February 24, 2026 • 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.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Welcome Southeast Texas Internet radio listeners. This is
doctor Levine, your weekly host of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour.
I am here live and the studios of k LVI
here in Beaumont, Texas, across the street from Parkdale Mall,
taking your phone calls, answering questions about healthcare and what
(00:21):
is good was bad so you can stay alive, stay
healthy as long as possible. Remember, it's a drag to
be sick, and why would you want to do that
just spending your time in the doctor's offices, getting all
your mads and your pills. We want to try and
reduce that. So we'd love to talk with you and
(00:41):
see what will work for you or what questions you
might have about that in terms of your journey towards
your health and wellness and staying live as long as possible,
as healthy as possible. Again, getting older does not mean
getting sicker, as some of us sort of appreciate better
(01:03):
than others, are to say, accept better than others. I'm
getting older, I'm supposed to get sick. So when I
start getting sick, okay, fine, I understand that, No problem,
It's part of the deal. Which again, as you get older, Yes,
you tend to develop more medical problems, but if you're
(01:25):
doing your part, a lot of times it can be
easily managed without the need for a lot of intervention
from the healthcare industry, without a lot of prescription medications,
and you have time to enjoy your life and spend
time with your family and do whatever it is you'd
like to do. Man, when you're unhealthy, it's surely limits
(01:49):
your ability to do things that you might want to do.
So yeah, let's chat and see what works for you.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six klv I
want eight hundred three zero klv I. Whether outside is
not too bad, a little overcast. We're sort of starting
to get into our springtime, whether it's unfortunate for me,
(02:10):
because as you know, I really like the winter moments,
the winter time, the cold weather. I enjoy those months
better than I do the summer months when it's just
so blazingly hot outside here in Southeast Texas along with
it along with its humidity issues that we tend to see.
(02:33):
So we're starting to get into a little bit of that,
and we're getting to the end of vaccine time for
flu that is. But again, just always reminded to get
those vaccines that you haven't gotten. Again, that immune system
is in the background, humming away and protecting us. But again,
a programmed decline of the immune system is in place.
(02:58):
And as you get up into your age, yes, you
become more what we call immuno compromised, meaning you're more
at risk for infections. So vaccines as a way to
help in that manner. Michael from Pasady and how can
we help you?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Oh, good morning, doctor morning. On Thursday night, I was
on a walk. I walked about two or three quarter
miles and on the towards the end of my walk,
I tripped and fell on my face, and uh so,
(03:37):
I luckily I had some paper towels with me and
I covered my nose. It was bleeding profusely, but I
got I got home, walked home, and I got the
bleeding stopped. Where I hit myself was right at the eyebrow,
(04:00):
and just a little bow of the eyebrow. I've got
a little bump. I've got a bump there, and the
eyebrow in the center is turned dark. And uh a, no,
from the nose down, I've got brush burns. And uh
so what I did? I got, I got the waiting
(04:22):
stopped and uh and uh so then after uh I
was able to I'm all right, but uh, what's happened?
Like this morning? I noticed my eyes blow? My eyes
are puffy and uh I've been using uh ice in
(04:50):
a compress uh to bring down the swelling. Uh and
uh I know that. Uh and so my nose was
bleeding also, I got I used I rolled up a
(05:11):
swab of of paper towels and got it stopped. And
I'm getting a little bit of blood, not much right now,
but when I cleared my throat it's uh. So I'm
just wondering what else I needed to do, what I
should do?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I mean, Michael, Yeah, I'm sorry that that happened to you.
And falling dust would come unfortunately more common as we
get older because of issues with balance.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, I was going to say this, The reason I
tripped was because I normally don't walk on the sidewalk,
but I switched up because of some cars in the
street and I didn't see it raised portion. IAR usually
walk at night, and that's how I tripped. I usually
(06:05):
I don't trip at all, but that's what happened. So
go on. I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
No, that's okay. Two where radios what this is? But
it sounds like you're doing everything you can, But you
might want to go to one of the minor cares
and just get a facial X ray to make sure
you don't have any fractures of your facial bones or
a fracture of the nosebone, just because that certainly can
happen anytime you traumatize the antire aspect of the face.
(06:36):
There's a lot of blood, there's a lot of adma.
All that means that it's inflamed and the soft tissue
obviously has been injured. But the bone structures underneath can
be injured and can generate some problems. You might need
a little operation or an adjustment. So that is probably
the only thing I would recommend. It's just to get
a more immediate X ray of your face, make sure
(06:59):
all the bones are tech. Beyond that, yeah, it's it's
going to be time and letting the soft tissue injury heal.
And you know, ice, heat, anti inflammatories, band aids, things
like that. Stuff that's available over the counter should be
enough to help you deal with the facial trauma that
(07:21):
your experience. I see it all the time patients come in,
they sort of all this bruising everywhere is like what
fight would you in? And it's really just amount of
the fact that they fell and their face hit something hard,
whether it be furniture or the bedpost or the floor itself.
And then a lot of times patients are taking blood
(07:43):
dinners like aspirin or plavix or eloquists, and they bleed
more freely, and so there's more soft tissue swelling, more
soft tissue bleeding, and the face can become fairly deformed,
and you know, the soft tissue because of all the
swelling and the bleeding. But normally it results within a
(08:06):
week or two, it all goes away. It's miraculous to
see how the body heals itself. So that's probably the
only thing I would recommend. It's just to get a
facial X ray, just to make sure no fracture to there.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't I don't think I have anything broken. I
mean you can't. You can't really tell.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I mean I.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Don't have you know, how would you know without a
facial actual ray if you have something broken.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, that's about it. And again I'm not looking at you.
A lot of times you have for a healthcare provider.
We can eyeball the injury and pretty much tell if
the risk of a fracture is high are low. Obviously,
the more injury to the soft tissue, the higher likelihood
that there was some injury to the bone structure underneath.
(09:02):
But if you feel like there's no fracture, then that's fine.
You were just asking if there was anything else. I'd
recommend that that would be the only thing is to
get an X ray to ensure that there was no fracture.
But if you don't think the injury is that severe,
otherwise it's getting better. Everything is working. Yeah, I don't
think there's any rush to go and get an X ray.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I was gonna he was saying, to go to some
type of clinic.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
They have all these free standing emergency departments now emergency businesses, buildings,
or it's just an emergency setting, not attached to a hospital.
Remember most rs used to be attached to a hospital
back in the day. Now there is an emergency department,
but there is no hospital around. It's just an er.
(09:56):
So they have a lot of the advanced X ray
equipment in there, like cat scans, ultrasounds, and just plain
X ray to determine if you've had any sort of fractures.
I guess, depending on the severity of the fractures. If
you do have them, they can then reach out to
other providers that deal with facial fractures and maybe get
(10:20):
you transferred over to their care, whether that be a
bigger hospital or maybe get your follow up appointment in
their office Monday or Tuesday. They have developed relationships with
these providers a lot of times so that they can
distribute the patients at the at from the er. So
that would be the only thing that I would would
(10:41):
recommend for you. Otherwise, sounds like you're doing everything you
can for the soft tissue injury.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, And so if there is any broken bones, what
would they do well, I mean, it's a face, can't
put a cast on it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, it just depends on where the fracture is. Sometimes, yes,
you do need a surgical repair of a facial bone fracture.
Most of the time, it's not what they call non
displaced fractures of the bone, meaning the bone is in
(11:16):
its proper position. It's just fissured or cracked. That's a fracture.
