January 5, 2026 • 43 mins
- Listen Saturday mornings at 8 as Dr. Msonthi Levine discusses medical issues and takes your calls on News Talk 560 KLVI. Dr Levine is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. His office is located at 3080 Milam in Beaumont, Texas. He can be reached at 409-347-3621.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome Southeast texting radio listeners. Happy New Year,
Happy New Year. Absolutely, I hope everything went well with
your New year celebrations, and everything is going well since
then a couple.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Of days old, three days old.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This new year, So happy new year to you. Fresh start,
fresh beginning, new beginning. Yeah, correct all the wrongs of
the previous year, twenty twenty five. That's what we look
forward to normally at the beginning of every year, is
to do things better, do things right, correct those things
that are wrong right. So happy New Year to you,
(00:42):
and thank you for joining us another edition of the show.
I've been doing the show for many years and we
appreciate your support. And the show is for you to
be honest with you. I want to make sure that
again you're getting all the information that you can use
use to help you make better decisions about how to
(01:03):
stay alive, longer and healthier. And I have to run
to the doctor's office every single day and take ten
thousand medications. Although that sometimes happens, no one's fault. Sometimes
you get a bad card dealt to you. But certainly
we can try and decrease our probability of being in
(01:28):
that situation, right just those habits that we sometimes get
into that we could work on that might reduce our
chances of becoming ill or having to participate in a
hospital stay.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Or doctor visit. I mean, everybody needs to get.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Checked out periodically, maybe once a year if you don't
have any medical problems. Some people are going to the
doctor every week, I mean, just non stop. To get
exhausted with the whole process. But certainly, yeah, you need
to do your part, especially as you get older. The
golden years, as they used to say, you gotta do
(02:09):
your part as you get older, no question, as the
aging process kicks in that program that we all have
in our body. Whereby as we get older, the system
just doesn't work as well. It's more vulnerable, it's not
as strong as it used to be.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's weaker.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
It's more likely to break down on you and need repairs,
so you have to take care of it. Just like
with any sort of machine that you might have, car,
washing machine, house, right, more repairs, investment into keeping the
house functioning. The human body is no different. You want
(02:53):
to put in good things so the good things come out,
and if you expose your body to bad things than
normally the body breaks down right. That's what keeps doctors
busy and healthcare professionals busy all day long is making
our treating patients with those particular issues. So we're here
(03:15):
every Saturday between eight and nine trying to help you
make good decisions about you and your family because it
is confusing out there, confusing for good reasons. There's just
more information out there, good information too. It's hard to
filter it out, like which one is good, which one
is bad? Even my show, right, you know, these are
(03:38):
my opinions based on my experience over twenty years of
doctoring and what I've been exposed to and what I've read.
This is my opinion, and certainly you can always get
a second opinion from a different practitioner. They typically have
a different point of view, again because of their own experiences,
(04:00):
which is why you might get a different diagnosis when
you see different doctors. It's all about that experience and
the impression, which a lot of it starts with the
story that you tell your health care provider wherever that
is in the office, minor care, emergency department. It's all
(04:23):
about that story that you tell them that sort of
influences their impression about what's going on or what needs
to be done, which is why sometimes you have to
go back and get reassessed and maybe get another work up.
You know, if your original impression, your original medicines didn't work,
(04:45):
or it gets worse, you have to go back. I
know it's frustrating, but unfortunately that's a part of healthcare.
It's a part of medicine where the diagnoses might change,
the impression might change, the thera rep. Whatever was recommended
to you on day one needs to be changed on
day two and day three.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Just these diseases are tricky, very very tricky.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You can read all day, you can go to conferences,
you can get all of your certifications, you can do
all that stuff. But when it's happening live in front
of you. From a practitioner standpoint, there are all these
variables that impact what you're thinking as you're talking to
(05:31):
the patient, as you're examining the patient, as you're listening
or receiving all the information from other healthcare providers. Maybe
the registered nurse is talking with you, the respiratory therapist
is talking with you. You're getting all this information. You're trying
to process it and come back with the best answer
(05:52):
to what is going on and what needs to be done.
And again, it's a very fluid situation a lot of times,
especially in the hospital if you ever been hospitalized, which
can be a terrifying situation for patients. They're sick, they're ill,
and are you sick? You're ill, you just want some
mans just want to feel better. And the doctors that
have come in they don't agree with what you have
(06:14):
or what to do.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And man, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's disappointing how you can get three different answers right
with the same information. And I'm sorry that happens to you,
But unfortunately, we all have our own impression when we
look at certain pieces of information and we do examinations.
But it keeps it kind of fresh as well, because
(06:41):
a lot of times if you once you get a
fresh approach, a fresh opinion, sometimes yes, eureka, you get
the right answer, because sometimes yes, listening to another helico
profession you sort of get pigeonholed in a thinking about
a certain disease, when really, if you have a fresh approach,
keep your mind open, you can really make the right diagnosis.
(07:02):
So that's just medicine and hopefully having a good morning
this morning and we appreciate you joining the show. Your
twenty twenty six and hopefully everything went well. You had
your black eyed peas, you had your ham and your
cabbage and.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
All the other rituals that are out there. That was
my ritual. But yeah, it was safe and sad.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
A lot of times these New Year's Eves, New Year's
Eve celebrations can get a little out of hand.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And yes, we did see our.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Slew of patients maybe had a little bit too much
to drink, you know, partied a little bit too strong,
and got a little sick from that exposure to that
beverage we call alcohol, or maybe while they were drinking,
fell and maybe fractured arm or leg or hit their face.
(07:59):
I mean, yeah, we did see that. We see that
every year, right, and you had your feast again with
your family. So much eating and drinking doing this time
of year, a lot of patients do get sick from
all that exposure, and it's something they're not used to.
But they say, when the new year starts, yes, we're
(08:22):
going to clean it up. We're going to get out
and start exercising, we are going to eat right, We're
going to do it, yes next week, not this week,
but next week, and then the next week and then
the next week. Right. Hey, it's hard out there, but
things are getting somewhat easier with certain medicines that are
(08:43):
out there to help.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You know, we've talked.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Over the past year just because they've become popular about
these GLP one agonist medications that you know as o
zimpic are with go v our jarro or zep bound
trulicity sexended. I mean, there's multiple drugs in that class,
(09:06):
and the forumacy companies are trying to make it easier
for you to get but sometimes it can be difficult
still to get that product just because of the price
still a little bit high for most people to get
the drug.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
But in my opinion, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
A great drug or class category of drugs that you
can use to get your weight down. I get that
question a lot. Do you think it'd be good for
me to start this drug? Even my elderly patients are
coming in, patients sixty five and above, maybe seventy, maybe
they think they're a little bit overweight that like to
(09:45):
get their weight down, that even they are asking for
these drugs. I intend to be something that they can access,
something that they can tolerate. And it works out very well,
typically normally once a week, and you can take these
drug as far as I know, and definitely as long
as you need it. And the whole thing that it
(10:06):
does for most patients, like I said, is it allows
you to go the entire day without eating a whole lot.
And we've sort of mentioned this over and over again
the past year twenty twenty five is really in my opinion,
yet we just we eat too frequently in this country,
(10:28):
and we're sort of encouraged to eat too frequently. We're
sort of eating and snacking all day from the time
we wake up, from the time we go to bed.
We're just constantly feeding that engine, that machine with foods
and beverages that most people know that's not necessarily good
(10:49):
for us. And so it's no wonder that at some
point you don't feel well, you don't look well, maybe
your energy is not the same, maybe something physically is
not what it used to be. And again, my argument,
after talking with so many patients and seeing so many
patients in these situations, is that one strategy to get
(11:14):
healthy and to reduce the possibility of having to seek
medical attention or take a lot of medications.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Is to just eat less.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean sounds real simple, but man, you should try it.
