February 10, 2025 • 41 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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome, welcome, Welcome in that radio listeners, Southeast
Texas Tech Suns, Welcome to the edition of The Doctor
of the Medical Hour. I'm your host every week unless
I'm out trying to answer your phone calls about healthcare
and medicine so that this can be as easy as
(00:21):
possible to figure out what's good for you and what's
good for your family to stay alive as long as possible,
and be as healthy as possible, not just be alive,
but actually function well, and stay out at the hospital,
and stay out at the doctor's offices, and keep your
med list to a minimum so that you don't have
(00:45):
to have a sack or a piece of luggage when
you go to your doctor's office. Some of our patients,
unfortunately have gotten there. I really feel sorry for them
to know that they have to consume fifteen or twenty
tablet it's a day to function and keep their body functioning.
I see it, and it is very disheartening. But some
(01:09):
people in that position. So we're trying to keep you
out of that position. And this is the genesis of
the show. So give us a call. We love to
hear from you and talk with you and see what's
buzzing around in your head about your health and maybe
something you heard this past week that's new or that's old.
(01:32):
There's just always conversation about what's the best thing to do.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six KLV at
one hundred three three zero KOVA. We have Super Bowl weekend.
Who's going to win the Chiefs or the Philadelphia Eagles.
Have been asking my patients about that. Everyone seems excited
(01:52):
about that. Everybody watches that, millions of viewers, viewers, I
should say on Sunday, I think what it starts about
five or so, But yes, our annual Super Bowl weekend
is here. Who do you think is going to win?
Philadelphia or the Kansas City Chiefs? So for me, it's
(02:16):
just about the entertainment value. And I like watching certain
players on Sunday playing the game like former players. So
in terms of who wins, it doesn't really matter to me.
As you know, I played high school football here Westbrook,
and I played college football at Rice University five years
(02:40):
and playing professional football. Man, those guys are on another
level athletically, they're very, very athletically gifted and mentally gifted.
We don't understand the mental game behind professional football. But
there's a huge, huge mental game behind playing professional football
(03:03):
as well as college as well as high school. And
when you get tired, from my own personal experience as
an athlete, didn't quite understand it when I was in college.
A man, do I understand it now? When you get tired,
your mind doesn't work the same. Your motivation to want
(03:24):
to compete and your motivation to do anything is impacted.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Greatly.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
You may not want to jump as high and run
as fast when you're tired. And I have this conversation
a lot with families and patients, especially as we get older.
And I talk about the aging process a lot on
this show because I want you guys to understand that
it is a real process that is active. It's an
(03:57):
active process called aging getting older that I would say
probably starts about forty is when the program right, the
biological program that we're all born with, it's in our genetics,
our genes starts to tell the body it's time to
(04:20):
shut off. It's sort of an auto shutdown, if you will.
Getting older and a lot of things can happen, and
everyone sort of has their own individual experience about how
they're going to age or what happens to them as
they get older. I'm getting older, I have signs of
shutdown and having to deal with that myself. And it
(04:43):
makes in my opinion, in my opinion, a better clinician
and a better advisor healthcare advisor, if you will. When
doctors go through their own health issues or they have
their own medical problems and they experience firsthand what it
feels like, what it looks like, what it smells like,
and the things that you have to do to correct
(05:06):
the way you feel, makes you a better advisor. Right.
Pain gives you a lot of knowledge and insight. It's
different when it's just you took a test, you studied,
you saw some lectures, and you took a test and
you passed, and so now you're there with your patient
trying to talk with them. But certainly when it's firsthand,
(05:29):
whether it be a family member or yourself personally as
a clinician, you get more insightful to this whole process.
And aging is real. It is real. And again a
lot of things happen as we get older, but certainly
that immune system we talk about that a lot starts
(05:49):
to decline big time, which is why we promote those
vaccines big time, because we want you to stay out
of the hospital, right. We don't want you in that hospital.
We want you at home and out of that hospital.
Some people will consider being hospitalized as a failure of
(06:11):
the whole primary care movement. Really that's see, that's what
I do every day is primary care, right, and the
whole concept, and it's been out there for a long time,
is to prevent events from happening. America invests a lot
of time into researching the common diseases of our country
(06:36):
and what are the things that increase the chances of
those disease happening. We've invested a lot of time and
money research into that, so we have a pretty good
idea about all that stuff. Years ago we were trying
to figure that out, but we know a lot more
(06:57):
than we did before and is there The pharmaceutical company
has helped us out with that. Though. One other topic
is just the expense. We need to work big time
on that. Just the excess of these great medications that
they have provided us to take care of these diseases
(07:19):
and keep us out of the hospital. They're a little
pricey and sometimes out of the reach of the average American,
and you have to rely on older medicines, maybe not
as effective, maybe more side effects, which obviously sort of
put you in a position where you're more likely to
have progression of your disease and end up in the
(07:41):
hospital with more events. So primary prevention is all about
trying to keep you out of the hospital, which is
why in a lot of cases you're being asked by
your healthcare provider to come to the office more often and.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Maybe do more blood work.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
A lot of the insurance companies have understood that a
lot of this has to just do with sort of
better surveillance and just better conversation or more conversation about
the things that they need to be doing on a
regular basis.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Just because we get distracted.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
We forget, and we sort of have to be reminded
about some basic concepts about how to stat of the hospital,
how to live with this aging process as well as possible,
and so other healthcare professionals other than you and your
health and your primary care provider, other healthcare professionals are
(08:39):
being introduced to you either on the phone or the
computer or even coming to your house for a face
to face visit, which I think is a great idea
and it's not really to intrude on your relationship with
the primary care provider, because some patients take it that way.
You know, some patients feel like, hey, it's I have
(09:00):
my own relationship. I don't need any interference. I like
my doctor or my healthcare provider. I don't need another
person coming into the mix. And so for some patients
as resistance to that. But for the most part, it
seems like talking to my patients, they understand that, and
they allow these other providers to come to their house
(09:21):
and just do a little visit. I wouldn't say it's quick,
but it's certainly a sort of update overall view of
their health and maybe hitting some high points about some
things that we should be looking at with you and
the healthcare provider, just because the day gets busy for
(09:42):
both the doctor as well as the patient. And ideally
you come together as a pair and figure out what's
the best game plan, you agree on it, and you
move forward. But again, there are these sort of unforeseen
obstacles and grimlins that pop up all the time where
(10:03):
maybe things don't happen the way they're supposed to. Maybe
that mammogram you're supposed to get ordered doesn't get ordered.
Or it got ordered, but you canceled it and.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
You forgot to re order it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Same thing with colon cancer screening, process, cancer screening, getting
your labs. I mean, just all these little grimlins come
up all the time that interfere with your ability to
do your part to provide yourself with some primary care.
So these other healthcare providers are coming out to remind you.
