June 8, 2026 • 43 mins
- Listen Saturday mornings at 8 as Dr. Msonthi Levine discusses medical issues and takes your calls on News Talk 560 KLVI. Dr Levine is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. His office is located at 3080 Milam in Beaumont, Texas. He can be reached at 409-347-3621.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome South East Texas Internet radio listeners. This
is Doctor Levin or the Doctor Lavine Medical Hour, taking
your phone calls. I live at the studios of klv I,
Hear and Baum, Texas, cross the street from Parkdale Mall,
taking those phone calls and trying to help you stay alive.
I never get tired of listen to that anthem of
(00:23):
trying to stay alive, because that is the goal. Right
you're born, and you try to stay alive as long
as possible. But it does require some effort, a little
bit at least from you. Right protect your temple if
you will, and you have to do your part to
get there. And the genesis of the show is to
(00:44):
try and help you find your way to get their
phone lines are open eight nine to six klv I
one one hundred three three zero klv I would love
to hear from you, talk with you, and try to
help you figure out what your journey is because it's
normally different from the next person's journey. I know it's
human habit to sort of look across the aisle or
(01:07):
look across the street and see what someone else is doing.
But at the end of the day, a self assessment
self journey is really what. It takes a lot of
time to figure out what works for you. A lot
of these recommendations are general recommendations, even my own. At
the end of the day, you still have to kind
of figure out what works for you. But certainly some
(01:31):
basic things apply to just about everyone. And like I mentioned,
got it to your part can't just be simply going
to the store or going to the internet and getting
some sort of substance or liquid that you drink or
rub or inhale or you eat and then boila, you know,
(01:52):
I'm going to be healthy. I'm going to live forever.
I'm going to feel like I have energy, I don't
have any pain, my skin looks good, my hair looks good,
I function well. This one little tablet capsule, magic juice,
magic liquid that is going to just solve everything is
(02:17):
it's I hate to say it, but yeah, it's it's
kind of a fantasy in my opinion. You gotta do
a few basic things to get to that point. And
this is the genus of the show. Show give us
a call eight nine to six Kalva on eight hundred
three three zero kovy weather. It's good outside, no rain.
(02:39):
We had rain for a couple of days. No hurricanes though,
but we got the rain and little flooding, and hopefully
that's about it for now. Then we get some of
that heat as we get into our summer months. Man
time goes by so quickly. Spring went by like nothing,
(02:59):
and now we're into our summer months. Kids are out
of school, on summer vacation, going to get aways, going
to parties, just relaxing. Remember those days when, yeah, you'd
be offered two or three months just hanging around the
house kind of bored though, wasn't as much to do.
When I was growing up. The computer industry was just
(03:23):
kind of getting cranking, but they didn't have all of
the things that you could get into. I mean, if
you have a computer, you can get on the internet.
My god, I mean, the world opens up to you
just in your house. You don't really have to go anywhere.
A lot of times, just click a few buttons and
there you go. You can sort of look into things,
research things, so very very remarkable access to knowledge and
(03:50):
access to the world. It's just an amazing tool. Again,
we didn't have that sort of when I was growing up.
So when you're at home, you were kind of at
home by yourself, didn't really talked to you friends that
much because the whole phone calling, cell phone messaging stuff
just wasn't there, right. We had the phones on the wall,
we had to dial and press buttons. So it's just
(04:14):
really when you went off for summer break, you really
did not see your friends for a few months. So
going back to school first to school was almost like, ah, man,
how you been doing. But now it's totally different. So AnyWho,
last time or last week, as you know, miss Lavine
was here. So we're chatting about various topics there in
(04:36):
the office, which we love to do. But one topic
that we sort of touched on at the end of
the show was this topic of sepsis. Sepsis right, right,
And this term has sort of been brought to sort
of the national stage because of the recent death of
(04:58):
the NASCAR driver called Bush, which he was very popular,
very famous, very successful in that industry, and he was young,
which is probably one of the biggest aspects of that is.
I guess there's an assumption that when you're young, you're strong,
and you're not supposed to have bad outcomes.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
If you get sick, you're supposed to weather through.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That maybe not even not ever even get hospitalized, not
have to take any medications.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You can just kind of get through it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
He's an athlete, he's in good shape, he's got access
to great healthcare, I mean, just everything in his favor
right so that he shouldn't be getting sick. He should
be staying alive as long as possible. But unfortunately that
wasn't the case. And it just brought to the national
stage's conversation about sepsis and what that is and what
(05:55):
it does, and more people are becoming familiar with the
term of sepsis s E P, s I S. There's
another associated acronym we call SERS s I R S.
That's the acronym which stands for systemic inflammatory response syndrome SURS.
(06:15):
Sepsis serves as anytime your your body becomes inflamed for
for whatever reason, and sepsis is a SERS plus infection,
So the bodies inflammatory system. You hear me talk about
the inflammatory system a lot as pertains to the metabolic
(06:36):
syndrome and just sort of the lifestyle of most Americans,
the average American that tends to generate a low level
of inflammation. You don't feel well, you might feel achy, tired,
maybe your skin changes, you've got some high blood pressure,
(06:58):
your cholesterols high, may have fatty liver. These are all
sorts of symptoms related to your inflammatory system being unfortunately
incorrectly turned on when it shouldn't. But a lot of
our habits every single day tend to injure the body.
So it reacts to that by churning on the inflammatory system.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And a lot of experts.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Have chronicle this issue in well respected journals, even what
we call peer reviewed journals. They've sort of looked at
the whole situation, and yes, it seems that a lot
of the food items and beverage items that Americans are
consuming every day tend to cause injury either to the gas,
(07:46):
intestinal system, the liver system, the immune system, nervous system.
I mean, the list is pretty long. It's just injurious, right.
It's a sort of an unnatural substance that a lot
of times finds its way into to a lot of
the foods and beverages that we consume. You got to eat,
and it's got to be affordable and it's super convenient, right,
(08:10):
and how can you beat that?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I mean growing a garden. I mean I think that
sounds remarkable and that's resourceful, but we're just not doing
that like we used to, where you actually get your
own seeds and you grow that in your backyard and
or wherever you would plant a garden. I mean maybe
they have some of these herb gardens, some people do that,
but actually growing your tomatoes, growing your vegetables that you eat,
(08:37):
I mean, not a lot of people are doing that
same thing with your meat items.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We just a lot of people just.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Don't have cows and pigs and all sorts of things
like that in their backyard that they're processing. So big
companies do that and in order to get the food
to the market and keep it there on the show
as long as possible until you purchase it, until you
eat it. Yes, the food sort of has to be
(09:04):
adjusted and addressed just because fresh food mana spoils very
very rapidly, and in order to sort of put in
a system where food is processed but it can travel
and you can package it and it can put on
a shelf and it's just sort of ready to go.
Masses for the food, I mean food for the masses,
(09:27):
if you will. It has to be processed to a
certain degree and they've really found the way to process
a lot of the foods that we eat. But a
lot of experts are saying just the items and the
substances that they're putting in the food or that they're
expose the food to. When we consume it, the body
(09:49):
reacts to it negatively, almost like a rash if you will,
or an allergy, if you will, when you consume it,
and it turns inflammatory system on and so you feel
a certain way. SURS is the same thing, but sepsis
means there's an infection causing it, and normally a bacterial
(10:11):
infection that's causing it. During COVID, that was a viral
infection that was causing the sepsis. And the SURS reaction
to yes injure and harm patients and unfortunately can kill you.
And it is something that the medical world in this
(10:32):
country has prioritized and it's been partised for many years.
