May 20, 2025 • 42 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, Hey, what's up in and at radio listeners Southeast Texas.
Welcome to another edition of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour.
This is your weekly host, Doctor Levine, coming to you
live from the studios of KLVII here in Beaumont, Texas,
cross street from Parkdi Mall, taking your phone calls and
trying to answer your questions about health care and medicine
(00:20):
as I see it, to give you some clarity on
all sorts of topics and points of confusion that come
up throughout the day, the week, the month, and the
year as it pertains to your health and yes, trying
to stay alive as long as possible, healthy that is
not sick and going to a bunch of doctor's offices
(00:41):
and taking a bunch of meds and going to the
hospital often, but actually enjoying your time as you get old,
especially when you retire. A lot of my patients, yes,
they are in retirement mode. They're dreaming about retirement. What's
that want to look like? They have worked twenty thirty years,
(01:02):
They've put in their time, if you will, and now
it's time to relax and kick back and enjoy life.
And what does that look like? And what do you
do every day. I ask a lot of my patients
who are retired, what do you do every day? Just
getting an idea of what the folks are doing out
(01:24):
there who have all day long to decide what they're
going to do. And retirement can be an issue trying
to find something to do. As you see a lot
of the professional athletes who retire, and that can be
a struggle to find purpose. Because, yeah, it seems fun that. Yeah,
(01:47):
I don't have to get up and go to work
and listen to the boss and have deadlines and have
to repeat over and over again. I can just imagine
and dream whatever where I want and what if I
want to do it, I'll do it. If I want
to stay up lay, if I want to go out
of town. Yeah, it seems cool. And I think for
(02:09):
most retirements, doing is something that is planned such that
when it does happen, everything is in order. Unfortunately, sometimes
patients and citizens and people have to take early retirements.
Something happened to the job, something happened to their body,
some unfortunate circumstances in their lives that cause them to
(02:33):
do an early retirement. So they're not quite ready for
unemployment and not having sort of a steady cash flow
coming in on a regular basis to pay for things
that you need, bills, food, all the extras that come
along with being alive, car trips, things that can be
(02:58):
a problem. But the one thing I like to enforce
or remind them is, yeah, you're retired now. Now you
have a lot of time to really, in my opinion,
focus on you focus on your health, because man, if
you're sick, I don't know. I just don't think it's
(03:18):
I don't think it's fun and it's not worth it
in my opinion. I mean, I can understand when you're
working and just maybe couldn't find the time to do
the right things that would be eating the right things
and staying physically active. It was just a struggle and
so you never got around to it. And yes, you
(03:39):
gain weight, and you did develop some chronic issues. You
took your manage, you went to your appointments, but that
was about it. That that was as much as you
could do. And I do see that people struggle trying
to find solutions to their problems out there. And but
(04:00):
when you're retired and you don't have that burden of
a job and the responsibilities, a lot of times the
kids r out of the house, they are doing their
own thing, they're making their own money, they have their
own lives, they have their own families. A lot of
times and you find yourself sort of empty with nothing
(04:20):
to do, empty nest syndrome, as they call that, when
the emotional side of that kicks in and you realize
sort of the situation you're in, and really it boils
down to having a purpose. What is my purpose now
that I don't have to work for anyone. I don't
have to generate this steady income for a family that's growing,
(04:45):
that needs things. People are doing things. They need me
to commit to this position so I could then go
out and help them achieve some of their goals and
their dreams. All that's over now, just sitting in a
room by yourself with silence, no one's asking you to
(05:06):
do anything anymore, and it can really rock you at
your core in terms of what am I supposed to do?
What is my purpose now? And if again, you didn't
give a lot of thought. You know, some retiree struggle
with that and it takes some time to find out.
I mean for the first what three to six months,
(05:27):
It's it's fun, right, just waking up and doing whatever
you want. But after a while it gets a little boring,
a little old, and you want more, just like we
all do, right, We want to feel like we matter
in the world, like I am somebody and I'm important
(05:47):
to somebody. And again, after you've cleaned the house ten
thousand times and rearrange your furniture ten thousand times, cut
the grass edged, cars are working, the cars are clean. Yeah,
there's sometimes lowliness, but for the most part. Yeah, you
(06:07):
want to focus on your health because if you're unhealthy,
it's going to make retirement not so fun, you know,
because it does put a lot of physical limitations on you.
Just a lot of Southeast Texans again, I ask my
patients all this all that, you know, what are you
doing now? It's a lot of Southeast Texans going on cruises.
Galveston is just down the way and there's a main
(06:31):
port for these cruise lines, and so a lot of
Southeast Texans are going cruising, multiple cruises a year. And
you know, if you have chronic medical problems, gotta take
a lot of mands that can be limiting. They have
medical personnel on these cruises. But listening to my patients,
(06:54):
it's not so easy to do, and I think it's
kind of expensive, to be honest with you. It's not
like it's part of the package. You have to pay
extra for it. And based on what I've been told,
it's not that cheap. It's a little expensive. And again,
these folks don't know you that well. And again you
are on a ship, so some services might not be
(07:14):
available to use services that you really need, and emergencies
can come up. But nonetheless, it's nerve wracking when you
have a lot of these medical issues. You take a
lot of mads, see a lot of doctors, and you're
thinking about going somewhere outside your zone. I get this
question all the time, Hey doctor, can we go here?
(07:36):
Can we go there? We just got to the hospital
for a surgery, maybe a medical event, And they want
to know if it's safe to step outside their zone
so that they can go on a trip, go on
a vacation, go to a family reunion, whatever it is
that was scheduled or plan before the crises happen. And
(07:58):
for the most part, if they're recovery occurred and patients
are sort of back to what we call their baseline,
meaning they can eat and drink. They can take care
of themselves, meaning they can dress undressed, take care of
their cleanliness, you know, brush their teeth, you know, wipe
(08:21):
themselves when going to the restroom, walking, I mean things
like that, these simple activities which we call a d
LS activities of daily living. That's an acronym used heavily
in the medical world, basically to describe whether or not
a patient is independent and can take care of them themselves.
(08:45):
And that's basically the purpose of going to the hospital
and being admitted is to try and get back to
a position of independence in terms of how you function.
And that's really the answer that I should say, Yeah,
that's the answer that I'm trying to figure out. When
(09:06):
patients asked me, can they go here or go there?
Can they again leave the medical community that is familiar
with them and vice versa, they're familiar with that medical
community and walk out, and you're now vulnerable to something happened.
You can have an exacerbation of your chronic medical disease
(09:27):
and again can open up some irregularity and some unknown
meaning you know where to go, Who's going to take
care of me? How do you do this? And I
think it can be planned better. I have known patients
who are on kidney dialysis machines that travel overseas and
travel out of town. And I had one patient who
(09:50):
went to Dubai. He found a Dallas's center there in Dubai,
and he traveled to Dubai to visit his who was
living there, and he received Dallas's in Dubai. You know, so,
I think it can be set up even if you're flying.