(10:37):
You know, they're giving proper documentations so you can bring
it to your next visit to the doctor. Again, I
think it's a great idea and I certainly see that expanding,
and it's probably going to be with the use of
the phone. It's because most people have a smartphone or
some sort of electronic device that they're sort of communicating
(10:59):
with with the world. Say, for instance, colon cancer screening.
As you know, things have changed over the years. Now
we start general colon cancer screening at the age of
forty five. So if you're forty five and above, even
with no symptoms, you need to initiate your colon cancer screening.
(11:22):
And that is because the surveillance and the study of
colon cancer in this country, we now understand that patients
are having colon cancer a lot sooner than before, because
we used to start at the age of fifty and
the average population, but certainly if there's a strong family
history of early on set colon cancer, we would start
(11:45):
a lot sooner, maybe in your thirties or even in
your twenties.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Those are more.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Rare, but they do exist. But for the average person
that used to be fifty now it's forty five years old.
And our recommendations in colon cancer screening other than that,
when to start in terms of the mechanism of being
screened has changed over the years. It used to be
(12:14):
what they call a flex sigmoidoscopy or what they call a.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
A stool kit, where.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You would basically or your doctor would do what they
call a rectal exam and get a little bit of
your sample doing the rectal exam and tested for blood.
That used to be one way to do that a
little uncomfortable, and that type of test was a bit
more inaccurate, meaning had a lot of false positive results,
(12:49):
and so both of those fell out of flavor, the
flexig and sort of the rectal exam. Although some old
doctors still do that. I don't do that just because
the current literature does not recommend that or suggest that
something I was taught, but certainly it's not something I
do to this day. And the flex SIG sort of
(13:10):
fill out of favor f l e X SIG, flex
SIG and six stands for sigmoidoscopy, which is the name
of the procedure where the gastrologists would use an endoscope.
Those are sort of the flexible instruments with a camera
(13:34):
on the end where they have controls at one side
and the camera another side that they would insert to
look inside your colon. The FLEXIG would only look at
we get this right, the left side of your colon.
If you look at your colon, it looks like an
upside down you right. And the flex sigmonoscopy would only
(13:59):
visual the left side or left half of your colon,
and come to find out, a lot in colon cancers
well on the right side. So you would get your
flex sigmoidoscopy and you would be told, hey, you're good,
(14:19):
we don't see anything, and then a year later be
diagnosed with colon cancer and they kind of start realizing that, hey,
we're missing these cancers, so we have to do a
full colonoscopy.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
We have to look at the entire.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Colon, so those two things fell out of favor, and
the gold standard then became sort of the colonoscopy. And
I don't know if you've ever had a colonosopy, but
there's some work you have to do to get that done.
You know, you have to have a schedule appointment to
go see a GI doctor, so you have to take
(14:56):
off of your job, or you have to vote sometimes
that that's what probably three hours or so that's a
normal doctor visit at most busy offices. We're trying to
make healthcare delivery more convenient, and again that's going to
be some novel ways moving forward in terms of how
we do that. Certainly it's going to be more virtual
(15:19):
in terms of interacting with your healthcare provider. And again
once insurance companies sort of figure out how to do
that and that sort of visit is reimbursable, reimburs reimbursal versable,
that's the word, then more doctors, more healthcare systems will
(15:40):
start doing that. But it's not really set at this point.
But certainly to get access to more people, as there's
still a huge need for healthcare providers, that's one way
to do that. And so going to an office visit
(16:00):
sitting in an office super inconvenient, right. I mean again,
I think most healthcare systems are trying to speed it
up as much as possible, but there's just a lot
of limitations when it comes to having face to face
visits in an office, any office, and even if it's
well run, its efficient, and it's got all the bells
and whistles, there's still some way time that you have
(16:24):
to experience, and you still have to drive there and
go there and be processed. It's just time consuming and
I just feel like the system, our healthcare system will
find novel ways moving forward of how to speed that up.
And certainly I think the electronic community the healthcare system
(16:45):
will find a way to blend those two and speed
up the process, as we have with electronic medical records.
I mean that has allowed clinicians and hospital systems to
really speed up the process of healthcare care delivery system
and get away from the paper which requires more manpower.
(17:07):
There's a lot more obstacles. It just doesn't move as
fast when you're just on a paper system versus an
electronic system, which is more rapid. It's quicker, and it's
sort of more systemized where you can go to a
sort of one location, you can get all information, you
can do a whole lot, and it just speeds everything up.
(17:28):
It makes it more precise. You can research better when
there's an electronic system. So I'm pretty sure moving forward,
just to speed up even doctor visits, that will figure
out a way to be faster, more efficient. We can
document it better, we can record better because America loves data.
(17:48):
They love data and information and documentation. You know, because
we spend As a healthcare provider, you spend a lot
of time just documenting what you're doing all day and
it has nothing to do with necessarily delivering patient care.
(18:08):
Every time you interact with the healthcare provider, it's being
documented somehow, and the person interacting with you has to
put it on some sort of paper or system of
the visit of the experience. And there are all sorts
of electronic medical records systems out there. Some are good,
some are bad, some are slow, some are fast. But
(18:29):
every day, every step of the way, it's all being documented.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And we love that.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Insurance companies love it, but it sometimes takes away from
patient care.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Time From Woodville, how can we help.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You, Yes, sir, I was diagnosed with COPD four or
five years ago, and I was wondering, how can I.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Get it better? Do it get worse? Or what is
a treatment for that? Sir?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
All right, COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Well,
first of all, what did they what did they tell
you was the cause of your COPD?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Smoking years and years ago as a.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Teenager, And so you've already quit.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Twenty five years ago, okay?
Speaker 1 (19:24):
And when you were diagnosed, did you ask them this
same question you're asking me?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Uh not really No. I just took it as a
as a diagnosis and went with that. But I had
had the cold or flew the other day and it
was really bad. And every time I have a cold
or fluid, really it really gets bad. That's hard on breathing.
And I was told to get a nobulizer and uh
(19:58):
and and and so forth, you know, but I would
just every time I read an article about it, it
just it said it gets worse, it never gets better.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
All right, So, Tom, chronic obstructive pulmon air disease for
most people is a result of years of smoking. Yes,
And as a part of chronic obstructive pulmon airy disease.
Another process that is normally associated with that is called emphasema.
(20:28):
Well you ever told you have inmphasema, yes, sir, all right,
and infansma basically describes a permanent damage are scarring to
the actual lung tissue where the exposure to tobacco has
caused damage to the actual lung itself, which is irreversible.
(20:54):
It's permanent. And if you ever look at a lung,
looks like a spot, if you ever look at it
under the microscope, that's sort of what a lung looks like.
And inphasema are those defects in the lung looks like
a hole when you look at it, like in Swiss cheese,
it looks like a big, gaping hole where nothing's there.
(21:17):
And depending on the degree of inmphasema you have, you
could have mild emphasm, you could have severe in vesina.