I first heard about sepsis and the term sepsis when
I was in medical school. I still remember the day
in the ICU and I heard that term, didn't really
know what the term was, but subsequently learned what that
(10:53):
term was. And that was several years ago. So this
this term and this concept of what happens to you
when you get an infection, any sort of infection, whether.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It be viral or bacterial.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Those are the sort of two organisms that tend to
cause most of the infections that we get. I would
say ninety six ninety seven percent of the infections that
Americans get, it's going to be a virus or bacteria
or both. Every now and then we get fungal infections,
(11:28):
and we normally see fungal infections and patients who are
what we call immuno compromised for whatever reason. And some
examples of being immuno compromised would be maybe your diabetes's
proto control sixty five and above. Right, if you hear
me talk a lot about aging process, it's a real process.
(11:51):
You got to believe in it, which is why say
you got to do your part.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You have to do things differently.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
If you want to stay out at the hospital, you
want to stay out of the doctor's offices, you don't
want to sack amage. You really have to prioritize this
thing if you want to get there. And again, I
don't want you to think in this fantasy world that
you can just correct it with one little substance, you
really have to do a few things on a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
But yes, getting older makes.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
You immuno compromise because again as a part of the
shutdown system we call aging, the immune system starts to
kind of shut down. You're not as strong immunologically, so
you're more susceptible to infections and bacteria and fungus. I'm sorry,
fact bacteria and viruses are part of that. But again
(12:41):
because of the same concept, fungus can sometimes overwhelm the
human system and cause sepsis and cause serves and enough
damage can happen that yes, unfortunately don't make it out
of the hospital. But bacteria and viruses, those are the
two main things. That's where the whole vaccine importance comes
(13:03):
into play. We try to target some high yield viruses
in bacteria that tend to cause harm, tend to cause
serves and stepsis in patients like pneumonia, vaccine or flu.
We have covid. We have RSV. Shingles not so much.
That's just a really nasty little infection that you can
(13:26):
get that can cause pain. It can cause disfigurement, especially
if you get in your face or you get it
in an anatomically sensitive area that rash can really cause
some problems. So that's where the vaccine comes into play
to again boost your immune system, strengthen it, if you will,
(13:47):
so that if you do get that infection, it's less severe,
so that you don't have to be in hospital, doesn't
cause a lot of disfigurement, doesn't cause a.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Lot of pain.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That's sort of what we're trying to do, just like
pest control, just trying to control the volume so that
it's not an overwhelming situation. You don't have an infestation,
right of insects, right, it's controlled. You don't see anything,
you know they're there, But the population's control is sort
of the same thing with vaccines. It's sort of pest control,
(14:19):
so that you don't get this significant infection and this
significant reaction which we call sepsis, which unfortunately even in
your forties. Again we'd think of young people as strong
and healthy and shouldn't nothing should happen to them. We
kind of accept when someone is in their sixties, seventies, eighties, like, okay,
(14:43):
we get it, you're older. Your body doesn't work as well. Okay,
that kind of makes sense to me that you got
an infection, you went in the hospital and maybe things
didn't go well. We kind of accept that more. But
when someone's young and strong and healthy and on the
top of the world and then it happens, it's shocking, right.
(15:05):
It just causes a lot of disorientation. How did it happen?
Why did it happen? And that's what we're talking about today,
sepsis and sirs. You have any questions on sepsis and sirs,
give us a call. Phone line to open eight nine
to six klv I one one hundred.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Three three zero kill vy.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I'll be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back
to the doc Lavie Metal. Our phone lines to open
eight nine six Kalov one hundred and three three zero
Kovia chatting about SIRS, SI, r S, and sepsis. These
(15:43):
are terms that most Americans are becoming familiar with, even
before this tragedy that happened to Kyle buschten NASCAR driver,
where he was according to what I was exposed to,
he was kind of sick for a few days prior
to going in to get checked out. And that's sort
(16:04):
of the issue with sepsis. Our serves is, again, if
the infection kind of gets on top of you, and
you don't receive proper medical care, the reaction can be overwhelming,
just like we saw in COVID, even though for COVID
we're talking about a virus that we really didn't have
(16:24):
a treatment for. So this reaction that we are calling
sepsis would is sort of overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Them by it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And basically the body is trying to defend itself, honestly
what's happening. But the defense mechanism is very chaotic, and
instead of just getting to the target and dealing with
the target organism, the reaction is very robust. It's very wild,
(16:52):
almost uncontrolled and chaotic. This reaction that would cause sepsis
that it starts to damage other vital organs that you
need to defend yourself from an infection, and that's kind
of what happens. And at the end of the day,
what happens a lot of times is the blood pressure.
(17:14):
Your blood pressure will go down, it'll fall. We call
that hygh po tension. We're familiar with hy per tension, right,
high blood pressure, you're on five medicines, but there's also
an issue with high tension. When the blood pressure falls
and when the blood pressure falls in the human body,
the blood flow is severely and significantly impacted. So a
(17:39):
lot of your vital organs just don't get the blood
flow that it needs. And that makes sense to most people.
If you're not getting proper blood flow, then obviously your
kidney can't work, your liver can't work, your gas, your
intestinal system, your brain, your heart, and so we have
to maintain a proper blood pressure when you get sick.
(18:02):
And that's in my experience. I'm not necessarily a sepsist expert,
although I deal with this disease every single day.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You just wouldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I guess if you've ever spent any time waiting around
in an emergency apartment at a big hospital such as
Baptists of Saying Elizabeth, and you're a patient, but you're
in the hallway, it's busy, and you just sort of
see the activity that's happening in the er every single
and I see it every single day, and it's just amazing, incredible.
(18:36):
It's very impressive to see that all of this happens
every single day, where patients are coming in super super
sick with sepsis and other life threatening illnesses. But if
the timing of treating that is not correct. Again, that
blood pressure will fall. And when the blood pressure falls,
(18:59):
then these other vital organs start to dysfunction. And when
you get dysfunction of multiple organs, which we call mods
MODS multi system dysfunction, multi organ system dysfunction, that's what
it is, then you start to develop acid in your bloodstream.
(19:20):
And when you start to developing acid in your bloodstream,
it just sort of snowballs out of control and causes,
like I said, an irreversible dysfunction of all these vital organs,
and to a certain extent, it's hard to bring.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You out of that.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
We have various medications that we use to try and
improve your blood pressure or maintain a certain level of
blood pressure, which is what we normally do. If you're
in the ER or in the ICU, we hook you
up to a medication to treat hypotension, and we also
(19:56):
give you medications to treat the ap acid that's building
up in your blood system, because that's the reaction to
a low blood pressure. Your body starts generating a lot
of acid, and as a result of that acid again,
it'll go to the kidney, it'll go to the heart,
it'll go to the nervous system, and it'll further cause
(20:19):
more reduction of blood flow and further dysfunction of those organs.
And like I said, it's like a snowball. Once it
gets going, it's sometimes hard to stop. And depending on
when you start giving them the treatment of choice, which
a lot of times it's antibiotics, they're so deep into
it that there's so much destruction that has happened that
(20:42):
it's hard to get them out of that, which a
lot of times, if you've had a loved one with it,
or if you've had sepsish yourself, you know, we have
to put you on a breathing machine because this acid
will affect the way your nervous system works. Your nervous
system is what controls your breathing, and because you can't
breathe well, then that further causes metabolic problems, and so
(21:04):
we have to put you on a machine to support
your breathing, to make sure you're getting auction because we
need oxygen.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Again.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Really, really, what we call severe sepsis is one that
causes so much acid production, then it then affects your
nervous system, which you can't breathe a lot of times
in that situation. You can't breathe, the auction level falls.
It's another massive irritant to the human body. When your
oxygen is low, you have a lot of acid in
(21:35):
your bloodstream. Again, it's just huge, huge, massive blowout chemical
reaction that's occurring. Again, it all starts with an infection,
normally from bacteria. I think in his particular situation, based
on what I've heard, it was a lung infection, which
we call pneumonia. Very common right, most pneumonias are bacterial,
(21:59):
but every now and it could be a virus like
covid or flu. We talk about flu vaccines all the time,
and when the flu season gets kicking up in November December,
a lot of times it's a viral pneumonia. But the
human body's reaction to it is sort of the same.
