July 19, 2025 • 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, good morning Southeast Sex's internet radio listeners. This
is your weekly host, Doc Levigne. Welcome to another edition
of the Doctor Levigne Medical Hour. I am here live
in the series of k l v I hear bo
my texts cross street from park to im all taking
your phone calls, answering questions about healthcare and medicine and
your health. To try and stay live as long as
(00:22):
possible and as healthy as possible without having to go
to the hospital. Certainly you need that yearly exam with
your physician, but how do you do it? What's the
right thing, what's the wrong thing? So much information out there,
it's really hard to figure out, so many distracting bits
of information, so many influencers out there with all of
(00:46):
their recommendations. What's the right thing? You shouldn't need this,
you shouldn't drink that, and just man, it seems like
getting out of your bed in the morning, just leaving
your house. This is a threat to your life. You
got to figure it out. Are you going to die
or be injured? So here's the show that we try
(01:09):
and figure that out. We love to hear from your
phone lines to open eight nine six kalv I one
eight hundred three three zero kyovy eye. And normally why
we wait on some phone calls, you know, I'll chat
about some topics that are on my mind, or maybe
something that has happened this past week that I thought
(01:30):
was very interesting. We're sort of in the middle of
the summer. We hadn't you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hot out there.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Maybe to get a little bit more hot as we
get into the next two months of the year. That's
normally when it's sort of peaks the heat. And then
obviously we have our hurricane season to worry about. That's
only when we get that right and September ish, thankful
(02:00):
nothing will happen this year, but living on the coast,
we gotta be careful. But just all these storms out there,
and our thoughts and prayers, God to the families there
in Central Texas with the flooding a couple of weeks ago,
just man, devastating, terrible, terrible news and terrible terrible situation.
(02:23):
But man, mother nature is angry, right. The weather patterns
have certainly changed since I was a young kid grew
up here and just didn't seem to be as much
weather destruction as there is now. I mean, and just overnight, aggressive, sudden, rapid,
(02:46):
sort of out of nowhere, even with all the radars
and the technology we have, just can't predict mother nature.
Sounds like medicine too. With all that in my eyes
and cat scans and cancer fighting drugs and blood work
(03:07):
and specialists and big, beautiful, pretty hospitals and hospital staffs
and just all the print out information you get and
virtual visits and just all these advancements in healthcare that
we get. It's still to some degree unpredictable, no matter
(03:32):
what a hospital you're at or what doctors you're seeing.
Just sometimes the condition is unpredictable. Things happen out of
nowhere suddenly, which I see a lot in the hospital.
Patients were fine two days ago, and all of a
sudden they're in the ICU, fighting for their life on
a breathing machine. Which is why I talk so much
(03:54):
about prevention, you know, the guys. That's what I do,
is what I do every day, is to try and
talk with patients and help them figure out how to
stay out of the hospital. Really, that's what's all that's about.
How do I stay out of the hospital. How do
I increase my chances of avoiding and acute event and
(04:19):
acute medical crisis, so that I don't have to go
to the hospital. I don't need to be on medicines,
I don't need to miss work. I can go on
my cruise and enjoy myself. I can go travel. It's
one of the topics that comes up a lot with
my people who decide to retire, you know, getting up
(04:42):
until your sixty sixty five or so, and it's time
to retire, right at least that's what we're told. It's
time to retire. You've worked enough. You've been working since
high school, and you've quote paid your dues into society,
and now it's time to reap the reward and just
(05:05):
hang out. Don't go to work, no schedule, no routine.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
No bosses.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
It's just you and your family and your thoughts and
whatever you want to do. Man, it sounds so wonderful
just hanging around the house all day doing nothing. And
I think that lasts for a couple of months until
until you go stir crazy looking at the walls and
(05:33):
the TV. And that's when you come to the deep
realization and slapping the face sort of realization that hey, man,
you got if your body is still working and your
mind is still working.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You gotta go do something.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
You can't sit in the house all day just again,
maybe for a couple of months.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But after a while that that gets old. Yeah, you
gotta do something.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
And certainly as a medical doctor, the one thing that
I try to prioritize with the patients and talk with
them about is, hey, man, prioritize your health or woman,
prioritize your health. I mean, when you're working, yeah, you're distracted.
You've got all these other things you got to do.
(06:18):
Take care of the family, take care of the house,
go to work, all that stuff. But when you're tired,
it's almost like the whole day opens up and you
just have so much time in your hands.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Hey, why not prioritize your health because really that becomes
the most important in my opinion. I mean, I'm biased, right,
I'm a doctor. I'm supposed to say the things right,
But really, honestly, that becomes a very important commodity as
you get older, is your health. How's your body functioning?
(06:53):
What does it allow you to do and what does it.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Not allow you to do?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Because retirement and getting older can be terrible If your
health is not in good shape. I mean it's I
mean I see it with my own eyes. It's no
fun having to go to the doctor all the time.
I talk to patients, I mean their whole week is
lined up with office visits with other doctors. I mean
(07:19):
lined up and just going back and forth to the
pharmacy and bringing in your sack of meds and having
to go to the er the minor care on a
regular basis, so frequently that the er staff knows you,
They know you by name, they know what you already
(07:40):
want or what you need. They see your face, they
get it. I mean, who wants to be in that situation?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Unfortunately, yet patients are dealt a bad card, and unfortunately
they're in sort of that condition where they're sort of
chronically ill. And again, because of Medicaid and procedures and
the things that we do now, patients ye are able
to sort of stay alive and be managed over a
(08:10):
long period of time. Obviously, with the help of the
pharmaceutical industry, we have medications, tablets, capsules, liquids, injections, things
that you can inhale that are supposed to sort of
right to the wrong if you will, when your health
(08:30):
is poor, because remember, when you're sick, it indicates a
period of imbalance, and health normally is a period of balance.
Homeostasis is what they call that. One of the medical
terms I learned when I was in ninth grade here
in Beaumont at Westbrook taking a health course during the summer.
(08:56):
I still remember that sort of the first chapter. Homeostasis
is what I was taught, just how the body really,
every single moment is trying to achieve balance, and unfortunately,
because of our habits as Americans and the things that
we do or do not do, it tends to put
(09:19):
the body in a state of imbalance, maybe a mile state,
but nonetheless it's imbalanced, and that imbalance over time tends
to generate disease and illness. And everyone, I mean a
lot of people just trying to find the source of
youth and the source of health and how do I
(09:41):
do it?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
What is the way to do it?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I mean, And because of all of the information that
people are exposed to and what they hear from their
families and their spouses, and it just a lot of
times keeps everyone confused and disorders. They don't no, it's
almost like unachievable poor, you know, good health. Just I
(10:06):
can't do it. It's too complicated, it's too confusing.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And most people try, they really do. But let's face it,
if the effort requires this huge effort and just this
huge sort of amount of energy, it's less likely going
to be able to be sustained for a long period
of time, and more than likely at some point it's
going to fail if it just requires this big, monstrous
(10:36):
effort every single day they have to do X, Y
and Z. Some patients can do that, but let's face it,
the majority the general population just not something that they'll
be able to do. Just requires too much energy. I mean,
it needs to be pretty simple and straightforward, which is
(10:56):
why I think the whole dietary supplement industry is booming
right now. When a story is sort of sold to you,
are suggested to you by the way it comes to you,
and you believe in that story, You believe the information
(11:17):
that is presented to you by these various companies and
their representatives, whether it be a medical doctor or an
actor or just the average person that they have interviewed,
and they've put their testimonial either in the nice pamphlet
(11:37):
or it's on a video. Well, however they present it
to your feeded to you. It's a story, a story
to believe, and depending on who you are and what
you believe in, what your past is, you might buy
into that story and say to yourself, Yes, that is me,
(11:59):
that's me struggling like that. This person was similar to me,
and now they're better. I want to be that person.
