Dr Levine's Medical Hour 12/14/24--topics include informed consent

• Listen Saturday mornings at 8 as Dr. Msonthi Levine discusses medical issues and takes your calls on News Talk 560 KLVI. Dr Levine is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. His office is located at 3080 Milam in Beaumont, Texas. He can be reached at 409-347-3621.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boom, Welcome work, and welcome to Stark Lavigne, coming to
live from the series of KLVI here in Beaumont, Texas.
Taking your phone calls, answering your questions about healthcare and
medicine as we see it. Try and clear up some
confusion and just disorientation that happens a lot in healthcare,
and try to answer questions for yourself. Phone lines are open.

(00:22):
We'd love to hear from you. Eight nine to six
klv I or one eight hundred three to three zero
ko v I. Hopefully having a wonderful, wonderful Saturday morning.
It is the holiday season and we are in the
middle of it. Just Christmas songs, Christmas carols, lights everywhere
on your house, on your car, at work. It's just

(00:46):
a great time of the year, especially around New Year's
and getting ready to go into the new year and
try to create the new you as well. That always
comes up at the end of the year, just rehing
what happened this previous year and can we get better
the next year. So hopefully you're having a wonderful Saturday morning.

(01:09):
Weather not too bad, as you know, I like it cold, cold, cold,
It's I guess it's Okay, it's not the heat like
we're normally used to. It is a little bit cold,
and we got it. I guess Wednesday or Thursday was
colder than it has been. So just keep it going,
especially on Christmas Day. We'd love it to be cold weather.

(01:33):
And for whatever reason, during this time, we always see
these respiratory infections. We get that big spike, you know,
with the colds and drainage, coughing, achiness, We always see it. It
has to do with that weather, the nasty cold weather,
even though compared to some other places in this country,

(01:58):
it's not that cold, but it's cold for us, you
know what I'm saying. We will take what we can get. Anyway.
We always prioritize these vaccines, so if you haven't gotten yours,
go get yours. It'd be cool if vaccines were came
in a tablet form. That would just be the best, right,
so super convenient, and I'm sure they've worked on that

(02:22):
sort of delivery system for vaccines, but just for whatever reason,
does not provoke an immune response, and they can't really
put it in a tablet form, but man, it would
be huge if they could. A tablet or a capsule
you can just you know, take two for one day

(02:43):
something like that. You know, we sort of are okay
with taking tablets. We sometimes get little too overhanded, when
not overhanded, but heavy heavy handed. That's what I'm trying
to say. Prescribing medications. And I've been a doctor for

(03:04):
for twenty years. It's amazing that twenty years is passed
by that quickly. Seems like I was just graduating from
medical training, but over twenty years. And I would say that, man,
I try not to prescribe a lot of medications, honestly
to my patients, especially if someone's on a lot of

(03:27):
medications are ready for various reasons. So sometimes yes, as
a prescriber as they call us in this country, as
a medical doctor, not a surgeon, although I can do
a few procedures, not many, but I'm a medicine doctor,

(03:48):
so I don't. Really my day is really not filled
with cutting and sewing and futuring, but mainly prescribing description medications.
I mean, that's just how my day goes. And I
would just have to say that I'm always trying to

(04:10):
not prescribe a medication for all of the various ailments
that patients come in with. We have on occasion talked
about various physical complaints that are probably worthy of going
into your healthcare professional's office or going to minor care.
If you start having these physical symptoms, may need to

(04:34):
go over that. Again, is that was a good sort
of lecture on those physical symptoms. What are the high
yield physical symptoms that you should know about if you're
experiencing that, Because again, as a primary care physician like
myself and just being a medical doctor, we listen to

(04:57):
physical complaints every day, all day long, and sometimes the
physical complaints that patients complain about are not necessarily of
a concern, and I do spend a lot of my
days reassuring patients that whatever this is, whatever is causing

(05:18):
this is really nothing to worry about. We can just
monitor it. We don't have to do anything about it.
You just let us know if it gets worse. And
then certainly there are other symptoms where we really need
to look into this, And that's a healthcare professionals experience,

(05:39):
But we don't always jump when we hear certain things.
But yes, there are practitioners out there that for every
physical complaint there's a medication for it, and yes, some
patients do end up on an enormous amount of medications

(06:00):
that they had to take every single day, and I
feel sorry for them a lot of times, because, man,
that's a huge commitment to have to sit down and
take ten medicines or fifteen medications every day so that
you can stay out at the hospital or you're to