Your inflammatory system gets wrapped up. All of these what
(22:20):
we call cytokines and inflammatory molecules get dumped into your bloodstream. Again,
it's your body's reaction to try and defend itself against
this organism. But because of the robustness of the reaction,
because of the chaoticness of the reaction, it will in
trying to fix you.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
It'll harm you.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Because it's also starting to damage and cause this function
of other vital organs that need to be working at
the optimum level. But again, a lot of times when
you get to decepsis syndrome, everything is in total chaos
in terms of how your body is reacting. You a
lot of times have to get on a breathing machine,
(23:02):
you have to be in the ICU, you have to
be placed on specialized medications to keep your blood pressure
up so that the blood flows, so that the amount
of acid your blood we can control, we can deliver
you oxygen. I mean, it can just get worse and
worse and worse. And we do see this a lot
in terms of elderly patients again because the body is
(23:25):
just not as strong and so within a day or
so if you get an infection, it can really overwhelm
your system. But he was very young, he was a
lot stronger, and again his symptoms were for several days
before he went in. But certainly it is something that
is been on the national stage. The medical world has
(23:46):
known about it for many years, and we actually have
been prioritizing it for many years in terms of if
we think someone has stepsis, there is sort of a
coordinated effort to get them on appropriate medication as soon
as possible. We do certain labs, we prioritize as patient
terms of going to the ICU, and there is some
(24:08):
attention to detail as it pertains to someone who has sepsis.
This is in major hospitals here in this country, and
like I said, we've been doing it for many years,
almost like if you have a heart attack or stroke,
Now that disease process is streamline. We call that a
cardiac alert or a stroke alert, where a certain system
(24:29):
is in place to sort of address this issue very efficiently,
very rapidly. Because time is of the essence, same thing
in sepsis, time is of the absence. You want to
try and treat the infection as soon as possible, and
in doing so, you don't let the sepsis syndrome sort
of get revved up to a point of no return,
(24:50):
because that's a lot of times what happens when patients
get super sick and they're in the ICU for a week,
two weeks, or unfortunately things don't work out and they're
unable to come home. Doesn't mean you're going to get
there because a lot of times, even with the cold
or the flu or Let's say you have a little
bladder infection and you get a little temperature, your heart
(25:13):
rates up a little bit. That's basically sepsist in a nutshell,
just a very mild form of that and does not
mean that you're going to progress to that. And I
think that's the that's the the issue we have in general,
is you know, when do I go in or when
do I get to my doctor. That's can be very
difficult question to answer with with all these questions we have,
(25:38):
when do I need to be concerned, When when do
I need X rays? All these things, and that can
be tough to figure out. And I think the most
aggressive viewpoint on that is anytime you feel like you're ill,
you're not sure what's going on, go in and get
checked out, talk with someone on the phone, you call
(25:59):
your primary I know a lot of insurance companies sort
of have these twenty four hour day, seven day a
week access to healthcare providers, whether it be a doctor
or a nurse practitioner, you can call them. You can
also we have all these sort of minor cares and
ers scatter it all over the place where you can
just kind of very easily go in and just kind
(26:19):
of get checked out. Let a healthcare provider look at you,
listen to your heart, maybe do some basic blood work,
maybe assess the severity for you so you don't have
to guess. And yes, if it's deemed that this reaction
is severe, then you know, get you to a hospital
and get you treated. Because again, like you may have
(26:40):
had a loved one or maybe yourself, you've been sick
like this, it can be a very slippery slope and
before you know it, you're super super sick. So phone
lines are open eight nine six kalva one hundred and
three to three zero klv I. We're back in two minutes.
(27:07):
All right, welcome back to the doc Wavin medac our
phone lines are open eight nine to six KLVA one
hundred and three three zero kalevia. Talking about sepsis, s
e p sis or SERS, which again is the acronym
we use to describe what happens when your inflammatory system
turns on. And again we talk about just the low
(27:31):
level inflammatory system being turned on with just our lifestyle
and how it makes us feel just a key tired well.
SIRS obviously is a higher intensity reaction to an infection. Normally,
like I say, a bacterial infection, viral infection. We're familiar
with urinary tract infections, we're familiar with pneumonia's. But certainly
(27:53):
you could get kidney stone and kidney infections. You can
get intra eptdominal infections, such as with appendicitis or an abscess.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
You could have cathers.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
If you're on dialysis and you have these cathers that
are sticking out of the front side of your chest.
You can get an infection with a bacteria in your
bloodstream to cause sepsis.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
The list is.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Very long, actually, and again it has to do with
the fact that a lot of times our immune systems
are not as healthy as they need to be for
various issues. But just like in this particular case, sometimes
it just happens to the most healthiest patient, the most
healthiest person with all the access, and it's shocking to
(28:41):
see it happen. But again, based on my experience, I'm
in the hospital typically every single day. I see this often,
and it is very upsetting just because it's not something
we're expecting, not something we want to see, and it
just drives the message home that it's something you need
to be aware of we hear a lot about cancer,
(29:03):
we hear a lot about cardiovascities. For good reason. Cardiovascal
disease is still our number one issue in the country.
So every day you should be trying to figure out
how to reduce your risk of having a cardiovascular event. Right,
And as I mentioned last week when miss Lavine was here,
the cholesterol guidelines, if you haven't seen your priminent care position,
(29:26):
you haven't seen your cardiologists yet, are your cardiovascular doctor
of choice? The guidelines have changed about three months ago
to the point that yeah, they want this these cholesterol
numbers to be even lower than what it was before,
and they want us to start sooner treating it with
(29:47):
prescription medications if we do find someone who's at risk
of maybe having a cardiovascal event. And there's more and
more screening tool that are being used to try and
assess risk for someone, so that you can maybe put
yourself in a position where maybe yes, you might have
(30:10):
to start medication sooner rather than later, maybe you need
a higher dose, or maybe again just the awareness that
I'm at risk, so I need to start doing my
part and reduce my risk, reduce the production of plaque,
something that you need to work on every single day.
So you need to talk with your healthcare provider, your
(30:31):
cardiovascular personal choice and see where you're at with your
health and your medication, and try and line up the
latest guidelines that are out there. Again, it's pretty easy
if you have plaque or you've had an event already.
This is the person that we want the cluster to
be the lowest. And they say kind of in what
(30:55):
they call LDL that is considered the bad cholesterol versus
a that's considered the good cholesterol. If you read these articles,
the LDL tends to be more plaque related sort of cholesterol,
whereas HDL is not. It tends to be a better cholesterol.
(31:17):
Actually sort of reduces their production of the plaque in
your blood vessel. At least that's the theory at this point.
But a lot of times, as miss lavine now we're
talking about, it's difficult to get there by yourself, even
with exercising, eating, it's difficult to get to below seventy
and into the fifty range with the LDL.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Most people will need.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Some medication, and yes, a lot of times have had
a hard attack of stroke. That's part of your package
when you go home is your blood thinner, your cholesterol
medication again to control that plaqueformation and to keep it
to a minimum. This because it has a lot to
do with the event that happens. Basically, you get a
blood clot in a blood vessel that causes what we
(32:03):
call a schemia, no blood flow, and with no blood flow,
then that part of the organ dies and that's what
generates the symptoms of a stroke. The brain can't function,
so you can't see, you can't talk, you can't move
your arm. Same thing with a heart attack. No blood
flow to the heart and muscle, it can't function and
because of that it injures in the heart muscle, it
(32:26):
gets inflamed, and that's what generates that pain. Is the
muscle and the inflammatory system gets turned on because the
blood is not flowing to that part of the heart muscle.