The more holes you have in your lung tissue, the
more symptoms you're going to have, which are permanent. Because
that is a permanent problem. You have damaged it. It's
not gonna get better, it's not going to repair itself.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
You're left with that.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And because of that permanent damage or permanent injury, your
lungs obviously are more vulnerable to respiratory infections because, if
you think about it, the lung does a couple of
different things. One is it gets oxygen into our body
and gets carbon dioxide out of our body, which is
(22:02):
a byproduct of all of the cellular activity that's going
on all day long. Carbon dioxide. It's a waste product,
if you will, and that's how it escapes our bodies
through the lungs. Well, if your lungs don't work, then
you're more prone to harbor all of that waste in
your system, and that can cause its own issues.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
But another thing is.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
That all of the things that are in the air
that we breathe in, viruses, bacteria, parasites, all that stuff
in the air. The lung is supposed to filter that
out so that it never gets inside of you.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
But when your.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Lungs don't work, then all of that debris, all of
those organisms can get deep inside your lungs, that can
sort of set up shop and live there and then
very easily penetrate and get inside your lung get inside
your system and cause infection.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So how do you how do you fix that? You
already did it.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You gotta stop smoking. That's that's the number one thing
you gotta do is to stop smoking. Beyond that, you
just have to understand that you do have chronic lung
disease and now you sort of have to live a
certain lifestyle to protect your lungs as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, don't get exposed to tobacco as much as possible.
You may not smoke, but your friends might smoke, your
wife might smoke. You go to the bar, the smoke
in the air, So you got to get rid of
that environment as much as possible. Number Two, take vaccines.
We talk a lot about vaccines here on the show,
(23:47):
but if for you, vaccines are going to be really important,
like your viral vaccines and your bacterial vaccines like pneumonia,
the Prevnar twenty which is out now, it's going to
be important for you to take because you want to
offer your body some protection against these infections. And then
number three just overall be healthy. So keep your weight down,
(24:12):
keep your blood pressure down, keep your cholesterol down, and
exercise a little bit because all of that factors into
your lung function. If you're sedentary, if you're overweight, if
you have high blood pressure, you have heart disease, if
you have kidney disease, all of that's going to affect
your lung function.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 4 (24:35):
You make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So it's it's a lot of work. But once you
kind of get used to that lifestyle, you can live
a very long time with chronic lung disease, no question.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I see it every day.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well, I'll tell you what I should appreciate your information.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Thank you time, appreciate it. Phone lines are open eight
nine six klvy I one hundred and three threes Okova,
I'll be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back,
(25:18):
dropping me medical our phone lines and open eight nine
to six kov at one hundred and three to three
zero klv I. Twenty twenty five Super Bowl Weekend Edition.
Who's Gonna win? The Chiefs are the Philadelphia Eagles?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Talking about emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which again
normally comes from tobacco abuse. And you know, we're all
looking for ways to stay alive, right, we talk about
that all the time. That's the genesis of this show.
And what can I do to stay alive?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
If you're a smoker. If you're a smoker, if you
are being exposed to the fumes of tobacco, you have
to try and figure out a way to limit that
or get away from that. In my opinion, as a
healthcare provider, after over twenty years of doctoring patients and
(26:17):
with my experience, I would have to say tobacco abuse,
tobacco exposure, tobacco use is the number one most sort
of destructive habit you can have to your human body.
I mean, it is not good for you, and we
(26:37):
have to help them or help you figure out a
way to try and reduce your exposure and get away
from that. Just because of my experience and what I see,
it normally generates more cardiovascal disease, a lot more cancer,
and just overall poor health. And we sort of start
(26:59):
off of the show talking about the aging process. In
my experience, it accelerates the aging process. Patients get older
a lot faster. As well as chronic pain. That's a
big problem for a lot of Americans. Smokers tend to
have the worst chronic pain and it seems to be
(27:20):
refractory a lot of times to the commonly prescribed medications.
So it's just one of those things that you have
to figure out how to avoid or to stop. In
terms of smoking tobacco, they have a couple of medications
on the market to help hasn't really changed in a
(27:42):
long time. Those medications would include Wellbutrin as well as Chanticks.
The Chanticks has been around for a long time. And
then most pharmacies sort of have a section in their
area for tobacco cessation with all of the products that
you can purchase over the counter without a prescription, you know,
(28:04):
whether it be a patch or a gum or a lozenger.
They have all of that stuff over the counter which
is available to you, and it's certainly something that we
would advise you to do.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Even if you're overweight, even.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
If your cholesterol is super high, even if your sugar
is high and you smoke, I would say the number
one thing you need to do is to figure out
how not to smoke. It is that irritating in my opinion,
based on my experience. But COPD is one of those
issues that we see a lot in Southeast Texas as
(28:42):
a result of that, and other than the things that
I've mentioned a lot of times, it includes the use
of what we call inhalers or broncho dilators just because
of the architectural damage that happens over the years with COPD,
(29:03):
the inside lining of the airway tubes, which we call
the bronch eye, become damaged. The lining of the airway
is a complicated structure actually, and again it's designed to
keep the air that gets deep insidulungs as clean and
(29:25):
sterile as possible so that you're less like to get
long infections. And if you are exposed to smoke, if
you smoke, then that sort of process is damaged slowly.
Because that's the thing that I've mentioned to you before,
(29:46):
that the body is always trying to achieve homeostasis, right
balance every day.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
As how, it's.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Engineered to achieve homeostasis every day, balance to heal, to
being balanced. Everything is perfect, it's engineered that way. Unfortunately,
a lot of our daily activities interfere with that balance
and it cannot balance itself out. And when it cannot
(30:17):
balance itself out, that's when you start having physical symptoms
of some sort. And the list is pretty long. Stuff
we see every day, right headaches, chest pain, swelling, rashes, weakness, fatigue,
all sorts of physical symptoms that happen when the body
(30:40):
cannot balance itself, and so you just have to give
it a chance. And again there's sort of a chronological
thing that happens when you stop smoking. How the body
is man instantly, it's already starting to heal itself so
that it can function as well as possible. But yes,
sometimes a little bit too late, there's some permanent issues.
(31:01):
But again, even in that situation, you can learn how
to live with that particular problem as.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Well as possible.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So sometimes it does involve the use of bronco valators,
and there's a number of them on the market, and
unfortunately they're kind of expensive. But there's only about three
or four medicines that are in all these medications that
are in the inhalers, whether it be Trilogy or adverre
(31:31):
or albuterol or breas tree. I mean, there's just a
number of them out there and they work very well
and we like to use them. The other aspect of
smoking and COPD is the.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Screening of lung cancer.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
That's been sort of promoted over the past several years.
It's caught traction and more providers are doing it. More
insurance companies are paying for it so just that if
you are a smoker, you were smoker, then lung cancer
screening is a part of primary care at this point
(32:08):
and something that you should talk to your healthcare provider about.
