September 10, 2024 • 38 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. Andrew Tritter about vocal health.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This show is all about you, only the good die.
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on
your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by the UT Health Houston
Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life
(00:42):
and Bronze roofing repair or replacement. Bronze roofing has you covered?
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right, two day edition of the program starts right now.
Thank you all for letting Will and me join you
during your lunch hour, or your drive across town, your
ride to the doctor's office, whatever you're doing right now
that allows us to join you and hopefully entertain and
inform and otherwise amuse you. Thanks a lot. I do
(01:16):
appreciate that broadcasting. We are this Tuesday afternoon from about
what are we about halfway up our building over here
on the west Loop.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Will?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
How many floors in this building? I think that there's
eighteen eighteen about right, So we're almost halfway and overlooking well,
overlooking each other really from this studio. It has no windows,
it does have two monitors. Oh look at you. You
got the clock up. Way to go, will So first
out is fourteen thirteen thirteen. Okay, so I've got some
(01:49):
time here. The clouds are pushing on shore. Extreme outer
bands generated by Francine as she takes aim at the
Louisiana coast for landfall. Sometimes I'm tomorrow evening looking like
it'll hit the Mississippi River right in the mouth. Basically
tough right ahead for my friends over that way. Uh,
(02:11):
no time, like the President, I guess. Will for highs
and lows in highku courtesy of Texas Into Air Quality Specialists,
because cleaner air is healthier air. Just doll pound two
fifty say healthy air and get your get your duct
work all cleaned up so that you breathe cleaner air.
It lasts for years to what they do. It's it's impressive,
it really is. Okay, will you ready for today's highs
(02:32):
and lows and high kup? Yes here we go, audios, friends,
seene be kind to our Cajun friends. We were truly blessed.
I couldn't agree more so ten. No, I don't better.
I don't think I'll ever give you a ten. Oh God, yeah,
(02:54):
I guess I would just quit then.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, give Troy, I'll give that one. I'll give that
one an eight point two.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Eight point two, y's all, yeah, wow, Okay, I had
higher hopes for that one. But I'll just I'll press on.
I'll keep trying. I'll find someday I'll find something that
really triggers your your senses and and makes sense to you.
Perhaps I'm going over your head. I'm not sure. Okay,
(03:30):
maybe that's it. We'll see how that works, whether i'm tomorrow.
I don't know whether I'm aiming too high or too low.
It's hard to tell off the market we go now
courtesy of Houston Gold Exchange dot com indicators mixed, as
they have been for quite some time, but not much
movement in either direction. Oil earlier was down more than
two dollars a barrel, hanging around about sixty six dollars
(03:53):
just a little after ten. It was trying to creep
back up by a nickel or a dime when I
checked once more. I haven't looked since then, but it's
still in a better place than it has been. That's
down more than ten more than twelve dollars actually from
where it was just a couple of three weeks ago,
and gold golds up five bucks it was last I
(04:17):
looked twenty five hundred and thirty eight dollars an ounce.
I am really missing an opportunity here to sell the
even if you've only got think about this way, if
you've got a couple of old things around that you
haven't worn in years and you probably never will again.
Even if you only have a quarter ounce of gold
that's worth more than six hundred dollars, that'll get a
(04:40):
week's worth of groceries. I'm talking about real money windfall
like that for a quarter ounce of gold. That's pretty remarkable. Really,
if only I had the same amount of gold as
I do in fishing weights, then I would be in
great shape. So the big story of today is actually
one and that begins tonight when President Trump and vice
(05:03):
President I'm calling her a v Pino now that is
a vice president in name only because she's not doing
anything as vice president. The two of them square off
in debate in a lopsided venue actually moderated by far
left leaning moderators ABC. Really, I'm curious to see, well,
(05:28):
I'm curious to see if ABC is available tonight on
my television because of the ongoing feud between Disney ABC
and AT and T and Direct TV. I'm curious to
see it. Well, I'll watch it. I have another TV
that I can get an old school signal on, and
I might have to watch the debate there, or maybe
(05:49):
just listen to it on KTRH that's available as well. Anyway,
I'm kind of curious to see if they play it
down the middle to not be just overwhelmingly against one's
meaning Trump, or whether they just go full on all
in for their golden girl, Kamala Harris. ABC's recent record
of mentions for both candidates, by the way, as studied
(06:12):
by I can't remember exactly which group it was, but
it's it's a group that just monitors mentions of these
two candidates as we press forward to the election, and
in a very short recent period on ABC News they
found one hundred percent positive mentions of Harris and ninety
(06:35):
percent negative mentions of President Trump. Oh yeah, they'll they'll
play fair tonight, I said, sarcastically. I'm not gonna linger here.
Though I keep thinking back to that quote from a
few weeks ago, written I don't know, one hundred years
ago or whenever it was by some communist or Marxist
or whatever who said, and I'll paraphrase again, if you
want to fool a whole big bunch of people all
(06:58):
at once, accuse your of pone of doing exactly what
you're doing. And that's kind of what they're doing. That's
exactly what they're doing now. And by the way, the
spending bill that I really hope makes it to Congress
and has to be voted on somehow, the one that
would keep our government running as this looming deadline comes
(07:19):
closer of a government shutdown, the one that was proposed
by Republicans adds a clause that would prevent non citizens
from voting, and then November election. If Democrats oppose that bill,
I'll be really curious to hear why they think it's
a bad idea. But if they do, if they stick
(07:44):
to their guns and vote that down, then you know
everything you need to know about how badly they want
to win this election, into what links they'll go to
make that happen. If they if they turn that down,
and if they don't make it illegal for non citizens
to vote in our presidential election. That tells you everything
(08:06):
you need to know in free speech news. By the way,
I'll remind you that as far back as twenty nineteen,
Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that social media
companies and I'll quote here are directly speaking to millions
and millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation,
and it has to stop. And quote I'll come back
(08:28):
to that a little later. Will says We've got to
go to a break, and I'll tell you why I
brought that up when we get back actually in the
bottom of the hour, because I have a beautiful, wonderful
segment coming up with doctor Andrew Tritterer about voices, and
that's really important to me. Don't let age sneak up
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thirty eight eighty eight. Yeah, they sure don't make them
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Speaker 1 (10:22):
That's why every few months we wash them, check us fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Welcome back segment two of fifty plus this Tuesday, with
some cloud cover coming in. It's cool outside. Good day
to live where we live too, and I feel badly
for my friends in Louisiana, but I'm glad we didn't
have to deal with this one. Thanks for sharing your
lunch hour with Will and me. We'll talk in this
(10:57):
segment about something of great significance actually to me, and
that should be of at least moderate significance to us all,
and that's our voices. And to explain why we're talking
about that, I'll bring in doctor Andrew Tritter, Assistant Professor
in the Department of odo Rhinolaryngology at ut Health and
director of the department's Texas Voice Performance Institute. Welcome aboard doctor,
(11:22):
how's it going?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Get it be back?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You know? Yeah? Likewise, I'm glad to have you back.