I think there's a way to alert the airline or
(10:13):
even the cruise line that I'm chronically ill. I have
these problems. I'm stable right now, I'm independent right now,
but I'm trying to forecast and get on top of
my issues. What if something happens, what's my response. I
think you can really research that right now with the computer,
(10:35):
talking with your travel agent, talking with these various entities
that these trips that you're going on. But even if
it's just you and your wife, or just you by
yourself or your family, and you just hopping in your
car going somewhere and it's going to take maybe a
day or two to get to this destination, that it
(10:56):
can be played. And what I tell most patients is
just have your information available even if it's a copy
of your doctor visits or your hospitalizations. Again, we've talked
before about how information is being shared more and more
or patients have access electronically to their charts and their
(11:20):
labs and X rays with various computer programs. My Chart
is popular in the Houston area with big, big medical
systems like KIMD Anderson and Methodists. They have a my
chart application, So patients are coming to the office now
sharing a lot of that information. They have doctors that
(11:42):
they go to in Houston or Baytown and they're getting
on their apps while they're in the rooms as they're
talking to me and sharing a lot of that information
just looking on the app. So I mean a lot
of that stuff you can do if you're in your
car and you're traveling within Texas or outside of Texas
(12:04):
in the United States, and you can get on the
internet and access a lot of that information so that
no matter what practitioner you are seeing, it can be
retrieve and they can sort of take care of you
in terms of knowing what medicines you're on, maybe what
procedures you've had done recently, even the names of the doctors,
(12:28):
the phone numbers of the doctors, you know, so that
you don't feel like you're isolated. Yes, you're not in Boma, Texas,
you're not in put Author, but you can access your
information and you can hand that to another practitioner. And again,
high pertension is hypertension, no matter if you're here or
if you're some other country Russia, South America, it's hypertension.
(12:51):
And if a UTI is a UTI here is somewhere
else heart failure, it's the same, it really is. And
the medical training is global in terms of what they
teach healthcare professionals, the ideas about how to manage and
what it looks like and how to work it up.
These concepts are global, meaning you know, they're pretty much
(13:17):
treating these diseases, the stuff that's common in this country, hypertension, pneumonia, UTIs, bleeding, whatever, headaches,
whatever the case may be. They're doing similar things in
other parts of the world. So that yeah, I mean
these doctors, same test, same books, same knowledge. Yeah, they
may have some little bits and pieces that are a
(13:40):
little bit different, or maybe the process of how to
get to these practitioners and how you're managed may be
a little bit different, but for the most parts, antibiotics
or antibotics, the same stuff, and Beaumont same stuff, and
other parts of the United States and the same thing
(14:00):
going out of the country China, Russia, Asia, South America,
Dubai wherever. It's the same stuff for the most part,
So that you know with the computers and just let's
say you want to just get some paper and record
and copy all your paperwork and you put it in
a binder or a folder and you take it with
(14:22):
you or you take pictures on your phone so you
can show these practitioners what medicines you're on, what procedures
you've had, I mean, all that stuff. That information you
can take with you so that you don't have to
feel like, hey, I got to stay here and never
leave because I guess and that's how I got to
(14:43):
this point. Is in retirement, the main thing is enjoying
it because you've paid your dues, you've worked all these
hours and these days, and you've made so many sacrifices
to get to this point. Now it's all you. It's
all about you, right hired, Now it can just be
me and no kids, no boss, no job, no nothing,
(15:06):
just whatever I want to do. And it theoretically it's
a cool position to be in. But if you're unhealthy,
I don't know, it's not fun. You know, you're spending
all your money on meds and procedures and doctor visits
and just being sick all day and that's just just
(15:26):
not fun. So try to got to do your part,
especially when you get out, and now you can invest
more time into doing the right things. And if you
listen to my show, you know what those things are.
Right number one, eat, right, number two, exercise a little bit.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six kalfy. I
want one hundred three three zero o kff. I'll be
back in two minutes. All right, welcome back to the Doctor,
(15:56):
Living and Medical. Our phone lines to open eight none
six kalfy. I won one hundred three three zero kylviya.
Talking about retirement. Yes, the world is open up now
it can sleep late. I don't have to go anywhere.
What do I do? Yeah, my purposes are said, say,
my focus is certainly, Hey man, you need to be healthy,
(16:17):
and now you can focus on you and do those
things you've been wanting to do. And again, not that
you have to do it all day, but just a
few changes go a long, long way as it pertains
to just being healthy and taking care of yourself so
you can enjoy your retirement and live as long as possible,
but healthy. It's always enjoyable to me to interact with
(16:40):
my patients who are in their deep eighties or their
early nineties and everything is working. I mean they are,
and I tell them to their face they are superstars.
They are rare individuals to get to eighty six eighty
seven ninety three and they walk in there talking and
(17:04):
everything's working on minimal medicines. I love it. And I
asked them a lot of questions because I'm actually trying
to give all citizens that I interact with some pointers
as to how can you increase your chances of getting
to eighty six eighty seven ninety three functioning, fully functioning
(17:26):
with minimal medication, with minimal prescription medication. Another big topic
in our country is the enormous expense of prescription medications.
It's something we haven't really tackled. We have so many
issues in the country, but that's one that we haven't
tackled yet. That's a can that we keep kicking down
(17:47):
the street. But I think at some point we need
to address that. Just the enormous expense of really good medications.
Even you talk about these diabetes metas since that are
extremely popular right now because of its ability to help
patients control their weight and even lose weight, which a
(18:09):
good goal of any individual who is overweight is to
maybe maintain the weight and not keep gaining because some
people gain gain, gain gain all the time, but at
least gets some weight loss going, even if it's a
ten pound weight loss or a fifteen pound weight loss.
Patients do feel that when they can drop some weight
(18:30):
and decrease their waste circumference, and it's almost like they
struck gold, they flew to the moon and back without
any injury or harm, or they discovered something that has
never been discovered before. You can sit on their faces
and it is as such a big sigh of relief.
(18:54):
If they can just get the weight loss going, it
seems like such an eternity and this undiscoverable solution as
to how am I going to get this weight off
of me? I mean totally lost. Maybe they've tried this
and tried that, and they're just they just give up,
(19:17):
you know, because they've bought into maybe some ideas about
how to lose weight and they've tried these ideas, whether
it be a certain diet or a certain lifestyle, or
maybe some supplements they saw on the TV or their
social media, or they have a weight loss contest at
(19:38):
their job and they tried the lettuce diet or the
cucumber diet or whatever diet that they tried, and nothing budgets.
Maybe they even joined a gym and they've committed to
going to the gym. They go to the gym every day,
they do their exercises, they got a trainer, I mean,
(19:59):
they've It's like, hey, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to
do that I'm being told of nothing's budget. I'm still
the same weight, which again, for sometimes when I look
at that is that's kind of a good thing. We
don't want you to get bigger, and you don't necessarily
have to be skinny to necessarily be healthy. I know
you hear a lot of what I say online is
(20:20):
keep your weight down, and that is true in my experience. Again,
talking to my octogenarians and these patients of mine that
get up to their deep eighties and nineties, they typically
are of a good weight or not overweight. Rarely does
someone get into their nineties and they're overweight. I just
don't see it. And all that means to me is
(20:43):
if you are above your normal weight, then more than
likely it will short circuit your life. Somehow we'll find
a way. And again we've talked a lot about how
weight gain is a what we call pro inflammatory condition,
(21:05):
meaning that your body is in an inflammatory state when
you're overweight. I know most people don't feel like they
want to feel when they're overweight. They kind of get
used to it and accept that this is the way
it's going to be. And then if somehow they get
some weight down, however that happens, they feel the difference. Physically,
(21:27):
they don't hurt as much, they seem to be lighter
on their feet. They can certainly bend down and tie
their shoes. If something drops to the ground. This is
when I hear all the time, Right, something fell and
it's on the floor. How am I going to pick
that up? It seems like a far distance between the
table and the floor. And because again as we lose
(21:50):
a lot of our mobility and our flexibility and our
leg strength as we get older, picking up an object
on the floor can be tricky, right, because you have
to bend down, you have to lean over and again,
because of these issues I mentioned, you might fall over.
