January 25, 2026 • 41 mins
Dr. Galati talks about staying warm during these freezing temps and articles about exercise, strength, and heart disease. He also has Nurse Practitioner Anthony Santos join the show. He shares his take about taking care of yourself even during weather like we’re dealing with right now. Dr. Galati also takes some time talking more about heart disease and stroke.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Initial life sequencing coming to you live from Houston, Texas,
home to the world's largest medical.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Center in the approach rats everything looking at.
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 3 (00:44):
Well, a good Sunday evening to everybody. I hope you're
warm and comfortable and safe as this winter storm blankets
us all all from really big part of the country,
but certainly here in Texas. We have been hit with
(01:09):
a lot of bad weather. Up north around Dallas. It's
been snowy and icy, the Houston area, Austin, San Antonio,
Gulf Coast, and you know, really, what I could say
is I hope you're safe, and I hope you had
a little bit of planning and that you're just gonna
(01:29):
ride this out. Hopefully by tomorrow. Still seems like it's
going to be a little bit iffy. I know, we've
closed our office because in the morning hours of tomorrow
it's still supposed to be below zero and there may
be some water on the road, and it's going to
be difficult for staff or patients to travel, so we
are going to be seeing patients virtually through video conferencing
(01:56):
with our patients, which is a great tool for things
like this, But be careful tomorrow. It seems like by
later tomorrow things should be okay, and hopefully by Tuesday
we're all back, and a little later on the program,
we're going to have one of our nurse practitioners, Anthony Santos,
on with us and really chatting about some strategies for
(02:18):
tonight or tomorrow or whenever you know, whether it's bad
or things are a little bit difficult on how do
you handle medical problems that come up. The main issue
which we're going to try to share with you all
is that during these times, you may be sitting home
having chest pain or shortness of breath, or there's some
(02:41):
new abdominal pain that comes on, and it's cold out.
It's a little dangerous maybe to get out there, and
your transportation may not be reliable, and you may say
to yourself, hey, you know what, I'm going to ride
this out to the morning, or let's see what happens tomorrow.
(03:01):
And the message which we'll be talking with Anthony about
is that many of these symptoms that you have or
conditions are very much time sensitive. If you're having a
heart attack, you don't have the luxury of waiting till
tomorrow morning. You need to get on it now. Don't
worry about how you're going to get a ride, or
(03:22):
your car doesn't start because the battery is dead because
it's twenty five degrees outside the heck with that, you
call nine to one one and get the fire department,
police and MSS to your house.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
But we'll talk about that in a short bit.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Let's see what out So to get in touch with
me our website Doctor Joegalotti dot com d R J
O E G A L A T. I. Go to
the website signer for a newsletter. You can send me
a message. All of our prior broadcasts are available. Sign
up for our newsletter. Lots of health and wellness information
(03:58):
at doctor Joe com.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
All right, so.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
You know, there have been some very interesting articles that
I've been wanting to share with you having to do
with exercise, strength and heart disease.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
These are all.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Very very meaningful topics for our audience. Okay, so the
first one has to do with it was this was
originally written in the New York Times and the headline
(04:41):
is the best sports for longevity. So what this basically
says is not all exercise, not all sports are equal
to increase your longevity.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And the.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
N number one sport that they found increased longevity. The
greatest was that does anybody have well, I don't have
a drum role really that I could play here it's tennis.
So for all the tennis players out there, put yourselves
(05:21):
on the back that the evidence for tennis is that
it may add ten years to your life expectancy. Now,
the reason they think it is tennis is the way
to go is because number one, it is a sport
(05:49):
that requires a lot of hand eye coordination, which is
good for your health. It is really what they say,
this blend of physical, cognitive and social challenges contribute to
healthy aging. So it is physical that you need to
have this strength of sudden bursts of speed, running up
(06:12):
to the ball, running back, being able to twist and use.
Really it is a full body workout. It improves balance,
which will reduce a person's risk of falling. Let's just
say this, you fall when your elderly lights out, break
(06:33):
a hip, break an arm, break your back, break your pelvis.
It is a downhill course. All the data shows this.
It improves bone density, strengthens a body against fractures. So
this is all good stuff. And now the thing is,
(06:54):
if you're sitting here and you're fifty five six years old,
do you start taking up tennis? You know, you can
if you want, But they compare to other activities. And
let's see, in a study of nearly three hundred thousand
adults in the United States, cycling was linked to a
three percent lower risk of dying over a twelve year period,
(07:16):
Swimming was linked to a five percent lower risk, and
golf was linked to seven percent compared to those that
did not exercise. So while cycling primarily works the lower body,
swimming adds upper body. Obviously, golf tends to me. You know,
(07:36):
golf is a sport you could play till you're one hundred.
But golf really does involve a more gentle aerobic activity.
But it requires you know, twisting, rotational power, balance and
find motor control. And so I think the mix of
all these different physical demands are beneficial for you.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
So let's say, if you're.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Exercising, think how you could mix it up. Maybe cycle
to get good aerobic and lower body strength. Swim to
get good aerobic and upper body strength. Take your golf
clubs and go to the driving range. Sort of work
on your flexibility and your core strength. And of course
(08:24):
any of the racket sports. Now I didn't mentioned, didn't
mention any of these racket sports are going to be beneficial,
so mix it up.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
What I'm going to talk about in the next.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Segment is some more information on the benefits of strength training.
Don't forget Doctor Joe Glotti is our website.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Anthony Santos is going to be coming up in a
little bit talking about how to manage medical problems in
the cold.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Help you're all warm and safe.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Watch out for space heater's carbon monoxide. Just make sure
you're being safe. Stay tuned, right back, Welcome back everybody,
Doctor Joe Galotti. Every Sunday between seven and a PM,
we're here rain or shine, snow or sleet or freeze,
(09:25):
We're here chatting with all of you on your health first,
every Sunday between seven and APM. Don't forget, if you
are out of the area, you could always pick us
up on the iHeartRadio app. Coast to Coast globally as
a matter of fact. So you've got a relative somewhere
in the Midwest that you say, hey, this is a
(09:46):
pretty good radio program, won't you listen? Go to the
iHeartRadio app. You'll see it there. Don't forget Doctor Joegalotti
dot com is our website. Sign up for our newsletter,
be informed of all we're doing in. All of our
or past programs are posted. We have a YouTube page, Instagram.
(10:09):
All social media is there for you, Doctor Joeglotti dot com.
All right, and then coming up in a few minutes
is Anthony Santos. We're gonna be talking about how do
you handle yourself in really bad weather? And the concern
that I have is that people don't want to make
(10:32):
a fuss, they don't want to put people out, and
there is a tendency to kick the can down the road,
just delay, let's see what happens tomorrow. But for so
many issues, and I would say the big the big
four are heart attack, stroke, shortness of breath, and abdominal pain.
