Dr Levine's Medical Hour 03/07/26-topics include medical tests

• 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.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome South East Texas Internet radio listeners. Welcome
to another edition of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour. I'm
your weekly hosts, Doctor Levine, coming to your live from
the studios of klv I here Bauma, Texas, cross Street
from Parkdale Mall, teching your phone calls, answering questions and
hoping we can keep you alive as long as possible,
as healthy as possible without having to utilize or interact

(00:24):
that much with the healthcare system. Are with going to
the doctor all the time, so cumbersome phone lines are
open eight nine to six klv I, one in one
hundred and three three zero klv I. We are here
typically every Saturday morning from eight to nine again trying
to answer questions and give you some information about your

(00:45):
health or how to prevent it or reduce the chances
of having to be hospitalized, or just what do you
need to do or if you have some sort of
naggy symptom physical symptom that you have that is not
being solved despite being evaluated, despite maybe some prescription medications,

(01:06):
you're still sort of not feeling the way you want to.
We're here. Phone lines are open, so give us a call.
We'd love to hear from you two way radios, So
give us a buzz. We have a lot of time
to talk about your question or your concern as opposed
to a lot of times going to your healthcare professional

(01:27):
for an office visit a lot of times can be
a crunch for time. You have to get it in
right as soon as the provider walks in, the clock
starts ticking, and there's just this pressure to get the
visit over as soon as possible, as quickly as possible,
and just sometimes yeah, you don't have enough time to
get all your questions in. So give us a buzz.

(01:50):
We'd love to hear from you. Hopefully you had a
good weekend last week. We're getting into our more springtime weather,
not as cold anymore, not good for me. I love you, know,
I love the cold weather. We started getting too sort
of the spring summertime, and springtime can be a wonderful

(02:11):
time of the year. Weather it's not too hot, but
it's normally sunny, crisp, clear, and hopefully everything is going
well with you. Remember we was still in sort of
the tail end of flu season. Wasn't a terrible flu season.
We did see more flu cases than covid cases, they

(02:31):
weren't as as much as the flu I would say
in my experience, but again the severity seems to be
well controlled and we still are seeing COVID boosters out there,
So be sure and get your COVID boosters and any
other vaccine you may not need. The list has gotten

(02:52):
kind of long, to be honest with you, and again
we want to remind you that there is an aging
process that is real, that is programmed into us as
we get all of us get older the body. The program,
if you will, is designed for the system, if you will,

(03:13):
to not work as well, to kind of start declining
and sort of an auto shutdown, if you will. And
one thing that happens is the immune system is just
not as perfect. And so we talk a lot about
cardiovascal disease, we talk a lot about cancer, but man
infections are very very prevalent in the elderly population if

(03:37):
as we get older because of that, immune system is
not working as well as it needs to. So vaccines
is a way to sort of boost your immune system.
A lot of people are always asking about that, how
do I strengthen my immune system? In my opinion, vaccines
is one way to do that. Again, there's no one
hundred percent guarantee that you won't have a side effect.

(03:58):
I mean, that's really not how life works. Unfortunately, anytime
you get out of bed in the morning and you
put on your clothes to get in your car and
you're drivingwhere, go anywhere, there's always a risk. I mean,
how many accidents happen just inside the house. I mean
you trip and fall, or you cut yourself. I mean,
so it's just no guarantee. But certainly vaccines have allowed

(04:21):
us to control the prevalence and the severity of common
infections in this country so that we can live as
long as possible eighty ninety years old. We still see
those patients out there who are deep into their eighties
and nineties high functioning. I mean, it can happen, and

(04:42):
again you do have to invest more time into doing
your part in terms of eating right and just staying
physically active. Again, just want to remind everyone that you
don't have to go out and join a gym, or
buy a bunch of expensive clothing, or or exercise for
an hour or two every day unless you want to,

(05:03):
you like it. You have time to do that. You
don't have to really do that to benefit from activity.
I think the official recommendation from most medical sites or
expert sites is one hundred and fifty minutes per week
of exercise is sort of what they recommend. Again, it's

(05:25):
just a starting point. It's a general recommendation, almost like
the ten thousand step sort of recommendation that you hear
a lot. Those walk counters were very popular years ago.
It's on a lot of the smart watches and on
some phones where it sort of counts your steps per day,

