August 18, 2025 • 45 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 Sex's Internet radio listeners. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
This is doctor Levine, your host of the Doctor Levine
Medical Hour. I am here every Saturday taking your phone calls,
answering questions about healthcare and medicine, trying to help you
answer questions about your health and what's the right way
(00:21):
to maybe do things to eat, what to drink, would
not to eat, what not to drink? So you can
stay alive as long as possible, be healthy as long
as possible. Stay away from doctors' offices, Stay away from hospitals,
stay away from pharmacists pharmacies. Keep your money in your
pockets so you don't have to spend it on the doctor,
(00:43):
the medicines, the co pays. How can I do that?
Because it seems like it's harder as you get old.
Remember somebody lied to us. It's harder as you get old.
You got to work at it. It's not automatic. You know,
when you're young and you can eat and drink anything
(01:04):
you want and nothing happens, you feel done the same.
You can get two hours of rest and still go
out and do your day. Can't do that when you're
in your fifties. Man, it's impossible. Almost you start eating
the wrong food, you start drinking the wrong thing. You
(01:25):
don't feel so good, and the symptoms, I should say,
the signs of that are so numerous. But you just
don't feel right and you want to get right. You
want to feel young again, but not necessarily be in
that same age. Brackets limitations when you're young, right, don't
(01:46):
have a career yet, bank accounts kind of small limitations.
Phone lines are open eight nine six kvy. I want
ee hundred and three to three zero kfvy. I would
love to hear from you. Chat talk. We have a
whole hour which you go to the doctor's office, right,
is so rushed you have to it's cumbersome too, And
(02:11):
I know you, guys, I wish we would come up
with something more efficient and in terms of evaluating patients
and seeing patients, and you know we need to. The
computer system does help out a lot, but a lot
of times you talk with your healthcare professional, they're just
staring in the computer. They're not looking at you and
(02:35):
not talking to you. They're just looking in the computer. Right,
So we know that that's a problem. But electronic meta
records have certainly helped out tremendously to offer health Scheduler
in terms of information being given to you. We've talked
about that numerous times. It's been a big improvement trying
to get patients involved with their own healthcare and educating
(02:59):
them about what is going on so that they can
sort of follow along. It's always good when you're sick
to have someone there with you to sort of chronicle
what's happening. Just remember names, medicines, diagnosises, just the plan
of care. It can change. If you've ever been to
(03:20):
an er minor care, if you've ever been exposed to
the healthcare system, you know, man, it can be hard
to follow along. You start getting different doctors in there
and they're saying different things, even sometimes when they contradict
each other same information and I have that conversation. Often
(03:47):
it's unfortunately built into the system. It's kind of a
good thing, to be honest with you, to have various
healthcare professionals sort of looking at it from a different
and then trying to cohesively come together and make the
proper diagnoses. But depending on the information the practitioner sees
(04:13):
in the chart, the information they get from you and
other sources, they obviously will have a different opinion. I
am a hospital doctor, so I talk to patients every
day in the hospital, and I work with consultants, you know,
lung specialists, heart doctors, blood specialists, infection specialists, liver specialists,
(04:39):
kidney specialist. I talk with er physicians every day, and
you know, it's very common that their angle on what's
going on is going to be different from mine, which
is going to be a little bit different from the consultant.
We all have our own angle. And I know that
(05:02):
patients and patience families they want consistency, They really want consistency.
They want the same answer and the same diagnoses from
every healthcare professional. It generates confidence that whatever is happening,
(05:25):
whatever medication is being given, whatever X rays are being done,
is for the same diagnoses, the same reason that all
the doctors have been telling them. And it's super frustrating
when doctor Levine says it's this, the er doctor says
(05:45):
it was something else, and the consultant is wanting to
do a totally different thing, even though the story is
about the same and the same objective information is in
the chart. Yeah, that happens often, and when patients and
families get exposed to it. It's I think it's scary,
(06:09):
it really is. It's frightening. It's scary and confusing, and
it's upsetting, and patients and families get upset, and rightly so.
I mean again, they want consistency, They want to know
what is going on as soon as possible, and we
certainly draw best to get them that information a SAP
(06:31):
as soon as possible. But some of these diseases, and
some of these physical symptoms are very elusive, meaning shortness
of breath or swelling them legs can mean five different things,
and then if you sort of add other physical complaints
(06:52):
on top of that, it can mean ten different things.
And you know, it's a picture. It's a picture that
gets painted, and the artists, if you will, meaning the
practitioner the doctor sees different things when they look at
the painting, and that painting is giving them a message
(07:16):
and a story and they go with it. Which we
fight that a lot in primary care as well, just
because primary care was sort of normally the first person,
the first practitioners sort of get a lot of these complaints.
And again coming into the office, man, you can have
(07:39):
patients and come have ten complaints and the way we're
trained in healthcare world is to try and consolidate all
these complaints into one disease. That's the goal, Right, I'm
having headaches, I'm dizzy, i have blurry vision, i have
(08:02):
this rash on my fingertip, I'm nauseated, i have abdominal pain,
I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm not sleeping. And the goal
of the primary care provider, the goal of practitioners to say, aha,
i have one disease that explains all that, and I'm
(08:24):
going to write your prescription, a one prescription that you
only take once a day, and it's affordable and you
can just get it down the street. Right, that's the dream,
that's the dream scenario, even for us talking to patients
and families every day all day. You know, doctors have
(08:47):
the same desires you guys do. We want answers right
now too. We are just like anybody else. We want
to have a good day. We want to have an
easy day. We want to have a day where it's
filled with joy and happiness and pleasure. We want patients
to feel good about interacting with this. We want them
(09:09):
to be happy with their care and what's happening. And
we get frustrated too, and we get upset too when
things are not readily available to us. We can't get
that answer to you as fast as we would like.
We would love to do that every time. But I know,
no matter how much I read, no matter how many
(09:32):
tests I take, no matter how many bored certifications I have.
I mean, I work every day. If you've ever interacted
with me, I work every day. I'm in my office,
I'm in the hospital, I'm everywhere every day, honestly trying
to get the most exposure to these diseases as I
(09:53):
possibly can, so I can be on top of whatever
a patient comes to the door with because I've seen it.
Because that's what it's really all about. A lot of times,
a lot of Southeast sections like to drive an hour
and a half and seek medical attention Houston, which is fine.
(10:16):
We want you to be happy. It's a great, great
medical community there, Methodist and Memorial Herman and Baylor and
m D Anderson, the big medical metropolis down there. It's
just an amazing community, great doctors and great breakthroughs. I mean,
it's hard to avoid that. Just to hour and fifteen minutes,
(10:38):
you're there and a totally different world right, and some
of these diseases really require for you to be there
in the bigger city Beaumont, Southeast Texas. Put out there
orange smaller community, a smaller market. It's hard to retain
and keep these doctors here in this community for various reasons.
(11:02):
We hospitals try very hard to do that in many
different ways. It's a constant battle to keep doctors, retain
doctors in this area, you know, to have those services
available to you twenty fours to day, seven days a week,
no matter if it's sunny, warm, snowing, hurricanes, whatever. You know,
(11:24):
they're sitting there waiting to take care of you. It's
harder to do in these smaller communities, easier to do
in these bigger hospitals. It's just more docs around, more
services available. So sometimes we do have to transfer patients
there to the bigger hospitals to receive care whatever. For
(11:44):
particular diseases are if we have exhausted our efforts and
we need to get you to maybe to another hospital
for a second opinion, we have to do that. But
it's all about exposure, meaning we can read it all day,
we can take tests all day, we can ace the test,
we can ace everything, But you have to really see it,
(12:08):
breathe it, smell it, taste it as it happens, live
in reality, not on a page or a book. And
the only way to do that is to be out
there experiencing it. Be in the streets if you will.