And what they call it is fasting right, FASTI n
G are intermittent fasting. That's the term that's been popularized.
And you can look that up or do a chat
GTP on intermittent fasting, so you can kind of get
an idea about that. But basically kind of make a
(11:48):
commitment to not eat for a certain period of time,
normally twelve hours at a time. Basically the timing of
the doesn't really matter. You know, years ago again, all
these strategies that have been promoted over the years to
help patients control their weight. That was the one about
(12:10):
not eating after seven PM or six pm, which is
kind of along the lines of fasting, right because most
of the time, traditionally the American culture, wake up, eat
breakfast in twelve o'clock, you eat lunch, and then five
or six you get home with your family. There's a
big dinner, right and most of the time that dinner
(12:36):
is big. It's normally a protein and a vegetable and
maybe a salad and a bread service and sometimes dessert
with a sugary beverage. That's a sort of a traditional setup.
That most patients have, and this is right before you
go to bed. So that was this whole idea about, well,
(12:56):
don't eat after six so don't eat a full meal
in the evening time. Let's your stomach rest. Don't go
to bed with all that food on you. And so
that was kind of popular at one time. I don't
hear a lot of people using that strategy much anymore,
but it is along the same lines of fasting right,
because let's say you don't eat it.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Let's say you do that six p m.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You don't have anything, and then the next time that
you probably will eat will be what eight nine o'clock
the next morning. That's fasting basically, but you're sleeping. So
you can do that when right, and not having anything
to eat, you can do that when easy. But when
(13:42):
you're up doing the day and you're working and you're
busy and you're driving or whatever activity you're engaged in,
it's a little bit harder to bypass. All the goodies
that are in front of you, and all the beverages
that are in front of you that contain calories that
might have sugar in it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It's difficult to say no to it.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's so delicious and you have sort of a psychological
emotional attachment to it. I still get that from some
of my patients with sugary beverages doctor pepper, Coca cola, pepsi.
They cannot do without drinking these beverages every day.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
They just love them.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And you try to ask them to not drink it,
and it's torture and they fight themselves. They know they
shouldn't drink it, but they just fight themselves.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Right, it's got to have it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's so uncomfortable to not be able to drink it,
and they so they drink it.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
It's just they don't want to be in pain and
they don't want to be uncomfortable. I mean they're in
their older years and I've done all my work and
I don't want to do this anymore, so they just indulge. Right,
they deserve it. That's sort of mentality which you have
in this country. You deserve that you worked hard. I mean,
(15:01):
why not go ahead, drink it, have all the foods
you want, do whatever you want. You deserve this sort
of reward for your hard work and being a good person. Right,
So that's basically in manfasting. But there are a lot
of different areas of the day that you can do that.
But I certainly believe that that's a good strategy to initiate.
(15:25):
It's just eat less throughout the day, good strategy. Phone
lines are open eight nine six kalv I won one
hundred three to three zero KLVA.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back to
the doctor Metical.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Our phone lines are open eight nine six kV I
won in one hundred three to three zero kova I.
Talking about the new year and how you're going to
do things better, do things right, and normally your health
than your wellness are a part of that conversation at
the beginning of the year. You know, you didn't really
do what you needed to do last year and maybe
(16:08):
got started on some new medications, had to go to
the doctor, maybe had a hospital stay. Excuse me. But
this is a new year and you're going to do
it right this time. So normally a lot of conversation
during this time of the year about changing your ways,
changing those bad habits, those bad habits you know that
(16:28):
are increasing your chances of becoming sick and needing to
take pharmaceutical medications.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
How can you get better?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And one strategy I mentioned is what we call intermitt
and fasting, where you just say, look, I don't need
to eat that much every single day. I'm going to
cut it down. And that's basically a basic concept of that,
and I do agree with that. It's hard though, with
all this food and all these beverages sitting around that
(16:59):
are cheap and.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Easy to get.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It's a difficult task a lot of times to not
eat with all this around, all of this advice encouragement to.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Eat all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
When you go out, you get all this food, right,
the whole value menu concept. When you go out to
eat something, you want a lot of food, right, and
if you don't get a lot and the price is high, man,
this is not a good value. So you just sort
of end up with this concept. We have all this
food that you're eating, and most of this food is
very high calorie, our calorie dense. And because we live
(17:34):
in a society where we really don't burn that much
energy every day, we're not really outside walking running, we
don't really need a lot of energy every day to
support our bodies, which again is the only reason we
eat and drink right, is to give our body fuel.
That's what food is is it just fuel so that
(17:55):
it can work. It's a machine. So because we're not
really using a lot of fuel every day, we don't
need to replenish.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
A lot of fuel every day. We have reserve fuel
on our bodies. That's called fat. Fat that the body.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Will convert to usable energy if we're not putting it in.
But when we're constantly sort of feeding it energy all
day long, it just basically gets preserved as fat. And
that's that weight gain that you see. So again, try
to figure out a strategy to just not eat as
(18:33):
much throughout the day. And again, I know a lot
of people I don't really eat a lot, but they're
drinking sugary beverages, right. They're drinking the sodas, they're drinking
the smoothies or whatever other sugary beverage that tastes good.
Coffee beverages right, A lot of people are putting a
lot of creamer and sugar and additives in their coffee.
(18:57):
Black coffee, in my opinion, is a very healthy beverage
as well as tea. Again, you can go to your
favorite grocery store and go down the tea aisle. I mean,
it's just thousands and thousands.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I don't know for.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Thousands, but it's a lot of them, right, different teas,
different flavors, different amounts, and they a lot of times
contain really healthy ingredients, spices that are healthy for you,
good flavors, but it's not sweetened. And you can use
(19:32):
that to brew your own tea and drink it and
be healthy about it because you can squeeze some lemon,
you can put some lime in it. I mean, these
are good food items that have been proven to be very.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Healthy and bring health.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
A lot of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Times an these teas, cinnamon and spices, things like that.
So you should visit your tea aisle and look and
try some different teas versus the sodas that are very
popular that I see certainly in the hospital, I see
that a lot, just all the soda cans and the
bottles start popping up.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
But yes, tea, even coffee.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
They have a lot of different varieties of coffee is
out there easy to brew, right, They've made it so easy,
these coffee pods, pods that are out there now, you
just pop it in the machine and voilela thirty seconds. Man,
You have a good, healthy beverage that you can consume
without sugar, because that's the main thing that we get
(20:42):
so much exposure to, is that sugar, which unfortunately, the
food industry has incorporated into a lot of the food
and beverage items that they are manufacturing or processing out there.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Again, a lot of the food that you're.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Eating, if you're eating out all the time, it kind
of comes from these same sort of giant food manufacturers
out there.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And again they have.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
To preserve this food somehow so that it can sit
on the shelf and be easily reheated, and then when
you eat it's supposed to look and taste and feel
the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We have all gone to.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The grocery store and gotten fresh food and we bring
it home. You know how easily it can turn bad.
It can go rotten within a day or two. I mean,
you got to cook it, eat it, put it in
the fridge. But when you're talking about preserved food or
a lot of the ultra processed food out there, which
(21:44):
is what a lot of us are eating. And you know,
these are just all the restaurants, the sandwich shops and
all the other food outlets that are out there where
food is sort of being prepared. It's maybe already made,
it's frozen, they just reheat it.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It's ultra process.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Nothing wrong with I should say, they're not purposely doing.