And all they had to do was to take this
X product. That's all they had to do. And while
I they're in good health, they feel good, they look good,
(12:21):
everything works because they took brand X for six months
or a year, whatever the case may be, and they
feel good.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Everyone's looking for.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That quick fix, right because good health to most people
is complicated.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It shouldn't be that way.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Michael from Pasadena, how can we help you?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Oh, good morning, Thanks for everything you do.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yes, sir, I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I went to the hard doctor and yacht my results
for a pet scam and everything's okay. I have a
little no blockages. But in our discussions, she wanted me.
(13:15):
She looked at my L d L and it's ninety
four and she wants it to be seventy. And she
wanted to me to put one to put me on
some drugs. And I asked her, I said, I'd like
to try and do it without drugs, do it with
diet and exercise. And I think that I do exercise
(13:41):
and I try to eat right. And my question to
you is what, what? What should I do? What? I'm
going to try this for a couple of months and
then take another blood US for this l d L
(14:02):
and see where it's at. But I understand that a
hundred is uh uh. I'm still in a safe zone.
But she wants me to be at seventy. So what's
your suggestion? What? How? What? I try to eat lean
(14:24):
like lean, I don't eat beef. I faced some chicken
and no faster grease. And what would you do? What? What?
What do you think will work? I'm sure you have
patients that have the same problem.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And yeah, Michael, what what did your providers say when
you spoke with her and said I would like to
try just out an exercise and no medicines.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
What was her reaction.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
She said? And she said, yeah, we'll do that just
and I'm in sometime in August. Here I was supposed
to get another blood taste and see where it's at.
I use a couple of things I've been doing. I've
been I eat little counts of cheese every once in
a while, maybe it trially beat. Maybe I ounced one
(15:22):
ounce a day of cheese, and I've cut that out.
And I was eating a lot of peanut butter. Yeah,
and so I'm cutting that out. And so I uh,
(15:42):
I just I don't want to be on drugs. That's
my thing. I don't. I don't. I'm worried about I
worried about the side effects. She gave me two names
of drugs and I can't remember what they were. But
so we're we're gonna I'm gonna try it for a while.
I'm looking at all the the cholesterol values on the
(16:08):
foods I eat and trying to cut it back. But
she said one thing that kind of bothered me. She said,
some people's liver just produces more cholesterol and there's nothing
you can do about it. And I thought to myself, well,
I'm gonna try. I don't want to be on drugs.
(16:29):
And maybe I'm wrong on this, but so anyway, that's
my predicament. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I mean, Michael, I think it's nothing wrong with trying
to do things the good old fashioned way with diet
and exercise. You listen to the show, you know, I
preach that a lot. And it's because as a physician
talking with thousands of patients as I do, and listen
to their stories and seeing the trajectory of patients and
(17:05):
their health, and what are the risk factors that tend
to cause more problems and what are the habits that
tend to decrease your problems. I mean, I do see
it very clearly, and which is why we try to
talk about this as frequently as possible. I think that's
(17:25):
wonderful that your practitioner agreed with you and promoted.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Died and exercise over drugs.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I think that's wonderful just because yeah, most of the
time we can avoid drugs and we can do it
the good old fashioned way. It's just that it's hard
out there for people to figure it out. Which is
sort of the theme of the show today is just
why is it so complicated? I don't quite get it,
to be honest with you, now that you know I'm
(17:54):
in the position I'm in and I.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Sort of see it clearly.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I don't know why it's so hard to understand and
what you need to do to improve your chances of
being healthy. It's very clear to me, so diet and
exercise that is the way to go. Is to number one,
eat a better diet. Number two be physically active and
a lot of times that can correct those cholesterol numbers.
(18:20):
But if not, the pharmascurity industry has wonderful drugs that
have been well studied in the best research studies that
have proven that they do reduce the chances of cardiovascular events.
And that's really all your practitioner is trying to do
is keep you out at a hospital. And unfortunately, our
(18:44):
medical our medical community is based in such a way
that we rely very heavily on pharmaceutical prescription drugs to
achieve our goals, our health goals in this country. And
again that's because a lot of patients are struggling with
trying to find a way to get to that point
(19:05):
in their life where they can easily be healthy. It's
it's hard to be healthy, and that's a bigger question
in our country, which most people should be able to
achieve health very easily in a very wealthy country, but
they're actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. They're
more unhealthy honestly in my opinion, and I have some
(19:27):
ideas about that, but yeah, try your diet, exercise for
a few weeks, I'm sorry, a few months, and repeat
a lab and see what it looks like.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
To foods to bring down the cholesterol. Is there? Other than.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It's very it's very simple, very simple our country. It's
dietary habits. They're set up to consume animal products, right, commercials,
all of those sort of advertisements. To most Americans. In
terms of food, it's centered around meat. Meat is the
(20:13):
main food item on most people's plates. What is the
meat going to be. It's gonna be chicken, It's going
to be fish, And in my opinion, based on what
I've read and based on what I've seen, is that
it should be plants, pla and ts plants. You don't
necessarily have to be a vegetarian. I'm not necessarily promoting that,
(20:37):
but certainly should. Everyone sort of draws the round plate
and has the lines that sort of indicate the percentages
of it should be a percentage of this, and a
percentage of that, and a percentage of that. Well, in
my opinion, most of your plate, or all of your
plates should be vegetables, plants, pla and ts, anything that
(20:57):
comes from the earth, right, So you were talking about cheese.
Cheese comes from an animal product, comes from the cow.
Anything you eat or consume that comes from animals going
to have cholesterol in it. Ice cream, bacon, ham, red meat,
even the leaner cuts of meat, chicken, fish, turkey, there
(21:19):
is some degree of cholesterol, but it's a lot less
and it tends to be what we call less thrombogenic
or less platforming sort of protein. So let I'm sorry, Michael.
So the thing that you need to do is prioritize
eating plants and try to avoid or reduce your consumption
(21:42):
of animal products. So yes, stay away from the cheese,
stay away from the whole dairy, like whole milk or
anything that contains whole dairy. Try to eat leaner pieces
of meat. Chicken, fish, turkey are the ones that we mentioned.
Stay away from the butter, you know, right, butter comes
from cow. So it's that's what it is. Eat more plants,
(22:04):
eat less animal That's how you start that. It's very easy.
Does that make sense to you buddy? All right, Michael
will appreciate your phone call. Some great question today. I
don't want medications. I'm tired of taking all these meds.