And that's sort of my position is, I want to
be in the streets. I want to feel it, see it,
(12:30):
taste it, and see how that really presents. Just because
these things, these disease are are tricky, I mean tricking.
You gotta really be on your toes every day. Phone
lines are open eight nine to six kovy I won
one hundred and three three zero kov. I'm just up
here talking about healthcare. But if you have any questions
(12:52):
about anything it give me a buzz. We back in
two minutes. All right, welcome back to doctor Vine Medical.
Our phone lines that opened eight nine six kov out
(13:12):
one hundred and three three zero Kyov. I'm just up
here yapping about various topics. Remember flu season's next month,
so we're still encouraging vaccines. Remember that flus year round
and virus infections are year round, but there seems to
be a big spike in the winter, so probably next
(13:35):
month they'll start being offered to you, so obviously go
out and get yours. We have covid boosters that's every
six months. Again normally not in doctor's offices yet, but
still add maybe your local pharmacy. We have your pneumonia vaccine,
which is normally a one time injection and a one
(13:58):
series injections. Mean, you get the inject you're done. They
have upgraded the pneumonia vaccine. You remember, pneumonia is a
normally a bacterial infection, but can be viral. You know,
covid can cause pneumonia and other viruses, Respiratory sensitio virus
(14:18):
that's RSV. Remember, that's another vaccine on the market. Maybe
for the past year or so that's been out. But
primarily it's a bacterial infection. We don't talk about this enough,
but we all hear about cardio ofasqu disease and cholesterol
and blood sugar and you know, eat your vegetables, drink
(14:39):
your water. Yeah, we hear you dark levine, we know.
But one thing we don't talk about a lot. It's
just infections.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Man.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
We see a lot of infections every day, bacterial infections primarily.
I mean, it's just very rampant and and can cause
serious harm. And vaccines is one way to help yourself out. Remember,
and I know this is a frustrating part of it.
They're not perfect. They're just not perfect. And sure they
(15:16):
can try and achieve perfection, and maybe that's what they're doing.
And vaccines have gotten better, more effective to keep the
side effect profile down. That's with everything in medicine. As
a computer industry in the biotech world merge and they
really figure out how to really cleanly give these medicines,
(15:38):
these these vaccines, just like chemotherapy and medicaid. It's like everything.
It's just it gets better and better. They work on
trying to improve these products to the point that they're
easy to use, they're less likely to cause an adverse reaction,
and do what they're supposed to do. So the vaccines
are not perfect, but they are extremely helpful and controlling
(16:04):
the infection risk in this country. So it's pest control,
it's all it is. Pest. Pest control. You're familiar with that, right.
You get the exterminator to come to your house and
spray your house so that you can sort of just
control the potential invasion of critters that don't need to
(16:28):
be in your house. But every now and then, yeah,
you'll see one. It's completely hard to prevent that with
human activity and food all around you. If you've ever
cooked anything or just eating heating anything up, I mean
just food particles of just flying around everywhere on the floor,
(16:52):
on the table, on your shirt, just chewing and just
moving food. Just little pieces break off and land somewhere
around you, right, trying to be as clean as possible. Well,
that sends sort of a little signal to the insects
and all the little critics that are sitting around hiding,
(17:13):
trying to eat just like us, trying to stay alive,
just like us. And they get in through a window,
through a crack, somewhere, through a door seal. They just
they get in and it's hard to keep them out.
Just like viruses and bacteria to human body. They get in,
(17:35):
They find ways, they find a weak spot. I hear
this question all the time. How did this happen to me?
I do everything right? How am on the hospital? How
did I get in pneumonia? I was fine two days ago?
How did this happen? We would love to tell you,
but a lot of times that we can it's just
(17:57):
that stuff does happen where patient's doing everything right. You know,
I'm listening to dark Levigne. I'm doing everything you're telling
me to do. I'm not supposed to end up in
the hospital. Well, yeah, that is the idea. I mean,
we're trying to reduce your chance to being in the hospital.
I mean, we're trying to minimize it. And even if
(18:17):
you get into the hospital, maybe it's a short stay
for you and you get out of there alive and
you're not sort of cramped, or you're not hurt, or
you're not sort of generally have a bunch of weakness
and you can still function. I'm trying to look for
(18:38):
my word. But sometimes when you're going to in the hospital,
the sickness and the illness is so big that when
you get out of there, man, I mean, you really
feel like it takes you a week or two just
to get better. And when you're otherwise healthy, maybe taking
your vaccines. You try to keep the severity of these
(19:00):
its easiest to a minimum so that again you can
get in and out quickly and it doesn't do a
lot of damage to the human body, and the less
damage it does, the faster your recovery. So that's what
all this vaccine stuff is and all these other recommendations
that we make when you go into the doctor's office
and try to keep it friendly, just because just a
(19:24):
healthcare vis I'm just trying to help you based on
my experience, as all healthcare professionals are doing, as well
as your insurance company is doing. There now sending people
out to your house to talk with you one on
one in a quiet environment, quiet atmosphere in your own
home with a lot of distractions, talk with you about
(19:47):
some basic concepts about how can you stay healthy, how
can you stay alive, how can we prevent you from
getting an advanced stage four cancer of some sort, Get
your colonoscopies, get your cat scans, get your blood work. Yeah,
(20:07):
just to remind you how to do this. But as
you know, you listen to my shirt, it's all starts
with that. Die a diet and not just some fancy
pills or liquids or sprays that you pick up from
the grocery store or the vitamins store or wherever you
(20:28):
shop for your vitamin's own line at the convenience store.
It just doesn't work that way, man. You gotta do
the basic stuff. And certainly as you get older, you
got to do a little bit more. I mean not.
It's not like you have to spend your whole day
working out, which I think is how exercising is promoted
(20:50):
in our country, like you got to work out for
an hour every day, And it's just not true. It's untrue.
We're asking for twenty minutes, not even every day. We're
talking about three times a week, just twenty minutes. Do
fifteen minutes if that's all you can do, do fifteen minutes,
(21:14):
Hop on a treadmill, press go and walk for fifteen minutes,
maybe at a moderate pace. That's it. And then when
you're going your kitchen, you're going your cupboard, you know,
don't reach for the trash, you know, eat a cucumber,
(21:36):
Eat a tomato, you know, eat some spinach, won't you
grill you some fish, maybe eat a carrot. And then
when you drink, don't drink the sugary stuff. It tastes
so good though it looks good too. It's fizzy, it's exciting.
(21:56):
Water is so boring, no taste flat, just blah. You know,
you're looking for excitement throughout the day, right, It's like,
what are we going to do today. That's exciting. Yeah,
we're gonna go to the restaurant. We're gonna have some this,
We're gonna have that. Yeah, it's exciting. It's an adventure.
(22:18):
And the same thing with your beverage, you know, But
no just water today. Now it's gonna have some spinach.
You know. I get it, I really do. And it's
hard to say no to all these other items that
are out there that again, you grew up eating it.
How can all of a sudden it be poison? I mean,
(22:41):
I grew up eating this stuff and I was fine
then while all of a sudden is it poison? Now
I can't touch it. If I touch it, then I'm
gonna die. I'm gonna be sick. I mean just it's
hard to make that jump, you know, psychologically that lead
that I can't. I can't have that food out of
(23:03):
my group eating all the time. And it's a huge
struggle for patients when they get diagnosed with diabetes or hypertension,
they'll keep eating this stuff and drinking even though they
know it's bad for them. We don't have any pills
for that one. Hey, David from Deer Park, how can
we help you?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yes, sir, I was wondering. I've started for about the
last two months actually going to Little Gem and all
that and lifting weights and walking and back bike riding
and all that, but it's almost like the weight not moving,
and I wonder if I'm putting on muscle mass, which
(23:48):
is keeping it kind of level, or what's going on,
you know, what's going on with it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
So you're just trying to lose weight.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Well, I'm just trying to get back and shake more
and less. And you know, I mean, yeah, if I
lose I can. If I can lose a little bit
of weight, that's fine. But but I've noticed that it's
I'm I do seem to be gaining muscle mass, but
I'm not quote unquote going down in numbers. And I
mean I figure that that comes with Yeah, once you
(24:22):
get so far into the exercising and all that, I figured,
then it kind of backtracks and starts tapering off the weight.
