Dr Levine's Medical Hour 05/18/2024--topics include weight loss and the effects of acetaminophen

• 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

(00:00):
All right. Welcome. Internet radiolisteners south East Texas, Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome, Welcome to other edition ofthe Doc Lavine Medical Hour. I'm
your host, Doctor Lavine, comingto you live from the students of k
l V I here in Beaumont,Texas, cross street from Parkdale. I
got to go to Parkdale Mall andtake a look at it. I hadn't
been there in so long. Ijust want to see what it looks like

(00:26):
compared to when I was growing uphere in Beaumont, Texas, when it
was the place to be and itwas crowded and it was bustling, and
I just I just I think I'mgonna go there, just kind of check
it out, just reminisce maybe later, but anyway, we are here to
answer questions about healthcare and medicine,hoping to clarify or simplify maybe some confusion

(00:53):
you might have about your health orsomething you've heard about health and wellness.
I don't know that word a lot, wellness. That's a big sort of
buzzword that is used in that industry. Health and wellness. You want to
be well, you want to livewell, live well, and do well

(01:14):
and just be healthy, have energy, have no pain, never go to
the doctor, don't take any medicines, live forever, never go to the
hospital. Stuff like that. We'rehere to try and help answer some questions
for you, try and make iteasier, because it is super confusing out
there, even for doctors like mewho do it every day. There are

(01:38):
some confusing aspects of health care andsome contradictions in what you hear and what
you see and what other healthcare professionalsrecommend. I know that's super frustrating for
you guys, the fact that medicalpractitioners sometimes say different things with the same
information. I know that's super frustrating. Well, sorry about that. It's

(02:00):
just that, you know, we'reall human. We all have different aspects
and different ideas about the same pieceof information. But sometimes it's a good
thing. You get a fresh approachand you get reassessed. You know.
That's a big term of mind andone that I've been promoting for the past
couple of years. Got to getreassessed. If you're not better, if

(02:23):
you're not doing well, go backin and let somebody else take a look
at you, or go back toyour previous healthcare professional, let them do
another reassessment. Phone lines are openeight nine to six ko I one one
hundred and three to three zero kovyI. So, as you know,
I'm here every Saturday. If youdon't know, I try to be here

(02:45):
every Saturday. Sometimes I'm not,but every now and then we have guests,
not many, but every now andthen we have guests. And this
morning we do have one of ourregular guests that comes period to share some
of her knowledge about her position inthe healthcare industry, healthcare world, just

(03:08):
so that yes, you can clarifysome things as well. As you know,
there's just the medicine side. Youget your meds, you talk to
your here, to your healthcare professional, and then there's sort of this administrative
side just paying copays and office policiesand visits and paying bills and things like

(03:30):
that that is very important, verycritical to the healthcare industry and gaining more
and more sort of market share orimpact on how things happen. So,
without further ado, we'd like towelcome missus Levigne back to the show.
It's been a while, it's beena while. Good morning to everyone.

(03:53):
It's your Mica on I think soyou can hear. Yeah, it's been
a while and I'll tell you why. I actually stay home and listen to
your radio show every Saturday. It'svery much number one fan. Yeah,
and so I hate sweet I hateto come and interrupt that, you know,
because it's it's a lot of information, and I don't get to see

(04:15):
that side of you. I don'tget to hear that side of you because
I really i'm your wife. Yeah, of course I don't get to.
So it's I enjoy listening. Iknow I'm a nerd, but it's you
know whatever, Yeah, you nerd, A big nerd. That's why I
like you, though, because you'llunderstand all that stuff and make it easier
for me. So I always appreciatethat. Yeah, it's it's I enjoy

(04:38):
it. So and then I foundvery interesting one of your topics yesterday as
we were sitting there doing your Liveat five was sugar. I thought that
might be a little interesting to chatabout. Yeah, so I thought maybe
we could talk about that hidden sugars. As you know, the the public

(05:00):
does not know that our son haswent on a huge healthcare journey. He
had a big beard and mustache andhe's a big guy. And so we
were going to an event in Januaryand I asked him to please shave his
face and to not show up racialhair. I don't know, you know
what I mean. He's nothing wrongwith facial hair. Some people like it,

(05:24):
actually, I know. But he'shas such a face. And you
know, he was my little boyand he grew up with no hair on
his face, and when I wouldlook at him, it was just so
different, you know, even thoughhe's thirty four years old. Thirty three
years old. I have more facialhair now, and I'm just lazy.
I just don't shave as often asI used to. So I know you
love that, you know that thoseprickly hairs now my face hate it.