I hear that often, and I'm all for it. I've
(22:26):
been in the game for twenty years, over twenty years
as a physician, and I get it. Who wants to
take all these meds and spend five hundred dollars a
month at the pharmaceutical company going to your pharmacy and
getting your meds and having to decide am I going
(22:47):
to pay my house note or am I going to
pay for my medication?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Hey Leonard, what's up? Man?
Speaker 4 (22:55):
My legs have started a week in water and I'm changing.
I'm putting on paper towels, you know, for three or
four times a day. I've been to the doctor and
adell my forest of my intake or whatever, and they
and they prescribe me a new pill. I haven't had
time to fill it yet, but I did get another pill,
(23:19):
uh to get really the excess water? Is there anything
else I should be doing.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Normally? When you have swelling in the Is it your legs?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Does does your doctor tell you why you have swelling
in your legs?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
What is what is the.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Reason that I assume it's an outgrowth of them. When
I when I burned my feet a couple of months back,
they just never really healed, right, Okay, I'm not sure I.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So you burnt the bottom of.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Your feet, yeah, as the hot pier because I have
that disease where you can't feel your feet. It burned
them real good. Yeah, one of those.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, But your feet, the actual foot itself is not leaking, right,
It's legs.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
This is.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
You know, the feet are leaking blood from the h
all those things.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That form and they pop and the blisters.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
The blisters, yeah, the blisters are the right one is
a real problem. The left its it's almost gone. It's
just doing okay. But it's the legs are just it's
they don't smell bad. It's just aggravating. And I can't
get rid of the liquid. It's I'm changing those U
(24:50):
paper towels four times a day and they're they're wet
every time they need it, well.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Most of the time. And again, I just want to
be clear. If you burn your feet on the bottom
of your foot where you step, that should not cause
any leakage of the leg itself. So you might have
two different problems. You might have yes, the bottom of
your foot is injured from a burn. Okay, yes, that's
(25:19):
number one. And then on top of that, it sounds
like maybe you have a separate issue with fluid accumulation
in your leg. We call that edema, and form most
of Americans, there's some common causes of a edema. A
couple of them would be what we call venus insufficiency
(25:41):
or venus hypertension, where the blood sort of pools in
your legs longer than it needs to, and because of
the hemodynamics of blood flow, when the blood does not flow,
it tends to cause accumulation of fluid in an around
that area. So that's number one, venus hypertension. Number two,
(26:05):
clots in the legs can cause that. We call that
DVT or deep vein throng bosis. And then number three
and four and let it I know you have diabetes,
heart disease, and kidney disease can generate swelling of the
lower legs.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
We see that a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So if you're telling me that the swelling and the
leakage revenue use tiles is a brand new issue, then yeah,
you need to get with your healthcare professional so they
can work that up and figure out why that's happening,
because you should be looking for the reason. The burning
of the feet, like I said, sounds like it's a
(26:47):
separate issue, but should not be causing your legs to leak. No,
that's separate.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Well, I've been to the cardiologists and I've been to
the kidney doctor, and that they're working on it. But
I was just I was just wondering if something else
I should be doing.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
One thing that I normally recommend for patients suffering leakage
of the legs are what we call compression stockings or
compression socks.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I have them, okay.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
And then they also have healthcare professionals that can perform
procedures on the circulation to improve the blood flow so
that the blood moves more rapidly and in doing so
that will allow your legs to go down and stop
leaking like they're doing. That's another healthcare profession.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
You can go to.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
And then they are selling as far as I know,
over the counter online like Amazon, these sort of compression
boots that you can order and you put yourself in
these boots, you add them up and basically it pushes
that fluid back into your circulation. You can buy these devices,
(28:08):
I want to say, that's my understanding. Now they're becoming
more affordable and more accessible to patients who have this problem.
But you would do this accession or two a day
where you put your legs into these devices and blow
it up and basically just trying to push that fluid
back into the blood vessels so that it's not leaking
(28:29):
like that. Normally. When it's leaking like that just means
you have an over abundance of fluid in your tissues
and so the pressure is so high that it ruptures.
I mean, it just starts leaking out because there's nowhere
for the fluid to go. They've sort of overwhelmed the
drainage system and so it just sort of starts leaking.
(28:52):
So that indicates it you normally have a lot of
hypertension in your venus system, you have a lot of
fluid in your legs, and other than diuretics, yes, the
compression stockings and maybe these devices that you would do
a couple of times a day to help with that.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Well, the Kendy doctor said, you'll put me in the
hospital if I want you and put my legs elevator
and put this for some odd stuff and a bottle
of sticking in my arm and you know, curple of
dosages and all that. Yeah, I'm just not a fan
of hospitals, right.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
We have not figured out how to do it at
the home yet. Hopefully we will. Just as the cost
of hospitalization continues to rise, there are conversations discussions all
the time about trying to manage some of these issues
at home more easily and get healthcare professionals that can
(29:53):
go out to your house and just do some simple
things like that. We haven't quite figured out how to
do that yet, but hopefully in the near future we
can have that ability to provide those IV medications at home.
If they don't do the IV, then normally they can
just increase the dose of your tablets or the frequency
(30:14):
of your tablets, like the Lasix the diuretic, we can
give you higher doses. You can take them more frequently
throughout the day. Normally it's once a day. We can
do two, three times a day. And then also we
can add a second or even third different category of
diuretics that impact your kidney function to generate more fluid elimination.
(30:39):
We call that diuresis. When we're trying to get fluid
off someone we're diuresing them and to diuyse patients, we
use medicines called diuretics, So LASiS is the most popular,
but they have several other diuretics that we utilize to
help with getting ready of fluid. So your kidney doctor
(30:59):
A certainly is familiar with all that.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Well. And they, like I said, they double my prescription
for or my dosage is for us of mine and
they added this new drug. I don't even know what.
I can't even spell it, but I haven't picked it
up yet. And I was just just wondering if there
was something else I should be doing, And the answer
is compression stocks.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, those work very well. And yes, just like you've
already been told, if you're sitting, I'll try to keep
your legs up and not down, just because when they
down then gravity will fight your blood flow and it
would generate more swelling. So yes, keep your legs up
when you're sitting.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I have the ability to basically turn around and put
my feet on top of the headboard, so I get
a good angle forty five fifty degree angle down.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Yeah, how long do I have to do that? Do
any good?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I would say, normally a couple hours.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
That can be hours.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, that can be uncomfortable. Yeah, normally couple of hours
at least, can you do.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
That fifteen minutes I ain't enough.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, a couple hours, all right, Lennon. We appreciate your questions.
Phone lines are open eight nine six k one, eight
hundred three three zero. Ky, I'll be back in two minutes.