But which I'm not When I say weight, I'm talking
about you know, maybe fifteen to twenty pounds, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
But yeah, and so you're saying that, I guess since
you've been exercising even you've expected a weight loss and
it hasn't happened yet. Yeah, okay, I mean, yeah, you know, David,
that does happen periodically where the outcome is not what
you expected. And I mean there's a couple of things
(25:01):
that you obviously can do. Number one, make sure it's
nothing medical going on, and you can do that easily
just by getting some basic routine blood work, and you
and your healthcare professional can review your medications. There are
certain medicines that can generate weight or make it Harvey
lose weight. And then number two, just again looking at
(25:26):
your intake of foods and beverages and what you're eating
and seeing if you can make any adjustment with that. Again, David,
we're all taught as Americans to eat every every well
not every day, but three times a day, and in
(25:46):
my opinion, okay, got it, and sometimes just eating once
a day. It sounds odd, It sounds un American to
a certain degree, because again, it's breakfast, lunch, dinner. It
was stamped in our head from day one. And to
(26:08):
tell somebody, oh, you can only once a day, that
doesn't sound well to most Americans. But I think based
on my experience and what I've been taught and just
talking to patients all day once a day is fine.
It really is. Your body will be Your body will
(26:28):
be fine, and actually your body functions better when you
do give it some time to be in a fasting state.
This stuff is proven over and over again that when
you're not eating, your body operates differently and operates in
a better fashion versus when you're consuming all these calories
(26:48):
all day long. It's almost like you never give it
a break. You're just consuming all this energy in terms
of calories, and it tends to irritate the human body.
It inflames the human body. And when you can find
a way to give your body a break every twenty
four hours without consuming all of this energy, it tends
to operate more efficiently and tends to generate some weight loss.
(27:13):
The number three. Just as you get older, it's harder
to lose weight again. Your metabolism is slowing down. Your
genetics might be working against you. Meaning some families are
just they're bigger and some families are smaller. Right, you
see that if you come from a family with they're
just big people, then it might be hard for you
(27:34):
to get your weight down to a minimum. So sometimes
you have to go to medicines to help or surgeries
to help. It's all in terms of what you want
to do. I think from a doctor's standpoint, you don't
necessarily have to be skinny to be healthy. Okay. We
just certainly want you to consume more foods and beverages
(27:54):
that are healthy for you, and we want to be
physically active, and that can look a lot of different ways.
You don't necessarily have to be skinny. What happens typically though,
patients who eat well, exercise and reculd bases, they tend
to lose weight, but not everybody.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Okay, Well, I mean I just I just kind of
I kept thinking, well, I guess it's gonna you know,
I'll hit a certain point and then it'll come back
track and the weight it'll come off. And now, I
mean I've kind of had that little experience before, you know,
years back, but I just kind of wonder.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, review what you're eating,
Uh see if you can make some changes with that
the food items, the beverage items, the frequency, the amounts.
I mean, cut your calorie count down or exercise more
to burn more calories. I would say, try to hit
the diet first. Again, just because As you get older,
(28:51):
your body can't tolerate a lot of exercising. I think
a lot of people have in their mind that, Okay,
I'm gonna just I'm gonna eat bad, but I'm gonna
just exercise more. I'm i access for thirty minutes more,
I'm a lift heavier weight. And when you're young, you
can do that. But when you get older, your body
is not really designed to be running all day long
(29:12):
and lifting heavy weight. It's just not which is why
you see a lot of athletes they taper off after
certain age. The body just gives them oh no, no, no, no, no,
wrong idea, and that's when it falls back. On that diet,
you have to give it the right fuel, and a
(29:33):
lot of times you have to limit what or how
much you're giving it. To be honest with you, I
see patients in their nineties all day long in the office,
and one common denominator I find is that they're not
big eaters. They don't eat a lot very small eaters.
They eat infrequently, they don't drink, they don't smoke, but
(29:57):
they're not out there running marathons in the gym lifting weights.
They just eat. Right, Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, all right, buddy, any other questions.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
No, that's it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
All right, Dave, appreciate your phone call. And yet it
can be frustrating. You're not losing the weights you want,
you're not getting that look that you want. And again,
you just have to look at everything and see if
you can improve and make some bigger moves on what
you eat, the exercising again, maybe introduce some pharmaceuticals to
(30:37):
the mix, these injections for diabetes. It's crazy. People are
becoming more familiar with the category g LP one agonist category.
Ozimpic is the most common, Munjaro, zip bound trulicity. I'm
missing a few others, Ozimpic, Ribelsi's, Saxendamans, a bunch of
(31:00):
them out there, semi glue tide. People are familiar with
this stuff now. That can really shut down your desire
to eat, and you can go all day without eating.
Maybe eat once a day, a small meal and be
happy with that. But for most of us, without help,
I mean, it's hard to just eat once a day,
super hard with all this food around. No way, phone
(31:22):
lines are open eight nine to six k I won
one hundred three three zero kalv I'll be back in
two minutes. All right, welcome back to the doctor Merica.
Our phone lines are opening nine to six kov. I
want one hundred three three zero klv. I. Yeah. Sometimes
(31:42):
when you make those choices and those changes, you expect
that certain outcomes. Just man, things ain't working the way
they should. I'm not dropping that weight like I should.
I do hear that often, though, and I think, just
like with anything, you invest time and energy into an
effort project, and you sort of have expectations about the
(32:03):
outcome prior to starting, like I should be losing weight,
I should feel better, I should look better, and then
it doesn't happen. It's like a slap in the face.
It's like it's fighting your your body is fighting you.
It just the weight doesn't want to leave and wants
just hang on. I have that conversation often, and it's
(32:26):
it is frustrating. And I mean, doctors in the medical
world don't necessarily have a one time or one sort
of one line of answer to the person that's struggling,
because again, we're we're still trying to figure out the
human body in terms of how it works as it
(32:46):
pertains to weight gain, weight loss, food items, et cetera. Right,
they're constantly trying to crack the code. And again, these
GLP one agonists, man, they seem to be as close
we've ever gotten to controlling the appetite monster that's with
(33:07):
us every single day. It's an uncomfortable feeling for most
people when you get hungry, and it's so uncomfortable that
they want it to go away. It's almost like pain.
It's a very discomforting, painful experience. You know, you get headaches,
(33:28):
your throat gets dry, you just don't feel good. This
is initially right because if you can sort of tolerate
it and break through, so to speak. And if you've
ever fasted before fasting meaning you haven't had any calories
consumed normally eight to twelve hours is sort of the
(33:52):
time frame that we're talking about. You can stay hydrated
all day, you can drink non calorie beverages. That's still
we'll keep you in a fasting state. So you hear
me on the radio, coffee, water, tea, no sweeteners, no sugars. Again,
be careful with the artificial sweeteners. Experts of finding out
(34:12):
that it's generating some adverse reaction for a lot of patients.
So it's it's not the free for all that we
once thought. Oh yes, no sugar. Oh yeah, I can
drink that soda. I can eat that ice cream. I
can eat that cake. It has zero sugar in it. Ah,
(34:33):
this is America, this is the fantasy land of the world. Right,
you can have cake and ice cream and you have
no sugar. You're still healthy. Yeah, you still on top
of things, even though you're eating something that should be unhealthy.
