
in a box. No, it is a scarce resource. We
do not have enough livers to serve every single person
(33:12):
that needs a liver. So what does that mean? People
are going to die waiting or they're going to not
survive the weight to get evaluated for a liver transplant.
So this gets very dicey and emotional, and people get
very high strung over this. But anyway, here in Houston
(33:32):
and other centers around the country, we have tried to
and we have not that we tried, we really did
change the paradigm on how we look at the patient
with alcohol use disorder alcoholism and transplant liver transplant. And
so we pulled together experts from around the country. A
(33:57):
terrific group came from New York and Detroit. I almost
ended up going to Detroit from a career standpoint out
of my training, I think it would have been nice.
But anyway, and local experts here in the Greater Euston
area and we got together and shared ideas, shared strategies
(34:24):
on what we do now. There is still a certain
uneasiness when you hear that somebody with alcohol use disorder,
they drank too much, develop liver disease and then they
get a liver transplant. The first thing that they say,
and this is almost universal, they did it to themselves. Okay, well, yes,
(34:49):
they drank to excess and did cause liver disease to
the point that it was life threatening and you need
a liver transplant. But there is a certain sense, be
it judgmental, be it stigma, that if you did it
to yourself. You don't deserve to get a life saving
(35:11):
transplant because you did it to yourself. You should be punished,
sit and time out, or maybe prove to everybody, prove
to society that you're going to shape up now when
it gets down to you did it to yourself. What
about the person that smokes a pack of camels every
(35:40):
day for thirty years, what do they develop? Chronic lung disease,
chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, heart disease, heart disease, and lung
disease and they need surgery, therapy, chemo. Are we going
(36:01):
to look at somebody with bad lung disease and say,
whoa stop smoking or I'm not going to give you your
nebulizer or stop smoking, and I'm not going to remove
the tumor in your lung, which by the way, could
be curative. Or the individual with really poorly controlled diabetes
(36:27):
because that didn't exercise, they ate the wrong foods and
they have heart disease, then they need a quadruple bypass.
Imagine if your relative, your brother, needed a quadruple bypass.
The surgeon comes out or the doctors and they say, look,
(36:47):
Bob really would do great with a quadruple bypass, but
because he was spotted going through the McDonald's drive through,
we're going to put him in quarantine for three months
and make sure he doesn't drive through again, and then
maybe we'll do the surgery that would never that would
(37:09):
never ever ever hold up. But yet the person that
has alcohol use disorder, alcoholism, it's a disease, are being punished.
So this conference really brought together some of the finest
people around the country that are committed to this and
(37:32):
we realize that, you know what, alcoholism is a disease.
We shouldn't punish people. We do have guidelines on how
we allocate organs predominantly livers and have fairness so that
everybody has a good success and the risk of going
(37:52):
back to severe problematic drinking is not as high as
you would think. It's really quite acceptable. But we have
to get out and open, get these people into therapy
and take care of them. So you'll probably hear more
about this. I plan on having some of my colleagues
that were at the meeting on and we could delve
(38:14):
into this a little bit, a little bit longer and deeper.
So all right, well, thanks again for tuning in tonight.
It's always a pleasure. This is the best hour of
the week for me. It's such a joy to do this.
Share ideas, raise everybody's health, IQ make you a better consumer.
(38:39):
You have to start thinking about your health. It's no accident.
When I see people that are really healthy, really taking
care of themselves, it's not a fluke. They know exactly
what they're eating, they know exactly their exercise, they get
the sleep they need, they don't abuse alcohol, they don't smoke,
(39:00):
they're happy, they've got good social networks. So it is
all all very very attainable. All right, don't forget doctor
Joeglotti dot com and we will see you next Sunday night.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
You've been listening to Your Health First with doctor Joe Glotti.
For more information on this program or the content of
this program, go to your Health First dot com.
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