If again, you were a smoker for many years or
you had exposure to smoking, there are guidelines set in
place where if you do meet those guidelines, you are
a candidate for lung cancer screening, which normally involves the
(32:30):
use of a cat scan. The cat scan is the
white doughnut. The MRI is the tube that you have
to sort of go in, So most people tolerate cat
scans farewell. And again it's normally once a year. So
you get your lab, you get your PSA, you get
(32:51):
your EKG, and then you get your cat scan. If
you are a smoker to screen for lung cancer and
I have picked up I would say several lung cancers
at an early stage in smokers by the use of
this what they call low dose CT scan. Because CT
scans a lot of times, we'll use what they call contrast,
(33:12):
which is a radiological material that gets injected into your
vein so that when the radiologists shoot or they perform
the imaging, the contrast is there to highlight or outline
than anatomy. It's almost the difference between looking in the
(33:33):
dark and looking in the light. When you don't use contrast,
it's dark, but when you use contrast, things light up
and the radiologists can see the anatomy so much better.
So they put a little bit of contrast in there,
which is why they call it low dose, so they
can sort of see things to some level. There's concern
(33:54):
about the exposure to cat scans. There is a little
radiation exposure with cat scans, and there's been a lot
of discussion about that in the medical community about is
this causing more problems? Do we need to limit cat
scan usage? But at this point it's not at a
level that tends to increase your chances of cancer to
(34:16):
the point that we need to limit cat skins. Not
there yet, that's my understanding. So these low dose CT
scans are being used to screen for lung cancer if
you were a smoker or you're currently a smoker, and
certainly something you should talk to your healthcare provider about.
Phone lines are open eight nine six scalvy. I want
to hundred three three zero kalv.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
All right, pull on's opening nice six kalv I want
to hundred three three zero klv I thank you for
joining me today. Super Bowl weekend, and yes, the feast,
the Thanksgiving feast that we normally consume for a Super Bowl. Man,
it's all all the food that's not good for you, right,
the nachos and just the mac and cheese and the
(35:06):
wings and beer and.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Just all that sugar.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Right, But it's just for one day, right, and you
should have a good time. But everything in moderation, and
certainly if you have certain medical issues, you might need
to limit it a little bit more. The food industry, however,
has a lot of these alternative food items. If you
do have some medical problems that are out there, just
(35:32):
have to look for them, you know, the low sugar,
no sugar, artificial sweetness, things like that that we talk
about that periodically. I think on one or two days
holiday or even for tomorrow's Super Bowl, hanging out with
your friends, you know, maybe it's wouldn't hurt to indulge
(35:53):
into that. It's certainly part of spending time with your
family is eating and drinking and just trying to have
a good time. But again, you sometimes have to be
careful if you have certain medical issues. But certainly smoking,
if that's one thing you're doing to starting a new year, man,
that's one big.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Issue that we would love for you to.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Work on and working with the healthcare provider to find
a solution for that. It's good and certainly, yeah, lung
cancer screening is one of those screening tests that we
do for most smokers if you've been smoking for a
long period of time. I've sort of lowered my threshold
to screen for that because again, normally, a lot of
times with lung cancers found it's at a deeper stage,
(36:40):
like a stage three or stage four, just like with
colon cancer screening, breast cancer screening, and prostay cancer screening,
those are sort of the stall warth screening programs that
we have. Most people familiar with that, but even that
familiarity does not prevent patients from sort of slipping through
the cracks.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
We still have that.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Unfortunately, even with all this awareness and the ease of
getting lab, the ease of getting X rays, you know,
now we have freestanding labs out there that again even
without insurance, you can normally get a set of some
blood work where you can look at your kidney function,
your sugar, your thyroid, you know, basic stuff. Same thing
(37:24):
with mammograms and some of these routine screening exams. The pricing,
even if you don't have insurance, is pretty affordable for
most people. And my god, just to invest a little
of that heart earned income on an X ray or
in lab to sort of catch some disease at an
(37:45):
earlier stay so it doesn't progress because you all know, man,
if your health is bad, wow, it just really sidelines
you or can for.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
A long time.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It hits the pocketbook terribly. A little investment in those
screening exams can be very influential in terms of catching
it sooner. You don't have to have as much disease,
you don't have to take as any medicines you have
to go to a doctor as much. So yes, if you,
even if you don't have insurance, you know, look into
(38:16):
trying to find one of these facilities. They're out there
where you can get those screening exams done so that
you can put yourself in a better position in your
family as well.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
We'll go on to last break.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Phone lines open eight on six Kalvy, I want a
hundred three three zero Kovy. I'll be back for some
final comments. All right, welcome back to the DOCORPHMTICROT phone
lines opening on six Kalvy. I want a hundred three
(38:48):
three zero okyo V. I want to thank all of
the listeners as well as the callers today.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Remember the show is for you.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
If you have any topic that you would like me
to discuss, we'd be more than happy to discuss that.
You can call my office or you can call here
to station and drop off your comments or your requests
for topics and we'll get to that.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Today.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
We spend some time talking about the aging process a
little bit. We hate to hear about it, but yeah,
about the age of forty, things kind of start to
shut down, and including that immune system as well as
other parts of our body, cardiovascular, neurological and physical symptoms
can start accruing. But certainly your lifestyle what you eat
(39:38):
and drink. That's number one, right, what you eat and drink,
what you put in your body every day, as well
as number two your activity level.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Those are the two.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Biggest major components are influencers to your health. What you eat,
what you drink, and then you're at activity level, so
always focus on that if you have any medical problems,
if you don't feel well, look back at what you're
(40:09):
eating and drinking. And again, the main issues in my
opinion is that unfortunately we eat a little bit too
much every day. We need to give our bodies a
break from consuming foods and beverages with calories in it.
We need to give our body a break, and we
(40:31):
don't necessarily have to eat three times a day. In
my opinion, I think it's excessive because again, our society
is for the most part sedentary. We're not really physically active.
I've been talking about the average person. So you don't
need a lot of calorie consumption every day. And because
our society is sort of set up for calorie consumption
(40:53):
all the time, morning, noon night, midnight, morning noon night,
that sort of causes excessive consumption. Our body rejects that
and you fill it with fatigue, high pretension, high cholesterol, diabetes.
So give your body a break sometime, and yes, be
a little physically active does not have to be this
(41:17):
high intensity sort of exercising. We're talking about a brisk
walk in a park around your neighborhood, maybe walking on
a treadmill in your house, pelling a bicycle. All those
things count. And it doesn't have to be every day, right,
it can be two or three times a week. That
is it, and you're done. And yes, if you're smoking,
(41:39):
you gotta stop and find a way for that. Just
talk with your healthcare provider for that anyway, and enjoy
your weekend. Who's gonna win? The Eagles or the Chiefs?
I'll watch it tomorrow, hopefully you will as well. Thank
you for joining for the show. Don't drink and drive.