I'm still healthy. I'm gonna get a vegetable pizza. Yeah,
(34:54):
it's vegetables, and that's good for you. And then I
my vitamins this morning. I'm good. Right. Doesn't work like that,
I'm telling you it doesn't. Well, we play games with
ourselves all the time every day talking to my patients.
(35:15):
I know it's a struggle out there, man. I'm trying
to help you figure out how you're gonna achieve your
health as well. But you can't fool the human body
just can't do it. And it's sort of a rude
awakening to again eventually understand this basic component of health.
(35:37):
You got to eat right. You got to eat right.
You've got to be putting in the proper fuel that
your body reacts positively to and try to eliminate or
avoid things that the body negatively reacts to. Again, all
these artificial ingredients and components, these ultra processes, components of
(36:01):
the food items that are out there, that's on a
lot of these shelves out there, just sitting waiting, preserved
for your consumption. Again, the food industry, good people, just
trying to provide you with something to eat. But the
ingredients are so adulterated, it's so unnatural that the human
(36:25):
body perceives it as a foreign material. You can consume it,
it gets in your bloodstream, and the body negative relacts
to it, and there's a slight, sort of violent reaction
to it. You might have headaches, you might feel tired,
maybe bloated, maybe have diarrhea, and you sort of get
(36:47):
used to that and you just kind of keep pushing
through it. And then that's when you start having health issues.
It might take six months, but it starts, and you
have understand it's all coming from consuming these certain food eyes,
when these certain beverages, and then you're running to doctor
Levine's off, like I don't feel good, my pressure is high,
(37:09):
I'm having a rash, I'm hurting, I'm sluggish wherever case
may be, and we now have to go to prescription
medications to try and correct that. When really, if you
can just avoid the ultra processed food, make a few
(37:29):
stops a week to the grocery store, get your own produce,
get your own meat, bring it to your house, cook
at yourself. You can control the ingredients. It's fresh, it's
hardly unadulterated. Although a lot of people will say the
food chain in this country has gotten so adulterated it's
(37:51):
hard to avoid it. I mean super hard. John from Houston,
what's up.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Good morning, Thanks, thanks for the show. I have a
quick question. I've always wondered about this, Doctors. So as
I get older, this is more pronounced. Two things are
going on. But I get hungry at night, and you know,
before really didn't have to happen like that. But I'm
finding as I get older and older, nine o'clock comes
(38:20):
around and I just want to hit and snack, and
you know, in the course of a few years, it
just starts adding up. So is there a hormonal reason
to that? Is it environmental? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (38:34):
I would this is just sort of based on my
own ideas, I would just probably have to assume. Yes,
a lot of it's cultural. In my opinion, most people
at nighttime, they're at their house watching television, sort of
getting ready to go to bed, and we have so
many signals all day to eat all day. I mean,
(38:55):
it's hard not to do it, especially when there's no distractions,
you're at home, you're alive. During the day, it might
be easier, right because you're driving, you're sitting, you got
things to do, you're talking to people, you're stopping, starting,
and it's easy to go throughout the day without eating.
But once you're at home and you're just in your bed,
you're on the couch, there's nothing to distract you, and
(39:17):
those snacks are calling you in the kitchen and maybe
saw some commercials or maybe you remember something and I
really would like that Snickers bar, that ice cream. Yeah
it makes me feel good. And you're like, yeah, I
deserve it today because I was told I deserve it
today and I had a hard day to day, and yes,
I deserve a treat. That's how they said. You deserve
(39:38):
a treat every day. So you're going you have your
two scoops ice cream. Let me yeah, so some of
that is cultural, But I don't see a consistency with
talking to my elderly patients that they all have issues
with issues with snacking at night. I think it's just
a cultural thing in our country to eat at night. Remember,
the traditional way we would do things is eat breakfasts,
(40:02):
eat lunch, and then go home and eat this big
tenor bread, salad, vegetable meat, and then a dessert. And
some people still eat like that, not most, but there
are still a few out there that eat like that.
That's too much food. It's too much. And that's what
I'm realizing as a position, is that what they're teaching us,
(40:27):
we're just eating too much in this country. We got
to slow down. We have to limit the amount of
food we're eating. We're just eating way too much, and
that's why we're having this sort of health crisis in
our country. And if you can find a way to
limit the amount of food you're eating throughout the day,
(40:48):
typically your health improves. That's what I've seen. Just like
when people have weight loss surgery, the only thing they're
doing is they're not eating as much. That's it, and
then the medical problems just disappear. So it makes sense
to me. Now. The other thing, John, is you can
eat whatever you want at nighttime. Just make it healthy.
(41:14):
That's all you can. I mean, that's all you gotta do.
Eat some nuts. I do that a lot. I love pecans,
I love walnuts, pistachios. That's what I snack on at night.
That's a very healthy treat and it'll turn off that
appetite monster and you're good. But then you've just consumed
some fiber, some antioxidants, and you can doctor nuts all
(41:37):
day long. You can add herbs to them, spices to them,
you can have some fresh fruit with it, maybe little
piece of cheese, and ipatite is gone and you can
go to bed. So just don't eat the cake and
cookies and chips, all that ultra processed ingredients. Eat some
good food. I've raw vegetables I like to eat. I'll cauliflower, cucumbers.
(42:03):
You can eat that stuff at night. It's not going
to bother It's good for you.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yes, doctor, I appreciate that, But I guess it's just
a general question. When I wake up in the morning,
not much hunger. Right in the day, I'm busy, not
much hunger. At night. I have a dinner and I'm
done with it, and I finally get hungry, and I
get hungry at night, but during the rest of the day,
I could probably just do an oh man, eat you know,
(42:28):
one time at day. But I guess I don't know
why it is that it really doesn't matter what I
eat for dinner. I get hungry later on.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, I don't, Yeah, don't. I don't think any doctor
would have the right answer for you. But certainly culture
has a lot to do with it. And you're not
distracted anymore, and you know, the food is just calling
your name in there, And that's where it starts is
don't put it in your house. If you know it's
bad for you, don't buy it because if you buy it,
(43:00):
certainly you're going to eat it.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Oh yeah, well I learned that one. But I don't know.
Even when Sir, I'm on vacation, but it's still this
dynamic it goes on. So I think it's I'm trying
to understand biochemically, maybe what's going on.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
It would be hard to figure that out. We don't
have we don't have lab essays that that tests certain chemicals.
We just don't have that in the general market to
determine that. I think again, it's all about behavior, and
if you know those are your weak times throughout the day,
then you should certainly recognize that and do your best
(43:41):
to be strong and try to Again, if you want
to consume something, just make a count. That's really all.
A lot of people used to put a lot of
time into the time of day that you're eating it.
I don't buy that, just because, again, if you're eating
fresh food, you're eating healthy food, it doesn't really matter
what time you're eating it. It's going to help you.
(44:02):
But I think for most Americans again, culturally, we're snacking
more with the ultra processed, high sugary, high fatty foods
that night just because it's pleasurable, right, And it sort
of built into our system, our mindset in this country
that I deserve a treat. I bought it, I finished
my day, and I'm going to go kill it in there,
(44:27):
so we do, you.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Know, Right in the eighties, I'm almost sixty, there was
this book called pro Potatoes Do Prozact. This is when
that SSRI came out, and I thought it was interesting
and I always thought maybe that was the reason, because
I don't know if that had anything to do with anything,
(44:50):
but I just appreciate it. Thanks for everything you talked
about today. Enjoyed listening.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Appreciate it. John, And yeah, eat those cucumbers that our nuts.
I love walnuts. I eat those throughout the day. Good
fiber antioxidants kills that hunger monster. Thanks for joining me.