(05:47):
and that was a big concern years ago, or I
should say it was prioritized. It was talked about a lot.
Is I need to have so many steps in per day?
Ten thousand was sort of this mark or this goal
that was promoted to the American public, and a lot

(06:08):
of people sort of try to attain ten thousand steps
per day. But what about eight thousand steps? I mean,
is that good for you? What about five thousand? You
see what I mean. I don't really think the medical
literature out there has figured that out that says if
you walk ten thousand steps, then you're going to live

(06:29):
five years longer, or you won't have this or won't
have that, you know, it's just a projection, right, And
I think about it. Sometimes we get too technical with
this stuff. We just make it harder than what it is.
And I think that's one aspect of that is some
times if a patient doesn't get ten thousand steps and
it's like this huge disappointment, I didn't get my goal,

(06:51):
and so well, I can't do that. I'm just not
going to do anything. And I think that's where a
lot of times that does get in the way way
of just doing simple, basic things and doing a little
bit of something, because a little bit of something that's
better than nothing. It really is, it really is. I mean,
if ten thousand steps is not enoughing about five thousand steps.

(07:15):
Really it's just the idea that you need to be
active as you get older. A lot of us in
our jobs are just in our daily routine we're not
really walking a lot, or we're not really being physical active, right.
We sort of are sitting most of the day, and
not that you're trying to, it's just that that's what

(07:36):
your life demands for various reasons. Again, if you have
an office job or a desk job, you're pretty much
at a desk where you're in a seated position just
about all day. Let's say, a lot of our truck drivers,
very important career and very important service in this country.
You know, shout out to all the truck drivers out there.

(07:56):
It's just it's a hard job to do. The traffic
out there, my god, and you're getting your car and
you're just so congested and driving this big vehicle and
having to avoid all these accidents. It's a tough job.
And driving ten hours straight, man, it's exhausting. You know,
these guys are athletes in my opinion, but nonetheless they're

(08:19):
in a seated position most of the day. Or some
of our law enforcement they're sitting in a car all day.
So there's just a lot of jobs that don't require
you to have to be physically active constantly, and you're
doing more sitting than you're doing more standing. And the
medical literature is really clear about that that if you
are in that position where you're just sort of sitting

(08:41):
most of the day, it tends to generate poor health.
And a couple of things that happen is certainly you
gain weight, and just because of sort of the monotony
and the singular position of being in one position all
day long, there's a little bit more snacking that happens,
and again the drinking of sugary beverages. Typically when you're

(09:05):
sitting like that, it's just in your face, it's around,
it's in the environment, at the coffee station or at
the break station, whatever that may be. And so there's
more engagement in eating and drinking. And then you're sitting,
you're not expending a whole lot of energy. So normally,
way gain happens with the excessive sitting sort of routine,

(09:27):
and that normally wild start generating some poor health with
the common things that we talk about all the time,
right high bloo pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood sugar
and typically what I see certainly more muscular skeletal complaints
will factor into that as well. And unfortunately, some patients

(09:49):
get into this rock and or hard place situation where
they know they need to be physically active, but they've
gotten to a point where the joints are bothering them
so much. Normally, the support joints right the back to
these ankles to feed, they either hurt or there's been
so much derangement or damage to the joint itself that

(10:12):
it's at a point where you can't really use it
or doesn't function normally, so it prohibits you from exercising,
and then it really puts you in a really, really
tough situation. If you talk about back pain, which is
a very common complaint that patients come to the office
for low back pain right in that kidney area, right,

(10:34):
And just to remind patients, a lot of my patients
come in like, my kidneys are hurting. And again, in
my experience, if you're truly having pathology with your kidneys,
if there's truly something wrong with your kidneys other than
a kidney stone, I think that's probably one of the
few diseases or illnesses or crisises that can generate significant

(10:58):
pain a kidney stone. But most of the time in
that situation, the stone is not actually in your kidney,
is normally in what we call your uryter, which is
sort of the conduit between the kidney and the bladder.
Once the stone enters that urder, that's normally when the

(11:18):
pain develops, So it's not even the kidney, it's the yurder.
Any who, you're going to have a very large tumor
on your kidney, you could bleed in your kidney, your
kidney could be swollen double its size, and normally it's
not normally a big pain generator. And that's just the
way kidneys are designed, the way the nervous system works