I mean, they're just trying to feed America, right, And
it sometimes takes a while to go to the grocery
store get your own food, cook it. I mean it's
time consuming, right, and not a lot of us have
that time. A lot of distractions, a lot of reasons
why we can't do that, so we sort of choose
(22:22):
to go down this other road out of necessity a
lot of times. But again, consuming these food items that
have all of these ingredients again can be linked. According
to the experts, It's been chronicled very well to a
lot of these health issues. Which is why if you
come to my office, you know, I'm always asking what
(22:43):
did you eat?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
What do you drink?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I do that as a habit with most of the
patients that I see, because again I understand and get
the point that a lot of the diseases that we
treat stem from just eating and drinking the wrong food
items and eating too much of it so intermittent fasting.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Look it up, think about it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I think that would be a good natural strategy to
keep that weight down and feel better, have that energy,
have better skin. A lot of people, again, they want
to feel energetic, they want to be able to bend
down and pick something up. They just want to feel
like they did when in their twenties. And again it
(23:28):
sounds crazy, but just a good way to do it is.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Just stop eating. Stop eating.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Phone lines are open eight nine six kal y i
one one hundred three three zero ko via be back
in two minutes. All right, welcome back to the Doctor
Fly Medical. Our phone lines are open eight nine six
(23:55):
kalo y i one one hundred and three three zero
ko VERI.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Happy new year.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
To you, and yes, it's the beginning of the year,
and we talk a lot about what can I do
different this year so that I'm better than last year,
And so that conversation always comes up. Health and wellness
is always a big part of that. One other thing
that we like to promote is just getting your information
(24:21):
about how your personal body is working. And there's just
more tools out there than ever before with the smartphones
and the smart watches.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
That we talked a little bit about that a few.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Weeks ago in terms of just before Christmas and trying
to get maybe some of these devices and you're stocking
so that you can start using these. But yes, we
do promote using these devices and gadgets so that you
can kind of monitor your heart rate, your blood pressure
as well as your sugar just to sort of know
(24:56):
what is going on with your body, so that you
can have the information you need to make decisions about
the food items and beverage items that maybe you're exposing
yourself to that is increasing the possibility of your blood
pressure getting worse, your diabetes getting worse, are increasing your
possibility of cardiovascular disease.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That's still the number one disease in our country, and
we all know the risk factors for that. And again,
it all starts with what you're eating and drinking. That
is the main thing you have to focus on and
make sure that you're doing your best to do that,
and using some of these devices does work. So certainly
(25:39):
if you have a diabetes type one and type two,
we are trying to get most of the patients on
these what we call continuous glucose monitors or CGM for short.
Some of the name brands out there would be decks,
com dex COOM or the Freestyle Libre program. Basically bluetooth
(26:01):
technology that uses a sugar censor, a little small sugar
sensor normally circular that fits normally in the back of
your arm, on the side of your arm, whichever side
you want, and you wear it throughout the day and
it basically talks to your phone, and so anytime you
want to know what your sugar is, you just sort
(26:21):
of look at your phone and it sort of grafts
it out and it records everything and you can see
all the graphs and again you can kind of see
what is happening when you eat or drink some of
these food beverages.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
A lot of people are.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Surprised with food items that they've been eating. They did
know spike their sugar, but it does spike their sugar,
and now they know so that they can avoid these
food items so that they don't worsen the disease process
or have to guess about anything. And I have seen
it make a positive impact on most patients' health because
(27:00):
now they have that information, and it does make a
difference to see that sugar spiking when you're eating certain
food items. I think bread is one big surprise, because
a lot of people feel like wheat bread is a
healthy bread and because it's healthy, it's wheat that you know,
(27:22):
what is wrong with that? I mean, that should not
cause my sugar to go up. But bread normally any
type of bread, because it has flour and it will
spike sugar pretty pretty high. Same thing as some of
the fruit items that are out there. Again, not that
the fruit is bad, but again it does contain natural sugar.
(27:42):
And all fruits are not created equal. Grapes and bananas
and pineapple, which a lot of people love that, right,
Doctor Levine said, go out and eat some fruits. So
I went to the store. I got me some grapes,
some bananas, I got my pineapple. A lot of times when
patients start eating that if they are diabetic, and that's
(28:04):
another question that comes up. Can a diabetic eat fruit?
And the answer is yes, it can be a part
of a healthy diet when it comes to diabetes. But again,
because if you have your c GM, you can kind
of determine how.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Much fruit your body can tolerate.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We typically recommend the dark berries is the sort of
fruit that we normally recommend to patients who have dobbies.
So that would be blueberries, blackberries, raspberries.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Those are the more dark berries.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
The tropical fruit that I just mentioned to you, bananas, watermelon, grapes, pineapple,
the honeydew. Melons typically don't have as much nutrition as
a dark berry and tend to have more of a
spike of your sugar, whereas a dark berry would have
a lower spike of your sugar. There is a term
(28:55):
that has been used for many many years called glycemic
index GI for short, and that is a tool that
some patients have been using for a long time, even
without a CGM. They just basically figure out the glycemic
index of this particular food item. The ideas that things
(29:17):
like bread have a high glycemic index and things like
meat and vegetables have a very low glycemic index. Really,
all the glycemic index is is a term that describes
what happens when you consume a food item. How much
is it going to spike your sugar?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
So a high GI score.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Would intend are it would expect to spike your sugar
fairly high when you consumed it. Versus a low GI score,
glycemic index score would be low. So that's one strategy
that a lot of patients use before they really started
using these cgms. But everybody is different, right, so sometimes
(30:02):
even though the GI score is low, it might spike
your sugar just because your body is different. All of
our human bodies are different, which is why you can't
look across the street and see what someone else is doing.
I know, it's convenient, and we all kind of do that.
We want to know what medicines they're on, what their
doctor's prescribing to them, because maybe they're struggling with their
(30:24):
dot they need someone to kind of give them some advice,
tell them what to do.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
And so yeah, you ask.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Around and you see what everybody else is doing. Maybe
this person is successful with their disease, and you're just
trying to get information, right. But again, at the end
of the day, this is really true that everybody's system
works different, and one patient might love ozimpic, then the
other patient might hate it o zimpy because it just
(30:52):
made them feel terrible. Same thing with these vaccines, right,
some patients get four vaccines on one day, no problem,
and the next guy, I mean man, it puts him
in the hospital and they never want to take another
vaccine ever. Again, it's the same thing with blood pressure diabetes, cholesterol,
all these different options out there. All of our human
(31:12):
bodies are different and we respond differently to certain medicines.
So that's why sort of having your own monitor like
a CGM.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Would be a good idea for you.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
And if you do have diabetes, it's something you probably
should be asking your a practitioner to get your prescription.
Because the technology has advanced, it's gotten better, it's easier
to use. Before, there were issues with the device pairing
with your phone, meaning you would go out and get it,
but it wouldn't connect to your phone. So there were
(31:44):
a lot of technical issues when these devices first came out.
But according to my patients, everything, all the bugs seem
to have been worked out, because most patients are having
really good experiences with their CGM monitors and they love
them and they really appreciate having the advice because it's
easier to use.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Back in the day, remember.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You had to have your style ed, you have to
have your testing strip, you had to have this and
that and just all these steps that you had to have.
But now you just sort of put this sensor on
your arm and kind of forget about. It's just sort
of a cool item to have. A lot of times,
same thing with blood pressure and heart rate. You know,
(32:27):
they now have your smartphones which can be used to
monitor blood pressure and heart rate, and now have the
smart watches, which a lot of them have these little sensors.
They're on the underside of the watch. I mean we
look at the watch news that watch face, but on
the backside they have sensors normally that are sort of
(32:50):
looking at your pulse or they're monitoring your pulse and
they can tell you how fast your heart is beating.