And yeah, most of the time in those situations. You're right,
they don't really do anything. They just monitor it. But
sometimes there can be displacement, meaning it fractures and then
the bone itself moves out of its original position. And
anytime you start doing that, it puts pressure on other
(11:38):
surrounding structures that might injure it or cause inflammation or
cause dysfunction, like the eyeball itself and all the internal
structures of the eyeballs, the blood vessels that travel through
the skull, all of that can be impacted if the
bone starts to shift in such a way to cause
some injury. So most, yeah, fractures do not require any
(12:03):
sort of surgical tension, but it's possible. So yeah, they
would get you to the doctors that perform surgeries on
the face, which we have those They are highly specialized surgeons,
but they are available and sometimes you do need that.
So that's why the X ray would be important. Hello Michael, Hello,
(12:26):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah. Well I was gonna say my eyes weren't puffy
in the beginning, but they were puffy when I woke
up this morning. So you know, right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Below the eyes, yeah, that's just.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Right below the eyes, right, there's a puffy spot now correct,
Is that normal progression?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, yes, I would say so. That's just again a
result of inflammation of the soft tissue brought on by
the trauma or impact or fall, and injuring the soft tissue,
you have a deema that develops. That's again a result
of inflammation that's happening. Inflammation is the system that gets
(13:09):
turned on to repair any sort of injury to the body,
whether it be a bone or soft tissue, and as
a part of that repair process, they're swelling that is
involved with the chemical reaction of inflammation, and there's a
lot of little inflammatory hormones that get released that go
to the area of injury and help it heal. And
(13:32):
again swelling is a part of that. Some people theorize
that it causes more blood flow to that area, and
then blood flow brings all of the repair products that
you need to repair the injury, and so it's swollen
for a while until all the healing goes down, and
then the swelling goes down. Once the system turns off,
(13:55):
you don't need all of these repair products at the
side of injury because the injury has been healed, and
so it all goes away and then the swelling goes away,
and it normally takes several days for that to happen.
It can be disfiguring. I mean, I've seen a lot
of facial injuries over the years, and the face can
get really a demitis or puffy to the point that
(14:18):
you can't even hardly see because there's so much swelling.
But normally, given time, it all goes away after about
a week or two. So it's a remarkable transformation. If
you've ever seen someone with facial trauma, just like a boxer,
you see how their faces get swollen at the end
of a match, and then give it about a week
or two and all that swelling just evaporates. So it's remarkable.
(14:42):
So again, just a facial X ray and maybe that
that's about it be. Shouldn't follow with your primary care
doctor of Monday Tuesday and have them take a look
at it or sooner today if you're concerned. All right,
Michael A appreciate Michael's phone call. Don't get a lot
(15:02):
of facial trauma questions on this show, but certainly falling falls.
That's a big topic in the elderly world, in the
geriatric world. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about that
when we come back from our first break. Phone lines
are open eight nine to six kV I win one
hundred three three zero kalva. I'll be back in two minutes.
(15:31):
All right, welcome back to doctor Lovin and Medical. Our
phone lines are open eight nine six kV I won
one hundred three three zero kofy. I'd love to hear
from you. We have Danny from Lumberton. How can we
help you?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Good morning, Doc, I have a question for you. I
am leaving white Lock here. I now the three and
thirty pounds six foot till I had adopted two diabetes.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I have.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
It's a lot o blood pressure at fifty eight years old,
and I developed ato fibrillation recently. I've been at a
gasic slate surgery a couple weeks ago. Through what's going on?
Leave them weight? How much of that can I effect
to go away?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And how soon?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
What pop two diabetes? I understand we'll go away with
weight low more likely, but what about the hot blood
pressure and atri fibrillation things like that.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, Danny, congratulations on your surgery. That's a big step
for a lot of patients and a lot of fear
actually to go ahead with the surgery, but everybody had
in my experience, everyone has a different trajectory after a
big surgery like that in terms of how long it's
going to take them to get their blood sugar better,
(16:44):
their blood pressure better. But in my experience, it's pretty rapid, rapid,
meaning in the next three to six months, your blood pressure,
your blood sugar, cholesterol should have a drastic decrease or decline,
requiring as much medications as you're on before. And you
speak of atrial fibrillation, which is in my experience one
(17:07):
of the most common electrical cardiac problems in our country
for various reasons, but certainly being overweight, having high blood pressure,
high cholesterol or big risk factors for the development of
atrire fibrillation. So that stimulus will also or should go
down as well as you lose weight. So I would
(17:28):
say in the next three to six months expect to
see drastic improvement in your numbers as it pertains to
the blood pressure in the cholesterol. That's been my experience.
It's pretty drastic. It works pretty well.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Okay, thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
All right, any other questions we have for today?
Speaker 4 (17:48):
No thanks scaring me today. I appreciate you, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, congratulations to you, all right, and we appreciate Danny's
phone call. And a lot of patients do not proceed
with a surgical option. But the surgical options are there.
They are more expensive, but a lot of different scenarios
(18:12):
are coming up that allow the average person to afford
a surgical option for weight loss. And the most popular
weight loss surgery right now is the gastric sleeve. And
I'm not a surgeon, but in general, they sort of
surgically recontour your stomach and may do some other things
(18:34):
while they're in there as well, but it's a compromise, right.
There have been various surgical procedures to help patients lose
weight over the years. We are familiar with gastric bypass,
where they truly re route your intestine so that you
basically cannot absorb nutrition. You can eat it, but it's
(18:56):
just not going to be absorbed. It just goes sort
of right through you, and in essence, that limits the
exposure to calorie consumption and then your weight goes down.
They have worked on that technique over the years, I
mean several years, and they've pretty much gotten all the
(19:16):
bugs out of the technique. And if you do proceed
with a full gastric bypass, which is that's what it
sounds like. Intestines are sort of being surgically re routed
so that again the food is going in a different
direction or it's bypassing the area where the food gets
absorbed in the gasro intestinal system. Remember the gasrotestinal system
(19:38):
starts at your throat mouth, if you will, and ends
at your anus, and every part of it does something different.
And with this gas bypass, they manipulate surgically the area
where all the absorption of food happens, so that you're
not absorbing as much of it. It's drastically reduced, basically
(20:00):
calorie constriction, calorie reduction on a daily basis. And if
you at this point, if you decide to do that surgery,
that's a very effective surgery as well, meaning the weight
loss is super drastic and it works very well. I
think because of its history and because of some well
(20:23):
known poor outcomes with previous patients who've had the full
gas to bypass, there's a lot of trepidation in doing that.
When it's, in my experience, a bigger operation, there's a
little bit more downtime where you can't work there's more
follow up, so it's a bigger production, if you will,
and a lot of patients are just reluctant to put
(20:45):
themselves through that sort of operation. Again, we're talking about
the expense. For whatever reason, insurance companies still just don't
want to go there with these surgical procedures, even though
they've been proven to work. That's normally an expense factor
of financial hit that you have to take if you
(21:05):
want to go through with these particular surgeries. But again,
I do promote these surgeries and it's something that you
should consider if you are struggling with your weight. It
is a great, relatively safe option. It's just I think
most people are fearful of an operation, and you sort
of should be. You should be concerned, right, I mean,
(21:26):
because they're going in, they're cutting, they're injuring your body
in a controlled manner, and sometimes the outcome is not
what you expect. It's hard to come back from that. Meaning.