We'll see you next week. Take care,
All right, welcome, welcome, Welcome in that radio listeners, Southeast
Texas Tech Suns, Welcome to the edition of The Doctor
of the Medical Hour. I'm your host every week unless
I'm out trying to answer your phone calls about healthcare
and medicine so that this can be as easy as
(00:21):
possible to figure out what's good for you and what's
good for your family to stay alive as long as possible,
and be as healthy as possible, not just be alive,
but actually function well, and stay out at the hospital,
and stay out at the doctor's offices, and keep your
med list to a minimum so that you don't have
(00:45):
to have a sack or a piece of luggage when
you go to your doctor's office. Some of our patients,
unfortunately have gotten there. I really feel sorry for them
to know that they have to consume fifteen or twenty
tablet it's a day to function and keep their body functioning.
I see it, and it is very disheartening. But some
(01:09):
people in that position. So we're trying to keep you
out of that position. And this is the genesis of
the show. So give us a call. We love to
hear from you and talk with you and see what's
buzzing around in your head about your health and maybe
something you heard this past week that's new or that's old.
(01:32):
There's just always conversation about what's the best thing to do.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six KLV at
one hundred three three zero KOVA. We have Super Bowl weekend.
Who's going to win the Chiefs or the Philadelphia Eagles.
Have been asking my patients about that. Everyone seems excited
(01:52):
about that. Everybody watches that, millions of viewers, viewers, I
should say on Sunday, I think what it starts about
five or so, But yes, our annual Super Bowl weekend
is here. Who do you think is going to win?
Philadelphia or the Kansas City Chiefs? So for me, it's
(02:16):
just about the entertainment value. And I like watching certain
players on Sunday playing the game like former players. So
in terms of who wins, it doesn't really matter to me.
As you know, I played high school football here Westbrook,
and I played college football at Rice University five years
(02:40):
and playing professional football. Man, those guys are on another
level athletically, they're very, very athletically gifted and mentally gifted.
We don't understand the mental game behind professional football. But
there's a huge, huge mental game behind playing professional football
(03:03):
as well as college as well as high school. And
when you get tired, from my own personal experience as
an athlete, didn't quite understand it when I was in college.
A man, do I understand it now? When you get tired,
your mind doesn't work the same. Your motivation to want
(03:24):
to compete and your motivation to do anything is impacted.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Greatly.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
You may not want to jump as high and run
as fast when you're tired. And I have this conversation
a lot with families and patients, especially as we get older.
And I talk about the aging process a lot on
this show because I want you guys to understand that
it is a real process that is active. It's an
(03:57):
active process called aging getting older that I would say
probably starts about forty is when the program right, the
biological program that we're all born with, it's in our genetics,
our genes starts to tell the body it's time to
(04:20):
shut off. It's sort of an auto shutdown, if you will.
Getting older and a lot of things can happen, and
everyone sort of has their own individual experience about how
they're going to age or what happens to them as
they get older. I'm getting older, I have signs of
shutdown and having to deal with that myself. And it
(04:43):
makes in my opinion, in my opinion, a better clinician
and a better advisor healthcare advisor, if you will. When
doctors go through their own health issues or they have
their own medical problems and they experience firsthand what it
feels like, what it looks like, what it smells like,
and the things that you have to do to correct
(05:06):
the way you feel, makes you a better advisor. Right.
Pain gives you a lot of knowledge and insight. It's
different when it's just you took a test, you studied,
you saw some lectures, and you took a test and
you passed, and so now you're there with your patient
trying to talk with them. But certainly when it's firsthand,
(05:29):
whether it be a family member or yourself personally as
a clinician, you get more insightful to this whole process.
And aging is real. It is real. And again a
lot of things happen as we get older, but certainly
that immune system we talk about that a lot starts
(05:49):
to decline big time, which is why we promote those
vaccines big time, because we want you to stay out
of the hospital, right. We don't want you in that hospital.
We want you at home and out of that hospital.
Some people will consider being hospitalized as a failure of
(06:11):
the whole primary care movement. Really that's see, that's what
I do every day is primary care, right, and the
whole concept, and it's been out there for a long time,
is to prevent events from happening. America invests a lot
of time into researching the common diseases of our country
(06:36):
and what are the things that increase the chances of
those disease happening. We've invested a lot of time and
money research into that, so we have a pretty good
idea about all that stuff. Years ago we were trying
to figure that out, but we know a lot more
(06:57):
than we did before and is there The pharmaceutical company
has helped us out with that. Though. One other topic
is just the expense. We need to work big time
on that. Just the excess of these great medications that
they have provided us to take care of these diseases
(07:19):
and keep us out of the hospital. They're a little
pricey and sometimes out of the reach of the average American,
and you have to rely on older medicines, maybe not
as effective, maybe more side effects, which obviously sort of
put you in a position where you're more likely to
have progression of your disease and end up in the
(07:41):
hospital with more events. So primary prevention is all about
trying to keep you out of the hospital, which is
why in a lot of cases you're being asked by
your healthcare provider to come to the office more often and.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Maybe do more blood work.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
A lot of the insurance companies have understood that a
lot of this has to just do with sort of
better surveillance and just better conversation or more conversation about
the things that they need to be doing on a
regular basis.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Just because we get distracted.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
We forget, and we sort of have to be reminded
about some basic concepts about how to stat of the hospital,
how to live with this aging process as well as possible,
and so other healthcare professionals other than you and your
health and your primary care provider, other healthcare professionals are
(08:39):
being introduced to you either on the phone or the
computer or even coming to your house for a face
to face visit, which I think is a great idea
and it's not really to intrude on your relationship with
the primary care provider, because some patients take it that way.
You know, some patients feel like, hey, it's I have
(09:00):
my own relationship. I don't need any interference. I like
my doctor or my healthcare provider. I don't need another
person coming into the mix. And so for some patients
as resistance to that. But for the most part, it
seems like talking to my patients, they understand that, and
they allow these other providers to come to their house
(09:21):
and just do a little visit. I wouldn't say it's quick,
but it's certainly a sort of update overall view of
their health and maybe hitting some high points about some
things that we should be looking at with you and
the healthcare provider, just because the day gets busy for
(09:42):
both the doctor as well as the patient. And ideally
you come together as a pair and figure out what's
the best game plan, you agree on it, and you
move forward. But again, there are these sort of unforeseen
obstacles and grimlins that pop up all the time where
(10:03):
maybe things don't happen the way they're supposed to. Maybe
that mammogram you're supposed to get ordered doesn't get ordered.
Or it got ordered, but you canceled it and.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
You forgot to re order it.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Same thing with colon cancer screening, process, cancer screening, getting
your labs. I mean, just all these little grimlins come
up all the time that interfere with your ability to
do your part to provide yourself with some primary care.
So these other healthcare providers are coming out to remind you.