(11:39):
on the kidneys, They just a lot of times don't
generate a significant amount of pain, even though there might
be a significant amount of pathology that's happening with the kidneys,
Like if the kidneys are swollen for various reasons, if
the urine flow gets blocked, the urine can't go anywhere.
You're constantly eating and drinking. Urine is constantly being made,
so the pressure inside the kidney system builds up, and

(12:01):
it builds up enough that it does cause the kidney
to become swollen. We call that hydro nephrosis. And some
common causes would be your prostate for guys, kidney stones, tumors,
or strictures. They're in the kidney, the urine doesn't flow,
and the kidneys get pretty big. It might cause a

(12:24):
little discomfort, but again it's normally not severe. So most
of the time when you're having pain in that lower back,
it's not really your kidneys, it's just your spine, and
the lumbar spine gets most of that issue with the
degenitive joint disease process that some people call osteothritis, but

(12:46):
the medical term uses degenitive joint disease when the lower
spine goes through anatomical changes such as bone spurs. Herniated
disks are a slippage of the alarm alignment of the
vertebrae on top of each other. If you again look
at the vertebrate they're sort of stacked on top of

(13:07):
each other like bricks, like a house. They're stacked on
top of each other, and as a part of this
degenitive joint disease, they sort of start to slip out
of position, so that that will generate pressure and tension
as it starts slipping out of its position, and then
that will put the back and the lower back at

(13:30):
risk for the pain and the stiffness that you might
feel when you wake up in the morning. You can't
even hardly walk when you start standing up erect I
mean the pain is just severe. A lot of times
you have to be in a wheelchair and you're come
into the doctor's office, can't get out of bed. If
you've had it, you know what I mean, super super common.
It's not the kidneys, it's just your back. But when

(13:52):
you get overweight, when your sedentary, you're at a desk job,
maybe again, sitting in the vehicle all day long, having
a lot of weight on you is what normally generates
a lot of that, and so weight loss will generate
or help preserve your your knees and your back and

(14:13):
your feet. A lot of people want to know that,
what can I do? I want to feel better, man,
you got to get that weight down, and sometimes, unfortunately,
it's going to be hard, just because you can't be
physically active because the joints have gotten to a point
where they don't function as well. And actually when you
try to exercise, it makes the pain worse. And so

(14:34):
there's this fear. Are yeah, this this fear that if
I do this exercise and I'm going to be in
bed for a week just trying to recover from that.
So patients naturally become more sedentary, which is the wrong
thing to do. But my god, it's so difficult to
exercise in that situation. You kind of get stuck as

(14:56):
a heavy person. And then that's when you really have
to hunger down on the diet. But hey, it's hard
to not eat all the food that's staring me in
my face, at my home, at my job. It's sort
of a habit, and that's why it's always good to
have medicines like g LP one agonist around.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:17):
The names of those phone lines are open eight nine
six Kalv I won one hundred and three three zero Kova.
I'll be back in two minutes. All right, Welcome back
to the doctor Olivia mediclower phone lines are open eight
nine six kov I won one hundred and three three

(15:38):
zero ko V. I love to hear from you, Michael
from Pasadena. How can we help you?

Speaker 3 (15:45):
Oh, good morning, doctor Louene. I wanted to first of all,
the last time I spoke to you, I had my
I took a fall of self flat on my face
when at the end of the car. Oh, I didn't
get a chance to thank you for all your information
and how clearly you are explaining things, And I just

(16:11):
wanted to thank you for that. And I didn't have
a question about the led L cholesterol.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
What is the.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
My cholesterol was at I think ninety four and I
got it down to seventy seven. What is the ultimate goal?
How low can you go? And do you understand what

(16:47):
I'm asking.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, Michael, we don't talk a lot about cholesterol in
the show, and it's really no reason for that. It
just doesn't come up that often. But yeah, cholesterol or
high class straw, I should say, is a major risk
factor for the development of plaque. That is one of
the mechanisms of action and causing cardiovascular disease like strokes

(17:13):
and heart attacks. So that's the big problem in our country.
So high cholesterol has been identified as one of the
major main risk factors for the development of plaques, so
there's a lot of interest in controlling it or making
it lower. And making it lower it tends to either
prevent plaque formation or stabilize plaque formation, and in doing

