February 25, 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.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Southeast six is Internet ready listeners. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
another edition of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour. I'm your host,
Doctor Levine Internal Medicine here taking your calls live at
the studios of kov I Bow My Texas Cross Street
from Parkdale Mall. Need to go take a visit over there.
(00:21):
Hadn't been there since I was in high school, and
from what everyone tells me, it looks a little different
inside of there. I need to go take a look
at it. The American mall. Man, what a scene, What
a glorious scene walking in the malls back in the
day when I was in high school. Crowded, busy, But
(00:45):
most malls don't look like that anymore. Just change at
the times. Things are more electronic now right. The brick
and mortar, You don't really need a store with brick
and mortar to selling thing. Just hop on the computer
and get your products, get them delivered with in twenty
four hours. Man, isn't that incredible? Phone lines are open
eight nine to six Scalvay one one hundred and three
(01:07):
three zero Kaleva. We are here to talk about healthcare
and medicine and how to live longer. And stay alive
longer and be healthy longer. That can be difficult for
a lot of us, and a lot of it's just
a lot of confusing information, unfortunately, getting bombarded with information
(01:30):
from a lot of different sources about this or that
or up or down or stop and start, and got
your family members that are piping in and your co
workers and your husband, your wife, and they're looking at
their information as well, and it's just you know, disorienting, right.
(01:55):
So that's what the genesis of the show is. So
give us a call. We'd love to hear from you.
We're having our last few cold wintry days until spring hits,
which would be probably be next month. It's always a
little bit cold in February than of February, and you know,
(02:18):
I enjoy the cold weather, I really do. But we
normally get a lot sicker in the cold weather for
various reasons. And we've talked about that before. Those respiratory
infections tend to pick up big time. So we normally
see that spike of restaurant infections during this time of
year and then March April may just dies down. Just
(02:41):
don't see us many, but we're always dealing with respiratory infections.
I mean it's a chronic I shouldn't say chronic, it's
every day, never goes away. But we just see a
larger volume of these respiratory issues doing the winter and
(03:01):
then spring and summer. It lessens a whole lot, but
certainly we're always seeing that. You know one thing that
when you talk about sort of respiratory viruses causing respiratory illnesses, Man,
do we see a lot of viral GI infections?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
We all know those symptoms and we deal with that
all the time as well. And they always and when
you're talking to the patients they said something's going around,
there's always something going around. These viruses are out there.
They're never going away. They're part of a landscape, microbiology
landscape just can't get rid of them. We have to
(03:43):
learn how to live with them. And that's normally those
symptoms of the diarrhea and just abdominal cramping. Maybe you
feel achy too, just like when you do have a virus,
you feel kind of achy. So sometimes you have to
go to the hospital and be admitted for that. But
I think most people sort of treat that at home
(04:06):
with some over the counter medications, maybe some emodium or
some pepto or a few other products out there, and
it's just supportive care, honestly, even if you go in
the hospital, just supportive care. We don't really have specific
virus medications that treat the virus that causes the gasin
(04:29):
testinal infection, but that one is a very common issue
as well. We see that throughout the year. To be
honest with you though, sort of what we call viral
gastro into ritis is how we describe that, which is
just describing inflammation of the gastro intestinal tract. As you know,
(04:53):
very loan track starts at the mouth, end at the anus,
and is everything between. So any part of that system
can become inflamed and are infected, and your symptoms would
be abdominal pain, cramping, frequent stool, and nausea, and you
(05:15):
lost your appetite. And that makes sense, right the jazz
systems inflamed and doesn't really it's sick and that's how
you feel when that happens. And like I said, most
of times it's supportive care. But occasionally, you know, if
you have other issues, medical problems that's say heart failure
(05:37):
or kidney failure, or maybe you're transplant patient. Maybe there's
maybe you have loopus and there's medicines you only come
in tablet form or capsule, and you have to take
these medicines so that the disease stays controlled. And then
you start having vomited and you can't keep it down
(06:03):
and you're just sick and you don't want anything going
or swallowing anything. I mean, we see that a lot
with the viral gastro intritis. Another common scenario is food
what we call food born illness with gastro intestinal inflammation. Right,
(06:27):
I mean we're eating out all the time, right, most
of us are eating out. There's been a resurgence of
trying to pull back and cook your own food. I mean,
I think the whole restaurant industry, fast food industry really
exploded when I was in high school college. I mean
that's when it really starts. Seeing this huge increase just
(06:51):
restaurants and fast food. And how could you say no? Right?
They presented you with all the favorites and big quantities, right,
so how could you pass up? You know, five dollars
and you get a drink, you get a big burger,
you get French fries for five dollars. I mean, that's
a good deal. That might be full. They don't have
(07:15):
to fix anything. I can just throw away my bag
and I'm done. I don't have to cook anything. I
just drive up, I order it, I pay me a
little five dollars, and I have a full meal that
will satisfy me for a couple of hours, and I
can go on about my day. And so, yeah, we're
(07:37):
all bought into it, myself included. But hey, you know,
we're finding out that unfortunately, if that is your main meal,
and that's how you consume your food, by eating a
lot of the processed foods and a lot of the
fast foods out there, and they go by a lot
(07:58):
of different names, that it typically encourages some poor health. Right,
That's just what I've seen in my own self. I
see what my patients eat in the hospital. It's a
really telling story of the association of illness. Sickness and
(08:19):
the foods that you see there in the hospital is
where as well as my office, and just the understanding
that yes, if you do eat this stuff and drink
this stuff every day, you're more likely to generate some
sort of illness throughout your lifetime. And it can certainly
(08:39):
accelerate the aging process, which I've tried to mention on
this show multiple times. I don't know that I really
got an appreciation of the aging process going through medical training,
but I certainly respected now to the fullest because it's
a real thing and it's something that you should be
(09:02):
aware of if you're fifty sixty, that there's this sort
of background process that's happening that is preparing you are
increasing your chance of sort of getting ill or sick.
It's sort of engineered into us unfortunately. You know, the
birth and the death of the human body, that's basically
(09:28):
what happens, and certainly our habits can speed that up
or slow it down. I always enjoy seeing someone in
my office who's ninety one, ninety two, ninety three, and
we have them. I just saw one last week. It
was just a breath of fresh air to see this
(09:51):
person ninety one walking, everything's working, hair, teeth, mind, on
minimal medications, I mean a few, and they're laughing or happy.
I mean, it's just almost like they're from out of space.
When you see this, you know, because as an internal
(10:13):
medicine doctor, we see a lot of illness every day.