You know a lot of times when you take a tablet,
which is why probably patients will agree to take a
tablet more easily than have a procedure, because it seems
(21:48):
you take a tablet, something happens. You just don't take
it again, and you get better, Whereas with an operation,
things a little bit more permanent. Once they go in
and start cutting and fixing things and sewing up things,
the results are more permanent. It's hard to come back
from that, so you have to think a little bit
more deeply about whether or not you want to go
through with the procedure. But these gastric bypasses, again, that's
(22:12):
what started it all. They've gotten really, really good. The
surgeons are good and the outcomes have improved significantly over
the past several years. But again, bigger operation, a little
bit more downtime, and there's more trepidation with patients. So
I just don't think the acceptance rate is where it
needs to be to be the most popular. The most
(22:33):
popular right now is the gastric sleeve, as I mentioned,
where they sort of target your stomach and they surgically
recontoary your stomach to make it smaller, more slim so
that it can't accept a lot of bowluts of food.
And again I think there's something more to the surgery
that again helps with appetite control. I'm a little fuzzy
(22:57):
on that part of it. Again, I'm not the surgeon.
But in doing that operation, again you're just cutting your calories,
but it's a smaller operation. There's not as much rewiring
of your electlectrical system, if you will, and so the
downtime is a minimal, the complications are lower. So it's
a compromise, right, because we all remember the LAP band.
(23:19):
Our laparoscopically placed gastric band is basically what that was,
which is sort of a plastic looking ring that they
would put right at the bottom of your esophagas just
before it entered into your stomach and sort of tighten
it up a little bit enough to the point that
it would cause you to maybe have some nausea or
(23:40):
not be able to consume solid food. But again, you
could sort of get around the ring, and a lot
of times patients had problems controlling the narrowing of the
gastric ring and it just was laden with more complications
and just wasn't really effective. Because you can drink your calories.
(24:03):
A lot of people do that. A lot of the
beverages that are out there have a crapload of calories
and you can drink it. It goes right through the
narrowing of the esophocas. That was brought put on there
by the ring, and you can still be heavy but
still have complications or not be effective, and so it
(24:24):
just wasn't the perfect balance of the needs for most patients,
so didn't really continue to be a popular option because again,
at the end of the day, it just wasn't effective
and patients had a lot of complications with it. I'm
sure you can find someone where it was effective and
it did work, it's just that the percentage was a
(24:45):
lot less, and so it just wasn't very popular long term.
A lot of people lost faith in the procedure and
it just wasn't popular. So we've gone to this last
surgical technique again called the gastric sleeve, which in my experience,
is a great balance of the risks and benefits and
(25:07):
the effectiveness, meaning it's a little downtime, it's lower risk operation,
less complicated operations. So again, when the complexity is down
for the surgeon, then normally the risks go down as well.
If the complexity is high, there's more risk for post
operative complications, which again was sort of the Achilles heel
(25:29):
of the full gastric bypass, you know, got out into
the general public and there was just fear of that surgery.
No one wanted to put their body through that. But
the Gasic sleeve great operation, low risk, but very effective. Right,
extremely effective you drop that weight. And my experience as
(25:50):
a provider, I get I'm not a surgeon, but I
have patients you've had gashic sleeves. We're talking a good
forty to fifty pounds of weight loss. I mean that's
huge to lose fifty pounds. I mean a lot of times. Yes,
these metabolic abnormalities that you're plagued with when you're overweight
will just evaporate. I mean, it's magical in my experience,
(26:14):
and certainly for the patient because their experience is so
much different. Before the surgery, they're throwing down ten fifteen tablets,
they can't hardly move, they feel terrible, they feel like
they look terrible, and just six months later, they've lost
forty fifty pounds, not hardly taking any medicines, their energy
(26:36):
comes back, they look better. I mean, it's just an
incredible transformation, and to go through that, it's just a miracle.
It's miraculous. And that has been my experience with the
Gashi sleeve, which is why it's extremely common to have
someone get that procedure, but again it's that expense drench
(26:57):
companies have not gotten on board. Most of them have it.
I think there's a few out there that might pay
for it, but certainly you have to go through a
lot of prep before you get the procedure. It's not
like you can just go to your doctor's office. Hey
I want a surgery, You go to the surgeon, and
then in two weeks, boom, you're getting an operation. It
normally takes about a good six months to go through
(27:19):
all the prep and before the insurance company will pay
for it. If they are paying for it. But it
just makes sense to me as a provider that insurance
company should be on board with any of these weight
loss products, whether it be a tablet or a surgical procedure.
Offer the medicines at a discount or the surgery at
(27:42):
a discount, because it lessens the need for pharmaceutical products,
it lessens the need for hospitalizations, you have less cardiac events.
I mean, it seems like a win win. So that
is a confusing aspect of that relationship. Phone lines are
open eight nine to six Kalva one hundred and three
to three zero O Kovy. I'll be back in two minutes.
(28:10):
All right, Welcome to the dark Lavon Medical. Our phone
lines are open eight nine six klv I one hundred
and three to three zero O kov I sitting here chatting
about facial trauma as well as these surgical procedures for
weight loss, which again is a good option. Most people
just don't go down that road, just thinking about surgery
(28:32):
and getting cut on and complications and it's just not
something they free their mind to accept. So most patients
don't go there route. And we have the medications now,
the GLP one agonist, which in my opinion, have revolutionized
our ability to help patients really get their weight down,
(28:54):
I mean really effective medications. And just like I was
talking a section about the surgical option, the gas sleeve,
which again checks all the boxes in terms of its easibility,
it's low risk, it's effective. The GOLP one agonist class
(29:15):
of medications also fits that bill where we've been struggling
over the years to find a product that is effective
but does not cause harm. I think, in my opinion,
based on my experience with using the other products, this
GOLP one category fits the bag in my opinion, where
it's a product that can be taken long term and
(29:36):
relatively safe, and no, okay, I agree it can cause
harm for some people, right Yeah, we just can't get
away from that. And it's a little frustrating when that
comes up, where the only way I'm going to use
this is if absolutely nothing happens. That's just not the
(29:57):
way things are with anything in life. There's always a risk.
I mean, getting out of bed, getting your car and
driving to work. I mean it's a risk something might happen.
Typically nothing happens, but it's a risk. You just can't
get away from that same thing with these meds. In
my opinion, the risk is extremely low that you will
(30:17):
suffer some sort of catastrophic side effect from this GOLP
one category. So it is a relatively safe, very effective
medication to use to help you lose weight. A lot
of people have been concerned about the long term consequences
of using GOLP one agonists and just unfortunately the data
is not there, the literature is not there because you know,
(30:41):
they're new and it's gonna have to wait and see
honestly to know if anything is going to happen. But again,
so far, based on my experience in what I've read
in the literature, the risk is minimal to the impact
of the golp one app This meaning a lot of
times the risk is reversible. Although I know there's been
(31:05):
a lot of chatter on internet and social media about
shutting down your bowels and just all of these sort
of catastrophic things that could potentially happen to you if
you expose yourself to this class of medications, which again,
anything is possible, but you have to understand how many
(31:25):
Americans are taking these medications every single day. And again,
I don't think anybody is trying to be irresponsible. Who
in the pharmaceutical company, the healthcare provider that's prescribing the
medication to you, if really, truly the medicine was causing
(31:46):
that amount of harm, causing catastrophic events, I mean, it
would just be taken off the market. I mean, you
know that, that's just how things work in this country.