It's always interesting to talk about voices for somebody who
uses his as a tool. And to start, let's just
go kind of back to square one with a brief
tour of the body parts that determine how our voices sound.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Absolutely so, basically, your voice comes from the voice box,
which we all kind of know as our Adams apple
in our throat. But behind that is a little valve
of a structure that has two flaps called your vocal cords.
Your vocal cords come together and they vibrate when you
breed out, and that vibration is what creates sound. But
we use our lungs as a power source to give
(12:02):
us air to make those vibrate, and then we use
our mouth and our throat, our lips, teeth, tongue, all
of that to shape the sound as it comes out
and form that into the words that we know is speech.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Seems so very difficult to make a word when you
explain it that way, we just get used to it.
I guess let's talk now about how and why our
voices changed. Puberty comes to mind, obviously, as a kind
of defining moment in our lives. What's happening then.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
So in puberty, what happens is, at least for boys,
especially the vocal cords are they're lengthening a little bit,
they're becoming thicker, and essentially they're getting deeper in pitch.
So going from that more prepubescent almost sounding like a
female sound, to the deeper male sound that we associate
with traditional male voices. But obviously, as we've all heard,
(12:50):
it can be a quick transition. It can make it
a little hard for boys to navigate that, so they
get cracks and breaks and they sound a little that time.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And moving into adulthood and seniority, are there normal changes
in our bodies that impact our voices.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Absolutely, and it hits some people a little bit more
than others. So the main one that happens, and this
kind of happens to our entire bodies, but we lose
a little bit of muscle mass as we get older.
Our muscles aren't wrong as they used to be, and
the vocal cords are pretty much made of muscle, at
least on the underside, and you know, if you lose
a little muscle mass there they become thinner, and it
makes it harder for them to come together quite as
easily as they once did. So that combined with just
(13:28):
some other changes to the tissue in that area, things
becoming less flexible, less pliable, it makes them not really
vibrate quite as well as they might have otherwise done.
So it can make the voice a little bit breathy,
a little bit weaker than it used to be.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Is that what essentially creates and I had this a
little farther down in my notes, but while we're here,
is that what creates that sort of a talking like
this as somebody gets really old.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Absolutely, that's exactly what that is.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, So it's just weakened muscles and an inability to
really kind of slap those two sides to Yeah, they're
to make a strong, hard sound, right, that's exactly Okay, Well,
I got one right, that's good. And what about trauma
to the layer? What about trauma to the voice box?
How well will that typically heal?
Speaker 4 (14:14):
It's a well, it's kind of a challenging question because
there's so many different things that can happen to our
voice boxes. I mean, people who wind up in the hospital,
they get intubated, for procedures or because they're too ill
to breathe on their own. Those loops can cause damage sometimes,
and most of the time that's something people bounce back
from easily, but occasionally there's some lingering damage and trauma
that we have to work to fix over time. Sometimes
(14:35):
the vocal cords can be injured in the form of
surgeries and other parts of the body. Actually, so the
nerve that moves our vocal cord back and forth on
each side is actually kind of interesting in that it
starts in our brain, goes all the way down to
our chest, and then wraps back up and heads up
towards our voice box in our neck, so kind of
loops around your aorta in your chest right by your heart.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
So, if you have any procedure in your heart where
that nerve is, or other surgeries in your neck along
the course of that nerve that damage it, you can
essentially paralyze your vocal cords, and there are things we
can do to fix that. But sometimes it does come
back on its own too. You just kind of have
to assess it on a case by case basis.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Good guy, good thing, you guys figured that out right.
Only indeed, what about environmental changes, like maybe working in
a smokey or dusty atmosphere and environment Does that make
a difference.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
For sure, things like smoke chemicals in the air, smoke
in the air that can certainly irritate the throat and
not just the vocal cords, but the entire lining of
our windpipe, of our lungs and make things a little
bit more challenging.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Just in general, what can you correct? How long does
it take for that, say mine or damage from smoke
or chemicals something like that. How long does it take
for that to go away? Or does it depends?
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Yeah, for sure, it certainly depends on how long it
had been there in the first place. I think for
most people, if you're just kind of incidentally exposed to
something every now and then getting away from it, you'll
probably be fine in a couple of days. But for
some people, especially people who have been smoking for many,
many years, it may take probably a couple months before
they start to notice things turning around.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Doctor Andrew Trider on fifty plus, backing up a step, Doc,
are there exercises we can do to maintain strong, healthy
voices as we get older?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
I think there's definitely a few things that most people
can do. Obviously, it depends on the extent to which
you're using your voice, so you doug for example, obviously
you ask a lot of your voice on a regular basis.
Warming up your voice before you know you're going to
have to use it for an extended period of time
or at a volume higher than usual might help. So
warming up by basically just trying to softly start speaking
(16:38):
and gradually increasing in intensity so that you're not pushing
it too hard right out of the gate. There is
actually interesting exercise that most anybody can do using something
pretty much everyone has at home. If you grab a
cup full of water and you grab a straw from
the drawer, basically just put that straw in the cup
of water and essentially make an ooh sound into the straw,
kind of like you're blowing bubbles with that draw and
(17:01):
essentially that creates a little bit of resistance in your
mouth and helps provide a little back pressure against your
your vocal cords. It helps you to work on your
breast support, which is super important for making sure your
voice is supported and comes out loud and clear. It
also helps with just making sure your vocal cords are
vibrating clearly and giving you a nice, well rounded sound.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I'm kind of I'm gonna look kind of silly in
the office now. From right before I go on the
are what are you? What are your thoughts? And we've
only got about a minute. What are your thoughts on
sprays and oils and stuff that are designed to sue
the strained throat or voice like I might use from
time to time.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
In general, most of those aren't too bad. I think
the most important thing that anyone can do is drink
lots and lots of water. Think of your vocal cords
essentially like the reads of a saxophone or something like that.
If you've ever seen someone play them, they have to
lick the read before they play. It's not going to
vibrate well if they don't. Basically, your vocal cords are
just like reads. If they're not well hydrated, they're not
going to vibrate well. They're not going to sound good.
So hydration is the most important thing. Avoiding the smoke
(17:58):
and all the other stuff you mentioned before that's also
very helpful. But those certain those oils and sprays and things,
they're likely not gonna hurt. And if you find them
to be helpful. They're generally okay.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Sounds good to me. They're not too bad. Is all
the endorsement I need to know to probably not rely
on those things nearly as much as I will with
that straw in the water. Doctor Andrew Tritterer, thank you
so very much. Appreciate your time. You be back here
all right, we got to take a little break here.