I mean, just a lot of suffering, and we see
a lot of unfortunate outcomes that it pertains to a
person's health, whether it be a big stroke or a
big heart attack or cancer, and you know, we're seeing
it every day and it is very, very unfortunate when
(10:34):
these things happen, and it's always refreshing. You got to
see someone who made it through pretty much unscathed, right,
they never had the cardiovascular event, they never had the
big cancer, and they're just ninety one, hanging out, you know,
(10:55):
at the house and doing their thing, interacting with their family.
So it can happen. But some of it's luck, right,
some of it's luck. And but you know, talking with
these patients who get into the nineties, there are some
(11:15):
common denominators, which is what I try to share with
you because again, I know it's hard as a lay
person to get it because you don't see it every day,
but I'm in it every day. Every day I see
this and talk to patients and sort of I now
get it. And it's very clear to me the associations
(11:40):
that are there. And if you want to be healthy,
but you want to stay out of the doctor's office,
you want to you know, feel good, you know, I
have a lot of patients who retire at the bots,
you know, sixty five, sixty seven. I have some that
obviously retire when they're sixty even fifty year Whilst retiring,
(12:04):
you know, they've done good. They've put their money away
and they're happy with their sort of nest egg, and
they don't need to go to work and have the
pressure of a job and a boss and a schedule
and a routine and all of the pressure that comes
with being employed. They don't have that anymore. It's almost
(12:25):
like they have this cape that's released from them and
they sort of have the freedom to decide what they're
going to do the rest of the day or the
whole day. And one thing I try to encourage them
to prioritize is their health. Is now that you don't
have this big routine where you have to get up
(12:46):
in the morning, you stay all day at some place working,
and then you come home late and you may not
feel like you have the time to do a little
exercise or eat. Right now you do, and you can
just prioritize yourself and make sure that you're taking care
of yourself. Because again, as we get older, for most
(13:08):
of us, our health will decline, sort of a natural thing,
but those habits can really really make a huge difference,
huge difference. And again I want to emphasize that it's
really not about the exercising in my opinion, although you
hear that a lot, and you see the commercials and
(13:29):
just all the sweating and the heavy lifting, and yeah,
you have these contests where they're running all day, they're
swimming all day, they're lifting heavy weights, and they're throwing
things and they're lifting things and you know, just sort
of pushing their body to the edge for these sort
(13:51):
of physical competitions, which is fine. They love it. It
gives them something to do. They're happy, they have a
sense of accomplishment, and that's cool and it's cool to
see on TV, you know, someone achieving those sort of
physical feats. But for the average Joe, for the average patient,
(14:14):
that's excessive and a lot of that sort of physical
activity at the high intensity is very damaging to the
joints in the muscles and the legs and sometimes your
cardiovascular system. So it's really not for everyone to do that.
(14:38):
I mean, you really have to have some skills and
your body has to be built a certain way to
even tolerate stuff like that. I mean, as you know,
you may not know I played college football. I played
highs football here at Westbrook in the late eighties. I
played college and rice early nineties. Was there for five years. So,
(15:03):
I mean you see some a lot of things as
an athlete when you're looking at other athletes, and you
could always tell, and especially in football, who could play
in the NFL. You can just always tell. I mean
they just have an extra gear or three or four
extra gears that you didn't have. No matter how much
you worked out, or how much you ate or how
(15:23):
much you train, you could just never approach their gear.
I mean it was it was a more natural gear.
Same thing with the ability to just play four quarters
and the ability to stay at a certain performance level
for four quarters. And you know, I didn't really get
(15:44):
that when I was playing college football. Not I mean
I was young in nineteen twenty. Your mind is thinking
of different things at that age. At least it was
for me. I mean now I get it completely. But
and and what we see on TV, like college ball
and the professional ball, we just had the the NFL's
(16:07):
biggest game. What you see there on TV, I mean,
those guys make the stuff look easy. They really do,
but there is so much training that goes into that
and so much preparation that you wouldn't believe. I mean,
it's just insane. And a person's body and again a
lot of this is genetic. There's sort of you're sort
(16:28):
of born with this stuff. A person's body has topait
or tolerate that sort of performance. You and ideas that
at the beginning of the game, at the end of
the game, your performance is the same. Like you're just
as fast, you're just as strong, you can run just
as long. Because I'll tell you from my own person experience,
(16:49):
when I as an athlete, when you start getting tired
and you hurt from being tired or maybe got hit hard,
or you're dizzy, or like I said, you got hit
and now you're chest is hurting, your leg is hurting,
your thighs hurting, your foot is hurting. It really changes
the way you think and the things that you want
to do. I know, you sort of in the game
(17:11):
and there's your drillings flowing, and I get all that.
And I went through all that as an ath especially
as a running back, so several times, you know, you
just get your knees, ankles, your back, chest, head, It
just hurts because of the contact and the forces that
are generated during the game. But it's just the first quarter.
(17:34):
You have to go three more quarters and you have
to find a way to get to the end of
the game with the same performance. And I guess what
I'm saying is the guys I saw that went to
the NFL, you could always tell that they could do
it easier, They could do it with a lot more
ease than some other guys, and because of that factor,
(17:55):
they would be able to tolerate an NFL season. Remember
now it's like seventeen eighteen games. I think when I
was coming through playing football is fifteen games, so they've
sort of gone up on the number of games per season.
Then you have preseason, and that's a lot to put
your body through. It really is. I mean, I would
(18:16):
just have the worst, incredible soreness going through all that.
We have Ronnie from Lumberton.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
What's up, Yes, sir, I'd like to ask you about MRIs,
especially of the lower spine. What can an MRI actually
show you.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, MRI eyes of the lower spine, we do those
a lot, Ronnie, primarily to visualize the anatomy of the
lumbar spine, and the technology of MRI allows us to
visualize primarily soft tissue as well as the bone structure.
(19:05):
But it's more about the soft tissue with those MRIs.
CAT scans are better with the hard bones the muscular
skeletal system, but MRI can still see the muscular scalar system.
So but it's primarily that soft tissue, meaning like the
nerves and the ligaments and the alignment of all of
(19:29):
the structures that comprise the lumbar spine. So we normally
do MRIs because it gives us that clarity and that
view of the bone, the nerve, the muscles, the ligaments
that comprise the lumbar spine. So it's almost like we
can open up your back and just look inside. But
(19:51):
it's with an X ray, so it can see infections,
it can see cancer down there, it can see frack,
it can look at the alignment, like I say, of
the spine. It can look at the nerves and see
if they're pinched or if they're swollen or if they're
in a bad position. You can look at the muscles
(20:14):
see if they're inflamed, if they have fluid in them abscesses.