(05:48):
The razor blades, razor blades.But back to Nicholas, he's lost one
hundred pounds and now he knows andhe's educated himself on food and what's in
food and calories and all these things. And he came to me the other
day and he's like, Mom,you'll never believe what I have discovered.

(06:11):
And he's like, you know thesefoods that say no sugar, low fat,
low calorie, have hidden sugar.Yeah. So, and then you
spoke about it yesterday on your Liveat five taping and so I thought it
would just be hidden, masked HIunder different names. Yeah, high fruit,
toast CORNCRT. So I just thoughtthat might be interesting for the public

(06:35):
to know who are struggling with losinga few pounds or trying to change their
diet or their lifestyle. Maybe,I mean, maybe it would be helpful
information. Yeah, every we tryto give out some information all the time.
I try to keep it simple.I think it's presented in a very

(06:55):
confusing, sometimes complex manner to thegeneral public, and it's still to them
what it is they need to door try to do, because it's hard
out there to try and be healthy. It really is. Just there's so
many obstacles in my opinion to achievehealth in this country. Shouldn't be,
but there is. And that's youknow why we come every Saturday trying to

(07:17):
answer some questions about that. Butyeah, the question yesterday was I think
artificial sweetness, which one better?Yeah? Which is there one that's better
than the other? With artificial sweetenersand you sort of know them as monk
fruit sweet and low what are theother ones? High fructose corn syrup.

(07:45):
There's one in a yellow package.Yeah, I can't remember the name.
Of that, but this has sortof been the response of the food industry
to provide foods and beverages that havesweetness splenda splenda. Yes, that's the
other one. There's a couple ofothers out there, if you can remember

(08:07):
the names of those that it's notsugar, but these are sort of manufactured
processed chemicals if you will, thatonce ingested, generates sweet taste or a
sweet experience, it's not sugar,and ideally or theoretically it's it's not supposed

(08:28):
to spike sugar because it's not sugar. Right. We have a lot of
these in diet beverages. This iswhat's in things like sugar free ice cream
and sugar free pies. And you'restarting to see sugar free candy, like,
how can that be Reese's Pieces?Are these these candies that you once

(08:48):
knew that had sugar? Now,oh it's no, it's zero sugar.
That's what they say in the package. So it's basically synthetic artificial processed sweetenersch
or just chemicals that, once ingested, Hey, I taste sweet just like
candy, just like cake. Andthe idea is like, oh, we've

(09:09):
discovered something that we can just eatthis all day and not gain weight and
be healthy and oh my god,that's the best thing in the world,
right, to be able to eatice cream every day but still be healthy
and your sugar stay normal. Andthat was the whole idea behind that.
And I guess this question was,well, which one is better? You

(09:30):
know, Splendi stevia, that's anotheryea. I think that's a natural monk
fruit. All these different cane sugar, but that's from sugar cane. Yeah,
that's sort of the real deal,real stuff. Which one is better?
Which one should I consume? AndI think the idea And I think
that's a good question, right,because again, you're trying to be as

(09:54):
healthy as possible. How can Ido this but get away with it?
Because that's really kind of how Isee that. And you just have to
realize that there is no head tohead study medical study that says splenda is
better than stevie, is better thanmonk fruit, is better than whatever artificial

(10:16):
sweeteners out there. No one's goingto do that study. Number One,
studies are very tedious, very expensive, time consuming, and you might not
get the results you're looking for,So why even start that process? And
the way the laws are written andthe regulations with foods and that whole industry