Don't drink and drive, and wear that sunscreen. It's hot
(45:17):
out there. We'll see you next week. Take care,
All right, welcome South East Sex's Internet radio listeners. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
This is doctor Levine, your host of the Doctor Levine
Medical Hour. I am here every Saturday taking your phone calls,
answering questions about healthcare and medicine, trying to help you
answer questions about your health and what's the right way
(00:21):
to maybe do things to eat, what to drink, would
not to eat, what not to drink? So you can
stay alive as long as possible, be healthy as long
as possible. Stay away from doctors' offices, Stay away from hospitals,
stay away from pharmacists pharmacies. Keep your money in your
pockets so you don't have to spend it on the doctor,
(00:43):
the medicines, the co pays. How can I do that?
Because it seems like it's harder as you get old.
Remember somebody lied to us. It's harder as you get old.
You got to work at it. It's not automatic. You know,
when you're young and you can eat and drink anything
(01:04):
you want and nothing happens, you feel done the same.
You can get two hours of rest and still go
out and do your day. Can't do that when you're
in your fifties. Man, it's impossible. Almost you start eating
the wrong food, you start drinking the wrong thing. You
(01:25):
don't feel so good, and the symptoms, I should say,
the signs of that are so numerous. But you just
don't feel right and you want to get right. You
want to feel young again, but not necessarily be in
that same age. Brackets limitations when you're young, right, don't
(01:46):
have a career yet, bank accounts kind of small limitations.
Phone lines are open eight nine six kvy. I want
ee hundred and three to three zero kfvy. I would
love to hear from you. Chat talk. We have a
whole hour which you go to the doctor's office, right,
is so rushed you have to it's cumbersome too, And
(02:11):
I know you, guys, I wish we would come up
with something more efficient and in terms of evaluating patients
and seeing patients, and you know we need to. The
computer system does help out a lot, but a lot
of times you talk with your healthcare professional, they're just
staring in the computer. They're not looking at you and
(02:35):
not talking to you. They're just looking in the computer. Right,
So we know that that's a problem. But electronic meta
records have certainly helped out tremendously to offer health Scheduler
in terms of information being given to you. We've talked
about that numerous times. It's been a big improvement trying
to get patients involved with their own healthcare and educating
(02:59):
them about what is going on so that they can
sort of follow along. It's always good when you're sick
to have someone there with you to sort of chronicle
what's happening. Just remember names, medicines, diagnosises, just the plan
of care. It can change. If you've ever been to
(03:20):
an er minor care, if you've ever been exposed to
the healthcare system, you know, man, it can be hard
to follow along. You start getting different doctors in there
and they're saying different things, even sometimes when they contradict
each other same information and I have that conversation. Often
(03:47):
it's unfortunately built into the system. It's kind of a
good thing, to be honest with you, to have various
healthcare professionals sort of looking at it from a different
and then trying to cohesively come together and make the
proper diagnoses. But depending on the information the practitioner sees
(04:13):
in the chart, the information they get from you and
other sources, they obviously will have a different opinion. I
am a hospital doctor, so I talk to patients every
day in the hospital, and I work with consultants, you know,
lung specialists, heart doctors, blood specialists, infection specialists, liver specialists,
(04:39):
kidney specialist. I talk with er physicians every day, and
you know, it's very common that their angle on what's
going on is going to be different from mine, which
is going to be a little bit different from the consultant.
We all have our own angle. And I know that
(05:02):
patients and patience families they want consistency, They really want consistency.
They want the same answer and the same diagnoses from
every healthcare professional. It generates confidence that whatever is happening,
(05:25):
whatever medication is being given, whatever X rays are being done,
is for the same diagnoses, the same reason that all
the doctors have been telling them. And it's super frustrating
when doctor Levine says it's this, the er doctor says
(05:45):
it was something else, and the consultant is wanting to
do a totally different thing, even though the story is
about the same and the same objective information is in
the chart. Yeah, that happens often, and when patients and
families get exposed to it. It's I think it's scary,
(06:09):
it really is. It's frightening. It's scary and confusing, and
it's upsetting, and patients and families get upset, and rightly so.
I mean again, they want consistency, They want to know
what is going on as soon as possible, and we
certainly draw best to get them that information a SAP
(06:31):
as soon as possible. But some of these diseases, and
some of these physical symptoms are very elusive, meaning shortness
of breath or swelling them legs can mean five different things,
and then if you sort of add other physical complaints
(06:52):
on top of that, it can mean ten different things.
And you know, it's a picture. It's a picture that
gets painted, and the artists, if you will, meaning the
practitioner the doctor sees different things when they look at
the painting, and that painting is giving them a message
(07:16):
and a story and they go with it. Which we
fight that a lot in primary care as well, just
because primary care was sort of normally the first person,
the first practitioners sort of get a lot of these complaints.
And again coming into the office, man, you can have
(07:39):
patients and come have ten complaints and the way we're
trained in healthcare world is to try and consolidate all
these complaints into one disease. That's the goal, Right, I'm
having headaches, I'm dizzy, i have blurry vision, i have
(08:02):
this rash on my fingertip, I'm nauseated, i have abdominal pain,
I'm tired, I'm weak, I'm not sleeping. And the goal
of the primary care provider, the goal of practitioners to say, aha,
i have one disease that explains all that, and I'm
(08:24):
going to write your prescription, a one prescription that you
only take once a day, and it's affordable and you
can just get it down the street. Right, that's the dream,
that's the dream scenario, even for us talking to patients
and families every day all day. You know, doctors have
(08:47):
the same desires you guys do. We want answers right
now too. We are just like anybody else. We want
to have a good day. We want to have an
easy day. We want to have a day where it's
filled with joy and happiness and pleasure. We want patients
to feel good about interacting with this. We want them
(09:09):
to be happy with their care and what's happening. And
we get frustrated too, and we get upset too when
things are not readily available to us. We can't get
that answer to you as fast as we would like.
We would love to do that every time. But I know,
no matter how much I read, no matter how many
(09:32):
tests I take, no matter how many bored certifications I have.
I mean, I work every day. If you've ever interacted
with me, I work every day. I'm in my office,
I'm in the hospital, I'm everywhere every day, honestly trying
to get the most exposure to these diseases as I
(09:53):
possibly can, so I can be on top of whatever
a patient comes to the door with because I've seen it.
Because that's what it's really all about. A lot of times,
a lot of Southeast sections like to drive an hour
and a half and seek medical attention Houston, which is fine.
(10:16):
We want you to be happy. It's a great, great
medical community there, Methodist and Memorial Herman and Baylor and
m D Anderson, the big medical metropolis down there. It's
just an amazing community, great doctors and great breakthroughs. I mean,
it's hard to avoid that. Just to hour and fifteen minutes,
(10:38):
you're there and a totally different world right, and some
of these diseases really require for you to be there
in the bigger city Beaumont, Southeast Texas. Put out there
orange smaller community, a smaller market. It's hard to retain
and keep these doctors here in this community for various reasons.
(11:02):
We hospitals try very hard to do that in many
different ways. It's a constant battle to keep doctors, retain
doctors in this area, you know, to have those services
available to you twenty fours to day, seven days a week,
no matter if it's sunny, warm, snowing, hurricanes, whatever. You know,
(11:24):
they're sitting there waiting to take care of you. It's
harder to do in these smaller communities, easier to do
in these bigger hospitals. It's just more docs around, more
services available. So sometimes we do have to transfer patients
there to the bigger hospitals to receive care whatever. For
(11:44):
particular diseases are if we have exhausted our efforts and
we need to get you to maybe to another hospital
for a second opinion, we have to do that. But
it's all about exposure, meaning we can read it all day,
we can take tests all day, we can ace the test,
we can ace everything, But you have to really see it,
(12:08):
breathe it, smell it, taste it as it happens, live
in reality, not on a page or a book. And
the only way to do that is to be out
there experiencing it. Be in the streets if you will.