They can tell you if your heart is beating irregularly.
Because again we've mentioned on this show as we all
get older, up in sixty seventies, that the chances of
developing an electrical cardiac problem actually go up as we
(33:14):
all get older. And a lot of times these diseases
are silent initially, meaning you may not feel it, but
it's actually happening. So these smart watches, which have become
more affordable, there are more varieties out there. A lot
of times you can they sell them at Sam's or Target.
(33:34):
And these are really good devices, really good investment into
your health that you can just put on your wrist
and you just wear it and you can just kind
of monitor yourself and again, if you see anything that's abnormal,
that doesn't look right, yeah, you just go get it
checked out. I mean, try to be proactive and stay
(33:56):
on top of this thing rather than waiting until something
blows up and then you have a big hospital stay
or maybe have to be satellined from work for a week,
a month, a half a year, where you can go
and get these devices that you can monitor your blood pressure,
monitor your heart rate, and see what it is.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Now. I think the watches are getting.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Pretty good that, yes, blood pressure can be monitored that way.
I think that that's awesome that the watch can sort
of check your blood pressure or monitor your blood pressure.
I haven't seen one personally. I'll look that up and
see if that is available. I think that would be
a good technology, and the technic, the technology isn't there
(34:44):
for us to be able to do that, you know,
because a lot of times the issue with white coat hypertension, right,
you go into your doctor's office and the blood pressure
is super duper.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
High, and you're like, what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
I mean I check it at home and it looks good,
and all of a sudden it's high. That would be
a good way to sort of delineate if you truly
have high blood pressure or if it's just a reaction
to going to the doctor's office, which sometimes is real.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
It can happen.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
I mean, it's sort of nerve wracking going to the
doctor's office. I kind of have to sit and wait,
and then you have to pay, and then what's going
to happen. They're going to get stuck with the needle,
and then am I going to get bad news? I mean,
I want to be a good person. I want to
have a good report, and so a lot of that
can be life changing when.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
You go see your doctor.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
So it can be very nerve racking to go into
the doctor's office, and so it can shoot your blood
pressure up artificially. Then when you go home and you're
in your nice environment and it's safe and sound, hey,
you calm down and everything gets better, which is why
again a lot of insurance companies are sending you nurse
practice and physicians systems come out of your house and
(35:55):
do it a little exam, talk to you in the
comfort of your home at leisure. I think it's a
good idea just to rehash everything, make sure you're getting
everything you need Again, going to the doctor's office can
be a little distracting. You don't remember everything and forget things,
and so yeah, you go to your house and you
can talk about it at your leisure. Great idea.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Phone lines are open.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Eighty nine to six Kova one hundred and.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Three three zero Kova.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
I'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
All right, welcome back to the Dark Living Medical, our
first show of the year, twenty twenty six. Hopefully your
year has started off with a bang, and you're doing
well and you're healthy and everything is going well, and
that you had a good time over the holiday celebration
you know, which starts in October and we spend the
(36:53):
last part of the holiday calend. I'm in the calendar year,
just being very festive and having a good time and
spending time with family and recounting how the year was going.
And now it's here, and just like you said, when
it hits the new year, I'm gonna Yeah, it's here.
(37:13):
Now you gotta do it. I gotta wake up and
do what you said you were going to do. Which again,
a lot of bad habits out there, not smoking, if
you are a smoker, if you're drinking too much, alcohol.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Cutting back on that.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
If you're sedentary, you have a desk job and you're
sitting all day long, which again has been proven to
be very unhealthy for you to sit all day long.
I'd get this a lot in the hospital is when
you get sick, you just want to land in bed
all day, But you gotta get out of bed because
a lot of things happen when you just land in.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Bed all day, day after day after day. Yeah, you
have to get out of bed.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And the same thing is if you do have a
desk job and you're sitting all day, you got to
get up and move around and get that blood flowing.
That's how the human body works. So again, the new
year's here, what do I need to do? So cut
back on your cigarette, which can be very difficult habit
to break. There are medications available to help you break
(38:18):
that habit. There's chantis. There's also a medication called Wellbutrin,
which again a lot in my opinion, if you're in
your fifties or forties, it can be tough and you
normally need something to help you break that cycle, just
because it's almost like eating.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
It's just a habit.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
It's a routine that you do every single day. And
when you ask the human mind to not engage in
that habit, that routine, it can be tough to break
that cycle. So a lot of times pharmaceutical medications are
necessary to help with that. So again, there is something
for smoking, cessation. For drinking, there is a medication out
(38:56):
there that we do use called an Altrazone, is a
tablet that can be consumed every day which can help
you cut down on drinking. There is no tablet for
exercise now. But again I want everyone to understand, it's
not the exercise.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
First, it's the diet. You gotta do your part.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Remember, the simple thing is just to eat less. You
don't even have to spend a whole lot of money
with it. Just eat less. You don't need to eat
as much. And stop drinking sugar, right, all these sugary
beverages out there that we're consuming. Sugar is calories, calories
causes way gaining your bottery access. So stop drinking all
(39:38):
this sugar every day. And yes, that coffee that you
drink with the creamer, yeah that's a sugary beverage. Absolutely,
are that coffee you poured the natural honey in from
Texas or wherever, special place that came from.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
That's sugar. It's still a sugary beverage. You know, you're.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Smoothie beverage with twenty five ingredients that you grind it
and pulverize into this liquid that you want to consume.
That's a sugary beverage. Yes, very unnatural way to consume
these food items. And as far as I know, there
is no physiological or health benefit to consuming these sort
(40:22):
of beverages. Meaning I don't see people living longer because
they have a smoothie every morning. Certainly, you have to
not smoke, you have to limit your alcohol, and again
you cannot over consume calories throughout the day. And then yes,
you need to be physical active. So it's not one
(40:42):
little pill or one little tablet or beverage that you
drink that's going to somehow keep you healthy throughout today.
You do have to do a few things on a
regular basis to keep your health up. Yes, we understand
the struggle out there, but every day you wake up
you should be trying to figure out your strategy and
(41:04):
how to keep your health as healthy as possible. Again,
it starts with just not eating a lot of food
and getting away from the sugary beverages. But hey, you
have the devices out there. You have the continuous glucose monitor,
you have the smartphones, you have the smart watches which
are there to help you monitor your blood pressure, your
(41:26):
heart rate, and your pulse and your blood sugar. We
talked about know your numbers back in the day. That's
basically what that means. And sometimes, yes, you need to
go in and get your lab done with your healthcare provider,
maybe check your kiding function, check your cholesterol, because that
is part of know your numbers. But the thing is
is that if you are doing your part with your
(41:48):
diet and your exercise, a lot of times the cholesterol
will come down to a good level so that it's
not astronomically high. So that's why we say it all
starts there is to not eat as much and to
get up and move around. And that's the thing I
want to again promote is it doesn't really require a
(42:09):
lot of exercising to count, right, just a brisk walk
in the neighborhood, maybe pelling a bicycle, and you don't
have to do it every day, Maybe two to three
times a week will be fine. You don't have to
hurt after which you don't have to get it all
done in that one workout. You want it to be
(42:30):
enjoyable and it just doesn't take that much. To be
honest with you, I know what is promoted to you
that you have to join a gym maybe, or work
out for two hours or run a marathon to live
as long as you can. But that's really not reality
in my reality. In terms of what I see, I
see patients in their eighties and nineties, very healthy. They've
(42:55):
never run a marathon, they've never lifted heavy weights, right,
they certainly have their weight down. They're not eating a lot,
they don't smoke, they don't drink. Those are some of
the key common denominators, key components that you need to
focus on. So thank you for joining us another edition
of the show. Hope you have a wonderful day and
draw your weekend and we'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Take care of
All right, welcome Southeast texting radio listeners. Happy New Year,
Happy New Year. Absolutely, I hope everything went well with
your New year celebrations, and everything is going well since
then a couple.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Of days old, three days old.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This new year, So happy new year to you. Fresh start,
fresh beginning, new beginning. Yeah, correct all the wrongs of
the previous year, twenty twenty five. That's what we look
forward to normally at the beginning of every year, is
to do things better, do things right, correct those things
that are wrong right. So happy New Year to you,
(00:42):
and thank you for joining us another edition of the show.