And also that can change the electrical activity of the
heart muscle when it's in that particular state, which is
why a lot of times patients will pass out, and
(32:49):
that's a lot of times what causes them to what
they call syncopize or lose consciousness because electrical activity is
also disturbed in that state when the blood is not
flowing and can be the type of heart rhythm that
can be very detrimental, which is why if you've ever
been diagnosed with heart failure we call congestive heart failure,
(33:12):
they may put this little vest on you, or they
may recommend what they call it a defibrillator, because again,
when the heart muscle has been damaged, there's scartish that develops.
The electrical activity just doesn't flow as well. It just
becomes more chaotic the heart muscle itself because it's been damaged.
And sometimes these heart rhythms can cause very, very life
(33:37):
threatening heart rhythms. So the defibrillator is kind of sitting
there waiting for these things to happen so that if
it does detect it it does since it it'll shock
your heart back into a proper rhythm. And we do
see this when the percentage of heart function declines. We
can pick that up on what we call it at
(33:57):
ultrasound of the heart and echo car A lot of
doctors are doing screening echo cartograms in the offices, or
if you've had heart disease already or you've been diagnosed
with hardfare, this is sort of part of your process
that you go through every year when you get your
annual exam, you get your EKG, you get your echo.
You might even do a stress test again just to
(34:19):
reassess your heart function. And if the percentage of function
is low, we call that heart failure or reduced dejection
fraction hardfare. That's the new medical term we'll use. And
if it's low enough, normally in the fifteen to ten percent,
maybe twenty percent range, then they will put a defibrillator
(34:42):
on you potentially because the chances of having one of
these rhythm issues goes up pretty high. As the function
of your heart starts to go down, then your chances
of having these rhythm problems goes up, so they a
lot of times have put that defibrillator in. We have
Leonard from Houston. How can we help you.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
I have an appointment in a week or so to
see a urologists to see if I'm a candidate for
a lift procedure. What is that, What's what's involved? What
can go wrong? You know those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, Leonard, the lift procedure, I'm a little fuzzy on that.
I would assume that maybe because of the aging process,
the either the bladder or the prostate or not in
its proper position, and that is causing some urinary problems,
whether it be leakage.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Or retention of urine.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
And as a result of both of those mechanisms, it's
causing problems with your lifestyle. And so they go in
there and sort of reverse are correct the anatomical mal
alignment so that your symptoms go away. Because I'm not
a surgeon, which is normally what that is. You need
a bladder surgeon, that's what a urologist is, I'm not
(36:05):
familiar with all of the ins and outs of that procedure,
but in general, Leonard, just like you mentioned, bleeding infection
are dysfunction of the genital urinary system after procedure, meaning
the doctor did everything right, the device or the lift
(36:26):
is working, but for whatever reason, it's not working as
well for you and things didn't work out as well.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
That could happen.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
They can't guarantee one of percent success with every patient,
which is why a lot of surgeons they're very aggressive
with their pre op conversation with the patient, sort of
outlining exactly what they're going to do and the potential
outcomes of the procedure, which a lot of times it
could not be the outcome that you were looking for.
(36:56):
It's not necessarily that they did anything wrong, just we
can never get garantee the outcome, even with the medicines
we give you, et cetera. But yeah, Lenin, I apologize
about that. It's not something I do every day, so
I'm unfamiliar exactly with the entire procedure. Certainly, talk with
your urologists about that and be very comfortable with the
(37:17):
outcome that is expected.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Uh okay, Well, I understand every word you said. I
just don't understand, well, the risk of the poor outcome,
you know, is it a common event those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, yeah, see that's Leonin. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
That's something I don't know just because it's a it's
a surgical procedure and I'm not a surgeon, and it's
sort of a newer procedure. So unfortunately, you would have
to talk to the urologists. But here's one thing you
have to understand. They would not offer it to you
if they didn't think the success rate was going to
be high. They just wouldn't offer to you. So in
(38:02):
your in your surgeon's mind, this is going to work out.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
So I'm going to offer it to you.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Mm hm, Is there something I should ask about as
an alternative prior surgeon?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Hey, Doc, what are the alternatives? Do I have to
go through this procedure? What else is out there?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah? Just like that? Absolutely okay.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
But you don't know what the alternatives are?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
It's a field of medicine that I don't do every day,
and it's a surgical world. I'm a medical doctor and
it's just not something I mean, I could look it
up real quick, but honestly, yeah, you need to talk
with the practitioner that's offering you the procedure.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
They should know the other options.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Good enough, thanks, big guy.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
All right, Leondar will appreciate that. And we're going on
our last break full lines. I open eight nine to
six kV. I want to hundred and three and three zero
O kyovy. I'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
All right, welcome back to Doc.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
We metic our phone lines to open eight nine to
six KLV hundred three three zero KLV.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Toward the end of the show.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Remember if there's a topic you like, when it's discussed,
called the radio station or call my office three four seven,
three six two one and we would be more than
happy to talk about it. We did spend our time
talking about sepsis serves and again it's just a description
of what happens to the human body when you get
(39:39):
an infection, whether it be a bacteria or a virus,
or a fungus uncommon, parasites uncommon in this country. It's
mainly bacteria, and virus is mainly bacteria. Lung infection, blood infection,
skin infection, bloodstream infection. Bacteria, bacteria, Yes, it's the main organism.
And your body re acts to this invasion and spits
(40:03):
out all these hormones and chemicals, and your body racks,
heart rate goes up, maybe your blood pressure falls. A
lot of times that does happen. And when your blood
pressure falls, then it causes other damage to other organ's kidney's, heart, lung, liver,
and then that just the process just keeps going. So
time is of the essence. If you do feel like
(40:24):
you are sick, you start getting temperature, your heart rate
goes up. That is typically sepsis, right, not that you
have to be hospitalized. But again the concern is is
this going to get worse? Is it going to get better?
It's unclear. Just do yourself a favor and just go
get checked out by healthcare provider sooner rather than later.
(40:46):
Just let them assess you and kind of get you
start getting plugged into the system in terms of medications,
follow up, et cetera. So you can kind of stay
on top of this. Sometimes you really don't have time.
The infection can be very rapid in terms of its
pace from start to finish. We hear that a lot
in the hospital. Just again, someone is more vulnerable. Maybe
(41:11):
they're taking chemotherapy, there on immunosuppressants because they have a liver,
they're transplant patient. Man, their immune system is just very
weak for obvious reasons, and the infection can very rapidly
take over. But again, every now and then we see
these tragic situations where someone's young, healthy, at top of
(41:31):
the world, everything is going well, and sepsis can still
cause horn where patient maybe you go to the ear, Okay,
I just want to go get some manibox and I'm
out of here, and then before you know, it's two
weeks later, they're still in the hospital because of how
the body reacts to it. And we've gotten better at
treating it and processing it and becoming more systematic about
(41:55):
its approach in terms of getting the right people involved,
medicines on board as soon as possible, so we can
cool the body off. Turn off this engine, if you will.
That's how I see. It's the engine that's revving in
the background. And when you have a severe form of sepsis,
which would call severe refractory sepsis with shock. Shock is
(42:15):
the medical term for low blood pressure, we want to
turn that off as soon as possible. And the way
we do that again is what we call source control,
which is treating the infection right. So antibiotics typically need
to be given in a timely manner, and yes, all
American hospitals are judged on that and have a system
(42:37):
in place to get you on the antibiotics asap by
the time you hit the door, so we can get
that engine churned off so it doesn't progress to this massive,
massive explosion in your body like we saw a lot
during COVID just when you had to be on a
breathing machine, you had to be on all these medicines,
you had to get dialysis, maybe had a heart attack.
(42:58):
These are the things that happen when you're body just
explodes like that from an infection, so get your vaccines.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Eat your vegetables, and go in.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
And get checked out by someone or talk to someone
so you can act sooner rather than later. Thanks for
listening to the edition of the show. Remember don't drink
and drive, eat some vegetables. See you guys next week.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Take care.