There's no way even the legal system would allow anything
like that to happen if it was causing this much catastrophe.
Even the FDA, the pharmaceutical company that's giving the medication
(32:09):
to Americans, there's just no way that if it was
really causing serious harm that it would be allowed to
be prescribed by healthcare providers. It would just be responsible
and take it off the market, re work it and
put it out in the market. Leonard from Houston, how
can we help you.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Here lately?
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I'm again it really blood low blood sugar number readings
in the morning, sixty two, sixty seven, seventy one for me,
those are low numbers. Is there anything I can do
to prevent low blood sugar number readings?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Well, Leonard, A lot of times, if your blood sugar
is low and you're are you taking medications?
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, there's eleven of them, but you know, I don't
know really what most of them are for. Not for
blood sugar. It's not for diabetes.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, So most of the time, if you're starting to
have low blood sugars, we look at your medication lists
and see if there's any that could potentially cause a
low blood sugar and if so, then we would tell
you to reduce it or stop it and monitor your
blood sugars and see what would happen.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
As far as saying one of those drugs, yes, okay,
that is a new prescription the doctor gave me. I'm
taking one a day.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Question, do you have any Do you have any physical
symptoms when your blood sugars are in that range?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Shakes, sweats and I just don't feel good, and I'll
reach over, I get a take a glucose pill, and
in a half an hour I feel all better.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Does your provider know that?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And your provider still wants you to take their farsigo
even though that happens.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
He didn't say anything about reducing it, reducing the you know,
the one to day pill. In regard to the regard
to the glucose, it's my understanding that each each glucose
pill is supposed to add twenty points to your blood sugar.
Is that a good? Is that accurate?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
A glucose pill like a sugar tablet.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yes, supposed to add twenty points to your to your
your number whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Probably an average impact of a sugar tablet. I mean,
I think everyone is different and everyone's system is different,
so I couldn't guarantee that. So everybody is different, So
it's probably an average result of if the average person
takes a sugar tablet, then it should go by twenty
(34:55):
just average. Okay, yes, but Leonard, if again, if you're
having frequent episodes of low sugar which we call hypoglycemia,
and you're having symptoms. I think your provider just needs
to be reminded and he needs to know that. And
I would again, if you didn't quite get that communicated
(35:20):
during the visit, by all means, call them back and
remind them that, Hey, I'm still having low sugars, I'm
having symptoms. Is this something that is okay with you? Most
of the time Leonard providers will recommend to you to
back off some of your medication. That's what we normally do.
Maybe they didn't quite get the message, or maybe the
(35:42):
complaint was overlooked. I mean, unfortunately, that does happen in
primary care settings. Just a lot's being talked about, and
sometimes we just overlook certain complaints. So that if you're
still having low sugars they didn't do any changes, you
can call back, go back, get a repeat appointment and
sort of hammer this down.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
In addition to far siga, what are the drugs where
I look at to produce the frequency of well.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I think just any drug that you're taking for diabetes,
whatever that drug is, you might probably want to back
off again under the advisement of your healthcare provider. That's
what we normally start off with. We don't want you
to eat more sugar. No bat bat, we don't want
you to do that. So if you're having to do that,
then we would just prefer you back off your medication.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
I'll make an appointment, all.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Right, Leonard, we appreciate that phone called. Phone lines open
eight nine six KLVY. I want one hundred three three
zero klv. I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
welcome back to the doctor Lavie medic Our. Phone lines
open eight nine six kV I want one hundred three
(36:56):
three zero klv I. Remember, if that's a topic you'd
like me to discuss, you call the radio station. You
can call them out office three four seven three sixty
one and drop off that node and we'd be more
than happy to talk about the topic. Remember, the show
is for you to help you figure out what is
good what is bad, so you can kind of figure
out your game plan. And again, everyone's game plan is different.
(37:17):
Just because the person across the street did this doesn't
mean it's gonna work for you. You got to figure out
your own game plan and we are here to try
and help you figure that out. Our last segment, we're
talking about low blood sugar or hypo glycemia. Just so
you understand, the medical world does not really want to
introduce hypoglycemia. It's sort of a dangerous situation to be
(37:41):
in because believe it or not, And this is the
crazy thing, sugar is the fuel of the brain. When
you I mean, isn't that funny? You know, Americans are
over consuming sugar and causing harm. But sugar is the
primary fuel of their brain, right, But we're just getting
too much of it and we're getting synthetic products and
(38:03):
it's just all you know, not a good situation. But
if you do have diabetes, we don't really want you
to have hy poke like semia episodes. It's not a
good state. That's a very stressful situation and it can
be dangerous. It can cost harm. We do have patients that,
unfortunately their blood sugar goes down below a critical point
(38:24):
for a long period of time and it can generate
harm to the central nervous system. Again, because if there's
no fuel for the brain, if there's no glucose for
the brain because the sugar is low, the brain cells
cannot work and the brain cells can be injured or
inflamed or even die, So we don't want that. So
anytime that sugar gets low, there's a chance of some
(38:47):
injury to the central nervous system primarily, which is why
you have these gluecoats and monitors like the decks com
and the Freestyle Libre that kind of alert you to
the low sugars because it can be a harmful situation
to be in such that if you are on diabetes medications,
your doctor just made an adjustment and it's dropping low
(39:07):
to the hypoglycemic region, which it normally means a BLOODSHIRG
of sixty or below. That is not something we want
to introduce. So most of the time you need to
let someone know that that's happening on a frequent basis.
And again frequency has a lot to do with it.
I mean, if you take diabetes medicines for your diabetes,
(39:29):
and sometimes, yeah, the sugar might drop below sixty periodically,
you know that's okay. We just don't want it doing
it all the time every morning it's in the fifties
or the forties. That's just too low, too drastic, and
again it's increasing the risk of exposure to injury to
the human body. So it need to reach out to
(39:51):
your health care provider and more than likely make some adjustments.
I would be surprised if a health care provider heard
that and didn't want to make an adjustment with your medication.
We certainly don't want you to start consuming sugar to
overcome the low sugar is being brought on by your medicines. No,
that's a backwards way of doing things. We would just
basically back off your medications, and that's how that normally
(40:14):
resolves itself. Same thing with the insulin. That happens more
frequently with insulin treatment, which is why a little people
a little bit more trepidation about starting insulin. Just these
drastic drops in sugar, and it can be a very
harsh event just because you sweat, you can vomit, you
can get confused, pass out, things like that. So most
(40:36):
people are trying to avoid low sugar levels. So if
that's happening to you, reach out to your provider and
see if you can get an adjustment on your medication.
Don't start eating more. No, that's back off the meds
and see if we can get everything situated. Thank you
for joining from the edition of the show. Remember don't
drink and drive, Eat some vegetables, Drink more water and
(40:57):
stay active. You have a good can. We'll see you
in a couple of weeks. Take care, Bye bye
All right, Welcome Southeast Texas Internet radio listeners. This is
doctor Levine, your weekly host of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour.