And that's sort of my position is, I want to
be in the streets. I want to feel it, see it,
(12:30):
taste it, and see how that really presents. Just because
these things, these disease are are tricky, I mean tricking.
You gotta really be on your toes every day. Phone
lines are open eight nine to six kovy I won
one hundred and three three zero kov. I'm just up
here talking about healthcare. But if you have any questions
(12:52):
about anything it give me a buzz. We back in
two minutes. All right, welcome back to doctor Vine Medical.
Our phone lines that opened eight nine six kov out
(13:12):
one hundred and three three zero Kyov. I'm just up
here yapping about various topics. Remember flu season's next month,
so we're still encouraging vaccines. Remember that flus year round
and virus infections are year round, but there seems to
be a big spike in the winter, so probably next
(13:35):
month they'll start being offered to you, so obviously go
out and get yours. We have covid boosters that's every
six months. Again normally not in doctor's offices yet, but
still add maybe your local pharmacy. We have your pneumonia vaccine,
which is normally a one time injection and a one
(13:58):
series injections. Mean, you get the inject you're done. They
have upgraded the pneumonia vaccine. You remember, pneumonia is a
normally a bacterial infection, but can be viral. You know,
covid can cause pneumonia and other viruses, Respiratory sensitio virus
(14:18):
that's RSV. Remember, that's another vaccine on the market. Maybe
for the past year or so that's been out. But
primarily it's a bacterial infection. We don't talk about this enough,
but we all hear about cardio ofasqu disease and cholesterol
and blood sugar and you know, eat your vegetables, drink
(14:39):
your water. Yeah, we hear you dark levine, we know.
But one thing we don't talk about a lot. It's
just infections.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Man.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
We see a lot of infections every day, bacterial infections primarily.
I mean, it's just very rampant and and can cause
serious harm. And vaccines is one way to help yourself out. Remember,
and I know this is a frustrating part of it.
They're not perfect. They're just not perfect. And sure they
(15:16):
can try and achieve perfection, and maybe that's what they're doing.
And vaccines have gotten better, more effective to keep the
side effect profile down. That's with everything in medicine. As
a computer industry in the biotech world merge and they
really figure out how to really cleanly give these medicines,
(15:38):
these these vaccines, just like chemotherapy and medicaid. It's like everything.
It's just it gets better and better. They work on
trying to improve these products to the point that they're
easy to use, they're less likely to cause an adverse reaction,
and do what they're supposed to do. So the vaccines
are not perfect, but they are extremely helpful and controlling
(16:04):
the infection risk in this country. So it's pest control,
it's all it is. Pest. Pest control. You're familiar with that, right.
You get the exterminator to come to your house and
spray your house so that you can sort of just
control the potential invasion of critters that don't need to
(16:28):
be in your house. But every now and then, yeah,
you'll see one. It's completely hard to prevent that with
human activity and food all around you. If you've ever
cooked anything or just eating heating anything up, I mean
just food particles of just flying around everywhere on the floor,
(16:52):
on the table, on your shirt, just chewing and just
moving food. Just little pieces break off and land somewhere
around you, right, trying to be as clean as possible. Well,
that sends sort of a little signal to the insects
and all the little critics that are sitting around hiding,
(17:13):
trying to eat just like us, trying to stay alive,
just like us. And they get in through a window,
through a crack, somewhere, through a door seal. They just
they get in and it's hard to keep them out.
Just like viruses and bacteria to human body. They get in,
(17:35):
They find ways, they find a weak spot. I hear
this question all the time. How did this happen to me?
I do everything right? How am on the hospital? How
did I get in pneumonia? I was fine two days ago?
How did this happen? We would love to tell you,
but a lot of times that we can it's just
(17:57):
that stuff does happen where patient's doing everything right. You know,
I'm listening to dark Levigne. I'm doing everything you're telling
me to do. I'm not supposed to end up in
the hospital. Well, yeah, that is the idea. I mean,
we're trying to reduce your chance to being in the hospital.
I mean, we're trying to minimize it. And even if
(18:17):
you get into the hospital, maybe it's a short stay
for you and you get out of there alive and
you're not sort of cramped, or you're not hurt, or
you're not sort of generally have a bunch of weakness
and you can still function. I'm trying to look for
(18:38):
my word. But sometimes when you're going to in the hospital,
the sickness and the illness is so big that when
you get out of there, man, I mean, you really
feel like it takes you a week or two just
to get better. And when you're otherwise healthy, maybe taking
your vaccines. You try to keep the severity of these
(19:00):
its easiest to a minimum so that again you can
get in and out quickly and it doesn't do a
lot of damage to the human body, and the less
damage it does, the faster your recovery. So that's what
all this vaccine stuff is and all these other recommendations
that we make when you go into the doctor's office
and try to keep it friendly, just because just a
(19:24):
healthcare vis I'm just trying to help you based on
my experience, as all healthcare professionals are doing, as well
as your insurance company is doing. There now sending people
out to your house to talk with you one on
one in a quiet environment, quiet atmosphere in your own
home with a lot of distractions, talk with you about
(19:47):
some basic concepts about how can you stay healthy, how
can you stay alive, how can we prevent you from
getting an advanced stage four cancer of some sort, Get
your colonoscopies, get your cat scans, get your blood work. Yeah,
(20:07):
just to remind you how to do this. But as
you know, you listen to my shirt, it's all starts
with that. Die a diet and not just some fancy
pills or liquids or sprays that you pick up from
the grocery store or the vitamins store or wherever you
(20:28):
shop for your vitamin's own line at the convenience store.
It just doesn't work that way, man. You gotta do
the basic stuff. And certainly as you get older, you
got to do a little bit more. I mean not.
It's not like you have to spend your whole day
working out, which I think is how exercising is promoted
(20:50):
in our country, like you got to work out for
an hour every day, And it's just not true. It's untrue.
We're asking for twenty minutes, not even every day. We're
talking about three times a week, just twenty minutes. Do
fifteen minutes if that's all you can do, do fifteen minutes,
(21:14):
Hop on a treadmill, press go and walk for fifteen minutes,
maybe at a moderate pace. That's it. And then when
you're going your kitchen, you're going your cupboard, you know,
don't reach for the trash, you know, eat a cucumber,
(21:36):
Eat a tomato, you know, eat some spinach, won't you
grill you some fish, maybe eat a carrot. And then
when you drink, don't drink the sugary stuff. It tastes
so good though it looks good too. It's fizzy, it's exciting.
(21:56):
Water is so boring, no taste flat, just blah. You know,
you're looking for excitement throughout the day, right, It's like,
what are we going to do today. That's exciting. Yeah,
we're gonna go to the restaurant. We're gonna have some this,
We're gonna have that. Yeah, it's exciting. It's an adventure.
(22:18):
And the same thing with your beverage, you know, But
no just water today. Now it's gonna have some spinach.
You know. I get it, I really do. And it's
hard to say no to all these other items that
are out there that again, you grew up eating it.
How can all of a sudden it be poison? I mean,
(22:41):
I grew up eating this stuff and I was fine
then while all of a sudden is it poison? Now
I can't touch it. If I touch it, then I'm
gonna die. I'm gonna be sick. I mean just it's
hard to make that jump, you know, psychologically that lead
that I can't. I can't have that food out of
(23:03):
my group eating all the time. And it's a huge
struggle for patients when they get diagnosed with diabetes or hypertension,
they'll keep eating this stuff and drinking even though they
know it's bad for them. We don't have any pills
for that one. Hey, David from Deer Park, how can
we help you?