You might not have enough strength to get up. You've
(22:10):
you've all seen those commercials I called I Can't get up,
that commercial sort of advertising, the alert buttons and the
loarm buttons, which have gotten a lot better these days.
Talking with family members about how to take care of
loved ones who are home by themselves. Right, we see
a lot of this elderly patients that still live by
(22:34):
themselves in a house. They probably have issues with their
ADLs right, their activities of daily living, but they can
kind of manage it. And families are respectful of their
elders for the most part. Hey grandma, mom, Okay, you
still want to live by yourself? Okay, I don't want
to take you independence. I'll leave it alone. There might
(22:55):
be a little bit scared about it. There are some
things that are happening that they're concerned about that put
them at high risk for injuring themselves. How do you
manage that? How do you respect your mother? Fathers wish
to be by themselves, and again, just putting them in
a facilities, in my opinion, not the best answer. And
(23:16):
so you want to keep them at home and allow
their independence. But how do you manage that risk and
be right there for them. Well, these necklaces and these
wristbands that have the button, these are good ideas. And
I've also promoted maybe a camera system. Those are more
affordable and getting more sophisticated, where you can be plugged in.
(23:41):
You can be on your cruise. You know, you're retired
in a fantoly let's go on a cruise, right, So
you can be on your cruise, hop on your computer
or your phone using one of these camera systems, and
you can see what's going on with grandma and mother, right,
And you can even talk to them through some of
(24:02):
these applications, they can talk back to you. I mean,
you're there electronically, even though you're in the Bahamas or
wherever you want to be, you can be there and
even alert the nine to one one system. I mean,
it's getting better and better to be able to do
some of these things for a loved one. But I
(24:24):
do sort of promote the use of some of these
applications for elderly patients that are out there. But normally, yeah,
you've got to stay at a certain weight, and these
medications the diabetes medicines, injectibles. You know them as no zipic, Wygovi, Munjaro,
(24:47):
zep bound, trulicity, rebelsis. I mean, man, it's a bunch
of them, and we find that the insurance companies still
give patients a hard time. Doesn't make sense to me
a lot of times why that medication is not just
accessible to everyone that needs it, or especially if you
(25:09):
have the right diagnosis. But even in that situation, we
still see some issues with getting the medications to you.
And this medication, again, as I've mentioned it before, sort
of checks off all the boxes that we look for
for medication to help you lose weight. Something you can
take long term, right, because a lot of the medicines
(25:31):
we have now you can only take them for a
short term. They just sort of peter out, they lose
their effectiveness, and even though you're taking the medication, nothing's happening.
And the side effect profile is very reasonable. Yes, some
patients who have issues with it, but for the most part,
it's a very reasonable side effect profile, meaning that for
(25:54):
most of the time you can tolerate it for a
long period of time and it just helps keep the
weight off and gets you in a sort of a
weight deficit where you're losing. And again, it's such an
enjoyable sight when patients come say I've lost weight, I've
(26:14):
lost weight. I mean, they are excited, they are proud
that they found something that helps them lose weight because
it's been a frustrating journey with the weight gain. How
do I get it down? Still living in the same
environment of the fast food industry and all the sugary
beverages and all the food that's affordable that tends to
(26:36):
be more obesogenic, the things that you get at the stores.
I mean, you have to pay bills, you have to
balance out your budget, and if certain foods are more expensive,
you tend to stay away from those, and you tend
to gravitate towards things that are least expensive. And as
it stands now, the more processed versions of foods tend
(27:02):
to be the least expensive. They come in larger quantities,
you can normally store them for a long period of time.
You don't have to prepare them right now. They're just
made for convenience and made for mass consumption, if you will.
But the food industries and the food scientists again have
had to alter the food you see that term GMO, right,
(27:27):
genetically modified GMO. That's an acronym that means that the
product has been tampered with. Maybe tamper is a wrong term,
aggressive term, but it's been altered to the point so
that it can be placed in a package in a
frozen food section at Walmart or wherever you shop, and
(27:49):
it can sit there for two to three months and
not spoil. And then eventually you pick it up bringing
to the to the house, and you don't eat it immediately, right,
You might throw it in a deep freezer and it
might sit there for another two or three months, and
then finally, finally there's an opportunity. You're hungry, all the
stores are closed, and you need something quick fast because
(28:12):
everyone's staring at you because they're hungry. Nobody can go out. Boom,
you break it out, put it in your air fryer,
and you blast it and then voi la. You have
your meal and a lot of Americans eat like that.
Not trying to be bad, right, just what's affordable. It
(28:34):
matches sort of my position. I can't run out to
the store for four or five days and get fresh
food and fresh produce and have the time to cook it.
And prepare it, and no, let me just pop open
a bag, put it in my air fryer, and ten
minutes I got a meal that I'm full after I
eat it. But what's in that stuff? Right? A lot
(28:57):
of experts are woof, they're just raising awareness about this stuff.
But sometimes you don't have any options. But nonetheless, this
stuff tends to promote weight gain. All these food items
that we're eating, they promote weight gain, and the experts agree.
You know, if you want to be healthy, you're retired,
(29:19):
you probably need to spend some time cooking more and
eating fresh food. Yes, you don't have anything to do, right, Yeah,
go to the store, Visit the produce manager, visit the
meat person. A lot of times you get a relationship
with these guys. They chop you meat up the way
you like it, and they tell you when the fresh
(29:42):
stuff is coming in, and you spend a little time
just preparing your own food and doesn't have to be difficult.
Which is what I've learned is normally, when you're eating
fresh and you want to be healthy, food preparation normally
is not that extensive because and my understanding is most
(30:04):
of the food that you eat is pretty much ready
to be eaten. It's ready to go. It's nature's food.
Maybe you might season it, chop it up a little bit,
combined with a few things, maybe some olive oil, a
little dressing, whatever the case may be. But for the
most part, when you buy it, you can eat it
right there. And the more of cooking and processing, normally,
(30:29):
the nutrition value tends to go down, down, down, because
of all the things you're doing to it that you
don't have to do that, And so most people can
learn some basic techniques about how to buy food, chop food,
and combine food and then eat it, and it's super
super fresh, and most people tend to feel better. They
(30:49):
can feel the difference when they finally break that cycle
and start eating their way and figure out a method
and a routine of how to do that again. Retirement
so much opportunity. Phone lines are open eight nine six Kalvy.