All right, Welcome back to the doctor Metagour phone lines
(32:44):
are open eight nine six kov on one, eight hundred
three three zero Okyo. For Yeah, I don't want to
take those meds?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Dot. Do I have to take those meds?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Can I live without those mads?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Sort of question often, and I think, yeah, we would
prefer and try to manage your symptoms without medications. As
a matter of fact, I try not to prescribe medications
to my patients, certainly if I think it's something that
is minor. You know, as a primary healthcare professional, we
(33:18):
hear a lot of physical complaints every day. That's sort
of our role. Our position in the whole healthcare world
is to sort of be on the front lines of
those physical complaints. So we hear a lot every day
about all sorts of physical ailments, and most of the
(33:38):
time the physical complaints are of not any serious nature.
They just sort of naggy, benign physical symptoms. But I
think patients are now in a situation where they don't
want to be guilty of not letting their provider know
about something that's bothering them because they're not quite sure
(34:01):
if it's the tip of the iceberg as pertains to
a chronic medical disease or some sort of really serious
critical illness. They have heard stories about family members or
brothers or sisters, or just talking with their coworkers about
this person that had this problem for a long time
(34:23):
and they didn't do anything about it, and then all
of a sudden they're no longer with us. So there
is some sense of paranoia out there in America to
again alert your provider to any physical symptom that you
have again, which is a big change in the way
(34:44):
we do things in this country. And when I was
a young person never went to the doctor. I never
even heard my parents going to the doctor. Just wasn't
brought up. And now all of a sudden, everyone goes
to the doctor, everyone to the er, everyone's on medication,
and it seems like a big trend, and it's getting
(35:06):
more easy to access.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
The healthcare world.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Right with our smartphones and our smart watches and our
computer terminals, we can just click a few buttons and boom,
we have access to a healthcare professional to give us
expert advice about this physical complaint that I'm having. And
so we get that in primary care, and I honestly
(35:32):
try not to have to give them a prescription medication
because it means so much to write that prescription. Missus
Lavina and I have talked about sort of the obstacles
of getting your prescriptions refilled. Maybe it's a chronic medication
that you do have, and you know it should be
(35:53):
an easy exercise and easy relationship, but it's not. Unfortunately,
it's it can be cumbersome to just get my blood
pressure medicine refilled in a talently manner. There's so many
players when it comes to just getting one medicine refill.
Just imagine if you had five or ten. Unfortunately, like
(36:15):
some of my patients have these chronic medical issues. I
mean they're on ten medicines. I mean that list as
long as a highway, and they do it every day.
God bless them, and it's just the second job to
keep it all straight and keep it affordable and just
(36:36):
again get the medicines on time. I mean, it's a
big concept and a big focus in a healthcare industry
right now is to improve patients compliance with all these
pharmaceutical drugs that they're taking every day from their healthcare
provider because they complain about this with that. I hear
(36:57):
this more so in the hospital again because I honestly
try to keep my patient's medication list as minimal as possible.
I really do have that in mind every time I
interact with my patient. Do we need these medicines? Can
we get off these medicines? And we sometimes get into
(37:17):
a rut that would be the patient as well as
the provider sort of this prescription inertia or this prescript
prescribing momentum where there's a physical complaint, there's a prescription
medicine for it, and so patient comes in, client comes in,
(37:39):
this is my complaint, Give me a medicine, prescription medicine
that is, and that's sort of their relationship. And so
that's why you can find some patients on ten fifteen medicines.
A good doctor or good healthcare provider certainly wants to
address as many or all issues that are brought up
(38:01):
in the visit. And because of the time crunch and
the lack of time to really ferret out these physical
complaints and go through them at length and depth most
of the time of healthcare provider trying to be a
good person, trying to be a good provider, we just
(38:22):
very rapidly write a script. Here, here you go, You're done,
problem solved, and so we get into that. But I
really tried to limit that sort of activity. And our
caller earlier was a little hesitant about wanting to get
on prescription medicines. I mean, I get that, and there's
(38:46):
a certain medicines you got to be on, Like if
your blood pressure is high, I mean, I mean, you
really need to be on this medication. You know your
pressure is pretty high. It's been like that. It's consistent.
I'm all for data exercise. If your bloo press is
a high, you really need to get on this medication,
Missus Johnson. I mean, if I do have patients that
(39:07):
even with pressure is being high, sugars being high, cholesterol
is high, they want to stay out for medicine.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
You know, it's their choice.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
I don't dislike them, hate them, judge them.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
It's their choice.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
And I just document it and move on and just
try to help them with that. But you are sort
of last decision to make, to be honest with your
healthcare professional.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Is there to advise you of.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Your rights, your right to deny, right, defer, decline, and
you can and if you if your health care provider
makes it uncomfortable for you or makes you feel like
you can't do something, I mean, you can always try
and talk with them and try to get to that
(39:57):
position where you both understand each other.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
But if you feel like your healthcare.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Provider is fighting you on your position, you can go
find a different healthcare provider, get a second opinion. It's
nothing wrong with that. Phone lines are open eight nine
six scale v I one in one hundred and three
to three zero O kov I. We'll be back in
two minutes. All right, welcome back to the Doctor Link
Medical Hour. At the end of the show, I want
(40:22):
to thank all the callers and all the listeners on
the Doctor Living in Medical I remember if there's a
topic that you would like me to cover or you
want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Please let us know.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
You can call or call my office and leave with
my staff, and we'll be more than happy to sort
of dive into that topic so that you can understand
a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
But we were just sort of.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Talking about medications, and hey, if you don't want to
take a medication that a prescriber gives to you, you
should have that right and you shouldn't feel uncomfortable about it.
The way the relationship relationship is set up is to
sort of have a conversation and have what they call
(41:04):
shared decision making. When it comes to all these decisions
that are being made about your medications or ordering certain
tests or going to different doctors, it's a conversation you
should have with your health coach, right. That's the way
providers are now. They're sort of your health coach or
your health advisor.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
That's how I see it.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
And if you don't want to do something, it's totally fine.
It's your health. It's up to you. That's the way
they want it to be. That's the way it should be,
and certainly that's why we handle all that information so
you can educate yourself and come to the visit with
a better understanding of why we're doing these things, especially
even if you don't want to do it. Diet, an exercise,
(41:48):
or your lifestyle, in my opinion, is the biggest aspect.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Of your health.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Just sure you hear situations where patients were doing the
right thing and they come down with cancer, or they
were in the hospital, or they're no longer. I mean, yeah,
I get all that, and yes, that's true. There's no guarantee.
There's no guarantee one percent. No. I mean, you're getting
a car, you might be in an accident. There's no guarantee.
(42:17):
But typically if you put your seat belts on, you
drive the speed limit, and you wear a seat belt
and you drive safely, you're less likely to be in
an accident. I mean, improve your chances of having a
better outcome.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
That's what all this is about.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Improve lesson decrease that the lifestyle does that bad lifestyle increase.