Braun's Roofing has been in business for more than thirty
(18:30):
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(18:50):
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(19:36):
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eight zero ninety nine hundred. What's life without a nap?
(20:19):
I suggest you go to bed, sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Just wait until the show's over, sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
This shows I want to take care of my voice. Well,
I gotta drink more water.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
On my way to a healthy voice. Lo lo lo
lo lo lo. All right, back to that free speech
speaking of I mentioned in the first segment that quote
from Kamala Harris that's really disturbing. She talked back in
twenty nineteen, said in a CNN interview that social media
companies and I'll read the quote again, are directly speaking
(21:02):
to millions and millions of people without any level of
oversight or regulation, and it has to stop. End quote.
As noted by David Harsanyi this morning and maybe yesterday
at an opinion piece for The New York Post, social
media sites aren't speaking directly to anyone. What they're doing
(21:26):
is allowing the free exchange of information between people who
then get to decide for themselves what's right and what's wrong.
And that scares the heck out of the left. So
what they do is try to censor opposing opinions by
calling anything outside their narrative misinformation. They can't stand the
(21:51):
idea of unedited, unsupervised talk between random people because they
just might convince somebody m that they're wrong. Brazil just
bandecks on the same grounds. They shut down the entire app,
bandit from the whole country to make sure Brazilians don't
(22:11):
hear what its government decides they shouldn't hear. Harris has
the same plans, exact same plans for us. Mark my words,
if she somehow manages to get an office, mark my words.
All right, Moving back to the lighter side of the news,
I found a story this morning about Charles Barkley making
good on a promise to donate a million dollars to
(22:35):
a school called Saint Mary's Academy in New Orleans. Two
teenagers there did something that he wasn't sure could be done.
Calcia Johnson and Nikia Jackson were told that if they
could explain the Pythagorean theorem that'll take you back to
high school math, won't it without using circular logic, he
(22:58):
would make that donation, and circular logic is using the
theorem to support the theorem in a nutshell, you have
to do it. He charged them with explaining the Pythagorean
theorem without mentioning it by name, and they were able
to do that. And so Barkley is gonna make good
(23:19):
on that promise to the tune of one hundred grand
a year for ten years, which he won't miss. And
I bet he might even donate more before it's all
said and done. He is a pretty good guy all around.
He's a little goofy sometimes and a horrible golfer. Actually
he's gotten better, but nonetheless he To give you an
(23:39):
idea of the character of this guy, he had an
opportunity to take down a nice, hefty seven figure deal
to jump Networks as his contract runs out where he
is now, and rather than take that money and run,
which would have made him wealthier than he is, I'm
sure he's got more than he needs. But instead of
(24:01):
worrying about himself, he was concerned with the staff that
would have been left holding essentially an empty sack and
likely would have been sacked most of themselves. So he said,
you know what, I'm gonna stay here. We're gonna finish this.
We're gonna finish this run together and kept that whole
production staff employed. That's off to him. Huh, that's off
(24:24):
to him. Uh. Well, let's light it up for just
a second. What do we got we're going to where here?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Forty three?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Oh forty three? We got four minutes? Excellent? Here we go.
Will that's a beauty, also known as useless information or
pay attention or cheddar Bay cheddar bag. You know what?
You know? It's got to involve what will Red Lobster.
(24:53):
This it does. Red Lobster is leveraging election season, It
says here to announce their cheddar Bay biscuits are running
for office to unite all parties, at least for dinner.
They got this promotion where if you go to a
Red Lobster and scan a QR code, you are entering
a chance to win four years of free Red Lobster dinners,
(25:19):
to which attendees from the Democratic National Convention a while
back collectively sighed and said, we could nominate those biscuits instead,
And nobody told us I think that might have been
a better choice, honestly, but that's just me. Uh, one
more for you, will and then we'll move on back
(25:40):
to my stuff, troubling undertone, I can't cure that, or
yeah that's me, Yeah it's me. Dang, that was not
the one I wanted you to use, but I'll acknowledge
your selection. Four out of five American travelers fine with
the use of biometrics facing fingerprint scans at airport security.
(26:01):
They're okay with that, but with one little asterisk, so
long as it gets them through the line faster. Whatever
it takes to move those lines along and not have
us get anxious when we walk in and see that
snaking line all over the airport and know that it's
gonna take twenty minutes to get through there. Whatever it takes,
(26:22):
I'm okay with that, so long as it moves the line.
I'm gonna go back to troubling undertone because I have
a question for you. When I get to the end
of this Walmart it says here is selling a S'mores
themed costume, a chocolate marshmallow, and a Graham cracker, basically
what you're gonna look like, and it is said to
be an acknowledgment of Thrupples. You ever heard that term?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Whell? Yes?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Is it what I think it is?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It's three people in a relationship, and that's called a thrupple,
a thruple.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Would you consider that?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I don't think that I want to be enough thropole,
but it works for some people.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, I'm kind of with you. That's just it's hard
enough to please one other person in a relationship, you know,
it really is, and it takes a lot of work,
and I think if you add an entire other person,
that just totally changes the dynamic. I'm more power to
somebody who can pull that off. But I no, I
(27:27):
have no, absolutely no interest in that. Let's move back
to the news and let me see where I want
to go with this. Disney No, what have I got? Oh,
I've only got a minute. I only got a minute.
I'm gonna take it easy. I'm gonna come back over here. California.
There's always something from from there. The state actually passed
a bill. I think I talked about this yesterday that
(27:48):
bans voter ID laws. Maybe I didn't. I don't think
I did. I guess that just goes along with their
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars no interest home loans
for illegal immigrants. That's also a thing in California, not
for veterans, not for homeless Americans, illegal immigrants. And oh yeah,
there's a school district in that state. Now that's okayed,
(28:11):
Teaching anti Semitism in school probably not a good idea
there as well. All right, with fifteen seconds left, I'll
go ahead and really throw a curve to Will and
get started early. UT Health Institute on Aging is, as
I've told you before, that amazing collaborative of hundreds, if
(28:32):
not a thousand or more providers around Houston who all
have gotten additional education beyond what they studied in medical
school or therapy school or whatever, so that they understand
how what they know already can be applied specifically to
seniors that is us. And the more specific care we
(28:56):
can get to our bodies and our minds, I say,
the better, and so does UT Health Institute on Aging.
Go to their website, take a look at all the
resources they provide right there. No charge, no charge at all.
You just go look through there, just thumb through, find
something you like, find something you need, Maybe do a
search for what you're looking for, and it'll pop right
(29:16):
up in multiple places, multiple options. UT Health Institute on Aging.