(10:58):
You could add five through ten as well, but I
think chest pain, shortness of breath, stroke or some neurologic issue,
and abdominal pain. You cannot fool around and wait and
use the weather, use the cold, use the inconvenience of
the weather as an excuse not to do something. So
(11:20):
we'll talk about that in a few minutes, all right,
So going on adding to the story of tennis and
or just staying active. As we all get older, we
have to stay active. So there was another article that
was basically the reason to lift weights, the reason to
(11:47):
get strong and focus on your strength. So it's not
so much that you've got giant biceps. It's how much
you can push or lift, or how much you could
lift over your head. And there was a quote by
a doctor Gabrielle Lyon who said that regarding muscle, it
(12:10):
is the organ of longevity. Okay, the organ of longevity. Yes,
we talked about the heart and the kidneys, and the brain,
and the lungs and the liver, but really, you show
me a weak person that is very much deconditioned, and
(12:31):
that is somebody that's not going to live. It's as
simple as that, very crude, but it is true. Now
we have to keep in mind that our muscle mass
starts declining as early as thirty years old. That's depressing,
but it is the truth.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And so.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
It is the functionality of the muscles. It is strength.
And so really where there is strength is power. And
so we have to look at signs that you may
be seen. Are you sort of tailoring your life not
to walk upstairs because you feel weak? Are you not
(13:18):
putting certain household items on higher shelves because you can't
reach or you cannot don't have the strength to put
certain cans on a higher shelf in the kitchen. So
when you're not working these muscles, these different muscle groups,
(13:44):
they're going to continue to decline. And it's a vicious cycle.
It's really a self fulfilling prophecy. You don't use them
to get weaker, you get weaker. You can't do more.
You can't do more, you do less. So there are
multiple strength tests that really don't require any equipment. There's
something called the sit to stand test is a good
(14:04):
proxy for power. How can you sit up and sit
down without just plopping in the chair. Do you have
that control of your quad muscles? A push up test
doing push ups is a good sign of upper body strength,
and or can you carry dumbbells in your hands as
(14:27):
a good sign of grip? And a lot and I've
talked about this before hand. Grip is a good barometer
of our overall strength. So the idea if you are
going to the gym. A lot of people I see
people at the gym, they there's Lottie do they got
little weights and they're doing and they feel like they're
doing something good. You have to lift progressively heavier. So
(14:51):
some of the physicians that are mentioned in this article,
they recommend three to six repetitions of a weight that
takes about seventy five percent of your maximum efforts. You're
actually working pretty hard. The key thing is that the
weight has to be heavy enough so that the last
couple of repetitions that you're doing and get that arm
(15:12):
up feels difficult, but not so heavy that you you
reach failure. So you want to be tough enough where
you know that last one or two or three reps
you really have to fight through it. That's when that's
when you know you're at about the right weight that
you're getting the benefit of lifting weights. Now, the other thing,
(15:35):
and this is this is also very key. As we age,
we lose what we call the fast twitch muscle fibers.
So this is for rapid explosive movement, and what happens
is power training, which includes things like medicine ball slams,
(15:56):
something called pliometrics, which is basically using your own weight.
Quick movements can help maintain these fast twitch muscle fibers.
And having these fast twitch muscle fibers allows you to
recover quickly from something as innocuous as a stumble or
(16:16):
tripping over your dog. Okay, that's not just heavy it's
not just lifting heavy weight, but lifting weight quickly so
you have the reaction time. You have to really program
yourself to move quickly, and you have to really function
on what you're doing in your daily life. It's called
(16:37):
functional movement. Daily movements, carrying groceries, picking up a child,
picking up tools that you use in the backyard, being
able to start your lawn mower with a strong pull.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
So I think that.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
While we talked about tennis as the optimal sport based
on that research article, we have to look and say
we have to work on strength in a different way.
We have to push ourselves a little bit differently, and
doing strength training twice a day for about twenty minutes
is going to be adequate. More may be better, but
(17:15):
twenty minutes twice a week is probably good. Looking at
your legs, your abdominal muscles, your chest, and your shoulders,
that you can lift things over your head. So, as
I've said before, good health longevity is not by accident.
(17:37):
You have to take care of yourself. And not to
sound pessimistic in any way, but every day the human
body degrades a little bit and you have to beat it.
You have to find that equalizer, which is exercise, getting
your rest, and your diet. Okay, we talk about diet
(17:57):
a lot. All right, We're going to take a quick
break here. News, traffic, weather, you get an update on
what the heck is happening out there, roads, Temperature, how
cold it's going to get tonight into tomorrow. I'm doctor Joglotti.
Always a pleasure to be here, rain or shine out
of cold. We're here doctor Joglotti dot com is the website.
(18:21):
Anthony Santos is coming up in a minute. We're going
to be talking about strategies to not make a mistake
during inclement weather with your health.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
The bottom line call nine one one if you got
a question.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
All right, stay tuned over right back, Welcome back, everybody.
Doctor Joe Glotti on this somewhat frigid Sunday night. Despite
the weather, we're still trying to raise your health IQ
and make you better consumers. And with all of the
(18:56):
bad weather concerns there there are health implication, There's no
doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And so on the phone tonight.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
As I was saying earlier, as Anthony Santos, he's a
indurist practitioner working with me at Liver Specialists of Texas.
And Anthony, thanks for coming on tonight and really talking
about a very important topic. Even though you know the
storm is passing, there may be another one or two
days of really bad weather. But making sure you take
(19:24):
care of yourself and not delaying care because it's called
out that roads are icy is really a very big deal.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What do you say, Yes, sir, First of all, thank
you for having me, doctor Glotti. As you were alluding to,
you know, when the weather is dangerous, the general advice
is to shelter in place, right. However, there are a
few medical scenarios that are like so time sensitive right
where treatment is most effective and it takes priority.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Over the storm exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
And I think one of the biggest things is, and
this is the mistake people make is well, it's it's
Sunday night, or it's early Monday morning, and you know,
let me see how it goes for the next few hours,
or leo, let's see what tomorrow looks like instead of
doing something, and that could be really a grave mistake.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
That is absolutely the case, doc. I think you have
to prioritize your health similarly in you know, no different
than in sunny days. Right, So, yes, it's a little
bit colder, but you know, relating to your question, and
many of our patients are at the elderly side with
chronic disease, I think they should treat their health as
(20:41):
they would normally if there was good weather.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Now, the most there's a handful of potentially disastrous conditions
or symptoms that you know, anybody listening tonight really cannot delay.
And you mentioned it's time sensitive things like chest pain.