(10:41):
is that they don't really really haveto do head to head studies. They
can sort of market it the waythey want to and it's all good.
You know, these are not badindustries. They're just trying to provide foods
and beverages that Americans will eat andconsume, and they're doing a great job
that. It's just at the endof the day, there really is no

(11:05):
research paper that says one is betterthan the other. The way I look
at that is again, most peopleare trying to be healthy, but in
the environment that we live in withall of this food available to us,
and the fact that hey, welike to eat that comfort food. We

(11:26):
grew up eating a pizzas, burgers, fries, hot dogs, hot dogs,
all that sort of comfort food,celebration food, if you will,
that we like to eat. Howcan I eat that and be healthy?
I mean that's really the quest ofa lot of our patients. And at

(11:48):
the end of the day, youjust have to understand that you just got
to eat better. I mean,you can't eat that and be healthy.
You just can't. And the foodand ust just trying to achieve that maybe
in several years they'll really discover it. You know, like we've been trying
to find medicines to help us loseweight, but we always have issues with

(12:13):
trying to shut down the appetite system. There's always these collateral damage issues that
we run into. And we've comeacross this new class of diabetes medicines that
is really popular right now. Youknow them as you know, zembic Munjaro
by Durian Rebelsis. There's a coupleother ones out there by Eta. These

(12:37):
are super popular now. These arealmost are becoming household names. People just
know it by name. And thecrazy thing is they've been out for a
long time. Again, I don'tknow why, all of a sudden it's
this huge popularity. But these medicinesare pretty good. I mean I like
using them, I like promoting them. You can take them long term.

(12:58):
But as I've mentioned before, there'salways issues with side effects with any particular
medicine that we might prescribe. There'salways a possibility of that, and you're
starting to hear some conversation about somepotential side effects of the medication, which
when you start taking a medicine ata high level, and it starts to

(13:18):
spread throughout the general population and you'regetting a larger and larger number of people
taking this particular product, you're goingto start hearing some side effects. You
know, when they research these medicines, they it's normally a very limited number
of people that they can research,and so they're not necessarily going to hit
all the potential side effects when theydo research. But when it enters the

(13:43):
general population and more people get exposedto the product, and yeah, you
will start to see some unforeseen issueswith the medication no matter what it is,
and it just takes time to figurethat stuff out. But it's typically
not anything life threatening. And asyou know, with these diabetes medicines,
the ozimbic, the baidunon Monjaro rightBelses, it kind of impacts your gas

(14:11):
intestinal system, slows it down alittle bit so that your appetite is less
and then when you eat, youfeel more satisfied a lot faster, so
at the end of the day you'rejust eating less food. But patients,
some patients are getting a lot ofgas intestinal upset, constanpation, bloating,
titus, nausea, dehydration. Somepeople have to get hospitalized and when they're

(14:35):
on this medication. I've had afew of my own patients. They get
hospitalized for these medicines. There's normallynot anything long term. It's just a
day or some hospital to get rehydrated, get on some nausea medicine, get
the medicinaita system, and you're backto baseline. So in the grand scheme
of things, I think it's agreat alternative. And we do promote and

(14:56):
we do have little weight loss programthat uses Is that right, What's how
does that work? In an office? It's a compounded from a pharmacy and
you come once a week and youget a shot and we weigh you and
we go over your diet and whatyou've been doing. And that's about it.
I mean, it's pretty simple.It's semaglue tide. It's a it's

(15:20):
a compounded version of ozimpic. Itnormally gives patients a little bit of energy,
makes them feel a little bit better. We have some B twelves and
things in there, some amino acidsthat kind of help boost your metabolism.
So it's a little it's the sameas oz well, let me see,

(15:41):
it's comparable to ozimpic. But wehave a few things in there that kind
of help out a little bit better, I guess for energy and for your
metabolism. Yeah, I think thatthe medicine is expensive if you don't have
the right diagnoses and we tried togive your prescription and you take to the

(16:03):
pharmacy, you have to have adiagnosis of diabetes, I believe to get
the medication. And even in thatsituation it can be kind of high.
It's like twelve hundred dollars or moreor more depending on your pharmacy and your
plan and the day and the hourwho's processing that. Yes, it seems