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yes, sir, I was wondering. I've started for about the
last two months actually going to Little Gem and all
that and lifting weights and walking and back bike riding
and all that, but it's almost like the weight not moving,
and I wonder if I'm putting on muscle mass, which
(23:48):
is keeping it kind of level, or what's going on,
you know, what's going on with it.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
So you're just trying to lose weight.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Well, I'm just trying to get back and shake more
and less. And you know, I mean, yeah, if I
lose I can. If I can lose a little bit
of weight, that's fine. But but I've noticed that it's
I'm I do seem to be gaining muscle mass, but
I'm not quote unquote going down in numbers. And I
mean I figure that that comes with Yeah, once you
(24:22):
get so far into the exercising and all that, I figured,
then it kind of backtracks and starts tapering off the weight.
But which I'm not When I say weight, I'm talking
about you know, maybe fifteen to twenty pounds, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
But yeah, and so you're saying that, I guess since
you've been exercising even you've expected a weight loss and
it hasn't happened yet. Yeah, okay, I mean, yeah, you know, David,
that does happen periodically where the outcome is not what
you expected. And I mean there's a couple of things
(25:01):
that you obviously can do. Number one, make sure it's
nothing medical going on, and you can do that easily
just by getting some basic routine blood work, and you
and your healthcare professional can review your medications. There are
certain medicines that can generate weight or make it Harvey
lose weight. And then number two, just again looking at
(25:26):
your intake of foods and beverages and what you're eating
and seeing if you can make any adjustment with that. Again, David,
we're all taught as Americans to eat every every well
not every day, but three times a day, and in
(25:46):
my opinion, okay, got it, and sometimes just eating once
a day. It sounds odd, It sounds un American to
a certain degree, because again, it's breakfast, lunch, dinner. It
was stamped in our head from day one. And to
(26:08):
tell somebody, oh, you can only once a day, that
doesn't sound well to most Americans. But I think based
on my experience and what I've been taught and just
talking to patients all day once a day is fine.
It really is. Your body will be Your body will
(26:28):
be fine, and actually your body functions better when you
do give it some time to be in a fasting state.
This stuff is proven over and over again that when
you're not eating, your body operates differently and operates in
a better fashion versus when you're consuming all these calories
(26:48):
all day long. It's almost like you never give it
a break. You're just consuming all this energy in terms
of calories, and it tends to irritate the human body.
It inflames the human body. And when you can find
a way to give your body a break every twenty
four hours without consuming all of this energy, it tends
to operate more efficiently and tends to generate some weight loss.
(27:13):
The number three. Just as you get older, it's harder
to lose weight again. Your metabolism is slowing down. Your
genetics might be working against you. Meaning some families are
just they're bigger and some families are smaller. Right, you
see that if you come from a family with they're
just big people, then it might be hard for you
(27:34):
to get your weight down to a minimum. So sometimes
you have to go to medicines to help or surgeries
to help. It's all in terms of what you want
to do. I think from a doctor's standpoint, you don't
necessarily have to be skinny to be healthy. Okay. We
just certainly want you to consume more foods and beverages
(27:54):
that are healthy for you, and we want to be
physically active, and that can look a lot of different ways.
You don't necessarily have to be skinny. What happens typically though,
patients who eat well, exercise and reculd bases, they tend
to lose weight, but not everybody.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Okay, Well, I mean I just I just kind of
I kept thinking, well, I guess it's gonna you know,
I'll hit a certain point and then it'll come back
track and the weight it'll come off. And now, I
mean I've kind of had that little experience before, you know,
years back, but I just kind of wonder.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, review what you're eating,
Uh see if you can make some changes with that
the food items, the beverage items, the frequency, the amounts.
I mean, cut your calorie count down or exercise more
to burn more calories. I would say, try to hit
the diet first. Again, just because As you get older,
(28:51):
your body can't tolerate a lot of exercising. I think
a lot of people have in their mind that, Okay,
I'm gonna just I'm gonna eat bad, but I'm gonna
just exercise more. I'm i access for thirty minutes more,
I'm a lift heavier weight. And when you're young, you
can do that. But when you get older, your body
is not really designed to be running all day long
(29:12):
and lifting heavy weight. It's just not which is why
you see a lot of athletes they taper off after
certain age. The body just gives them oh no, no, no, no, no,
wrong idea, and that's when it falls back. On that diet,
you have to give it the right fuel, and a
(29:33):
lot of times you have to limit what or how
much you're giving it. To be honest with you, I
see patients in their nineties all day long in the office,
and one common denominator I find is that they're not
big eaters. They don't eat a lot very small eaters.
They eat infrequently, they don't drink, they don't smoke, but
(29:57):
they're not out there running marathons in the gym lifting weights.
They just eat. Right, Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, all right, buddy, any other questions.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
No, that's it. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
All right, Dave, appreciate your phone call. And yet it
can be frustrating. You're not losing the weights you want,
you're not getting that look that you want. And again,
you just have to look at everything and see if
you can improve and make some bigger moves on what
you eat, the exercising again, maybe introduce some pharmaceuticals to
(30:37):
the mix, these injections for diabetes. It's crazy. People are
becoming more familiar with the category g LP one agonist category.
Ozimpic is the most common, Munjaro, zip bound trulicity. I'm
missing a few others, Ozimpic, Ribelsi's, Saxendamans, a bunch of
(31:00):
them out there, semi glue tide. People are familiar with
this stuff now. That can really shut down your desire
to eat, and you can go all day without eating.
Maybe eat once a day, a small meal and be
happy with that. But for most of us, without help,
I mean, it's hard to just eat once a day,
super hard with all this food around. No way, phone
(31:22):
lines are open eight nine to six k I won
one hundred three three zero kalv I'll be back in
two minutes. All right, welcome back to the doctor Merica.
Our phone lines are opening nine to six kov. I
want one hundred three three zero klv. I. Yeah. Sometimes
(31:42):
when you make those choices and those changes, you expect
that certain outcomes. Just man, things ain't working the way
they should. I'm not dropping that weight like I should.
I do hear that often, though, and I think, just
like with anything, you invest time and energy into an
effort project, and you sort of have expectations about the
(32:03):
outcome prior to starting, like I should be losing weight,
I should feel better, I should look better, and then
it doesn't happen. It's like a slap in the face.
It's like it's fighting your your body is fighting you.
It just the weight doesn't want to leave and wants
just hang on. I have that conversation often, and it's
(32:26):
it is frustrating. And I mean, doctors in the medical
world don't necessarily have a one time or one sort
of one line of answer to the person that's struggling,
because again, we're we're still trying to figure out the
human body in terms of how it works as it
(32:46):
pertains to weight gain, weight loss, food items, et cetera. Right,
they're constantly trying to crack the code. And again, these
GLP one agonists, man, they seem to be as close
we've ever gotten to controlling the appetite monster that's with
(33:07):
us every single day. It's an uncomfortable feeling for most
people when you get hungry, and it's so uncomfortable that
they want it to go away. It's almost like pain.
It's a very discomforting, painful experience. You know, you get headaches,
(33:28):
your throat gets dry, you just don't feel good. This
is initially right because if you can sort of tolerate
it and break through, so to speak. And if you've
ever fasted before fasting meaning you haven't had any calories
consumed normally eight to twelve hours is sort of the
(33:52):
time frame that we're talking about. You can stay hydrated
all day, you can drink non calorie beverages. That's still
we'll keep you in a fasting state. So you hear
me on the radio, coffee, water, tea, no sweeteners, no sugars. Again,
be careful with the artificial sweeteners. Experts of finding out
(34:12):
that it's generating some adverse reaction for a lot of patients.
So it's it's not the free for all that we
once thought. Oh yes, no sugar. Oh yeah, I can
drink that soda. I can eat that ice cream. I
can eat that cake. It has zero sugar in it. Ah,
(34:33):
this is America, this is the fantasy land of the world. Right,
you can have cake and ice cream and you have
no sugar. You're still healthy. Yeah, you still on top
of things, even though you're eating something that should be unhealthy.