All right, welcome South East Texas Internet radio listeners. This
is Doctor Levin or the Doctor Lavine Medical Hour, taking
your phone calls. I live at the studios of klv I,
Hear and Baum, Texas, cross the street from Parkdale Mall,
taking those phone calls and trying to help you stay alive.
I never get tired of listen to that anthem of
(00:23):
trying to stay alive, because that is the goal. Right
you're born, and you try to stay alive as long
as possible. But it does require some effort, a little
bit at least from you. Right protect your temple if
you will, and you have to do your part to
get there. And the genesis of the show is to
(00:44):
try and help you find your way to get their
phone lines are open eight nine to six klv I
one one hundred three three zero klv I would love
to hear from you, talk with you, and try to
help you figure out what your journey is because it's
normally different from the next person's journey. I know it's
human habit to sort of look across the aisle or
(01:07):
look across the street and see what someone else is doing.
But at the end of the day, a self assessment
self journey is really what. It takes a lot of
time to figure out what works for you. A lot
of these recommendations are general recommendations, even my own. At
the end of the day, you still have to kind
of figure out what works for you. But certainly some
(01:31):
basic things apply to just about everyone. And like I mentioned,
got it to your part can't just be simply going
to the store or going to the internet and getting
some sort of substance or liquid that you drink or
rub or inhale or you eat and then boila, you know,
(01:52):
I'm going to be healthy. I'm going to live forever.
I'm going to feel like I have energy, I don't
have any pain, my skin looks good, my hair looks good,
I function well. This one little tablet capsule, magic juice,
magic liquid that is going to just solve everything is
(02:17):
it's I hate to say it, but yeah, it's it's
kind of a fantasy in my opinion. You gotta do
a few basic things to get to that point. And
this is the genus of the show. Show give us
a call eight nine to six Kalva on eight hundred
three three zero kovy weather. It's good outside, no rain.
(02:39):
We had rain for a couple of days. No hurricanes though,
but we got the rain and little flooding, and hopefully
that's about it for now. Then we get some of
that heat as we get into our summer months. Man
time goes by so quickly. Spring went by like nothing,
(02:59):
and now we're into our summer months. Kids are out
of school, on summer vacation, going to get aways, going
to parties, just relaxing. Remember those days when, yeah, you'd
be offered two or three months just hanging around the
house kind of bored though, wasn't as much to do.
When I was growing up. The computer industry was just
(03:23):
kind of getting cranking, but they didn't have all of
the things that you could get into. I mean, if
you have a computer, you can get on the internet.
My god, I mean, the world opens up to you
just in your house. You don't really have to go anywhere.
A lot of times, just click a few buttons and
there you go. You can sort of look into things,
research things, so very very remarkable access to knowledge and
(03:50):
access to the world. It's just an amazing tool. Again,
we didn't have that sort of when I was growing up.
So when you're at home, you were kind of at
home by yourself, didn't really talked to you friends that
much because the whole phone calling, cell phone messaging stuff
just wasn't there, right. We had the phones on the wall,
we had to dial and press buttons. So it's just
(04:14):
really when you went off for summer break, you really
did not see your friends for a few months. So
going back to school first to school was almost like, ah, man,
how you been doing. But now it's totally different. So AnyWho,
last time or last week, as you know, miss Lavine
was here. So we're chatting about various topics there in
(04:36):
the office, which we love to do. But one topic
that we sort of touched on at the end of
the show was this topic of sepsis. Sepsis right, right,
And this term has sort of been brought to sort
of the national stage because of the recent death of
(04:58):
the NASCAR driver called Bush, which he was very popular,
very famous, very successful in that industry, and he was young,
which is probably one of the biggest aspects of that is.
I guess there's an assumption that when you're young, you're strong,
and you're not supposed to have bad outcomes.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
If you get sick, you're supposed to weather through.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
That maybe not even not ever even get hospitalized, not
have to take any medications.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
You can just kind of get through it.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
He's an athlete, he's in good shape, he's got access
to great healthcare, I mean, just everything in his favor
right so that he shouldn't be getting sick. He should
be staying alive as long as possible. But unfortunately that
wasn't the case. And it just brought to the national
stage's conversation about sepsis and what that is and what
(05:55):
it does, and more people are becoming familiar with the
term of sepsis s E P, s I S. There's
another associated acronym we call SERS s I R S.
That's the acronym which stands for systemic inflammatory response syndrome SURS.
(06:15):
Sepsis serves as anytime your your body becomes inflamed for
for whatever reason, and sepsis is a SERS plus infection,
So the bodies inflammatory system. You hear me talk about
the inflammatory system a lot as pertains to the metabolic
(06:36):
syndrome and just sort of the lifestyle of most Americans,
the average American that tends to generate a low level
of inflammation. You don't feel well, you might feel achy, tired,
maybe your skin changes, you've got some high blood pressure,
(06:58):
your cholesterols high, may have fatty liver. These are all
sorts of symptoms related to your inflammatory system being unfortunately
incorrectly turned on when it shouldn't. But a lot of
our habits every single day tend to injure the body.
So it reacts to that by churning on the inflammatory system.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And a lot of experts.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Have chronicle this issue in well respected journals, even what
we call peer reviewed journals. They've sort of looked at
the whole situation, and yes, it seems that a lot
of the food items and beverage items that Americans are
consuming every day tend to cause injury either to the gas,
(07:46):
intestinal system, the liver system, the immune system, nervous system.
I mean, the list is pretty long. It's just injurious, right.
It's a sort of an unnatural substance that a lot
of times finds its way into to a lot of
the foods and beverages that we consume. You got to eat,
and it's got to be affordable and it's super convenient, right,
(08:10):
and how can you beat that?
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Right?
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I mean growing a garden. I mean I think that
sounds remarkable and that's resourceful, but we're just not doing
that like we used to, where you actually get your
own seeds and you grow that in your backyard and
or wherever you would plant a garden. I mean maybe
they have some of these herb gardens, some people do that,
but actually growing your tomatoes, growing your vegetables that you eat,
(08:37):
I mean, not a lot of people are doing that
same thing with your meat items.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
We just a lot of people just.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Don't have cows and pigs and all sorts of things
like that in their backyard that they're processing. So big
companies do that and in order to get the food
to the market and keep it there on the show
as long as possible until you purchase it, until you
eat it. Yes, the food sort of has to be
(09:04):
adjusted and addressed just because fresh food mana spoils very
very rapidly, and in order to sort of put in
a system where food is processed but it can travel
and you can package it and it can put on
a shelf and it's just sort of ready to go.
Masses for the food, I mean food for the masses,
(09:27):
if you will. It has to be processed to a
certain degree and they've really found the way to process
a lot of the foods that we eat. But a
lot of experts are saying just the items and the
substances that they're putting in the food or that they're
expose the food to. When we consume it, the body
(09:49):
reacts to it negatively, almost like a rash if you will,
or an allergy, if you will, when you consume it,
and it turns inflammatory system on and so you feel
a certain way. SURS is the same thing, but sepsis
means there's an infection causing it, and normally a bacterial
(10:11):
infection that's causing it. During COVID, that was a viral
infection that was causing the sepsis. And the SURS reaction
to yes injure and harm patients and unfortunately can kill you.
And it is something that the medical world in this
(10:32):
country has prioritized and it's been partised for many years.
I first heard about sepsis and the term sepsis when
I was in medical school. I still remember the day
in the ICU and I heard that term, didn't really
know what the term was, but subsequently learned what that
(10:53):
term was. And that was several years ago. So this
this term and this concept of what happens to you
when you get an infection, any sort of infection, whether.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It be viral or bacterial.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Those are the sort of two organisms that tend to
cause most of the infections that we get. I would
say ninety six ninety seven percent of the infections that
Americans get, it's going to be a virus or bacteria
or both. Every now and then we get fungal infections,
(11:28):
and we normally see fungal infections and patients who are
what we call immuno compromised for whatever reason. And some
examples of being immuno compromised would be maybe your diabetes's
proto control sixty five and above. Right, if you hear
me talk a lot about aging process, it's a real process.