(06:21):
be able to function throughout the day, whether it be
something for your blood pressure or something for swelling that
some patients get, or maybe unfortunately you have problems sleeping
or other psychiatric problems. A lot of times requires two

(06:43):
or three medications, so it can sort of add up,
and I feel sorry for those patients that have to
take all those meds because those medications have to be refilled.
And we all know how easy and simple that process is,
hao that can be a difficult process depending on the

(07:05):
provider's office that you go to their system that's set up,
and then interacting with the pharmacy of choice. There's mail
order pharmacies and they have their own process of refilling medications.
And you know that over the years, we've prioritized safety

(07:27):
as it pertains to prescribing medication. So there's certain medicines
and certain groups of medicines that we consider very high
risk and that we want to control, and the process
of getting a refillm that medication is more cumbersome and

(07:48):
more complicated. The sedatives and the pain meds like the
narcotics are just things like a medication called pregabbling or lyrica,
which is used for nerve pain and headaches, is considered
a high risk medicine by the establishment. It requires a
special prescription to get that medication. Or if you have insomnia,

(08:13):
you know, getting some of these medications requires a special
prescription that where your healthcare professional has to use a
special process. Anyway, it just generates more obstacles, and that's
sort of what the system has implemented to try and
control the flow of these medications, just because we're trying

(08:38):
to be safe as it pertains to that sort of
protect you from yourself in a sense. That's what healthcare
professionals are sort of there to do. Make sure that
whatever you're taking it's good for you and it shouldn't
cause harm. But again, in a busy day, if you're

(08:59):
a busy practitioner with all these physical complaints, man, sometimes
the amount of medication can get pretty pretty high. And
over the years, again, like I said, I've tried to
limit my use of a lot of medications and to
try and avoid what we call polypharmacy, but it can again,

(09:22):
it can be difficult. Sometimes patients do need all those meds.
But for the physical complaints, I try not to just
give a prescription here, take this medicine for this problem.
I really try to limit it and trying to avoid
getting in that habit of just prescribing this, prescribing that

(09:44):
for every physical complaint. I guess I've been more patient
as it pertains to that because a lot of times
these physical complaints will go away without any specific treatment,
without any sort of investigation, and the symptoms will subside.
But I would have to say that, you know, our

(10:06):
country is a bit more paranoid about harboring physical symptoms,
and I think with the way information is provided and
just the conversations we have, it just seems like there's
a lot more concern or paranoida about just the physical

(10:28):
complaints that you have, and sort of this emphasis to
not ignore it and to get it looked into because
it could be something major. You don't want to be
like that other guy down the street, or that other
girl across the street, or my friend at work or
my family member that ignored this particular physical complaint, never

(10:52):
went in and then boom something happens. So's there's sort
of more of that fever in the in this country
that was not there when I was growing up. If
it was there, I just never got that since the
sense of that, and not saying I got all the exposure,
I mean it, but it just seems like we weren't

(11:15):
as sick when I was growing up. Just you didn't
really hear about that sort of thing that much. Maybe
it's just in my household, but just didn't seem like
people went to the doctor that often or went to
ers that often, and weren't taking as many medications as
we do now. And so this just seems like this

(11:36):
push to do that, And that's a provider like myself.
Sometimes I have to kind of pinch myself and press
pause before I just keep prescribing moral medicine, certainly as
it pertains to someone who's in their seventies or eighties
and their life expectancy is not that long, and we

(11:58):
kind of know that that sometimes the emphasis is to
More's are to say less is more, where you know,
prescribing this medication is really not going to prolong your
life expectancy, and it's not going to improve your quality
of life, So why are we prescribing it? So we

(12:22):
get into more of those conversations as one gets older,
and so sometimes it's just better to not do anything.
It's sometimes it's better to just kind of watch it
and see what happens, because a lot of times they
it will go away, whatever that physical symptom symptom is.

(12:42):
But there are some symptoms that, yeah, doctor's health profession,
we hear it, man, we get a little nervous and
we may need to go over that trio or it's
about five symptoms physical symptoms that when we hear it,
we get really nervous and we need to do something
about it. But most of the time we just reassure

(13:04):
the patient and tell them to call us or maybe
visit their local pharmacy. You know, a lot of the
medicines that were once prescription are now over the counter
sitting there at the pharmacy waiting for them to be used,
like a lot of the antihistamine class of medications and

(13:26):
acid reflux medicines, the anti inflammatories that we all know of.
Naperson ibuprofen adviel. You know, those medicines kind of started
out as prescription medicines, but now they're over the counter
and you can go and grab these medications whenever you
get some of these physical symptoms without a prescription. And