If you're having chest pain, explain why this is time
sensitive and you don't want to fiddle around with this, right.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
So, you know, particularly in chess pain, time is muscle
as probably many clinicians have heard, any minute hour wasted
is muscle damage. So chess pain would certainly be a
flag to likely call nine.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
One one exactly and nine to one one. Depending on
where you live, the county, the city, you're going to
get police, sheriff, fire department, dedicated ems. These are people
that know how to navigate through bed weather and get
you there. So you should not be sitting home thinking, well,
I don't want to bring anybody out. It's more of
(21:46):
a nuisance. I've got to call my kids things like that, Right,
you know, the.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Roads aren't great, it's probably dangerous, but these are what
are sources in the city are built to do. And
it's ultra important to likely be you know, to not
shy from calling because if you wait later, you could
imagine the amount of calls that would then come in
(22:15):
and then your face behind the eight ball. Yeah, so
you know, prior to your condition getting worse and you know,
thinking you might feel bad that you have to call
somebody again at the end of the day you're having
chest paining. That's an emergent situation.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And you know the other thing is, you know, tonight, tomorrow,
the next couple of days, that is not the time
to drive yourself to the er. You break down, you're
stuck in cold, and then that creates a whole new problem.
Calling nine to one one is a way to go.
The other big thing that people sort of on an
emergency basis is shortness of breath. Lots of people get
(22:52):
short of breath and they don't know what to do.
We're saying, call nine one one. What's what's your take, Anthony?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Right, So, shortness of breath could mean many different situations.
You know, you could have a chronic lung disease. You
may not even be aware that you have an underlying
heart condition. Right, So shortness of breath may come along
on its own, may come along with uh oh, my
legs are swollen, my stomach is a little bit fluid filled.
(23:21):
You know, we got to stop sort of self diagnosing, right,
And when you realize that there's something outside of what
you normally look like, you probably need to get attention.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, and these are not the times to go to
Google to almost convince yourself. You know it probably is
the you know, the spicy food I ate last night,
or I have a little bit more heartburn. You've got
to throw that whole way of thinking out out the window.
The other thing which we see a lot of is
(23:51):
people that have abdominal pain. And here again abdominal pain
could be literally ignored, and people will start looking it
up and will start assigning it to something completely different.
But we're talking about potential for appendicitis, a perforated also
some sort of gallbladder problem. It's you know, really again,
(24:15):
the whole message here for everybody listening is not to
wait and self diagnose.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, and may I add even you know, black stools,
red stools. Let's say you you've had a cough for
a while and then all of a sudden you spit
out blood. Certainly one of the many as well as
you had alluded to conditions that might require some attention.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Now the other the other thing is certainly as at
the population is getting older, stroke and people will maybe
present with a headache or a little bit of weakness
on one side, or something called a tia transient to
schemic attack, where they may feel a little week on
one side, a little bit of a droop on their face,
(25:02):
they may have a little bit of slurred vision. But miraculously,
twenty minutes later, Anthony, it's it's better. So they say,
don't worry. This is Sunday night, it's Monday. Let's let's
just wait till everything falls out. That is that is
probably next to a heart attack. That's probably one of
the worst things that you don't want to miss for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I think we've known that brain cells die probably by
the millions every minute that you wait. You know, the
sooner that the experts can get in there and perhaps
use a clockbusters is likely a better outcome. So that
may or may not be associated with the worst headache
(25:45):
of your life, you know, and they are often one
in and of itself. But just like you said, and
as we had been saying earlier, again, if this is
not your norm, it should probably be attended to, right.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
And I would think that when you delay care, because
this is really what it all comes down to, things
before become more complicated and more risky when you get
earlier treatment. And this really goes for almost anything. You
may need less aggressive intervention, shorter hospital stay or shorter
hospital visit, and lower risk of some sort of permanent disability.
(26:23):
And so we have to sort of get in that
that mindset and people, you know, anything, one of the
things we always talk about is the risk benefit. What
is the risk of the weather versus the benefit of
getting medical care. I would say it's it's ten to one,
(26:44):
call nine to one one and get the help.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
What's what's what do you think?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Right right on? You know, depending on you know, each
individual situation. Perhaps you have an underlying diabetes issue. You
know when you start to experience vision loss, Perhaps you
know you have high blood pressure, and then all of
a sudden you're having chest pain. I think these are
all consequences of delayed attention or delayed care. And as
(27:11):
you were alluding to, you know, if intervened sooner, could
minimize the complexity of the treatment, you know, whether it
is a one or two day stay versus one week.
I think the most concerning condition in these population, in particular,
(27:31):
infection is a septic condition.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Right yeah, I mean, and infections are happening every single day,
and you don't want to again minimize it. And you know,
really when you look at the problem here, now we're
sort of gearing the conversation towards the older adult. Now
what does that mean? Fifty five and older, sixty five
and older. But you know, everybody should realize the older
(27:56):
you are, you're less able to tolerate these changes in
blood pressure, blood sugar circulation, or infections, and so if
you've got these chronic illnesses, and Anthony, we know from
our own patient population that seventy five eighty percent of
the adult population has chronic heart disease underlying diabet, this
(28:20):
high cholesterol, let's throw in the liver disease that we
take care of. They are much more fragile and none
of this is good.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, you know, going into the older population, even our
younger population, I think, the sicker they are or having
multiple chronic conditions, what we see is they have a
less physiological reserve. They're tipping point from stable to critical
is a lot more narrower than your good old fashioned
(28:54):
healthy patient, and it's more justified. The reason why you know,
these patients need to have a backup plan and eat,
you know, a shelter rather a medical plan in the
event of a severe weather condition. As we were talking
to it's pretty cold tonight, yes, sir, so yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Yeah, so I guess for everybody that really the take
home messages number one, don't self diagnose. I mean, Anthony,
we see this all the time. People are coming in
and they are so far off the mark with what
they think they have. It's you know, being respectful to
our patients. It's almost laughable what they sort of come
up with. So air on the side of caution. Use
(29:38):
ems instead of driving yourself. You don't want to get
stuck out there. If you feel weak, dizzy, or shorter breath,
you need to cold nine one one, chest pain and
stroke symptoms, like you said. And you know, the main
thing is, you know, don't you have to get over
this idea that you don't want to bother anybody? Now, Anthony,
(30:00):
you've got plenty of relatives, older relatives here in town.
What would you say to them about not wanting, you know,
to bother a relative or a neighbor next door, because
that's really what people say, I don't want to bother anybody.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
What I would say, you know, in sort of summarizing
what I would recommend to my family or our patients
if you would seek help on a sunny day, seek
help on a stormy day, right, I mean, safety is
the most important thing, and health is the most important.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Thing we have.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, and sometimes you only get one chance, you know,
in a sense, you only get one one good wooden
chance here. So all right, Anthony Santos, thank you very much.