(16:26):
like the pricing of prescription medication thattheirs is all over the place. You
have to try different pharmacies. Butso we've basically partnered with a pharmacy here,
compound pharmacy that provides that same chemicalmedication at a much lower price.
Cash that you come in still alittle pricey, though, even though it's

(16:49):
it's much cheaper, it's still alittle pricey. Absolutely, But it is
very effective in my opinion, inhelping patients get some pounds off and keeping
it off to In my opinion isit's something that you can take long term
that has been some of the issueswith the medications over the years, is
it just sort of burns out.But this medication has some lasting power and

(17:14):
can I would say, get abouta good twenty to thirty pound weight loss
drop. What did Nick do onehundred yeah on did he take this medication
or he did not? He justdidn't recognize who he was once he shaved
his face and he was like,oh my gosh, who is this person
looking at me? And just startedon a journey of the first can't say

(17:37):
anything. The first so natural way. The first six months he changed his
diet. In the second half heincorporated exercise. And today I can tell
you he looks awesome. He almostlooks inorexic to me, because he's always
been a big, heavy guy.I mean he's what six foot two hundred
and eighty pounds, and so nowhe's still six foot but one hundred and

(18:02):
about one hundred and sixty pounds,and it's just so different to look at.
But he's healthier, he feels better. He loves to hike, fish,
he moves, he gets out,he walks. I mean to where
used to I would ask him todo something and he would fuss and moan
and groan, and that was onlybecause you know, he didn't feel good.
Moving was an effort. And sonow you know he feels great.

(18:30):
He has energy. He has toomuch energy. But that's good. I
mean, it's nice to see himhealthy and happy. That's what all moms
want to see. So I cancheck that box. Move on. Yeah,
that's what a lot of patients saywhen they lose weight, their energy
comes back. Yeah, he hasa lot of he sleeps better. And

(18:52):
a lot of my patients come inthey are overweight and they say, I
don't feel good, I'm tired,I hurt. We have Bob from Beaumount.
What's up? Hey, Good morningsir. First of all, good
morning to your other half, MissScelophane. Good morning doctor. Uh painting
medication? I got authoritis right me? I'm seventy two a diabetic. Uh

(19:19):
if I'm buying over the counter allwith see the menifin five hundred or just
the bottle next to it, scauseI see the medicine five hundred? What
is it? What is the bigdeal of it? But till they are
the same, better, worse anddifferent? Uh? Talana is a ceda

(19:41):
menafin. The the Menaphin is thegeneric name for OK and it's been around
for a long long time. Talanaal, aspirin, benadryl. These is some
stalwarts medications and it's I guess theway they advertise it's number one and prescribe
pain medicine by doctors, and Ithink it says that are that's the reality

(20:06):
because it's a relatively safe medication thatcan be used for various physical ailments like
fever pain, headache, joint pain, knee pain. So that's why it's
prescribed or recommend it because it iseffective and it's relatively safe. Over what

(20:29):
about with his diabetes and kidneys?You think it's yes, reading the label
is that to overdo like four thousandin a day in a twenty four hour
period. So you know what doesit do with the deliver If you get
too much talano, it basically burnsthe I'm just using that sort of a

(20:52):
generic term, but it inflames deliver. It injures the liver cells and can
cause liver failure because it's being injuredby the talanol metabolites that happen when you
consume a lot. Talanol has tobe processed and broken down and if you
get too much of the breakdown metabolitesof talanol in your bloodstream, it will

(21:17):
cause injury to the liver and causeliver failure. And that's that's not a
good thing when you get liver failed. And there is a term called talanol
toxicity, a cedamnifin toxicity. Yes, so more than just watch it what
you're saying, or just watch ittwo to four a day or six?
Maybe would there be something safer forhim to Yeah, I think that depending

(21:41):
on the dose of the cedamenfin thatyou purchased. Yet, it might be
six a day, four a day. It just depends. But four thousand
milligrams, if your liver is healthy, is the recommended maximum twenty four hour
amount. Are there some patients whomay take a little bit more periodically than
four thousand milligrams? Probably, butthe liver is pretty strong and nothing happens.