So it's probably the one extra that gives us the
highest clarity of soft tissue. The other area we like
to image is the brain because the MRI is the
best at imaging the brain. I mean, it gives us
(20:37):
really good views of the brain tissue, sometimes too good
because it can be a little hypersensitive and we see
things that don't really matter, but nonetheless we see them.
So most people get MRIs at the back if they're
complaining of back pain or if the doctor feels like
(20:57):
there's a pinch nerve in the lumbar spine, and those
are primarily the patients getting the MRIs. And as you know,
it's a common complaint low back pain, so a lot
of people have gotten MRIs. It's the only issue with
MRIs is that's the one. It's a tube that you
have to sort of go inside, and some people are
(21:20):
what they call claustrophobic, and it's uncomfortable to be in
this tube. And then the machine makes a lot of
noise when you have an MRIs, a lot of clanking
and banging sounds, and so it can be a little
freaky going in this tube all this noise, and normally
the sequencing of the machine. Normally, the imaging takes you
(21:45):
have to be in the machine probably for about twenty
minutes or so, sometimes sometimes even longer depending on what
they're imaging. So, you know, cat scan is sort of
a white circle. It's a much quicker test. But the
MRI is something we do if we really want to
image the spine or the brain or joint like you
(22:08):
have shoulder pain. It can really give us a good
view of the soft tissue, the muscles and the joint
and the surrounding areas. So it's a great device and
we really use it a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Huh what about a bulging disk.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oh yeah, they'll see that, no.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Question, right, speaking of a bulging disc.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Speaking of a bulging disk, is that something that just
comes in and out periodically or what?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well, Ronnie, as most Americans get older, they will develop
some bulging discs. That's that's sort of a part of
the aging process of the muscular skelet system, in particular
the lumbar spine. I mean, the lumbar spine is as
used a lot for a lot of our body motions,
(23:08):
you know, sitting, standing, picking up things, so there's a
lot of wear and tear of the lumbar spine just
because of its location and what it does for us.
So it wears out a lot, and the herniation aspect
is a part of that wearing out process. Now, most
people the actual herniation, they probably will not feel unless
(23:30):
it starts to put pressure on the nerve. That's really
when patients get alerted to the fact that there's a
herniated disk. Most of us have herniated disk. We don't
even know about it because it's not causing any pain
or any suffering. The hernated disc has to be of
a certain size and for it to start causing pressure
on the nerve. That's when most people get alerted to that.
(23:51):
And so what I mean is if you do an
MRI or an X ray and a CEE hernated discs,
you don't really have to do anything about it unless
you're having smpts related to that, and most people don't.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Okay, well, thank you covered every just about every question
that I would have.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I didn't even know I needed.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Okay, thank you appreciated. Rynnie drives safely onlines are open
eight nine six kov I won one hundred three three
zero kope. I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
(24:35):
welcome back to talk with your medical phone lines to
open eight nine to six KO if you I one
one hundred three three zero kof I. You know, talking
about exercising as well as back pain too common conversations
that come up all the time. And I guess what
I'm trying to emphasize is that it doesn't have to
be high intensity. I want to explain that to most people.
(24:57):
I sort of got off on a tangent about just
intensity exercising. I mean, if that's something you guys want
to do, that's fine, But most people are not going
to do that because it's painful for one thing, and
it can sometimes generate a lot of injury to the muscle,
scollar system, cardiovas system. So that's not for everybody. If
(25:18):
you're competing for some competition or some game or whatever,
you know, fine do that. But for the average person, no, no, no,
in my opinion, really just taking a simple walk in
your neighborhood or pelling a bicycle, walking a treadmill, and
really just for twenty minutes while you're watching a program
(25:41):
that is exercise. Greg from Mike Charles, how can we
help you?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yes, how about your the have you heard of the
stem sail injections.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Sure, yeah, that's been talked about for many years.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Absolutely, But I mean, is it something worth checking in,
you know, to avoid surgery per se.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, it just like, yeah, it just depends on the surgery.
And my understanding of stem cell at this point is
that for the most part, it's not necessarily a option
for any sort of acute medical or chronic medical treatment
in this country, and that there are other countries that
(26:28):
use them cells to treat certain chronic illnesses that can
cause problems in patients, but as far as I know,
there's no application here in this country yet. I think, yeah,
there's a lot of excitement about stem cells. The potential
of being able to sort of reverse whatever physical ailment
(26:52):
you're having and restore you to sort of a normal condition.
That yeah, I mean, that's that's very exciting to think about,
you know, talking about AI that I've been hearing that
term recently, like go ahead, you.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Know, and we've I've been trying the lower back and
the shoulder injections growing on four months now, and it
sometimes it seems to help sometimes, you know, it just
but uh, you know, compared to having surgery, you know,
(27:26):
that was an option I was tried.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, I mean, you can talk with the provider that
you are working with and you can ask if stem
cells is an option. But as far as I know,
that's still sort of an experimental phase, research phase here
in this country. But I have known patients to step
outside of this country and go to another country, well
(27:53):
and get these stem cells. Now it's cash, there's no
insurance companies involved. So if you if you have that
type of money and this particular problem means that musch
to you, you can hop online to day and find
some provider or wherever they are, You get a plane ticket,
you go there.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Well, we actually have one in Beaumont that's doing it.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Okay, Yeah, we'll just thank you. Yeah, that's awesome that somebody.
I wouldn't expect that, but you know, bums, small market
and most of the time those sort of providers are
in bigger cities where they have a lot more support
and a lot more understanding of procedures like that. But yeah,
(28:41):
if you have someone that's performing that here, very convenient. Yeah,
call them and see if you get an employment and
see if they can help you out. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Okay, Well, thank you serve for your time.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
All right, buddy, appreciate that. Greg stemselves. Yeah. I've been
around for a long time and conversations sort of come
and go. You know, I hear spikes about stem cell
and the ideas that you get a cell that has
not really committed itself to anything, because remember all cells
(29:17):
come from one source, and then it sort of decides
what it wants to be. Does it want to be
a heart cell, a brain cell, a liver cell. So
the stem cell that's the original cell, right, That's where
every cell in our body comes from, the stem cell.
St em. So the ideas that you can sort of
(29:38):
grow these cells and then you inject these cells into
a body that's sick or that's having a problem, and
those stem cells will grow to replace or fixed the
cells that are not working or diseased or broken. Dea
(30:00):
sort of a real basic idea of stem cells. Right.