I've been doing the show for many years and we
appreciate your support. And the show is for you to
be honest with you. I want to make sure that
again you're getting all the information that you can use
use to help you make better decisions about how to
(01:03):
stay alive, longer and healthier. And I have to run
to the doctor's office every single day and take ten
thousand medications. Although that sometimes happens, no one's fault. Sometimes
you get a bad card dealt to you. But certainly
we can try and decrease our probability of being in
(01:28):
that situation, right just those habits that we sometimes get
into that we could work on that might reduce our
chances of becoming ill or having to participate in a
hospital stay.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Or doctor visit. I mean, everybody needs to get.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Checked out periodically, maybe once a year if you don't
have any medical problems. Some people are going to the
doctor every week, I mean, just non stop. To get
exhausted with the whole process. But certainly, yeah, you need
to do your part, especially as you get older. The
golden years, as they used to say, you gotta do
(02:09):
your part as you get older, no question, as the
aging process kicks in that program that we all have
in our body. Whereby as we get older, the system
just doesn't work as well. It's more vulnerable, it's not
as strong as it used to be.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
It's weaker.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
It's more likely to break down on you and need repairs,
so you have to take care of it. Just like
with any sort of machine that you might have, car,
washing machine, house, right, more repairs, investment into keeping the
house functioning. The human body is no different. You want
(02:53):
to put in good things so the good things come out,
and if you expose your body to bad things than
normally the body breaks down right. That's what keeps doctors
busy and healthcare professionals busy all day long is making
our treating patients with those particular issues. So we're here
(03:15):
every Saturday between eight and nine trying to help you
make good decisions about you and your family because it
is confusing out there, confusing for good reasons. There's just
more information out there, good information too. It's hard to
filter it out, like which one is good, which one
is bad? Even my show, right, you know, these are
(03:38):
my opinions based on my experience over twenty years of
doctoring and what I've been exposed to and what I've read.
This is my opinion, and certainly you can always get
a second opinion from a different practitioner. They typically have
a different point of view, again because of their own experiences,
(04:00):
which is why you might get a different diagnosis when
you see different doctors. It's all about that experience and
the impression, which a lot of it starts with the
story that you tell your health care provider wherever that
is in the office, minor care, emergency department. It's all
(04:23):
about that story that you tell them that sort of
influences their impression about what's going on or what needs
to be done, which is why sometimes you have to
go back and get reassessed and maybe get another work up.
You know, if your original impression, your original medicines didn't work,
(04:45):
or it gets worse, you have to go back. I
know it's frustrating, but unfortunately that's a part of healthcare.
It's a part of medicine where the diagnoses might change,
the impression might change, the thera rep. Whatever was recommended
to you on day one needs to be changed on
day two and day three.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Just these diseases are tricky, very very tricky.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You can read all day, you can go to conferences,
you can get all of your certifications, you can do
all that stuff. But when it's happening live in front
of you. From a practitioner standpoint, there are all these
variables that impact what you're thinking as you're talking to
(05:31):
the patient, as you're examining the patient, as you're listening
or receiving all the information from other healthcare providers. Maybe
the registered nurse is talking with you, the respiratory therapist
is talking with you. You're getting all this information. You're trying
to process it and come back with the best answer
(05:52):
to what is going on and what needs to be done.
And again, it's a very fluid situation a lot of times,
especially in the hospital if you ever been hospitalized, which
can be a terrifying situation for patients. They're sick, they're ill,
and are you sick? You're ill, you just want some
mans just want to feel better. And the doctors that
have come in they don't agree with what you have
(06:14):
or what to do.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And man, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
It's disappointing how you can get three different answers right
with the same information. And I'm sorry that happens to you,
But unfortunately, we all have our own impression when we
look at certain pieces of information and we do examinations.
But it keeps it kind of fresh as well, because
(06:41):
a lot of times if you once you get a
fresh approach, a fresh opinion, sometimes yes, eureka, you get
the right answer, because sometimes yes, listening to another helico
profession you sort of get pigeonholed in a thinking about
a certain disease, when really, if you have a fresh approach,
keep your mind open, you can really make the right diagnosis.
(07:02):
So that's just medicine and hopefully having a good morning
this morning and we appreciate you joining the show. Your
twenty twenty six and hopefully everything went well. You had
your black eyed peas, you had your ham and your
cabbage and.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
All the other rituals that are out there. That was
my ritual. But yeah, it was safe and sad.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
A lot of times these New Year's Eves, New Year's
Eve celebrations can get a little out of hand.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And yes, we did see our.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Slew of patients maybe had a little bit too much
to drink, you know, partied a little bit too strong,
and got a little sick from that exposure to that
beverage we call alcohol, or maybe while they were drinking,
fell and maybe fractured arm or leg or hit their face.
(07:59):
I mean, yeah, we did see that. We see that
every year, right, and you had your feast again with
your family. So much eating and drinking doing this time
of year, a lot of patients do get sick from
all that exposure, and it's something they're not used to.
But they say, when the new year starts, yes, we're
(08:22):
going to clean it up. We're going to get out
and start exercising, we are going to eat right, We're
going to do it, yes next week, not this week,
but next week, and then the next week and then
the next week. Right. Hey, it's hard out there, but
things are getting somewhat easier with certain medicines that are
(08:43):
out there to help.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You know, we've talked.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Over the past year just because they've become popular about
these GLP one agonist medications that you know as o
zimpic are with go v our jarro or zep bound
trulicity sexended. I mean, there's multiple drugs in that class,
(09:06):
and the forumacy companies are trying to make it easier
for you to get but sometimes it can be difficult
still to get that product just because of the price
still a little bit high for most people to get
the drug.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
But in my opinion, it's.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
A great drug or class category of drugs that you
can use to get your weight down. I get that
question a lot. Do you think it'd be good for
me to start this drug? Even my elderly patients are
coming in, patients sixty five and above, maybe seventy, maybe
they think they're a little bit overweight that like to
(09:45):
get their weight down, that even they are asking for
these drugs. I intend to be something that they can access,
something that they can tolerate. And it works out very well,
typically normally once a week, and you can take these
drug as far as I know, and definitely as long
as you need it. And the whole thing that it
(10:06):
does for most patients, like I said, is it allows
you to go the entire day without eating a whole lot.
And we've sort of mentioned this over and over again
the past year twenty twenty five is really in my opinion,
yet we just we eat too frequently in this country,
(10:28):
and we're sort of encouraged to eat too frequently. We're
sort of eating and snacking all day from the time
we wake up, from the time we go to bed.
We're just constantly feeding that engine, that machine with foods
and beverages that most people know that's not necessarily good
(10:49):
for us. And so it's no wonder that at some
point you don't feel well, you don't look well, maybe
your energy is not the same, maybe something physically is
not what it used to be. And again, my argument,
after talking with so many patients and seeing so many
patients in these situations, is that one strategy to get
(11:14):
healthy and to reduce the possibility of having to seek
medical attention or take a lot of medications.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Is to just eat less.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I mean sounds real simple, but man, you should try it.