(13:48):
so I'm really always endorsing using those medicines first before
getting something prescribed, because it seems like the whole prescription
process can be a little complicated and cumbersome, and just
trying to ease the ability for patients to take care
of themselves. The over the counter market has grown bigger

(14:12):
and bigger, which is why we have these big mega pharmacies.
Now there's just more medication available to you when you
go to the pharmacy, even cold and flu medicines and
cough medicines, even though again there's not really been any
new cough medicine, not there are new cold medicine. They

(14:33):
seem to find a way to get us some new stuff,
you know, a year after year with the bright packaging
and the story that's behind it, but there's not that
many new cough and cold medicines coming out every year.
Like when the winter hits and we get the upper
respiratory spike with the coughing and the wheezing and the

(14:55):
chest congestion and the fever. You know, we see it
every year. So if you have any questions about that,
give us a call. Phone lines are open eight on
six scalefy. I want one hundred three three zero koviya.
I'll be back in two minutes. All right, welcome back

(15:21):
to talk with Medica. Our phone lines to open eight
nine six scale ify. I want one hundred three three
zero kill off. Y'all sitting here there chatting about medications.
We love them, we hate them, we need them, we
can't miss them. And it's weird, you know, because normally
it takes some time to be convinced that sometimes you
need to take these medications. Compliance are being non compliant

(15:46):
is a big, big issue, big big topic in the
medical world, and we're always trying to help patients improve compliance,
meaning we prescribe a medication a certain way, and the
medical literature medical research says if you take it this way,
then your disease process should be controlled, that it should

(16:08):
improve your symptoms, that it should keep you out of
the hospital. But unfortunately, living every day life is just
full of things that distract you and prevents you from
getting your medications on a regular basis. As I mentioned
the prescription process, it's not simple, and it should be.

(16:32):
And I listen to patients every day complain about the
process of getting prescriptions, and I am with you on
that when I'm talking to payer, because it should be
a more simple process, especially with modern technology the way
it is and all of the electronics and the connection

(16:55):
between your phone and you and the computer and the
grid you will, the healthcare grid, it should be an
easy process. And it is something that the system is
constantly working on how to allow patients to get their
medicines faster, easier. So I know it's super frustrating, but

(17:19):
we want you to be compliant with those manas, especially
for the bread and butter stuff that really keeps me
busy all day long. And you all know the bread
and butter stuff. High pretension, high cholesterol, and high sugar.
Really those that's the trifecta of health issues. Really, that's it,
you know, high pretension, high cholesterol, high sugar. That's the

(17:42):
trifecta that keeps a lot of doctors busy. Those three
diseases illnesses right there. I mean, that's it, bread and
butter and there's medications for each of them, even for cholesterol.
When I came out, there was just a few medications
and you all know about the statins that class of medications.

(18:05):
We love them, Lipitour, crestore, simvastatin, provocol, provostatin. We have
some new players in the cholesterol world that we are prescribing.
And if you have had cardiovascular disease, if you have
been identified as a person high risk for a cardiovascal event,
you're probably already taking this medication. And yes, one of

(18:29):
them is an injectable the way it works, and these
medicines are good. And we have a couple of other
players in that cholesterol class. So we have more medications
to offer patients, but certainly we want you to take them.
And again, a lot of obstacles are the expense of
the medication. Maybe the medicine makes you feel bad or

(18:51):
maybe need to refill, and the doctor's office is playing
hardball and that you need to come in and get
re evaluated. And again a lot of that. If your
patient of mine is coming from your insurance carrier, the
issue of compliance is on their radar. It's important to

(19:13):
them and they want us to try and help you
and a lot of times one big way to do
that is to bring you in and have a conversation
about is there a problem with getting your medications refilled
other than the office wanting you to come in and
have that conversation, because a lot of times patients we

(19:36):
don't see them for several months, maybe six months, eight
months goes by and we haven't seen them, spoke to them,
they've not had any lab work, but they're sort of
taking medications that can injure their kidney, their liver, can
cause anemia, all these different things. And I guess the
bottom line or the basic understanding if you are listening,
is that if you take a lot of medicines, you

(19:58):
honestly need to be seeing your healthcare provider frequently. And
I think the average interval is about three to four months,
So every three to four months should be checking in
with your healthcare provider. So that's about three to about
four visits a year, just again going over your meds,