(17:36):
that it reduces significantly the risk of having a cardiovascular
event such as a stroke or heart attack. So it's
been a moving target over the years, but at this
point my understanding is, yeah, they want it kind of
as low as they can get it. Typically close to
seventy is my current understanding. Not for everyone, but certainly

(17:59):
those patients who have risk factors for cardiovascal disease again, hypertension, obesity,
family history, diabetes, family history of that. So if you
have minimal risk factors, your middle aged, you don't smoke,

(18:19):
you don't drink, your weight is controlled. You know, it's
not really urgent for that person to have a cholesterol
in the seventies. But certainly if you've had a heart attack,
you smoke, you have diabetes, yes, they want to try
and get it down to seventy with normally would have
to have medications to do that, just because most patients

(18:40):
cholesterol is typically higher than that, and the American diet
tends to promote high cholesterol. Unfortunately, just because we eat
a lot of protein, we eat a lot of animal
food items, and animal food items tend to contain a
lot of cholesterol. So that's why they've been trying to
promote more plant items means vegetables, things that come from

(19:01):
the earth, whole grains, fresh fruit, nuts, and seeds. Try
to eat more of that because it has meant no
cholesterol in it. And so if you do have diabetes
and certain risk factors, you had down in seventy as
much as possible. If you don't, maybe one hundred, one
hundred and twenty would be a fair level for the

(19:23):
LDL to be at. LDL has been characterized as the
bad cholesterol, the one that's more what we call athrogenic,
meaning the higher that LDL number is, the more plaque
you develop, whereas the HDL is supposed to be the
good cholesterol, where the higher that is it tends to
gobble up cholesterol and prevent plaque formation. So the cholesterol

(19:47):
medications that have been heavily used as statins, lipotour zocore, crestore,
these medications sort of address those issues where it lowers
the LDL and is the HDL. So sort of a
perfect little medication and has been around for years, been
studied up and down. It's just one of those medicines

(20:10):
that are the cornerstones of treating patients with cardiovascal disease,
and that's normally what patients get placed on it if
they have an issue with that, so for most people
get it as low as possible. That's the general theme.
All right, Michael, we'll appreciate that question. We don't talk

(20:31):
a lot about cholesterol and the show. It's really no
one's fault. Just yeah, it's one of those risk factors
that has been shown to shown to increase the chances
of forming plaque in the circulation, especially if it's high
cholesterol of the normally above two hundred. That's the total cholesterol.

(20:55):
Remember cholesterol, there's several different components, is like I said, LDO,
hdo LPA little LDL. I mean, there's a lot of
subcategories of the actual cholesterol molecule. And there are what
they call lipidologists. These are doctors healthcare providers that just
study cholesterol and it's different components and the association with

(21:18):
these different components and their risk or chance of producing plaque.
And it can get a little complicated. But certainly again
for most of us, at some point probably throughout your lifetime,
just because of the American lifestyle, again just a routine

(21:39):
lifestyle for most Americans, their cholesterol will be above the
normal levels that we would like them to be. Again,
normally a total cholesterol of over two hundred LDL, normally
above one hundred, especially if it's approaching two hundred, which

(21:59):
some patients do have an l deal of approaching two hundred,
that's pretty high. So normally we would look at that
and consider that a high risk factor like high pertension
and want to treat that patient. Medication Carl from Nasau Bay,
how can we help you?

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Hi? Doctor? Thank you, sir. I'm an often listener and
I respect very much your work. It's a different subject.
I'm ninety two and a half and I'm limited in
the ability to hear, and I buy a hearing aid
at my local Walmart for seventy two dollars and it

(22:39):
toggles one, two, three and four amplifier. It's simply an amplifier,
and I recommend it for people who like me, who
have hearing limitations, and it does the job. If you
lose it, you get another one for seventy two bucks.

(23:00):
You buy it, and that's all that's necessary.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, Carl, thank you.

Speaker 4 (23:09):
I'm not a two and a half and I'm going
to ride my pricycle today, but I fell down two
years ago. But the good news that nothing hurts.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Well, awesome, thank you for that. Yeah, I've seen advertisements
for those hearing aids, and it's wonderful that those hearing
aids are available to the American public now because prior
to that, hearing aids were prohibitively expensive, going up to
five six thousand dollars for a good pair of hearing aids.