Our favorite nurse practitioner on the radio. Thanks for coming
on the radio tonight. I hope you're stay in warm.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Thank you, Doc. I'll see you tomorrow. All right, Well,
I don't know. We're gonna have to see how the
weather is. Anthony, all right, that's true. Stay tuned for
more Your Health First.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
All right, final segment of this week's Your Health First,
the Frozen edition every Sunday between seven and eight pm.
Don't forget Doctor Joeglotti dot com is our website.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Go take a visit.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
You can send me a message, sign off for our newsletter,
get a copy of my book Eating Yourself Sick. As
I've been saying. In the next few months, there'll be
another book coming out. Don't have a title yet, but
it's going to be very very interesting things that I'm
(31:55):
going to be talking about in the new book. But
if you go to the newsletters, you will not miss
anything that we are doing.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
All right.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
I want to thank Anthony Santos for coming on just now.
I think the conversation we had was useful in staying
out of trouble and good weather bad weather. We have
a way of minimizing some of our issues that develop.
(32:31):
Part of it is a defense mechanism you don't want
to realize, Hey man, am I really having a heart attack?
Well maybe if I take some tombs and a glass
of milk it'll go away. Or if you had as
I was saying, a at TIA transient eschemic attack, slurred speech,
your face has a droop, your left hand is weak,
(32:53):
and then five minutes later it's gone. So you say,
whoa I you know, bit the bullet on this one. No,
there's a likely chance that this will happen again, and
it may be more extensive. And so that's why you
want to get in early. Get in early. You're not
going to bother the nice firemen that are going to
come to your house. The er staff is not going
(33:14):
to be upset that you're there on a cold, snowy, cold,
freezing night. That's why we're there, That's why we work.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
All right. So final.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Final segment here, and this has to do with heart
disease and stroke and the reality that a quarter one
quarter of all deaths are related to heart disease and stroke.
(33:44):
Now you may look at this if you follow healthcare
and research. In new developments, we have had unbelievable gains
in treatment. The technology is really fantastic, butrdiovascular disease will
continue to be the leading cause of death in the
United States, accounting for nearly three and ten fatalities close
(34:10):
to a million in twenty twenty three. This was by
a report in the American by the American Heart Association
this past Wednesday, staggering it outnumbers deaths from the second
and third leading cause, which is cancer and accidental injury combined.
(34:31):
So no doubt it is sobering, and people that are
experts in this area, in the cardiovascular realm, are simply
saying a lot of work needs to be done. And
this is a bit of an understatement. So when you
look at heart disease, we're talking about heart attack, heart failure. Okay,
(34:52):
heart attack and heart failure leading killers. Now, things got
a little bit better in the nineteen seventies. People were
not smoke as much. That with new medications for high
blood pressure and high cholesterol, things like stens bypass surgery
became much safer. But things started to slow down around
twenty ten as the mortality from heart disease increased. Now
(35:20):
we added obesity and type two diabetes. We have been
talking about this for as long as I've been on
the radio twenty three years. Obesity and type two diabetes,
which by the way, leads to fatty liver, which leads
to cirrhosis, which leads a liver cancer, liver failure, and
so it's as big, big, nasty web of problems. So
(35:43):
what we're finding is that the based on the twenty
twenty three data, the latest data that's available, death from
cardiovascular disease totaled over nine hundred thousand. Close to a
million include being six hundred and eighty thousand deaths from
heart disease and one hundred and eighty thousand from stroke. Now,
(36:08):
while cigarette smoking is down to about eleven percent of
US adults, e cigarettes is increasing. Most notably, the obesity
epidemic has really infiltrated everybody over the past forty years,
which is a tremendous respector for heart disease. Half of
(36:29):
all adults have high blood pressure hypertension silent killer, which
is also which is often driven by obesity. High blood
pressure leads to heart failure, and it leads to the
plaque and cholesterol and hardening of the arteries which results
in heart attacker strokes. So this is all connected. People,
(36:52):
these are not isolated events. Now, the bad news here
about hypertension is less than a quarter. Less than twenty
five percent of people with high blood pressure have it
well controlled through diet, exercise, or medicine less than a quarter.
(37:12):
So that means seventy five percent of people that have
high blood pressure it is not adequately controlled. These people
are time bombs. Okay, let's get to diabetes, another sickening statistic.
About fourteen percent of adults have diabetes. Most of it's
going to be type two diabetes, which is related to
(37:33):
obesity and insulin resistance. Now you've got fourteen percent with
type two diabetes. Thirty seven percent have pre diabetes. So
these are people sort of in the farm team of diabetes.
They're going to move their way up. The majority of
these people with pre diabetes will eventually become diabetic. Ten
(37:56):
million people have diabetes and don't know it. I would
say they don't know it, or they're not aware, or
they're not really paying attention. Chronic high blood sugar you
sure all know this leads to damage to the large
and small arteries, which leads to heart attack, stroke, dementia,
(38:17):
kidney disease. So what is the bottom line here? Number one,
advocate for yourself. I've been saying advocate for yourself for
a long time.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
I have.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
A little bit of a problem with many primary care
physicians that are not aggressively treating hypertension. They are not
aggressively treating abnormal blood sugar, and you, the patient have
to advocate and say, wait a second, my blood pressure
should be one twenty something over seventy. It's one forty five.
(38:59):
What am I supposed to do? I don't want a
heart attack a stroke. So advocate for yourself. And so,
if you are told you have hypertension, you should have
a blood pressure cuff at home measuring your pressure every day,
several times a week. If you have diabetes, you should
know what your blood sugars are see if you are
(39:26):
at risk for developing complications. Are you following the diet?
Are you following an exercise schedule? We just talked about
the value of exercise here.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
So I believe that.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
We're not going to see a significant drop in heart
related deaths until the public really comes around and advocates
for themselves realize that they have to eat better, cut
down on obesie the increase physical activity, and really just
(40:04):
be more engaged with your own health and wellness. Don't
depend on the healthcare system one hundred percent. You have
to understand what is going on. So all right, well,
the hour is over. I don't think it's any warmer outside,
(40:26):
but do be careful. And I would say the message
of tonight. If you're sitting at home and you don't
feel well, be it abdominal pain, chest pain, shortness of breath,
you have a headache, you feel like you have a fever.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Something is going on. Get the attention you need.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Do not let the weather, do not let the roads,
do not let the ice, do not let any inconvenience
stop you from doing what is the right thing.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
All right, so we'll.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Check in with everybody next Sunday evening. Don't forget doctor
Jogolotti dot com Lust evening, Stay warm, take care of
each other.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
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.