(20:20):
making sure that what you're actually taking at home is
what you're supposed to be taking, and that you're not
suffering any adverse reaction from the medication. Remember, medical the
medical world is constantly studying all of these decisions that
we're making these medications and is it the right thing

(20:41):
to do? And things can change within a year's time
in terms of what we are prioritizing and what we're doing.
The one thing that and that's probably that's a good
idea for another segment is what are the trends in
healthcare twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five that I have seen.
I needed to make a mental list of that. What

(21:03):
are the trends that I see? But one trend that
I see which is a good thing is that cardiologists, yes,
heart specialist cardiologists. Those are the doctors that take care
of you when you have that heart attack or that
atrial fibrillation or that heart failure. They are now in

(21:23):
the habit of prescribing diabetes medicines. Yes they are. And
I know that when that first started up, it was
about five or six years ago. As it pertains to
this new class of diabetes medicines, which we call sg
LT two inhibitors, you know them as far as Siga

(21:46):
Jardians and I forget the other I'm blanket on and
I remember it real real quickly. Jardians, Yeah, Jarnians Farsik,
and in Volcana. Those are the three in that category.
I'm sure we'll get more as a move forward. But
now cardiologists are prescribing diabetes medicines to patients, and that

(22:09):
was an uncomfortable thing when it first started. I do
remember having conversations with my cardiology colleagues. They were a
little uncomfortable doing that because they're just trying to stand
their lane, right. Diabetes is not part of my deal.
I'm a heart doctor, heart specialist. We don't deal with diabetes.

(22:30):
That's the primary care physician's role or the intercrinologist's role.
But guess what, they are medical prescribers as well, and
they have now gotten very, very comfortable prescribing these diabetes
medicines because a lot of the research is indicated this
class of medications is good for your heart. So they

(22:54):
have sort of gotten dragged in and pulled into this
diabetes management cascade, if you will. When you have diabetes,
at the end of the day, that high sugar affects
the cardiovascular system right those blood vessels at plaque. It
irritates the heart muscle, It irritates the heart blood vessel,

(23:19):
and so at some point Unfortunately, if you're not controlling
that sugar level, you're at some point we'll see a
heart doctor and develop a condition called heart failure. And
that's when the cardiologists are pulling in these diabetes medicines
for siga Jardians in volcana, they're pulling these medicines in

(23:40):
to help manage heart failure. And again, those medicines work
very well because they sort of behave like a diuretic. Remember,
those are the class of medications that help us manage
fluid accumulation. And again, when your blood is not flowing,
whether it be from heart failure or whether it be

(24:03):
from plaque development, your body has a reaction to that,
and it's very sensitive to reduced blood flow mechanics. It
has a very robust and very sensitive reaction to that,
and that reaction is accumulating fluid. And initially the body

(24:24):
behaves as though that's a good thing, but over time
it becomes detrimental to have all this fluid on you.
We call it volume in the medical world when we're
talking to each other, is my patient volume up or
are they volume down? Or are they you volumic meaning

(24:44):
they're neutral, They don't have a lot they don't have
little they're just right. They're in the middle. A lot
of times, as these cardiovascular diseases start to cause problems,
one of the components of that is fluid accumulation. You
know it as a dema or shortness of breath. Are

(25:09):
my ankles are puffy or I can't breathe, my face
is swollen, my abdomen is enlarged. That's a lot of
times because of lack of blood flow. We have Michael
from Pasadena. How can we help you?

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Good morning doctor? He said, to keep it short, So
I'm going to try to do that. I've got I
had my heart oblation for April flutter and they corrected that,
and they still want me to get an implantable loop recorder,

(25:48):
and I'm wondering it's going to be inserted above the
heart under the skin, and I keep wondering if I'm
going to have trouble with that thing in there, and
also if it gets red mood, whether it be scar tissue.
Uh uh, you know, I'm just I'm a little leery
about it, about that battery in my skin. And I

(26:11):
know you said that it's a good thing, but as
far as how that how the body handles it. And
then if you have to take it out, will it
be uh uh. I understand you take a little decision
and push it out, but well, how will that skin
attached to the underskin? I mean it's it's it's attached

(26:35):
to the loop recorder and on the underside and top
side of the loop recorder and the initial one that
when it's been in there for a while. So I
hope that that's short enough. So well, he said, you

(26:56):
come up on a break, So anyway, what what what
do you think? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Yeah, So let me understand you you have a loop
recorder in and at some point it's going to be removed.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (27:13):
No, it's not in yet. I'm still I'm still up
in there about getting it put in, and my my,
everything else sounds good. And then I've read some uh
uh complaints about the uh it causes problems uh uh