I am here live and the studios of k LVI
here in Beaumont, Texas, across the street from Parkdale Mall,
taking your phone calls, answering questions about healthcare and what
(00:21):
is good was bad so you can stay alive, stay
healthy as long as possible. Remember, it's a drag to
be sick, and why would you want to do that
just spending your time in the doctor's offices, getting all
your mads and your pills. We want to try and
reduce that. So we'd love to talk with you and
(00:41):
see what will work for you or what questions you
might have about that in terms of your journey towards
your health and wellness and staying live as long as possible,
as healthy as possible. Again, getting older does not mean
getting sicker, as some of us sort of appreciate better
(01:03):
than others, are to say, accept better than others. I'm
getting older, I'm supposed to get sick. So when I
start getting sick, okay, fine, I understand that, No problem,
It's part of the deal. Which again, as you get older, Yes,
you tend to develop more medical problems, but if you're
(01:25):
doing your part, a lot of times it can be
easily managed without the need for a lot of intervention
from the healthcare industry, without a lot of prescription medications,
and you have time to enjoy your life and spend
time with your family and do whatever it is you'd
like to do. Man, when you're unhealthy, it's surely limits
(01:49):
your ability to do things that you might want to do.
So yeah, let's chat and see what works for you.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six klv I
want eight hundred three zero klv I. Whether outside is
not too bad, a little overcast. We're sort of starting
to get into our springtime, whether it's unfortunate for me,
(02:10):
because as you know, I really like the winter moments,
the winter time, the cold weather. I enjoy those months
better than I do the summer months when it's just
so blazingly hot outside here in Southeast Texas along with
it along with its humidity issues that we tend to see.
(02:33):
So we're starting to get into a little bit of that,
and we're getting to the end of vaccine time for
flu that is. But again, just always reminded to get
those vaccines that you haven't gotten. Again, that immune system
is in the background, humming away and protecting us. But again,
a programmed decline of the immune system is in place.
(02:58):
And as you get up into your age, yes, you
become more what we call immuno compromised, meaning you're more
at risk for infections. So vaccines as a way to
help in that manner. Michael from Pasady and how can
we help you?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Oh, good morning, doctor morning. On Thursday night, I was
on a walk. I walked about two or three quarter
miles and on the towards the end of my walk,
I tripped and fell on my face, and uh so,
(03:37):
I luckily I had some paper towels with me and
I covered my nose. It was bleeding profusely, but I
got I got home, walked home, and I got the
bleeding stopped. Where I hit myself was right at the eyebrow,
(04:00):
and just a little bow of the eyebrow. I've got
a little bump. I've got a bump there, and the
eyebrow in the center is turned dark. And uh a, no,
from the nose down, I've got brush burns. And uh
so what I did? I got, I got the waiting
(04:22):
stopped and uh and uh so then after uh I
was able to I'm all right, but uh, what's happened?
Like this morning? I noticed my eyes blow? My eyes
are puffy and uh I've been using uh ice in
(04:50):
a compress uh to bring down the swelling. Uh and
uh I know that. Uh and so my nose was
bleeding also, I got I used I rolled up a
(05:11):
swab of of paper towels and got it stopped. And
I'm getting a little bit of blood, not much right now,
but when I cleared my throat it's uh. So I'm
just wondering what else I needed to do, what I
should do?
Speaker 1 (05:34):
I mean, Michael, Yeah, I'm sorry that that happened to you.
And falling dust would come unfortunately more common as we
get older because of issues with balance.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, I was going to say this, The reason I
tripped was because I normally don't walk on the sidewalk,
but I switched up because of some cars in the
street and I didn't see it raised portion. IAR usually
walk at night, and that's how I tripped. I usually
(06:05):
I don't trip at all, but that's what happened. So
go on. I didn't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
No, that's okay. Two where radios what this is? But
it sounds like you're doing everything you can, But you
might want to go to one of the minor cares
and just get a facial X ray to make sure
you don't have any fractures of your facial bones or
a fracture of the nosebone, just because that certainly can
happen anytime you traumatize the antire aspect of the face.
(06:36):
There's a lot of blood, there's a lot of adma.
All that means that it's inflamed and the soft tissue
obviously has been injured. But the bone structures underneath can
be injured and can generate some problems. You might need
a little operation or an adjustment. So that is probably
the only thing I would recommend. It's just to get
a more immediate X ray of your face, make sure
(06:59):
all the bones are tech. Beyond that, yeah, it's it's
going to be time and letting the soft tissue injury heal.
And you know, ice, heat, anti inflammatories, band aids, things
like that. Stuff that's available over the counter should be
enough to help you deal with the facial trauma that
(07:21):
your experience. I see it all the time patients come in,
they sort of all this bruising everywhere is like what
fight would you in? And it's really just amount of
the fact that they fell and their face hit something hard,
whether it be furniture or the bedpost or the floor itself.
And then a lot of times patients are taking blood
(07:43):
dinners like aspirin or plavix or eloquists, and they bleed
more freely, and so there's more soft tissue swelling, more
soft tissue bleeding, and the face can become fairly deformed,
and you know, the soft tissue because of all the
swelling and the bleeding. But normally it results within a
(08:06):
week or two, it all goes away. It's miraculous to
see how the body heals itself. So that's probably the
only thing I would recommend. It's just to get a
facial X ray, just to make sure no fracture to there.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I don't I don't think I have anything broken. I
mean you can't. You can't really tell.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
I mean I.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Don't have you know, how would you know without a
facial actual ray if you have something broken.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, that's about it. And again I'm not looking at you.
A lot of times you have for a healthcare provider.
We can eyeball the injury and pretty much tell if
the risk of a fracture is high are low. Obviously,
the more injury to the soft tissue, the higher likelihood
that there was some injury to the bone structure underneath.
(09:02):
But if you feel like there's no fracture, then that's fine.
You were just asking if there was anything else. I'd
recommend that that would be the only thing is to
get an X ray to ensure that there was no fracture.
But if you don't think the injury is that severe,
otherwise it's getting better. Everything is working. Yeah, I don't
think there's any rush to go and get an X ray.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
I was gonna he was saying, to go to some
type of clinic.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
They have all these free standing emergency departments now emergency businesses, buildings,
or it's just an emergency setting, not attached to a hospital.
Remember most rs used to be attached to a hospital
back in the day. Now there is an emergency department,
but there is no hospital around. It's just an er.
(09:56):
So they have a lot of the advanced X ray
equipment in there, like cat scans, ultrasounds, and just plain
X ray to determine if you've had any sort of fractures.
I guess, depending on the severity of the fractures. If
you do have them, they can then reach out to
other providers that deal with facial fractures and maybe get
(10:20):
you transferred over to their care, whether that be a
bigger hospital or maybe get your follow up appointment in
their office Monday or Tuesday. They have developed relationships with
these providers a lot of times so that they can
distribute the patients at the at from the er. So
that would be the only thing that I would would
(10:41):
recommend for you. Otherwise, sounds like you're doing everything you
can for the soft tissue injury.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Yeah, And so if there is any broken bones, what
would they do well, I mean, it's a face, can't
put a cast on it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, it just depends on where the fracture is. Sometimes, yes,
you do need a surgical repair of a facial bone fracture.
Most of the time, it's not what they call non
displaced fractures of the bone, meaning the bone is in
(11:16):
its proper position. It's just fissured or cracked. That's a fracture.
And yeah, most of the time in those situations. You're right,
they don't really do anything. They just monitor it. But
sometimes there can be displacement, meaning it fractures and then
the bone itself moves out of its original position. And
anytime you start doing that, it puts pressure on other
(11:38):
surrounding structures that might injure it or cause inflammation or
cause dysfunction, like the eyeball itself and all the internal
structures of the eyeballs, the blood vessels that travel through
the skull, all of that can be impacted if the
bone starts to shift in such a way to cause
some injury. So most, yeah, fractures do not require any
(12:03):
sort of surgical tension, but it's possible. So yeah, they
would get you to the doctors that perform surgeries on
the face, which we have those They are highly specialized surgeons,
but they are available and sometimes you do need that.