Initial life sequencing coming to you live from Houston, Texas,
home to the world's largest medical.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Center in the approach rats everything looking at.
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 3 (00:44):
Well, a good Sunday evening to everybody. I hope you're
warm and comfortable and safe as this winter storm blankets
us all all from really big part of the country,
but certainly here in Texas. We have been hit with
(01:09):
a lot of bad weather. Up north around Dallas. It's
been snowy and icy, the Houston area, Austin, San Antonio,
Gulf Coast, and you know, really, what I could say
is I hope you're safe, and I hope you had
a little bit of planning and that you're just gonna
(01:29):
ride this out. Hopefully by tomorrow. Still seems like it's
going to be a little bit iffy. I know, we've
closed our office because in the morning hours of tomorrow
it's still supposed to be below zero and there may
be some water on the road, and it's going to
be difficult for staff or patients to travel, so we
are going to be seeing patients virtually through video conferencing
(01:56):
with our patients, which is a great tool for things
like this, But be careful tomorrow. It seems like by
later tomorrow things should be okay, and hopefully by Tuesday
we're all back, and a little later on the program,
we're going to have one of our nurse practitioners, Anthony Santos,
on with us and really chatting about some strategies for
(02:18):
tonight or tomorrow or whenever you know, whether it's bad
or things are a little bit difficult on how do
you handle medical problems that come up. The main issue
which we're going to try to share with you all
is that during these times, you may be sitting home
having chest pain or shortness of breath, or there's some
(02:41):
new abdominal pain that comes on, and it's cold out.
It's a little dangerous maybe to get out there, and
your transportation may not be reliable, and you may say
to yourself, hey, you know what, I'm going to ride
this out to the morning, or let's see what happens tomorrow.
(03:01):
And the message which we'll be talking with Anthony about
is that many of these symptoms that you have or
conditions are very much time sensitive. If you're having a
heart attack, you don't have the luxury of waiting till
tomorrow morning. You need to get on it now. Don't
worry about how you're going to get a ride, or
(03:22):
your car doesn't start because the battery is dead because
it's twenty five degrees outside the heck with that, you
call nine to one one and get the fire department,
police and MSS to your house.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
But we'll talk about that in a short bit.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Let's see what out So to get in touch with
me our website Doctor Joegalotti dot com d R J
O E G A L A T. I. Go to
the website signer for a newsletter. You can send me
a message. All of our prior broadcasts are available. Sign
up for our newsletter. Lots of health and wellness information
(03:58):
at doctor Joe com.
Speaker 4 (04:02):
All right, so.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
You know, there have been some very interesting articles that
I've been wanting to share with you having to do
with exercise, strength and heart disease.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
These are all.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Very very meaningful topics for our audience. Okay, so the
first one has to do with it was this was
originally written in the New York Times and the headline
(04:41):
is the best sports for longevity. So what this basically
says is not all exercise, not all sports are equal
to increase your longevity.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And the.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
N number one sport that they found increased longevity. The
greatest was that does anybody have well, I don't have
a drum role really that I could play here it's tennis.
So for all the tennis players out there, put yourselves
(05:21):
on the back that the evidence for tennis is that
it may add ten years to your life expectancy. Now,
the reason they think it is tennis is the way
to go is because number one, it is a sport
(05:49):
that requires a lot of hand eye coordination, which is
good for your health. It is really what they say,
this blend of physical, cognitive and social challenges contribute to
healthy aging. So it is physical that you need to
have this strength of sudden bursts of speed, running up
(06:12):
to the ball, running back, being able to twist and use.
Really it is a full body workout. It improves balance,
which will reduce a person's risk of falling. Let's just
say this, you fall when your elderly lights out, break
(06:33):
a hip, break an arm, break your back, break your pelvis.
It is a downhill course. All the data shows this.
It improves bone density, strengthens a body against fractures. So
this is all good stuff. And now the thing is,
(06:54):
if you're sitting here and you're fifty five six years old,
do you start taking up tennis? You know, you can
if you want, But they compare to other activities. And
let's see, in a study of nearly three hundred thousand
adults in the United States, cycling was linked to a
three percent lower risk of dying over a twelve year period,
(07:16):
Swimming was linked to a five percent lower risk, and
golf was linked to seven percent compared to those that
did not exercise. So while cycling primarily works the lower body,
swimming adds upper body. Obviously, golf tends to me. You know,
(07:36):
golf is a sport you could play till you're one hundred.
But golf really does involve a more gentle aerobic activity.
But it requires you know, twisting, rotational power, balance and
find motor control. And so I think the mix of
all these different physical demands are beneficial for you.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
So let's say, if you're.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Exercising, think how you could mix it up. Maybe cycle
to get good aerobic and lower body strength. Swim to
get good aerobic and upper body strength. Take your golf
clubs and go to the driving range. Sort of work
on your flexibility and your core strength. And of course
(08:24):
any of the racket sports. Now I didn't mentioned, didn't
mention any of these racket sports are going to be beneficial,
so mix it up.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
What I'm going to talk about in the next.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Segment is some more information on the benefits of strength training.
Don't forget Doctor Joe Glotti is our website.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Anthony Santos is going to be coming up in a
little bit talking about how to manage medical problems in
the cold.
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Help you're all warm and safe.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Watch out for space heater's carbon monoxide. Just make sure
you're being safe. Stay tuned, right back, Welcome back everybody,
Doctor Joe Galotti. Every Sunday between seven and a PM,
we're here rain or shine, snow or sleet or freeze,
(09:25):
We're here chatting with all of you on your health first,
every Sunday between seven and APM. Don't forget, if you
are out of the area, you could always pick us
up on the iHeartRadio app. Coast to Coast globally as
a matter of fact. So you've got a relative somewhere
in the Midwest that you say, hey, this is a
(09:46):
pretty good radio program, won't you listen? Go to the
iHeartRadio app. You'll see it there. Don't forget Doctor Joegalotti
dot com is our website. Sign up for our newsletter,
be informed of all we're doing in. All of our
or past programs are posted. We have a YouTube page, Instagram.
(10:09):
All social media is there for you, Doctor Joeglotti dot com.
All right, and then coming up in a few minutes
is Anthony Santos. We're gonna be talking about how do
you handle yourself in really bad weather? And the concern
that I have is that people don't want to make
(10:32):
a fuss, they don't want to put people out, and
there is a tendency to kick the can down the road,
just delay, let's see what happens tomorrow. But for so
many issues, and I would say the big the big
four are heart attack, stroke, shortness of breath, and abdominal pain.