I won one hundred three three zero Kalva. I'll be
back in two minutes, all right, welcome back to talk
(31:26):
to me in medical. Our phone lines are open eight
nine six kV I won eight hundred three three zero
klvy talking about retirement. How healthy you need to be
to enjoy it got to do your part, and now
you can. Now you have a lot of time on
your hands to do that, and it's got to start
with eating their proper diet. And again, a lot of
(31:48):
confusion out there, but a few of these basic ideas
which I feel like most experts agree on. In terms
of how you get there, I guess it's a personal
and up to you. But certainly try to eat as
fresh as possible, cook that food yourself, and sort of
limit the consumption of packaged food that is maybe frozen
(32:11):
or is canned. I think frozen foods are pretty good.
In terms of frozen vegetables, those are pretty good. But
just try to get the fresh ingredients yourself, the fresh items,
and cook as yourself, just because there's less of the
sort of industrial ingredients in these foods that they have
(32:32):
to put in the foods and beverages and food items
to preserve it so that it's still the same sort
of food whenever you decide to consume it. Right, And then, yeah,
a little exercise goes a long way. And again talking
with my octogenarians and my patients that are in their eighties,
(32:52):
and I was they're not really doing a whole ton
of exercising, to be honest with you. But again, they're
not eating a lot. That's one thing. They're not sitting
around snacking on chips and cookies and eating ice cream
every day. They're typically not big drinkers of alcohol consumption,
definitely not smoking, so you know, they're sticking to the water,
(33:15):
coffee tea. They might eat out at restaurants, but maybe
once a day, small meals, and you know, trying to
stick to the vegetables. This is, you know what I'm
seeing out there. Certainly are palate changes as we get older.
And you know, there are some of my patients as
(33:37):
they get older, they tend to redevelop that sweet tooth
and they like a lot of those pastries and cookies
and things like that. And it's a struggle with the
family because the family is trying to get them to
eat the green beans and the spinaches and all that,
and the mothers and they just don't want that. But
they are hitting up the crackers and the cookies, you know,
(33:58):
just like we did when we're younger. So I have
seen that trend as well, and you have to sort
of sit down and figure out how much you want
to fight that, just because it can be challenging, just
like when you're when kids, you know, they just want
the sweet stuff. They don't want any of that healthy stuff.
And what can you do to convince them to consume
(34:19):
the healthy stuff versus just leaving them alone and letting
them be. I get that question a lot. Maybe someone
has these chronic issues, hard long kidney problems, maybe cancer,
and they're just wanting to eat the pastries and they'll
eat donuts, they'll eat ice cream. Yeah, they'll eat all
(34:42):
that stuff, but they just don't want to consume the
meat and vegetables and all that stuff. We know that
it is good for us, you know, it's just not
a whole lot. A lot of times you can do
about that, especially someone who's up in age and their
life expectancy is really not that long. Even under the
(35:02):
best circumstances, you sort of know that the time is
running out. And I guess my position on that is
you want them to enjoy it, just because even if
they ate correctly every day, how much time is that
really going to give them, a lot of experts would
say probably not a whole lot. So go ahead and
(35:23):
let them enjoy themselves and let them consume those items
that you know are not healthy for you. Certainly not
someone who's in their forties and they just got diagnosed
with maybe some blood pressure, heart disease, And there's certainly
a lot of living left to do, and you have
to prioritize eating and exposing yourself to the good things
(35:44):
that are good for you and avoiding things that are
not so good for you in order to live healthy right,
especially when you retire. So that can be a big
challenge to a family when that does happen. But I
do see that a lot when trying to sit down
and eat that meal, but be healthy when you get
(36:07):
in reto retirement. A lot of different ways to do
with these medications. Again, Dobby's medicines have helped patients achieve that,
and yes, most elder patients are a candidate for these medications,
normally at a lower level. Because the big side effect
is gastro intestinal sort of upset. It slows sort of
the function of your gios system down, So that is
(36:30):
already a part of aging in and of itself. A
lot of people get into constipation, nausey issues, abdominal bloating
just sort of the gios system is not as healthy
as it once was, and these medications why Goovi Munjaro,
can be mads that exacerbate these issues. So again the
(36:51):
saying that we have start low and go slow really
means if for patients sixty five and above, their systems
are more sensitive to just about every thing, including prescription medications.
If a elderly person comes in, yes that maybe they
are overweight, they go man, they just want to lose
the weight. They want to feel better. I want to
(37:11):
have more energy, less pain. We will try these medications
if they can afford it, but we normally just give
them a very low dose and have them stay on
it for a long period of time, and it can
introduce some weight loss. And again ten to fifteen pounds
is really all you need in most of those situations. Anyway,
we're going to our last break. Phone lines are opened
(37:33):
eight nine six klvy I one one hundred three three
zero kilovy. I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
welcome back to the Doctaly Metaga. Phone lines are open.
We have Michael from Pasadena. I can help you.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Oh, good morning, doctor Levine. I just wanted to thank
you for all you do and I've had my four
are my second ablation, and I've been I've been I've
been well for four weeks and I hope that I
(38:13):
say that way, but UH, anyway, I just wanted to
just let you know we're out here listening and and
just because we don't call you, we're all listening to
you and wish wish you well and thank you for
what you do.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
My pleasure, Michael appreciate. I'm glad you're doing well with
the ablation you've had. You said several ablations.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
This is my second one last year October thirty if
I had one, uh, and then I found out in
more about March sixth that it failed. And he went
back in there and did ablation again. UH. And he
(38:59):
had to go to the left side of the heart
this time. And he showed me the diagrams and everything,
the lesson that I had, what he did, showed me
where he bleeded the heart. He had the actual visit, UH,
the actual photographs of his work, and it was very interesting.
(39:26):
But he seemed to be optimistic and think it would last.
And I hope it does. I'm working out and walking
and doing well. I just worry that you know that
it might fail. And but he seems to think it
will work, so anyway, and thanks for asking.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So did he say that he wouldn't do another one
if it failed?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
He said he he didn't say that. No, he did
not say that. He thinks I will never have to
do it again and as far and that's my only
problem with my heart is the electrical system, the prombing
(40:17):
system is pouring to my other doctor is good. So
I'm knocking on wood.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
All right, Very good brother.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Thank thank you again for everything you do.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
We appreciate you absolutely, Michael. I appreciate that. And yeah,
we're here every Saturday morning between eight and nine again
trying to get you some information and clarity about staying
alive and trying to be as health as possible. But
things do come up, and the medical community is there
(40:52):
to try and help you, and with the plethora of
medical practitioners that are there trying to make things right,
but we don't know everything and we don't solve every
patient's problems. And sometimes even after a hospitalization and multiple
labs and scans and doctors talking with you walk out
(41:14):
of the hospital without a diagnosis. That that's it's something
that we don't like either as practitioners. I mean we
spend all this time studying and going to conferences and
getting degrees and certifications, and again it does give us
some insight into a lot of things, but there are
(41:35):
scenarios that come up. We don't have good solutions, and
we don't have good answers, and sometimes we are unable
to make patients feel better after being in the hospital
for a week two days a month. So it is challenging,
but we are certainly trying to achieve that every encounter,
(41:56):
every day, and certainly this is the genesis of the show.
Oh and gif there's a topic you want to hear
about it talk about Please let us know. You can
call the office three four seven, three six two one
four nine, or you can call the radio station and
leave that message with us. Give it to Jim. Thank
you for joining us on the edition of the show.
(42:16):
Don't drink and drive, Eat some vegetables, drink water. See
you next time.