Good lifestyle decrease less medicine, less disease, less hospitalizations. Bad lifestyle,
more disease, more meds, more admissions, more cancers.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
That's how that stuff works.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
And again, if you don't want to take a medicine,
it's your decision. You should have that freedom. I want
to thank all the calls and listeners y'all. Have a
good weekend. Remember drink some water, eat some vegetables, and
I'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Take care,
All right, good morning Southeast Sex's internet radio listeners. This
is your weekly host, Doc Levigne. Welcome to another edition
of the Doctor Levigne Medical Hour. I am here live
in the series of k l v I hear bo
my texts cross street from park to im all taking
your phone calls, answering questions about healthcare and medicine and
your health. To try and stay live as long as
(00:22):
possible and as healthy as possible without having to go
to the hospital. Certainly you need that yearly exam with
your physician, but how do you do it? What's the
right thing, what's the wrong thing? So much information out there,
it's really hard to figure out, so many distracting bits
of information, so many influencers out there with all of
(00:46):
their recommendations. What's the right thing? You shouldn't need this,
you shouldn't drink that, and just man, it seems like
getting out of your bed in the morning, just leaving
your house. This is a threat to your life. You
got to figure it out. Are you going to die
or be injured? So here's the show that we try
(01:09):
and figure that out. We love to hear from your
phone lines to open eight nine six kalv I one
eight hundred three three zero kyovy eye. And normally why
we wait on some phone calls, you know, I'll chat
about some topics that are on my mind, or maybe
something that has happened this past week that I thought
(01:30):
was very interesting. We're sort of in the middle of
the summer. We hadn't you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Hot out there.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Maybe to get a little bit more hot as we
get into the next two months of the year. That's
normally when it's sort of peaks the heat. And then
obviously we have our hurricane season to worry about. That's
only when we get that right and September ish, thankful
(02:00):
nothing will happen this year, but living on the coast,
we gotta be careful. But just all these storms out there,
and our thoughts and prayers, God to the families there
in Central Texas with the flooding a couple of weeks ago,
just man, devastating, terrible, terrible news and terrible terrible situation.
(02:23):
But man, mother nature is angry, right. The weather patterns
have certainly changed since I was a young kid grew
up here and just didn't seem to be as much
weather destruction as there is now. I mean, and just overnight, aggressive, sudden, rapid,
(02:46):
sort of out of nowhere, even with all the radars
and the technology we have, just can't predict mother nature.
Sounds like medicine too. With all that in my eyes
and cat scans and cancer fighting drugs and blood work
(03:07):
and specialists and big, beautiful, pretty hospitals and hospital staffs
and just all the print out information you get and
virtual visits and just all these advancements in healthcare that
we get. It's still to some degree unpredictable, no matter
(03:32):
what a hospital you're at or what doctors you're seeing.
Just sometimes the condition is unpredictable. Things happen out of
nowhere suddenly, which I see a lot in the hospital.
Patients were fine two days ago, and all of a
sudden they're in the ICU, fighting for their life on
a breathing machine. Which is why I talk so much
(03:54):
about prevention, you know, the guys. That's what I do,
is what I do every day, is to try and
talk with patients and help them figure out how to
stay out of the hospital. Really, that's what's all that's about.
How do I stay out of the hospital. How do
I increase my chances of avoiding and acute event and
(04:19):
acute medical crisis, so that I don't have to go
to the hospital. I don't need to be on medicines,
I don't need to miss work. I can go on
my cruise and enjoy myself. I can go travel. It's
one of the topics that comes up a lot with
my people who decide to retire, you know, getting up
(04:42):
until your sixty sixty five or so, and it's time
to retire, right at least that's what we're told. It's
time to retire. You've worked enough. You've been working since
high school, and you've quote paid your dues into society,
and now it's time to reap the reward and just
(05:05):
hang out. Don't go to work, no schedule, no routine.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
No bosses.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
It's just you and your family and your thoughts and
whatever you want to do. Man, it sounds so wonderful
just hanging around the house all day doing nothing. And
I think that lasts for a couple of months until
until you go stir crazy looking at the walls and
(05:33):
the TV. And that's when you come to the deep
realization and slapping the face sort of realization that hey, man,
you got if your body is still working and your
mind is still working.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You gotta go do something.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
You can't sit in the house all day just again,
maybe for a couple of months.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
But after a while that that gets old. Yeah, you
gotta do something.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
And certainly as a medical doctor, the one thing that
I try to prioritize with the patients and talk with
them about is, hey, man, prioritize your health or woman,
prioritize your health. I mean, when you're working, yeah, you're distracted.
You've got all these other things you got to do.
(06:18):
Take care of the family, take care of the house,
go to work, all that stuff. But when you're tired,
it's almost like the whole day opens up and you
just have so much time in your hands.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Hey, why not prioritize your health because really that becomes
the most important in my opinion. I mean, I'm biased, right,
I'm a doctor. I'm supposed to say the things right,
But really, honestly, that becomes a very important commodity as
you get older, is your health. How's your body functioning?
(06:53):
What does it allow you to do and what does it.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Not allow you to do?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Because retirement and getting older can be terrible If your
health is not in good shape. I mean it's I
mean I see it with my own eyes. It's no
fun having to go to the doctor all the time.
I talk to patients, I mean their whole week is
lined up with office visits with other doctors. I mean
(07:19):
lined up and just going back and forth to the
pharmacy and bringing in your sack of meds and having
to go to the er the minor care on a
regular basis, so frequently that the er staff knows you,
They know you by name, they know what you already
(07:40):
want or what you need. They see your face, they
get it. I mean, who wants to be in that situation?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Sometimes?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Unfortunately, yet patients are dealt a bad card, and unfortunately
they're in sort of that condition where they're sort of
chronically ill. And again, because of Medicaid and procedures and
the things that we do now, patients ye are able
to sort of stay alive and be managed over a
(08:10):
long period of time. Obviously, with the help of the
pharmaceutical industry, we have medications, tablets, capsules, liquids, injections, things
that you can inhale that are supposed to sort of
right to the wrong if you will, when your health
(08:30):
is poor, because remember, when you're sick, it indicates a
period of imbalance, and health normally is a period of balance.
Homeostasis is what they call that. One of the medical
terms I learned when I was in ninth grade here
in Beaumont at Westbrook taking a health course during the summer.
(08:56):
I still remember that sort of the first chapter. Homeostasis
is what I was taught, just how the body really,
every single moment is trying to achieve balance, and unfortunately,
because of our habits as Americans and the things that
we do or do not do, it tends to put
(09:19):
the body in a state of imbalance, maybe a mile state,
but nonetheless it's imbalanced, and that imbalance over time tends
to generate disease and illness. And everyone, I mean a
lot of people just trying to find the source of
youth and the source of health and how do I
(09:41):
do it?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
What is the way to do it?
Speaker 1 (09:46):
I mean, And because of all of the information that
people are exposed to and what they hear from their
families and their spouses, and it just a lot of
times keeps everyone confused and disorders. They don't no, it's
almost like unachievable poor, you know, good health. Just I
(10:06):
can't do it. It's too complicated, it's too confusing.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And most people try, they really do. But let's face it,
if the effort requires this huge effort and just this
huge sort of amount of energy, it's less likely going
to be able to be sustained for a long period
of time, and more than likely at some point it's
going to fail if it just requires this big, monstrous
(10:36):
effort every single day they have to do X, Y
and Z. Some patients can do that, but let's face it,
the majority the general population just not something that they'll
be able to do. Just requires too much energy. I mean,
it needs to be pretty simple and straightforward, which is
(10:56):
why I think the whole dietary supplement industry is booming
right now. When a story is sort of sold to you,
are suggested to you by the way it comes to you,
and you believe in that story, You believe the information
(11:17):
that is presented to you by these various companies and
their representatives, whether it be a medical doctor or an
actor or just the average person that they have interviewed,
and they've put their testimonial either in the nice pamphlet
(11:37):
or it's on a video. Well, however they present it
to your feeded to you. It's a story, a story
to believe, and depending on who you are and what
you believe in, what your past is, you might buy
into that story and say to yourself, Yes, that is me,
(11:59):
that's me struggling like that. This person was similar to me,
and now they're better. I want to be that person.