So certain cancers, you inject the stem cell it it
cures the cancer. Right. Or if you have certain joint problems,
you inject stem cells into it, it makes you a
new knee. That's a good good topic there, just talking
(30:22):
about back pain, the degenerative issue of arthritis. That's another
term we use for the back as well as the
knees in the major joint to start getting that pain
and stiffness. So the idea is a stem cell, which
if you're injected in there, it would sort of make
new cells that would then correct the old cells or
(30:45):
replace the old dying cells. It's almost like a fresh
batch of cells that you could get injected into that
would then start working again. They would function properly, and
so your symptoms would go away because you're getting new cells, right,
almost like a like a transplant, if you will, getting
a new organ that's working. So stem cells is another
(31:08):
way to sort of reach that potential of replacing the
old stuff and in with the new stuff to help
you function better, feel better. And yeah, there's obviously potentially
a lot of applications for that, I mean helping a
person live longer, because again, most of us are sort
of designed, we're engineered that for most of us, you know,
(31:32):
eight and seventy eighty and that's about it. That's just
where our bodies work. And medical research, medical science is
trying to find ways to keep us alive longer, and
stem cells is very very exciting research, and some countries
are ahead of us more than others, and they've allowed
(31:55):
more applications to be tried on human bodies. And we
have a lot of regulations and restrictions here in this
country to make it operate the way we feel like
it needs to operate. But sometimes that can be a
little constricting and things don't flow as well. But in
other countries things are more wide open. And so as
I was mentioning, thankfully there's a person here convenient you
(32:18):
don't have to go that far. But for a lot
of these other sort of edgy medical therapeutics are surgical
therapeutics edgy, I said, it's not really accepted by most
of the Western doctors. Are just the community here in
(32:38):
this country. You have to take yourself outside the country,
you know, on plane you go there and I have
I have had patience who've done that. So and you know,
probably because the world is more open up now with
internet and social media, you can find these locations found
these practitioners, and plane tickets are not as expensive as
(33:00):
they were. You just hop on the plane and you
go there, so that is a possibility. Phone lines are
open eight down six kale v I one hundred three
d zero k v. I'd be back in two minutes.
(33:33):
All right, welcome back to medical. Our phone lines are
open eight down six scal I one hundred three three
zero O ko v I. Talking about back pain, exercising
which does not have to be high intensity, and then
back pain. As you know, it's probably one of our
more common complaints that we get in primary care as
well as minor cares and emergency departments. A lot of that,
(33:57):
again has to do with your overall health and as
most of us, as we get older, will develop some
what we call degenitive change in the lumbar spin. Lumbar
is that the lower part of your back, of the
curve just above your buttock area, that's lumbar. The middle
part of your body, like your chest, is called thoracic,
(34:19):
and your neck is a cervical, so that sort of
makes up the axial spine, as we say, and that
lumbar gets a lot of tension and a lot of
wear and tear, so does the cervical spine, such that
as one gets older, you might start getting some tightness
back there, some stinging, and you might start getting some
(34:43):
pain going down your leg can sometimes start in your foot,
sometimes starts in your buttock area, but it's because of
the degenitive process, and it puts pressure on the nerves
that are sort of traveling through it, and the everyone
has different degrees of symptoms and different characteristics of how
(35:05):
it behaves, and that sort of dictates what you do
about it. I think most folks, busy don't have time
to stop and go to doctor's office sort of try
to do their best to manage it at home. And
there's a lot of products over the counter that you
can grab and get those medications. But I always try
(35:28):
to emphasize when it comes to back pain that your
general health. And this is again, this is just what
I've seen talking with patients. Your general health sort of
drives a lot of the intensity of that problem or
how long it lasts, or does it respond well to medications,
(35:51):
does it respond well to physical therapy or whatever modality
you're using the help. So I guess what I'm saying
is number one, you got to eat right. What I
see is a lot of people are still eating poorly.
He'll still consuming a lot of processed foods and foods
with a lot of preservatives and sugar and starches, and
(36:12):
they tend to be more overweight, they tend to have
more just general inflammation in their body, and that they're
the ones who come down with the back pain more frequently,
as well as knee pain and the foot and the
neck and the shoulder. Just again, you have to respect
this inflammatory process that's going on with most people because
(36:32):
when you gain weight, it turns the inflamma source system
on because that is an abnormal weight for you. The
body knows it, and so it starts to generate inflammation.
And back pain can be a symptom of general inflammation
in the human body. And what do we grab for
most of us, we go down the CVS Walmart. We
(36:55):
get an anti inflammatory. Phone lines are open eight nine
to six. Kalvy, I want to hundred three three zero,
kayo if I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
(37:27):
welcome back to docaph Medical. Our phone lines are open.
At the end of the show, I want to think
called the phone callers and the listeners and again, if
there's something that you'd like me to talk about, I'd
be more than happy to prioritize that on the show.
The show is for you again to try and help
you make better choices with your lifestyle because it is
(37:48):
confusing out there. But certainly the most important in my opinion,
based on what I see, is you've got to get
those vegetables in that daily grind, right, those broccoli and
green beans and spinach and kale, those bristles, sprouts, cauliflowers
and all that sort of cauliflower rice thing out there
(38:09):
that kind of looks like rice, but it's califlower, right,
And certainly try and stay away from that sugar. That
can be very, very difficult in this time in our country,
just because of all of the we inundate it just
with a lot of processed foods, foods that are ready
to go, that are delicious. We grew up eating these
(38:32):
foods and all of a sudden they poison, right, Like,
how can that be? You know, I grew up eating
it and I feel fine, but certainly consuming a lot
of the densely starched foods that we love, you know,
the breads and the pastas and the rice, is the
mashed potatoes that comes with everything, corn that comes with everything,
(38:55):
and then sort of the big hunk of meat that's
sort of the standard American diet. Unfortunately, it's excessive. There's
too much energy in your body, and your body negatively
reacts to that by turning on it's inflammatory system because
it thinks it's being injured. And most people, like I say,
will start to gain weight, and then with weight gain
(39:15):
will come the issues with the joint pain, back pain,
various physical complaints of fatigue. That that's a big one
that I get in my office all the time. But
normally they're thirty forty pounds overweight. Their diet is poor.
You know, they're consuming doctor pepper or sprite or some
(39:37):
other sugary beverage on a regular basis, which all the
experts agree that consuming sugar like that on a regular
basis is unhealthy. It's a healthy unhealthy choice, and again
it generates inflammation. So you want to be healthy. You
don't want to be at doctor Vane's office all the
time getting pills to correct all that these things. You
(40:00):
certainly have to clean up what you're eating and drinking first.
It's not about the exercise. It's about what you're eating
and drinking first. And I try to just tell people
that all the time, just as a sense of clarity,
because it's confusing out there. Which one is first, which
one is second. It's the diet that's first. More vegetables.
(40:22):
Less sure going to start and that's my message for you.