(23:39):
That's just really not in the budget of most American citizens,
especially as you get older. And you sort of un
a limited income that is just not something most people
can achieve. So, yes, these companies have come out with
these hearing aids that you can get sort of over
the counter if you will, and more affordable, and they

(24:01):
work pretty well. I think they work for the most part. Basically,
they're just amplifying the normal sound that you hear, and
you just need to increase the strength of the sound
that's coming through your ear so that you can hear ed.
It's just because you're hearing apparatus doesn't work as well
for whatever reason. So it's good to know that, yes,

(24:22):
seventy dollars, you said, seventy.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
Seventy two, and also doctor there was another one. There
was another one at Walmart for one hundred dollars or more,
but I don't recommend up buying that one. The seventy
two dollars one is superior and you press buttons on
it toggles from one, two, three, and four and back

(24:46):
to one, whichever you want, whatever you want for the
sound amplification. And I recommend it for people like me
because it's affordable, it's available, it's handy, and you plug
it in every night. It's a little goodie. And that
goes from blue to white. That means that it's charge
and so I offer that book and I do respect

(25:09):
your work very much, so and on you for your work.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Well, thank you, Carl. We appreciate that, and thanks for listening,
and thank you for that information. I'm sure a lot
of the listeners are happy to hear that maybe someone
right now is having a hearing problem and maybe they've
been to the hearing doctor, got a hearing test, and
yes they do have hearing laws. But those hearing aids
five six thousand dollars. Unfortunately, insurances normally do not cover

(25:37):
those devices, and you sort of left with not being
able to afford it. So yeah, this whole market has
now arrived so that you can get some affordable hearing
aids and hear which can just be an incredible change
of events when you can hear, man it's so depressing.
You can't engage with certain activities and you can kind

(26:00):
of be trapped in a sense. But just because again
in normal conversations and in normal interaction, hearing is very important.
If you can't, that's that's not a good idea, not
a good thing. So Carl will appreciate that and thank
you for listening to the show. Phone lines are open
eight nine six Kalvy. I wanted hundred three three zero
kay of ya. I'm going to go in our second

(26:21):
break you back in two minutes. All right, welcome back
to the doctor with the medical. Our phone lines are
open eight nine six kalv. I want one hundred three
three zero kayf Yeah, we have random from Lake Charles.
How can we help you?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Good morning, appreciate this service for Kyl the and yourself. Doctor.
I don't know how to say this. Let me just
say I am home, Rasu stad and I'm recently on abalidipen. Anyway,

(27:03):
my last I'm fixing to see my primary next week
and I'm trying to learn the right questions to ask. Anyway,
from my echo cardiogram last year, I have well I'm
going to read it said, the left ventricular EF is

(27:24):
estimated at sixty to sixty five percent.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
I have.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Trogress lides at three twenty. However, my l d L
is six. Anyway, A test that I've never been given
that I'm curious about is the c I m T.

(27:52):
How would you assess my situation? And I'm going to
request a c I MT, and I also have never
been given an lp A test, which is about lipids,
but it's more detailed. I'm concerned about what they call

(28:15):
soft plaque.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, okay, randal I, we'll appreciate that C I C
I M T coroated intimal media thickness, which again is
trying to measure the amount of plaque that's in the
blood vessel. Wall.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Oh, go ahead, well it but that's of the neck
area versus the heart versus the heart itself.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Right, that's correct, Yes.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
So an echo cardiogram could miss thickness, so that neck area.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. There are various anatomical sites that
we target when we do testing. So the carotid artery
is one of those targeted anatomical sites that we look at.
That's where a lot of times plaque develops. And when
plaque develops there, it increases the risk of a stroke again,

(29:24):
one of those diseases or illnesses that plague Americans as
we get older. So yeah, and we can use ultrasound
technology to look at that. So yeah, a lot of
offices are starting to offer that technology to patients, whether

(29:44):
insurance is pay for it or don't pay for it.
Sometimes if they don't. The pricing is not terrible and
is affordable for most patients to look at. So it's
just information randall to help make decisions about how aggressive
we want to be with your care. Almost like this
calcium scoring test that's out.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
There now, Yeah, I've had that done. I'm it's been
several years. I had it done twice and it went
from just below one hundred to slightly over two hundred.
But that's I haven't been tested retested in five years.