And what they call it is fasting right, FASTI n
G are intermittent fasting. That's the term that's been popularized.
And you can look that up or do a chat
GTP on intermittent fasting, so you can kind of get
an idea about that. But basically kind of make a
(11:48):
commitment to not eat for a certain period of time,
normally twelve hours at a time. Basically the timing of
the doesn't really matter. You know, years ago again, all
these strategies that have been promoted over the years to
help patients control their weight. That was the one about
(12:10):
not eating after seven PM or six pm, which is
kind of along the lines of fasting, right because most
of the time, traditionally the American culture, wake up, eat
breakfast in twelve o'clock, you eat lunch, and then five
or six you get home with your family. There's a
big dinner, right and most of the time that dinner
(12:36):
is big. It's normally a protein and a vegetable and
maybe a salad and a bread service and sometimes dessert
with a sugary beverage. That's a sort of a traditional setup.
That most patients have, and this is right before you
go to bed. So that was this whole idea about, well,
(12:56):
don't eat after six so don't eat a full meal
in the evening time. Let's your stomach rest. Don't go
to bed with all that food on you. And so
that was kind of popular at one time. I don't
hear a lot of people using that strategy much anymore,
but it is along the same lines of fasting right,
because let's say you don't eat it.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Let's say you do that six p m.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You don't have anything, and then the next time that
you probably will eat will be what eight nine o'clock
the next morning. That's fasting basically, but you're sleeping. So
you can do that when right, and not having anything
to eat, you can do that when easy. But when
(13:42):
you're up doing the day and you're working and you're
busy and you're driving or whatever activity you're engaged in,
it's a little bit harder to bypass. All the goodies
that are in front of you, and all the beverages
that are in front of you that contain calories that
might have sugar in it.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
It's difficult to say no to it.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It's so delicious and you have sort of a psychological
emotional attachment to it. I still get that from some
of my patients with sugary beverages doctor pepper, Coca cola, pepsi.
They cannot do without drinking these beverages every day.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
They just love them.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
And you try to ask them to not drink it,
and it's torture and they fight themselves. They know they
shouldn't drink it, but they just fight themselves.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Right, it's got to have it.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's so uncomfortable to not be able to drink it,
and they so they drink it.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
It's just they don't want to be in pain and
they don't want to be uncomfortable. I mean they're in
their older years and I've done all my work and
I don't want to do this anymore, so they just indulge. Right,
they deserve it. That's sort of mentality which you have
in this country. You deserve that you worked hard. I mean,
(15:01):
why not go ahead, drink it, have all the foods
you want, do whatever you want. You deserve this sort
of reward for your hard work and being a good person. Right,
So that's basically in manfasting. But there are a lot
of different areas of the day that you can do that.
But I certainly believe that that's a good strategy to initiate.
(15:25):
It's just eat less throughout the day, good strategy. Phone
lines are open eight nine six kalv I won one
hundred three to three zero KLVA.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back to
the doctor Metical.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Our phone lines are open eight nine six kV I
won in one hundred three to three zero kova I.
Talking about the new year and how you're going to
do things better, do things right, and normally your health
than your wellness are a part of that conversation at
the beginning of the year. You know, you didn't really
do what you needed to do last year and maybe
(16:08):
got started on some new medications, had to go to
the doctor, maybe had a hospital stay. Excuse me. But
this is a new year and you're going to do
it right this time. So normally a lot of conversation
during this time of the year about changing your ways,
changing those bad habits, those bad habits you know that
(16:28):
are increasing your chances of becoming sick and needing to
take pharmaceutical medications.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
How can you get better?
Speaker 1 (16:36):
And one strategy I mentioned is what we call intermitt
and fasting, where you just say, look, I don't need
to eat that much every single day. I'm going to
cut it down. And that's basically a basic concept of that,
and I do agree with that. It's hard though, with
all this food and all these beverages sitting around that
(16:59):
are cheap and.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Easy to get.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It's a difficult task a lot of times to not
eat with all this around, all of this advice encouragement to.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Eat all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
When you go out, you get all this food, right,
the whole value menu concept. When you go out to
eat something, you want a lot of food, right, and
if you don't get a lot and the price is high, man,
this is not a good value. So you just sort
of end up with this concept. We have all this
food that you're eating, and most of this food is
very high calorie, our calorie dense. And because we live
(17:34):
in a society where we really don't burn that much
energy every day, we're not really outside walking running, we
don't really need a lot of energy every day to
support our bodies, which again is the only reason we
eat and drink right, is to give our body fuel.
That's what food is is it just fuel so that
(17:55):
it can work. It's a machine. So because we're not
really using a lot of fuel every day, we don't
need to replenish.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
A lot of fuel every day. We have reserve fuel
on our bodies. That's called fat. Fat that the body.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Will convert to usable energy if we're not putting it in.
But when we're constantly sort of feeding it energy all
day long, it just basically gets preserved as fat. And
that's that weight gain that you see. So again, try
to figure out a strategy to just not eat as
(18:33):
much throughout the day. And again, I know a lot
of people I don't really eat a lot, but they're
drinking sugary beverages, right. They're drinking the sodas, they're drinking
the smoothies or whatever other sugary beverage that tastes good.
Coffee beverages right, A lot of people are putting a
lot of creamer and sugar and additives in their coffee.
(18:57):
Black coffee, in my opinion, is a very healthy beverage
as well as tea. Again, you can go to your
favorite grocery store and go down the tea aisle. I mean,
it's just thousands and thousands.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
I don't know for.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
Thousands, but it's a lot of them, right, different teas,
different flavors, different amounts, and they a lot of times
contain really healthy ingredients, spices that are healthy for you,
good flavors, but it's not sweetened. And you can use
(19:32):
that to brew your own tea and drink it and
be healthy about it because you can squeeze some lemon,
you can put some lime in it. I mean, these
are good food items that have been proven to be very.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Healthy and bring health.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
A lot of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Times an these teas, cinnamon and spices, things like that.
So you should visit your tea aisle and look and
try some different teas versus the sodas that are very
popular that I see certainly in the hospital, I see
that a lot, just all the soda cans and the
bottles start popping up.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
But yes, tea, even coffee.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
They have a lot of different varieties of coffee is
out there easy to brew, right, They've made it so easy,
these coffee pods, pods that are out there now, you
just pop it in the machine and voilela thirty seconds. Man,
You have a good, healthy beverage that you can consume
without sugar, because that's the main thing that we get
(20:42):
so much exposure to, is that sugar, which unfortunately, the
food industry has incorporated into a lot of the food
and beverage items that they are manufacturing or processing out there.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Again, a lot of the food that you're.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Eating, if you're eating out all the time, it kind
of comes from these same sort of giant food manufacturers
out there.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
And again they have.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
To preserve this food somehow so that it can sit
on the shelf and be easily reheated, and then when
you eat it's supposed to look and taste and feel
the way it's supposed to.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
We have all gone to.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The grocery store and gotten fresh food and we bring
it home. You know how easily it can turn bad.
It can go rotten within a day or two. I mean,
you got to cook it, eat it, put it in
the fridge. But when you're talking about preserved food or
a lot of the ultra processed food out there, which
(21:44):
is what a lot of us are eating. And you know,
these are just all the restaurants, the sandwich shops and
all the other food outlets that are out there where
food is sort of being prepared. It's maybe already made,
it's frozen, they just reheat it.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
It's ultra process.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Nothing wrong with I should say, they're not purposely doing.