It's there for us all of those providers all around town,
mostly in the medical center, but even those doctors and
other caregivers tend to be outside in outlying areas in
hospitals and clinics parts of the week as well. Uth
(29:37):
dot edu slash Aging uth dot edu slash aging Aged
to Perfection.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
This is fifty plus with Dougpike well already.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
In the great city of Houston, in and around and elsewhere.
I do have it's amazing sometimes And will you've shared
with me some of the bizarre places that you found
listeners on the podcast to this show? How many countries
is it now? I don't know rough.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I'd have to get an updated list.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Can you do that before the end of the show.
That'd be pretty awesome. Yeah, I'm kind of curious. And
even one, even one counts because they either listened or
they didn't. And if they show up that means they
at least took the trouble to talk to tune in right?
How long? How long do they have to listen before
(30:43):
it counts? Like fifteen minutes something like that, or just
a click? Yeah, I don't know, just a quick click,
you know what, I'm not going to qualify it. I
don't care if they found us. Of course, it's probably
some scammer trying to tell me they're in love with me.
Some dudes sitting in a lawn chair halfway around the world, typing, Oh,
(31:07):
I can't wait to meet you. Like, No, don't ever
fall for any of that, anybody who I feel sorry for.
I don't blame the victims of scams, but instead would
just caution them to share their stories because I'm not
gonna judge them. I could any of us under the
(31:28):
right circumstances. And that's what they usually do is prey
on people who are vulnerable. And vulnerability can take the
form of someone who's recently widowed, who someone who's recently
lost something precious to them, like a job, even, and
you catch the right person at the right moment, and
they'll slip, they'll let their guard down, kind of like
(31:50):
when I almost stepped on a cotton mouth a couple
of weeks ago at the golf course when I wasn't
paying attention to where I was walking. You slip up
like that, you drop your guard, and somebody in these
cases takes full advantage of that and just built you
for all your money. I feel horrible for those people.
But the only the only thing I would encourage them
(32:12):
to do, other than not blame themselves, is share that
story so that somebody else might not fall into the
same trap. Because they are traps, and they're they're despicable.
It's just horrible, all right in all right? Oh, you
already have it? How many countries?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Twenty fond?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
No kidding?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Twenty five?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Print that out for me, will you for real? Money?
Or we are? Does it say how many are on there? Yeah?
I will eliminate that column. You can just take that
one off. How many are just one? How many get
the twenty five? Or just one? Twenty four? No? Oh,
thank goodness?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
More on.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Eleven?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Okay, well that's not bad.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
And then a bunch of two. Two's our tip months,
our top three?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Are you ready I'm hoping I'm presuming the United States
of America.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
We'll start with number three, okay, okay, in third place
with thirteen downloads this month?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Wow, Taiwan? Oh come on for real? Yes, I don't
know how to take that. You think they're watching us? Well,
I don't know. I think they're keeping it. Okay, number
taking place?
Speaker 3 (33:28):
How many twenty one downloads?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
This seems almost legit, but I'm scared to ask what
country it is?
Speaker 3 (33:34):
India and then with a wop in over a thousand
downloads this month, Canada, the United States of America. Canada
is in fourth place. Really with nine downs.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
I see, I would I would consider those, just off
the top of my head, more legit than Taiwan or India.
I got a hunch the those two are nefarious listeners mine. Yeah,
just you know, they're looking for some way to exploit
my listeners, and I don't want to know by taking
advantage of them by maybe sending emails out saying hey,
(34:14):
in case you were listening to fifty plus today, Doug
talked about such and such for just nineteen ninety five,
like two thousand dollars a year, we can keep you
from getting whatever that is, or we can send you
a product that will cure that or whatever. I think
those would be scammers. I'm fairly confident that I don't
(34:36):
have Well, it could be who knows.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Did you also know that we are at seven hundred
listenable episodes of fifty.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Plusous that's nice, Like, I'm glad to hear that that
just and I'm glad you're sharing that with the audience,
because somewhere among those seven hundred, even if you haven't
heard as a listener, a discussion of something that is
relevant to you health wise especially, or entertainment wise, or
(35:06):
travel wise or whatever, somewhere in those seven hundred is
what you're looking for. I'd almost bet on it. There
are very few conditions or diseases that we haven't talked
about on this show up to an including pretty much
all of them. From our hair down to the toenails.
We've talked about it. We've talked about it all, and
(35:29):
I'm quite proud of that, Actually, I really am. I
feel like that I'm a voice that represents that represents
this age group. And by this age group, I'm talking
not only about fifty plus, which goes to the end
however wherever that in comes, but it also pulls back
(35:52):
inside of fifty to about thirty five. And those are
the children of older parents who are in the same
boat I was in several years ago as my mother's
health began to fail, and it was very clear that
she was gonna need different things, in different help and
different avenues to get her to the end of her
(36:14):
journey on this earth. And there just really wasn't much available,
but thanks to this platform I've been given by iHeart
thanks to the generous support of ut Hell's Consortium on
It or the Institute on Aging excuse me. It was
originally called the Consortium on Aging and has been changed since,
(36:35):
but the mission remains the same. I've been able to
get with experts on every medical field you can imagine.
If there's something you haven't heard me talk about, I
would be happy to do that. Just shoot me an email.
It's very simple, Dougpike at iHeartMedia dot com. Just send
me an email and say, hey, I would love for
(36:55):
you to get a discussion of XYZ going on. In fact,
I've got and I need to follow up on that.
I sent over to the young Man's who's finding experts
for me and see if he's found one yet on
a topic I got from a listener not that long ago.
That's good information, Will, that's good information, man. I really
appreciate you finding all that. This is the kind of
(37:18):
research that you could do all the time for me.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
If you want to know how how most people listen
to the show.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Audibly? Yes, audibly through their auditory Oregan.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
But most people listen to the show via their phones. Really, yes,
that is ninety percent of the audience listens via the phone.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
And yet they could listen at home through their in
home speaker. But how I guess to get to a
specific episode. It would be difficult that way, though, wouldn't it. Yeah, yeah,
I think you would play.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
You would say, play the latest of fifty p Yeah,
play the current whatever. Well, we got twenty seconds, Doug,
what do you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Let me see if I can find something I can
do in twenty seconds. Globally, forty five percent of doctors
have suffered sexual harassment from patients. I don't. Yeah, that's
that's wrong. Anywhere it happens, and I feel badly for
those doctors because they're just trying to make people feel better.
Oh well, we'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening. Audios
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this? Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today?
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
This show is all about you, only the good die.
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Helpful information on
your finances, good health, and what to do for fun.
Fifty plus brought to you by the UT Health Houston
Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life
(00:42):
and Bronze roofing repair or replacement. Bronze roofing has you covered?
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
All right, two day edition of the program starts right now.