(30:25):
But now I uh, you know, when when the doctor
saw my uh, this is a twenty five test of
LDL score of six, he was, you know, pleased with that.
But I'm concerned that that may not be the whole story.

(30:47):
What what the fact that left intriqular is estimated that
sixty to sixty five percent? Uh, that sounds semioonymous to me,
her whatever that word is.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
Now my understanding, if your EF is sixty sixty five percent,
that's considered a normal ejection fraction, as we say, which
means that the left of integral is functioning as it
should be. So I would be happy with that number
if I were you, Yes, and I would be very
happy with the LDL of six. We were just talking

(31:27):
about that. For most patients who have known cardiovascal disease,
we want the LDL less than seventy. So your LDL
is six, so that's super super low.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
And yeah, I know, but go ahead. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, So it looks like you're in pretty good cardiovascular
health and you're in pretty good position. Your calcium score
is one hundred or a little bit above that, which
is a mild risk. So to me, it looks like
you're doing what you can and your numbers are looking
pretty good right now. So it's good to get all

(32:06):
this information again so you and your healthcare provider can
tailor your medical therapy and figure out how aggressive you
need to be with your care. You know, whether or
not you need more pressure medicine, cholesterol medicine, whether or
not you need more routine testing, things of that nature,
so that we can prevent any sort of medical crises

(32:27):
from happening.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Well, well, I appreciate. I'll have some new numbers next week.
One last quick question. I had gone to two private
labs in late Charles because I would like to get
my doctor as much information, you know, as I could
give him. And I was surprised. One lab I could

(32:54):
not order a test as a walk in. I had
to go on line to order it first, which is
a you know, information kind of security risk. And then
the other lab, well known lab here in Charles said
I was not authorized for I think I asked him

(33:16):
about the l p A and I that I don't
know how to handle that answer. I'm not authorized to
buy my own test, and I can understand. I'm not
that you might not want to answer that on the
on the air, but because that's not a medical question,

(33:37):
so to speak. Anyway, I appreciate your information and everything
you do for everybody that calls. It's important.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Well again, yeah again, Randall. In terms of you not
being authorized to get blood work, it's yeah. I'm not
quite sure why that lab will not allow you to
get blood work. All I can say is that more
and more there are freestanding lab companies businesses that do

(34:07):
all sorts of blood work as long as you're willing
to pay for it. You don't need any sort of prescription.
Just like you say, you can go online and sign
up for anything. Just as long as you have the funds.
They will check your blood for anything, and that includes
x rays as well. You talk about measuring the plaque
in your neck. There are freestanding radiology companies where as

(34:30):
long as you have the funds, you can walk in
and say, hey, I want this test. I want that
test without a doctor's order. Normally you need a doctor's
order if you want the insurance to pay for it.
That's really whether the doctor or the nurse practitioner or
PA comes into play. Is if you want the insurance
to pay for it, then your healthcare provider needs to

(34:53):
order it, and in ordering it then it sort of
gets approved and then you don't have to lay out
five hundred dollars for your dollar whatever the price is.
But if you just want to go to a facility,
hey I want this lab that lab, and not involve
the insurance company, not involve your healthcare provide, you can
do that. There's I guarantee you a company out there

(35:18):
with lab X rays that will do the testing for you.
Because some people don't have insurance, right so a lot
of people don't have insurance, and these businesses are willing
to work with these individuals again as long as they
have the funds to do it. So I would just
go somewhere else down the street and get the lab
that you want and then you can share that with

(35:39):
your provider.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
All right, uh again, thank you, thank you for uh for.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
Talking with us absolutely random. Appreciate it. Have a good day.
Those are some good questions. Freestanding labs, they're becoming more popular.
We'll chat a little bit about that in the last break.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six kvy I
one one hundred three three zero kV I'll be back
in two minutes. All right, welcome back to Doataphe Medical.