(10:58):
You could add five through ten as well, but I
think chest pain, shortness of breath, stroke or some neurologic issue,
and abdominal pain. You cannot fool around and wait and
use the weather, use the cold, use the inconvenience of
the weather as an excuse not to do something. So
(11:20):
we'll talk about that in a few minutes, all right,
So going on adding to the story of tennis and
or just staying active. As we all get older, we
have to stay active. So there was another article that
was basically the reason to lift weights, the reason to
(11:47):
get strong and focus on your strength. So it's not
so much that you've got giant biceps. It's how much
you can push or lift, or how much you could
lift over your head. And there was a quote by
a doctor Gabrielle Lyon who said that regarding muscle, it
(12:10):
is the organ of longevity. Okay, the organ of longevity. Yes,
we talked about the heart and the kidneys, and the brain,
and the lungs and the liver, but really, you show
me a weak person that is very much deconditioned, and
(12:31):
that is somebody that's not going to live. It's as
simple as that, very crude, but it is true. Now
we have to keep in mind that our muscle mass
starts declining as early as thirty years old. That's depressing,
but it is the truth.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And so.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
It is the functionality of the muscles. It is strength.
And so really where there is strength is power. And
so we have to look at signs that you may
be seen. Are you sort of tailoring your life not
to walk upstairs because you feel weak? Are you not
(13:18):
putting certain household items on higher shelves because you can't
reach or you cannot don't have the strength to put
certain cans on a higher shelf in the kitchen. So
when you're not working these muscles, these different muscle groups,
(13:44):
they're going to continue to decline. And it's a vicious cycle.
It's really a self fulfilling prophecy. You don't use them
to get weaker, you get weaker. You can't do more.
You can't do more, you do less. So there are
multiple strength tests that really don't require any equipment. There's
something called the sit to stand test is a good
(14:04):
proxy for power. How can you sit up and sit
down without just plopping in the chair. Do you have
that control of your quad muscles? A push up test
doing push ups is a good sign of upper body strength,
and or can you carry dumbbells in your hands as
(14:27):
a good sign of grip? And a lot and I've
talked about this before hand. Grip is a good barometer
of our overall strength. So the idea if you are
going to the gym. A lot of people I see
people at the gym, they there's Lottie do they got
little weights and they're doing and they feel like they're
doing something good. You have to lift progressively heavier. So
(14:51):
some of the physicians that are mentioned in this article,
they recommend three to six repetitions of a weight that
takes about seventy five percent of your maximum efforts. You're
actually working pretty hard. The key thing is that the
weight has to be heavy enough so that the last
couple of repetitions that you're doing and get that arm
(15:12):
up feels difficult, but not so heavy that you you
reach failure. So you want to be tough enough where
you know that last one or two or three reps
you really have to fight through it. That's when that's
when you know you're at about the right weight that
you're getting the benefit of lifting weights. Now, the other thing,
(15:35):
and this is this is also very key. As we age,
we lose what we call the fast twitch muscle fibers.
So this is for rapid explosive movement, and what happens
is power training, which includes things like medicine ball slams,
(15:56):
something called pliometrics, which is basically using your own weight.
Quick movements can help maintain these fast twitch muscle fibers.
And having these fast twitch muscle fibers allows you to
recover quickly from something as innocuous as a stumble or
(16:16):
tripping over your dog. Okay, that's not just heavy it's
not just lifting heavy weight, but lifting weight quickly so
you have the reaction time. You have to really program
yourself to move quickly, and you have to really function
on what you're doing in your daily life. It's called
(16:37):
functional movement. Daily movements, carrying groceries, picking up a child,
picking up tools that you use in the backyard, being
able to start your lawn mower with a strong pull.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
So I think that.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
While we talked about tennis as the optimal sport based
on that research article, we have to look and say
we have to work on strength in a different way.
We have to push ourselves a little bit differently, and
doing strength training twice a day for about twenty minutes
is going to be adequate. More may be better, but
(17:15):
twenty minutes twice a week is probably good. Looking at
your legs, your abdominal muscles, your chest, and your shoulders,
that you can lift things over your head. So, as
I've said before, good health longevity is not by accident.
(17:37):
You have to take care of yourself. And not to
sound pessimistic in any way, but every day the human
body degrades a little bit and you have to beat it.
You have to find that equalizer, which is exercise, getting
your rest, and your diet. Okay, we talk about diet
(17:57):
a lot. All right, We're going to take a quick
break here. News, traffic, weather, you get an update on
what the heck is happening out there, roads, Temperature, how
cold it's going to get tonight into tomorrow. I'm doctor Joglotti.
Always a pleasure to be here, rain or shine out
of cold. We're here doctor Joglotti dot com is the website.
(18:21):
Anthony Santos is coming up in a minute. We're going
to be talking about strategies to not make a mistake
during inclement weather with your health.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
The bottom line call nine one one if you got
a question.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
All right, stay tuned over right back, Welcome back, everybody.
Doctor Joe Glotti on this somewhat frigid Sunday night. Despite
the weather, we're still trying to raise your health IQ
and make you better consumers. And with all of the
(18:56):
bad weather concerns there there are health implication, There's no
doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
And so on the phone tonight.
Speaker 3 (19:02):
As I was saying earlier, as Anthony Santos, he's a
indurist practitioner working with me at Liver Specialists of Texas.
And Anthony, thanks for coming on tonight and really talking
about a very important topic. Even though you know the
storm is passing, there may be another one or two
days of really bad weather. But making sure you take
(19:24):
care of yourself and not delaying care because it's called
out that roads are icy is really a very big deal.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
What do you say, Yes, sir, First of all, thank
you for having me, doctor Glotti. As you were alluding to,
you know, when the weather is dangerous, the general advice
is to shelter in place, right. However, there are a
few medical scenarios that are like so time sensitive right
where treatment is most effective and it takes priority.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Over the storm exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
And I think one of the biggest things is, and
this is the mistake people make is well, it's it's
Sunday night, or it's early Monday morning, and you know,
let me see how it goes for the next few hours,
or leo, let's see what tomorrow looks like instead of
doing something, and that could be really a grave mistake.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
That is absolutely the case, doc. I think you have
to prioritize your health similarly in you know, no different
than in sunny days. Right, So, yes, it's a little
bit colder, but you know, relating to your question, and
many of our patients are at the elderly side with
chronic disease, I think they should treat their health as
(20:41):
they would normally if there was good weather.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Now, the most there's a handful of potentially disastrous conditions
or symptoms that you know, anybody listening tonight really cannot delay.
And you mentioned it's time sensitive things like chest pain.