Thank you all for letting Will and me join you
during your lunch hour, or your drive across town, your
ride to the doctor's office, whatever you're doing right now
that allows us to join you and hopefully entertain and
inform and otherwise amuse you. Thanks a lot. I do
(01:16):
appreciate that broadcasting. We are this Tuesday afternoon from about
what are we about halfway up our building over here
on the west Loop.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Will?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
How many floors in this building? I think that there's
eighteen eighteen about right, So we're almost halfway and overlooking well,
overlooking each other really from this studio. It has no windows,
it does have two monitors. Oh look at you. You
got the clock up. Way to go, will So first
out is fourteen thirteen thirteen. Okay, so I've got some
(01:49):
time here. The clouds are pushing on shore. Extreme outer
bands generated by Francine as she takes aim at the
Louisiana coast for landfall. Sometimes I'm tomorrow evening looking like
it'll hit the Mississippi River right in the mouth. Basically
tough right ahead for my friends over that way. Uh,
(02:11):
no time, like the President, I guess. Will for highs
and lows in highku courtesy of Texas Into Air Quality Specialists,
because cleaner air is healthier air. Just doll pound two
fifty say healthy air and get your get your duct
work all cleaned up so that you breathe cleaner air.
It lasts for years to what they do. It's it's impressive,
it really is. Okay, will you ready for today's highs
(02:32):
and lows and high kup? Yes here we go, audios, friends,
seene be kind to our Cajun friends. We were truly blessed.
I couldn't agree more so ten. No, I don't better.
I don't think I'll ever give you a ten. Oh God, yeah,
(02:54):
I guess I would just quit then.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Yeah, give Troy, I'll give that one. I'll give that
one an eight point two.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Eight point two, y's all, yeah, wow, Okay, I had
higher hopes for that one. But I'll just I'll press on.
I'll keep trying. I'll find someday I'll find something that
really triggers your your senses and and makes sense to you.
Perhaps I'm going over your head. I'm not sure. Okay,
(03:30):
maybe that's it. We'll see how that works, whether i'm tomorrow.
I don't know whether I'm aiming too high or too low.
It's hard to tell off the market we go now
courtesy of Houston Gold Exchange dot com indicators mixed, as
they have been for quite some time, but not much
movement in either direction. Oil earlier was down more than
two dollars a barrel, hanging around about sixty six dollars
(03:53):
just a little after ten. It was trying to creep
back up by a nickel or a dime when I
checked once more. I haven't looked since then, but it's
still in a better place than it has been. That's
down more than ten more than twelve dollars actually from
where it was just a couple of three weeks ago,
and gold golds up five bucks it was last I
(04:17):
looked twenty five hundred and thirty eight dollars an ounce.
I am really missing an opportunity here to sell the
even if you've only got think about this way, if
you've got a couple of old things around that you
haven't worn in years and you probably never will again.
Even if you only have a quarter ounce of gold
that's worth more than six hundred dollars, that'll get a
(04:40):
week's worth of groceries. I'm talking about real money windfall
like that for a quarter ounce of gold. That's pretty remarkable. Really,
if only I had the same amount of gold as
I do in fishing weights, then I would be in
great shape. So the big story of today is actually
one and that begins tonight when President Trump and vice
(05:03):
President I'm calling her a v Pino now that is
a vice president in name only because she's not doing
anything as vice president. The two of them square off
in debate in a lopsided venue actually moderated by far
left leaning moderators ABC. Really, I'm curious to see, well,
(05:28):
I'm curious to see if ABC is available tonight on
my television because of the ongoing feud between Disney ABC
and AT and T and Direct TV. I'm curious to
see it. Well, I'll watch it. I have another TV
that I can get an old school signal on, and
I might have to watch the debate there, or maybe
(05:49):
just listen to it on KTRH that's available as well. Anyway,
I'm kind of curious to see if they play it
down the middle to not be just overwhelmingly against one's
meaning Trump, or whether they just go full on all
in for their golden girl, Kamala Harris. ABC's recent record
of mentions for both candidates, by the way, as studied
(06:12):
by I can't remember exactly which group it was, but
it's it's a group that just monitors mentions of these
two candidates as we press forward to the election, and
in a very short recent period on ABC News they
found one hundred percent positive mentions of Harris and ninety
(06:35):
percent negative mentions of President Trump. Oh yeah, they'll they'll
play fair tonight, I said, sarcastically. I'm not gonna linger here.
Though I keep thinking back to that quote from a
few weeks ago, written I don't know, one hundred years
ago or whenever it was by some communist or Marxist
or whatever who said, and I'll paraphrase again, if you
want to fool a whole big bunch of people all
(06:58):
at once, accuse your of pone of doing exactly what
you're doing. And that's kind of what they're doing. That's
exactly what they're doing now. And by the way, the
spending bill that I really hope makes it to Congress
and has to be voted on somehow, the one that
would keep our government running as this looming deadline comes
(07:19):
closer of a government shutdown, the one that was proposed
by Republicans adds a clause that would prevent non citizens
from voting, and then November election. If Democrats oppose that bill,
I'll be really curious to hear why they think it's
a bad idea. But if they do, if they stick
(07:44):
to their guns and vote that down, then you know
everything you need to know about how badly they want
to win this election, into what links they'll go to
make that happen. If they if they turn that down,
and if they don't make it illegal for non citizens
to vote in our presidential election. That tells you everything
(08:06):
you need to know in free speech news. By the way,
I'll remind you that as far back as twenty nineteen,
Kamala Harris said in a CNN interview that social media
companies and I'll quote here are directly speaking to millions
and millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation,
and it has to stop. And quote I'll come back
(08:28):
to that a little later. Will says We've got to
go to a break, and I'll tell you why I
brought that up when we get back actually in the
bottom of the hour, because I have a beautiful, wonderful
segment coming up with doctor Andrew Tritterer about voices, and
that's really important to me. Don't let age sneak up
on you. You need to go to a late health
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You go during the day and you think you're done,
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(09:14):
an issue. At a late health they can fix that
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(09:35):
shrivels it up and with it go all those symptoms.
Same with fibroids for women, same with ugly veins, same
with head pain even in some instances, and most of
what they do A is covered by Medicare and Medicaid,
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(09:57):
you didn't walk in there. With a late health dot come.
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(10:18):
thirty eight eighty eight. Yeah, they sure don't make them
like they used to.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That's why every few months we wash them, check us fluids,
and spring on a fresh coat of wax. This is
fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Welcome back segment two of fifty plus this Tuesday, with
some cloud cover coming in. It's cool outside. Good day
to live where we live too, and I feel badly
for my friends in Louisiana, but I'm glad we didn't
have to deal with this one. Thanks for sharing your
lunch hour with Will and me. We'll talk in this
(10:57):
segment about something of great significance actually to me, and
that should be of at least moderate significance to us all,
and that's our voices. And to explain why we're talking
about that, I'll bring in doctor Andrew Tritter, Assistant Professor
in the Department of odo Rhinolaryngology at ut Health and
director of the department's Texas Voice Performance Institute. Welcome aboard doctor,
(11:22):
how's it going?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Get it be back?