(22:08):
But certainly if you're consuming above thatpoint on a consistent daily basis,
you know, well, I tryto I try to get my wife hydra
codone. You hide them, butsupposed to be funny. Yeah, hydro
Codone is a narcotic and there aresome narcotic combinations that have hydro codone with

(22:33):
acetaminifit in it, and we callthose narco or talano four three telenol four
percoset. So there are a lotof those narcotic medicines that contain talanol with
it. Two different medicines, butagain just trying to achieve a certain level

(22:55):
of pain. And I'm not quitesure why that became popular to combine.
I think I take my type twococktail every day. I call it a
cocktail of sinjordy, Levo, thyroxin, matoprolol, and of course the stat
your diabetic, you gotta have astat What about interactions with those three or

(23:18):
four things. Yeah, I meanthat's a common combination cholesterol medicine, some
talonol periodically and the diabetes medicine.And for the most part, most people
tolerate that pretty well. But everynow and then, yes, you can
get into some adverse reaction problems whenyou start taking several meds. So that's

(23:41):
always a possibility, which is whyfor anyone who's taking medications more than two
we like to do lab work everyfour to six months just to make sure
that your body is tolerating it biochemicallyand normally, once you stop the metas
you do get into some adverse action, only once we stop the medicine,

(24:03):
all that goes away. Rarely doyou suffer permanent injury. It can happen,
but it's it's not I don't dotime all the time just to make
I love the walk exercise. Butthen you're going to catch catch twenty two
there that activates the authrotic clare up. So you know, I know there's

(24:26):
bicycle on the swimming and all thatstuff, but I just love the walk.
Jogging out of the question, butI love the walk. So thanks
for your answers that that that's whyme I don't do it all the time.
And I don't think this interaction isgoing to be a problem, right,
Yeah, No, it's a safemedicine and for the most for our
patients tolerated very well. And yeah, but if you have any problems,

(24:48):
obviously get some lab you know,get it checked out. But for the
most part, well, I injuredthe knee headed scot the aniscus back in
the day, but I know thatI know it pops now because there's no
fluid in there. I know thatanyway. Now, of course seventy two
that doesn't help absolutely, Yeah,keep your weight down, and that a

(25:11):
lot of times will help with theknees in the back and the symptoms of
our writer as when you keep yourweight down. Okay, great show,
Thanks for your appreciate it, Bob, have a good day. Appreciate the
phone. Come, we're going onour first break. Phone on to open
eight nine to six kV I wonone hundred three three zero kalovy. I'll
be back in two minutes. You'relistening to doctor Levine's Medical Hour on news

(25:33):
Talk five sixty klv I to jointhe conversation. Call eight nine six klv
I our eight hundred three three zeroklv I. All right, welcome back

(25:57):
to talk to your medical our phoneto open eight nine to six klvy I
won one hundred three to three zereokov I. Spending some time with missus
Lavigne this morning. She decided toroll out of bed. It was hard.
I don't know if it's the calendaryears that are flipping by, but
I used to be an early bird, like real early, like four thirty
five. Now I'm more of likea seven, seven, thirty, ten,

(26:22):
even ten. Yeah, I doubtthat land in bed all day.
Oh that's a good thing. Whatan awesome thing. Oh my god,
it's the best. So you saidsomething on our break. What did you
just say? Just such a profoundstatement. I said, the best sugar
is no sugar. Who can dothat? I do that? Who can

(26:45):
do that? That's hard? Allthis sugar around here in this country,
that's hard to do taste so good. I think I eat pretty much a
no sugar diet. Yeah, lowsugar, low sugar. I certainly don't
do artificial just because I try todo no sugar, try not to.