I mean, they're just trying to feed America, right, And
it sometimes takes a while to go to the grocery
store get your own food, cook it. I mean it's
time consuming, right, and not a lot of us have
that time. A lot of distractions, a lot of reasons
why we can't do that, so we sort of choose
(22:22):
to go down this other road out of necessity a
lot of times. But again, consuming these food items that
have all of these ingredients again can be linked. According
to the experts, It's been chronicled very well to a
lot of these health issues. Which is why if you
come to my office, you know, I'm always asking what
(22:43):
did you eat?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
What do you drink?
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I do that as a habit with most of the
patients that I see, because again I understand and get
the point that a lot of the diseases that we
treat stem from just eating and drinking the wrong food
items and eating too much of it so intermittent fasting.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Look it up, think about it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I think that would be a good natural strategy to
keep that weight down and feel better, have that energy,
have better skin. A lot of people, again, they want
to feel energetic, they want to be able to bend
down and pick something up. They just want to feel
like they did when in their twenties. And again it
(23:28):
sounds crazy, but just a good way to do it is.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Just stop eating. Stop eating.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Phone lines are open eight nine six kal y i
one one hundred three three zero ko via be back
in two minutes. All right, welcome back to the Doctor
Fly Medical. Our phone lines are open eight nine six
(23:55):
kalo y i one one hundred and three three zero
ko VERI.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Happy new year.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
To you, and yes, it's the beginning of the year,
and we talk a lot about what can I do
different this year so that I'm better than last year,
And so that conversation always comes up. Health and wellness
is always a big part of that. One other thing
that we like to promote is just getting your information
(24:21):
about how your personal body is working. And there's just
more tools out there than ever before with the smartphones
and the smart watches.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
That we talked a little bit about that a few.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Weeks ago in terms of just before Christmas and trying
to get maybe some of these devices and you're stocking
so that you can start using these. But yes, we
do promote using these devices and gadgets so that you
can kind of monitor your heart rate, your blood pressure
as well as your sugar just to sort of know
(24:56):
what is going on with your body, so that you
can have the information you need to make decisions about
the food items and beverage items that maybe you're exposing
yourself to that is increasing the possibility of your blood
pressure getting worse, your diabetes getting worse, are increasing your
possibility of cardiovascular disease.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
That's still the number one disease in our country, and
we all know the risk factors for that. And again,
it all starts with what you're eating and drinking. That
is the main thing you have to focus on and
make sure that you're doing your best to do that,
and using some of these devices does work. So certainly
(25:39):
if you have a diabetes type one and type two,
we are trying to get most of the patients on
these what we call continuous glucose monitors or CGM for short.
Some of the name brands out there would be decks,
com dex COOM or the Freestyle Libre program. Basically bluetooth
(26:01):
technology that uses a sugar censor, a little small sugar
sensor normally circular that fits normally in the back of
your arm, on the side of your arm, whichever side
you want, and you wear it throughout the day and
it basically talks to your phone, and so anytime you
want to know what your sugar is, you just sort
(26:21):
of look at your phone and it sort of grafts
it out and it records everything and you can see
all the graphs and again you can kind of see
what is happening when you eat or drink some of
these food beverages.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
A lot of people are.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Surprised with food items that they've been eating. They did
know spike their sugar, but it does spike their sugar,
and now they know so that they can avoid these
food items so that they don't worsen the disease process
or have to guess about anything. And I have seen
it make a positive impact on most patients' health because
(27:00):
now they have that information, and it does make a
difference to see that sugar spiking when you're eating certain
food items. I think bread is one big surprise, because
a lot of people feel like wheat bread is a
healthy bread and because it's healthy, it's wheat that you know,
(27:22):
what is wrong with that? I mean, that should not
cause my sugar to go up. But bread normally any
type of bread, because it has flour and it will
spike sugar pretty pretty high. Same thing as some of
the fruit items that are out there. Again, not that
the fruit is bad, but again it does contain natural sugar.
(27:42):
And all fruits are not created equal. Grapes and bananas
and pineapple, which a lot of people love that, right,
Doctor Levine said, go out and eat some fruits. So
I went to the store. I got me some grapes,
some bananas, I got my pineapple. A lot of times when
patients start eating that if they are diabetic, and that's
(28:04):
another question that comes up. Can a diabetic eat fruit?
And the answer is yes, it can be a part
of a healthy diet when it comes to diabetes. But again,
because if you have your c GM, you can kind
of determine how.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Much fruit your body can tolerate.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We typically recommend the dark berries is the sort of
fruit that we normally recommend to patients who have dobbies.
So that would be blueberries, blackberries, raspberries.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Those are the more dark berries.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
The tropical fruit that I just mentioned to you, bananas, watermelon, grapes, pineapple,
the honeydew. Melons typically don't have as much nutrition as
a dark berry and tend to have more of a
spike of your sugar, whereas a dark berry would have
a lower spike of your sugar. There is a term
(28:55):
that has been used for many many years called glycemic
index GI for short, and that is a tool that
some patients have been using for a long time, even
without a CGM. They just basically figure out the glycemic
index of this particular food item. The ideas that things
(29:17):
like bread have a high glycemic index and things like
meat and vegetables have a very low glycemic index. Really,
all the glycemic index is is a term that describes
what happens when you consume a food item. How much
is it going to spike your sugar?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
So a high GI score.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Would intend are it would expect to spike your sugar
fairly high when you consumed it. Versus a low GI score,
glycemic index score would be low. So that's one strategy
that a lot of patients use before they really started
using these cgms. But everybody is different, right, so sometimes
(30:02):
even though the GI score is low, it might spike
your sugar just because your body is different. All of
our human bodies are different, which is why you can't
look across the street and see what someone else is doing.
I know, it's convenient, and we all kind of do that.
We want to know what medicines they're on, what their
doctor's prescribing to them, because maybe they're struggling with their
(30:24):
dot they need someone to kind of give them some advice,
tell them what to do.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
And so yeah, you ask.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Around and you see what everybody else is doing. Maybe
this person is successful with their disease, and you're just
trying to get information, right. But again, at the end
of the day, this is really true that everybody's system
works different, and one patient might love ozimpic, then the
other patient might hate it o zimpy because it just
(30:52):
made them feel terrible. Same thing with these vaccines, right,
some patients get four vaccines on one day, no problem,
and the next guy, I mean man, it puts him
in the hospital and they never want to take another
vaccine ever. Again, it's the same thing with blood pressure diabetes, cholesterol,
all these different options out there. All of our human
(31:12):
bodies are different and we respond differently to certain medicines.
So that's why sort of having your own monitor like
a CGM.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Would be a good idea for you.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
And if you do have diabetes, it's something you probably
should be asking your a practitioner to get your prescription.
Because the technology has advanced, it's gotten better, it's easier
to use. Before, there were issues with the device pairing
with your phone, meaning you would go out and get it,
but it wouldn't connect to your phone. So there were
(31:44):
a lot of technical issues when these devices first came out.
But according to my patients, everything, all the bugs seem
to have been worked out, because most patients are having
really good experiences with their CGM monitors and they love
them and they really appreciate having the advice because it's
easier to use.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Back in the day, remember.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
You had to have your style ed, you have to
have your testing strip, you had to have this and
that and just all these steps that you had to have.
But now you just sort of put this sensor on
your arm and kind of forget about. It's just sort
of a cool item to have. A lot of times,
same thing with blood pressure and heart rate. You know,
(32:27):
they now have your smartphones which can be used to
monitor blood pressure and heart rate, and now have the
smart watches, which a lot of them have these little sensors.
They're on the underside of the watch. I mean we
look at the watch news that watch face, but on
the backside they have sensors normally that are sort of
(32:50):
looking at your pulse or they're monitoring your pulse and
they can tell you how fast your heart is beating.
They can tell you if your heart is beating irregularly.