I'm still healthy. I'm gonna get a vegetable pizza. Yeah,
(34:54):
it's vegetables, and that's good for you. And then I
my vitamins this morning. I'm good. Right. Doesn't work like that,
I'm telling you it doesn't. Well, we play games with
ourselves all the time every day talking to my patients.
(35:15):
I know it's a struggle out there, man. I'm trying
to help you figure out how you're gonna achieve your
health as well. But you can't fool the human body
just can't do it. And it's sort of a rude
awakening to again eventually understand this basic component of health.
(35:37):
You got to eat right. You got to eat right.
You've got to be putting in the proper fuel that
your body reacts positively to and try to eliminate or
avoid things that the body negatively reacts to. Again, all
these artificial ingredients and components, these ultra processes, components of
(36:01):
the food items that are out there, that's on a
lot of these shelves out there, just sitting waiting, preserved
for your consumption. Again, the food industry, good people, just
trying to provide you with something to eat. But the
ingredients are so adulterated, it's so unnatural that the human
(36:25):
body perceives it as a foreign material. You can consume it,
it gets in your bloodstream, and the body negative relacts
to it, and there's a slight, sort of violent reaction
to it. You might have headaches, you might feel tired,
maybe bloated, maybe have diarrhea, and you sort of get
(36:47):
used to that and you just kind of keep pushing
through it. And then that's when you start having health issues.
It might take six months, but it starts, and you
have understand it's all coming from consuming these certain food eyes,
when these certain beverages, and then you're running to doctor
Levine's off, like I don't feel good, my pressure is high,
(37:09):
I'm having a rash, I'm hurting, I'm sluggish wherever case
may be, and we now have to go to prescription
medications to try and correct that. When really, if you
can just avoid the ultra processed food, make a few
(37:29):
stops a week to the grocery store, get your own produce,
get your own meat, bring it to your house, cook
at yourself. You can control the ingredients. It's fresh, it's
hardly unadulterated. Although a lot of people will say the
food chain in this country has gotten so adulterated it's
(37:51):
hard to avoid it. I mean super hard. John from Houston,
what's up.
Speaker 3 (37:58):
Good morning, Thanks, thanks for the show. I have a
quick question. I've always wondered about this, Doctors. So as
I get older, this is more pronounced. Two things are
going on. But I get hungry at night, and you know,
before really didn't have to happen like that. But I'm
finding as I get older and older, nine o'clock comes
(38:20):
around and I just want to hit and snack, and
you know, in the course of a few years, it
just starts adding up. So is there a hormonal reason
to that? Is it environmental? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1 (38:34):
I would this is just sort of based on my
own ideas, I would just probably have to assume. Yes,
a lot of it's cultural. In my opinion, most people
at nighttime, they're at their house watching television, sort of
getting ready to go to bed, and we have so
many signals all day to eat all day. I mean,
(38:55):
it's hard not to do it, especially when there's no distractions,
you're at home, you're alive. During the day, it might
be easier, right because you're driving, you're sitting, you got
things to do, you're talking to people, you're stopping, starting,
and it's easy to go throughout the day without eating.
But once you're at home and you're just in your bed,
you're on the couch, there's nothing to distract you, and
(39:17):
those snacks are calling you in the kitchen and maybe
saw some commercials or maybe you remember something and I
really would like that Snickers bar, that ice cream. Yeah
it makes me feel good. And you're like, yeah, I
deserve it today because I was told I deserve it
today and I had a hard day to day, and yes,
I deserve a treat. That's how they said. You deserve
(39:38):
a treat every day. So you're going you have your
two scoops ice cream. Let me yeah, so some of
that is cultural, But I don't see a consistency with
talking to my elderly patients that they all have issues
with issues with snacking at night. I think it's just
a cultural thing in our country to eat at night. Remember,
the traditional way we would do things is eat breakfasts,
(40:02):
eat lunch, and then go home and eat this big
tenor bread, salad, vegetable meat, and then a dessert. And
some people still eat like that, not most, but there
are still a few out there that eat like that.
That's too much food. It's too much. And that's what
I'm realizing as a position, is that what they're teaching us,
(40:27):
we're just eating too much in this country. We got
to slow down. We have to limit the amount of
food we're eating. We're just eating way too much, and
that's why we're having this sort of health crisis in
our country. And if you can find a way to
limit the amount of food you're eating throughout the day,
(40:48):
typically your health improves. That's what I've seen. Just like
when people have weight loss surgery, the only thing they're
doing is they're not eating as much. That's it, and
then the medical problems just disappear. So it makes sense
to me. Now. The other thing, John, is you can
eat whatever you want at nighttime. Just make it healthy.
(41:14):
That's all you can. I mean, that's all you gotta do.
Eat some nuts. I do that a lot. I love pecans,
I love walnuts, pistachios. That's what I snack on at night.
That's a very healthy treat and it'll turn off that
appetite monster and you're good. But then you've just consumed
some fiber, some antioxidants, and you can doctor nuts all
(41:37):
day long. You can add herbs to them, spices to them,
you can have some fresh fruit with it, maybe little
piece of cheese, and ipatite is gone and you can
go to bed. So just don't eat the cake and
cookies and chips, all that ultra processed ingredients. Eat some
good food. I've raw vegetables I like to eat. I'll cauliflower, cucumbers.
(42:03):
You can eat that stuff at night. It's not going
to bother It's good for you.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yes, doctor, I appreciate that, But I guess it's just
a general question. When I wake up in the morning,
not much hunger. Right in the day, I'm busy, not
much hunger. At night. I have a dinner and I'm
done with it, and I finally get hungry, and I
get hungry at night, but during the rest of the day,
I could probably just do an oh man, eat you know,
(42:28):
one time at day. But I guess I don't know
why it is that it really doesn't matter what I
eat for dinner. I get hungry later on.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, I don't, Yeah, don't. I don't think any doctor
would have the right answer for you. But certainly culture
has a lot to do with it. And you're not
distracted anymore, and you know, the food is just calling
your name in there, And that's where it starts is
don't put it in your house. If you know it's
bad for you, don't buy it because if you buy it,
(43:00):
certainly you're going to eat it.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Oh yeah, well I learned that one. But I don't know.
Even when Sir, I'm on vacation, but it's still this
dynamic it goes on. So I think it's I'm trying
to understand biochemically, maybe what's going on.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
It would be hard to figure that out. We don't
have we don't have lab essays that that tests certain chemicals.
We just don't have that in the general market to
determine that. I think again, it's all about behavior, and
if you know those are your weak times throughout the day,
then you should certainly recognize that and do your best
(43:41):
to be strong and try to Again, if you want
to consume something, just make a count. That's really all.
A lot of people used to put a lot of
time into the time of day that you're eating it.
I don't buy that, just because, again, if you're eating
fresh food, you're eating healthy food, it doesn't really matter
what time you're eating it. It's going to help you.
(44:02):
But I think for most Americans again, culturally, we're snacking
more with the ultra processed, high sugary, high fatty foods
that night just because it's pleasurable, right, And it sort
of built into our system, our mindset in this country
that I deserve a treat. I bought it, I finished
my day, and I'm going to go kill it in there,
(44:27):
so we do, you.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Know, Right in the eighties, I'm almost sixty, there was
this book called pro Potatoes Do Prozact. This is when
that SSRI came out, and I thought it was interesting
and I always thought maybe that was the reason, because
I don't know if that had anything to do with anything,
(44:50):
but I just appreciate it. Thanks for everything you talked
about today. Enjoyed listening.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Appreciate it. John, And yeah, eat those cucumbers that our nuts.
I love walnuts. I eat those throughout the day. Good
fiber antioxidants kills that hunger monster. Thanks for joining me.
Don't drink and drive, and wear that sunscreen. It's hot
(45:17):
out there. We'll see you next week. Take care,
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