If you're having chest pain, explain why this is time
sensitive and you don't want to fiddle around with this, right.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
So, you know, particularly in chess pain, time is muscle
as probably many clinicians have heard, any minute hour wasted
is muscle damage. So chess pain would certainly be a
flag to likely call nine.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
One one exactly and nine to one one. Depending on
where you live, the county, the city, you're going to
get police, sheriff, fire department, dedicated ems. These are people
that know how to navigate through bed weather and get
you there. So you should not be sitting home thinking, well,
I don't want to bring anybody out. It's more of
(21:46):
a nuisance. I've got to call my kids things like that, Right,
you know, the.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Roads aren't great, it's probably dangerous, but these are what
are sources in the city are built to do. And
it's ultra important to likely be you know, to not
shy from calling because if you wait later, you could
imagine the amount of calls that would then come in
(22:15):
and then your face behind the eight ball. Yeah, so
you know, prior to your condition getting worse and you know,
thinking you might feel bad that you have to call
somebody again at the end of the day you're having
chest paining. That's an emergent situation.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And you know the other thing is, you know, tonight, tomorrow,
the next couple of days, that is not the time
to drive yourself to the er. You break down, you're
stuck in cold, and then that creates a whole new problem.
Calling nine to one one is a way to go.
The other big thing that people sort of on an
emergency basis is shortness of breath. Lots of people get
(22:52):
short of breath and they don't know what to do.
We're saying, call nine one one. What's what's your take, Anthony?
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Right, So, shortness of breath could mean many different situations.
You know, you could have a chronic lung disease. You
may not even be aware that you have an underlying
heart condition. Right, So shortness of breath may come along
on its own, may come along with uh oh, my
legs are swollen, my stomach is a little bit fluid filled.
(23:21):
You know, we got to stop sort of self diagnosing, right,
And when you realize that there's something outside of what
you normally look like, you probably need to get attention.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
Yeah, and these are not the times to go to
Google to almost convince yourself. You know it probably is
the you know, the spicy food I ate last night,
or I have a little bit more heartburn. You've got
to throw that whole way of thinking out out the window.
The other thing which we see a lot of is
(23:51):
people that have abdominal pain. And here again abdominal pain
could be literally ignored, and people will start looking it
up and will start assigning it to something completely different.
But we're talking about potential for appendicitis, a perforated also
some sort of gallbladder problem. It's you know, really again,
(24:15):
the whole message here for everybody listening is not to
wait and self diagnose.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, and may I add even you know, black stools,
red stools. Let's say you you've had a cough for
a while and then all of a sudden you spit
out blood. Certainly one of the many as well as
you had alluded to conditions that might require some attention.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Now the other the other thing is certainly as at
the population is getting older, stroke and people will maybe
present with a headache or a little bit of weakness
on one side, or something called a tia transient to
schemic attack, where they may feel a little week on
one side, a little bit of a droop on their face,
(25:02):
they may have a little bit of slurred vision. But miraculously,
twenty minutes later, Anthony, it's it's better. So they say,
don't worry. This is Sunday night, it's Monday. Let's let's
just wait till everything falls out. That is that is
probably next to a heart attack. That's probably one of
the worst things that you don't want to miss for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I think we've known that brain cells die probably by
the millions every minute that you wait. You know, the
sooner that the experts can get in there and perhaps
use a clockbusters is likely a better outcome. So that
may or may not be associated with the worst headache
(25:45):
of your life, you know, and they are often one
in and of itself. But just like you said, and
as we had been saying earlier, again, if this is
not your norm, it should probably be attended to, right.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
And I would think that when you delay care, because
this is really what it all comes down to, things
before become more complicated and more risky when you get
earlier treatment. And this really goes for almost anything. You
may need less aggressive intervention, shorter hospital stay or shorter
hospital visit, and lower risk of some sort of permanent disability.
(26:23):
And so we have to sort of get in that
that mindset and people, you know, anything, one of the
things we always talk about is the risk benefit. What
is the risk of the weather versus the benefit of
getting medical care. I would say it's it's ten to one,
(26:44):
call nine to one one and get the help.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
What's what's what do you think?
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Right right on? You know, depending on you know, each
individual situation. Perhaps you have an underlying diabetes issue. You
know when you start to experience vision loss, Perhaps you
know you have high blood pressure, and then all of
a sudden you're having chest pain. I think these are
all consequences of delayed attention or delayed care. And as
(27:11):
you were alluding to, you know, if intervened sooner, could
minimize the complexity of the treatment, you know, whether it
is a one or two day stay versus one week.
I think the most concerning condition in these population, in particular,
(27:31):
infection is a septic condition.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Right yeah, I mean, and infections are happening every single day,
and you don't want to again minimize it. And you know,
really when you look at the problem here, now we're
sort of gearing the conversation towards the older adult. Now
what does that mean? Fifty five and older, sixty five
and older. But you know, everybody should realize the older
(27:56):
you are, you're less able to tolerate these changes in
blood pressure, blood sugar circulation, or infections, and so if
you've got these chronic illnesses, and Anthony, we know from
our own patient population that seventy five eighty percent of
the adult population has chronic heart disease underlying diabet, this
(28:20):
high cholesterol, let's throw in the liver disease that we
take care of. They are much more fragile and none
of this is good.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Yeah, you know, going into the older population, even our
younger population, I think, the sicker they are or having
multiple chronic conditions, what we see is they have a
less physiological reserve. They're tipping point from stable to critical
is a lot more narrower than your good old fashioned
(28:54):
healthy patient, and it's more justified. The reason why you know,
these patients need to have a backup plan and eat,
you know, a shelter rather a medical plan in the
event of a severe weather condition. As we were talking
to it's pretty cold tonight, yes, sir, so yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Yeah, so I guess for everybody that really the take
home messages number one, don't self diagnose. I mean, Anthony,
we see this all the time. People are coming in
and they are so far off the mark with what
they think they have. It's you know, being respectful to
our patients. It's almost laughable what they sort of come
up with. So air on the side of caution. Use
(29:38):
ems instead of driving yourself. You don't want to get
stuck out there. If you feel weak, dizzy, or shorter breath,
you need to cold nine one one, chest pain and
stroke symptoms, like you said. And you know, the main
thing is, you know, don't you have to get over
this idea that you don't want to bother anybody? Now, Anthony,
(30:00):
you've got plenty of relatives, older relatives here in town.
What would you say to them about not wanting, you know,
to bother a relative or a neighbor next door, because
that's really what people say, I don't want to bother anybody.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
What I would say, you know, in sort of summarizing
what I would recommend to my family or our patients
if you would seek help on a sunny day, seek
help on a stormy day, right, I mean, safety is
the most important thing, and health is the most important.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Thing we have.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, and sometimes you only get one chance, you know,
in a sense, you only get one one good wooden
chance here. So all right, Anthony Santos, thank you very much.