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You know? Yeah? Likewise, I'm glad to have you back.
It's always interesting to talk about voices for somebody who
uses his as a tool. And to start, let's just
go kind of back to square one with a brief
tour of the body parts that determine how our voices sound.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Absolutely so, basically, your voice comes from the voice box,
which we all kind of know as our Adams apple
in our throat. But behind that is a little valve
of a structure that has two flaps called your vocal cords.
Your vocal cords come together and they vibrate when you
breed out, and that vibration is what creates sound. But
we use our lungs as a power source to give
(12:02):
us air to make those vibrate, and then we use
our mouth and our throat, our lips, teeth, tongue, all
of that to shape the sound as it comes out
and form that into the words that we know is speech.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Seems so very difficult to make a word when you
explain it that way, we just get used to it.
I guess let's talk now about how and why our
voices changed. Puberty comes to mind, obviously, as a kind
of defining moment in our lives. What's happening then.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
So in puberty, what happens is, at least for boys,
especially the vocal cords are they're lengthening a little bit,
they're becoming thicker, and essentially they're getting deeper in pitch.
So going from that more prepubescent almost sounding like a
female sound, to the deeper male sound that we associate
with traditional male voices. But obviously, as we've all heard,
(12:50):
it can be a quick transition. It can make it
a little hard for boys to navigate that, so they
get cracks and breaks and they sound a little that time.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And moving into adulthood and seniority, are there normal changes
in our bodies that impact our voices.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Absolutely, and it hits some people a little bit more
than others. So the main one that happens, and this
kind of happens to our entire bodies, but we lose
a little bit of muscle mass as we get older.
Our muscles aren't wrong as they used to be, and
the vocal cords are pretty much made of muscle, at
least on the underside, and you know, if you lose
a little muscle mass there they become thinner, and it
makes it harder for them to come together quite as
easily as they once did. So that combined with just
(13:28):
some other changes to the tissue in that area, things
becoming less flexible, less pliable, it makes them not really
vibrate quite as well as they might have otherwise done.
So it can make the voice a little bit breathy,
a little bit weaker than it used to be.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Is that what essentially creates and I had this a
little farther down in my notes, but while we're here,
is that what creates that sort of a talking like
this as somebody gets really old.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
Absolutely, that's exactly what that is.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, So it's just weakened muscles and an inability to
really kind of slap those two sides to Yeah, they're
to make a strong, hard sound, right, that's exactly Okay, Well,
I got one right, that's good. And what about trauma
to the layer? What about trauma to the voice box?
How well will that typically heal?
Speaker 4 (14:14):
It's a well, it's kind of a challenging question because
there's so many different things that can happen to our
voice boxes. I mean, people who wind up in the hospital,
they get intubated, for procedures or because they're too ill
to breathe on their own. Those loops can cause damage sometimes,
and most of the time that's something people bounce back
from easily, but occasionally there's some lingering damage and trauma
that we have to work to fix over time. Sometimes
(14:35):
the vocal cords can be injured in the form of
surgeries and other parts of the body. Actually, so the
nerve that moves our vocal cord back and forth on
each side is actually kind of interesting in that it
starts in our brain, goes all the way down to
our chest, and then wraps back up and heads up
towards our voice box in our neck, so kind of
loops around your aorta in your chest right by your heart.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
So, if you have any procedure in your heart where
that nerve is, or other surgeries in your neck along
the course of that nerve that damage it, you can
essentially paralyze your vocal cords, and there are things we
can do to fix that. But sometimes it does come
back on its own too. You just kind of have
to assess it on a case by case basis.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Good guy, good thing, you guys figured that out right.
Only indeed, what about environmental changes, like maybe working in
a smokey or dusty atmosphere and environment Does that make
a difference.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
For sure, things like smoke chemicals in the air, smoke
in the air that can certainly irritate the throat and
not just the vocal cords, but the entire lining of
our windpipe, of our lungs and make things a little
bit more challenging.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Just in general, what can you correct? How long does
it take for that, say mine or damage from smoke
or chemicals something like that. How long does it take
for that to go away? Or does it depends?
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Yeah, for sure, it certainly depends on how long it
had been there in the first place. I think for
most people, if you're just kind of incidentally exposed to
something every now and then getting away from it, you'll
probably be fine in a couple of days. But for
some people, especially people who have been smoking for many,
many years, it may take probably a couple months before
they start to notice things turning around.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Doctor Andrew Trider on fifty plus, backing up a step, Doc,
are there exercises we can do to maintain strong, healthy
voices as we get older?
Speaker 4 (16:16):
I think there's definitely a few things that most people
can do. Obviously, it depends on the extent to which
you're using your voice, so you doug for example, obviously
you ask a lot of your voice on a regular basis.
Warming up your voice before you know you're going to
have to use it for an extended period of time
or at a volume higher than usual might help. So
warming up by basically just trying to softly start speaking
(16:38):
and gradually increasing in intensity so that you're not pushing
it too hard right out of the gate. There is
actually interesting exercise that most anybody can do using something
pretty much everyone has at home. If you grab a
cup full of water and you grab a straw from
the drawer, basically just put that straw in the cup
of water and essentially make an ooh sound into the straw,
kind of like you're blowing bubbles with that draw and
(17:01):
essentially that creates a little bit of resistance in your
mouth and helps provide a little back pressure against your
your vocal cords. It helps you to work on your
breast support, which is super important for making sure your
voice is supported and comes out loud and clear. It
also helps with just making sure your vocal cords are
vibrating clearly and giving you a nice, well rounded sound.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I'm kind of I'm gonna look kind of silly in
the office now. From right before I go on the
are what are you? What are your thoughts? And we've
only got about a minute. What are your thoughts on
sprays and oils and stuff that are designed to sue
the strained throat or voice like I might use from
time to time.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
In general, most of those aren't too bad. I think
the most important thing that anyone can do is drink
lots and lots of water. Think of your vocal cords
essentially like the reads of a saxophone or something like that.
If you've ever seen someone play them, they have to
lick the read before they play. It's not going to
vibrate well if they don't. Basically, your vocal cords are
just like reads. If they're not well hydrated, they're not
going to vibrate well. They're not going to sound good.