Don't drink and drive, have a good weekend. We'll see
you next week.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Ch
All right, Southeast six is Internet ready listeners. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome,
another edition of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour. I'm your host,
Doctor Levine Internal Medicine here taking your calls live at
the studios of kov I Bow My Texas Cross Street
from Parkdale Mall. Need to go take a visit over there.
(00:21):
Hadn't been there since I was in high school, and
from what everyone tells me, it looks a little different
inside of there. I need to go take a look
at it. The American mall. Man, what a scene, What
a glorious scene walking in the malls back in the
day when I was in high school. Crowded, busy, But
(00:45):
most malls don't look like that anymore. Just change at
the times. Things are more electronic now right. The brick
and mortar, You don't really need a store with brick
and mortar to selling thing. Just hop on the computer
and get your products, get them delivered with in twenty
four hours. Man, isn't that incredible? Phone lines are open
eight nine to six Scalvay one one hundred and three
(01:07):
three zero Kaleva. We are here to talk about healthcare
and medicine and how to live longer. And stay alive
longer and be healthy longer. That can be difficult for
a lot of us, and a lot of it's just
a lot of confusing information, unfortunately, getting bombarded with information
(01:30):
from a lot of different sources about this or that
or up or down or stop and start, and got
your family members that are piping in and your co
workers and your husband, your wife, and they're looking at
their information as well, and it's just you know, disorienting, right.
(01:55):
So that's what the genesis of the show is. So
give us a call. We'd love to hear from you.
We're having our last few cold wintry days until spring hits,
which would be probably be next month. It's always a
little bit cold in February than of February, and you know,
(02:18):
I enjoy the cold weather, I really do. But we
normally get a lot sicker in the cold weather for
various reasons. And we've talked about that before. Those respiratory
infections tend to pick up big time. So we normally
see that spike of restaurant infections during this time of
year and then March April may just dies down. Just
(02:41):
don't see us many, but we're always dealing with respiratory infections.
I mean it's a chronic I shouldn't say chronic, it's
every day, never goes away. But we just see a
larger volume of these respiratory issues doing the winter and
(03:01):
then spring and summer. It lessens a whole lot, but
certainly we're always seeing that. You know one thing that
when you talk about sort of respiratory viruses causing respiratory illnesses, Man,
do we see a lot of viral GI infections?
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:22):
We all know those symptoms and we deal with that
all the time as well. And they always and when
you're talking to the patients they said something's going around,
there's always something going around. These viruses are out there.
They're never going away. They're part of a landscape, microbiology
landscape just can't get rid of them. We have to
(03:43):
learn how to live with them. And that's normally those
symptoms of the diarrhea and just abdominal cramping. Maybe you
feel achy too, just like when you do have a virus,
you feel kind of achy. So sometimes you have to
go to the hospital and be admitted for that. But
I think most people sort of treat that at home
(04:06):
with some over the counter medications, maybe some emodium or
some pepto or a few other products out there, and
it's just supportive care, honestly, even if you go in
the hospital, just supportive care. We don't really have specific
virus medications that treat the virus that causes the gasin
(04:29):
testinal infection, but that one is a very common issue
as well. We see that throughout the year. To be
honest with you though, sort of what we call viral
gastro into ritis is how we describe that, which is
just describing inflammation of the gastro intestinal tract. As you know,
(04:53):
very loan track starts at the mouth, end at the anus,
and is everything between. So any part of that system
can become inflamed and are infected, and your symptoms would
be abdominal pain, cramping, frequent stool, and nausea, and you
(05:15):
lost your appetite. And that makes sense, right the jazz
systems inflamed and doesn't really it's sick and that's how
you feel when that happens. And like I said, most
of times it's supportive care. But occasionally, you know, if
you have other issues, medical problems that's say heart failure
(05:37):
or kidney failure, or maybe you're transplant patient. Maybe there's
maybe you have loopus and there's medicines you only come
in tablet form or capsule, and you have to take
these medicines so that the disease stays controlled. And then
you start having vomited and you can't keep it down
(06:03):
and you're just sick and you don't want anything going
or swallowing anything. I mean, we see that a lot
with the viral gastro intritis. Another common scenario is food
what we call food born illness with gastro intestinal inflammation. Right,
(06:27):
I mean we're eating out all the time, right, most
of us are eating out. There's been a resurgence of
trying to pull back and cook your own food. I mean,
I think the whole restaurant industry, fast food industry really
exploded when I was in high school college. I mean
that's when it really starts. Seeing this huge increase just
(06:51):
restaurants and fast food. And how could you say no? Right?
They presented you with all the favorites and big quantities, right,
so how could you pass up? You know, five dollars
and you get a drink, you get a big burger,
you get French fries for five dollars. I mean, that's
a good deal. That might be full. They don't have
(07:15):
to fix anything. I can just throw away my bag
and I'm done. I don't have to cook anything. I
just drive up, I order it, I pay me a
little five dollars, and I have a full meal that
will satisfy me for a couple of hours, and I
can go on about my day. And so, yeah, we're
(07:37):
all bought into it, myself included. But hey, you know,
we're finding out that unfortunately, if that is your main meal,
and that's how you consume your food, by eating a
lot of the processed foods and a lot of the
fast foods out there, and they go by a lot
(07:58):
of different names, that it typically encourages some poor health. Right,
That's just what I've seen in my own self. I
see what my patients eat in the hospital. It's a
really telling story of the association of illness. Sickness and
(08:19):
the foods that you see there in the hospital is
where as well as my office, and just the understanding
that yes, if you do eat this stuff and drink
this stuff every day, you're more likely to generate some
sort of illness throughout your lifetime. And it can certainly
(08:39):
accelerate the aging process, which I've tried to mention on
this show multiple times. I don't know that I really
got an appreciation of the aging process going through medical training,
but I certainly respected now to the fullest because it's
a real thing and it's something that you should be
(09:02):
aware of if you're fifty sixty, that there's this sort
of background process that's happening that is preparing you are
increasing your chance of sort of getting ill or sick.
It's sort of engineered into us unfortunately. You know, the
birth and the death of the human body, that's basically
(09:28):
what happens, and certainly our habits can speed that up
or slow it down. I always enjoy seeing someone in
my office who's ninety one, ninety two, ninety three, and
we have them. I just saw one last week. It
was just a breath of fresh air to see this
(09:51):
person ninety one walking, everything's working, hair, teeth, mind, on
minimal medications, I mean a few, and they're laughing or happy.
I mean, it's just almost like they're from out of space.
When you see this, you know, because as an internal
(10:13):
medicine doctor, we see a lot of illness every day.