So that's why the X ray would be important. Hello Michael, Hello,
(12:26):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yeah. Well I was gonna say my eyes weren't puffy
in the beginning, but they were puffy when I woke
up this morning. So you know, right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Below the eyes, yeah, that's just.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Right below the eyes, right, there's a puffy spot now correct,
Is that normal progression?
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, yes, I would say so. That's just again a
result of inflammation of the soft tissue brought on by
the trauma or impact or fall, and injuring the soft tissue,
you have a deema that develops. That's again a result
of inflammation that's happening. Inflammation is the system that gets
(13:09):
turned on to repair any sort of injury to the body,
whether it be a bone or soft tissue, and as
a part of that repair process, they're swelling that is
involved with the chemical reaction of inflammation, and there's a
lot of little inflammatory hormones that get released that go
to the area of injury and help it heal. And
(13:32):
again swelling is a part of that. Some people theorize
that it causes more blood flow to that area, and
then blood flow brings all of the repair products that
you need to repair the injury, and so it's swollen
for a while until all the healing goes down, and
then the swelling goes down. Once the system turns off,
(13:55):
you don't need all of these repair products at the
side of injury because the injury has been healed, and
so it all goes away and then the swelling goes away,
and it normally takes several days for that to happen.
It can be disfiguring. I mean, I've seen a lot
of facial injuries over the years, and the face can
get really a demitis or puffy to the point that
(14:18):
you can't even hardly see because there's so much swelling.
But normally, given time, it all goes away after about
a week or two. So it's a remarkable transformation. If
you've ever seen someone with facial trauma, just like a boxer,
you see how their faces get swollen at the end
of a match, and then give it about a week
or two and all that swelling just evaporates. So it's remarkable.
(14:42):
So again, just a facial X ray and maybe that
that's about it be. Shouldn't follow with your primary care
doctor of Monday Tuesday and have them take a look
at it or sooner today if you're concerned. All right,
Michael A appreciate Michael's phone call. Don't get a lot
(15:02):
of facial trauma questions on this show, but certainly falling falls.
That's a big topic in the elderly world, in the
geriatric world. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about that
when we come back from our first break. Phone lines
are open eight nine to six kV I win one
hundred three three zero kalva. I'll be back in two minutes.
(15:31):
All right, welcome back to doctor Lovin and Medical. Our
phone lines are open eight nine six kV I won
one hundred three three zero kofy. I'd love to hear
from you. We have Danny from Lumberton. How can we
help you?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Good morning, Doc, I have a question for you. I
am leaving white Lock here. I now the three and
thirty pounds six foot till I had adopted two diabetes.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
I have.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
It's a lot o blood pressure at fifty eight years old,
and I developed ato fibrillation recently. I've been at a
gasic slate surgery a couple weeks ago. Through what's going on?
Leave them weight? How much of that can I effect
to go away?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And how soon?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
What pop two diabetes? I understand we'll go away with
weight low more likely, but what about the hot blood
pressure and atri fibrillation things like that.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, Danny, congratulations on your surgery. That's a big step
for a lot of patients and a lot of fear
actually to go ahead with the surgery, but everybody had
in my experience, everyone has a different trajectory after a
big surgery like that in terms of how long it's
going to take them to get their blood sugar better,
(16:44):
their blood pressure better. But in my experience, it's pretty rapid, rapid,
meaning in the next three to six months, your blood pressure,
your blood sugar, cholesterol should have a drastic decrease or decline,
requiring as much medications as you're on before. And you
speak of atrial fibrillation, which is in my experience one
(17:07):
of the most common electrical cardiac problems in our country
for various reasons, but certainly being overweight, having high blood pressure,
high cholesterol or big risk factors for the development of
atrire fibrillation. So that stimulus will also or should go
down as well as you lose weight. So I would
(17:28):
say in the next three to six months expect to
see drastic improvement in your numbers as it pertains to
the blood pressure in the cholesterol. That's been my experience.
It's pretty drastic. It works pretty well.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Okay, thank you for that.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
All right, any other questions we have for today?
Speaker 4 (17:48):
No thanks scaring me today. I appreciate you, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, congratulations to you, all right, and we appreciate Danny's
phone call. And a lot of patients do not proceed
with a surgical option. But the surgical options are there.
They are more expensive, but a lot of different scenarios
(18:12):
are coming up that allow the average person to afford
a surgical option for weight loss. And the most popular
weight loss surgery right now is the gastric sleeve. And
I'm not a surgeon, but in general, they sort of
surgically recontour your stomach and may do some other things
(18:34):
while they're in there as well, but it's a compromise, right.
There have been various surgical procedures to help patients lose
weight over the years. We are familiar with gastric bypass,
where they truly re route your intestine so that you
basically cannot absorb nutrition. You can eat it, but it's
(18:56):
just not going to be absorbed. It just goes sort
of right through you, and in essence, that limits the
exposure to calorie consumption and then your weight goes down.
They have worked on that technique over the years, I
mean several years, and they've pretty much gotten all the
(19:16):
bugs out of the technique. And if you do proceed
with a full gastric bypass, which is that's what it
sounds like. Intestines are sort of being surgically re routed
so that again the food is going in a different
direction or it's bypassing the area where the food gets
absorbed in the gasro intestinal system. Remember the gasrotestinal system
(19:38):
starts at your throat mouth, if you will, and ends
at your anus, and every part of it does something different.
And with this gas bypass, they manipulate surgically the area
where all the absorption of food happens, so that you're
not absorbing as much of it. It's drastically reduced, basically
(20:00):
calorie constriction, calorie reduction on a daily basis. And if
you at this point, if you decide to do that surgery,
that's a very effective surgery as well, meaning the weight
loss is super drastic and it works very well. I
think because of its history and because of some well
(20:23):
known poor outcomes with previous patients who've had the full
gas to bypass, there's a lot of trepidation in doing that.
When it's, in my experience, a bigger operation, there's a
little bit more downtime where you can't work there's more
follow up, so it's a bigger production, if you will,
and a lot of patients are just reluctant to put
(20:45):
themselves through that sort of operation. Again, we're talking about
the expense. For whatever reason, insurance companies still just don't
want to go there with these surgical procedures, even though
they've been proven to work. That's normally an expense factor
of financial hit that you have to take if you
(21:05):
want to go through with these particular surgeries. But again,
I do promote these surgeries and it's something that you
should consider if you are struggling with your weight. It
is a great, relatively safe option. It's just I think
most people are fearful of an operation, and you sort
of should be. You should be concerned, right, I mean,
(21:26):
because they're going in, they're cutting, they're injuring your body
in a controlled manner, and sometimes the outcome is not
what you expect. It's hard to come back from that. Meaning.