(11:51):
You got to believe in it, which is why say
you got to do your part.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
You have to do things differently.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
If you want to stay out at the hospital, you
want to stay out of the doctor's offices, you don't
want to sack amage. You really have to prioritize this
thing if you want to get there. And again, I
don't want you to think in this fantasy world that
you can just correct it with one little substance, you
really have to do a few things on a regular basis.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
But yes, getting older makes.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
You immuno compromise because again as a part of the
shutdown system we call aging, the immune system starts to
kind of shut down. You're not as strong immunologically, so
you're more susceptible to infections and bacteria and fungus. I'm sorry,
fact bacteria and viruses are part of that. But again
(12:41):
because of the same concept, fungus can sometimes overwhelm the
human system and cause sepsis and cause serves and enough
damage can happen that yes, unfortunately don't make it out
of the hospital. But bacteria and viruses, those are the
two main things. That's where the whole vaccine importance comes
(13:03):
into play. We try to target some high yield viruses
in bacteria that tend to cause harm, tend to cause
serves and stepsis in patients like pneumonia, vaccine or flu.
We have covid. We have RSV. Shingles not so much.
That's just a really nasty little infection that you can
(13:26):
get that can cause pain. It can cause disfigurement, especially
if you get in your face or you get it
in an anatomically sensitive area that rash can really cause
some problems. So that's where the vaccine comes into play
to again boost your immune system, strengthen it, if you will,
(13:47):
so that if you do get that infection, it's less severe,
so that you don't have to be in hospital, doesn't
cause a lot of disfigurement, doesn't cause a.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Lot of pain.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
That's sort of what we're trying to do, just like
pest control, just trying to control the volume so that
it's not an overwhelming situation. You don't have an infestation,
right of insects, right, it's controlled. You don't see anything,
you know they're there, But the population's control is sort
of the same thing with vaccines. It's sort of pest control,
(14:19):
so that you don't get this significant infection and this
significant reaction which we call sepsis, which unfortunately even in
your forties. Again we'd think of young people as strong
and healthy and shouldn't nothing should happen to them. We
kind of accept when someone is in their sixties, seventies, eighties, like, okay,
(14:43):
we get it, you're older. Your body doesn't work as well. Okay,
that kind of makes sense to me that you got
an infection, you went in the hospital and maybe things
didn't go well. We kind of accept that more. But
when someone's young and strong and healthy and on the
top of the world and then it happens, it's shocking, right.
(15:05):
It just causes a lot of disorientation. How did it happen?
Why did it happen? And that's what we're talking about today,
sepsis and sirs. You have any questions on sepsis and sirs,
give us a call. Phone line to open eight nine
to six klv I one one hundred.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Three three zero kill vy.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I'll be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back
to the doc Lavie Metal. Our phone lines to open
eight nine six Kalov one hundred and three three zero
Kovia chatting about SIRS, SI, r S, and sepsis. These
(15:43):
are terms that most Americans are becoming familiar with, even
before this tragedy that happened to Kyle buschten NASCAR driver,
where he was according to what I was exposed to,
he was kind of sick for a few days prior
to going in to get checked out. And that's sort
(16:04):
of the issue with sepsis. Our serves is, again, if
the infection kind of gets on top of you, and
you don't receive proper medical care, the reaction can be overwhelming,
just like we saw in COVID, even though for COVID
we're talking about a virus that we really didn't have
(16:24):
a treatment for. So this reaction that we are calling
sepsis would is sort of overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Them by it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
And basically the body is trying to defend itself, honestly
what's happening. But the defense mechanism is very chaotic, and
instead of just getting to the target and dealing with
the target organism, the reaction is very robust. It's very wild,
(16:52):
almost uncontrolled and chaotic. This reaction that would cause sepsis
that it starts to damage other vital organs that you
need to defend yourself from an infection, and that's kind
of what happens. And at the end of the day,
what happens a lot of times is the blood pressure.
(17:14):
Your blood pressure will go down, it'll fall. We call
that hygh po tension. We're familiar with hy per tension, right,
high blood pressure, you're on five medicines, but there's also
an issue with high tension. When the blood pressure falls
and when the blood pressure falls in the human body,
the blood flow is severely and significantly impacted. So a
(17:39):
lot of your vital organs just don't get the blood
flow that it needs. And that makes sense to most people.
If you're not getting proper blood flow, then obviously your
kidney can't work, your liver can't work, your gas, your
intestinal system, your brain, your heart, and so we have
to maintain a proper blood pressure when you get sick.
(18:02):
And that's in my experience. I'm not necessarily a sepsist expert,
although I deal with this disease every single day.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You just wouldn't believe.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I guess if you've ever spent any time waiting around
in an emergency apartment at a big hospital such as
Baptists of Saying Elizabeth, and you're a patient, but you're
in the hallway, it's busy, and you just sort of
see the activity that's happening in the er every single
and I see it every single day, and it's just amazing, incredible.
(18:36):
It's very impressive to see that all of this happens
every single day, where patients are coming in super super
sick with sepsis and other life threatening illnesses. But if
the timing of treating that is not correct. Again, that
blood pressure will fall. And when the blood pressure falls,
(18:59):
then these other vital organs start to dysfunction. And when
you get dysfunction of multiple organs, which we call mods
MODS multi system dysfunction, multi organ system dysfunction, that's what
it is, then you start to develop acid in your bloodstream.
(19:20):
And when you start to developing acid in your bloodstream,
it just sort of snowballs out of control and causes,
like I said, an irreversible dysfunction of all these vital organs,
and to a certain extent, it's hard to bring.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
You out of that.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
We have various medications that we use to try and
improve your blood pressure or maintain a certain level of
blood pressure, which is what we normally do. If you're
in the ER or in the ICU, we hook you
up to a medication to treat hypotension, and we also
(19:56):
give you medications to treat the ap acid that's building
up in your blood system, because that's the reaction to
a low blood pressure. Your body starts generating a lot
of acid, and as a result of that acid again,
it'll go to the kidney, it'll go to the heart,
it'll go to the nervous system, and it'll further cause
(20:19):
more reduction of blood flow and further dysfunction of those organs.
And like I said, it's like a snowball. Once it
gets going, it's sometimes hard to stop. And depending on
when you start giving them the treatment of choice, which
a lot of times it's antibiotics, they're so deep into
it that there's so much destruction that has happened that
(20:42):
it's hard to get them out of that, which a
lot of times, if you've had a loved one with it,
or if you've had sepsish yourself, you know, we have
to put you on a breathing machine because this acid
will affect the way your nervous system works. Your nervous
system is what controls your breathing, and because you can't
breathe well, then that further causes metabolic problems, and so
(21:04):
we have to put you on a machine to support
your breathing, to make sure you're getting auction because we
need oxygen.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Again.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Really, really, what we call severe sepsis is one that
causes so much acid production, then it then affects your
nervous system, which you can't breathe a lot of times
in that situation. You can't breathe, the auction level falls.
It's another massive irritant to the human body. When your
oxygen is low, you have a lot of acid in
(21:35):
your bloodstream. Again, it's just huge, huge, massive blowout chemical
reaction that's occurring. Again, it all starts with an infection,
normally from bacteria. I think in his particular situation, based
on what I've heard, it was a lung infection, which
we call pneumonia. Very common right, most pneumonias are bacterial,
(21:59):
but every now and it could be a virus like
covid or flu. We talk about flu vaccines all the time,
and when the flu season gets kicking up in November December,
a lot of times it's a viral pneumonia. But the
human body's reaction to it is sort of the same.