I mean, just a lot of suffering, and we see
a lot of unfortunate outcomes that it pertains to a
person's health, whether it be a big stroke or a
big heart attack or cancer, and you know, we're seeing
it every day and it is very, very unfortunate when
(10:34):
these things happen, and it's always refreshing. You got to
see someone who made it through pretty much unscathed, right,
they never had the cardiovascular event, they never had the
big cancer, and they're just ninety one, hanging out, you know,
(10:55):
at the house and doing their thing, interacting with their family.
So it can happen. But some of it's luck, right,
some of it's luck. And but you know, talking with
these patients who get into the nineties, there are some
(11:15):
common denominators, which is what I try to share with
you because again, I know it's hard as a lay
person to get it because you don't see it every day,
but I'm in it every day. Every day I see
this and talk to patients and sort of I now
get it. And it's very clear to me the associations
(11:40):
that are there. And if you want to be healthy,
but you want to stay out of the doctor's office,
you want to you know, feel good, you know, I
have a lot of patients who retire at the bots,
you know, sixty five, sixty seven. I have some that
obviously retire when they're sixty even fifty year Whilst retiring,
(12:04):
you know, they've done good. They've put their money away
and they're happy with their sort of nest egg, and
they don't need to go to work and have the
pressure of a job and a boss and a schedule
and a routine and all of the pressure that comes
with being employed. They don't have that anymore. It's almost
(12:25):
like they have this cape that's released from them and
they sort of have the freedom to decide what they're
going to do the rest of the day or the
whole day. And one thing I try to encourage them
to prioritize is their health. Is now that you don't
have this big routine where you have to get up
(12:46):
in the morning, you stay all day at some place working,
and then you come home late and you may not
feel like you have the time to do a little
exercise or eat. Right now you do, and you can
just prioritize yourself and make sure that you're taking care
of yourself. Because again, as we get older, for most
(13:08):
of us, our health will decline, sort of a natural thing,
but those habits can really really make a huge difference,
huge difference. And again I want to emphasize that it's
really not about the exercising in my opinion, although you
hear that a lot, and you see the commercials and
(13:29):
just all the sweating and the heavy lifting, and yeah,
you have these contests where they're running all day, they're
swimming all day, they're lifting heavy weights, and they're throwing
things and they're lifting things and you know, just sort
of pushing their body to the edge for these sort
(13:51):
of physical competitions, which is fine. They love it. It
gives them something to do. They're happy, they have a
sense of accomplishment, and that's cool and it's cool to
see on TV, you know, someone achieving those sort of
physical feats. But for the average Joe, for the average patient,
(14:14):
that's excessive and a lot of that sort of physical
activity at the high intensity is very damaging to the
joints in the muscles and the legs and sometimes your
cardiovascular system. So it's really not for everyone to do that.
(14:38):
I mean, you really have to have some skills and
your body has to be built a certain way to
even tolerate stuff like that. I mean, as you know,
you may not know I played college football. I played
highs football here at Westbrook in the late eighties. I
played college and rice early nineties. Was there for five years. So,
(15:03):
I mean you see some a lot of things as
an athlete when you're looking at other athletes, and you
could always tell, and especially in football, who could play
in the NFL. You can just always tell. I mean
they just have an extra gear or three or four
extra gears that you didn't have. No matter how much
you worked out, or how much you ate or how
(15:23):
much you train, you could just never approach their gear.
I mean it was it was a more natural gear.
Same thing with the ability to just play four quarters
and the ability to stay at a certain performance level
for four quarters. And you know, I didn't really get
(15:44):
that when I was playing college football. Not I mean
I was young in nineteen twenty. Your mind is thinking
of different things at that age. At least it was
for me. I mean now I get it completely. But
and and what we see on TV, like college ball
and the professional ball, we just had the the NFL's
(16:07):
biggest game. What you see there on TV, I mean,
those guys make the stuff look easy. They really do,
but there is so much training that goes into that
and so much preparation that you wouldn't believe. I mean,
it's just insane. And a person's body and again a
lot of this is genetic. There's sort of you're sort
(16:28):
of born with this stuff. A person's body has topait
or tolerate that sort of performance. You and ideas that
at the beginning of the game, at the end of
the game, your performance is the same. Like you're just
as fast, you're just as strong, you can run just
as long. Because I'll tell you from my own person experience,
(16:49):
when I as an athlete, when you start getting tired
and you hurt from being tired or maybe got hit hard,
or you're dizzy, or like I said, you got hit
and now you're chest is hurting, your leg is hurting,
your thighs hurting, your foot is hurting. It really changes
the way you think and the things that you want
to do. I know, you sort of in the game
(17:11):
and there's your drillings flowing, and I get all that.
And I went through all that as an ath especially
as a running back, so several times, you know, you
just get your knees, ankles, your back, chest, head, It
just hurts because of the contact and the forces that
are generated during the game. But it's just the first quarter.
(17:34):
You have to go three more quarters and you have
to find a way to get to the end of
the game with the same performance. And I guess what
I'm saying is the guys I saw that went to
the NFL, you could always tell that they could do
it easier, They could do it with a lot more
ease than some other guys, and because of that factor,
(17:55):
they would be able to tolerate an NFL season. Remember
now it's like seventeen eighteen games. I think when I
was coming through playing football is fifteen games, so they've
sort of gone up on the number of games per season.
Then you have preseason, and that's a lot to put
your body through. It really is. I mean, I would
(18:16):
just have the worst, incredible soreness going through all that.
We have Ronnie from Lumberton.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
What's up, Yes, sir, I'd like to ask you about MRIs,
especially of the lower spine. What can an MRI actually
show you.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Well, MRI eyes of the lower spine, we do those
a lot, Ronnie, primarily to visualize the anatomy of the
lumbar spine, and the technology of MRI allows us to
visualize primarily soft tissue as well as the bone structure.
(19:05):
But it's more about the soft tissue with those MRIs.
CAT scans are better with the hard bones the muscular
skeletal system, but MRI can still see the muscular scalar system.
So but it's primarily that soft tissue, meaning like the
nerves and the ligaments and the alignment of all of
(19:29):
the structures that comprise the lumbar spine. So we normally
do MRIs because it gives us that clarity and that
view of the bone, the nerve, the muscles, the ligaments
that comprise the lumbar spine. So it's almost like we
can open up your back and just look inside. But
(19:51):
it's with an X ray, so it can see infections,
it can see cancer down there, it can see frack,
it can look at the alignment, like I say, of
the spine. It can look at the nerves and see
if they're pinched or if they're swollen or if they're
in a bad position. You can look at the muscles
(20:14):
see if they're inflamed, if they have fluid in them abscesses.