(36:10):
I phone lines and open eight done six klv I
won hundred three three zero okalov is. Unfortunately we're at
the end of the show, right. I want to thank
all the callers for their questions, really good questions today,
generating some good thoughts. Remember, if there's a question or
a topic you want me to talk about, just called
the station. Call my office three four seven three sixty

(36:31):
two one for a non area code and we can
chat about it. But this caller brought up the idea
of getting your own lab. You know, that's been an
issue here recently where patients are curious about their health
and with the Internet and just computer access to the world,

(36:55):
they are researching their own disease processes. They're looking into
their own health, which is awesome. That's great, that's what
you should do. You don't always have the time to
do that. I get it. And that's what your doctor,
that's what your healthcare provider is there for. They are
in the know. And so you pay money to go
on them and have them talk with you and let

(37:16):
them tell you what to do. And that's all good
and gravy and fine. But again, having your own interest
into your own health. Most of the time, patient's going
to be more successful being healthy. Now they have access
to more lab and more X ray equipment technology out there,
as long as you're willing to invest into that, which

(37:39):
I think is a great investment, right, I mean, it's
your health. You talk about getting older and retire you know,
I've mentioned this before a lot of my patients are retirees,
and you have so much time in your hands that
you want to enjoy it, right, And if you're in
poor health, it's just difficult. You know, you can't travel,

(38:01):
You're severely limited where you can go in terms of
your diet, your physical function. The mads are expensive, man,
it's terrifying. Honestly, I'm sure when patients have to get
another prescription they're just so cringing to figure out how
much it's going to cost, just because the pricing of
medicines in this country is just outrageous. It shouldn't be

(38:23):
that way, but it is for a lot of reasons.
So again, you got to start with that diet and
that exercise, right. But again, this caller is trying to
sit ahead of the game. I'm trying to identify my
risk factors. I'm trying to figure out what I need
to be doing, so I need information. So he is
getting all of these extra tests. Again, if you just

(38:45):
go to your healthcare provider, there's sort of a core
amount of testing that insurance is endorsed, that insurance is
paid for, and it's limited, right, But there's a lot
of other services and labs and X rays out there
that they don't endorse, they don't pay for for various reasons.
But it's available to you. And companies are setting up shop.

(39:09):
Every time you look up. It's at a corner store,
it's here, it's there. Maybe just like it's internet based,
maybe it's a company that you can do a face
to face virtual visit with a healthcare provider on your computer.
That stuff is not going to go anywhere. It's only
going to get more easy and more affordable. Again, just

(39:30):
to get basic information, even someone coming to your house
and doing the testing. Ultrasound equipment has become very portable.
These machines are tiny, and they're highly highly put together,
and someone could technically literally come to your house for
a fee and do all of your ultrasound testing. Again,

(39:55):
insurances don't pay for it, but if you have the means,
they'll do it right. And then all you have this
information sitting in front of you, you can then take
that to your provider and figure out what to do
with it. That would include this coroated auterity testing. That
would include the LPA blood test. That's a cholesterol test
that has been utilized for years, but again insurances don't

(40:18):
endorse it. You should be able to do that, And
I think that's great where you can just sort of
hop online give your basic information. I want to check this,
I want to check that. Boom you have it. I
think that's awesome that those services are available here in
this country, but can be a little pricey, but these

(40:39):
companies know that, right, So they normally try and price
it right so that it's not exorbitantly expensive, that it's
affordable for the average person to go ahead and get
that and share that with your physician. That's what most
primary care providers are trying to do is get as

(41:00):
much information as possible to figure out what we need
to do to you or for you so that you
can reduce your risk of having an event. Again, cardiovascal
disease still number one in this country. The genesis of
that is plaque normally comes from again hypertension, high cholesterol,
high sugar, as well as exposure to tobacco. Family history

(41:23):
is also important, but normally those risk factors is where
it's at. Where it comes from again, it's from our
American lifestyle again, being sedentary, consuming ultra processed foods, consuming
beverages that contain a lot of sugar and additives. That
is the American diet. Unfortunately, so you do have to

(41:45):
do your part and try and steer clear from eating
and having a low activity level. It can be a
little cumbersome as a roadblocks a lot of times to that,
and you have to be a little bit smart with that.
But certainly that is what you have to do, especially
as you get older, you do have to invest more
time into your health by eating the right foods and

(42:07):
eliminating the foods that generate inflammation and generate obesity. Those
are the things that are fighting us and a lot
of times just the food is where it's at. So
thank you for joining us on the edition of this show.
Remember don't drink and drive. Drink some water and try
to interduw some vegetables in your diet. Thank you, have
a good weekend. Take care