So hydration is the most important thing. Avoiding the smoke
(17:58):
and all the other stuff you mentioned before that's also
very helpful. But those certain those oils and sprays and things,
they're likely not gonna hurt. And if you find them
to be helpful. They're generally okay.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Sounds good to me. They're not too bad. Is all
the endorsement I need to know to probably not rely
on those things nearly as much as I will with
that straw in the water. Doctor Andrew Tritterer, thank you
so very much. Appreciate your time. You be back here
all right, we got to take a little break here.
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(18:50):
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remember who I told you to call. Just look it
up in your phone. Bronze roofing two eight one four
eight zero ninety nine hundred. What's life without a nap?
(20:19):
I suggest you go to bed, sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Just wait until the show's over, sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
This shows I want to take care of my voice. Well,
I gotta drink more water.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
On my way to a healthy voice. Lo lo lo
lo lo lo. All right, back to that free speech
speaking of I mentioned in the first segment that quote
from Kamala Harris that's really disturbing. She talked back in
twenty nineteen, said in a CNN interview that social media
companies and I'll read the quote again, are directly speaking
(21:02):
to millions and millions of people without any level of
oversight or regulation, and it has to stop. End quote.
As noted by David Harsanyi this morning and maybe yesterday
at an opinion piece for The New York Post, social
media sites aren't speaking directly to anyone. What they're doing
(21:26):
is allowing the free exchange of information between people who
then get to decide for themselves what's right and what's wrong.
And that scares the heck out of the left. So
what they do is try to censor opposing opinions by
calling anything outside their narrative misinformation. They can't stand the
(21:51):
idea of unedited, unsupervised talk between random people because they
just might convince somebody m that they're wrong. Brazil just
bandecks on the same grounds. They shut down the entire app,
bandit from the whole country to make sure Brazilians don't
(22:11):
hear what its government decides they shouldn't hear. Harris has
the same plans, exact same plans for us. Mark my words,
if she somehow manages to get an office, mark my words.
All right, Moving back to the lighter side of the news,
I found a story this morning about Charles Barkley making
good on a promise to donate a million dollars to
(22:35):
a school called Saint Mary's Academy in New Orleans. Two
teenagers there did something that he wasn't sure could be done.
Calcia Johnson and Nikia Jackson were told that if they
could explain the Pythagorean theorem that'll take you back to
high school math, won't it without using circular logic, he
(22:58):
would make that donation, and circular logic is using the
theorem to support the theorem in a nutshell, you have
to do it. He charged them with explaining the Pythagorean
theorem without mentioning it by name, and they were able
to do that. And so Barkley is gonna make good
(23:19):
on that promise to the tune of one hundred grand
a year for ten years, which he won't miss. And
I bet he might even donate more before it's all
said and done. He is a pretty good guy all around.
He's a little goofy sometimes and a horrible golfer. Actually
he's gotten better, but nonetheless he To give you an
(23:39):
idea of the character of this guy, he had an
opportunity to take down a nice, hefty seven figure deal
to jump Networks as his contract runs out where he
is now, and rather than take that money and run,
which would have made him wealthier than he is, I'm
sure he's got more than he needs. But instead of
(24:01):
worrying about himself, he was concerned with the staff that
would have been left holding essentially an empty sack and
likely would have been sacked most of themselves. So he said,
you know what, I'm gonna stay here. We're gonna finish this.
We're gonna finish this run together and kept that whole
production staff employed. That's off to him. Huh, that's off
(24:24):
to him. Uh. Well, let's light it up for just
a second. What do we got we're going to where here?
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Forty three?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Oh forty three? We got four minutes? Excellent? Here we go.
Will that's a beauty, also known as useless information or
pay attention or cheddar Bay cheddar bag. You know what?
You know? It's got to involve what will Red Lobster.
(24:53):
This it does. Red Lobster is leveraging election season, It
says here to announce their cheddar Bay biscuits are running
for office to unite all parties, at least for dinner.
They got this promotion where if you go to a
Red Lobster and scan a QR code, you are entering
a chance to win four years of free Red Lobster dinners,
(25:19):
to which attendees from the Democratic National Convention a while
back collectively sighed and said, we could nominate those biscuits instead,
And nobody told us I think that might have been
a better choice, honestly, but that's just me. Uh, one
more for you, will and then we'll move on back
(25:40):
to my stuff, troubling undertone, I can't cure that, or
yeah that's me, Yeah it's me. Dang, that was not
the one I wanted you to use, but I'll acknowledge
your selection. Four out of five American travelers fine with
the use of biometrics facing fingerprint scans at airport security.
(26:01):
They're okay with that, but with one little asterisk, so
long as it gets them through the line faster. Whatever
it takes to move those lines along and not have
us get anxious when we walk in and see that
snaking line all over the airport and know that it's
gonna take twenty minutes to get through there. Whatever it takes,
(26:22):
I'm okay with that, so long as it moves the line.
I'm gonna go back to troubling undertone because I have
a question for you. When I get to the end
of this Walmart it says here is selling a S'mores
themed costume, a chocolate marshmallow, and a Graham cracker, basically
what you're gonna look like, and it is said to
be an acknowledgment of Thrupples. You ever heard that term?
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Whell? Yes?
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Is it what I think it is?
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It's three people in a relationship, and that's called a thrupple,
a thruple.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Would you consider that?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I don't think that I want to be enough thropole,
but it works for some people.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Yeah, I'm kind of with you. That's just it's hard
enough to please one other person in a relationship, you know,
it really is, and it takes a lot of work,
and I think if you add an entire other person,
that just totally changes the dynamic. I'm more power to
somebody who can pull that off. But I no, I
(27:27):
have no, absolutely no interest in that. Let's move back
to the news and let me see where I want
to go with this. Disney No, what have I got? Oh,
I've only got a minute. I only got a minute.
I'm gonna take it easy. I'm gonna come back over here. California.
There's always something from from there. The state actually passed
a bill. I think I talked about this yesterday that
(27:48):
bans voter ID laws. Maybe I didn't. I don't think
I did. I guess that just goes along with their
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars no interest home loans
for illegal immigrants. That's also a thing in California, not
for veterans, not for homeless Americans, illegal immigrants. And oh yeah,
there's a school district in that state. Now that's okayed,
(28:11):
Teaching anti Semitism in school probably not a good idea
there as well. All right, with fifteen seconds left, I'll
go ahead and really throw a curve to Will and
get started early. UT Health Institute on Aging is, as
I've told you before, that amazing collaborative of hundreds, if
(28:32):
not a thousand or more providers around Houston who all
have gotten additional education beyond what they studied in medical
school or therapy school or whatever, so that they understand
how what they know already can be applied specifically to
seniors that is us. And the more specific care we
(28:56):
can get to our bodies and our minds, I say,
the better, and so does UT Health Institute on Aging.
Go to their website, take a look at all the
resources they provide right there. No charge, no charge at all.