All, Hey, what's up in and at radio listeners Southeast Texas.
Welcome to another edition of the Doctor Levine Medical Hour.
This is your weekly host, Doctor Levine, coming to you
live from the studios of KLVII here in Beaumont, Texas,
cross street from Parkdi Mall, taking your phone calls and
trying to answer your questions about health care and medicine
(00:20):
as I see it, to give you some clarity on
all sorts of topics and points of confusion that come
up throughout the day, the week, the month, and the
year as it pertains to your health and yes, trying
to stay alive as long as possible, healthy that is
not sick and going to a bunch of doctor's offices
(00:41):
and taking a bunch of meds and going to the
hospital often, but actually enjoying your time as you get old,
especially when you retire. A lot of my patients, yes,
they are in retirement mode. They're dreaming about retirement. What's
that want to look like? They have worked twenty thirty years,
(01:02):
They've put in their time, if you will, and now
it's time to relax and kick back and enjoy life.
And what does that look like? And what do you
do every day. I ask a lot of my patients
who are retired, what do you do every day? Just
getting an idea of what the folks are doing out
(01:24):
there who have all day long to decide what they're
going to do. And retirement can be an issue trying
to find something to do. As you see a lot
of the professional athletes who retire, and that can be
a struggle to find purpose. Because, yeah, it seems fun that. Yeah,
(01:47):
I don't have to get up and go to work
and listen to the boss and have deadlines and have
to repeat over and over again. I can just imagine
and dream whatever where I want and what if I
want to do it, I'll do it. If I want
to stay up lay, if I want to go out
of town. Yeah, it seems cool. And I think for
(02:09):
most retirements, doing is something that is planned such that
when it does happen, everything is in order. Unfortunately, sometimes
patients and citizens and people have to take early retirements.
Something happened to the job, something happened to their body,
some unfortunate circumstances in their lives that cause them to
(02:33):
do an early retirement. So they're not quite ready for
unemployment and not having sort of a steady cash flow
coming in on a regular basis to pay for things
that you need, bills, food, all the extras that come
along with being alive, car trips, things that can be
(02:58):
a problem. But the one thing I like to enforce
or remind them is, yeah, you're retired now. Now you
have a lot of time to really, in my opinion,
focus on you focus on your health, because man, if
you're sick, I don't know. I just don't think it's
(03:18):
I don't think it's fun and it's not worth it
in my opinion. I mean, I can understand when you're
working and just maybe couldn't find the time to do
the right things that would be eating the right things
and staying physically active. It was just a struggle and
so you never got around to it. And yes, you
(03:39):
gain weight, and you did develop some chronic issues. You
took your manage, you went to your appointments, but that
was about it. That that was as much as you
could do. And I do see that people struggle trying
to find solutions to their problems out there. And but
(04:00):
when you're retired and you don't have that burden of
a job and the responsibilities, a lot of times the
kids r out of the house, they are doing their
own thing, they're making their own money, they have their
own lives, they have their own families. A lot of
times and you find yourself sort of empty with nothing
(04:20):
to do, empty nest syndrome, as they call that, when
the emotional side of that kicks in and you realize
sort of the situation you're in, and really it boils
down to having a purpose. What is my purpose now
that I don't have to work for anyone. I don't
have to generate this steady income for a family that's growing,
(04:45):
that needs things. People are doing things. They need me
to commit to this position so I could then go
out and help them achieve some of their goals and
their dreams. All that's over now, just sitting in a
room by yourself with silence, no one's asking you to
(05:06):
do anything anymore, and it can really rock you at
your core in terms of what am I supposed to do?
What is my purpose now? And if again, you didn't
give a lot of thought. You know, some retiree struggle
with that and it takes some time to find out.
I mean for the first what three to six months,
(05:27):
It's it's fun, right, just waking up and doing whatever
you want. But after a while it gets a little boring,
a little old, and you want more, just like we
all do, right, We want to feel like we matter
in the world, like I am somebody and I'm important
(05:47):
to somebody. And again, after you've cleaned the house ten
thousand times and rearrange your furniture ten thousand times, cut
the grass edged, cars are working, the cars are clean. Yeah,
there's sometimes lowliness, but for the most part. Yeah, you
(06:07):
want to focus on your health because if you're unhealthy,
it's going to make retirement not so fun, you know,
because it does put a lot of physical limitations on you.
Just a lot of Southeast Texans again, I ask my
patients all this all that, you know, what are you
doing now? It's a lot of Southeast Texans going on cruises.
Galveston is just down the way and there's a main
(06:31):
port for these cruise lines, and so a lot of
Southeast Texans are going cruising, multiple cruises a year. And
you know, if you have chronic medical problems, gotta take
a lot of mands that can be limiting. They have
medical personnel on these cruises. But listening to my patients,
(06:54):
it's not so easy to do, and I think it's
kind of expensive, to be honest with you. It's not
like it's part of the package. You have to pay
extra for it. And based on what I've been told,
it's not that cheap. It's a little expensive. And again,
these folks don't know you that well. And again you
are on a ship, so some services might not be
(07:14):
available to use services that you really need, and emergencies
can come up. But nonetheless, it's nerve wracking when you
have a lot of these medical issues. You take a
lot of mads, see a lot of doctors, and you're
thinking about going somewhere outside your zone. I get this
question all the time, Hey doctor, can we go here?
(07:36):
Can we go there? We just got to the hospital
for a surgery, maybe a medical event, And they want
to know if it's safe to step outside their zone
so that they can go on a trip, go on
a vacation, go to a family reunion, whatever it is
that was scheduled or plan before the crises happen. And
(07:58):
for the most part, if they're recovery occurred and patients
are sort of back to what we call their baseline,
meaning they can eat and drink. They can take care
of themselves, meaning they can dress undressed, take care of
their cleanliness, you know, brush their teeth, you know, wipe
(08:21):
themselves when going to the restroom, walking, I mean things
like that, these simple activities which we call a d
LS activities of daily living. That's an acronym used heavily
in the medical world, basically to describe whether or not
a patient is independent and can take care of them themselves.
(08:45):
And that's basically the purpose of going to the hospital
and being admitted is to try and get back to
a position of independence in terms of how you function.
And that's really the answer that I should say, Yeah,
that's the answer that I'm trying to figure out. When
(09:06):
patients asked me, can they go here or go there?
Can they again leave the medical community that is familiar
with them and vice versa, they're familiar with that medical
community and walk out, and you're now vulnerable to something happened.
You can have an exacerbation of your chronic medical disease
(09:27):
and again can open up some irregularity and some unknown
meaning you know where to go, Who's going to take
care of me? How do you do this? And I
think it can be planned better. I have known patients
who are on kidney dialysis machines that travel overseas and
travel out of town. And I had one patient who
(09:50):
went to Dubai. He found a Dallas's center there in Dubai,
and he traveled to Dubai to visit his who was
living there, and he received Dallas's in Dubai. You know, so,
I think it can be set up even if you're flying.