(10:37):
You know, they're giving proper documentations so you can bring
it to your next visit to the doctor. Again, I
think it's a great idea and I certainly see that expanding,
and it's probably going to be with the use of
the phone. It's because most people have a smartphone or
some sort of electronic device that they're sort of communicating
(10:59):
with with the world. Say, for instance, colon cancer screening.
As you know, things have changed over the years. Now
we start general colon cancer screening at the age of
forty five. So if you're forty five and above, even
with no symptoms, you need to initiate your colon cancer screening.
(11:22):
And that is because the surveillance and the study of
colon cancer in this country, we now understand that patients
are having colon cancer a lot sooner than before, because
we used to start at the age of fifty and
the average population, but certainly if there's a strong family
history of early on set colon cancer, we would start
(11:45):
a lot sooner, maybe in your thirties or even in
your twenties.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Those are more.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Rare, but they do exist. But for the average person
that used to be fifty now it's forty five years old.
And our recommendations in colon cancer screening other than that,
when to start in terms of the mechanism of being
screened has changed over the years. It used to be
(12:14):
what they call a flex sigmoidoscopy or what they call a.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
A stool kit, where.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
You would basically or your doctor would do what they
call a rectal exam and get a little bit of
your sample doing the rectal exam and tested for blood.
That used to be one way to do that a
little uncomfortable, and that type of test was a bit
more inaccurate, meaning had a lot of false positive results,
(12:49):
and so both of those fell out of flavor, the
flexig and sort of the rectal exam. Although some old
doctors still do that. I don't do that just because
the current literature does not recommend that or suggest that
something I was taught, but certainly it's not something I
do to this day. And the flex SIG sort of
(13:10):
fill out of favor f l e X SIG, flex
SIG and six stands for sigmoidoscopy, which is the name
of the procedure where the gastrologists would use an endoscope.
Those are sort of the flexible instruments with a camera
(13:34):
on the end where they have controls at one side
and the camera another side that they would insert to
look inside your colon. The FLEXIG would only look at
we get this right, the left side of your colon.
If you look at your colon, it looks like an
upside down you right. And the flex sigmonoscopy would only
(13:59):
visual the left side or left half of your colon,
and come to find out, a lot in colon cancers
well on the right side. So you would get your
flex sigmoidoscopy and you would be told, hey, you're good,
(14:19):
we don't see anything, and then a year later be
diagnosed with colon cancer and they kind of start realizing that, hey,
we're missing these cancers, so we have to do a
full colonoscopy.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
We have to look at the entire.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Colon, so those two things fell out of favor, and
the gold standard then became sort of the colonoscopy. And
I don't know if you've ever had a colonosopy, but
there's some work you have to do to get that done.
You know, you have to have a schedule appointment to
go see a GI doctor, so you have to take
(14:56):
off of your job, or you have to vote sometimes
that that's what probably three hours or so that's a
normal doctor visit at most busy offices. We're trying to
make healthcare delivery more convenient, and again that's going to
be some novel ways moving forward in terms of how
we do that. Certainly it's going to be more virtual
(15:19):
in terms of interacting with your healthcare provider. And again
once insurance companies sort of figure out how to do
that and that sort of visit is reimbursable, reimburs reimbursal versable,
that's the word, then more doctors, more healthcare systems will
(15:40):
start doing that. But it's not really set at this point.
But certainly to get access to more people, as there's
still a huge need for healthcare providers, that's one way
to do that. And so going to an office visit
(16:00):
sitting in an office super inconvenient, right. I mean again,
I think most healthcare systems are trying to speed it
up as much as possible, but there's just a lot
of limitations when it comes to having face to face
visits in an office, any office, and even if it's
well run, its efficient, and it's got all the bells
and whistles, there's still some way time that you have
(16:24):
to experience, and you still have to drive there and
go there and be processed. It's just time consuming and
I just feel like the system, our healthcare system will
find novel ways moving forward of how to speed that up.
And certainly I think the electronic community the healthcare system
(16:45):
will find a way to blend those two and speed
up the process, as we have with electronic medical records.
I mean that has allowed clinicians and hospital systems to
really speed up the process of healthcare care delivery system
and get away from the paper which requires more manpower.
(17:07):
There's a lot more obstacles. It just doesn't move as
fast when you're just on a paper system versus an
electronic system, which is more rapid. It's quicker, and it's
sort of more systemized where you can go to a
sort of one location, you can get all information, you
can do a whole lot, and it just speeds everything up.
(17:28):
It makes it more precise. You can research better when
there's an electronic system. So I'm pretty sure moving forward,
just to speed up even doctor visits, that will figure
out a way to be faster, more efficient. We can
document it better, we can record better because America loves data.
(17:48):
They love data and information and documentation. You know, because
we spend As a healthcare provider, you spend a lot
of time just documenting what you're doing all day and
it has nothing to do with necessarily delivering patient care.
(18:08):
Every time you interact with the healthcare provider, it's being
documented somehow, and the person interacting with you has to
put it on some sort of paper or system of
the visit of the experience. And there are all sorts
of electronic medical records systems out there. Some are good,
some are bad, some are slow, some are fast. But
(18:29):
every day, every step of the way, it's all being documented.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And we love that.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Insurance companies love it, but it sometimes takes away from
patient care.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Time From Woodville, how can we help.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You, Yes, sir, I was diagnosed with COPD four or
five years ago, and I was wondering, how can I.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Get it better? Do it get worse? Or what is
a treatment for that? Sir?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
All right, COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Well,
first of all, what did they what did they tell
you was the cause of your COPD?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Smoking years and years ago as a.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Teenager, And so you've already quit.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Twenty five years ago, okay?
Speaker 1 (19:24):
And when you were diagnosed, did you ask them this
same question you're asking me?
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Uh not really No. I just took it as a
as a diagnosis and went with that. But I had
had the cold or flew the other day and it
was really bad. And every time I have a cold
or fluid, really it really gets bad. That's hard on breathing.
And I was told to get a nobulizer and uh
(19:58):
and and and so forth, you know, but I would
just every time I read an article about it, it
just it said it gets worse, it never gets better.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
All right, So, Tom, chronic obstructive pulmon air disease for
most people is a result of years of smoking. Yes,
And as a part of chronic obstructive pulmon airy disease.
Another process that is normally associated with that is called emphasema.
(20:28):
Well you ever told you have inmphasema, yes, sir, all right,
and infansma basically describes a permanent damage are scarring to
the actual lung tissue where the exposure to tobacco has
caused damage to the actual lung itself, which is irreversible.
(20:54):
It's permanent. And if you ever look at a lung,
looks like a spot, if you ever look at it
under the microscope, that's sort of what a lung looks like.
And inphasema are those defects in the lung looks like
a hole when you look at it, like in Swiss cheese,
it looks like a big, gaping hole where nothing's there.
(21:17):
And depending on the degree of inmphasema you have, you
could have mild emphasm, you could have severe in vesina.