So it's probably the one extra that gives us the
highest clarity of soft tissue. The other area we like
to image is the brain because the MRI is the
best at imaging the brain. I mean, it gives us
(20:37):
really good views of the brain tissue, sometimes too good
because it can be a little hypersensitive and we see
things that don't really matter, but nonetheless we see them.
So most people get MRIs at the back if they're
complaining of back pain or if the doctor feels like
(20:57):
there's a pinch nerve in the lumbar spine, and those
are primarily the patients getting the MRIs. And as you know,
it's a common complaint low back pain, so a lot
of people have gotten MRIs. It's the only issue with
MRIs is that's the one. It's a tube that you
have to sort of go inside, and some people are
(21:20):
what they call claustrophobic, and it's uncomfortable to be in
this tube. And then the machine makes a lot of
noise when you have an MRIs, a lot of clanking
and banging sounds, and so it can be a little
freaky going in this tube all this noise, and normally
the sequencing of the machine. Normally, the imaging takes you
(21:45):
have to be in the machine probably for about twenty
minutes or so, sometimes sometimes even longer depending on what
they're imaging. So, you know, cat scan is sort of
a white circle. It's a much quicker test. But the
MRI is something we do if we really want to
image the spine or the brain or joint like you
(22:08):
have shoulder pain. It can really give us a good
view of the soft tissue, the muscles and the joint
and the surrounding areas. So it's a great device and
we really use it a lot.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Huh what about a bulging disk.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Oh yeah, they'll see that, no.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Question, right, speaking of a bulging disc.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Speaking of a bulging disk, is that something that just
comes in and out periodically or what?
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well, Ronnie, as most Americans get older, they will develop
some bulging discs. That's that's sort of a part of
the aging process of the muscular skelet system, in particular
the lumbar spine. I mean, the lumbar spine is as
used a lot for a lot of our body motions,
(23:08):
you know, sitting, standing, picking up things, so there's a
lot of wear and tear of the lumbar spine just
because of its location and what it does for us.
So it wears out a lot, and the herniation aspect
is a part of that wearing out process. Now, most
people the actual herniation, they probably will not feel unless
(23:30):
it starts to put pressure on the nerve. That's really
when patients get alerted to the fact that there's a
herniated disk. Most of us have herniated disk. We don't
even know about it because it's not causing any pain
or any suffering. The hernated disc has to be of
a certain size and for it to start causing pressure
on the nerve. That's when most people get alerted to that.
(23:51):
And so what I mean is if you do an
MRI or an X ray and a CEE hernated discs,
you don't really have to do anything about it unless
you're having smpts related to that, and most people don't.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Okay, well, thank you covered every just about every question
that I would have.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
I didn't even know I needed.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Okay, thank you appreciated. Rynnie drives safely onlines are open
eight nine six kov I won one hundred three three
zero kope. I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
(24:35):
welcome back to talk with your medical phone lines to
open eight nine to six KO if you I one
one hundred three three zero kof I. You know, talking
about exercising as well as back pain too common conversations
that come up all the time. And I guess what
I'm trying to emphasize is that it doesn't have to
be high intensity. I want to explain that to most people.
(24:57):
I sort of got off on a tangent about just
intensity exercising. I mean, if that's something you guys want
to do, that's fine, But most people are not going
to do that because it's painful for one thing, and
it can sometimes generate a lot of injury to the muscle,
scollar system, cardiovas system. So that's not for everybody. If
(25:18):
you're competing for some competition or some game or whatever,
you know, fine do that. But for the average person, no, no, no,
in my opinion, really just taking a simple walk in
your neighborhood or pelling a bicycle, walking a treadmill, and
really just for twenty minutes while you're watching a program
(25:41):
that is exercise. Greg from Mike Charles, how can we
help you?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Yes, how about your the have you heard of the
stem sail injections.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Sure, yeah, that's been talked about for many years.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Absolutely, But I mean, is it something worth checking in,
you know, to avoid surgery per se.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Well, it just like, yeah, it just depends on the surgery.
And my understanding of stem cell at this point is
that for the most part, it's not necessarily a option
for any sort of acute medical or chronic medical treatment
in this country, and that there are other countries that
(26:28):
use them cells to treat certain chronic illnesses that can
cause problems in patients, but as far as I know,
there's no application here in this country yet. I think, yeah,
there's a lot of excitement about stem cells. The potential
of being able to sort of reverse whatever physical ailment
(26:52):
you're having and restore you to sort of a normal condition.
That yeah, I mean, that's that's very exciting to think about,
you know, talking about AI that I've been hearing that
term recently, like go ahead, you.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Know, and we've I've been trying the lower back and
the shoulder injections growing on four months now, and it
sometimes it seems to help sometimes, you know, it just
but uh, you know, compared to having surgery, you know,
(27:26):
that was an option I was tried.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Yeah, I mean, you can talk with the provider that
you are working with and you can ask if stem
cells is an option. But as far as I know,
that's still sort of an experimental phase, research phase here
in this country. But I have known patients to step
outside of this country and go to another country, well
(27:53):
and get these stem cells. Now it's cash, there's no
insurance companies involved. So if you if you have that
type of money and this particular problem means that musch
to you, you can hop online to day and find
some provider or wherever they are, You get a plane ticket,
you go there.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Well, we actually have one in Beaumont that's doing it.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Okay, Yeah, we'll just thank you. Yeah, that's awesome that somebody.
I wouldn't expect that, but you know, bums, small market
and most of the time those sort of providers are
in bigger cities where they have a lot more support
and a lot more understanding of procedures like that. But yeah,
(28:41):
if you have someone that's performing that here, very convenient. Yeah,
call them and see if you get an employment and
see if they can help you out. Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Okay, Well, thank you serve for your time.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
All right, buddy, appreciate that. Greg stemselves. Yeah. I've been
around for a long time and conversations sort of come
and go. You know, I hear spikes about stem cell
and the ideas that you get a cell that has
not really committed itself to anything, because remember all cells
(29:17):
come from one source, and then it sort of decides
what it wants to be. Does it want to be
a heart cell, a brain cell, a liver cell. So
the stem cell that's the original cell, right, That's where
every cell in our body comes from, the stem cell.
St em. So the ideas that you can sort of
(29:38):
grow these cells and then you inject these cells into
a body that's sick or that's having a problem, and
those stem cells will grow to replace or fixed the
cells that are not working or diseased or broken. Dea
(30:00):
sort of a real basic idea of stem cells. Right.