And all they had to do was to take this
X product. That's all they had to do. And while
I they're in good health, they feel good, they look good,
(12:21):
everything works because they took brand X for six months
or a year, whatever the case may be, and they
feel good.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Everyone's looking for.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
That quick fix, right because good health to most people
is complicated.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It shouldn't be that way.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Michael from Pasadena, how can we help you?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Oh, good morning, Thanks for everything you do.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yes, sir, I wanted to.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
I went to the hard doctor and yacht my results
for a pet scam and everything's okay. I have a
little no blockages. But in our discussions, she wanted me.
(13:15):
She looked at my L d L and it's ninety
four and she wants it to be seventy. And she
wanted to me to put one to put me on
some drugs. And I asked her, I said, I'd like
to try and do it without drugs, do it with
diet and exercise. And I think that I do exercise
(13:41):
and I try to eat right. And my question to
you is what, what? What should I do? What? I'm
going to try this for a couple of months and
then take another blood US for this l d L
(14:02):
and see where it's at. But I understand that a
hundred is uh uh. I'm still in a safe zone.
But she wants me to be at seventy. So what's
your suggestion? What? How? What? I try to eat lean
(14:24):
like lean, I don't eat beef. I faced some chicken
and no faster grease. And what would you do? What? What?
What do you think will work? I'm sure you have
patients that have the same problem.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And yeah, Michael, what what did your providers say when
you spoke with her and said I would like to
try just out an exercise and no medicines.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
What was her reaction.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
She said? And she said, yeah, we'll do that just
and I'm in sometime in August. Here I was supposed
to get another blood taste and see where it's at.
I use a couple of things I've been doing. I've
been I eat little counts of cheese every once in
a while, maybe it trially beat. Maybe I ounced one
(15:22):
ounce a day of cheese, and I've cut that out.
And I was eating a lot of peanut butter. Yeah,
and so I'm cutting that out. And so I uh,
(15:42):
I just I don't want to be on drugs. That's
my thing. I don't. I don't. I'm worried about I
worried about the side effects. She gave me two names
of drugs and I can't remember what they were. But
so we're we're gonna I'm gonna try it for a while.
I'm looking at all the the cholesterol values on the
(16:08):
foods I eat and trying to cut it back. But
she said one thing that kind of bothered me. She said,
some people's liver just produces more cholesterol and there's nothing
you can do about it. And I thought to myself, well,
I'm gonna try. I don't want to be on drugs.
(16:29):
And maybe I'm wrong on this, but so anyway, that's
my predicament. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I mean, Michael, I think it's nothing wrong with trying
to do things the good old fashioned way with diet
and exercise. You listen to the show, you know, I
preach that a lot. And it's because as a physician
talking with thousands of patients as I do, and listen
to their stories and seeing the trajectory of patients and
(17:05):
their health, and what are the risk factors that tend
to cause more problems and what are the habits that
tend to decrease your problems. I mean, I do see
it very clearly, and which is why we try to
talk about this as frequently as possible. I think that's
(17:25):
wonderful that your practitioner agreed with you and promoted.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Died and exercise over drugs.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I think that's wonderful just because yeah, most of the
time we can avoid drugs and we can do it
the good old fashioned way. It's just that it's hard
out there for people to figure it out. Which is
sort of the theme of the show today is just
why is it so complicated? I don't quite get it,
to be honest with you, now that you know I'm
(17:54):
in the position I'm in and I.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Sort of see it clearly.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I don't know why it's so hard to understand and
what you need to do to improve your chances of
being healthy. It's very clear to me, so diet and
exercise that is the way to go. Is to number one,
eat a better diet. Number two be physically active and
a lot of times that can correct those cholesterol numbers.
(18:20):
But if not, the pharmascurity industry has wonderful drugs that
have been well studied in the best research studies that
have proven that they do reduce the chances of cardiovascular events.
And that's really all your practitioner is trying to do
is keep you out at a hospital. And unfortunately, our
(18:44):
medical our medical community is based in such a way
that we rely very heavily on pharmaceutical prescription drugs to
achieve our goals, our health goals in this country. And
again that's because a lot of patients are struggling with
trying to find a way to get to that point
(19:05):
in their life where they can easily be healthy. It's
it's hard to be healthy, and that's a bigger question
in our country, which most people should be able to
achieve health very easily in a very wealthy country, but
they're actually on the opposite end of the spectrum. They're
more unhealthy honestly in my opinion, and I have some
(19:27):
ideas about that, but yeah, try your diet, exercise for
a few weeks, I'm sorry, a few months, and repeat
a lab and see what it looks like.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
To foods to bring down the cholesterol. Is there? Other than.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
It's very it's very simple, very simple our country. It's
dietary habits. They're set up to consume animal products, right, commercials,
all of those sort of advertisements. To most Americans. In
terms of food, it's centered around meat. Meat is the
(20:13):
main food item on most people's plates. What is the
meat going to be. It's gonna be chicken, It's going
to be fish, And in my opinion, based on what
I've read and based on what I've seen, is that
it should be plants, pla and ts plants. You don't
necessarily have to be a vegetarian. I'm not necessarily promoting that,
(20:37):
but certainly should. Everyone sort of draws the round plate
and has the lines that sort of indicate the percentages
of it should be a percentage of this, and a
percentage of that, and a percentage of that. Well, in
my opinion, most of your plate, or all of your
plates should be vegetables, plants, pla and ts, anything that
(20:57):
comes from the earth, right, So you were talking about cheese.
Cheese comes from an animal product, comes from the cow.
Anything you eat or consume that comes from animals going
to have cholesterol in it. Ice cream, bacon, ham, red meat,
even the leaner cuts of meat, chicken, fish, turkey, there
(21:19):
is some degree of cholesterol, but it's a lot less
and it tends to be what we call less thrombogenic
or less platforming sort of protein. So let I'm sorry, Michael.
So the thing that you need to do is prioritize
eating plants and try to avoid or reduce your consumption
(21:42):
of animal products. So yes, stay away from the cheese,
stay away from the whole dairy, like whole milk or
anything that contains whole dairy. Try to eat leaner pieces
of meat. Chicken, fish, turkey are the ones that we mentioned.
Stay away from the butter, you know, right, butter comes
from cow. So it's that's what it is. Eat more plants,
(22:04):
eat less animal That's how you start that. It's very easy.
Does that make sense to you buddy? All right, Michael
will appreciate your phone call. Some great question today. I
don't want medications. I'm tired of taking all these meds.