You know a lot of times when you take a tablet,
which is why probably patients will agree to take a
tablet more easily than have a procedure, because it seems
(21:48):
you take a tablet, something happens. You just don't take
it again, and you get better, Whereas with an operation,
things a little bit more permanent. Once they go in
and start cutting and fixing things and sewing up things,
the results are more permanent. It's hard to come back
from that, so you have to think a little bit
more deeply about whether or not you want to go
through with the procedure. But these gastric bypasses, again, that's
(22:12):
what started it all. They've gotten really, really good. The
surgeons are good and the outcomes have improved significantly over
the past several years. But again, bigger operation, a little
bit more downtime, and there's more trepidation with patients. So
I just don't think the acceptance rate is where it
needs to be to be the most popular. The most
(22:33):
popular right now is the gastric sleeve, as I mentioned,
where they sort of target your stomach and they surgically
recontoary your stomach to make it smaller, more slim so
that it can't accept a lot of bowluts of food.
And again I think there's something more to the surgery
that again helps with appetite control. I'm a little fuzzy
(22:57):
on that part of it. Again, I'm not the surgeon.
But in doing that operation, again you're just cutting your calories,
but it's a smaller operation. There's not as much rewiring
of your electlectrical system, if you will, and so the
downtime is a minimal, the complications are lower. So it's
a compromise, right, because we all remember the LAP band.
(23:19):
Our laparoscopically placed gastric band is basically what that was,
which is sort of a plastic looking ring that they
would put right at the bottom of your esophagas just
before it entered into your stomach and sort of tighten
it up a little bit enough to the point that
it would cause you to maybe have some nausea or
(23:40):
not be able to consume solid food. But again, you
could sort of get around the ring, and a lot
of times patients had problems controlling the narrowing of the
gastric ring and it just was laden with more complications
and just wasn't really effective. Because you can drink your calories.
(24:03):
A lot of people do that. A lot of the
beverages that are out there have a crapload of calories
and you can drink it. It goes right through the
narrowing of the esophocas. That was brought put on there
by the ring, and you can still be heavy but
still have complications or not be effective, and so it
(24:24):
just wasn't the perfect balance of the needs for most patients,
so didn't really continue to be a popular option because again,
at the end of the day, it just wasn't effective
and patients had a lot of complications with it. I'm
sure you can find someone where it was effective and
it did work, it's just that the percentage was a
(24:45):
lot less, and so it just wasn't very popular long term.
A lot of people lost faith in the procedure and
it just wasn't popular. So we've gone to this last
surgical technique again called the gastric sleeve, which in my experience,
is a great balance of the risks and benefits and
(25:07):
the effectiveness, meaning it's a little downtime, it's lower risk operation,
less complicated operations. So again, when the complexity is down
for the surgeon, then normally the risks go down as well.
If the complexity is high, there's more risk for post
operative complications, which again was sort of the Achilles heel
(25:29):
of the full gastric bypass, you know, got out into
the general public and there was just fear of that surgery.
No one wanted to put their body through that. But
the Gasic sleeve great operation, low risk, but very effective. Right,
extremely effective you drop that weight. And my experience as
(25:50):
a provider, I get I'm not a surgeon, but I
have patients you've had gashic sleeves. We're talking a good
forty to fifty pounds of weight loss. I mean that's
huge to lose fifty pounds. I mean a lot of times. Yes,
these metabolic abnormalities that you're plagued with when you're overweight
will just evaporate. I mean, it's magical in my experience,
(26:14):
and certainly for the patient because their experience is so
much different. Before the surgery, they're throwing down ten fifteen tablets,
they can't hardly move, they feel terrible, they feel like
they look terrible, and just six months later, they've lost
forty fifty pounds, not hardly taking any medicines, their energy
(26:36):
comes back, they look better. I mean, it's just an
incredible transformation, and to go through that, it's just a miracle.
It's miraculous. And that has been my experience with the
Gashi sleeve, which is why it's extremely common to have
someone get that procedure, but again it's that expense drench
(26:57):
companies have not gotten on board. Most of them have it.
I think there's a few out there that might pay
for it, but certainly you have to go through a
lot of prep before you get the procedure. It's not
like you can just go to your doctor's office. Hey
I want a surgery, You go to the surgeon, and
then in two weeks, boom, you're getting an operation. It
normally takes about a good six months to go through
(27:19):
all the prep and before the insurance company will pay
for it. If they are paying for it. But it
just makes sense to me as a provider that insurance
company should be on board with any of these weight
loss products, whether it be a tablet or a surgical procedure.
Offer the medicines at a discount or the surgery at
(27:42):
a discount, because it lessens the need for pharmaceutical products,
it lessens the need for hospitalizations, you have less cardiac events.
I mean, it seems like a win win. So that
is a confusing aspect of that relationship. Phone lines are
open eight nine to six Kalva one hundred and three
to three zero O Kovy. I'll be back in two minutes.
(28:10):
All right, Welcome to the dark Lavon Medical. Our phone
lines are open eight nine six klv I one hundred
and three to three zero O kov I sitting here chatting
about facial trauma as well as these surgical procedures for
weight loss, which again is a good option. Most people
just don't go down that road, just thinking about surgery
(28:32):
and getting cut on and complications and it's just not
something they free their mind to accept. So most patients
don't go there route. And we have the medications now,
the GLP one agonist, which in my opinion, have revolutionized
our ability to help patients really get their weight down,
(28:54):
I mean really effective medications. And just like I was
talking a section about the surgical option, the gas sleeve,
which again checks all the boxes in terms of its easibility,
it's low risk, it's effective. The GOLP one agonist class
(29:15):
of medications also fits that bill where we've been struggling
over the years to find a product that is effective
but does not cause harm. I think, in my opinion,
based on my experience with using the other products, this
GOLP one category fits the bag in my opinion, where
it's a product that can be taken long term and
(29:36):
relatively safe, and no, okay, I agree it can cause
harm for some people, right Yeah, we just can't get
away from that. And it's a little frustrating when that
comes up, where the only way I'm going to use
this is if absolutely nothing happens. That's just not the
(29:57):
way things are with anything in life. There's always a risk.
I mean, getting out of bed, getting your car and
driving to work. I mean it's a risk something might happen.
Typically nothing happens, but it's a risk. You just can't
get away from that same thing with these meds. In
my opinion, the risk is extremely low that you will
(30:17):
suffer some sort of catastrophic side effect from this GOLP
one category. So it is a relatively safe, very effective
medication to use to help you lose weight. A lot
of people have been concerned about the long term consequences
of using GOLP one agonists and just unfortunately the data
is not there, the literature is not there because you know,
(30:41):
they're new and it's gonna have to wait and see
honestly to know if anything is going to happen. But again,
so far, based on my experience in what I've read
in the literature, the risk is minimal to the impact
of the golp one app This meaning a lot of
times the risk is reversible. Although I know there's been
(31:05):
a lot of chatter on internet and social media about
shutting down your bowels and just all of these sort
of catastrophic things that could potentially happen to you if
you expose yourself to this class of medications, which again,
anything is possible, but you have to understand how many
(31:25):
Americans are taking these medications every single day. And again,
I don't think anybody is trying to be irresponsible. Who
in the pharmaceutical company, the healthcare provider that's prescribing the
medication to you, if really, truly the medicine was causing
(31:46):
that amount of harm, causing catastrophic events, I mean, it
would just be taken off the market. I mean, you
know that, that's just how things work in this country.
There's no way even the legal system would allow anything
like that to happen if it was causing this much catastrophe.
Even the FDA, the pharmaceutical company that's giving the medication
(32:09):
to Americans, there's just no way that if it was
really causing serious harm that it would be allowed to
be prescribed by healthcare providers. It would just be responsible
and take it off the market, re work it and
put it out in the market. Leonard from Houston, how
can we help you.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Here lately?