So certain cancers, you inject the stem cell it it
cures the cancer. Right. Or if you have certain joint problems,
you inject stem cells into it, it makes you a
new knee. That's a good good topic there, just talking
(30:22):
about back pain, the degenerative issue of arthritis. That's another
term we use for the back as well as the
knees in the major joint to start getting that pain
and stiffness. So the idea is a stem cell, which
if you're injected in there, it would sort of make
new cells that would then correct the old cells or
(30:45):
replace the old dying cells. It's almost like a fresh
batch of cells that you could get injected into that
would then start working again. They would function properly, and
so your symptoms would go away because you're getting new cells, right,
almost like a like a transplant, if you will, getting
a new organ that's working. So stem cells is another
(31:08):
way to sort of reach that potential of replacing the
old stuff and in with the new stuff to help
you function better, feel better. And yeah, there's obviously potentially
a lot of applications for that, I mean helping a
person live longer, because again, most of us are sort
of designed, we're engineered that for most of us, you know,
(31:32):
eight and seventy eighty and that's about it. That's just
where our bodies work. And medical research, medical science is
trying to find ways to keep us alive longer, and
stem cells is very very exciting research, and some countries
are ahead of us more than others, and they've allowed
(31:55):
more applications to be tried on human bodies. And we
have a lot of regulations and restrictions here in this
country to make it operate the way we feel like
it needs to operate. But sometimes that can be a
little constricting and things don't flow as well. But in
other countries things are more wide open. And so as
I was mentioning, thankfully there's a person here convenient you
(32:18):
don't have to go that far. But for a lot
of these other sort of edgy medical therapeutics are surgical
therapeutics edgy, I said, it's not really accepted by most
of the Western doctors. Are just the community here in
(32:38):
this country. You have to take yourself outside the country,
you know, on plane you go there and I have
I have had patience who've done that. So and you know,
probably because the world is more open up now with
internet and social media, you can find these locations found
these practitioners, and plane tickets are not as expensive as
(33:00):
they were. You just hop on the plane and you
go there, so that is a possibility. Phone lines are
open eight down six kale v I one hundred three
d zero k v. I'd be back in two minutes.
(33:33):
All right, welcome back to medical. Our phone lines are
open eight down six scal I one hundred three three
zero O ko v I. Talking about back pain, exercising
which does not have to be high intensity, and then
back pain. As you know, it's probably one of our
more common complaints that we get in primary care as
well as minor cares and emergency departments. A lot of that,
(33:57):
again has to do with your overall health and as
most of us, as we get older, will develop some
what we call degenitive change in the lumbar spin. Lumbar
is that the lower part of your back, of the
curve just above your buttock area, that's lumbar. The middle
part of your body, like your chest, is called thoracic,
(34:19):
and your neck is a cervical, so that sort of
makes up the axial spine, as we say, and that
lumbar gets a lot of tension and a lot of
wear and tear, so does the cervical spine, such that
as one gets older, you might start getting some tightness
back there, some stinging, and you might start getting some
(34:43):
pain going down your leg can sometimes start in your foot,
sometimes starts in your buttock area, but it's because of
the degenitive process, and it puts pressure on the nerves
that are sort of traveling through it, and the everyone
has different degrees of symptoms and different characteristics of how
(35:05):
it behaves, and that sort of dictates what you do
about it. I think most folks, busy don't have time
to stop and go to doctor's office sort of try
to do their best to manage it at home. And
there's a lot of products over the counter that you
can grab and get those medications. But I always try
(35:28):
to emphasize when it comes to back pain that your
general health. And this is again, this is just what
I've seen talking with patients. Your general health sort of
drives a lot of the intensity of that problem or
how long it lasts, or does it respond well to medications,
(35:51):
does it respond well to physical therapy or whatever modality
you're using the help. So I guess what I'm saying
is number one, you got to eat right. What I
see is a lot of people are still eating poorly.
He'll still consuming a lot of processed foods and foods
with a lot of preservatives and sugar and starches, and
(36:12):
they tend to be more overweight, they tend to have
more just general inflammation in their body, and that they're
the ones who come down with the back pain more frequently,
as well as knee pain and the foot and the
neck and the shoulder. Just again, you have to respect
this inflammatory process that's going on with most people because
(36:32):
when you gain weight, it turns the inflamma source system
on because that is an abnormal weight for you. The
body knows it, and so it starts to generate inflammation.
And back pain can be a symptom of general inflammation
in the human body. And what do we grab for
most of us, we go down the CVS Walmart. We
(36:55):
get an anti inflammatory. Phone lines are open eight nine
to six. Kalvy, I want to hundred three three zero,
kayo if I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
(37:27):
welcome back to docaph Medical. Our phone lines are open.
At the end of the show, I want to think
called the phone callers and the listeners and again, if
there's something that you'd like me to talk about, I'd
be more than happy to prioritize that on the show.
The show is for you again to try and help
you make better choices with your lifestyle because it is
(37:48):
confusing out there. But certainly the most important in my opinion,
based on what I see, is you've got to get
those vegetables in that daily grind, right, those broccoli and
green beans and spinach and kale, those bristles, sprouts, cauliflowers
and all that sort of cauliflower rice thing out there
(38:09):
that kind of looks like rice, but it's califlower, right,
And certainly try and stay away from that sugar. That
can be very, very difficult in this time in our country,
just because of all of the we inundate it just
with a lot of processed foods, foods that are ready
to go, that are delicious. We grew up eating these
(38:32):
foods and all of a sudden they poison, right, Like,
how can that be? You know, I grew up eating
it and I feel fine, but certainly consuming a lot
of the densely starched foods that we love, you know,
the breads and the pastas and the rice, is the
mashed potatoes that comes with everything, corn that comes with everything,
(38:55):
and then sort of the big hunk of meat that's
sort of the standard American diet. Unfortunately, it's excessive. There's
too much energy in your body, and your body negatively
reacts to that by turning on it's inflammatory system because
it thinks it's being injured. And most people, like I say,
will start to gain weight, and then with weight gain
(39:15):
will come the issues with the joint pain, back pain,
various physical complaints of fatigue. That that's a big one
that I get in my office all the time. But
normally they're thirty forty pounds overweight. Their diet is poor.
You know, they're consuming doctor pepper or sprite or some
(39:37):
other sugary beverage on a regular basis, which all the
experts agree that consuming sugar like that on a regular
basis is unhealthy. It's a healthy unhealthy choice, and again
it generates inflammation. So you want to be healthy. You
don't want to be at doctor Vane's office all the
time getting pills to correct all that these things. You
(40:00):
certainly have to clean up what you're eating and drinking first.
It's not about the exercise. It's about what you're eating
and drinking first. And I try to just tell people
that all the time, just as a sense of clarity,
because it's confusing out there. Which one is first, which
one is second. It's the diet that's first. More vegetables.
(40:22):
Less sure going to start and that's my message for you.
Don't drink and drive, have a good weekend. We'll see
you next week.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Ch
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