(27:11):
But yeah, I think the thingis, you know, we're trying to
We're trying to get away with eatingfoods and drinking beverages that we know probably
are not good for us. Butwe're trying to stay health At the same
time, we have to be aninspiration to a lot of people. Yeah,

(27:32):
we have to be role models,you know. I mean, I
think it's like, I'm gonna havea vegetable pizza, cauliflower crust, vegetables
right, califlower crust, which Ieat those when I want to splurge.
There's a new place in town.I'm gonna get you one today. No,
No, I'm good, I'm good. You say that until it shows

(27:53):
it's in the kitchen. I justcan't resist. I'm an eater, and
you know that. I hate that. You know. I went to college
and medical school with some friends thatthey could go all day and naturally and
just not eat. They're just noteaters. It's nothing. You played football
as well, so you were programmedto eat. Well. No, I
just love eating, I really do. And it was fun. Hey,

(28:15):
I was bonu, I know itwas. It was fun as an athlete
because you're you're running all day,right, You're just exercising and running all
day, so your body can toleratea lot of the calories you need them.
And my god, we weren't eatinga lot like what was when I
can remember on game when uh,you know, when we would have a

(28:37):
game, game would be on Saturday, we would go to a hotel even
though the game was in town.As you guys know went to Rice and
played football Rice for five years.We would even if we had a game
in town, we would spend Fridaynight at a hotel, normally in the
medical center like Hilton or something likethat. And we would get there,

(28:59):
I'd say out four or five o'clockwould show up, and then six was
six six thirty was dinner, dinnerin the morning, No, no,
six at night. And it wasa huge spread, right, just pastaize,
meat, vegetables, ice cream,this inflammation, inflammation, inflammation.
Yeah, but you're running and justlifting waves and just running all the time.

(29:26):
So that would be dinner, andyou'd pick out. It'd be about
six o'clock, and then about ninethirty you'd get a snack, right,
and the snack would be like ahamburger, two cookies, milk, something
like that. I said nine thirty, right, and I would eat it

(29:48):
all and then you'd wake up aboutseven. Did your tummy ever heard?
No? About seven am? Havebreakfast right, whole spread, bacon,
eggs, pancakes, waffles, juice, milk. Right. And if the
game was in the evening, let'ssay it was a night game, like

(30:10):
six pm, you'd have like adinner or some sort of meal prior to
going to the game. Another episodeof eating pasta vegetables. I'm just all
just eat, eat, eat,eat, eat all the time. I
loved it. But anyway, thereis no good sugar out there. You

(30:33):
just have to understand that you haveto limit your consumption of sugar. That's
where the sun did. He droppeda ton of weight. Congratulations to him.
It's it's tough to find that solutionto lose weight. A lot of
Americans are struggling with that, andthat's why these medicines like Ozimpic, this
whole class of diabetes medicines is verypopular right now. And again I do

(30:56):
try to promote that if you havetype of diabetes, I try to incorporate
that. For me, I tryto incorporate that into their regimen to get
them on these mads just to helpcontrol that eating machine that we have out
there, so that we can reduceour calories. I think I mentioned maybe
a week or two ago that honestly, looking back, I'm in my fifties

(31:19):
now looking back, we just eattoo much in this country. We just
eat too much. I just thinkwe eat too frequent. I mean,
and portion control, yes, that'sanother big issue. But I think we
just we just eat too much.And that if you can figure out a
strategy to just eat less and becomfortable with that, I think that's the

(31:44):
hard part. Is all this deliciousfood around, but I'm not going to
eat it as much. I'm goingto eat less. That's just that.
That's the hard part, and that'show Yeah, discipline, that's that's the
hard part. But that's how thesemen medicines really help, just because when
patients get on these medicines, theycan go a full day without eating and

(32:07):
feel very comfortable doing that. Theydon't feel bad, and that's why these
medicines work very well. And thenthey start getting some weight loss, pressure
goes down, sugar goes down,they start feeling better. Sometimes they come
off all their meds, you know, like most of them, blood pressure
medicine, they come off of mostof the medications. Absolutely. We see

(32:29):
that a lot with patients who havebariatric surgery, and the most popular procedure
right now is called a gastric sleeve, which we've had a few different versions
of baratric surgery over the years.There's still the full bore, full blown