I hear that often, and I'm all for it. I've
(22:26):
been in the game for twenty years, over twenty years
as a physician, and I get it. Who wants to
take all these meds and spend five hundred dollars a
month at the pharmaceutical company going to your pharmacy and
getting your meds and having to decide am I going
(22:47):
to pay my house note or am I going to
pay for my medication?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Hey Leonard, what's up? Man?
Speaker 4 (22:55):
My legs have started a week in water and I'm changing.
I'm putting on paper towels, you know, for three or
four times a day. I've been to the doctor and
adell my forest of my intake or whatever, and they
and they prescribe me a new pill. I haven't had
time to fill it yet, but I did get another pill,
(23:19):
uh to get really the excess water? Is there anything
else I should be doing.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Normally? When you have swelling in the Is it your legs?
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Does does your doctor tell you why you have swelling
in your legs?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Like?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
What is what is the.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
Reason that I assume it's an outgrowth of them. When
I when I burned my feet a couple of months back,
they just never really healed, right, Okay, I'm not sure I.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
So you burnt the bottom of.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Your feet, yeah, as the hot pier because I have
that disease where you can't feel your feet. It burned
them real good. Yeah, one of those.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, But your feet, the actual foot itself is not leaking, right,
It's legs.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
This is.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
You know, the feet are leaking blood from the h
all those things.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
That form and they pop and the blisters.
Speaker 4 (24:30):
The blisters, yeah, the blisters are the right one is
a real problem. The left its it's almost gone. It's
just doing okay. But it's the legs are just it's
they don't smell bad. It's just aggravating. And I can't
get rid of the liquid. It's I'm changing those U
(24:50):
paper towels four times a day and they're they're wet
every time they need it, well.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Most of the time. And again, I just want to
be clear. If you burn your feet on the bottom
of your foot where you step, that should not cause
any leakage of the leg itself. So you might have
two different problems. You might have yes, the bottom of
your foot is injured from a burn. Okay, yes, that's
(25:19):
number one. And then on top of that, it sounds
like maybe you have a separate issue with fluid accumulation
in your leg. We call that edema, and form most
of Americans, there's some common causes of a edema. A
couple of them would be what we call venus insufficiency
(25:41):
or venus hypertension, where the blood sort of pools in
your legs longer than it needs to, and because of
the hemodynamics of blood flow, when the blood does not flow,
it tends to cause accumulation of fluid in an around
that area. So that's number one, venus hypertension. Number two,
(26:05):
clots in the legs can cause that. We call that
DVT or deep vein throng bosis. And then number three
and four and let it I know you have diabetes,
heart disease, and kidney disease can generate swelling of the
lower legs.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
We see that a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
So if you're telling me that the swelling and the
leakage revenue use tiles is a brand new issue, then yeah,
you need to get with your healthcare professional so they
can work that up and figure out why that's happening,
because you should be looking for the reason. The burning
of the feet, like I said, sounds like it's a
(26:47):
separate issue, but should not be causing your legs to leak. No,
that's separate.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Well, I've been to the cardiologists and I've been to
the kidney doctor, and that they're working on it. But
I was just I was just wondering if something else
I should be doing.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
One thing that I normally recommend for patients suffering leakage
of the legs are what we call compression stockings or
compression socks.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I have them, okay.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
And then they also have healthcare professionals that can perform
procedures on the circulation to improve the blood flow so
that the blood moves more rapidly and in doing so
that will allow your legs to go down and stop
leaking like they're doing. That's another healthcare profession.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
You can go to.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
And then they are selling as far as I know,
over the counter online like Amazon, these sort of compression
boots that you can order and you put yourself in
these boots, you add them up and basically it pushes
that fluid back into your circulation. You can buy these devices,
(28:08):
I want to say, that's my understanding. Now they're becoming
more affordable and more accessible to patients who have this problem.
But you would do this accession or two a day
where you put your legs into these devices and blow
it up and basically just trying to push that fluid
back into the blood vessels so that it's not leaking
(28:29):
like that. Normally. When it's leaking like that just means
you have an over abundance of fluid in your tissues
and so the pressure is so high that it ruptures.
I mean, it just starts leaking out because there's nowhere
for the fluid to go. They've sort of overwhelmed the
drainage system and so it just sort of starts leaking.
(28:52):
So that indicates it you normally have a lot of
hypertension in your venus system, you have a lot of
fluid in your legs, and other than diuretics, yes, the
compression stockings and maybe these devices that you would do
a couple of times a day to help with that.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Well, the Kendy doctor said, you'll put me in the
hospital if I want you and put my legs elevator
and put this for some odd stuff and a bottle
of sticking in my arm and you know, curple of
dosages and all that. Yeah, I'm just not a fan
of hospitals, right.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
We have not figured out how to do it at
the home yet. Hopefully we will. Just as the cost
of hospitalization continues to rise, there are conversations discussions all
the time about trying to manage some of these issues
at home more easily and get healthcare professionals that can
(29:53):
go out to your house and just do some simple
things like that. We haven't quite figured out how to
do that yet, but hopefully in the near future we
can have that ability to provide those IV medications at home.
If they don't do the IV, then normally they can
just increase the dose of your tablets or the frequency
(30:14):
of your tablets, like the Lasix the diuretic, we can
give you higher doses. You can take them more frequently
throughout the day. Normally it's once a day. We can
do two, three times a day. And then also we
can add a second or even third different category of
diuretics that impact your kidney function to generate more fluid elimination.
(30:39):
We call that diuresis. When we're trying to get fluid
off someone we're diuresing them and to diuyse patients, we
use medicines called diuretics, So LASiS is the most popular,
but they have several other diuretics that we utilize to
help with getting ready of fluid. So your kidney doctor
(30:59):
A certainly is familiar with all that.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Well. And they, like I said, they double my prescription
for or my dosage is for us of mine and
they added this new drug. I don't even know what.
I can't even spell it, but I haven't picked it
up yet. And I was just just wondering if there
was something else I should be doing, And the answer
is compression stocks.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Yeah, those work very well. And yes, just like you've
already been told, if you're sitting, I'll try to keep
your legs up and not down, just because when they
down then gravity will fight your blood flow and it
would generate more swelling. So yes, keep your legs up
when you're sitting.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I have the ability to basically turn around and put
my feet on top of the headboard, so I get
a good angle forty five fifty degree angle down.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
That's pretty good.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Yeah, how long do I have to do that? Do
any good?
Speaker 2 (32:06):
I would say, normally a couple hours.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
That can be hours.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, that can be uncomfortable. Yeah, normally couple of hours
at least, can you do.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
That fifteen minutes I ain't enough.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, a couple hours, all right, Lennon. We appreciate your questions.
Phone lines are open eight nine six k one, eight
hundred three three zero. Ky, I'll be back in two minutes.
All right, Welcome back to the doctor Metagour phone lines
(32:44):
are open eight nine six kov on one, eight hundred
three three zero Okyo. For Yeah, I don't want to
take those meds?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Dot. Do I have to take those meds?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Can I live without those mads?