Your inflammatory system gets wrapped up. All of these what
(22:20):
we call cytokines and inflammatory molecules get dumped into your bloodstream. Again,
it's your body's reaction to try and defend itself against
this organism. But because of the robustness of the reaction,
because of the chaoticness of the reaction, it will in
trying to fix you.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
It'll harm you.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Because it's also starting to damage and cause this function
of other vital organs that need to be working at
the optimum level. But again, a lot of times when
you get to decepsis syndrome, everything is in total chaos
in terms of how your body is reacting. You a
lot of times have to get on a breathing machine,
(23:02):
you have to be in the ICU, you have to
be placed on specialized medications to keep your blood pressure
up so that the blood flows, so that the amount
of acid your blood we can control, we can deliver
you oxygen. I mean, it can just get worse and
worse and worse. And we do see this a lot
in terms of elderly patients again because the body is
(23:25):
just not as strong and so within a day or
so if you get an infection, it can really overwhelm
your system. But he was very young, he was a
lot stronger, and again his symptoms were for several days
before he went in. But certainly it is something that
is been on the national stage. The medical world has
(23:46):
known about it for many years, and we actually have
been prioritizing it for many years in terms of if
we think someone has stepsis, there is sort of a
coordinated effort to get them on appropriate medication as soon
as possible. We do certain labs, we prioritize as patient
terms of going to the ICU, and there is some
(24:08):
attention to detail as it pertains to someone who has sepsis.
This is in major hospitals here in this country, and
like I said, we've been doing it for many years,
almost like if you have a heart attack or stroke,
Now that disease process is streamline. We call that a
cardiac alert or a stroke alert, where a certain system
(24:29):
is in place to sort of address this issue very efficiently,
very rapidly. Because time is of the essence, same thing
in sepsis, time is of the absence. You want to
try and treat the infection as soon as possible, and
in doing so, you don't let the sepsis syndrome sort
of get revved up to a point of no return,
(24:50):
because that's a lot of times what happens when patients
get super sick and they're in the ICU for a week,
two weeks, or unfortunately things don't work out and they're
unable to come home. Doesn't mean you're going to get
there because a lot of times, even with the cold
or the flu or Let's say you have a little
bladder infection and you get a little temperature, your heart
(25:13):
rates up a little bit. That's basically sepsist in a nutshell,
just a very mild form of that and does not
mean that you're going to progress to that. And I
think that's the that's the the issue we have in general,
is you know, when do I go in or when
do I get to my doctor. That's can be very
difficult question to answer with with all these questions we have,
(25:38):
when do I need to be concerned, When when do
I need X rays? All these things, and that can
be tough to figure out. And I think the most
aggressive viewpoint on that is anytime you feel like you're ill,
you're not sure what's going on, go in and get
checked out, talk with someone on the phone, you call
(25:59):
your primary I know a lot of insurance companies sort
of have these twenty four hour day, seven day a
week access to healthcare providers, whether it be a doctor
or a nurse practitioner, you can call them. You can
also we have all these sort of minor cares and
ers scatter it all over the place where you can
just kind of very easily go in and just kind
(26:19):
of get checked out. Let a healthcare provider look at you,
listen to your heart, maybe do some basic blood work,
maybe assess the severity for you so you don't have
to guess. And yes, if it's deemed that this reaction
is severe, then you know, get you to a hospital
and get you treated. Because again, like you may have
(26:40):
had a loved one or maybe yourself, you've been sick
like this, it can be a very slippery slope and
before you know it, you're super super sick. So phone
lines are open eight nine six kalva one hundred and
three to three zero klv I. We're back in two minutes.
(27:07):
All right, welcome back to the doc Wavin medac our
phone lines are open eight nine to six KLVA one
hundred and three three zero kalevia. Talking about sepsis, s
e p sis or SERS, which again is the acronym
we use to describe what happens when your inflammatory system
turns on. And again we talk about just the low
(27:31):
level inflammatory system being turned on with just our lifestyle
and how it makes us feel just a key tired well.
SIRS obviously is a higher intensity reaction to an infection. Normally,
like I say, a bacterial infection, viral infection. We're familiar
with urinary tract infections, we're familiar with pneumonia's. But certainly
(27:53):
you could get kidney stone and kidney infections. You can
get intra eptdominal infections, such as with appendicitis or an abscess.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
You could have cathers.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
If you're on dialysis and you have these cathers that
are sticking out of the front side of your chest.
You can get an infection with a bacteria in your
bloodstream to cause sepsis.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
The list is.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Very long, actually, and again it has to do with
the fact that a lot of times our immune systems
are not as healthy as they need to be for
various issues. But just like in this particular case, sometimes
it just happens to the most healthiest patient, the most
healthiest person with all the access, and it's shocking to
(28:41):
see it happen. But again, based on my experience, I'm
in the hospital typically every single day. I see this often,
and it is very upsetting just because it's not something
we're expecting, not something we want to see, and it
just drives the message home that it's something you need
to be aware of we hear a lot about cancer,
(29:03):
we hear a lot about cardiovascities. For good reason. Cardiovascal
disease is still our number one issue in the country.
So every day you should be trying to figure out
how to reduce your risk of having a cardiovascular event. Right,
And as I mentioned last week when miss Lavine was here,
the cholesterol guidelines, if you haven't seen your priminent care position,
(29:26):
you haven't seen your cardiologists yet, are your cardiovascular doctor
of choice? The guidelines have changed about three months ago
to the point that yeah, they want this these cholesterol
numbers to be even lower than what it was before,
and they want us to start sooner treating it with
(29:47):
prescription medications if we do find someone who's at risk
of maybe having a cardiovascal event. And there's more and
more screening tool that are being used to try and
assess risk for someone, so that you can maybe put
yourself in a position where maybe yes, you might have
(30:10):
to start medication sooner rather than later, maybe you need
a higher dose, or maybe again just the awareness that
I'm at risk, so I need to start doing my
part and reduce my risk, reduce the production of plaque,
something that you need to work on every single day.
So you need to talk with your healthcare provider, your
(30:31):
cardiovascular personal choice and see where you're at with your
health and your medication, and try and line up the
latest guidelines that are out there. Again, it's pretty easy
if you have plaque or you've had an event already.
This is the person that we want the cluster to
be the lowest. And they say kind of in what
(30:55):
they call LDL that is considered the bad cholesterol versus
a that's considered the good cholesterol. If you read these articles,
the LDL tends to be more plaque related sort of cholesterol,
whereas HDL is not. It tends to be a better cholesterol.
(31:17):
Actually sort of reduces their production of the plaque in
your blood vessel. At least that's the theory at this point.
But a lot of times, as miss lavine now we're
talking about, it's difficult to get there by yourself, even
with exercising, eating, it's difficult to get to below seventy
and into the fifty range with the LDL.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Most people will need.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Some medication, and yes, a lot of times have had
a hard attack of stroke. That's part of your package
when you go home is your blood thinner, your cholesterol
medication again to control that plaqueformation and to keep it
to a minimum. This because it has a lot to
do with the event that happens. Basically, you get a
blood clot in a blood vessel that causes what we
(32:03):
call a schemia, no blood flow, and with no blood flow,
then that part of the organ dies and that's what
generates the symptoms of a stroke. The brain can't function,
so you can't see, you can't talk, you can't move
your arm. Same thing with a heart attack. No blood
flow to the heart and muscle, it can't function and
because of that it injures in the heart muscle, it
(32:26):
gets inflamed, and that's what generates that pain. Is the
muscle and the inflammatory system gets turned on because the
blood is not flowing to that part of the heart muscle.