(27:36):
when they take it out, so and then and then
I may have to have another one put in in
three years. So the people that I'm talking to about
this at the doctor's office, they're not doctors. And when
I go see the doctor, you got a few minutes

(27:57):
to talk to him. And then you think about and
then you think about, uh, you think about questions to
ask and supposedly Tuesday morning, I'm going to have it
put in and uh so, and but that's that's got
me up in the air. I'm trying to do all
my research here to see if I can, you know,

(28:19):
make a decision. You wanted to proceed with this. Uh,
I'm my my heart is I'm not on Eloquesse. Now.
My heart is in good shape. I feel much better.
I recover quickly after my walks and after my workouts,
and I wonder if I even need to get a
loop recorder. So they they say that there's a possibility,

(28:44):
you know, that the ablation could could fail.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Just well, yeah, that's always a possibility when it comes
to that, any sort of procedure, Mike you there, Yeah, yeah,
any sort of procedure, that's always a possibility. And I
would say that if you still have questions about the

(29:09):
device or the need for the device, whenever you go
in to get it placed, you should pause and have
the cardiologists pause and have that conversation with the cardiologists
before they put it in, because you're correct. Once they
put it in, then you sort of have to deal
with whatever happens. So if the cardiologist does not have

(29:34):
time to talk with you and doesn't seem to want
to talk with you or answer those questions, then I
would not allow him to do that or her to
do that, because that is an extremely important part of
putting a device in someone's body, is to make sure
that the patient is very comfortable with the whole process

(29:55):
and fully understands what is going on with the device,
the potential complications, and yes, we're busy throughout the day,
and sometimes yes we don't spend enough time communicating all
of that information, so that before you get it put in,
you should have a conversation with the cardigloi. It's like, hey,

(30:16):
we're not going to move forward until I have these
questions answered, and the cardiologies should politely take that pause
with you and talk with you and make sure you're
comfortable and understand everything. I'm sure they would want to
have that experience. They want you to be comfortable. Sometimes
we don't know that you're uncomfortable. Sometimes we don't know

(30:38):
you didn't get everything answered, maybe something comes up in between.
So that will be a strong recommendation for me, is
before you allow it to be put in you need
to ask those questions that you have, you know, write
them down so that you don't forget. And you're right,
it's a little tense when you interacting with healthcare professionals.

(31:00):
There's this pressure to get through the visit and you
forget things, and doctors sometimes forget things to ask you
certain things and prioritize certain things. So we need sometimes
your help too to help us do our part. So
I would certainly recommend you do that before you get
it put in. Number two, My experience with the implanet

(31:23):
devices is pretty good, meaning most patients who get them
put in these event monitors. I don't really hear any
problems with them as it pertains to it getting put
in and then them being removed. I don't really hear
a lot of problems. Most of my patients do fairly
well with those devices. Certainly, they can get infected, they

(31:47):
can bleed, they can get out of position. We hear
that periodically, but it's really not that common in my opinion,
So I think they've gotten to a point where the
risk of an adverse rack or our complication is super low.
But we can never say zero. And again that's what
informed consent is all about okay.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
Michael, okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
All right, brother, you have a good day, and it
brings up a great topic and we'll kind of touch
out of the next segment. Phone lines that open eight
nine to six SCALEVY, I want one hundred and three
to three zero kov. I'll be back in two minutes.

(32:41):
All right, welcome back to doctah metac got Our phone
lines are open eight nine six kV I want one
hundred three three zero ko Yi. Yeah, that last phone
call brought up some interesting topics and that is the
idea of getting what we call informed consent, meaning that
you are informed and you agree are consent to and

(33:05):
typically this involves procedures, are surgeries. You go to your
medical doct like myself. We're not really doing a procedure
every day. We're not doing a surgery, but we are
prescribing medicines to you, and in essence, you are consenting
to taking this pill, this prescription medication, not that you're

(33:30):
sort of signing a piece of paper saying that it
was explained to you that you understand, because that's what
a lot of times, if you have a procedure like
a gallbladder move or hernia repair you sign this separate
piece of paper saying that this procedure was explained to you,
you understand the risks and the benefits, and I agree

(33:54):
to it, and you sign your name. But you know,
going to your healthcare provider and your blood pressures up
and they give you a blood pressure medicine or they
adjust your blood pressure medicine, and you take it to
the pharmacy and then you take them. You're basically consenting
to receive that medical decision of medical therapeutics, but you're