I think there's a way to alert the airline or
(10:13):
even the cruise line that I'm chronically ill. I have
these problems. I'm stable right now, I'm independent right now,
but I'm trying to forecast and get on top of
my issues. What if something happens, what's my response. I
think you can really research that right now with the computer,
(10:35):
talking with your travel agent, talking with these various entities
that these trips that you're going on. But even if
it's just you and your wife, or just you by
yourself or your family, and you just hopping in your
car going somewhere and it's going to take maybe a
day or two to get to this destination, that it
(10:56):
can be played. And what I tell most patients is
just have your information available even if it's a copy
of your doctor visits or your hospitalizations. Again, we've talked
before about how information is being shared more and more
or patients have access electronically to their charts and their
(11:20):
labs and X rays with various computer programs. My Chart
is popular in the Houston area with big, big medical
systems like KIMD Anderson and Methodists. They have a my
chart application, So patients are coming to the office now
sharing a lot of that information. They have doctors that
(11:42):
they go to in Houston or Baytown and they're getting
on their apps while they're in the rooms as they're
talking to me and sharing a lot of that information
just looking on the app. So I mean a lot
of that stuff you can do if you're in your
car and you're traveling within Texas or outside of Texas
(12:04):
in the United States, and you can get on the
internet and access a lot of that information so that
no matter what practitioner you are seeing, it can be
retrieve and they can sort of take care of you
in terms of knowing what medicines you're on, maybe what
procedures you've had done recently, even the names of the doctors,
(12:28):
the phone numbers of the doctors, you know, so that
you don't feel like you're isolated. Yes, you're not in Boma, Texas,
you're not in put Author, but you can access your
information and you can hand that to another practitioner. And again,
high pertension is hypertension, no matter if you're here or
if you're some other country Russia, South America, it's hypertension.
(12:51):
And if a UTI is a UTI here is somewhere
else heart failure, it's the same, it really is. And
the medical training is global in terms of what they
teach healthcare professionals, the ideas about how to manage and
what it looks like and how to work it up.
These concepts are global, meaning you know, they're pretty much
(13:17):
treating these diseases, the stuff that's common in this country, hypertension, pneumonia, UTIs, bleeding, whatever, headaches,
whatever the case may be. They're doing similar things in
other parts of the world. So that yeah, I mean
these doctors, same test, same books, same knowledge. Yeah, they
may have some little bits and pieces that are a
(13:40):
little bit different, or maybe the process of how to
get to these practitioners and how you're managed may be
a little bit different, but for the most parts, antibiotics
or antibotics, the same stuff, and Beaumont same stuff, and
other parts of the United States and the same thing
(14:00):
going out of the country China, Russia, Asia, South America,
Dubai wherever. It's the same stuff for the most part,
So that you know with the computers and just let's
say you want to just get some paper and record
and copy all your paperwork and you put it in
a binder or a folder and you take it with
(14:22):
you or you take pictures on your phone so you
can show these practitioners what medicines you're on, what procedures
you've had, I mean, all that stuff. That information you
can take with you so that you don't have to
feel like, hey, I got to stay here and never
leave because I guess and that's how I got to
(14:43):
this point. Is in retirement, the main thing is enjoying
it because you've paid your dues, you've worked all these
hours and these days, and you've made so many sacrifices
to get to this point. Now it's all you. It's
all about you, right hired, Now it can just be
me and no kids, no boss, no job, no nothing,
(15:06):
just whatever I want to do. And it theoretically it's
a cool position to be in. But if you're unhealthy,
I don't know, it's not fun. You know, you're spending
all your money on meds and procedures and doctor visits
and just being sick all day and that's just just
(15:26):
not fun. So try to got to do your part,
especially when you get out, and now you can invest
more time into doing the right things. And if you
listen to my show, you know what those things are.
Right number one, eat, right, number two, exercise a little bit.
Phone lines are open eight nine to six kalfy. I
want one hundred three three zero o kff. I'll be
back in two minutes. All right, welcome back to the Doctor,
(15:56):
Living and Medical. Our phone lines to open eight none
six kalfy. I won one hundred three three zero kylviya.
Talking about retirement. Yes, the world is open up now
it can sleep late. I don't have to go anywhere.
What do I do? Yeah, my purposes are said, say,
my focus is certainly, Hey man, you need to be healthy,
(16:17):
and now you can focus on you and do those
things you've been wanting to do. And again, not that
you have to do it all day, but just a
few changes go a long, long way as it pertains
to just being healthy and taking care of yourself so
you can enjoy your retirement and live as long as possible,
but healthy. It's always enjoyable to me to interact with
(16:40):
my patients who are in their deep eighties or their
early nineties and everything is working. I mean they are,
and I tell them to their face they are superstars.
They are rare individuals to get to eighty six eighty
seven ninety three and they walk in there talking and
(17:04):
everything's working on minimal medicines. I love it. And I
asked them a lot of questions because I'm actually trying
to give all citizens that I interact with some pointers
as to how can you increase your chances of getting
to eighty six eighty seven ninety three functioning, fully functioning
(17:26):
with minimal medication, with minimal prescription medication. Another big topic
in our country is the enormous expense of prescription medications.
It's something we haven't really tackled. We have so many
issues in the country, but that's one that we haven't
tackled yet. That's a can that we keep kicking down
(17:47):
the street. But I think at some point we need
to address that. Just the enormous expense of really good medications.
Even you talk about these diabetes metas since that are
extremely popular right now because of its ability to help
patients control their weight and even lose weight, which a
(18:09):
good goal of any individual who is overweight is to
maybe maintain the weight and not keep gaining because some
people gain gain, gain gain all the time, but at
least gets some weight loss going, even if it's a
ten pound weight loss or a fifteen pound weight loss.
Patients do feel that when they can drop some weight
(18:30):
and decrease their waste circumference, and it's almost like they
struck gold, they flew to the moon and back without
any injury or harm, or they discovered something that has
never been discovered before. You can sit on their faces
and it is as such a big sigh of relief.
(18:54):
If they can just get the weight loss going, it
seems like such an eternity and this undiscoverable solution as
to how am I going to get this weight off
of me? I mean totally lost. Maybe they've tried this
and tried that, and they're just they just give up,
(19:17):
you know, because they've bought into maybe some ideas about
how to lose weight and they've tried these ideas, whether
it be a certain diet or a certain lifestyle, or
maybe some supplements they saw on the TV or their
social media, or they have a weight loss contest at
(19:38):
their job and they tried the lettuce diet or the
cucumber diet or whatever diet that they tried, and nothing budgets.
Maybe they even joined a gym and they've committed to
going to the gym. They go to the gym every day,
they do their exercises, they got a trainer, I mean,
(19:59):
they've It's like, hey, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to
do that I'm being told of nothing's budget. I'm still
the same weight, which again, for sometimes when I look
at that is that's kind of a good thing. We
don't want you to get bigger, and you don't necessarily
have to be skinny to necessarily be healthy. I know
you hear a lot of what I say online is
(20:20):
keep your weight down, and that is true in my experience. Again,
talking to my octogenarians and these patients of mine that
get up to their deep eighties and nineties, they typically
are of a good weight or not overweight. Rarely does
someone get into their nineties and they're overweight. I just
don't see it. And all that means to me is
(20:43):
if you are above your normal weight, then more than
likely it will short circuit your life. Somehow we'll find
a way. And again we've talked a lot about how
weight gain is a what we call pro inflammatory condition,
(21:05):
meaning that your body is in an inflammatory state when
you're overweight. I know most people don't feel like they
want to feel when they're overweight. They kind of get
used to it and accept that this is the way
it's going to be. And then if somehow they get
some weight down, however that happens, they feel the difference. Physically,
(21:27):
they don't hurt as much, they seem to be lighter
on their feet. They can certainly bend down and tie
their shoes. If something drops to the ground. This is
when I hear all the time, Right, something fell and
it's on the floor. How am I going to pick
that up? It seems like a far distance between the
table and the floor. And because again as we lose
(21:50):
a lot of our mobility and our flexibility and our
leg strength as we get older, picking up an object
on the floor can be tricky, right, because you have
to bend down, you have to lean over and again,
because of these issues I mentioned, you might fall over.