Speaker 3 (32:28):
I'm again it really blood low blood sugar number readings
in the morning, sixty two, sixty seven, seventy one for me,
those are low numbers. Is there anything I can do
to prevent low blood sugar number readings?
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Well, Leonard, A lot of times, if your blood sugar
is low and you're are you taking medications?
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, there's eleven of them, but you know, I don't
know really what most of them are for. Not for
blood sugar. It's not for diabetes.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, So most of the time, if you're starting to
have low blood sugars, we look at your medication lists
and see if there's any that could potentially cause a
low blood sugar and if so, then we would tell
you to reduce it or stop it and monitor your
blood sugars and see what would happen.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
As far as saying one of those drugs, yes, okay,
that is a new prescription the doctor gave me. I'm
taking one a day.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Question, do you have any Do you have any physical
symptoms when your blood sugars are in that range?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Shakes, sweats and I just don't feel good, and I'll
reach over, I get a take a glucose pill, and
in a half an hour I feel all better.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Does your provider know that?
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And your provider still wants you to take their farsigo
even though that happens.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
He didn't say anything about reducing it, reducing the you know,
the one to day pill. In regard to the regard
to the glucose, it's my understanding that each each glucose
pill is supposed to add twenty points to your blood sugar.
Is that a good? Is that accurate?
Speaker 1 (34:24):
A glucose pill like a sugar tablet.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yes, supposed to add twenty points to your to your
your number whatever.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Probably an average impact of a sugar tablet. I mean,
I think everyone is different and everyone's system is different,
so I couldn't guarantee that. So everybody is different, So
it's probably an average result of if the average person
takes a sugar tablet, then it should go by twenty
(34:55):
just average. Okay, yes, but Leonard, if again, if you're
having frequent episodes of low sugar which we call hypoglycemia,
and you're having symptoms. I think your provider just needs
to be reminded and he needs to know that. And
I would again, if you didn't quite get that communicated
(35:20):
during the visit, by all means, call them back and
remind them that, Hey, I'm still having low sugars, I'm
having symptoms. Is this something that is okay with you? Most
of the time Leonard providers will recommend to you to
back off some of your medication. That's what we normally do.
Maybe they didn't quite get the message, or maybe the
(35:42):
complaint was overlooked. I mean, unfortunately, that does happen in
primary care settings. Just a lot's being talked about, and
sometimes we just overlook certain complaints. So that if you're
still having low sugars they didn't do any changes, you
can call back, go back, get a repeat appointment and
sort of hammer this down.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
In addition to far siga, what are the drugs where
I look at to produce the frequency of well.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
I think just any drug that you're taking for diabetes,
whatever that drug is, you might probably want to back
off again under the advisement of your healthcare provider. That's
what we normally start off with. We don't want you
to eat more sugar. No bat bat, we don't want
you to do that. So if you're having to do that,
then we would just prefer you back off your medication.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
I'll make an appointment, all.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Right, Leonard, we appreciate that phone called. Phone lines open
eight nine six KLVY. I want one hundred three three
zero klv. I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
welcome back to the doctor Lavie medic Our. Phone lines
open eight nine six kV I want one hundred three
(36:56):
three zero klv I. Remember, if that's a topic you'd
like me to discuss, you call the radio station. You
can call them out office three four seven three sixty
one and drop off that node and we'd be more
than happy to talk about the topic. Remember, the show
is for you to help you figure out what is
good what is bad, so you can kind of figure
out your game plan. And again, everyone's game plan is different.
(37:17):
Just because the person across the street did this doesn't
mean it's gonna work for you. You got to figure out
your own game plan and we are here to try
and help you figure that out. Our last segment, we're
talking about low blood sugar or hypo glycemia. Just so
you understand, the medical world does not really want to
introduce hypoglycemia. It's sort of a dangerous situation to be
(37:41):
in because believe it or not, And this is the
crazy thing, sugar is the fuel of the brain. When
you I mean, isn't that funny? You know, Americans are
over consuming sugar and causing harm. But sugar is the
primary fuel of their brain, right, But we're just getting
too much of it and we're getting synthetic products and
(38:03):
it's just all you know, not a good situation. But
if you do have diabetes, we don't really want you
to have hy poke like semia episodes. It's not a
good state. That's a very stressful situation and it can
be dangerous. It can cost harm. We do have patients that,
unfortunately their blood sugar goes down below a critical point
(38:24):
for a long period of time and it can generate
harm to the central nervous system. Again, because if there's
no fuel for the brain, if there's no glucose for
the brain because the sugar is low, the brain cells
cannot work and the brain cells can be injured or
inflamed or even die, So we don't want that. So
anytime that sugar gets low, there's a chance of some
(38:47):
injury to the central nervous system primarily, which is why
you have these gluecoats and monitors like the decks com
and the Freestyle Libre that kind of alert you to
the low sugars because it can be a harmful situation
to be in such that if you are on diabetes medications,
your doctor just made an adjustment and it's dropping low
(39:07):
to the hypoglycemic region, which it normally means a BLOODSHIRG
of sixty or below. That is not something we want
to introduce. So most of the time you need to
let someone know that that's happening on a frequent basis.
And again frequency has a lot to do with it.
I mean, if you take diabetes medicines for your diabetes,
(39:29):
and sometimes, yeah, the sugar might drop below sixty periodically,
you know that's okay. We just don't want it doing
it all the time every morning it's in the fifties
or the forties. That's just too low, too drastic, and
again it's increasing the risk of exposure to injury to
the human body. So it need to reach out to
(39:51):
your health care provider and more than likely make some adjustments.
I would be surprised if a health care provider heard
that and didn't want to make an adjustment with your medication.
We certainly don't want you to start consuming sugar to
overcome the low sugar is being brought on by your medicines. No,
that's a backwards way of doing things. We would just
basically back off your medications, and that's how that normally
(40:14):
resolves itself. Same thing with the insulin. That happens more
frequently with insulin treatment, which is why a little people
a little bit more trepidation about starting insulin. Just these
drastic drops in sugar, and it can be a very
harsh event just because you sweat, you can vomit, you
can get confused, pass out, things like that. So most
(40:36):
people are trying to avoid low sugar levels. So if
that's happening to you, reach out to your provider and
see if you can get an adjustment on your medication.
Don't start eating more. No, that's back off the meds
and see if we can get everything situated. Thank you
for joining from the edition of the show. Remember don't
drink and drive, Eat some vegetables, Drink more water and
(40:57):
stay active. You have a good can. We'll see you
in a couple of weeks. Take care, Bye bye
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Kingdom of Fraud
It’s the unlikeliest of criminal partnerships: a devout polygamist from an insular Utah sect joining forces with a shadowy Armenian tycoon from LA. The result - a billion dollar fraud conspiracy. In Kingdom of Fraud, investigative reporter Michele McPhee traces the origins of the extraordinary alliance between Jacob Kingston and Levon Termendzhyan. Together, the two men trigger the largest tax investigation in American history and weave around themselves a web of dirty cops, influential political relationships and transnational money laundering. All this is set against the backdrop of Jacob Kingston’s clan – The Order. A powerful and secretive polygamist organization in Salt Lake City. To whom Jacob is desperate to prove his worth. Kingdom of Fraud is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. You can listen to new episodes of Kingdom of Fraud completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “iHeart True Crime+, and subscribe today!