The more holes you have in your lung tissue, the
more symptoms you're going to have, which are permanent. Because
that is a permanent problem. You have damaged it. It's
not gonna get better, it's not going to repair itself.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
You're left with that.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And because of that permanent damage or permanent injury, your
lungs obviously are more vulnerable to respiratory infections because, if
you think about it, the lung does a couple of
different things. One is it gets oxygen into our body
and gets carbon dioxide out of our body, which is
(22:02):
a byproduct of all of the cellular activity that's going
on all day long. Carbon dioxide. It's a waste product,
if you will, and that's how it escapes our bodies
through the lungs. Well, if your lungs don't work, then
you're more prone to harbor all of that waste in
your system, and that can cause its own issues.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
But another thing is.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
That all of the things that are in the air
that we breathe in, viruses, bacteria, parasites, all that stuff
in the air. The lung is supposed to filter that
out so that it never gets inside of you.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
But when your.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Lungs don't work, then all of that debris, all of
those organisms can get deep inside your lungs, that can
sort of set up shop and live there and then
very easily penetrate and get inside your lung get inside
your system and cause infection.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
So how do you how do you fix that? You
already did it.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
You gotta stop smoking. That's that's the number one thing
you gotta do is to stop smoking. Beyond that, you
just have to understand that you do have chronic lung
disease and now you sort of have to live a
certain lifestyle to protect your lungs as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Okay, don't get exposed to tobacco as much as possible.
You may not smoke, but your friends might smoke, your
wife might smoke. You go to the bar, the smoke
in the air, So you got to get rid of
that environment as much as possible. Number Two, take vaccines.
We talk a lot about vaccines here on the show,
(23:47):
but if for you, vaccines are going to be really important,
like your viral vaccines and your bacterial vaccines like pneumonia,
the Prevnar twenty which is out now, it's going to
be important for you to take because you want to
offer your body some protection against these infections. And then
number three just overall be healthy. So keep your weight down,
(24:12):
keep your blood pressure down, keep your cholesterol down, and
exercise a little bit because all of that factors into
your lung function. If you're sedentary, if you're overweight, if
you have high blood pressure, you have heart disease, if
you have kidney disease, all of that's going to affect
your lung function.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Does that make sense?
Speaker 4 (24:35):
You make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So it's it's a lot of work. But once you
kind of get used to that lifestyle, you can live
a very long time with chronic lung disease, no question.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I see it every day.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well, I'll tell you what I should appreciate your information.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Thank you time, appreciate it. Phone lines are open eight
nine six klvy I one hundred and three threes Okova,
I'll be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back,
(25:18):
dropping me medical our phone lines and open eight nine
to six kov at one hundred and three to three
zero klv I. Twenty twenty five Super Bowl Weekend Edition.
Who's Gonna win? The Chiefs are the Philadelphia Eagles?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Talking about emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which again
normally comes from tobacco abuse. And you know, we're all
looking for ways to stay alive, right, we talk about
that all the time. That's the genesis of this show.
And what can I do to stay alive?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right?
Speaker 1 (25:55):
If you're a smoker. If you're a smoker, if you
are being exposed to the fumes of tobacco, you have
to try and figure out a way to limit that
or get away from that. In my opinion, as a
healthcare provider, after over twenty years of doctoring patients and
(26:17):
with my experience, I would have to say tobacco abuse,
tobacco exposure, tobacco use is the number one most sort
of destructive habit you can have to your human body.
I mean, it is not good for you, and we
(26:37):
have to help them or help you figure out a
way to try and reduce your exposure and get away
from that. Just because of my experience and what I see,
it normally generates more cardiovascal disease, a lot more cancer,
and just overall poor health. And we sort of start
(26:59):
off of the show talking about the aging process. In
my experience, it accelerates the aging process. Patients get older
a lot faster. As well as chronic pain. That's a
big problem for a lot of Americans. Smokers tend to
have the worst chronic pain and it seems to be
(27:20):
refractory a lot of times to the commonly prescribed medications.
So it's just one of those things that you have
to figure out how to avoid or to stop. In
terms of smoking tobacco, they have a couple of medications
on the market to help hasn't really changed in a
(27:42):
long time. Those medications would include Wellbutrin as well as Chanticks.
The Chanticks has been around for a long time. And
then most pharmacies sort of have a section in their
area for tobacco cessation with all of the products that
you can purchase over the counter without a prescription, you know,
(28:04):
whether it be a patch or a gum or a lozenger.
They have all of that stuff over the counter which
is available to you, and it's certainly something that we
would advise you to do.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Even if you're overweight, even.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
If your cholesterol is super high, even if your sugar
is high and you smoke, I would say the number
one thing you need to do is to figure out
how not to smoke. It is that irritating in my opinion,
based on my experience. But COPD is one of those
issues that we see a lot in Southeast Texas as
(28:42):
a result of that, and other than the things that
I've mentioned a lot of times, it includes the use
of what we call inhalers or broncho dilators just because
of the architectural damage that happens over the years with COPD,
(29:03):
the inside lining of the airway tubes, which we call
the bronch eye, become damaged. The lining of the airway
is a complicated structure actually, and again it's designed to
keep the air that gets deep insidulungs as clean and
(29:25):
sterile as possible so that you're less like to get
long infections. And if you are exposed to smoke, if
you smoke, then that sort of process is damaged slowly.
Because that's the thing that I've mentioned to you before,
(29:46):
that the body is always trying to achieve homeostasis, right
balance every day.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
As how, it's.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Engineered to achieve homeostasis every day, balance to heal, to
being balanced. Everything is perfect, it's engineered that way. Unfortunately,
a lot of our daily activities interfere with that balance
and it cannot balance itself out. And when it cannot
(30:17):
balance itself out, that's when you start having physical symptoms
of some sort. And the list is pretty long. Stuff
we see every day, right headaches, chest pain, swelling, rashes, weakness, fatigue,
all sorts of physical symptoms that happen when the body
(30:40):
cannot balance itself, and so you just have to give
it a chance. And again there's sort of a chronological
thing that happens when you stop smoking. How the body
is man instantly, it's already starting to heal itself so
that it can function as well as possible. But yes,
sometimes a little bit too late, there's some permanent issues.
(31:01):
But again, even in that situation, you can learn how
to live with that particular problem as.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Well as possible.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
So sometimes it does involve the use of bronco valators,
and there's a number of them on the market, and
unfortunately they're kind of expensive. But there's only about three
or four medicines that are in all these medications that
are in the inhalers, whether it be Trilogy or adverre
(31:31):
or albuterol or breas tree. I mean, there's just a
number of them out there and they work very well
and we like to use them. The other aspect of
smoking and COPD is the.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Screening of lung cancer.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
That's been sort of promoted over the past several years.
It's caught traction and more providers are doing it. More
insurance companies are paying for it so just that if
you are a smoker, you were smoker, then lung cancer
screening is a part of primary care at this point
(32:08):
and something that you should talk to your healthcare provider about.