You might not have enough strength to get up. You've
(22:10):
you've all seen those commercials I called I Can't get up,
that commercial sort of advertising, the alert buttons and the
loarm buttons, which have gotten a lot better these days.
Talking with family members about how to take care of
loved ones who are home by themselves. Right, we see
a lot of this elderly patients that still live by
(22:34):
themselves in a house. They probably have issues with their
ADLs right, their activities of daily living, but they can
kind of manage it. And families are respectful of their
elders for the most part. Hey grandma, mom, Okay, you
still want to live by yourself? Okay, I don't want
to take you independence. I'll leave it alone. There might
(22:55):
be a little bit scared about it. There are some
things that are happening that they're concerned about that put
them at high risk for injuring themselves. How do you
manage that? How do you respect your mother? Fathers wish
to be by themselves, and again, just putting them in
a facilities, in my opinion, not the best answer. And
(23:16):
so you want to keep them at home and allow
their independence. But how do you manage that risk and
be right there for them. Well, these necklaces and these
wristbands that have the button, these are good ideas. And
I've also promoted maybe a camera system. Those are more
affordable and getting more sophisticated, where you can be plugged in.
(23:41):
You can be on your cruise. You know, you're retired
in a fantoly let's go on a cruise, right, So
you can be on your cruise, hop on your computer
or your phone using one of these camera systems, and
you can see what's going on with grandma and mother, right,
And you can even talk to them through some of
(24:02):
these applications, they can talk back to you. I mean,
you're there electronically, even though you're in the Bahamas or
wherever you want to be, you can be there and
even alert the nine to one one system. I mean,
it's getting better and better to be able to do
some of these things for a loved one. But I
(24:24):
do sort of promote the use of some of these
applications for elderly patients that are out there. But normally, yeah,
you've got to stay at a certain weight, and these
medications the diabetes medicines, injectibles. You know them as no zipic, Wygovi, Munjaro,
(24:47):
zep bound, trulicity, rebelsis. I mean, man, it's a bunch
of them, and we find that the insurance companies still
give patients a hard time. Doesn't make sense to me
a lot of times why that medication is not just
accessible to everyone that needs it, or especially if you
(25:09):
have the right diagnosis. But even in that situation, we
still see some issues with getting the medications to you.
And this medication, again, as I've mentioned it before, sort
of checks off all the boxes that we look for
for medication to help you lose weight. Something you can
take long term, right, because a lot of the medicines
(25:31):
we have now you can only take them for a
short term. They just sort of peter out, they lose
their effectiveness, and even though you're taking the medication, nothing's happening.
And the side effect profile is very reasonable. Yes, some
patients who have issues with it, but for the most part,
it's a very reasonable side effect profile, meaning that for
(25:54):
most of the time you can tolerate it for a
long period of time and it just helps keep the
weight off and gets you in a sort of a
weight deficit where you're losing. And again, it's such an
enjoyable sight when patients come say I've lost weight, I've
(26:14):
lost weight. I mean, they are excited, they are proud
that they found something that helps them lose weight because
it's been a frustrating journey with the weight gain. How
do I get it down? Still living in the same
environment of the fast food industry and all the sugary
beverages and all the food that's affordable that tends to
(26:36):
be more obesogenic, the things that you get at the stores.
I mean, you have to pay bills, you have to
balance out your budget, and if certain foods are more expensive,
you tend to stay away from those, and you tend
to gravitate towards things that are least expensive. And as
it stands now, the more processed versions of foods tend
(27:02):
to be the least expensive. They come in larger quantities,
you can normally store them for a long period of time.
You don't have to prepare them right now. They're just
made for convenience and made for mass consumption, if you will.
But the food industries and the food scientists again have
had to alter the food you see that term GMO, right,
(27:27):
genetically modified GMO. That's an acronym that means that the
product has been tampered with. Maybe tamper is a wrong term,
aggressive term, but it's been altered to the point so
that it can be placed in a package in a
frozen food section at Walmart or wherever you shop, and
(27:49):
it can sit there for two to three months and
not spoil. And then eventually you pick it up bringing
to the to the house, and you don't eat it immediately, right,
You might throw it in a deep freezer and it
might sit there for another two or three months, and
then finally, finally there's an opportunity. You're hungry, all the
stores are closed, and you need something quick fast because
(28:12):
everyone's staring at you because they're hungry. Nobody can go out. Boom,
you break it out, put it in your air fryer,
and you blast it and then voi la. You have
your meal and a lot of Americans eat like that.
Not trying to be bad, right, just what's affordable. It
(28:34):
matches sort of my position. I can't run out to
the store for four or five days and get fresh
food and fresh produce and have the time to cook it.
And prepare it, and no, let me just pop open
a bag, put it in my air fryer, and ten
minutes I got a meal that I'm full after I
eat it. But what's in that stuff? Right? A lot
(28:57):
of experts are woof, they're just raising awareness about this stuff.
But sometimes you don't have any options. But nonetheless, this
stuff tends to promote weight gain. All these food items
that we're eating, they promote weight gain, and the experts agree.
You know, if you want to be healthy, you're retired,
(29:19):
you probably need to spend some time cooking more and
eating fresh food. Yes, you don't have anything to do, right, Yeah,
go to the store, Visit the produce manager, visit the
meat person. A lot of times you get a relationship
with these guys. They chop you meat up the way
you like it, and they tell you when the fresh
(29:42):
stuff is coming in, and you spend a little time
just preparing your own food and doesn't have to be difficult.
Which is what I've learned is normally, when you're eating
fresh and you want to be healthy, food preparation normally
is not that extensive because and my understanding is most
(30:04):
of the food that you eat is pretty much ready
to be eaten. It's ready to go. It's nature's food.
Maybe you might season it, chop it up a little bit,
combined with a few things, maybe some olive oil, a
little dressing, whatever the case may be. But for the
most part, when you buy it, you can eat it
right there. And the more of cooking and processing, normally,
(30:29):
the nutrition value tends to go down, down, down, because
of all the things you're doing to it that you
don't have to do that, And so most people can
learn some basic techniques about how to buy food, chop food,
and combine food and then eat it, and it's super
super fresh, and most people tend to feel better. They
(30:49):
can feel the difference when they finally break that cycle
and start eating their way and figure out a method
and a routine of how to do that again. Retirement
so much opportunity. Phone lines are open eight nine six Kalvy.