Because again we've mentioned on this show as we all
get older, up in sixty seventies, that the chances of
developing an electrical cardiac problem actually go up as we
(33:14):
all get older. And a lot of times these diseases
are silent initially, meaning you may not feel it, but
it's actually happening. So these smart watches, which have become
more affordable, there are more varieties out there. A lot
of times you can they sell them at Sam's or Target.
(33:34):
And these are really good devices, really good investment into
your health that you can just put on your wrist
and you just wear it and you can just kind
of monitor yourself and again, if you see anything that's abnormal,
that doesn't look right, yeah, you just go get it
checked out. I mean, try to be proactive and stay
(33:56):
on top of this thing rather than waiting until something
blows up and then you have a big hospital stay
or maybe have to be satellined from work for a week,
a month, a half a year, where you can go
and get these devices that you can monitor your blood pressure,
monitor your heart rate, and see what it is.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Now. I think the watches are getting.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Pretty good that, yes, blood pressure can be monitored that way.
I think that that's awesome that the watch can sort
of check your blood pressure or monitor your blood pressure.
I haven't seen one personally. I'll look that up and
see if that is available. I think that would be
a good technology, and the technic, the technology isn't there
(34:44):
for us to be able to do that, you know,
because a lot of times the issue with white coat hypertension, right,
you go into your doctor's office and the blood pressure
is super duper.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
High, and you're like, what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (34:55):
I mean I check it at home and it looks good,
and all of a sudden it's high. That would be
a good way to sort of delineate if you truly
have high blood pressure or if it's just a reaction
to going to the doctor's office, which sometimes is real.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
It can happen.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
I mean, it's sort of nerve wracking going to the
doctor's office. I kind of have to sit and wait,
and then you have to pay, and then what's going
to happen. They're going to get stuck with the needle,
and then am I going to get bad news? I mean,
I want to be a good person. I want to
have a good report, and so a lot of that
can be life changing when.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
You go see your doctor.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
So it can be very nerve racking to go into
the doctor's office, and so it can shoot your blood
pressure up artificially. Then when you go home and you're
in your nice environment and it's safe and sound, hey,
you calm down and everything gets better, which is why
again a lot of insurance companies are sending you nurse
practice and physicians systems come out of your house and
(35:55):
do it a little exam, talk to you in the
comfort of your home at leisure. I think it's a
good idea just to rehash everything, make sure you're getting
everything you need Again, going to the doctor's office can
be a little distracting. You don't remember everything and forget things,
and so yeah, you go to your house and you
can talk about it at your leisure. Great idea.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Phone lines are open.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Eighty nine to six Kova one hundred and.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Three three zero Kova.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
I'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
All right, welcome back to the Dark Living Medical, our
first show of the year, twenty twenty six. Hopefully your
year has started off with a bang, and you're doing
well and you're healthy and everything is going well, and
that you had a good time over the holiday celebration
you know, which starts in October and we spend the
(36:53):
last part of the holiday calend. I'm in the calendar year,
just being very festive and having a good time and
spending time with family and recounting how the year was going.
And now it's here, and just like you said, when
it hits the new year, I'm gonna Yeah, it's here.
(37:13):
Now you gotta do it. I gotta wake up and
do what you said you were going to do. Which again,
a lot of bad habits out there, not smoking, if
you are a smoker, if you're drinking too much, alcohol.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Cutting back on that.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
If you're sedentary, you have a desk job and you're
sitting all day long, which again has been proven to
be very unhealthy for you to sit all day long.
I'd get this a lot in the hospital is when
you get sick, you just want to land in bed
all day, But you gotta get out of bed because
a lot of things happen when you just land in.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
Bed all day, day after day after day. Yeah, you
have to get out of bed.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And the same thing is if you do have a
desk job and you're sitting all day, you got to
get up and move around and get that blood flowing.
That's how the human body works. So again, the new
year's here, what do I need to do? So cut
back on your cigarette, which can be very difficult habit
to break. There are medications available to help you break
(38:18):
that habit. There's chantis. There's also a medication called Wellbutrin,
which again a lot in my opinion, if you're in
your fifties or forties, it can be tough and you
normally need something to help you break that cycle, just
because it's almost like eating.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
It's just a habit.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
It's a routine that you do every single day. And
when you ask the human mind to not engage in
that habit, that routine, it can be tough to break
that cycle. So a lot of times pharmaceutical medications are
necessary to help with that. So again, there is something
for smoking, cessation. For drinking, there is a medication out
(38:56):
there that we do use called an Altrazone, is a
tablet that can be consumed every day which can help
you cut down on drinking. There is no tablet for
exercise now. But again I want everyone to understand, it's
not the exercise.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
First, it's the diet. You gotta do your part.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Remember, the simple thing is just to eat less. You
don't even have to spend a whole lot of money
with it. Just eat less. You don't need to eat
as much. And stop drinking sugar, right, all these sugary
beverages out there that we're consuming. Sugar is calories, calories
causes way gaining your bottery access. So stop drinking all
(39:38):
this sugar every day. And yes, that coffee that you
drink with the creamer, yeah that's a sugary beverage. Absolutely,
are that coffee you poured the natural honey in from
Texas or wherever, special place that came from.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
That's sugar. It's still a sugary beverage. You know, you're.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
Smoothie beverage with twenty five ingredients that you grind it
and pulverize into this liquid that you want to consume.
That's a sugary beverage. Yes, very unnatural way to consume
these food items. And as far as I know, there
is no physiological or health benefit to consuming these sort
(40:22):
of beverages. Meaning I don't see people living longer because
they have a smoothie every morning. Certainly, you have to
not smoke, you have to limit your alcohol, and again
you cannot over consume calories throughout the day. And then yes,
you need to be physical active. So it's not one
(40:42):
little pill or one little tablet or beverage that you
drink that's going to somehow keep you healthy throughout today.
You do have to do a few things on a
regular basis to keep your health up. Yes, we understand
the struggle out there, but every day you wake up
you should be trying to figure out your strategy and
(41:04):
how to keep your health as healthy as possible. Again,
it starts with just not eating a lot of food
and getting away from the sugary beverages. But hey, you
have the devices out there. You have the continuous glucose monitor,
you have the smartphones, you have the smart watches which
are there to help you monitor your blood pressure, your
(41:26):
heart rate, and your pulse and your blood sugar. We
talked about know your numbers back in the day. That's
basically what that means. And sometimes, yes, you need to
go in and get your lab done with your healthcare provider,
maybe check your kiding function, check your cholesterol, because that
is part of know your numbers. But the thing is
is that if you are doing your part with your
(41:48):
diet and your exercise, a lot of times the cholesterol
will come down to a good level so that it's
not astronomically high. So that's why we say it all
starts there is to not eat as much and to
get up and move around. And that's the thing I
want to again promote is it doesn't really require a
(42:09):
lot of exercising to count, right, just a brisk walk
in the neighborhood, maybe pelling a bicycle, and you don't
have to do it every day, Maybe two to three
times a week will be fine. You don't have to
hurt after which you don't have to get it all
done in that one workout. You want it to be
(42:30):
enjoyable and it just doesn't take that much. To be
honest with you, I know what is promoted to you
that you have to join a gym maybe, or work
out for two hours or run a marathon to live
as long as you can. But that's really not reality
in my reality. In terms of what I see, I
see patients in their eighties and nineties, very healthy. They've
(42:55):
never run a marathon, they've never lifted heavy weights, right,
they certainly have their weight down. They're not eating a lot,
they don't smoke, they don't drink. Those are some of
the key common denominators, key components that you need to
focus on. So thank you for joining us another edition
of the show. Hope you have a wonderful day and
draw your weekend and we'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Take care of
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