You just go look through there, just thumb through, find
something you like, find something you need, Maybe do a
search for what you're looking for, and it'll pop right
(29:16):
up in multiple places, multiple options. UT Health Institute on Aging.
It's there for us all of those providers all around town,
mostly in the medical center, but even those doctors and
other caregivers tend to be outside in outlying areas in
hospitals and clinics parts of the week as well. Uth
(29:37):
dot edu slash Aging uth dot edu slash aging Aged
to Perfection.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
This is fifty plus with Dougpike well already.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
In the great city of Houston, in and around and elsewhere.
I do have it's amazing sometimes And will you've shared
with me some of the bizarre places that you found
listeners on the podcast to this show? How many countries
is it now? I don't know rough.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
I'd have to get an updated list.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Can you do that before the end of the show.
That'd be pretty awesome. Yeah, I'm kind of curious. And
even one, even one counts because they either listened or
they didn't. And if they show up that means they
at least took the trouble to talk to tune in right?
How long? How long do they have to listen before
(30:43):
it counts? Like fifteen minutes something like that, or just
a click? Yeah, I don't know, just a quick click,
you know what, I'm not going to qualify it. I
don't care if they found us. Of course, it's probably
some scammer trying to tell me they're in love with me.
Some dudes sitting in a lawn chair halfway around the world, typing, Oh,
(31:07):
I can't wait to meet you. Like, No, don't ever
fall for any of that, anybody who I feel sorry for.
I don't blame the victims of scams, but instead would
just caution them to share their stories because I'm not
gonna judge them. I could any of us under the
(31:28):
right circumstances. And that's what they usually do is prey
on people who are vulnerable. And vulnerability can take the
form of someone who's recently widowed, who someone who's recently
lost something precious to them, like a job, even, and
you catch the right person at the right moment, and
they'll slip, they'll let their guard down, kind of like
(31:50):
when I almost stepped on a cotton mouth a couple
of weeks ago at the golf course when I wasn't
paying attention to where I was walking. You slip up
like that, you drop your guard, and somebody in these
cases takes full advantage of that and just built you
for all your money. I feel horrible for those people.
But the only the only thing I would encourage them
(32:12):
to do, other than not blame themselves, is share that
story so that somebody else might not fall into the
same trap. Because they are traps, and they're they're despicable.
It's just horrible, all right in all right? Oh, you
already have it? How many countries?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Twenty fond?
Speaker 2 (32:31):
No kidding?
Speaker 3 (32:33):
Twenty five?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Print that out for me, will you for real? Money?
Or we are? Does it say how many are on there? Yeah?
I will eliminate that column. You can just take that
one off. How many are just one? How many get
the twenty five? Or just one? Twenty four? No? Oh,
thank goodness?
Speaker 1 (32:53):
More on.
Speaker 3 (32:55):
Eleven?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Okay, well that's not bad.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
And then a bunch of two. Two's our tip months,
our top three?
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Are you ready I'm hoping I'm presuming the United States
of America.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
We'll start with number three, okay, okay, in third place
with thirteen downloads this month?
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Wow, Taiwan? Oh come on for real? Yes, I don't
know how to take that. You think they're watching us? Well,
I don't know. I think they're keeping it. Okay, number
taking place?
Speaker 3 (33:28):
How many twenty one downloads?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
This seems almost legit, but I'm scared to ask what
country it is?
Speaker 3 (33:34):
India and then with a wop in over a thousand
downloads this month, Canada, the United States of America. Canada
is in fourth place. Really with nine downs.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
I see, I would I would consider those, just off
the top of my head, more legit than Taiwan or India.
I got a hunch the those two are nefarious listeners mine. Yeah,
just you know, they're looking for some way to exploit
my listeners, and I don't want to know by taking
advantage of them by maybe sending emails out saying hey,
(34:14):
in case you were listening to fifty plus today, Doug
talked about such and such for just nineteen ninety five,
like two thousand dollars a year, we can keep you
from getting whatever that is, or we can send you
a product that will cure that or whatever. I think
those would be scammers. I'm fairly confident that I don't
(34:36):
have Well, it could be who knows.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Did you also know that we are at seven hundred
listenable episodes of fifty.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Plusous that's nice, Like, I'm glad to hear that that
just and I'm glad you're sharing that with the audience,
because somewhere among those seven hundred, even if you haven't
heard as a listener, a discussion of something that is
relevant to you health wise especially, or entertainment wise, or
(35:06):
travel wise or whatever, somewhere in those seven hundred is
what you're looking for. I'd almost bet on it. There
are very few conditions or diseases that we haven't talked
about on this show up to an including pretty much
all of them. From our hair down to the toenails.
We've talked about it. We've talked about it all, and
(35:29):
I'm quite proud of that, Actually, I really am. I
feel like that I'm a voice that represents that represents
this age group. And by this age group, I'm talking
not only about fifty plus, which goes to the end
however wherever that in comes, but it also pulls back
(35:52):
inside of fifty to about thirty five. And those are
the children of older parents who are in the same
boat I was in several years ago as my mother's
health began to fail, and it was very clear that
she was gonna need different things, in different help and
different avenues to get her to the end of her
(36:14):
journey on this earth. And there just really wasn't much available,
but thanks to this platform I've been given by iHeart
thanks to the generous support of ut Hell's Consortium on
It or the Institute on Aging excuse me. It was
originally called the Consortium on Aging and has been changed since,
(36:35):
but the mission remains the same. I've been able to
get with experts on every medical field you can imagine.
If there's something you haven't heard me talk about, I
would be happy to do that. Just shoot me an email.
It's very simple, Dougpike at iHeartMedia dot com. Just send
me an email and say, hey, I would love for
(36:55):
you to get a discussion of XYZ going on. In fact,
I've got and I need to follow up on that.
I sent over to the young Man's who's finding experts
for me and see if he's found one yet on
a topic I got from a listener not that long ago.
That's good information, Will, that's good information, man. I really
appreciate you finding all that. This is the kind of
(37:18):
research that you could do all the time for me.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
If you want to know how how most people listen
to the show.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Audibly? Yes, audibly through their auditory Oregan.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
But most people listen to the show via their phones. Really, yes,
that is ninety percent of the audience listens via the phone.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
And yet they could listen at home through their in
home speaker. But how I guess to get to a
specific episode. It would be difficult that way, though, wouldn't it. Yeah, yeah,
I think you would play.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
You would say, play the latest of fifty p Yeah,
play the current whatever. Well, we got twenty seconds, Doug,
what do you want to talk about?
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Let me see if I can find something I can
do in twenty seconds. Globally, forty five percent of doctors
have suffered sexual harassment from patients. I don't. Yeah, that's
that's wrong. Anywhere it happens, and I feel badly for
those doctors because they're just trying to make people feel better.
Oh well, we'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for listening. Audios
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