I won one hundred three three zero Kalva. I'll be
back in two minutes, all right, welcome back to talk
(31:26):
to me in medical. Our phone lines are open eight
nine six kV I won eight hundred three three zero
klvy talking about retirement. How healthy you need to be
to enjoy it got to do your part, and now
you can. Now you have a lot of time on
your hands to do that, and it's got to start
with eating their proper diet. And again, a lot of
(31:48):
confusion out there, but a few of these basic ideas
which I feel like most experts agree on. In terms
of how you get there, I guess it's a personal
and up to you. But certainly try to eat as
fresh as possible, cook that food yourself, and sort of
limit the consumption of packaged food that is maybe frozen
(32:11):
or is canned. I think frozen foods are pretty good.
In terms of frozen vegetables, those are pretty good. But
just try to get the fresh ingredients yourself, the fresh items,
and cook as yourself, just because there's less of the
sort of industrial ingredients in these foods that they have
(32:32):
to put in the foods and beverages and food items
to preserve it so that it's still the same sort
of food whenever you decide to consume it. Right, And then, yeah,
a little exercise goes a long way. And again talking
with my octogenarians and my patients that are in their eighties,
(32:52):
and I was they're not really doing a whole ton
of exercising, to be honest with you. But again, they're
not eating a lot. That's one thing. They're not sitting
around snacking on chips and cookies and eating ice cream
every day. They're typically not big drinkers of alcohol consumption,
definitely not smoking, so you know, they're sticking to the water,
(33:15):
coffee tea. They might eat out at restaurants, but maybe
once a day, small meals, and you know, trying to
stick to the vegetables. This is, you know what I'm
seeing out there. Certainly are palate changes as we get older.
And you know, there are some of my patients as
(33:37):
they get older, they tend to redevelop that sweet tooth
and they like a lot of those pastries and cookies
and things like that. And it's a struggle with the
family because the family is trying to get them to
eat the green beans and the spinaches and all that,
and the mothers and they just don't want that. But
they are hitting up the crackers and the cookies, you know,
(33:58):
just like we did when we're younger. So I have
seen that trend as well, and you have to sort
of sit down and figure out how much you want
to fight that, just because it can be challenging, just
like when you're when kids, you know, they just want
the sweet stuff. They don't want any of that healthy stuff.
And what can you do to convince them to consume
(34:19):
the healthy stuff versus just leaving them alone and letting
them be. I get that question a lot. Maybe someone
has these chronic issues, hard long kidney problems, maybe cancer,
and they're just wanting to eat the pastries and they'll
eat donuts, they'll eat ice cream. Yeah, they'll eat all
(34:42):
that stuff, but they just don't want to consume the
meat and vegetables and all that stuff. We know that
it is good for us, you know, it's just not
a whole lot. A lot of times you can do
about that, especially someone who's up in age and their
life expectancy is really not that long. Even under the
(35:02):
best circumstances, you sort of know that the time is
running out. And I guess my position on that is
you want them to enjoy it, just because even if
they ate correctly every day, how much time is that
really going to give them, a lot of experts would
say probably not a whole lot. So go ahead and
(35:23):
let them enjoy themselves and let them consume those items
that you know are not healthy for you. Certainly not
someone who's in their forties and they just got diagnosed
with maybe some blood pressure, heart disease, And there's certainly
a lot of living left to do, and you have
to prioritize eating and exposing yourself to the good things
(35:44):
that are good for you and avoiding things that are
not so good for you in order to live healthy right,
especially when you retire. So that can be a big
challenge to a family when that does happen. But I
do see that a lot when trying to sit down
and eat that meal, but be healthy when you get
(36:07):
in reto retirement. A lot of different ways to do
with these medications. Again, Dobby's medicines have helped patients achieve that,
and yes, most elder patients are a candidate for these medications,
normally at a lower level. Because the big side effect
is gastro intestinal sort of upset. It slows sort of
the function of your gios system down, So that is
(36:30):
already a part of aging in and of itself. A
lot of people get into constipation, nausey issues, abdominal bloating
just sort of the gios system is not as healthy
as it once was, and these medications why Goovi Munjaro,
can be mads that exacerbate these issues. So again the
(36:51):
saying that we have start low and go slow really
means if for patients sixty five and above, their systems
are more sensitive to just about every thing, including prescription medications.
If a elderly person comes in, yes that maybe they
are overweight, they go man, they just want to lose
the weight. They want to feel better. I want to
(37:11):
have more energy, less pain. We will try these medications
if they can afford it, but we normally just give
them a very low dose and have them stay on
it for a long period of time, and it can
introduce some weight loss. And again ten to fifteen pounds
is really all you need in most of those situations. Anyway,
we're going to our last break. Phone lines are opened
(37:33):
eight nine six klvy I one one hundred three three
zero kilovy. I'll be back in two minutes. All right,
welcome back to the Doctaly Metaga. Phone lines are open.
We have Michael from Pasadena. I can help you.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Oh, good morning, doctor Levine. I just wanted to thank
you for all you do and I've had my four
are my second ablation, and I've been I've been I've
been well for four weeks and I hope that I
(38:13):
say that way, but UH, anyway, I just wanted to
just let you know we're out here listening and and
just because we don't call you, we're all listening to
you and wish wish you well and thank you for
what you do.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
My pleasure, Michael appreciate. I'm glad you're doing well with
the ablation you've had. You said several ablations.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
This is my second one last year October thirty if
I had one, uh, and then I found out in
more about March sixth that it failed. And he went
back in there and did ablation again. UH. And he
(38:59):
had to go to the left side of the heart
this time. And he showed me the diagrams and everything,
the lesson that I had, what he did, showed me
where he bleeded the heart. He had the actual visit, UH,
the actual photographs of his work, and it was very interesting.
(39:26):
But he seemed to be optimistic and think it would last.
And I hope it does. I'm working out and walking
and doing well. I just worry that you know that
it might fail. And but he seems to think it
will work, so anyway, and thanks for asking.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
So did he say that he wouldn't do another one
if it failed?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
He said he he didn't say that. No, he did
not say that. He thinks I will never have to
do it again and as far and that's my only
problem with my heart is the electrical system, the prombing
(40:17):
system is pouring to my other doctor is good. So
I'm knocking on wood.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
All right, Very good brother.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Thank thank you again for everything you do.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
We appreciate you absolutely, Michael. I appreciate that. And yeah,
we're here every Saturday morning between eight and nine again
trying to get you some information and clarity about staying
alive and trying to be as health as possible. But
things do come up, and the medical community is there
(40:52):
to try and help you, and with the plethora of
medical practitioners that are there trying to make things right,
but we don't know everything and we don't solve every
patient's problems. And sometimes even after a hospitalization and multiple
labs and scans and doctors talking with you walk out
(41:14):
of the hospital without a diagnosis. That that's it's something
that we don't like either as practitioners. I mean we
spend all this time studying and going to conferences and
getting degrees and certifications, and again it does give us
some insight into a lot of things, but there are
(41:35):
scenarios that come up. We don't have good solutions, and
we don't have good answers, and sometimes we are unable
to make patients feel better after being in the hospital
for a week two days a month. So it is challenging,
but we are certainly trying to achieve that every encounter,
(41:56):
every day, and certainly this is the genesis of the show.
Oh and gif there's a topic you want to hear
about it talk about Please let us know. You can
call the office three four seven, three six two one
four nine, or you can call the radio station and
leave that message with us. Give it to Jim. Thank
you for joining us on the edition of the show.
(42:16):
Don't drink and drive, Eat some vegetables, drink water. See
you next time.
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