(32:50):
gastric bypass, but they're really reroutingyour intestine so that you cannot absorb the
food that you are eating and justsort of bypass as is the area that
absorbs your nutrition and your cash andintesline system. So even though you're eating,
it's not being absorbed and just goesright. Can you go to the
restroom fairly quickly after. Patients canhave a lot of different physical symptoms after

(33:14):
that, which is why it's hadsome issues over the years, which is
why a lot of people are afraidto do that procedure. They have really
worked on it and have gotten itdown to the point where the complications are
reduced and there's more success than failureor complications. But the long term is

(33:37):
just vitamin deficiencies just because they don'tabsorb the things that they're supposed to absorb,
and then they don't want to takethe vitamins that's needed to replace that.
How do you feel about the vitaminreplacement? Yeah, I think if
you need vitamin replacement, then byall means take it. I think again,
patients are overweight, sedentary, don'tfeel well, they're busy, got

(34:00):
a lot on their plate. They'relooking for something fast and quick and sort
of straightforard simple to resolve the physicalsymptoms that they have. And there's sort
of this conception out there that it'sa vitamin deficiency. I'd have to research
and figure out where that came from. But for the most part, that

(34:22):
is I think not as common.But nonetheless, patients are trying to help
themselves they buy these products, theygo to the stores, they get them
online. They start ingesting all theseliquids and pills and tablets to feel better.
I'm fine with that. If itmakes you feel better about all means,

(34:43):
consume it. But most of thetime there's really no true vitamin deficiency
per se, and you're sort ofspinning your wheels. There's actually several things
that you need to do on aregular basis to be healthy and feel energetic,
but certainly weight loss is one ofthose. Everyone, I shouldn't say
everyone. Most people who lose weightsay that they just their energy is back,

(35:07):
and that's the most exciting aspect.A lot of times of weight losses,
you get energy, you just feelgood, and they also are more
confident in themselves, you know,and they look better. Yeah, that's
always buy some new clothes, youknow, that's always fun. Anyway.
Phone lines open eight nine six kalvy. I want one hundred three three zero
kalv I. We'll be back intwo minutes. You're listening to Doctor Levine's

(35:32):
Medical Hour on news Talk five sixtyklv I to join the conversation, call
eight nine six klv I are eighthundred three three zero klv I, all
right, welcome back, dok tome medical our phone lines I open eight
nine six kvy I wont one hundredthree three zero kov guy, man,

(35:55):
you are talking really fat. Ithink goes by so fast at the end
of the show. Anyway, youhad some you wanted to talk about something
real fast, real fast. ButI can't talk as fast as you.
So a few weeks ago I wentto this luncheon. It was a mental
health matters luncheon in Beaumont, andlots of people were there, lots of

(36:19):
organizations were there. And something thatI found very interesting that I took away
from that meeting or that luncheon isif you know someone that's in a mental
health crisis, rather they're at harmto themselves, to others, or maybe
they're just having an episode, youcan call nine eight eight and there's trained

(36:40):
professionals to take those calls that willhelp you rather than nine to one one.
Nine to one one is more ofa medical emergency, and so I
thought that was important to get outthere to let people know because there are
things that go on that are anine to eight eight call, not a
nine to one one call. Andthis hospital is in the process of getting

(37:01):
this huge grant sign from the state, and they're going to revamp fan In
Hospital, which is if anybody knowswhat Fanning is, it's our mental health
hospital. They're going to do anoutpatient clinic. They're going to build that.
There's not one there that now thatI know of, and it's really
going to be state of the art. And so I really do want to
get myself involved in mental health andhelping people with that. I wished it

(37:27):
had a different name because it seemslike when you say someone is mentally ill,
you think about it in a negativeway. But it's really just a
brain I guess illness a disease,yeah, and just no different than high
pertension or high cholesterol or COPD.And so I just that's going to be

(37:50):
one of my little missions. Idon't have much time for missions, but
that will be one of the thingsthat I would like to get involved in.
So where you're going to be busy. There's a lot of mental illness
in our country, absolutely, andthis country has struggled in recognizing that it's
important to recognize it and hit ithead on and approach it and try to