And also that can change the electrical activity of the
heart muscle when it's in that particular state, which is
why a lot of times patients will pass out, and
(32:49):
that's a lot of times what causes them to what
they call syncopize or lose consciousness because electrical activity is
also disturbed in that state when the blood is not
flowing and can be the type of heart rhythm that
can be very detrimental, which is why if you've ever
been diagnosed with heart failure we call congestive heart failure,
(33:12):
they may put this little vest on you, or they
may recommend what they call it a defibrillator, because again,
when the heart muscle has been damaged, there's scartish that develops.
The electrical activity just doesn't flow as well. It just
becomes more chaotic the heart muscle itself because it's been damaged.
And sometimes these heart rhythms can cause very, very life
(33:37):
threatening heart rhythms. So the defibrillator is kind of sitting
there waiting for these things to happen so that if
it does detect it it does since it it'll shock
your heart back into a proper rhythm. And we do
see this when the percentage of heart function declines. We
can pick that up on what we call it at
(33:57):
ultrasound of the heart and echo car A lot of
doctors are doing screening echo cartograms in the offices, or
if you've had heart disease already or you've been diagnosed
with hardfare, this is sort of part of your process
that you go through every year when you get your
annual exam, you get your EKG, you get your echo.
You might even do a stress test again just to
(34:19):
reassess your heart function. And if the percentage of function
is low, we call that heart failure or reduced dejection
fraction hardfare. That's the new medical term we'll use. And
if it's low enough, normally in the fifteen to ten percent,
maybe twenty percent range, then they will put a defibrillator
(34:42):
on you potentially because the chances of having one of
these rhythm issues goes up pretty high. As the function
of your heart starts to go down, then your chances
of having these rhythm problems goes up, so they a
lot of times have put that defibrillator in. We have
Leonard from Houston. How can we help you.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
I have an appointment in a week or so to
see a urologists to see if I'm a candidate for
a lift procedure. What is that, What's what's involved? What
can go wrong? You know those kinds of things.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Yeah, Leonard, the lift procedure, I'm a little fuzzy on that.
I would assume that maybe because of the aging process,
the either the bladder or the prostate or not in
its proper position, and that is causing some urinary problems,
whether it be leakage.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Or retention of urine.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
And as a result of both of those mechanisms, it's
causing problems with your lifestyle. And so they go in
there and sort of reverse are correct the anatomical mal
alignment so that your symptoms go away. Because I'm not
a surgeon, which is normally what that is. You need
a bladder surgeon, that's what a urologist is, I'm not
(36:05):
familiar with all of the ins and outs of that procedure,
but in general, Leonard, just like you mentioned, bleeding infection
are dysfunction of the genital urinary system after procedure, meaning
the doctor did everything right, the device or the lift
(36:26):
is working, but for whatever reason, it's not working as
well for you and things didn't work out as well.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
That could happen.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
They can't guarantee one of percent success with every patient,
which is why a lot of surgeons they're very aggressive
with their pre op conversation with the patient, sort of
outlining exactly what they're going to do and the potential
outcomes of the procedure, which a lot of times it
could not be the outcome that you were looking for.
(36:56):
It's not necessarily that they did anything wrong, just we
can never get garantee the outcome, even with the medicines
we give you, et cetera. But yeah, Lenin, I apologize
about that. It's not something I do every day, so
I'm unfamiliar exactly with the entire procedure. Certainly, talk with
your urologists about that and be very comfortable with the
(37:17):
outcome that is expected.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Uh okay, Well, I understand every word you said. I
just don't understand, well, the risk of the poor outcome,
you know, is it a common event those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, yeah, see that's Leonin. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
That's something I don't know just because it's a it's
a surgical procedure and I'm not a surgeon, and it's
sort of a newer procedure. So unfortunately, you would have
to talk to the urologists. But here's one thing you
have to understand. They would not offer it to you
if they didn't think the success rate was going to
be high. They just wouldn't offer to you. So in
(38:02):
your in your surgeon's mind, this is going to work out.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
So I'm going to offer it to you.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
Mm hm, Is there something I should ask about as
an alternative prior surgeon?
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Hey, Doc, what are the alternatives? Do I have to
go through this procedure? What else is out there?
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yeah? Just like that? Absolutely okay.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
But you don't know what the alternatives are?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
No, I don't.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
It's a field of medicine that I don't do every day,
and it's a surgical world. I'm a medical doctor and
it's just not something I mean, I could look it
up real quick, but honestly, yeah, you need to talk
with the practitioner that's offering you the procedure.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
They should know the other options.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Good enough, thanks, big guy.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
All right, Leondar will appreciate that. And we're going on
our last break full lines. I open eight nine to
six kV. I want to hundred and three and three zero
O kyovy. I'll be back in two minutes.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
All right, welcome back to Doc.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
We metic our phone lines to open eight nine to
six KLV hundred three three zero KLV.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Toward the end of the show.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Remember if there's a topic you like, when it's discussed,
called the radio station or call my office three four seven,
three six two one and we would be more than
happy to talk about it. We did spend our time
talking about sepsis serves and again it's just a description
of what happens to the human body when you get
(39:39):
an infection, whether it be a bacteria or a virus,
or a fungus uncommon, parasites uncommon in this country. It's
mainly bacteria, and virus is mainly bacteria. Lung infection, blood infection,
skin infection, bloodstream infection. Bacteria, bacteria, Yes, it's the main organism.
And your body re acts to this invasion and spits
(40:03):
out all these hormones and chemicals, and your body racks,
heart rate goes up, maybe your blood pressure falls. A
lot of times that does happen. And when your blood
pressure falls, then it causes other damage to other organ's kidney's, heart, lung, liver,
and then that just the process just keeps going. So
time is of the essence. If you do feel like
(40:24):
you are sick, you start getting temperature, your heart rate
goes up. That is typically sepsis, right, not that you
have to be hospitalized. But again the concern is is
this going to get worse? Is it going to get better?
It's unclear. Just do yourself a favor and just go
get checked out by healthcare provider sooner rather than later.
(40:46):
Just let them assess you and kind of get you
start getting plugged into the system in terms of medications,
follow up, et cetera. So you can kind of stay
on top of this. Sometimes you really don't have time.
The infection can be very rapid in terms of its
pace from start to finish. We hear that a lot
in the hospital. Just again, someone is more vulnerable. Maybe
(41:11):
they're taking chemotherapy, there on immunosuppressants because they have a liver,
they're transplant patient. Man, their immune system is just very
weak for obvious reasons, and the infection can very rapidly
take over. But again, every now and then we see
these tragic situations where someone's young, healthy, at top of
(41:31):
the world, everything is going well, and sepsis can still
cause horn where patient maybe you go to the ear, Okay,
I just want to go get some manibox and I'm
out of here, and then before you know, it's two
weeks later, they're still in the hospital because of how
the body reacts to it. And we've gotten better at
treating it and processing it and becoming more systematic about
(41:55):
its approach in terms of getting the right people involved,
medicines on board as soon as possible, so we can
cool the body off. Turn off this engine, if you will.
That's how I see. It's the engine that's revving in
the background. And when you have a severe form of sepsis,
which would call severe refractory sepsis with shock. Shock is
(42:15):
the medical term for low blood pressure, we want to
turn that off as soon as possible. And the way
we do that again is what we call source control,
which is treating the infection right. So antibiotics typically need
to be given in a timely manner, and yes, all
American hospitals are judged on that and have a system
(42:37):
in place to get you on the antibiotics asap by
the time you hit the door, so we can get
that engine churned off so it doesn't progress to this massive,
massive explosion in your body like we saw a lot
during COVID just when you had to be on a
breathing machine, you had to be on all these medicines,
you had to get dialysis, maybe had a heart attack.
(42:58):
These are the things that happen when you're body just
explodes like that from an infection, so get your vaccines.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Eat your vegetables, and go in.
Speaker 1 (43:07):
And get checked out by someone or talk to someone
so you can act sooner rather than later. Thanks for
listening to the edition of the show. Remember don't drink
and drive, eat some vegetables. See you guys next week.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Take care.
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