Speaker 2 (32:55):
I get that.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Sort of question often, and I think, yeah, we would
prefer and try to manage your symptoms without medications. As
a matter of fact, I try not to prescribe medications
to my patients, certainly if I think it's something that
is minor. You know, as a primary healthcare professional, we
(33:18):
hear a lot of physical complaints every day. That's sort
of our role. Our position in the whole healthcare world
is to sort of be on the front lines of
those physical complaints. So we hear a lot every day
about all sorts of physical ailments, and most of the
(33:38):
time the physical complaints are of not any serious nature.
They just sort of naggy, benign physical symptoms. But I
think patients are now in a situation where they don't
want to be guilty of not letting their provider know
about something that's bothering them because they're not quite sure
(34:01):
if it's the tip of the iceberg as pertains to
a chronic medical disease or some sort of really serious
critical illness. They have heard stories about family members or
brothers or sisters, or just talking with their coworkers about
this person that had this problem for a long time
(34:23):
and they didn't do anything about it, and then all
of a sudden they're no longer with us. So there
is some sense of paranoia out there in America to
again alert your provider to any physical symptom that you
have again, which is a big change in the way
(34:44):
we do things in this country. And when I was
a young person never went to the doctor. I never
even heard my parents going to the doctor. Just wasn't
brought up. And now all of a sudden, everyone goes
to the doctor, everyone to the er, everyone's on medication,
and it seems like a big trend, and it's getting
(35:06):
more easy to access.
Speaker 2 (35:08):
The healthcare world.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Right with our smartphones and our smart watches and our
computer terminals, we can just click a few buttons and boom,
we have access to a healthcare professional to give us
expert advice about this physical complaint that I'm having. And
so we get that in primary care, and I honestly
(35:32):
try not to have to give them a prescription medication
because it means so much to write that prescription. Missus
Lavina and I have talked about sort of the obstacles
of getting your prescriptions refilled. Maybe it's a chronic medication
that you do have, and you know it should be
(35:53):
an easy exercise and easy relationship, but it's not. Unfortunately,
it's it can be cumbersome to just get my blood
pressure medicine refilled in a talently manner. There's so many
players when it comes to just getting one medicine refill.
Just imagine if you had five or ten. Unfortunately, like
(36:15):
some of my patients have these chronic medical issues. I
mean they're on ten medicines. I mean that list as
long as a highway, and they do it every day.
God bless them, and it's just the second job to
keep it all straight and keep it affordable and just
(36:36):
again get the medicines on time. I mean, it's a
big concept and a big focus in a healthcare industry
right now is to improve patients compliance with all these
pharmaceutical drugs that they're taking every day from their healthcare
provider because they complain about this with that. I hear
(36:57):
this more so in the hospital again because I honestly
try to keep my patient's medication list as minimal as possible.
I really do have that in mind every time I
interact with my patient. Do we need these medicines? Can
we get off these medicines? And we sometimes get into
(37:17):
a rut that would be the patient as well as
the provider sort of this prescription inertia or this prescript
prescribing momentum where there's a physical complaint, there's a prescription
medicine for it, and so patient comes in, client comes in,
(37:39):
this is my complaint, Give me a medicine, prescription medicine
that is, and that's sort of their relationship. And so
that's why you can find some patients on ten fifteen medicines.
A good doctor or good healthcare provider certainly wants to
address as many or all issues that are brought up
(38:01):
in the visit. And because of the time crunch and
the lack of time to really ferret out these physical
complaints and go through them at length and depth most
of the time of healthcare provider trying to be a
good person, trying to be a good provider, we just
(38:22):
very rapidly write a script. Here, here you go, You're done,
problem solved, and so we get into that. But I
really tried to limit that sort of activity. And our
caller earlier was a little hesitant about wanting to get
on prescription medicines. I mean, I get that, and there's
(38:46):
a certain medicines you got to be on, Like if
your blood pressure is high, I mean, I mean, you
really need to be on this medication. You know your
pressure is pretty high. It's been like that. It's consistent.
I'm all for data exercise. If your bloo press is
a high, you really need to get on this medication,
Missus Johnson. I mean, if I do have patients that
(39:07):
even with pressure is being high, sugars being high, cholesterol
is high, they want to stay out for medicine.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
You know, it's their choice.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
I don't dislike them, hate them, judge them.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
It's their choice.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
And I just document it and move on and just
try to help them with that. But you are sort
of last decision to make, to be honest with your
healthcare professional.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Is there to advise you of.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
Your rights, your right to deny, right, defer, decline, and
you can and if you if your health care provider
makes it uncomfortable for you or makes you feel like
you can't do something, I mean, you can always try
and talk with them and try to get to that
(39:57):
position where you both understand each other.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
But if you feel like your healthcare.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
Provider is fighting you on your position, you can go
find a different healthcare provider, get a second opinion. It's
nothing wrong with that. Phone lines are open eight nine
six scale v I one in one hundred and three
to three zero O kov I. We'll be back in
two minutes. All right, welcome back to the Doctor Link
Medical Hour. At the end of the show, I want
(40:22):
to thank all the callers and all the listeners on
the Doctor Living in Medical I remember if there's a
topic that you would like me to cover or you
want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Please let us know.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
You can call or call my office and leave with
my staff, and we'll be more than happy to sort
of dive into that topic so that you can understand
a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
But we were just sort of.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Talking about medications, and hey, if you don't want to
take a medication that a prescriber gives to you, you
should have that right and you shouldn't feel uncomfortable about it.
The way the relationship relationship is set up is to
sort of have a conversation and have what they call
(41:04):
shared decision making. When it comes to all these decisions
that are being made about your medications or ordering certain
tests or going to different doctors, it's a conversation you
should have with your health coach, right. That's the way
providers are now. They're sort of your health coach or
your health advisor.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
That's how I see it.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
And if you don't want to do something, it's totally fine.
It's your health. It's up to you. That's the way
they want it to be. That's the way it should be,
and certainly that's why we handle all that information so
you can educate yourself and come to the visit with
a better understanding of why we're doing these things, especially
even if you don't want to do it. Diet, an exercise,
(41:48):
or your lifestyle, in my opinion, is the biggest aspect.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Of your health.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Just sure you hear situations where patients were doing the
right thing and they come down with cancer, or they
were in the hospital, or they're no longer. I mean, yeah,
I get all that, and yes, that's true. There's no guarantee.
There's no guarantee one percent. No. I mean, you're getting
a car, you might be in an accident. There's no guarantee.
(42:17):
But typically if you put your seat belts on, you
drive the speed limit, and you wear a seat belt
and you drive safely, you're less likely to be in
an accident. I mean, improve your chances of having a
better outcome.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
That's what all this is about.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
Improve lesson decrease that the lifestyle does that bad lifestyle increase.
Good lifestyle decrease less medicine, less disease, less hospitalizations. Bad lifestyle,
more disease, more meds, more admissions, more cancers.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
That's how that stuff works.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
And again, if you don't want to take a medicine,
it's your decision. You should have that freedom. I want
to thank all the calls and listeners y'all. Have a
good weekend. Remember drink some water, eat some vegetables, and
I'll see you guys next week.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Take care,
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