Our favorite nurse practitioner on the radio. Thanks for coming
on the radio tonight. I hope you're stay in warm.
Speaker 4 (30:53):
Thank you, Doc. I'll see you tomorrow. All right, Well,
I don't know. We're gonna have to see how the
weather is. Anthony, all right, that's true. Stay tuned for
more Your Health First.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
All right, final segment of this week's Your Health First,
the Frozen edition every Sunday between seven and eight pm.
Don't forget Doctor Joeglotti dot com is our website.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
Go take a visit.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
You can send me a message, sign off for our newsletter,
get a copy of my book Eating Yourself Sick. As
I've been saying. In the next few months, there'll be
another book coming out. Don't have a title yet, but
it's going to be very very interesting things that I'm
(31:55):
going to be talking about in the new book. But
if you go to the newsletters, you will not miss
anything that we are doing.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
All right.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
I want to thank Anthony Santos for coming on just now.
I think the conversation we had was useful in staying
out of trouble and good weather bad weather. We have
a way of minimizing some of our issues that develop.
(32:31):
Part of it is a defense mechanism you don't want
to realize, Hey man, am I really having a heart attack?
Well maybe if I take some tombs and a glass
of milk it'll go away. Or if you had as
I was saying, a at TIA transient eschemic attack, slurred speech,
your face has a droop, your left hand is weak,
(32:53):
and then five minutes later it's gone. So you say,
whoa I you know, bit the bullet on this one. No,
there's a likely chance that this will happen again, and
it may be more extensive. And so that's why you
want to get in early. Get in early. You're not
going to bother the nice firemen that are going to
come to your house. The er staff is not going
(33:14):
to be upset that you're there on a cold, snowy, cold,
freezing night. That's why we're there, That's why we work.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
All right. So final.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Final segment here, and this has to do with heart
disease and stroke and the reality that a quarter one
quarter of all deaths are related to heart disease and stroke.
(33:44):
Now you may look at this if you follow healthcare
and research. In new developments, we have had unbelievable gains
in treatment. The technology is really fantastic, butrdiovascular disease will
continue to be the leading cause of death in the
United States, accounting for nearly three and ten fatalities close
(34:10):
to a million in twenty twenty three. This was by
a report in the American by the American Heart Association
this past Wednesday, staggering it outnumbers deaths from the second
and third leading cause, which is cancer and accidental injury combined.
(34:31):
So no doubt it is sobering, and people that are
experts in this area, in the cardiovascular realm, are simply
saying a lot of work needs to be done. And
this is a bit of an understatement. So when you
look at heart disease, we're talking about heart attack, heart failure. Okay,
(34:52):
heart attack and heart failure leading killers. Now, things got
a little bit better in the nineteen seventies. People were
not smoke as much. That with new medications for high
blood pressure and high cholesterol, things like stens bypass surgery
became much safer. But things started to slow down around
twenty ten as the mortality from heart disease increased. Now
(35:20):
we added obesity and type two diabetes. We have been
talking about this for as long as I've been on
the radio twenty three years. Obesity and type two diabetes,
which by the way, leads to fatty liver, which leads
to cirrhosis, which leads a liver cancer, liver failure, and
so it's as big, big, nasty web of problems. So
(35:43):
what we're finding is that the based on the twenty
twenty three data, the latest data that's available, death from
cardiovascular disease totaled over nine hundred thousand. Close to a
million include being six hundred and eighty thousand deaths from
heart disease and one hundred and eighty thousand from stroke. Now,
(36:08):
while cigarette smoking is down to about eleven percent of
US adults, e cigarettes is increasing. Most notably, the obesity
epidemic has really infiltrated everybody over the past forty years,
which is a tremendous respector for heart disease. Half of
(36:29):
all adults have high blood pressure hypertension silent killer, which
is also which is often driven by obesity. High blood
pressure leads to heart failure, and it leads to the
plaque and cholesterol and hardening of the arteries which results
in heart attacker strokes. So this is all connected. People,
(36:52):
these are not isolated events. Now, the bad news here
about hypertension is less than a quarter. Less than twenty
five percent of people with high blood pressure have it
well controlled through diet, exercise, or medicine less than a quarter.
(37:12):
So that means seventy five percent of people that have
high blood pressure it is not adequately controlled. These people
are time bombs. Okay, let's get to diabetes, another sickening statistic.
About fourteen percent of adults have diabetes. Most of it's
going to be type two diabetes, which is related to
(37:33):
obesity and insulin resistance. Now you've got fourteen percent with
type two diabetes. Thirty seven percent have pre diabetes. So
these are people sort of in the farm team of diabetes.
They're going to move their way up. The majority of
these people with pre diabetes will eventually become diabetic. Ten
(37:56):
million people have diabetes and don't know it. I would
say they don't know it, or they're not aware, or
they're not really paying attention. Chronic high blood sugar you
sure all know this leads to damage to the large
and small arteries, which leads to heart attack, stroke, dementia,
(38:17):
kidney disease. So what is the bottom line here? Number one,
advocate for yourself. I've been saying advocate for yourself for
a long time.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
I have.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
A little bit of a problem with many primary care
physicians that are not aggressively treating hypertension. They are not
aggressively treating abnormal blood sugar, and you, the patient have
to advocate and say, wait a second, my blood pressure
should be one twenty something over seventy. It's one forty five.
(38:59):
What am I supposed to do? I don't want a
heart attack a stroke. So advocate for yourself. And so,
if you are told you have hypertension, you should have
a blood pressure cuff at home measuring your pressure every day,
several times a week. If you have diabetes, you should
know what your blood sugars are see if you are
(39:26):
at risk for developing complications. Are you following the diet?
Are you following an exercise schedule? We just talked about
the value of exercise here.
Speaker 4 (39:38):
So I believe that.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
We're not going to see a significant drop in heart
related deaths until the public really comes around and advocates
for themselves realize that they have to eat better, cut
down on obesie the increase physical activity, and really just
(40:04):
be more engaged with your own health and wellness. Don't
depend on the healthcare system one hundred percent. You have
to understand what is going on. So all right, well,
the hour is over. I don't think it's any warmer outside,
(40:26):
but do be careful. And I would say the message
of tonight. If you're sitting at home and you don't
feel well, be it abdominal pain, chest pain, shortness of breath,
you have a headache, you feel like you have a fever.
Speaker 4 (40:40):
Something is going on. Get the attention you need.
Speaker 3 (40:44):
Do not let the weather, do not let the roads,
do not let the ice, do not let any inconvenience
stop you from doing what is the right thing.
Speaker 4 (40:53):
All right, so we'll.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Check in with everybody next Sunday evening. Don't forget doctor
Jogolotti dot com Lust evening, Stay warm, take care of
each other.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
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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