(38:15):
give options to patients who are strugglingwith mental illness as cancer, diabetes,
hypertension, all these other physical medicalproblems out there. Mental illness is huge,
I mean just huge if you justfactor in depression, anxiety, anxiety,

(38:37):
Oh my god, it's huge inthis country. Some of it is
our own fault, but nonetheless,this is where we live and this is
what we're doing, and thankfully we'rehaving a healthier approach to that and just
understanding we really need to recognize thisand are for options to patients because families
are out there struggling trying to figureout what am I going to do with

(38:59):
this? And these are tense situations. Unfortunately, you know, the law
gets involved a lot because again there'sa lot of tense physical altercations, etc.
That just arise from someone having aacute crises mental crises, and if

(39:21):
there's some other option that they haveto help them, they can avoid some
of these really bad outcomes and altercationsthat occur as a result of that.
So in our clinic, we're screeningmore for depression, especially in the elder

(39:42):
population, which is very prevalent.Yeah, because in their generation, you
didn't talk about it, that's correct. You didn't talk about a lot.
I mean really, back in thosedays, yeah, it was just everything
was on your chest. You didn'ttalk about it. But it's okay to
talk about it because that's what we'rehere for, is to help them get
through it and to overcome it andlearn maybe coping skills or maybe modify behaviors

(40:07):
or I mean there's if we don'ttalk about it, we can't help them.
Well, I think, just likephysical medical problems, the ones that
I've mentioned a lot of times,you do need medical prescription therapy. And
again, because our awareness and ourtolerance for mental illness is getting better,

(40:28):
more people are coming out if youwill, and letting someone know I do
have a problem, I want toget help. Whereas before I think they
would try and keep that close tothe chest as much as possible just because
they didn't want anyone to know.They were just afraid of what will be
said to them, or if theywould be rejected getting jobs, relationships,

(40:50):
all that stuff. Now, becausewe have a better awareness and acceptance that
it is present, then more peopleare coming out help. And we do
have better medications, not just cleaner, the medicines are a lot better too.
The pharmacy company has stepped up andprovided us with medications which most of

(41:12):
these illnesses, which is what itis, a psychiatric illness, psychi disease,
it's a brain disease. Yes,it warrants medical therapy. Again,
when you're young, you can tryand fight it, and for the most
part you succeed. But once youstart having a family, job, stress,
stress, it becomes overwhelming and it'sokay to go in and say,

(41:36):
hey, I need something to helpme deal with how I feel mentally.
If you can't say it, writeit down on paper and hand it to
us. Sure, just so,I mean, because you know some people
are just so programmed to never sayanything. Well, I think writing it
out at your home, when it'scalm, you're by yourself, you can

(41:57):
think about what's happening. You know, there's so much pressure when you meet
your healthcare professional. Right, theycome in you on a clock. Thank
god, you don't wear a whitecoach anymore. Got you got what four
minutes to tell me your whole story? Get some medicine, not the door,
right. No, we try togive patients as much time as possible.
Not always, but we try todo that, and each patient is

(42:20):
different. So write it down andso you can have everything in front of
you, and that normally works outbetter, even if it's just medical stuff.
I've always encourage patients to write downthis stuff before they come in.
We get this lot in the hospitalas well, just a lot of stress,
a lot of distractions, and wemay not read it right there in
front of you, but we willtake it and we will read it.
I mean, I try to readthat stuff and prioritize it. I really

(42:45):
do. Sometimes we are under sometime constraints, especially in the middle of
the day. It starts getting alittle congested during the office, especially when
it's going to pour down rain outsideat three point thirty. Yeah, absolutely
getting dark there. It's like,oh my god, we're getting in the
snow and we gotta go home.Everybody's gotta get in flood. All right.

(43:06):
Thank you for joining me for anotheredition of the show. Thank you
missus Levine again, if we're comingto always enjoy your time here. I
hope everybody has an awesome weekend.Yes, don't drink and drive, drink
some water feat your vegetables. We'llsee you next week. Tick her