If again, you were a smoker for many years or
you had exposure to smoking, there are guidelines set in
place where if you do meet those guidelines, you are
a candidate for lung cancer screening, which normally involves the
(32:30):
use of a cat scan. The cat scan is the
white doughnut. The MRI is the tube that you have
to sort of go in, So most people tolerate cat
scans farewell. And again it's normally once a year. So
you get your lab, you get your PSA, you get
(32:51):
your EKG, and then you get your cat scan. If
you are a smoker to screen for lung cancer and
I have picked up I would say several lung cancers
at an early stage in smokers by the use of
this what they call low dose CT scan. Because CT
scans a lot of times, we'll use what they call contrast,
(33:12):
which is a radiological material that gets injected into your
vein so that when the radiologists shoot or they perform
the imaging, the contrast is there to highlight or outline
than anatomy. It's almost the difference between looking in the
(33:33):
dark and looking in the light. When you don't use contrast,
it's dark, but when you use contrast, things light up
and the radiologists can see the anatomy so much better.
So they put a little bit of contrast in there,
which is why they call it low dose, so they
can sort of see things to some level. There's concern
(33:54):
about the exposure to cat scans. There is a little
radiation exposure with cat scans, and there's been a lot
of discussion about that in the medical community about is
this causing more problems? Do we need to limit cat
scan usage? But at this point it's not at a
level that tends to increase your chances of cancer to
(34:16):
the point that we need to limit cat skins. Not
there yet, that's my understanding. So these low dose CT
scans are being used to screen for lung cancer if
you were a smoker or you're currently a smoker, and
certainly something you should talk to your healthcare provider about.
Phone lines are open eight nine six scalvy. I want
to hundred three three zero kalv.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
I'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
All right, pull on's opening nice six kalv I want
to hundred three three zero klv I thank you for
joining me today. Super Bowl weekend, and yes, the feast,
the Thanksgiving feast that we normally consume for a Super Bowl. Man,
it's all all the food that's not good for you, right,
the nachos and just the mac and cheese and the
(35:06):
wings and beer and.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Just all that sugar.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Right, But it's just for one day, right, and you
should have a good time. But everything in moderation, and
certainly if you have certain medical issues, you might need
to limit it a little bit more. The food industry, however,
has a lot of these alternative food items. If you
do have some medical problems that are out there, just
(35:32):
have to look for them, you know, the low sugar,
no sugar, artificial sweetness, things like that that we talk
about that periodically. I think on one or two days
holiday or even for tomorrow's Super Bowl, hanging out with
your friends, you know, maybe it's wouldn't hurt to indulge
(35:53):
into that. It's certainly part of spending time with your
family is eating and drinking and just trying to have
a good time. But again, you sometimes have to be
careful if you have certain medical issues. But certainly smoking,
if that's one thing you're doing to starting a new year, man,
that's one big.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Issue that we would love for you to.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
Work on and working with the healthcare provider to find
a solution for that. It's good and certainly, yeah, lung
cancer screening is one of those screening tests that we
do for most smokers if you've been smoking for a
long period of time. I've sort of lowered my threshold
to screen for that because again, normally, a lot of
times with lung cancers found it's at a deeper stage,
(36:40):
like a stage three or stage four, just like with
colon cancer screening, breast cancer screening, and prostay cancer screening,
those are sort of the stall warth screening programs that
we have. Most people familiar with that, but even that
familiarity does not prevent patients from sort of slipping through
the cracks.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
We still have that.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Unfortunately, even with all this awareness and the ease of
getting lab, the ease of getting X rays, you know,
now we have freestanding labs out there that again even
without insurance, you can normally get a set of some
blood work where you can look at your kidney function,
your sugar, your thyroid, you know, basic stuff. Same thing
(37:24):
with mammograms and some of these routine screening exams. The pricing,
even if you don't have insurance, is pretty affordable for
most people. And my god, just to invest a little
of that heart earned income on an X ray or
in lab to sort of catch some disease at an
(37:45):
earlier stay so it doesn't progress because you all know, man,
if your health is bad, wow, it just really sidelines
you or can for.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
A long time.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It hits the pocketbook terribly. A little investment in those
screening exams can be very influential in terms of catching
it sooner. You don't have to have as much disease,
you don't have to take as any medicines you have
to go to a doctor as much. So yes, if you,
even if you don't have insurance, you know, look into
(38:16):
trying to find one of these facilities. They're out there
where you can get those screening exams done so that
you can put yourself in a better position in your
family as well.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
We'll go on to last break.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Phone lines open eight on six Kalvy, I want a
hundred three three zero Kovy. I'll be back for some
final comments. All right, welcome back to the DOCORPHMTICROT phone
lines opening on six Kalvy. I want a hundred three
(38:48):
three zero okyo V. I want to thank all of
the listeners as well as the callers today.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Remember the show is for you.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
If you have any topic that you would like me
to discuss, we'd be more than happy to discuss that.
You can call my office or you can call here
to station and drop off your comments or your requests
for topics and we'll get to that.
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Today.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
We spend some time talking about the aging process a
little bit. We hate to hear about it, but yeah,
about the age of forty, things kind of start to
shut down, and including that immune system as well as
other parts of our body, cardiovascular, neurological and physical symptoms
can start accruing. But certainly your lifestyle what you eat
(39:38):
and drink. That's number one, right, what you eat and drink,
what you put in your body every day, as well
as number two your activity level.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Those are the two.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Biggest major components are influencers to your health. What you eat,
what you drink, and then you're at activity level, so
always focus on that if you have any medical problems,
if you don't feel well, look back at what you're
(40:09):
eating and drinking. And again, the main issues in my
opinion is that unfortunately we eat a little bit too
much every day. We need to give our bodies a
break from consuming foods and beverages with calories in it.
We need to give our body a break, and we
(40:31):
don't necessarily have to eat three times a day. In
my opinion, I think it's excessive because again, our society
is for the most part sedentary. We're not really physically active.
I've been talking about the average person. So you don't
need a lot of calorie consumption every day. And because
our society is sort of set up for calorie consumption
(40:53):
all the time, morning, noon night, midnight, morning noon night,
that sort of causes excessive consumption. Our body rejects that
and you fill it with fatigue, high pretension, high cholesterol, diabetes.
So give your body a break sometime, and yes, be
a little physically active does not have to be this
(41:17):
high intensity sort of exercising. We're talking about a brisk
walk in a park around your neighborhood, maybe walking on
a treadmill in your house, pelling a bicycle. All those
things count. And it doesn't have to be every day, right,
it can be two or three times a week. That
is it, and you're done. And yes, if you're smoking,
(41:39):
you gotta stop and find a way for that. Just
talk with your healthcare provider for that anyway, and enjoy
your weekend. Who's gonna win? The Eagles or the Chiefs?
I'll watch it tomorrow, hopefully you will as well. Thank
you for joining for the show. Don't drink and drive.
We'll see you next week. Take care,
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.