(34:18):
not necessarily in signing any separate piece of paper. But
that's what they do for things like watchmen devices and
procedures like our caller is going to have where he's
having this, Well maybe he might not, but certainly that's
the plan to get this event monitor, which again is

(34:38):
this cardiac device that sort of is fitted underneath your
skin and it basically monitors your heart at all times.
And a lot of times we use that for patients
you're having palpitations or they're passing out, or their heart
is beating too slow or it's beating too fast, and

(34:58):
we're just trying to get information a lot of times
for the heart doctor to make decisions about the plan
of care, whether or not they want to treat it
with medications, or they want to give you a pacemaker
or whatever they'd like to do. You have to sign
this piece of paper. And it's an extremely important aspect
of health care delivery now as it was in the past,

(35:23):
again the golden era, the golden age of doctoring, as
they say, you know, when doctors really were sort of
in control of most of healthcare delivery. As it is now,
we're just part of this big, massive operation and we
have more people that have their hands on the patients.

(35:47):
And in terms of what happens with the patients, it's
not just the doctor anymore. There's a lot of players
on the field now, whereas even and this is before me,
where doctors were really alone. They're by themselves. They pretty
much dictated a lot of what happened to the patients.
Not like that anymore and never will be. And it's

(36:08):
not necessarily a bad thing, okay. A lot of these
things that have happened are good for the patient, good
for the country, and it's just an involvement of being
a doctor and getting involved with our system of healthcare delivery.
But one important concept has been the safety of medical

(36:28):
care and medical delivery, because as we all know, these
things can cause harm, and that is one important concept
that we are taught in our medical training. We take
an oath before we are given our diplomas that the
first thing is to do no harm, and that really
is everyone's focus every single day, every single decision. But

(36:52):
unfortunately we just can't control that grimlin world out there
where things can happen to you are happened when you
take a medication, Chris, are you there, no? So informed
consent is a very very important point, and if you
are getting a procedure done, you really want to make

(37:14):
sure you understand everything, you have all your questions answered.
If you're not getting that done, do not consent to
the procedure unless you are extremely comfortable and you completely agree,
because once it's done, it's done. And that's what the
whole idea is. To take a pause. You sign this paper,

(37:37):
your provider explained it to you, you get it, and
you're ready to go, and things can happen in between
those conversations, and if you're still uncomfortable before you go
through with it, you take a pause. Hey, I have
more questions and your practitioners should answer those questions for
you politely. If you get any sort of kickback or

(38:03):
any sort of tension from that provider or they still
short with you, I would be concerned. Chris from brid City, Hello, Yes, sir, Hey,
how can we help you real quick?

Speaker 3 (38:17):
All right? I go to my doctor twice a year,
and out of the blue blood test normally, but out
of the blue, he checked my ferretin and every time
he's checked my ferretine it's been between above five hundred
and above six hundred. Now, I haven't been tested to
be genetically predisposed, but I do have a lot of authoritis.

(38:40):
From what I can tell, that might be the reason.
But he hadn't been very concerned about it. I'm just
wondering what you think about that?

Speaker 1 (38:49):
All right, Chris, I'm going to hang it up. I'm
going to answer that questions at that end of the show.
We're going to go on the last break, and I'll
answer that question when we come back in two minutes.

(39:12):
All right, welcome back to act with me, Medica. A
man of time goes by so fast. Things for all
the calls ferretin f e r r f E r
f E r R I T E, and I believe
R T I N. That's what it is. Is a
blood test that we sometimes order to determine if someone
has certain diseases, primarily a disease called hemochromatosis where you

(39:36):
accumulate abnormal levels of iron in your blood system and
it gets into the soft tissue and other vital organs.
And we also order ferratin to determine when someone has
a low blood count or anemia if it's related to
iron deficients anemia, as ferratin can be up or down

(39:56):
in that particular situation. Some doc doctors look at it
as sort of an inflammatory marker, meaning when you're more inflame,
the ferytine level is higher. And again it's just some
information that doctors use to make decisions about certain diseases,
just to order the ferretin when no one is having

(40:18):
any symptoms, and I think is a bit misleading because
it can bounce up and down again as your body
is more inflame less inflame. Doesn't necessarily mean you have
a disease, So it just sort of depends on what
the doctor is doing to use it. Sounds like this
doctor is not really using it for anything specific and
I just wouldn't be too concerned about it at this point,

(40:39):
especially if your symptoms are controlled. Have a good weekend,
don't drink a drive, and yes, eat some vegetables. We'll
see you next week.